The best 3 albums ever
#3 Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
I first heard about this album either my sophomore or junior year of high school. The only song I was familiar with was ‘Starfuckers, Inc.” and I was not terribly impressed. I never really gave it a shot. However, after graduation I was on a music buying binge for a while. I picked it up pretty cheap at Barnes & Noble and gave it a good listen through.
One thing to note about this album is that it is a double album. It clocks in at about 1.7 hours, but it is DEFENITELY worth listening through front to back and maybe a second time through. In between excellent lyrical tracks, Trent Reznor put together some AWESOMAZING instrumentals. The music itself is fairly complex, with bass lines from the song coming in making short appearances in the prior track, or even prior disc (La Mer - > The Void is a great and most noticeable example). While I can’t deny this album has songs that are great on their own, it is much more greatly appreciated when listened through the whole thing.
HIGHS: La Mer, The Great Below, I’m Looking Forward to Joining You Finally
LOWS: Starfuckers, inc., No You Don’t. They just don’t seem to fit with the other songs.
#2 The Mars
Someone at work is a huge fan of this group, but I had never heard of them. I hopped on iTunes and gave a few songs a listen. I was INSTANTLY hooked and downloaded the whole thing. The following albums (Frances The Mute, Amputechture) are okay, but their debut work is by far the best they have done.
DeLoused is a concept album. The story is based loosely on the real life story of a friend of theirs who attempted suicide by an overdose of morphine, but only succeeded in putting himself in a short coma (a week or so I think). Afterwards, he threw himself off of an overpass into oncoming traffic. Not a terribly happy story to be sure, but The Mars Volta pulls it together with lyrical brilliance.
As The Fragile before it, DeLoused is best when you can give it a full listen. All the songs lend themselves to single play, but because this is at it’s core a progressive rock album, many of the songs clock in at the 5 minute + mark. The 7th Track, Cicatrize E.S.P. is right under 13 minutes itself. Don’t be turned away though, as between lyrics there is gorgeous instrumental work.
If you ever get a chance to look up the lyrics, I would recommend it. Some very strange stuff (i.e. ‘Trackmarks amoeba lands craft. Cartwheel of crashes… from Eria Tarka or, Exoskeletal junction at the railroad tonight, midnight nooses from boxcar-d cadavers… from Roulette Dares)
HIGHS: Eria Tarka, Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt
LOWS: Tira Me A Las Aranas. They didn’t need a separate bridge song.
#1 Tool – Lateralus
Lateralus stands at the top of my list of all time favorite albums. I’ve seen this album in it’s near entirety performed live, and have never been disappointed with it. From start to finish (with one hiccup) this album is pure greatness. I really don’t know what else to say.
HIGHS: Disposition/Reflection/Triad. Best song ever. It is a single song broken up into 3 tracks. NOT to be listened to out of order/out of context.
LOWS: Ticks & Leeches. This was only included to prove that nothing is perfect.
Honorable Mention: Boards of
Jason was the one who got me into BoC when we were working at the Gamestop. He had just picked up Geogaddi, and put it in while we were working one day. I really enjoyed it, but for some reason totally forgot about it until 3 years had passed. I was at Barnes & Noble looking at some ‘Best Of…’ CD’s when I noticed Julie & Candy was on one of them. Wonderful memories of a great album flooded into my mind, and I went on a mad search to find Geogaddi. Geogaddi is a great album. Music Has the Right to Children is even BETTER.
This album (like the others on this list) is probably not for everybody. It is full of samples of old Canadian Board of Education videos, but most of the time they are heavily distorted. But PLEASE, PLEASE PLEAAAASE give this album a chance, even if you don’t normally like techno/sample based music. You may not love it like Jason or I do, but you will not be sorry.
HIGHS: Sixtyten, Aquarius, Pete Standing Alone
LOWS: The Color of the Fire isn’t my favorite, but it isn’t BAD.
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posted by Mark at 14.8.06
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