10. Lemonade and Brownies - Sugar Ray (1995) Best Songs: "Iron Mic," "Mean Machine," "10 Seconds Down"
What Makes the Record Pop: Sugar Ray's debut was creative and unique, showcasing a jokester band with songs about muscle cars and boxing. They brandished searing guitar riffs, wildly-flung vocal work, and boxing sound clips, record scratches, and silly little skits between the tracks. They successfully merged hard rock with goofy punk with hip hop, produced by DJ Lethal of House of Pain fame.
9. House of Pain - House of Pain (1992) Best Songs: "Jump Around," "Top O' the Morning To Ya," "Shamrocks and Shenanigans"
What Makes the Record Pop: House of Pain were completely original as a hip hop trio, the first to bring the hardcore Irish-American hooligan to the forefront. In the same vein of Cypress Hill and the Beastie Boys, who had been poking around the genre beforehand, House of Pain blew people around with their sick beats, their freestyle-like vocals, and their gritty video for "Jump Around." Having Cypress Hill guru DJ Muggs behind the production board is what really makes this record pop though.
8. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLachlan (1993) Best Songs: "Possession," "Hold On," "Fear"
What Makes the Record Pop: The thing that really sticks out here is just how well the songs are composed, a rustic, sweet, and pensive sort of precursor to one of my favorite albums of all time, Azure Ray's Hold On Love. Nearly every song here is high quality.
7. To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey (1995) Best Songs: "To Bring You My Love," "Long Snake Moan," "Down By the Water"
What Makes the Record Pop: Before there was Chelsea Wolfe, there was Polly Jean Harvey. The tracks on this record are ominous and eerie, heartfelt and well composed, and even a little theatrical at times. PJ was the first of her kind that I had ever heard in 1995, and the sounds on "Down By the Water" really stood out to me in the burgeoning alternative rock genre. This is a brooding album with a lot of attitude, and I consider it landmark in many ways.
6. Live Through This - Hole (1994) Best Songs: "Violet," "Miss World," "Doll Parts"
What Makes the Record Pop: This record reminds me of the novel Frankenstein. There are some who believe that it was ghostwritten by Percy Shelley, not Mary Shelley. The same was said of this album with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and I can totally see it by listening to some of the chord progressions and the lyrical tendencies. But, that doesn't make it any less of a solid album all the way through. Mary Shelley totally wrote Frankenstein.
5. Dummy - Portishead (1994) Best Songs: "Sour Times," "It's a Fire," "Biscuit," "Glory Box" What Makes the Record Pop: Speaking of landmark albums, this is the first one I'd ever heard to mix the best elements of hip hop and alternative rock together as one. It's PJ Harvey meets Cypress Hill, a slash of brilliance that forced me to re-examine how I had previously viewed music.
4. Around the Fur - Deftones (1997) Best Songs: "My Own Summer (Shove It)," "Mascara," "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)," "MX"
What Makes the Record Pop: Deftones were really the first band to mix heavy, brutal guitar chords with feedback-laden melodies. Chino Moreno's voice and lyrics are heartfelt but cynical, his scream feral and seething. This fashion-themed record is special, a mature step up from their debut.
3. Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1993) Best Songs: "Rocket," "Soma," "Mayonaise," "Spaceboy" What Makes the Record Pop: This one is good all the way through, the last Pumpkins record before Billy Corgan and company dove into the experimental swimming pool. Siamese Dream features thick, searing, feedback-heavy guitars that challenges rock and roll music, challenges the establishment of melodic dissonance, and challenges tendencies of the age-old lullaby.
2. Grace - Jeff Buckley (1994) Best Songs: "Grace," "Last Goodbye," "So Real," "Lover, You Should've Come Over" What Makes the Record Pop: This album is like a painting, or a series of paintings by the artist you've never heard of but now that you hsve, you can no longer go on without. It exudes bohemian brilliance, dreamscape-inspired lyrics, and a diverse array of original ballads, classic rock overtures, and covers that find a way to reinvent themselves completely (i.e. "Lilac Wine," "Corpus Christi Carol").
1. Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo (1998) Best Songs: "You Don't Care About Us," "Ask For Answers," "Without You I'm Nothing," "My Sweet Prince" What Makes the Record Pop: This record is post-punk brilliance, an androgynous effort that shatters images by way of creating them. The songs are well composed, the lyrics wax poetic, and every song flows on a record that works from beginning to end.
I compiled this list years ago, counting down my top 20 albums of all time. Years later, I've decided to expand to the quarter century mark, to rewrite all the reasons why I fell for the album, and to even shuffle some around in order to achieve a more accurate list. There are some newer records here. There are some older ones. There are some that have managed to touch me in some way, on some deeper level of my soul. Some people listen to music. Some people like music. I am one of those, certainly not the only, that not only loves music, but feels it on a deeper level than the average person.
25.Captain - Fog Lake (2018) Fog Lake is Aaron Powell, a one-man, lo-fi wonder from the hinterlands of Newfoundland. He consistently releases one excellent record after another, with nostalgic, pensive tracks brimming with melody and moodiness. Fog Lake has a very rustic, DIY sort of feel to it, while the band does actually serve as a band more often than not, drums and keys layered underneath Powell's guitar and keen, serine vocals.
I used to have a solo project in my band days, and the closest I've heard to it is Fog Lake. There are several standout songs featured on the band's many albums, but Captain is the best full record I've heard from Fog Lake, leading things off with the melodically wistful "Dinosaur." "Acrylic" has a little more jangle to it, but still contains all the elements that make Fog Lake so good. Piano, acoustic guitar, and Powell's high-pitched croons paint the landscape of the lo-fi effort, from the upbeat defeat of "Serotonin" and "Doghouse," to the resigned, broken-hearted "Talk." This album changes mood with the wind, as any good record does, and I couldn't recommend it any more.
24. Trouble Will Find Me - The National (2013) The National has become one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite. There's something special about their careful melodies and the droning but emotive croons of front man Matt Berninger. He looks more like your favorite college professor than the impressive singer for an indie rock band, his stage presence standing out as a calm before the swirling tides of sound. Like Fog Lake, The National have a lot of great songs, but Trouble Will Find Me has the largest amount found on one album. The band resurrect a sort of refined, matured sound, performing in suits like the early days of Interpol.
