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

I'm simply trying to pick my 25 favorite records, to best represent who I am. I don't see anything wrong with a group experience where everybody can get to know who each individual actually is.
That's not the point I was trying to make, I like your list more than a few. It was not a critique, it feels very record store nerd-ish. In a good way.

I was just saying that if I picked 20 records I liked with no regard for accessibility it wouldn't be particularly fun for me and I'd expect to be tuned out 5 picks in. I'm playing the game in casting a wide net, but I'm not cynically trying to win by just picking critical darlings either. Just explaining my philosophy a bit. So if someone said my list was pedestrian, I might take that as a compliment, of sorts, even if the person saying it meant it as an insult.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
I thought your approach was picking every Def Leppard album ever released.
I'd have kept that one to myself :D
I own all 11 studio albums, but only picked my top 3. There are a couple other good ones as well. ;) And there are a couple I don’t particularly care for, or only like a couple songs from.

Others have said there are difficult choices to make from a particular artist in selecting just one album. Why do that if you enjoy their work more than the others left on the table?

If I wasn’t limiting myself to bands I’ve seen in concert, I definitely would have stopped at 1. But many of those bands don’t have what I would consider a studio “album” worth taking (despite numerous singles I enjoy), so why bother making that other selection?
 
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I own all 11 studio albums, but only picked my top 3. There are a couple other good ones as well. ;) And there are a couple I don’t particularly care for, or only like a couple songs from.

Others have said there are difficult choices to make from a particular artist in selecting just one album. Why do that if you enjoy their work more than the others left on the table?

If I wasn’t limiting myself to bands I’ve seen in concert, I definitely would have stopped at 1. But many of those bands don’t have what I would consider a studio “album” worth taking (despite numerous singles I enjoy), so why bother making that other selection?
I am teasing but I would not have given anyone crap for picking High and Dry.

I did pick both the Dolls and Heartbreakers and would have also considered So Alone instead of one of those but I had to omit so many artists I really love and listen to daily or weekly as it is that I wouldn't have wanted to pick multiple albums by one group (I also considered albums I took in the original draft off the table so that helped).
 
Ruff Draft. J Dilla. 2003.

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Made to sound like it's straight from a cassette.

It's not too hard (or it wasn't, pre-quarantine) to walk past dudes wearing 'J Dilla changed my life' t-shirts. While I have never personally donned said shirt, looking at my choices from this draft, previous drafts, as well as a good number of albums that I own but haven't chosen, his fingerprints/ influence is frequent, if not substantial.

If it me the family requirements of this board 'Take Notice' ft. Guilty Simpson would be the track I would have chosen to share.
 
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Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
With my third bonus pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album Draft I select:



Piano Concerto No. 2 / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - Sergei Rachmaninov (1901/1934)

As recorded for EMI by Moshe Atzmon and the New Philharmonia Orchestra (Agustin Anievas, piano), 1968

Track Listing:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
1 Allegro moderato
2 Adagio sostenudo
3 Allegro scherzando

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
4-27 Introduction, Theme, and 24 variations, including Variation XVIII (Andante cantabile - a tempo vivace)

28 Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2

Preludes, Op. 23 Nos. 1-5
29 No. 1 in F sharp minor
30 No. 2 in B flat major
31 No. 3 in D minor
32 No. 4 in D major
33 No. 5 in G minor

I got a symphony, I got some program music...time for piano! There's lots of ways to go here, but I'm going to go with Rachmaninov. When it comes to Rachmaninov and the piano, the thing to remember is chords. The man had humongous hands, and he wrote chords that he could play without regard to normal humans. The first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 2 exemplifies this from the opening bars, which you've probably heard before. And even if you haven't heard that, I double-money-back-guarantee you've heard the melody from Variation XVIII of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which has been used in innumerable films, TV shows, commercials...video games evidently...and is easily in the running for the finest melody ever composed by humanity. Seriously. This entire disc is great, but Variation XVIII is what pushed this one over the top and ahead of any other collection of piano work I could consider.

