Most of these are artists you have ever heard of, and that's what makes this significant; because I believe you'll reward yourself if you do go out and track these albums down. To help you swallow these down, I'll lay out for you the very particular criterion under which I decided makes these phenomenal albums:
(1) They accurately represent the band or artist's overall appeal. They would not want to leave these albums off of their resumes.
(2) They are coherent as a whole. They have the ebb and the flow and the continuity that makes listening to the work from the first song to the last a wholly satisfying experience.
If you do go through the trouble of getting your hands on these (which will be no small task, I assure you, as some of them have been out of print for a long time), I recommend you select one track from each and make yourself a very eccentric mixed disc (or playlist, if you're more modern leaning). You'll notice I even help you with your selections.
ARTIST: Was(Not Was)
ALBUM: Born To Laugh At Tornadoes
LABEL: Z Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1983
WHY IT'S GREAT: Was(Not Was) has one recognizable title in their repertoire, and that title is "Walk The Dinosaur". No, it's not on this album, and that's just fine. That song does little to illustrate the band's usual sound, even if it was the song that put them in the limelight for about fifteen minutes.
Primarily, Was(Not Was)'s lyrics are written by David Was (or David Weiss, by birth name), whose writing is as colorful and poetic as Jack Kerouac holding hands with Tom Waits. It's abstract, prose-laden postmodernism, supported by catchy pop hooks and rock n' roll. The band was once described as "an endearing mess... a sausage factory of funk, rock, jazz and electronic dance music" and I really wouldn't try to sum it up any differently. That's perfect. Ozzy Osbourne and Kim Basinger are guest vocalists on the track "Shake Your Head", and Mel Torme serenades on the closing track "Zaz Turned Blue". Sausage factory... endearing mess. Exactly.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Out Come The Freaks"
ITS ONE FLAW: While most of the tracks do not, some of them do sound a little dated. '80's music tends to identify itself quickly.
ARTIST: Tom Waits
ALBUM: Swordfishtrombones
LABEL: Island Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1983
WHY IT'S GREAT: I doubt I need to go into much explanation for this one. Swordfishtrombones marked Tom Waits' departure from the smokey piano bar jazz he'd been recording for the first ten years of his career (not that it wasn't good), and his arrival into the "junk yard orchestration" we all know and love him for now. This represents his re-birth, and ultimately his stepping stone to become a fucking legend. I mentioned above that '80's music identifies itself quickly? Well, Tom Waits 80's music is the exception. Nothing about this album says 1983 except the copyright printed on the inlay. Swordfishtrombones was a decade ahead of its time, and so unusual a recording that Waits' first record label, when presented with the completed album, rejected it! Determined to get it heard, Waits submitted it to the, at the time, fledgling label Island Records, who were forward thinking enough to give it a shot. Everybody won in that deal: the artist, the label and the listener.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Shore Leave"
ITS ONE FLAW: A common complaint I have with Tom Waits albums is that there are too many songs on them. He's enjoyable most in smaller doses. The collection is great, but it could have easily been whittled down to a nice solid 12 tracks, instead of 15. Fifteen is an irritating number of tracks on an album. And so is 17. I have no real explanation to back that up, it's just that those two numbers bother me.
ARTIST: Dead Can Dance
ALBUM: A Passage In Time
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE YEAR: 1991
WHY IT'S GREAT: Multi-instrumentalists Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry were the forerunners of renaissance era 16th century medieval alternative modern rock. Yes they were. No other band was doing it, and no other band made teens want to play the Chinese yangqin, or the wheel fiddle, instead of the guitar; or made you want to hang a Hieronymus Bosch detail on your bedroom wall instead of a Nirvana poster. Dead Can Dance gave "oldies" music a whole new meaning, though most of their songs were actually original compositions designed around the sound of those centuries past. A Passage In Time is technically a 16 (not 15 and not 17 - 16 damnit!) song selection of tracks from their previous five albums, but it has a consistency and overall continuity that those prior albums ironically lacked.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Enigma of the Absolute"
ITS ONE FLAW: "Mother Tongue" from The Serpent's Egg isn't on it.
