1. Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted, Matador, 1992The album that lit the quietest pop-cultural explosion ever
Pocos debuts en la historia de la música han sido tan brillantes y han tenido tanta influencia en grupos posteriores como "Slanted and Enchanted" de Pavement. Grupo originario de Stockton, California, formado en sus inicios por Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg y Gary Young revolucionaron el mundo de la música "indie" con esta obra maestra del caos y del ruído con una producción que rozaba lo casero (el propio Malkmus reconocería después que más que un sonido buscado era fruto de la inexperiencia y de la poca pericia a la hora de tocar) pero que rezumaba talento por los cuatro costados. Canciones cortas, letras surrealistas, feedbacks furiosos, el desorden convertido en arte. Sonaba a muchos grupos conocidos (The Velvet Underground, Dinosaur Jr, The Fall...) pero al mismo tiempo era algo absolutamente nuevo, moderno. Muchos años después Damon Albarn se enamoraría de Malkmus, y el resto es historia.
Download: “Summer Babe (Winter Version),” “Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at :17,” “Here”
2. Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation, Blast First/Enigma, 1988Arty New York punks hallucinate a youth revolution with de-tuned guitars
If Slanted and Enchanted was indie’s Sgt. Pepper’s, this was its version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland: a double-LP psych-out that exploded like a car bomb. Befitting Reagan-era Manhattan, its acid punk is bad-trippy. But original MILF Kim Gordon made it sexy, and its majestic, alien-transmission guitar sound shaped a generation (see Pavement).
Bajate: “Teen Age Riot,” “Silver Rocket”
5. Pixies, Surfer Rosa, 4AD, 1988In a playful way, one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands was as crazy as he was
The frumpy Bostonians had psychotic surf guitars, surrealist sex-starved shrieking and clangorous, eardrum-punishing noise. But their full-length debut also cranked out tune after tune of bizarre bubblegum fun. The loud-quiet-loud dynamics and Black Francis’s warped-teen scream rattled walls, but bassist-vocalist Kim Deal’s chalky, cheery singing added the right pinch of cuteness.
Bajate: “Bone Machine,” “Gigantic”
10. The Smiths, The Smiths, Rough Trade, 1984Wusses of the world, unite!
Guess what, boys: It’s OK to be miserable. That’s the lesson to be drawn from this debut, wherein guitarist Johnny Marr jangles merrily and Morrissey swoons like a heartbroken lady-in-waiting whose corset is too tight. It set the lilac-scented stage for years of sexless yearning that would follow.
Bajate: “This Charming Man,” “Hand in Glove”
28. The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs, Merge, 1999Maybe the greatest old-fashioned tune whiz never to have a hit
Indie rockers usually eschew conventional songcraft; melody geyser Stephin Merritt is addicted to it. On this three-disc testament to pop’s primary obsession, the resplendently gay, devilishly smart, hilariously deadpan NYC crooner cycled every style of the 20th century through his synth-pop aesthetic, rhyming Ferdinand de Saussure, kosher and closure in the process.
Download: “The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure,” “A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off”
26. Belle and Sebastian, If You’re Feeling Sinister, The Enclave, 1996Songs about girls who like boys who like boys who like …
Stuart Murdoch made it cool to be a sexually confused aesthete for the first time since the Smiths. On his septet’s second album, populated by messed-up teenagers straight out of J.D. Salinger, he distilled the blithely tuneful indie-pop aesthetic into intoxicatingly potent songs with elegant, formal orchestrations.
Download: “The Stars of Track and Field,” “Seeing Other People”
23. Yo La Tengo, Painful, Matador/Atlantic, 1993Feedback that wraps you up like a favorite fall sweater
Husband-and-wife team Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, foster parents to a million heartwarming squalls, spent the sweetest record of their 20-year career mumbling about the strangeness of love over haunting distortion, meditative folk and droning organs. A garage-rock version of domestic bliss.
Download: “From a Motel 6,” “Big Day Coming”
69. Nick Drake, Pink Moon, Island, 1972The granddaddy of whispery wimp-folk
This English hermit didn’t record much before he died from an overdose of antidepressants, but his sainted image looms over anyone who ever shut their bedroom door and strummed the world away.
Download: “Pink Moon,” “Free Ride”
68. Descendents, Milo Goes to College, New Alliance, 1982Good at science, less so at life
Milo Aukerman lashes out at girls, parents and the SoCal suburbs in red-eyed rants that sounded great echoing off half-pipes.
Download: “Suburban Home,” “Bikeage”
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario