Albums You Need to Listen To: The Bare Essentials

As we move into the holiday spirit, the ineffable sales cometh to purge the CDs from the shelves and into your music collection. To my surprise, many people don’t participate in this quest as I do and in fact, most people I’ve talked to recently are completely music illiterate, which I simply do not approve of. By “music illiterate,” I’m of course referring to me mentioning Led Zeppelin in conversation and nobody knowing who I’m talking about or the comment this week of Weezer’s “Make Believe” album being one of their best albums. While to some, this is laughable, I must say I’m deeply saddened by this trend of wussing out on music for the meager substitute of something like J-pop or, God help us, the music of games like “DDR” and “Guitar Hero” which suddenly consume peoples’ souls. For these people and many of you out there who will soon become lost little lambs, I shall shepherd you into the Garden of Rock.

The basic staple of any music collection has been and always will be at least one Beatles album. I say this not as a Beatle fan, but as a fellow human being; if you have never graced yourself with albums such as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” or “Let It Be”, you’re deficient in society and eventually will cease to function. These are simply really good albums, plain and simple, and the Beatles were and are very light and simple music for anybody to really to enjoy.

The second essential in the medley that is rock is the only Angus you need in your diet, AC/DC. To those who have never heard an AC/DC song, it is for you that I cry myself to sleep every night. For the most part, I believe that everyone has heard at least one AC/DC song, whether it is the classic “Highway to Hell” or the clean hearted fun that is “Big Balls”. My personal favorite is the album “Who Made Who” and the close second is “Highway to Hell”, both showcasing different points in the band’s history.

A group less well known now, but still awesome, weird and original nonetheless is Talking Heads. To those who have never heard of this group, that’s okay, I can’t blame anybody (except possibly society, because it’s just so easy to blame for all of life’s problems). Talking Heads is a 70’s American rock group that basically helped define the coming multitude of rock sub-genre’s with their crazy, different and strangely provocative brand of music. In saying the most cliché thing I believe I’ve ever said, two really good albums to suggest are “Stop Making Sense” and “Little Creatures”.

Finally, make sure by the fat man in a sleigh that you will, if you have never heard of them, seek to find out about The Who. That is vague, I know, but trust me, things are dire if you’ve never heard of The Who. Good album to check out by them would be “Who’s Next”.

Well, that about sums it up. For those whom this article was prescribed, get your sorry selves to a music store ASAP or, I promise you, James Hetfield will find a way to rock your soul to the grave. For those who are musically inclined, hopefully you learned something today. Rock on, people.