Fractionals

5:00 pm

Recently for a project that won't come to fruition for a few months, I finally sat down and picked out my 100 favorite records. It was, of course, tough. This sort of thing is of course always going to be subjective, but as this was parsed as favorite and not best (Rolling Stone can blow me, by the way), I really used my discretion. Ultimately I didn't represent plenty of bands I loved because they work best in song form, not album; bands with single albums in the list were picked according to my fondness for them, not whether they were the 'best' thing that band ever produced; and compilations were found when, for me, they exuded 'albumness'. What is albumness? I dunno. Well, I do, but I couldn't tell you.

I'm not going to present the whole thing here (if for no other reason than because I'm at work and the file is at home), but I will tell you the top ten (after calling home to check):

01. Readymade - The Dramatic Balanced By
02. Television - Marquee Moon
03. The Clash - London Calling
04. Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (1999 special edition)
05. The Stooges - Fun House
06. Joy Division - Closer
07. Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
08. New Order - Substance
09. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
10. David Bowie - "Heroes"

So those, in other words, are the ten albums I know that I think best represent some sort of attribute of 'great albumness', which is essentially ineffable and thus several of you are probably scratching your heads and saying "what a moron" or words to that effect. It's submitted now, as well, so I can't change it or anything.

While the other 90 records on the list are occasionally the subject of much chagrin on my part as to being too high or too low, I'm pretty solid on the top ten. Especially #1. That one, I know, is going to provoke as much headscratching among colleagues as the fact that the Beatles don't appear until about #22 will provoke rage (after Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and I believe the Who, no less). But, like I say, it's a personal list.

I've raved about Readymade, and that album in particular, to pretty much everyone at this point. If anyone remembers the pieces I posted last year that were my admission pieces into Stylus, they'll know two of them were on The Dramatic Balanced By. The band itself, when they read a piece I did for the Ontarion a few years back lionizing them, expressed surprise that I liked The Dramatic Balanced By better than it's follow up On Point And Red (which is good, but not special to me the way The Dramatic Balanced By is).

If I had to sum up the reason it's my favorite album in the shortest possible space, I wouldn't say much about what it sounds like, the lyrics, any given songs, though all three would help to explain if I was giving an answer in depth. I'd probably resort ot just saying this:

The Dramatic Balanced By is the only record I own/have ever heard that I have never not wanted to hear. Every time I put it on I'm in the mood for it. Whether I'm happy, sad, furious, depressed, whatever, I want to hear it. All of it. All fifteen tracks and 66-odd minutes (possibly more, if I'm remembering it wrongly). Everything from 'Maryland, That Means Good' to 'The Lamplighters Are Dead'. Unless I'm pressed for time, I never skip anything.

The other nine records are like that most of the time (well, except for Substance's second disc, but it's a mark of how much I love the first disc, and 'Temptation' specifically, that it's in there), but none is constant for me in the way The Dramatic Balanced By is. Why? I don't know. Although I wished people didn't go "Who?" when I mention Readymade, I imagine one aspect of my love for the album is that it's a private love, one that nobody really understands but me.

On the other hand, I did get Dad to buy a copy when I saw one for ten bucks in HMV, and he decided to keep it, and I still love The Dramatic Balanced By, so maybe there's hope for us all.

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