TDDS - 2020 Shelter-in-Place on a Desert Island Music Draft - BONUS 5

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
#61
With my second pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album draft I select:



The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)

Track List:
1 Speak to Me/Breathe in the Air
2 On the Run
3 Time
4 The Great Gig in the Sky
5 Money
6 Us and Them
7 Any Colour You Like
8 Brain Damage
9 Eclipse

Eventually I'm going to run out of albums that got snatched up before I could pick them in the last album draft, but not just yet. When an album stays on the Billboard charts for 900 weeks, I don't know if there's much to say about it that everybody doesn't already know. The best I can come up with is this: When I was in high school I was working at a ski resort which employed a good number of older dudes who had seen a bit of the world, so to speak. One day, I remember one of them striking up a conversation with me about what music I liked. I had recently gotten into a different album by Pink Floyd, and mentioned it. "What about Dark Side?" he asked. I think I had heard Dark Side but hadn't really properly listened to it. "My buddies and I," he said as I paraphrase, "used to get together, smoke some things that weren't cigarettes, and listen to Dark Side over and over, swearing that it was the greatest music in the world for listening to when you were chemically altered. Well, we were wrong. It's the greatest music in the world, period." So I gave Dark Side another, more careful listen, and continued to have it relatively heavy rotation over the next few years. I don't listen to it often front-to-back anymore (though I will this afternoon, as I will for every album I select in this draft) and my iTunes stats suggest it's only the third-most listened to Pink Floyd album in my collection over the last 15 years or so - doesn't mean it's not their best album!

And it didn't take me long at all to decide which song to feature: The Great Gig in the Sky

It's a lyricless (and evidently ad lib) yet profound meditation on dying - and in the event you haven't heard it you'll want to take a listen. Funnily enough when searching for the YouTube of GGitS I saw several videos in the sideboard of people recording their first listens to the song - and a couple of them get so wrapped up in it that it gets emotional just to watch them. Sure, the remainder of the album has lyrics, but it's still just as tightly crafted, and it will hold up long after my shelter-in-place order is lifted.

(PM sent)
 
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#62
With my second pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album draft I select:



The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)

Eventually I'm going to run out of albums that got snatched up before I could pick them in the last album draft, but not just yet. When an album stays on the Billboard charts for 900 weeks, I don't know if there's much to say about it that everybody doesn't already know. The best I can come up with is this: When I was in high school I was working at a ski resort which employed a good number of older dudes who had seen a bit of the world, so to speak. One day, I remember one of them striking up a conversation with me about what music I liked. I had recently gotten into a different album by Pink Floyd, and mentioned it. "What about Dark Side?" he asked. I think I had heard Dark Side but hadn't really properly listened to it. "My buddies and I," he said as I paraphrase, "used to get together, smoke some things that weren't cigarettes, and listen to Dark Side over and over, swearing that it was the greatest music in the world for listening to when you were chemically altered. Well, we were wrong. It's the greatest music in the world, period." So I gave Dark Side another, more careful listen, and continued to have it relatively heavy rotation over the next few years. I don't listen to it often front-to-back anymore (though I will this afternoon, as I will for every album I select in this draft) and my iTunes stats suggest it's only the third-most listened to Pink Floyd album in my collection over the last 15 years or so - doesn't mean it's not their best album!

And it didn't take me long at all to decide which song to feature: The Great Gig in the Sky

It's a lyricless (and evidently ad lib) yet profound meditation on dying - and in the event you haven't heard it you'll want to take a listen. Funnily enough when searching for the YouTube of GGitS I saw several videos in the sideboard of people recording their first listens to the song - and a couple of them get so wrapped up in it that it gets emotional just to watch them. Sure, the remainder of the album has lyrics, but it's still just as tightly crafted, and it will hold up long after my shelter-in-place order is lifted.

(PM sent)
well there goes my next pick, LOL thanks but great choice.
 
