Yeah, so I've let this blog slide again. Whoops.
I have big plans to do a write up on my first year at Duke... it will be up soon, I promise.
In no particular order, here are ten music albums that embody the good ol' days...
I must've been about 15 when I first listened to this album. My brother-in-law had given me his second copy of the album and told me how great it was. I was going through a major dance music phase at the time (that's "EDM" for the yanks), but decided to humour it nonetheless.
I hated it.
Darius Rucker, at the time, sounded to me like a Triceratops having a particularly violent bout of period pains. I promptly shelved the CD, and didn't pick it up until many years later... during first year of university, if I recall correctly. But when I did, wow. Just, wow. It was like listening to it with a different pair of ears - it's funny what a few years can do to mature a person's taste. This album is pretty melancholy, and certainly makes for a great post-breakup soundtrack...
Speaking of techno music, and in stark contrast to Hootie, here's another blast from the nineties. I cannot explain to you how much I fucking love this album. It's just absolutely immense, drug-fueled, nonsensical madness. Yeah sure, I was a gimpy straight-A kid growing up, but listening to Fat of the Land was a nice little outlet for some subdued teenage rebellion.
Of course LA's finest were going to make this list! The only question - which album should I choose? Sure, the self-titled Cypress Hill is iconic, and Black Sunday was their breakthrough triple platinum-album. But only one of their works was game-changing, and that album is Skull & Bones.
This album comes on two discs - the "Skull" disc is a regular rap record (and by "regular" I mean awesome). The other "Bones" disc is a seminal work that marked the foray of traditional hip hop groups into the rap-metal scene. This album was perfectly timed to help create a rap-metal wave along with other bands - e.g. Limp Bizkit's Significant Other instantly comes to mind.
Being a first generation British Asian can be a tough cookie sometimes - especially when you grow up in mostly traditional British middle and upper-middle class neighbourhoods (*cough*
white*cough*). I always found the dichotomy between my parents' traditional Indian culture and the British culture of my friends to be a constant source of internal conflict and confusion.
Artists such as Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh and Asian Dub Foundation shared similar challenges growing up (I imagine!), so I was naturally drawn to these guys' music.
Beyond Skin is a particularly striking album that really got British Asian fusion music into the limelight, having been nominated for the 2000
Mercury Music Prize - the prestigious British music award which Talvin Singh won a year earlier with
OK.
Nevermind - Nirvana
Iconic - that's the only word I can really muster to describe this album. I can't imagine anyone growing up in the nineties without being influenced by
Nevermind. It's the musical embodiment of dark, depressing teenage strife. Oh, and that kid on the album art - he's now
now at college. Feeling old?
I'll be honest, I almost bumped this album in favour of
In Utero, which I personally rate slightly higher than
Nevermind. But how can you not have the album which starts off with
Smells Like Teen Spirit feature up here?! Don't worry,
In Utero gets an honourable mention below.
Play - Moby
Play is a really weird album - I almost feel like it has bipolar disorder. Tracks like
Bodyrock and
Honey are amazing feel good tunes that you could put on before a big night out with the lads. But then you have
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, The Sky Is Broken and
Natural Blues, which are the kind of tunes you put on when you've just broken up with a chick and you need a soundtrack to accompany your bottle of Scotch.
Sometimes I feel angry at Moby for plucking at all sorts of emotions with this album, but not wholly satisfying any of them. But you really can't hold anything against him when many of the tracks are individually so excellent. Anyways, this is an outstanding album, and fully deserves to make this list.
The Score - Fugees
I genuinely can't remember the first album I ever bought, which is a bit depressing. What I can remember is that
The Score was definitely *one of* the first. In fact, I'm pretty sure I bought it twice; once on cassette in India for about Rs.200 (I guess that was like £3 / $4), and again when it came out in the UK on CD.
I hate to overuse the word "seminal", but this album really was a major influence on the entire genre of hip hop music. I vividly remember hearing
Ready Or Not on BBC Radio 1 for the first time when I was about 12... Mind. Blown.
I knew right then I needed to hear more of Fugees' work, and the album delivered everything I wanted and more.
Fu-Gee-La, Killing Me Softly, The Score, No Woman, No Cry, Zealots - in fact every single tune on the album just absolutely kills it. And the skits provide some unintended comic relief between tracks! "No, no, no, we want beef to eat. We ain't got no beef!". If that wasn't enough, when
Aphrodite got hold of the album, he knocked together some pretty kick ass DnB remixes too...
Icing.
On.
Cake.
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis
Ahh, those trusty northern folk - ensuring that the British tobacco, alcohol and fast food industries remain buoyant, whilst simultaneously providing the
NHS and
Job Centre with a steady stream of customers. Could there be a more noble pursuit in life? There's no love lost between me and the time I spent growing up near
Leeds, but one can't help but admire the stream of talented bands that have blossomed from the inhospitable north. The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Elbow, The Stone Roses, Def Leppard and The Verve, to name but a handful.
And of course, of course, Oasis. Despite frequent bust-ups between the Gallagher brothers, on and off-stage antics, and even allegations of lyric plagiarism, these guys put out some sterling albums back in the day.
What's The Story is one of those timeless albums, that you'll never get bored of listening.
Don't Look Back In Anger is probably my favourite track, but there are so many excellent anthems, it's hard to choose!
The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One - The Prodigy
So, I've saved the best for last... of the other early Prodigy albums that could have made this list (and would have, had I not 'cheated' by including this, a mix album), this one steals the final spot with genuine ease. Many self-proclaimed music "experts" think that this could be the greatest mix album created. I don't care what they think. I *know* it's the greatest mix album ever created. For this single piece of musical brilliance,
Liam Howlett deserves a Knighthood.
If I could take one record to the grave, this would be it.
Honourable Mentions
I had a super hard time getting this list down to just ten albums, so here is my much larger (and probably still woefully incomprehensive) list of those that need to be mentioned:
