We’ve all seen those annoying “Before They Were Famous” bits on tv and in print. Well, here at the Pure Pop Blog we’re not above indulging in cliches. The truth is a lot of you have probably seen this stuff before. However, those that haven’t need to. We must never forget that these beloved artists are fallible.

Phil Collins -- Flaming Youth

Claim to Fame - Phil Collins is currently shorthand for soulless mainstream garbage but he used to be pretty cool. He’s a first rate drummer who’s elevated many classic albums with his contributions and he revolutionized the way we feel about things coming in the air at night. His first high-profile gig was drumming for Genesis, a band he would go on to lead into the upper stratosphere of musical success.

Before All That - Collins was the drummer for Flaming Youth, a pastoral rock quartet who to be fair weren’t all that bad. They never really went anywhere, prompting the young and eager musician to pursue other projects. How much does this video remind you of Spinal Tap playing “Gimme Some Money?”

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve had plenty of people weigh in on the best music of the past year, reinforcing my conviction that 2009 was a superlative year for aural fetishists. However, let us not forget the dross, for there has also been a whole lot of crap. In recognizing some of the worst these past twelve months have had to offer, be grateful you have discriminating tastes. Some people eat this shit up.

Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot

The debut from this “supergroup” is the sonic equivalent of Roger Moore’s performance in View to a Kill, in which a 57-year-old Moore phones in an awkward farewell performance as James Bond, a role he should have given up fifteen years prior. Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Marc Anthony (Van Halen), Joe Statriani and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) are clearly trying to carry the Led Zepplin mantle but simply come off as a terrible bar band. Even if you love Joe Satriani and Hagar-era Van Halen, this album has nothing to offer you but incompetent riffs and the death-rattle like rasps of a man who used to be able to carry a tune.

Asher Roth – Asleep in the Bread Aisle

With any other album on this list, if you were to say to me, “Herb. I know it’s not your thing, but I like it,” I’d let you have it. Lord knows I listen to plenty of stuff that other people despise. The exception is this musical abomination by Asher Roth, who’s break out single “I Love College” is lazy, derivative and repugnant. The kind of lifestyle Roth celebrates with his music is characterized by merry ignorance, lecherous sexuality and milquetoast wit. Roth is the embodiment of the worst qualities of mainstream music and the manufactured personalities it produces.

Owl City – Ocean Eyes

Tacky. Saccharine. Overly-sentimental. Garbage. Ocean Eyes is a Postal Service record filtered through a Family Circus cartoon. Every song is a polished-to-nothing and empty-headed epic-ballad that makes Captain & Tennille sound like Black Sabbath. I feel a little bad writing this, because I believe Adam Young, who is Owl City’s sole member, is a sincere songwriter. Unfortunately, he gives me a severe allergic reaction.

Various Artists – The Michael Jackson Remix Suite

The crass commercial exploitation that follows a celebrity’s death is as likely as the wetness that follows rain, but as often and inevitably as the macabre exercise occurs, it never loses its capacity to disgust. There were a number of releases in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death that exemplified this, but none more so than The Michael Jackson Remix Suite, a collection of profoundly boring remixes of Jackson’s hits that have sapped the originals of their vitality and charm. If the goal of this album was to reflect via Jackson’s songs what Jackson did to himself, mission accomplished. Like the former King of Pop, these songs are grotesque, unnatural caricatures that have been sedated to death.

Hey, it’s my top ten list for this year. Hope you like. It’s been a rough year for me. High school sucks.

7.  The Jesus And Mary Chain, “Automatic”

This tape is really cool, but too short even though it has two extra songs on it. It has a really neat rocking sound with electric drums. Triple-X has been playing “Head On” a lot but I like “Blues From A Gun” way better. I don’t care about the state of my hair!

Best of 2009

I have to admit that I don’t like making year-end lists. First, I’m lazy. I can’t remember what the hell I listened to last month, forget last March. Second, I think the idea of actually naming the “best” albums of the year is a bit dramatic. Do we really need a bunch of opinionated music fans/critics claiming they know what is “best”? Really? (Ed Note: Yes, yes we do.)

All I can do is tell you about a few albums, perhaps a few songs, that I enjoyed listening to this year. Take it for what it is. (Third, I don’t really “follow” everything going on in music as the year goes by, so as I always listen to “older” music, I may have to include it as part of my “best” of 2009.)