#63
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Did not appreciate a lot of the punk types but listened to them over the years on the radio and enjoyed them without really seeking the formats to play them. When I started collecting albums and built up a decent assortment of those bands I wondered why I didn’t start earlier. My second pick.
 
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#64
I'm not ok with pdx picking right before me. IIRC, there's overlap on our musical tastes.
There is, but its about 5 picks deep worth from my long hair days. And we do the snake right? so you pick before me half the time too? I see we are not. I dunno if I am going to G3 myself. And I certainly won't be picking strategically … or will I? :D
 
#65
With my second pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album draft I select:



The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)
I figured that was going to happen. At the very least it makes my next pick easier.

Really started to appreciate Dark Side on a different level after my wife and I listened to it while watching the moon rise over volcanic mountains in the Chilean desert. Sounds like I took that straight out of a J. Peterman catalogue.

Wine and cheese, lawn chairs outside a vintage VW Bus, natural geysers and a purple-hued sand landscape. Best Dark Side listening party this side of Oz.
 
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#66
I can pronounce the entire Pink Floyd catalog is safe from me :D

Ramones are more my speed but my choice (Mania) would not be a valid selection within this draft.
 
#67
Wow, I've really got to dig into this! I know El-P from Run the Jewels but have yet to dig into his back catalog. The guest spots alone tell me this is well worth my time. Track 1 is already blowing my mind. :)
Stoked you had such a positive response to the first track! Hope the rest of the listen was just as revelatory. :)

On first listen, I knew I'd dig the album during it's opening moments, when El samples Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. And once the sirens-and-synths of "Smithereens" kicked in, I was completely in love. Felt like I'd stumbled onto the hip hop album I'd been waiting to hear for years.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#68
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction



I think there was one album back the first time we did this that I missed and this was it. I probably don't have to worry about anyone picking over me the rest of the draft. Maybe Spike. Spike would have probably picked this.

Side one
1."Welcome to the Jungle"
2."It's So Easy"
3."Nightrain"
4."Out ta Get Me"
5."Mr. Brownstone"
6."Paradise City"

Side two
7."My Michelle"
8."Think About You"
9."Sweet Child o' Mine"
10."You're Crazy"
11."Anything Goes"
12."Rocket Queen"

Best material they ever put out. First time I heard Welcome to the Jungle on late night Metal Shop on 93 rock (may have still been kpop then?) I was like daaaaaaamn. Bought multiple copies of the Robert Williams cover original import vinyl but my brother jacked them. That is the version on my island.

Anyways, this was perhaps my first experience of liking a band nobody liked and having them blow up a year or so later and me pitching a fit. But I did probably buy my first Les Paul thanks to Slash and you're sure as $$$$ that I played Sweet Child on it all day. Probably first thing I did when I got that guitar set up and playable again too years later.

I actually find Sweet Child and Paradise City to be kind of tedious, for me the standouts beside the opener are Nightrain, Brownstone, and My Michelle followed by Think About You, those two back to back might take my favorite spot but Nightrain is pretty danged close.

Surprisingly one of the bands I never saw live. They no-showed their gig at Cal Expo with one of my favorite bands during Sweet Child's peak. If Izzy re-joined I think I'd pay whatever it takes to see them but otherwise I think it's a pass...
I am rescinding my invitation for you to participate. The unwarranted slap at Sweet Child just makes it worse.
 
#69
When I get home. Solange. 2019.

1585359809888.png

Less is more - was the theme of a podcast with [unnamed rapper] and Solange before their respective stripped back albums came out. The rapper commented that if you are going to make a 4 - 5 minute song, it really has to be on point to be worth it for the listener. In delivering just enough, but definitely not more, 'When I get home' honours the sentiment well.

 
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#70
I am rescinding my invitation for you to participate. The unwarranted slap at Sweet Child just makes it worse.
It's less of a slap than it's a this album is so much better than that one big mega song.

