Saturday, April 25, 2020

Ten Albums: The First Five


    There's a meme on Facebook right now, which asks people to share ten albums they loved, and give no explanation. I am obviously not that person—my explanations cannot just live inside me!—so, having been nominated nearly a month ago, here are the first five albums, in chronological order. 

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    Paul Simon: Graceland (1986)

    This is the car-trip and dinner-party album of my youth, and the god-I-miss-my-parents album of my adulthood. It's the first album I remember listening to that was explicitly for adults, not rhyme-joke kids' music. I remember my dad, in the early 2000s, buying Paul Simon's live album Concert in the Park and putting it on in the Costco parking lot, pumping his fist and smashing an imaginary cymbal on "The Boxer." I still love Paul Simon's lyrics and musicality, his approachableness, his silliness, both sweet and sour. I love the romance of a Paul Simon song, the way he tells a story in a few short verses, the way characters slump in and out of their own lives. Graceland is a great set of stories.

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    Romeo + Juliet OST (1996)

    Was there a better soundtrack than this? Perfect blend of indie rock and mega-bands, and some who crossed the divide based on the success of this compilation.  This movie was definitely an aesthetic touchstone for me: even though I never adopted the look of the film, the vibe of barely-controlled teenage hormones, moneyed neglect, and glamorous mayhem was definitely central to my high school yearnings. Hearing Everclear lead singer Art Alexakis lick away his own furious spittle on "Local God," or the soft croons of Stina Nordenstam, and the absolutely juggernaut of "Lovefool," set a mood of chaos and beauty I look back on fondly. God, teenagers are so terrible and so wonderful.

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    Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole (1997)

    This was the first electronica/rave music I was exposed to, and the first time I remember feeling really sexy when I listened to music, right before I really knew what feeling sexy meant.

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    Jurassic 5: EP (1997)

    When I was 14, mixtapes were a huge part of my personal vibe. Grabbing songs off the radio, transferring songs from CDs to tapes, whatever. It was musical collage and identity-making and it great fun. Anyway, at my first job, one of the other, slightly older teenagers offered to make me a tape, and because she was cool, I was thrilled. I was slightly disappointed with the result: instead of a pastiche, it was just a straight rip: side A = Belle and Sebastien's If You're Feeling Sinister, and side B was Jurassic 5's 1997 debut EP. I liked B+S well enough, but Jurassic 5 changed my life: it was lo-fi hip-hop, the kind of thing you listen to on your walkman, or in your kitchen, or on a sunny summer day. It was so different from the hip-hop that was on the radio at the time, which was glossy East Coast v West Coast beef and Puff Daddy, and instead of rapping about hoes and coke deals, it was about basketball and Chali 2Na's basso profundo voice. Instant love.

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    Beastie Boys: Hello Nasty (1998)

    Okay, this was THE ONE for me. I was not expecting this album at all, but it came out and it was fucking life-changing. "Intergalactic" was HUGE in Canada, with the video playing on loop on MuchMusic, and then the Fatboy Slim remix of "Body Movin'" came out, and it was crystal-clear that these three maniacs made my heart sing in a way that I had never experienced before. They were cute! They were funny! They were different from me, but also kind of not, because they seemed less interested in most of the hip-hop tropes that were around at the time (drug-dealing, women, expensive necklaces, large white fur coats), and more into, like, bossa nova and basketball and Japanese sanitation uniforms and just hanging out and being friends. I got really into their discography: Licensed to Ill and The Sounds of Science, the twin stars of Check Your Head and Ill Communication. I showed up at 10 AM at Video + Books on the Tuesday that To the 5 Boroughs came out. I read about Buddhism because MCA was Buddhist. I bought expensive import magazines because they were on the cover. I was a fan, pure and simple, in a way that I hadn't been a fan of something before. In 2018, they put out Beastie Boys Book,  a memoir in pictures and stories, and it made my heart feel about 500 times bigger. Watching these guys, I really felt—feel—that anything is possible if you approach it with enough confidence and friendship.


    To be continued....

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