I can't get enough of horn-driven music. The emotional power of a trumpet and saxophone combines with a slick trombone sound can turn average to good, good to great.
I can't get enough of the motown sound, even when it's not actually motown. Perfectly crafted pop songs with deeper meanings that first appear on the surface.
I can't get enough of rude singers. Ones that don't care about the CW and just go for broke in their lyrical content and eff-you-ness.
I can't get enough of those who respect the past enough to bring it back to the present. People who know that we need to understand where we came from in order to know where we can go.
I can't get enough of the complex altitudes this album takes you to and I have listened to it so many times that I think I am finally starting to understand it. Sonically beautiful, imperfect in all the right places.
I can't get enough of this Amy Winehouse album.
Of all the albums I've ever heard, this one is probably the one that has been the most important to developing my musical understanding.
The album is what rhythm n' blues, soul and funk sound like when married perfectly. The use of multi-tracked vocals, a strange falsetto that I didn't understand until recently and a hip-hop sensibility combine to form a groove that is limber enough to flex back and forth between love and jealousy, coolasapimp-swagger and vulnerable.
It's not just the horns, or the bass guitar or the vinyl scratches in places that seem to only need a quick sample to pull it together. It's not just the consistently drummed song of Questlove in the background pulling it all together like a musical quarterback. It's not just the peaks and valleys the songs have as you're brought up to the top of the church and then down to its exhausted floor.
Musically, I can't be where I am today without this album. I can't listen to it out of order. It's my #1 favorite of all time. It's the reason I do what I do.
Contributors to the album include: Pino Palladino, Questlove, Roy Hargrove, DJ Premier, Method Man, Redman, Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq, James Poyser, Charlie Hunter and J-Dilla.
I more or less found this CD by accident. I had never heard of Wilco, but then read in a Blender or Maxim or some other men's magazine (which is great plane reading) of this band whose album was so progressive that it had no singles and the record label told them to take a hike. The funny part is that when shopped around, other labels thought the album was worth publishing, but the original label didn't want to sell the masters for less than it was worth.
I love the album because its interesting and inspires me to go beyond the limits of the G-C-D chords. There's a irrationality to the tones and sounds hidden in between the folk music. The lyrics are poetic and resist the syrupy sorrow of a "deep album." Wilco may go down as one of the more complex, great bands that people don't listen to in the future. This is an easy album to listen to, and a hard album to understand.
The album is a Polaroid photograph of a moment, where there isn't any editing. There is just what there is. Take life as it comes and accept your happiness, your sadness, your longing, your surprise, your mystery, your abilities, your problems...
(Yes, that IS Fred Armisan.)
I found this album through my friend Brendan, who was always just a little bit ahead of me in terms of music. We used to listen to this album all the time, back when it was tough to find CD players in cars. I think I borrowed it from him for 2 months before he finally asked for it back and I had to buy my own copy.
The album was a reflection of where I was going in terms of musical taste: a blend of punk, hip-hop, rock, folk, reggae, thrash and dub. I think this could have been one of the best bands of any of those listed genres has Bradley and his talent for song writing been able to overcome his talent for self-destruction.
Even today, I'm still hearing new things when I hear the album. As I learn more about the catalogs of some of the more influential artists like The Skatalites, NWA, Ramones, Willie Nelson, I hear echos of all of them and more. It is as much a tribute as it is a declaration of new era of music that is not afraid to ignore genre.
I still play the album from front to back as the first thing I listen to whenever I get a new car.