Also, it is the one thing Slash ever did I bothered to commit to muscle memory, so there's that.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#71
So now that I've had a chance to think about this a bit, I want to approach this draft using only artists I've seen in concert. Yes, it eliminates some of the choices I otherwise would make, but what the heck. Also, these albums will remind me of the fun we had seeing these artists live. :)

P!nk - Beautiful Trauma (2017)

https://www.allmusic.com/album/beautiful-trauma-mw0003096015

PINK_-_Beautiful_Trauma_(Official_Album_Cover).png

I've liked her music here and there, so it is hard to choose a favorite album. But with Beautiful Trauma, What About Us, But We Lost It, Where We Go, and I Am Here, I think this is the album I enjoy the most overall. Her concert in G1C in 2019 was fantastic - possibly the best concert I've ever attended. Her acrobatic harness work while singing was amazing. Just an amazing artist and performer. See the last video clip in the link below.

https://www.golden1center.com/news/...-with-legendary-show-at-beautiful-trauma-tour

From Wikipedia:
The tour generated positive critical reviews, many praising the setlist, production, and the singer's vocals and aerial acrobatics. The tour was a massive commercial success, becoming the tenth highest-grossing tour of all time and the second highest-grossing tour of all time by a female solo artist, earning $397.3 million from over three million tickets sold.
Track List:
1. Beautiful Trauma
2. Revenge
3. Whatever You Want
4. What About Us
5. But We Lost It
6. Barbies
7. Where We Go
8. For Now
9. Secrets
10. Better Life
11. I Am Here
12. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
13. You Get My Love

I found "clean"/radio versions to link below where necessary. Some of the originals have some language issues for this board. ;) My 3 favorites on this album:



 
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#72
Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and remove your caps for the National Anthem of Generation X.

... You remember Gen X, right? The MTV Generation. The Latchkey Generation. The disaffected, angsty, cynical slackers who were going to bring down civilization and the American dream with an aggressive series of apathetic eye-rolls.

No? The group that quietly packed up their flannel shirts and hacky sacks to Generation Exit their way out of the growing turf war between Boomers and Millennials, and seemingly the cultural consciousness and zeitgeist.

Really? Nothing?

... Oh well, whatever, Nevermind.


Nevermind - Nirvana (1991)

There is absolutely nothing valuable I can add to the discussion about this album that has not been said much more brilliantly than I could hope to muster. There are the obvious monster hits: Come As You Are, Lithium, In Bloom, On A Plain, and of course the ultimate leviathan of 90s music, Smells Like Teen Spirit that was evidently the death knell for hair bands and glam rock, shaping pop culture for an entire decade.

Personally, while I have famously said I made little to no attempts to explore music until the last several years, it has become quite clear how influential specifically Nirvana and more broadly the year of 1991 would become in shaping my own tastes. My first pick last time was released the same day as Nevermind, and much of the music I've found to love since can be traced back to that fulcrum - either bands and songs that inspired Nirvana, or would be influenced by them.

I really love that Nevermind isn't purely a hard-and-fast, mumbly grunge-punk album that those who immediately link Nevermind to Teen Spirit might expect (although, after 30 years, I doubt there are many pearl-clutchers left who still pigeonhole Nirvana in that light).

It runs a wide range from the wildly frenetic Breed


To the somber Something in the Way


Tracklist

1."Smells Like Teen Spirit"
2."In Bloom"
3."Come as You Are"
4."Breed"
5."Lithium"
6."Polly"
7."Territorial Pissings"
8."Drain You"
9."Lounge Act"
10."Stay Away"
11."On a Plain"
12."Something in the Way"
13."Endless, Nameless" (Only included on later pressings as a hidden track)
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#73
1585372466224.png

A Night at the Opera - Queen - 1975

Yeah, this is the album with Bohemian Rhapsody, but that's not the only reason I picked it. I need to have it because it represents to me the range of what Queen music is all about. There are a couple of familiar songs but there are also a couple that aren't as well known if you're not a fan.




(Not the album version, but a tribute to Freddie by sharing the Live Aid version.)

