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Pauly's Desert Island Discs

wow, I have a lot of albums that I love. But, rounding it down to ten and in no particular order, here we go . . .

(1.)Led Zeppelin---Physical Graffiti After this album, Led Zeppelin showed plenty of evidence the drugs had burned them out. So this was (in my opinion) their last truly awesome album, and I think it was their best, most creative and adventurous album. It may not be as concise and focused as Led Zeppelin IV but even all that filler on the second half is very enjoyable. The first half is so intensely good it's scary: "Custard Pie", "The Rover", "In My Time of Dying" (their best bluesy song, in my opinion), "Houses of the Holy" (that's the song---not the album!) "Trampled Under Foot", "Kashmir". As said, the second half is mostly (awesome) filler, but it shows a lot of diversification many people don't associate with Led Zeppelin. In a cool world "The Wanton Song' and "In the Light" might have been huge hits. This is one of the albums I might still be listening to when I'm 90 years old.
 
(2.)Pink Floyd---Meddle Why this album, instead of Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall or even Animals which are all huge classics in their own right? The Wall is overrated. Animals is too short even though it has some of the most awesome David Gilmour guitar licks ever heard on a Pink Floyd album. I've heard Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon too much, though they are truly awesome. I choose Meddle mainly because it has "Echoes", which was their final, and greatest extended "freak-out" track. "Echoes goes on for more than twenty minutes but it's my all-time favorite Floyd track. Just listen to it! "One of These Days" is also near the top of my favorite Floyd tracks. "Fearless" is a fantastic, uplifting track that sadly never gets any airplay. The other tracks are good filler, even "Seamus" the singing dog. Were it not for "Echoes" and "One of These Days" this album would be nothing special.

(3.)Queensryche---Operation: Mindcrime When most people think of this band they think, "Oh yeah---they had 'Silent Lucidity' and 'Jet City Woman', and then their fifteen minutes of fame ended right after that." I think Queensryche happened at the wrong time. They came to prominence during the hair-metal era, when they specialized in progressive metal years after progressive rock was in vogue, and years after "concept albums" were popular. Nevertheless, around 1988 Queensryche created what's widely regarded in prog-rock circles as a latter-day concept album masterpiece. And it really is. Operation: Mindcrime sounds like a much harder-rocking, scarier and less pretentious version of Pink Floyd's The Wall. But where The Wall was all about shit going on in rock star Pink's head, Operation: Mindcrime is about a conspiracy to overthrow the Reagan-era US government. The protagonist is a hitman for "the Order" whose allegiance is controlled through mental conditioning and drug addiction. Naturally, the protagonist has second thoughts . . . musically and lyrically, this is by far and away the best album I've heard by Queensryche. Even the ambitious, choir-dominated "Suite: Sister Mary" sounds great after a few listens. This is truly an awesome album, and it's a shame it came out during the hair-metal era because it's a zillion times better than hair-metal. Though 20 years have passed, it still sounds relevant and even the inevitable 1980s keyboard sythesizers still sound OK.
 
(4.)Yes---Close to the Edge This is pretty much the archetype of Classic Prog-Rock (other than In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson). The entire album is just three long songs: "Close to the Edge", "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru". The first two tracks have multiple, complicated instrumental sections and require repeated listening to fully appreciate. The lyrics don't make much sense, but that's part of the mystique. This album is sublimely beautiful and majestic, and of course features amazing musicians Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire and Steve Howe. If you hate prog-rock, avoid this album at all costs because it's Quintessential Prog-Rock. For the rest of you, give this album a chance. It's awesome.

(5.)U2---The Joshua Tree This is the rare album that is as much of a critical success as it is a commercial success. Having listened to U2 since around 1983, when this album came out in 1987 it took some time to let sink in, because much of it (particularly the second half) was a stunning departure from stuff like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "I Will Follow". It sounds epic and almost cinematic. It seemed like this Irish band was trying to be American on this album, and the results were surreal and larger-than-life in the best ways imaginable. So much has been said about this album already, so I'll keep this brief. Just as the well-known singles "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For" and "With or Without You" are immortal, so are the lesser-known tracks like "Red Hill Mining Town" and "In God's Country". My personal favorite track on here is "Exit", which must be turned up loud to fully appreciate its tension-and-release power. On this one song only, I've never heard U2 sound so angry, so tense, so nasty and unfortunately probably never will again. I still look forward to new stuff by U2, but sadly this band (Bono especially) has become a parody of its early power. But long after crap like Pop goes out of print, The Joshua Tree will still be selling the same way albums by the Beatles and Rolling Stones continue to sell well decades after their release.

