The Underrated Blog

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Joy Division's Closer

#43 - Joy Division - Closer

I was walking up the steps of the subway this morning when my cell phone rang. It was a friend of mine, a friend I've known for a long time asking for a number of another friend, a friend I've known for a long time. We began chatting, catching up a bit, when he asked me what was wrong. It was 10 in the morning.

"What?" I replied, honestly confused. I started retracing the last 24 hours and couldn't find anything particularly wrong with my life. I hadn't gone out the night before so I wasn't hungover. I slept quite well. I hadn't had my coffee yet, but I've currently sworn off caffeine. Things were, for the most part, okay.

I then realized I hadn't said anything in a a couple minutes, but heard something coming out of my headphones. Oh yes. Joy Division. I've been listening to this album of the week for the past 24 hours on repeat. Without thinking about it, I suddenly replied.

"I've been listening to Joy Division," I said, as if that was justification.
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"Well, I'm not surprised."

And yet, this surprised me. For next ten minutes, I smoked two cigarettes while my friend psycho-analyzed me. All of a sudden I needed a cup of coffee. He mentioned to me how easily I am influenced by the media. He cited specific TV shows and movies that I compare my life to, and think of as real characters. And when he mentioned music, this, according to him, was a category all of its own.

"Think about it Rach," he said. "There is a reason you are always drawn to happy pop music. You like to be happy." True. "But when you want to be sad, you make those crazy mixes with only miserable music. And you write it off as being some sort of music aficionado, but in fact you are heavily reliant on music for your moods. And that is why, without knowing it, Joy Division has caused you to think something is wrong."

I tried to laugh it off, told him about my 52 album quest and that I was forced to listen to this, and then told him I had to get to work. Now I'm over analyzing this idea, confused. How much influence does music have on our moods? I remember back in high school when I wrote a piece that debated the fact that Marilyn Manson was blamed for Columbine, which I still stand to today. And yet one of my college roommates researched how music is beginning to replace antidepressants with children. Certain music, without a doubt, does influence how we feel. But how much is that our own free will?

Listening to Joy Division's Closer I wasn't so much concerned about why this has been considered a great album. I suppose if we weren't so oversaturated with this "sound" today, I would appreciate it more. I understand that it made its mark in 1980 but in sound and culture, released just shortly after Ian Curtis' death.

I can only write about what I know, and what I know is that Closer made me sad. It made me sad because from start to finish it feels as if I should be locked in a dark room with a pack of cigarettes and a notebook, writing down the lyrics over and over again and realizing they are exactly how I feel. So walking around, running errands, even listening to it at the gym made me feel out of place. Perhaps it's just me, but hearing Curtis sing about being ashamed of who he is ("Isolation") or having no where to turn ("Heart and Soul") you can't help but feel that pain. Musically, it's the dark and dreary that could only accompany those lyrics. It's epic, moody, and everything I expected just looking at the cover art.

I called back my friend today after listening to my twee pop and asked him if I sounded happier. He said that I did. Perhaps I do become far too involved in these things, but something tells me I'm not the only one.

Joy Division - Isolation

Joy Division - Heart And Soul

Joy Division - Eternal

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 42 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Prince's Purple Rain

#44 - Prince - Purple Rain

Prince = sex.

'Nuff said.

Prince - The Beautiful Ones

Prince - I Would Die 4 U

Prince - Darling Nikki

Prince - Purple Rain

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 43 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Creedence Clearwater Revival's Green River

#45 - Creedence Clearwater Revival -Green River

This will not be a regular post. I'm feeling nostalgic.

I went through the rebellion phase my junior year of high school. I was fed up with pop music, being quiet, and living in my brother's shadow. I started smoking cigarettes, sneaking the vodka from my parents liquor cabinet, and blasting Creedence Clearwater Revival. I've been sitting in my apartment for the past 2 hours listening to Green River and feeling like I was 17 years old again.

It was one of those weekends. One of those weekends where I found myself questioning every choice I've made in my life. I found myself back in New Jersey, driving past my childhood home and noticing how different everything is. I found myself seeing friends from high school and realizing how different we've all changed. Or maybe I've changed the most. Either way the world is a very different place than when I lived in that house on Yeomans Lane. And yet it will take one song, nay one artist, to bring you right back to where you came from.

Comfort music is an interesting term. Do I feel comfortable listening to CCR? I'm not sure, I think welcome would be a better term to use. I understand Fogerty. And listening to him, I feel like he understands me. He hides the pain in clever lyrics. He likes to be mysterious. In a song like "Bad Moon Rising," which on the surface sounds like a fun little ditty, is full of devilish connotations. "Hope you've got your things together/Hope you're quite prepared to die." Both Fogerty and I are Gemini’s, and while I don't believe too much in astrology, it's clear that the two sides of our personalities are apparent.

