After completing a Facebook challenge, I share ten music albums I love

Posted on April 29, 2020

Last week a couple of my friends started this thing on Facebook, “Ten Albums I Love” where you post an image of an album each day and share a little bit about why it is something you love. I don’t normally do these sort of “challenges” or whatever you want to call them, but I decided to this time for two reason. One, we’re all still practicing social distancing with more time on our hands, and two is the fact that the art of music being listened to and created as a full album instead of a group of isolated “singles” that online streaming culture promotes is dying. I was excited about the idea of promoting listening to albums as a complete work of art.

Do you know why they’re called “albums”? Back when we could record music and press them into records for people to listen to, we didn’t have the capabilities to record very long amounts of music at a time so in order to release something long like a symphonic piece it had to be broken up over multiple records and those records were released to the public in an album. The name stuck even though recording length increased and most recordings could be contained on one vinyl record.

I always find that interesting but enough of a history lesson. I finished the “challenge” yesterday and thought I’d share my choices here and elaborating a little more. Now, I’m a huge music fan so trying to pick only ten albums is hard and I feel like I’m doing a disservice to some of my favorite musicians who didn’t make it into this list. Some geniuses like Lou Reed, Neil Young, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Ralph Stanley, and many many more don’t appear on this list. I’d probably need a list of about my top 50 albums before I felt like it was a comprehensive list for me.

Day 1: Bob Dylan’s Blood On the Tracks

I started with an obvious one. There's no great backstory to this one, it's just a fantastic album that is full of vivid poetic imagery. "Shelter From the Storm" was my favorite song for a really long time, and getting to hear him perform it at my first Dylan concert in '96 at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, IA was pure ecstacy.

That concert was my turning point in my obsession with Dylan’s music and I’ve gone on to see him over 13 times (honestly I’ve lost count). About half of my top ten could be just Dylan albums, but I'll only have one on this list.

Day 2: Polaris’s Music From The Adventures of Pete and Pete

Nickelodeon in the 90s did some pretty fantastic stuff, and The Adventures of Pete and Pete have always been a favorite of mine and Polaris was formed to specifically make music for the show.

The music and the show really encapsulate how the 90s felt to me. Just the general vibe of it all, not to mention the music is killer. Decades went by and I never saw the show or heard the music, but it was always there stuck in my mind.

I only was able to purchase the album in the last couple years as the band has reformed to do some touring, and my wife and I will get to see them live for a second time (hopefully) this August at Codfish Hollow. This one is still in frequent rotation for me and has led to me devouring the music of Mark Mulcahy and Miracle Legion.

Day 3: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue

One way in which I've seen God acting in my life is when I have no clue how an album came into my possession, but it changes me in profound ways (happened multiple times). I have no clue why I picked up Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" but it opened up my life to a new world of art and music.

Not only is this album one of the greatest, but it opened my musical world up to jazz. A flood of consuming more jazz music followed, as well as taking a college course in the Evolution of Jazz, and ultimately helped us in naming some of my children.

Day 4: Joseph Arthur’s Redemption’s Son

I discovered Joseph Arthur during some late night talk show hosted by Carson Daly where Arthur was the musical guest. When they introduced him to play "Redemption's Son" I mistakenly thought he was going to play a cover of Joe Strummer's "Redemption Song" so I paid closer attention to the TV before just using it as background noise.

It was not the same song, but I was really intrigued by this new artist. "Redemption's Son" is the first album of his I found, and probably my favorite. Arthur is unafraid to bring religious themes into his lyrics, and does so with true poetry while using them to explore everyday life over very catchy rhythms.

Day 5: Roy Orbison’s Mystery Girl

I think I learned about Mystery Girl from my dad. I already loved Roy Orbison, but this album is 100% perfect from beginning to end. I'm sad that it was released posthumously because if this was a hint of what was coming from Roy, the world really missed out.

It always puts me into a good mood whenever I listen to it, and honestly we need a lot of that right now.

Day 6: Billy Bragg’s Back To Basics

Billy Bragg is a mix of 60s protest music and 80s punk, so you can understand why I was drawn to his music. There is something pure and raw about his early recordings that just feel so powerful to me. Just him hammering away on his electric guitar and singing "Hold my hand for me I'm waking up" just gets through to me.

I'm generally drawn to music with a social purpose, and this is one of those albums that inspires me and gets me fired up, especially in times of social injustice.

Day 7: Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street

Here's another one that I came across mysteriously. According to my Dad, I asked for the Rolling Stones album with the guy who had billiard balls in his mouth on the cover for Christmas or my birthday. I did not ask for this, maybe it was my brother, I don't know but I'm glad God saw fit to get this album in my possession.

'Exile On Main Street' is the greatest Stones album in my opinion, by far. It's so good, such great raw rock and roll, just full of awesome driving rhythms.

Day 8: The Wallflowers’ Bringing Down the Horse

When I saw the music video for '6th Ave Heartache' I was amazed at how much the lead singer looked by Bob Dylan and the song was really catchy. I admit, I was mostly intrigued by the Wallflowers after learning about the connection to Bob but the album was fantastic.

When I saw them in concert promoting this album it was probably one of the best concerts I've seen. They played a bunch of covers from the Clash and Neil Young. A really cool experience.

Day 9: Eric Clapton’s Unplugged

When I like something, I want to dissect it and learn where it comes from and keep digging, and it just keeps going and going. Eric Clapton Unplugged was the first album I started doing that with, and it spider webbed on from there into folk, blues, psychedelic rock, etc.

I don't give Clapton much listening time lately, but thinking about how good this album is, he might get a bigger share of my time again.

Day 10: Jimmy Scott’s Holding Back the Years

No vocalist moves me more than Jimmy Scott, and this albums is full of hauntingly beautiful covers of some pop songs. Every time I hear 'Nothing Compares 2 U' it brings me to tears if not getting me all the way there.

This stuff is seriously so good. His voice is truly a gift from God.