A Call For Albums

Albums recommended to me!

Updated: Saturday, December 31, 2005

Help a guy out! If it's in red, I need a copy. Email address is "whinesATSIGNspitemagDOTcom"

UPDATE (12/31/05): Man, check out all the green rows. I got to learn a lot of albums. I guess I'm going to start a new list soon becuase I don't think people will be handing me any more of the music listed below. Next time, you're required to get me a copy if you want to recommend something.

Recommended By Title Artist Have A Copy? Comment
eliza Innervisions Stevie Wonder Yes Perfect!
eliza Purple Rain Prince No Pretty great.
eliza Nevermind Nirvana Knew it. World-changing and great. Yes Part of my bones.
eliza Thriller MJ No Way way good.
eliza Back in Black AC/DC Yes Rocks super hard. Great fun.
eliza Low End Theory Tribe Called Quest Yes Dug it.
eliza Blue Joni Mitchell Yes Beautiful and amazing.
k!m Out of the Shadow Rogue Wave No
tony Helioself Paps Fritas No
tony Air Moon Safari Yes I like it. It makes me feel like a girl, but I do.
tony AC/DC Highway to Hell No
tony I Get Wet Andrew WK No
tanouye Where'd You Hide The Body James McMurty Yes I need to give this one another listen.
tanouye London Calling The Clash Yes Fun. And makes you feel cool.
tanouye 11 Tracks of Whack Walter Becker Yes Dug it. Tanouye's choices are very definitely whole ALBUMS. They have a consistent aesthetic to them, and seem to be very carefully produced. The recordings sound clean and delibertate. They are soothing, maybe because they were recorded with such a clean sound.
tanouye Kind Of Blue Miles Davis Yes It's weird. I knew every track already. I had a Miles Davis album - "The Birth of the Cool" which I loved for its title alone. The liner notes say it was recorded in 1949! Is Kind of Blue a greatest hits compilation? It sounds like one, which is a sort of compliment.
tanouye You Were Here Sarah Harmer Yes Loved it. Soothing. My favorite of Tanouye's picks. Walking the fence between folksy droning and poppy singles. Reminds me of girl band pop songs of the mid-90s like Jen Trynin and Poe and Letters to Cleo.
tanouye Car Wheels on a Gravel Road Lucinda Williams Yes Love it.
tanouye Moondance Van Morrison Yes Really liked it. Beautiful voice, great songs. The only detriment is that the singles (Into the Mystic, etc) are SO overplayed on my hometown's classic rock that I felt like I was in the outside smoker's court at Danbury High School.
tanouye The Rhythm of the Saints Paul Simon Yes Addictive. I get this mixed up in my head with Graceland. It's strange how well Simon's quiet voice works with the drums. Tanouye's albums are all SOOTHING. Are you stressed, Tanouye? Do you seek solace in reassuring melodies recorded in confident, blanketing production?
tanouye OK Computer Radiohead Yes Really, really love it.
tanouye Pink Moon Nick Drake Yes Pretty good.
IRCTess Gran Turismo The Cardigans No Totally underrated band. Jarrett gave me a copy of "Life" which I hadn't heard and I loved it as much as I love "First Band On The Moon."
IRCTess Get Behind Me Satan The White Stripes Yes I love these guys for 10 minutes then I'm sick of 'em.
IRCTess X&Y Coldplay No Ugh. Do I have to?
IRCTess Blue Album Weezer Yes GREAT
IRCTess Achtung Baby U2 Yes Great, though anything looks good when followed by Zooropa.
Foster Brothers In Arms Dire Straits Yes Really great.
Terry Time ELO No
Terry Golden Heart Mark Knopfler Yes Soothing and cool.
Terry Viva El Amor Pretenders No
Terry Photo Finish Rory Gallagher No
Terry Yes Relayer No
Terry The Bends Radiohead Yes I like OK Computer better, but this is great.
