It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Razorlight
When I started writing about some of the best albums I’ve heard from my lifetime, I wanted people to remember them again and listen or want to hear them for the first time. Since this one will be of the last from this era of the series, I was admittedly a little more self indulgent with this choice. That’s not to say it isn’t a great album, however Razorlight were more of a UK phenomenon. One college evening I was watching a show called London Live on YouTube when their self-titled second studio album from 2006 found me.
The album produced five singles in the UK, and never got much traction here in the states. UK number one, “America” struck me distinctly as I was deep in development as an Anglophile, for several reasons. It begins with a gentle clean guitar intro as Johnny Borrell begins to lament on the constant zeitgeist of the United States in his European consciousness, “There’s nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio that means that much to me. There’s nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio that I can believe in. All my life. Watching America.”
I could join Johnny and do another paragraph lamenting along with him about the America of the 2000s, but it’s the song that comes right after it that made me buy the album. “Before I Fall to Pieces” is a nearly perfect pop rock song from the era featuring an infectious guitar rhythm, and one of my favorite opening verses in song, “Oh, one more drink and then I’ll go, but there’s one more thing I’ve got to know. Does he take you places that I don’t? And what happened to the story that we wrote?” I know this is a song about a guy losing a girl and being pretty broken up about it, but the happy sounding major chords that form the song will only let you smile. It was love for a while.
I guess I was lucky that there were all these great guitar focused indie rock records around exactly when that’s what I was looking for. As I was learning guitar, there was a flurry of great stuff to play. Album opener, “In the Morning” is a flashbulb back in time for me to that point of college explorations, inspirations and possibilities. I spent a lot of nights going around the world musically without ever leaving my room. “Remember when you were young, you’d lose yourself? In the morning you know we won’t remember a thing. In the morning you know it’s gonna be alright.”
Razorlight received mixed reviews upon release, and it isn’t a best seller, but an honest feeling set to guitar. It suggests, “Who Needs Love” before four tracks later admitting, “I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got.” There is a transparency level that makes it feel real, a raw feeling from the songs that delve into of love and loss, and jangly guitars to join the party. Give these ten songs a chance, it clocks in at little more than a half hour and when, “Before I Fall to Pieces” comes on, it will hit you right in the feels.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Room on Fire
Most sports fans are familiar with the term, “sophomore slump” to describe a player who excelled in their rookie season only to have numbers dip in the second. The Strokes were one of the most hyped bands of my lifetime after their iconic debut album Is This It? The electric guitar was back, rock music wasn’t dead, New York City is alive again amongst other hyperbole. The 2003 follow up Room on Fire keeps the formula of guitar utopia combined with Julian Casablanca’s reverse reverb vocals and just enough sleaze to make you feel alive.
It is difficult to describe, “Reptilia” without using the word guitargasm, because that’s what it is. Axe men Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr provide perhaps the quintessential example of band’s sound, and the song was featured on both the Rock Band and Guitar Hero video game franchises. With over 600 million streams on Spotify, it is among their most popular and the pace of it is that of blissful loss of control, “I said, ‘Please don’t slow me down, if I’m going too fast. You’re in a strange part of our town.’”
The first single for the album, “12:51” will enter your ears and render your mind awash with youthful balm. The guitar hook is a lovably catchy bit of joy that mimics the vocals about the prospects of going out on Friday night after a lonely streak. The song is two and a half minutes of bliss, “We’d go and get forties, then we’ll go to some party, oh really, your folks are away now? Alright, I’m coming, I’ll be right there.” The song belongs on a playlist for a bad day, as it is sure to cheer up even the most jaded among us.
A documentary was made about the 2000s New York City music scene led by The Strokes, borrowing the title from one of this albums’ best tracks, “Meet Me in the Bathroom.” When you were a rock band with the edge The Strokes had, you almost needed a song about a bathroom hookup with a line this good, “We were just two friends in lust, and baby, that just don’t mean much. You trained me not to love, after you showed me what it was.” The lucid reflectiveness of that lyric will ring out for decades, long after the amplifiers are still.
