Aerosmith - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

Aerosmith by Aerosmith
Yet another Bostonian band shows up, and again, with a debut album. Aerosmith's eponymous album is kind of a marvel. It's rock solid from cover to cover, filled with heavy blues-rock riffs, pounding drums, and thumping basslines. It features "Dream On", which is certainly one of the greatest rock songs ever written. It's amazing to me to see how thoroughly excellent this album is, when so many albums today seem unable to cut the fat and make an album leaner and stronger.This is definitely a must have if you appreciate good "classic" rock. Top to bottom, a winner.


Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens
Man, what is this. There are moments, mostly in the early parts of the album, where this sounds like good old Sufjan Stevens. Then there are parts where he screams, auto-tunes himself, or says stuff like "I'm not fucking around", and I can't help but scratch my head. It's not "the worst thing ever", as some people have called it, but it's also not "the next Kid A", which some others have called it. It's just sort of a messy hodgepodge of things Sufjan probably needed to get out of his system.

The Airing of Grievances by Titus Andronicus
I cannot speak highly enough of Titus Andronicus. I have seen them three times, all in support of Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and each time, they tore the roof off the place. And each time, they were better than the last. After the first show of theirs I saw, my friend Matt and I met them at their merch table. They hung out and just talked with us for like half an hour. During that half hour, it became very clear that they are every bit as intelligent as their music makes them sound, and no less brash. Their appreciation for lyricism and emotion mixed with their already well-honed punk chops shines through on every track they've ever made. The Airing of the Grievances is just phenomenal.

Alive and Amplified by The Mooney Suzuki
If you ignore the high schoolish lyrics, this is a pretty rad album. The riffs and licks are good, the songs all move along at the perfect pace. It's a solid little rock album, much in the way the typical AC/DC album is - you just have to tune out the lyrics. Though in this case, it's much easier to do, because the lead vocalist's voice is nowhere near as grating as either of AC/DC's.

All Day by Girl Talk
Gregg Gillis is a genius. I think after three albums of this caliber, we can agree on that much. He has a peerless ear when it comes to pop music. He can pull things from any genre, any decade, put them in a pot and stir, and whatever comes out is delicious. On All Day, he takes the tried and true formulas of his previous efforts and stretches them out, turning the individual movements into long-form mash-ups. Unsurprisingly, it works brilliantly. Whether it is Fugazi x Rhianna or Peter Gabriel x Foxy Brown x Nine Inch Nails, Gillis gets it right.



All Delighted People by Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan calls this an EP. At over 60 minutes, that's a bit of bullshit. It's pretty good. Not too crazy, like Age of Adz. Pretty standard Sufjan for the most part. The two versions of the title track are entirely unnecessary, and "Djohariah" is far far too long, much like Adz's "Impossible Soul". All told, it's a good album, better than Age of Adz, but nowhere near Sufjan's previous works. Worth a look if you like his brand of folk.

All Eyez on Me by 2Pac
Goddamn it 2Pac. One of these days you'll learn how to make an album. All Eyez on Me is too long, and there is a lot of filler. If someone had had the sense enough to tell him to make it a single album instead of a double album, it would probably be among the all-time great rap albums. As it is, it's still a solid 7.5-8.0 kind of album - it does still have "California Love" and "I Ain't Mad at Cha".

All Hail West Texas by The Mountain Goats
Lo-fi at its best. Humorous, but touching lyrics, simple but effective guitar. I don't have a lot to say about this, but if I were to give four concrete recommendations instead of three, this would be #4. Very good album.

All Mod Cons by The Jam
The Jam are a band everyone should have some appreciation of. This is almost certainly their best album, and it features their best song "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", an excellent narrative about a man being brutally assaulted for petty cash in a tube station by three young ruffians. Great mod / punk album. A must for fans of those styles of music.

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone by Explosions in the Sky
I don't really like post-rock, but, on occasion, I greatly enjoy this album. It's tense, but also calming, in some strange way. I absolutely adore the percussion. The guitar work is... nice. This album, to me, is sort of like listening to a good thunderstorm. Tumultuous but relaxing.

A Grand Don't Come for Free - Ænima

A Grand Don't Come for Free by The Streets

This is a fantastic album, no doubt about it. In 2004, the concept album was functionally dead in virtually all genres, and virtually non-existent in anything resembling hip hop. Sure, there was Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... in the 90s, among a few others, but nothing really told a cohesive story as well as A Grand Don't Come for Free, nor as relatable. The protagonist loses a thousand pounds, and goes through the many ups and downs of life - framed mostly by his disastrous relationship with a woman named Simone - before finally finding the lost money in the end. The entire story is backed by production that fits the particular segment of the story to a T, making the entire experience wonderful to listen to.

A is for Accident by The Dresden Dolls

I feel like it is exceptionally rare for a band to have its full length debut be a live record, but then again, the Dresden Dolls aren't exactly a common band. In most every way, this fits the duo. They built up a reputation for their live performances, and this album gives listeners an ample taste of what those early shows were like - intimate, raucous, risque. Lots of whaling on the piano. It's a great entry point to their music; after listening, you'll either love them or you won't. And really, that's what makes it a great debut.