There would be times I'd climb out of my old house window, lay on my back and watch the smoke surround me while "Green River" would be blasting out of my stereo speakers. Many years later I'd be asked to write about where I found "soul" in music. I'd write about the time I listened exclusively to Creedence Clearwater Revival and I found soul -- in lyrics, in guitar riffs, and in the song of Fogerty's wail.

Even today, I still feel like a rebel listening to it. For reasons, I can't quite explain. Ask me again in another five years.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 44 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Elvis Costello's This Year's Model

#46 - Elvis Costello - This Year's Model

I know, this is late. And this album I actually purchased at the very beginning of the week and listened to it at least once daily and yet for the first time I'm not really sure what to say about it. I like Elvis Costello. Quite a bit. When I first started the magazine, I interviewed this boy in Washington Square Park. I was just beginning my musical discovery and I asked him what music influenced him (a question, I've thankfully taken out of my repertoire). He mentioned Elvis Costello. I knew the name. I jotted it down in my notebook, went back to my dorm room and spent the rest of my evening downloading every album off iTunes. It was catchy. It was snarky. It was fun.

So here we are, five years later and I'm listening to This Year's Model. Not much in my life has changed, however everything felt very different listening to the album. It didn't hold the same charm the first time I heard "Living In Paradise" and I danced around while my roommate rolled her eyes. Granted, my steps did have a little bounce in them while listening to all the tracks. I suppose I've lost some of my crazy in my old age.

This Year's Model was Costello's second album. From the sound of it, he refused to fall into that supposed sophomore slump, if that even exists. He pushed the envelope; especially with a track like "Radio Radio" that he ended up performing on SNL back in '77 as a last minute fill in for The Sex Pistols. I've never seen the performance, but from what I've read he began "Less Than Zero" and then stopped. He told the crowd "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here." He was banned from SNL for 12 years after that. That, my friends, is rock and roll.

I love everything Costello encompasses into his song. He developed a true signature sound that I find both attractive and strange. It's a swing, with a feck you attitude combined with a pop capability that has been mocked, imitated, but never surpassed. Costello holds nothing back, and does it so brilliantly.

Elvis Costello - Living In Paradise

Elvis Costello - Radio, Radio

Elvis Costello - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 46 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Bob Marley's Legend

#47 - Bob Marley - Legend

In my freshman year dorm at NYU, all 10 square feet of it, I had a poster of the cover of this album hanging up on my wall. It's impossible for me to listen to this album without thinking of incense and towels underneath the door, a time that I really with a bit of a naive smile. Bob Marley has become synonymous with the idea of the pot smoking college kids, and yet his music is so much more. But there's a part of me that thinks that Bob wouldn't have a problem with that image.

I'm finding it harder and harder to write about these albums each week, frankly because I just don't feel as though I have anything new or relevant to say to you, dear reader, that you don't already know. You know that this album is a greatest hits album and that there is not a weak moment on there. You've heard all these songs before, sang along with friends at the wee hours of the morning to "One Love" and probably had a friend play you "Redemption Song" on his/her guitar. It's nothing new to either you, or me and yet I wouldn't have it any other way.

With Bob (yes we are on a first name basis) it's almost like comfort music, much like comfort food. Instead of chocolate or your mom's meatloaf, I find listening to Bob Marley a time where I feel like everything is okay again. No matter just how crappy you may be feeling with whatever seems to be going on in your little life, you can just listen to his incredible voice and feel peace again. In a nutshell, listening to an album like Legend makes me happy.

That same year that I had that poster up on my wall, I wrote a paper about Bob Marley for my African Civ class that I re-read tonight. Besides realizing that I don’t, in fact, write better when I am stoned, I remembered the extensive research I did in preparation. I became obsessed with his life and death, in the same way I did much later again with Kurt Cobain. Legend, although released in 1984, topped the Billboard catalog charts for a record setting nineteen weeks in 1992. In an interview before his death, Marley stated, "I am not the angel of death. I am the child of life." Bob Marley not only took the music world by storm and set a precedent for all music to follow, but he gave the world the simple message of peace.

A legend, indeed.

Bob Marley - Is This Love

Bob Marley - Redemption Song

Bob Marley - Exodus

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 46 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: John Coltrane's A Love Supreme

#48 - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

I admit I was terrfied to write this post. I still am, as I sit in my pitch dark room with just a candle lit and John Coltrane wailing his saxophone in the background. I took a good amount of music classes in college, and whenever we came around to the jazz section, I faltered trying to write about what I heard. I definitely can appreciate jazz, and do quite enjoy listening to it. But if I'm the first to admit I don't know how to write about music, any music -- it's even harder for me to write about jazz.

