Moroni's Favorite Albums of 2019

Wow, Happy New Year!

I realized that I let most of the year go by without doing any music reviews!  I realize that I will never be able to catch up; there was so much great music in 2019!  So instead, I thought I would do a "mini-review" of my top 10 favorite albums of 2019!  Tell me yours in the comments!

1.  Alcest "Spiritual Instinct" - By far, my favorite album of the year, as well as my most anticipated.  I was lucky enough to have someone suggest this French band to me about four years ago, and I have been hooked ever since.  They are right up my proverbial alley.  This band swirls together aspects of black metal with shoegaze to form a new genre (that they created) called "blackgaze".  Eerie, melodic, ethereal - there is nothing like this type of music on the planet.  (I will blog in more detail about it later.)  Some of their six albums - like 2014's "Shelter" - veer more onto the shoegaze side of things.  Principal vocalist/ guitarist/ songwriter Neige has said that he always has to resist the urge to create a Slowdive record.  Other albums, like this one, lean heavily on the metal side.  The riffs are heavier, the screams are more raw.  But it still retains a healthy measure of dreaminess.  There are only six songs, but, true to post-rock form, none of them less than fiver minutes.  "Les Jardins de Minuit" has a savory mix of powerful shrieks and medeival-style chants.  The results send chills down my spine.  My favorite track is the haunting "Le Miroir".  Not too long ago, I was sitting in my car, listening to music in the parking lot of a grocery store while my wife shopped.  A man came up to my window and asked if it was Depeche Mode.  And that's the kind of music this is - heavy metal being mistaken for darkwave...

2.  DIIV "Deceiver" - For those who follow my blog, they know that I have reviewed this band before, and that they are one of my absolute favorites.  This record ties with Alcest for my favorite of 2019.  Those who know the band know that frontman, Zachary Cole Smith, has struggled with heroin addiction, and it showed in their soporific, hazy brand of shoegaze.  A few things have changed on their new album.  1.  The band moved from New York to Los Angeles.  2.  Cole went clean.  3.  The band all contributes to the music instead of it just being Cole's confessional project.  And it shows.  It shows in the interviews where Cole takes a backseat to the other band members.  And it shows in the music.  The lyrics are still Cole's.  His dark lyrics explore addiction and rehabilitation.  But the music is clear and purposeful.  It seemed unlikely that they would stop their sophomore effort "Is the Is Are".  It seemed unlikely that there would be another album.  But there is.  And guess what?  It does not suck.

3.  Whirr "Feels Like You" - This album was a great $5 investment, and I'll explain why.  For most of the past decade, Whirr has been at the forefront of the shoegaze revival.  Nick Bassett has played in other shoegaze bands like Nothing (a band I've covered for five years) and Deafheaven.  They put out two very good releases that were generally loved by fans, and then they fell victims to cancel culture.  Being young and dumb, they made comments on Twitter about a rival band that could be considered transphobic, and they lost their record contract.  Now, I am not justifying their behavior, but it is unfortunate that we live in such an unforgiving society.  Even after offering apologies, the band seemed over.  But they have persisted and released a new album on Bandcamp for $5.  This album is very typical shoegaze - swirly guitars and muted vocals.  But it is very refreshing, especially on songs like "Younger Than You" and "Rose Cold".  Hopefully, though, they will make an effort to stay off of Twitter...

4.  Sturgil Simpson "SOUND & FURY" -  What do you do when you are a Grammy-winning country artist who has already made three country albums that boldly stretch the limit of the genre?  You make a decidedly-not-country album.  I was really surprised when I first listened to this album.  Sure, there's a little country Americana in there, but this album takes genres and warps and twists them into something purely original - Southern rock, synthpop new wave, boogie, and funk, all melted and fused together in something that resembles ZZ Top meets The Cars.  This is a really psychedelic record.  Apparently, Simpson wanted a visual accompaniment to the album, and there is a Japanese anime version of the album on Netflix, but I haven't watched it yet.  I can't wait to see what Simpson does next.  Check out "Sing Along", "Make Art Not Friends", and "All Said And Done" for good samples, but, really, this is a concept album and should be listened completely in one season.

