Hello, everyone! Today is going to be a very special little blog for Mouths Made Wordless as this is officially our 100th post. Since I've opened this site up to collaborators this year, I wanted to give everyone a chance to introduce their top ten favorite albums and talk a little bit about them, so that all you readers out there can get a better introduction. Send music shit to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram. Sorry for terrible picture quality. I hate Blogger.
This is impossible, but here are ten of SOME of my favorite albums of all time in no particular order. Faces by Mac Miller will forever be a go-to for me. The instrumentals, features, and lyricism are all ridiculous. Either/Or by Elliott Smith. I’d put four of his records on here if it wasn’t embarrassing, but this album may have the most hits of them all. The new HERNIA release, BLACK MASK, has frankly been on repeat since its drop. Con Art by Smart Went Crazy is one of the most dynamic art punk/post-rock/whatever you wanna call it worship, it more than earns a spot of my list. The Lamb as Effigy by Sprain frankly changed the way I approach music, and continues to influence the way I think about it now. Hard left turn, but LONG.LIVE.A$AP by A$AP Rocky is another frequent go-to. No one hits that shit like A$AP. Evol by Sonic Youth might be one of, if not their definitive best release. Ghosts of the Great Highway by Sun Kil Moon consists of some of the most gut-wrenching music I’ve ever heard in my life--and I’m a glutton for punishment. Mitsubishi Suicide’s self-titled release. 'Nuff said. Lastly, the 3-Way Split from Nightosphere, Abandoncy, and Flooding. Three songs from three incredible bands including maybe my favorite Flooding song ever.
-Kiva
Wow! That was much harder than I expected. Although there were many albums which were fundamental to my development and helped shape my music taste permanently, I felt as though feeling strongly for a few songs but disliking others couldn’t make for an accurate list. I ended up choosing my top 10 based off the following criteria: album sentiment, overall quality and enjoyment of album composition, and longevity of the album's message (something I can still thoroughly enjoy, today, as I did when I first discovered it). I did not consider band politics or controversies which conspired before or after the album’s creation to sway my decisions, and solely focused on the art itself. Some runner ups that are not included on this list: Being so Normal by Peach Pit, Kvitravn by Wardruna, Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez, Pretty. Odd. by Panic! At The Disco, Crystal Castles, and K.Flay.
-Izzy
This list is chock full of absolute bangers which are, in my opinion, the top 10 albums of all time. Whether it is The Front Bottoms' self titled record, which is single handedly what got me into emo, or For Emma, Forever Ago, which made me cry in first period Spanish my sophomore year. Every album on this list has been so special to me at different parts of my life. Even though some of them may have been caught in the evil grips of prepubescent TikTok kids, they will never take away how special these records are to me.
-Rece
The Lamb as Effigy by Sprain. The most brutal, surprising, uncomfortable, and emotionally relentless project I've ever heard in my entire life. This thing does not let up, nor does the incredible and consistent musical and creative talent exhibited here. Alex Kent’s screams are perhaps the most emotionally rich screams I've ever heard. Naked, painful, expressive, dynamic, and unrelentingly aggressive. And this isn’t to knock his singing either, one listen to Privilege of Being or God, or Whatever You Call It and it’s obvious just how skilled he is with his cords. On top of this, his lyrics are straight poetry. Vulgar, curious, unsettling poetry. Lines like, "This song’s to ear as candiru’s to cock" (a candiru is a fish found in the Amazon River, among other places, that is said to attack humans by burrowing into the urethra of those who pee into the river) are tame compared to, "There is no message of the profound / In any top from which I spout / A jargon-cum-monument built with self in mind / Mosaic of erections rise in perfect sync with jurisdiction." Of course, in a lot of these curious moments you won’t necessarily pick up on what is being said the first time. It’ll take about three listens to even piece together the words that he is saying, and another to take a good stab at what it means. That last one isn’t too hard--he’s expressing that he feels that he has nothing left to say, or that what he says is of no importance or meaning, merely a self-congratulating, masturbatory process. But certain ones like, "Sense is a cross armed glance and silent nod between us / Both shackled and accessed by a constant waltz / Of pushing air and wagging tongues / The intimate marriage of sensation and response" take a bit longer to process, especially as you’re being presented with these intriguing strings of words at such a breakneck pace back to back to back. I could go on and on about this, but I will end it here with a loud: LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM!!
