Ten Must Have Essential Alternative Albums [-emidius-]

Ten Must Have Essential Alternative Albums [-emidius-]

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Ten Must Have Essential Alternative Albums [-emidius-]

1

The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

"What can be said about this album that hasn't been said before?", if you'll pardon the cliché. However, it cannot be denied the Velvet Underground's debut broke all the rules for pop music up to that time and laid down new ones. Anything was fair game now--risqué New York nightclub-lyrics ("I'm Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs", "Run Run Run", "Heroin"); white noise ("The Black Angel's Death Song", "European Son"). The point is, every counter-cultural rock movement after 1967 owes everything to the VU&N, the first and the best.

2

Sonic Youth
Daydream Nation (1988)

Sonic Youth was always better live than in the studio. Their flawless, nine-minute improvisational jams onstage always made for an excellent show. That all changed with Daydream Nation, however. With Thurston Moore on a writing spree, Sonic Youth stretched the CD format to its limits and took up four whole sides of vinyl. No doubt the band were getting more accessible ("Teen Age Riot", "Hey Joni", "Candle"), but it is on Daydream Nation that their experimental tendencies reach their peak. The instrumental jams seem to flow seamlessly together with the actual songs ("'Cross the Breeze", "Total Trash", "Trilogy"). Daydream Nation--and the generation of failed imitators it spawned--showed that only Sonic Youth could so perfectly--and so eclectically--blend the manic energy of 1970s punk, the technical instrumentation of avant-garde, and the fuck-you aesthetic of the 1980s underground.

3

The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead (1986)

"Well it suddenly struck me / I just might die with a smile on my face, after all". Thus sang Morrissey once upon a time, but in 1985, on their sophomore effort Meat Is Murder. Mark this with the change on The Queen Is Dead, and you'll see how much the Smiths had changed in the space of one year. Guitarist Johnny Marr creates a dense web of jangle-pop guitars that lay the groundwork for Morrissey's witty and insensitive lyrics. In his lyrics, Morrissey gives the Queen a send-up that Johnny Rotten could only have dreamed of ("The Queen Is Dead") and delivers brilliant satire of the British culture of the time ("Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "Cemetry Gates", "Bigmouth Strikes Again"), but also his two most touching love songs ("I Know It's Over", "There Is a Light that Never Goes Out").

4

Nirvana
Nevermind (1991)

The album that, well, not started it all, but it did make sure that everyone knew that something had been started. Nevermind, riding on the heels of hit singles "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as You Are", broke alternative rock into the mainstream and, according to legend, washed away all of the hair metal bullshit that had been crowding the airwaves at the time. It's clear why--tired of overt sexual machismo, a new generation was thirsting for new blood, and the punk attitude and grungy guitars that Nirvana possessed fit the formula. In retrospect, it's not surprising that Nirvana were the ones to break through, with Kurt Cobain's rasping vocals and searing guitar chords setting the template for the rest of '90s alternative rock.

5

Television
Marquee Moon (1977)

Ostensibly punk, but if that's so, Television must be composed of the most technically-proficient punks of all time, and their debut album must be the most progressive punk of all time. Only the opener, "See No Evil", has any thing resembling the raw energy of punk rock. Every single track on the album is littered with sparkling guitar solos, especially the epic title track and "Elevation". The rest is not filler either, for there is no song as anthemic as "Venus" or "Friction". The closing song, "Torn Curtain", is highly theatrical but severely underrated, perfectly fitting the job description for a closing track. Maintaining the energy without compromising songcraft or technique, Television's debut is a guitar classic.