Two more things: First, I love songs. Especially ones I can sing along to. Direct songs. What can I say: I’m a simple man. Second, I spent a lot of time hanging out with Vermont musician/composer Michael Chorney this year, so his name pops up a few times.

So, now that you understand me utterly and completely:

It Disappears by Seth Eames & Michael Chorney

Michael gave me a copy of this in the cold months of early spring, right around the time my stepfather had a severe stroke. I drove I-89 and I-91 a lot during that time, and I can say these stripped-bare recordings with Seth Eames’ world-weary lyrics and vocals were a perfect soundtrack to those damp, gray days. A perfect album for imperfect times.

“The Way It Will Be” by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

A recommendation from Mr. Chorney, who kept talking about this unreleased Gillian and David song that sounded like something off Neil Young’s On the Beach. In the best of the available videos on YouTube, David and Gillian lock into one of their infamously slow, dirge-like acoustic-guitar rhythms, then start singing in beautiful, haunting unison. Dave Rawlings has an uncanny ability to sing behind Gillian in a way that you’re not even sure he’s there; his voice is more like light on a table or a ghost hovering near her. The chorus has one of the best lines I heard all year: “The way you made it, that’s the way it will be.”

Hadestown by Anais Mitchell

Anais Mitchell’s folk opera Hadestown has grown up a lot over the last few years. It started as a stage production playing rooms in Vermont like the Barre Opera House and Vergennes Opera House. The songs were catchy, the acting honest, and the orchestra, Michael Chorney’s Magic City, lent a funky, expansive drive to the musical numbers. The rough mixes of the forthcoming Hadestown album are a completely different animal: With vocals by Bon Iver, Ani DiFranco, and Greg Brown, and a band that includes some of Brooklyn’s finest jazz musicians, the album has drama, drive, and a musical sophistication that prove Anais Mitchell is far more than a folksinger. It’ll either blow up in 2010 or become a criminally underappreciated classic.

Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

I tend to ignore a lot of hype about flawlessly dressed bands of skinny white hipsters from Brooklyn and all their ultra-smart indie pop. That doesn’t mean I should. It’s just jaded foolishness. But I was curious about Veckatimest, so I bought it on vinyl. At first, I didn’t get it. It didn’t grab me. But then I moved into a new house, set up my turntable, and started listening to the vinyl instead of the files. Suddenly the rhythmic interplay between the acoustic guitar and drums demanded attention. (“Idiot!”) The understated drama of the lead vocals pulled me in. The harmonies killed. (“Oooh!”) I was hooked. I’ve turned more friends on to this album in the last few months than any other this year. And all I had to do was play it. It’s was 100% the “I’m now going to sell five copies of Three E.P.s by The Beta Band” scene from High Fidelity. No one had even heard of Grizzly Bear before hearing them. If you want to sell records, track two, “Two Weeks,” is the one to play over and over.

“Temezcal” by Monsters of Folk

I didn’t really get into the Monsters of Folk album. The idea, of course, was great: put Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward (She & Him), and Mike Mogis together and you get the folk-rock supergroup of the decade. But I found the album hard to get into. It had that feeling of three distinct talents and a producer all bringing songs, each of which ends up sounding like the records each guy makes without the other guys in the band. But then I found a YouTube video of the quartet playing Oberst’s “Temezcal” with M. Ward singing lead vocals. His deep, echo-enhanced vocal has crags and valleys of dark mystery that match the lyrics perfectly, making this the best song the band recorded for the album—but didn’t release.

Demo2009 by Surprise Me Mr. Davis

I’ve been waiting for this album ever since the band recorded it with Brett Hughes in Burlington’s own Old North End in the summer of 2008, after singer/songwriter Nathan Moore was turned away at the U.S.-Canada border. (They don’t let felonious musicians into Canada, apparently.) A collection of songs the band wrote in spring 2008, this record has sweat stains on its shirt and grit under its fingernails; it’s evidence of four guys who have been on the road constantly for well over a decade hitting their collective stride and writing some of the best songs of their careers. The biggest surprise and delight is Brad Barr showing some old-school, Sam-Cooke-style pop-love on “That’s the Way.” It’s my favorite song right now.

