Black Sabbath: Paranoid (1970) Metal
Funnily enough, Paranoid might have been my gateway into metal much as it served the same service to teenagers of the 1970’s. In early 2001, I was in eighth grade and enduring easily the most miserable year of my existence when somebody lent me a copy. I can alway pinpoint the exact moment because my friends and I were so bored by SuperBowl 35 that we shut it off, turned Paranoid on and played pool instead.
29) Fugazi: The Argument (2001) Post-Hardcore, Punk
Discovered while I was in grad school at the beginning of the 2010’s via their influence on the rap collective Doomtree (and Cecil Otter’s Wu-Tang Mashup), Fugazi’s later albums combined hardcore with the indie rock flourishes that I had grown up around and helped prepare me for a decade’s worth of excellent post-punk. Just important as dynamic guitarwork and tightly-wound drumming are Ian Mackay’s lyrics. The Argument serves as an unapologetic critique of late-stage American capitalism. Songs like “Cashout” and “Life and Limb” became anthems during a decade that was lived within the activist circles of Southern California.
28) Pavement: Brighten the Corners (1997) Indie Rock
I went back and forth between Wowee Zowee and Brighten the Corners. The former is the White Album of the 90’s-- a messy masterpiece of shambling ambition and is probably the Pavement album that most often winds up on my turntable. That said, Brighten the Corners is the pick because every single song on this album is flawless. A band that was known for its spiraling staircase of melodies and disjointed song structures had perfected their power by 1997 and released their Abbey Road.
27) Jamie XX: In Coulor (2015) Electronic
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I stumbled into Jamie XX’s Sunday evening Coachella set in April of 2015. In Coulor had yet to be released and this was to be it’s coming out party. All 42 minutes were revealed song by song in slow motion-- because my friends and I were on several tabs of acid. And over the course of that journey, we couldn’t help but wonder… are the textures on this album as utterly breathtaking as they feel, or this acid simply that good. The answer, of course, is that those things were not muturally exclusive. And so during a 2015 that is in contention for my favorite year of music, In Coulor not only stood out-- it pushed my taste in electronic music forward.
26) Blur: 13 (1999) Alt-Rock
Like your normal teenage American, I had no idea who Blur was during the nineties. Damon Albarn’s band was little more than a one hit wonder (Song 2) in these parts-- particularly in the suburban sprawl of middle America. That changed when the Gorillaz blew up in the 2000’s because, while Blur will never touch Albarn’s animated band in the American zeitgeist, the music junkies among us were suddenly curious. Think Tank became a regular go-to in late high school when I needed to push away the insomnia, but also borders on being a Gorllaz prequel. Thus, 13 is the pick because it best encapsulates all the things I appreciate most about Blur-- whether that be twacked out, fuzzy out guitars (Bugman, 1992), subtle pop melodies (Coffee & TV) or hypnotic, looping electronics (Trailerpark, Carmel).
25) Vince Staples: Summertime 06’ (2015) Rap
College kids these days have it so good. I mean, sure, tuition rates are still outrageous and political correctness on campuses is as prevalent as AIDS in the late 80s.... but at least they don't have to suffer through Lil’ Jon shouting “til the sweat drip down my balls” every time they attend a party. This generation of rappers just does bangers better. Summertime 06’ heavily utilizes auto tune AND is full of tunes aimed for the club. So how can I love something so much when it’s comprised of everything I once claimed to despise? Well, A) Staples flow is jagged but sharp, his lyrics brutal but smart, and B) the bangers and the auto-tune are compartmentalized; they serve different functions. More importantly, C) this album is simply visionary-- a gamechanger that shuffled both my personal taste and the sounds that came after.
24) Sonic Youth: A Thousand Leaves (1998) Art Rock
Richard Linklater is one of my favorite directors and his films were a staple of my adolescence. Like most works within Linklater’s filmography, the lost-to-time Suburbia (it was never even released on DVD) utilizes a killer soundtrack to set the mood… and nothing quite sets a mood like Sonic Youth. I was instantaneously obsessed upon hearing “Sunday” cross the screen. But because All-Music pointed to Daydream Nation as their clear cut masterpiece, that was where my virus-tainted Limewire resources wound up pointed.
It wasn’t until college that I obtained a copy of A Thousand Leaves and fell in love. The audacity of the drifting, eleven minute “Hits of Sunshine (for Allen Ginsberg), the beautiful melodies buried in distortion (Karen Klotrane), everything related to Steve Shelly. I was blown away; my perception of indie rock forever shattered. Sonic Youth ranks within my top 10 discographies, and I have a very hard time choosing between Murray Street, Washing Machine, and A Thousand Leaves. Leaves gets the nod despite arguably being the most flawed of the three because it served as the origins of my love.
23) White Stripes: Elephant (2003) Garage Rock, Blues
My dad played Paul Butterfield and Eric Clapton a lot during the early portions of my childhood. Needless I was familiar with the blues from a young age. However, I didn’t meet garage rock until my freshman year of high school when the local pop-punk station played Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground. I had my friend’s older sister take us to Sam Goody where I purchased both White Blood Cells and De Stijl. My friend (who to this day mostly listens to rap) caveched the whole car ride home about the noise emitting from the car speakers but I was HOOKED. Both of those albums are phenomenal, but it was Elephant that sealed the White Stripes as one of the most important bands of the 00's and my adolescence.
22) Eminem: Slim Shady LP (1999) Rap
I was in a puberty drenched locker room crowded with sweaty 7th graders when somebody asked “what do you think of Eminem”. Of course what I heard was “what do you think of M&M” and immediately pondered “what rapper would name themselves after a candy”? The following summer, I was in the midst of long bus ride to my YMCA summer camp when a pudgy black kid handed me a walkmen loaded with the Marshall Mathers LP. For the next week, that walkman was passed between sweaty palms like sacred treasure and by the time when got back to our parent’s houses, Eminem’s second album was sold out nationwide. I would up having to settle for an edited copy of the Slim Shady LP. The inescapable hits of the sophomore releases may not have been there, and my copy of Slim Shady later wound up snapped in half by my father (after my younger brother’s friend cried to his parents about naughty language), but time has been very kind to Eminen’s debut... well other than maybe the blatant homophobia.
21) Marilyn Manson: Mechanical Animals (1998) Alt-Rock
The best concert I’ve ever seen in my life was a Marilyn Manson show at a small Denver venue the day after George Bush was re-elected. It was a communal exercise in catharsis in which Manson and his band raged for 3 hours. Props to my mother. She HATED his music, but after seeing Bowling for Columbine figured he was a lot less offensive than say, Eminem. I went through at least 3 copies of Holywood as a teenager, and still turn to Anti-Christ when I want a change-up in my workout routine, but Mechanical Animals is the album that shaped my taste in music.
Nine Inch Nails, Bowie, the Smashing Pumpkins… all bands that I was led to from this starting point. In fact, Corgon served as an official advisor to Manson on Mechanical Animals and was the person who encouraged him to double down on the Pink Floyd meets glam rock vibe. Gorgeous guitar work, potent lyrics and one very underrated bassist add up to an alt-rock triumph. It’s funny to think that this album (and its cover) stirred such controversy in the late 90’s and sad to think its legacy might be lost to time because Manson’s addictions eventually got the best of him and turned him into a walking punchline.
