ACRN Editorial: This is My Jam!
By ACRN Staff
There are certain bits of music that, no matter where you are in your life, have the power to take you back.
Suddenly you aren’t just listening to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at a somewhat unacceptable volume whilst sitting in gridlock; you’re sixteen again, rocking out in your best friend’s beater because he was the first to get wheels and, say what you will about her transmission, boy, could that baby jam!
Idlewild South is more than just an Allman Brothers album; it’s camping that final summer and knowing that things were never going to be the same but they were at least going to be alright because, if nothing else, at least they weren’t going to catch the midnight rider.
Music and memory are linked and it is because of that that no one will ever be more poetic than Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin will always be your favorite band, and you will always forgive Julian Casablancas--even if you secretly wish that the Strokes had just let that be it and never dabbled with geometry.
Every year new records drop our collections grow, our tastes refine and our preferences change. But, no matter what, it always seems to come back to that one album--that number one slot on the High-Fidelity-All-Time-Top-5 List--and it has as much to do with the memories associated with your “jam” as it does with the jam itself.
These are the albums that turned average crustaceans into rock lobsters:
The Smiths: The Smiths
[Sire; 1984]
As a persistently troubled seventh grade student sequestered in a painfully rural small town in the middle of Ohio, I suppose it only makes sense that I gravitated towards the incomparably uncomforting work of Stephen Patrick Morrissey.
I distinctly remember the first time I heard The Smiths: sparkly guitar riffs draining through my father’s crackly vinyl copy of their 1984 debut. Music that sounded like it came from some dreary cerebral landscape that perfectly encapsulated all of the horrendous turmoil I felt as a middle-class white preteen.
I found myself fascinated with that intangible thing about Morrissey’s songwriting that left me bewildered and oddly saddened:
“Over the moor/Take me to the moor/Dig a shallow grave/And I lay me down…”
It would be several years before I realized that lyrics about pretty girls making graves were more than a bit tongue-in-cheek, adding a dimension to The Smiths that I now appreciate more than the odd comfort I found in the album as a terribly misguided 12 year old.
-Emily Votaw, Staff Writer
Coldplay: Parachutes
[Capitol; 2000]
Parachutes had a profound impact on the way I experience music. It unearthed deep emotions and transformed me into... well, kind of a hippie. But that was possible only because of my older brother, Carter.
We became good friends in the summer when I was 17. He loved to play guitar and piano-- making his own songs and also perfecting his favorites. Coldplay was near the top of his list of respected musicians.
Imagine laying under the stars by a campfire at two in the morning after a long night of work, listening to the lazy strumming of guitar lines from "Trouble", or "Spies." Or imagine a 12-hour road trip with your brother and best friend, Parachutes on repeat.
The summer of 2009 was, hands-down, the best of my life. I was indescribably content to lay around and listen to whatever harmonies my brother and his friends wanted to create for the moment. We had no worries.
I will never be able to thank Carter enough for teaching me to listen for the music that exists outside of lyrics. He lives far away now, but I will always have Parachutes to remind me of that summer.
-Hannah Back, Staff Writer
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II
[Atlantic; 1969]
The best moments in music are those “This is it!” moments when you hear a piece of sound and it is as if everything you have ever heard before was just imitation, just noise.
That is why Led Zeppelin II will always be my favorite album.
There are plenty of reasons that it is deserving of being a favorite album. One of those reasons is called “Whole Lotta Love.” Other reasons include Jimmy Page’s solo on “Heartbreaker” and the way Bonzo commands the kit on “Moby Dick.” It probably also has something to do with the fact that literally every song on the record is perfect. I am always in the mood to listen to it. Always. And that is a rare quality.But that is not why it is my favorite album
.Led Zeppelin II is my favorite album because it gave an awkward 14-year-old girl a direction. Led Zeppelin lead me to everything I love about music--to rock, to the blues, and inadvertently to everyone I’ve ever cared deeply about. We always shared Zeppelin first. All else followed.
-Amanda Norris, Staff Writer
The Decemberists: Picaresque
[Kill Rock Stars; 2005]
Each and every one of the Decemberists' albums holds a special place in my heart, but 2005's Picaresque is the band's chef d'œuvre.
Combining ambitious narrative prowess with catchy indie folk fodder, the record marked the band's final foray into "classic Decemberists" before the prog rock song cycles and alt-country of recent years. Colin Meloy's leaps from songs about child monarchs to nautical tales of being swallowed by a whale with ease, all the while crafting tunes both bright and rollicking ("16 Military Wives") and spooky and brooding ("From My Own True Love [Lost at Sea]").