The National's songs, especially the ones on this album, are highly singable for me, as mine and Berninger's vocal tones match up nicely. "I Should Live in Salt" features excellent chord progressions, as does "Demons," "Don't Swallow the Cap," a reference to the death of Tennessee Williams, and my personal favorite, "Graceless." Other highlights are "Sea of Love," "Heavenfaced," and "I Need My Girl." The album, and the band itself, are reminiscent of Interpol in their upbeat composition, and Coldplay in their more heartfelt ballads, with Berninger covering the highs and lows of his vocal tonage to precision. His voice, and the dutiful creations of the band around him, are two puzzle pieces that perfectly fit together.
23. Distorted Lullabies - Ours (2001) When I first heard Ours, fronted by do everything man Johnny Gnecco, I thought they were decent. Always on the lookout for new music in 2001, I went out to buy Distorted Lullabies based on the single, "Sometimes." They reminded me of Radiohead in sound, and Gnecco sounded a bit like Bono and Jeff Buckley mixed together. When I popped the CD in my car, I was absolutely floored by opening track, "Fallen Souls," especially when the ending hit. Ours actually came to town in '06 or '07, touring with Filter, but I turned myself away at the door when I found out ticket prices.
"Fallen Souls" is a unique-sounding song until the end when it sounds like the second coming of Jeff Buckley. Most Jeff fans might have dismissed it for this very reason, but being I hadn't heard such a voice since his tragic passing, I was charmed by what I heard. I hit rewind again, and again, and again until I finally caught up to the rest of the songs on the record. The part did, and still does, send a chill up my spine, an epic vocal display soaring over a nicely-composed guitar harmony. "Here Is the Light" features heavily on drums and acoustic guitar and a nice electric guitar lead in the bridge, and "Medication" is a sweet lament on overindulgence, while "Dancing Alone," "Bleed," "Dizzy," and "Meet Me in the Tower" are simply just well-written songs.
22.Visions - Grimes (2012) Grimes' debut Visions comes in at number twenty-two. She finds herself in lonely company here, a sort of method actor of a creative musician (the sort of modus operandi she took pre-Elon Musk). With a title like Visions, that's exactly what Grimes tried to do on the making of this record. She reportedly locked herself away in a room for days, abstaining from both food and water in order to reach new levels of consciousness. It seemed to work, as it is really an electronic work of art. To see her perform live is a thing of beauty.
Visions begins with the short preface "Infinite Love Without Fulfillment," then breaks into underground indie single "Genesis," the first Grimes track I heard. The video is quirky and effectively random. Grimes is, or was, the Zooey Deschanel of indie artists, her music videos colorful scenes from the place far beyond left field. "Oblivion" sounds right at home on the Stranger Things soundtrack, "Be a Body" makes a desperate plea for romance, while "Symphonia IX (My Wait is U)," "Nightmusic," and "Skin" showcase the more melodic tendencies of the the artist. The whole record beams like a swirly, hazy dreamscape, filled with synths and beats and siren-like wails. Grimes has to be incredibly proud of this one.
21.Hozier - Hozier (2014)
There's something about this record that reminds me of Jeff Buckley. It's most likely the lone singer-songwriter aspect, and the style of the bluesy, gospely songs, an angle Jeff broached a few times on some of his non-album releases. Besides that flattering comparison, this is just a really good album. It reminds me of New Orleans, a place in which I absolutely adore, and I find it interesting how Hozier, like Mumford & Sons, is a European bloke who has based his entire sound on facets of Americana.
Track one, Hozier's most poignant, most popular one, is "Take Me to Church," capturing the efforts by the Church to assassinate the character of anyone living differently from what is taught on Sundays. Hozier waxes metaphorical in it, a protest song for the human rights of all the "sinners" in the world. The song gained a lot of radio attention, but it's one I can listen to over and over again without getting sick of. Other highlights are "To Be Alone," "From Eden," featuring a video with a sacrificial Bonnie and Clyde, "Sedated," "Work Song," and "Foreigner's God." Some may view Hozier's take on music as a bit blasphemous, taking his gospel swerve and flipping it completely on its head. In my opinion, he's taken an old, beloved style and given it a modern juxtaposition, which I can appreciate.
20. OK Computer - Radiohead (1997) When Radiohead released their second album, The Bends, I thought there was no way they could top it. Enter OK Computer. The band had grown in sound into a leaner, more matured Radiohead, incorporating piano, programming, drum machines, and a slew of percussion instruments throughout the twelve tracks advertised. I brought the cassette on a break from work, and returned to play first track "Airbag" in a game of music chairs for kids at a youth center. It took a second opinion to rule the music too weird for the desired effect. Shrug.
"Airbag" features strange lyrics and a walloping effort from a drum machine. "Paranoid Android," clocking in at nearly six and half minutes, covers the gamut throughout the song, from strange to slow to rocking. "Exit Music (For a Film)" was actually made for a film, as it features in the end credits for 1996's Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. It's a tragic ballad, much like the tragic play, about two star-crossed lovers planning for forever. "Let Down" is my personal favorite, though "Karma Police" was everyone else's seemingly. "Climbing Up the Walls" is as sneaky an album gem as it comes, and "No Surprises" brings a charming little melody to an otherwise odd video that keeps with the theme of the album.
19. Cold - Cold (1998) As Grundig, the band met Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame. As Cold, a nice change is band names, they signed to label Durst's Flip Records, a subsidiary of Interscope. Don't get me wrong, Cold sounds nothing like Limp Bizkit, more in the vein of Staind (though they are more talented). Cold's self-titled debut is how you make a heavy record, with crunchy, droning guitar, and soaring, ambient effects behind the foghorn voice of singer/guitarist Scoot Ward. The band eventually gave up what made their debut so special by trying to fit in with their contemporaries, which is really a shame.
"Go Away" features the voice of Fred Durst in the very beginning and the very ending, which really doesn't take away from the song. The guitars are so heavy and crunchy, setting a sludgy, gritty tone for a sludgy, gritty record. "Give" stays in the same vein, heavy with deep, grimy vocals, following a slowly burgeoning, ill-fated romance. Like Deftones, Cold found the melody in brutality, and even ventured into a whole new realm of sound on tracks like "Ugly," "Strip Her Down," and "Superstar." Instead of the heavy guitar, Ward tunes his acoustic down to A (super low, grungy sound) to belt out a few heartwrenchers, the lead guitar dabbling in ambient, atmospheric effects in the background. It makes for some of the most unique sounds in music I've ever heard, making me wish the band had done it more throughout the album, and had completed a whole record with the same sound.
