Republican Music Police

51: Love – Forever Changes (1967)

Probably the most famous album you’ve never heard of, if you’re anything like I was up until about 2 years ago. What is there to say about this record that’s worth saying? If you’ve heard the album you probably like it a lot already. If you haven’t heard it you should probably just go buy it. I’m not going to pretend it’s some masterpiece (even though it often cracks critic’s top 20 lists, or even top 10) but it’s really pretty good. These guys from San Fran (go figure) manage to blend psychadelia (something I never really cared much for) and mod-rock. It’s really very cool, even if the lyrics sometimes get a little hippy-dippy-shmippy.

52: Jawbreaker – Bivouac (1991)

Blake and co.’s first good album, it happened to be pretty damn ass good. Instead of sticking to their guns after the pretty drab Unfun (which somehow won them a following among the punk rock kids) Jawbreaker switched it up and added shades of Fugazi and Sunny Day to their canon. There’s still some punk rock blasters like “Shield Your Eyes,” “Tour Song,” and more notably the absolutely brilliant “Chesterfield King,” but what reallly makes this album interesting are the songs like “Donatello” and “Bivouac.” Both these songs ultimately anticipate the sound Jawbreaker would go on to pioneer, the hybrid punk with controlled releases of slow groove. This album runs a little flaccid at times (like the Joan Jett cover, and the other cover song I can’t remember who it’s of) but inevitably the songs stack up to be wholly memorabe, sincere, and convincing.

53: New Order – Power, Corruption, and Lies (1983)

There’s almost no debate, as far as I’m concerned: New Order was a singles band. It’s not that I think their albums are worthless or anything like that. They were just part of a scene that rewarded singles over constructed albums. Their singles, including the top selling single of all time in “Blue Monday” were among the best the 80’s produced. However, this makes for some pretty disappointing albums from a great band. I’ve said time and time again that New Order is much better than their ancestral form in Joy Division. The thing is though, besides this album, none of their records can really stack up against Closer, which weakens my argument. Luckily for me, this record is out there. This is a good record even beyond New Order’s other failures. But when you consider that too, this album is all the more remarkable. Yes, it’s really a framing for its two huge singles, but it’s atmospheric and moody and beats the hell out of most any other new wave album from its time. Oh, and Blue Monday and Age of Consent are two pretty fucking rocking songs.

54: David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust (1972)

I can mention five songs and that should be enough to warrant this selection: “Five Years,” “Starman,” “Moonage Daydream,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Suffragette City.” And really, that’s how I look at the album. The other tracks are fine, but this doesn’t take off like those four songs seem to indicate it ought to. And that’s fine with me, I guess. I never much loved Bowie and his other albums slog, so I guess it doesn’t break my heart or anything. But what this album might have been was something truly phenomenal. Instead it’s just very, very good.

55: “2Pac” – Me Against the World (1995)

In the endless debate of best rapper of all time, I’ll admit, I side with Tupac over Biggie. Yeah Frank White could flow mad illy (Christ, I’ll stop that now) but inevitably Tupac’s legacy and songs are just so much larger than anything Smalls ever dropped. If still alive, Biggie would likely be remembered most for his weight, then for his comparatively moderate hits – Big Poppa, Hypnotize, Mo Money... Pac needed no revisionist history to make his songs larger than life. A quick glance at his greatest hits album verifies that.

But the thing is: none of his albums are all that good. Strictly... is too misguidedly political and the beats don’t pound. All Eyez on Me is way too long and too thug-obsessed. 2 Pacalypse now doesn’t even bear mentioning. No, none of his albums are all that good – except this one. Smart, socially conscious and most importantly, banging, this album is a worthy legacy for the best rapper ever to touch a microphone.

56: The Beatles – Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (1967)

Like, Oh My God, did I honestly put Sgt. Pepper behind 2Pac, New Order, and Jawbreaker? Isn’t this some sort of classic record? Like best of all time or something? Well, yeah that’s what I heard, but the facts don’t bear it out. This album’s got one of the better beginnings in music history, with the title track and Help From My Friends and LSD, and one of the best endings, when you consider When I’m Sixty-Four and A Day in the Life. But the fact is, like most Beatles albums (and here’s something else that might be upsetting: this is the only Beatles album on this list) there’s a lot of pleasant but terribly specious pap in the middle. Like Revolver and Rubber Soul the terribly great songs are surrounded by terribly mediocre ones. This album is populated with the likes of Fixing a Hole, Lovely Rita, She’s Leaving Home and It’s Getting Better. These are pleasant enough songs, a little bit catchy even. But they’re not really all that interesting. Unlike Ziggy, which sprinkled it’s great songs evenly around the album, Sgt. Pepper is front and back heavy, which makes for a wildly uneven listening. Still, that beginning and that ending are phenomenal.

57: The Rolling Stones – Beggar’s Banquet (1968)

This album more for what they don’t do than what they do. And that’s overindulge (except on Sympathy). Still the guitar work and vocals are phenomenal, especially on songs like Dear Doctor and Stray Cat Blues. Who would have thought statutory rape could make such an entertaining song?

58: The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (1999)

I’ll say again that I’ve never been all too fond of psychedelia. I’ve always found on albums like Cloud Tastes Metallic, and even Transmissions from the Satellite Heart that I would enjoy the Lips a lot more if I sniffed a lot of glue. But this album isn’t that way for me. I legitimately enjoy it front to back and for what it is. Yeah it’s a little more ambient than I’d like, a little less eager to rock, but the pop sensibilities that lack on most Lips songs (excepting Turn it On and She Don’t Use Jelly of course) are in full force on Soft Bulletin. And Spiderbite Song is one of the most disturbingly hilarious songs I’ve ever heard. Oh Wayne, you crazy bastard!!!

59: Hum – You’d Prefer an Astronaut (1995)

While Smashing Pumpkins was reaping all the critical and commercial success from the wake of My Blood Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain, Hum was perfecting the wall of sound rock and being largely ignored for it. But this album is really really cool, the way the fuzzed up guitars explode and drown us in offbeat sound patterns and offbeat lyrics. I don’t understand how this band wasn’t successful. I’ll take songs like Suicide Machine and Why I Like the Robins over any of the grunge rock that dominated their contemporary alt-rock radio. And Stars, with its undeniable melody and chorus of “She says she missed the train to Mars/ She’s out back counting stars,” seems like it would have fit right in on modern rock radio with all the Spacehogs and so on. Nevertheless, it’s all one – this album is good whether anyone knows it or not.

60: Method Man – Tical (1994)

Of all the albums from the first wave of solo albums from Wu-Tang Clan members (Liquid Swords, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ironman, Return to the 36 Chambers, and this one) Method Man’s solo effort is the only one that could be considered underrated. Ghost, Gza and Rae all get credit for crafting three of hip-hop’s greatest LP’s and ODB’s solo joint really isn’t that good to begin with, but hardly anyone even TALKS about Tical. Which is a shame, because front to back it’s a damn good rap record. Method Man has always been the most verbose of the Wu-Tang Clan, and on this album he waxes poetic on all kinds of topics (mostly weed) and even drops a love song that ranks among the best rap love songs ever written (kind of a narrow category, but still). This album is full of classic quotables, but perhaps foremost is this unforgettable couplet from “Sub Crazy”:

“Styles be trife, trife like a thief in the night/ I be that sneaky ass nigga bustin’ nuts in your wife”