Albums I Could Not Live Without (Part 3) - Roadtrip Edition!
Well, for the first music piece of 2024, I thought I’d return to a regular/ish segment: Albums I Could Not Live Without. It’s an occasional and ongoing list. It’s not about ranking the very best albums, just from time to time I’ll share a set of favourites. And I seem to be finding a few themes - though the first time I did this it was very much a case of the first ten albums I thought about. See below for a refresher, or if you missed it the first time.
Albums I Could Not Live Without (Part 1)
Then, on a recent full-time obsession with Everything Beatles I decided to do my ten essential solo works by the Fab Four. See:
Albums I Could Not Live Without (Part 2) - The Beatles Together and Solo
Anyway, here’s the spiel for this series - updated slightly:
I used to love blogging Top 10 lists. The great fun (and frustration) of a Top 10 list is that it’s always as much about what you leave out as what you include. So here’s my third attempt in a potential ongoing series. From time to time I’m just going to jot down some of the albums I feel I could not live without. The ones that just absolutely wreck you; the records you want to both tell everyone about and keep entirely for yourself. The ones where you feel you’re being let in on a secret. The records of your lifetime.
But this one comes about because all week I’ve been thinking about an Instagram meme:
As soon as I saw this pic - someone sent it to me, I shared it, that tends to be the way my Instagram works - I was taken back to when a Paul Simon tape got stuck in my car’s stereo. For some that might seem a nightmare. But I was pretty into it. It was a compilation, which helps. And it lived in my car for about three months. Born At The Right Time - The Best of Paul Simon is the sort of thing you might find in a second hand store on CD, but it’s been replaced by other compilations now. So I made a playlist to show you what was on it because it is everything you need in one handy place from his solo career:
Anyway, I did a few road trips with that as my only option - but once the tape was out of my car it’s fair to say I never listened to it again.So for this round of 10 Albums I Could Not Live Without, it is best thought of as a set of mythical roadtrips where you are the only person in the car, unless you’re sure your taste translates and speaks for all of your mythical passengers. I know that I’d pack different albums - or scroll to different albums - if I’m driving alone. These days I’d probably have an audiobook or podcast on, or maybe even Concert FM.
It’s also fair to say that some of my all-time favourite roadtrip albums were covered in the first and second versions of this 10 Albums game; so I won’t be doubling up.
Okay, that’s more than enough preamble - here, now are the Ten Albums I Could Not Live Without If Ten Roadtrips Ae Happening Where I’m The Only One In The Car And For Each Drive The “TAPE” Gets Stuck For The Duration. Hopefully that really spells out the hypothetics of the situation.
1. DJ Shadow, Endtroducing… One of my favourite things to do in the car is talk about ‘perfect’ night time driving albums. And this is one. It’s also one I’ve tested, on many occassions. It’s also an album I just generally adore, and have done since I first heard it.
Lenny Kravitz, Are You Gonna Go My Way
This is a very nostalgic Hawke’s Bay album for me - and I’ve just been there recently. So this album was on my mind. Came home, decided to try and make sense of what has become my “Comeback” CD collection and found my (second) CD copy of Lenny’s third album. It’s thirty years old now - and I only ever feel like playing it once a year or so, so a roadtrip would make the most sense; I’d get a big ole whiff of all them old feelings, and places, and people, and at the end of the roadtrip I’d have had enough. Again.Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing
I had some feelings about this album just recently:
Shortly before Christmas I dug out my signed copy of this - yes, yes showing off and rightly so! - and we loved listening to it all over again. Aside from the sound of the guitar solo on Luka there’s little to date this album really. It sounds amazing. And I picked Nine Objects of Desire for my first set of Ten Albums I Can’t Live Without, so I have to have some Vega. She’s a big part of car trips for me. And this album was my introductions.
4. Bach: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor I like the version I’ve linked to, hence, um, linking to it - but I haven’t specified that, as I’m not sure if I’ve also heard other versions, and maybe there’s a more definitive recording. I’m not a classical snob, nor a purist, and I’m really just a recent enthusiast. But I do love this important and well loved work. And I really do love this version. Also Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Zubin Mehta are all names to be aware of - and possibly in awe of - and, ah, The New York Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra? There’s a couple of pretty good bands as well, right? I mostly road trip to Concert FM if I’m going to go down the classical route, but I like the idea of having this album on a loop.
Not much needs to be said about this album. It’s been a part of my life for most of my life. It’s built for the road. In fact, it’s really a set of road-movies reduced down to just the audio. And it’s so often been a vital part of my drive from Hawke’s Bay down to Wellington. Something about it and the way it plays out, it feels like it was part of the soundtrack of the person I became when I first left HB for the capital nearly 30 years ago.
R.E.M., New Adventures in HI-FI
I wrote about this album - and how it was part of a great road-trip, and how it was always a ‘driving’ album for me:So it would be rude not to include it in this list. It’s also another album that has recently joined my “Second CD Collection” as I find and buy back my old memories…
7. Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Such lists are all about nostalgia, and there ain’t no shame in that. And though I’ve already made many great memories to this album, it’s still good to have something more modern in the list. Of course we took our son, Oscar, to the concert:
But he and I have often played this in the car around town. And then, memorably we played it to Katy on a South Island roadie in the buildup to the gig. It was sublime. And now I think about that drive, that scenery, that glorious, almost perfect, sunshine-y day whenever I listen to this album, or anything from it.
Obituary, Slowly We Rot
Okay, I only play metal in the car alone. Well, sometimes I sneak things like G’n’R and Faith No More on - but Gunners is basically “Classic Rock”, AC/DC is just slowed down boogie, and when I did last play FNM’s Angel Dust on a road trip it was only because everyone else was asleep. And then it woke them up. And they complained. BOO!
Anway, I love Obituary. Especially their first three albums. And especially this unreal debut from 1989. Still sounds fresh today. A death metal classic.
9. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral Some days I love this album more than anything but anyone. And imagine my surprise when my darling wife, who had never really listened to NIN but knew about them, decided to not only let me play the album but to enjoy it very much and then start listening to NIN as ‘work music’ over the last few weeks. It’s a very happy house I tell you, and I feel like I have played this a hell of a lot most recently. And I just feel myself almost sinking down into this album when I play it. I just love it. And it’s nice to have someone who I love to love this album with.
Phil Collins, Face Value
I’ve never hidden my love of The Phil. Why would you? And this remains my favourite of his solo albums and the best ‘journey’ within an album, and therefore the best one to journey with.
And, of course there’s our regular playlist. We are at # 150 - which feels like a great number for the first playlist of 2024. Now this version of ‘A Little Something For The Weekend…Sounds Good!’ actually comes, in part at least, from a recent roadtrippin’ playlist I made. I’ve adapted it, shortened it, included a few things that weren’t on that - I’m not saying this is primed for driving, but it’s just a little bit fun that the weekly playlist ties in, ever so slightly, with the main theme. Though only because I’ve told you eh. It wouldn’t be super obvious otherwise. Anyway, happy holidays if you’re still on them - for many it’ll be a case of “I Owe, I Owe, It’s Off To Work I Go” on Monday. Or maybe you’re there already. Wherever you are, thanks for taking a little time to read this and maybe also to listen to anything from below:
Wha-? Where's "The Allmän Brothers Band At Fillmore East"? Where's "Highway 61 Revisited"? Where's "Black And Blue"?
Oh, BOOM!