If this album represents a sophomore slump, then my ears must be broken. Other highlights on the record include the opener, “What Ever Happened?” as well as single, “The End Has No End” but you can’t really can’t go wrong with any of them. If you loved the first effort from the band you are almost certain to enjoy this one. While it may not have the clout of the debut album, I come back to this one whenever I’m in a mood for upbeat guitar music by a great band. Sometimes there is no substitute for the youthful exuberance of the early albums of The Strokes, no matter your age.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Futures
The opening narration of the movie The Big Lebowski ends with noting that The Dude was “The man for his time and place.” In a similar vein, Jimmy Eat World’s 2004 album Futures was the album for my time and place back then, and I was comfortably not alone. It was a more mature sounding album for the band following the popular success of Bleed American, and a coming of age record playing in the background of first cars, first dates, and youthful mistakes. We came up with the pop success of the, “The Middle”, and “Sweetness”, we grew up with “Work” and “23.”
Before smart phones and the prevalence of social media, we would communicate through various instant messaging programs such as ICQ, MSN, or AIM on home computers at night. I don’t remember an album used more for morose, cryptic and overly emotional teenage away messages than the lyrics of this one. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see a lyric status one week about the love of the person’s life, only to have a break up lyric from the same album the following week. Such is the fickle and formative life of the high school teenage wasteland, a misery best described on, “The World You Love”, “We’re only just as happy, as everyone else seems to think we are.”
Jimmy Eat World is far from averse to writing love songs, they’ve been doing that since they formed in 1993. As far as what was in the mainstream at the time, you could do a lot worse than “Work.” It really could be love at any age, but it hits you right in the youth, “All the best DJs are saving, their slowest song for last, when the dance is through it’s me and you, c’mon would it really be so bad?” The band have distanced themselves from the ‘emo’ label for their entire career, but that doesn’t mean they can’t kidnap your emotions and put them on a rollercoaster. “Can we take a ride? Get out of this place while we still have time.”
I saw Jimmy Eat World on an anniversary tour for this album back in 2014 with great company and the highlight was album capstone, “23.” It is arguable, but for me, “23” is the best song the band have ever made. It brings out all the best characteristics of the band to their fullest extent, the emphasis on guitar, relatable and passionate lyrics, and Jim Adkins’ affable voice. “You’ll sit alone forever, if you wait for the right time, what are you hoping for? I’m here, I’m now, I’m ready, holding on tight, don’t give away the end, one thing that stays mine.”
Futures is a journey for me because it was the album of a time and place back then, but it could be a great listen for anyone at any time. If, “Kill” is tied to a lost ancient love, I apologize for bringing the album up. If, “Night Drive” makes you remember fogging up the windows of your first back seat, I know you remember her name. If you went on to see the band seven times, you’d be me, and this album had a lot to do with it. Jimmy Eat World’s music activates flashbulb memories and emotions like nobody else in my record collection, and I know I’m not alone.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Audioslave
The supergroup is not a new concept, going back to the days of The Traveling Wilburys, Cream, or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Arguably the best supergroup of my lifetime, after a nod to Them Crooked Vultures, would be Audioslave. Formed in 2001 with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, this was a band that could blow the roof off of a venue. Their self-titled first album is fantastic rock music made by some of the most talented and innovative musicians of the nineties.
The record begins with Tom Morello lighting a match on one of the best riffs of the decade. Named for an Apache leader who resisted western expansion, “Cochise” just rocks. Naming the song after the resistance is very on brand for the Rage Against the Machine members, but the album doesn’t tread in the same territory as one of those efforts. This is a fairly apolitical music driven project, but I’m glad they snuck the title in there. The band could not have picked a better track to open with, and Cornell’s distinctive voice breathes life into the chorus of the track, “Go on and save yourself, and take it out on me.”
Anyone familiar with Audioslave will be able to point to, “Like a Stone” the second single, as the one that took the album to another level. Topping the billboard rock charts and even breaking into the mainstream airplay of the time. The climax of this perfectly constructed hit comes with the Morello wah pedal solo. Slow and deliberate, it takes us on a sonic journey before giving way to the more subdued and thoughtful bridge, “For all that I’ve blessed, and all that I’ve wronged, in dreams until my death, I will wander on.” This is the sound you get when you put together a super group with this kind of clout, and it’s glorious.
With the opener still ringing in your ears, another riff heavy delight comes at you with, “Show Me How to Live.” This was also a single that broke into the mainstream for the band, they were really on a roll. The lyrics pull from some Christian iconography, turning the title into a demand, “Nail in my hand, from my creator, you gave me a life now show me how to live.” If you’re worried that it’s too heavy, there’s another dive into the Morello guitar effects library for the solo to re-center yourself.
