Patatoa

As I put the finishing touches on my top 50 list/write up/descent into madness, I wanted to talk about seven albums that aren't making my list this year, but are worth discussion and attention. Like last year, I wanted to limit my honorable mentions to new artists who I hope and expect to improve in the near future. However, this year I included a couple of releases that didn't make my list because of my own shortcomings -- but I'll explain that when I get to them.

I'm not going to do a traditional honorable mentions, just missed the cut, list this year. I don't need to tell you the merits of the new Grizzly Bear or Jack White records; records that you are well aware of even if they are not included on my end of year list. This year, I wanted to reserve the honorable mentions for artists that you might not know about, artists that are new to the scene or just under loved. Artists that I want to keep an eye out for in the future and hope to see bigger things from in the future.

I'm not going to do a traditional honorable mentions, just missed the cut, list this year. I don't need to tell you the merits of the new Grizzly Bear or Jack White records; records that you are well aware of even if they are not included on my end of year list. This year, I wanted to reserve the honorable mentions for artists that you might not know about, artists that are new to the scene or just under loved. Artists that I want to keep an eye out for in the future and hope to see bigger things from in the future.

Call it a compulsion. I have compiled and ranked a list of my twenty favorite albums. Many argue the futility in such an exercise. “Why do you need rank things you already like? Just enjoy them equally!” It isn’t so much that X has to be better than or inferior to Y and for some reason I need to know this. Tastes change and feelings towards things like music change and maybe I like to see these changes, these relations, and consider what they mean. If they do mean anything, that is. For my three middle-school years, every week I would compile a “top 10” list of my favorite songs of that week and play the 10 songs in order in my room, making an impromptu show for myself to both direct and enjoy. This was religion. As eluded, only part of the fun was blasting the music from my stereo. I would keep all the weekly lists in a white binder, where the real fun lived. With this data, I would go and tabulate how long certain songs were on the list, how fast they ascended and fell, how long they occupied the top spot. Perhaps simply out of this programming is why I enjoy list-making in general. But I believe it’s deeper than that. I believe by doing this exercise I can to learn more about my tastes, the music, and ultimately myself.

My ordering criteria are as unorthodox as they are personal. This is a personal list, I have a special connection, history, and feelings towards these records and that factors greatly. But it’s not the sole variable. Something has to be said of overall composition and focus; quality...

Cheating? The last time I compiled a list like, this I included the Smashing Pumpkins single box set. Though I don’t believe I shared the list with anyone, I felt so saucy to include it. And why not? In this day and age everyone just lumps the five discs that make up The Aeroplane Flies High as a single album in their mp3 player. Back when I was first spending time with the collection, I burned it all onto a 2 disc set. Who didn’t? I’m further backed up by the set charting at

There’s always going to be somethings you are never going to quite understand. No matter how much research, you might not ever be able to relate. In early 1994, I was just seven years old. The world was big. On Saturday Night Live and what I’ve gleaned from the news was that a figure skater got clubbed in the knee and wouldn’t be able to ice skate. I thought it was pretty funny honestly, not that I had any stake in such topics. I remember being at my grandma’s house late one night. I changed the tv channel from the news to MTV. Maybe I’d see that new Nirvana video again! ...

As my list came together, I grew quite anxious. Debating between personal favorites making the list over critical classics. Too many of the latter and my list becomes a carbon copy of any list you can dig up from Rolling Stone or Spin; too many of the former and on one will buy that your opinion is well informed. Nice. by Puffy is an album I like an awful lot. Pop doesn’t come more solid than that, but in the grand scheme of things, there are certainly twenty albums I like better. Ok Computer is an amazing record, everyone loves Ok Computer. Certainly I do. But really, I am lucky if I feel like listening to it a half dozen times in a year. As much as I dig it, it doesn’t have as big of a pull on me as an album. (When I ordered past

Is there a more tragic album in rock and roll history than that of Weezer’s 1996 sophomore effort Pinkerton? An album created after the collapse of an even more ambitious record attempt. An album created after the social ostracization of front-man Rivers Cuomo brought on by serious leg surgery during the band’s meteoric rise, as well as his entrance into Harvard. An album dubbed the second worst album of 1996 by Rolling Stone. An album that only gained notoriety during a long hiatus for the band. An album that since, Cuomo has either desperately tried to recreate or settle on posthumously cashing in on. An album that now has garnered so much praise that today it’s almost considered passé to mention in a “best album” discussion. At the risk of being trite, such woe is the subject of my #14 album...

As we progress in the dissection of my list, the relationship between be and the remaining thirteen is going to invariably become more personal. Frankly, it will likely become about me growing up, but I’ll try my best to keep this from becoming an extended pat on the back. The next two albums up for discussion provide the appropriate view on the dichotomy that reflects the mercurial, icky, feeling of growing up.