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Check Out Some Old Music
2025 Edition
Last year, when I was experiencing some writer’s block, I decided to share some of my favourite music from years past. I’m in a similar situation right now so I figured I would do it again. I used to host a podcast that discuss albums on their anniversaries (either multiples of 5 or 10). And I’ve listened to a lot of music, so I have some idea of what I’m talking about. So here are some recommendations for music from years ending in 5. I won’t include my 2015 music recommendations because I don’t think anyone should listen to me when it comes to recent music but if you are interested, here is my list of the best music I’ve listened to from 2015.
Riley’s Best Albums of 2005:
Ry Cooder: Chavez Ravine: A “roots opera” about the building of Dodger Stadium and the displacement of the people that lived there beforehand.
The Mars Volta: Frances the Mute: 21st century prog rock for people who love post hardcore.
Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out: One of the Haden triplets performs an A Capella cover of The Who’s third album.
Bill Frisell: East/West: Two sets from one of the greatest jazz guitarists of his era.
Bill Frissell: Richter 858: That same guitarist wrote some pieces for string quartet.
Konono No. 1: Congotronics: I haven’t listened to this in like two decades but, at the time, I really liked this combination of traditional African music with electronic music.
The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan: Probably my least favourite of their albums to date but I absolutely loved them back then. Reminds me I should listen to their oeuvre again as it’s been a while.
Dave Douglas: Keystone: A major jazz trumpeter incorporates turntables into his sound.
Queen of the Stone Age: Lullabies to Paralyze: When I first listened to this I think I was super contrarian and claimed it was their best album. It’s not but I really liked it for a while.
Wilco: Kicking Television: This is a solid live album - a great introduction - however I’ve heard and seen better, in person, on Austin City Limits and via some of their b“Road Case” shows. At their live peak (late aughts, early teens) they were one of the best live bands in the world.
Riley’s Best Albums from 1995:
Mr. Bungle: Disco Volante: My favourite avant rock band’s best album (even if it isn’t my favourite any more). In my late teens this album warped my fragile little mind and I was never the same. You can expect, um…metal, ska, electronica, various forms of jazz, Arabic music and Klezmer, musique concrete and louge music, among other things. “Merry Go Bye Bye” is my favourite track from this one. Approach with caution.
Blind Melon: Soup: This is one of the greatest alternative rock albums ever made. Take it from me, I have listened to a lot of alternative rock. This is not the “No Rain” album but the album they made after they had their big hit. The first track is going to scare you away, don’t let it.
Whiskeytown: Faithless Street: My favourite alt country album but one I loved from the expanded edition which includes bonus tracks. I feel like half of my favourite songs from this are actually from the bonus tracks. Oops. Still, it’s my favourite alt country record if I pretend the original version never existed.
Scott Walker: Tilt: The beginning of the weirdest second act in the history of pop singers.
Radiohead: The Bends: As the saying goes, if Radiohead had broken up after this album or just made the same album a bunch of times going forward, they would still be a pretty great band. If you’re a Radiohead doubter, start with this or In Rainbows.
Messhugah: Destroy Erase Improve: One of the great metal albums of the 1990s. This is to ’90s metal as The Shape of Punk to Come is to ‘90s punk.
The Geraldine Fibbers: Lost Somewhere Between the World and My Home: The noisiest alt country you are ever going to hear. I love this record. It is criminally under-known.
Pavement: Wowee Zowee: Less accessible than their first two records, still love it though.
Faith No More: King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime: Though not their best album this is my favourite. So many different styles in addition to their main one (funk metal). And my all-time favourite FNM song, “Just a Man.”
The Flaming Lips: Clouds Taste Metallic: I will die on the hill that this is The Flaming Lips’ best album. I very much prefer their guitar-based era to their 21st century music.
Riley’s Best Albums from 1985:
The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy and the Lash: The best punk interpretation of roots music put to vinyl, in my humble opinion. It does not contain that song but it does contain a song they cover which I used to post on Facebook every year on November 11th.
[tie] Possessed: Seven Churches: The invention of death metal. (Yes, that’s right. I’m saying Death didn’t invent death metal. Or, at least they didn’t get their LP out first.)
[tie] Tom Waits: Rain Dogs: Waits’ second “Waitsian” album is less important than the first because it didn’t invent the sound. But I might like it more?
Mekons: Fear and Whiskey: The birth of alt country?
Celtic Frost: To Mega Therion: Possibly the first black metal album but also there’s a French horn. Seriously.
Slayer: Hell Awaits: I mean, it’s Slayer.
Hüsker Dü: New Day Rising: Not as diverse as Zen Arcade but still a fundamental document in the history of post-hardcore.
Oliver Knussen: Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Now this is children’s music.
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy: Full disclosure I don’t like this album. But it’s 9th on this list due to my grudging acceptance of its rather massive historical importance in helping to invent shoegaze.