Subsequent years may have seen the Portland rock royalty get stranger--with varying results--but here's where they hit their stride. Singing of "Fourteen cannibal kings / Wondering blithely what the dinner bell will bring"? I'm there.
-Kevin Rutherford, Editorial Director
My Chemical Romance: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
[Reprise; 2004]
In 2004, my outlook on life was far too bleak for a 14-year-old. Fortunately, that summer, I found comfort and inspiration in My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. The concept album guided me, using dark, theatrical lyrics mixed with uplifting music, to find the strength to turn my life around.
I “lost my fear of falling” and never looked back.
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge took me on a blood-splattered journey through bullet-riddled cathedral-esque imagery, where bats were unleashed, deaths were avenged and somehow – in all those dark, rich visuals – hope and redemption were within reach.
Beneath all the metaphor lies the story of vocalist Gerard Way’s and bassist Mikey Way’s loss of their grandmother and the message that, as Gerard said in their 2006 video documentary Life On The Murder Scene, “it’s okay to be messed up… there are 5 dudes out there who are just as messed up, and we’ve overcome that to do what we do.”
-Cassie Whitt, Blogs Editor
Frightened Rabbit: Midnight Organ Fight
[Fat Cat Records; 2008]
It was an event that would have looked to anyone else like nothing out of the ordinary. However, beneath the glaring fluorescent lights of Ms. Swigart’s 10th grade English classroom, life as I knew it changed forever. My recently “ex” boyfriend walked up to me dryly, in his hand, a shiny, blank CD. He set it on my desk; covering up my sub-par essay about Hester Prynne. While I’ll admit part of my devotion to the album is due to my being an awfully melodramatic 15-year-old, it was also the first time I had felt an intimacy with music.
Never before and never since have I felt so understood by an artist. Every time lead singer Scott Hutchison would painfully utter the lines, “And now we're unrelated and rid of all the shit we hated / But I hate when I feel like this and I never hated you,” I couldn’t help but sit in awe and think to myself, “Exactly.”
Frightened Rabbit had taken my raw emotion, wild with little purpose, and turned it into something beautiful that I could understand.
Thus, my obsession with expression was born. While I felt it was too late in life for me to pick up an instrument and pursue songwriting, I knew I wanted to learn to write words that would really mean something to other people. Through Midnight Organ Fight, I found passion and purpose.
-Chelsea Robinson, Staff Writer
Green Day: Dookie
[Reprise; 1994]
When asked to write about an album that inspired me the most, I felt it would be a sin for me to not reward Green Day’s Dookie with the honor. Filled with angsty, I-hate-the-world sneers from frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, insane bass riffs from Mike Dirnt and a bonus track sung by Mr. Tre Cool, who could ever not cite this classic album as their favorite? I mean, look at the title!
It is the album that confirmed my love for rock n’ roll, made me pick up an electric guitar and expanded my horizons for old-school punk rock by exploring Green Day’s influences such as The Ramones. If it were not for Green Day and their Dookie (haha, that’s a funny sentence, isn’t it?), I would have fallen victim to the frightening realm of bubble gum music that plagued my preteen years.
And so, I would like to salute you, Billie Joe Armstrong, for leading the pack in the making of this legendary album that I will not only continue to admire for the rest of my life, but also play my guitar with pride to. Thank you for inspiring me to express myself and for introducing me to the world of heartfelt music.
-Capri Ciulla, Staff Writer
Arcade Fire: Funeral
[Merge; 2004]
There is a point in life when things begin to make sense, when you stop questioning life and just live it, and you realize it’s time to take whatever is in your heart and put it in your hand.
Across the course of ten tracks and a time of 47 minutes and 59 seconds, Arcade Fire manages to bring me to this point on a daily basis.
Funeral isn’t just an album, it’s a piece of art that has been molded into a euphoric element of therapy by seven people whose talent I couldn’t even fathom possessing.
Each track on the album doesn’t fail to fill your noggin with images from the dusk of the most sublime of summer nights, shared with family both won and lost. All in all, in the words of Win himself, this album has changed all the lead sleeping in my head to gold.
-Jacob Bowman, Staff Writer
Fiona Apple: When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King...
