We're a ways off from the Year End fun, but I thought I'd post a new concept that came to me the other night when I started to realize that certain albums stick out in my mind more than others for their frequent rotation during certain important milestones in my life. So here is the Autobiographical, "Most Important Albums of my life." - Thus far, in chronological order:
Elementary School
Starship Knee Deep in the Hoopla – First Rock album ever. Up until this point it was a series of Michael W. Smith and Petra cassettes. See, Starship doesn't seem so bad when compared with that.
Junior High
Guns N Roses Appetite for Destruction – First introduction to metal. Jake Pisarcik brought it to school - album cover and all. When I saw it I was sure I was going to hell. When I listened to it, I knew it.
High School
Peter Gabriel So – Perhaps the official soundtrack to my high school years. It contained "In Your Eyes" which was "our song." She knows who she is.
U2 Achtung Baby – My first "real" concert experience. Jesse and I borrowed our parents mini-vans and packed them full with friends as we headed to the Vet in Philly. I had seen Clapton, Tesla to that point and U2's whole performance blew everything out of the water. It would last as the best concert I ever attended until college and Radiohead (see below). It also became the symbol, for me, of the group of friends I hung out with the most in high school. This and Automatic for the People, but U2 edges it out.
Mike & the Mechanics The Living Years – I played the title song during high school choir (for no good reason) and it unleashed pent up feelings about my father's death that I couldn’t express since I was in the 6th grade. I blubbered in front of 30 or so classmates. Hopefully I'm the only one that still remembers that.
College
Garth Brooks The Hits - This album was played very heavily in the Shenandoah Valley during my first year of college. Not necessarily by me, but it grew on me, and still reminds me of that first year in VA. I can still hear Mike Zook singing "Friends in Low Places" while playing late night poker.
Liz Phair Exile in Guyville – Made me put away frivolous things - aka Bryan Adams and Phil Collins (at least temporarily - to hang with the cool kids). I had transferred to Goshen by now, if you hadn't guessed.
Chemical Brothers Dig your own hole – My first foray into the world of electronica, which to this day, I cannot shake. I fondly remember the "Setting Sun" video being played at Kenwood House with Tereza going crazy.
Counting Crows Recovering the Satellites – Helped with the self pity I often found myself wallowing in during the tumultuous dating periods of my college life. Of course if you ever took a smoke drive with me, you undoubtably heard "Long December" multiple times, probably in the same drive.
Radiohead OK Computer – The second real concert experience and to this day, the best concert I have ever attended. I think it may be the reason I didn't really find myself wanting to go to live shows after that. Nothing could have ever topped it. This was a way more mature, higher level of ennui than Adam Duritz could muscle. I remember fondly listening to this in the dark after just purchasing it from Concord mall at Franklin House with my hommies. I was fairly certain, there was not a more perfect musical expression of what I thought I was going through. I even began writing a screenplay for a concept movie based on the album. Probably in the bad Plymouth writing shed.
Post Graduate
Wilco Summerteeth – The single most important album during a tough first year in Seattle following a move away from the safety of home and college towns and into the teeth of the working world, without a real job, or any direction whatsoever. Just four guys hanging out in a two bedroom apartment, getting silly drunk a lot.
Elliott Smith XO - I listened to this constantly while taking a break from Seattle, working in a glass factory in Souderton, PA, living with my grandparents and working the night shift. I certainly had had better days than those.
Crowded House The Best of – Not really an album, per se, but a copy on CD exists somewhere that was worn out in the move back to Seattle and the first few months in returning. Bradley is probably a main reason for why this album sticks out, although we did listen to it heavily during the manluv spring break to key west.
Moby Play - Many a day walking in downtown Seattle with "Porcelain" in the ear buds. Even though every song of this album was featured in a commercial, it still resonated. Life was like a movie then.
Rufus Wainwright Rufus Wainwright – The beginning of feeling comfortable as a responsible adult. We had since left the tenement building in Queen Anne and were now a co-ed co-op in the U District. Thanks Janneken for playing this so often.