Abandoned Language by Dalek

Abandoned Language is good, but it could be better. Dalek is a very capable lyricist, and the production is good. The beats aren't memorable, and I can't say that I recall any lines that jumped out at me. This is perhaps the result of the album coming in around 62 minutes. It's just too long, even if it is pretty good head-noddin' music.

Abbey Road by The Beatles

What can I say about this that hasn't been said a thousand times over? It is almost always either #1 or #2 in my ranking of Beatles albums. It's almost perfect. I think if you took out "Octopus' Garden", it's a 10/10 album. As it is, it's still 9.7+. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is just brilliant. It's so vastly different from every other Beatles composition. It's long, brooding, utilizes variation and repetition, and then, it just ends. That's it. The perfect way to end the first side of the album. The second side opens with "Here Comes the Sun", which feels like the dawn after a tumultuous storm-filled evening. You then go into the medley, which is something like 17 minutes long and truly wonderful throughout. I'd go on at length, but these are supposed to be brief.

Absolute Value by Akrobatik

Another album by a local artist. Akrobatik is perhaps most famous for his work in The Perceptionists, or for his work narrating the video game Amplitude. He is a very capable MC. Nothing overwhelming, but a good, solid MC. He, like his friend and collaborator, Mr. Lif, is generally a socially conscious rapper, though Ak tends to be much less political than Lif. Generally, he's preaching the value in getting along, being respectful, that sort of thing, and he does it pretty well. Where he really shines is when he goes off of that script and does a track extolling his own awesomeness or about everyday life. If he can continue to diversify his subject matter, he's bound to break out.

Accipio by Mountains in the Sky

Man, I don't even know what to say about this one. It is like a neon carnival populated by children and robots. It's not bad... just weird. Really weird. I can't even begin to explain it better than I already have. If someone else wants to, by all means, please go ahead. That's what the comments are for.

Ace of Spades EP by Eli "Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves

Apparently the early A's have quite a few local acts in them. This is a gem. Eli Reed and co. cover Motorhead's "Ace of Spades", The Miracles' "Bad Girl" and Merle Haggard's "I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can", and throw in two live cuts of their own. You would never know by listening to his soulful wailing that Eli Reed is a Jewish kid from Brookline. His voice could rival the soul greats - Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, you name it, his voice is on that level. He's not quite the writer that they were, but he's young. He's been singing in blues joints since he was 18. He's only 28 now, and just got signed to Parlophone. I think you can expect great things from Mr. Reed in the future.

Acrobatic Tenement by At the Drive-In

At the Drive-In is a tricky band. Sometimes, I listen to them, and wonder how on earth they became the principal parts of The Mars Volta. Other times, I listen to them and the jump is clear as day. Acrobatic Tenement is mostly the latter. It's a good album, mostly. Typically loud, complex. It's not beautiful music, but nonetheless, it's very enjoyable, at least to my ears. I can easily see the jarring percussion, the jagged guitar, or the manic vocals giving people headaches, but man, do I enjoy it.

Act III: Life and Death by The Dear Hunter

This is a weird album. I have no idea why I have it. Presumably it was recommended to me and I actually got it. But I can't tell you who recommended it to me. No idea. Musically, it's a bit odd. It feels sort of like it would work well with visuals by Tim Burton. It's a bit dark, a bit odd in terms of instrumentation and composition, but in good ways, usually. It seems to be part of an overall narrative (as you may conclude from the title), but I didn't really pick up much plot from the lyrics. This is one I'd have to classify as "listen for yourself". Can't recommend it, but I can't tell you to avoid it either. You be the judge.

Ænima by Tool

Ænima is almost certainly the best Tool album there ever will be. Danny Carey's drumming propels the listener, the band, and everything in between through 75+ minutes of music that is both guttural and intelligent. Maynard James Keenan, at this point in time, sounded just crazy enough; I think in recent years he has pushed his lyrics a little bit too far into the fringe. Ænima is fairly accessible, thanks to that (at least relative to other Tool albums).

Here's How This is Gonna Work

I will listen to the albums when I can.

When I get to 10, I'll whip up a post. I have no idea what the timetable will be on these. It could be a couple days, it could be a couple weeks. You know how it is.

The post will have three albums with art. Those three are the cream of that particular crop, ones I would recommend to anyone. The rest, well, you'll have to judge if you're interested based on my not-very-technical blurbs.

Happy listening!

Welcome to Albumphabet*

*Name tentative

I like to write.
I like music.

This will be where I do that. Sometimes intelligently, sometimes not so much. The primary focus of this blog is to keep track of an undertaking I have begun - listening to every album I have, in alphabetical order. Interspersed will be lists, write-ups and musings about albums, songs, concerts, etc.

Cheers, and enjoy!