5.  LSD "Labrinth, Sia, & Diplo Present... LSD" -
LSD is an acronym for the collaborative project with British singer Labrinth, Australian singer Sia, and American deejay and producer, Diplo.  The result is an exquisite pop gem of an album, a veritable earworm.  This record helped remind me that - along with punk and post-punk - my past is saturated with EDM, and I still love it.  These songs are vibrant and colorful,  laden with funky beats and the serene, angelic voices of Labrinth and Sia.  Really - what's not to like?  Some of the songs, like the elegant "Thunderclouds" have an almost 1950s vibe to them.  Other delightful songs are "Genius", "Mountains", "Audio", and "No New Friend".  I seriously hope that this album is not the end of their creative endeavor and that we see another release from them in the bear future.

6.  Ride "This Is Not A Safe Place" -  The 2010s saw a rebirth of the shoegaze movement, many new bands switching genres to start reviving the movement.  This opened up the doors for many of the shoegaze bands from the '90s to have comebacks, including the Holy Trinity of Shoegaze, being My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride.  In 2014, much to the pleasure of fans, Ride came together again, not just for touring, but to release a pair of albums.  Their sixth album sees them back on form.  It's not perfect.  I don't like all of the songs.  But the ones I do make up for the mediocrity of the others.  Both "End Game" and "Shadows Behind the Sun" are strongly reminiscent of The Church.  "Clouds of Saint Marie" is a sweet but meaningful pop song.  The primary single, "Future Love", redeems the entire album by combining pop sensibility with the dreamlike layers of sound that shoegaze is known for.  Ride have shown that they are just as relevant now as they ever were.

7.  Drab Majesty "Modern Mirror" - Here is a band that I didn't discover until last year, thanks to my good friend, Linda.  Andrew Clinco is the drummer for post-rock band, Marriages (featuring the wonderful Emma Ruth Rundle).  He started recording solo music, but he said that it didn't sound at all like him - it sounded like it was music by someone else.  So, he created an alter ego as the frontperson of his new band, Drab Majesty - the androgynous Deb Demure.  The result is this third album of bone-chilling, danceable darkwave, a total throwback to the gothic music of the '80s.  I'm not going to lie - I listen to this band - like on songs like "The Other Side" and "Noise of the Void" - and I hear Clan of Xymox, totally.  But that's not necessarily a band thing.  In fact, I quite like it.  This entire album immediately pulls you into its groove like an indelible homecoming.  I can almost see the goth clubs that I used to inhabit as a young man in the '80s.  Thank you, Linda!

8.  Billie Eilish "When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" - This one may come as a surprise to some people.  Yes, I know that "bad guy" is overplayed on the radio.  I know that she is so oversaturated in the media that many people have grown to dislike her and she is regarded as "mainstream".  But there is a reason that a 17-year-old has achieved this kind of success.  (She is exactly the same age as my daughter to the day.)  This is a really good album.  I have never been averse to pop music.  But I love pop music that is subversive even more.  And that fits this album.  It is surprisingly simple - hard hitting drum beats bumping beneath Billie's airy vocals, singing about surprisingly sinister topics.  "bury a friend" is so dark.  "i love you" has such a good use of dream pop wall of sound.  Hey, if this album is good enough for Dave Grohl, it's good enough for me.

9.  Tool "Fear Incoculum" -  Like millions of other people, I was one of those who waited almost fourteen years for this album.  Truthfully, I was hoping that it would score a little higher on the list than this, but it is what it is.  It's still a good album, filled with ten-minute opuses, laden with heavy guitar riffs, off-kilter rhythms, languorous, psychedelic ponderances, Maynard's perplexing lyrics sung is his crystal-clear voice, and trippy interludes.  Some people have disliked it, complaining that it is not heavy enough, but too atmospheric.  But hey, "atmospheric" is my bag.  A typical Tool album.  Although not quite as good as "AEnima" or "Lateralus". but about as good as "10,000 Days".  The whole album is better, as with all Tool albums, better when listened in one sitting, but my favorites are "Descending" and "Culling Voices".