And I have to say, I feel a tiny bit bad about the last two albums I've selected (and if I don't change my mind, my next one) having some, shall we say "secondary" work tacked on. I probably shouldn't - nobody here is claiming that none of their albums have a couple of tracks on them that are just coming along for the ride - but in the case of the Preludes that are the hangers-on for this album, well, they're pretty great - good enough to even feature the Op. 3, No. 2 with a YouTube clip - and it's got a pretty nifty little "Piano Hero" video going on.

For melody it's hard to beat Variation XVIII, but if Rachmaninov ever came close, it was in the second movement of Piano Concerto No. 2, introduced by the clarinet at about a minute in before being developed for the remainder of the movement. And, if you want to see blurry pianist fingers, don't miss the cadenza between 6:30 and 7:00!
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I'm simply trying to pick my 25 favorite records, to best represent who I am. I don't see anything wrong with a group experience where everybody can get to know who each individual actually is.


My next two picks will confirm the law of averages.
I don't think anyone is saying something is wrong. I think most of us are just experiencing a new kind of music from you. :)
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Time to correct another oversight:









Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990)


I just missed my "magic" year for this one, but Whitney Houston is one of the most important artists of my generation, if the Soul/R&B genre matters to you as much as it does to me and mine, and it has been nothing short of a travesty that I've participated in three of these, and not selected any of her albums. That ends now. This album has been part of my personal collection for years, and is probably my favorite of her albums, as it gives me all of the legendary Whitney vocals that I love, while also giving me the early 90s flavor that is the backbone of my musical tastes. I'm Your Baby Tonight sold ten million copies worldwide, and was certified platinum in twelve different countries. It peaked at Number Three on the US Charts, and features two Number One singles ("I'm Your Baby Tonight," "All the Man That I Need").


Track listing (links provided to songs released as singles:

  1. "I'm Your Baby Tonight"
  2. "My Name Is Not Susan"
  3. "All the Man That I Need"
  4. "Lover for Life"
  5. "Anymore"
  6. "Miracle"
  7. "I Belong to You"
  8. "Who Do You Love"
  9. "We Didn't Know" (duet with Stevie Wonder)
  10. "After We Make Love"
  11. "I'm Knockin'"


Source: Wikipedia
 
I was gonna go one route, but decided to do a quick 180° and pick a fun live album.
What is more fun than:
KISS - Alive!

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Seriously. Just look at the track listing:

Side one
1. "Deuce"
2. "Strutter"
3. "Got to Choose"
4. "Hotter than Hell"
5. "Firehouse"

Side two
6. "Nothin' to Lose"
7. "C'mon and Love Me"
8. "Parasite"
9. "She"

Side three
10. "Watchin' You"
11. "100,000 Years"
12. "Black Diamond"

Side four
13. "Rock Bottom"
14. "Cold Gin"
15. "Rock and Roll All Nite"
16. "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

Black Diamond is one of my favorite KISS songs. It's one of their darker ones, and a bit more complex that the fan favorites.
Looking at the rest of the album, so many of these songs are just...fun. Strutter is fun. Cold Gin is fun. There are like three KISS songs that I wish were on this album, and that would have made it the perfect KISS anthology. Can a live album be a band's best album? Not sure that it speaks to the "quality" of a band, but you're not really listening to KISS for their intricate chord progressions and lyrical stylings. Was there some, uh, "clean up" done in studio? Maybe. But again, it's KISS.
 
I don't love KISS but this is pretty much all you need. There's a few songs I too could add, some of the cheesier ones from Double Platinum - I don't know why, but I find some of those fun. But yes to Black Diamond. Love the Replacements cover as well. Strutter and Deuce and Cold Gin.

Paul Stanley was doing some good stay home videos about a month ago and then just stopped. Made me appreciate him a lot more than the dude in the Decline movie came off and how Gene seems to just be to this day.

I'll have my pick up soon.
 
Pebbles, Volume 1


My buddy Virgil showed up about a month into our freshman year at university with this album he had picked up at the used record store on Comm ave, where the T stopped for our dorm. It was perhaps the weirdest thing I had ever heard at the time and has stuck with me for many years.

When the garage revival thing happened more than a few of these tracks wound up getting covered here and there and the songs wound up in my regular rotation.

Being that I am sometimes about 5 years old mentally, my two favorites that day which I constantly return to today that I will highlight are The Wilde Knitght's Beaver Patrol and the Elastik Band's Spazz. Also notable is the presence of a track from future impressario/svengali/manager Kim Fowley.

