Essential Studio Albums

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Dave Matthews Band - Remember Two Things

Hybrid live album and studio, in the same vein as Eat a Peach, trying to decipher a line in the sand as to whether it is a proper studio album or live album seems possibly silly. I didn’t cover it in the Essential Live Albums from a couple years ago, so we’ll tackle it here. Of course the problem is the same as in a live album: my favorite song here isn’t the best performance. My favorite song here is Seek Up, but that’s from my knowledge of the song as it exists on Live at Red Rocks. The best performance on here, in my opinion at least, is Recently. And then what about the 5 or so studio songs? Well, I guess I prefer the rougher mix of Typical Situation, possibly because I prefer it to the recording that made it on their next album. It makes for a mess, except most everything on this hybrid is a solid representation of a young band that is about the get better.

The Essential Track: Recently

Up Next: Counting Crows - August and Everything After

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Goddamn, I love Trombone Shorty

He was outstanding to see live.

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Counting Crows - August and Everything After

Back in ‘94 I think, I was really into this album. I listened to it probably a few dozen times. And then I put it down and haven’t picked it or Counting Crows back up until now. The singles are of course embedded in my memory as they would for just about anyone alive and alert in 1994 and 1995. And the singles are pretty solid here. Beyond that, Omaha, Anna Begins, and Sullivan Street stick out as highlights - but those singles are solid and really some sort of first step away from grunge into a new more mature classic rock.

The Essential Track: A Murder of One

Up Next: Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

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Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

This debut album is a pretty solid hit factory. Reading up a bit on it was fascinating, given that the musicians here were a sort of loose set of folks who hung out and wrote music seemingly as a hobby (hence the title of the album). That they’d all go on to fight with Crow concerning the writing credits is a little conflict for the story. But the album itself, not always thrilling but always solid, goes pretty deep in its quality material. We Do What We Can and The Na-Na Song are deeper cuts that are pretty damn good as explorations of blues and country tinged rock music. But the hits dominate this thing. All I Wanna Do is pretty inescapable, even today. Leaving Las Vegas, Strong Enough, and Can’t Cry Anymore are all real solid hit songs. My favorite though was Run Baby Run, which hits all the marks here for what Crow was on this first album.

The Essential Track: Run, Baby, Run

Up Next: The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?

[wease]

Counting Crows - August and Everything After

Back in ‘94 I think, I was really into this album. I listened to it probably a few dozen times. And then I put it down and haven’t picked it or Counting Crows back up until now. The singles are of course embedded in my memory as they would for just about anyone alive and alert in 1994 and 1995. And the singles are pretty solid here. Beyond that, Omaha, Anna Begins, and Sullivan Street stick out as highlights - but those singles are solid and really some sort of first step away from grunge into a new more mature classic rock.

The Essential Track: A Murder of One

Up Next: Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

Full disclosure:

I moved into my first apartment in Jan 94. My roommate was my oldest friend and is indeed still one of my best friends. We had a mutual friend who was the older sister of a guy that graduated with us but we didn’t really hang out with after high school. She was at our apartment virtually every night. At this point, I wasn’t really going to college outside of a few hours here and there and had a full time job. So I was up at 5am to be at work at 6 every morning. My roommate was still working on his undergrad at the time and the two of them were up drinking and carrying on until late every night. This album was their soundtrack. Every night, over and over and over. Fuck this album. The only thing worse than this album is The Eagles, which they also played in an endless loop.

[wease]

Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

This debut album is a pretty solid hit factory. Reading up a bit on it was fascinating, given that the musicians here were a sort of loose set of folks who hung out and wrote music seemingly as a hobby (hence the title of the album). That they’d all go on to fight with Crow concerning the writing credits is a little conflict for the story. But the album itself, not always thrilling but always solid, goes pretty deep in its quality material. We Do What We Can and The Na-Na Song are deeper cuts that are pretty damn good as explorations of blues and country tinged rock music. But the hits dominate this thing. All I Wanna Do is pretty inescapable, even today. Leaving Las Vegas, Strong Enough, and Can’t Cry Anymore are all real solid hit songs. My favorite though was Run Baby Run, which hits all the marks here for what Crow was on this first album.

The Essential Track: Run, Baby, Run

Up Next: The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?

Still have a soft spot for All I Wanna Do

[VinylGuy]

yeah, thats a good song

[liebzz]

The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?

This is another of the albums sitting somewhere amongst my CD collection that saw a lot of use in 1993/1994 and then disappeared from my rotation. Even then, I would say this album sounds even better to my adult ears 30+ years later than my teenage ones. The hits, Dreams and Linger, are both fantastic and dominated in their time, but this album beyond that has a dreamy mysterious quality to it that makes you want to hang out in that space for a bit, but also with a drive and focus so you don’t feel like they are in outer space somewhere. Wanted, Still Can’t…, and How are all on the back half of the album and perfect examples - this band really at its best on this one. I Still Do, Sunday and Waltzing Back are first half highlights as well. Damn I nearly listed the whole album here - that’s always a good sign.

