There are plenty of obvious "lightening in a bottle" type albums out there, like London Calling, Andy's Warehouse, Born to Quit, Pet Sounds and Burn Your Cardigan, but what are some less obvious choices that would make your list? Show me yours and I'll show you mine.
Urge Overkill's - Saturation, and Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne.
ReplyDeleteThe Stone Roses -- The Stone Roses
ReplyDeleteOasis - Definitely Maybe
Under a Blood Red Sky
Beatles- Rubber Soul
ReplyDeleteEC- This Year's Model
Kinks - Give the People What They Want
Flop - Fall of the Mopsqueezer
OK -- what do we mean by lightning in a bottle? I originally took it to mean something brilliant but somehow ephemeral -- very much of its time. But seeing these other picks, I looked into it, and, other than "something almost impossible," there doesn't seem to be seem to be any accepted or even popular meaning. Mike?
ReplyDeleteWhat I was looking for from this question was the "brilliant ephemeral" but something less obvious, like Joe's picks. The ones I had in mind were:
ReplyDeleteCracker - Kerosene Hat
Greenday - Nimrod
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
When I'm at a loss for what to listen to, I come back to these, along with some more obvious ones. Jay's solo blog made me think of this. I wasn't hoping for the "ultimate" tour de force albums, but some I might've overlooked, like say Urge Overkill's Saturation.
I refer you to my solo blog for my picks. Those are all discs that I listened to for a solid month or more, almost exclusively.
ReplyDeleteTo add my .02, I also think of lightning in a bottle as something great the artist produced but wasn't able to do again. With the exception of Radiohead, I'm not a super-huge fan of any of those bands, or anything else from their catalogs. That's why I was initially surprised by Dave's picks.
And lightening in a bottle, if I'm not mistaken, is bleach.
I think that's the meaning in Hoyle, the never quite being able to reproduce it. I think the metaphor of the phrase goes best with actual lightening, hadn't heard bleach called that, but of course, what I don't know about home cleaning products could nearly be stuffed into Liberty Bowl stadium.
ReplyDelete