6

David Bowie
Low (1977)

Today David Bowie is not remembered for his art-rock magnum opus Low, or any other albums in the Berlin Trilogy collaboration with Brian Eno. Today he is remembered either as the guy who created Ziggy Stardust, or the androgynous Ziggy Stardust him/herself. However, back in the late '70s David Bowie was not only a trailblazer, fusing his own unique style of glam rock with the minimalist beats of German bands like Kraftwerk and the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno, he was also the prophet who brought it all to the masses. The two sides of this album are polar opposites--the A-side starts out with a bang on the aggressive "Speed of Light". The A-side has the pop hits ("Breaking Glass", "Sound and Vision", "Be My Wife"), and unlike the B-side, most of the songs have lyrics. However, the B-side is the more interesting side by far, containing desolate landscapes like in "Warszawa" or ominous pictures like in "Subterraneans". Low has proven to be a rewarding listen, and one of the most influential albums of all time.

7

Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures (1979)

On Joy Division's seminal 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures, Ian Curtis showcases the full extent of his genius, as the band rapidly evolved from your ordinary punk outfit in 1977 to a gloomy, introspective post-punk band that would lay the foundations for the alternative rock boom that was to come in the 1980s. The record is bleak and minimalistic, but Bernard Sumner's comparatively limited technical abilities do not stop him from being any more moving than Hendrix or Jeff Beck. On songs like "Disorder", "New Dawn Fades", and "Shadowplay", the band shows the more experimental side of punk rock, while tracks like "She's Lost Control" and "Interzone" hint at Joy Division's roots as Manchester punks Warsaw. But it is on several key songs--"Day of the Lords", "Candidate", "I Remember Nothing"--that they truly achieve the "Joy Division sound" that would dominate British post-punk/Gothic rock for the next decade.

8

Radiohead
OK Computer (1997)

Sometimes abstract, surreal soundscapes can become dizzying, and sometimes it takes more than smelling salts to bring one back down to earth. The triple-guitar attack of Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, and Thom Yorke makes for formidable guitar work ("Paranoid Android", Electioneering"). But Radiohead's third studio album, OK Computer is really just another retelling of modern life--consumerism ("Let Down", "Fitter Happier"), brushes with death ("Airbag", "Lucky") and social alienation ("Subterranean Homesick Alien", "Climbing Up the Walls", "The Tourist") are the themes. You could say it encompasses the millenialist attitude. But it is the last message that is the most compelling: "Hey man, slow down / Idiot, slow down". After moving at such a fast pace "in a fast German car", or "climbing up the walls", Thom Yorke pleads with us to slow down. And really, that's what we need to get back from modern life.

9

The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses (1989)

"Bollocks to Morrissey at Wolverhampton, to The Sundays at The Falcon, to PWEI at Brixton... I saw the Stone Roses at the Haçienda," wrote NME columnist Andrew Collins in 1989. On their debut, the Stone Roses managed to combine psychedelic melodies with chiming (though often distorted) guitar lines. Many of the anthemic songs on the album, such as "I Wanna Be Adored", "She Bangs the Drums"--actually, scratch that, because every single song here is anthemic. Each song is marked by churning guitar riffs and trebly basslines, with high, heavenly vocals. Yes, it served as the foundation for a lot of British bullshit that followed in its wake, but that doesn't diminish its importance at all.

10

My Bloody Valentine
Loveless (1991)

Reportedly, My Bloody Valentine's sophomore effort cost over £250,000 to produce, took two years in nineteen recording studios to record, and drove Creation Records to the edge of bankruptcy. And it was all the work of one man--Kevin Shields. Fortunately, we have Kevin Shields to thank for this shoegazing masterpiece. Although it has a wall of noise that would put Phil Spector to shame, Shields recorded every track in a single room using two guitars and a whammy bar. In addition, since the vocals are buried so deeply in the mix, most of the lyrics are incomprehensible, and it is easy to confuse Shields' voice with Bilinda Butcher's, as they sing at the same vocal register. The swirling, textured guitars on songs like "Only Shallow" and "Sometimes" influenced many bands that came after them, notably Radiohead and Coldplay. A monument to demented perfectionism, Loveless is a masterpiece that will never sound quite like anything else. Or, rather, that nothing else will ever sound quite like.