10. Chelsea Wolfe "Birth of Violence" - In April, 2018, I made a trip to Philadelphia to visit an old friend, a music guru of sorts, and one of the many artists he introduced me to was Chelsea Wolfe.  I came back from Philadelphia with the album "Abyss".  Over the next couple of years, I was able to explore her back catalog which consisted of four other albums.  It's hard to describe her music.  She uses a plethora of influences and morphs them into her own creature.  Each album is vastly different than the next.  Metal, doom, drone, goth, folk - Wolfe is all of these and none of these.  On this, her sixth album, she decided to return to her folk roots and go acoustic, and the live shows were also stripped down to their bare elements.  But even for an acoustic record, this album is still dark and brooding, and she adds so many complex layers of orchestra, keyboards, and ambient noises that give this album the feel of a nightmare that you can't wake up from.  But you don't really want to.  Black lace blowing in a cold breeze.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

11.  Ladytron "Ladytron" - Like other bands like Curve and M83, Ladytron mixes elements of shoegaze with what is essentially electropop.  The result is something that is at once diaphanous and danceable.  But I have to say - there can be no denying that this band takes a page (or two) from ABBA - not necessarily a bad thing, the springy harmonies and catchy beats.  My favorite songs are "Far From Home", which melts in the end into a blaring cacaphony of pure noise, and the angular "Run".  It's no wonder why Brian Eno loves this band so much.

12.  Cigarettes After Sex "Cry" -  This El Paso band is one that I have listened to before they had an album out yet and only an EP.  And I have always loved them.  I admit that a lot of their songs sound kind of the same - sweet dream pop melodies set to Greg Gonzalez's feminine voice, everything languid, soft, slow, and reverb-y akin to Cowboy Junkies, Mazzy Star or Julee Cruise.  One discussion group I'm in had one individual referred to them as Shoegaze Maroon 5.  But sometimes there is comfort found in familiarity and predictability.  If all of these songs sound like the same song, then that song is romantic, a little sad, and a touch moving.  Just listen to the song "Heaven", and you will see exactly what I'm talking about.  I don't know what the whole "Hentai" is about, though. B ut I guess in the end, though, all of these sugary and sensual songs are about sex.

13.  Silversun Pickups "Widow's Weeds" - These guys have been one of my top bands for the last ten years, and their fifth album released last year was one of my most anticipated albums.  Yet I was a little disappointed in this one.  In fact, I have been disappointed in the last two albums.  They haven't been bad.  This one isn't really bad.  But they don't move me in the way that "Carnavas", "Swoon", and "Neck of the Woods" did.  Nevertheless, the songs are good, and the band is in good form, like on the principal single, "It Doesn't Matter Why".  The other strong points are on "Freakazoid", "Simpatico", and "We Are Chameleons"  Regardless of how I feel about the album, it is good to still have these guys around.  They really are one of the coolest bands out there.

Silicon Obsession: The Long-Awaited Album by A Perfect Circle

A Perfect Circle

Say what you will, but Maynard James Keenan is one of the most interesting men in the music industry - one of the most influential if not controversial.  Indeed, his brand of art is so prodigious and log-awaited that his fans wait breathlessly for the sporadic albums to come out.  In 2015, we saw a new album by Puscifer, one of the best albums of the year, and next year will boast of  a new Tool album, the first in 13 years.  Fans are going crazy with anticipation.  And this year, we were blessed "Eat the Elephant", the spectacular new album by Keenan's supergroup, A Perfect Circle after a long 14-year hiatus.

Ever the eccentric artist, I enjoy watching and reading interviews with Keenan where he describes the creative process in making his music.  I have heard many a Tool fan slobber, "Maynard just writes the words!  He doesn't have anything to do with the music!"  This is said to diminish his contributions, but can you imagine "Aenima" without Keenan's misanthropic rantings?  It is true that he gives his fellow Tool members more creative leeway, because those guys are creative juggernauts.  Even with his personal project, Puscifer, Keenan knows how to surround himself with creative influence and channels it like a maestro.  The same can be said of A Perfect Circle.

