Slowly Learning...

It might not be useful, but it'll give you a new perspective.

Lately I've begun to put more and more of my music back onto my iPod, and have been listening to a lot of shuffle. And along the way I found a good number of gems that I either forgot that I had, or even never realized that I had (I do have a lot of music). And this all got me thinking about my most under-appreciated albums I own.

So after much deliberation I have narrowed it down to my Top 10 in no particular order (other than alphabetically) I was going to go with 11, but that would have just been forcing the issue just to make it prime.

1 - Bran Van 300 - Discosis
Their first album was such a fantastically eclectic collection of music (they even managed to merge rap and country in the same song, with positive results) that I quite often forget about their second album. And after a couple more listens, I feel ashamed about that. Discosis has the same eclectic sound, but with a more polished feel to it. All the tracks flow smoothly from one to the next, weaving between genres. They even managed to loop it around as the last track leads back into the first. This might not be the best CD I own, but it has something for every mood, and has even more for when I don't know what mood I am in.

2 - DJ Spooky - Under the Influence
I don't know where you label this disc. Some say hip-hop, turn-table-ism, some say it's a mix CD... Personally I just label it trip-hop (so I know where to find it). But no matter how you label it, I skipped it for too long. Maybe it was because many of the tracks just don't feel like they stand up on their own, so when they appeared on shuffle mode I quickly skipped them. But then I hit a couple of the main tracks that I kept listening to over and over again. And finally I decided to give the whole album another listen, and I was surprised. All those "throw-away" tracks I had found before were perfect set-up to the main set pieces I had found. And now DJ Spooky has managed to find his way into my regular car trip rotation.

3 - Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry
Lost for ages behind You've Come A Long Way Baby, Chemistry never got the play it deserved in my rotation. But after I realized how many great tracks there are on here... now it gets more play than You've Come.

4 - Lincoln - Lincoln
Not too many people are familiar with Lincoln, but they still remain one of the best opening acts I have ever seen (they opened for a while for They Might Be Giants). Unfortunately they only managed one CD before splitting up, but damn is it a catchy one. With all this praise it may seem that Lincoln doesn't quite fit here, but what I didn't appreciate was the lyrical stylings. I had always noted some of the quirky lines I loved ("You think you're so funny, but looks aren't everything"), but when I popped it into the CD player the other day for a listen I really noticed how deep some of the songs actually turn out to be. True they aren't all like that, but the lead does have a way of making even depressing songs sounds happy (much the way Guster's songs are all depressing as hell if you ever actually listen to them, yet the band puts on one of the happiest liveliest shows).

5 - Nightmares on Wax - Mind Elevation
Like Zero7 (see number 10), this was a long time background album for me. However, it almost doesn't belong on this list since I rediscovered it almost a year ago, and have worked it into regular rotation ever since, but I get to choose, so I'm putting it up here (mainly so that everyone who hasn't heard of it can get a chance to listen to it). It is one of the best chill-out albums that I own. Even when it gets more up-tempo it still has that relaxed (yet not sleep-inducing) vibe.

6 - Nirvana - Incesticide
Now I know Nirvana seems like a weird choice to have on here, but there is a major case for this album. And not just under-appreciated by me, under-appreciated by the public at large. Incesticide is like the forgotten middle child of the Nirvana family. Wedged right between Nevermind and In Utero, it is so often forgotten. Hell, when I searched for Nirvana on Amazon Incesticide came up #9, after the Smells Like Teen Spirit single even. Talk about unloved. True it wasn't a standard studio album, but who cares. It is strong and powerful and Nirvana at their best. I'm almost glad that I forgot about it, because now it gives me a chance to re-experience the Nirvana sound, but not with the songs I've heard a thousand times already.

7 - Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
You think Iceland and you think Bjork (well if you're thinking wacked out music at least). What you should really think is Sigur Ros. This was one of the iffy inclusions here, because it is such a great album and I always knew that. But somehow I keep losing touch with it only to come back and rediscover how much I love it.

8 - Weezer - Weezer
I know that this one really shouldn't go up here. I mean who honestly argues that this isn't one of the best CDs? The thing is for the longest time I placed it behind Pinkerton. I don't really know why. I guess it was because Pinkerton had some of those tracks that I just couldn't get out of my head, and because I very quickly lost interest in Buddy Holly. But then I thought long and hard about it all and realized that every single track on this disc is fantastic. When they biggest complaint I can come up with is that I got a little tired of Buddy Holly (which is still a great song with an awesome video), then I really have to reconsider my Weezer rankings.

9 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
This is another case of an album I did not give the proper amount of credit to. I know that everyone else did, but I got into the Yeah Yeahs all at once, and the three song trio of Honeybear, Cheated Hearts, and Dudley towards the end of Show Your Bones kept me on that album and away from
Fever for too long. But overall I do have to give Fever it's props. It fills a niche I've been lacking for so long in my music with such force and power that I can't help but include it in any list of my CDs now.

10 - Zero 7 - Simple Things
This was my background music for so long that I forgot how good it can be as the focal point as well. It is so mellow and soothing that I can do in depth thinking without getting too distracted, yet its not so dull that I would never think of just listening to it on it's own. I always make sure that I keep it handy for any occasion.