Here are some albums that I've been listening to a lot recently and have been really inspiring me musically.
Blueprints for the Blackmarket - Anberlin
I really like these guys and I had heard all their stuff except for this. Then my mate got this album and told me I should listen to it cos it was actually better than all their other albums. I didn't believe him but I borrowed it off him to have a listen to so I could decide for myself. I still haven't got around to giving it back yet.
It's an amazing album. Seriously, if you like Anberlin and haven't heard this you NEED to. It's not going to blow you away immediately with how good it is but the more you listen to it the better it gets. It pretty much sums up the rest of their music - there are the pop-rock radio singles like Autobahn and Naive Orleans, which go with later releases like Stationary Stationery and A Day Late, as well as the amazingly epic songs like Readyfuels, Glass To The Arson, and Cadence which foreshadow the likes of Paperthin Hymn, Godspeed, and Hello Alone. They've changed a lot since then but in many ways they are still the same.
Tales From New York - Simon & Garfunkle
I'm not sure exactly when or why I started liking Simon & Garfunkle. I'd heard a lot of their music but I didn't know who they were but not long after I'd discovered them for myself I found this 2CD greatest hits collection at a second hand book sale of all places. Since it was only $2 I bought it and since then it has become one of my favourite albums.
I don't generally like compilations, they miss out too many tracks I love, but since you hardly hear S&G any more, except maybe for Mrs. Robinson or Bridge Over Troubled Water, it's actually quite good. It has all their major hits from The Sound Of Silence to My Little Town as well as some lesser known tracks and live recordings of Bye Bye Love and Song For The Asking. They are a stunning duo and have had amazing solo careers as well. I could go on all day about each individual song and how brilliant it is or how The Boxer is by far their greatest song or ... but there's no point. Just listen to this album and hear for yourself.
The Bends - Radiohead
As I mentioned in the last post I've started liking Radiohead a lot recently. The main reason for that is this album. Having been told how awesome Radiohead were by a friend (named in the aforementioned post) I decided to listen to them, again grooveshark.com ftw, but due to their now voluminous back catalogue I was unsure where to start so I began with OK Computer, moved to Kid A, and then Pablo Honey. There were some really good songs, eg Creep and Paranoid Android, but nothing about their music really stood out to me.
Then I listened to The Bends and I'm not sure why but I loved it. I don't know what else to say except that this album is amazing. SERIOUSLY amazing. Don't ask me why cos I don't know. I need to listen to it a whole lot more to really get it but it is awesome.
Inception OST - Hans Zimmer
From the moment I saw the trailer for this film I knew the soundtrack would be amazing. Then I saw the film and I knew it was amazing. And then I heard the album. And it blew my mind.
Honestly, if you thought the movie was mind-bending that's nothing compared to the music. Hans Zimmer, who I consider to be the greatest film composer around at the moment and possibly ever, has outdone himself here. I loved the Prince Of Egypt, The Last Samurai, and Pirates Of The Caribbean scores and was wowed by the Sherlock Holmes and The Dark Knight scores but absolutly nothing prepared me for this.
There's nothing complex about this. Half Remembered Dream is built around 2 brilliant bass notes, Johnny Marr's guitar plays 2 chords in Dream is Collapsing which give an amazing ambience, and Mombasa is almost entirely African drums and a synth bass playing one note at 3 different octaves. As with Simon & Garfunkle I could go on and on about this. It is simply stunning and will go down as one of the greatest film standards of all time.
Viva La Vida (Prospekt's March Edition) - Coldplay
This album is probably one of the greatest musical collaborations of all time. I had been hoping for ages that Brian Eno would finally produce a Coldplay album. Musically he is so similar to Chris Martin that the two of them together would create something stunning. And they have.
I'm not going to rave on for ages about this album since when it came out 2 years ago you couldn't find a single music critic who wasn't impressed. The worst comment I heard about it was that their songs were making less and less sense but that's hardly new. The only thing I will say is that you have to get the Prospekt's March edition. Besides the fact that it eliminates the rather inappropriate album art on the original edition you also get another 6 original songs (and 2 new mixes) on the included Prospekt's March EP. They're leftover recordings from the sessions with Eno and they are well worth having.
