Album of the Day

Album for August 24th: Mule Variations by Tom Waits. The Captain Beefheart of our generation, Mule Variations is one of the artist’s best albums. Originally, Waits was a jazzy barfly singer but when he met his future wife Kathleen Brennan, she began to steer him in a new direction. Waits was reborn as an experimental barker, starting first with 1983’s influential phoenix turn Swordfishtrombones. This album showed Waits in a bluesy-folk way on songs such as “Hold On” but still had some incredible experimentation, such as the strange “Eyeball Kid” and the downright insane “Filipino Box Spring Hog”. If you’re an adventurous listener, get behind the Mule..

Album for August 22nd: Bon Iver, Bon Iver by Bon Iver. Bon Iver (at the time a stage name for Justin Vernon) had already made a name for himself as “that dude in the cabin with the guitar” with his debut album For Emma, Forever Ago. Expectations for his sophomore effort were high, especially because of the inclusion of a full band. As we listened, we as listeners all discovered that Bon Iver was not just an acoustic downer, they were a brilliant band who created a perfect expansion on Justin Vernon’s original sparse sound. Vernon’s lyrics were still breathtaking, eloquent but never verbose. And with the inclusion of a great band behind him (most notably the fantastic multi-instrumentalist Colin Stetson) this is the antithesis to the sophomore slump.

Album for August 21st: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. I found this album about a year and a half ago and the spacey ideas and music inside still always put me in a good mood. After the Flaming Lips’ 1999 critical breakthrough “The Soft Bulletin”, the boys went back to business and created this breathtaking 2002 album. A strange album by any means, Yoshimi perfects the Flaming Lips now well-known template of Wayne Coyne’s folksy voice and their cosmic electronic rock sound. A concept album, the Flaming Lips music is best appreciated live, as over the past 10 years they’ve gained a reputation as one of the best live shows out there today. But whether you see a show or just buy this album, it will be a fun and exciting ride.

Album for August 20th: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. Yes, we don’t discriminate on this Tumblr, even rap is accepted. And whether you do or don’t like rap, listen to this album. Kanye West made some good (2 of them outstanding) albums before his 5th but this is his best. Fusing every element of the man that is Kanye West, the title says it all. An album of haunting dreams (“Dark Fantasy”), rap braggadocio (“Monster”) and sorrow-filled regret (“Runaway”). Kanye didn’t spare any expense on this album, pulling in a string symphony, blues guitars and anything else. Like many hip hop albums, the guest spots are numerous yet always useful, ranging from an actually interesting Nicki Minaj verse to an auto-tuned Bon Iver. This album was everything promised: beautiful, dark, twisted and above all, a fantasy of epic proportions. Who else could get samples from King Crimson, Aphex Twin and Gil Scott-Heron?

Album for August 19th: Screamadelica by Primal Scream. One of the better success stories of the past 30 years, Primal Scream was a mere jangle pop band founded by the Jesus and Mary Chain’s drummer Bobby Gillespie in 1982, before his economic drum work on the JaMC’s classic Psychocandy. Their first two albums flopped, until DJ Andrew Weatherall got a hold of their song “I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have”. The result was “Loaded”, a hit in the UK that bridged the gap between dance hounds and indie rockers. Suddenly, Primal Scream went from relative obscurity to a proper band with three UK top 40s. The parent album is a strange one. Imagine indie rock instrumentals, some jazzy percussion, gospel tones and steals from Peter Fonda. You may not have heard of Primal Scream but after listening to this album, you’d be hard-pressed to forget them.

Album for August 18th: Amnesiac by Radiohead. Rolling Stone says “the best sequel since The Godfather Part 2”. They might be right, as this stunning album of cold atmospherics and cryptic lyricism is, like much of Radiohead’s other work, absolutely essential. Amnesiac finds Radiohead at their creepiest and jazziest state, highly influenced by Charles Mingus among others. The songs range from unconventional (“Knives Out”) to the sound of an elevator stuck in a permament cycle of rewind and fast forward (“Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors”). If I want to be dumbfounded by an album’s otherworldly feel, this is the album. Haunting, beautiful and uninviting, for any other band this would easily be their best album. For Radiohead, it’s business as usual.

Album for August 17th: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan’s first true masterpiece, and still the best of his purist folk music. This album contains some of Bob Dylan’s best songs ever, such as “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall and the protest “Masters of War”. But the greatest and most highly respected song on this album is one of the best folk songs ever made “Blowin’ In The Wind”. This song asked many questions but didn’t answer much, that was the appeal. For such a versed young man, even he didn’t know the answers. He still has been searching for those answers but one question has been answered: Yes, Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter of all time. Period.

Album for August 16th: Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors. Where do I start on this album? Questions? Ok. Q: Who are the Dirty Projectors? A: Well, it’s obvious they are a band. Q: What genre are they? A: Well, you see… they’re… um… music… Dirty Projectors are a strange band, possibly unable to classify. Liken them to Animal Collective or Battles, they are like nothing else on Earth. This album of surprise and oddity is their best, and so far their only with singer and bassist Angel Deradoorian. The real genius of Dirty Projectors is leader Dave Longstreth but one special mention is Amber Coffman’s great vocals which, combined with Deradoorian’s on “Stillness is the Move” and backing up Longstreth on “Temecula Sunrise” create a vast and absorbing listen.

Album for August 14th: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. This 1972 concept album saw David Bowie in his greatest persona, Ziggy Stardust. A zero to hero then back again story, Ziggy is a nobody who becomes a rock star, but then lets the fame get to his head and he drowns himself in it and eventually is killed. An interesting story at it’s core, but what about the music? How about the best glam rock album ever and possibly the greatest rock album of the 70s? The music was hard rock, art rock and camp sexual promiscuity all in one and it never flagged. David Bowie would make more great albums but besides possibly Low, this was his greatest album.

Sorry for the reblogs, I’m bad at this lol