Things That I Listen To
Due to popular demand, the list has now been upgraded (and
vastly expanded). The Good Taste Police (hi, R.H.) will note with
relief that several egregious lapses of taste (such as records by The
Corrs) have vanished from this list. However, several
“Non-Classic Stephan Neuhaus Acts”™ (whatever
they are) undoubtedly remain. Also due to popular demand, I've
written a few words for every album on this list. (This is a work in
progress, so expect to see the remarks appear bit by bit.)
New entries in this section are marked like
this.
Artist |
Title |
Remarks |
Tori Amos |
Strange Little Girls. |
|
Tori Amos |
Scarlet's Walk. |
When I first heard A Sorta Fairytale, I was moved
to tears. That doesn't happen often. The emotional
intensity in the voice is really incredible. The only
song I don't like is Wampum Prayer, all others make
it onto my permanent hit list. |
Bozzio Levin Stevens |
Black Light Syndrome. |
Three extraordinary musicians (Terry Bozzio, who played
with Zappa, Tony Levin, who played with Peter Gabriel and
King Crimson, and Steve Stevens who played with (of all
people) Billy Idol) get together and record a
session without doing much writing. The result is an
extraordinary record. |
Bozzio Levin Stevens |
Situation Dangerous. |
The follow-up to BLS. More of the same, but still
excellent. |
The Beatles |
White Album. |
Particularly great are While My Guitar Gently
Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, and
Blackbird. The latter is interesting because it's
not particularly difficult to play on the guitar, but if
you try to sing along with it, and if you're not Paul
McCartney, you'll probably look like a damn fool. |
The Beatles |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. | |
The Beatles |
Abbey Road. |
My brother gave this record to me on my seventh
birthday. Since I knew the German version of Octopus's
Garden from Sesame Street, it remains my
favourite to this day. |
The Beatles |
Revolver. | |
The Beatles |
Rubber Soul. | |
The Beatles |
With The Beatles. | |
The Beatles |
Let it Be. |
This is the “new” mix, without the Phil
Spector strings. I must say that it sounds much more raw,
and has more power. Great record. |
The Beatles |
A Hard Day's Night. | |
The Beatles |
Beatles For Sale. | |
Jeff Beck |
Wired. | |
Jeff Beck |
Beck-Ola. | |
Jeff Beck |
Blow By Blow. | |
Jeff Beck |
Who Else!. | |
Jeff Beck |
Guitar Shop. |
Together with Terry Bozzio (see above, under Black
Light Syndrome and Tony Hyman, Beck made a fabulous
record that simply sparkles with inventiveness and style.
If you don't believe me, listen to Where Were You
and weep. The sound is done only with a strat, an amp and
a vibrato. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani can do this too,
but it takes a lot of practice and extremely good control
in your right hand. |
Jeff Beck |
Jeff. | |
Eric Clapton |
Unplugged. |
My first Clapton CD (blush). From it, I learned
such delights as Key to the Highway and Layla
in its acoustic version. Totally relaxed performance.