Terry Communique Dire Straits Yes Better than BIA.
dc Since I Left Your The Avalanches Yes Pretty cool, though I don't feel like listening again.
justin Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams Yes I actually like Essence better.
justin Songs for A Blue Guitar Red House Painters Yes I kept sleeping!
justin Stores from the City, Stories from the Sea PJ Harvey Yes Fcking great!
justin Endtroducing DJ Shadow Yes Not bad
justin Paul's Boutique Beastie Boys Yes A blast.
Rob W The Wall Pink Floyd No It's been a while.
Rob W Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd No Great!
Rob W Tommy The Who No Can't argue
Rob W Frampton Comes Alive Peter Frampton No Really?
Rob W The White Album The Beatles Yes Dude. Absorbed directly into my spinal cord. Love it.
Rob W Hotel California The Eagles No Actually, never have listened to it.
Margaret/Syrup Mysterious Production of Eggs Andrew Bird No
tony Sticky Fingers Rolling Stones Yes Great!
Gethard In the Aeroplane Over The Sea Neutral Milk Hotel Yes GREAT choice! Love it. Magic.
Gethard Illmatic Nas Yes Wow. Pretty amazing. Here's a strange compliment: the album feels SHORT. I love that. So many "epic" albums, including several hip-hop albums that I've heard, go on forever. They're padded with "skits" and long intros and boring outros. This one flew by, in the best way. Economy = editing = confidence.
Z-Tab Pause Four Tet Yes One of my many new soothing albums which I use when working deep into the night.
Z-Tab Philip Glass String Quartets Kronos Quartet Yes Another soothing one. Kinda robotic. But I dig it.
Z-Tab Future Days Can No A bizarre album. I think I like it. This is another electronica one, right?
Z-Tab Grievous Angel Gram Parsons Yes I'm going to give the Gram Parsons albums more of a listen. Overall, I was a bit bored. But I love the idea of Gram Parsons, from what little I've gleaned. Or let me say -- that I love the idea of a southwestern musician into drugs and country music -- who combines traditional Americana with groovy 60s rock. Someone who could wear a parka and make it look cool. A hippie who rocks. I don't know if GP IS that person, but it's what I've always assumed and that image makes me like these albums more than the music itself.
Z-Tab Gram Parsons Gram Parsons Yes See previous note.
Z-Tab Elvis Country, I'm 10,000 Years Old Elvis Presley Yes The version of "Snowbird" is worth the whole album -- I don't think Elvis P. makes a wrong move behind the microphone. But each track ends with a short teaser of the final song. Weird and distracting.
Z-Tab From Elvis in Memphis Elvis Presley Yes The King! I loved it.
Z-Tab Village Green Preservation Society The Kinks Yes Super great.
Z-Tab Arthur The Kinks Yes Even better!
Z-Tab Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space Spiritualized Yes Loud, spacey noise. Kinda good, but by the end of the album I'm clawing to turn it off. I'm old.
Z-Tab Clear Spot Captain Beefheart Yes Yeah! 60s, dude! This is what I always wanted psychadelic guitar-oriented rock to be.
Z-Tab Sweetheart of the Rodeo The Byrds Yes So this is The Byrds with GP. Well, I like it MUCH better than the GP solo stuff. Maybe I just have to learn to appreciate GP more before getting into his solo stuff. "The Christian Life" is a song I did not know that I instantly loved. Not to get too name-droppy, but I'm reading Flannery O'Connor novels right now, and she writes about Christianty a lot -- so that made the songs doubly intriguing.
Garrett Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State Surfjan Stevens Yes I was glad to get these albums. Many people with fine musical taste rave about S.Steven and I hate being left out. And I found myself underwhelmed! I was impressed by how professional these albums sounded. For some reason, I assumed someone with a pretentiously-spelled name like Surfjan wouldn't bother to actually work hard at his craft. Yet, these albums sound professional and polished. Too bad I can't remember any of them the second they're done playing. This, and Illinoise, both reminded me of The Decemberists. But maybe that's just the long titles with historical old-timey terms in them.
Garrett Illinoise Surfjan Stevens Yes See previous note. I liked this a bit better than Michigan.
Foster Master of Puppets Metallica No A truly great album.
Foster Garage, Inc. Metallica No Should get it.
Foster Unleashed in the East Judas Priest No
Foster Somewhere in Time Iron Maiden No
Foster Appetite For Destruction Guns n' Roses No Actually hated it when it came out because I associated it with bullies.
Foster The Warning Queensryche No
Spencer Automatic For The People R.E.M. Yes The best album from a great band.
MJC Smile Brian Wilson Yes Not as good as they say, but better than I expected.
MJC Imperial Bedroom Elvis Costello Yes Part of the Will Hines canon.
MJC The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle Bruce Springsteen Yes Good, but c'mon!
MJC Together We're Heavy The Polyphonic Spree No
MJC Ingenue k.d. lang No
MJC Message From The Country The Move No
MJC A Wizard/A True Star Todd Rundgren No
MJC Something/Anything? Todd Rundgren No
MJC Pet Sounds The Beach Boys No Almost as good as they say.
MJC The Heavy Blinkers The Heavy Blinkers No
MJC The Night And Are Still So Young The Heavy Blinkers No
MJC Solitude Standing Suzanne Vega No What is this, 1987? Hey, I'm kidding! I like this album.
MJC We Shall All Be Healed The Mountain Goats No
MJC Court & Spark Joni Mitchell Yes Nowhere near as amazing as Blue, but it's unfair to judge her based on that, right? This is a beautiful album. I notice her amazing voice more on this one, and that's probably bad, right? I love Twisted. It was given to me on a mix tape in 1990 and I never knew what album it came from until I got it back with this recommendation. Thank you for that, if nothing else, MJC (and KCragg -- who actually got the album to me).
MJC The Hissing Of Summer Lawns Joni Mitchell No
MJC Healing Todd Rundgren Like Todd Rundgren much, MJC?
MJC Play Squeeze No
Angela The Hour of Bewilderbeast Badly Drawn Boy Yes If this band wasn't heartily recommended by my brother as well, I would never have given them a chance. They sound too middle-of-the-road at first listen. But, similar to the Old '97s, they have a lot more depth than I given them credit for. I'm a big snobby crybaby.
Angela Quiet Is The New Loud Kings of Convenience No
Angela Transfiguration of Vincent M. Ward No
Angela The Creek Drank the Cradle Iron & Wine No
Angela Our Constant Concern Mate of State No
Angela Beulah The Coast Is Never Clear No
Angela Old 97's Satellite Rides Yes Catchy!
Angela So Much For The City The Thrills Yes Catchy! And cool!
Angela Keep It Like A Secret Built To Spill No Couldn't get into it.
Fretty McSarah The Slow Wonder A.C. Newman No
Fretty McSarah Wallpaper for the Soul Tahiti 80 No
Fretty McSarah Oh! The Grandeur! Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire No
Fretty McSarah Paul Weller Paul Weller No Love The Jam
Fretty McSarah Armchair Theater Jeff Lynne No Love ELO, so I should get this.
dunford Live at Folsom Prison Johnny Cash No It's pretty cool. But I don't get into it that often.
dunford New Adventures In Hi-Fi R.E.M. Yes Eh. Smart people tell me I should like it better.
dunford Things Fall Apart The Roots No
dunford Car Wheels on a Gravel Road Lucinda Williams Yes Dig it.
dunford Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco Yes Love the titles, forgot the songs.
dunford Wildflowers Tom Petty No Fantastic! Man, this is great! Wildflowers is a such a great song, too.
Eason The Flat Earth Thomas Dolby No
Eason 12 Ways To Win People To Your Way of Thinking Wes Cunningham No
Eason Black Rose Thin Lizzy No
Eason Live! Go For What You Know! Pat Travers Band No
Eason That Nigger's Crazy Richard Pryor No
Eason Waiting for the Electrician (or Someone Like Him) Firesign Theater No
Alex Berg Split Personalities 12rods No
Alex Berg Pleased To Meet Me The Replacements Yes Super great.