Phish’s performances at Bonnaroo

I grew up listening to Phish, just like a lot of kids did, during the mid-90s. They turned me onto so many things—bluegrass, country, jazz, doo-wop, Zappa, fusion, the use of tension, release, and humor in music, and most importantly, improvisation. (I was a shut-in until ’93.) What that really means is they taught me how to listen. I’m not the most rabid of Phish fans, and I hadn’t seen the band since their unfortunate implosion at Coventry in 2004. But I can say that after dozens of artists perform at Bonnaroo—from Allen Toussaint to Nine Inch Nails to Merle Haggard to Of Montreal—I can say that Phish’s two nights on the main stage were a master-class in live performance that every artist should have been invited to.

As far as I know, there is not one band that has taken 20th-century music in its many forms, listened to it, learned how it works, and put all of that knowledge to work to create something new and unique the way Phish has. And I am certain there is no band that can improvise as freely, while keeping the music accessible, as Phish does. Though many folks may not think of them this way, they’re the world’s most popular experimental band. They use American pop and folk music forms to launch into fearless group improvisation, creating new music in the moment in a way that makes tens of thousands of people feel something extraordinary. They feed the mind easily as much as the body. I won’t deny their shortcomings, but I know they should be seen as one of the most vital, innovative electric bands playing American music today.

Well, it’s coming around to that time of year again, kiddies, and if you’re anything like me (God help you), your listening habits tend to be influenced by the weather.  Darker days call for darker ambient, and what better holiday to bust that shit out than Halloween?!   Throw out those spooooooky Halloween sounds cassettes (or at least splice and sample them for beats or something), and click below for your new freakish soundtrack.  You can do what you want with it, but my plan is to rock it on my front porch while I pass out candy, which will most likely be a huge hit with all of the burgeoning experimental music fans up here in St. Albans.

1) “Suspicious Drone” – Demdike Stare

2) “No. 1″ – Nuda Veritas

3) “Zenit” – Rumforskning

4) “Lambing” – Philip Jeck

5) “Consigned to a Yesterday” – The Caretake

6) “Why Are You Fearful” – Desiderii Marginis

7) “Dead People’s Things” – Deathprod

8 ) “Listen, The Snow is Falling” – Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet

11) “Drivis” – Elegi

12) “Ictus” – Letum

I Wanna Hold Your Hand ($4.88) - Before the Back To The Future Trilogy or Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis made his film debut with this charming tale of three young women who want to encounter The Beatles during their legendary 1964 New York visit for three very different reasons.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny ($8.88) -- Skeptical audiences skipped this one at the box office, all but ensuring we’ll never see a sequel. It’s too bad, because this Tenacious D origin story/fantasy epic is a sturdy piece of comedy loaded with inspired gags, hilarious cameos and classic D tracks.

Cry-Baby ($9.88) - John Waters‘ 1990 nostalgia fest stars a very young Johnny Depp as a 50′s gang member who falls in love with a straight-laced girl. Spoofing the conventions of teen musicals and mainstream portrayals of sub-culture, Cry-Baby is endlessly entertaining.

Nashville ($6.88) - Robert Altman directed a handful of truly great films in his vast career, and Nashville is one of the best. It features most of Altman’s hallmarks, including massive group action, overlapping dialogue and a dizzying number of intertwining plot threads. Even people entirely disinterested in the music culture of Nashville, Tennessee will find a lot in this film to fascinate them.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai ($6.88) -- Allright, this is not a music-themed film by any stretch of the imagination. It is a great movie by the incomporable Jim Jarmusch about a modern man living by the samurai code who owes a life-debt to a local mobster. It gets a little complicated from there. Why is it on this list? Well, RZA did the music. Duh.

When all that Beatles stuff came out a coupla weeks ago, mountains of hyperbole, most of it warranted, were tossed around. For example, many people remarked that the band’s creative evolution was the broadest in all of rock. From their conventional beginnings, through their psychedelic studio alchemy to the majesty of Abbey Road’s side 2 suite, it’s hard to dispute that The Beatles covered more ground in their seven or so years then any had before them or has since.

On the other hand, maybe that’s something of a rigged accolade. There was a lot of room for rock n’ roll to open up in the early sixties. Throughout the decade, many artists pushed boundaries and pioneered innovations. The Beatles, with their vast financial resources and army of “best-in-the-biz” studio mechanics, could easily streamline cutting edge-trends into their sound.

The Beatles were a great band, and if anyone deserves the “best-of-all-time” title, it’s those lads, but isn’t their embodiment of the 60′s sound more a result of their ability to follow trends than build them?

