Five Is A Magic Number

I randomly got into a conversation of favourite ever albums the other day with Rob following a mutually held respect for Faith No More.  For the last couple of days I've been musing over my favourite albums, or more specifically my top 5.  I have had some difficulties creating this list though, not least because I own over 600 Cd's and would be lost without any one of them!  The other reason being that I've literally thought too much about it.  Should I go with my gut reactions and make my top 5 from the first five albums I think of?  Should it be a top 5 based entirely on the musical content, or can I take into account (should I take into account) loving an album because of memories attached and feelings evoked?  So I decided to just type, and whatever five I end up putting on here will be today's Top Five - they won't necessarily be yesterdays or tomorrows, but they work for here and now (not in any particular order though)....

1).  Ixnay On The Hombre - The Offspring
I remember the first time I heard this album, I remember everything about that moment.  I was in the IT room behind Mr Coombs's and opposite Mrs Aukland's at school - year ten, summer time, 3 computers down on the left side of the room and Jon sat to my right.  Sun was shining in my eyes and couldn't properly see the album cover for the CD Jon was passing me earphones to listen to.  You know that feeling you get from a truly amazing album - like you know your life will never be quite the same again?  My skin tingles now thinking about it.  Every moment of that album from The Disclaimer at the start to the very last chord is immense: there are no weak moments in this album, no fillers, no songs that wouldn't be missed if you skip them each time.  It's a heady mix of comedy, heartbreak, dissatisfaction, acceptance and anarchy all wrapped up in some of the most intelligently produced punk to ever be exported from America's west side.  If I think about this too much, I will start wavering and wondering if I should be putting Smash here instead.  So I'm not thinking about it.  Smash is awesome, but Ixnay just has my heart.

2).  03.07.2006 Beaulieu - The Who
It was my intention to not put albums here because of an event, but I can't not add this one to the list.  It's a live recorded CD produced when The Who played in the remains of Beaulieu Abbey.  It. Was. Incredible.  I've grown up with The Who (not literally... man that would be awesome..), my Dad has always been a massive fan - quite likely to be the biggest fan in history to not actually don a Parker and have some kind of RAF insignia somewhere about his property!  I remember being very young and asking him to explain the story of Tommy, and why if he was poorly his Mum would take him to an acid Queen - she doesn't sound like a proper doctor or anything.  I digress.  For me there's something in the music from that era that is so often missing in modern music - especially the mass-produced bollocks that saturates the charts these days.  I guess it comes from how easy it is to churn out tracks that are commercially viable and acceptable, and don't have to be worked on for months to make them perfect because at the flick of a button they will be pitch or timing perfect.  In those days, making a single really was a bit thing, and the charts meant something, these days this weeks top ten will be forgotten next week.  I digress again.  The point is, The Who created the kind of songs that span decades, they don't sound old or simplistic or outdated when listened to 40 years after they were written.  And watching Pete Townsend windmilling in the abbey grounds with the sunsetting behind him is possibly the most transcendental moment of my life.

3). Generation Terrorists - Manic Street Preachers
Possibly a controversial choice here.  For someone who was trying not to pick albums for memory reasons, I'm not doing a very good job, because this album is all about the end of my first year at Cardiff Uni.  Or at least it was.  Now it's something so much more than that.  This album was the first of the 'pre-Ritchie disappearing' albums that I really connected with.  So it deserves to be on the list if nothing more than because it meant I then fell totally in love with The Holy Bible, Gold Against The Soul and New Art Riot EP.  I don't know if it's a genetic Welsh thing, but for me can feel the Welshness in this album - the sense of loss that so envelopes families from the South Wales valleys, the jaded look about the towns that have boarded up windows and cracked, fading paint on the sills of the boarded up windows.  At the same time there's this punky anarchistic thread of the disaffected youth that I so identified with as a screwed up disillusioned, dissatisfied teenager.  Being totally honest, it's a feeling I do still very much identify with, and in many ways don't want to ever lose.  This album reminds me that - it reminds to not accept things as they are if I don't like them, to rage against the man and the machine, to fight for what I believe in. To fight for me.

Now I'm struggling, two spots left and many many albums that I want to fill them with.  Going to have to do an 'ooh and also...' list at the end.

4).  Pulp - Different Class
I've spent years ribbing Jenn for her love of all things indie.  And I'm putting an indie album in my top 5.  But when it's as good as Different Class I defy anyone to not put it in their top 5.  It's a classy, polished, intelligently crafted album.  It is the very essence of Brit-pop, for me more so than Oasis or Blur (both of which are likely to be getting honorable mentions later!).  Listening to it, sounds like I'm listening to the late nineties.  Like Ixnay, Different Class has no weak songs - each one is as deserving as the next to be on that album, and could have been released as a single to be very proud of.  I love the story telling nature of this album, the lyrics create such vivid scenes and the music puts colour to them.  Having said that though, there's still enough space to put your own interpretation to them, and therefore get that feeling that they're story-telling about your life.  Plus, literally every time I hear F.E.E.L.I.N.G.CA.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. I am back at Reading Festival with them playing that song for about fifteen minutes, and every time it makes me melt.

5).  Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
So no Top 5 list of mine would be complete with out a metal album in it.  It was my first musical love, and will never fail to reach places other music just can't quite get to.  I procrastinated for quite some time over which type of metal should get this coveted position, then which band, let alone which album.  Given that I've already gone on for quite some time, I'm not going to write about the mental argument I had with myself on making this decision.  Antichrist Superstar is just hands down a phenomenal piece of musical theatre.  Take away all the bullshit you hear in the media about Marilyn Manson, and all the shock techniques he uses to keep all the idiots at a distance, and underneath it all is a creative genius.  Forgive me for ignoring the other band members for a moment while I concentrate on the man himself.  MM created a unique piece of musical history here, with the help and guidance of the astoundingly talented Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame.  It's an album unlike anything else, it can (and has) made me cry, made me angry, made me feel less alone, and perhaps oddly has made me proud.  I'm proud to say I looked beyond the defenses he puts out there, because this album is so worth looking for. 

The 'ooh and also' list.....
Korn - Life Is Peachy
System Of A Down - System Of A Down
Stereophonics - Word Gets Around
Nirvana - pretty much everything they've done
Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing
Eminem - The Marsall Mathers LP
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
The Offspring - Smash
Metallica - Black Album
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Funeral For A Friend - Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation
Live - A Distance To Here
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Sex Pistols - Kiss This
Reef - Glow
Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Manic Street Preachers - all the rest of their albums
I could go on.............