My last post was in January?! F***! Well, friends, I'm back. I completed my first year of Ph.D. school: So far so good. I was hoping to work this summer and stack some dollars, but the recession has kept me at home. I'm usually studying my record collection, or taking naps, but I have knocked back a few books, listened to a lot of music that I wouldn't ordinarily hear, and wrote a song(!). It's my first in several years; boredom is a magical thing.
I had a big metal phase a few weeks ago. Lest you think that means I simply listened to Def Leppard or something (though I did), let me explain in more detail: First, I browsed through Ian Christe's Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, and, despite the lackluster prose and sketchy research, I firmly recommend his handy list of best metal albums in the back. Though he lists recommendations throughout the book for major subgenres of metal, he gives the mother of all lists in the very, very back: The 25 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time. Trust me, it's not for sissies. Personally, I love Carcass's Heartwork and Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, and totally agree that Ride the Lightning is Metallica's best. Who knew Rainbow's Rising was better than Dio's solo Holy Diver? Seems impossible, but it's oh so right. Anyway, this led to other lists and other albums, but nothing could match Christe's choices. So here they are:
The Best 25 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time
from Sound of the Beast by Ian Christe
AC/DC, Back in Black
Angel Witch, Angel Witch
Bathory, Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
Carcass, Heartwork
Celtic Frost, To Mega Therion
Destruction, Infernal Overkill
Dream Death, Journey Into Mystery
Emperor, In the Nightside Eclipse
Exodus, Bonded by Blood
Holy Terror, Terror and Submission
Immortal, Battles in the North
Iron Maiden, Killers
Judas Priest, Unleashed in the East
Kreator, Terrible Certainty
Mercyful Fate, Melissa
Metallica, Ride the Lightning
Morbid Angel, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh
Mötley Crüe, Shout at the Devil
Motörhead, Overkill
Napalm Death, Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Rainbow, Rising
Saxon, The Eagle Has Landed
Slayer, Hell Awaits
Voivod, Dimension Hatröss
Since my metal phase, I started reading some rock history, like Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music and Jim Curtis's criminally undervalued Rock Eras 1954-1984. Both are excellent, though I eventually cooled off on both of them. It's not a loss of quality or anything, it's just that, as you know, my real jones is rock criticism. When I dug up Pop Music and the Press, edited by Steve Jones, I had to put the other books down. This, my friends, is the mother lode.
Some of the essays are kind of juvenile: for instance, in his essay "Critical Senility vs. Overcomprehension," Robert B. Ray claims that critical darlings like Lou Reed, PJ Harvey, De La Soul and solo John Lennon are victims of overcomprehension (76). According to Ray, critics believe each of these artists must be valuable for their lyrics, because good (or "political") lyrics (according to Ray) make critics overpraise otherwise musically lackluster albums. This is, of course, total bullshit: the entire known history of music is intertwined with the musical expression of lyrics and poetry (all the way back to the Middle Ages; look it up), and there is a lot of nuance there to pick apart and discuss. Unfortunately, Ray more or less discredits that whole business of setting text to music, and that's really his loss. I agree that many critics are terrible at discussing this relationship, and that critics can rely too heavily on their interpretation of song lyrics in their reviews, but the relationship itself is a beautiful thing. I'm disappointed that Ray isn't willing to consider it.
On the bright side, several authors turn in essential discussions on criticism and rock writing in general: Steve Jones and Kevin Featherly on Hentoff, Gleason, Bangs and Christgau; Gudmundsson, Lindberg, Michelsen and Weisethaunet on the British rock press; Jeff Chang on hip hop; and the legendary Simon Frith on professional rock criticism within the larger field of arts criticism. Anyone interested must dive in.
Finally, I've also kept busy making mix CDs. My only great one so far concerns Max Martin. For those who don't know, Max Martin is a Swedish songwriter and producer who cowrote and coproduced dozens of hits for Backstreet Boys, Britney, Kelly Clarkson, etc. This mix includes all of my favorites, laid end to end in mostly chronological order. It's really exciting to hear how his style begins as slick Europop (1-3), then mutates into this kind of minor-keyed apocalyptic/millennial dance music (4-14, ending with two strange and undervalued Britney tracks), then changes again into a bombastic rock-influenced sound that gets closer and closer to disco as it reaches the present (15-21). Nearly every track is perfect, and as a whole, it totally flows. Below is the track list with relevant release dates. I call it "My Life Would Suck Without Max Martin." Because it would. Duh.
1. Backstreet Boys, “Quite Playing Games (With My Heart),” June 10, 1997
2. Robyn, “Show Me Love,” October 28, 1997
3. Backstreet Boys, “As Long As You Love Me,” October 21, 1997
4. ‘N Sync, “I Want You Back,” January 20, 1998
5. Backstreet Boys, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” March 31, 1998
6. Britney Spears, “…Baby One More Time,” October 23, 1998
7. Backstreet Boys, “I Want It That Way,” April 27, 1999
8. Backstreet Boys, “Larger Than Life,” August 24, 1999
9. Britney Spears, “(You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!),” September 28, 1999
10. Céline Dion, “That’s the Way It Is,” November 1, 1999
11. Britney Spears, “Oops!...I Did It Again,” March 27, 2000
12. ‘N Sync, “It’s Gonna Be Me,” June 13, 2000
13. Britney Spears, “Overprotected,” March 12, 2002
14. Britney Spears, “Cinderella,” from Britney, November 6, 2001
15. Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone,” December 14, 2004
16. Pink, “Who Knew,” May 8, 2006
17. Pink, “U and Ur Hand,” October 31, 2006
18. Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl,” May 6, 2008
19. Pink, “So What,” August 15, 2008
20. Katy Perry, “Hot N Cold,” September 30, 2008
21. Kelly Clarkson, “My Life Would Suck Without You,” January 13, 2009
Yeah, Angel Witch to Katy Perry. Don't worry, it confuses my wife as well. Being a musicologist isn't all fun and games.
Okay, that's it. RIP Michael Jackson. Lemon out.
Posts
