Pearl Jam is definitely one of the bands I was thinking about with the whole "idea of yourself" bit, and Avocado is definitely their ATYCLB if you ask me. Despite my love for them I didn't think they were exactly a Great Artist on the level of the Stones/Bruce/U2/Jay, but I prob could've included them.
I intended to do one back then — beyond the transition in their own career, I had a whole idea about how it symbolized the hinge between the early '00s NYC retro rock thing and the ascendent Brooklyn indie at the end of the decade. I can't remember why I wasn't able to do it in the end, I might've been on tour or something.
Having grown up with one of those northeast Italian-American families... I can't say I heard much about our Italian-Australian brethren, no.
That being said Australia in general was sort of a big mystery to me when I went.
This is my ranking these days I think.
And OK yes Sound Of Silver is pretty much perfect I just docked it a little cuz I've always felt like "Watch The Tapes" and "Time To Get Away" aren't quite on the same level as the rest but like, it's not as if they're bad and they do make sense in the flow of the album.
I've gone back and forth on LB and Backspacer a decent amount but I don't really get why people would like other 21st century PJ and hate LB either. In particular, hearing the title track live really made it fit into their overall body of work for me — if I didn't know the album at that point I could've imagined it being an older song. And I still think Infallible and Pendulum are cool.
Hmm yeah I don't know if it's that kind of album. Maybe "Who Ever Said" and "Quick Escape," though the chorus in the latter is more anxious than triumphant.
My favorite songs are the mellower ones, so there's strong material I'd want to see them play live but I suspect they'll lean on the rockers more. Very curious how they're going to translate "Dance" live.
I don't know that the site has anything against that album, I can't remember why we didn't do an anniversary.
Speaking for myself, and maintaining the whole "they don't make bad albums" bit... it was my initial gateway Spoon album but became my least favorite over time. I don't think it's as interesting as the ones from the '10s, or as memorable as the albums immediately before and after it. It feels a little more stuck in its time to me. But like I said in the piece... that's the thing with these guys. That's just my ranking, and I totally get why some people have it towards the top.
Drawing Radiohead parallels is not where I expected this to go but now I'm thinking of They Want My Soul as the glossier, prettier night album with all these new sonic touches and ... A Moon Shaped Pool kinda did the same thing after TKOL, too.
What is Radiohead's Hot Thoughts gonna be like...
It's no "Manhattan" by Kings Of Leon.
JK...the Cat Power one is good.
Writing this kinda made me want to write a whole list of NYC songs. Barely scratched the surface just listing some really big ones in the article.
Guys, they still call me Young Classic Rocker Ryan Leas on staff - I know about Belew. But I still think it’s kinda weird for people to compare a 2019 band to both of them when you consider the historical signifier of “King Crimson as an influence” is a little different than “Talking Heads as an influence”
I think this is a very apples and oranges thing in the sense that "experimentation" is relative according to whichever realm an artist operates in. Holly Herndon is making strange, beautiful electronic music partially using fucking AI to do so...naturally, it is more experimental by most metrics of mainstream taste, and it's also great.
So it's not really a value judgement, in my opinion. When I say the National are "experimenting," it's within the context of them being an indie band that headlines festivals and has songs featured on movie soundtracks or in commercials. It's within the context of their own writing, and trying to take a pretty granular look at how it changes a bit from album to album. So within that context, Bryce's classical work creeping over into the National more and more here, having these choral breaks or sidelining their frontman, does strike me as an experiment. They're not over here searching for New Music, but they are testing the limits of their work and their past.
Anyway I guess the TL;DR is I think both these artists are excelling at what they do, and pushing themselves within what they do, and it is OK to like both!
"Cattails" is one of the best songs I've heard this year. I wasn't joking in the blurb. I've had it in my head literally every single day since I got the album.
My contrarian opinion is Gimme Fiction is the less interesting passage between Kill The Moonlight and Ga, and I'd happily listen to Transference or They Want My Soul over it any day
I love Transference, I don't get why people still dismiss it either.
But no getting around that Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is perceived as their big contribution to that era.
I loved this Bon Iver/St. Vincent track "Roslyn" back then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LKbYhEwUoE
Imagine what a collab between the two of them would sound like *now*
Ha, this actually came up between me and Michael when we were editing this. I guess you could call it a dig...to me they are just very, very of that era. But at the same time, I'd far prefer to revisit their albums than albums from some of the other more prominent/respected names that were also on this comp.
