Ridiculously Commercials Albums I Have No Business Owning But That I Do Anyway

A Cursory glance at my CD collection (which can be found at this link) would reveal that I listen to a good many things not typically found on the radio, whether it be obscure indie rock bands, Norwegian black metal, or African tribal music, commercial is one thing people don't normally associate with my music tastes.  But they would be wrong.  I have just as many popular selections as the next guy sprinkled throughout my collection.  I just have a whole lot of extra stuff, too.  Anyway, here are some more mainstream selections from my collection that have some merit (because honestly there is a great deal of dreck on the radio).

AFI's Sing the Sorrow was a departure for the band, deviating from the more hardcore approach of their early albums into a more "mature" and commercially viable sound while still retaining the core dynamics of the band.  Sure there are a few electronic blips, the choruses are a little catchier, and there is a distinct lack of screaming, but in the end, it's really still AFI.  Decemberunderground wound continue to drive the commercial direction of the band while re-introducing some of the more hard-edged sounds of their past.

The All-American Rejects are a textbook example of pitch-perfect power pop dynamics.  Their albums, and particularly the singles, are very polished and calculating.  Either despite it or because of it, the polish on their latest album Move Along results in some of the catchiest songs I've heard in recent memory.  The title track especially is approximately four minutes of pop bliss.

Coldplay is one of the ridiculously popular Brit Rock bands that ape Radiohead but lack the real creativity and inventiveness as Radiohead.  You may wondering, I thought this was an article about popular bands you like?  To be honest, Coldplay has moments that give a glimpse of the potential of Chris Martin and company of truly rising to the heights of Radiohead.  X&Y was something of a departure from their previous two albums, drifting into slightly more esoteric territory.  It really seems that they were wanting to craft a more complex album.  If you listen to some critics, they did.  To my ears though, much of the album seems unfocused with a distinct lack of hooks.  As I mentioned earlier though, there are moments that rise above the muddy waters to hint at something more.  The last third of "Fix You" is a good example, beginning with a dull and somewhat unispired melody but morphing into something more ethereal by the end.  I've heard good buzz about the new Coldplay album, so maybe it will turn out to be their Ok Computer, or at least a Pablo Honey.

Norah Jones sells a ridiculous amount of albums and yet you will not find her on MTV.  This is because she is HUGE with the middle age crowd.  Her soft, folky melodies are rather inoffensive and pleasant to the ears.  I don't necesarily feel compelled to listen to Norah Jones at regular intervals, but she certainly makes for ideal background music.

The Killers are a kind of cheat for this article.  Like others such as Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes, they are big with both the indie circles as well as the mainstream.  It's the sort of thing I could technically have in my collection and not lose my indie cred.  But whatever.  Sam's Town, their follow-up to the ridiculously popular Hot Fuss, finds The Killers doing a lot less dance punk vamping and a lot more driving rock, Springsteen-style.  The arrangements are more complex, the themes in their lyrics aren't quite as shallow, and they seem to have have embraced a general "maturity" to their music.

Crunk Juice=Pure Comedy Gold.

The Black Parade is leaps and bounds beyond My Chemical Romance's previous albums.  Constructing an elaborate concept album involving death and parades.  Drawing influences from such unlikely places as Pink Floyd's The Wall and vaudeville, The Black Parade sounds both epic and catchy.

Hip Hop Albums That Don't Suck

So rap and hip hop tend to get a lot of negative attention placed on them by non-rap/hip hop fans.  People who normally listen to rock, country or even classical much of the time can't possibly imagine themselves listening to anything in the lyrically heavily, sample-laden genre that sprang forth from the womb of Grandmaster Flash and the Sugar Hill Gang over twenty-five years ago.  I say to those people who give a cursory denial when asked of their music taste, "Oh, I like a little of everything... except country and rap" that I myself am not an enormous fan of either genre, but like anything, diamonds can most certainly be found in the rough.  I present to you then, a group of hip hop albums that don't suck.  All I ask is that you listen to them before judging.


Blackalicious is without question a phenomenal hip hop group.  Making of the backbone of the Quannuum collective which also includes gentlemen such as Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born, Blackalicious are masters of fusing old school funk and R & B with modern, well-thought-out lyrical content.  Blazing Arrow is so far the best of their uniformly excellent albums, any of which would make a good listen.



The real star of this album for me isn't really even Cannibal Ox themselves (although they are no slouches as far as wordsmiths go) but the producer El-P, who's masterful production is definitely the highlight of this recording.  In fact, the backing tracks for The Cold Vein are so well-constructed that they have been released as an instrumental album themselves with El-P receiving primary credit on that one.



