Bittersweet Symphony

#1 - Urban Hymns (The Verve) 1997

My favorite album containing my favorite song, Lucky Man. This album has always been, and will likely always be, #1.

Kiss me out of desire, not consolation

#2 - Grace (Jeff Buckley) 1994

I knew full well twenty three picks ago that I'd have to find something graceful to say about my #2, but when it really comes down to it, I can't actually remember where I first heard Buckley or found this album. It certainly wasn't in 1994, but it feels like forever that Buckley has been atop my music collection. It's hard to describe my fascination with Buckley, his tragic death, or this near-perfect collection of seemingly organized (Grace, Last Goodbye, Lover) consciousnesses (Mojo Pin, Eternal Life, Dream Brother), but I realized upon a recent listen that Grace (and my #1) represent something very special: they were the two catalyst albums that first helped me define my own musical taste, my own style, my own expression. While I might consider Starflyer's Silver and The Prayer Chain's Shawl and Mercury to be my first encounters with what was a new, exciting, and wildly addicting new musical style, Grace represents the awakening I had into music of my own, music that wasn't enjoyed solely and secretly on the opening act of rebellion. In fact, the pleasure in listening to Silver and Mercury came in the music but first in the mayhem it reflected back onto what was otherwise a very sheltered youth. Grace is me, and when someone asks, as they often do, what kind of music I like, I never think style, always album, and artist. These top 5 albums are my music. I have no idea what "kind" they are or represent, but I am supremely comfortable in believing they are great without needing to feel like they make me look cool. I enjoy every minute of this album, and still wrestle to call one particular song my favorite among the others. Last Goodbye and Lover, You Should've Come Over (might be the best lyrics of any song I know) certainly stand out, as does Mojo Pin and Dream Brother, both of which seem to experiment with emotional tempo. Grace is possibly the opus and Hallelujah is much better here than it was with Cohen.
Without question, this album is a masterpiece. It's amazing to think what Jeff Buckley would be doing now were he still with us...

Pure magic matador

#3 - Ghosts of the Great Highway (Sun Kil Moon) 2003

Of all the albums on my top 25 (including the next two), this is the only disc that still carries upward momentum - which could very easily carry this treasure to #1 in just a few more years. Writing this now, it's hard to believe I love two more albums more than this one. I have to thank Papa for this gift, probably the best piece of music I've ever received. This album has been played more than any other album in the last two years in our household, and with the re-release already on order, there is no doubt it will be playing several hundred times more. This is, without question, one of my favorite albums of all time, and surprising, felt so almost immediately upon first listen. Many of my favorite bands have since disbanded, so here's a prayer than Kozelek and his merry men keep on playing...

Carry Me Ohio is in my top 5 songs of all time. Lily and Parrots is my favorite song right now, and my daughter's, too.

Happy Valentine's Day, Salvador...

Every artist is a cannibal

#4 - Achtung Baby (U2) 1991

From the minute we announced we were ushering in the top 25, I knew this gem would be somewhere near the top. This is, without question, U2 at their pinnacle, their best album ever. All of you have heard this album, but when is the last time you really listened to it? Let's just list the songs you already know you like:
- Even Better Than The Real Thing
- One
-Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
- Mysterious Ways
- Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

Those are five fantastic tracks, but anyone who has really listened to this disc knows that this happens to be a glorious concept album, held together by the ebb and flow of emotion wound up in both Bono's lyrics and the band's experimental, psychodelic sound. To me, The Fly might be the most brilliant song on the album, serving as the fulcrum for everything that follows.
One thing I noticed this week while getting into this album again in anticipation of posting it was the thick layer of metaphor that Bono uses throughout the album. I thought about counting all the metaphors but quickly realized there were just too many. It's almost like a code language. I can't break it, yet, but I can tell you this album is mixed with imagery that seems to evoke a variety of moods. The album cover represents that truth perfectly...

And she lifts her head when I kiss around her neck...

#5 - Old Ramon (Red House Painters) 2001

Any album that opens with a song about a cat that can make you cry belongs in the top 5. Thankfully, there's only one album I know that can do that, and it just happens to be RHP's best work and one of my all-time favorite albums. As a long time fan of Kozelek's crew, I found Old Ramon so refreshing in college that I actually bought two copies of the disc (and promptly lost one...). It's by far the most light-hearted (but still poignant) and listenable release from the band and seems to catch fire in all the right places. Between Days opens with a strong chord and Kozelek's rare holler and never lets up again. Cruiser flirts and teases with over 8 minutes of melancholy. River rolls on at a never too long 11+ minutes too, but it is Byrd Joel and Michigan that really hold this record together. Byrd Joel, one of my all time favorites, might just make you feel good about death and loss, if that's possible. It sticks with you for hours afterwards and never quite releases you. Michigan reminds me of summers and summer flings and finds a way to wrap it all together in a visual image that trancends the music itself. Maybe that describes all of RHP's catalog, or just Kozelek himself. I could listen to him read the phone book and enjoy it.