Although the band started as the project of Billy Howerdel.  With someone as charismatic as Keenan, it is easy to be eclipsed, but there is no denying that this project is Howerdel's baby.  Howerdel worked in the '90s as a guitar tech for several huge bands, including Tool.  He roomed in Los Angeles for a while with Keenan and was able to personally play the demos of his music for Keenan.  The songs were originally written for a female singer, but Keenan observed that he could imagine himself singing these songs.  And thus was A Perfect Circle born - a supergroup having included such musicians as Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age, Paz Lenchantin from Pixies, and Tim Alexander from Primus and Arizona band Major Lingo, also currently including James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins.

I have been a Tool fan since the early '90s, but I remember the first time I heard A Perfect Circle in 2000.  "Mer de Noms" became kind of the soundtrack for that year.  It had an edge like Tool, but it was more dreamy, more gothic - in other words, my kind of music.  There have been two albums since then, but honestly I didn't listen to those much until preparing for this review, and I was missing out.  They are all great.

Between albums, Keenan secludes himself in his wine business in the Verde Valley of Arizona (not too far from me).  He has aptly said that having something to do with his life other and music gives him fodder for writing music, otherwise life is just being on the road.  When his bands - be it Tool or APC - are finished writing their music, they will send their recordings to Keenan, and he will play the music in his truck, looking for inspiration.  When it comes, he will wrestle with it until a song emerges.

Keenan has said with "Eat the Elephant", he said that Howerdel sent him a collection of noisy, guitar-driven power pop songs.  Keenan sent the recordings back and told Howerdel to strip the songs down to their most basic level - just piano.  And that works; that's how they left the album - most of it circling around Keenan's voice and a piano, giving the whole album more of a primal feel.  There are a few aggressive moments, but most of the album has the opiate haze of the impetus of a fever dream, the music ebbing and flowing, which makes Keenan's lyrics even more disturbing.

There is a very obvious political slant to this album.  It's obvious that Keenan is not a Trump fan.  But let me give you a hint - he's not a fan of the Democrats, either.  Keenan is very careful to keep his political affiliations out of his interviews, but here, Keenan is evidently critical of both.  This album is a dismal portrait of how screwed our society is.

My favorites are the title track, "Eat the Elephant" - whose meaning is perfectly clear.  We are all clearly eating the elephant right now.  The song starts out with a smoky, jazzy piano and a cymbal.  Keenan's voice is almost weeping, and the guitars are fuzzy and pulsating.  "Disillusioned" is one of my favorites - the song, a lament against technology, has movements and changes that take you through the proverbial gamut of emotions.  Subdued.  That is the word that describes this album.  And yet it works.  "The Contrarian" builds up to a pulsing wash of sound - a shoegaze song if I have ever heard one.  "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish", a bubbly, caustic tribute to Douglas Adams.  "Talk Talk" continues Keenan's obsession, a love/ hate relationship with Christianity and has a poignant message for me as a Mormon - try walking like Jesus, instead of just talking the talk..  My favorite is "Hourglass", a catchy electronic song in the vein of Nine Inch Nails.  Keenan breaks tradition and croons in his best imitation of Howard Devoto.

All in all, this album is genius.  As everything Keenan does.  It makes me hunger for the Tool album, sad to think about how long it will be before another release.  But I maintain my argument - in mainstream music, no one is more important than Maynard James Keenan.

Puscifer Makes the Best Record of 2015

Puscifer

I have always been kind of proud that I share Northern Arizona with Maynard James Keenan, the legendary singer/ songwriter of two of my favorite bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle, as well as the frontman of the electro-psychedelic pop experiment called Puscifer.  Keenan roams my old stomping grounds of the Verde Valley.  He owns two shops in the old ghost town of Jerome (several buildings there renovated by personal friends) - a wine shop selling his own brand - Caduceus Cellars as well as a merchandise store for his band, Puscifer.  He owns a home in the artist community of Sedona and grows grapes in the small town of Cornville, where I wandered as a nineteen year-old, pretending I was a hippie.  Perhaps I feel that it gives my region some cred to have someone like Keenan see the same thing in rural Arizona that I do.  Many a time, I have fantasized about going to his wine shop and having a conversation with him.  But I always fall short.  His is notoriously private and quite eccentric.  After showing my wife some interviews with Keenan on YouTube, her observation is, "He's a nerd.  An artsy nerd, but still a nerd."

