Nup's records...

Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
1986

In high school, I had several influences for the music I listened to. One was a French exchange student who got me listening to early Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Bob Dylan, and Arlo Guthrie (yes, at one point I knew every word to the seventeen minute long "Alice's Restaurant"). The other huge influence was my high school girlfriend, Kristen. Through her I started listening to OMD, the Cure, and Depeche Mode. Of those, Depeche Mode was my favorite, and in particular Black Celebration was my favorite album. I heard it again recently and was transported back in time to a world populated and ruled by the 12” remix single (even better, imported rare remixed 12” single). You have to hand it to Depeche Mode. Not only were they selling their albums, they were tweaking and repackaging their songs and selling those all over again to the same customers. I know because I was shelling out my hard earned money from selling sweatshirts and sweatpants at the flea market to buy them for the above-mentioned girlfriend. But Black Celebration (un-remixed) stands as one of their best. It is a mix of emotional ballads (Question of Lust, Sometimes) and hard hitting electronic anthems (Stripped, Fly on a Windscreen, Black Celebration) and my all time favorite from the album, It Doesn’t Matter Two. I followed Depeche Mode through Music for the Masses, but then decided we needed some time apart. Well, fifteen years seems to have been enough time for us to work things out because I am now looking for a copy of Black Celebration to put back in the collection (iTunes has the partial album, but I want the whole thing)

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
1997

At the same time as tiny-dog mentioned she was living in Bellingham and listening to Elliott Smith in the car we shared, I was also listening to The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse (Either Or is also one of my all time favorites and would have written about that too, but she beat me to it – Elliott, you idiot kid!). Now, I admit, this album takes a few listens before the true brilliance creeps in. The lead singer has a lisp which makes for slightly more “ssss” sounds in his vocals (I think I heard that “modest mouse” was something that speech therapists would have their patients practice saying). But it does help give their music a unique sound (IF Bob Dylan can do it…) I think the way to best explain Modest Mouse is through a hypothetical example: If you had a world populated only by pure beauty – beauty would cease to having meaning because everything would be the same. In essence, beauty is only beautiful because we have something to compare it to. Modest Mouse’s music ranges from thrashing guitars and pounding drums to quite passages with, dare I say, beautiful melodies. Taken in whole, The Lonesome Crowded West is a ride definitely worth the price of the ticket. I even like the album title, which at first glance may seem to be an oxymoron (crowded and lonesome), but it does capture the feeling of living in a big city surrounded with people all going their own way and doing their own thing. I leave you with some lines from Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine: “let’s all have another Orange Julius; thick syrup standing in lines; The malls are the soon to be ghost towns; so long, farewell, goodbye”

Low: Things We Lost in the Fire
2001

I have been a fan of this Deluth, Minnesota band since the release of their second album (Long Division). I wore out my cassette copy of their first album (I Could Live in Hope) that I taped from a housemate when I was living in San Francisco. Over the years I have seen them play live several times and purchased just about everything they have released (yes, including those pesky CD singles – see Depeche Mode). While many bands run out of steam or loose their direction over the years, I think Low has been slowly evolving and building a body of work that is unparalleled in the "indie rock" music world. Things We Lost in the Fire, their sixth (?) release is one of those rare, perfect albums. Each song is brilliant in its own right and each track compliments the others in a way that makes the whole greater than the sum of its individual parts. If someone held a gun to my head (and I was actually held up at gunpoint in San Francisco, but that's another story), I would have to say that it is my current favorite album of all time (not sure why someone would hold a gun to my head to find out my favorite album, but just in case, I have my answer). The CD’s plastic covering, plastic case, and the plastic CD do not in any way prepare you for the depth of emotion found on the CD. The hairs on the back of your neck will stand up and it will melt snow if you play it loud enough. If our troops were blasting this at our enemies, peace would sweep through the world and an unassuming trio from Minnesota would be the new messiahs (wanted to go out on a dramatic note – buy the CD!)

Also recommended:

• Timonium - Until He Finds Us
• They Might Be Giants - Flood
• Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
• Hole – Live Through This
• Bedhead - Beheaded

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