Optimistic

#6 - Kid A (Radiohead) 2000

Little more needs to be said about this now "classic" album. Is there a better album opener (maybe "Enter Sandman"?) than Everything In Its Right Place?

Oh, great ocean

#7 - The Joshua Tree (U2) 1987

How do you describe this album? Despite the greats like With or Without You, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and Where the Streets Have No Name, Running To Stand Still will always be one of my favorite songs of all time...

Thanks a million...

#8 - The Boat Ashore (Michael Roe) 1997

Inspired by Urbane Master's flying crotch attack, enter Michael Roe and his epic pun, The Boat Ashore, once considered my all-time favorite disc. Few of you will be familiar with the Seventy Seven's front man's solo works, but that shouldn't stop you from checking him out. There's so much to like about this album that it's actually hard for me to describe it. Roe swallows his sadness just long enough to sing it to the world, mixing bittersweet sorrow and depravity in a way that makes you feel sorry for your soul with a tearful smile. I love the jazzy guitar work as much as the lyrics and the sound of Roe's somber voice. This album is about not being good enough to save yourself from yourself, and Roe does a better job of making you feel that way than anyone else. Roe and Kozelek would be best friends...
Top Tracks: Love Like Gold, Tum Tum Tum, I Buried My Heart At Bended Knee

Droned

#9 - Silver (Starflyer 59) 1993

I have so much love for this album. It was the catalyst for my musical experimentation (post-Michael W. Smith, etc.) in the early 1990's. Echo what Papa has said about the illumination that occured when Sin For A Season hit the Night Light airwaves. Every song is incredible, but none carry more weight or memory than Droned, which comforted and counselled me during a few dark, anti-"Ghetto"-fraternity antics at Covenant College. The song still mezmerizes me to this day. Of all the great Starflyer albums, this one still shines brightest.

Top Tracks: Zenith, 2nd Space Song, She Only Knows, Droned

I'm the first mammal to wear pants, yeah

#10 - Live On Two Legs (Pearl Jam) 1998

I wrestled with this one for a long time...Admittedly not an "original" Pearl Jam fan, my first encounter with Mookie Blalock was a "Ten" t-shirt worn frequently by a girl in high school that I wanted to date (but never did). Fast forward to the spring semester of my sophmore year in college where a new roommate carried a dusty collection of "old" Pearl Jam albums, including this gem. Always a fan of the grunge, Ten hit me like news of a long-lost brother: How could I have missed this in my high school years? How sheltered was I? Spending weeks listening and sifting through his collection, I was mezmerized by Vedder's "highly distinctive timbre" and the raw, live energy that was captured on this album. How I wish I could have seen Pearl Jam live during their heyday! Several of the songs on "Two Legs" sound best captured here live, but none more than Do The Evolution, which loses it's true angst when it is distorted and disfigured on Yield. It's as brilliant a song (and as scary) as Off He Goes is beautiful, and ironically I put Vedder up there with Sting as some of the most vivid story tellers in music. Pearl Jam was (is?) a true existential band, always emotional, in the moment, never leaving anything on the table. That's exactly how I enjoy this album...
Top Tracks: Hail Hail, Red Mosquito, Off He Goes, Betterman

Many years have passed since those summer days...

#11 - Ten Summoner's Tales (Sting) 1993

Of all my top 25 albums, this one has been in my possession for the longest amount of time. I owe my affection for his work to my stepmother, who has been a long-time fan. I remember hearing Fields of Gold for the first time during a mid-inning break at a Braves game in 1993. It instantly (and secretly) became my swoon song for all of my 15 minute infatuations during middle school. It still is, and like so much of Sting's work, this album exemplifies his unmatched ability to craft song around story.
Top Tracks: Fields of Gold, It's Probably Me

Does love light up your Christmas tree?

#12 - Pop (U2) 1997

This was the album no one liked...except me. With some of the catchiest melodies within the U2 catalog, Pop stands out as an album that takes chances. The lyrics are some of the best Bono has ever penned, and the disco-driven rock stands out well above their peers.

Favorite Tracks: Discotheque, If God Will Send His Angels, Gone, Please.

Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men...

