NUMBER TEN
Ajico
深緑
Kenichi Asai's shortest lived and probably most overlooked project. UA on vocals breathes life into Benzie's slower songwriting style in a way never heard before or since.
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NUMBER NINE
Saves The Day
Stay What You Are
I remember how hated this album was at the time. I always thought it opened up a whole new side of the band, without sacrificing any of Conely's macabre lyrics. This is their best album.
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NUMBER EIGHT
The Knife
A rare combination of weirdness and beauty. Karin Dreijer's vocals are fascinating throughout every song. This is my favorite Knife album.
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NUMBER SEVEN
Buffalo Daughter
I
The constantly evolving and experimenting krautrock, new wave, electro, whatever... I've lost count the amount of things this band has done. Bottom line is innovation, and I has a whole lot of it.
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NUMBER SIX
Loveage
Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By
I love Dan The Automator. This is a ridiculously oversexed R&B album, but with songs good enough to be appreciated unironically.
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NUMBER FIVE
The (International) Noise Conspiracy
A New Morning, Changing Weather
Man, when I heard this album the first time, I thought this 60's revival mod-punk was the next big thing for sure. It kinda happened with The Hives, The Strokes, and a few others, but never for T(I)NC. Turns out Socialism is a tough thing to market. Who woulda thought?
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NUMBER FOUR
Rocket From The Crypt
Group Sounds
Aging like a boss. Their classics are already behind them, but I think this is my favorite RFTC album. It's finally captures the kind of studio intensity they had only before managed to create in lo-fi recordings.
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NUMBER THREE
Gorillaz
When this album was released, it was HUUUGE. Sadly, I was still in my "all hip-hop related music is worthless" phase to enjoy it at the time for how smart, creative, and ambitious it was. A few years later, I finally figured out that whole hip-hop thing, and this album played a huge part in it.
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NUMBER TWO
Rx Bandits
Progress
Wow, ok. THE most influential album in my life. Before this, I was only just a ska dork. All songs gotta be fast and short. All should be played with real instruments and sound like they do live (fuck that computer studio shit). Not only did this album show me the value of creating a REAL studio album, with songs that flow into each other, and a general theme; it also showed me the value of experimenting and evolving. It's not Pink Floyd or anything, but taking the music that I listened to and saying "we can do a little more with this" opened my eyes like never before.
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NUMBER ONE
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
The Tyranny of Distance
This one I caught a couple years later. I got into it just before Hearts of Oak. This was probably my first ever "indie" album. Like all of his stuff, Ted offers up a nice history lesson here. Let's just say I was listening to a lot of Elvis Costello after hearing this. This was what got me out of my punk rock bubble and more apperceive of a patient, well crafted song.
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