18. Knife Play - Xiu Xiu (2002) Xiu Xiu, pronounced Shoo-Shoo, was introduced to me on a mix tape. The song below, "I Broke Up," conjures images of a madman wasting away in an asylum. I was reading The Bell Jar at the time, which feeds into the idea a bit, but "I Broke Up" was such a strangely engaging song that I had to own the entire record it came from, Knife Play. The album brims with more of the same, which makes it one of my favorites of all time. Jamie Stewart serves as the key, core member of the band, and when I saw them live just last year, he was still doing his thing after all this time.
From Knife Play, the band only played "Suha," a glaring, depressing anthem of a resigned housewife. Depression is a running theme on Knife Play, Stewart's voice fragile and always on the verge of outcry. Keys, guitars, various forms of percussion, and interesting new ways of musical creation, sometimes melodic, sometimes dissonant, are what Xiu Xiu strives for. "Hives Hives" explores the vantage point of someone dying from HIV, and "Homonculus" employs sound clips and sound effects in the immediate wake of a highly-emotive chorus. In my humble opinion, Knife Party was Jamie Stewart at the height of his creative powers.
17. Dummy - Portishead (1994) When Portishead, a trip hop three-piece from Bristol, England, dropped their debut album, I was completely floored. I hadn't previously been keen on the trip hop genre, so what I heard from radio single "Sour Times" was like nothing else I'd ever heard before. The band successfully meshed moody guitars, record samples and scratches, drum machine beats, and eerie sound effects with the haunting vocals of front woman Beth Gibbons. From the point of view of a hip hop and alternative rock fan, Portishead was a godsend.
"Mysterons" opens the record with a trilling, haunting keyboard effect over the drum machine. Track two, "Sour Times," and track seven, "Numb," are very much in the same vein, as is most of the record - dark, ominous, and brooding. Portishead offers lighter shades of their sound of "Strangers," "It Could Be Sweet," "It's a Fire," and radio hit "Glory Box," showing their versatility, something other groups of the genre (Tricky, Massive Attack) didn't possess as much. Portishead didn't create trip hop, but they were the best at pulling it off, and for a debut album, Dummy deserves to be on every all-time list of any fan of rap and rock.
16.Turn On the Bright Lights - Interpol (2002) This album grew on me over time. The more I've listened to it, the more I can conclude that the band just encapsulates a sound that is all New York City, their hometown. The guitars are choppy and bustling, the reverb and delay effects dripping with the night's city lights, and the beats are likened to Manhattanite footsteps pounding the busy pavement. This is the best record that the band has to offer, a debut gem that put the indie rock world on notice. Interpol's refined style and sound offered something different to the genre in 2002.
Opening track "Untitled" sounds like a melodic reunion in the Big Apple, city lights blinking and the air cold and ripe for chance romance. The reverb and delay effects work their magic as front man Paul Banks offers up his instantly recognizable voice. "Obstacle 1" and "PDA" capture the band's overall sound, though songs like "NYC," "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down," "The New," and "Leif Erikson" capture the band's softer, more reflective side. I haven't been able to see Interpol live yet, but they're definitely a bucket list band. They are still making good music to this day, and while 2004's Antics was a nice contribution to their overall canon, they could never seem to outdo 2002's Turn On the Bright Lights.
15. Parachutes - Coldplay (2000) In early 2000, me and a friend of mine drove the North Charleston streets at night, listening to Parachutes and Cold's sophomore album, 13 Ways To Bleed On Stage. The fact that we were listening to Cold, and Coldplay, was purely coincidental, all cheekiness aside. Anyway, the release of the album coincided with my first real taste of heartbreak, so when I listened to the songs, I felt that famous INFP Chris Martin had my back. Coldplay is another bucket list show for me to see. The band has a boatload of standout tracks, but it was Parachutes that really stood out for me.
Track one, "Don't Panic," was my friend's favorite, while mine was "Yellow," the song that compelled me to buy the album. "Shiver" is Chris Martin's actual homage to Jeff Buckley's "Grace," a drum-heavy, upbeat take on longsuffering love. Coldplay changed their sound a bit over the years with their progression as a band, but Parachutes is the best look at them in the raw, only acoustic and electric guitars, piano, bass, and drums featured on the album. "Spies," "Sparks," "Trouble," and "We Never Change" are perfect examples of this, and "Yellow" is innocently poetic in its all or nothing approach to romance.
14.Hold On Love - Azure Ray (2003) For most of this album, Azure Ray, consisting of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, sound a lot like this picture looks - light, serine, and wistful. Though most listeners might consider Azure Ray girly, I maintain that there's no such thing, that good music is good music, and that well-composed songs are indeed well-composed songs. I don't remember which one it was that made me pick this album up, though I'm sure glad I did.
The two singles from the album don't really give the best representation of the dynamic duo, though other listeners, may feel differently. The album opens with decent tracks "Devil's Feet" and "New Resolution," but in song three, "We Are Mice," we're introduced to colder reassurances with subtle signs of melody lurking in the choruses and breakdown. The girls roll out acoustic and electric guitars, piano, and minimal keys through the record. Tracks like "Look To Me" and "Nothing Like a Song," are upbeat and jangly, tracks like "Across the Ocean" and "Sea of Doubts" are more reflective, and tracks like "The Drinks We Drank Last Night," "These White Lights Will Bend To Make Blue," and "Hold On Love" are sweet and innocently romantic.
13. You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene (2003) I was first introduced to Broken Social Scene on the soundtracks of Wicker Park and Half Nelson with the songs "Lover's Spit" and "Stars and Sons." My wife recommended the full length album, and once I accepted the offering, I latched on for dear life. There are so many great songs on this record, one flowing straight into the next. It's one of those start it up and let it play albums, the many members of the band contributing their own snippets into the 13 tracks.
The record's four instrumentals, "Capture the Flag," "Pacific Theme," "Late Night Bedroom Rock For Missionaries," and "Shampoo Suicide," are spread out nice and even, each conveying a different mood and arrangement. "KC Accidental" features minimal vocals but a fast pace and loudly amplified drums, "Stars and Sons" features a unique guitar riff and a boatload of feedback, "Almost Crimes" is both fast-paced and melodic with a his and her matching vocal contest, and "Looks Just Like the Sun" sounds like sitting on the peer at the end of the day with an acoustic and a cold beverage. "Lover's Spit" is slow and sad and magnificent, it's lyrics confusing but its guitar licks resounding.
12.Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons (2009) I'd never heard anything quite like Mumford & Sons when this album dropped. I heard "Little Lion Man" on a California radio station and absolutely loved it. When I got back home, I downloaded a few more tracks from the record, but even that wasn't enough. I went out and brought the CD and blared it day and night like it was going out of style. Sigh No More defined my four years at the University of Wyoming, so it was only fitting that I see them there live just before moving again.