Track list:
1 Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To...)
2 Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
3 I'm in Love with My Car
4 You're My Best Friend
5 '39
6 Sweet Lady
7 Seaside Rendezvous
8 The Prophet's Song
9 Love of My Life
10 Good Company
11 Bohemian Rhapsody
12 God Save the Queen

Here's what a reviewer on allmusic.com had to say:
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on (a previous album), but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation, A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two Legs," "Sweet Lady"), pop (the lovely, shimmering "You're My Best Friend"), campy British music hall ("Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous"), and mystical prog rock ("'39," "The Prophet's Song"), eventually bringing it all together on the pseudo-operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody." In short, it's a lot like Queen's own version of Led Zeppelin IV, but where Zep find dark menace in bombast, Queen celebrate their own pomposity. No one in the band takes anything too seriously, otherwise the arrangements wouldn't be as ludicrously exaggerated as they are. But the appeal -- and the influence -- of A Night at the Opera is in its detailed, meticulous productions. It's prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics, and Queen never bettered their approach anywhere else.

I could not live without Queen's music on my island.
 
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#75
View attachment 9645

A Night at the Opera - Queen - 1975

Yeah, this is the album with Bohemian Rhapsody, but that's not the only reason I picked it. I need to have it because it represents to me the range of what Queen music is all about. There are a couple of familiar songs but there are also a couple that aren't as well known if you're not a fan.




(Not the album version, but a tribute to Freddie by sharing the Live Aid version.)

Track list:
1 Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To...)
2 Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
3 I'm in Love with My Car
4 You're My Best Friend
5 '39
6 Sweet Lady
7 Seaside Rendezvous
8 The Prophet's Song
9 Love of My Life
10 Good Company
11 Bohemian Rhapsody
12 God Save the Queen

Here's what a reviewer on allmusic.com had to say:
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on (a previous album), but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation, A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two Legs," "Sweet Lady"), pop (the lovely, shimmering "You're My Best Friend"), campy British music hall ("Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous"), and mystical prog rock ("'39," "The Prophet's Song"), eventually bringing it all together on the pseudo-operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody." In short, it's a lot like Queen's own version of Led Zeppelin IV, but where Zep find dark menace in bombast, Queen celebrate their own pomposity. No one in the band takes anything too seriously, otherwise the arrangements wouldn't be as ludicrously exaggerated as they are. But the appeal -- and the influence -- of A Night at the Opera is in its detailed, meticulous productions. It's prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics, and Queen never bettered their approach anywhere else.

I could not live without Queen's music on my island.
Dammit.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#77
Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise and remove your caps for the National Anthem of Generation X.

... You remember Gen X, right? The MTV Generation. The Latchkey Generation. The disaffected, angsty, cynical slackers who were going to bring down civilization and the American dream with an aggressive series of apathetic eye-rolls.

No? The group that quietly packed up their flannel shirts and hacky sacks to Generation Exit their way out of the growing turf war between Boomers and Millennials, and seemingly the cultural consciousness and zeitgeist.

Really? Nothing?

... Oh well, whatever, Nevermind.
I like the pick too of course, but I'm giving you a standing ovation for everything you wrote here!
 
#81
To say nothing of the fact that there's more than a little #TwoAmericas behind the notion of Nevermind being the National Anthem of Generation X. But I, too, give give you top marks for wit. It was quite well done, indeed.
That part didn't exactly resonate for me even though I am in the right part of the demographic. But I let that go because it was so well written.

What I will say, is that for rock music fans, I do think Nevermind may have been the last collective "a-ha" moment.
 
#82
I have some issues whenever I hear/see "gen exit" but I did like the presentation.

