Ten Albums Part III

7. At Folsom Prison- Johnny Cash. Classic and quintessential Cash, both the bad boy of couuntry music and the redeemed sinner are in view here. This is a landmark historical live album and really has anyone besides Johnny Cash been cool enough to record an album in a penitentrary? (See also the follow up At San Quentin). Here Johnny took Jesus' words about visiting the prisoner literaly and his banter and connection with the prisoners (preserved in the live recording) bring a gritty warmth to the album. The music is great too, standard Cash tunes like Folsom Prison Blues, I Still Miss Someone, Jackson, and Give My Love to Rose are here. Also, Johnny sings fiercely and wryly about crime and its inevitable heartbreak in songs like Cocaine Blues, Busted, The Wall, and 25 Minutes To Go. Of course the greatest thing about any Cash album is that big as a mountain baritone voice and the power it commands. Whether singing about love or murder, its always finely tuned to the tone and character of the story at hand. It demands to be heard, and beneath it is the clear ring of truth and integrity.

Essential Tracks: Folsom Prison Blues, Cocaine Blues, Jackson, I Got Stripes

Key Lyric: I got stripes, stripes around my shoulders/ I got chains, chains around my feet/ I got stripes, stripes around my shoulders/ And them chains, them chains they're about to drag me down

8 and 9. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born- Wilco. Bold sonic discord and melody borrowing from folk, punk, jazz, blues, rock, country, classical, pop, and the kitchen sink. Former Uncle Tupelo singer/bassist Jeff Tweedy finally came into his own as a songwriter and well, flat out musical genius on these albums. I am not going to lie to you, this is not radio friendly music, nor is it what I would call accessible, but it is beautiful, daring, and at times breathtaking (did they really use a xylophone as the central instrument on their opening track?!?!). Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was orignally rejected by Reprise records, they told Tweedy to redo it. Tweedy promptly bought back the rights to his contract and put the album on the inernet for free. In the end, a subsidiary of Reprise bought the album (for alot more money) and it went gold. Artisitic liscense and the common man finally won.

Tweedy and the band mix and match sounds and melodies in such a contrasting and complementary way, that at first listen you are never sure exactly where they are going with it all. But trust them, these guys know what they are doing and if you give it time, you will be rewarded. You actually have to listen the music here. Moreover, it tells the story just as well as the lyrics from the ginger xylophone on I Am Trying To Break Your Heart that devolves into a scratchy alarm clock you feel the sheepishness of the druken and remorseful protagnist trying to patch up his relationship to the bitter-sweet strings on Jesus etc. about a man trying to comfort his lover.

A Ghost is Born followed in the footsteps and is just as quirky and surprising, but its beats and hooks are alot more catchy. They will leave you humming for days after a serious listen. Theologians and Handshake Drugs also have a serious groove, and the rock riff on the 9 minute long Spiders could have been a hit on the radio had it done been on well a 9 minute song. Here the songs take on artistic integrity, addiction, suffering, relationships, and love all to Wilco's amazing sonic landscape. A few of these songs can be frustrating in their meandering style and deconstructionist finality, but the majority are challenging and rewarding musical compositions about life.

Essential Tracks: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, War on War, Jesus etc., Pot Kettle Black, Theologians, The Late Greats, Handshake Drugs, Hummingbird, Company in My Back

Key Lyric: Tall buildings shake/ Voices escape singing sad sad songs/ Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks/ Bitter melodies turning your orbit around

10. Achtung Baby- U2. When I first heard (with eager anticipation) the opening single for U2's first album of the 90's, The Fly, I was more than a little taken back. What happened to U2? Well for one, in my opinion, they made one of the greatest rock albums of all time, but for another they were trying something new and daring, and well they had the guts and the integrity to do it. No longer were U2 the earnest young men of rock conviction, but now they were loud, distorted, slightly obnoxious, and into electronica, disco, and dance music. What they were still, was the kings of iconic lyrics, memorable melodies, and brilliant song writing. With Achtung Baby and the subsequent Zooropa and Pop, U2 dwelved into European modern life, postmodernism, and the silliness of it all. Kind of an open letter to western civilization in all of its decadence, hyper-individulism, and pointless consumerism. What they offered through the "rythym thats confusing you" was an essentially biblical answer. In fact much of the album, while also understood as love songs, tells parts of the gospel story. Until the End of the World is about the Last Supper and Judas's betrayla of Jesus, with a final offer of grace and salvation offered at the end. Whose Going to Ride Your Wild Horses could be about Peter and Jesus. And Mysterious Ways is a treatment of John Baptist and the Holy Spirit. The rest of the album deals with love, the falleness of the world ("The universe exploding 'cos-a one man's lie"), relationships, and hope. At the time I had never heard anything like it, and no one expected it from U2. It was both loud and profane in its sound, as well as beautiful and thoughtful. Just the the fact that probably the most poignant song of the 90's, One, is on this album makes it great, but from the distortion and clanking of Zoo Station (about the reunification of Europe), to the dicso dance groove of Mysterious Ways all of these songs are worthy of consideration. Listen closely, and let the boys from Ireland show you that the stuff of this world is all an illusion, and the only things worth anything in it are love and God. Its been their main point all along.

Essential Tracks: One, Ultraviolet, Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways, The Fly, Acrobat

Key Lyric:No, nothing makes sense, nothing seems to fit./ I know you'd hit out if you only knew who to hit./ And I'd join the movement/ If there was one I could believe in/ Yeah, I'd break bread and wine/ If there was a church I could receive in./ 'Cause I need it now./ To take the cup/ To fill it up, to drink it slow./ I can't let you go.