The rustic appeal of the Americana band from England unleashed all its endearing charms upon my first listen. I was hardly able to get through the first track, "Sigh No More," without putting the song repeat over and over again. The banjo-laden melodies continue on "The Cave," "Winter Winds," and "Roll Away Your Stone," every one of them optimistic enough for a head-nodding good time. "White Blank Page" slows things down a bit, "I Gave You All" is a bitter ballad of sour love, and "Awake My Soul" sounds like an Irish wake. This record is excellent, every song palatable, and it makes for a glorious debut for the four-man troupe.
11. The Angel Pool - The Autumns (1997)
The Autumns were an ultra indie dreampop band from LA. I would have never heard them, or even heard of them, if not for a couple of friends. They opened my world to the dreampop sub-genre, and after listening to Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, I understood where The Autumns had gotten their sound. The band was mostly the work of singer/guitarist Matthew Kelly, with a revolving door of band members over the passing years. The Autumns first brought their dreamy sounds to the forefront on 1996's Suicide At Strell Park EP, following the effort up shortly after with The Angel Pool, the band's debut LP. It stuck to the same formula that made the EP so great.
"The Garden Ends" was really the first Autumns song I'd heard, but it wasn't until I heard "Pale Trembles a Gale" from the EP, and LP standout "Eskimo Swin" that I truly became a fan. "Embracing Winter" is a slow, pretty number that explodes into the something ethereal and immaculate by the end of the song. The next two tracks, "Sunblush" and "Juniper Hill," are really more in the vein of The Cure, both more upbeat tracks to balance out the slow, soft, melancholy ones. The Autumns borrowed a lot of its mood rock from The Cure, and from the Cocteau Twins, both of which can be heard in the band's sound. The band released three more LPs after this one, though none could match the nine-song triumph of The Angel Pool.
10.Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence - Glassjaw (2000) Buried away on a record label with Korn, Coal Chamber, and Static-X, there was Glassjaw, a far cry from the nu metal acts they were being associated with. They had more in common with bands like My Chemical Romance, The Used, Blood Brothers, and Finch, whose punky, screamo styles had frequented the growing genre. I first saw Glassjaw on tour with Deftones before anyone in SC really knew who they were, though the subtle melodies and frequent screams were really the only two things the two bands had in common.
Glassjaw's debut came to me at the right time, or the wrong time, of my life. I was heartbroken, so Daryl Palumbo's heartbroken lyrics helped me sort through what I was feeling, and made me feel not so alone. With the soaring singing voice of Jeff Buckley and the searing screams of a feral cat, Palumbo carved himself out as a front man to remember, his lyrics tender but brutal, metaphorical but blatantly in your face. I don't know if would call the band screamo, as I feel they never fit the floppy-haired type-casting of the emo boys. Glassjaw did feature their melodies and their heartfelt lyrics and their raw emotion, elements that have scarcely been replicated, especially on a debut album.
9. Around the Fur - Deftones (1997) You won't find Around the Fur on a lot of all-time best Deftones album lists, though I don't mind playing the role of the outlier. Around the Fur is themed masterpiece, a perfect blend of heavy and melodic that gave birth to the permanent sound that the band came to adopt. While their 1995 debut Adrenaline was a sick, searing fever dream, Around the Fur showed much more versatility from the band, more of what I found on "Fist," the final, lyrically minimal track from their first album. Singer/screamer Chino Moreno has gone on-record saying that Around the Fur is his personal favorite Deftones album.
"My Own Summer (Shove It)" creeps along the fret board with an intricate riff before building to a heavy chorus, sounding more like something from the first album, but composed better, with a better recording. "Lhabia," "Dai the Flu" and "MX" share some of the same unconventionally heavy DNA, while "Around the Fur," "Rickets," "Lotion," and "Headup" are driving, pulse-pounding killers. Chino's high-pitched scream sounds like an angry, feral cat, especially on the breakdown of "Be Quite and Drive." After Adrenaline, Deftones were cast into the same nu metal boat as Korn and Limp Bizkit, but with Around the Fur, their take on the darker side of glamour and fashion, the band explored further aspects of their sound, coming up with something completely original.
8.Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1993) Back in the day, before there was the indie rock classification, there was the "alternative" music one. Alternative to what exactly, I'm not sure. Regardless, Smashing Pumpkins were at the helm of that movement, and were the first alternative band I fell head over heels for. When I first became interested in the band, I borrowed their b-sides record Pisces Iscariot from my cousin. I then saw the videos for "Today" and "Rocket" from Siamese Dream on MTV, and the rest is history.
Siamese Dream was the Pumpkins' last true alternative rock album. They shared similarities with contemporaries Hum and Self, who were actually more like borrowers of the sound than contemporaries. Maybe that's why the Pumpkins took at heavy left turn with 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Anyway, I digress. "Cherub Rock," a Siamese Dream fan favorite, was one of the Pumpkins more rock-heavy tracks, along with "Quiet" and "Geek U.S.A." Highlights like "Today," "Hummer," and "Rocket" were feel-good favorites, while "Disarm," "Soma," "Mayonaise," and "Spaceboy" showed the more pensive, melancholy side to singer/songwriter/guitarist Billy Corgan. I was so obsessed with this record at one time that I bought the guitar tab book for Siamese Dream so I could learn to play all my favorites.
7. Catch Without Arms - Dredg (2005) Dredg singer Gavin Hayes is nearly the spitting image of legendary Rage Against the Machine rapper, Zach de la Rocha. He also fronts a band who would make an excellent touring partner for Deftones, having found that little-achieved grey area between heavy and melodic. But where Chino Moreno screams, Gavin Hayes belts out operatic notes, no matter how hard the delay and reverb-driven guitar crunches for emphasis. Dredg was a unique band, one I was even able to see live at the Roxy Theatre on the LA Strip, a surprise gift from my wife.
I loved Dredg's debut album, El Cielo, but Catch Without Arms is a near-perfect album. By that, I mean that there's really only one skippable song, the very last on the album, the jangly, soft rock jam "Matroshka." This album is themed as well, focusing on the soul's enlightenment through dabbling in mantras of the Indian religions (Hindu, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism). Barn-burning track "Bug Eyes" explores the depths of reincarnation, "Catch Without Arms" is perfectly-composed with a head-noddable breakdown, and the drum machine heavy "Sang Real" peers into the metaphysical aspects of the soul. This is a truly great album on so many levels.