Though I first heard the vinyl I will take the CD track list since it has a few extra tracks.

Artist/Track
  1. The Litter: "Action Woman" — rel. 1967
  2. The Preachers: "Who Do You Love" (Ellas McDaniel)" — rel. 1965
  3. The Floyd Dakil Combo: "Dance Franny Dance" — rel. 1964
  4. The Outcasts: "I'm in Pittsburgh (and it's Raining)" — rel. 1966
  5. The Grains of Sand: "Going Away Baby" — rel. 1966
  6. The JuJus: "You Treat Me Bad" — rel. 1966
  7. The Haunted: "1-2-5" — rel. 1966
  8. The Soup Greens: "Like a Rolling Stone" (Bob Dylan) — rel. 1965
  9. Positively 13 O'Clock: "Psychotic Reaction" — rel. 1966
  10. Kim Fowley: "The Trip" (Kim Fowley)" — rel. 1965
  11. The Elastik Band: "Spazz" — rel. 1967
  12. The Split Ends: "Rich with Nothin'" — rel. 1966
  13. The Shadows of Knight: "Radio Spot" — rel. 1967
  14. The Shadows of Knight: "Potato Chip" — rel. 1967
  15. The Wilde Knights: "Beaver Patrol" — rel. 1965
  16. The Sparkles: "Ain't No Friend of Mine" — rel. 1967, CD bonus track
  17. GONN: "Blackout of Gretely" — rel. 1966, CD bonus track
  18. The Weeds: "It's Your Time" — rel. 1966, CD bonus track
  19. Echo & the Bunnymen: "Action Woman" — rel. 1985, CD bonus/surprise track

 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
Well....

I said I was going to let the RNG decide but my grandmother passed away from cancer on Saturday so now I feel like I have to put a little more thought into this than that. This is an album that speaks to me at the moment: Just as I Am by Bill Withers (1971).



01. Harlem
02. Ain't No Sunshine
03. Grandma's Hands
04. Sweet Wanomi
05. Everybody's Talkin'
06. Do It Good
07. Hope She'll Be Happier
08. Let It Be
09. I'm Her Daddy
10. In My Heart
11. Moanin' and Graonin'
12. Better Off Dead

 
Well....

I said I was going to let the RNG decide but my grandmother passed away from cancer on Saturday so now I feel like I have to put a little more thought into this than that. This is an album that speaks to me at the moment: Just as I Am by Bill Withers (1971).



01. Harlem
02. Ain't No Sunshine
03. Grandma's Hands
04. Sweet Wanomi
05. Everybody's Talkin'
06. Do It Good
07. Hope She'll Be Happier
08. Let It Be
09. I'm Her Daddy
10. In My Heart
11. Moanin' and Graonin'
12. Better Off Dead

Took this on a whim in the extra innings last time. A phenomenal work from an absolute legend. I was saddened to read of his loss in March. Kept singing one of his other hits not on this album to myself for days afterward. An appropriate tribute if mostly off key.

EDIT: And just now I read the comment about your grandmother's passing. I'm sorry to hear that. I can understand why this album would speak to you in the moment.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Well....

I said I was going to let the RNG decide but my grandmother passed away from cancer on Saturday so now I feel like I have to put a little more thought into this than that. This is an album that speaks to me at the moment: Just as I Am by Bill Withers (1971).



01. Harlem
02. Ain't No Sunshine
03. Grandma's Hands
04. Sweet Wanomi
05. Everybody's Talkin'
06. Do It Good
07. Hope She'll Be Happier
08. Let It Be
09. I'm Her Daddy
10. In My Heart
11. Moanin' and Graonin'
12. Better Off Dead

My heartfelt condolences on your loss. :(

This album is a beautiful tribute.
 
