This is an absolute top ten all time album for me. Each song is good, and some of them are untouchable pop rock gold. You've heard Champagne Supernova, Don't Look Back in Anger, and Wonderwall for the past 20 years through their still-incessant play on radio. But the rest of the album has such a great similar swagger, with gigantic choruses and interesting slides between straight rock and indie weirdness. I think people in the know would call this Britpop, but other than Blur or Teenage Fanclub, I don't really know what that means, so I say this is alternative rock that is just so solidly built and performed that it became pop. And these dudes are British. Whatever.
Favorite track is most definitely Wonderwall. I've sung it enough now to my youngest daughter as a lullaby that she can sing along for portions of it. But I love these two bits most of all "I don't believe that anybody, feels the way I do, about you now" and this bit of the chorus: "And all the roads lead us there are winding, and all the lights that light the way are blinding, there are many things that I would like to say to you but I don't know how." On top of the great lyrics, its just a cool sounding song with that classic acoustic sound developing into drums and strings and piano. Ryan Adams does a really cool cover of Wonderwall that is just straight acoustic with an echo-ed out voice. Really beautiful, kind of sad sounding.
In addition to the album just being intrinsically good, I have a great memory of it as well. My buddy Jason and I had a spur of the moment road trip to Louisiana late one night, with this album as our soundtrack. We sang the whole thing in full voice all the way through the East Texas night on our way to a really gross bachelor party.
They end the album with this trippy ditty, that just slides along out of the waves and cruises up to a huge chorus that would be crazy fun to sing along with in a huge crowd. This song makes zero sense to me at all. I bet nerdy nerds at Oxford have done entire senior year dissertations on the meaning. You can take just about any of the songs (except for the weird Swamp Song interludes) and it would be a great fat fun singalong with a load of mates. "Some might say, we will find a brighter day!" "You gotta roll wit' it, you gotta take your time!" Etcetera. Hard to believe this thing is almost 20 years old. I know people my age know this album, but for you young 'uns out there, you should go check it out. If these two dummies hadn't ruined everything by fighting with each other at every possible moment, this album could have been the second step towards true world domination. Instead, they made Be Here Now in 1997 (which was pretty good) and then a few other fair to middling discs and an AT&T commercial anthem before they threw in the towel and fought through the tabloids. But this one still holds up as excellent long after.
Wristbands have arrived, baby!I always sweat their arrival - like someone out there would target my unassuming house and come after my mailbox to score my wristbands - bit now I am super psyched they are here! Three things I am the most pumped about seeing:
Pearl Jam. I haven't seen PJ in like 15 years. I think Eddie Vedder was still railing on the original George Bush (when he had the crowd chanting "F*** Bush" when I was in high school, that was the height of comedy) the last time I saw them. Really excited about it.
Spanish Gold. Never seen them live, but I just can't get over how great I think their album sounds. If they suck, I will be pretty devastated.
Chvrches. Kind of like Spanish Gold, in that I have built them up so high in my head, it may be a sad let-down to see them for real.
Sunday Schedule Thoughts (The Districts, Nikki Lane, Cults, Real Estate, Fitz & the Tantrums, Pearl Jam!)
Things I have become less pumped about seeing since announced:
Eminem. I mean, don't get me wrong, I dig old Eminem. Or at least my memory tells me I do. But when I listen to new Em, it sounds tired. And when I listen to old Em, it just sounds like he is trying so hard to be hard. And angry. And shocking. This might be the first sign I am getting old. All of that being said, if he stays away from Monster and Love the Way You Lie to stick to stuff like My Name Is, Brian Damage and My Fault, I'll be able to jam along.
Outkast. Again, I love old school Outkast. But the more I read about their tour this year, the more I feel like this is just a cash grab. Andre 3000 had a short interview in the most recent Rolling Stone where he gripes that rapping the same stuff he did when he was 17 is boring. Makes me worried that neither he nor Big Boi are going to be all that excited about yet another festival show.
Lake Street Dive. I think I'm going to have to go see Hozier instead. The more I listen to Hozier, the better I think he is.
Things I am super sad about missing:
#1, no doubt, is Benjamin Booker. That dude's brand new album is hot freaking heat. But I want Spanish Gold real bad, so you just have to make choices in life sometimes. I'd love to go see him on the 10th when he is still here to play an after-show, but I'm going to be seeing SKRILLEX like a big, fat, fratty, dumb goon that night. Jeah!
Beck. Dammit.
Blackberry Smoke. These dudes sound like the best kind of party I've never heard. But I just don't think I can make it happen between the other shows I want to see.
Things that truly terrify me:
The children (and I do mean children) who I will absolutely see smoking dope right in front of God and the world. Stresses me out every time. Especially when they remind me of my kids.
The ACL Cashless thing they are doing where I can buy ALL THE BEERS, by just swiping my wristband at the bar. I am extremely scared about what I will do once I have had three warm Heinekens and decide I need for all my "friends" to have some beers. I hope they take an eyeball scan or sobriety test too.