[Clean State/Epic; 1999]
Fiona Apple’s 1999 album When the Pawn is a must-hear (The full title is actually longer than this writeup, so I abbreviated). Why do I like it? First of all, she’s pissed, and it reminds me that every love story does not end well, so I’m not alone in my experiences. Just try screaming “Limp” at the top of your lungs, and you’ll feel much better. More than that, though, Apple is a lyrical master. On the fourth track, she sings, “Love ridden I’ve looked at you/With the focus I gave to my birthday candles/I’ve wished on the lidded blue flames under your brow/And baby I wished for you.”
Also, I love her treatment of metaphor on “Paper Bag.” Other standouts: the threatening “Fast As You Can,” the defiant “Get Gone” and the heart-wrenching “I Know.” Musically, the album is just as impressive; Jon Brion’s production here is so effective that Kanye West tapped him to work on Late Registration.
-Erica Thompson, Music News and Live Reviews Editor
Colour Revolt: Colour Revolt
[Tiny Evil; 2006]
Colour Revolt’s first self-titled EP is only six songs long, and can only keep me busy for roughly 25 minutes. That short length of time is all they need, however, to blow my mind. Still. Five years later. I’m entirely enchanted with every listen, as I fight a mighty desire to know and understand more. I cannot just simply listen to the album for a pleasing sound. I must realize something new each listen or feel something new.
Lyrically and instrumentally, the six songs, each in a different way from one to another, form some sort of battle in my mind. From the fascinating search of faith in “Mattresses Underwater” to the stripped down madness of “Circus,” Colour Revolt’s EP asks for questions and answers. The guitars rage and Jesse Coppenbarger’s voice expels ferocity against the telling words he sings. With every listen, the mind must willingly journey somewhere.
-Hannah Cook, Managing Editor
Panda Bear: Person Pitch
[Paw Tracks; 2007]
My favorite album should do three things: Impress me, baffle me and, regardless of how my day is going, make me feel better than I did before I started listening to it. Although it only came out four years ago, Panda Bear’s Person Pitch strikes all these chords for me.
I don’t have much as far as nostalgia to recollect about for you; it is a record to be enjoyed by one’s self (quit judging). It’s just that everything about the record appeals to me: the way it struts the fine line between pop and experimental music unabashedly and the childlike lyrics that still speak intellectually about things like courage, maturing and developing a personal identity.
It even made me warm up to the idea of using samples from other songs. It's is eye opening--I would die to know what’s on Noah Lennox’s iPod. At the end of the day, though, what it comes down to is that this music impacts me in such a way that it improves my quality of life, and that is a profound effect that you don’t find every day.
-Scott Smith, Album Reviews Editor
The Darkness: Permission to Land
[Atlantic; 2003]
I remember seeing the music video--when MTV still occasionally played music videos-- for “I Believe In A Thing Called Love,” by British hard-rockers The Darkness in early 2003 when it was released as a single.
My initial reaction: “What the hell…?”
Lead singer Justin Hawkins pranced around in a one-piece jumpsuit, belting the song’s lyrics in a heavy English accent and an extremely high-pitched voice that definitely had the potential to shatter a windowpane.
I listened a little more closely and liked what I heard. Then, it happened. One. No, two. NO, THREE guitar solos?! I had to have this album.
Permission to Land hit the shelves in July, 2003 complete with the backside of a nude lady appearing on the cover. As an 11-year-old boy, what more could I ask for?
The high-energy hard rock eventually inspired me to buy an electric guitar and amp of my own so I could jam along with not one, not two, BUT ALL THREE guitar solos on “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” and the album’s nine other heavy-hitting tracks.
-Jacob Betzner, Staff Writer
The Strokes: Is This It
[RCA; 2001]
Hate on The Strokes all you want, but Is This It is perfection--especially the British edition with “New York City Cops.” Also, the cover art kicked the American version’s ass.
The guitars stand out right away, from the slow moving ease of the title track to brisk paced “Last Nite,” the amps bleed with the feel of '70s nostalgia. The guitar riff on “Someday” is melodic and simple, and perhaps my favorite sound that I’ve ever heard a guitar make.
Is This It just sounds cool, and for the uncool kids like me that listened to it, it was a revelation. It was an album that, just by hearing it, you personally felt inherently trendier. Julian Casablancas’s vocals are particularly drowned in distortion on the band’s debut, and before asking yourself why, just know that it makes sense. There is no reason, other than it sounded different, and better, than anything being released in 2001.
