5. Marvin Gaye -
What's Going On: I first listened to this album after multiple spins of Mos Def's
The New Danger...the song "Modern Marvel" always stood out for me so I dug into it a bit and discovered it was a tribute to Marvin and sampled different tracks from
What's Going On. The album itself, unfortunately, is as honest, significant and real today as it was in '74.
4. Jeff Buckley -
Grace: I will never forget laying on Hope Dickens' dorm room bed as a 19-year old and listening to this album for the first time. that moment was monumental in my musical evolution. a singular voice and talent taken too early.
3. 13th Floor Elevators -
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators: I feel this is probably the most under-appreciated album in the broader arc of musical significance conversations...it literally sparked a genre...and to have a personality like Roky Erickson and his amazing and tragic story as frontman, I'll never understand the lack of universal acclaim.
2.
Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star: put simply, my all-time favorite hip-hop album. it's equally social conscious and fun.
1. Sun Kil Moon -
April: quite simply, I think it's the prettiest album ever made and the perfect balance of Mark's incredible honest story telling ability with beautiful instrumentation (the latter has slipped considerably for me in recent years). I can admit, this probably found me and resonated at just the right time in my life and thus it's stuck with me more through time, but I can still put this on and every time be drawn in
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