Sorry for the delay, it's that ridiculous pre-holiday push right now and there are essays coming out my ears when I'm not discussing the possibility of breeding ovens with my friend. Anyway, this is your typical cop-out "I can't think of an actual thing to write about" list of things that will improve your life. If you do not own these then I look sadly at you.
Katie's Albums to Improve Your Life
1) The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
My close friend and musical adviser handed me his copy of this CD with the words "this will change your life" or something to that effect. And it really has in a subtle way. I didn't have much of an epiphany, but it dwelled on me enough to buy my own copy and it has wormed its way deeply into my head. This is a pretty infamous album for, in all technicality, being Richey Edwards' last, not counting the use of his lyrics in later work. It's a chilling descent into the visions of someone with a razor-sharp observation of culture that still rings eerily true years later in its criticisms of politics and society, and exploration of the darkest parts of the human mind backed by a truly gifted band. Terrifying, intelligent, inspiring.
2) The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New
This was my answer to the above album, as it was my epiphany. I got hold of it at the tender age of 14 in my early musical explorations and I am very grateful I found it. The music here can and does shift effortlessly and passionately from whispered and tired acoustic into passionate raging emotion in a split second. The vulnerable and eloquent lyrical musings cause you to question your own deepest convictions in sympathy with Jesse Lacey's own anxieties and stories of lives turned bad with a single unclear wrongdoing. Relaxing and beautifully chilling.
3) Devils - The 69 Eyes
Just in case you felt things were getting a little too serious, here's something to shake up the stagnant goth/sleaze scenes. As far as this band goes, there is a lot to be said for 'Blessed Be' being their finest moment, however this album is well worth a special place in your collection as well as a great starting point to open the avenues of both sides of this band, the gothic and the glam metal. From start to finish it's a tour de force of enjoyable rock 'n' roll in the vein of a gothed-up AC/DC, both darkly poetic and utterly silly. This band are here to prove you can have fun in leather and eyeliner, and they succeed in this task with incredible style. Catchy choruses, fantastic guitars, and horns cues you can set your watch to.
4) Join Hands - Siouxsie & The Banshees
The Scream was groundbreaking. Kaliedoscope the hit machine. Either side this is surrounded by incredibly worthy records that need to be heard but this deserves a huge mention that it doesn't often get. This is a galloping ride around the twisted fairytale world that this band seemed to occupy. Childhood seen through a house of mirrors, guitars that sound like they're jet-propelled around paper bags and tin cans, driving rhythms and a fifteen-minute stream-of-consciousness track that replicates the incredible energy of this band early on. This is possibly one of the finest moments of Siouxsie & The Banshees showing the art and punk of their music in equal measure.
5) The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
Many people say this is overrated, and perhaps it is but only in comparison to the overall genius that is Trent Reznor. By turns beautiful and savage, this rips too close to the bone for a full listen sometimes no matter how big a fan you are. It's not his angriest, nor his most artistic, and perhaps less deep than some but this is a total epitome of a talented man at his devastating best.
6) Who Killed Amanda Palmer? - Amanda Palmer
What can I say? This woman has a totally unique take of life and music that shines through perfectly here, talking of the world in all its ugly hilarity. There's something incredibly endearing in the honest eccentricity shown here and a clear ability to embrace the total absurdity of life in the highs and lows. Simple yet effective piano and a unique voice, great.
7) Love - The Cult
If you only own one album by this band, make it this one. It borders on nonsensical but the band here are so obscenely good at what they do that it's all excused. Passion and talent just ooze off the guitar riffs here, and the sound is something else.
8) Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction
If you haven't heard of this lot through 'Ritual De Lo Habitual' then you've probably experienced one of their many "reunions" or at least encountered Dave Navarro somewhere. There's more than enough to be said and that has been said about 'Ritual' as a masterwork of rock, but this is a live album of grotesquely unappreciated proportions. Here is the power and urgency of a band just coming into a world that will never fully understand it but love it, albeit in the way someone loves a slightly embarrassing cousin who tells confusing and controversial anecdotes in polite company. There's an incredible energy and fun that is a little lost in some of their studio work, and it is this energy, where you can find it, that made this band complete.
9) III - Billy Talent
I was hard-pressed to decide between I II and III as in their own way they're all blindingly good. However I chose this because it seems to be the one tying together everything this band have learned over the years. Although some argue that they've lost the driving anger that made them stand out so much in the earlier days, in its place they've got a gravity and maturity in both lyrics and musicianship that cements them as a truly great modern band. They've always been unique and why would they suddenly stop developing if they still have things to do?
10) Disintegration - The Cure
This has a huge reputation and deserves every single fragment of said reputation as a pinnacle of whatever it is you're comparing it to. I think it's all been said before.
I tried to restrict myself to 10, so with my habit of liking too many things, there is of course a lot more to add, but as a starting point, find these albums and hopefully you'll love them as much as I do.
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