(More Facebook cross-posting)....

1. Monkees, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD: Taught me at a wee age that albums could be more than just a group of songs and that going slightly off-center can produce best results (blip.fm/~3dc11).

2. Pink Floyd, Animals: Albums could adhere to a single, coherent narrative, with music & lyrics reinforcing each other. Also, spare the frippery: Not a wasted note or word here. Sum: Dark, menacing, & still enjoyable on the right night after 30 years (blip.fm/~3dc9o)

3. Brian Eno, Another Green Word: Music could create its own space, and could follow its own internal logic. Also Multi-layering: This is pleasing to hear in the background and charmingly alien at close listen (blip.fm/~3dck6).

4. D.J. Shadow, Endtroducing: Another dark one, but in which songs were built (sampled from other songs) rather than "played." For me, it pointed to new ways of doing things (compositing, recontextualization) and revealed the secret loneliness of kitsch. (blip.fm/~3dd93)

5. "Rolling Stones, "Let It Bleed": I picked this more as a representative sample of everything the Stones did from 68-71. Even the boots. Especially the boots.

There have been songs that rocked harder than these, but none have pulsed as deeply or as richly. Filled w/ humor, melody, beauty, horror, evil, honesty and insincerity, these songs are guttural and luminescent all at the same time. They taught me that art is subtle and that life always offers more than what first appears to the eye, if you just dig at it a bit. (blip.fm/~3de3c).