Naturally I waited until the last minute to write this post, and yet I was watching tonight’s episode of The Simpsons and felt inspired to give it a shot. In tonight's show, Bart takes up the drums and steals Lisa's dream of being a jazz star. They mocked the lingo and the "coolness" of the genre, but while watching it I sat wishing I was in Springfield, listening to Bart play those drums.

Anyways.

So I was given the task to listen to what many call the quintessential jazz album, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. I'll admit it's not my favorite jazz album that I've heard, but I do find it quite extraordinary. I was flipping through the deluxe edition's booklet last night and read how Coltrane's wife reacted to John when he finished recording. She hadn't seen her husband in five days, and he came down and told her "This is the first time that I have received all of the music for what I want to record, in a suite. This is the first time I have everything, everything ready."

I listened with that mantra in mind, and the fact that this album is Coltrane's ode to God. Could I hear that in the music? At some points. I felt it more with the transition between parts. Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm. Of all four parts, I felt the most connection with Pursuance, the act of following through with a plan. You can hear that in Coltrane's persistence. A drum solo that becomes chaotic, within a 21 minute beating of all instruments, there isn't a point where things let up. And then there's this bass solo that upon listening to it, I felt as though it was one of the first times I feel like I actually connected with a jazz song, and may have (maybe) gotten things right.

Love Supreme is incredibly hard to digest, and I don't think I'll ever fully understand its significance for years to come. But I may have (maybe) had some sort of religious experience listening to Coltrane that I will take with me into future musical listenings. It takes work, and that certain determination that Mr. Coltrane himself would only require.

John Coltrane - Pursuance

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 47 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Love's Forever Changes

#49 - Love - Forever Changes

This album is the first off the list that I listened to for the very first time. I of course had heard a lot about this album, it's on every list I've seen, and yet I never had the chance to discover it until now. I tried to put all the hype behind me when I pressed play at track #1 "Alone Again Or." I decided to listen to it as if it was just another demo CD I received in the mail by a band I didn't know.

So I sat, listened. And what's peculiar about this album opposed to the others is that the entire time listening to it I imagined what it looked like recording it.

From the very first song, Forever Changes feels organic. It's an album that is done entirely acoustic, adding in strings and horns. I can't tell you how this album relates to the rest of this band's work. I can only tell you that listening to it has made me want to listen to more.

Listening to these albums has sparked my research abilities, and especially with this album I wanted to know the story behind the session. From what I've discovered, the sessions began in June of 1967 and the album took four months to record in the Sunset Sound studio in LA. Neil Young was rumored to be helping out on the album, but took off to work with Dusty Springfield instead.

The late Arthur Lee explained that he thought he was going to die at the time he recorded the album. According to him, the words written were to be his last. When I heard that I re-listened to the album and noticed a definite sorrow. But in all, the album is consistent from start to finish, inventing a Spanish-filled folk rock that still resonates today.

It's hard to pick any standout tracks on this album. It's better to look at it as a whole, but I found the lyrics of "Andmoreagain" and "The Red Telephone" particularly bitter sweet.

Love - Andmoreagain

Love - The Red Telephone

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 48 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: The Allman Brothers Band's At Fillmore East

#50 - The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East

I must admit I was not as obsessed with this album this week as much as the past two week's albums. I think mostly it was because I had been sent a lot of albums this week and I was trying not to play favorites. However, from the five or six times I did listen to this album, I found it an interesting time machine into a time that I always knew I wanted to be a part of.

The strangest part about listening to this album was knowing that it was recorded live just blocks from my apartment. In fact I found myself walking down Second Avenue one day, while listening to it, and the hairs on my arms stood up. The site of the famous recording now hosts an Emigrant Savings Bank. Thirty-five years ago, The Allman Brothers took to the stage and recorded what most call the greatest live album of all time.

At Fillmore East is so successful because it can be both background music and a memorable listening experience. I found myself in both situations this week at different times. I'd put it on at work and automatically I'd feel better about whatever I was doing just because it was on. And then I'd pay attention, like the jazz-like wails of "Stormy Monday" or the sweet harmonicas in "You Don't Love Me." It reminds me of the times I used to go to Phish concerts and I'd see those kids physically express how the music feels (combined with a large amount of drugs, naturally). I imagine if I had been alive in 1971 and attended this legendary concert, I would have stood in shock most of the time.