ARTIST: Michael Penn
ALBUM: March
LABEL: Sony/EMI
RELEASE YEAR: 1989
WHY IT'S GREAT: Though the hit single "No Myth" should have guaranteed Michael Penn placement among one the most known male solo artists of all time, it sadly didn't work out that way for him. The song is more popular than he ever became, and the rest of this album fell under its shadow, sending it to the bargain bin almost immediately after its release. Though commercially it would be categorized as a flop, critically it was deservedly well-received. Penn is a wordsmith like no other, having a unique skill in the way he arranges phrases and dialogue. He sings a line, rhymes it with a contradicting statement that plays off the definition of the noun, and uses this method on and off to tell a perfectly sensical (and often common) tale of emotional foreboding, or exasperating event. You have to read the lyrics to his songs not so much to hear what he's saying, but to understand it. When you do, it's a reward you could liken to learning how to speak your own language backwards, but still intelligibly. Every track on the album has a catchy chorus or a grabbing hook, and it's impossible not to sing along whether you know what you're singing with or not.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Half Harvest"
ITS ONE FLAW: The keyboard/organ intro before the song "Bedlam Boys". No disrespect to Patrick Warren, he does remarkable work elsewhere on the album, but there... eh - it just seems out place.
ARTIST: Primus
ALBUM: Sailing The Sease of Cheese
LABEL: Interscope
RELEASE YEAR: 1991
WHY IT'S GREAT: Everyone loves a good Primus album... and some even love a bad Primus album (which would be everything after 1993's Pork Soda). The reason for crowning Seas of Cheese here as a prime Primus album, is that it is one that represents the skill of the entire band, and not just Les Claypool. Long time guitarist Larry LaLonde remains the most underrated musician of all time, and drummer Tim Alexander has never seemed more interested in spiking these songs as he does here. Also, the tracks on Seas of Cheese are considerably better written than on Primus' subsequent efforts.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver" (of course.)
ITS ONE FLAW: Slightly tinny in the mastering. This album would benefit, and no doubt sell as well - if not better - than it did when it was first released, if they re-mastered and re-issued it.
ARTIST: His Name Is Alive
ALBUM: Mouth By Mouth
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE YEAR: 1993
WHY IT'S GREAT: His Name Is Alive, for the period of about three years (1990 - 1993), had an exquisitely unique sound that defied all explanation. It was like a Midwestern rural goth-Americana rock. Picture a small town where all the girls are Dr. Martin boot, red and black plaid skirt wearing goth chicks, who all live in run down Victorian houses with ancient gravestones in their backyards. These are the songs they rock to: spooky, echoing female vocalists singing about "spirits needing spirit tools" and the "devil breaking both your hands, takes your stuff and runs away". There's just a supernatural chill factor infused into Mouth By Mouth's tracklist, that His Name Is Alive deliberately moved further away from, and eventually shed entirely, on every album they released after this. The two albums prior, Livonia and Home Is In Your Head were even more ghostly sounding, but lacked the solid song structure of this one.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Can't Go Wrong Without You"
ITS ONE FLAW: The band's name has multiple times lead folks to believe they must be some sort of Christian rock group. His Name Is Alive has stated in several interviews that the name has absolutely nothing to do with any known religion, and is actually some obscure reference to an Abraham Lincoln obituary. As much as they've tried to distance themselves from Christianity, titling track 5 "Lord Make Me A Channel of Your Peace" doesn't do much to help things.
ARTIST: Velour 100
ALBUM: Fall Sounds
LABEL: Tooth & Nail Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1994
WHY IT'S GREAT: Very similar in sound, Velour 100 was like the lighter side of His Name Is Alive. Incorporating the same sort of female vocals, this album is more sun in the sky and birds in the trees. The sometimes acoustic, other times electric layers of guitars and airy percussion (coincidentally employed by early His Name Is Alive drummer Trey Many), provide a soothing abstract illustration of the color and warmth of a turning season.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Turn In Time"
ITS ONE FLAW: This could be personal perception, but the album conjures more the visual of maybe late Summer than it does Fall proper.