Consider a band like Big Star. In three short years, Big Star went from upbeat power-pop to music that was despaired, esoteric and nigh unclassifiable. This did not go-with-the-proverbial flow of their contemporaries. Big Star cultivated their own sound and subsequently evolved via their own aspirations and frustrations. Sure, they proudly wore their influences on their sleeve (Velvet Underground, The Kinks and yes, The Beatles.) What separates their evolution from a band like The Beatles is that Big Star didn’t streamline. In fact, they seemed incapable of making their music palpable for mass  audiences. Their third (and dare I say best) album didn’t see release for a half a decade after its creation because labels deemed it “un-listenable”.

So, speaking of Big Star, Rhino’s Keep An Eye on the Sky release of just about everything you could ever want or need by the band is an absolute must-own. I didn’t realize how in-need of a clean-up job their material was before listening to the glorious job the ever-reliable Rhino has done with Big Star’s material. You know how a sip of water can make you realize how thirsty you’ve been? That’s the sort of sensation one has listening to this set for the first time.

In honor of this fantastic release, we’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be highlights from the set.

1. “Oh My Soul” – The opening track of Radio City, Big Star’s second album, is one of their finest. Lively and jaunting, it features some of Alex Chilton’s most creative songwriting and guitar work. The remastered version’s added fidelity highlights the nuance of the song’s arrangement.

2. “Downs (demo)” -  In it’s official incarnation on Third/Sisters Lovers, “Downs” is a particularly eccentric piece. It sounds  both over and under-produced. The demo version, a simple and straight-forward solo-acoustic rendition, reveals a tight structure and fantastic melody. Both are on the box set. Compare and contrast!

3. “Hot Burrito #2 (live)” & “Slut (live)” – Big Star weren’t shy about covering their favorite songs. On these versions of songs by The Flying Burrito Brothers and Todd Rundgren respectively, Big Star meet the originals halfway by not corrupting their essences while making them their own.

4. “I Got Kinda Lost (demo)” – Contrary to the stripped-down “Downs” demo mentioned earlier, this version of “I Got Kinda Lost” features the whole band performing the song together. The raw and immaculate performance is invigorating, leading up to a highlight of the entire box-set. “How was that?” asks a member of the band at the song’s conclusion.

“It’ll do” replies what I can only assume is an engineer or producer, making the understatement of the 70′s.

5. “For You” - I hate to use the word sublime, but it really describes this song. Composed and sung by drummer Jody Stephens, it’s a simple tribute to the object of Stephens’ affection. “For You” features a haunting string arrangement that benefits greatly from Keep an Eye on the Sky’s remastering job. This track is reason enough alone to buy the set.

Hey y’all, I’m Josh.  I worked at Pure Pop a couple of years back, right around the time Sue Norton was packing up for NYC.  As was the case with Sue and Casey, the time I spent in that dingy basement broadened and refined my musical knowledge more than I ever would’ve expected.  It seemed like I was constantly discovering some new, mind-blowing album through one of my co-workers or a Pure Pop patron, and I’ve got nothing but love for the place because of it.

These days I’m involved in a few different music projects, which are all tied to Aether Everywhere, the experimental label and online resource I help to run with Pure Pop lifer, Tanner McCuin, and the drumtastic leader of The Le Duo, JB Ledoux.  Feel free to check out the website, which has been lovingly constructed by Tanner, and join the discussion forums for music updates and general shenanigans.  www.aethereverywhere.com

I’ve been asked to write about a few ambient and drone albums I feel deserve some recognition.  If you’re reading this, then you’re probably already familiar with the highlights of these genres, like Brian Eno’s ambient releases, Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Vol II, Biosphere’s Substrata, and Stars of the Lid’s The Tired Sounds… (and if you’re not, get on ‘em!), so I’m providing a chronological list of seven albums you may not be aware of, but are definitely worthy of your attention.

1) Klaus Schulze – Irrlicht

(Ohr; 1972)

Cosmic drones from Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream ex-member, Klaus Schulze.  Using an organ, electronic effects, and a heavily-processed orchestra, Schulz created three colossal monsters that catapult you into the deepest recesses of space.  Sharing many attributes with Tangerine Dream’s masterstroke, Zeit, any lover of early ‘70s German music has a gaping hole in his/her album collection without this one.