Gothic Voices: A Feather on the Breath of God: The album that started the Medieval music craze and brought Europe’s first major composer - Hildegard of Bingen - to attention,
Riley’s Best Albums from 1975:
Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert: The most famous of Jarrett’s numerous “spontaneous” performances. I’ve always doubted whether he really has no idea what he’s going to play beforehand - this just seems too conceived - but it is still among the most beautiful solo piano jazz of the 1970s.
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here: At least when I was younger, this was my favourite Floyd album. They split their typical side-long track in two and use it to bookend three songs two of which feature perhaps Waters’ best sets of lyrics.
[tie] Neil Young: Tonight’s the Night: Recorded two years earlier, Young famously used this album and two others to drive his career “into the ditch” after the success of Harvest. So much other music of the era was trying to distract people from their problems. Young reveled in his.
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s best set of songs since his mid ‘60s peak and possibly the only time he’s ever been fully confessional (though he denies it). On the shortlist of the great singer-songwriter albums of the 1970s.
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti: Not Zeppelin’s best album but perhaps the most Zeppelin of all Zeppelin albums. One of my favourites, though.
Brian Eno: Another Green World: The missing like between Eno’s first two solo albums and David Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy.” I don’t love it quite as much as the two earlier solo records or my favourite David Bowie albums, but it’s still a favourite and an absolute classic. Eno’s pre-ambient music is extremely underrated.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Zuma: A classic Crazy Horse record, not quite up to the standard of their first with Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere - but still pretty great.
Henryk Gorecki: “Amen”: A really wild use of the human voice.
The Dictators: Go Girl Crazy!: “I live for cars and girls/cars and girls/Car, cars and girls/Cars and girls/cars and girls/Car, cars and girls.”
Patti Smith: Horses: Along with The Dictators album above (which is too professional) this is potentially the first punk album though it is too arty compared to The Ramones (who I regard as first).
Riley’s Best Albums of 1965:
The Beatles: Rubber Soul: The last of The Beatles’ early albums, it is also the best of those and arguably the best or second best album produced by a rock band up until this point.
[tie] Bob Dylan: Highway 62 Revisited: The other candidate for best pop rock album ever up to this point, this is Dylan’s first fully electric album and among his very best.
John Coltrane: Ascension: A big band free (ish) jazz record that is the point at which Trane went fully avant garde.
Bob Dylan: Bringing it All Back Home: Dylan goes electric on the first side and introduces his transformative lyric writing to rock music.
Alberto Ginastera: Harp Concerto, op. 25: If you are interested in the harp as a solo instrument and you’re interested in aggressively modern “contemporary classical” this is for you. (Of course, there is nothing classical about it.)
Wes Montgonmery and the Wynton Kelly Trio: Smokin’ at the Half Note: The first jazz guitar album I ever owned, it has a special place in my heart.
The Beatles: Help!: The Beatles’ last folk rock album is certainly stronger than the previous record, Beatles For Sale (though I like that one more). This is the album with “Yesterday” on it.
The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man: The Beatles invented folk rock. The Byrds codified it and made it a phenomenon, with this album.
Luciano Berio: Labrintus II: Aggressively avant garde Italian art music.
Albert Ayler: Spirits Rejoice: Ayler should only be approached after you have listened to a fair amount of free jazz and you are thinking to yourself that it’s just not that radical.
Riley’s Best Music of 1955:
Glenn Gould: The Goldberg Variations: Gould chose to play this keyboard piece on piano, an instrument that didn’t exist when Bach composed it. And he messed with the tempos. He told the classical music world that a performer was allowed to interpret the music on the sheet, not just play it.
Lee Konitz: Subconscious-Lee: Released 5 years after it was recorded, this is a landmark cool jazz album.
Erroll Garner: Concert by the Sea: An excellent piano jazz record somewhat marred by the recording quality.
The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 2: Another record by jazz’s greatest trombonist.
Malcolm Arnold: Tam O’Shanter Overture: I have no idea if Arnold invented “drunken” sounding instruments but if he did this is a big deal.
Hans Werner Henze: Symphony No. 4: I don’t like this as much as his 3rd.
Aaron Copland: Canticle of Freedom: I failed to write a review of this when I listened to it but I don’t love Copland’s most famous music. (I much prefer his earliest stuff.)
Andres Segovia: Bach: Fugue & Gavotte; Villa-Lobos: Preludes; Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Tonadilla & Tarantella; Granados: Danza triste: To the best of my knowledge, this was the classical guitar recording of its era.
Glenn Gould: String Quartet in F Minor: Gould is not a major composer but I can’t help but like this.
Bernard Herrmann: The Trouble with Harry: One of Herrmann’s many great scores.
Read my remaining music reviews from 1955 (there are only about 15 major works and about 20 singles).
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1945
Back this far I mix my lists, to combine singles and “classical” works because LPs work really a thing.
Charlie Parker: “Thriving From a Riff”: So this landmark recording was released in 1946 as the more famous “Anthropology” by Dizzy Gillespie. I don’t know off the top of my head if the Bird version was released in 1945 or later. But this track, by whatever name, is one of the landmark early bop recordings. (Bop being the dominant form of jazz for the last 80 years.)
Bernard Herrmann: Hangover Square: A pretty classic noir score. Early in Herrmann’s career, I believe.
