Favorite Records

What makes a record great? Well, everyone’s got different tastes, so it wouldn’t be fair to define it by using any specific musical criteria. To me, it’s all about repeatability. Whatever your taste, a great record is one that you can listen to over and over again, without losing interest. It’s an old stand-by that you put on when you don’t feel like being choosy… one you know you’ll enjoy no matter what your mood.

Here are my top 10 favorite records. Of course, I can’t say this list is definitive. Surely my top 10 favorite albums of all time will change off and on for the rest of my life. Perhaps an album I just got last year will one day break into the top 10. Only time will tell. But here are the 10 I can think of right now that I just never seem to get sick of. These are the ones that have, so far in my life, truly stood the test of time.

#10. Harry Connick, Jr., Blue Light Red Light (1991)

This record may seem an awkward choice in the context of the other 9, but it simply is one of the most enjoyable records I’ve ever owned. It was panned by some critics, particularly because they viewed it as a Frank Sinatra copycat record. But I don’t believe Harry was copying anybody– nor does he need to. His natural showmanship and clever song arrangements make for an uplifting musical experience from start to finish, and his band absolutely kicks. I challenge anyone to listen to this record without cracking a smile and doing some serious head-bopping.

#9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

I can’t even say that I’m actually a Pink Floyd fan, but I’m a huge fan of this record. It’s indescribable; it rocks, but it’s soft and beautiful. It’s dark, yet uplifting. It plays like one continuous track– and I find that I can never listen to just a part of it. If I listen to Dark Side, I listen to it all the way through. It’s one of the only records I would ever describe as magical.

#8. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Wildflowers (1994)

I’m not a Petty-head, per se. I don’t own any of his records from the 70s or 80s– in fact, I couldn’t even name most of them. But I still feel like I can call myself a Tom Petty fan. Honestly– who isn’t? His sound is so classic, such a part of the modern pop music era, that I doubt there are more than a few people that would say they don’t like him. I actually only own two of his records, but I’m glad one of them is Wildflowers. In the mid-90’s, when a lot of people thought Petty was just another old, washed up rock star, he proved them all wrong with this gem. It’s a lovely blend of up- and down-tempo rock and folk, at times buoyantly energetic, at other times gloomy and introspective– but entirely genuine. This has always been one of the most attractive qualities of Petty’s music, and this record embodies that as well as any other. And the fact that every song on the record could be a single makes it an instant classic, and a great road-trip record.

#7. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin I (1969)

What can you say about Led Zeppelin’s first record? If you’ve listened to it, you understand why it’s great. It’s everything rock and roll should be, and it’s delivered with a kind of passion and confidence that only Zeppelin can muster. And because it’s their first, it’s got that characteristic youthful spark that makes you want to bang your head. Other bands have been louder, more talented and certainly less sloppy– but I don’t know if any band has ever had more natural charisma.

#6. Nada Surf, Let Go (2003)

When my college roommate introduced me to this record, I couldn’t believe it was the same band that made “Popular” … popular… back in high school. It quickly became one of my favorites, and has been ever since. More mature and palatable than either of their first two releases, Let Go is a quirky blend of up-tempo power pop and soft, brooding rock. As a whole, the record comes across as melancholy, but it never feels hopeless, and even at times makes you want to get up and dance. It conveys a kind of adolescent despondency, but does so with a grown-up voice and sense of humor that make it palatable for both young and old. It’s solid from start to finish, with something for everyone– a rocker, a ballad, a quirky song comparing the human struggle to that of a hungry fruit fly… the works. It’s still the band’s best effort to date.

#5. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

This is a record that had to grow on me. I didn’t know what to make of it at first. I had heard Wilco before, and this didn’t sound anything like the Wilco I thought I knew. It’s noisy, and eclectic, and strange… but underneath all that is a vulnerable simplicity that makes the record lovable. YHF is a record that requires attention and patience. It asks you to throw out everything you’ve come to know about pop music and relearn it from scratch. And if you make it through several listens, you’ll have a whole new appreciation, not only for this record but for many others you may have misunderstood the first time around.

