15. Van Halen- Van Halen
My first concert was A Perfect Circle, but the first concert that I got really excited for was Van Halen. I remember having very little experience with the band, aside from what friends had played me, but thanks to a hookup from my father, I got really good floor seat tickets and my dad paid for half of them. With all of that being said, my preparation for the concert was the bands self titled debut and jeez did it prepare me well. I remember driving to the concert in my dad’s truck with the album blasting, and my dad just saying how it never stopped being loud and over the top. And that’s why it’s great. When it does cease on my favorite track “Ice Cream Man” it does so only to build it’s explosion that much more (my dad liked the song up until said explosion). The guitar work is obviously incredible, Lee Roth brings the frontman thing to new levels and Anthony and Alex Van Halen provide for a great backing section. A great pop rock album, regardless of what metalheads may say, it is pop through and through and I love it.
14. System of a Down- Hypnotize
Another album that came along at a great time for me. It was senior year, I was leaving on a plane for California in mere hours and I ran to Target to pick this up, import it onto my iPod and get it loaded and charged for the plane ride ahead. Now the first listen of this noisy chaotic mess of an album I was disappointed. I had listened to it’s prequel Mesmerize a hundred times and had fallen in love with it, but Hypnotize was almost too much. However, after listening to it several times, and having years and years of musical knowledge behind my back now (not to be a braggart, I just know a lot more about music now than I did then), I learned that the collective oddness of Hypnotize is truly the best effort that System of a Down brought to this day. They took a huge risk on a major label album and made a fantastically quirky metal album that does not translate easily to the masses, it’s pure genius in my mind. And while there are a handful of songs I downright dislike, as well as Serj Tankian’s over the top lyrics, I love this album as a whole. No doubt.
13. Queens of the Stone Age- Songs For The Deaf
I think second to Ocean Avenue, this was an album that I caught a lot of flack for listening to in high school, but unlike Ocean Avenue, most of the haters have grown into liking Josh Homme’s heroine induced desert rock wet dream. I got this album after hearing “No One Knows” on MTV2 back in the day and I instantly loved the way the rest of the album diverts from that sound, pretty much every track sounds at least a little bit different from the rest. And compared to much of music (and more than a few albums on this list) that’s a really good thing. Not to mention Dave Grohl behind the kit on this album is just an adrenaline burner, as he brings it hardcore. And this is the last album the Nick Oliveri played on before being kicked out of the band, so it really has a lot to say. To me personally it was the album that made me divert from the norm of the pop punk I’d been listening to almost exclusively up until that point.
12. The Jimi Hendrix Experience- Electric Ladyland
Why Ladyland over Are You Experienced? or even Axis? Simple. Because Ladyland is a mix of both of those two albums. To me Are You Experienced? will always be the Hendrix album that is beaten into every young guitarists head, as well as every classic rock radio station. It has more or less 90% of Jimi’s hits. Axis is a great album in its own right, but it just doesn’t have that zing factor, but Ladyland...it’s perfect. There are some really popular songs in “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and “All Along The Watchtower” on top of some great jams you’ll never hear on the radio. Jimi brought me into loving the guitar as an instrument, as I’m sure he’s done with countless players, and this album is just a wonderful showing of how great he can play without having that sellout factor that I feel like Are You Experienced? had.
11. Public Enemy- It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
I was a senior in high school when I bought this album and everyone thought it was sort of a joke. Flavor Flav was at the peak of his fame on VH1 and the only hip-hop I had been listening to was the Beastie Boys. I remember playing this album and just being wowed by Chuck D’s presence. Flav does bring the charisma to the group, but Chuck’s words are tremendously impactful that they made, and to this day still make me feel like I am a black American suffering through the same things that Public Enemy is. Fast forward a few years later to a time when I had sort of put this album and PE on the back burner, and my at the time boss brought them up in conversation, saying “Have you heard ‘Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos’?” And it had been so long I said “I don’t think so,” and when he put that song on it hooked me right back in. Chuck D is my number 2 favorite rapper of all time, and Public Enemy as a whole is my number 3 favorite rap group of all time. And they make you party for your right to fight in a time when people were just fighting for their right to party.
Two more installments and this will all be done!
No comments:
Post a Comment