What’s there to say about Kid A that hasn’t been said a trillion times over? It’s brilliant, boundary-pushing, and most importantly to me, has an indescribable, piercing emotional depth hidden deep within its post-apocalyptic, dim and inhuman world. While it’s obvious in tracks like How to Disappear Completely and Motion Picture Soundtrack, it’s also found in smaller doses across the project. While at times cold, unfeeling, and robotic, it manages to create such a visceral emotional reaction in me. It functions much like horror--revealing truths about our nature through the unknown. I still remember the first time I heard Everything In Its Right Place. I still crack a smile every time the brass section comes in on The National Anthem. This album is an experience all the way through, and I have so many memories with it. And it predicted the release of Ice Age (2002)! "Ice age coming / Ice age coming" - Idioteque (2000).
Despite this only being third on the list, Midwife is by and large my favorite artist. I could amount it to many different things, but short and swee: everything just clicks for me. Speaking of short and sweet, Luminol is the shortest project on this list, adding up to only about thirty-three minutes. But even in that relatively short time (at least compared to the other albums on this list), by the time you’re finished, it’ll feel like you’ve been swimming (or drowning) in it for an eternity. Some people may see this as a bad thing, and that’s fair. Luminol is droning, repetitive, and meditative. Many of the songs repeat similar lyrical phrasing across their entire runtimes--many stick to the same lyrics over and over and over again. If that’s not your thing then that’s very understandable. But for the initiated, this is much more than a test of patience. It’s an exercise in exercising. In building and releasing. Midwife uses these simple, precise, effective slowcore instrumentals as a backdrop for her emotions to take center stage. And through these repeated "mantras" such as, "Show me the way," in Christina’s World and, "My body is against me / My body wants to kill me / My body is an army / My body's out to get me," in Enemy. Midwife uses simple phrases and frank statements that can seem somewhat trite on first listen, but upon further inspection, reveal themselves to be much more meaningful than the initial interpretation. Whenever I revisit this album, I always get something different out of it.
The solo, primarily acoustic project of Have A Nice Life’s Dan Barrett, Giles Corey is an exploration of pain, isolation, intense suffering, and depression. The album and project’s namesake fittingly takes after a victim of the Salem Witch Trials, one who refused to plead innocent or guilty, and thus was tortured by way of stone pressing to squeeze a plea out of him. Reportedly, Corey refused, simply saying, "More stones," until he was crushed and died. I couldn’t think of a more fitting protagonist here, as that is probably the best way to describe how it feels to listen through this album, although possibly with some sort of resurrection thrown in there, too. Across this project you will hear beautiful ballads of painful longing, discordant, noisy drones, and assertive, dark folk epics. This whole project is brimming with creativity, and never have I heard another vocalist utilize vocal layering to such great effect (except maybe Björk and Thom Yorke).
Now, this may be cheating, but I’m including both the original 2011 Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror) and the 2018 remake, Twin Fantasy, previously known as Twin Fantasy (Face to Face). In fact, Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror) was simply known as Twin Fantasy upon release. And the reason for that is partially why I’m including both versions into consideration. It’s not just the recording, mixing, and aesthetic differences which gives separate songs different times to shine across both projects (e.g. I much prefer the original Stop Smoking and Sober to Death, meanwhile, I prefer the new versions of Bodys and Beach Life-In-Death), but the intentional differences in the lyrics and presentation. You see, this isn’t just a straight remake, it’s an opportunity for Will Toledo to reevaluate a relationship he wrote a whole album about at nineteen years old, a whole seven years later. His twenty-six year old perspective is radically different from the one he had when writing the project, and he most certainly has different feelings about it. This is where the "Face to Face" and "Mirror to Mirror" concept comes in. It comes from a bible verse spoken in Famous Prophets (Stars):
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. At the end of my childhood, I put these ways behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).
In Mirror to Mirror, he was experiencing what he was writing about as he was writing about it, concurrently. It was characterized partially by his clouded judgement and limited experience in life. In Face to Face, he is viewing it from a completely different perspective, one of reflection upon experience, rather than experience itself. And from that comes a much more mature perspective, subtly communicated in certain changed lyrics, and most obviously in this Famous Prophets (Stars) song, which gains about six minutes in runtime. One of the most simultaneously optimistic and gut-wrenching lines on the whole project comes towards the end of this song before the bible verse. He says, "And when the mirror breaks / I wouldn’t miss it for the world." Knowing the context, this line gets me every time. He has chosen not to escape adulthood, but embrace its permanent change to a new self. Somehow, I’ve gotten this far and haven’t mentioned why this is so interesting and engaging for me. While some of the songs on these projects can get a little tired after a while, what never gets old is the brilliant writing and lyricism. Will Toledo was an English major, and you can tell. While not as poetic as Sprain, Will utilizes wit and wordplay to communicate the abstract feelings of his young, emotional, confused, queer self so effectively. "Thank god for the little things and, and fuck god that they’re little things / I am running out of prayers to sing," and "It should be called anti-depression / As a friend of mine suggested / Because it's not the sadness that hurts you / It's the brain's reaction against it," are some good examples. Anyways, banger album(s)--so good it’s number five and still has the longest writeup on it.