Peoples' daughters not wearing sufficient clothing. Oh man. My girls are never going to ACL without me tracking their every move. I may even use a leash. And about 75 nannycams. And they'll need to come home with me at 7 every night.
Before any of you get the wrong impression, I am not a capital "R" Runner. I suck at running, get no majestic "runner's high" from plodding along, and generally only started doing it last year because I'm getting old and out of shape and my kids can now catch me when I play tag with them. With all of that preamble out of the way, I thought I'd provide the method for my madness. That method, of course, is to use music to get by out there on the road. I had tried running in the past, but I suck at pacing myself. So I would blaze out and haul ass for 4 minutes of semi-sprint before collapsing and giving up. I tried running with music--angry, screaming, rock and metal songs that I felt like would motivate me to slog through the pain, break on through, and reach the running man's nirvana of enjoying my run. This also did not work at all, until I threw Fall Out Boy into my running mix. You may not remember Fall Out Boy. Full-on guilty pleasure for me that I ever listened to them, much less that I enjoy their emo-rock-with-awful-titles to this day. (I mean, seriously. Sample titles: "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More 'Touch Me'" or "I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)" Blerg.) However, self-shaming aside, I found that their song "Sugar, We're Going Down" has the exact right pace for me to run without tiring myself out in seconds.
After that discovery, I found out that there are many nerds who try to pace their runs, and that handy websites (I like jog.fm) will let you search music by beats per minute to make a paced running set list. Awesome. My pace is generally about 160 BPM (and 80 BPM will also work at double-time), so my best songs have been: Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down Queens of the Stone Age - You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar... Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong System of a Down - Aerials The Donnas - Too Bad About Your Girl Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothin' Sugar - If I Can't Change Your Mind The Donnas - Take it Off A$AP Rocky - Goldie Kanye West - Power (except for the weird interlude in the middle) Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American Nelly - Country Grammar Weezer - Sweater Song Andrew WK - Party Hard (excellent one, driving and full of HEYs I can moan as I trudge along) POD - Alive ZZ Top - La Grange Muse - Unnatural Selection (really good one, except for the slowish interlude in the middle) Eminem - Square Dance Ice Cube - Good Day Green Day - Uptight Green Day - 21 Guns My Chemical Romance - Sleep Thin Lizzy - Boys are Back in Town I've got some others, but these are all the ones that are pretty solidly in my cadence and work really well. I also made a 170-ish playlist at one point when I was feeling frisky. Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow (really good one to motivate) T.I. - Top Back Foo Fighters - The Pretender Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song T.I. - You Know What it is Big Boi - Shine Blockas Beck - Loser Tom Petty - Runnin Down a Dream King of Leon - Crawl But in general, that pace tires me out too quickly so I haven't played much with that playlist. I've gotten old and lazy.
I've had a number of people ask me about the best new stuff I have found after listening through all of the bands coming to ACL this year. Here are five of them, that I never knew before starting this thing, that click for me. Heavy on rock and roll, but I guess that's me anyway. 1. Kodaline. 2. Spanish Gold. 3. Benjamin Booker. 4. Blackberry Smoke. 5. Modoc. Really looking forward to the weekend!
I know that I just aged out some of my dear readers, since there is a crowd of people who think of U2 as dinosaurs that sound kind of like the guitar licks in that one Calvin Harris song. But I still enjoy myself some U2, and on the release of their new album in a super weird new way, my friend and frequent commenter Joseph asked his friends to compile their top ten U2 songs. I'm game (although I'm about 100% sure that he has asked me this question at least 4 times in our friendship. I know for a fact I have ranked my top U2 albums to him before, but I'm certian I've done this before because I can recall realizing that one of my favorite songs is called "Bad," when I had no clue that was the name). Furthermore, I am doing this by running through my iTunes library - which means I'll likely forget about songs, especially those from the Batman Forever soundtrack or the dumb Mission Impossible theme.
Honestly, I look through Achtung Baby and feel like I could just choose that whole album. That album is awesome. Same with The Joshua Tree. And then there is UNO... DOS... TRES... CATORCE!!! Ugh.
1. Running to Stand Still One of the first things I figured out how to play on the guitar, back when I tried to play guitar. I did so very poorly, I have no illusions. But when I jammed this song, I was Irish ginger power raging about heroin addition. When he sings "scream without raising your voice," it knocks me over each time. So awesome.
2. With or Without You
Stupid Friends ruined this song for me for quite some time, but I just can't drop it entirely. Such a great song. Adam Clayton gets short shrift after Bono and the Edge (he just needed a cool nickname!) but the combination of the Edge's spooky little sounds and Clayton's rock solid bass line throughout this song are so fantastic. As I write this, I feel like if it weren't for Friends, this would be #1 in my list. Sing along to this in your car like Tom Cruise sang Free Falling and you'll live for four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.