Just great. |
Eric Clapton |
461 Ocean Boulevard. | |
Eric Clapton |
One More Car, One More Rider. |
Clapton plays the Blues, and if anyone can be white and
play the blues at the same time, it's he. |
Eric Clapton |
Time Pieces. | |
Eric Clapton |
From the Cradle. | |
Eric Clapton |
Slowhand. | |
Eric Clapton and B.B. King |
Riding With the King. |
Great collaboration with another one of my favourites,
B.B. King. If you play guitar yourself, you can hear
the almost comic difference between B.B's Lucille,
which is played clean and without any effects, and
Clapton's much more processed tone. Clapton is
technically the better guitar player, but it's not so
clear who the better blueser is. |
Derek and the Dominoes |
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. |
|
Cream |
Goodbye. |
The last studio record by the trio. All their records
opened up new avenues, but this was the last one. To
promote it, they did a tour, culminating in four sold-out
concerts in the Royal Albet Hall in London in 1968. This,
they said, was to be their last concert ever. Well, at
least until May 2005, when they briefly reunited for four
sold-out concerts in the—Royal Albert Hall. And
I was there! |
Cream |
Those Were the Days. | |
Deep Purple |
In Rock. |
|
Deep Purple |
Fireball. | |
Deep Purple |
Machine Head. |
To me, one of their absolute best. With Highway
Star, that still opens many of their gigs even today
and of course Smoke on The Water having
the guitar riff, this record is a classic. Of
course, Ritchie Blackmore is remembered most for his
solos and his extremely well-developed technique, but his
riffs and rhythm work are also stunning. |
Deep Purple |
Made in Japan. | |
The Flower Kings |
Adam + Eve. | |
The Flower Kings |
Flower Power. | |
The Flower Kings |
Stardust We Are. |
One of their great masterpieces (the other being
Flower Power). Great melodies, hook lines that
just won't go away, epic song lengths, melancholy and
happiness, what more do you need? |
The Flower Kings |
The Rainmaker. |
|
The Flower Kings |
Back In The World Of Adventures. |
A close runner-up to a Flower Kings masterpiece, it got
a lot of rotation in my CD player, especially on long
drives to my former working place, the International University in
Germany. |
The Flower Kings |
Space Revolver. | |
Foo Fighters |
Foo Fighters. | |
Foo Fighters |
The Colour and the Shape. |
My first Foo Fighters CD. At that time, I knew nothing
of Dave Grohl's history with Nirvana; I had simply
seen the video to Everlong on MTV and was hooked.
When I listened to the CD, I was stunned. I couldn't
believe the intensity and the change from soft to loud.
Another favourite is A New Way Home, because it
conveys meaning through utterly indecipherable lyrics,
normally a Peter Gabriel specialty. |
Foo Fighters |
There is Nothing Left to Lose. | |
Foo Fighters |
One By One. |
|
Foo Fighters |
In Your Honor. |
In a way, this album is just more of the same. But more
of the same for the Foo Fighters is much more than other
bands will ever reach. This album is much more relaxed
than The Colour and the Shape, and the fun clearly
shows, even on such tracks as In Your Honor. The
thing about the Foo Fighters is that they don't try to
look or sound like bad boys, such as most of the Nu Metal
bands out there. They don't scorn harmony singing. They
don't even scorn a hopelessly romantic ballad or two. For
all their perceived aggression, the songs are very melodic
and rich in unconventional harmonies (like distorted 7th,
sus2 or add9 chords) and chord progressions. Well done,
Foos! |
Peter Gabriel |
1 (Car). |
I bought the Solsbury Hill single when it came
out in 1977, and I still have it. On it, Gabriel can be
seen prone, with long hair (which he'd obviously grown
since The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), wearing a
leather jacket and silver contact lenses. Today, the
effect is nothing new; then, it was utterly creepy (it
might have helped that I was only ten then). Solsbury
Hill is a great song which has light and optimistic
music that tells the story of difficulties overcome. Very
nice when you're feeling down. Or up. Something that
most people won't recognize is that the song is actually
in 7/4, played as 3+4/4, something that will become
readily apparent when you try to dance to it. The B side
has Moribund the Burgermeister, which fascinated me
because of the German word “Burgermeister” in
its title. |
Peter Gabriel |
2 (Scratch). |
|
Peter Gabriel |
3 (Melt). |
Contains Biko, one of the most moving songs I've
ever heard, and one of the best statements against
Apartheid. It has only four (count 'em) chords, but the
song works well nontheless. And if you think that it
works only because of the massive drum samples, you are
again mistaken. There is a great unplugged version(!) of
the song on Ray Wilson's Live and Acoustic, which
proves that in order to make the song work, all you need
is a guitar or two and a great voice. (Side note: Ray
Wilson's album also contains an absolutely stunning
unplugged version of—Mama. Yes, that's not a
typo.) |
Peter Gabriel |
4 (Security). |
One of the great Gabriel albums. Some of
it sounds a bit sterile nowadays, perhaps because of the
electronic percussion being used (especially on I Have
the Touch), but songs like San Jacinto still
give me goosebumps (especially if performed live, as in an
open-air concert in Kaiserslautern in 2004), I Have the
Touch is one of the great songs about alienation,
and certain to find fans in every generation, and The
Rhythm of the Heat started Gabriel's use of African
drums. |
Peter Gabriel |
Plays Live. |
Originally, I wrote, “One of the few legal albums
where you can hear Gabriel sing Back in N.Y.C.
live”, but R.H., Gabriel fan and pedant that he is,
quite nicely apprised me of the fact that this is not so.