6.Denali - Denali (2002) Denali was first introduced to me on a mix tape, their debut album recorded for me in entirety. I absorbed the sound, and it reminded me on some songs of a latter day Portishead, especially on the haunting, drum machine-heavy "Relief." I loved the mix so much that I had to go out and buy the CD for myself. I was able to see the band live twice, once in Columbia, and once in Charleston, and was able to approach front woman Maura Davis to tell her how much I absolutely adored the album. I also spoke to guitar man Cam DiNunzio to ask how he pulled off some of the effects in "Relief" and "Where I Landed," though he politely declined to tell me, which was understandable. I started a band called Pollux that was heavily-inspired by Denali, with two of the songs about dreams I'd had about Maura Davis. Yeah, kind of obsessed, I guess.
This album is interesting. "Everybody Knows," "You File," "French Mistake," and "Lose Me" are solid, but the second half of the record blows me away. I still listen to the CD in my car from time to time. "Prozac" is slow and dismal, "Relief" is a lurking beast, "Time Away" is an anthem for disquieted isolation, "Gunner" provides a solid bounce back from the land of despair, "Function" is a sad little piano ballad layered in keyboard white noise, and "Where I Landed" starts small and ends in a crescendo of brilliance. Denali's second album, The Instinct, was decent, but it couldn't touch what they''d found in their stunning debut.
5. Depression Cherry - Beach House (2015) This is an album you can just let play. It's a greatest hits record unto its own, really pushing for a higher spot on this list. Singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally are a duo to be reckoned with, employing a drummer only for tours. The band features several great albums, but this one goes far beyond that superlative and into a realm all its own. Though they released two full length albums in one year, Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, they saved the best tracks for the former. It's an atmospheric delight, dripping in reverb and delay and a hint of lush innocence.
I've seen the band live twice, and both times, they began the set with my personal favorite song, "Levitation." The track makes one wonder about the relationship between Legrand and Scally, or whoever it was that inspired the singer to create something so absolutely gorgeous. Goosebumps. Every single time. "Levitation," "Space Song," and "Beyond Love" definitely share some DNA, and the same can be said for "10:37," "Wildflower," and "Days of Candy" in their heavy Cocteau Twins vibe. Yeah, the songs are more melancholy than brimming with joy, but that's what Beach House brings to the table - a sound they have never really attempted to deviate from.
4.Passage - Exitmusic (2012) This album did, and still does, blow me away every time I listen to it. Exitmusic is the slightly younger sister of Beach House, both underground Titans in the genre of slow, moody dreampop. Another duo, the band consists of Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church, who had just ended their marriage at the time of the release. The love songs are meaningful and poignant, metaphorical glimpses into the romance that made up the sound of Exitmusic. Like Beach House, ambiance, reverb, and delay ruled the day for this little-known gem.
The record starts with "Passage," a haunting, highly-emotive effort in which Palladino howls and moans her way through the track. "The Night" is downtrodden and optimistic in one, with lines like "My aim is slightly high in the silent night," after a sorrowful sway of "If the stars can align all of man with night sky, then why can't my heart mend the break?" The same sort of swarthy, swirling layers of infinite sadness persist into "Storms," "Stars," "The Wanting," and "The Cold." Better times for the couple turned into a blitzkrieg of loneliness and sorrow throughout the album, which hardly leaves one a second to catch their breath. Brooding anthems like "The City" and "The Modern Age" separate the throes of complete desolation, but its the sort that somehow manages to find the beauty in sadness.
3. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros (1999) The same person who introduced me to Xiu Xiu and Denali introduced me to Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun. When I wore out the tape, I bought the CD, as there's nothing quite like listening to and digesting this album on a cold, grey day. The Icelandic foursome really brings the arctic with them one their musical outpourings, achieving as much through stringed arrangements, keyboards, sonar beeps, pianos drenched in reverb, and violin strings dragged across the delay-heavy fret board of an electric guitar. When I took Music Appreciation in college, I had to research music from another country, and I chose Iceland, highlighting the foggy, tundra-laden mood of Sigur Ros (pronounced Sigger-Rose).
"Svefn-g-englar" is first full track on the album, as Agaetis Byrjun (A Good Beginning) opens with a short, time-lapsing choir boy-like intro. "Svefn-g-englar" clocks in at about ten minutes, but it's magnificently elegant. It's a little repetitive, but the sound is so slow and melodic and meaningful that it doesn't feel as long as it is. "Staralfur" is next, more stern in the verses, though highly optimistic in the chorus. "Flugufrelserinn" is almost happy, while "Ny Batteri" is a reflective stare from a ice-caked window. On "Olsen Olsen," the band takes us on a ride through the clouds, and on "Agaetis Byrjun," the band turns to a cleaner, more acoustic sound. Sigur Ros reaches the peaks and valleys of their high and lows, their sadness and glee, on their memorable debut.
2. Grace - Jeff Buckley (1994) Where to even begin with this one. Jeff Buckley was a hopeful wanderer, a jaded bohemian who was part John Keats and part Tyler Durden. Grace was his baby, a defining moment in the life of a great, tragic artist. Having heard "Last Goodbye" on the radio, it had become my favorite song of all-time, but it wasn't until Jeff's death that I bought the full album. It was the first CD I ever owned, but I didn't even own a CD player. I was basically left to the mercy of my younger sister until I soon came across one myself. Just recently, having given away my copy of Grace as a gesture, I bought it again, a priceless album for the cost of four measly dollars.
Jeff paints pictures with his masterful lyrics and his carefully-crafted soundscapes, especially on his song about a dream, "Mojo Pin," his eerie death premonition "Grace," the optimistically forlorn "Last Goodbye," the Led Zeppelin-like "So Real," and the epic ballad about the one who got away, "Lover, You Should Have Come Over." Jeff even breathes new life into the old, Middle Ages hymn "Corpus Christi Carol," and waxes gypsy on the last song, "Dream Brother," a tongue-in-cheek diss track about his absentee father, Tim Buckley. Jeff had such vocal range, such songwriting talent, and such beautifully-scripted lyrics that it makes Grace one for the history books.
1. Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo (1998) My local rock station back in Charleston used to play a random album in its entirety on Tuesday nights at midnight. I always had a cassette tape handy, hitting play and record to take a chance on some new snippet of music. This particular night, I snagged a few of Placebo's songs from Without You I'm Nothing. On the way to work the next day, and on the way home, I jammed to the tracks, having heard nothing like it before. Androgynous singer/guitarist Brian Molko had a unique voice, the upbeat songs were almost post-punk, and the slower ones were dreamy and either extremely melancholy, or extremely reflective on a life spent as a no good libertine.
Every song on this album is excellent. Even track one, "Pure Morning," grew on me over time, a feel-good track with not too many other feel-good tracks to speak of. Song two, "Brickhouse Shithouse," is a sort of play on a love triangle, "You Don't Care About Us" channels The Cure, "Ask For Answers" is one of my all-time favorite songs, and "Without You I'm Nothing" is an ultra-poetic lament about two lovers from very different worlds. Molko was far more poignant and poetic with the album's lyrics than he ever has been on any others - an aspect that makes this one really stand out. He was clearly inspired by something at the time. The lyrics are perfect, as is the music, which makes for a perfect storm, and unlikely number one pick of all-time.
Every once and awhile, a hardcore/metal band comes along to sweep me off my feet with a new, blistering, well-crafted album. It happened in 2003 with Every Time I Die's Hot Damn! It happened again in 2006 when Spitfire reunited for Self-Help. Then it happened again in 2016 with Frontierer's Orange Mathematics. I thought I had heard every trick in the book, enough to know that the genre bases had been well-covered, having heard every chugga chugga, harmonic squeal, and double-bass breakdown imaginable. Enter The Callous Daoboys.
The sounds of Frontierer and genre contemporaries The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza inspired me to compose a playlist. Included on the list was The Callous Daoboys and their most popular track, "Fake Dinosaur Bones." I thought the screamer/singer had a cool style, but they were lost in the shuffle, just another new metal/mathcore band serving my own means to an end. Then, I delved more into the album from which the track came - 2019's Die on Mars. The pictures featured two females to go with four males, something I didn't expect at all. Bands that sound the way the Daoboys do don't usually frequent two X chromosomes, and what the ladies bring to the band is an electric violin and a heavy, second axe. I then hit play on the irreverently humorous "Flip-Flops at a Funeral." After watching the irreverently humorous video for "Fake Dinosaur Bones," the band, especially frontman Carson Pace, seemed to encompass a sort of flip-flops at a funeral persona.
The track starts heavy and frantic, followed by discordant guitar licks and off-timed stops, asylum-like wails and a melodic, emo-ey, elevator music-like interlude in which Carson Pace channels his best Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. He ends the track with a mischievous giggle, sounding like a cynical teenager on senior skip day. Pace has a lot of fun with his vocal stylings, which is refreshing. He isn't afraid to take chances, and its apparent that he doesn't take himself too seriously, like so many others do in the genre. The band is young, but their sound is well-orchestrated and unforgiving, adventurous and undeterred by the giants they might share the stage with on any given night.
Track two, "Dogfight over the Trenches," begins with a low-tuned acoustic guitar riff, one that soon bleeds into a full band meltdown. Heavy drum wallops, searing guitar feedback, and vocal cord-stressing howls define the second act of the song. After a riveting third, we're treated to a fundamentalist rant about the coming of the Antichrist. The Daoboys parody this, and the warning leads itself into the third track, "Fake Dinosaur Bones." At the 56-second mark, we're treated to a re-imagining of old Dillinger Escape Plan, fast and heavy pulse-pounding metal in which Pace tells us that we "won't make it," but we better "fake it now." The video is posted above, and it's refreshingly funny, which likely means that the band has as much fun behind the scenes as they do on stage.
They clearly don't take themselves too seriously, and Carson Pace voices as much in "Contrail Crucifix." His self-deprecating sentiments are aired in a quiet, poorly-rhymed interlude before the band breaks into one of the sickest riffs on the record and Pace trails off into a punishing, Greg Puciato (Dillinger) dirge of sinister screams. The band fades in and out of funny and ferocious, playful and punishing. This track gives the listener a little of everything, covering the Daoboys wide bag of tricks.
"The Absolute Barnstormer" sounds like the throes of an insane asylum until it breaks into equally insane restaurant skit, brought by a jazzy rhythm carried by a snazzy saxophone. It seems to be Pace's rant on socialite behavior, showing that he has a lot to say behind his madman microphone style. "Blackberry Delorean" is one of the better tracks on the album, with Carson Pace opening with indie-boy croons, only to be followed by his signature screams and a sick guitar riff. By the end of the song, we're being reminded to "stay out of Georgia!," and the video is a lot of fun too, adding another feather to the cap of the band's slapstick humor.
"Faraday Cage" breaks into a nasty, sludgy, old school metal riff, then eeks into a quirky radio DJ interlude, reminscent of "The Cavalcade of Gillete Sports" from Glassjaw's 2001 sophomore effort, Worship and Tribute. "Pure Schlock" features southern metal riffs under some pretty southern metal singing, which only leads into a slew of nonsensical, muttering screams, ala Glassjaw's "Siberian Kiss." "Die on Mars (Sun Spot)" ushers in the first sense of meaningful melody since the opening track, and final track, "Die on Mars (Addendum)" takes us out with a fuzzy piano ballad, which sounds like a drunken piano man from the Old West banging out the sorrows of yesteryear. The tracks fades out with a pre-recorded evangelist woman praying with a would-be caller on a lonely voicemail recording. The album features of slew of references to the hypocrisy found within organized religion, from Carson Pace's nihilistic growls to the carefully-placed sound clips found in "Dogfight Over the Trenches," "Fake Dinosaur Bones," and "Die on Mars (Addendum)."
The band claims the playful, cynical lyrics of Every Time I Die, the stunted, lingering feedback of the Chariot's live studio album, and the frenzied, mathrock sensibilities of Dillinger Escape Plan. They also bring something completely new with the sounds of an electric violin, odd little skits about restaurant waiters and disc jockies, and a fearlessly feral vocal style that channels both old school Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die) and Josh Scogin (Norma Jean, The Chariot, '68). All in all, Carson Pace is one of the most entertaining metalcore vocalists I've heard in a long, long time.
Another reviewer spotted the irreverence before I did, and claimed that two of the band's favorite albums were Hot Damn! (Every Time I Die) and Calculating Infinity (Dillinger Escape Plan). The Callous Daoboys, in itself some tongue-in-cheek wordplay for the Dallas Cowboys, wear their influences on the sleeve, while managing to bring something completely new to the genre.
I grew up idolizing superheroes. Spider-Man was my first, as I watched the old television show version climb up buildings and shoot rope webs from the contraptions on his hands. I had Marvel action figures, DC action figures. I had comic books. I had underoos. I'm a nostalgic sort of person, which is why I really wish I could get more into the MCU and DCU movies. They're a bit too blockbustery for me, as I prefer the darker and grittier Netflix versions of Daredevil and The Punisher. By any account, I see heroes everywhere I turn in movies, more specifically in the more unconventional types of heroes. Some may not recognize them the same as I do, but I thought I would highlight a few of my favorites.
