2. Guster – Keep It Together

Guster! This album was fairly new when I made the old list, so I couldn’t add it. Now I can. As for where I’d put it on my list of Guster Albums, I’d keep Lost and Gone Forever first, put this one second, Goldfly third, and finally Parachute. As for songs on this album, I especially like : Careful, Jesus on the Radio, Ramona, Come Downstairs and Say Hello, Diane, Amsterdam, Two at a Time, Long Way Down, and I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today. I also really like Red Oyster Cult, Keep It Together, and Homecoming King… for those of you counting, that means I didn’t like “Backyard” that much, but loved the rest of the album. If you haven’t listened to Guster yet.. well, you have to.. unless you hate music… or hate joy.

3. Hole – Celebrity Skin

Hole was on the last list. Right around the time I finished doing that list, I started listening to this album a lot… like every day at work for weeks. This album has a few things going for it that work well on me. First are the things it retains from the other album, which I’ve already shown that I like:

• It’s angry chick rock. I like that.
• The song lyrics actually say something, beyond “Love is great” and “I like sex/drugs/rock”

But now it has a few other things going for it:

• The songs are varied. (i.e. it’s not all screaming over basic rock riffs
• The entire album is very, very polished.

Some people may have a negative view on bands having a producer come in and tweak the band’s performance to get the best sound out of them. Maybe some people think this changes who the band is, or alters them in such a way that is no longer “true” or whatever… but I tend not to, and here’s one example where I think it really helped. These songs all sound very well done, very professional, and, I dunno “tight”. The previous album had a bit of an edge that you could call “Raw” and for that album, and those songs, it really worked. This album was different.. the songs called for a cleaner voice that, well, you’re not going to get if you throw Courtney Love into a booth by herself and tell her to make an album. (listen to American Sweetheart). But you get a Billy Corgan in there, and you take good songs, and make them great.

Personal favorites on this album:

• Boys on the Radio
• Awful
• Heaven Tonight
• Use Once and Destroy
• Reasons to be Beautiful
• Malibu

And some lyrics that I saved:

‘Love hangs herself with the bedsheets in her cell.’ – Reasons to be Beautiful
• ‘And now I know that love is dead.’ – Dying
• ‘I know that you don’t love me anymore’ – Boys on the Radio
• ‘Give me a reason to be beautiful.’ – Reasons to be Beautiful
• ‘It might as well hurt’ – Use Once and Destroy
• ‘Love hates you.’ – Reasons to be Beautiful

4. Brian Vander Ark – Resurrection

Brian Vander Ark is the lead singer of The Verve Pipe. As you might recall they made the other list, and I like them a lot. Well this album came out, and I listened to it, and I really, really liked it. It’s a bit more mellow than the Verve Pipe albums, stripped down a bit (think “Unplugged”), but still has a number of “rocking” songs. What really struck me was how open and honest the lyrics were. This is not your typical “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” and “Love is great” pop album. These songs have real substance to them… They describe betrayal, remorse, loss, anger, and hope in up front and painfully realistic ways.. You can tell these lyrics aren’t just hypotheticals… Check out these lyrics from And then You Went Away

‘Cause there’s a photograph that you had put up on display
Then you went away…and then you went away
And there’s a box of letters that had me thinking you would stay
Then you went away…and then you went away
And there’s a coffee table you said would not be in the way
Then you went away, and then you went away
And in the window garden the leaves are falling in decay
Since you went away…and then you went away

So the songs can be split into a couple of categories: You’ve got your songs about a relationship that ended:

• And then You Went Away – A song about a person who is constantly reminded of the person who left by all the things around the house that used to be “theirs”.
• A Million Things – A song about the end of the relationship, where things are bad, and nothing seems to be getting better, but the singer is trying to hold in the anger/complaints in the hope that they can ride it out… but the other person doesn’t:
  There’s a million things i wish you were,
  but what’s for sure is one thing i wish you were not
  i wish you weren’t the one to leave me stranded
  here empty handed with a head full of wishes.
  
• 1229 Sheffield – A song that goes from the couple meeting, through their relationship, and ends with this very sad line: i can’t make you love me, cause i don’t have the strength anymore.

