Tool - Lateralus

Tool - Lateralus

Published in 2001

Wikipedia

First off, thanks to Paul for recommending this album.  I actually have a ton to say about Tool, so this should be an interesting one.

I have several friends who are big Tool fans.  I try not to hold this against them.  It's one of those strange things that I have a problem with, but I think one of them clarified it for me.

You see, even Tool doesn't like Tool fans.  I know this for a fact, because Mr. Keenan beats the ever living shit out of his fans if they try to get close to him. I hope that video is up on Youtube, because it serves a warning about what everyone thinks about Tool fans.  So thank you Mr. Cooney for teaching me that I can like Tool and not be an asshole.

Not that I really like Tool, even to this day.  I've had a long and complicated history of loving some of their stuff and haaating other parts of it.  It is with this mindset that I get down to writing about Lateralus.

This is a great album by a band that is incredibly accessible to the wrong kind of people to be listening to this music.  The ideas of the album are deep and the music is incredibly complex, and these things make people feel like they are just like the person writing it.  The problem is, the people who are feeling that are not as deep as the people making the album.  They are just a bunch of drunken assholes in shirts, who tell you that just because you don't think that Tool is the greatest band in history, you are a fucking asshole.

I don't mean to keep writing about Tool fans, but it's one of those groups of musical snobs that I cannot get over.  As is obvious by my blog, I attempt to have a diverse taste in music.  I really enjoy listening to things that are different, and I love finding something new that intrigues me.  So anyone who latches onto one band to the exclusion of great music elsewhere is doing themselves a terrible disservice, and they are doing the band a disservice.  If you are going to try to get people to like your favorite band, the best way is not to say, "this is a pile of shit that you are listening to, you need to listen to this and this alone."  People seem to be turned off by that.

Okay, Matt, it's time to focus on the album.  Please let these assholes get out of the way of you enjoying the album, so that we can all go home and feel good about ourselves.

Because of the asshole quotient of their fans, I have never actually listened to a Tool album all the way through, and I rolled my eyes at doing so when I heard this suggestion.  But because I love my readers and people who suggest things, I've been trying to open my mind to it, and I have to say, I'm incredibly impressed.

The music is driving, meaningful and deep. It has incredibly good song structures, and it always leaves you guessing where it is going.  The lyrics deserve to be singled out, because they inspire the perfect amount of pathos and rage, showing how well the band understands the lonelyness and anger that lie under isolation.  

The songs are well performed, and tight.  There are no wasted minutes, because this is an album of feeling, not an album of songs.  The music is designed to be listened to from one edge to the other.  The songs are spaced by intros and outros, letting the album flow from one place to another.

Schism, the big hit of this album is the closest thing that this album has to a popular song, but that is only because the rest of the album desires to be exclusive.  Schism is a great song.  It's one of the few songs that I heard on the radio and purely wanted to sing along to, because it just fucking speaks to people.  It's brilliantly written, and I can remember getting totally into it on trips and in cars all the time.

Parabola is an amazing fucking song too.  If you don't believe me, get this album, really get into it, sing along to Schism, and then wait for the moment when Parabola comes along.  You cannot miss it.  It's like a groundswell of immense sound after a quiet moment on the album.  Seriously, the album is worth it just for that moment.

The length of songs is actually one of the things that I think this album has going for it.  This band would be terrible at writing a three minute pop song, but given a canvas wide enough, they can create Last Supper like music.  Building complexity is only possible given the space to grow and change songs.  There is a bit of Dreamtheater in there, where the music is fantastically complex and requires multiple listens to get into, but of course, that is part of the appeal of the album.

It is a long fucking album though.  Clocking in at 79 minutes, it's something you really need to devote yourself to listening through.  Unless you get hooked early, you are going to be in for a long trudge.  It took me one or two listens before I was locked in and could really get into it, too.  The thing is, the mood that you have to be in is actually much more introspective (at least for me) than I thought it would be.

It's incredibly strange to me that these guys are known as a hard rock group, because all I hear is a fantastically emotional pleading group, looking for acceptance in a unforgiving and strange world.  Their purity in emotion is just hyper clear to me, and I love that they do this.  The musical contrast to this emotional tone creates a dissonance between the raw emotion and the rage that people feel under it.

And that is the space in which their fans lie.  When I think of the proto-tool fan, I think of the teenage kid who seems to desire to be a non-conformist (I was one of these as a teenager, so I can talk about them).  He thinks that the people around him are stupid and don't understand, and that they are against him.  He retreats into music and videogames because these are the places that have rules and make sense to him.  He finds peace in these things, and slowly understands that everyone else is going through the same thing, and finds his way out of his shell, or doesn't, retreating further, and not understanding why everyone doesn't understand him.  