Indeed, the track list doesn't contain Back in
N.Y.C. WTF!? I could have sworn that it was on the
record. Now I can only remember D.I.Y., if only for
the refrain in 5/4. |
Peter Gabriel |
So. |
Oh oh, So. Opinion is entirely spanided on this
one. Some people say that it was a massive sell-out and
just pop music, others say that it was his long-overdue
breakthrough. I belong firmly in the latter camp. I
think that anyone who begrudges Gabriel his commercial
breakthrough enough to call it a sell-out is probably just
jealous that he now has to share his previously
underground artist with millions of others, who are of
course ignorant of his earlier and of course much better
records. And the best thing is: So is filled from
top to bottom with great songs! |
Peter Gabriel |
Passion. |
I used to hear A Different Drum on auto-repeat,
with headphones on. It has touches of Eno and Byrne on
The Catherine Wheel, but their East-Coast
sophistication is replaced by African earthiness. |
Peter Gabriel |
Us. |
Digging in the Dirt, oh yes. And Come Talk To
Me, both at a time when my girlfriend had just left
me. Heavy stuff, and it still gets me when I hear it.
Not with nostalgia though: today, she's married with three
kids, and I'm still single, which I consider an excellent
deal. |
Peter Gabriel |
Secret World Live. |
“Mr Tony Levin, shaking his tree! Mr Manu
Katché, shaking two trees! Mr David
Rhodes!” And Paula Cole singing Don't Give
Up; Jesus! When I saw that on the DVD, I was
literally in tears. Then I saw it again and I was
in tears again. |
Peter Gabriel |
Ovo. |
|
Peter Gabriel |
Up. |
Gabriel's album after nearly ten years of abstinence.
My first impression was that he had much matured. My
second impression was the same. This album will ask too
much of youths who grew up with bands like
Slipknot, Britney Spears, and Blink
182. Perhaps this album will ask to much of
any youth. It's dark, and it's full of emotions,
but they are not simple and clear like a teenager's anger
(or pseudo-anger, in the case of Slipknot), but the
much more complex emotions of an adult of fifty-plus
years. Certainly one of the great albums to
come out in 2003, and one of my all-time favourites. |
Genesis |
Trespass. |
What an album. Five very young public schoolboys get
together and record a record full of wood, air and light,
with more sophistication than they have a right to have.
At the time (1968 I think) it took some guts not to be a
blues band. Two songs stand out, Stagnation and
The Knife, the first because it's one of their
first long-playing tracks, and the second because it was a
staple of their live performances, played on all tours
with Gabriel, except their last, the Lamb Lies
Down tour. Musically, it stands out as the most
electric and aggressive number on the album. |
Genesis |
Nursery Cryme. |
The record opens with the magnificent F# riff of
The Musical Box and contains such gems as For
Absent Friends, where a certain Phil Collins has a
leading role to play. (For some reason, the official
version is that Collins has his debut as lead singer on
More Fool Me from Selling England by the
Pound, but to me, his voice on this earlier track is
at least on par with Gabriel's; I couldn't say who sings
lead and who sings harmony.) Additionally, while Eddie
Van Halen is generally credited with inventing the guitar
technique of tapping, Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett
demonstrates tapping on two songs, The Musical Box
and The Return of the Giant Hogweed. Not bad for a
band of barely twenty-year-olds.
