CP'S TOP TEN ALBUMS: #'s 5-7

#5 Sea Change by Beck

     Being awesome, Carmen has never been subject to having his heart-broken, but with unflinching certainty, he can attest that it sounds exactly like this album.  On every strummed minor chord or cello moan, you can feel a heart shattering into a thousand jagged opaque heart shards and the wobbly sighs that mist out as the jagged pieces make their painful way through the rest of the self.  This is melancholia on a whole other plateau.  This is reassembling the abstract puzzle of the hopes and dreams of what you thought your life was while being constantly draped by wet towels.  Bottomless Sadness.  As "Golden Age" floats through your skull like a sound mist with a tinge of false hope, the promise of starting anew, but in the brain attic  knowing full well that starting again is the last thing you want to do.  Somewhere on here is the recorded sound of a soul being torn apart by longing.  Every soundscape is laced with reverb, every note has a heartbeat and its rhythm is failing and it is crushing.  Lyrically, there isn't a metaphor in sight, not a line of whimsy or lyrical presumption.  Sea Change is assured only in its confusion and drift, in Beck's inability to reconcile his wondering, tortuous thoughts and his busted, bleeding everything.  Turns out it's really, really, really sad and its sadness is matched only by its beauty, which is a metaphor if CP ever saw one.

#6 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie

     Sure, The Beatles invented the concept album, but Bowie brought the concept into reality, while claiming that he was an alligator.  The percussive fade-in of "Five Years" ushers in a messianic tale of apocalypse, love, madness, connection, loss, sacrifice, and the redemptive power of music.  Throughout, Bowie's voice is desperate and confidant, moving from surreal reservation on the opening track to fraught squeals as he howls "you're not alone, take my hand" as "Rock & Roll Suicide" fades to a close.  The up-tempo tracks are stellar and the slower numbers, like "Starman," are chocked with dreamful wonder and DB's incomparable understanding of rock melody and orchestration never falters, which is a feat in respect to the different modes the album shifts through.  As always, the horns are brassy, the Les Paul's furious, the acoustics soothing, and the xylophones are slinky as spinal cords.  Ziggy Stardust is a perfect rock song.

#7 OKONOKOS by My Morning Jacket

      A flawless, massive live album from the Best American Rock Band in History.  Every song sounds like a twelfth encore, punctuated by epic, melodious guitar, dripping with psychedelia, Bonhamized drumming and Jim James' seraphic wail.  His voice is otherworldly (See JJ's covers of "Rocket Man" and Dylan's "Going To Acapulco" for sonic validation).  The band bashes the cochlea into concavity with its leaden cadence with gems like "Run Thru," a with schizoid haiku lyrics and a density of sound approaching neutron star levels.  Shimmering epics like "Gideon" and "Dondante" are volatile and cascading and splendent.  "Steam Engine" massages the soul with its reverb waterfall and slide guitar heroics, calmly telling you of the soul's permanence, lullabying you into utter agreement before pounding certainty into your self-core with its pulverizing outro drum solo.  "Dancefloors" is fun.