ARTIST: The Beautiful South
ALBUM: Quench
LABEL: Go! Discs/ Mercury Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1998
WHY IT'S GREAT: The Beautiful South were all the rage in the U.K. between 1990 and 1998. They had consistently high charting singles, sold out stadium concerts and critically acclaimed albums. However, they were never a band with much of an identity, and they didn't run around making tabloid headlines by dating other celebrities, knocking up Britney Spears or making movie cameos with Brad Pitt; which is probably exactly why in the U.S., nobody knows who the hell The Beautiful South are. Paul Heaton (lyrics) and Dave Rotheray (music) were the best, and most skilled songwriting duo since Lennon and McCartney, but as Heaton once himself sang "however I dressed, I never really impressed, so they never got to hear a damn thing". The Beautiful South, however many pop hooks and well-rendered songs they came up with, never caught on here on the other side of the pond.
Of all their albums, Quench represents their best shot at American fanfare. They always were a decidedly British band, constantly using adages and slang that were exclusively regional, and would leave U.S. audiences confused. For this release, though, the group offers thirteen tracks addressing alcoholism, fat chicks, the societal expectations of men and women, and pregnancy that, no matter where you are (or who you are) in the world, you can relate. Paul Heaton has built a longstanding career of looking at the world with his tongue in his cheek, a sneer on his face and his middle finger frozen in the air, but never has his bite been so hard as it is on Quench. The really neat thing about The Beautiful South was that no matter how pretty, light hearted and drama-club musical their songs sounded, one only had to listen closely to the words, and suddenly the gloom and derogative nature of the lyrics stopped you in your tracks. Every song is a Trojan horse bouquet of sardonic political commentary, and spiteful social observation.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Perfect 10"
ITS ONE FLAW: Beautiful South albums between 1992 and 1998 don't have flaws. They saved them all for their years between 2000 and 2006. Then they broke up.
ARTIST: The Vega Star
ALBUM: The Night
LABEL: Self-Released
RELEASE YEAR: 2008
WHY IT'S GREAT: As far as man-crushes go, mine doesn't get much bigger than the one I have for Vega Star frontman Justin Rolbiecki. He is quite possibly the most skilled songwriter of his generation, and The Vega Star the leaders of a long needed revolution in alternative rock music. As of this writing, The Night remains the band's sole release, and while a follow up is highly anticipated, it would be hard-pressed to top the perfection of this album. Vega Star deals heavily in dread and dilemma, songs sung in a delicately ornate, almost olde English dialect, backed by strongly acoustic instrumentation. Rolbiecki's band tells of lonely nights, foreboding wells, vengeful hearts and bleak despair. This is music for a stormy evening, or a road trip down a desolate stretch of highway. Songwriting of this caliber was thought to be dead after the 1970's, but The Vega Star signals of its resurgence.
MIX DISC SELECTION: "The Well"
ITS ONE FLAW: Every song title but one starts with the article "The": "Dead Winter". This is hardly a flaw, but simply an inconsistency in the song listing. Couldn't it have been titled "The Dead Winter"? I'm splitting hairs here, I know...
ARTIST: Seven Mary Three
ALBUM: Day & Night Driving
LABEL: Bellum Records
RELEASE YEAR: 2008
WHY IT'S GREAT: Six albums after their 90's grunge rock submission American Standard, Seven Mary Three have just now hit their stride, and now seem comfortable in their own skin. Day & Night Driving is a severe departure from containing anything similar to "Cumbersome" or "My My", but it's a more than welcome detour. While so many bands who had voice in the beginnings of the mainstream alternative rock era just kind of left it there, Seven Mary Three is one that insists on progression and experimentation. They've matured as a band, and frontman Jason Ross's lyricism has become increasingly wise, learned and poetic. There are countless stand-out tracks on this album: "Last Kiss", "Dreaming Against Me", "Hammer & Stone", "Strangely At Home", "Things I Stole" - all of them are so well rendered and mainstream friendly it is a crying shame this album received so little attention. The band would be more properly categorized as alternative country now, and that can be scary because that genre too often borders on being the alternative to good. Seven Mary Three does it up proper without over doing it, however, and so at least for now there is no need for apprehension.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Dead Days In The Kitchen"
ITS ONE FLAW: Entirely too much compression in post production. The mastering presses the sound against the speakers so hard it's practically flat and lifeless. I would buy a hundred copies of a re-mastered version of this album, just to show my support for the cause.