2) Tetsu Inoue – Ambiant Otaku

(Fax; 1994)

Relatively unknown, but highly touted by hardcore ambient fans, Inoue has been producing a steady stream of quality albums over the past couple of decades.  One of his biggest fans, John Zorn, has released several of his servings on the awesome Tzadik label. Ambiant Otaku is most often cited as Inoue’s masterpiece, as well as one of the genre’s landmarks, and for good reason.   Equally delicate and heady (which isn’t easy to pull off), you could easily spend weeks with this and his slightly darker offering, Organic Cloud, which was released a year later.

3) Pete Namlook – Air II

(Instinct Record; 1994)

Despite the fact that he’s released more than 100 albums, founded the venerable German ambient label, Fax, and collaborated with the likes of Klaus Schulze, Bill Laswell, Biosphere, Richie Hawtin, and Higher Intelligence Agency (to name a few), not many people seem to know much about Pete Namlook.  I haven’t even begun to put a dent in his massive discography, but from what I’ve heard so far, Air II stands above the rest. Namlook deftly mixed shimmering synth pads, a barrage of exotic instruments, and plenty of interesting rhythms to create 11 pieces that work wonderfully as a unified whole, and take on almost a gothy feel in some spots. It remains one of those albums that always seems to find its way back to my ears before too long, and it’s usually one of the first to spring to mind when I’m asked to recommend an awesome album.

4) Thomas Koner – Nuuk:

(Big Cat Records; 1997)

Dark ambient really doesn’t get any better than this.  Koner, who’s one half of Chain Reaction alum Porter Ricks, created a stunning album that perpetually evokes the barren, frozen landscapes of Greenland.  Here’s a link to the Dusted review of Nuuk’s 2004 reissue, seeing as how it was penned by another Ghost of Pure Pop Past and all.

5) Hazard – Wind

(Ash International; 2001)

B.J. Nilsen, aka Hazard, hit a roadblock while trying to effectively capture the sounds of the wind, so he did one better by borrowing sound clips from field recording maestro Chris Watson.  He then subjected these recordings to extensive digital processing and came out the other side with drones harrowing enough to recall Eno’s On Land. Highly textural and trippy as hell, this one’s not nearly as academic as it sounds on paper.

6) Christopher Bissonnette – Periphery

(Kranky; 2005)

For Periphery, sound artist Christopher Bissonnette weaved together snippets of piano and orchestral samples and stretched them into the unrecognizable, leaving only a ghostly blur where the source material once was. Bissonnette’s skillful patchwork summoned the sounds of barnacle-encrusted pianos and violins sighing from the recesses of an arctic sea, getting swept up by the currents, and gently floating back down to the ocean floor.

7) Lusine ICL – Language Barrier:

(Hymen; 2007)

I can’t stress enough that you should give this one at least five loud headphone spins before you make any decisions.  All of the parts that initially sound elementary become deeply resonant and flat-out gorgeous with each subsequent play.  Ambient or not, this is the perfect album to cue up when you’re taking a mellow drive on a sunny autumn day.  Or to put it another way, if you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to hear The Field’s Sublime sounds on a morphine drip, skip right to track 3 and press play.

I worked at Pure Pop for exactly a year.  My favorite part of the job was grading the condition of the used vinyl.  My least favorite was selling concert tickets.  Anyway, the music you hear when you shop there is an employee’s pick.  You get to pick one album and then you have wait for the other employee’s picks to run through before you get play another.  These days I’m a bartender at The OP, which means I can play whatever the fuck I want all day long.  Sometimes people will make suggestions or requests (one customer got really steamed when I skipped over Donna Summer‘s 18-minute rendition of “MacArthur Park.” Um, sorry…NO), but I usually ignore them.  Also, there are 10,000 songs on my iPod.  I have lots of music to choose from on any given day for any kind of shitty mood I might be in.  So, this is The OP top five.

1> The Rolling Stone 500 Songs playlist and The Pitchfork 500 Songs playlist.

People on the internet are crazy.  Somebody actually took these lists of great songs, spent time compiling them, and then put them on the internet as a bit torrent file.  The Rolling Stone one is great for the older patrons, who sometimes look very surprised that I know who Little Richard and Bill Haley are.  The Pitchfork one is for the younger folks.  Either way, all I have to do is open the playlist up, hit shuffle, and it’s great songs all day long.  Also, it’s like radio.  When a song you dig comes on the radio, it’s different than playing it at home.  It’s more fresh because it’s unexpected.  The Rolling Stone playlist will make you realize how many songs are about losing the one you love.  I’m gonna go with 98%.

