I'm listening through the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, in no particular order. It seems good for getting me to listen to things I'd never bother to listen to otherwise. Genres I never explore. Artists that don't really interest me. Weird stuff that has more artistic merit than musical. It's a good exercise, I think, to experience more things in life.
I'm going to list some albums by artists that aren't on that list, that I would put on such a list, if I was making one:
- Nat King Cole - Love Is The Thing (1957)
- Wendy Carlos - Switched On Bach (1968)
- J.A. Seazer - Kokkyō Junreika (1973)
- Roy Orbison - Black And White Night (1988)
- Skunk Anansie - Paranoid And Sunburnt (1995)
- Kirsty MacColl - Tropical Brainstorm (1999)
- Yuki Kajiura - FICTION (2008)
- The Protomen - Act II : The Father Of Death (2009)
- Module - Shatter the Original Videogame Soundtrack (2009)
- Square Enix Music - NieR Gestalt & NieR Replicant Original Soundtrack (2010)
- Perturbator - I Am The Night (2012)
- Yousei Teikoku - 神パラ楽典 ～神様と運命革命のパラドクス ボーカルアルバム～ (2013)
- Algiers - Algiers (2015)
- Prelude To Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party (2024)
Discussion on each album after the break!
The original 1001 albums list seems to not include compilation albums, classical music, or soundtracks. I kept to the "no compilation" rule, though I do think that in some cases, a "greatest hits" compilation has had a greater impact on the world and therefore on music overall, so in this way I don't agree with the rule even though I am abiding by it. ABBA, Queen and The Eagles' greatest hits compilations are some of the biggest selling albums of all time.
1. Nat King Cole - Love Is The Thing
I am including this album because Nat King Cole had, in my opinion, the greatest voice of all of the "crooners". I suspect that his omission is because it must have been hard for the book's author to find a review that said he was ever important in terms of genre progress, but this was early on and this was still the era of segregation in the United States of America. Sometimes just being the best when the odds are stacked against your success should be recognised. The more obvious choice might be Unforgettable, but I am going for Love Is The Thing because the sound quality is divine in comparison.
2. Wendy Carlos - Switched On Bach
This album is now elusive, unavailable on the usual streaming services. Once upon a time, it was a platinum-selling record, though the earlier copies of the record show a different artist name because she is a transgender woman. But that's not why this album is important, though it is important. It was tremendously influential at showing the world what electronic music could be, not just used experimentally for sound effects and the Dr Who theme (which was an amazing achievement imo). This album comes before Popcorn, way before Jean Michel Jarre and so on. So many interviews I've read or watched where someone's cited this album specifically as an influence. And when I was growing up in the 1980s, so many of the early video game soundtracks were chiptune Bach, and everything that came from that, I have to include this album. Also, if Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Pictures At An Exhibition was fit to include in the 1001 albums list - just a prog rock rendition of Mussorgsky/Korsakov and therefore classical music, then this should be included too.
3. J.A. Seazer - Kokkyō Junreika
J.A. Seazer is a musician who mostly works in live theatre, he was part of a group called Tenjou Saijiki, working with Shuji Terayama and others. Together, their works really fired up Japanese students in the late 1960s through 70s, via theatre and film. But I think this is a separate work of his. It is a live album, and I feel it's more flowing and cohesive for it than a lot of his soundtrack work. It combines heavy psychedelic rock, traditional Japanese folk music, choral music, and... parts of it are very primal. It's another kind of rock opera, unlike other things you might consider to be "rock opera". Spiritually this feels closer to another student theatre work - Jim Steinman's Dream Engine (1969) than something like e.g. The Who's Tommy. But there's very little else I've heard, that I could compare to this. Well, other than other J.A. Seazer.
4. Roy Orbison - Black & White Night
It might be worth checking out the "Black & White 30" version of this as videos on YouTube, it's the 30th anniversary version. It's a crime to me that Roy Orbison was not included anywhere on the 1001 albums list. This concert was all star, and you'll see it if you watch the video. His band were inherited from Elvis Presley, he's got Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang on backing vocals, he's got Elvis Costello on harmonica, he's got Bruce Springsteen on guitar and harmony vocals... it's an insane line-up. So that's why I chose this particular album. I love Roy Orbison's voice, and his songwriting... even though so many of his songs are musically [start low pitched, tell a sad story, rise at the climax to the money note, drums beating BA-DA-BUM-BUM-BUM], I don't care! It works every time! No-one else does that! Even when he's covering other people's songs, they do that too and it's perfect! For this concert, Roy covers Elvis Costello's song "The Comedians". Go listen to the original Elvis Costello version then listen to how it's transformed for Roy Orbison's version. Magic!!
