A Rich Man Decides...

...to strand me on a desert island. He says I get a solar powered CD player and just ten CDs to last me until I'm dead or rescued. This is a list of what my load out would be.

Besides The Rich Man's condition, I have a few self-imposed rules. I didn't allow myself to pick greatest hits albums. Even though picking greatest hit's albums would help condense the song quality, it would wash out the character of individual albums and make this blog way too boring. I might do a best greatest hits albums at a later date (he says as he squints and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose). I also won't allow myself to pick more than one CD by the same artist. I can't say exactly why, but I can't let myself make a top 10 list and include two things by the same artist/director. My loss I guess.

Without further ado, the list.

10) The Postal Service - Give Up

This album is the perfect blend of grooving electronic beats that make you want to dance ever-so-subtle dance moves, with a generous helping bittersweet and well crafted lyrics. When I want to listen to an upbeat, danceable song about surviving a nuclear holocaust this is the album I grab. While stranded on the island this is what I'd listen to when I wanted to bask in the ridiculousness of the scenario.







9) The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

A great album from start to finish, both from an individual song perspective and taken as a whole. "Waiting for Superman" would be a goto track for the times I wanted to bask in the futility of life and the cruelty of false hope. It was a close call between this and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I'm stranded on a desert island, not in a dystopian future, so The Soft Bulletin seemed more appropriate.






8) Kanye West - The College Dropout

I love this CD. When I was flat broke, slinging coffee at Starbuck's "We Don't Care" made me feel better about my craptastic life. I'm pretty sure I don't have to say too much about this album since I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of it. This would be for those eff-the-world-I-love-being-on-a-desert-island days. While Late Registration was great as well, and the tracks I've heard from the new album sound great, this one has been with me longer and I know it has the staying to last until death/rescue. Hell, I even like the skits!





7) Kid Koala - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I am a big Kid Koala fan. He's one of those artists that makes me think, "if I had the ability to make this kind of music, this is exactly what I would have made." Having a kid koala CD with me would be the closest I could get to having a clone of myself on the island. A bit offtopic, but a clone of yourself is really the best company for a deserted island. You share the same interests and if times ever get hard and one of you has to eat the other at least one of you still survives.






6) The Velvet Underground & Nico - Self-titled

For rock and Roll lovers, this is the first real "no duh" entry on the list. This album is just distilled awesomeness. If you haven't listened to it, do it now... I'll wait for you to get back. Great wasn't it? Also, if the island I end up on has psychedelic frogs I can lick, I assume this album would go up a slot or two.






5) Hot Chip - Coming on Strong

Mellow, dancable, lyrically brilliant, quirky, fun and wicked radical, Hot Chips debut LP is all of the above. When I first got it into iTunes the entire CD rocketed to the top of our 25 Most Played list. The best part is that Hot Chip occupies a musical corner all by themselves and I don't have to worry about it overlapping with the rest of the list. The CD would be for those warm island nights when my animal friends came by unexpectedly and were in a party mood, but we didn't want to go out anywhere.





4) Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

This is the first entry that might be considered cheating by The Rich Man. If forced to choose either Speakerboxxx or The Love Below I think I'd have to dump it from the list and pick something else. The two albums together are a perfect blend of yin and yang (not to be confused with the horrific Ying Yang Twins). The real reason this makes the list and is so high up is because this album is the utility infielder of the group. It can fill the chilled R&B vibe or step up into the rap position and hold it's own. I can't think of another album that does this range of music so consistently well.




3) The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

I'm cheating a bit again with this triple CD. But despite the extreme length of this album, this in not just a play for more quantity. I love this triple CD from the first track to the last. The music is diverse, but all of it is quality. If you haven't heard it, get it now and give it a shot. There's no way I can describe all of the vibes and grooves from the 69 song collection, but they are all catchy and lyrically sweet-ass. This would be another utility player in the island collection, being something I could spend an afternoon listening to, or as a toolbox of songs that I can pull the music the moment demands from.


2) Beck - Midnight Vultures

It pained me to restrict myself to only one Beck CD. Mellow Gold was the first CD I ever bought, and I like everything he's ever done. Yeah, everything. I picked Midnight Vultures because I thin kit would do the best job of staving off depression. Also in a desert island situation robot sex might become easier to relate too, actually making a good 50% of the songs better as time went on. I also might be able to find things on the island that made annoying noises that I could play along to the CD with. Seriously though, great CD.



1) The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle

This Album is the best rock album to come out of the 60s. This is another one that might be a "no duh" for rock fans. It is like awesomeness congealed into a lump of vinyl and The Zombies pressed it into this beauty of a record. If the amazing music wasn't enough, "This Will Be Our Year" is Megan and my song, and if there's one thing I'm going to miss during my stint on the desert island it's her. I don't want to taint a good rock and roll list with some super mushy love stuff, but this was an easy pick for #1 for a good reason.








That's the list. I kinda wanted to bring a Weezer CD, but I can't spend a whole CD for 25 minutes worth of music. The Brain Candy Soundtrack almost made it, but as the lone compilation it made the list as a whole lot weaker I think.