ALBUM: Sailing The Sease of Cheese
LABEL: Interscope
RELEASE YEAR: 1991
WHY IT'S GREAT: Everyone loves a good Primus album... and some even love a bad Primus album (which would be everything after 1993's Pork Soda). The reason for crowning Seas of Cheese here as a prime Primus album, is that it is one that represents the skill of the entire band, and not just Les Claypool. Long time guitarist Larry LaLonde remains the most underrated musician of all time, and drummer Tim Alexander has never seemed more interested in spiking these songs as he does here. Also, the tracks on Seas of Cheese are considerably better written than on Primus' subsequent efforts.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver" (of course.)
ITS ONE FLAW: Slightly tinny in the mastering. This album would benefit, and no doubt sell as well - if not better - than it did when it was first released, if they re-mastered and re-issued it.
ALBUM: Mouth By Mouth
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE YEAR: 1993
WHY IT'S GREAT: His Name Is Alive, for the period of about three years (1990 - 1993), had an exquisitely unique sound that defied all explanation. It was like a Midwestern rural goth-Americana rock. Picture a small town where all the girls are Dr. Martin boot, red and black plaid skirt wearing goth chicks, who all live in run down Victorian houses with ancient gravestones in their backyards. These are the songs they rock to: spooky, echoing female vocalists singing about "spirits needing spirit tools" and the "devil breaking both your hands, takes your stuff and runs away". There's just a supernatural chill factor infused into Mouth By Mouth's tracklist, that His Name Is Alive deliberately moved further away from, and eventually shed entirely, on every album they released after this. The two albums prior, Livonia and Home Is In Your Head were even more ghostly sounding, but lacked the solid song structure of this one.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Can't Go Wrong Without You"
ITS ONE FLAW: The band's name has multiple times lead folks to believe they must be some sort of Christian rock group. His Name Is Alive has stated in several interviews that the name has absolutely nothing to do with any known religion, and is actually some obscure reference to an Abraham Lincoln obituary. As much as they've tried to distance themselves from Christianity, titling track 5 "Lord Make Me A Channel of Your Peace" doesn't do much to help things.
ALBUM: Fall Sounds
LABEL: Tooth & Nail Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1994
WHY IT'S GREAT: Very similar in sound, Velour 100 was like the lighter side of His Name Is Alive. Incorporating the same sort of female vocals, this album is more sun in the sky and birds in the trees. The sometimes acoustic, other times electric layers of guitars and airy percussion (coincidentally employed by early His Name Is Alive drummer Trey Many), provide a soothing abstract illustration of the color and warmth of a turning season.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Turn In Time"
ITS ONE FLAW: This could be personal perception, but the album conjures more the visual of maybe late Summer than it does Fall proper.
ALBUM: Quench
LABEL: Go! Discs/ Mercury Records
RELEASE YEAR: 1998
WHY IT'S GREAT: The Beautiful South were all the rage in the U.K. between 1990 and 1998. They had consistently high charting singles, sold out stadium concerts and critically acclaimed albums. However, they were never a band with much of an identity, and they didn't run around making tabloid headlines by dating other celebrities, knocking up Britney Spears or making movie cameos with Brad Pitt; which is probably exactly why in the U.S., nobody knows who the hell The Beautiful South are. Paul Heaton (lyrics) and Dave Rotheray (music) were the best, and most skilled songwriting duo since Lennon and McCartney, but as Heaton once himself sang "however I dressed, I never really impressed, so they never got to hear a damn thing". The Beautiful South, however many pop hooks and well-rendered songs they came up with, never caught on here on the other side of the pond.
Of all their albums, Quench represents their best shot at American fanfare. They always were a decidedly British band, constantly using adages and slang that were exclusively regional, and would leave U.S. audiences confused. For this release, though, the group offers thirteen tracks addressing alcoholism, fat chicks, the societal expectations of men and women, and pregnancy that, no matter where you are (or who you are) in the world, you can relate. Paul Heaton has built a longstanding career of looking at the world with his tongue in his cheek, a sneer on his face and his middle finger frozen in the air, but never has his bite been so hard as it is on Quench. The really neat thing about The Beautiful South was that no matter how pretty, light hearted and drama-club musical their songs sounded, one only had to listen closely to the words, and suddenly the gloom and derogative nature of the lyrics stopped you in your tracks. Every song is a Trojan horse bouquet of sardonic political commentary, and spiteful social observation.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Perfect 10"
ITS ONE FLAW: Beautiful South albums between 1992 and 1998 don't have flaws. They saved them all for their years between 2000 and 2006. Then they broke up.
ALBUM: The Night
LABEL: Self-Released
RELEASE YEAR: 2008
WHY IT'S GREAT: As far as man-crushes go, mine doesn't get much bigger than the one I have for Vega Star frontman Justin Rolbiecki. He is quite possibly the most skilled songwriter of his generation, and The Vega Star the leaders of a long needed revolution in alternative rock music. As of this writing, The Night remains the band's sole release, and while a follow up is highly anticipated, it would be hard-pressed to top the perfection of this album. Vega Star deals heavily in dread and dilemma, songs sung in a delicately ornate, almost olde English dialect, backed by strongly acoustic instrumentation. Rolbiecki's band tells of lonely nights, foreboding wells, vengeful hearts and bleak despair. This is music for a stormy evening, or a road trip down a desolate stretch of highway. Songwriting of this caliber was thought to be dead after the 1970's, but The Vega Star signals of its resurgence.
MIX DISC SELECTION: "The Well"
ITS ONE FLAW: Every song title but one starts with the article "The": "Dead Winter". This is hardly a flaw, but simply an inconsistency in the song listing. Couldn't it have been titled "The Dead Winter"? I'm splitting hairs here, I know...
ALBUM: Day & Night Driving
LABEL: Bellum Records
RELEASE YEAR: 2008
WHY IT'S GREAT: Six albums after their 90's grunge rock submission American Standard, Seven Mary Three have just now hit their stride, and now seem comfortable in their own skin. Day & Night Driving is a severe departure from containing anything similar to "Cumbersome" or "My My", but it's a more than welcome detour. While so many bands who had voice in the beginnings of the mainstream alternative rock era just kind of left it there, Seven Mary Three is one that insists on progression and experimentation. They've matured as a band, and frontman Jason Ross's lyricism has become increasingly wise, learned and poetic. There are countless stand-out tracks on this album: "Last Kiss", "Dreaming Against Me", "Hammer & Stone", "Strangely At Home", "Things I Stole" - all of them are so well rendered and mainstream friendly it is a crying shame this album received so little attention. The band would be more properly categorized as alternative country now, and that can be scary because that genre too often borders on being the alternative to good. Seven Mary Three does it up proper without over doing it, however, and so at least for now there is no need for apprehension.
MIX DISC RECOMMENDATION: "Dead Days In The Kitchen"
ITS ONE FLAW: Entirely too much compression in post production. The mastering presses the sound against the speakers so hard it's practically flat and lifeless. I would buy a hundred copies of a re-mastered version of this album, just to show my support for the cause.
Great Review of what seems to be some very interesting albums and bands..Thanks Mr. North for introducing these..(to me) some thisis the first I've heard of them. Keep upthe great articles!
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