Diego Ardon´s Blog

31. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds One of the most important albums in music history, Pet Sounds even predated the Beatles in sound and production experimentation. Melodies are very rich and beaturiful on this record, and is definetely a must-have on any collection. 32. Joy Division - Closer If I thought that Unknown Pleasures was a dark, indigestible record, after hearing this, I think I want to hear UP on a nice summer day. Released after Ian Curtis death, Closer presents to us the legacy of a man who clearly had his issues. 33. Black Sabbath - Paranoid Setting apart the title track and Iron Man, which are commonly acknowledged as great heavy metal tracks, this album is one of the greatest collection of such songs. From the drum solo in Rat Salad to the magnificent guitar, this is definetely a guitars album. 34. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland From the first time I heard Electric Ladyland, I knew it was a classic album that was not made for me. It is currently the first album on the li...

26. Radiohead - Kid A Named by numerous sources as the album of the last decade, it was not without its reasons. Radiohead's fourth album expands on a sound which was started on 1997s Ok Computer, and has stayed as a blueprint for a decade of music which had just begun when this was released. 27. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again In my world of being a frustrating musician, there is probably not any album which has influenced me more than this one. The music is beyond words, and Morrissey's lyrics and vocal delivery just hit a nerve inside me. 28. THe Doors - The Doors I can't consider myself a Doors fan, specially since my knowledge goes little beyond this self-titled debut. However, if we were to judge on this album alone, this band has indeed a lot to offer, some nice piano parts, as well as Jim Morrisson's voice which is just haunting. 29. Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966 - The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert Bob Dylan created some of the mo...

Inspired by last entry on Johnny Cash & Jimi Hendrix's new albums , I have decided to create this brief list. Doing this makes me think that it is impossible to ignore, the fact that whenever an artist dies, there are always two kinds of people who want to take chance of the occassion. Some of them might actually wish to remark this person's importance to his medium, or save his legacy for the future generations, however, there is a whole other group of people who have a different idea in their heads (€€€). Posthumous releases have been around for a while, that's probably because nobody knows for sure when their hour comes, and the hooded figure might just find them in the middle of their work. Famous literary examples are Machievelli's "The Prince" or Franz Kafka's "The Trial", "The Castle" and "America", which he made his friend swear to destroy. Which he didn't. I guess in movie industry, the most notable release, o...

Just some days ago, it took me by surprise, the fact that two new records with original songs by late artists Jimi Hendrix & Johnny Cash will be released. Yep, that's true, 40 years after the first's death and 7 after country king's one, their labels will release completely unheard material. In Jimi's case, it is some lost album which documents his transition from playing with "The Experience", Mitch Mitcheel and Noel Redding, to his later solo career. Valleys of Neptune comes out on March 9th, and has a lot to prove, since Hendrix jsut released three albums during his lifetime, all of them considered classics (Are You Experienced?, Electric Ladyland, and Axis: Bold as Love). The title track of the album has also being released as a single, with a video which contains one of Jimi's unknown talents; painting. Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune On the other side, we have Johnny Cash's second posthumous release and the sixth on the American series sess...

21. Pixies - Doollittle This one I like because it is the only album I have bought through the internet. Of course there's a lot more to it, specially if you think why I HAD to posses it. Simply Pixies is pop rock at its best. Bass lines are probably the best, but Frank Black is great and that "loud quiet loud" thing has been very important. Plus it was ripped off to make Smells Like Teen Spirit. 22. The Beatles - Rubber Soul What? Yet another Beatles album? Don't blame, blame the Beatles for making so great music. This here, is their first top class album, still keeping a little or their old poppy sound, but mixing it with the experimentation which would rule their later releases. Plus the track chosen is just beautiful, try hearing the Johnny Cash cover. 23. Nick Drake - Pink Moon Nick Drake is one of those artists I feel ashamed for people who don't know him, specially because those might be many. Nick, as many others before and after, suffered from a premature...

