MUSIC THREAD

The Dan Akroyd/John Belushi revenge fantasy song aside (although it is a great song), I didn't find his first three albums all that gimmicky. I just think he hid behind making up stories, which is generally not how most folk singer-songwriter types of his ilk operate. The song Sterling, for example, is hardly gimmicky. Pope Killdragon is a much better album than Dark Shores, and Leave Ruin was pretty straight-forward folk rock.

I can't wait for the Spoon album to be released. I haven't listened to the iTunes stream yet since I can't download it at the office, and my home laptop is out of commission right now.

 

Kanye is the Dale Earnhardt Jr. of popular music.

 

Agreed. I can understand no Radiohead, as that has been done to death (even as a fanboi I can admit this). But Funeral was a pretty damn important album. I think on some level it set the blueprint for "indie rock" for the better part of that decade; it was okay to be bombastic and emotional. I also thought one of the TV on the Radio albums should have been included (Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science were both stellar and pretty much unlike anything released those years). I had more personal gripes (Wilco, Modest Mouse), but those were my most notable objective omissions.

 

Summerteeth was release in the 1990s.

 

But of course you know I was talking about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I can't pick a favorite between YHF and Summerteeth, but I do think that YHF deserved to be on that list, especially for people who only know Wilco from their last few albums. The distance between YHF and an album like Sky Blue Sky or Wilco is pretty stark.

I also think I'm in the minority of people that loves A Ghost is Born; I wouldn't put it on that list, but it's also damn good.

 

Personal list:

1. Jay-Z, The Blueprint (2001)
2. Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)
3. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories (2013)
4. Jay-Z, The Black Album (2003)
5. M.I.A., Kala (2007)
6. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange (2012)
7. D'Angelo, Voodoo (2000)
8. Kanye West, Late Registration (2005)
9. Radiohead, Kid A (2000)
10. Modest Mouse, The Moon & Antarctica (2000)
11. Daft Punk, Discovery (2001)
12. Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It in People (2002)
13. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver (2007)
14. Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele (2000)
15. Clipse, Hell Hath No Fury (2006)
16. M.I.A., Arular (2005)
17. Kanye West, Yeezus (2013)
18. The Weeknd, House of Balloons (2011)
19. OutKast, Stankonia (2000)
20. Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel ... (2012)

 

AGIB is Wilco's best album, IMO.

On a related note, heard "Tweedy" do a song on a late night show recently and it was decidedly dull.

 

Albums that, off the top of my head, would very likely be on mine:

The Black Album - Jay-Z
The Blueprint - Jay-Z
Late Registration - Kanye (College Dropout and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy would definitely get some consideration)
good kid, m.A.A.d. city - Kendrick Lamar
Funeral - Arcade Fire
'59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem
Soviet Kitsch - Regina Spektor
Begin to Hope - Regina Spektor
Stankonia - Outkast
The Electric Lady - Janelle Monae
Lungs - Florence + the Machine
Blunderbuss - Jack White (especially if I get to include Love is Blindness, which I believe was on some of the foreign versions)
The Crane Wife - The Decemberists (with Picaresque getting lots of consideration as well)

 

Apparently St. Vincent had a lengthy performance on The Late Show.

 

Crap, I forgot all about the Decemberists. Good call and tough to choose between the two, but I might give the edge to Picaresque for Eli, the Barrow Boy.

 

I don't get the Picaresque-over-The Crane Wife argument except that it came first.

 

I don't think it's crazy as a personal preference, but when trying to be objective, the ambition of The Crane Wife combined with how well it was pulled off puts it ahead.

I will say, though, that The Mariner's Revenge Song might be my favorite song as short story from them, which is a tough competition.