Desert Island Albums

Back to music.  I've often thought about what albums would be on my list of those which I would want on a desert island (for you kids, albums are what we used to call cd's before there were cd's.  Oh, and cd's are what we used to call mp3's before there were mp3's).  Of course, first on my desert island there would be electricity so I could listen to them, but perhaps I'm being a bit too literal.

Again, these are in no particular order and I'm sure there will be plenty I leave out.

Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams.  This may be one of the most perfect albums ever recorded.  Lucinda rips through a collection that streams pure emotion through every song.  For those unfamiliar with Lucinda Williams's work, her voice is not the classical smooth poppy over-produced perfect voice that has become the preference of music these days.  Her instrument can best be described as guttural, accented, sparse and sometimes harsh.  But for those who get her, Lucinda's voice is a thing of beauty that transfixes listeners and brings them inside the raw emotions of the subject of her songs.  No album of hers has better spotlighted Lucinda's signature voice than Car Wheels.  The album starts with "Right in Time"  and from the first notes of the twangy country rock guitar lick that begins the song you start the journey of this phenomenal work of art.  Other gems on the album are "Drunken Angel", "St. Charles" and my favorite "Joy".  But even as good as the parts of this album are on their own, the whole of the album almost indescribably transcends the sum of those parts.  The emotions run the gamut from love, to lust, to heartbreaking loss and revenge.  Most of Lucinda's work before and since Car Wheels is excellent, but never before or since has she come close to the absolute celebration of life in all its ups and downs that Car Wheels provides.  Hell, I'm not sure that anyone ever could.

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, Neko Case.  Throughout her early career, Neko Case became the queen of the burgeoning alt-country music scene.  Her early albums The Virginian and Furnace Room Lullaby were alt-country gems full of twangy guitars, pedal steels and most of all Case's incredible voice, which was at once both powerful and delicate.  Her next albums "Blacklisted" and "The Tigers Have Spoken" (a live collection of new songs, a rarity in the new autotune obsessed music culture) built on this prior work, maintaining the country roots but expanding them into a more mainstream sound.  Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, however, marked a bold departure from the simple alt-country themes of Case's earlier works.  On Fox Confessor, Case introduced a dark and ethereal sound that really transcends genre.  It is neither country, nor rock, nor pop, nor alternative, but is also all of those in a way.  I can categorize it only as Neko Case.  The album starts off with "Margaret vs. Pauline", a look at class distinctions between two women (my favorite line is "Two girls ride the blue line/Two girls walk down the same street/One left her sweater sittin' on the train/The other lost three fingers at the cannery" showing the relative "tragedies" each suffer).  Other greats on the album are "Star Witness", "Hold On Hold On", "That Teenage Feeling" and "Maybe Sparrow".  The mood on this album is inescapably dark, but Neko's voice and the odd chord progressions make this album also beautiful.  At the same time both scary and intriguing.  Neko has continued this feeling on her later album "Middle Cyclone".  Wherever her muse takes her, I will be willing to follow.

Kilroy Was Here, Larry Kirwan.  Larry Kirwan is the lead singer of Black 47.  Since Black 47 is my favorite band in the world, I was interested to hear his solo album as soon as it was released in early 2001.  At the same time, I was a little worried.  Why was Larry doing a solo album instead of another B47 collection?  As soon as I listened, the reason was clear.  This is one of the most personal albums I've ever heard.  Kirwan delves deep into his own life in a somewhat mournful and self-critical fashion.  In what is a huge strength for Kirwan's songwriting abilities though, which shine on this album as well as his work with B47, is that none of it is the least bit sappy or nostalgic.  Kirwan bears his soul on this album.  It opens with "Molly" which captures Kirwan's infatuation with James Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses".  Along the way we are treated to a remembrance of his father while Kirwan was growing up in the title song of the album, and then another deeply personal "Life's Like That Anyway" which recounts many deeply personal experiences of Kirwan's young life.  There is also the hilarious "History of Ireland Part 1" featuring Malachy McCourt which serves as a comedic primer for anyone with an interest in Irish history.  The album ends with the haunting "Fatima" about a star-crossed love between a young Christian boy and Muslim girl.  The refrain of the song "things fall apart in America" took on an altogether new meaning nine months after the album was released.

