Inertia_90's Last.fm Journal

One year of Last.fm: my top 50 albums + new finds + MP3s

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:09:53 +0000

It's been exactly one year and one day since I registered for Last.fm. Accordingly, I've decided to take a look back at the last year.

My top albums
1. The Beatles – The Beatles
I could have chosen almost anything from The Beatles for the top spot, but I find I listen to this one more than the others. It was a major influence on my guitar playing when I first began, and practically every song has a fond memory attached to it.

2. M.I.A. – Kala
If you’ve read my journal with any regularity over the past few months, you’ll know that I hold Maya Arulpragasam in high regard, to say the least. I’m so glad to live in a time when something as gloriously strange as Boyz can be considered pop. Maya’s out in a field of her own and no one else is even close.

3. Blur – Parklife
The ultimate pop record, Blur’s third album is a funhouse of melody, texture and sound held together by the sterling bass playing of Alex James.

4. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything
Go here.

5. Nirvana – In Utero
The best thing that 90s alt-rock produced, this record hints at the incredible potential that Nirvana had yet to fulfill. The first three tracks just might be the finest opening sequence ever.

6. Madonna – Like a Prayer
No wait, this is the ultimate pop record. For the first and only time in her career, Madonna stripped away the artifice of her public image, swapped rhythm for melody and penned a set of emotionally raw songs about her tumultuous marriage, her strained relationship with her father and her mother’s death.

7. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
I have a lot to say on this record, so expect a journal in the near future.

8. Wire – Pink Flag
This is a virtually perfect deconstruction of rock history by British art-schoolers. All 21 of the songs are packed with wit, rancor and melody, and at less than 40 minutes, it runs no risk of overstaying its welcome.

9. Pixies – Surfer Rosa
Go here.

10. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Though it’s not the masterpiece that everyone and their mother have made it out to be, Loveless is still probably the best guitar/technology fusion in existence. Kevin Shields married a set of delicate pop songs to his studio perfectionism and it turned out to be a winning match.

11. Kate Bush – Hounds Of Love
12. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
13. Fugazi – Repeater
14. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
15. The Clash – Combat Rock
16. Sonic Youth – Sister
17. John Peel’s Festive 15 Mix CD
18. Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish
19. Pavement – Slanted & Enchanted
20. Radiohead – OK Computer
21. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
22. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Psychocandy
23. The Beatles – Abbey Road
24. Dinosaur Jr – You’re Living All over Me
25. Kate Bush – The Dreaming
26. Cornershop – When I Was Born for the 7th Time
27. Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique
28. Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
29. Gang of Four – Entertainment!
30. Björk – Homogenic
31. Blur – Blur
32. Kanye West – Graduation
33. Primal Scream – Screamadelica
34. The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
35. Boris – Pink
36. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
37. The Smiths – Hatful of Hollow
38. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
39. The Fall – Hex Enduction Hour
40. The Beatles – Revolver
41. Madonna – Music
42. Nirvana – Nevermind
43. The Smashing Pumpkins – Gish
44. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced?
45. The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat
46. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?
47. Kanye West – Late Registration
48. Hole – Live Through This
49. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I
50. Slint – Spiderland

The artists I’ve discovered this year
Kate Bush
M.I.A.
Amy Winehouse
The Fall
Wire
The Kick Inside
Boris
Gang of Four
1800s Sea Monster
The Velvet Underground
Rainbow Party
Unwound
Saint Etienne
Hüsker Dü
Black Flag
Primal Scream
Patrick Wolf
Porcupine Tree

A random assortment of tracks from artists mentioned in this entry
Click here to download

Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter Version)
An indie-rock classic bearing the same chord sequence as Straight to Hell and some of the most oblique lyrics I’ve ever seen. “Ice baby, I saw your girlfriend, she was eating her fingers like they were just another meal.” What on earth does that mean? Anyone?

1800s Sea Monster – B-a-n-j-o-r-e-e Banjorium
Never ones to rest on laurels, the band’s latest record (available from their Last.fm page) is a dalliance into country. Love them or hate them, once you try them out, you’ll have to admit that 1800s Sea Minster always keep things interesting.