He certainly does not stick to any conventions, but that is what I love about his music.  People always tried to classify Tool, and the band always resisted any label.  Hard rock yes, but far more transcendent.  The same was true with the ethereal sounds of A Perfect Circle.

But I do have a confession.  Even though I am a fan, since their inception back in 2007, I had never listened to a single song by Puscifer.  I was very aware of them, having read several articles about them.  I'm not sure why.  I think that I am always afraid that my favorite artists will have their creative spirit eroded away by age and fame.  Perhaps it was the way they marketed the band - Keenan doing electronic dance music with raucous and rowdy themes.  I mean, their first album was called "V Is For Vagina".

To this date, I have never listened to their first two albums.  But after reading about Tool's explosive performance in Tempe, Arizona this past Halloween, and Puscifer's wild show two days later at the same venue, I decided to check them out.

I'm glad I did.  Puscifer's third album, "Money Shot" is the best album I have heard in a long time, Not only is it the best Keenan record to date - right up there with Tool's "Lateralus" and A Perfect Circle's "Mer de Noms", but it is the best record of 2015.  And I will tell you why.

There is nothing bawdy or juvenile about this record.  It is deep and contemplative, having the same esoteric and mystical quality, yet also containing tongue-in-cheek humor that all of Keenan's work has.  He proves that it doesn't matter what genre he is dabbling in.  As a songwriter, the Force is strong with him.  Yes, most of the songs are ambient and electronic, and other people have said that this is darker and moodier than Puscifer's other releases.  But there is still the exquisite musicianship that is trademark to all of Keenan's endeavors.  Keenan also knows that relying on the gifts of other artists is key to making great music.  Not only is his smooth-as-silk voice prevalent, but Carina Round's angelic voice flits through all of the songs.  There are also a round of guest musicians, including Tim Alexander on drums, who formerly performed with, not only Primus, but Major Lingo, another Northern Arizona favorite from Verde Valley.

The album starts out with an electronic pulse on the first track, "Galileo", fraught with interplay between guitar and vocal harmonies with Keenan and Round.  "Agostina" is a beautiful ode to Keenan's newborn daughter.  "Grand Canyon" is an epic song, kind of reminds me of the track at the end of "We Were Soldiers".  I'm sure you know the one.  I'm not sure if Keenan is singing about standing at the precipice of Arizona's best known National Park or at the edge of the human psyche.  Either way, it is a grandiose tune capped off by Round's voice soaring like an eagle over Angel Point.  "Simultaneous" is an enigma.  It starts out with a man narrating a story about meeting an eccentric bum at a punk festival.  I have tried to find a backstory on this.  I haven't been able to find one.  But the song ends with Keenan philosophizing, "Find a way.  Through, around or over."  All while a guitar buzz-saws in the background.

The title track, "Money Shot", is the only song I don't like on the record.  It is loud and obnoxious, like a turd in the midst of resplendent jewels.  It's as if the record company wanted Keenan to put the obligatory hard rock song in there, but it doesn't fit the quiet contemplation of the rest of the record.  It's out of place, being vaguely reminiscent of Butthole Surfers.  But maybe that's what he was aiming for.  The album resumes with perhaps my favorite track, "The Arsonist", which starts out with electronic chimes and softly builds up to a strong climax.  "The Remedy" is a great single from this which captures Keenan's sardonic side, as he sings, "Yes, we're being condescending.  Yes, that means we're talking down to you."

"Smoke and Mirrors" reflects the moody atmosphere of this record with a kind of Pink Floyd vibe.  Another favorite track of mine is "Life of Brian (Apparently You Haven't Seen)".  The vocal arrangements at the end of this piece are extraordinarily beautiful, almost medieval, and the album finishes off with the somber "Autumn", one of the saddest songs I have ever heard.

I can't rave enough about this record.  I have been listening to it for two months and am not tired of it.  Every single song is good, and I recommend it to anyone searching for good and new music.  Moreover, I have bragging rights.  2015's best record came out of Northern Arizona - recorded and released!  What?!