Red Bird (A Political Prisoner's Dream) - Trevor Wishart (1978)

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https://www.discogs.com/Trevor-Wishart-Red-Bird-A-Political-Prisoners-Dream/release/428399
Red Bird (A Political Prisoner's Dream) is another pick of with a listening experience akin to watching a film. This record takes the listener on a journey in a vehicle of masterful electroacoustic sound manipulation. It's title hints at what the music represents, but listeners can still decide for themselves what the meaning of each sound is. I hear a person being captured, beaten, indoctrinated, escaping, being chased through a jungle, and eventually swimming to freedom. Many of these scenes would be unpleasant to experience in reality, but much like a movie it can be enjoyed as a piece of art. While following along can be rather easy, everything is presented in an abstract enough manner to keep things musically interesting. The way sound is manipulated to create atmosphere, detail, and mood is second to none. Many of the sounds manage to stand out against an entire universe of music, and has one of my all time favorite openings.

Tracklist

01 - Part 1
02 - Part 2

 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
Well....

I said I was going to let the RNG decide but my grandmother passed away from cancer on Saturday so now I feel like I have to put a little more thought into this than that. This is an album that speaks to me at the moment: Just as I Am by Bill Withers (1971).
Condolences on the loss of your grandmother.
 
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Arrival [Original Film Score] (2016):



01 Arrival
02 Heptapod B
03 Sapir-Whorf
04 Hydraulic Lift
05 First Encounter
06 Transmutation at a Distance
07 Around the Clock News
08 Xenolinguistics
09 Ultimatum
10 Principle of Least Time
11 Hazmat
12 Hammers and Nails
13 Xenoanthropology
14 Non-Zero-Sum Game
15 Properties of Explosive Materials
16 Escalation
17 Decyphering
18 One of Twelve
19 Rise
20 Kangaru

Genre(s): Film score, ambient

This is the second score to one of Denis Villeneuve's films that I have picked in the bonus round. The first, Blade Runner 2049, was no doubt Villeneuve's prize to direct after his string of excellent films preceding it, including 2016's Arrival, a masterpiece of contemplative science fiction adapted from an equally brilliant short story by Ted Chiang.

Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson crafted the score for Arrival, as well as for Villeneuve's tense 2015 drug cartel thriller Sicario. He was also Villeneuve's original choice to compose the score for Blade Runner 2049, but as I wrote in my description for that film's score, Villeneuve eventually sought a different direction for the score, parting ways with Jóhannsson and enlisting Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch to compose a score that was more in line with Villeneuve's vision for the film. The final score to Blade Runner 2049 is tremendous, and Zimmer/Wallfisch presented a cohesive vision that was far better than I could have hoped for, given the esteem in which I hold Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Arrival is a film about dislocation, about striving to communicate through layers of complex emotion and ambiguity. As such, it required a score that would effectively transmit the feeling of being unsettled by that which we do not or cannot understand. Jóhannsson's work on the film is deeply atmospheric, brooding, and eerie. It is also occasionally uplifting and painterly. The score perfectly complements the tonal qualities that Villeneuve and director of photography Bradford Young achieved with their color palette, lighting, and lensing choices.

Of his impressionistic approach to scoring film, Jóhannsson has said, "people are hungry for new sounds, and for the experience of listening to unfamiliar music that you don't hear on commercials and in every TV show." I admire this particular attitude, that listeners can be moved by the unfamiliar if the creator trusts them enough to be challenged. On Arrival, specifically, Jóhannsson has said:

Arrival is my third film with Denis, and we’ve developed a trust and knowledge of each other’s tastes and sensibilities. Denis always involves me in the pre-production stage: I read the script and we talk about the mood and the role that the music needs to play. With Arrival, we didn’t talk much about the music and this was deliberate on his part; he basically gave me carte blanche to experiment.

I knew that I wanted to use voices as one of the prime instruments in the score of a film that is primarily about language and communication. But I wanted to use the voice in a different way, so I worked with an ensemble called Theatre of Voices. They're masters of both early music and contemporary music, so they have a very good command of exotic vocal techniques. I worked with Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe; he is not academically trained, but his voice is an amazing, powerful and flexible instrument.

In terms of voices, I was very influenced by Stockhausen's Stimmung, a piece for six voices and microphones. But I was also listening a lot to spectral composers like Gérard Grisey and Horatiu Rădulescu. In mainstream cinema, there's usually too much music. In Arrival, the use of space and silence is extremely important. When music is needed, it’s really there and it serves a purpose.