The Kick Inside – Because Of Her Sex
This reminds me vaguely of those C86 bands, but with harder-edged guitars and vocals. I’m looking for good things from them.

Rainbow Party – Hoom Boot
One minute and forty seconds of pure venom, this track hilariously takes the aging Baby Boomer generation to task for their failings. Rainbow Party are one of my favourite new bands, and hopefully, they’ll be one of yours as well.

Hüsker Dü – Celebrated Summer
Perfect guitar-pop.

Kate Bush – Strange Phenomena
I might have chosen one of her singles, but I think this track demonstrates Kate’s quirkiness more than anything else. She apparently decided that she’d like to write a song about her menstrual cycle and this is what happened. I especially dig her delivery of the Indian mantra ‘om mani padme hum.’

the Kate Bush songs that make me cry

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 23:00:16 +0000

A lovely little mix than I just burned.

Wuthering Heights
Hounds of Love
Breathing
Suspended in Gaffa
The Man With the Child in His Eyes
Pull Out the Pin
Blow Away (For Bill)
Mother Stands for Comfort
Mrs. Bartolozzi
Jig of Life
Houdini
This Woman's Work

White Light/White Heat + three songs I love right now + a note about In Rainbows

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:55:45 +0000

I love The Velvet Underground’s first album with Nico. There’s some really neat stuff on there. Venus In Furs is an ethereal S&M drone, Sunday Morning is a perfect pop song and All Tomorrow’s Parties is just flat-out greatness. But their second album, White Light/White Heat, in my humble opinion, is for the most part even better. However, one track is so terrible that it very nearly overshadows the rest of the album. Sister Ray, which inexplicably forms half the album, is a stupid blues-jam thing that’s a rip on something Pink Floyd did so much better on their debut the year before. Honestly, I can’t say how much I hate that song. It’s an abomination. It’s putrid, vile, disgusting, drugged-out, no-thought-at-all noise.
That track's really a shame, because it follow's an incredibly awesome first side (in vinyl terms). Lady Godiva's Operation and Here She Comes Now are two really neat little songs. White Light/White Heat is an OK 50’s-style rocker that glorifies amphetamines. The Gift, my personal favourite on the album, combines a short story narrated by John Cale in one channel with a jam that actually does something interesting in the other. So, all in all, there's a really great EP on this album, then a big blustering noise signifying nothing that I'll just pretend doesn't exist.

The Clash - Straight To Hell
From the same LP that unleashed the AOR classics Should I Stay or Should I Go? and Rock The Casbah on the western world, this ethereal gem is the band’s best song. Utterly transcendent from its staccato guitar intro onward, Straight to Hell paints a chilling portrait of atrocities committed by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. But the track is most notable for the method of its delivery. Though the song as irate and ferocious in spirit as anything off the band’s debut, its impact is increased tenfold by the dreamy, reggae-tinged music. And before I forget: the song is most of the most simple in the Clash catalog. It floats along on a few simple chord sequences and one gorgeous descending guitar lead. A study in the beauty of simplicity.
Straight to Hell guitar tablature

The Fall - Hip Priest
I have that two-disc hits set, and there’s obviously such a mass of stuff on there that I didn’t really catch everything on the first go. However, I’m almost ashamed that this moody epic escaped me. I really heard it for the first time the other day, and oh. My. God. I’m not even going to try and explain it or analyse it. I’ve just linked to it. Bow down to Mark E. Smith. He is not appreciated.
Hip Priest MP3

M.I.A. - Jimmy
In my best-of-2007 entry, I asserted that M.I.A. looks like the only thing left in pop. With Soulja Boy shattering sales records and Amy Winehouse getting more notice for her hideous hair than for her records, it looks more and more like that’s the case every day. This week, Jimmy is my obsession, and I think it shows more balls than any other track on Kala, which is pretty difficult. Maya Arulpragasam is many things, but she is not a singer. But do you think that would stop the woman who references the PLO in song and sings lines like ‘credentials are boring/I left them at the burial ground’ would really care about something like that? Of course not, so we get the perverse multi-culti pop of Jimmy, which samples an old Bollywood movie, marries it to sleek Euro-disco, tosses in some cheeky references to genocide tours and features a vocal not dissimilar to 1980s Yoko Ono. On paper that sounds like hell but in practice it works marvelously.
Click here to view the ‘Jimmy’ promotional film

One last thing
I’m starting to wonder if In Rainbows will stand the test of time. I listened to it this morning, then about an hour ago, I Might Be Wrong came up in shuffle, and honestly, it’s better than anything on In Rainbows, with the possible exception of Reckoner.