#4. The Beatles, Revolver (1966)

It is arguable that the Beatles never reached a greater cohesion than during the years of 1965-1967. In that span, they released Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour– an incredible body of work. Of these five, Revolver seems to me to be the most interesting and most listenable. The record is an eclectic mix of bright pop songs like “Good Day Sunshine,” “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “She Said She Said,” somberly beautiful numbers like “Eleanor Rigby” and “For No One,” and a sprinkling of eccentricity, with “I’m Only Sleeping,” “I Want to Tell You” and “Taxman.” Also included are two experimental, Eastern-influenced tracks, “Love You Too” and Tomorrow Never Knows” that are, while peculiar, successful and somehow fitting. As a whole, it was at that time the most solidly crafted and diverse record the Beatles had ever made. It seems to have been a turning point for the band– almost a bridge between the old and the new in their discography, having recognizable traces of the “Love Me Do” days, but taking a huge creative leap forward, and paving the way for the last, most imaginative phase of the band’s career.

#3. Jeff Buckley, Grace (1994)

Jeff Buckley only finished one record during his lifetime, but it only took one to make him a cult hero– perhaps due in part to his tragic, untimely death. That is not to say that the music doesn’t deserve the majority of the credit for Buckley’s acclaim. Grace is a magnificent and mysterious record that stretched the gamut of pop music to limits never before seen. With its sometimes bizarre and even eerie sound, it would probably never classify as pop music if it weren’t for Buckley’s amazing ability to reign in his wildness enough to craft several beautiful and widely accessible songs that bring cohesion to the record. “Last Goodbye,” “Grace” and “Eternal Life” could easily be radio singles, but they also fit perfectly into the overall idiosyncratic context of the album. Buckley was clearly inspired by Eastern music (especially Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whom he once half-jokingly referred to as his “Elvis”), which can be heard on the hauntingly elegant “Dream Brother,” and even incorporates a hymn into his debut (“Corpus Christi Carol”). Nevertheless, Grace plays like a rock record, part loud and brash, part soft and sweet, and unusually polished for a debut. It conjures an eccentric mix of influences, creating a rare and distinct sound that sets Jeff Buckley a world apart.

#2. Nick Drake, Pink Moon (1972)

Pink Moon is a gentle and unpretentious record, which could partly explain why it has gone largely unnoticed by mainstream critics– much like Drake himself during his short lifetime (he would likely be as unknown today if the title track of this record hadn’t wound up in a Volkswagen commercial several years ago). But it is also brilliant, and its effect on those who have heard it is substantial. That it clocks in at under 30 minutes makes its impact all the more remarkable. It’s a small but dense piece of music history, unstuck in time. The record was released in 1972, but this fact gives it little context, if any, as Drake was clearly not a product of his era. He was and is the embodiment of timelessness, and Pink Moon is the paramount of his unquestionable genius.

#1. The Beatles, Abbey Road (1969)

If I were asked to explain the Beatles to someone who had never heard of them, I’d sit them down with a pair of really good headphones and put on Abbey Road. If I were asked to explain the evolution of pop music to someone who is musically illiterate, I’d sit them down with a pair of really good headphones and put on Abbey Road. There may not be another record that more eloquently combines such a diversity of musical styles. With a mountain of hit records already under its belt and the strain of artistic discord tearing it apart at the seams, the band was miraculously able to muster one last compilation that just happened to be the best album it had ever made. With Lennon and McCartney both individually and collaboratively at their creative peaks, and Harrison emerging as a gifted songwriter, the record is bursting with a seemingly effortless spontaneity, while at the same time maintaining a careful technical focus. Perhaps it was the very tension that eventually tore the band apart that allowed its most expressive and imaginative music to reach the surface. It is at times (like all Beatles records) silly and fun– but it is also their most mature and musically impressive work. Not even Revolver or Sgt. Pepper match its staying power in the grand scheme of pop music.