10. Leo (Mute) After his girlfriend and the love of his life, Naadirah, goes missing, Leo (Alexander Skarsgard) embarks on a mission of silent justice to get her back. After a childhood accident leaves him unable to speak, Leo coasts his way through a futuristic Berlin cityscape with Naadirah at his side. She's chosen a difficult living for herself, but Leo doesn't care, totally and completely loyal to her foreign charms.
Costume: Traditional Amish dress Weapon: Bed post he carved for Naadirah Cause: To Find Naadirah at any cost Weakness: Inability to speak Sidekick: None Arch Nemesis: Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd)
9. Zorro (The Mask of Zorro) Zorro has been around for a long, long time, and here, we see the retired one, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins), pass the torch to career criminal Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) to stand against a Spanish tyrant. Zorro takes on the colonial powers that be, a Robin Hood of sorts to the people in Old California. De la Vega trains his new pupil well, and they fight back to back as they try to win the affections of Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Costume: Black outfit and hat Weapon: Spanish rapier Cause: The fight against tyranny and to avenge his brother Weakness: Anger over the loss of his brother Sidekick: Don Diego de la Vega Arch Nemesis: Don Rafael Montero and Captain Harrison Love
8. Sadie (A Vigilante) If Sadie (Olivia Wilde) isn't a superhero for the modern age, I don't know who is. As a life's mission, she helps battered women escape the clutches of their abusive husbands by training as a boxer and beating the snot out of the callous men. She then gives the women everything they need to start a new life for themselves whilst disappearing into a cloud of car exhaust. A Vigilante is an intense movie, but it comes full circle for Sadie, showing us just why she feels compelled to do the work she does.
Costume: A plethora of disguises Weapon: Boxing skills, handgun Cause: Emancipating victims of domestic abuse Weakness: Grief over the death of her young son Sidekick: None Arch Nemesis: Her survivalist ex-husband
7. Liu Siu-Jian (Kiss of the Dragon) In Kiss of the Dragon, Jet Li plays a Chinese intelligence specialist on assignment in Paris. He's cooperating with French intelligence to bring down, and to bring home, a Chinese criminal passing through The City of Love. When they double-cross him, kill his mark, and then try to kill him, he crosses paths with Jessica Kamen (Bridget Fonda), an indentured servant to intelligence office Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard (Tcheky Karyo), the same one trying to kill Jian. Jian is a hero because it eventually becomes less about him and more about reuniting the battered Jessica with her daughter, the one being held captive by Richard.
Costume: All black outfit Weapon: Kung-Fu, acupuncture needles Cause: Clear his name, help reunite Jessica with her daughter Weakness: Limited resources Sidekick: Jessica Kamen Arch Nemesis: Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard
6. Sean Donovan (Boy Wonder) Sean Donovan is a regular, reserved teenager bent on avenging the car-jacking death of his mother. He starts small, fighting every day crime in his city, but it will all lead him back to his ultimate quest. He's not a seasoned vet by any means, which is why he leaves a few clues behind, setting him into the cross hairs of newly-anointed detective, Teresa Ames. What's a good hero story without the constant threat of being caught?
Costume: Black jacket, hood, face paint Weapon: Handgun Cause: Avenging his mother's murder Weakness: Inexperience Sidekick: Detective Teresa Ames Arch Nemesis: Larry Childs
5. Leon Montana (The Professional) The Professional is a dark, gritty movie with a tenderhearted relationship at its core. Leon is a Italian assassin living in Little Italy who's very particular about his plants. Matilda (Natalie Portman) bears witness to the murders of her family at the hands of crooked DEA agents, led by the drug-infused, highly unpredictable Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). After they strike up an unlikely connection, Leon and Matilda are soon hunted by Stansfield and his goon squad, which kicks the finale into overdrive.
Costume: Trench coat, hat, sunglasses Weapon: Silenced handguns, high-powered rifle Cause: Protecting Matilda Weakness: Love for Matilda Sidekick: Matilda Arch Nemesis: Norman Stansfield
4. Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China) Along with Indiana Jones and John Rambo, Jack Burton tops the list as far as '80s action heroes go. He's what you get when you mix John Wayne with a hyper-reactive teenage girl, tough, sure, but often can't seem to get out of his own way. He makes his buddy Wang's problems his own, following the Chinese-American into the bowels of a Chinatown hell. He faces weather-inducing baddies, Kung-Fu minions, an age-old sorcerer, and Little China street gangs to get his truck back, and to rescue Miao Yin from David Lo Pan.
Costume: Chinese-themed sleeveless shirt, jeans, knee-high boots Weapon: Sub-machine gun, boot knife Cause: Rescue best friend's girlfriend Weakness: Himself Sidekick: Wang Chi Arch Nemesis: David Lo Pan
3. Max Rockatansky (Mad Max: Fury Road) Successor to the character Mel Gibson made famous in the '80s, Tom Hardy takes over the mantle of Mad Max in Fury Road, where the crazed, Valhalla-obsessed sons of Immortan Joe rule the desert wasteland of dystopian Australia. Max Rockatansky gets in the way and is used as an unorthodox hood ornament. That is, until he crosses paths with Imperator Furiosa and the innocent, freedom-craving young brides of Immortan Joe.
Costume: Dusty leather jacket and pants, boots Weapon: Double-barrel sawed-off shotgun Cause: Freeing the brides of Immortan Joe on Fury Road Weakness: Haunted by his past Sidekick: Imperator Furiosa Arch Nemesis: Immortan Joe
2. Eric Draven (The Crow) Eric is the only member of the undead to the make the list, but that doesn't stop him from being an unconventional hero. A year following the unrightful deaths of he and his fiancee, Shelly, Eric is resurrected by a crow to wreak vengeance on the killers, and the guy who calls all the shots at the top. He has a lot of pieces to connect before he can get there, but the crow is his guide, giving him the supernatural powers he needs to rights all the wrongs done to him.
Costume: Black outfit, leather jacket, face paint Weapon: Invincibility Cause: Avenging the death of Shelly Weakness: Vulnerability of the crow Sidekick: Detective Albrecht Arch Nemesis: Top Dollar
1. Driver (Drive) As soon I saw Drive, I immediately thought of Driver as a hero. The notion comes not only from the soundtrack song, "A Real Hero" by College, but by the scorpion insignia on the back of his jacket, and by his actions. He's not trained in the arts of heroship, but Driver will stop at nothing to protect the young woman he's fallen in love with.