I cannot allow this article about 2002’s Audioslave to finish without mentioning, “I Am the Highway.” “I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highway. I am not your carpet ride, I am the sky.” There is a lot to love on this album, especially if you love talent. Cornell’s voice has long been some people’s favorite instrument, and it sounds as good as ever here. When you combine it with Morello’s pedal board and creativity, the deft brush strokes come in waves to cover the canvas from corner to corner.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Silent Alarm
I took a chance on Bloc Party after hearing only, “Helicopter” on the soundtrack to one of the FIFA soccer games, the song was strong. I read a couple of positive reviews of the album and on to the music club website I was part of. I may seem like a mark for having that much faith, buying an album from a song that was clearly marketed to me through my favorite sport. Maybe I’m a mark because the Anglophile in me couldn’t resist the delightful accent of lead singer Kele Okereke’s voice. Sometimes albums fall out of the sky and you just happen to be there to catch the vibrations. Mark my words, in 2005 and now, this is a great album.
I fell in love with this album my last year of high school, and the singles from it dotted just about every playlist I made as a college freshman. I didn’t know how formational it was to me until I started falling asleep to it, all that guitar. The aforementioned single “Helicopter” would also go on to appear on one of the Guitar Hero games, it was truly a time to be alive. Its frantic, high energy guitar focused greatness could not be contained, “Stop being, so American, there’s a time and there’s a place.” Clocking in at over 170 beats per minute, it’s like these guitars are racing to a finish line.
“Turning away from the light, becoming adult, turning into myself, I wanted to bite not to destroy, to feel her underneath, turning into the light.” “Banquet” hooks me right away every time with the mix starting out with one guitar in each ear, playing back and forth at each other. A little bit about growing up, a little bit too much guitar, and it always feels a little short, leaving you waiting for the next time it comes on your playlist. They struck a nerve with the way this one feels, and then accentuated it with an angry guitar outro to bring the chaos to a natural conclusion.
There’s an angelic quality to the guitar arpeggio and atmosphere created on the album track, “So Here We Are.” While it is light on lyrics, it creates this space where you can just lay back and enjoy it until it crescendos with the repeated, “I can see again.” As if to pull a 180 on that thought, on, “The Pioneers” we get a nervous and tense lyrical onslaught followed by a despondent chorus, “We promised the world we’d tame it, what were we hoping for?”
If you’ve been keeping up with this weekly series, you know the bias toward guitar focused albums is not something I’ve hidden. This is one that may have slipped through the cracks despite nearly universal critical acclaim and selling over a million copies. The record takes you on a six string journey for nearly an hour, and it’s a ride you will want to take again. I hope you continue turning into the light, whatever that means for you.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Only by the Night
In the fall of 2008 there was an injection of youthful energy in the world of music, a new semester was in the works for me and a new Kings of Leon album was the music of the moment. It was one of the few times I can remember a rock band being the center of attention in the culture of my youth, all the better that it was for good reason. Only by the Night is a great album with two massive hit songs that propelled it in quick succession to the front of our minds.
Album opener, “Closer” puts us on pins and needles from the outset with the recurring delay guitar rippling like a foreshadowing of the heavy journey ahead. “Skies are blinking at me, I see a storm bubbling up from the sea, and it’s coming closer.” The song sets the foundation for the rest of this monster album with its six singles, but also immediately indicates it won’t be the smoothest ride. It won’t be sunshine and rainbows, but you should have no interest in getting off the ride. The eerily optimistic hungers you get from it will be satisfied.
If you’re looking for the banger of 2008, “Sex On Fire” is your hit, pun intended. This has the guitar string bend heard round the world, with all the distortion necessary to accentuate one of the steamier choruses of the year. “You, your sex is on fire, ah, ah, consumed, with what’s just transpired,” immediately followed by that massive guitar driving the point home. Radio play never killed this one for me, and when it came on at a party it was a cue to head for the keg line, as the were about to be a lot of empty cups.
Just a month later the equally compelling second single was released with a less sexy, more communal tone, “Use Somebody.” Lead singer Caleb Followill pangs for a companion from a dark place, “Someone like you and all you know and how you speak, countless lovers under cover of the street, you know that I could use somebody…Someone like you.“ The chorus of “oh-ohs” forms the pop friendly bones of the song and it is heavenly to hear a crowd echo this by the thousands, even someone like you.
