20. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol
Most of my friends, family, and co-workers know I'm a bit of a city guy. My wife always kids around that when we drive out to the suburbs to visit our friends, I lose my super powers. It's like reverse kriptonyte to me. Well, when I'm far away from downtown this is the album I put on and close my eyes to set my mind at ease. From beginning to end, the reverb throughout this album sounds like it is bouncing off of skyscrapers.
Some people knock Interpol for sounding too much like Joy Division. Really? You think it's a bad thing to sound like one of the most innovative bands in the history of music? Especially one that burned out so quick? The picked up that torch and carried it with pride. Well, as much pride as NYC hipsters are willing to show. And that's why I do love this album. It has a heart to it but it is buried under so much stylized guitar and vocals that you don't hear it on the first or fifth listen. Those first listens, it just sounds cool. But when you hear Stella, I Love You yelled out, you can hear the pain of a real man. Those inside-out moments are special.
19. Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams
2001 was an amazing year to be young and single in Chicago. I was working for a dot com based right on Michigan Ave, living across from The Steppenwolf Theater, and going out almost every night with a core group of wonderfully single friends. One of those friends was Traci H who was the marketing manager at my company. She and her best friend (who's name I can't remember, which is a complete travesty) were awesome girls to go drinking with. And one night after probably going to Rose and listening to their real 45-playing juke box, we headed back to my place. They put in their favorite new music crush, Ryan Adams. I immediately fell in love.
For the next year, Ryan became my favorite artist. It may be because he and I are about the same age. It helped that he came through Chicago about three times in a very short time span, and I made it to all those shows. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that Traci's friend told me one night as we were belly up at a bar that To Be Young... was her theme song for me. Every time she thought of it, she thought of me. And, honestly, there has never been a more perfect song to describe any point in my life. To this day it gives me chills. Since that song kicks off this "debut" (after an awesome musical argument about The Smiths), it now feels like the lead single for my Chicago story.
But the strength of this album is that it has morphed into one that also a bedrock in the relationship between my wife and I. I love that we both love Oh My Sweet Carolina since it mentions cities in Ohio and Texas. Also, I love singing Amy softly to her when we put this record on. So as much as this album was brought into my life through my inthralling early 20s, it's lasted the test of time by being much more than a young man's lament.
18. Voodoo - D'Angelo
Another quick story about my single Chicago years. Each time I bought concert tickets (which was all the time), I would buy two no matter what. They whole idea in my head was between now and the show, I'd meet some cool, deceptively beautiful girl at some bar. We'd talk about our favorite artists, I'd throw in something about the upcoming show, I'd see a glimmer in her eye when I brought it up, I'd ask her, she say yes, we go, love ensues. Guess what my batting average was on that dream? A big fat goose egg.
I bring this up, because when I bought tickets to see D'Angelo, I thought FOR SURE this was my chance. This album had been out a little while, and had quickly become one of my favorite R&B albums of all time. The staccato approach to vocals is so different that your standard soul voice. It becomes it's own rhythm instrument, much like how James Brown used his voice. But instead of being this agressive snare/bass like The Godfather, it's more like a second base line. And it is fucking sexy. One Mo'gin is like ease-dropping on a conversation between long lost lovers, and Untitled (besides having one of the most iconic videos of all time) is ecstasy on wax. It's baby makin' music of the highest order.
Back to the concert. So, of corse I didn't find a love interest to go with me. My friend Corinna ended up going with me. I think she was glad I talked her into it, because she was clearly impressed with his, um, assets. Honestly, I've never been to a show where the pheromones were such a swirl in the air as very sensible woman went absolutely nuts for D. The women in the front row actually ripped the shirt off the man so they could see his abs. Great soul-revival show.
17. Saturdays = Youth - M83
I downloaded this record one random weeknight the first year of Caleb's life. I know this because after it downloaded, I went into our kitchen, and started washing bottles. This activity became my one true moment of zen each night, as it meant that I could put on my headphones and melt away into music. So that night I oh so slowly washed each nipple and top one-by-one as I took an unsuspecting trip back to 1985 thought this album.
The cinematic soul of this record is just so lush. It calls you out to the field on the cover where a gang of teenage misfits write hearts in their journal and dream of a place where they fit in. You just want to find that Graveyard Girl and let her know that she's never gonna completely fit in, but that's the best thing that could ever happen. And then, like magic, you get the chance when We Own The Sky comes on, and takes all those kids by the hand and runs into the future. This is one hundred times better than any teenage vampire movie, much like the great John Hughes teen movies we grew up with.
16. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel the IllinoisThere's no shortage of super-emo music in this past decade. All those kids that picked up an electric guitar after Nirvanna were picking up an acoustic instead. But only one of them took an even stranger step back to a sound that was based in the orchestral simplifications of high school band. Sound like the description of one of the best albums of the decade? Well somehow Sufjan pulled that off and made and album for the ages.
The middle of this very long album is also it's heart. Chicago reminds me of a secret road trip me and my buddies from high school took to New Orleans for spring break our senior year. And Casimir Pulaski Day may be about a young girl with cancer, but the emotions in the simple line "...and I almost touched your blouse." describe the anxiety I had every single first kiss I had, including my wife. Pop songs so rarely convey such subtle but complex feelings with such vibrant song writing. I don't blame Sufjan ending his quest to write an album for every state after this one. How could he top this one?
Check out the next 5 albums here.
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