#also you can't tell me this dude didn't listen to emo bands

[travellingtribble]

made an Adam Milligan playlist because I love him

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Oh no! It's another one of my Favorite Albums Of All Time™. This is the best rock album of the 90's. Somehow blending ennui and deep longing into one contradictory emotion. Crooked Rain speaks to the contradictory feelings of growing up in a middle class suburb. The rebellion vs the comfort. The desire for something that you don't know what it is, but you need it so bad. It's an album about growing up, but it's great contradiction is that it brings me back to childhood every time I hear it. And that isn't nostalgia talking either, I didn't hear this album at all until I was out of high school. If you only listen to one album off the list so far make it this one.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver

Deadpan irony delivered with dispassionate sincerity. It's hard to tell whether LCD Soundsystem is making fun of you for having feeling or if they're making fun of you for thinking that you don't. Are they genuinely mad about being mistaken for a European band or are they joking? Is the title track sympathetic or dismissive of teenage angst? Is party culture self destructive or triumphant? The lack of any real answers meld with the slow building and steady instrumentals to create a world where the answers are whatever conclusion you draw. Maybe things can be more than one thing.

Usher - Confessions

Ngl man if you gotta write two back to back songs apologizing for shit then she's probably in the right to leave your ass lol. This album is solid. I think it drags a little, but its not like it's top heavy or anything. I think I just get bored with sensitive R&B guys faster than others. The fact that the album's tone is to be unapologetically horny but also very apologetic at the same time is hilarious to me. I know it isn't deliberate camp but when Usher goes from I'm good at sex songs to please take me back songs it's like environmental storytelling for toxic dudes.

Los Lobos - How Will the Wolf Survive

I'll admit that a sorta folksy sorta rockabilly album from 84 is not an exciting prospect to me. It wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't rock my world either. Not a complete bust though since there is some nice accordion playing here and that always makes me happy.

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

The idea to wrap up the brattiest, meanest lyrics in Buddy Holly style rock n roll was one of the greatest masterstrokes of the 70s punk scene. Typically when an artist tries to emulate past styles, especially from the pre stereo era, they either emulate too perfectly and end up derivative or they fail entirely and wind up sounding sterile. Elvis Costello somehow avoids this entirely. The lo fi punk rock production compliments the 50s throwback aesthetics in a way that feels authentic to both styles.

The Four Tops - Reach Out

When I was a child my dad listened exclusively to an oldies station that didn't seem to realize that music existed outside of the years 1951-1968. Hits from the Motown records label were naturally staples of their lineup and the songs that always stood out to me happened to be by The Four Tops. I Can't Help Myself, Bernadette, Walking In The Shadows Of Love, and Reach Out I'll Be There wound up being some of the most foundational songs of my childhood. This album contains three of those four songs. The only real point of this anecdote is to explain how I'm not qualified to review anything by The Four Tops. Hell I even named myself after Levi Stubbs' character from Little Shop of Horrors. This isn't one of my favorite albums of all time, but it contains some of my most essential songs of all time.

Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising

Right in the middle of their discography and in the middle of their evolution from hardcore punk to alt rock pioneers. New Day Rising almost feels like it could have been an early emo influence. Buzzsaw guitars threaten to drown out helplessly shouted vocals. And far from the traditional punk aesthetic that prized political lyricism and outward facing aggression Bob Mould writes personal and introspective songs. Without a doubt this album, while not a turning point in and of itself, is still part of a large scale shift in what rock music would be going forward.