One at a Time: "Document" (1987) by REM

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.

#470 "Document" (1987) by REM

For a list with 11 Bob Dylan albums, 10 Beatles and Stones albums, 8 Bruce albums (etc.), I find it to be quite lacking in REM albums. I'm not saying that those acts don't deserve everything that Rolling Stone gives to them (although, c'mon, do they really?), but that for a list that seems to rely very heavily on going back to the same well over and over again, at times including mediocre albums by great artists, why isn't this band one of those, especially when their better-than-mediocre albums aren't even included? REM has a lot of albums that are better than the worst Bruce album, or better than the worst Beatles album. Instead, they have three on the list: "Automatic for the People," "Murmur," and here at #470, 1987's "Document."

"Kintsugi" by Death Cab For Cutie coming March 31

Death Cab For Cutie are those guys who are so indie, so twee, so hipster that they draw scorn simply for existing. They are one of the genre codifiers for our current term indie music; the release their albums on vinyl, CD, and motherfucking cassette tapes; their lead singer was married to Queen of Twee Zooey Deschanel.

And despite all of this, their in-your-face-indieness never bother me the way it has with bands that have followed like Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, The National, or Daft Punk. I can't fully explain it, but it might be because their music is so much better than all of them, that it's pretty forgivable. They've always seemed less like they were doing it intentionally, and they've gone through a lot of change. Or is it growth?

One at a Time: "Tunnel of Love" (1987) by Bruce Springsteen

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.
 
 #475 "Tunnel of Love" (1987) by Bruce Springsteen

Moving up the list from the bottom, we next come to "Tunnel of Love" by Bruce Springsteen, from 1987.

"Tunnel of Love" is almost like a fork in the road, and Bruce started going in one direction, which is the direction that Rod Stewart took. That road ends up in soft-rock radio-land, where you wear a tuxedo and record Christmas albums and make old ladies happy. Thankfully, "Tunnel" only partially takes that road. Yes, the title track is very synthy, and there's no true rock and roll song on the album, but it still succeeds in many ways.

The Ultimate Setlist: Dawes

What is The Ultimate Setlist? Here's the introduction.

Coming up with your own personal perfect setlist requires an intimate knowledge of the artists body of work, and of their habits on stage. I wanted to make one for Elton John, but I don't think I'm there yet. I could definitely come up with 20-30 songs by him that I know and love, but so much of it is just going to be the 20-30 songs by Elton John that everybody loves. I need to become more acquainted with more of his music to find the oddities and oft-overlooked songs that stand out in my own head in order to write down a unique setlist. Sure, I know his greatest hits, and every song on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Honky Chateau, Madman Across the Water, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and Empty Sky, but there's just so many others that I don't. That's only around 90 of the pushing 400 songs in the Elton John catalog.

One at a Time: "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

#482 "Armed Forces" (1979) by Elvis Costello and The Attractions

What is One at a Time? Check out the introduction here.


I think that part of the reason that my big-ass re-rank of Rolling Stone's 2003 list of 500 Greatest Album's slowed down so much was that in using a random number generator to select the album I would do next, I was on occasion completely unprepared. I'm trying to listen to as many of these in advance of writing about them, but it's hard to pre-listen to the one that's going to get randomly selected. So, I'm going to start listening to ones that I don't know that well in preparation, but writing and ranking ones that I already own and have heard before.

One at a Time: "Green River" (1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

 #95 "Green River"(1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival


I've never known much about CCR. I like their hits, but somehow their full catalog has escaped me. "Green River" is much more present and alive than the other boring, classic-rock hits that my brain tends to lump CCR in with. The guitar is alive, and there is no distance in the way that I expected.

The Ultimate Setlist: Introduction + Avett Brothers

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to go to a concert. I can't imagine what it's like for my friends who don't listen to the same music as most of their friends. I listen to a metric ton of music that no one (my age) I know likes, and I love going to concerts.

"Little Neon Limelight" by Houndmouth coming March 17, 2015

"From the Hills Below the City" and "Little Neon Limelight" are not groundbreaking; the annals of American music burst with Southern rock ballads, discography's of rotating raconteurs, vivid characters from the old American West, gold mines and oil spills, eyes on the future with a finger on the pulse of the past, and all-together-now! chanting. If you're not inventing something, or discovering something or sticking your neck out to pretend to be a trend setter, then you're relying on your own excellence to stand out.