So, Tool fans, the next time you are at a Tool concert, or buying Keenan's wine or whatever, please look around you, and recognize that there are people there with you, enjoying what you enjoy, and feeling your feelings.  Make it into a beautiful moment of collective catharsis, not a bunch of drunk assholes complaining about how no one understand them before they punch the guy in the same shirt as them right next to them in the face for something retarded.  Treat the women at the concert, not as objects, but as members of your tribe.  You'll find that you actually have a ton of friends.  And maybe, just maybe, if I hear you are doing better, I'll come to one of their concerts and hang out with you guys, and you can tell me why Tool is even better than I said here.

Look, I'm trying to keep writing, because this album is still on it's third play through, but seriously, this motherfucker is fucking 79 minutes long.  It would take a fucking book for me to write anything nearly as long as this.  It's one of those insane albums that I actually have less to say about than time it takes to listen to it.  This is my third time through, which means that I have spent a total of four hours listening to this album, and I could only start writing after two.

It's good.  Go get it. Listen to it (once), and if you like it (and I think you will), become a sane fan of Tool.  Thanks to Paul and Michael for getting me into them, just a little bit.  I know that I was hyper critical of your co-fans, but I think you guys are some of the sane ones.  Please make more fans like you, and we can go see the "amazing" shows that I hear about.  I just don't want sweaty assholes in my face the whole time for wearing the wrong color or liking the wrong album or something.

"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."

Matt

PS. Comment x 100 = Give Phil 5!  Matt - 5lbs. = Give Phil 5! Comment x 100 = Matt - 1Beer = Matt - lbs = Matt - 1Beer = Matt - lbs = Give Phil 5!

Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer

Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer

Published in 2010

Wikipedia

Okay, so I love Cee lo, as is obvious from my Gnarls Barkley album project, but The Lady Killer blew me away from the first bars of Bright Lights, Big City.

This, in less time than many other albums I love, has completely won me over. It's obviously crying out to be added to the rotation. My god, what a great album.

Let's talk about the song everyone knows already. Fuck you is perhaps the quintessential pop song. It's catchy, funny, well made, and it's completely danceable. I'd venture to say that it is nigh on untouchable this year, except for the fact that this great pop sog seems to be a dying breed.

This album is one of those albums that will stick with you, because it mixes the timeless with the current. It's obviously an album of the now, but at the same time it's got an incredible sense of musical history. Ceelo's voice is pure motown, which is perhaps the highest compliment that I can think to give him. He reminds me (and it's important to specify that I do not mean imitates,) of some of the great singers that I loved when my mom and I listened to (MD radio references in the house) 100.3, the oldies station.

Seriously, find a recent album that combines dowap and modernity so well. I dare you. I double dare you. If you can, yu will win an album project award for sticking my nose in my own bold claims. I'm thinking of calling it something super degrading.

Seriously, folks, it's a great album. I knew that this one was going on the project from the first song. It's that infectious. If you pick it up, not only do you get the best single of the summer, you get an awesome album of songs of longing and the second best single of the summer.

No, I mean that. Go find the video for Its Okay. I'd do it for you, but then I'd start embedding videos all the time, and no one wants that. Really. Monty Python sketches are more relevant to music commentary than you think.

It's just a spectacular song, right?  I know, I told you it up there. I can only tell yu thatthe rest of the album holds up next to it. There isn't a song that doesn't fit this amazing mold.

The whole of he album is like that. It's a showcase for great music, and that showcase is used in the best way. I actually think that this defies any normal catagory. It's Motown, but it's sampled. It's modern and timeless, as I said at the top. It's beatiful and perfect.

I guess what I am saying is
1. everyone was right about this album
2. get this album, it's not optional,
And 3. Ceelo, come here buddy, I'll give you a big man hug.

Album project over. Hope you enjoyed it. Nick Olmstead, get this album immediately, or I'll kill you. That's not a threat, it's a promise.

"Well, obviously the core concept Lana."
Matt

PS. Hey, I know I've been harping on this a lot, but Give Phil Five! Leave a comment, make beautiful weight loss possible by depriving me of beer.

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Published in 1982

Wikipedia

"If you want to be starting something, you got to be starting something."

