I’ve procrastinated long enough since Steph tagged me with this, so here they are:
1. Ataxia - The Sides Ataxia is a collaboration between Josh Klinghoffer, Joe Lally and John Frusciante (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). They have only released one album to date, ‘Automatic Writing’, the whole premise of which was the 3 enormously talented musicians jamming together, fitting already written lyrics over the top of the music they created there & then. The result is stunning, and ‘The Sides’ is pick of the bunch. Six minutes & 43 seconds long, I would be happy if this songs lasted several days. It begins with an effect laden drum intro, which is joined by a simple repeating bass line. This is overlain by some beautiful introspective guitar and Johns singing. The song grows, and the guitar begins to dominate, launching into some absolutely blistering solos, before dropping back into quite, gentle note picking. The music rising & falling throughout, my hair stands on end just thinking about this song, and I’ve been known to play it on repeat constantly. A beautiful piece of emotional music, you can listen to free, and in it’s entirety at Johns website. Just click on the cloud at the top after the intro.
2. David Bowie - Heroes I like most Bowie, from the old to the new, but the guitar on this track makes me shiver, and the lyrics are just so uplifting, you get carried away on it.
3. Nick Cave - Do You Love Me?
“I found her on a night of fire and noise
Wild bells rang in a
wild sky
I knew from that moment on
I’d love her
till the day that I died
And I kissed away a thousand
tears
My lady of the Various Sorrows
Some begged, some
borrowed, some stolen
Some kept safe for tomorrow
On an
endless night, silver star spangled
The bells from the
chapel went jingle-jangle”
All over a track of dramatic piano & keyboard, and delivered with Cave’s stunning voice. Genius.
4. Rollins Band - Low Self Opinion Henry Rollins’ outlook on life, his humour, sense of purpose and example, have all been major driving forces in my life. I first became aware of him, as my sister was reading her music magazine. As she turned the page across the room, my eye was drawn to the photo of this huge muscle-bound, tattoo-covered lunatic screaming into a microphone. The energy just leapt across the room, and I had a read & thought he sounded cool - intelligent, self-effacing, yet 100% hardcore. That same evening on, of all things Beavis & Butthead, I saw the video to ‘Low Self Opinion’, and bought the album ‘The End Of Silence’ the next day. Angry? Pissed off? TEOS is the album for you. Heavy as lead, yet rising above the usual metal nonsense through the quality of the band, and the rawness of the lyrics, this album and song often propelled me across London at least 10mph faster than usual. ‘Tearing’ and ‘You Didn’t Need’ are also stand-out tracks.
5. John Frusciante - Cut-Out From John’s most accessible album (Not to say any of the Record Collection releases were difficult) ‘Shadows Collide With People’, this is another track that rides the emotions up & down. From simple melodic verses, the chorus gradually rises to a crashing of drums almost drowning out John’s heart-torn vocal. A song to be listened to very loud, and leaves me breathless at the end. It’s a crime that more people haven’t heard Frusciante’s solo work - they’re missing out on so much.
As was commented on Steph’s original post, this was an impossible task, and I would have trouble narrowing it down to 50. But these songs are all a few years old now, and I probably love them more now than when I first heard them. Honourable mentions must go to Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Jam, Hendrix, Foo Fighters, Beck and New Order.
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