5 cd's that i think you should listen to again........or for the first time.

There are certain recordings that I play over and over. I’ll forget about them for a year at a time, then suddenly need to hear them again and play them for a period of time. These five are ones that I’ve been playing consistently and each time they sound fresh again:

1) “baltimore”/nina simone: nina hated this album and was quite vocal about it during her lifetime. She was on the skids career wise when she signed with a small belgian label to record one album. When she arrived in the studio, she found out that she had no choice in songs, arrangements or side men. Maybe it’s that rage that makes this album so outstanding. The only sour note in the collection is “rich girl”, the hall and oates song…you can tell from her voice she hated singing it. The rest of the recording is nina at the top of her game.

2) “kissin’ time”/marianne faithfull: after surviving the gottdammerung of the 60’s pop world, marianne faithfull spent several years homeless as a junkie, living on the street. Then, in the late 70’s she came back with a vengence. This album from 2002 is a collaboration with some of the current pop stars. It’s woth the price just for the opening cut, “sex with strangers”, one of her numbers with beck. But the recording goes on from there without a dud. Listen to “sliding thru life on charm” and you’ll know what it’s like to be marianne. And as a bonus on the american cd, you get “something good”, the herman’s hermits song, to leave you on the perfect high.

3) “I am a bird now”/antony and the johnsons: what can you say about antony hegarty? Tall and husky, a part-time drag queen with an ethereal voice that isn’t like anything you’ve ever heard. There’s almost a feral quality to his singing. “hope there’s someone”, his song about hiv, is heartbreaking. This is the high point of his career so far and it was only his second album.

4) “masked and anonymous”/film soundtrack: this soundtrack to the bob Dylan film could have been an epic disaster…except bob Dylan personally picked all of the cuts. “my back pages” in Japanese? Shirley Caesar tearing through “gotta serve somebody”? an Italian rap version of “like a rolling stone”? Turkish pop star sertab doing “one more cup of coffee”? it may sound terrible but it grows on you.

5) “the future”/leonard cohen: anything leonard cohen does is worth listening to, even his really bad songs. This cd has “the future” as an opening cut. It’s one of his best songs and you’ll want to listen to it over and over to catch each word. And then you get “waiting for a miracle”, “closing time”, “anthem”, “democracy”……..each song equal to the last and worthy of being the “good” cut on a cd of it’s own. An embarassment of riches.

comments? what are your equivalent cd?s?