idigworms

Odelay outtake, fwiw. Anyway, I sorta know what you're saying.

Actually, we're both right. But tell me, which of these sounds more dimensional...?

Electric Music and the Summer People ("Mutations"-era)

Electric Music and the Summer People ("Odelay"-era)

Oh, forget it. I love them both. Either way, it blows "Gamma Ray" to pieces!

"Impossible Germany", at Sears. Shoppers and clerks were noticeably withering during the guitar solo...

What I like about the sound of "Mutations" is the space, the sound of the room, the sound of people playing together. With what I've heard from "Modern Guilt", it sounds like a sheet of paper. Hear me out. If "Electric Music and the Summer People" (a "Mutations" outtake) equaled the earth being round, "Gamma Ray" equals...well, you know. What, or who, is to blame? Danger Mouse? iPods? The disappearance of natural reverb on modern recordings?

I own and love them all, and many other obvious omissions, but I was hoping to get some underdogs on the final list.

And I commend you for that. But if everyone did that, then we might end up with "Willenium" in the top ten...

...which would drive me jiggy.

1. Workbook

"Z" --- Not a bad track to be found on that one. Particularly a download of "Wordless Chorus" circa early 2006, and I was amazed. I couldn't really stand "It Still Moves", but maybe I should give it another chance...

I dig idigworm's list. I had Fear of Music by the Talking Heads on my list, btw.

 

--Mike

I was going to add Sand in the Vaseline, but it would have meant dropping Sentimental Journey, which I feel is a truly transcendent album. It exists apart from what it is, which could be taken as merely ex-Beatle Ringo woozily crooning schmaltzy standards with seemingly nary a single rocking bone in his body. But that kind of synopsis only makes me want to go back and listen to it again. It's amazing!

See? Now I'm listening to "Whispering Grass". Oh, yes.

20 The Who - Tommy

19 Ringo Starr - Sentimental Journey

18 Various Artists - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Soundtrack)

17 Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

16 Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert

15 The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

14 Daniel Johnston/Various Artists - Late Great Daniel Johnston:

Discovered Covered

13 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

12 The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

11 Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

10 The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle

09 Beck - Mutations

08 The Beatles - Abbey Road

07 Willie Nelson - Stardust

06 Various Artists - The Darjeeling Limited (Soundtrack)

05 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

04 Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

03 The Beach Boys - Friends/20-20

02 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

01 The Beatles - Revolver

Try this: adapt or rewrite a favorite song of yours, only with new music or lyrics, simply as an exercise. Painters study the masters by copying what they see, so why not musicians in a slightly more creative and personal way?

I Want To Dance With You (Original Mix)

I Want To Dance With You (New Remix)

I originally recorded this with a very crude mixing program, so I chose to remix from scratch with Acoustica Mixcraft. I limited myself to sixteen tracks: a sampled drum track (sound familiar? ), a bass track, two acoustic guitar tracks, four electric rhythm guitar tracks, two lead guitar tracks, two lead vocal tracks, and four backing vocal tracks. Each track had individual compression, and the entire track was treated with brick wall limiter and small room reverb. The only thing is this: I am not thoroughly satisfied with either mix. Or even with the song. So I need some help.

Tuesday Morning is quite an awesome track. Like The Answer, it reminds me of 9/11:

Tuesday morning sleeping in your clothes

Hiding something where no one ever goes

Somewhere

Somewhere

it's so right

Stay there

Stay there

In the light

Red umbrella floating down the street

It's raining downtown every time we meet

Christmas lights hang down from empty trees

In her place that no one really sees

Somewhere

Somewhere

It's so right

Tuesday morning

I can't fight

Remembering

Everything

Remembering

Everything

I thought i saw you in the corner of my eye

Moving quickly with the people that were passing by

Pausing on the sidewalk to strike a pose

Hiding things everybody already knows

Stay there

Stay there

It's so right

Empty morning

I can't fight

Remembering

Everything

Remembering

Everything

Everything

Everything

Everything

Yeah I completely agree. You Are My Face is credited to Tweedy/Cline.

 

--Mike

Yeah, I'd say that one has legs, lyrically and musically.

Does O'Rourke play on that one?

The elephant in the room I tend to see is the songwriting aspect. I'm holding out for, specifically, a Tweedy/Cline credit, so I can compare it to, well, pretty much any song from ST and YHF, give or take a few that Bennett didn't write.

I'm pretty sure that would cover more than one fret.

Exactly.

The album is live. They recorded digitally at the loft over several months. Then they took the jams, or parts of jams, that they liked and spliced them together with protools. Then they took those edited recordings, learned how to play them live and went to NYC to record AGIB.

True dat.

There's a piano in there, as well...

AGIB sounds more alive than ST and YHF. Not meant as putting down on those two. Just my opinion on the entire sound of each album. (Having said that, "Jesus, Etc.," for the most part, could have fit in easily on AGIB...)

Does something like this happen often in the professional recording world? It seems like a big waste of time. Why not just use the Pro Tools versions instead of travelling? Maybe that's why they recorded Sky Blue Sky completely in the loft.

Perhaps they simply wanted to record it live in New York. They certainly weren't strapped for options, you know.

Plus, they lost a lot of their equipment and instruments from the Loft when Jay was fired. A-ha.

I absolutely love the living sound that AGIB has, as if each song were being performed by the band for the first time, and captured as quickly as humanly possible.

I initially hated AGIB for that very reason...

It means that the songs on AGIB were fleshed out by arranging them with ProTools in Chicago. Then they went to New York and recorded the whole thing live, with very little overdubbing when compared to ST and YHF.

When I saw this, I went, "Huh?" Then I realized you meant "In My Life".

And then I went, "Huh?"

Because the chords are not exactly the same. There are a few differences.

Yogi Berra said it first. But, then, you should already know that.

Marvin Gaye - "Here, My Dear".

So did I.

Then post them.

Well, off the top of my head ... when they're at their best, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Neil Finn, Billy Bragg, Joe Pernice, and Jackson Browne would fall into that category.

I meant lyrics, but okay.

One of my favorite lines by Jackson Browne:

"...if I seem to be afraid

to live the life that

I have made in song

It's just that I've

been losing so long..."