Terça-feira 6 Mar 2012, 18h:31

1) Slint - Spiderland
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Spiderland is simply one of the most pioneering and amazing albums of all time. A tour de force from beginning to end, it signals a new way to make music, playing a huge role in the creation of "post-rock", and capturing the new musical emphasis on slow and piercing guitars, not loud voices; on expression, not aggression. The hushed whispers of Brian McMahan feel at the same time full of emotion and alienating, intriguing yet repelling. But perhaps the most accomplished playing comes from the drummer Britt Walford, who controls the intensity of the song with virtuoso playing, most pronounced in the two epics "Washer" and "Good Morning Captain". In "Good Morning Captain", McMahon repeats "I miss you" again and again, changing from tranquility to intense in mere seconds, relating the shame of the captain as he doesn't go down with his ship. The seemingly arbitrary stories, like the rollercoaster ride of "Breadcrumb Trail" to the love story of "Washer", are parables of the modern age, of finding one's inner child, of love and longing, of suicide ("Embracing thoughts of tonight's dreamless sleep"). It's an incredibly harrowing listen, and certainly not worth listening to too often, but when the time is right, there's simply no album better. 10 fucking stars.

2) My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
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The early 90s saw not only a revolution in electronic/dance music, but concurrently a return to the days of good old indie rock. The 80s had become too bloated, full of hair metal and posturing lead guitarists, with a focus on attitude rather than expression. My Bloody Valentine is the weird result you get when you mix the anti-guitar-heroism of the Smiths with the FUCKINGNOISYGUITARS of bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground before them all. MBV were a revolution in what noise sounds like - the pioneers of the "shoegaze" genre, they'd stare at their shoes and fiddle with their amps - musicians, not performers. It comes across in the music too - like the album cover, MBV are full of fuzz, creating a simultaneously warm and foreign sound, which can be seen in songs like "When You Sleep", "Only Shallow", the sobering "Sometimes" and the masterpiece of a closer "Soon".

3) Primal Scream - Screamadelica
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The power of Screamadelica can be seen in four songs - the magnificently sunny and upbeat "Movin' On Up", the song immortalised by a certain Carphone Warehouse advert "Come Together", its second half "Loaded" and the incredibly sobering "Damaged". Was the album intended to convey the feeling of shooting up, with the initial high, the continued buzz and then the comedown? Perhaps. It's incredibly difficult to ignore this album, not only because of its intricate detail but also because of its importance - it rivals "Nevermind" as being THE revolutionary album of a revolutionary year. It brought acid house, techno and dub all together and packaged it for the British mainstream in one huge dose, showing huge guts and innovation, transcending the sounds of the 90s to remain a tour de force in unconventional rock music.

4) Nirvana - Nevermind
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Nirvana's Nevermind was the soundtrack to generation X. They weren't much pioneers - the sound of angry guitars can be seen in the eighties with Minor Threat and Fugazi and the hard/soft contrast was made most famous by Pixies, but no one captured the teenage angst-charged angrily-shouted lyrics like they did. It was loud punky guitars, but filled with undeniable hooks which pushed the previously underground scene of the eighties right up to the MTV generation and mainstream celebrity. The director of this was of course Kurt Cobain, a charming, charismatic frontman, the last great superstar of rock, his growl developed with whiskey, drugs, and incredibly intense band sessions - His voice could give out within two minutes of him starting. The album contains absolutely huge songs, from "Lithium", to "Come as you Are", from the epic closer of "Something in the Way", to the song that started it all in "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

5) Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam
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6) U2 - Achtung Baby
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7) Metallica - Metallica
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8) Massive Attack - Blue Lines
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9) R.E.M. - Out of Time
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10) Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
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