I try to approach a project with a blank slate and just let things emerge. I start very early in the process because it takes a lot of time to work in this way. It takes time to find a mood and feel that has some character and individuality, and is not weird for weirdness’s sake."

Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for Arrival should have been nominated for an Academy Award, but the score relied on a beautiful piece of music by Max Richter called "On the Nature of Daylight" in a few key scenes, and was therefore disqualified on the grounds that Jóhannsson's score was "diluted by the use of pre-existing music." It's bullsh*t, but it's one of the Academy's rules. Regardless, the score was, in my opinion, the best of 2016, and I heartily recommend it to those who are hungry for the new.

On a more tragic note, I should mention that Jóhannsson passed away in early 2018 at the age of 48. Toxicology reports indicate that a lethal combination of cocaine and flu medication are likely what contributed to his untimely death. I know not the source of Jóhannsson's apparent drug habit, but his death leaves a gaping hole in the world of contemporary classical music. Part of me desires very much to hear whatever work Jóhannsson had completed on Blade Runner 2049 prior to his departure from that film, if only to know how his brilliant mind would have interpreted the images to my favorite film of the last decade.

R.I.P. Jóhann.
 
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Arrival is an excellent movie. Check it out. Blade Runner I also like, but I could see that being more taste-specific.
Well... I'd offer that they're both pretty taste-specific. Arrival is an alien invasion movie that presents linguistics as the logical path forward as opposed to military might. I adored it, but it's not exactly populist fare. I can imagine that it wouldn't necessarily have wide appeal. That said, it did do surprisingly well at the box office for a slow-moving, cerebral sci fi drama (unlike Blade Runner 2049, which was sadly parallel to its predecessor as an unmitigated box office failure, likewise destined for cult status).
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
Well... I'd offer that they're both pretty taste-specific. Arrival is an alien invasion movie that presents linguistics as the logical path forward as opposed to military might. I adored it, but it's not exactly populist fare. I can imagine that it wouldn't necessarily have wide appeal. That said, it did do surprisingly well at the box office for a slow-moving, cerebral sci fi drama (unlike Blade Runner 2049, which was sadly parallel to its predecessor as an unmitigated box office failure, likewise destined for cult status).
Agreed. But, in general, most people I've talked to who saw Arrival thought it was a very good movie, and this is from a "cross-section" of movie-goers. As someone who generally enjoys something more fast-paced and "entertaining" (sci-fi, action, thrillers, well done dramas/comedies), I thought it was excellent. My wife, who doesn't care for most "sci-fi" fare, also enjoyed it. Others as well.

I know we disagree on this, but I didn't care much for Annihilation. I liked what I thought they were trying to do but it just didn't grab me the way Arrival did.

Sorry, we are getting off-topic. Hopefully VF21 picks soon. :)
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
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Dirty Dancing: Ultimate Dirty Dancing - 2003

This album, released in 2003, contains every song from the movie - in the order it appears in the film. It's all the great music without the silly dialog.

"Be My Baby" – The Ronettes
"Big Girls Don't Cry" – Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
"Merengue" – Michael Lloyd & Le Disc
"Trot the Fox" – Michael Lloyd & Le Disc
"Johnny's Mambo" – Michael Lloyd & Le Disc
"Time of My Life" (instrumental version) – The John Morris Orchestra
"Where Are You Tonight?" – Tom Johnston
"Do You Love Me" – The Contours
"Love Man" – Otis Redding
"Gazebo Waltz" – Michael Lloyd
"Stay" – Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
"Wipe Out" – The Surfaris
"Hungry Eyes" – Eric Carmen
"Overload" – Zappacosta
"Hey! Baby" – Bruce Channel
"De Todo Un Poco" – Michael Lloyd & Le Disc
"Some Kind of Wonderful" – The Drifters
"These Arms of Mine" – Otis Redding
"Cry to Me" – Solomon Burke
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" – The Shirelles
"Love Is Strange" – Mickey & Sylvia
"You Don't Own Me" – The Blow Monkeys
"Yes" – Merry Clayton
"In the Still of the Night" – The Five Satins
"She's Like the Wind" – Patrick Swayze
"Kellerman's Anthem" – The Emile Bergstein Chorale
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" – Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes




What's not to like? :)