The Young Gods - L'eau rouge (1989)

Recently I've re-started collecting CDs instead of MP3s or other such ways of owning my favorite music. For one thing as someone who prefers a full album to a single song CDs just offer the best way to obtain high-quality, easily back-up-able recordings. For another there's plenty of ways for online music to screw you out of being able to listen to a given song or album you want to hear. But I'm also discovering an unfortunate side to the albums on CD model, in the form of the dreaded "bonus track".

U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)

I got a comment from my sister on my recent review of Californication saying The Red Hot Chili Peppers were her least favorite band. In her own words, "I'd rather listen to U2 (and that's saying a lot)." Now I don't really know a lot about U2, other than I generally don't like them or their music. But I don't really have a good reason why. I know I didn't really like the one album of their's I've heard so far. I also know they have a massive air of pretentiousness surrounding them, whether it's an applied attribute given them by a presupposing media, or their own fault by taking themselves uber-serious and using album names such as How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Fela Kuti (Fela and Afrika 70) - Zombie (1976)

Next on my list is a Eurythmics album, and I don't want to do any 80s music after Dinosaur Jr. In yet another moment of self-indulgence, I've decided to skip ahead a little and pick out an album just because I feel like listening to it. To honor my younger brother's relatively new band, not to mention his adorable kitten, I'm picking the other Fela Kuti album that appears on The Big List, the politically charged Zombie.

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (1974)

Recently my younger brother got seriously into Steely Dan and begged me to listen to everything they'd ever done. I told him I'd get around to it sometime, but I can't just skip ahead every time someone suggested I absolutely had to listen to something. I skip around in my list often enough on my own. If I kept jumping ahead to things I wanted to listen to I'll never get to the crap that everyone would agree doesn't belong.

Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones (1983)

You should never judge an album by its cover. Still, Hearts And Bones has one of the worst covers I've ever seen. It looks like a VHS still image from a snuff film that's sat in a puddle for ten years. And what the hell is that guy wearing?

The Beatles Interlude - An Introduction

Mekons - Fear and Whiskey (1985)

(originally posted on Facebook)