To say nothing of the fact that there's more than a little #TwoAmericas behind the notion of Nevermind being the National Anthem of Generation X. But I, too, give give you top marks for wit. It was quite well done, indeed.
I’m just satisfied I picked Nevermind, and people are talking about what I wrote rather than the naked baby on the cover.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#84
I have some issues whenever I hear/see "gen exit" but I did like the presentation.
To say nothing of the fact that there's more than a little #TwoAmericas behind the notion of Nevermind being the National Anthem of Generation X. But I, too, give give you top marks for wit. It was quite well done, indeed.
I suppose everyone has their own perspective on the fight to be a participant in the collective culture. My feeling has been that us Gen X'ers who bridged the gap between the post-counterculture hangover that we inherited and the dawning information age and it's abiding obsession with social media and the empowerment of marketing as the primary mover of the new global economy do have an important perspective that's more or less been excluded from the conversation. Whether that's by choice or because our self-aware brand of social deconstruction doesn't translate very well with the generations immediately before and after us is open to interpretation.

Nirvana and Smells Like Teen Spirit in particular are symbolic more so of the stereotype that Generation X were a bunch of slackers who would rather complain about the world than get a real job than of the generation itself. For all the shrugging indifference of that signature line "oh well, whatever, nevermind" -- Nirvana did storm the gates of MTV and tear down the existing musical hierarchy. And the whole movement of sampling/turntabalism and freestyle/street art/rap that characterize Hip-Hop culture developed in parallel and forced it's way right to the forefront of American popular culture like Jazz and Rock and Roll did in the 60s. It may seem like the world has passed us by but that's probably because we're not all that interested in wagging our tongues at the navel-gazers and we've grown up enough to accept that we're susceptible to many of the same flaws as our parents. Others speak louder but if you judge us by the cultural impact of our art, we haven't gone anywhere yet.

In any case, I appreciate Lowenherz making light of the situation in a clever way. Especially the quip about aggressively apathetic eye-rolling. :D
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#85
I suppose everyone has their own perspective on the fight to be a participant in the collective culture. My feeling has been that us Gen X'ers who bridged the gap between the post-counterculture hangover that we inherited and the dawning information age and it's abiding obsession with social media and the empowerment of marketing as the primary mover of the new global economy do have an important perspective that's more or less been excluded from the conversation. Whether that's by choice or because our self-aware brand of social deconstruction doesn't translate very well with the generations immediately before and after us is open to interpretation.

Nirvana and Smells Like Teen Spirit in particular are symbolic more so of the stereotype that Generation X were a bunch of slackers who would rather complain about the world than get a real job than of the generation itself. For all the shrugging indifference of that signature line "oh well, whatever, nevermind" -- Nirvana did storm the gates of MTV and tear down the existing musical hierarchy. And the whole movement of sampling/turntabalism and freestyle/street art/rap that characterize Hip-Hop culture developed in parallel and forced it's way right to the forefront of American popular culture like Jazz and Rock and Roll did in the 60s. It may seem like the world has passed us by but that's probably because we're not all that interested in wagging our tongues at the navel-gazers and we've grown up enough to accept that we're susceptible to many of the same flaws as our parents. Others speak louder but if you judge us by the cultural impact of our art, we haven't gone anywhere yet.

In any case, I appreciate Lowenherz making light of the situation in a clever way. Especially the quip about aggressively apathetic eye-rolling. :D
I wasn't even necessarily disagreeing with that: my larger objection was to the idea of Nevermind being the "anthem" of Generation X. It is a tremendous album, without question, but it didn't quite hit the same way with us, let's put it that way.

Signed, Mr. S£im Citrus, also a Gen-X'er.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#86
I wasn't even necessarily disagreeing with that: my larger objection was to the idea of Nevermind being the "anthem" of Generation X. It is a tremendous album, without question, but it didn't quite hit the same way with us, let's put it that way.

Signed, Mr. S£im Citrus, also a Gen-X'er.
I guess I just appreciate that it's a handy short-hand for conjuring up a particular era that feels quaint in light of more recent developments vis-a-vis the fact that we're all basically on house arrest right now. Most people want to lump me in with the Millennials but I've always had way more in common with Gen X. Maybe I'm neither. But your point about Nirvana is well taken. And they were never all that representative for me either. I don't want to tip my hand before I've had a chance to stake my claim on the albums I intend to draft, but I made a quick list of 65 or so albums in consideration and Nirvana wasn't on it. Solid band, terrific album, but not one that really spoke to me personally.