Dear Mr. Jackson,

When Anonymous suggested this album to me, I wasn't really sure what to do with it.  I mean, what do you say about a man who's life has been repeatedly looked at through many different lenses, and as someone who was born after Thriller, I don't have a great personal attachment to listening to it.  In fact, I didn't really know what to do with it.  You see, in my life, you were a bit of an anomaly.

For young people like me, there seemed to be two Michael Jacksons.  There was the broken, strange looking man, constantly living under the watchful eye of the police, accused of things that I don't want to get into here, and referred to the King of Pop in a derisive manner.  On the other side, we had the actual King of Pop, the man (and boy) who produced some of the greatest fucking music in history, created beats known the world over, an incredible performer, and a master of the landscape that was music for over two decades.  To this day, Thriller is one of the most indisputably great works ever created. To find a dissenting opinion, you need to look years and years after the fact, after the prism of the broken Jackson has been engaged.

As a young boy, growing up in the suburbs, if there was one thing that everyone agreed on, it was that Michael Jackson was amazing, and a damaged human being.  Out of this strange combination came some great art, but also some general insanity.  I wish that I had been mature enough to separate these facts out, and come to an adult conclusion then, but I was young and dumb, and I didn't know what to do with the guy who was black who became white, and how to reconcile this with your music.

I don't know how history will look at your life, whether as a heroic triumph over the adversity of your youth, or as the slow degeneration of a once a great artist, but for me, I'll always try to remember you as the great artist first, and I'll try to forget whatever else descends with you.  I do this not to apologize for your actions or the actions of those around you, but so I can look at you through the eyes of a kid who loved you.

I'd be hard pressed to find a kid who didn't love you.  I mean, come on, the Jackson 5's songs, for whatever shit happened to you to make them, revealed one of the greatest artists in history, and we have to appreciate that.  You were a musical idol to generations, and I will forever be your fan.

Let's talk about Thriller then.  Jesus Christ, you packed a shitload of hits into this thing, didn't you.  Ignoring the title track (don't worry, I'll get to it,) the track list of incredible songs is: Wanna Be Starting Somethin', The Girl is Mine, Beat It, and Billie Jean.  Some bands go for years without producing something equaling one of these songs, and you did four in months.  I mean, come on, who could even compete with that.

Wanna Be Starting Somethin', when played at a party, will still pack a dance floor, and as an update of the "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" formula, it's a great song.  I'm a huge fan of Don't Stop, but Wanna Be Starting Something is amazing too.

The Girl is Mine, the duet with Paul McCartney now sounds a bit dated, and the reason is because this song has been covered to death, and the ones I remember are usually comedians doing it.  However, listening to it with fresh ears, I really enjoy everything up to the spoken word part.  The dialog between you and Paul is stilted and weird, and I couldn't really stay locked in for it.

Beat It, other than having one of the most ridiculous videos in history, is another song that is guaranteed to get everyone moving, wherever they are.  It's a song of great depth, and it's just fantastic to this day.

Billie Jean is another entry on the hit parade.  I mean, what it must have been like going out to dance during the mid-eighties.  I'm assuming they just played this album, then after forty two minutes, they repeated it.  What else could you do?

And then, there was a little thing called Thriller.  Thriller is perhaps the most successful seventh single off of an album ever, and there is a good reason for that.  The reason is that Thriller, the moment that it was even conceived in your beautiful, pop-producing brain, became a music genera to itself.  It was a novelty song that wasn't a novelty.  It was huge, bold, ambitious, and (and this was the hard part) just one of the best songs ever made.  No bullshit.  It's one of those songs that will speak to generations after we are all dead, and it will be packing dance floors for years to come.  

That is why this album is great, because it will leave a legacy that your life couldn't.  Michael Jackson, the person, the damaged idol, could never overcome the problems of this life, but Michael Jackson, the artist, transcended mere mortals, creating beauty and pop from nothing.  There are few albums that will ever be universally recognized as this one, and that should be what we remember you for.

The conflicted life that you led was not the end of the life that you'll have in music.  If there were comfort after death in anything, it would be somewhere in that statement.  The face of the world changed after Thriller, and your touch will be felt for a long time.

"Go forth and funk, my child." "Funk yourself, wookie!"

Matt

To Actual People Readers:  Yeah, I know, another weird one.  I actually had no idea how to write this one, and seeing as I had conflicting feelings about the artist in question, for no other reason than growing up when I did, I felt like this was the best way to write about this album.  If you have more thoughts on this album, please comment, also, make me lose some beer money, and post some comments.

PPS. Also, I forgot to say Quincy Jones, I love you and you're amazing.  I understand the influence you had on this album, and I love you for it.