5. Skunk Anansie - Paranoid & Sunburnt
I started using the music-listening tracking service last.fm in around August last year, and in my yearly round-up, it informed me that I was the #64th biggest listener to this album in the entire world. That means not enough people are listening to this album! Hey everyone, you should listen to this album! ....well, I don't know really, haha. Skunk Anansie really resonated with me as a teenager, feeling isolated and being constantly gaslit that "oh we don't have racism here like they do in America" when literally I had the experience of having a guy chant "there ain't no black in the union jack" at me across the school courtyard and I'm not even Black! You know? It was extremely cool to have someone so very directly address this stuff, no punches pulled, no euphemising, right in there. Thank you Skin, you're the coolest ever. Plus she's amazing at singing and the songs sound musically great too. I guess if you'd like something more group-friendly to listen to, fewer slurs quoted in raw fury, Stoosh is the album to go to. Btw they're still together as a band and released a new song "An Artist Is An Artist" the other day and it's very fun and you should definitely check that out too.
6. Kirsty MacColl - Tropical Brainstorm
This album is so good, so funny, and I love her trademark delicious self-harmonising... god, it's one of the greatest tragedies that... I was so massively into this album, and had the opportunity to go see her perform live but didn't go because I didn't know where the venue was... it was literally 5 minutes walk from my workplace but I was too afraid to ask... then literally days later, she died in an accident. And now, who even remembers her beyond that one Christmas song? I do! I want her to be remembered in this great album! She had just entered a new chapter of her life, became a divorcee, had travelled to Cuba and was interested in embracing that music and fusing it into her own in an authentic way, this album sold a million copies, it seemed like things were going great... and then, she was just gone. I don't think the family even managed to get criminal charges against whoever ran her over, either. Huge tragedy, it felt a bigger blow to me emotionally than Kurt Cobain or Princess Diana, if that helps explain. But this album is truly great, and I really recommend it.
7. Yuki Kajiura - FICTION
Ok this one is borderline compilation and borderline soundtrack. Yuki Kajiura worked for many years as a composer on various anime soundtracks, and this album collects many of the best songs from that body of work, either re-recorded or remixed or otherwise updated, along with a scattering of new songs. This is also a very multilingual album, featuring songs in English, Japanese, Italian, Latin, and a made up language affectionally named "Kajiurago" on tracks 8 and 9. Great vocal performances from multiple featured singers; Emily Bindiger, Deb Lyons, Yuri Kasahara, Kaori Nishina and Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch. Trivia question: what do the .hack//SIGN soundtrack and Leonard Cohen's New Skin For The Old Ceremony have in common? The answer is Emily Bindiger's vocals. (I don't really like the song "Winter" but the rest of the album is solid)
8. The Protomen - Act II The Father Of Death
This band are SO NERDY they write whole concept albums based on Megaman lore. Isn't that fantastic? But this album is also kind of a tribute to Streets Of Fire - as you can see by the album cover and if you listen to / watch the music video for "Light Up The Night". And as someone who desperately wishes Fire Inc had recorded whole album, I was so ready for this. But who even knows about Fire Inc? They got Alan Shacklock to produce the album, who also produced Meat Loaf's album Bad Attitude, which contains a different version of the Fire Inc / Jim Steinman song Nowhere Fast. I presume this is why he was recruited. It's all so ultra nerdy! It's also a really good album. I would want my version of the 1001 albums list to feature an album this nerdy in concept, I want to elevate ultranerdiness to that level of respect.
9. Module - Shatter the Original Videogame Soundtrack
Yes this is a serious selection! I know it's literally a soundtrack right there in the title, and the game is basically just a fancy version of Breakout, but this album is really outstanding, electronic / funk, really clean production. I read a review that was like "this is a bit Daft Punk, what's the big deal?", but bear in mind - this guy made this all on his own without samples and famous collaborators. Module is afaik just one man named Jeramiah Ross, from New Zealand. I also recommend an album called "Love Electric" by The Blush Response, which is another album of his that you can find on Bandcamp, very 1980s sounding, featuring Paul McLaney on vocals. I want more people to hear these 2 albums!
10. Square Enix Music - NieR Gestalt & NieR Replicant Original Soundtrack
"Oh no", you might be crying; "This is a corporate creation. Four composers, multiple remixes of the same songs, within a product, published by one of the biggest, and recently, least daring video game companies in the world."