Sidney Bichet: “Save it, Pretty Mama”: A small group but still pretty “swing.”
Billie Holiday: “Don’t Explain”: The orchestration to this one is more Romantic than jazz.
Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “I Surrender, Dear”: A bit of a medley.
Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Malibu.”: A Swoony ballad.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1935
Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question [1935 revision]: You don’t have to know the program to be provoked by this great piece of music.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Simplicius Simplicissimus: An out-there opera.
Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Everybody Shuffle”: One of Carter’s most interesting big band tracks.
Memphis Minnie: “Chickasaw Train Blues”: The recording of this one is a lot better than a lot of Minnie’s recordings.
Michael Tippett: String Quartet No. 1: I believe I like his later quartets more but this is a decent modernist quartet.
Memphis Minnie: “Jockey Man Blues”: Really percussive guitar on this one.
Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Shoot the Works”: Uptempo swing.
Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Dream Lullaby”: Swoony.
Memphis Minnie: “Moonshine”: The rare track of hers to feature a piano.
Memphis Minnie: “Doctor Doctor Blues”: The other piano blues of hers I’ve heard.
Riley’s Best Music from 1925:
Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 4: Ostensibly a violin concerto, this really plays with the form.
Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 5: This one is for viola though once again he plays with the form.
Leoš Janáček: Concertino: The first movement of this is famous. But I never figured out from what.
Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “Sugar Foot Stomp”: Drums! (It’s rare to hear ‘20s jazz recordings with drums because they often overwhelmed recording technology of the day.)
George Gershwin: Concerto in F: Even though this is considered by some critics to be Gershwin’s crowning achievement, I don’t like it as much as his more famous music.
Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 6: This one is a cello concerto. It doesn’t appeal to me quite as much as the two above, partially I guess because I love the cello and seek out cell music.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1915:
Claude Debussy: Études: One of the greatest piano music sets of the 20th century is, apparently, also one of the hardest to play. (I wouldn’t know.)
Erik Satie: Avant-dernières pensées: The final of his 1910s piano suites.
Gabriel Fauré: Nocturne No. 12: This at least sounds like one of Fauré’s most difficult piano places.
Igor Stravinsky: Berceuses du chat: We saw this live and weirdly they replaced the clarinets with horns so I have no how different it was from the intended style.
Gabriel Fauré: Barcarole No. 12: Not one of my favourites.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1905
Claude Debussy: Images Book 1: One of the great works of impressionism.
Claude Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Written 15 years earlier but not published until 1905 this contains one of my favourite piano pieces ever, the first “classical” (read: Romantic/Impressionist) piano piece I ever fell in love with, “Clare de lune.”
Leoš Janáček: 1.X.1905 ‘From the Street’: Janáček apparently hated this, his only piano sonata, but I love it.
Gabriel Fauré: Barcarole No. 7: I like this particular piece of his.
Gustav Holst: “A Song of the Night”: I like this mini violin concerto
Leoš Janáček: On an Overgrown Path [Book 1]: Published six years later these were performed in 1950 so I moved them here. A pleasing set but not really as forward-thinking as much of his work such as the sonata above.
Edward Elgar: Introduction and Allegro: Very Elgarian which, for me, isn’t exactly a compliment.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1895:
Gabriel Fauré: Not my favourite set of Romantic piano variations.
Apparently I’ve only ever listened to one piece of music from 1895. I better get on that.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1885
Franz Liszt: La lugubre gondola II: The second version of this is one of the most radical and forward-thinking piano pieces of the 19th century.
Franz Liszt: Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch: Not as radical as the above piece but the marsh portion of this does get quite wild.
Gabriel Fauré: Barcarole No. 3: Back when I was listening to Fauré this struck me as the first of his barcaroles that really sounded like Fauré.
Franz Liszt: “En rêve” (Nocturne): Liszt has so many nocturnes. Another one of his pieces from late in his career that anticipated impressionism.
Franz Liszt: “Abschied (Russisches Volkslied)”: A Russian folk song that Liszt makes weird. (Never heard the original so maybe it’s weirder than you’d think.)
Gabriel Fauré: Barcarole No. 3: Too traditional for me.
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite: I think I have only heard this orchestral version. One of the pieces is quite famous.
Riley’s Reviews of Music from 1875
Gabriel Fauré: Nocturne No. 1: I really like his first nocturne.
Modest Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death: Of Mussorgsky’s three song cycles I rank this second.
Modest Mussorgsky: “The Misunderstood One”: One of many fine Mussorgsky songs which helped define Russian art music.
Riley’s Best Music of 1865
Edvard Grieg: Violin Sonata No. 1: A little too sunny for my tastes.
Modest Mussorgsky: “The Outcast [Woman] (An essay in recitative)”: A happy medium between Mussorgsky’s two most common forms of song.
Modest Mussorgsky: “A Prayer”: A ballad.
Modest Mussorgsky: “Cradle Song”: Not my favourite of his songs.
That’s probably far enough back in time. But if you’re curious in going further back, you can find all my music reviews here.