Tom Cochrane: Mad Mad World – with “Friendly Advice” video cover

October 13, 2014 Leave a Comment

Tom Cochrane - Mad Mad WorldPart 10 of 12 Albums That Stuck With Me

If you know Tom Cochrane’s biggest hit, it’s probably as “that Rascal Flatts song from Cars“. Indeed, the original “Life is a Highway” was pretty big for a couple weeks at the end of 1991, but it faded away pretty quickly. As an anthem for a bunch of computer-animated, anthropomorphic automobiles 15 years later, Pixar could’ve picked worse.

The rest of the album is … well, it’s not at the top of  many lists. Maybe “Tom Cochrane solo records” or “least politically challenging post-Gulf War releases”. Were it not for my own nerd rage at country covers of rock songs and a final track I could play acoustically at open mics to a fair amount of praise, the whole disc might’ve faded from my memory too.

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Charlie Sexton Sextet: Under the Wishing Tree – with “Home Sweet Home” video cover

September 30, 2014 Leave a Comment

Charlie Sexton Sextet - Under the Wishing Tree Part 9 of 12 Albums That Stuck With Me

I have a distinct memory of finding this album in the record store. It was in the small tourist town down the hill from my college; the fourth track, “Everyone Will Crawl”, had been on the radio the previous year.

As these things tend to go, that moderate hit song paled in comparison to the rest of the album.

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Muse: Black Holes and Revelations – with “Exo-Politics” video cover

August 31, 2014 Leave a Comment

Muse - Black Holes and RevelationsPart 8 of 12 Albums That Stuck With Me

Before delving into the utter craziness that is this album, let’s talk about the final track, “Knights of Cydonia”, shall we?

I don’t even mean the crazy sci-fi video, a mashup of Firefly-style gritty space Western with robots and mustaches and plenty of other cult movie references. Or its thematic and auditory segue into the first track of the following album, released three years later.

Nope, it’s the fact that the song changes key about a zillion times without a single hint that it’s happening.

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Your IQ Test Thinks You’re Smart Because It’s Dumb

August 13, 2014 Leave a Comment

Your IQ is ... ?

The latest viral pandemic spreading across social media is a test proclaiming how smart you are. Perhaps I have particularly brainy friends, or anyone with a supposed IQ beneath genius level is too ashamed to share their score, but I’ve come to the scientific conclusion that the test is utter bunk. Read more of this post

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The Who: Tommy – with “Christmas” video cover

July 25, 2014 Leave a Comment

The Who - TommyPart 7 of 12 Albums That Stuck With Me

By far, Tommy is the oldest album on my list. The ’70s and ’80s are entirely unrepresented, but this rock opera from 1969 was always an obvious one for me to include.

The reason? Story. Every album I listen to, I try to tease out a storyline, even if one clearly was never intended. The idea that a collection of songs should be more than that, should be bound together and greater than the sums of their parts, undoubtedly stems from hearing Tommy in my childhood.

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