Then you’ve got your songs about hope and love and freedom and other optimistic things:

• Mileage – In my reading about Brian Vander Ark, it seems that after Freshmen went big, and then fame kinda went away, he was unhappy, obviously, but then eventually decided to just get rid of most of his stuff, and took off on the road to play around the country at gigs here and there. This song strikes me as describing that idea.. that decision. It begins describing the problems and worries that he must have had, and his wish to have done things different, and desire to get away from it.. and as he drives away, those worries disappear behind him:
  “Well known” sits in a cloud of dust on this week day
  My cell phone is in about a million pieces on the highway
  Speed down the highway, rack up the miles (121…122…)
  Roll down the window, roll out the miles (123…124…)
  And straight down the highway, the road offers no guarantees (1021…1022…)
  Drive through the morning, drive into the sun and I’m free (1023…1024…)

  I really, really like this song.

• Resurrection – Surviving the good and the bad, and returning stronger… from pretty much anything.
• Second Hand – Similar in feel, about someone who is feeling down and discarded, and the promise that they’ll be returned to their proper status.
• To the Front Row Junkies – This song is at the end of the album, and it’s fantastic. It’s a song to the faithful fans who some to see him perform… and how they share something special together.
• Someone Like You – An unabashed love song.
• When I’m Gone – This song doesn’t quite fit in any of the other categories, but it’s neither pessimistic nor optimistic, really. It’s a simple question: Will I be missed when I’m gone. I really like this song as well. It seems to take one of the biggest questions we’re faced with in life “Why am I here, and what am I supposed to be accomplishing with my life?” and whittles it down to that one idea: “When I’m gone, will people miss me?”

Here’s the final category: Songs that seem to be about success, failure, and “the Industry”.

• Hollywood Ending – I have to admit, I’m still not quite sure about this song [Not whether I like it or not.. I do like it... but I'm not quite sure what it's about..] I tend to choose the obvious in this case, and just think it’s about how he used to be rather famous, and now isn’t so much, and there’s no grand Hollywood Ending where everything magically works out, and he’s super famous/ [or successful, yada?] again. It could be some cryptic song about a relationship dying as well, I’m not sure.
• Written and Erased – If you liked Verve Pipe a lot before they became famous (I did) and then were upset with how they were suddenly really big, then instantly tossed away (I was), then this song you’ll prolly like. Here are some clips:
  • As soon as something’s popular it’s written and erased
  • Where imitation is just limitation in disguise
  • Do you wanna be famous, wanna get a taste,
    do you wanna be written and erased?
    Do you wanna be faded like the scene in a one hit wonder magazine

It’s a good hit. I like the way the songs were written. I give it 5 stars.

So.. I haven’t written much lately, so I figured I’d pick a few topics that would force a post or two.. or at least a bit more consistency. So the first one I’ve got is this: A while back, I wrote a list of albums that I liked. Since then I’ve come across a few more albums, and so here now is my list of my 5 favorite albums that I’ve been listening to since I made that list (that weren’t already on the list, obviously).

So.. here’s some “also rans” that didn’t quite make the “Top 5″ list:

• Killers – Hot Fuss
• My Chemical Romance – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
• Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth
• Avril Lavigne – Under My Skin
• Alanis Morissette – So Called Chaos
• Evanescence – Fallen
• No Doubt – Rock Steady
• Throwback – Border Crossing

5. Green Day – American Idiot

I liked Green Day when back when Dookie was released… and then they got overplayed, yada yada yada, and I’d had enough. So this album came out, and I was told that it was good (I was also told that it sucked) Anyway, I listened to it, and I really liked it. The things that really hit me: 1. The way the whole album is tied together. Songs reference each other, lyrical themes recur, and musical themes/choruses are brought back in later songs. 2.) The songs are very playable. The chords aren’t complicated, nor are the solos, and finally, a Green Day album is in standard tuning. Huzzah! 3.) The album is pretty varied. The thing that got me tired of Green Day before was that each song sounded just like the last one. In this album, songs are different, and I like that.

This album also reinforced the whole “I can like an album without agreeing with its message” idea. The album gets pretty political, and while some of it I can agree with, other parts I find myself just kinda accepting as being their point of view (kinda like Pearl Jam’s “Bushleaguer”… You just kinda sigh and say “Yeah, you don’t like him. We get it.) I also really don’t like the video to “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, but I did like the Holiday video quite a bit. Anyway, this is my favorite album to play on the guitar lately, and as I listen to the album quite a bit, and have for a while, it gets my #5 pick.