June Record Jubilee I guess
The alliteration is getting pretty rough these days. Anyway these are the best albums I listened to in June even though none of them came out in June or even this year
So. This marks the halfway point and as of today I have listened to 189 albums. At the beginning I made the joke that there was one album I’ve been worried about coming up because it was the one I was most skeptical adding. I called it “The Whammy,” in reference to the game show that only existed between 1983 and 1986, but holds a very special place in the hearts of many a 90s kid due to endless syndication reruns. Contestants would say, “big bucks, no whammies,” because a Whammy was a funny cartoony guy who would steal your money. Apparently it’s been rebooted and Elizabeth Banks is the host? I gotta see these whammies.
Because we’re half done and it still hasn’t come up I put my finger on the scale a little and made it number 200. That album is Astro Lounge, by Smashmouth. I have a sneaking suspicion that after all of the build-up it will probably not be terrible or great. We’ll all be let down a little. It will be like high school graduation in that way.
In the meantime, though, let’s talk about the 30 albums I listened to in June. Or at least 5 of them.
One thing that I’ve learned in this process is that there are some distinctions that are worth considering when picking my top 5 albums and especially which album I buy. I’ve found that there are records I consider classic and indespensible in the history of human art that I don’t want to sit on a couch and listen to regularly. There are also albums that I adored and will happily listen to on headphones or in my office with the door closed that I don’t want to play in the living room with people moving in and out and living their lives. These are usually hardcore records or have like so many swears. So there’s been additional math involved in picking that I wouldn’t have anticipated.
The Top Five
Picking 5 albums this month was easy, because I only gave 7 new to me albums an A this month. Picking a favorite of the 5, though, has been A DOOZY.
Gregory Alan Isakov, with the Colorado Symphony
Looking through many of these albums on the spreadsheet, I was amazed at how many of them bring me immediately back to wherever or whatever I was doing when I listened. There’s a song on Metric’s Art of Doubt that puts me specifically in a Wendy’s drive-through when I was on my way to a Utah prairie dog training in Cedar City; it was so cold that the window froze shut and I couldn’t roll it down so I had to crack the door and tell them my order that way.
Anyway, relistening to this put me right back in Burlington, Vermont. I first listened to it while looking for a place for lunch, and what I picked was fish tacos at a little Mexican place in one of those sheet-metal 50s diner cars. Walking around that cute town and listening to this incredible album are always going to be intertwined now. The question remains, though: what will I be doing when I listen to Astro Lounge?
Patti Smith, Horses
It’s hard to talk about and categorize Patti Smith’s Horses. It’s called early underground punk, and I believe them. I don’t know if you or I, who I assume are not Rolling Stone editors, would identify it as punk in a vacuum. Lyrically it’s not about the normal punk stuff, because it’s deeply personal. It almost comes across as spoken word poetry in places. Sonically it’s those toned down simple chords and crashing around sound that arrived as a simplified response to the big complex sounds marking the late 60s/early 70s stadium bands. This was all happening around the same time in several major cities, mostly in the UK. Smith was doing it in NYC along with The Ramones and New York Dolls. I don’t think anyone knew what they were doing was punk yet so it wasn’t the sometimes rigid category it is today. It’s just noisy and cool and fun and I bet it really knocked some folks’ socks off at CBGB.
Wyclef Jean, The Carnival
What an apt name for an absolutely packed album. Packed with talent, languages, musical styles, and themes. This record is rare and like $250. I don’t like it that much. But I don’t think I like any album that much. But holy smokes did I enjoy it. Wyclef and so many guests, including many if not all of the Fugees, have made something real special here and I hope they’re proud. I’m proud of them. Wyclef, if you’ve paid the $5 to read this month’s post, I hope you know that I think you did a good job.
Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Early in this journey I fell in love with Calexico, and I can’t imagine there being a Calexico without Yo La Tengo. I can’t believe I have never even heard of them in 1997, when this album came out. Today I was playing pickleball for the second time in my life (it was fun), and there were some guys playing what was essentially a playlist of my high school days. It was all the expected rock songs. But no Yo La Tengo. Why? Why wasn’t this part of it? I’m glad I remedied it 26 years later but I really think I would have liked them then, too. It was hard picking a favorite and this one was very close except there’s a 10 minute instrumental song that’s kind of repetitive that I think would be a skip which would be a bit of a drag on the old record player. Still, though, very good.
David Bowie, Hunky Dory
There has maybe never been a point in my life where I would have said that I was not a David Bowie fan, but I never had a lot of his albums. The one I listened to a ton was Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, but I’d never once listened to Hunky Dory back to back. It’s very good. Reading about it, this preceded Ziggy Stardust and Bowie’s hard (for the era) rock sound, focusing more on piano-based pop. “Andy Warhol” is a perfect example of that sound. That being said the record’s, “Life on Mars” is one of the best rock songs of all time. I really agonized over the choice this month, and reserve the right as always to buy any of the other besties this month at some point as well, but this is the one I see myself sitting down and listening to over and over. It’s the official album of the month. Yes I’m done!
Here’s one from my own favorites:
Radiohead, The Bends
This month I listened to two albums by Radiohead, and that makes three of this year so far. The first, OK Computer, didn’t qualify for the final five because it’s one I’ve listned to before. One million, billion times. The other was In Rainbows this month and Amnesiac sometime in the past, who knows when. The former just didn’t click with me even though it was, without question, the most recommended album of this experiment. The latter I found to be actively hostile to the listener. I still have Kid A to listen to, but I was a little sad that nobody recommended my favorite Radiohead album.
I think The Bends is so good. It’s got a lot of the dynamics that make all the rest of the great albums great, but is also just fun and good rock and roll from top to bottom. To me it strikes a perfect balance along with OK Computer between the kind of generic grunge of Pablo Honey and the too-experimental-for-howie-where-are-the-songs of their later output. My Iron Lung rocks so hard and then the one-two punch of slower tracks like Fake Plastic Trees and High and Dry just gut me.
It feels a little like there’s a 3 or 4 album “must-have” list that millennials and gen z are compiling for Radiohead and this album isn’t on it. That makes me sad. Cause it flippin rules.