Day 7.033: Experimental, recycling

Two unrelated items for today (I'm still waiting for at least one more guess on Rug City #3)

A moment from E5N1  from today's Skype conversation:

and something from Facebook, I thought I would post here - I was challenged to come up with 12 albums that had "stayed with me over the years in some way." I was encouraged to come up with them quickly without agonising too much - just as well or I never would have come up with a list! I sat down to do it last weekend after stalling for a week or so.

This is what I came up with:

I decided that the rules meant (for me) - nothing that I discovered too recently, which ruled out excellent albums by Alt-J, Joan as Policewoman, Silversun Pickups and others. Some that really only come down to a song or two were also rejected. I also dismissed compilations and greatest hits. So here we go (in order of discovery):

U2 - The Joshua Tree: I can take or leave the big hits on this album, but whenever Red Hill Mining Town or Trip Through Your Wires comes on I can't resist!

R.E.M. - Document: There was a while when I couldn't see a Bank of America without finding myself singing Exhuming McCarthy - that became more difficult for a while after we moved to America and eventually I got over it!

The Cure - Wish: I'd just finished catching up with the back-catalogue when this album came out. I loved the rockier style and I could listen to From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea and End all day.

The Blue Aeroplanes - Swagger: I started going to gigs in Oxford with a group of friends just after they'd been to see this band around this time. I've seen them since, but would have loved to see them at the height of their game.

The Charlatans - Tellin' Stories: One to Another was the big hit on this one, but I love it from "Stone me - and may you always have no shoes..." and it takes me right back to 1997.

Tori Amos - To Venus And Back: Ah Tori - one of the things I had in common with Exile #2 when we met was a love of Tori's music. This album is so assured - her last before she became a parent, but I could have chosen any of them.

Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast: I bought this on a long business trip in the US and it remains the soundtrack of that year - from the opening track with its French Horn and random guitar to Camping Next to Water's heartbreaking "There's no one here to feel with me".

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief: Again, I could have chosen any of their albums, but this is a forgotten gem I think and I always turn it up when it comes on.

Morrissey - You are the Quarry: One classic after another on this one - more assured than his earlier solo albums and more consistent than some of the later ones.

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open: So many good songs here but I'll pick out It's Beginning To Get To Me with the killer line "Just ignore all this present tense" and "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" with Martha Wainwright - so good.

Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures: Our Velocity, Books From Boxes, By The Monument, ... such good song-craft.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois: I came late to this - long after it was referenced on that Snow Patrol album above. I love the way he introduces melodies and then layers them over lyrics that contain so much poetry and information.

Anyone want to play?