It’s getting toward the end of 2007 and I know many of you have already started checking out “Best of 2007” music list. My recommendations are Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga and Kenna’s Make Sure They See My Face. (In case you're wondering, my other recs are 2005's Little Brother's The Minstrel Show and 2006's The Dears’ Gang of Losers.)
However, instead of talking about just ’07, why not give you a list of the best albums in my lifetime. There are many from the mid-to-late ‘80s that could go on here, but since I didn’t purchase my first album until around the 1990, I limited my pre-‘90 selections to Number One:
1. Michael Jackson’s Thriller - Technically, it was released on Dec. 1, 1982, and I know there are plenty of great albums that have come out since then, but none will have more meaning for me. Michael Jackson’s music built bridges across race, gender, socio-economic, and geographic barriers that no artist ever has.
2. Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt - The Blueprint, Black Album, and American Gangster are all worthy of consideration, but I have to go back to the beginning of Jay-Z. I can play this album straight-through to this day, eleven years later. And Regrets is one of my favorite five songs of all time.
3. Dave Matthews Band’s Crash - Under the Table and Dreaming was/is a really good album, but Crash is DMB’s truly great work. Crash Into Me helped push the jam band into U2 touring status and #41 is another one for my top five songs of all time.
4. A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders - In the mid-to-late ‘90s when Tribe called it quits, I wasn’t sad because The Love Movement wasn’t as good as their earlier work. I was sad because I never got to see them in concert. Midnight Marauders, to me, is Tribe at their best.
5. Outkast’s The Love Below/Speakerboxx - I know a lot of people point to Aquemini and Stankonia because of their hits like “Rosa Parks” and “Ms. Jackson,” but the Grammy voters had it right when they gave Outkast the award for best album with this one.
6. Wilco’s A Ghost is Born - Jeff Tweedy is a genius, but he’s even smarter on this album because of the musicality employed by his bandmates. Like on “Muzzle of Bees.”
7. Radiohead’s Kid A - I’d be willing to hear someone make a case for OK Computer as Radiohead’s best work, but - for me - Kid A and it’s downtrodden, mellow tunes are exactly what I like from them. What other band can have a song called “How to Disappear Completely” that made you feel like a zombie walking the eart then have a song called “Optimistic” that made you feel like a bird flying in the sky?
8. Jill Scott’s Beautifully Human Part I - This album is a lot like Midnight Marauders in that it makes you feel something with every single track and you can’t stop listening to what she’s saying and how she’s expressing it. I cannot wait to see her in March!
9. Kanye West’s College Dropout - I can’t lie, I think both Late Registration and Graduation are better albums, but College Dropout is that original, first-cut Kanye. I remember listening to this album for four months straight when I bought it. I also had the chance to meet him briefly after a show in Houston in ’04, so that makes College Dropout extra special for me.
10. N.E.R.D.’s In Search of… - This was, by far, the toughest to put in the top ten. Not because it’s not top-ten material. This album makes it into the top-15 on the strength of “Am I High” another top-fiver alone. But the next five albums could easily be in its place. If only I didn’t have more sentimental value for this album since I met Pharrell in early ’05 before and after a show in Dallas.
11. 311’s Transistor - I used to listen to this on band trips and track meets throughout sophomore year of high school. Now I listen to it to fall asleep (it’s mellow). Any album that gives you new reasons to like it 8 years later is top-notch material.
12. Beck’s Sea Changes - Beck has made so much high-quality music that it’s tough to pick his best work. So I just picked his most depressing music, which doubles as his most sensible music. Between this and 311’s Transistor, I could sleep for eons.
13. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic - A lot of you may think this should be much higher, but I can’t listen to it straight through anymore because it’s lost a little bit of its hard-hitting/shock value now that we’ve had several years of Dre hits bumpin’ in our bars and cars.
14. 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ - Speaking of Dr. Dre, he and Eminem teamed up to make 50 Cent our generation’s LL Cool J. The total package: lyrical prowess, sales success, a strong reputation with men and women (LL lost the men though) rap fans and Queens on his back.
15. Sevendust’s Animosity - Never heard the album? That’s okay. Just wait until you’re in a really fired up mood or you’re driving (and don’t mind getting a speeding ticket) to put this CD in and be prepared to ROCK. This thing is absolute fire! I remember flying with my oldest brother to Texas and singing “Crucified” at the top of my lungs.
