Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

I posted this same list on Facebook but I thought I would do it again here.  I made my list on paper without spending much time thinking.  It was harder that I thought.  If you would like to participate, post your list in the comments.

This is in no particular order:

Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes
REM: Murmur
Bruce Springsteen: The River
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
LCD Soundsystem: LCD Soundsystem
Wilco: Being There
Tom Petty: Long After Dark
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run
Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Beasty Boys: Licence to Ill
Bob Marley: Legend
The Who: Who's Next
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Simon and Garfunkel: Greatest Hits
AC/DC: Back in Black

It will be fun to add to this list (or subtract) as I am reminded of other great music.

Charlie says:  The band name derives from singer/guitarist Marcus Mumford, the rest of the band member are not actually his sons but, as the as the name implies, they make one big happy family.

It surprises me that a debut album could sound so clean, finished and deep.  The title track "Sigh No More" directly quote Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, maybe implying that love is but one aspect of a relationship and not that important.  I don't really know. Regardless, the song starts off with group harmonies straight from the Fleet Foxes and builds in intensity, as almost all Irish songs do, to a loud urgent cry of suffering.

The best song on the album is "Little Lion Man" about someone taking the responsibility for his past behavior.  I love the use of instruments, especially the banjo, which some day I will learn how to play.

If there is a complaint to be made about this album it is the construction of each song from soft harmonies to high energy which makes each song seem similar.

On the Tina/Charlie promote it, lend it, deny it scale I loudly and energetically give it a promote it.

An extra note, Nate's favorite Mumford and Sons song is "Thistle and Weeds".

Tina says:  Mumford and Sons is a classic "Tina Album". They're heavy on the instruments, meaningful lyrics and a little twang. Many of the tracks on the album start off slow with a small amount of instrumentation, and then it builds as the song reaches the climax of the song. I enjoy the speed of the music and the excitement that it brings as you continue to listen. The banjo adds movement to each song, and brings in feeling. Each time the lead singer repeats and as something important to say, the banjo is brought in as a tool to exaggerate the feeling and the importance of that section of the song. This is especially true in, The Cave and Little Lion Man.

I too hear the Fleet Foxes, The Avett Brothers, and it should go without saying that there is a huge bluegrass influence. Little Lion Man is a great song, however my favorite song on the album is Roll Away your Stone. The beginning of the song starts out with a 17th century English waltz, and then continues to build throughout the entire song.

While I do not know nearly enough about Shakespeare but I do think that many of the songs follow the Shakespearian theme. Love, tragedy and death. I especially hear this in White Blank Page (could it be Romeo and Juliet?).

All and all I hear some really great things that I enjoy about this album, and on the Tina/Charlie promote it, lend it, deny it scale, this album is clearly a “I will tell the night” and promote it!

by Jack Kerouac

On the Road is a beatnik travelogue that sees Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty criss-cross the United States and finally ends up in Mexico. These journeys were basically hedonistic vacations of no purpose or redeeming quality what so ever.


I must admit, I am a snob. I do not enjoy spending time with people who treat me well. I do not like movies whose main characters are self centered and have no morals. Sal Paradise and Dean Moriatry were despicable characters. The only purpose for these journeys was to get stoned and escape their responsibilities.

They treated women like crap, family like crap, and ultimately each other like crap.

An album dissection is not the exactly the right term for what I have in mind, actually this will be more like a snap shot of my musical life and the roll this specific album took in it.  My first selection is The River by Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss entered my musical lexicon in the summer of 1979.  I was eleven when my parents decided to let me go to camp, in Tennessee.  Camp County Lad is an all boys camp that draws kids from all over the country.  It was there that I met Tim Dyke.  Tim was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan.  He once told me "I would buy an album of Bruce burping.  Bruce's Best Belches!" Tim's passion for Bruce manifested in everything around him.  Tim played Darkness on the Edge of Town five times a day.  He and David Dreyfus, another person I grew to worship, would spar by quoting Bruce lyrics back and forth, the pauses between quotes grew longer and longer until finally one of them would give up.  This was my first exposure to a true music fanatic and I caught the bug.

When I got home from camp, I was all Bruce all the time.  I bought Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. ,The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle , Born to Run , and Darkness on the Edge of Town and listen to them until they were my own.  I began to follow a musician for the first time and the anticipation of The River was almost too great. 

I bought, studied then listened to The River for two months straight.  Bruce sings and The E. Street Band play with passion and emotion.  "Two Hearts", "Point Blank", and "Stolen Car" are just some examples of that passion on The River. 

Before Bruce, I had only listened to the Beatles.  They have their place, a place for me rooted in bunk beds and stuffed animals, Bruce was the first musician that made me want to turn up the music full blast and scream along with him.  "Crush On You", "Cadillac Ranch", and "I'm A Rocker", all taxed my vocal cords and my parents.   

"The River", as a song, is almost perfect.  Starting with a haunting harmonica riff setting the stage for a tragedy.  I was just becoming aware of lyrics and lyrics like "for my ninetieth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat." strike to the core.  They spoke to me about the end of innocence and started me on a path of appreciation for great music.

So much of the love for music is situational.  When I listen to The River now, I feel many of the same emotions I felt the first time I heard it, but I know that it is because of Tim Dyke, camp, and my age when I first heard The Big Man blow his saxophone on "Drive All Night" that draws me to this album, an album that will always be very close to my heart.