My Desert Island Top 10, Round 2

So not too long ago, I posted "My Desert Island Top 10".  The idea was taken from Tower Records's now-defunct magazine, "Pulse".  They invited readers to imagine that they were stranded on a desert island, and you could only take ten albums with you.  Which ones would you take?

I posted my ten, but, being me, I could not take just ten.  So I decided to include a second round of another ten albums.  The rule I made for myself is that I could not include any album from any band that I have already reviewed on this blog.

I invite you to include your top 10 on the comments section, or on my Facebook page.

Well, here it goes, in no particular order:

Catherine Wheel

1.  Catherine Wheel "Chrome" - Back in the early '90s, I didn't know what "shoegaze" was.  I only knew that, even though this band rocked hard, there was something about them that reminded me of Cocteau Twins.  This band alternated between soft verses and explosive choruses.  Their guitars had a swirly quality, something ethereal about them.  It has been said that bands like Death Cab For Cutie and Interpol would not exist without the influence that Catherine Wheel had on them.  The main single off this album is "Crank", a delicious ode to meth consumption and the lack of sleep that accomapies usage.  The whole album is good, but my favorites are "Broken Head", "Pain", and "The Nude".  I tried out other albums, but they never had the same feel as this one.  I have heard that their debut album is good, but I have never heard it.  I will have to check it out.  But for now, this album is their opus.  It is one that I never get sick of no  matter how many times I listen to it.

Sons & Daughters

2.  Sons & Daughters "This Gift" -  I have this standing private joke that my musical tastes are identical to actor Elijah Wood.  I usually wind up liking bands that he has promoted, except that I wind up liking them three years later.  Such was the case  with bands like Sigur Rós, Modest Mouse, Gogol Bordello.  Sons & Daughters, a quartet from Scotland was no different.  I was saddened to hear last November that they had broken up.  We were just barely getting to know them, with only a few albums and a couple of EPs.  I discovered this band while I was working in South Carolina in 2009.  This album stayed on constant rotation on my phone.  It is raw and stripped down - a hint of rockabilly and a heavy dash of '60s psychedelia.  This is The Smiths with a hangover and a pissed-off lady singer.  My favorite songs are "Gilt Complex", "Split Lips", the title track, and "House In My Head", which sounds like it could be from Throwing Muses' early album "House Tornado".  A great listen.

Tori Amos

3.  Tori Amos "Scarlet's Walk" -  Tori Amos is an artist that I listened to from the beginning.  I was introduced to her work when I was in college in Utah when her first album, "Little Earthquakes", came out.  After that, I didn't follow her work that closely.  Mainly because at age 25, I isolated myself by moving onto my ranch with no power.  I had no computer, no internet, no TV, no way of learning about new music except by occasional magazine or trip to a record store in Phoenix.  I did listen to a bit of 1996's "Boys For Pele".  In 2001, my brother-in-law ordered "Scarlet's Walk" from a CD mail-order thing, and he didn't like it.  He asked me if I wanted it, and I said yes.  Who am I to turn down free music?  I took the CD to my office and drove my coworkers nuts by playing this CD over and over and over.  Like most of Tori's albums, it is dominated by her sweet voice and her piano playing.  She has described herself as "the Little Mermaid on acid", and this description seems to fit.  This is a concept album that tracks her roadtrip across the United States.  There are the sparkling pop songs like "A Sorta Fairytale" and "Taxi Ride"  But it is the other songs that speak to me.  I love the otherworldly softness of the title track as well as "Carbon", "Virginia", and especially "Gold Dust".  This is my favorite Tori album.  I have a few friends who are rabid Tori fans, and they are appalled that "Scarlet's Walk" is my favorite when there are other apparently better albums.  But as I have described, it is totally circumstantial that this is the album I have been exposed to.  But I don't think anything would change what this album means to me.