As you might or might not have read on my Valentine's Day post , there I referred about the 20 years of The Smiths' second album "Meat is Murder". Over the last three years The Smiths have consolidated as one of my favorite bands, the third the last time I ranked them. Of the four studio albums The Smiths released on their career, this is the only one I haven't heard before; the three others I love, specially their follow up to this "The Queen is Dead". But although this is unknown to me, from this album comes what I believe is to be The Smiths most known track, and one of their finest moments, "How Soon is Now?", which has been covered numerous times over the years, one by Russian duo T.A.T.U. Meat is Murder was the only Smiths album to reach number one on the UK charts, where it remained for 13 weeks. It also gave its name to the last track on the album, a vegeratian anti-meat anthem, written by Morrissey and Mick Mars (both vegetarians) whic...

Now that Valentines is over, and you don't have to worry anymore about what to give that person, or what to write in your letter, you can check in this selection on songs. Because who hasn't thought of dedicating a song or remember somebody when listening to a love song? But sometimes, is it a love song? What? Not? 5. Babybird - Because you're Gorgeous Baby Bird - You're Gorgeous .mp3 Found at bee mp3 search engine Since I've been in Finland, I had heard such an awful song on the radio, which I believed to be a new band. I was surprised that the artist was Babybird a British 1990s band which spent years doing demos, until they finally scored bigtime, with this song reaching number 3 on the British charts. However, this song was not representative of their sound, and future album, although receiving moderately good reviews, failed to sell, which cause the record label to drop them, and the band to split. They have reunited since, but this keeps being their signat...

If you see my last entries about my thoughts on the greatest albums of all-time, Beatles albums included, my choice of the video for them are mainly George Harrison's songs. He is probably my favorite Beatle, and that was even before a winter in Finland (or a winter at all) had made me understand the beauty of the song for which I borrowed the name for this entry. "I feel the ice is slowly melting", I feel so at the moment, and I'm so happy the sun is coming. However, this is not the only reason why I have decided to write about this song. Today is Valentine's Day remember? In contrast to last year , when my mood was certainly gloomy, at least I could tell by the songs I was hearing. This 2010 promised to be a little different, and I even manage to send a Valentine's Day letter to a girl friend (note: not girlfriend), one which I still haven't received any reply, but which theme was indeed, The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun". Moments after I l...

My knowledge about Massive Attack and the genre it represents doesn't go much beyond than the two most representative albums. Portishead's "Dummy" and this band's "Mezzanine", and although a 90s genre, on 2008 Portishead proved this genre had still more to give, while aiming it in a new direction. In contrast to following the path set by their opposing brothers, Massive Attack has come with a very average album. I believe I don't really recognize any of the the guest voices on Mezzanine, but Heligoland's main advertisement had been the number, and size of the guesting names. In Spanish music, this happens a lot with artists who have had 10+ years without giving any worthy product, they just gather how many names they can, and release a collection of their own cover songs, I guess this also happens with average Anglo speaking artists like Neil Diamond or Marianne Faithful. At least Heligoland comes with original songs, which are listenable, but la...

Today I come back with albums 16-20. Enjoy: 16. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King In the classic progressive era, which started in the 60s and into the 70s, there is just one name that I would dare to place besides that of Pink Floyd, and that one is, of course, King Crimson. I believe pretty much the cover says it all, prepared to be blown away. 17. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde I went down to the library, just because I remembered there they had a vinyl version of this album. I thought this couldn't sound better, but every single instrument came so clearly out of the headphones. Blonde on Blonde is mainly about the poetic lyrics, though the music has also a lot to do, specially feeling wise. When you get to "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" you'll know what I mean. 18. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced? Some of Jimi's most famous cuts, like Purple Haze or Hey Joe, were put out as singles, and left out of this studio album. However, this is packed in...

I decided to make a little list about Honduran music. For proper viewing you'll need to visit this page click here. Feel free to join our community.

I had said a couple of entries ago , that I would definetely cut it off with trying to make any kind of systematic entries on my blog, but what started almost as a joke, I have began to take seriously. Listening to the most I can out of this list . Getting close to the 20th, that means I've already done better than I thought, so I might just continue writing about them also: 11. The Beatles - The White Album The White Album has also at some point in my life being subject of being called, my favorite Beatles album. The reason is simple, this is the Beatles studio album with more songs. Coming as a double album, the White Album featured a minimalistic cover, a number count printed and was the first album to include lyrics to its songs. Ok, there is some filler, specially the awful Revolution 9, but there's godl too. 12.John Coltrane - A Love Supreme As I said before, Jazz is not my strong point nor my subject, I am just not used to it, but with this exercise, I am forced to liste...