As their fourth studio album and follow up to 2007’s excellent, Because of the Times, Kings of Leon were already ascendant, Only by the Night put them into the stratosphere. This was the album where they broke into the United States, after years and albums of success in the United Kingdom. This Tennessee band of three brothers and a cousin rocked their way around the world before coming back to conquer America. I don’t love everything that comes out of Nashville, but when I listen to this album I can’t help but ask someone to pass the southern barbecue.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Is This It?
Rock and Roll debauchery has always held its appeal to me, when the cool band of the moment does something outrageous. Noel Gallagher once said, “Until you’ve actually thrown a television set out of a window, you don’t even know the sense of joy it brings.” The Strokes, led by stylish frontman Julian Casablancas were that cool, on edge band for me in the early 2000s. I have no accounting for hotel structural damage that they caused back then, but I always thought they might unleash that destruction at any moment.
The debut album Is This It was already on the hype train when it came out in 2001 on the heels of the success of their EP The Modern Age, which was released in the United Kingdom the same year. The first single from the album was, “Hard to Explain” rose to number 1 on the UK indie charts. This was our first introduction to the guitar heavy sound of The Strokes with the reverse reverb on Casablancas’ vocals, a defining sound of the early oughts.
In the vein of rock and roll mythology, good artists copy, great artists steal. With that in mind there was a definite and later blessed theft involved with the making of the single, “Last Nite.” The rhythm guitar intro is almost a direct lift from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’,“American Girl” something the band would later admit to in an interview that Petty himself referenced. Like a true crusader for the love of rock and roll, Petty never sued or was in any way negative about them lifting the intro, he laughed it off like the legend he is.
The easiest listening song on the album is probably the third single, “Someday” with its jangling guitars and somewhat hopeful lyrics, “You say you want to stay by my side, darling your head’s not right, ah, see, alone we stand, together we fall apart, yeah, I think I’ll be alright.” The music video was fun, featuring the band in a bar telling stories, sharing cigarettes and drinks, it would be rock and roll caricature if it didn’t look so natural and cool.
The Strokes were going to be the band that saved rock and roll in 2001, and their debut album Is This It? was going to be the blueprint. That kind of hype was something no band could ever live up to, but at least we got this masterpiece. If nothing else it shows the enduring power of rock and roll to have a record like this come out decades after the prime era of the genre. The energy of the record is also undeniable, and it clocks in at around 37 minutes, just enough time to make a memory tonight that will be hard to explain.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: White Blood Cells
Alt-rock duo The White Stripes rose to prominence on the national scene with the release of their third studio album White Blood Cells in 2001. Their style was unique as a two piece that packed a bluesy punch who stood out as part of a garage rock revival along with bands such as The Hives and The Vines. The album set the stage for The White Stripes run of wildly successful albums in the oughts including the Grammy winning follow up, Elephant.
A guitar clicks into an old amplifier and there is a scream of raw Jack White noise as, “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground“ defibrillates the album to life and gives indications for what’s to come. The sound shifts effortlessly back and forth from calm and comforting to distorted and angry as Jack describes what it’s like in the absence of his love. “Every breath that is in your lungs is a tiny little gift to me, a tiny little gift to me.” It’s a great way to kick off an album and it feels like you could have been in that, “Little Room” with them.
If you asked me for a raw sounding song, the first place my head might go on a good day is the lovable and brevity encapsulating, “Fell in Love With a Girl.” Coming in at just under 2 minutes, Jack White was surprised when it was selected to be a single for the album by the record company. It perfectly synthesizes the garage rock vibe of sounding a bit amateurish, but actually being pretty tightly put together. Besides, “Bobby said it’s fine he don’t consider it cheating now.”
The sweet and innocent acoustic finger picking and wonderful lyrics of, “We’re Going to Be Friends” splits the album up nicely with a story about two children walking to school together for the first time. It ends as beautifully as it begins with the thought of tomorrow, “When silly thoughts go through my head, ‘bout the bugs and alphabet, and when I wake tomorrow I’ll bet, that you and I will walk together again, I can tell that we are gonna be friends.”
