Albums You Should Own #1

This is the first instalment of albums that you really should own, or failing that, just listen to. They’re not all necessarily albums or artists you may have heard of, but they are all personal favourites of mine. The kind of album when you’re listening to it, you don’t skip a track and you go “oh that’s a good song’ when the next one starts.

You will also hear the term ‘underrated’ quite a bit. Partly because they are.  And partly because I’m trying to give exposure to music that deserves it. Trust me you will not regret parting money for any of these albums.

 

Amy MacDonald- This Is the Life: The debut album from Scottish singer/songwriter Amy MacDonald, one of Britain’s most underrated music talents. That’s not to say she isn’t appreciated though. On the continent especially she regularly headlines festivals ahead of more ‘established’ artists that are popular in the UK. This, her debut album, released when she was just 19, is superb. It is flawless from start to finish. It starts with two singles ‘Mr Rock & Roll’ and ‘This Is the Life’, songs that will get your foot tapping, stick in your head and eventually singing along. To be fair the next track ‘Poison Prince’ will do exactly the same. ‘Youth of Today’ is a slower song, but still wonderfully written. ‘Run’, ‘Barrowland Ballroom’ and ‘L.A.’ are just perfect. They are Amy at her absolute best.  They showcase her strength as both a singer and a songwriter. ‘Let’s Start a Band’ is a slow burner, but have patience to stay the course and you’ll be rewarded. The tracks ‘A Wish for Something More’, ‘Footballer’s Wife’ and ‘The Road to Home’  the album brilliantly. It’s just a classy album. The mixture of her distinctive vocals and quality song writing make for a very strong album. I have a really downer on the X-Factor blocking the way of genuinely talented people making their way into the charts and getting the recognition they deserve, because this girl deserves to be a million times bigger than she currently is. She has released three albums so far, all of them fantastic. And she has got there through pure hard work. She really is one of the country’s hidden musical gems. You’ll realise this once you’ve given this a listen, and afterwards I guarantee you won’t be able to keep it to yourself.

Feeder- The Singles: Wasn’t sure whether to include this or not as it’s essentially a ‘Best Of So Far…’ album, but seeing as it’s one of my favourite albums, and Feeder are criminally underrated, I warrants its place. You will get no better introduction to Feeder than with this album. If you are only familiar with ‘Buck Rogers’, ‘Feeling A Moment’ and ‘Just A Day’ then you are in for a treat. This album really shows what a diversely talented band they are. Feeder have evolved from a harder, post-grunge sound in their early albums to a more radio friendly sound, and it is that sound that appears on this album. There are harder sounding songs, the likes of ‘Insomnia’, ‘Pushing the Senses’ and the brilliant ‘Seven Days in the Sun’, but there are also gentler ballads that add a wonderful balance and contrast to Feeder’s back catalogue. The likes of ‘Tender’, ‘Just the Way I’m Feeling’ and ‘Turn’ are just three such examples. Other songs that stand out are ‘Burn the Bridges’, ‘Just the Way I’m Feeling’, ‘Save Us’ and ‘Yesterday Went Too Soon’. To call just those stand out tracks though is grossly unfair, there really isn’t a bad track on the album, as you may have guessed as I’ve mentioned nearly all of them, and the argument is that there are too many songs to make just the one album. They could easily have made a double album. Once you listen to this album you will realise what an underrated and consistently brilliant band Feeder are.