Basement Jaxx Remedy – Electronica again, and the party record, for a while anyway, in the U district house. Though I don't think it was played during the fiesta, it certainly makes me think of the y2k party and the 80 people that stayed in our house for, what seemed like months.
Radiohead Kid A – The next evolution in alienation and feeling alone – bought the album at midnight and listened to it in the early hours of the morning. Perhaps with Rick, though I can't remember.
Engagement
Avalanches Since I Left You – Leaving Seattle and embarking on a journey around the world with a wife at the other end.
Daft Punk Discovery – I remember dancing to this on the eve of my wedding day. It was probably part of the reason that I slept in on the day, waking up just in time for pictures.
Marriage
Badley Drawn Boy The Hour of bewilderbeast – It wasn't an all-around important album as a whole, but we did walk down the aisle to “The Shining”
Career/Settling Down – The Philly Years
Spoon Kill the Moonlight – “Paper Tiger” was put on a mix CD by Ryan and seemingly was on constant play during the initial Philly days, living with Steve and Krista, Amy and Laura.
Jay-Z The Black Album – Even though I admired Jay-Z before. This album made him my favorite hip-hop artist. It was a great album to listen to while walking in downtown Philly. Feeling tuff.
The Shins Chutes too Narrow – Another phase of questioning as I moved between jobs, trying to find a career and settle down or not, as we contemplated leaving to teach abroad. We got a dog, got rid of the dog, moved in with David and Amber.
The Arcade Fire Funeral – More transitions as we moved from living with Dave and Amber because we thought we were going to move to Indonesia, to another apartment and the heartbreak of witnessing friends suffer through a miserable situation.
Coldplay X&Y – “Fix You” was played a lot during our first miscarriage and in my head in my support of David. It would later be played almost every time we moved or faced some form of difficulty.
Girl Talk Night Ripper - Couldn’t imagine how the mashing of songs could be so addictive. Another great city walking soundtrack and the album I most closely associate to my time working on the Convention Center
Clipse Hell Hath no Fury – During the obsessive watching of the Wire and living in a Baltimore-esque city, this album made real life seam like maybe it was all just a tv show. It's also the album I most closely associate with Vinay. We'd cruise around in the Passat Wagon, late at night, with a car seat in the back -- again, feeling and looking tuff. This is also my vote for greatest hip-hop album ever.
First Born – Emerson
Justice Cross – There was something about this Daft Punk album not recorded by Daft Punk that summed up the exuberance of having a newborn. I was edgy, anxious, worried and excited. This album seemed to fit the bill. I remember listening to it in a job trailer in West Philly with Guy Burkholder, over and over again. I think he hated it.
Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – This was certainly the feel good album of the year, which coincided with a relatively good year for me as well. ahhh - 2009. Actually I don't remember a whole lot about the year, but I was probably fairly happy. Of course, we were all still living in the afterglow of the 2008 World Series and Obama had just been elected. That was probably why I was so happy.
Second Born - Adah
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – This album really has nothing to do with the birth of our daughter, except that I loved it and was listening to it a lot and it came out the year that she was born.
Moving Away – On our own – Philly to Vermont to Goshen
Bon Iver Bon Iver – Moving away from friends, the lonely and cold climes of Vermont, and a tough patch of time with work (I also read the “Girl With... “ trilogy during this period) all made this album eerily perfect. When I listen to it now, it is still an album that simultaneously conjures up comfort, saddness & Hope.
The Now – Settling Down Again
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour – Emerson’s favorite album and a point of pride for his father who only had to play a few songs before the boy was hooked. Now he’s got their photos in his room, can spot who the lead singer is in every song and listens to at least one Beatles record every morning when he wakes up.
Grimes Visions – This “cyborg-pop” album has captivated me in the move back to Goshen. Something about the distant, almost Asian, quality of the music combined with some beautiful and amazingly catchy beats have found a place in the clear relief of being "home.” It’s a weird thing to circle back to a place that I once wanted to leave with every muscle in my body to find contentment, fulfillment, peace, and a new exciting future.