ALSO:
Kate Bush’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’

I've been infected + My complicated relationship with Gang of Four's ENTERTAINMENT! + A career in music

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:43:27 +0000

Lately, I've been on a major pop kick. Someone brought the new Britney Spears album in to newspaper, I listened to it and I actually found myself enjoying it. Say what you will about her, but Gimme More and Piece of Me are really good pop singles. Of course, a lot of that credit goes to her phalanx of producers and songwriters but I genuinely enjoy them, and not in an ironic, post-modernist way.
Then, there's Ashlee Simpson. Her new single has been rattling round my head for the last two weeks. It's a total Gwen Stefani rip-off, but the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsulZKXFxK8) is HOT. I especially dig the nod to Dali with the melting clock.

Gang of Four's ENTERTAINMENT!
So, I received Gang of Four's Entertainment! for Christmas, after hearing so much about its influence and an obsession with Ether last spring. I've spent quite a bitof time with it, and apart from Ether, Return the Gift and a few others, I don't like this album as much as I admire. Yeah, it's terribly innovative and it influenced a ton of bands, and I love the lyrics, the fractured guitar playing, the monochrome bass, the slightly dancey drums, all of that. However, the record as a whole just doesn't *click* for me. None of the songs really embed their way in my consciousness. It's like background music to me almost. Perhaps I need to spend some more time with it, but for now, I'll stick with Wire and The Fall for my post-punk fix.

A career in music
I have two conflicting impulses within me. Some days, I want to be like, this totally underground, uncommercial art-noise act and other days, I want to sell millions of records and get on Oprah and everything. I don't know which direction I want to go in. Like, if I sold 10 million, would I be able to deal with the paparazzi? And if I sold 10, would I be able to deal with being completely unknown? Questions, questions...

I've gone mad OR the Kate Bush Project

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:22:16 +0000

The Kate Bush project
I received a Tascam 4-track recorder for Christmas. Earlier today, I put in a cassette to record over it, when I realized that there was music on the other side of the tape. On 4-tracks, you can only record on one side of a tape. I turned down the faders on tracks 1 and 2, and in tracks 3 and 4, The Saturday Boy by Billy Bragg was playing backwards. It sounded seriously cool, like an Indian raga. Bulldog Front by Fugazi sounded like Nirvana gone reggae.
I also received a copy of Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush for Christmas. The second side of the album (or tracks 6-12 on the CD) is a song suite entitled The Ninth Wave. Together those seven songs form one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. All of the experimentation on her previous album, The Dreaming, came to a head there and it’s magnificent.
So, this evening, I came up with the most ambitious musical idea I’ve ever had (or foolish, depending on your point of view). I am now recording the B-side of a cassette with The Ninth Wave song suite, and on the A-side, I will create a 30-minute sound collage/symphonic piece based on the chord progressions. It will include found sound, samples and whatever else I decide to toss in there. I don’t know how long it will take me, I don’t even really know why I’m doing this, but I do know that right now, this feels right to me. Thoughts? Suggestions?

