toddkelley.net

July 06, 2006

5 CDs You'd Think I Wouldn't Own

Everyone has their tastes in music. But everyone also has those extra CD's; The 'Black Sheeps' of your collection that just don't fit with everything else. You're not so proud to put them on display, but you sure as hell won't throw them away. You'll pull 'em out from time to time and you'll love 'em just as much as you always had. Here's 5 of the CD's you wouldn't think I'd proudly own.

Madonna - "Bedtime Stories"
First, let's get it straight. I'm not a big madonna fan. Sure, I got a few of the 'hits' in my collection 'just because'. But nothing like the crazed fans have. But when she released Bedtime Stories in '94, I was pleasently surprised. She enlisted help from Dallas Austin and Babyface to reinvent herself as edgy and more urban. Although most people weren't buying it, she did put out a dope-ass album. She really appealed to my 'mellow side' in alot of cuts.
The Hotness: Inside Of Me / My Sanctuary / Take A Bow

The Cramberries - "No Need To Argue"
The Cranberries scrored a big hit with "Zombie" in '94. I HATED this cut. But after hearing the entire album at a friends house on a dozen occasions, I fell in love with the rest of the album. The problem was that Zombie was a rock cut and rest of the album was more laid back (even though subject matter was pretty intense!). "Dreaming My Dreams" became my Sunday morning theme song. I tried to like the albums they put out aftwards, but to me they didn't measure up. "No Need To Argue" is still in heavy rotation these days.
The Hotness: Ode To My Family / Dreaming My Dreams / The Icicle Melts

Chasing Furies - "With Abandon"
I've never really thought highly of Christain/Inspirational music. It had nother to do with the subject matter, but more with the subpar quality of the production. What good was a message if you don't put in the effort to make it sound important. But in '99, something seem to happen. Alot of the Christain music started to sound decent... even great. They finally upgraded their production value and the hip hop, rock, and soul inspired God Music became interchangable and indistinquishable from their Top 40 counterparts. For me, the debut album from Chasing Furies slapped me in the face. For one, I wasn't a big rock fan, and two, I WASN'T A ROCK FAN. By chance, I caught their video for "Thicker" and it hooked me. It was the hot drums and baseline that lasso'd me. But the rock guitar and vocals really worked great. I took a chance and purchased the full CD, and pleasently it was in major rotation for the rest of the year. The coolest thing was at the end of "Wait Forever". I didn't care for the song, but there's an interlude at the end that moved me. This is one of my classic CD's.
The Hotness: Wait Forever (Interlude) / Thicker / Nothing

Queensryche - "Empire"
Plain and simple: "Silent Lucidity" is one of my one of my favorite songs of alltime. True: it sound like one of those 80's Glam Rock power ballads. But I don't care. The arrangement is so hot... it's beautiful, dark, scary at times, but ulitimately inspiring. The title track is cool too, but this album's value rests solely on that track.
The Hotness: Silent Lucidity (that's all I need boy)

Craig Armstrong - "The Space Between Us"
To me, this is a concept album that looks stupid on paper, but comes off incredibly well. Mr. Armstrong decided to do a symphonic rendition of Massive Attack's classic album: "Protection" (much like Symphonic Zepplin). "Weather" was my favorite cut off of MA's cd so i gave this CD a try. Surprisingly the arrangements translate pretty well. Plus the single "This Love" wasn't that bad either.
The Hotness: Weather Storm / Sly II / This Love

Posted by toddkelley at July 6, 2006 08:53 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://WWW.TODDKELLEY.NET/MT3/mt-tb.cgi/409

Comments

Posted by: Gina at July 6, 2006 01:16 PM

Posted by: Nikki at July 7, 2006 09:11 AM

Post a comment