Politics Shmolitics

Yes my blog is generally about politics and most may not find that as interesting as say a blog about movies...or knitting...or cooking and I realize this. So in my effort to be a full service blog I decided to write about something else that stokes opinions. That would be music, another one of my long held interests. Some readers would be familiar with my time as a college radio DJ and the large collection of tapes,CD's and yes even a handful of LP's and 45's I possess. So for this I would like to kind of start an open thread to anyone reading or wanting to comment.

The topic: Top 5 Most Influential Albums of last 25 years (that would be since 1985 for the math challenged..ha). Now I do realize "influential" is highly subjective but that's kind of the point. So do some thought and come back and post yours or just tear mine to pieces whatever works for you.

My Top 5 (in no particular order)

1. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique: Highly ignored at the time of release, this Dust Brothers produced record did not reach certified platinum status until 1999. A full ten years after release. Even though it was a critical success at the time it was a total departure from "Licensed to Ill" so it baffled many fans. The record set the hip-hop/rap bar for dense sampling and it's almost over lyrical nature. Personal highlight for me is sampling 4 Beatles tunes in "The Sounds of Science". A record like this could not be made today.
Best Tracks: "Sounds of Science", "High Plains Drifter"

2. Nirvana - Nevermind: The album that launched a thousand wanna-be bands (Bush,Creed,the list goes on). Although I believe In Utero to be the better overall record, most of the country had never heard anything like Nevermind when it was released in September of 1991. Still the only record of my lifetime that I can recall exactly where I was when I listened to it all the way through. It was 42 minutes of noise put together in such perfect fashion by producer Butch Vig. The album had perfect timing and couldn't have had more of a cultural impact. It signaled the end of "Baby Boomers" being the predominant cultural influencers and thrust my generation to the forefront.
Best Tracks: "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are"

3. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa: Quite simply without this record Nirvana and the whole quiet/loud dynamics of a song, that we are so familiar with now, doesn't exist. Steve Albini produced this and went on to produce the aforementioned In Utero.
Best Tracks: "Gigantic", "Where Is My Mind?"

4. Radiohead - OK Computer: This album really just pushed the limits as to what "rock bands" were supposed to do in the mid to late 90's. In the U.S., they were all supposed to sound like they came from Seattle. And in Britain they were all to sound like Oasis or other "Brit-pop". These guys kind of said "Eff that" with this record. Experimenting with song structures and melody really put this way past anything being done at the time and is now seen in a lot of today's music. Good or bad bands like Coldplay,Travis, and Muse owe a lot to this era of Radiohead. Their following releases (Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to The Thief) would make it near impossible to ape their style again.
Best Tracks: "Karma Police","Exit Music (For A Film)", "Paranoid Android"

5. U2 - The Joshua Tree: I think the significance of this record is more important for U2 and it's evolution as opposed to music as a whole so maybe it should be left off. But there is no denying the omnipresence this band has had since it's release. The strength of the album is not only the tracks but the themes Bono was conveying in his lyrics. He wrote most of the songs in 1985-86 and was enamored with America. Not only with the "mythic idea of America" but with America's influence abroad at the time. This juxtaposition makes for an infinitely political yet introspective album. He has noted in interviews that it was this internal discussion that he was having with himself that brought out a song like "Bullet The Blue Sky". He also gets personal with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Running to Stand Still". It really is probably the most illustrative instance of an established band (J Tree was their 5th studio record) completely launching themselves into the stratosphere with one album and staying there (with minor blips here and there) over the last 25 years.
Best Tracks: "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Running To Stand Still","With Or Without You"

Well thanks for sticking around reading today's post. I will maybe do more of these types of posts if the feedback is there. Otherwise I will continue to be writing as a card carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy :)