Top 5 List: Top 5 Desert Island Albums
You're out on a cruise or a transatlantic flight, on or over the ocean - it doesn't matter. But disaster strikes, people start screaming, and you're marooned at sea. After days of unintentionally gargling salt water and fighting off sharks, you make sweet, sweet landfall. And there in your pocket, you had almost forgotten about it: your top 5 albums are on your new iPod Shuffle. It's rigged to magically run on coconut juice, so you start listening to the only music you'll have to comfort you until exhaustion or a wild boar claims your life.
No this is not a bad episode of Survivor, it's one of the great queries of human kind. Hit the jump for the Weekly Geek's Top 5 Desert Island Albums. And feel free to post yours in the comments.
Colette
5. Radiohead - Kid A
As much as I love Ok Computer, there's something about Kid A that just grabs me more. I think it feels comforting and apocalyptic at the same time. It also makes me feel that I'm listening to music from space, which makes no sense whatsoever.
4. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
This CD had a huge impact on me as a teenager and I've never forgotten it. Tori was the first artist I encountered that grasped feminine issues and wasn't afraid to speak her mind, but managed to somehow make even the most painful realizations beautiful.
Tori Amos on iTunes
3. Dead Can Dance - Towards the Within
I didn't really grasp how much I loved world-inspired music until I fell in love with Dead Can Dance. This CD allowed me to discover Lisa Gerrard, who is my favorite female vocalist of all time. This is truly glorious music.
Dead Can Dance on iTunes
2. Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Another artist that impacted me not only with subject matter and beautiful translation, but pure happiness. When she performs she is so intensely joyful you feel like it's flowing over you as you stand in the crowd. Sarah explores a lot of painful things in this album, but it always feels like she's moving towards evolution and rebirth.
Sarah McLachlan on iTunes
1. Portishead - Dummy
Dummy redefined sensuality for me when I first heard it. It wasn't like anything else out there when it hit. It reminded me to listening to a modern day Billie Holliday. One of the best albums to listen to when having sex with someone truly worthwhile.
Portishead on iTunes
Grant
5. Nerf Herder - Self Titled
Just a catchy, fun little indie band that has a neat sound. All the songs on their first album are great to sing along to and it takes a long time before I tired of them.
Nerf Herder on iTunes
4. Fozzy - Self Titled
The band of the alter-ego of former professional wrestler, Chris Jericho. Yeah, I know it's weird. But they do some great covers of some older metal hits. And Jerchio has got a serious set of lungs on him. The metal is so pure and soothing, I can actually go to sleep to it. It just puts me in a state of relaxed bliss when I let it. Or I can rock out hardcore to it.
Fozzy on iTunes
3. Phantom of the Opera OST
The first Broadway style musical I ever got to see, and it has just stuck with me. The music is fantastic. And it gets stuck in your head in the good way. Once I actually get a chance to see Spamalot, this choice might change, though.
Phantom of the Opera on iTunes
2. Weird Al Yankovic - Running with Scissors
You know I had to have an Al album on here somewhere. It was a hard pick, but I think Running with Scissors has the most songs on it that really get me feeling great when I listen to it. Plus, there's Albuquerque.
Weird Al on iTunes
1. Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VI OST
My very first video game soundtrack. Listened to this album so much every day and every night for months and months when I got it. I haven't listened to it in its entirety in a while, but the music is so ingrained into my person, I could probably hum all 3 CDs worth of music from beginning to end at a moment's notice.
FFVI on iTunes
Chris
5. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Sufjan fits one of my important desert island criteria: his albums have layers which unfold and reward multiple listens. His lyrics are as cryptic as they are beautiful, and his scoring and sense of melody is impeccable. Illinoise is my favorite of his albums as it is the most fleshed out, cohesive experience he offers. A treatise on Illinois state history and culture, it's one of the best albums to be released this decade.
Sufjan Stevens on iTunes
4. Elliott Smith - Figure 8
Elliott Smith holds a personal spot in a lot of people's hearts, and this is the album that made me fall in love with his whispery voice and sad lyrics. It's also the happiest sounding album, which is an interesting dichotomy to the brutally depressing lyrics. I imagine I listen to this album at least once a week, every single song on it is golden.
Elliott Smith on iTunes
3. The Beatles - Abbey Road
I was a huge Beatles fan in high school. I guess it helped create a base for my future musical tastes. Abbey Road is an album that I keep coming back to. Each song flows into one another like perfect puzzle pieces, and there is an overarching sadness, a palpable feeling that they were saying goodbye with their last record.
2. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
I grew up listening to David Bowie (my parents had awesome taste in music) and I have idolized him my whole life. He is still consistently making music that I enjoy (though Reality was a bit of a bummer) and Hunky Dory is probably my favorite. It was recorded during a transition point in his sound, from cheesy 1960's acid trip pop to the experimental rock sound that we know shaped everything to come. He's a classic innovator and I can listen to this album over and over again.
David Bowie on iTunes
1. Sigur Ros - Ágætis Byrjun
A more recent obsession, Sigur Ros are remarkable in the fact that they can convey so much emotion with a language I can't even understand. Heck, most of their music no one can understand as they use what they call "Hopelandic". Every single track on this album is grand, sweeping and tear-inducing. If I had to choose just one song to listen to for the rest of my life, it would probably be Starálfur.
Sigur Ros on iTunes
Qais
5. Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
Sneaker Pimps were my first intro to real down-tempo music that didn't involve stupid wailing or chanting, something that I could kick back and enjoy in the background or actually listen to. Good for rainy days on the desert island.
Sneaker Pimps on iTunes
4. Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead
I love all music with a carnival or circus feel to it, Stolen Babies captures that sound extremely well and their female vocalist has a fantastic range. Carnie Metal Uber Alles.
Stolen Babies on iTunes
3. Exillon - Moonlight Sinatra
This is easily one of the best Moonlight Sonata remixes I have ever heard. There are days that I will listen to this song on repeat all day, it's incredibly relaxing and just a fantastic song. The rest of Exillon's albums are also fantastic.
Exillon on iTunes
2. Aimee Mann - Magnolia OST
I am convinced Aimee Mann is a genius. I picked up the soundtrack after seeing the movie and it is one of the few CDs in my collection that is regularly in rotation.
Aimee Mann on iTunes
1. DJ Dara - Future Perfect
You never know when you're going to need good music for a pow wow or drug induced spirit dance on your desert island. All of DJ Dara's albums are good for just that, but this was my first introduction to drum and bass and holds a special place in my heart as such.
DJ Dara on iTunes
Amy
5. Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VIII OST
Final Fantasy VIII was released during one of the best years of my life. It was the first Final Fantasy game Grant and I played through together. The music not only reminds me of the various scenes in the game but of us at that time.
FFVIII on iTunes
4. Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles OST
Crystal Chronicles was the first local multiplayer game I'd experienced. The music reminds me of going over to Chris's to hang out and play. But, most importantly, it is the music we chose for my walk down the isle at our wedding.
FF on iTunes
3. Jewel - Pieces of You
This album was released when I was starting to discover who I am. I have great respect for any artist that both writes and performs their own work. Jewel is also very fun to sing with.
Jewel on iTunes
2. Ace of Base - The Bridge
During my sophomore year in high school, I would come home and play The Bridge everyday. This album makes me smile whenever I hear it. I can't help but dance and sing along.
Ace of Base on iTunes
1. The Little Mermaid OST
No movie or album defines me more than The Little Mermaid. It was my first Disney movie in the theater. Prior to owning the cassette, I would try to remember the words and tune and ended up making up my own songs over time. It made me to want to become a Marine biologist and sing for Disney someday.
Little Mermaid OST on iTunes
Mike
5. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
A perfect work. Not only important in jazz music history, but improvisational music in general. Davis' versatile trumpet work brushes shoulders with John Coltrane's saxophone mastery and all the other guys in the band blend to wrap Davis and Coltrane's solos in a tight shroud.
Miles Davis on iTunes
4. Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major
Mozart was my introduction to classical music and i don't think I could get this concerto out of my head. The pinnacle of composition and class. It's been recalled again and again in pop culture - especially in movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Superman Returns.
Mozart on iTunes
3. Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
Lost in the shadow of Violator and highly underrated, Songs of Faith and Devotion is Depeche Mode at their most energetic and most melodramatic. A fantastic example of electronic music that doesn't lose its tangible, evocative side. Opener "I Feel You" is still one of the most powerful songs in their live set.
Depeche Mode on iTunes
2. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
Country music the way it should be - bold, daring, and empathetic. Live and in a prison, you get the joyful and sorrowful balance of both Cash's songs and the tension of the inmates. The "man in black" had audacity, but his pity and ability to reckon his melodies with the plight of the prisoners was the greater feat.
Johnny Cash on iTunes
1. Elliott Smith - Figure 8
Robbed from the world far too early, Elliott Smith's songwriting legacy endures as an eternal flame on Figure 8. Owing obviously to the Beatles, but merging their talents into one and making it personal in a way nobody had, Smith's pained, esoteric lyrics were an odd foreboding to his fate. Songs like "Happiness" and "Somebody That I Used to Know" are so painful to listen to now that he's gone, but I just can't bring myself to stop.
Elliott Smith on iTunes