(6.)Metallica---Master of Puppets This is the greatest heavy metal album of all time, and also bassist Cliff Burton's final album (he died in a bus accident on the ensuing tour). This album came out in 1985, when mindless, glossy synth-laden hair metal was all the rage. There are no keyboards here, no songs about Satan or sex or babes. It's very early, very effective speed-metal that doesn't go overboard. It's just kick-ass guitar-bass-drums and snarling vocals, with intelligently-handled dark subject matter like insanity, warfare, political manipulation, suffering and the vicious circle brought on by drug abuse. Definitely not an album for the kids, and definitely not typical '80s cock-rock. If you can handle the subject matter, I can otherwise not say enough good things about this album. Even the instrumental "Orion" is freaking bloody awesome. People who think the "Black Album" is the best Metallica album apparently have never heard this album, or the nearly-as-good Ride the Lightning and . . . And Justice for All. As said, I think this is the greatest heavy metal album of all time. Just listen to it, and let it sink in.

(7.)Tool---Lateralus Tool first grabbed my attention in 1993 when they released the Undertow album. As awesome as an album as that was at the time, it's nothing compared to their later albums. Over a few years Tool evolved from a typical early-'90s alt-metal band to an artistic, unique full-fledged progressive metal band. Lateralus is the most progressive-leaning, most ambitious album Tool has ever done, and this includes such adventuruous albums like Aenima and 10,000 Days. It must be said that this group is sort of weird (with singer Maynard James Keenan being very weird) but if you can handle that and keep an open mind, this is a great album to listen to. I've listened to this CD so much my copy is somewhat skippy. It doesn't get old for a minute. The only filler on this album is at the very end (a throwaway rant about UFOs and Area 51!) but the other 99% is very solid and awesome. My personal favorites are "Parabol"/"Parabola" (which is also an awesome very non-MTV-like video) "Schism" and the very proggish trio of songs that culminates in an ecstatic, almost orgasmic instrumental finale: "Disposition"/"Reflection"/"Triad". This album is just incredibly adventurous and incredibly awesome, even by Tool's intimidatingly high standards.

(8.)Peter Gabriel---Peter Gabriel III aka "Melt" This is the untitled 1980 album that has "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko", and has an infamous photomanip of Gabriel's face melting off his head. This was Peter Gabriel at his adventurous, experimental peak, years before bland yet more popular mainstream stuff like "Sledgehammer" and "Steam" made him rich. For one thing, drummers Phil Collins (yes, that Phil Collins!) and Jerry Marotta play drumkits with no cymbals, resulting an a very influential "gated" sound. Also, this was when Peter Gabriel was starting to incorporate "world music" but before he got too carried away with it. In other words, this is Peter Gabriel's best album. This album is uniformly frightening, exhlirating, unusual, and sexy. Only the brief saxophone solo "Start" is a break from the darkness of this album. My favorite tracks on here are "Intruder" and "No Self-Control". This album still sounds fresher than Gabriel's biggest seller, 1986's So which while certainly a good album, isn't a tenth as good as this album. On the other hand, few albums are this good. Easy Listening, it ain't.

(9.)R.E.M.---Murmur Classic, classic "jangle rock" that was such a groundbreaking, unique sound in the early 1980s that it defied description. It was sort of like the Velvet Underground but not as weird, sort of rocking but not heavy at all, folkish but not stupid and twangy, sort of laid-back yet not lazy at all. I always liked R.E.M. better when they were an underground college band, and though they developed a much more "sophisticated" sound that resulted in huge-selling (overrated!) classics like Out of Time and Automatic For the People a decade later, this to me is the ultimate R.E.M. Mumbled incomprehensible lyrics, incessantly happy-sounding chiming guitars, deceptively simple time signatures, and a constant self-sustaining peppy energy throughout. Wow, is this debut LP album great. My favorite songs are "Radio Free Europe", "Pilgrimage" and "Moral Kiosk".

(10.)King Crimson---Red King Crimson is one of my all-time favorite groups, if not THE favorite. They have never been commercially popular, except for a brief stretch in 1969 when they were heavily hyped, and then fell apart. They are hugely influential on rock music, and are considered the godfathers of progressive rock. Over the decades guitarist Robert Fripp has been the only constant. Their music has been wildly adventurous, and rarely have two of their albums sounded similar. They tended to be darker and much less commercial-sounding than some of the groups who were directly influenced by them, like Yes and Genesis and ELP. I included 1974's Red because it was created as the group was disbanding and whittled down to a power-trio of Fripp, singerer/bassist John Wetton (later of Asia) and drummer Bill Bruford. It has a very harsh, distinctive jazz-metal sound that must be heard to be understood. This is music that could potentially make attack dogs cower and whine, and make the cats dance. The exception to this pervasive dark, diconcerting sound is the lengthy, beautiful album-closing "Starless". There are only five tracks here: the instrumental "Red", "Fallen Angel", the manic "One More Red Nightmare", "Providence" (a live improvized instrumental done in Providence, RI) and the aforementioned "Starless". Saxophones, sinister percussion and churning guitar/bass riffs predominate. There were plans to tour in 1975, with the saxophone player a permanent addition, but sadly this fell through and King Crimson did not reform until 1981 with a vastly different, Talking Heads-influenced sound.