PPPS. Happy Birthday to me, in three days!

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Published in 2006

Wikipedia

Welcome back to the Matt loves Dangermouse in all of his forms variety hour, I'll be your host and chief lover of Dangermouse, Matthew "Oh, My God, I Love Dangermouse" Butler, Esqizzle.  This hour, we will be looking at the most impressive collaboration Dangermouse has made, and the only band that made me leave a job in the hands of my sister to go see them.

It would be an understatement to say that this was one of my favorite albums of all time.  This is in the running for the best album ever made by humankind, for Matthew Butler.  I could not tell you one song that I don't like, and I love all of them, in actuality.  Our contestants for song of the album are as follows.

Crazy - A sweet little number, recalling some of the great spaghetti western inspired songs, such as Clint Eastwood and others, one of the most popular commercial songs that I like ever.

Gone Daddy Gone - Awesome funky cover of an already awesome song? Sign me up!

Just a Thought - One of the weirdest tracks on the album, it has the strangest suicidal lyrics on any mainstream awesome song.

Necromancer - A great what the fuck song, it's impossibly well produced and Cee-lo knocks the mood out of the park.

Storm Coming - nominated for the first 5 seconds alone, the stutter sells it, and then it is followed by some of the most melodious production of the album.  Also, that 5 seconds is just part of an amazing intro.

And finally, The Last Time - a dancey number that closes out the album, it's just an astonishingly well made song, and one of my favorites to sing along to.

So, to recap, on an album of 14 tracks, six of them are in the running for best track of the album, and all 14 are in the running for second.

Allow me to drop some history here.  I bought this album because of two things. 1. Dangermouse, obviously. 2. Crazy was perhaps the best crossover hit that I had heard made in my lifetime.  For future aliens, this means that in the summer of 2006 you could literally go nowhere without hearing this song, and for once, that was a good thing.

I went in expecting to be blown away by the production, and I ended up becoming a Cee-lo fan for life.  The amount of personality on display in these 14 tracks is endearing in a way that even charismatic people would envy.  No matter what song he is doing, it sounds like he is pouring his whole being into making it the best performance of that song of all time.  Seriously, pick a track, and you'll hear a man's soul on display.

This disc didn't leave my CD player for months.  Months!  Incubus came out with a new album, and I had difficulty removing Gnarls Barkley!  It was the soundtrack to that part of my life!  How many albums have that kind of an effect on people?

I'm actually shocked that it took me this long to get this album again.  I just recently realized that I hadn't listened to it in months, since the great wipe and the desire to put new music on my iPod.  Listening to it now, I cannot understand why it wasn't the first thing that I downloaded and put on my iPod again.  I'm kind of an idiot.

The production is superior, the songs are great, the voice is awe-inspiring, and the album is fun.  It's like your favorite food, wrapped in your other favorite food, pushed in a blender, made into a milkshake, served with five guys, and the flavors mix together like beauty itself.  It's like raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiin, on your wedding day.  Wait, no, it's not like that last one.  Seriously, it's good.

Look, I'm not saying that we're not friends if you don't like this album, I'm saying that you're not a human being.  I don't care what genera of music you like, I don't care if you hate everything made after 1965, I don't care if you are made of swiss cheese, you will find something on this album that will enchant you and completely win you over.  This is not just Not Optional, it's almost an enforced torture to know that people out there have not listened to it.  It is simply a perfect album.

And I haven't even written about the (perhaps) even better sequel yet.

"The Plot Thinn-ens!"
Matt

PS. Hey, I know I've been bugging you a lot, but I wanted you to know that you should Give Phil Five, so I can get a new heart, to replace the one that I stuck on Dangermouse's doorstep with a knife through it with a note saying "You."  Thanks to Jack Handy for the idea!

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape

Published in 1997

Wikipedia

I got some advice recently.  You see, if you go down to the bottom of this page, you'll notice that this blog has had something like 7,000 page views at this point.  While I wish this was because I was just that awesome, there is a more explainable reason.  

You see, on these here tubes, there is something called Google image search.  While I, myself, am not familiar with it, apparently, it collects images throughout the internets, and posts them to a convenient place to find them. I recently wrote about Radiohead's first two albums, with the intention of reaching the 30 or so of you a day who read my posts, and coincidentally (I swear), Radiohead put out a new album.  When Radiohead puts out a new album, searches for the old album go up.  And since I was a recent blog post with a large picture, Radiohead - The Bends is the most popular post of all time.