Remain In Light, Talking Heads -- Talking Heads were my favorite band throughout my teenage years.  Their music still ranks up there against pretty much anything put out today.  Although my first experience with Talking Heads music was in their more popular "Burning Down the House" and after their live release "Stop Making Sense", Remain In Light is the band's best album by far (and most of the others are pretty darn good with the exception possibly of "True Stories").  This album, driven my hypnotic African rhythms and complex vocal layering and at times even chanting, helped me through some tough times.  To this day, if I am feeling overwhelmed by the occurrences of the day, simply putting on Remain in Light acts as a brain reset and leaves me feeling relaxed and recharged.  The big "hit" off of the album was "Once in a Lifetime" which is best known for its repetitive "Same as it ever was" refrain and its quirky video.  Many of the other songs are less well-known but are among the best the band ever made.  "Born Under Punches", "The Great Curve" and "Crosseyed and Painless" provide a frenetic energy which when put together with the later songs "The Listening Wind", "Houses in Motion" and "The Overload" induce an almost hypnotic state.  Great music, great effect.

The Dreaming, Kate Bush -- This album shows the value of second chances (and why first impressions aren't always correct).  I first was introduced to Kate Bush as many in America were with her ultra successful "Hounds of Love" album and the hit song "Running Up That Hill".  I had listened repeatedly to the cassette tape of that album to the point of wearing it out.  I had read many glowing reviews of Bush's previous album The Dreaming, which drew, especially in its title song, from the Aboriginal Australian tradition of walkabout, and its trance like state in which one was led to search deep into one's mind and find inner truths.  Since I enjoyed Hounds so much, I figured I would also love The Dreaming.  When I first listened to this album I hated it.  Really.  Wouldn't even give it a second listen.  I was jarred by its experimental nature with odd rhythms, instrumentation and literal screaming of lyrics by Bush.  I couldn't understand how anyone could write such glowing reviews of the album.  A few months later I forced myself to listen again and in an instant I got it.  This was like nothing I had ever heard, and despite my initial revulsion, I now understood the triumph that this album was.  Songs like "Sat Up In Your Lap", "There Goes a Tenner" and "Get Out of My House" portray a fast paced anger.  On the other side of the spectrum are beautiful love songs like "All the Love" and "Houdini" which still stands as one of the saddest yet incredibly romantic songs I've ever heard.

Fire of Freedom, Black 47 -- I am eternally indebted to Larry Kirwan and the band Black 47 for kindling my love of Irish history.  Fire of Freedom was the band's first album released in 1993.  It contained their biggest (and only) hit song "Funky Ceili" and actually saw pretty heavy airplay both on alternative and even some mainstream pop stations and MTV.  The album, produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars, more than anything tells the tale of the Irish immigrant in the U.S., from many different perspectives.  Woven throughout the album is the haunting air of the classic Irish tune "The Foggy Dew" but with lyrics that tell the tale not of the doomed revolutionaries of Easter Week 1916, but the doomed immigrants forced to work as domestics for the wealthy while looking for human attachment in the pubs at night.  This culminates in the album's final song "Living in America" which incorporates all of the previous Foggy Dew excerpts heard throughout the album.  The song "Black 47" tells the tragic tale of the Irish forced to emigrate on coffin ships during the Great Hunger of the mid 1840s to early 1850s.  There are no punches pulled on this song, as the band lays the blame where it should be -- at the hands of the British who allowed the Irish to starve rather than doing anything to save them ("God's curse upon you Lord Trevalyn/May your great Queen Victoria rot in hell).  "Fanatic Heart" tells the story of a young Republican in Northern Ireland separated from his love after being kidnapped during marching season in the North and tortured never being the same after.  The title song is a song of complete defiance written about the struggles of Republicans in the face of oppression at home and abroad (it would go on to a new meaning following 9/11 as a cathartic anthem following the tragic events of that day).  "James Connolly" is an unflinching anthem honoring the Irish Labor leader and revolutionary which would go on to become one of the band's signature songs. There are also plenty of lighthearted songs as well.  The previously mentioned "Ceili" tells the semi-autobiographical story of a young Irish musician who after being fired from his bank job, finds his lover is pregnant and flees to America under threat of castration by the girl's father.  "Maria's Wedding" tells the hilarious tale of a young Irishman crashing his lost Italian love's wedding in Bensonhurst.  "Forty Shades of Blue" is a down and out tale of an Irish immigrant down on his luck with his "tongue hanging out for some Irish Rose" who'd "sell his soul for a cigarette".  And the uproarious "Rockin' the Bronx" tells the tale of the band's early years trying to break into Irish pubs that were more used to hearing lilting versions of Danny Boy than the drum machine driven loud guitar and uillean pipe fare that was being torn out by the band.

