190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Two: "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin"

120. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year's Model (1978)

It's easy to understand why Declan McManus's head grew three sizes within three years. But so much has been said about this album...






Recommended Listening: No Action, Pump It Up, You Belong To Me, Living In Paradise, Radio Radio


119. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Armed Forces (1979)

...and this album, too, that I'll just let the songs speak for themselves.

I prefer Armed Forces, honestly, because of its concept album status. Also, Chaplin's The Great Dictator is my favorite movie, so Costello's references throughout give me an even harder nerd boner.

He also covers a great Nick Lowe song.

Recommended Listening: Accidents Will Happen, Oliver's Army, Goon Squad, Two Little Hitlers, (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding


118. Mission of Burma - OnoffOn (2002)

Twenty years is a long time for a band to be dissolved; but time doesn't quite apply to groups like Mission of Burma. I wasn't familiar with their classic catalog when I first popped this blistering disc into my car's stereo, but the ripping chords of "The Setup" made me a student into perpetuity. Signals, Calls, and Marches (1981) and Vs (1982) are the Genesis to OnoffOn's New Gospel - frantic, political, fragile, very human songs full of vitality.
And they're fucking loud, so much so that guitarist Roger Miller gave himself tinnitus.
I think it's a testament to a group's powers when they can disappear in one instance and then reappear just as vital in another. To be literate as well as furious is a feat.

I love these weirdos to death. Three more albums into the new millennium and this is still their best latter days release.

Recommended Listening: The Setup, The Enthusiast, Fake Blood, Wounded World, Nicotine Bomb


117. Pearl Jam - Vitalogy (1994)

Reviled and revolted in equal measure throughout their career, Pearl Jam really knocked it out of the park with this gem. All the Seattle bands were really at their peak, in fact; except Alice In Chains, who were about to plummet down a roller-coaster of shit.

But back to Pearl Jam.

Eddie Vedder's best lyrics, also his best songs. Dude really blew his load, but that's okay. We've got the Beefheart squeeze-box of "Bugs" forever. Amet weaves through these tunes like a snake stoned off its ass; Gossard and McCready slay with their six strings like samurai. Honestly, the drums are the most important part. They're really good, too.

All in all, this is a text-book rock-and-roll album. A performance from front to back, Vitalogy brings the Who and the Kinks into the dirty, cynical 90s kicking and screaming, but invigorated all the same.

Recommended Listening: Spin the Black Circle, Not For You, Tremor Christ, Nothingman, Pry, To, Satan's Bed, Stupid Mop


116. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000)

Possessing what just might be the heaviest tone in the world, Electric Wizard out-Sabbathed Black Sabbath with this, their magnum opus.

Arguably one of the top twenty heavy metal releases to ever be carved into wax, Dopethrone will raze your village and then smoke the ashes.

Recommended Listening: Vinum Sabbathi, Funeralopolis, Barbarian, Dopethrone



115. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982)

The debate will rage until there are no more Iron Maiden fans (forever), so I'll just count The Number of the Beast as my favorite.

Another group to recoup a prolific muse in their silver years, Iron Maiden went and made the perfect Iron Maiden record in their debut with Bruce Dickinson. They have had the great fortune through most of their career to remake this album over and over again, and they just can't seem to screw it up. Impenetrable twin guitars, locomotive drums, ridiculous tales of wonder, and that trademark galloping rhythm set a precedent for quality seldom hinted let alone touched in the metal genre.

Recommended Listening: The Prisoner, The Number of the Beast, Run To the Hills, Hallowed Be Thy Name