Costume: Jeans, boots, scorpion jacket, leather driving gloves Weapon: Hammer, car Cause: Protecting Irene and Benicio from harm Weakness: Trust Sidekick: Shannon (Bryan Cranston) Arch Nemesis: Bernie Rose
I have long associated Regency poet John Keats, indie rock star Jeff Buckley, and Aussie acting talent Heath Ledger with one another. All three died young, creating their best works before succumbing to the tragedies that took them away from us forever. Another aspect that binds them is that they were all three INFPs, the personality type associated with only about 4 percent of the population. I am also an INFP, which is likely why I feel such an affinity with Keats, Jeff, and Heath. All three possessed a certain quiet, awkward calm that could erupt into moments of sheer brilliance.
John Keats was born in 1795 and died in the year 1821. Though this is a twenty-six year time gap, he died at the age of 25 of tuberculosis in a room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome. He had earlier trained to be a surgeon, but found the work not for him, preferring to pursue his dream of being a poet - a profession which kept him from the love of his life, Fanny Brawne. Though they were neighbors for a time and spent many of their waking hours together, a fact chronicled in the movie Bright Star, they could not be married. In order for Keats to marry Fanny, he would have to support her and provide for her with a "real job." Fanny had secretly been a fan of Keats' work, even though his first collection of poems was shunned by critics. It wasn't until after his death that people began to recognize the brilliance behind his Romantic poetry, and now he is considered one of the greatest English poets to ever live. He's also one of the most tragic, next to Percy Shelley.
Keats was of short stature and bright-eyed with a strong nose and a soft voice, though he claimed a strong since of principle and justice, the first to speak up for the least of these. He found beauty in all things that most took for granted, especially his Bright Star herself, Fanny Brawne. These are all character traits of an INFP, non-confrontational except when encroaching on integrity and brimming with a colorful inner-world that likely kept him alive for as long as it did. Consumption was a familial disease that took away his mother and his older brother, Thomas. I own an old copy of his poems, published in the year 1921, one hundred years following his death. I've stepped foot into the room where he passed, saw the bed he died in, stared face to face with his death mask at the Keats-Shelley Museum in Rome. I own one of his many biographies, Posthumous Keats, and all of the above things connect me to a man I revere but will never meet.
I first came across the creative wiles of Jeff Buckley in 1995, a year following the release of his one and only completed album, Grace. I first heard "Last Goodbye" from the album, a pensive but optimistic track that has long been my favorite song of all-time. Jeff Buckley, born Scott Moorhead, is the son of legendary singer/songwriter Tim Buckley, who had been an absentee father to his son. Even though Jeff eventually took the surname, he shunned early advances from producers and record labels who wanted to cash in on his connection to Tim. Jeff was determined to make it on his own, and subsequently did, playing shows around the coffee house scene of Manhattan as a solo act. After achieving commercial success with the release of Grace, Jeff returned to the studio in Memphis, TN, to record his follow-up album, My Sweetheart, the Drunk. On a whimsical night out with friends and band members, no drugs or alcohol anywhere in sight, Jeff was caught in the undertow of a tugboat while swimming in Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi, where he tragically drown. Fans were devastated. I was in a record shop when I heard the news, and I promptly returned to a record shop when Sketches For My Sweetheart, the Drunk, the unfinished "sketch" of songs Jeff was planning to release, dropped on the public. At the end of 2019, In His Own Words, a chronicle of Jeff's diaries and doodles was released, which was I was gifted with for Christmas. It's sad to read, knowing he's no longer with us, but the book, and his albums, whether finished or not, are things I will always treasure as a die-hard fan.
As an INFP, Jeff gave us a fleeting view of his inner world through his highly-descriptive, imagery-riddled songs. While he was an introvert, he was often goofy and completely in his comfort zone when performing in his element, much like I was when I dabbled in music for many years. Jeff embodied the feeling portion of an INFP, as did Keats, and I often refer to Jeff as a modern Romantic poet for the ages. Jeff was kooky and kind, soft-spoken but sure of himself in his abilities without being brash or boastful. He didn't just sing. He soulfully crooned, and he simply felt, transmitting his inner world to us so we could catch of glimpse of the highly unique person that he was. And strangely enough, Jeff resembled Keats, not only in soul, but in outward appearance as well.
I first saw Heath Ledger in the 1999 romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. He was tall and gangling, handsome and very Aussie, transferring into school as the new bad boy. I then saw him The Patriot, at which point I officially became a fan. Heath had a great look. He was highly awkward in interviews and was generally kind to everyone around him. I found myself drawn to his work, and so I followed his career right up until his tragic death, seeing him traverse the world for his friends in The Four Feathers, seeing him play an Aussie Robin Hood in Ned Kelly, and watching him go from priest to sin eater in The Order. His best role, and breakout role, was his next to last. He breathed new life into Gotham City's Crown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight, giving us a certain Joker character we'd never seen before.
Heath died soon after, some say as a direct result of his role as the Joker. In preparation for the role, he locked himself away in the dark and really tried to fit inside the head space of the mentally decrepit character, even going so far as to keep a Joker journal. He was having trouble sleeping and found himself riddled with anxiety, so he crossed medications for both and died of an accidental overdose. Both The Dark Knight and his final movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, were released posthumously, with fans and critics alike lauding Heath for his remarkable performances. Heath was an up-and-coming actor, one of my favorites for the roles he chose, for his performances, and for his dedication to being who he was in a profession that often morphs people into something else entirely. Heath is the third point in my triumvirate of INFP champions, and I will always watch his movies fondly, especially The Dark Knight, and Doctor Parnassus, in which Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, and Jude Law resumed the character he was playing when he died, and subsequently donated their paychecks to Heath's infant daughter, Matilda.
Best Songs: "Iron Mic," "Mean Machine," "10 Seconds Down"
Best Songs: "Jump Around," "Top O' the Morning To Ya," "Shamrocks and Shenanigans"
Best Songs: "To Bring You My Love," "Long Snake Moan," "Down By the Water"
Best Songs: "Violet," "Miss World," "Doll Parts"
Best Songs: "Sour Times," "It's a Fire," "Biscuit," "Glory Box"
Best Songs: "My Own Summer (Shove It)," "Mascara," "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)," "MX"
Best Songs: "Rocket," "Soma," "Mayonaise," "Spaceboy"
Best Songs: "Grace," "Last Goodbye," "So Real," "Lover, You Should've Come Over"
Best Songs: "You Don't Care About Us," "Ask For Answers," "Without You I'm Nothing," "My Sweet Prince"
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