Popping in to give you this morning's update, but for most of you I guess it's rather late.
Anyhow, as I've done the previous days I'll also update later today, but for now.. here are the next 3:
38. Modest Mouse -
Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004)
Let's take a walk down memory lane.
Jump back two years, I spent the summer at my aunt's house with my dad and sister. During the week we spent there, I had the important job of deciding/picking all the music for playing in the car, and since I had recently purchased this album, it was one of the 4 or 5 that I chose.
This album was spinned quite a lot that week, when we were out driving in the nice summer-weather, and while the music it self has some sadder songs, all in all it was an experience I won't forget. Cranking up "Float On" on high volume while driving was epic, this album quickly went from a new album, to an album I felt like I had known for my whole life.
This is Indie Rock at it's finest, many people talk about bands like Bands of Horses and Arcade Fire, and while those are certainly great, this album remains one of the best within the genre for me. It has some songs that are impossible not to sing along with, and it's a well crafted album all in all. After falling in love with this album, I checked up the follow-up, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank", but sadly it didn't click nearly as much. I've been meaning to check out more of their earlier stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Luckily we still have this superb album.
Favorite songs: Float On, The World at Large & The Good Times are Killing Me.37. Björk -
Vespertine (2001)
Next up we have the queen of electronica/pop with lots of experimental stuff included, of course I'm talking about Björk!
I can honestly say that Sonata here on the forum was the reason I checked her out, and it was at the perfect time also, cause I had already developed a bit of an interest in electronic music, so Björk really fitted into that. I soon discovered however that Björk was so much more then just electronic or pop, and that all of her albums are very unique.
This album is her fifth album, and considered by many to be her best album. (myself included)
An interesting fact is that I got into this album during summer-time, and listened to it almost endlessly, but I would almost classify it more as a winter-album, both because of the cover and the music, but also because of song-names like "Frosti" and "Aurora".
Björk has a really special voice that might take time getting used to, but when you do it's just so worth it. Her music is really interesting and has tons of layers, even though I've listened to some of her albums loads of times, I can still hear new things underneath it all.
This album is perfect for winter mornings for me, I tend to listen to it if it's chilly outside.
Favorite songs: Hidden Place, Aurora & Harm of Will.36. Amplifier -
Amplifier (2004)
This is an album that I really wanted to rank higher, but I still consider the band and this album a fairly new acquaintance, but it certainly has the potential to climb more.
Amplifier is sort of the brother-band of Oceansize, they are both from Manchester and they are both in the sort of "modern prog"-genre, though there's certainly differences between the bands. When Oceansize broke up earlier this year, Steve Durose (guitar) joined Amplifier, and they're one of my current favorites, and they have only released 3 albums, this is their debut album.
For those wanting more Oceansize-related trivia, Mike Vennart and Steve Durose both perform backing vocals on the songs "Panzer" and "UFOs", these bands were really tight, for those who are are huge Oceansize-fans like myself, there's a song called "Sizeofanocean" where Sel Balamir of Amplifier sings backing vocals and plays guitar as well, so they really enjoyed playing with each other.
Anyhow, to this album instead. Imagine of Oceansize, Tool, Pink Floyd (and to some extent) Black Sabbath had an orgie which resulted in a child. That child would be Amplifier.
Their music is unbelievably epic considering that they are only a trio, they have a very nice mix of mellow parts and heavy parts, and they have an almost "wall of sound"-guitar vibe, which is especially noticeably on the heavier songs.
As I said I wanted to rank this album higher, because out of the 10 songs on it, I would rank all of them 8/10 or higher, several perfect songs on this album, and while it has a certain sound throughout, it still never gets boring or dull.
(Just want to point out that there are 2 different versions of the album, one has 13 songs, the other has 14 songs, but spread out on two albums with 10 on the main disc, I have the latter)
The album is a perfect modern Progressive album, mixing elements of metal and Space Rock into it, resulting in a very fresh and modern sound.
I'm in a huge Amplifier-period right now actually, and I've been spinning their albums a lot the last week, and this album just gets better with time. The incredible thing is that, after every song you almost think "it cant get better then this", and then it does.
Truly fantastic debut-album, one of the best on that field.
Favorite songs: Airborne, Post Acid Youth & UFOs. I dedicate this post to Sonata (The Björk and Modest Mouse-parts at least!), and I'll be back later today with an update.
Topic: Zantera's top 50 albums (Finished!) (Read 24140 times)
