Can I scream? Yeah!

i was apprehensive, to say the least. it's true to say that the song-spinner behind this punk-rock-gum-drop outfit is some sort of super genius. but is he from this planet? in recent years, i'd felt as if the songs and albums he was releasing had become a shell. a ghost of his reputation for carefully crafting beats, blips, buzzes, and words of days gone by.

but i made my purchase anyway.

the third installment of the legacy series, this album returned to a darker, more brooding sense of rhythm, and the lyrics are honest, razor-sharp, and all-but-void of the fairy-tale cheese of yesteryear.

"Disloyalist. Misery ever after, misery ever after"

please understand, i love the fairy-tale cheese of yesteryear. but it should be noted that this album is filled of more things than nostalgia. i can't justify some of the previous works making this list. i love them, but even with their ability to transport me back to my high-school years, i dont think most of the catalog has withstood my evolving musical taste: rob, 5 stars for failure AND old wives tales almost made it. seriously. were we doing our top 50 favorite albums, they certainly would have.

but this record did something to me. i could feel it. from it's intro track ("Hello Mannequin. I’m angry. Hello Mannequin. I’m scared. Hello Mannequin. Will you be my friend?") i knew this was not going to be an empty contract-filler.

into my cd player it went on a chilly summer night, as i drove into the outskirts of staunton, virginia en route to my girlfriends house. we had made plans to watch a movie. but i couldnt bring myself to get out of my car until this record ended on its final chirp. needless to say, i had a lot of explaining to do (if youre in a band, and youre home from tour, you BEST be seeing your girlfriend/boyfriend every second you can) and she had to field more "who is that guy? why is he going in that building?" questions about the movie than i'm sure she felt like answering.

this record challenged me. it made me look harder at my own synth playing. the crutches i had begun to fall back on. it showed me what a synth solo really is. and how to craft a song out of 3 or 4 sounds, rather than an army of synth. please, bask with me in the almost TOO-catchy glory that fills the next spot on my list:

#23

JOY ELECTRIC-Hello, Mannequin
RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2004
LABEL: Tooth & Nail Records

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It's amazing, sometimes. the idea of being related to someone. the idea that you share so much of your genetic make-up as another person. according to sciene, youre practically the same person, but despite looking alike and having a similar voice on the phone or the same stupid cowlick in the front of your hair, you can't seem to stop kicking him in the back of your parents' white station wagon because he just wont stop making that freakin obnoxious sound.

jerk.

i love my brother. i really do. i just find it incredible that we have so little in common. especially when it comes to musical taste. correction...especially when it CAME to musical taste. i dont know what year it was. i just remember that i was in my first two years in college. i was in my "everything has to be a wall of sound and NOT on commercial radio" music phase, and harrison was in his "if the vocalist doesnt sound like he's birthing a dump truck through his throat, i dont wanna listen to it" phase. needless to say we didnt see eye-to-eye about music. but he came running into the room one night. he was expanding his musical vocabulary; i could see it in his eyes. we sat in my car and listened to every track of this record. its amazing. so many genre's blending. the melding of rock, jazz, techno, punk, post-punk, pre-punk and everything in between. i was amazed. i was bewildered. i was blown away.

it should also be mentioned that if you havent heard this record in 5.1 surround, which few GOOD records have been RE-mixed in, you should check it out.

" It's coming through the air | For all of us to hear | Could it be the sounds of liberation | Or just the image of detention?

We want the airwaves back | We want the airwaves back | We don't just want airtime | We want all the time all of the time"

#22

REFUSED-The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombation In 12 Bursts
RELEASE DATE: October 27, 1998
LABEL: Burning Heart