16. T.I.’s - Both King and this year’s T.I. vs. T.I.P. are better albums, but Urban Legend is T.I. at his best. I had 85 of my favorite CDs stolen on an American Airlines flight last October and this is one of the albums I missed within a day.
17. Roni Size’s New Forms - My oldest brother and I are early adopters, him more than me, when it comes to popular music (is that oxymoronic? early adopter/popular?) but I can’t say we were among the first to hear Roni Size. I can only when we picked up Brown Paper Bag, it reinforced to both of us that there was a world out there - outside of the 3 Rs of music (R&B, rock and rap) - and we needed to hear more!
18. Badly Drawn Boy’s Hour of the Bewilderbeast - My best friend Colby put me up on BDB and I immediately became a huge fan. An even bigger fan after seeing him perform, albeit tipsy, in a room of about 100 people last fall. As he put it, he’s “the best singer/songwriter to come out the UK in 20 years.”
19. John Mayer’s Room for Squares - Call me corny if you want, but this album came at just the right time. That good ol’ bubble gum, road trip pop rock that keeps on giving. I know he’s tried to get all bluesy and mature, but stick to what works John. Why? Because I wanna run through the halls of my high school…
20. Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation - Those who know me well know that I love to dance. I remember watching Janet videos and practicing the moves, like that one on the chair. She and her older brother have so many copy-cats, but they will never been better than the originals.
And the rest in no particular order…and my favorite tracks on them:
Fuel’s Sunburn - “Sunburn”
Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head - “Clocks”
Incubus’ Morning View - “Warning”
Justin Timberlake’s Justified - “Last Night”
No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom - “Don’t Speak”
Fugees’ The Score - “Fu Gee La”
Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP - “Stan”
Maxwell’s Embrya - “Luxury: Cococure”
New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too - “Get What You Give”
Jump, Little Children’s Magazine - “Cathedral”
Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape - “Walking After You”
Korn’s Issues - “Make Me Bad”
Jamie Cullum’s TwentySomething - “All At Sea”
Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show - “Beautiful Morning”
Erykah Badu’s Baduizm - “The Other Side of the Game”
Nas’ Illmatic - “The World is Yours”
Third Eye Blind’s Self-Titled Debut - “Jumper”
Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die - “Me & My Bitch”
Keane’s Hopes and Fears - “Sunshine”
RJD2’s Deadringer - “The Proxy”
Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Californication - “Scar Tissue”
Wu-Tang Clan’s Wu-Tang Forever - “Better Dayz”
Rage Against the Machine’s The Battle of Los Angeles - “Guerrila Radio”
D’Angelo’s Voodoo - “Lady”
Nirvana’s Nevermind - “Come As You Are”
Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor - “Kick, Push Pt. II”
Young Jeezy’s Thug Motivation 101 - “Standing Ovation”
Pearl Jam’s 10 - “Even Flow”
Wallflowers’ Bringing Down the Horse - “One Headlight”
Matchbox 20’s Yourself or Someone Like You - “Push You Around”
Toni Tony Tone’s Greatest Hits - “Anniversary”
New Edition’s NE Heartbreak - “N.E. Heartbreak”
Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggy Style - “Murder Was the Case”
Common’s Be - “Go”
The Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come for Free - “Could Well Be In”
Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury - “Nightmares”
De La Soul’s Stakes is High - “Long Island Degrees”
The Dears’ Gang of Losers - “Ballad of Humankindness”
Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga - “
Air’s Talkie Walkie - “Cherry Blossom Girl”
Ben Fold’s Whatever & Ever Amen - “Brick”
Ghostface’s Fishscale - “Underwater”
Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm - “This Modern Love”
Blockhead’s Downtown Science - “Roll Out the Red Carpet”
Boyz II Men’s II - “Vibin’”
U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - “Vertigo”
Camp Lo’s Uptown Saturday Night - “Sparklin’”
Dido’s No Angel - “All You Want”
Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come a Long Way Baby - “Rockafeller Skank”
The Game’s The Documentary - “Hate it or Love it”
The Garden State Soundtrack - Frou Frou’s “Let Go”
Kenna’s Make Sure They See My Face - “Phantom Always”
Linkin Park’s Meteora - “Nobody’s Listening”
Ludacris’ Southern Hospitality - “Fantasy”
The Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute - “The Widow”
Mary J. Blige’s What’s the 411 - “Love No Limit”
Metallica’s Black Album - “Enter Sandman”
Mic Geronimo’s The Natural - “Shit’s Real”
The Prodigy’s Fat of the Land - “Smack My Bitch Up”
Usher’s Confessions - “Caught Up”
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