1001 Albums Part 2

(read part 1 here)

So three weeks has passed since I last written an update here. Weird things have happened: Jacko died, Fawcett died, a lot of people in Xinjiang died, and the weather in the Philippines is horrible. I had an hour or two added to my usual travel time due to flooding. And I still can’t stand Transformers 2. Wait, the last part wasn’t weird at all.

Anyway, I don’t want to risk reneging on another blog series that I once said I would constantly be doing, so today I’m going to continue my multi-part 1001 Albums post. Let’s begin.

5. Alice in Chains – Dirt

Grunge bands were the rage back in the 90s. They would fade to make way for emo, screamo, and nu-metal, all drawing inspirations from the angst of grunge bands, if amplifying the whininess by 100 degrees. While not particularly my genre of choice, I often end up inadvertently liking the songs played by grunge bands. Alice in Chains is no exception, and its lead vocalist Layne Staley greatly contributes to my enjoyment with Dirt.

But here’s a warning that I realize should be obvious from seeing the cover: there is not a single joyous moment here. Every song is consistently bleak, and a lot of them convey that whoever wrote the lyrics is struggling with drug addiction in the most fatalist manner imaginable. The first verse in the track Sickman says “What the hell am I?/ Thousand eyes, a fly/ Lucky then I’d be/ In one day deceased.” It was, of course, written by Layne Staley, who would overdose in heroin and die in year 2002, 10 years after Dirt’s release.

So yeah, I am very much in the same company with those who liked this album, but I will not advocate heroin-shooting.

6. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Anyone who thinks that indie rock usually consists of the lo-fi recording, the witty (and sometimes twee) lyrics, and the high-pitched male vocalist, wouldn’t be very far off the mark in describing Pavement’s style of music. If there’s anything distinct with them, though, it’s that the singings are brief to the point that they feel more like interludes to the instrumentals and solos, instead of the other way around. Not an album to miss for those who are into indie rock music, and even those not into it may find something to like here.

7. Radiohead – Amnesiac

In the first entry of my 1001 albums series I randomly picked a Radiohead album, and while I don’t exactly claim to be their fan, I got to admit that my admiration for them grew after listening to OK Computer. With it I also found that their signature “multi-layer” sound is something that listeners more accustomed to melodic hooks may find disconcerting.

Amnesiac, then, will be even more challenging for those listeners, but honestly I think Radiohead has gone too far here. Taking more liberties with electronica, Amnesiac (and, from what I read, predecessor Kid A) is the bands’ another departure from their established sound. Some people say Amnesiac is more “computerized”, which, while true, is merely a way to put it. I would say that Amnesiac is tuneless to the point of pointlessness.

Look, I have contempt for computer trickery being done in musicians’ voices. Thom Yorke can sing, so I don’t understand why he feels the need to make himself sound like he’s behind megaphones a lot of the time (and he may have even Autotune’d. I’m not sure). The music is still overly morose and filled with lyrics as vague as they are pretentious, making the whole ordeal resemble reading academic papers, which, while illuminating, will only make you wish that the authors of these stuff aren’t taking themselves so seriously. Like maybe Thom Yorke should watch Transformers and write a sing about Patriotic Androids.