Mind Bomb, The The -- I don't know exactly what it is about this album that makes me keep coming back to it time and time again, but it made a deep impression on me in my late teens and early twenties and still stands up today.  The The unleashes an angry, deeply emotional epic on Mind Bomb that is possibly unparalleled by any other I've heard.  In "Armageddon Days are Here (Again)", the band takes on modern organized religion head on and delivers a deeply emotional and frighteningly haunting diatribe.  Starting out in a play on the party rock anthem "Ballroom Blitz" with the lines "Are you ready Jesus?, Buddha?, Mohammad? Well, let's Go!" and has the angry refrain "If you think that Jesus Christ is coming, honey you've got another thing coming/If he ever finds out who's hijacked his name/He'll cut out his heart and turn in his grave".  Certainly there are many who would find that offensive, but even if you do, the song is worth a listen for the raw emotional argument it puts forth, even if the singer's point of view is not one that you would buy.  "Kingdom of Rain" with Sinead O'Connor lending her amazing voice, is one of the most honest break up songs of all time, with the simultaneous emotions of love, anger, revulsion, loss and mourning all coming together as they do when suddenly the person whose bed you shared is no longer a part of your life.  "The Beat(en) Generation" is as true today, if not moreso, than it was 20 years ago when this album was released -- telling of the feelings of disenfranchisement many youth feel.  "Beyond Love" ends the album on a high note, telling graphically the hope of new love and new life which carry us to the future.  Mind Bomb is an album that makes you feel that you belong even when everything and everyone feels they have left you behind.

Armed Forces, Elvis Costello and The Attractions -- On his third studio album in less than three years, released in 1979, Costello turned out a triumph.  Armed Forces has remained one of my all time favorite albums, and grew in popularity for several years benefiting from heavy rotation of several videos made of its songs on the newly created MTV.  Costello grew out of the late 70s punk movement, but was more talented a musician and songwriter than many of his contemporaries (something he was criticized for at the time).  Starting with the lush and complex "Accidents Will Happen", the album weaves through politics ("Oliver's Army", "Goon Squad", "Senior Service") and the politics of relationships ("Two Little Hitlers", "Green Shirt", "Chemistry Class").  The American version of the album cut the song "Sunday's Best" (a good move) while the original UK version left out "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding", which has become the albums best-known song and one of Costello's most identifiable songs.  This album has stood the test of time and it would likely be just as welcome if it were released today as it was in 1979.

Back to Black, Amy Winehouse -- Although I am writing this entry the day after her sad and inevitable death (I started this post in early June) and literally fighting tears as I do, my inclusion of this album is not intended as a reflection on her untimely demise but as a celebration of her unmatched talent.  Many of those who came to know Winehouse through the tabloid pictures and celebrity media depictions of her ongoing struggle with addiction probably saw her as simply a target of derision or a victim of her own success.  But what grabbed me was the music itself.  There are very few who can take a genre of music -- 1960s girl group soul and pop -- and turn it into something new and fresh.  Although the sound and style hearkened to an earlier time, Winehouse transformed the music and owned it.  There was nothing derivative in her music, as odd as that may sound.  Back to Black was one of the best albums put out in decades.  Period.  The songs that were well known such as what would become her ironic anthem "Rehab" and "You Know That I'm No Good" only give a glimpse into the genius that was contained in this album.  Songs like the title track and "Some Unholy War" express deep emotion and honesty not often heard in modern pop music (I have had the chorus from the title track going over and over in my head the past 24 hours "We only said goodbye in words/I died a hundred times/You go back to her/and I go back to black").  While others actually seem to celebrate lost love ("Me and Mr. Jones", "Tears Dry On Their Own").  Very few could sing as honestly and openly about sex, drugs, lust and loss as honestly as Winehouse could.  I will always regret not hearing more of her talent and I would have been willing to give up hearing another note of her beautiful voice if she just could have found peace and wellness in her life.