-Chris Dobstaff, Staff Writer
Brand New: Your Favorite Weapon
[Triple Crown Records; 2001]
When Jesse Lacey came onto the music scene, he was heralded as the “second coming of Morrissey” by critics Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelly of Alternative Press, “mostly because he sang like him, wore blazers constantly and had a huge chin.” Your Favorite Weapon marks Lacey’s first stamp on the scene that is today dominated by imitators who cite Lacey’s honesty, catchy hooks, and angst throughout the album as their inspiration.
Perhaps what is most impressive about it is its ability to still be relative ten years after its release. The themes within the album can be found in other albums released around the same time. Taking Back Sunday’sTell All Your Friends (2001), Saves the Day’s Through Being Cool (1999) and Dashboard Confessional’s The Places You’ve Come to Fear the Most(2001) all deal with bad relationships, back-stabbing friends, and growing up, but not in the same way that Lacey and Brand New did.
They put their emotions into the album from the opening track to the repetitions of the last line in the album, “you’re just jealous because we’re young and in love”. Your Favorite Weapon is a personal “letter never sent,” chock-full of pure transparent emotion.
-Matthew Bemer, Staff Writer
Green Day: American Idiot
[Reprise; 2004]
When it comes to naming my favorite album, I have plenty of choices. But when it comes to naming the album that means the most to me, there’s only one choice: American Idiot by Green Day.
It may sound lame and horribly cliché, but the album is my bible. It came out at the right time for me. I was 13 years old, terribly awkward, and unsure of what kind of person I wanted to be.
When I bought American Idiot and heard the opening chords to the title song, my brain went into internal rebellious overdrive. The lyrics to “Jesus of Suburbia” sounded like the punk rock gospel I had been waiting for. “St. Jimmy” had me screaming, “I’ll give you something to cry about!” I was all seething energy while I belted the words to every song in my bedroom.Say what you will about Green Day, but in the words of Billie Joe Armstrong, they “taught me how to live.”
-Sam Boyer, Staff Writer
Franz Ferdinand: Tonight
[Domino; 2009]
Tonight is Franz Ferdinand’s most successful album. It successfully hides a story about screwing up everything with pounding percussion, swirling synth odysseys, and bass lines so groovy that you’ll go back to the band’s previous albums wondering, “Why didn’t they let Bob play bass before?” It’s difficult to imagine anyone listening to Tonight without at least tapping their toes.
In the end, Tonight comes back down from the debauchery and dancing with the band’s most understated, even romantic moments. It’s a party where you have a great time, despite accidentally throwing up on your buddy, breaking up with your girlfriend, and spending the next day apologizing. Franz Ferdinand meshed the highs of partying with the lows of fixing the problems afterward and made both sides sound fantastic. I’d call that a success.
-Travis Boswell, Staff Writer
Brand New: Deja Entendu
[Razor & Tie Music; 2003]
It’s funny to think how much you learn in high school. You go from total innocence to learning more than you ever wish to know. It’s a time where you need something to keep you steady and music was that for me.
In particular I fell in love with the album Deja Entendu by Brand New. Everyone’s first thought is probably, “Whoa. Emo.” And I’ll admit, yes the words are very strong and emotional, but somehow they had a way of keeping me down to earth in some contradictory way. Jesse Lacey’s lyrics gave me an opportunity to decide who I was and if that was who I wanted to be.
To me, the album was doing dangerous things with friends and never getting caught, figuring out how to survive the drama that was high school, and driving around for the hell of it.
-Katie O’Leary, Staff Writer
Nirvana: In Utero
[Universal; 1993]
A little tidbit from my past: from the ages of 13 to 16, I was completely obsessed with Nirvana. I still remember the first time I listened to them extensively; I was in 7th grade, and my best friend played meNevermind from beginning to end. Three songs in, and I was hooked, I was now a grunge girl and Nirvana was my new God. After that night, I bought every Nirvana album I could find. As I listened to their discography over and over again, In Utero was the record that really stood out to me.
It cannot be disputed that In Utero is Nirvana's masterpiece. Less poppy than Nevermind but more melodic and polished than Bleach orIncesticide, it's in it that the iconic band finally mastered their sound. It features the dynamic "Heart-Shaped Box," powerful "Pennyroyal Tea," and the beautiful "All Apologies." It also contains some of the most relatable opening lines with: "Teenage angst has paid off well / Now, I'm bored and old."
Though I've expanded my musical tastes since the seventh grade, there's no doubting my heart still belongs to this band and that in the end, In Utero will always be my favorite album.
-Carolyn Menyes, Staff Writer