From what I remember I liked the old Spies better, but maybe I'll have to go back and give the newer stuff a listen again.
Also, this is sorta splitting hairs for any of us who don't actually live in Dublin, but they've been kicking around for a little while longer than some of these other names.
I definitely hear U2 in "Desire" as well. I think you can see it a couple different ways, depending on the light, so to speak.
Also wish the Ought album got more love. I was really into it, and they were one of the best live shows I saw this year.
I spent a chunk of my time writing this wishing that "Rent I Pay" had come out this year, too. The Stones vibes are deep with Spoon.
As for coolness...the Stones and anyone successfully taking influence from them will always be cooler. Universal truth. That being said, I tried to find a Father John Misty song that made sense for this list, and failed. Definitely more Beatles in his veins. And he's a pretty cool character.
To be honest, I've since gone back and I can hear both. But that being said "Laurel" is still the one I hear much more easily so I'm still a little taken aback by people who hear "Yanny" from the start, without trying.
As it happens, those are the exact three songs I'd cut. Nice as B-sides, and then the album does all the same messy exploration and introspection but is a better listen overall, IMO.
And yeah, feel like "Sad Professor" is one of the best songs from the post-Berry years.
If I had been doing this as a 10 Best list instead, "This Is The Sea" would've been vying with "A Pagan Place" for #2 behind "Fisherman's Blues." They had a way with title tracks in the '80s.
I have the School Of Seven Bells "What's In My Bag?" to thank for getting into the early Simple Minds albums, now some of my favorite stuff out there. Another '80s band whose story has gotten muddled/lost a bit over the decades.
This occurred to me while writing about the Low album last week, too. And I almost brought that in here, but I probably could've written a whole other piece on top of this about all the ways in which you could hear echoes of these albums, and I gotta draw the line somewhere.
FWIW, we did have a long conversation about how Hudson has changed, gentrification, and being conscientious of such things. This interview was just really long and there were parts that had to go, but just wanted to throw that out there.
And when I told her I was from a similar area, Scranton was the place I was referring to lol
So years ago I did a goofy list of "I'm On Fire" covers here, and I've had to listen to wayyyy too many renditions. I agree those are all some of the best (the Electrelane was a nice surprise) but there was one I didn't know about then that's just recently become one of my favorites.
Last year we did an Artist To Watch on this Finnish musician Mikko Joensuu. He released three solo albums at once, a lot of it kinda strung-out-gospel-ambient shit, sort of Spiritualized vibes at times. But he had this old space-rock band Joensuu 1685 (the other two members of which went on to form Siinai and play with Spencer Krug for some of the Moonface releases). They just got back together and I saw them play in Helsinki about two weeks ago, for Flow Festival.
There was a warm-up gig the night before the fest, at a tiny club. And halfway through the set they locked into this 5 minute groove, then out of nowhere Mikko stepped up to the mic and started singing the opening lyrics to "I'm On Fire." In person, it was a total shocker, and sounded incredible - think like, if pre-Lost In The Dream War On Drugs had done a 10 minute, buzzing, uptempo "I'm On Fire" interpretation.
Here's a live video from back in Joensuu 1685's initial run, in the late '00s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd2q7CajWkg
Doesn't quite do it justice in terms of how hypnotic-then-cathartic it is to see them actually play it in person, and now Mikko kinda yelps/screams the lyrics more so the eventual payoff after the long intro is even more intense. But anyway, this is my roundabout way of saying this is a song I've heard a million times by a million people and finally heard it fresh again in Helsinki, out of nowhere. I think there's also an old recorded version of it floating around.
When I was first getting into the Stones, I didn't get why that one had a lesser reputation, but then I didn't go back to it for years...funny yr all discussing this, since I recently started listening to Goats Head Soup again after continuously getting "Dancing With Mr. D" stuck in my head out of nowhere. "Coming Down Again" is gorgeous, "Can You Hear The Music" is a great warped summer song.
I think it's just one of those albums that suffers by proximity; I like the burnt-out bleariness of it (and, I think, the real beginnings of '70s sleaze Stones), but it's hard to live up as the successor to what (on most days) I'd call the best album of all time.
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