My 1001 Albums Journey

10/10 If you’re not into Country music and don’t understand the subject matter and setting of this record, it may be easy to misunderstand it as being exploitative or just not care about the mythos of this record in general. But let it be known, you need to listen to this album if you want to be knowledgeable at all about American music. America loves its damned, even if they deny it, even if they’re hypocritical in their love, even if we severely punish them in denial. The “Anti-Hero” is the fundamental archetype to American folklore, from the six shooters in the old west, to the New Hollywood vigilantes, to the Gangsta Rap icons of today, we have an innate addiction to morally complex characters, more so than we do morally righteous ones. We watch these characters through their Odysseys, we don’t necessarily yearn for them to win, but you can’t help but feel good about their victories, and hurt when we see these characters fall victim to the punishments that they likely warranted. We understand these moral complexities, we understand their mistakes, their horrible environments, their upbringings, their dilemmas, their irrationalities, and we seek a sort of redemption for them in spite of their wrongdoings. That is, until we talk about real life, one under a growing reactionary worldview, where we legally recognize slavery if it’s under incarceration, where we beg for harsher sentences, severe penalties for minor crimes, more law enforcement on the streets, and capital punishment. At Folsom Prison is our cling to humanity, for decades Johnny Cash would perform at many different prisons over the country unpaid because of a mere letter from inmates, he would campaign for prison reform, and would continue to write music that fought against this authority. The live album itself is a collection of songs about the very inmates he was performing to, he was telling their stories, these same stories that made Johnny Cash and several hundreds of songwriters, storytellers, and artists who they are. “My mama always told me, son always be a good boy, but I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.” As soon as Cash sings these words with his striking and deep brassy vocal cords, his wonderful guitar playing and phenomenal performances from the backing band bouncing off lifeless concrete walls, we hear the inmates whistle and cheer loudly. How do you feel knowing these same stories you love are being cheered on by men who have possibly committed these same heinous acts? Do you feel reprehensible? Hypocritical? Or do you view yourself in being in the same position as them? Its these prison walls that echo these complications gloriously, you’re subject to listening to some of the best Country songs ever written and performed, and in the audience made up of any subject matter of a Johnny Cash song, or a Scorsese movie, or any number of tall tales. https://youtu.be/6v1qNVZmofI?si=gpQ5lM_4fnFHdPNX

10/10 The Velvet Underground’s first 3 album run is possibly the greatest album run in Rock history, first by cementing an Art Rock classic in 1967, the most grotesque and Avant-Garde Noise Rock masterpiece in 1968, and with this, one of the most beautiful and lovely Pop albums of the 20th century. If you at all loved the lovely’s tunes on their first album, you are presented with an albums worth of wonderfully written and delightful melodies and tear jerking lyrics, a complete whiplash that displays the versatility and range of Lou Reed and company. I love gay people and Jesus!

7/10 This album is so aggressively 2009 I had to check if it had “BEST NEW MUSIC” by p4k and was like “yea” when I saw the 9.2 on the screen. Very nice album overall even if it didn’t go far enough in a lot of areas, it’s among the better “Avant-Pop” records of the late 2000s. This would hit the best if I had thick rimmed glasses, a flannel, timbs, and a handle bar mustache in a craft beer bar after voting for Obama.

9/10 The defining 90s Rock album was a decade too early, while Indie Rock had been on the rise at the time, I don’t think the genre would have a real blueprint until Surfer Rosa (and Doolittle but we’re not talking about her right now). The eccentricities, brashness, and shamelessness of Indie is captured in this 33 min runtime, from the very ugly and noisy Post-Hardcore, Post-Punk, and Cowpunk influences, to the hyper-emotional Grungey Alt-Rock cuts that MK Ultra any unstable youngling into bursting into tears and starting a band. Thank you Latinas

7/10 I admire it for being a sort of foundation for the better Contemporary/Alt-Country that exists today, it’s a pristine sounding album that carries a lot of emotion and a slick sheen. The Bob Dylan influences are pretty obvious and at points get a bit distracting, but it’s consistently a really good sounding album in spite of its shortcomings in songwriting. Can an emo boy and a country boy really fall in love 🥺