#13 - Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk (Jeff Buckley) 1998

We are quickly approaching hallowed ground here with this pick. While there's just too much to say about this album, it can be summed up in one word: mood. Sketches is a raw, moody trip inside the mind of a man I consider to be a genius. What is even more amazing is that this colorful collection of fantastical stream-of-consciences ("gold sharks glittering"; "bubble gum, coming down just like a big red coal"; "you're a woman, I'm a calf. You're a window, I'm a knife. We come together making chance in the starlight") is that it was recorded on a four track while holed up in an apartment in the last years of Jeff's young life. We may never know what Jeff Buckley intended out of these tracks as they were graciously released (double-disc) after his tragic drowning in 1997, but we can certainly feel what he was trying to make us experience. You may fill in your own descriptors here, but consider this album like one big mood ring as you listen:

The Sky Is A Landfill (dread)
Everybody Here Wants You (sex)
Opened Once (innocent vulnerability)
Nightmares By The Sea (evil)
Yard Of Blond Girls (lust)
Witches'Rave (curiosity)
New Year's Prayer (escape)
Morning Theft (loss, misunderstanding, and redemption)
Vancouver (jealousy)
You & I (solitude and emptiness)
Haven't You Heard (anger)
Satisfied Mind (peace)

Some of these songs will remain some of my favorites of all time (Nightmares, The Sky Is A Landfill, Vancouver), and I will always consider Morning Theft to be one of the most gentle and beautiful love songs I've ever heard. Buckley does things with tempo and style on this album that are not seen anywhere else, most likely because he had his whole life (and mind) to himself. Sketches shows just how talented Jeff Buckley was, and taps, if just for a moment, his deepest imagination.

Hey there mighty brontosaurus, don't you have a message for us

#14 - Synchronicity (The Police) 1983

How good is this album? Well, most reviews will tell you that the worst song is considered Walking In Your Footsteps, and that otherwise the album is a near-perfect epitome of The Police's famed denouement. Fortunately, I happen to love Walking, and have cherished this album for several years.
Be honest: even though Every Breath You Take is the most overplayed song ever, you still listen to the entire track before changing stations, don't you? While King of Pain and Wrapped Around Your Finger are the other party favorites here, don't overlooked the future-of-Sting-like track Tea In The Sahara, a peaceful lounger that actually closes out the original LP version of this album. This album is amazingly complex, yet the true genious lies in the way the band intricately crafts their sound around Sting's vocals (love the start of Synchronicity 2). Not surprisingly after a 2nd or 3rd listen, this album was more popular that Thriller at the time. Give it a spin this week...

Sing us a song, a song to keep us warm...

#15 - Ok Computer (Radiohead) 1997

There will obviously be much more said about this album by much more accomplished Top 25 "composers" on this blog, but I will admit here that I am not an "original" Radiohead fan. In fact, though "Creep" was the first song I ever heard, Pablo Honey was actually purchased after Ok Computer, in the spring of 2000. I heard someone playing "Karma Police", and I thought, wow, that is cool. Who is that? I didn't know Radiohead was quite that, well, inventive. I checked it out, and I'm now a big fan. This album will live on forever, carried by some absolutely phenomenal tracks, including Airbag, Exit Music, and my cell ringtone, Let Down, perhaps my 2nd favorite Radiohead song of all time, and in my top 15 songs ever without a doubt. I can listen to every song on this album without blinking except Electioneering, which I actually find excruciating. To me, it's a dark, ominous album, full of foreboding background layers of guitar and voice. This is Area 51 to music. Mercury would fit quite nicely on this album. I love it.

I built my boat from bamboo, but it sunk...

#17 - Alone With Everybody (Richard Ashcroft) 2000

A long time fan of The Verve, I remember the summer afternoon I bought Ashcroft's solo debut. This was before iTunes, but I had already heard "A Song For The Lovers" from a Napster download in college. The album didn't disappoint as it was one of the few albums in my collection that I liked from the very first turn.
So many good songs here, but I remember "Brave New World" stood out among the rest. The rest was history, as I played this disc all summer long in 2000.
The great thing about Ashcroft is that he just doesn't care. He already knows he's better than you, and he isn't afraid to run you over on the sidewalk, either. His music oozes sincere cockiness, but maybe that's what I love about him. That cockiness often turns to cheese (On Money To Burn he belts, "Baby you're my sweet savior, you're my one adventure. You're my one and only gift I've got, now baby it's a real adventure. I'm so glad I've met ya", and, in what is likely the only musical use of the word "conch" in On A Beach, sings "I lit my fire, blew my conch. Nobody comes. I built my boat from bamboo, but it sunk. I looked at the sky for vapor trails. Nobody comes.") on several tracks, but he's the only man in my collection that gets out of jail free. Richard is the man. He doesn't care, and neither do I. Get off our sidewalk.
Top Tracks: Brave New World, C'mon People, I Get My Beat, New York

All your feelings are streaming down your leg...