-Nick
Confining my favorite albums of all time to simply ten choices will always be a little dissatisfying. No matter how I rearrange them or which ones I add and take away, I am eternally unsure if I have a definitive top ten albums. Readymade's criminally underrated On Point and Red is probably the biggest no-brainer on this list. It's just such a perfect, lo-fi, spacey shoegaze album with drawn-out ballads and memorable poppier songs. It's such an achievement of sound and atmosphere, I have to recommend it to any and everyone. Alexisonfire's self-titled embodies those same qualities of impressive atmosphere, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's just a beast of an emo-violence record written and performed by mere high schoolers at the time. Alvvays will always (lol) be in rotation for me. If I had to do this blog 3 years ago, their sophomore record Antisocialites would likely be in the place of Blue Rev, but they top themselves with every new LP and redefine dream pop again and again, so my opinion changes accordingly. Sebadoh's Bakesale was my first introduction to lo-fi indie and the underbelly of 90s rock--grungy, yet poppy, and entirely it's own thing. Red House Painters changed my perspective on music forever. I wish I could put nearly every album they've released here, but their first self-titled record of three contains some of my favorite RHP songs, so I'll settle for that one. Mountain Rock was integral to my teen girl experience with somber folky songs that wormed their way into my heart. Unconditional Love Type Chillers is a ridiculously hidden and forgotten behemoth of garage rock and mathy emo that talks about beers and farts. My best friend and I learned every word to most of the album in high school. You're Living All Over Me is obligatory--the album art literally lives all over me as a tattoo. 12 RODS' Gay (Ep) became the only thing I listened to for about 4 months a few years ago, and I still think it has to be one of the most unique and ambitious indie rock releases from the 90s.
Lastly, and easily the latest addition to this list, is Fleshwater's debut album, We're Not Here to Be Loved. Sometimes I think it was chemically crafted in a lab and designed for my ears. Femme vocals in heavier genres are very few and far between, and this album is a reminder of how powerful clean vocals can compliment a post-hardcore album like this one endlessly. Thank you, Foster, for being a great co-host for The Local Shampoo, and including me in your blogging adventures this year, I love you buddy!
*Topster does not have the correct album art for Unconditional Love Type Chillers, also it’s wiped off the face of streaming services, but I promise it’s real and awesome guys.
-Cheyenne
It is so incredibly difficult to limit this to 10 albums as a musician. I feel indebted to so many records. I was torn between highlighting records that are important to the history of music, that I believe shaped this world I’m only just now a part of, or records that I rate as my 10 favorite. I decided this was to highlight records that are near and dear to my heart, personally. I chose albums that deeply affected and changed not only the way I listen to and write music, but also the course of my life. For HTRK, it was hard to pick a record, but ultimately I thought Marry Me Tonight was their quintessential album. I want to honorably mention first my friends in Washed who I love dearly, and the records of Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix, Psychic TV, The Legendary Pink Dots, Les Rallizes Dénudés, Cocteau Twins, and THE GOSLINGS.
-Ivan
Okay, I admit that this is nearly impossible. I had a few for sure picks in here like this under-appreciated and horribly, HORRIBLY unknown album by Halves, and Low's masterpiece, Things We Lost In the Fire, but a lot of these other picks were things that have been resonating with me recently. I am dead-set on the fact that Febuary's (sort of) self titled album is the greatest emo record of all time, and I had to show some love to my baby girls. Slint, Grouper, Swans, and Elliott Smith are obvious inclusions. The pAper chAse's Now You Are One of Us is included simply because it changed the way I thought about rock music, same for Xiu Xiu's The Air Force. Honorable mentions include the records of Jeff Buckley, Coldplay (I know, but they legitimately made some of the most excellent adult alternative records of the 00s), Mr. Bungle, Chat Pile, The Microphones, Red House Painters, and Daughters.
Thank you all for reading. We're going to take a little break now. Bye bye. Love you.
-Foster
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