And yet, I figure that of the 2000 people who found the album art by my link, just a handful at most have read my posts.  So, I guess.  I don't really know, because no matter how much I labor the point, even those who do read these don't leave comments.  Which is fine with me, because I really write these for me.

But, since there is a page view count, and that count matters a little to me, I'm going to try to be more cognizant of the music world, and try to connect in a bit more.  This week, an album came out that I have not heard, but it is by a band that I quite enjoy.  As you can see from the title, it is the Foo Fighters.  I decided that since I am not some sort of criminal, I will wait for legal methods to listen to their new album, but in the meantime, I can review my favorite Foo Fighters Album.

That album is The Colour and The Shape.  I have several reasons for this.  One, the album start out with a bang, moving from the quiet Doll to the poundingly awesome Monkey Wrench, which is the first in a combo of six great fucking songs.  Two, Monkey Wrench is on this album, and it is the best non-Everlong song that the Foo Fighters came up with.  Three, I never got into the other ones as much.  Oh, Four, Everlong.

Let's talk about Everlong, which is one of the quintessential songs of the late 90's in my opinion.  Yes, I was eleven when it came out, but I remember that being one of the first songs that I listened to over and over, and I made sure that I sang along to in the car.  It was so much fun to sing, and I now realize that it's because it is a fucking great song, that just knocks it out of the park.  I don't think I want to live in a world where Everlong wasn't a huge success.

It is a dark, scary song.  It sounds very deep.  It is so much fun to sing along, and scream and shout.  Man, I want to go to a Norebang (a Korean Singing Room) that has it right now, just to belt it out.  AND IIIIIIIIIIII WONDER...

This is a band in the middle of figuring out where it is going.  It was a pretty "standard" rock act on it's first album, and this one has the inklings of the melodic and acoustic experiments that are coming in the future for them.  But really, it is a great rock album.

If you owned a radio, and listened to a station like the long lamented, much beloved, 99.1 HFS, and you are the same age as me, you probably remember listening to a ton of Foo Fighters.  They are a band that grows on you, and since they seem like genuinely good guys, it's a ton of fun rooting for them.  Also, they are just down the I-95 corridor, and if you're from near me, you're a hometown boy doing good.  

Dave Grohl has a vocal presence that just cannot be beat, and his ability to belt out these songs is great.  The drums are spectacular, the guitar is nuanced, and the bass holds the whole thing together.  I cannot really point to a misfire on the album, but the quieter songs (not including Doll) don't enchant me as much as the pounding rock songs.

If you haven't heard this album, it's a great one to pick up, and it will make you a fan of the Foo Fighters.  Your whole being will be suffused with the awesomeness of the songs, and you'll just like it.  It's a fun album, and it makes me glad to be writing about music.

So, if this one is shorter than most, it's because I wanted to get something out that was timely, and I don't have much more to say about this album.  You should be listening to it already if you have any sense, and I hope that you comment and tell me how much you enjoy it, or why you don't like it and use some really horrible slurs against me.

I love you guys,

"Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. " (Thanks to Zach for reminding me of the quote)

Matt

PS. Comments!  Do you like this idea?  Do you think I should not do this?  Am I placating the man? Is this what selling out feels like, or is it just boredom?

PPS. Five Give Phil!

Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage

Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage

Published in 1979

Wikipedia - and trust me, you need it.

First off, this was actually a suggestion, so I am supposed to thank Tommy Clark for suggesting it.  I say I am supposed to, but I am still reeling from listening to this thing.  

WHAT THE FUCK, FRANK ZAPPA?

Okay, now that my confusion has been expressed, let me give you some opinions.  You know why rock operas are so incredibly obscure and strange?  It's because they are by nature subversive and strange.  Instead of recognizing this and trying to formulate a regular thing around this, Mr. Zappa has chosen to take it to the other extreme, and just go fucking crazy with it.

This is the first album on the album project to do various things, allow me to list them, so you can be baffled if you haven't heard it.

• Wet t-shirt contest dedicated song
• Incredibly diverse mentions of VD
• Appliance Sex
• Dystopian future where music is banned (rock opera edition)
• "Subtle" allusions to Scientology
• Detailed Appliance Sex Music
• The fact that to have sex with appliances, you need to speak another language
• Catholic Girls are whores
• "Gimmie that, gimmie that, Bloooowwwjob."
• Breaking the fourth wall, referring to "two songs ago"
• And much much more.

Seriously.  I'm not making one of those up, and I am amazed that I don't think that I could.  It's like an album that was designed to completely fry your logical brain.