The Essential Track: How

Up Next: Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

[liebzz]

Counting Crows - August and Everything After

Back in ‘94 I think, I was really into this album. I listened to it probably a few dozen times. And then I put it down and haven’t picked it or Counting Crows back up until now. The singles are of course embedded in my memory as they would for just about anyone alive and alert in 1994 and 1995. And the singles are pretty solid here. Beyond that, Omaha, Anna Begins, and Sullivan Street stick out as highlights - but those singles are solid and really some sort of first step away from grunge into a new more mature classic rock.

The Essential Track: A Murder of One

Up Next: Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

Full disclosure:

I moved into my first apartment in Jan 94. My roommate was my oldest friend and is indeed still one of my best friends. We had a mutual friend who was the older sister of a guy that graduated with us but we didn’t really hang out with after high school. She was at our apartment virtually every night. At this point, I wasn’t really going to college outside of a few hours here and there and had a full time job. So I was up at 5am to be at work at 6 every morning. My roommate was still working on his undergrad at the time and the two of them were up drinking and carrying on until late every night. This album was their soundtrack. Every night, over and over and over. Fuck this album. The only thing worse than this album is The Eagles, which they also played in an endless loop.

I was half expecting this post to end with claiming that one of those loafers was Mr. Jones.

[liebzz]

Mazzy Star - So Tonight I Might See

What’s striking about this album at first listen is its psychedelic rock angle that feels like it came out of the 1960s. In fact, if you sped up the rhythm a bit it would sound a lot like the Velvet Underground, but still sounding quite original. Hope Sandoval’s vocals are a key piece of this, seemingly coming from the other end of a tunnel but maintaining a power and control that helps carry this album when it needs a little more pace. Fade Into You, Bells Ring, and Mary of Silence is such a great start to this, and Five String Serenade is wonderful - though in the back half, with She’s My Baby, Wasted, and the title track, we hear them at their best, at least for my ears. Another fantastic album from this band.

The Essential Track: Wasted

Up Next: Bjork - Debut

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Bjork - Debut

It’s funny that there’s such a stark contrast between the album art, a relative innocuous photo of Bjork, and the music on this album. Conversely, the music is highly dynamic, full of color, and particularly in a few spots, an absolute masterpiece at what it’s doing. In particular, Human Behaviour and Aeroplane are absolutely magical. I don’t often find much out of house music, but she uses her vocals in a way that distinguishes her from everybody else, an almost innocence in delivery, that somehow juxtaposes perfectly with the wild audio treats within. It’s nothing like anything in this thread and better for it.

The Essential Track: Human Behaviour

Up Next: PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

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PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

I’ll say this for Steve Albini - I knew immediately that he was involved with this project. There’s an abrasiveness to the recording of this album that is also the exact hallmark and makes this almost a sister album in scope and content to Nirvana’s In Utero. So much so that whatever order I had planned is getting reconfigured to move up In Utero to the next album. This album is appropriately gritty and hard nosed, and amplifies that quiet-loud-quiet dynamic to new highs. Legs, Rub ‘Til it Bleeds, and Hook was my favorite run here on what is not a breezy listen, but rewards the listener as the album progresses. I am torn between this and her first album since both were quite good.

The Essential Track: Rub ‘Til It Bleeds

Up Next: Nirvana - In Utero

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Nirvana - In Utero

If PJ Harvey put me in the space for some abrasive rock, In Utero is one of the best examples of this in implementation. In a lot of ways, this feels like the album that best represents what Nirvana was always going for, at least in my mind. While the hits, Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies get the most attention, and deservedly so, along with the sort of controversial shock value that came with Rape Me, less deservedly so, this entire album is filled with gems that hit like a ton of bricks in the right mind frame. Serve the Servants and Scentless Apprentice send the immediate message that this is no Nevermind. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle is truly essential listening. Milk It and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter are the full realization of this abrasive approach. Very Ape is a fun song amongst the these tracks where the instruments collide with pure energy. Even Pennyroyal Tea, which seems to take a bit of a beating from Nirvana fans, sounds cool as hell. This is a pure gem even within a short but impactful catalogue of great albums.

The Essential Track: France’s Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (could have been almost any of the tracks here)

Up Next: The Breeders - The Last Splash

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The Breeders - The Last Splash

Kim Deal in this period has a magic touch. I mean, pretty spotless record between the albums she was involved with during the Pixies initial run followed by her work with The Breeders - Pod was excellent, Safari a solid EP, and now this that broke this band into the mainstream. Cannonball is one helluva single, and in contention for this album’s best, but Roi, Flipside, Divine Hammer (man this one is infectious), Hag, Saints, and Drivin’ on 9 are all fantastic. At first I suspected this might not live up, but that second half was just great. I don’t think there’s any drop off between the Pixies and The Breeders.

The Essential Track: Cannonball

Up Next: Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

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Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Admittedly, I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Smashing Pumpkins. Sometimes I just find them completely unlistenable, and sometimes I am absolutely astounded by how great they can be. Siamese Dream is the latter, an absolute masterpiece of an album that I just can’t shake as impossibly great. They just nailed this moment so wonderfully. From the guitar crunches that floor you on Cherub Rock, Quiet, Today, Geek USA, Mayonnaise, and Silverfuck, to the grandiosity of Disarm and well Today and Mayonnaise to the gentler hand on Soma and Spaceboy, there’s no weak link here. It’s just great the full hour and there’s nothing I can do about it. Damn.

The Essential Track: Mayonnaise

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Vs.

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Cherub Rock is one of the best songs of the early 90s

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Screaming Trees - Sweet Oblivion

This feels like an early 90s album by the book. Mark Lanegan seems to really hit a stride here, with one excellent track after another balancing hard classic rock with big guitars and big choruses. It’s just a really solid sounding album front to back. The fully known quantity here is Nearly Lost You, which is pretty fantastic to my ears, but The Secret Kind, More or Less, Dollar Bill, Shadow of the Season, and No One Knows really highlighting this album. Once Julie Paradise really kicks in, it also joins that list. I was really impressed with this one.

The Essential Track: Nearly Lost You

Up Next: Nirvana - Incesticide

We saw them at the same Lollapalooza show in ‘96 with Rage, Metallica and Soundgarden. I liked them but other than Nearly Lost You, didn’t/don’t know anything else. I may need to rectify that. Lost You is one of my top early-90s “grunge” tunes so I’d probably like a lot of their stuff.

Pretty much the whole album is at or close to Nearly Lost You. Excellent album really.

As part of my dive into grunge while reading Everybody Loves This Town, I’m pretty much going thru some of the bands that began within this scene and I don’t have a lot of experience with. The Trees is one of these bands. From their first EP, they really had something. Listening to the procession of their songwriting has been really enjoyable. Their earlier stuff brings to mind a very eclectic collection of influences from The Doors to New Wave to Cream to 80s pop rock like The Smithereens to late 60s San Francisco psychedelia to the Kinks, they really blend everything to bring a really enjoyable discography. I’ve not gone past Sweet Oblivion yet, but it’s by far their best and the culmination for years together learning to write songs and record music. Nearly Lost You is still their best and I don’t think I’ll ever hear it without expecting Disarm by the Pumpkins right after but Sweet Oblivion is one of the better albums out out that year and it’s sad it took me 35 years to realize that.

Going thru Green River (which I’ve listened to prior) then Mudhoney (which I haven’t) next.

[Birds in Hell]

I’ll say this for Steve Albini - I knew immediately that he was involved with this project. There’s an abrasiveness to the recording of this album that is also the exact hallmark and makes this almost a sister album in scope and content to Nirvana’s In Utero.

Recorded at the same studio, Pachyderm in Minnesota, only a few months apart (RoM in late '92, IU in early '93).

Albini sent Kurt an advanced tape of RoM before it was released, so in a way it was a direct influence on the sound of IU.

[liebzz]

Yeah, there’s a definite sense of a conversation “yeah, I want it to sound like that!”

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Vs.

This is nearly always the hardest album for me to contextualize in these sorts of threads because this is really the first album I completely fell in love with, and it was the very first time I heard it. The songs on the very first listen, soon after the album came out, all sounded so fresh yet completely familiar all at once, as if in December 1993, when I heard it, that the songs had been etched somewhere deep in the brain at birth. I never turned back from this moment, and while Nirvana spent some time as my favorite band up until I saw Pearl Jam in 1996, this album was proof of the inevitable - a perfect Pearl Jam that had power and range and songs that can’t and don’t leave your soul. If I had one album to show someone what Pearl Jam sounds like, this would be the one (though if I had two, the other would be Yield, which is another among a bunch I have a lot of exaggerated superlatives for).

For the album itself, it does a wonderful job out the gate not being Ten, which sounds maybe immaterial now, but then the hype was so real that this was a Herculean level of bravery for this band. Go and Animal are blistering moreso than anything on Ten, with frenetic pacing, and guitar solos that don’t even bother to stop when the final chorus hits. Pure blasts of energy. Daughter and Glorified G are more mid-tempo affairs while Dissident reminds us, as close as possible, that this is the band created Ten (along with Leash). And yet some of the band’s greatest genius here come when they get a little more funky and push the boundaries set on them just a little bit on WMA and Rats. Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town is an infectious sing-along that shows the band doesn’t need massive anthems to get the crowd going, and shows that whole other side to this band. Blood is a throat scratching screed showing just how far this band can push. Rearviewmirror is a perfect song. No notes. The absolute encapsulation of 90s rock in one moment. That we swing left right and sideways - the inner turmoil of Ten turned outward to the world, and it incredibly ends on a bluesy smoky room of despondency, as if maybe all that power and energy was for naught in Indifference - but even Eddie can’t help himself, turning an exhausted reprieve into a hopeful plea as the song crests on his voice. Goddamnit they are incredible. There’s a reason this is my favorite band.

The Essential Track: Rearviewmirror

Up Next: Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been