Sonic Youth's 1986 album "EVOL"

4.  Sonic Youth "EVOL" - I almost picked their 1990 album "Goo", because, musically, I think it is better, and I listened to it much more than I did their third album, "EVOL", which was released in 1986.  I picked "EVOL", because this album changed so much of how I view music and art.  In the '90s, everyone knew who Sonic Youth was.  They even had a shout-out in the movie "Juno" as the go-to band for aging hipsters.  But I can honestly say that I was into this band before most people even knew who they were, back when they were playing small clubs.  I had heard of them, because they came to Arizona a lot.  The 1995 greatest hits collection, "Screaming Fields of Sonic Love" even has an old flyer in the liner notes of one of their shows at Phoenix's Mason Jar.  This was a venue where I have seen many, many live acts and had some good times.  So I was sixteen years old and had seen the flyers.  I knew they were on the SST Record Label, which included bands like Meat Puppets and Black Flag.  I assumed that they were a hardcore band, so I bought it.  I didn't know what they were - a white wash of noise, a wall of distortion that didn't seem to make any sense.  They were avant-garde, but they weren't punk.  I didn't know what they were.  This was a bit before the term "alternative" was on everyone's lips, so these guys were way ahead of their time.  Soon, these guys exploded onto the scene.  My favorite is still "Shadow of a Doubt" which is a subtle song featuring lyrics whispered by Kim Gordon.  Other favorites are "Expressway to Yr Skull" and "Star Power".  This is a very nostalgic record.

Tool

5.  Tool "Lateralus" - Tool is the perfect example of my opinion that rock music can be just as complex, emotive and artistically relevant as classical music.  I hope that 100 years from now that works like this will be lauded as much as we revere classical masterpieces today.  This is a progressive magnum opus that ranges from tentative and tender to hard, raw and ugly, all of it tied together with crafted filigrees of artful noise.  Whether it is the strange, off-kilter rhythms of "Schism" to spacey themes of "The Grudge", "Eon Blue Apocalypse", and the staccato interplay between guitar and Maynard J. Keenan's mournful voice in "The Patient", it is evident that this is not your ordinary, run-of-the-proverbial-mill heavy metal.  This is art rock.  Back in the day, heavy metal bands donned pentagrams and flashed their "devil horns" in your face, claiming a sort of theatrical satanism.  Tool is truly a band that delves into the occult, the hidden geometry and sacred psychology found in the universe that is our human experience.  This is a serious album.  If you have not see the YouTube video that illustrates Tool's use of mathematics and the Fibonacci sequence in the song "Lateralus", it is a must see.  This is much more than rock music.  This is a celebration of the mysteries.

Hugo Largo

6.  Hugo Largo "Drum" - This EP was very important to me in my high school years.  This was definitely art rock.  The arrangement was very minimalist - two bass guitars, one violin, and the swooping vocals of Mimi Goese, with her vivid poetry and bizarre enunciation.  The music is languid and slow, drawing influence from Southern Blues.  Their debut EP was produced by Michael Stipe from R.E.M.  In fact, he sings background on a couple of songs on here - including a rapidly shouted poem on "Eureka".  In fact, I saw R.E.M. twice in huge venues in Arizona.  During both intermissions, Michael Stipe would emerge onto the stage, tired and sweaty, singing powerful a capella songs.  I was one of the few who recognized those songs as Hugo Largo songs.  It was like being included in a well-kept secret.  The best songs on here are "Grow Wild", "Scream Tall", and "Country".  Following this EP, which was released in 1988, they came up with one album, "Mettle", which was really good, but then they sadly broke up.  I have always wondered and wished that they would return.  The most that happened was that Mimi Goese sang vocals on a couple of songs by Moby in the '90s.  This album is what true alternative was really about - unlike anything that was playing on the radio back then.