However, the non rational side of your brain is going to be fucking loving this shit.  It's incredibly fucking strange, but beautiful and strange as shit.  It is entirely non commercial, but it's fucking awesome.

You know what it is, it's the Aqua Teen Hunger Force of rock operas.  It's obviously written while people were on fucking insane amounts of drugs.  It has no recognizable structure.  The acts are delineated by who the fuck knows what, and the resolution is crazy as the rest of it.

I'd never really listened to Frank Zappa in any capacity before, so this was a... something... experience for me.  I don't believe that, even if I started doing drugs today, I will have ever done enough drugs in my life to fully understand what is going on in his mind.  The writing is fucking insane, not in a bad way, but in a incomprehensibly amazing way.

Seriously.

However, if you listened to it just for the music, there are some real amazing bits in there.  Mainly the parts between the weird fucking shit.  However, even the weird shit is pretty musical.  It's about 50 - 50 amazing music - fucking insanity.

So yeah, you should listen to this album.  It's an  assault on everything in the world, and it's amazing for it.  If you didn't listen to it once, I'd be surprised, because what are you, some kind of coward?  Cowards don't read the Album Project, now go out there and get crazy.

Well, thanks to Tommy for the robot fuckingest album I have ever heard.  You're out of your damn mind, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Since this is the ATHF of music,

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I've been a bad host, would you guys like some juice?"

Matt

PS. GIVE PHIL FIVE, OR DIE!

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Let's Face It

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Let's Face It

Published in 1997

Wikipedia

Hi, and welcome to third wave ska month at... No, I'm just kidding.  We're going to get away from the theme stuff for a while, and just write about albums because we want to, damn your eyes.  So, here is the filtered understanding that I have of the Bosstones, through years of nostalgia and enjoyment.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones play awesome music, and I may only be saying that because this was one of the first albums I ever owned, and may be directly responsible for me having this compulsion to listen to full albums.  Let me explain.  I didn't own a lot of music back in the day, when it was expensive and hard to know what to listen to.  I listened to that ever present mythical radio station known at 99.1 HFS at every opportunity.

Like Proust's tea cookies,  WHFS brings the memories of youth flooding back to me.  Riding in the car too and from places, listening in my room, hating DC 101.  Bob Wah, the Weasel, all the rest of the great DJ's and actually pretty strange music.  This was one of the last bastions of the alternative alternative rock station, at least in my area, and it kept that funk up until I was at least in late elementary school.  Since it turned into El Zol in high school, that's not a bad run.

I get these memories coming back from listening to this album.  It's astonishingly good, but back when I got the album, I was a big single kid.  I loved singles, because they were what I would listen to over and over, and I knew all the words to most of them, and they were fun.  However, in owning CDs, I came to realize something pretty incredible.  The singles were rarely the best song on the album.

Now, I know I am a card carrying member of the hipster militia for even uttering that sentence, but I think it is true for anyone who routinely listens to albums.  Think about your favorite album with a mega smash single on it.  Now think about your favorite track on that album.  Chances are, they are two different tracks.

The Bosstones are just incredible, straight across the board.  The horns are tight, the message is good, and the songs are well done.  They are just an excellent band, with excellent vocals.  Looking back, I'm glad that I found their album better than The Impression That I Get.  Let's talk about The Impression That I Get for a second.

It's a solid song.  Well written, sounds interesting, and the horns are awesome.  However, compared to songs like Another Drinking song and the Rascal King and a couple of others, it seems a bit simple and less interesting.  However, the fact that they were ubiquitous on the radio for that amount of time is a great thing, and I am sure that the catchyness is still being played on alt stations today.

Every song on here has a message, and that can get a little heavy handed, but I think the music more than makes up for that.  It takes a lot to write a good song about something real to people, and they dodge the hokey hole pretty well.  Also, who would be on the other side of these arguments but exactly the people you'd expect.

Another thing to know about the album is that it moves.  The longest song clocks in at 3:49, and that is because it has a long intro.  If you don't enjoy one song, the album gets over it pretty quickly, and the quick clip between songs gives you a big palette to find one that you enjoy.

I don't have much more to say about this album, because I enjoy it so much.  If you like ska at all, you've probably heard this album, and if you haven't you should.  If you haven't heard this album, you should, goes for everyone too.  It's a great album.

"The Furher does not say this, 'Achtung, baby.'"

Matt

PS. Write more comments, lose me some money, and some weight.  Give Phil Five.  Suggest albums!