Stone Gods- Silver Spoons and Broken Bones: Essentially The Darkness minus Justin Hawkins, Stone Gods so far have just the single album to their name, but it’s an absolute gem. Without Justin’s falsetto it allowed for a much sound than that from The Darkness, almost moving into metal in places, but on the whole staying in hard rock territory. ‘Burn the Witch’ is a thunderous opener with crunching riff, fist pumping chorus and finishes with a two minute instrumental. ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ and ‘You Brought a Knife to a Gun Fight’ are fantastic hard rock tracks and really keep up the impetus of a hard and fast start. ‘Magdalen Street’ then slows the pace down and is brilliantly catchy. It also shows the albums versatility, as does ‘Lazy Bones’another quieter, slower song. ‘Where You Comin’ From’, ‘I’m With the Band’, ‘Start of Something’ and ‘Making It Hard’ are all more ‘classic rock’ sounding songs. ‘Knight of the Living Dead’ just edges ‘Burn the Witch’ as the heaviest song on the album, and ‘Where ‘O My Beero?’ is a light-hearted end to the album showing that some the sense of humour from The Darkness has carried on. What makes this album so good though is its accessibility, it is very radio friendly. The vocals are very strong without being aggressive and the riffs work really well. Personally I prefer this to The Darkness, but that’s just me. If you’re a rock fan, you need to own this album. It’s one you won’t regret.

The Dandy Warhols- Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia:  An album that has it all. From the enchanting and almost psychedelic opening tracks ‘Godless’, ‘Mohammed’ and ‘Nietzsche’, to then contrast that with a ‘Country Lever’, a country sounding song. Followed by the indie sounding ‘Solid’ and the almost grunge like ‘Horse Pills’.  The next track is then another complete contrast with ‘Get Off’ being an upbeat acoustic number. The mood of the album is then changed again with ‘Sleep’ a brilliant peaceful and laid back track. ‘Cool Scene’ picks up the pace next, another more indie sounding song. The next song, ‘Bohemian like You’ is the one most people are likely to have heard, and the song that brought the band most commercial success. ‘Shakin’ is next, with this song being more difficult to define. Perhaps Indie is the right way to describe it. The album finishes with ‘The Big Indian’ and ‘The Gospel’ which rounds the album off perfectly. They are both slower, more laid back acoustic driven songs. I read somewhere once that one of the strengths of this album is the order of the tracks, and this observation is absolutely spot on. I think something would be lost from this album if the tracks were ordered differently. It’s almost as if you’re taken on a journey through the album. This album gets under your skin, it’s such a barrage of different sounds but somehow it clicks and works perfectly. You’ll have to listen to it yourself to find of out, but it is a truly brilliant album.

The Killers- Sam’s Town: Voted by Rolling Stone magazine as the most underrated album of the 00s and I wholeheartedly agree. This album is epic from start to finish.  Some people may say that it doesn’t match up to their debut ‘Hot Fuss’, and they’re right it doesn’t. It’s a far better album. Now before I go any further, I must admit it took me a while to love this album, but as with all their music, this album grew on me. And it grew on me big time. There is a more ‘rockier’ sound on Sam’s Town compared to the 80s sounding synths on ‘Hot Fuss’ and this is perhaps why people jumped to conclusions about it. Their sound changed, as it has on subsequent albums, and it is not a bad thing. There is not a single bad song or filler track on this album. The singles ‘When You Were Young’, ‘Bones’, ‘Read My Mind’ and ‘For Reasons Unknown’ give you a good taster of what’s on the album, but there is so much more. ‘Enterlude’ and ‘Exitlude’ are brilliantly simple and effective ways of opening and closing the album, while the title track is a massive state of intention and prepares the listener for what is to come. ‘Bling (Confession of a King)’, ‘Uncle Johnny’ and the phenomenal ‘This River Is Wild’ are all sing along anthems. ‘My List’ and ‘Why Do I Keep Counting’ are gentler, but they build to explosive finishes if you perceiver with them. What this album really does though is show case what a genius and brilliantly talented song writer Brandon Flowers. There are few better around at the moment.  To write down how good ‘Read My Mind’ is will not do it justice, you need to turn up the volume, close your eyes and just let the awesomeness run through your body. The same can be said of ‘This River Is Wild’. They will send shivers down your spine. “The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun…” is a beautifully poetic lyric. They are songs written from the heart, and sung with passion. I’ve seen The Killers live twice, soon to be thrice, and it sounds even better in concert. This album may be the reason that their last two albums have faced a bit of trepidation. They’re not bad albums, far from it, they are fantastic. They just haven’t topped this.

So there you go, give these a listen and there is a very good chance you will become fans of each of these artists.