My Top Ten Albums, with sample songs!
#10: The Carpenters: 40/40
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The Carpenters are often dismissed as overly safe and fluffy 70s/80s cheese... which they are. However, when backed with some fairly creative arrangement and Karen Carpenter's drop-dead gorgeous vocal work (she remains my favorite singer ever), it's safe and fluffy cheese that really tastes darn good in spite of it all. 40/40 refines it further by collecting their 40 best tracks into one album. It did hilariously well in Japan of all places (debuted at #3), which means all Japanophiles should listen to it and tell me what the Japanese heard in it. Everyone else should look into it too, it's a good album.
Plus, it has a song called "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft". What's not awesome about that?
Best Tracks: "Solitaire", "Superstar", "Mr. Postman", "Hurting Each Other"
#9: Silent Hill 3 OST
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Akria Yamaoka is a genius.
The longtime composer of the Silent Hill series has an excellent handle on ambient composition, complimenting the scenes in-game wonderfully. Mild variations throughout each song keep them interesting, and their low-key nature stops them from being distracting, making for excellent study and work music. However, Akira also shows his chops as a rock guitarist and composer in a few of the tracks, complete with a varied and awesome guitar solo taking up about a third (or more) of "You're Not Here". I'd go so far as to say that this is the best Silent Hill soundtrack to date. Many a long bus ride has been spent staring out the window at the fading horizon, all set to this album.
So why, if it's so great, is it at number nine? Unfortunately, the album includes some creepy and irritating monologues at the end of about a third of the tunes, making it nigh-impossible to share them with friends and family. They jar me out of the experience pretty hard as well. This could have been the second favorite album had there of been no monologues.
Best Tracks: "Rain of the Brass Petals (Three Voice Edit)", "I Want Love (Studio Remix)", "Dance With The Night Wind", "End of Small Sanctuary"
8: Silent Hill 2 OST
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Akira Yamaoka hit it out of the park with Silent Hill 2 as well. Like Silent Hill 3, it's an atmospheric ambient album with some rock tunes sprinkled in (this time without vocals), and it's pretty incredible. Thankfully, they didn't include any of the monologues that hurt Silent Hill 3's OST. While the songs are not as good on average as those in Silent Hill 3, the scarier ones are more aggressive and the quiet ones are more heart-breaking, helping to even the score. I fully recommend it.
Best Tracks: "Heaven's Night", "Promise (Reprise)", "Love Psalm", "True"
7: The Fray (self titled)
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Soft-rockers The Fray have had a few huge hits on the pop charts, with "How to Save a Life" being known by pretty much by everyone I ever spoke to. And then their next album came out, and... nothing. Even the big hit single from it, "You Found Me", wasn't associated with the album. It's like the Fray fell off the face of the earth if the public eye was to be believed.
It's a shame, really.
The Fray came back more intense and heartfelt than ever before (the extreme of which you can hear above), with mature and/or outright artistic instrumental showcases filling the album. If you liked "How to Save a Life", you'll like the self-titled album. If you didn't, this one may actually change your mind if you like any soft-rock at all.
Best Tracks: "We Build and We Break", "Absolute", "Say When", "Never Say Never"
6: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus: Don't You Fake It
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This is pretty much as heavy as I go. There's not much I can say (or even know) about these guys, all I know is that they're AWESOME.
Best Tracks: "Face Down", "Your Guardian Angel", "Damn Regret", "In Fate's Hands"
5: Aphex Twin: Drukqs
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This album is a trip, maaaaaan.
Best Tracks: "Avril 14", "Omgyjya Switch 7", "Gwarek 2"
4: Portishead: Dummy
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Portishead were some of the codifiers of Trip-Hop. In one of the most intensely mellow and melancholy albums imaginable, Portishead weaves a beautiful instrumental tapestry over a pulsing electric base. Beth Gibbons' fragile vocals are just the icing on the cake. Although, truthfully, it sounds like she needs double the normal dose of anti-depressants.
Best Tracks: "Roads", "Wandering Star", "Glory Box", "Biscuit"
3: Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85-92
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Fun fact: Richard D. James (pseudonym Aphex Twin) was born in 1971. Thus, he was the tender age of THIRTEEN OR FOURTEEN when he wrote parts of this masterpiece. It's a surprisingly mellow and less surprisingly atmospheric release, and almost jarring when put next to Drukqs. Regardless, it's a fantastic and varied album. It's great for drowning out people on the train.
Best Tracks: "Ptolemy", "Xtal", "Heliosphan", "Tha"
2: Portishead (self titled)
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Seeing a pattern here?
I have nothing to say about this album beyond that Portishead refined and intensified their sound, and unleashed the peak of Trip-Hop, and my favorite "conventional music" album ever. Well done Portishead, you've given me an album that I can (and have) listen(ed) to over a hundred times.
Best Tracks: "All Mine", "Only You", "Cowboys", "Half Day Closing"
1. Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume 2
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This might not count, as it's less "Music Album" and more "Recorded Synaesthetic Fit", but I don't care. Richard D. James' synaesthesia was a BRILLIANT topic to write music about. It consists of photographs and what Richard heard when he looked at them. It's gorgeous, chilling, exciting, relaxing, the whole nine yards. I cannot praise it enough, or even adequately describe it. I simply has to be heard in its entirety. Get this album. Now.
Best Tracks: "Rhubarb", "Cliffs", "Z Twig", "White Blur 2"
