1g. The Big 500: The albums that satisfy (301-350)

Nick Drake: Pink Moon (Island 1972)

Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat (Verve 1968)

Johnny Cash: At Fulsom Prison (Columbia 1968)

Nirvana: Unplugged In New York (DGC 1994)

The Streets: A Grand Don’t Come For Free (Vice/Atlantic 2004)

Public Enemy: Fear Of Black Planet (Columbia 1990)

Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne (Sire 1993)

Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Out Troubled Water (Columbia 1970)

Skip James: Today! (Vanguard 1966)

Cream: Disraeli Gears (Polydor 1967)

Bjork: Post (Elektra 1995)

Kate Bush: The Dreaming (EMI 1982)

The Orb: Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (Blue Plate 1991)

The Moody Blues: Days Of Future Passed (Polydor 1967)

Queens Of The Stone Age: Songs For The Deaf (Interscope 2002)

Graham Parker: Howlin' Wind (Mercury 1976)

Kanye West: The College Dropout (Rocafella 2004)

Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention: We're Only In It For The Money (Rykodisc 1968)

Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin' Simon (Warner Bros. 1973)

A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory (Jive 1992)

Guided By Voices: Alien Lanes (Matador 1996)

Alien Lanes has 28 songs in 48 minutes; the math would tell you that each song would be about a minute & a half long. In that assumption you’d be half-right, certain songs are as short as 40 seconds. Which basically means that you get some short ass song fragments all pushing up against one-another. Basically an album experiment akin to the Abbey Road b-side. Pollard & Sprout have trimmed the flab off their song-writing leaving stringy bits of exciting song-writing barely managing coherence as the hooky songs vie for position. Butting up against the other in what sounds like alt-rock-mersey beat-mod-peppy folk bumper cars. Exactly what the music sounds like can be broken down into several distinctions; Pavement entertain a love for the Beau Brummels in the remake of “Love Me Do” or Nirvana remake “Victoria” as The Lovin’ Spoonful would’ve written it.
Beginning with the drugged out “A Salty Salute” with the album-invitation “C’mon, c’mon the club is open” enveloped in fuzzy guitars. Eventually making it to the 3rd song, the first masterpiece of the album, “Watch Me Jumpstart” in which the alien sounds of The Beatles being rammed through Black Sabbath come to you via great lyricism and a tongue in cheek. The album makes it’s way to “As We Go Up We Go Down” begins in all it’s swarthy fuzzed out Kinkish glee containg the great angry-young-man greeting “I speak in monoton, leave my f*****g life alone”. Zooming into the other-world woozing guitars of “(I Wanne Be A) Dumbcharger” and then instantly into “Game Of Pricks”, my personal favorite. Guitars floating along merrily behind a layer of lo-fi hiss and bouncing about like a bouyant and depressed 60’s band. And on through several more songs of interest and coolness into “Pimple Zoo” with it’s ardent retort “sometimes I get the feeling that you don’t want me around” that butts up against the words “Introducing the amazing rockethead”; you’ve entered “The Chief Chinese Restaurant”. “Closer You Are” is the next nugget of greatness tearing along through kick drums and noodling 60’s guitar and an incredibly pretty hook. Leading to “Motor Away”, a great song with so much propulsion you can almost feel the wind in your hair as your lips slapp the back of your head. “My Valuable Hunting Knife” is the centerpiece of the album, a hollow reverbing triumph of Kinks-meets-Pavement mutation. It’s a very charming song with an effortless hook. The album seems as if it’s winding down, but it gets started again with “Striped White Jets”. A startling quasi-metal song with a huge roaring breakdown fueled by an uber-pretty hook perloined from “Them” or some such band. An unexpected riotous blast of noise. Which begets the only song with snoring used as the rhythm section, the marvelous “Ex-Supermodel”. “Blimps Go 90” is the exact opposite of Striped White Jets. A cello sweetly floats along behind the gently boppin’ music and a dreamy melody-line. The closing section includes such gems as “Chicken Blows” a slow distorted rock-waltz that borrows barbershop quartet “ow wa lalala’s” and a melody stripped from a Beatles song (I don’t know which one). These songs string towards the conclusion, marked by “Always Crush Me”, a creepily abstract song with almost oriental strummed guitar underneith a shrieking Pollard. The last song “Alright” merely serves as a instrumental outtro that suprisingly, if you have your stereo on repeat, leads back the first track. This makes replays easy and enjoyable, and really…why wouldn’t you wanna do that.

Gillian Welch: Hell Among The Yearlings (Almo Sounds 1998)

Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Band (Columbia 1973)

David Bowie: Low (RCA 1977)

The Cure: Pornography (Atlantic 1982)

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Damn The Torpedoes (MCA 1979)

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros. 1977)

Michael Jackson: Thriller (Epic 1983)

The Streets: Original Pirate Material (Vice/Atlantic 2002)

Michael Hurley & The Unholy Modal Rounders: Have Moicy! (Rounder, 1976)

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder (Blue Note 1963)

Sigur Ros: Agaetis Byrjun (Fat Cat 2001)

David Bowie: Station To Station (RCA 1976)

The Eels: Electro-Shock Blues (Dreamworks 1997)

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead: Source Tags & Codes (Interscope 2002)

Rage Against The Machine: Battle Of Los Angeles (Epic 1999)

Graham Parker & The Rumour: Squeezing Out Sparks (Arista 1979)

Manu Chao: Clandestino (Virgin France 1998)

John Cale: Paris 1919 (Reprise, 1973)

Joe Ely: Honky-Tonk Masquerade (MCA 1978)

Emmylou Harris: Roses In The Snow (Warner Bros. 1980)

Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island 1979)

The Flatlanders: More A Legend Than A Band (Rounder 1972)

Elvis Costello: Imperial Bedroom (Rhino 1982)

Sun House: Delta Blues (Biograph 1992)

The Fugees: The Score (Columbia 1996)

Tangerine Dream: Phaedra (Virgin 1974)

Sonny Rollins: Saxaphone Colossus (Prestige 1956)

Emmylou Harris: Wrecking Ball (Grapevine 1995)

Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill (Ruffhouse/Sony 1991)