Christmas playlist part six: The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a holiday staple around these parts. It has been for me since I first saw the movie in 1993. It’s a classic that stands up to A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas but with the added fun of being a...
“Bloodletting” by Concrete Blonde (No. 12)
Bloodletting gets tagged with the “gothic rock” genre, which is a bit unfair to Concrete Blonde. Sure, it’s got a wee bit of goth about it, but it’s not all gloom and doom lyrically or musically. In fact, Bloodletting is every bit as energetic and rock & roll as...
“The Future” by Leonard Cohen (No. 14)
The Future is currently my favorite album by Leonard Cohen, and some of his darkest material. Coming four years after I’m Your Man, The Future finds Cohen even less optimistic and just as hoarse. That’s OK, he has a choir of angels to back him – or, at least,...
“Broken” by Nine Inch Nails (No. 16)
Just how loud and angry can an album be, without devolving into noise? With Broken Nine Inch Nails tells us, pretty fucking loud and angry. The follow up to Pretty Hate Machine, Broken is an EP that barely clocks in over 30 minutes. Less, if you don’t count the...
“Whatever” by Aimee Mann (No. 18)
A word of caution before listening to Aimee Mann‘s Whatever – it may very well cause you to recalibrate your standards for songwriting. If you’re setting your standards by this album, it’s almost unfair to most other bands. Almost. Released in 1993, Whatever was Mann’s first solo album –...
“OK Computer” by Radiohead (No. 37)
I don’t consider myself a big Radiohead fan, but OK Computer is just too damn good not to make the list. OK Computer popped up on my radar sometime after I started aggressively looking for “new” music in the mid-2000s. At some point I realized that I wasn’t buying...
“Vs.” by Pearl Jam (No. 46)
Pearl Jam‘s Vs. hits all the sweet spots for me as a fan of the band. All the band’s metaphorical engines are firing at full, and there’s not a wasted track on the album. You certainly can’t credit MTV for this album’s success – the band decided not to...
“Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo” by Aimee Mann (No. 54)
Bachelor No. 2 is the album that, if Interscope had its way, wouldn’t have been released at all. Instead, Aimee Mann bought the rights back and released it on her own through her website – a gutsy move in 2000, but it paid off for Mann and her fans....
“Copper Blue” by Sugar (No. 60)
Sugar‘s debut album, Copper Blue is a fusion of metal and melody, full of joyful noise and irresistible poppy compositions. Sugar is Bob Mould‘s follow-up to Hüsker Dü, and you can hear the logical progression from tunes like “Makes No Sense At All” to Copper Blue. But Copper Blue...
“Puzzle” by Dada (No. 67)
The early 90s were a great time for music. Not only were there a lot of really interesting bands putting out albums, it was the first time in my life that I actually had a fair amount of disposable income to drop on new music. Those factors combined meant...