3. Bad
This is the Edge guitar sound that people go crazy about, that chiming, dancing ringing sound that builds and builds until the whole band shreds. This is the real deal U2. I'M WIDE AWAAAAAKE!
4. All I Want is You.
Reality Bites. The 15 year old Jack wanted love so so bad. And U2 wanted a string section the same way.
5. Pride (In the Name of Love)
This was on the second CD I ever bought, this actually really cool compilation called Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors that was my favorite thing in the world for a time. I wonder where that thing went. But singing along to this song makes me feel like I am important to the cause. Dunno what cause, but it feels like I am right there on the front lines making a difference.
6. Stay (Faraway, So Close) This one was my jam for a while freshman year of college. I think I used it to show chicks how tender I was. Thank God facebook didn't exist when I was a kid.
7. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Teenager angsty Jack sang this one with force.
8. Desire
So American! So gritty and bluesy! The Bo Diddley beat! You can make fun all you want, but this song rocks.
9. In God's Country This is one of my top road trip songs of all time. Freaking perfection. Listening to it makes me think of west Texas scenery flying by at 85 miles per hour when I'm on my way to somewhere cool and amazing.
10. Where the Streets Have No Name This video felt like hardcore rebellion back in the day. The organ to guitar start of this one is mastery. All four members of the band absolutely kill it to make this one kick ass. The Joshua Tree was so damn good. And F tha POLICE!!!
Honorable mentions:
Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World. Love that slinky little bass line, and a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.
I have always liked Never Let Me Go from the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack. I have no clue how I found it, I think it might have been from the napster days, but it is this smoky groove of a little love song.
I'm bummed that none of the Pop songs made my list, because I actually like that album quite a bit. But none of them could beat out those other top ten. Last Night on Earth is probably my favorite. Staring at the Sun is also a great one.
I also could have included a lot more of the Zooropa album. I know people are supposed to hate those "euro-trash" albums, but I dig Lemon, Daddy's Gonna Pay, Somedays Are Better than Others.
Magnificent - thought it would make the cut, but no such luck. Good tune though. Makes you want to stand up and be badass.
I Will Follow - also really thought this would make the list, but I'm just way to smitten by the Joshua Tree era.
40. I sang this about 300 times for Young Life club as a leader in college, so for a while I couldn't take it. I'm back on board, but this one also missed the cut.
And by the way, I feel like I should admit that I own the Rockabye Baby disc of U2 songs, with lullaby renditions of 11 top U2 hits! Parents are so damn gullible and delisional when their children are not sleeping! So dumb! I paid good money for that garbage though! I think I might also have the Beatles, Coldplay, and Metallica as well. So sleep deprived and dumb. Oh, and I also purchased a Pickin' on U2 CD - yes, that is bluegrass session musicians playing U2 hits in the style of a hillbilly hoedown. If I had just saved all the money I spent on truly dumb CDs and invested in Apple stock, I'd own all of you right now.
Ran across a fun article yesterday using Madden-style rankings to measure different rappers. I haven't played Madden Football since about the 1998 version, but I have a vague recollection of the way that players were ranked. If a guy had a 99 in speed, then he'd be crazy fast. Like dumb Terrell Owens in the game we played all the time in college. But this guy created ranking categories for rappers, including smart things like beat selection and lyrics, as well as dumb things like fashion and charisma. I could care less about a rapper's fashion - in fact, I think the raps that just name drop brands are generally pretty boring and lame. In a nutshell, this guy ranks current rap stars as follows:
Kanye West: 96
Drake: 95
Jay Z: 91
Nicki Minaj: 91
Chance the Rapper: 89
Kendrick Lamar: 88
Lil Wayne: 87 (I have to say I like the silent Gs like lasagna lyric, maybe I'm corny)
Eminem: 85
Nas: 84
Young Thug: 81
Macklemore: 75
Migos: 73
Iggy Azelea: 71 (saying her debut album sounds like a Disney star's debut is classic)
Chief Keef: 58
Most surprising thing about that list is where he puts Drake. I am a huge sucker for a rap song that heavily features brass (see the otherwise pretty terrible Trick Daddy song Shut Up) and so I was a big fan of Drake's Trophies last year:
But I can't say that he feels like a top two guy right now. I wouldn't agree that Jay Z should still be thought of as a top three guy either - if you are going to heavily weight older albums and his fashion sense, then sure - but if you are going off of guys who have great raps rolling off their tongues right now, I don't think he still ranks that high. But Kanye rightfully sits at the top of the mountain.
I don't even know who the hell Migos or Young Thug are - I'm starting to age out of the cool young rap world.
He jokes about excluding Wale, but there are other folks that belong in this discussion (waaaaay more than Iggy damn Azelea), like A$AP Rocky, T.I., Big Boi, Schoolboy Q, maybe even Action Bronson, Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, or Future. And what about the old guard of Dre, Cube, or Snoop?
Anyway, good article to get me thinking and go run out and try something new. (BTW, even after listening to the available Young Thug songs, I still can't tell you what he sounds like).