The Roots I see as the marijuana equivalent of hip hop (and no, not that their music inspires pot-smoking binges).  What I mean is that they act as a gateway.   Many who wouldn't normally listen to hip hop give The Roots a try because they play all their own live instruments and have a more rock and funk based sound.  This certainly gives them a more mainstream appeal, but at the same time, these guys deserve the attention they receive.  Although lyrically I think they can be a little weak at times, the delivery and the music more than make up for it.  I find Phrenology to be one of their best due to the diversity of music to be found on it.  From the soul inspired "The Seed 2.0" to the driving "Rock You" to the just plain weird "Water', there's something for everyone.  They can also be really catchy, which can be a skill in and of itself.



Dalek is for those outer fringe indie kids who listen to bizarre and abrasive walls of noise like Wolf Eyes and Merzbow.  With dark and foreboding lyrics set to screeching feedback and pulsating atonal fuzz, Dalek is certainly not for everyone.  But any individuals looking for a unique experience in the world of hip hop, they are certainly worth a try.



A Tribe Called Quest was a seminal hip hop group that was among the first to latch onto the great idea of fusing rap with jazz, and they did it with style and intelligence.  The Low End Theory is considered by many to be one of the greatest hip hop records ever made and with good reason.  This album is the antithesis of such modern acts as 50 Cent and The Game and makes for a much more compelling listen.



I can't mention good rap artists without at least a cursory look at the Beastie Boys.  My personal favorite of theirs is the album Check Your Head which like The Roots features live instrumentation.  This album was made in response to a lot of the Beastie Boys' critics that wrote them off as an idiotic party group with no actual musical talent after the release of their highly successful License To Ill.  Highlights include "Gratitude" and the Sly & the Family Stone cover "Something's Got To Give".

There's lots more excellent hip hop out there.  I'm just posting a few highlights worth looking into.  Here are some others you may want to check out that certainly have a lot going for them: El-P's Fantastic Damage, Sage Francis' A Healthy Distrust, The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde and Labcabincalifornia, The Streets' Original Pirate Material, Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus, Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Ill Communication, MF Doom's Mm...Food?, the Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves, Ghostface Killa's Fishscale, Dr. Octagon (a.k.a. Kool Keith)'s Dr. Octagonecologyst, Del the Funky Homosapien's Deltron 3030, and last but not least Mos Def's Black on Both Sides and The New Danger, both of which are absolutely fantastic albums.

Ah, boredom...

Well, it didn't take long for me to get bored with the "music of the day" schtick.  Honestly, I'm surprised I was able to write about it for two whole weeks.  Anyway, my entries may become less frequent, but I will try to contribute something more interesting.

II Europe!

Maylene & the Sons of Disaster is basically the band formed by Underoath's ex-lead singer.  Their second album does an excellent job of blending metalcore and southern rock in such a way as to make it sound almost natural.  The vocals have a very raw almost screaming quality to them but with just enough pitch and tone to be musical.  The guitars careen between spastic metal and southern rock grooves in a fairly seamless manner.


I wonder if they gave this album the title Americans In Europe to be as vague as possible.  I mean, it could have anything on it.  It could be a junkyard blues band recording on a slapdash 4-track in an alley in Stockholm or possibly an aging 80's glam rocker vying for one last opportunity with his five remaining fans in Luxembourg.  But rather than those ludicrous situations, it is a compilation of performances from various jazz legends from a concert in Germany.  The highlights of the album for me were the Bud Powell Trio's take on Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" and the Bill Smith Quartet doing a Smith original called "Pyramid".

Born To Proudly Present A Guide To Desperation

I started my day off with a little of "The Boss."  Is there anything I could possibly write about Born To Run that hasn't already been written?  No, there isn't.  The thing with Springsteen is that I really haven't always liked him.  I'm not really sure why.  I think my tastes have just grown and changed over the years.  Essentially, I was kind of eased into Springsteen through Nebraska, which was a fantastic stripped-down album that feature little of the pop gloss of 80's Springsteen or overblown theatrics of 70's Springsteen.  From there, I ended up liking Darkness on the Edge of Town, particularly the title track and "Adam Raised Cain."  Then I started to listen to more of Born To Run and have now come to appreciate it.  I still don't like Born in the USA though.  Personal highlights on this one include the seminal title track, "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland."



The Wombats' A Guide To Love, Loss and Desperation is an imminently catchy album.  It begins with a wonky acapella track then immediately afterward locks into a sweet dance punk rhythm that rarely lets up through the rest of the album.  This one came as a complete surprise for me since I bought it on a whim with no preconceived notion as to what it was.  The fact that it's released by Roadrunner here in the states is pretty misleading anyway given the label's metal history.  But yea, this is one of those unexpected gems that come along every now and again.

A Ton of Stuff In Brief

So I listened to a lot of stuff yesterday and today, having driven all over the place recently.  Here's a quick rundown.



