A friend posed this question to me the other day and it took me quite awhile to actually finish a list. The rules are simple. Name 10 albums you would take with you to be secluded on a desert island. It's an odd situation, I know, being stuck on a desert island and having nothing with you but 10 albums of your choosing and the required media player, but just play along. You can absolutely not use a Greatest Hits/Box Set/Anthology. Okay so go ahead and post your list! Try to be nice and not over ridicule mine.
1. Incubus - Morning View
2. Incubus - Make Yourself
3. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
4. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love
5. The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album]
6. The Who - Tommy
7. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
8. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
9. Eminem - The Eminem Show
10. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Y'all are probably raising your eyebrows at my Incubus and rap selections but I absolutely can not live without those two incubus albums. Those two are two strains of the same mind that effectively connects with every level of my emotion.
Led Zep is such a tough pick. I picked Houses of the Holy but it was kind of a three horse race between that, Physical Graffiti, and (IV, or Zoso). I almost took Physical Graffiti just for the sheer volume of LZ tracks on there, but I decided to settle on Houses of the Holy since it has the most of my
favorite tracks, even though I love them all.
Most people look at "Are You Experienced" as the Hendrix album to have, but honestly I love the soundscape that is Axis: Bold as Love. There is nothing like the swell of sound that is that entire album. I kind of feel the same way about Dark Side of the Moon. I love an album where I can get entirely lost in the environment that the sound provides, a very full and active album that still has its ways to be subtle.
Tommy was a tough pick, and I only really picked it because of the amount of tracks. Quadrophenia was my other Who pick, along with Who's Next. The Who is another difficult pick, in like Led, I enjoy most all of their work.
Miles is kind of a tricky pick for me. I have my regrets about this pick, because often I feel that Kind of Blue is way over hyped. Don't get me wrong, it's one of the more definitive albums of modern music, but I'm not exactly a fan boy that gets his panties in a bunch whenever people talk bad about Miles. This pick was mostly out of my respect for what the album is. I've transcribed solos from it (thanks High School Band Director...
), so I have an appreciation for it, but there are definitely jazz cuts that I dig better than this album. I think I more picked this because I love jazz, but the soul of jazz can't be encompassed in one album. Generally when I listen to jazz, jam with other musicians, etc, what we do is kind of bop around with different ideas, sub genres, etc. Since this album is generally the poster child for jazz, thus it's my pick.
The last two are kind of a tip to hip hop, in what I think is a very deep Eminem CD, and a very very underappreciated Tribe Called Quest. Eminem was a tough pick over Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001, but I think that The Eminem Show has more of a social critique to it, which I respect a lot, coming from a guy who found himself under a shitstorm of critique at the time, and didn't really change himself.
More Honorable Mentions:
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (this was bumped at the very last second for Tommy, as this was on my list earlier)
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Eagles - Hotel California
Beatles - Sgt. Peppers, Abbey Rd.