Well, yeah, maybe, but when this game was made, it wasn't Square Enix at all. That's just how you will find it listed if you search for it nowadays, under the publisher name. The game was made by a mid-size company called Cavia, who mostly did anime-tie-in games to keep the doors open, and occasionally allowed Yoko Taro to make horrible games like the Drakengard series or NieR. And I say "horrible" in a loving way, because I believe that was part of the intent of the creator in his games, that a big part is making the player realise in the end how normal it is for his characters to live in their worlds of madness, slaughter, fascism, while these characters believe they're doing the right thing. I think the intended response is disgust, and you'll be relieved of your save file when you complete the game. And that's art. And I think it killed Cavia, because it was the last game they made. Square Enix picked up the rights and Yoko Taro worked with Platinum Games to make NieR Automata, and finally he made a hit.
The game NieR came in two versions: Gestalt, featuring an older male protagonist, and Replicant, featuring a younger male protagonist. They both use the same soundtrack, hence the title of this album. The language used in the vocals for this album is completely made up, don't worry about not understanding the lyrics. I don't know whether the album will hold up without the game. But it's a great soundtrack. You'll hear elements of choral, warlike drums, classical guitar, orchestral, industrial, and piano... repeating leitmotifs, a lot things that are both calming and rousing at the same time in a way that works, and all with a somehow comforting air of melancholy. This is a long album, 2.5 hours total with a lot of repeating themes in different styles, perhaps a lot to take in at once - but this is good amount to hear in a long game.
11. Perturbator - I Am The Night
Perturbator is a French electronic musician, who makes darkwave synth albums sounding like if John Carpenter horror soundtracks were danceable. Mostly instrumentals, some with dialogue sampled from films. I'm not sure how I first learned of him, perhaps via the Hotline Miami soundtracks. There are a few different artists in this genre, but in my opinion Perturbator has the best sound among them, and I Am The Night is the peak of his output. So that's why I included this album. I Am The Night opens so strongly, to the sound of distant sirens and the famous speech from the 1976 film Network, and we're plunged into this expansive, nocturnal landscape. There is a collaboration with vocalist Isabella Goloversic on the track "Naked Tongues", she also collaborated on "Hard Wired" on the album Dangerous Days, and I wish they had recorded more together, because her voice suits this so well.
12. Yousei Teikoku - 神パラ楽典 ～神様と運命革命のパラドクス ボーカルアルバム～
Yousei Teikoku are an odd band. They are Japanese gothic / speed metal band whose name translates to "fairy kingdom", and have extensively toyed playfully with somewhat alarming dictator imagery, with their lead singer Yui, with her cutesy voice, as supreme leader over her band and her audience. But it seems like a dominatrix persona taken to extreme, rather than an actual political statement. They've recorded a lot of anime song themes over the years as well as standalone albums, which is how I first heard of them. They also have a side project band called Denkishiki Karen Ongaku Shuudan - or Dankare for short - which seem to do... about the same thing? I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it's a supergroup! Anyway, the album I have chosen is extremely niche, but I like it most out of all of their work. There's a PS3 game called Guided Fate Paradox which they did the soundtrack for, and this is a vocal album related to that. So it's not the actual soundtrack, but an extension to that. They've added a choir to their usual lineup, which I always like, and it's more symphonic than usual. But not symphonic metal like Nightwish or anything, this has huge energy. Note: I know this is listed on Spotify as a single, but it's 6 unique tracks and about half an hour long, I am going to treat it as an album regardless.
13. Algiers - Algiers
I came across this entirely by chance, as someone posted one track from the album on a discord server I'm on, and I immediately thought - I want to hear more of this. I really was blown away, just because I don't think I ever heard anything like this. It's like a dark, goth, soul album, with industrial and gospel elements. You've got to hear this! Everyone! Listen!
14. Prelude To Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party
This is my favourite new band. I already wrote a bunch about them in a post last year, but to add to that: this is a stunning and exciting debut album. They spent a few years performing their songs in small London venues before recording it, which makes them sound far more experienced than you'd expect in a debut album. All the band members seem to be very talented, performing (including multi-instrumentalists), writing, arranging for orchestra. Their overall sound is pleasing to an old person like me - it doesn't sound quite as digitally manipulated as most modern releases, there are elements of glam, goth, psychedelic, Queen-like theatricality, all mined from decades before they were even born, wrapped up in an aesthetic that's... kinda eerie 1970s films, like Picnic On Hanging Rock, Suspiria, Hausu etc. But it's also lyrically very queer, very feminist, stuff that perhaps wouldn't have been allowed by record labels back in those decades. Caesar On A TV Screen is particularly excellent writing, the protagonist expressing her desire to have the unlimited doomed power of Caesar... but you find out halfway through it's that she has a dickhead boyfriend who has a lot of stupid political opinions and he won't let her speak up, so this inner rage at the inequality that's erupting. It's got great imagery, I love it. I could go on about each song, they're so good. But no, I want you to go and listen to the album, form your own ideas.