The album would receive nearly universal critical acclaim and would go on to sell over a million copies. The part I love so much about The White Stripes is the stripped down nature of the two of them playing off of each other. Meg White’s powerful yet simple drums form the foundation for Jack to build a smoke-filled blues club on top of. Their marriage was long over by the time of this record, but the connection between them is lucidly clear, one bass kick and blues riff at a time.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: American Idiot
Why not Dookie? Because I wasn’t 17 when Dookie came out. The feeling of being neck deep in a Green Day wave was palpably similar to when they first exploded in 1994. Nothing was bigger in 2004 than Green Day’s punk rock opera American Idiot. The album has sold more than 23 million copies to date and there was a resurgence in Green Day’s popularity similar to the release of their major label debut with 1994’s Dookie. This was the Green Day album my generation grew up with.
Released in September 2004 with an election looming, lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong didn’t mince words with his thoughts on then President Bush. With the war on terror in full swing and Fox News, led by anchor Bill O’Riley in prime time, were incessantly selling the war. Fox would emerge as the propaganda arm of the Bush administration, and Billy attacked the zeitgeist: “Don’t wanna be an American idiot, one nation controlled by the media, information age of hysteria, it’s calling out to idiot America.” That lyric from the album opening title track sets the stage for what’s to come, it’s more than a rock opera about Jesus of Suburbia, they were making a statement.
Like many other Americans at the time who weren’t buying the bill of goods being sold about weapons of mass destruction, Billy continues with the chorus of, “Holiday.””I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies, this is the dawning of the rest of our lives.” Later, before the track fades into billboard hit, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” the bridge has Billy throw out, “Seig Heil to the president gasman!” As memory serves, this was not hyperbolic, and there were as many people calling Bush and Cheney fascists then as there are about Trump now.
Not everybody was caught up in the politics of the album however, a lot of people just really loved, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and what a tune it is. With that soaring chorus and the throng of people singing along, if you walked with Green Day you didn’t walk alone, “My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me, my shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating.” It was a massive hit song with everybody from the Hot Topic people to the Hollister people, and that’s a rare event.
Thinking back about this time in music, I am glad I was a part of it. Every time I see the album art for this leviathan, I remember it fondly. Calling it the Millennials’ rock opera is fine with me, and it did eventually become a Broadway musical. Is it better than Dookie? No. Is it also great? Yes. American Idiot was a cultural benchmark of the mid 2000s and holds up today, let yourself drown in the power chords.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Get Born
Some would call it selling out, but I think it’s a pretty good sign if Apple calls and says we want to use your song to promote the music device that defined a generation. Australian rock outfit Jet’s debut album Get Born features so many great songs that if you weren’t there for it you might ask which one they used. “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” is so upbeat and energetic, it’s as if they intentionally made the song to accent the black outline of a person dancing with an iPod to it.
The tambourine and bass intro that set the stage for the delectable main riff on, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” set the oughts on fire. It doesn’t require any sort of preparation, or greater thought process, it’s binary: Are you a human being or not? If you are, this song causes involuntary body movement in people. “So one, two, three take my hand and come with me, because you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine.” What else do you need?
There simply wasn’t a more fun song in the summer of 2004 than, “Cold Hard Bitch.” Back in the waning days of call-in requests to radio stations, there was a litany of hilarious dedications to ex-girlfriends and ex-wives. Often the DJ would egg them on until they let out a deeply satisfied, “She was a cold hard bitch.” The guitar on this track hooks you from the jump, and leads you down a road of playful misogyny, “Gonna take her home cause she’s over romancin’, don’t wanna hold hands and talk about our little plans alright.”
If you need respite from the rock for a moment you’ll find it with the breather ballad, “Look What You’ve Done.” It opens to a sad piano lamenting, “Take my photo off the wall if it just don’t sing for you, ‘cause all that’s left has gone away and there’s nothing there for you to prove.” In this song we see the versatility of the band and it provides some soothing mellow tones to an otherwise energy filled romp.
The album spawned five singles and sold over four million copies, it has something for everyone. The band enjoys a break from chasing tail and takes aim at the disc jockey on, “Rollover D.J.” “I wanna move but it don’t feel right, ‘cause you been playing other people’s songs all night.” “Radio Song” also offers a nice relaxed album track for you to fall in love with, this album uses all 48 minutes to the fullest. To not love this album, you would have to be some kinda cold, hard…Well nevermind.
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