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Ear Shot
A Poor Man's Guide to the Top Five Albums You'll Never Hear on Corporate Radio
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April 05, 2007
JOHN FRUSCIANTE
"SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE"
[EXPERIMENTAL-ROCK] I have to be careful here, because I'm probably
in love with this man and could go on about his brilliance for hours.
I'll keep it simple: this album (one of at least eight equally
brilliant solo efforts by the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist) contains
19 of the most uplifting, beautiful songs ever recorded and makes me
wonder why I never hear anything besides Fall Out Boy and My Chemical
Romance on my FM dial. It also comes with a money-back guarantee—the
first reader who buys this and doesn't like it can call me for a full
refund—and a humiliating tirade. —Warner Bros. Records 2004
THE SHINS
"OH, INVERTED WORLD"
[MOODY-POP] I'm not going to subject you to the 13,474th "The Shins
will change your life" joke you've heard this month but I will say
this: The Shins are really fucking good. Frontman James Mercer is my
favorite type of musician—a borderline weirdo/genuine genius songwriter
who may be our generation's Brian Wilson. Admittedly, I'm too broke to
actually buy this album. Fortunately, thanks to Limewire's impeccable
selection I've heard two of its tracks, "Caring Is Creepy" and the
Garden State-immortalized "New Slang." They're both so good that I
can't imagine the rest even remotely suck. I get pissed off thinking
about how the little shits at Hot Topic most likely discovered this
long before I did. —Sub Pop Records 2001
THE POSTAL SERVICE
"GIVE UP"
[ELECTRO-POP] I don't even know where I found this—I won't listen to
anything that's recommended to me, snobbishly rationalizing that my
taste is better than anyone else's—but I'm glad that I did. "Such Great
Heights" and "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" are pure electronic
pop masterpieces. Again, my poverty (combined with Limewire's inherent
shittyness) has prevented me from hearing the entire album. Oh well,
right? Most CD reviews only mention two songs anyway. —Sub Pop 2003
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
"FEVER TO TELL"
[CATERWAULING GARAGE-ROCK] Oh, Karen O! As confident as I am in my
sexual abilities, I'm guessing that woman would make me whimper like a
purse dog left out in the rain. She can write a mean song, too. Whether
banshee wailing over guitarist Nick Zinner's understated riffs or
half-singing, half-crying on ballads such as "Maps" (which did receive
some airplay on the strength of its heartbreaking video) Karen O. rocks
my naughty little socks off. —Interscope Records 2003
ELLIOTT SMITH
"EITHER/OR"
[BITTERSWEET FOLK-POP] Perhaps I should ponder what attracts me to
the music of a man who committed suicide by stabbing himself in the
heart. Regardless, Elliott Smith was a tortured genius who, like a
seemingly infinite number of talented indie-rock acts (see The Shins,
Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service, Modest Mouse, etc.) hailed from
the Pacific Northwest. Smith composed songs I'd give a nut to have
written, such as "Angeles," which is quite possibly the second most
hauntingly beautiful piece of music ever recorded (after Beethoven's
"Moonlight Sonata"). —Kill Rock Stars 1997
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