I listened to this record hundreds of times. The first
time I heard it, I must have been seven or eight, so it's
an old companion, as all Gabriel-era Genesis records
are. I remember that I particularly liked Harold the
Barrel, because the sound in the beginning (presumably
a faded-in hi-hat) resembled that of a toilet
flushing in my dad's favourite bar. I also remember that
I learned English from Genesis lyrics. I knew what a
hogweed was, photosynthesis, venom, what unearthly calm
was and how it descended from the sky—all of this
before I had my first English lesson. You could say that
it warped my vocabulary a bit. |
Genesis |
Foxtrot. |
I remember listening to Watcher of the Skies
as the sun went down. I also remember reading the lyrics
to Suppers Ready over and over again, trying to
understand them (more fool me). And I remember practicing
Horizons on the guitar until my fingers bled.
(Yes, I can play it now.)
There is no doubt in my mind that Suppers Ready
is one of the great prog rock songs. Especially the great
keyboard solo in Apocalypse in 9/8, because it puts
a solo that's mainly played in 4/4 against a rhythm part
that's played in an ostinato 9/8 rhythm. They did this
again on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in
Riding the Scree, which is also one of my
favourites. |
Genesis |
Selling England By The Pound. |
This record also contains three of my favourites. My
first guitar solo that I learned was from Firth of
Fifth. I had just bought myself an Epiphone LP Custom
and a Marshall AVT 275 and sat at the CD player for
hours. It's a beautiful solo, and the rest of the song is
teriffic, too. Another favourite is Cinema Show,
which opens up with this great melody played high up on
the 12-string and then settles into this mellow Tmaj7/Sadd4
chord sequence. More Fool Me is a wonderful short
song, played on a 12-string in an open tuning, and sung
with much gusto by Phil Collins. My vinyl record had a
scratch after “Well I think you knew you'd not be
back, mmmh” and would repeat the
“mmmh. When I bought the CD, I was somewhat
disappointed that it didn't also have this scratch. By
that time, it had become second nature for me to move the
needle a bit; I practically expected to have to do it.
The downsides are After the Ordeal, which to me is
pointless and The Battle of Epping Forest, where
Gabriel's love of word-plays gets the better of him. |
Genesis |
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. |
My absolute favourite. The best. I know that the band
was under immense pressures and internal tension, but if
they can produce a work of such stunning complexity and
layering, yet of such musicality, I'd prescribe
thumbscrews for every band. Interestingly, I like the
version from the Archives better than the studio
version, mistakes and all. It's much more lively and
particularly The Waiting Room is a masterpiece of
improvisation that is hard to improve upon. Particularly
Riding the Scree is great, which repeats the trick
from Apocalypse in 9/8, namely playing a solo in
(mostly) 4/4 over an ostinato 9/8 rhythm. If you want to
play it as on the record, you have to have your timing
just so, and the Archives version contains a
mistake where Tony Banks has to wait for a few bars in
order to rejoin the band.
Everybody I know is complaining about the lyrics, but I
like them. They have this massive dream-like quality that
is perfect for listening to late at night, while lying in
bed, working, or indeed driving. If you know them well
(as I do), you can sing along (as I do, but only when
alone in a car), be moved by the obvious emotionality and
at the same time not understand a single word.
I'm exaggerating of course. Take for example Fly on
a Windshield, which contains the lines “And I'm
hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the
freeway”, and then continues with this massive
Egyptian riff containing only two chords. You don't have
to understand the lyrics in order to be moved by
that, do you? (If you do, you're probably
dead.)
The CD destroys the distinct
character of each of the four sides of the original vinyl
record, unfortunately. It's like reading The Lord of
the Rings in one volume. |
Genesis |
Archives 1969-75. | This is the
first of two “Archive” record sets,
covering the Gabriel period, and the other covering the
Collins period. This first record set consists of four CDs
that contain live material on the first three discs and
studio material on the fourth. It moves backwards in time,
from a live recording of The Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway to an unreleased song called Patricia.
