Classixx On 10 Albums Everyone Needs to Listen To
On May 17, 2016
Classixx's sophomore LP, Faraway Reach, is one of the exclusives in our member's store this month. It comes out on June 3, but it's already one of our favorites from this year; it's like a beach party on a slab of vinyl. To celebrate the album's release, we had the group pick 10 albums--they each picked 5--that everyone needs to own.
Michael David:
Echoing a friend's sentiment here, but I think Avalon is a coming of age record. There's something about the palette of this record in particular that speaks to a 30 year old version of me. In the context of Roxy Music, this is a grown up record, and for me that's finally a good thing.
This is a great record to own and enjoy in its entirety. There's something about the grooves that sort of arrive subtly and stick around without growing or deconstructing. Vibraphones, thick basslines, and a dry drum kit make a soft and firm foundation for Niecy to explore her range. It's fantastic!
Kraftwerk's third record sounds like driving across a perfectly constructed bridge that starts in a sort of steel city and ends in the tropics. They're becoming more polished and regimented, but there's no fuss. This record is what I use anytime I want to get familiar with a new hifi system.
I've been listening to a lot of exotica recently, and this record from 1959 represents the pinnacle for me. A slight crackle, a mellow vibraphone, and some light hand percussion makes for the perfect record in a number of settings. I can also dig an occasional bird call.
The Colour of Spring is a very rarely successful combination of experimental arrangements, china-type crash cymbals, nylon string guitars and a handful of other modern music taboos. Although I quietly love many of those elements in their own right, the masterful songwriting of Mark Hollis' and his subtle hand at work makes this record a must-have. I listen to it in full at least once a month.
Tyler Blake:
This is an album from my childhood that I know note for note, word for word. My family were always huge JT fans and this album got played countless times in my house growing up. Its really the perfect soundtrack to making dinner.
This is my favorite album from my favorite band. I just love how weird and interesting all the sounds they used were without distracting from the brilliant songwriting and danceable rhythms. The musicianship on this album is probably the most impressive of any of their work to me. I believe this was the last album Brian Eno co-wrote and produced with Talking Heads and it sounds like they had really perfected their collaboration by then.
This is the first album that stopped me in my tracks from the very first note. I bought it the day it came out as a high school freshmen and listened to it before going to band practice. When the last song had finished I had to listen again, effectively making me very late. After listening, I remember getting to practice and declaring to my band: "This is all I ever wanna do."
This album just sounds so massive! Some might call it over-produced but fuck that I love this record. I think Tears For Fears made some of the most imaginative sounds in pop music at the time and are often overlooked on that level because of their huge sing-along choruses, which I also love.
This is the sound of "two soft voices blended in perfection" as sung on "Homesick," the album's opener. Like Simon And Garfunkel before them, Kings Of Convenience mix thought-provoking, evocative lyrics with beautiful, emotionally rich melodies and harmonies. The flow and placement of their words and syllables make it so easy to remember the lyric and sing along. In that way they remind me of Morrissey. There are handful of songs on this record that I'd kill to have written.
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