"Whipping Post," a song I was largely familiar with before listening to this album is their 23-minute encore that never lets up. Even in its quietest moments, the impressive jam is one that cant be repeated. And then there’s that moment (somewhere around the 17 minute mark) that Greg Allman just lets it all out. And you do feel it, whether you show it or not. And it's just simply, amazing.

Sometimes long jams can bore me, especially when you have one over the 15-minute mark. I read somewhere that The Allman Brothers would sometimes lose track of time when they played shows, and wouldn't know until they left and saw the sun out that they had been playing for so long. I, myself, found myself losing track of time listening to this album, which is probably the greatest compliment an album could get.

The Allman Brothers - Stormy Monday

The Allman Brothers - Whipping Post

Click below for links to previous entries, and to see what 49 albums are yet to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water

#51: Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

It was the perfect week for this album. It has been unseasonably cold this week in New York, culminating with a tornado warning and a lot of rain. Bridge Over Troubled Water is meant to be heard with the backdrops of water falling on your window sill, with sirens and cars driving by, and with the time and patience to sit down, stop everything you are doing, and just listen.

I fell in love with this album all over again this weekend. This album, one that I listened to as a kid, is momentous and nostalgic. From beginning to end, you are taken on a certain type of journey that each time you visit, you remember just what it felt like that very first time. That very first time you listened to the opening track, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and you feel the solitude, the hope, and awe in each note and sound. "Cecilia" lifts you up, makes you dance around like you are 8 years old again -- a wonderful pop song that can not be beat. "The Boxer" and "Baby Driver" became new favorites, something you can only hope by revisiting such a prolific album.

Simon & Garfunkel are one of the few artists that can personify New York City in their music. It's a different world when you live here, and many times you develop a love/hate relationship with this city you call a home. When I first moved here I listened to "Only Living Boy In New York" many times while walking down the street. I revisited that memory this week, four years later, and I still feel the same insecurities and magic walking down these streets. "Half of the time we're gone but we don't know where," they sing. It's 36 years later and those lyrics will always ring true.

You feel a certain satisfaction when you finish listening to this album, as I suppose I will find with all of these great albums. But there are a few on this list that I already had an attachment to, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water. It's one of those albums that you remember why you fell in love with music in the first place. For it's this world, this ambience and sound that Simon & Garfunkel contributed to – a sound that for eternity will provide a personal closeness to two prolific musicians.

Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York

Simon & Garfunkel - Baby Driver

Click below for links to previous entries, and the 50 albums to come.

52 Great Albums in 52 Weeks: An Update

Yesterday I found myself rummaging through the $10 bins at Virgin Megastore. To my delight, a bulk of my 52 albums were found at this discounted price, so I whipped out the credit card and bought about 10. While I was there, Wes stopped by, and I began to voice my concerns about missing out on some of the other albums I know I should be listening to.

The smart European that he is, he suggested I eliminate any duplicates from the same artists. Only one album per artist would indeed produce a better list. So last night, while listening to Simon & Garfunkle's Bridge Over Troubled Water (this week's assignment), I revised the list. Yes, it does eliminate some of the greats, but I'm much more excited to get a well-rounded selection.

So this, as far as I know, will be the final list.

52. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged
51. Simon and Garfunkle – Bridge Over Troubled Water
50. The Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East
49. Love – Forever Changes
48. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
47. Bob Marley and the Wailers – Legend
46. Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model
45. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green Revival
44. Prince – Purple Rain
43. Joy Division – Closer
42. The Band – The Band
41. Patti Smith – Horses
40. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon
39. The Doors – The Doors
38. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
37. The Pixies – Doolittle
36. Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico
35. David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
34. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
33. Muddy Waters – The Anthology 1947-1972
32. The Eagles – Hotel California
31. Carole King – Tapestry
30. Ramones – Ramones
29. Buddy Holly – 20 Golden Greats
28. Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
27. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home
26. Joni Mitchell – Blue
25. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
24. The Who – Who’s Next
23. Robert Johnson – King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol 1
22. U2 – Joshua Tree
21. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
20. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
19. Chuck Berry – The Great Twenty-Eight
18. Michael Jackson - Thriller
17. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
16. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
15. Johnny Cash – At Folson Prison
14. Neil Young - Harvest
13. Miles Davis – King Of Blue
12. Elvis Presley – The Sun Sessions
11. Otis Redding – Otis Blue
10. The Clash – London Calling
9. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
8. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
7. Ray Charles – The Birth Of Soul
6. The Kinks – The Kink Kronikles
5. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
4. Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Airplane Over The Sea
3. Jeff Buckley - Grace
2. Radiohead – OK Computer
1. The Beatles – Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club

Thoughts?