Q:If you could only listen to ten albums the rest of your life what would they be? I know that is quite limiting so after you ponder that maybe address the top ten bands you might choose.
Anonymous
Anonymous, I am beginning to suspect you are the same person asking every question I get (which is, like, three). Who really cares, though?
A thought about this kind of desert-island question: it’s a curious exercise because it seems the point of it is to give yourself such narrow limits that the things you end up picking will represent the core pillars of your taste—the stuff that most ‘defines you.’ Trouble is, 1) you more than likely have internalized your favorite music to the point of being able to play it back in your own head whenever you want, 2) there is every chance that you don’t actually know what music is most central to your tastes—i.e. what, in the end, will make you happy—and 3) preferences over the course of a lifetime are wildly unstable. These lists are things we think we know about ourselves, but that experience suggests we’re actually really, really bad at recognizing. A person’s answer to a question like this often tells you more about how they’d like to be thought of at a given moment, not who they ‘really are.’ Anyway, here’s ten faves off the top of my head in (no particular order):
The Beach Boys - Surf’s Up
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Silver Jews - American Water
Paul Simon - Graceland
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Belle & Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
David Bowie - Low
Patsy Cline - The Very Best of Patsy Cline
Predictable, yes? I know that last one’s a bit of a cheat, but Cline sorta predated the ‘album era’ anyway. Some close runners up would be Dusty in Memphis, Rumors, Ys, Hell Hath No Fury, Chutes Too Narrow, Apologies to the Queen Mary, Revolver, White Light/White Heat, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and Women’s first album. If we’re talking bands—entire discographies—I’d keep a few from up there plus maybe some Pixies, Broadcast, Deerhunter, Outkast, Nick Drake, Radiohead (sigh…), Deerhoof, or, oh, let’s say Beck.
Huh. Writing all this out has made me feel strangely like a cliche rockist dog. See what I mean about not knowing our own tastes?
