38. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
This is album is a definitive example of just how lovely pop music can be. Driven by piano and supplemented by an absolutely lovely voice. While being a certain pop affair, this album has enough quirk and atypicality to it to set it apart from other albums, as, for example, the lead single is a single-voiced a capella tune entitled "Me and a Gun" with some pretty serious and dark subject matter. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention, Winter is quite possibly my favorite song ever. It's my favorite song from Tori and it is unbelievably lovely in a sentimental and nostalgic kind of way. Lovelovelove.
Favorites:
Winter, Silent All These Years
37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – F# A# ∞
I'm a bit wary of the genre of post-rock, especially post-rock with long songs. It can very repetitive and for most of the bands within there is not a whole lot of creativity going on. A good post-rock song really needs to create a good atmosphere you can sense, and the trademark reverb-heavy guitars don't always accomplish that. However, where other post-rock bands fail, GY!BE succeeds superlatively, creating atmospheres that really draw the listener in. F# A# ∞ creates a really apocalyptic atmosphere, sprawling out lush soundscapes delicately peppered with cellos, xylophones, and the standard guitar/drums/bass. The songs are very long, but it's not a very difficult listen if you're in the right mood. F# A# ∞ is a real treat.
Favorites: Providence, East Hastings
36. Scott Walker - Tilt
With his origins based in the forgettable 60s/70s pop group "The Walker Brothers" it'd be easy to lump Scott in with the rest of the forgettable singers of the genre. That is, if you aren't familiar with his solo work. However, if you are, you'll recognize him as one of the most fearlessly artistic and experimental artists ever to come out of that time period. Skipping ahead a while, he went on to release 4 fantastic albums, combining his pop influence from his earlier records with a new dark, idiosyncratic style. Fast forward to 1995's Tilt, and he is still producing some of the most innovative and interesting music of his time, now far away from his 60s/70s pop origins. Tilt is an album of dark orchestration, occasional electronic influence, heavy and foreboding atmosphere, hypnotic rhythms, and Scott Walker's lovely voice, which still has that slight tingle of early pop à la Frank Sinatra, but applied completely differently in a darker sort of way to fit the style of music. I don't know what else to say, it's an amazing album.
Favorites: Farmer in the City, Patriot
I do hope that these write-ups are at least skimmed by one pair of eyes, I've tried to make them interesting.
Topic: ClairvoyantCat's top 50 albums v. This will be in a museum someday (Read 24903 times)