So Porcupine Tree's Voyage 34 is one of the most drugged out albums I've heard in a while.  With only four tracks, none of which are shorter than 12 minutes, this album blurs into a vocal-less trip into bizarre drones not unlike a Pink Floyd pysche-fest full of sound samples of LSD-related dialogue.



This Against Me! EP features primarily songs from their first album performed completely acoustic and stripped down to their bare essentials, basically one sparse guitar and one very raw voice.  They generally come off very well and the fifth track not to be found on the first album fares as well as the others.



Casket Salesman features ex-members of the screamo outfit A Static Lullaby and marks a considerable departure for them.  As a representative of the new prog trend that seems to be gaining a little momentum in recent years, this release falls sqaurely somewhere between Cave In's Jupiter and Coheed and Cambria's Second Stage Turbine Blade.  I felt it had much more creativity to it than anything produced by A Static Lullaby but occasionally felt a little lost in the swirling guitars and spastic drumming.



Considered by many to be the best of Wire's trilogy of very good albums (along with Pink Flag and Chairs Missing), 154 marks a significant change in Wire's sound.  No longer the punk upstarts of Pink Flag or even the mid-tempo post-punk twitch of Chairs Missing, 154 slows things down to a menacing crawl, featuring haunted melodies that get underneath your skin and brood.



Six Finger Satellite's Law of Ruins shows considerable growth for the spastic and abrasive band whose first album I spoke of last week.  Two albums were released between that one and this, and it shows.  Yes, the crazed jitters and screams of Pigeon are still present and accounted for but Six Finger Satellite has also seen fit to include much more of a kraut rock and post-rock influence in their music.  "Sea of Tranquility Pts. 1 & 2" is a nearly twelve minute opus that sounds like something that would not have been out of place on Can's Tago Mago.

This is a dirty rock record, no more, no less.  The lyrics are beyond stupid.  The riffs are fast and fun.  It's the sort of thing you really shouldn't think too hard about.  The vocals have a British sneer similar to that of the Sex Pistols, but the guitars are more like a dumbed down Guns 'n' Roses.  Overall, it's not too bad as long as I don't take it too seriously.



I picked this up on a lark, but it turned out to be a very solid compilation of classic ska numbers.  And this the first wave we're talking about, long before Reggae, long before the second wave with bands like The Specials.  Ska in this form isn't far removed from the classic R&B of the 60's popularized by Motown and Atlantic.  The early Jimmy Cliff tracks exhibit the same clear vocals and catchy melodies that his later brush with stardom in The Harder They Come brought.  Additionally, there are tracks from guys I was previously unaware of but am now interested in looking up such as Lord Creator and The Techniques.  This album even has a couple of very early cuts from Bob Marley & the Wailers that features a more upbeat driving rhythm than I am used to from Marley.

We've Come For You Mingus

Anthrax's We've Come For You All is very similar in style and tone to previous albums they've released in recent years such as Sound of White Noise and Stomp 442.  I don't really have much to say about this one other than it is a solid metal album from beginning to end and that I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys the heavier side of life.



Mingus Moves is a Mingus album that never really comes up in conversation much in relation to Mingus (this is of course assuming Mingus comes up in conversation at all) but is no less excellent because of it.  There's a surprising amount of diversity that showcases Mingus' skill at composition.  The track "Wee" begins with a slow shuffling lament but soon transforms into a post-bop frenzy that borders on free jazz (a little too free for my tastes but still interesting).  The light and breezy blues of "Newcomer" features a laid back but deft flute lead that seems to fit the track perfectly.  The bonus track "Big Alice" offers a doo wop backing track with another post-bop lead line that makes for an intriguing listen.

A Combination of Pink Graffiti

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti has got to be one of the stranger albums I've listened to recently, and given that it's released by Paw Tracks (Animal Collective's label), I'm not surprised.  It reminds a little of early 4-track era Ween, although the recording quality is even poorer.  This album sounds like the sort of thing you would hear drifting from a small slightly broken radio sitting on the windowsill of an apartment complex in the mid-70's, the mellow folk rock of some long forgotten singer drifting through the heat of a mid-summer day.


This is one that would probably lose me all kinds of Indie cred if I actually cared about that sort of thin.  Eisley's Combinations though provides an incredible song reminicent of something that wouldn't entirely be out of place on a newer Sleater Kinney album called "A Sight To Behold."  It has a very driving beat with great harmonies.  Actually, the harmonies on this album are what really grabs me about it.  Eisley has two distinct female vocalists that have managed to gel their voices in such a way as to create great harmonies, best displayed on the aforementioned "A Sight To Behold" and the two closers, the title track and "If You Are Wondering."  I also enjoyed "Many Funerals" as another driving rocker.