10 Albums That Constantly Play in My Head

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I am a huge music lover. I love music so much that I have my own CD collection that is constantly growing. However, in that collection I only have studio albums, because I don't see the need in having five copies of the exact same version of one song, as well as a million alternate versions (don't mind me, just throwing a bit of shade at my dad). I don't come from a musical family because none of us play instruments, but we always listened to music both in the car and in the house when I was growing up in the days when iPods didn't exist and my parents didn't trust me well enough to lug a CD walkman around with me every time I went somewhere. So, without further ado, here are ten of my favourite albums ever!


MY 10 FAVOURITE ALBUMS


I bought this album on a bit of a whim because at the time I had no idea who Lana Del Rey was and whether or not I'd like her work. I'd seen an advert for this album on TV when it was first released and instantly fell in complete love with her voice. Seriously, Lana could sing anything from any genre and I'd listen to it. She could probably make a bunch of random noises into a microphone and I'd still listen to it, I love her voice that much. I do love her other albums too (especially Ultraviolence) but Born to Die is definitely my favourite.



RHCP have been one of my favourite bands since I was about nine or ten, but for some reason I stopped listening to them for a long time and didn't buy any of their older albums until a couple of years ago when I bought a bunch of them with my Christmas money. Out of all of them, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is definitely my favourite (although Stadium Arcadium is a close second for sentimental reasons). I like all of RCHP's work, but I do like their older stuff because they focused on making funk music, whereas now they're definitely more standard alt-rock. I haven't listened to their latest album yet but my fingers are crossed to tightly that there's even just a bit of funk left in them.



Metal isn't everybody's thing, and it wasn't mine until a couple of years ago when I finally acquired the taste for it (i was really into Evanescence when i was eleven or twelve, but i don't listen to them as much anymore) and while I'm picky about the kind of metal I listen to, I do dig it (I don't like more extreme styles like black or death metal, but at long as I can understand the words, I'm good. No screaming or growling for me, thanks). SOAD is a band that I was familiar with years ago but only knew three songs, until I bought all of their albums on a whim and now they're one of my favourite bands and I'm constantly praying for them to release new music because the last album they released came out in 2005. Yeah, over ten years ago.



Everclear is kind of a secret for me because nobody that I know knows who they are, and I don't tell anyone about them because I know for a fact that they don't know who they are. I found Everclear in the weirdest way possible. Their lead singer had a guest role on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide back in 2004 or 5 playing a music teacher and performed one of Everclear's songs. I have a very strange memory when it comes to songs I hear on TV and for years I remembered it when it popped up in some LEGO stop-motion video I was watching on YouTube. So, I googled some of the lyrics, found the full song, and ended up listening to the rest of Everclear's songs. Anyway, this album. It's pretty damn good if you're into grunge-type music. But just a warning: this album was recorded in somebody's basement for $400 using a beat-up guitar and an amp with a blown tube so the sound isn't the best, but that's why I like it: the album has this unique loudness to it that isn't on any other albums I have.



Bjork is an artist who's music is definitely an acquired taste, and she takes a bit of getting into at first. Unless you're me and you thrive on weirdness then you'll probably like her from the first time you hear her. I was choosing between Post and Homogenic to put on this list because I do love them equally, but I kind of love this one just a bit more. I'm a total sucker for strings and orchestral music, and there's more of than on this album than there is on Post. Also it has this icy feel to it, which I love so much.



Yay for more weird music! Beck's more recent work isn't that weird, especially not his last album which he deserved to win the Grammy for IMHO, but his work from the 90's borders on downright bizarre at times, and I just love it. His first three albums are out of print so I can only get them on eBay if I have the patience, and I don't. The thing with Beck is that he doesn't like to do the same album more than once so all of his albums have a different sound, even if it is said to "return" to another, and it's hard to pick a favourite because I like all of them for very different reasons. Mellow Gold is probably my favourite because of how different it is. This is an incredibly different album to describe because the sound is so strange; at the core it's inspired by folk music, but there's bits of punk, hip-hop, rock, psychedelia, and country which sounds so bizarre that it's really something that you have to hear to believe. Also, listening to this at eight in the morning in the pouring rain is a surreal experience that I wish I could experience more often.



Smashing Pumpkins are probably my absolute favourite band, even if I do go through phases where I don't listen to them for a while, and Mellon Collie is probably my favourite album by them. Probably. Picking just one was a tough choice because Siamese Dream and Gish were close behind. This one is a double album, which for me means more songs to love and I certaintly do have a lot of favourites from this album, compared to the Pumpkins' other albums. Also, one of the songs on here inspired by blog's name! The more you know~~



Say whatever you will, I stand firm in my belief that Madonna is the reigning Queen of Pop. Obviously not every single one of her albums are amazing, but nobody's are. Anyways, Ray of Light is probably the only Madonna album that I can listen to from start to finish without skipping any of the songs, I love it that much. At the time electronic music was becoming a big thing, and even though I said that Bjork's album has a cold feel to it, this one doesn't, which shows just how versatile electronic music can be. Also, it's Madonna and she's the Queen goddammit.

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Favourite songs: Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Swim, Ray of Light, Frozen, The Power of Good-Bye, Mer Girl


If you've been here for a while, you knew this was going to show up on this list. Tarzan is my favourite Disney movie, and it has my favourite soundtrack for two reasons: 1) Phil Collins and 2) it doesn't follow typical musical tropes. I am not a fan of musicals, which is why I like Tarzan so much: instead of having people randomly burst into song, we get nice montages to Phil Collins songs, which suits my tastes much, much better. Also, my Dad has the songs from this soundtrack on his iPod, which shows just how good it is.

Favourite songs: Son of Man, Strangers Like Me


I was very late to the NIN party, only starting to listen to them last year, but as I've been told, better late than never (it's not my fault that i wasn't born earlier). Out of all the albums on this list, The Fragile probably means the most to me because I've listened to it during some tough times and it always strikes a chord with me. I even wrote a story for uni based on one of the songs (and got a good grade for it, might i add). I can't really talk about this album without becoming a huge sentimental mess, so all I will say is that this album here is pretty damn good. It's also very long, but that's not a bad thing.

Favourite songs: Somewhat Damaged, We're in This Together, The Fragile, La Mer, Into the Void, Starfuckers, Inc., The Big Come Down

Do you listen to albums? What are some of your favourites?
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