2> LCD Soundsystem, “Sound Of Silver”

Whenever I put this on at least five people will come up and ask me who it is.  I’m pretty sure by the time they sit down they’ve already forgotten.  No matter.  I’ve watched old drunk people dance to it.  On multiple occasions.  Sounds like silver to me.  It’s a lot like the Beta Band scene in “High Fidelity” except nobody goes out and buys it.

3> Pavement, “Grounded”

I never get tired of this song, but every time I play it at the bar at least one person locks eyes with me and nods.  They know.  I know.

4> Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”

Playing this makes the girls in the bar very happy, especially when it’s late and they’re all drunk.  It makes me happy, too.

5> Silence.

The first example of silence I’ll use is its use at the end of the night when you want people to leave.  Lights bright, music off.  Usually effective.  The other example occurred yesterday, during Beatles Day.  When I worked at restaurants if the customers talked too loud (sometimes it’s deafening) I’d simply turn the music down a bit and they’d get a little quieter.  Yesterday, a few drunken patrons were shouting their opinions over horse racing at increasing volumes.  I tried the quiet trick.  It didn’t work.  Oh, well.

This week we put our heads together to come up with a short list of artists that successfully switched gears for the mellower, and managed to pull it off, not an easy thing for an artist to do, but the following artists did so, to critical and artist success.

1. Beck – Sea Change

Prior to the release of Sea Change, Beck had been like a shark in his artistic development, never standing still. One of his sidesteps was Mutations, an acoustic-laced, upbeat affair that surprised fans expecting another Odelay. That was followed by Midnite Vultures, a delectably over-the-top party album that sounded as much like Prince as it did Beck. Despite his chameleon-like musical identity, it was something of a shock when he released Sea Change in 2002. Acoustic-centric like Mutations, Sea Change had a more lush production, sedate rhythms and the most earnest, personal lyrics of the man’s career. Mellow, melancholy and unprecedented, the album was embraced by fans and critics alike, all of whom were happy to follow Beck wherever his whim brought them.

2. Velvet Underground – Velvet Underground

The third Velvet Underground album reveals a band in flux. They were on a new label. John Cale, a significant creative force who fanned the flames of Lou Reed’s avant tendencies, left the band and was subsequently replaced by Doug Yule, whose reedy vocal delivery would define some of the group’s most memorable songs. Their prior album, White Light/White Heat, had been a raucous affair, bathed in distortion and dissonance. Velvet Underground couldn’t have been more different. Opening with the sublime “Candy Says”, the album is imbibed with a dark intimacy that is haunting yet strangely uplifting. Even the more upbeat numbers like “What Goes On” and “Beginning To See The Light” feed into the album’s overall atmosphere, lilting asides that give the album dimension. Like every Velvet Underground record, it is an indispensable classic.

3. Big Star – Third/Sisters Lovers

The first two Big Star albums are bright, power-pop classics. Despite the occasional (and obligatory) number about unrequited love or ennui, the albums trot al0ng as they espouse the virtues of girls, driving fast cars and being young. Unfortunately, the group never enjoyed the kind of success they deserved, and by the time they were ready to record their third album, they’d lost half their members and all their optimism. While there’s no official version of the final Big Star record, whichever version you listen to, the overall effect is the same. The songs are tortured ordeals, evoking regret, sadness and nihilism. It’s as beautiful and tragic as music can be. One can’t help but selfishly be grateful for whatever poor Alex Chilton was going through. He may have been put through hell, but lord, what an album.

4. Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-out

Loved by droning noiseniks and dedicated Pop aficionados  alike, Yo La Tengo, before the release of And Then Nothing, had seemingly taken their sound everywhere it could go. From full out long play feedback jams (Spec Bebop), slow burning kraut-drones (Five corned drone), gazey-noise rock (From a Motel 6), silly covers (Speeding Motorcycle), and everywhere in between. Yet is was still a surprise to most fans when upon listening to And Nothing, they realized that somehow Yo La Tengo had just reinvented themselves, this time for the mellower.

Track after track on And Nothing they took the raw skills they displayed on their previous outings, peeled, polished, and inverted them to reveal a set of meticulously composed and aranged odes to the night, failed love, and to the spaces inbetween notes. The fuzz pedals remain off for most the album, drums are brushed and keys chime softly, vocals barely reach above a whisper and once again, Yo La Tengo show the world that anything we can do, they can do better.