Alex Berg Spirit of The Saints Paul Simon No
Alex Berg supermodified amon tobin No
Alex Berg Forbidden Love EP Death Cab For Cutie No
Alex Berg Big Loda Squarepusher No
Alex Berg Astral Weeks Van Morrison Yes I love it even more than Moondance.
Alex Berg Uprock Narratives Prefuse73 No
Alex Berg I Should Coco Supergrass No
Alex Berg Bizarre Ryde 2 The Pharcyde The Pharcyde No
Alex Berg 40 oz. to Freedom Sublime No
Alex Berg Speak No Evil 12rods Wayne Shorter
Alex Berg Under the Western Freeway Grandaddy No
Alex Berg Giant Steps John Coltrane No
Brandy Girlfriend Matthew Sweet Yes Okay at first, then great as you listen more!
Brandy Grand Prix Teenage Fanclub Yes Can't stop humming it a decade later.
Brandy First Band on the Moon The Cardigans Yes Really fun. Really well-performed. I like these guys.
Brandy Inspiration Information Shuggie Otis No
tony Dead Serious Das Efx No
tony Cosmic Thing B-52s No Not as good as their debut, but still really fun.
porter 2001 Dr. Dre No Man, I forgot about Dre. Reference? Reference, anyone?
porter Too Far To Care Old 97s Yes I always want to NOT like these guys. They sound too buttoned-down, too "good student", too much like someone who found the formula for a great pop song. But then each song is somehow moving and personal and I have to admit that this guy knows what he's doing, and I shouldn't hate him for it.
porter Pack Up The Cats Old 97s No
tony Fire Electric Six No
tony The Gilded Palace of The Sun Flying Burrito Bros. No
Eason Monk's Dream Theolonious Monk No
Eason Alone in San Francisco Theolonious Monk No
Eason Thelonious Monk Trio Theolonious Monk No
justin MTV Unplugged 10,000 Maniacs Yes Eh.
justin Blind Man's Zoo 10,000 Maniacs Yes Good.
justin Never Die Young James Taylor Yes Zzz. Well, wait. It's good.
justin Hourglass James Taylor Yes Great! Zzzz. No, wait, great! Zzzz.
justin Out of Time R.E.M. Yes Fcking great!
justin What's Next To The Moon Mark Kozelek Yes I can't remember.
justin The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill Lauryn Hill Yes Super perfect.
justin You Think It's Like This But It's Really Like This Mirah No I thought I had heard it -- re-checked. I was "not authorized" to play it.
justin I'm Still In Love With You Al Green Yes This album is amazing. Is it weird that it made me fall in love with Al Green, though?
justin Noon Chill Arto Lindsay Yes Chill, yes. But I can't remebmer any of it.
justin Acadie Daniel Lanois Yes I think I respected this. Man, it's tough listening to 33 albums at a shot.
justin Anodyne Uncle Tupelo Yes Always have loved this. ALWAYS!
justin Black Love Afghan Whigs No Angry dude, this guy. Wait, I couldn't play it! ("not authorized") I was thinking of "Gentlemen," which I have.
justin Unplugged Jay-Z Yes Cooler than me.
justin Whip-Smart Liz Phair Yes Cooler than everyone.
justin Is This Desire? PJ Harvey Yes She makes me feel like I should be yelling at more people.
justin Rain Dogs Tom Waits Yes Hated it at first, then suddenly I loved it more than air.
justin You Are Free Cat Power Yes Loved it
justin This is a Long Drive For Someone... Modest Mouse Yes These dudes are so sad! Someone hug them.
justin UNKLE Psyence Fiction Yes Nope.
justin Infinity Plus Lois Yes I honestly can't remember this at all.
justin Loveless My Bloody Valentine Yes Great!
justin Aja Steely Dan Yes More!
justin Tidal Fiona Apple Yes Groovy.
justin Either/Or Elliott Smith Yes Too good to have died.
justin The Will To Live Ben Harper Yes Very cool. I sense this man does not have trouble meeting girls.