The long-lost Blur album + Sonic Youth's DIRTY

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:38:17 +0000

Blur
Right after they released their debut album Leisure, Blur went into the studio and began working on their second record. Taking influence from their shoegazer contemporaries and American indie-rock, they soon finished the record (or so they believed). But the head of their record company, David Balfe, hated almost all the songs, and so the band was forced to go back to work and come up with another album. Ultimately, the poppy Modern Life Is Rubbish was released to moderate success in 1993, while the band's planned 1992 album can only be pieced together from B-sides. I've burnt a copy of it, with the following tracklisting. Had this been released, it would have been one of Blur's very best. This non-existent record completely trashes The Great Escape:

Oily Water
Into Another
Pop Scene
Pressure on Julian
Beachcoma
Bone Bag
Turn It Up
Intermission
Hanging Over
Badgeman Brown
Miss America
Villa Rosie
Garden Central
When the Cows Come Home
Peach
Commercial Break

Sonic Youth's DIRTY
NOTICE: LONG RAMBLING RANT.

I don't understand why so many people hate this record. If you set aside your cooler-than-thou attitude long enough to actually listen to Dirty, you'll see that it's one of Sonic Youth's best. And it's not slick or anything like that. SY have never been a band to stay in one place for long, and Dirty was no exception. They were simply experimenting with grunge, the prevailing musical idiom, and they made it their own. They crammed so much genius into that record that it really pisses me off when some wannabe hipster says it's where they sold out. What about Goo? The production was much slicker on that. And I mean, the band were totally going to be the next Nirvana with songs like Theresa's Sound World and Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit.
Before I forget, I totally have to mention Kim Gordon's work on this album. She's less a woman, more a force of nature. If you are ANY kind of Sonic Youth fan, you will adore this record based on the way she screeches "Don't you even tryyy!" in 'Orange Rolls.'
If you're one of those people, go take out your copy of Dirty and put it on. Listen through. It's fun, in-your-face, punky, cool, melodic and still very much so a Sonic Youth record. If you can't appreciate the little details of this record, like the sexy grind of the outro on Swimsuit Issue or the gorgeous floating melodies in JC, then you're truly hopeless.

By the way...
Weren't My Bloody Valentine supposed to be releasing something this year? A bit crunched for time, aren't we?

Best of 2007 + Looking forward to 2008

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:11:03 +0000

Looking back
Unless another major band pull a Radiohead-style upset and release an album via their website in the next two weeks, I can say I've decided on my 10 favourite records of the year.

1. M.I.A. - Kala
When I originally drafted this list, Kanye West’s record was at #1 and this took #2. But after a few more weeks, I decided to switch them. While Graduation sounds really awesome, it begins to strain under repeat listens, unlike The College Dropout and Late Registration. It’s lyrically weak and doesn’t reach as much as a Kanye record ought to, musically speaking. And it doesn’t sound unprecedented. Nothing in my Top 10, save this, does. Kala has been called Post for the new millennium, but that’s a bit off the mark. But no one with sense can deny that Kala is indeed, like Bjork’s album, a quantum leap forward for pop. In the splendid album opener Bamboo Banga, Maya Arulpragasam declares that she is coming back with power. And she does. Kala, if you haven’t yet gathered, is a stunner. Indie-rock, electronica and world music are the starting points for this, but the record transcends mere genre to create the most invigorating album in recent memory. Over its 47-minute running time, M.I.A. ransacks the music of her native Sri Lanka, pulls out some sleek Euro-disco moves, collaborates with a group of prepubescent Aborigine rappers, re-explores the Brazilian baile funk of Arular and generally creates the most jagged, noisy dance music you’ve ever heard. By the time the dreamy, Clash-sampling Paper Planes comes through, M.I.A. looks like the only thing left in pop. And that’s quite a lot.

2. Kanye West - Graduation
3. Radiohead - In Rainbows
4. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
5. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
6. A Place To Bury Strangers - A Place To Bury Strangers
7. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
8. Feist - The Reminder
9. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
10. Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion

Honourable mention: Serj Tankian - Elect the Dead

Now for my 10 favorite non-2007 albums of 2007. These albums are all classics that I first had the pleasure of hearing this year:

1. My Bloody Valentine - Isn’t Anything
I bought this record this summer, after a year of hearing the songs on the internet, at parties and in the case of Feed Me With Your Kiss, on college radio. But nothing prepared me for the experience of hearing this record from start to finish. Six months on, I still don’t think I’m capable of writing cohesively about it. It’s the proto-Loveless, the mother of shoegaze, the entrance of Steve Reich into alternative rock, the template for Pavement and Enya, and not to mention my new font of musical inspiration. Whenever my guitar playing gets into a rut, Isn’t Anything is able to pull me out of it. I’ve written three songs just by trying to emulate the molten guitars on All I Need. Some LP’s can be called truly revolutionary. This is one of them.

2. Blur - Parklife
3. Sonic Youth - Dirty
4. Cornershop - Woman’s Gotta Have It
5. Deftones - White Pony
6. Sonic Youth - Sister
7. Team Sleep - Team Sleep
8. Metallica - Metallica
9. Fugazi - Repeater
10. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

Honourable mention: Suede - Suede

Looking forward

Here are bands/artists that I'm looking forward to releasing stuff in the next year. I'll get more in-depth in later entries:

My Bloody Valentine: Please, please, PLEASE, let this happen! And a tour too!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: I think I read something about this happening. I'm really curious to see what direction they'll take next.

Madonna: Her last album was incredible, so I doubt this one will be disappointing. However, I sincerely hope that it will not be called Licorice.

And here are some existing albums that I plan to buy next year:

Boris - Pink
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
Nelly Furtado - Whoa, Nelly
Dinosaur Jr - you're living all over me
Portishead - Dummy
Pixies - Doolittle
The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Ravi Shankar - The Sounds of India
Pavement - Wowee Zowee

Rock Music and Me

Sun, 2 Dec 2007 05:02:37 +0000

I've been wondering that for a few years now. As a rock guitarist, there's really nothing more distressing to me (creatively, at least), than the fact that the art form I’ve chosen to express myself in might be in its last breath. It makes me sad because rock has produced some awesome stuff, some of which I would even call art. Nirvana, Radiohead, Blur, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth come to mind. But in 2007, is any of that relevant? Is there any new way you can twist a power chord or a distorted guitar or a 4/4 snare beat to sound vital and new? I mean, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was an awesome song, but does rock music have to continually go back to that as a source of inspiration? Right now, the two best artists out are Kanye West and M.I.A., both hip-hop artists who have wildly distinctive, unique visions. I touched on Kanye’s music in my last blog, and I won’t even try to discuss M.I.A., because she's so incredibly awesome.
I’ve not really played guitar in a few weeks now. I’ll come back to it eventually, I suppose, when I can find a way to achieve something different with it. However, for the time being, I’m concentrating on learning the keyboard and doing beats on my sequencer. I’ve been learning how to rap and I’m contemplating taking up the sitar. I’m just so anxious to be different. I love rock music, but I’m not so sure that’s want I want to pursue anymore. Society has evolved in the last 50 years, and I think we need a new sort of music to reflect that.

THE ARTISTS I'M LISTENING TO NOW
Cornershop: They started out as a basic punk band but later on, experimented with a bit of everything. Occasionally, they fell flat on their faces, but somehow, that contributes to the life in their records.
Portishead: Languorous, sexy, seductive and inticing. Everything that alt-rock, excepting My Bloody Valentine, isn't.
Ravi Shankar: He has single-handedly introduced me to the beauty of Indian music. Now, I'm looking for as much of it as I can find.
Gorillaz: Demon Days is a hip-hop/pop record, but since it's helmed by Damon Albarn, there are really strong melodies underneath the beats.
Nelly Furtado: Loose is what female mainstream pop artists should aspire to achieve. Incredible.
OutKast: Along with Kanye, a shining beacon of how forward mainstream hip-hop ought to be.
Kate Bush: For her emotional honesty. The most naked artist I've ever heard.

Blur: A Visual Retrospective

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:16:06 +0000

I think that as far as rock bands go, Blur have the best videos. (My favourite videos tend to be those of female singers like Madonna, Kate Bush and Bjork). During the 90's, when rock music was full of slackers and lugubrious Kurt Cobain clones, Blur dared to have their own image. Here are a few of Blur's more memorable visual forays.

She's So High

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlY6rmQfNt4
[/youtube]
Popscene

For Tomorrow

Girls & Boys

Parklife

The Universal

Song 2

Coffee & TV

LIVE VIDEOS

A transcendent live performance of "The Universal."

Graham shows off his blues influences in this performance of No Distance Left to Run.

Damon does a solo piano performance of Strange News From Another Star in tribute to the legendary British DJ John Peel.

Kate Bush + be negative about your top 20

Thu, 8 Nov 2007 23:59:54 +0000

My latest obsession is Kate Bush. We're studying "Wuthering Heights" in English class and we did something about its effect on pop culture so I decided to look up the Kate Bush video of the same name on Youtube. The video (click here to view) features Kate dancing in a field in a red dress, delivering the song's narrative lyric with the most delightfully melodramatic facial expressions I've ever seen in a rock video. That one song is unlike anything I've ever heard before. It's not strange in a Björk sort of way, but its weirdness comes from the fact that musically, it sounds like a typical late-70s pop record, though the lyrics are about a 19th century novel and the singing is so... different.
Anyway, I was actually hooked after that exposure, so I watched a few of Kate's other videos and I can say that I am truly obsessed. I just received The Whole Story in the mail today, and I’m playing the shit out of it. (When I get into a new artist, I like to start off with hits albums, then buy the albums based on the singles I like). I don’t think I can even expound on Kate’s total and complete awesomeness right now, so I’ll write another journal on her later.

Be negative about your top 20.

This will be difficult for me, but:

#1 - The Beatles
I don't like it when they let Ringo sing. And I despise "The Long and Winding Road."

#2 - Blur
Hmm. I dunno. The Great Escape was pretty mediocre, but every other album they've done is great, so that's nit-picking.

#3 - My Bloody Valentine
Kevin Shields is too damn perfectionist. I'm sure he's recorded something suitable for release by now. Also, I think they ought to have included You Made Me Realise on Isn't Anything.

#4 - Sonic Youth
Each album has one or two tracks on it that keep them from being flawless. Like "Rain King" on Daydream Nationor "Pipeline/Killtime" on Sister. It's like they purposely try to derail their albums.

#5 – Radiohead
Can’t think of anything, except that their singles are really find to at decent prices. I can pick up any Smashing Pumpkins or Blur single at a reasonable price. Not so with Radiohead.

#6 - Fugazi
Their albums tend to lag in the second half. They aren’t bad, just not up to the same quality as the beginning of the albums. Repeater is a perfect example of this.

#7 - Nirvana
Kurt killed himself. I don’t have much respect for him because of that. I think that was an incredibly selfish thing to do to his wife and daughter.

#8 - The Smashing Pumpkins
I will NOT accept the reformed ‘Smashing Pumpkins.’ They are not the actual Smashing Pumpkins without James and D’arcy. Oh, and Billy’s singing can get a little annoying at times (I’m thinking of the Machina album).

#9 - Pixies
They sucked after Doolittle. Frank ought to have let Kim write more of the songs on Bossanova and Trompe le Monde. They would have been much better records.

#10 - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Hmm. I dunno.

#11 - The Stone Roses
They only recorded half of a good album. The first half of their debut is really good. But apart from that, they weren’t all that great. Extremely overrated.

#12 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones was a little boring for my taste. They lost that in-the-red quality that made Fever To Tell such a classic.

#13 - The Clash
Cut The Crap.

#14 - 1800s Sea Monster
His singing is a bit off at times.

#15 - Pink Floyd
All that art-rock farting between The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Dark Side of the Moon.

#16 - Minor Threat
I really can’t think of anything. I always thought that “Salad Days” would have been awesome with a cello.

#17 - Madonna
She’s got these experimental qualities lurking in her music that she seems to be afraid to bring to the surface. I totally see a Kate Bush record in her. I wish she would too.

#18 - The Smiths
Morrissey is an arrogant, pompous, pretentious gasbag who also happens to be an absolute genius. Isn’t it funny how that sort of thing goes?

#19 - Joy Division
See the explanation for Nirvana.

#20 - Pavement
See the explanation for The Smiths. Also, Slanted and Enchanted mercilessly rips off The Fall, who are ironically #21.