Nearly every day at this job, someone is bound to ask me, "What kind of music do you listen to?" And invariably, my response is, "Everything."
But whenever I pose this question to someone and get the "everything" response, it always frustrates me. To me, it suggests that either the person answering it is too lazy to think about what they actually listen to, or that person just has no discerning taste in music whatsoever, and literally just listens to everything ("anything" would be a more appropriate response in this case, I would argue).
So why is my answer always "everything?" Well, besides the fact that I’m a raging hypocrite lacking somewhat in social skills, I don’t think that I could really give an accurate response to the music question by only naming a few genres or bands that I like. In a loose sense, I do truly listen to everything — that is, I listen to certain bands from just about every genre, from hip-hop (Public Enemy, Run-DMC) to country (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson) to metal (Slayer, Motorhead) to soul (Otis Redding) to ... well, I guess you get the idea. (My other stock answer is "rock ’n’ roll," which clarifies nothing.)
But I’ve decided I’m sick of answering this question with stock responses that don’t really mean anything. I’ve also decided that the best way to answer this question is to provide a list of my top 10 favorite albums, in no special order except for the first two. So now, whenever someone asks me this question, I can just point them to this blog.
Plus, making lists of your favorite albums is fun. Really fun. In fact, it’s so much fun that you should try it right now, and then post your list as a comment. Just a suggestion.
1. "Plastic Ono Band," John Lennon — The first time I listened to Lennon’s 1970 solo debut straight through while in college, I was in tears by the end. Over the course of 11 raw, emotionally bare songs, Lennon covers the gamut from piano ballads to screaming (and I do mean screaming) rockers. Hands down my favorite album of all time.
2. "In Utero," Nirvana — The scrappy grunge-punk trio’s third and, sadly, final studio album takes the pop songcraft of "Nevermind" and marries it to the raw, edgy sound of the group’s debut, "Bleach." This album and band were the “gateway drugs” of music for me back in my middle school days, introducing me to just about everything else I listen to today.
3. "Bubble and Scrape," Sebadoh — Lou Barlow’s post-Dinosaur Jr. band was a schizophrenic mess, with three songwriters pulling it in all sorts of incongruous directions. 1993’s "Bubble and Scrape," the last to feature prodigal drummer and noise tunesmith Eric Gaffney, was where the band truly coalesced as a band, rather than being a mish-mash of home recordings culled together by the principle members.
4. "Live at San Quentin," Johnny Cash — If there’s a better live album out there, I’ve yet to find it. For me, this is Cash’s finest moment as well, as he performs his hits and other songs at a 1969 concert at San Quentin State Prison with an energy unequaled in any of his studio recordings.
5. "Hi, How Are You? The Unfinished Album," Daniel Johnston — While everyone else in my high school was listening to 50 Cent or Justin Timberlake, I spent hours deciphering the scratchy home recordings of a clinically depressed man bashing out sugary pop songs on a chord organ. Some ears can’t take his boyish, warbling voice — to me it just adds to the beauty of his tender love songs.
6. "The First Four Years," Black Flag — I’ve already posted about the wonders of this hardcore punk band and Greg Ginn, which you can read here.
7. "You’re Living All Over Me," Dinosaur Jr. — I’ve also talked at length about my unhealthy obession with this band in some previous posts. This is their second album, released in 1987, and they’ve yet to best it.
8. "Meat Puppets II," Meat Puppets — This may be the band that convinced me to give country music another look. One of the first "cowpunk" bands, the Meat Puppets added psychedelic guitar playing and ZZ Top hard rock to their country-fried punk later on, but never did top the revolutionary statement of their 1984 sophomore effort.
9. "The Beatles," The Beatles — I had to have a Beatles album on this list. "The White Album" has a little something for every Beatles fan, from Paul McCartney’s silly love songs to some of George Harrison’s best material with the band.
10. "Freak Out," Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention — Zappa’s 1966 debut with the Mothers pushed boundaries in rock music that no one even knew existed (or at least that’s how I feel every time I listen to this album). For my money, Zappa has had just as much of an impact on today’s music as The Beatles, and this album proves it.
