I'm not including the years because I don't know them all, and I'm too lazy to look them up:
Amy Winehouse, "Back to Black" - any album that includes the lyric "I cried for you on the kitchen floor" is clearly an album for me.
The Good, The Bad, and the Queen, "The Good, The Bad, and the Queen" - ah, Damon Albarn, master of the building song, how did I get by before I knew ye? This album makes me feel there is something larger than myself to which I belong.
Of Montreal, "Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?" - again, a lyric: "The mousy girl screams 'violence, violence!'" But everything about this album is a huge release. I love it. Thanks, PB.
PJ Harvey, "White Chalk" - already got its own write-up here, but the decadence of this pathos is too rich not to mention. I cry just thinking about the white chalk hills...for me they're red clay, but we've been over that too...
Tori Amos, "Boys for Pele" - it's all in the title, really, and this album has seen me through a few. "Don't take me back to the range" is a standout thematically correct lyric for this one...but again, there are so many.
Iron and Wine, "The Sea and the Woman" - ok, it's not a real album, but the ground it covers in five short songs leaves me bereft enough. To be enjoyed in moderation, along with these other artists: Ben Trickey, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Aphex Twin, Sparklehorse, and Mogwai. For different reasons, of course.
In addition to GBQ, these all make me happy in a forget myself and sing along way:
No Doubt, "Best" - don't knock it.
Cake - anything, really. I can sing pretty much all their songs, and I do it so well.
Regina Spektor, "Begin to Hope" - it's all in the title, and she has a piano.
The Sugarcubes or Bjork - again, pretty much anything makes me happy.
Blur, "Parklife" - Blur makes me happy, but "Parklife" sticks out as the shiniest album (to me).
Um, that's enough for now. I wish more (any) of you had music blogs. It would be a good way for us to learn about good music. Do it!
Labels: albums, Blur, hope, music, PJ Harvey, The South