#16 - Mercury (The Prayer Chain) 1995

I want to warn you, because I'm about to say something that may be blasphemous to some of you. However, unless you've listened to this album for more than a month, you can't say anything at all:
Mercury may have been, in many ways, the "Christian" rock version of Radiohead's Kid A.
Yes, I said it. How long have I thought that? About 5 minutes, as I was listening to "Humb" before typing. But, consider the similarities:
1) An all-or-nothing approach to deviate not only from their previous works but the music industry itself.
2) Experimental sounds reshaping the way we listen to music.
3) Origination so ahead of itself that the album takes at least 10 listens before fully grasping it's imagination.

Ok, I won't be so dramatic, but I will say that Mercury is an almost indescribable album. What does Kid A sound like? I don't know, but it feels like Mercury. Sadly, Mercury was probably too brilliant for the Christian industry. Perhaps Papa Shoe can back me up on this one, but this is the only album in my collection that took me one year to actually enjoy. Yes, one full year. Remember, Shawl was once considered my favorite album, but then these boys drop the bomb with Mercury, a numbing collection of reverb and creepiness that takes months to sink not only into your ears, but into your soul as well. This is truly a "concept" album if there ever was one, as the disc is bookended by the very similar "Humb" and "Sun Stoned", while "Sky High", a nine-minute cigarette-lighter rock anthem, fills in the middle. However, the real high for me is the title track Mercury (great base line), a song that will forever remind me of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles (or maybe that's the inside jacket cover?). To quote the AllMusic review, this "record feels like a horror film". It really does, but sometimes it's good to face your fears ("my incisors are filed, I really think you are safe to let me close; I want to travel every bendy line from your throat to your heel").
Top Tracks: Mercury, Grylliade, Bendy Line, Sky High, Sun Stoned

Whatsoever I've feared has come to life...

#18 - Superunknown (Soundgarden) 1994

How do you know an album belongs in your top 25? Well, it helps if you have an album you never grow tired of listening to. This is it.
How cool is Chris Cornell? If he were my boss I would intentionally piss him off daily just to have him scream at me. That's how cool his voice is, and it doesn't sound any better than on Superunknown.
This album reminds me of two things:
1) My wife Sara, who still loves this album today and shares my passion for bands with great vocals.
2) The Black Hole Sun video, one of the most terrifying and mesmerizing video experiences of my then naive musical life. Wax lips and regurgitated adolescent icecream just weren't scary before this song. Anyone else second-guessing their rankings? This might be a desert-island disc for me...
Top Tracks: My Wave, Fell On Black Days, The Day I Tried To Live

Screwtape smiles, tries my trials...

#19 - Shawl (The Prayer Chain) 1993

As I type I'm wondering how this record falls all the way back to #19...
Once considered my favorite album of all time, there is so much to love about The Prayer Chain's first full-length disc. Every song is unique and heart-felt. Forget '90's "Christian" rock/pop for a second: this disc falls right in line with some of the great grunge classics of the mid-nineties. This album has a lot of meaning for us "Night Light" boys, desperately clinging to bands like Starflyer 59, Poor Old Lu, Mortal (yes, I just typed Mortal), and The Prayer Chain for a gasp of fresh air in what seemed like an otherwise stagnant arena monopolized by Jars of Clay and DC Talk (yes, remember Jesus Freak!?). Songs like Crawl, Dig Dug (one of my all-time favorites), and Pyscho Flange will rip your heart out, while Fifty Eight, Never Enough, and Worm will leave you wanting to be changed from the inside out. I never saw these boys perform live (I did once have a drink with Wayne Everett in college), but if I had I think you'd see this album close to the very top. Check 'em out.
Top Tracks: Dig Dug, Fifty-Eight, Like I Was, Never Enough, Pyscho Flange

San Geronimo

#20 - Ocean Beach (Red House Painters) 1995

Could there be a more emotional collection of 9 songs? Sometimes it's hard to tell if RHP causes heartache or helps you cope with it. From the fun-loving opening instrumental Cabezon to the 13-minute final Drop, this album is one of Mark Kozelek's best works. A lot of spins in the Baughn household and many more for years to come. Cabezon will be included on the first compilation CD we make for our new baby girl in February!
Best Songs: Cabezon, San Geronimo, Shadows.