Also, Padrino where you at? Your clock is about to run out in an hour.
 
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#87
mewithoutYou - [Untitled] (2018):



01 9:27a.m., 7/29
02 Julia (or, 'Holy to the LORD' on the Bells of Horses)
03 Another Head for Hydra
04 [dormouse sighs]
05 Winter Solstice
06 Flee Thou Matadors!
07 Tortoises All the Way Down
08 2,459 Miles
09 Wendy & Betsy
10 New Wine, New Skins
11 Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore
12 Break on Through (to the Other Side) [pt. Two]

Genre(s): Post-hardcore, indie rock

It was around the 2015 release of mewithoutYou's sixth album, Pale Horses, that I realized they had ascended to my All-Time Favorite Band status. It was a slow ascension, due mostly to my stubbornness in not wanting to see the previous occupant of that slot dislodged. But it happened all the same. Their most recent album, 2018's [Untitled], will also be their final statement as a band. They decided at the end of last year to mutually part ways. My heart breaks over this fact, but time wears at even the most resilient of bands. And they've left behind a tremendous body of work, seven albums (and a handful of EP's) that redefined post-hardcore through the first two decades of this century, and will no doubt influence countless young bands to come.

Lyrically speaking, Aaron Weiss has managed to climb up to a place on my writer's Mt. Rushmore that would ordinarily be reserved for a poet. I find so much to admire in his literary approach to grappling with the pitfalls of faith, inadequacy, and mental illness. And his vocal delivery, while an acquired taste for many, has become something like home to my ears. [Untitled] represents a further extension of the direction mewithoutYou began to explore on Pale Horses, but with a more psychedelic and eclectic edge. The album cover strikes me as deeply appropriate, a mess of color and shape that manages to cohere into a beautifully jagged whole.

mwY lean into the influences that have often propelled their sound. Drive Like Jehu. Mineral. Sunny Day Real Estate. Nirvana. But with [Untitled], they let go of any preconceived notion of what a "mewithoutYou record" is supposed to be. Instead, they forge ahead with a musical self-assuredness that comes from nearly twenty years spent honing and subsequently exploding their own identity as a band. Their best album is 2006's magnificent Brother, Sister. Their most sonically devastating album is 2015's stellar Pale Horses. But for some reason, I just can't get [Untitled] out of my head. There's something indefinable in its margins, something elusive in its noisiness. I just love this album to pieces. Not a week has gone by in which I haven't listened to it since its release in late 2018.
 
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#88
I wasn't even necessarily disagreeing with that: my larger objection was to the idea of Nevermind being the "anthem" of Generation X. It is a tremendous album, without question, but it didn't quite hit the same way with us, let's put it that way.

Signed, Mr. S£im Citrus, also a Gen-X'er.
Makes total sense.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#89
I wasn't even necessarily disagreeing with that: my larger objection was to the idea of Nevermind being the "anthem" of Generation X. It is a tremendous album, without question, but it didn't quite hit the same way with us, let's put it that way.

Signed, Mr. S£im Citrus, also a Gen-X'er.
While I liked a few of the songs that came out of the grunge movement, it never really "spoke" to me, either (I'm a solid Gen-Xer). As you can tell from my previous and upcoming selections, I prefer my rock more mainstream. :)
 
#90

Björk is my favorite singer, and to me, Vulnicura is her most beautiful record. Her dramatic vocal style is at its best on this album, and it pairs perfectly with the music Arca and The Haxan Cloak provide to accompany her.

Tracklist

01 - Stonemilker
02 - Lionsong
03 - History of Touches
04 - Black Lake
05 - Family
06 - Notget
07 - Atom Dance
08 - Mouth Mantra
09 - Quicksand

 
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