Guilty Pleasures
This little meme is from The Music Memoirs by way of Welcome to the pond.
Top Five Albums People Wouldn't Believe You Own (Guilty Pleasures)
Here's my list. Please note that I have included only music that I actually own, and not music that I've, uh, borrowed from friends.
1. ABBA Gold (ABBA)
Yes, I know that this is disco. And unlike a lot of current fans of the genre, I was actually alive when it was popular. Disco, on the whole, is garbage, but I love this group's work. It's unapologetically bright, upbeat, and cheerful - even the sad songs. There have been a lot of covers/remakes of ABBA songs over the years, and nobody has managed to do them justice.
2. Das Lied von der Erde (Gustav Mahler)
A particularly bright musicologist once wrote: "Either you like Wagner's music or you don't. For some people, Wagnerian opera represents the highest form of art as a synthesis of music and drama. For others, it's just fat people shouting at each other in German for what seems like eternity."1 This is also a pretty good description of Mahler's choral work. I mainly bought this CD just to be able to say that I owned it. I don't know that it can be called a 'Guilty Pleasure', because I don't think I've ever made it through the entire piece in one sitting.
3. Fallen (Evanescence)
This is a little harsher than most of the music I normally listen to, but there are times when loud, mind-numbing guitars and Amy Lee's haunting vocals are just what I need to hear. [This entry would probably be supplanted by After Forever's "Prison of Desire", if I could find it at a price I was willing to pay.]
4. Kenny G Live (Kenny G)
Yes, the music is campy and full of fluff, even for Easy Listening / Smooth Jazz. But this album has sentimental value for me. I first heard it on my mission, and I came to love it. What can I say?
5. High Country Snows (Dan Fogelberg)
What? Fogelberg did a bluegrass album? Are you serious? Yes, and it's a pretty good piece of work. He got a lot of very talented studio musicians to play on the album, and his voice is well-suited to the kind of stories-in-song that the genre features.
So that's my list. I'd be interested to see what some of my fellow bloggers may reluctantly admit to having in their collections.
--
1 Barber, David W. Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys: Music History as It Ought to Be Taught; Sound and Vision: Toronto, ON, 1986; p 84.
Top Five Albums People Wouldn't Believe You Own (Guilty Pleasures)
Here's my list. Please note that I have included only music that I actually own, and not music that I've, uh, borrowed from friends.
1. ABBA Gold (ABBA)
Yes, I know that this is disco. And unlike a lot of current fans of the genre, I was actually alive when it was popular. Disco, on the whole, is garbage, but I love this group's work. It's unapologetically bright, upbeat, and cheerful - even the sad songs. There have been a lot of covers/remakes of ABBA songs over the years, and nobody has managed to do them justice.
2. Das Lied von der Erde (Gustav Mahler)
A particularly bright musicologist once wrote: "Either you like Wagner's music or you don't. For some people, Wagnerian opera represents the highest form of art as a synthesis of music and drama. For others, it's just fat people shouting at each other in German for what seems like eternity."1 This is also a pretty good description of Mahler's choral work. I mainly bought this CD just to be able to say that I owned it. I don't know that it can be called a 'Guilty Pleasure', because I don't think I've ever made it through the entire piece in one sitting.
3. Fallen (Evanescence)
This is a little harsher than most of the music I normally listen to, but there are times when loud, mind-numbing guitars and Amy Lee's haunting vocals are just what I need to hear. [This entry would probably be supplanted by After Forever's "Prison of Desire", if I could find it at a price I was willing to pay.]
4. Kenny G Live (Kenny G)
Yes, the music is campy and full of fluff, even for Easy Listening / Smooth Jazz. But this album has sentimental value for me. I first heard it on my mission, and I came to love it. What can I say?
5. High Country Snows (Dan Fogelberg)
What? Fogelberg did a bluegrass album? Are you serious? Yes, and it's a pretty good piece of work. He got a lot of very talented studio musicians to play on the album, and his voice is well-suited to the kind of stories-in-song that the genre features.
So that's my list. I'd be interested to see what some of my fellow bloggers may reluctantly admit to having in their collections.
--
1 Barber, David W. Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys: Music History as It Ought to Be Taught; Sound and Vision: Toronto, ON, 1986; p 84.
posted by Michael at
10:54 PM
6 Comments:
Are you using MLA or ALA for that citing?
By
Your Host, At
January 08, 2005 9:49 AM
It's ACS, actually. (American Chemical Society)
By
Michael, At
January 08, 2005 3:59 PM
Okay, so Evanescence isn't really a 'guilty pleasure' as much as it is unexpected. Some people wouldn't imagine a CD like that to be in my collection. Like my mother - if I played that for her, she'd look at me like I'd grown another head.
By
Michael, At
January 08, 2005 11:04 PM
Thanks for playing along with the new meme!
Great answers..and I have the ABBA CD too :)
Have a great weekend, what's left of it!
By
The Mistress of the Dark, At
January 09, 2005 5:13 AM
I wonder what your mother would think if she listened to some of my stuff? Three heads, maybe?
By
dilliwag, At
January 09, 2005 11:47 PM
I've got that album, too. Hydra, that is, released by Toto in 1979. Good album. '99' was the only radio hit, but there are at least three of the other seven songs are better than that one.
By
Michael, At
January 10, 2005 2:07 PM
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