The crown jewels, as it were, are the first three discs,
though. They contain absolutely stunningly remixed(!) live
gigs of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Suppers
Ready, Firth of Fifth, and Dancing With the
Moonlit Knight. All of this is stuff that has never
appeared before and is presented to the listener in
crystal-like clarity. Especially the Lamb recording
is breath-taking (see the comments on the studio version of
Lamb above). |
Marcy Gray |
The Id. | |
Jimi Hendrix |
Electric Ladyland. | |
Jimi Hendrix |
Axis: Bold As Love. | |
Jimi Hendrix |
Band Of Gypsys. | |
Jimi Hendrix |
Are You Experienced?. | |
Jimi Hendrix |
Electric Ladyland. | |
Led Zeppelin |
Led Zeppelin. | |
Led Zeppelin |
Led Zeppelin II. | One of my
favourites. Opens with the fabulous Whole Lotta
Love, that actually got airplay when it came out,
including the improvised bit in the middle. The solo is
one of rock music's classics, a must-know for every
aspiring electric guitar player. The recording of the
song was apparently sandwiched in between two live
gigs. Originally I thought that The Lemon Song
was a Zeppelin original, and it was until March 2006
that I learned that the song was originally named
Killing Floor and was composed by Howlin'
Wolf! |
Led Zeppelin |
Led Zeppelin III. | I remember
that record playing on my brother's turntable, and I
especially remember the massive opener Immigrant
Song. It's not difficult to play, but if you do,
the guitar and bass absolutely must play
tightly, otherwise it won't work. For some reason,
Immigrant Song remonds me of Kashmir,
another of my Zeppelin favourites (on Physical
Graffiti). Also great is Bron-Y-Aur
Stomp. |
Led Zeppelin |
Led Zeppelin IV. | |
Led Zeppelin |
Physical Graffitti. | |
Lyn Leon |
Glass Lounge. | |
Leo Kottke |
Anthology. | |
Bob Marley |
Babylon By Bus. | |
Bob Marley |
Exodus. | |
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers |
Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. |
|
Nirvana |
MTV Unplugged In New York. | |
Nova, Heather |
Siren. | |
Pink Floyd |
Animals. | |
Pink Floyd |
Wish You Were Here. | |
Platypus |
When Ous Comes to Shove. | |
Platypus |
Ice Cycles. | |
Porcupine Tree |
Lightbulb Sun. | |
Steve Reich |
Drumming. | |
Steve Reich |
Music for Large Ensemble. | |
Steve Reich |
Violin Phase. | |
Steve Reich |
Music for Eighteen Musicians. | |
Steve Reich |
New York Counterpoint. | |
Rush |
2112. | |
Rush |
Vapour Trails. |
Besides its obvious musical merits, this record is here
(and will remain here) mainly to annoy R.H., who has been
bugging me to remove it from this list ever since it
appeared on it. But since he also induced me to write
these commentaries, I won't hold it against him. |
Joe Satriani |
Crystal Planet. | |
Joe Satriani |
Surfing With The Alien. | |
Joe Satriani |
Is There Love In Space?. | |
Joe Satriani |
Strange Beautiful Music. | |
Joe Satriani |
Flying In A Blue Dream. | |
Joe Satriani |
Not Of This Earth. | |
Joe Satriani |
The Extremist. | |
Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai |
G3 Live In Concert. |
|
Joe Satriani |
Crystal Planet. | |
Starsailor |
Love Is Here. | |
Spock's Beard |
V. | |
Spock's Beard |
The Light. | |
Spock's Beard |
Beware Of Darkness. | |
Spock's Beard |
The Kindness Of Strangers. | |
Spock's Beard |
Day For Night. | |
Spock's Beard |
Snow. | |
Spock's Beard |
Feel Euphoria. | |
Tool |
Lateralus. | |
Tool |
Aenima. | |
Transatlantic |
SMPTe. | |
Transatlantic |
Bridge Across Forever. | |
Steve Vai |
Flex-Able Leftovers. | |
Steve Vai |
Alive In An Ultra World. | |
Steve Vai |
Fire Garden. | |
Lizz Wright |
Salt. | |
Frank Zappa |
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore (Vols. I-VI). |
|
Frank Zappa |
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. |
|
Frank Zappa |
Broadway the Hard Way. | |
Frank Zappa |
Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions. | |
Frank Zappa |
One Size Fits All. | |
Frank Zappa |
Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar. | |
Frank Zappa |
Guitar. | |
|