Arcade Fire

7.  Arcade Fire "Funeral" -  There is a reason that this band has been declared a favorite by such artists as Coldplay's Chris Martin as well as David Bowie.  They are the coolest music to come out of French Canada.  (Sorry, Celine.)  The reason is their unique sound.  This band is known to unfold layer after layer of sounds in their music, using complex arrangements of unique instruments like pianos, violins. cellos, xylophones, French horns, harps, accordions, and and hurdy-gurdies.  The result is a richly textured sound accented by Win Butler's wavery Talking Heads-like vocals balanced by Regine Chassagne's lush voice, singing often in French.  I have all of their albums, and think that they are all really good.  But I keep coming back to their 2004.  Every song has me grooving, including the four-part "Neighborhood" arrangements.  The best songs are the wistful "Haiti", featuring Chassagne singing about the troubled nation, and "Rebellion (Lies)" where Arcade Fire does what they do best - introducing a simple melody and then building upon it and building upon it until it turns into a rousing anthem.  The new album is supposed to come out next month.  I am excited and will definitely be writing a review.  I have already downloaded the first single, "Reflektor".  If the rest of the album is as good as this song, then it promises to be excellent.

R.E.M.

8.  R.E.M. "Life's Rich Pageant" - My introduction to alternative music took place around 1984 at the tender age of 14.  My older brother came back from college, and, without his knowledge, I raided his box of cassettes that included some mixes of what was called - not "alternative music" - but "college radio music", because college radio stations were the only ones playing this kind of music back then - The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, and a little jangle pop song called "Radio Free Europe" by a band from Athens, Georgia called R.E.M.  I was hooked.  All this culminated in 1987, my senior year in high school, when Rolling Stone featured the boys on the cover with the caption:  "The Best Band in the World".  I had arrived.  My music was finally relevant.  Soon after, they left their IRS label and went big time.  I followed them for a couple of albums, but mostly lost interest after that.  For me, their heyday was the '80s when the took '60s psychedelia and made it their own.  1986's "Life's Rich Pageant" is still their best album to me.  Every song gets my fingers tapping from the rocking start "Begin the Begin" to the end, a cover called "Superman".  (I always liked Mike Mill's voice better than Michael Stipes's.)  There are tons of good gems on this one - the nonsensical "Fall On Me" and the nostalgic "These Days" and "Cuyahoga".  "The Flowers of Guatemala" is a nod to Simon & Garfunkel, and the acoustic "Swan Swan H" is a throwback to my wannabe hippie days.  The thing that I love about this album is how timeless it is; it is still relevant.

TV On The Radio

9.  TV On The Radio "Dear Science" - This band from Brooklyn is one of those groups that defies description, being insanely original.  There are certainly elements of jazz, funk, and R&B - especially on songs like "Crying", "Dancing" and "Red Dress", and they are known to erect walls of noise like Sonic Youth.  But by and large the music on their third album is hard to pin down.  They belong to the prestigious 4AD label, which is known to discover unique talent.  I am going to go out on a limb here - there is quite a bit of the music here that reminds me of This Mortal Coil, the collaborative showcase band created by 4AD founder, Ivo Watts-Russell.  It makes me wonder how much of it is his influence.  I hear it in "Halfway Home" - which is by far my favorite song.  It starts out with a funky beat, but ends up in an angelic wash of noise.  I also hear it in the ghostly "Family Tree".  One of my favorites is "DLZ" which was featured in the 2nd Season of Breaking Bad as the music when Walter White first makes the transition from concerned dad to bad guy.  It was fitting music.

Nickel Creek

10.  Nickel Creek "Nickel Creek" - Here is a strange thing - I am not a fan of country music in general, although there are some country artists that I like.  But I love, love bluegrass.  In the year 2000, I was at my sister's house flipping through the channels and came across a video on CMT for Nickel Creek's "When You Come Back Down".  I wan entranced.  It reminded me of music that I loved, like Cowboy Junkies.  I went and bought the album.  This CD made the rounds around my family, and, when I say family, I mean the whole extended family, even my dad.  In the year before his passing, he listened to this album often.  For me, they were not only a bluegrass band, but a cool bluegrass band that did covers by Collective Soul and Pavement.  It is amazing what you can do with a mandolin, a fiddle, an acoustic guitar, and some exquisite harmonies.  My favorite songs are "Out of the Woods", "Reasons Why", and "The Hand Song".  It was sad when this band broke up, but the members are still busy.  Chris Thile still does some intricate plucking on his mandolin, even doing classical pieces for live audiences.  Sara and Sean Watkins often perform with Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket, another one of my favorite bands.