The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Sixteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you…. And the rest yadda yadda yadda. Tag people. Kinda hard with a blogpost.

1. Sepultura – Chaos AD
2. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
3. The Beatles – Revolver
4. Nirvana – Nevermind
5. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero
6. Madonna – True Blue
7. Faith No More – Album Of The Year
8. Big Star – #1 Album
9. Foo Fighters – The Colour And The Shape
10. System of a Down – System of a Down
11. Pacifier / Shihad – Pacifier
12. Murray Gold – Doctor Who (2005/2006) Soundtrack Score
13. Spiderbait – Ivy & The Big Apples
14. Michael Jackson – History (Disc 2, the new tracks)
15. Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine
16. TISM – Machiavelli And The Four Seasons

(slightly NSFW and for your sanity)

Seriously, what was the band smoking when they made this clip? Delightfully odd and strange….

Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks

The last couple of days I did a mass download of different and new tracks of the interwebs, thanks to the NME magazines (as purchased on the ipad) top 20 list they have in their magazine, I’ve discovered this British artist called Plan B. I want to call him a rapper, but after this album he can hardly be “just a rapper”. Where his first album was more of your standard hip hop fair, this album takes a much more brave directions by two things – a concept album, and a sort of soul / hip hop mixup.

The story (as far as I could tell – mind you, I was driving so I cant fully concentrate on music while I also have my head full of work things and phone calls) is about a fictional Soul singer named Strickland Banks who is sent to jail after a one night stand with an obsessive stalker who screams rape after he refuses her and goes back to his wife. The tone takes a dark turn where he’s forced to kill a man in self defence in prison, and the story ends just as he’s about to hear his verdict to the retrial…

It’s a great attempt although sometimes I felt he was trying too hard to fit the story into the song. When he’s also singing, it’s a little different than a “Mike Skinner rapping a story” that The Streets gave us in A Grand Don’t Come For Free. I think he does a much better job though. This guy has such an amazing voice and I was surprised to read on wiki later that his previous album was just your standard British Hip Hop album. I couldn’t help thinking I was listening to a soundtrack straight out of the 70s a lot of the time today. He’ll break this up with his great rapping skills, but it’s sewn into the songs themselves and works perfectly – There’s no jarring break into something not suiting the album.

I also read that this is an experiment and he’s interested into going back into something more like his first album. It’s a bit of a shame. While there’s not a full album of radio hit singles on here, it’s a great piece of work and i’d rather that anytime over a handful of disposable 3 minute chart fillers you hear on the radio today…

Here’s a song from the album, She Said. It’s a cute, well choreographed little clip which gives you a good idea what the album is like…

When Dad was younger, he gave all his records away, thinking he’d get them all again on CD eventually. Little did he realise than I would become such a music nut.

Being a typical 80s music owner, 90% of all his CDs are now fucked. Don’t blame me! The only CD I ever stole was Thriller by Whacko Jacko. And that was half ruined in the car when Dad decided to “take a shortcut” and never made it to the other side of the much deeper water than we thought it was. (One of the coldest times of my life. 10pm in the middle of nowhere near Burra waiting for a tow truck. Only Wagga was colder…)

So the CDs I remember listening to -

Abbey Road – To be perfectly honest, I’m only really just getting into that album now. I mainly remember listening to Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (cause it was so silly and messed up for them) and “Here Comes the Sun”. Actually, that was the first Beatles song I ever heard. I remember seeing it when I was very young on an episode of Play School. It was “filler”, basically – they were playing the song to some video clips to some small sailboats. Dad told me the first song of the Beatles he ever heard was “Michelle”, driving in the car with Granddad. Dad was fascinated. Grandad thought it was shite.

Led Zeppelin – IV – It was one of those albums I always remember. I didn’t love it, or hate it at an early age. Just passed me, basically. It wasn’t until I met my good friend Paul and he got into the 70s music which suits him so well until I started to listen to this album. Just, wow. Every song hits the right point. No filler, it’s one of the few albums I can listen to from start to beginning without thinking “yeah, this song is shite.”

1927 – ..ish  – I don’t know what it is about this album. These guys really disappeared after this album, didn’t do a hell of a lot. Weren’t a bad band, i have a twitter friend tell me they had a lot of things happen to them at the time, just a bad point in life, I suppose. They’ve got a remaster of the original album just came out, I’m tempted to pick it up, not just for the better quality sound but also for the bonus songs that are included.

Well, at the moment, I’m catching up with my Pearl Jam albums. First up is Yield. I remember listening to this album on a houseboat as it was my exes album at the time. Even my mother said it was “okay”, which says a lot, trust me. Hahahah. To be honest, the only album I remember my mother introducing me to and liking it was the band Morphine. I hear they got back together with a new singer and a new band name. Need to check it out…

Some albums I’ve been listening to in the past few days

Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’ Cheek

Surprisingly good. He started to bore the last few albums, starting to sound a little too much the same. He’s completely turned that around this alum by working with some of the best electronic artists in the world at the moment. It’s still got a very hip hop feel in some places, and it’s not like he’s decided to sing all of his tracks, but it’s got a much more commercial feel. Which isn’t a bad thing for once! Selling out or not, the album sounds really really good and this is one of those CDs I wouldn’t mind putting on at a party now and again. Says a lot, I can’t remember the last time I listened to Showtime.

Crystal Castles – Self Titled

Crazy lot of fun. Not everyone’s cup of tea but I think I could listen to a lot of this if I were in the mood. Thrashy electro, lots of retro gaming sounds from the 8-bit era and a general “not giving a fuck” attitude which has me hooked. Makes me wish I could of saw them live when they recently toured. Check out “Air War”

Owl City – Ocean Eyes

I liked this a lot. It reminds me of the Postal Service if they got back together and went a little more bouncy and dancey. The pitch corrected vocals start to great a smidge by the end, and he could of cut one or two tracks from the album just to make it that little better. (a song about dental hygene, really?) But this is a good CD to chuck on for background music or when you need to work and want music on in the background. Worth a listen if you’re into that indie style.

So, I thought I wouldn’t, but I went and picked my top 10 for Triple J’s Hottest 100 of all time. This wasn’t a long and difficult decision. Instead of agonizing about it for hours I picked the 10 songs off the top of my head that I love and can hear over and over again.

David Bowie – Starman
Split Enz – Six Months On A Leaky Boat
Sleepy Jackson, The – I Understand What You Want But I Just Don’t Agree
Beatles, The – Here Comes The Sun
Nine Inch Nails – All The Love In The World
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
Faith No More – I Started A Joke
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Tool – Eulogy
Rage Against the Machine – Killing In The Name

What about the rest of you? If I tried again I bet the list would be very very different. Anyways must dash, updating from my iPod touch curious to see how it works.

Terry