Well, I've already made it to the third day and five albums a day is quite something. First day it were ten, then only 3, but a double album included, and today I plan to fill my goal of 5 albums a day. The official counting says I still miss 17 of the albums present on the first part of the list, which I will go hunting to the library today. Anyways, here come the next five: 6. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited I have tried to review Highway 61 Revisited a couple of times, and somehow I've never been able to do justice to such a work of art. There's something about Dylan that I don't quite get unless I am actually hearing him. This album is filled with gems, from Like a Rolling Stone, to the magnificent Desolation ROw, yes, like the MCR cover. 7. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here It's hard for something to ever top DSOTM for me, but Pink Floyd follow up might be the closest it can get. The two parted Shine on Your Crazy Diamond, writing in tribute to fron tman gone cr...

It's hard to say which are the best/greatest albums of all-time. As most things in life, it is a question of taste, some people might like Van Halen III, and some might hate The Beatles collection, yet, there are some musical creations that share a common summarizing consensus, and if the number of times we see them on magazines and VH1 lists, the site rateyourmusic.com has been creating a commmunity, where more than 10,000 users have rated their favorite records, and although the list keeps changing (every few weeks it gets an update), yesterday night I saw the current one , and looked back three years ago, when out of the top 100, I probably had heard 15, and now, I get close to the 80th mark. Some of them which I have heard more, and which I keep closer, but overall, such a great colelction of music made me desire to try to listen to them all. I started today, and I'm already at number 6, let's see how far I go. Usually I can't hear 6 albums in a row, but rally, whe...

Money. Have you thought how awful our society is that you actually need something otherwise meaningless like money to survive. Everything is for sale, you should pay for everything. Should it be this way? Who knows, but its already too late to change the system. Take me for instance. I'm here in Finland, and although it's true, I have food and boarding here, I have paid for this before coming here. At least I don't need to worry about that at this moment. Something less, because otherwise I have a trip to Estonia on mind, pay my last trip to Latvia , and even simple things like bus tickets, post service or even shampoo. Each month I'm given 85€, which run out faster than you can say "ei mitään!" (nothing), so after seeing things at home aren't specially good to be sending me money I "don't need", than I decided to look for a job. First thing to know was, "Am I allowed to work on this coutnry?", I was not really sure, but after a vis...

Here I just share with you a nonsense short story inspired by the album Une éclipse totale de soleil, by french artist Ghédalia Tazartès: I can't really remember why I had always wanted to come to Morocco. Actually I do, I just thought ignorance would definetely do a better starting line. Starting lines are quite important, manage to miss with your opening statement, and your reader would already be looking for reasons to call your story boring, or a cure for insomnia. But insomnia has nothing to do with my reasons for me coming to this country, nor does any classic film with Humprhey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. It actually all goes back to my last visit to the United States, when I tried to visit all that Epcot Center had to offer, and out of what I was able to see, the Moroccan representation was the one which left a bigger impact on me. The music, the architecture, and specially that funny hat just seemed to call me. Anyways, when I finally got to Europe, I realized I was quite c...

I've been away from the Blog because I needed to go to a midterm evaluation camp from the ICYE, the organization which has had me in Finland for what now is 6 months (halfway there). The camp was really nice, since it was a chance to catch up with some friends, as well as meeting new people, hearing some life advice and overall, exchanging our experiences in Finland. However, this was just 3 days, the following 4 days I spent in 4 different countries, since no longer had the camp finished, I left Helsinki in direction to Tampere, from where I took a Ryanair plane (really cheap) to Riga, where I was being hosted by couchsurfing.com website, and was actually planning to spend the 3 days there. First day I arrived in Riga, the only major city in Latvia, a country which has a considerable Russian population, and which adds to no more than 40 years of independent history. It was dark at night, and I was actually more aware to follow the directions which led me from the airport, commuti...