Jon Tells You What to Think Installment 1

Yeah I know I said I'd post this on Saturday, but uh, I was busy, with important stuff, definitely not just lying around in bed all day! In the future I guess it's probably a good idea not to believe me if I say I'm going to post anything during the weekend.

So what's this all about then? Well in the expected absence of anything else to talk about for the next wee while, I'm going to be posting a list my top twenty-five favorite albums of all time. Unoriginal I know, but you probably guessed I was going to do this at some stage anyway.

So here's numbers 25 to 21:

25: Hullabaloo - Muse

I feel a bit weird starting out with a live/b-sides album, but that's how it worked out. Even though it misses out the big singles 'New Born', 'Plug In Baby' and 'Bliss', the live disc has got almost everything else from 'Origin of Symmetry', and the erratic style of that album works better live than in the studio. Every song has at least a little bit of reworking and improvisation to improve it from the original version. Plus it has the awesome new song 'Dead Star'.

The b-sides disc is excellent too, easily ranking up there with their a-sides albums. It mainly displays their more eerie ambient side, which I guess is the sort of song that didn't fit very well on the frenetic 'Origin of Symmetry'.

24: King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime - Faith No More

'Angel Dust' is very good (and also nicely quirky and strange), but listening to the whole album can be a bit repetitive. 'Album of the Year' has some truly awesome songs, but also a few stinkers. 'King for a Day' is excellent almost from beginning to end (track 5, 'Star AD', is a bit crap). Mike Patton shows off his best Tomahawk style gibbering on 'Ugly in the Morning' and 'Cookoo for Caca'. The lyrics are mostly about drinking and partying too much, a subject I can identify with quite well. It's much more straight ahead rock than their other albums, which made it seem a bit boring to me for the first couple of listens, but given a chance the songwriting really shines.

23: White Pony - Deftones

Rap metal gone goth. It's very heavy, but with a sad moody undercurrent somewhat reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. Chino Moreno's tortured howling fits the style perfectly, and he sings a brilliant duet with Maynard from Tool on Passenger.

22: The Final Cut - Pink Floyd

I don't think I've ever met anyone else who rates this album at all. In fact it's probably easily Pink Floyd's least popular album. I didn't like it much either at first, but after a few listens on my headphones I started to appreciate it. It has much the same story as The Wall, but told a lot more succinctly and with a stronger political interpretation. You can tell that Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason's hearts aren't really in it any more, but Dave still pulls out some pretty good solos. Roger Waters cleverly supports them with a lot of orchestration, which is very nicely composed by Michael Kamen.

21: Aenima - Tool

What else to say other than that Tool just kick arse. This is probably their most conventional album, with song structures hewing towards having actual choruses, but that's only a relative judgment. Maynard's lyrics are probably at their best here too, taking what would be very pretentious philosophical and occult concepts and shrouding them with symbolism and allegory (and anal sex references). Danny Carey's drumming is off the meter, but then again it always was. Even the throw away shorts between songs ('Intermission', 'De Eier Von Satan' and 'Message to Harry Manbeck') are excellent, even if a little jokey. And of course we end with the epic triad of 'Pushit', 'Aenema' and 'Third Eye'. On this album they put aside the weed long enough to write songs that are both concise and powerful, and managed to achieve a number of charting singles, so this is by far their most popular album. You might not be amiss to guess however, that since this one has come in at a relatively low ranking Tool might be making another appearance further up the list...