My favorite albums, in no particular order because that would be impossible. I could and will add to this list as I go.
1. Keith Green: Gold and Silver Albums (started my obsession with piano players)
2. The Cure: Standing on the Beach (beginning of the life-long love affair)
3. Psychedelic Furs: All of This and Nothing
4. The Alarm: Strength
5. The 77’s: All Fall Down
6. Beck: One Foot in the Grave
7. Billie Holiday: Greatest Hits
8. The Sugar Cubes: Life’s Too Good
9. Buffalo Tom: Let Me Come Over
10. Toad the Wet Sprocket: Pale (emo has got nothing compared to this)
11. Carole King: Tapestry (damn feel-good stuff)
12. Cat Stevens: Tea For the Tillerman
13. Bright Eyes: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
14. Adam Again: Dig
15. Lifesavers Underground: This Is The Healing
16. XYMOX: Twist of Shadows
17. The Clash: The Clash
18. Scattered Few: Sin Disease (important for so many reasons)
19. Counting Crows: August & Everything After
20. Cranberries: No Need to Argue
21. Lost Dogs: Scenic Routes
22. The Cure: Head on The Door
23. David Bowie: Changes
24. Jawbreaker: Bivouac
25. The Decemberists: Her Majesty the Decemberists
26. Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
27. Ocean Blue: Ocean Blue
28. Mighty Lemon Drops: World Without End
29. The Crucified: The Crucified
30. Credence Clearwater Revival: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (good moving music)
31. Beatles: White Album and Abbey Road
32. Dinosaur Jr.: Bug
33. Dramarama: Stuck In Wonderamaland
34. Echo & the Bunnymen: Ballyhoo (sexiest voice ever)
35. Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Best of…
36. Erasure: Pop!
37. Fiona Apple: When the Pawn Hits… (grrrl power)
38. A Flock of Seagulls: Best of…
39. Gene Loves Jezebel: Discover (guilty pleasure)
40. Oingo Boingo: Best ‘O Boingo
41. Pearl Jam: Vs.
42. Innocence Mission: Innocence Mission
43. The Cure: Wish
44. George Winston: December (only piano)
45. Indigo Girls: Indigo Girls (poets)
46. J. Mascis: Martin & Me
47. Yaz: Upstairs At Eric’s (great dance songs)
48. XTC: Waxworks
49. Jesus & Mary Chain: Automatic
50. Marvin Gaye: Anthology (seriously)
51. Moby: Animal Rights
52. Jewel: Pieces of You
53. Joe Jackson: Greatest Hits
54. Weezer: Pinkerton
55. The Replacements: Tim
56. Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
57. Red House Painters: Rollercoaster (sigh…)
58. Joy Division: Substance
59. New Order: Substance
60. No Laughing Matter: Monstor (for Bef)
61. Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark: Best of…
62. Natalie Merchant: Ophelia
63. Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
64. U2: Unforgettable Fire (thanks to my sister)
65. Van Morrison: Bang Masters
66. Operation Ivy: Energy (hell yeah!)
67. Peter Gabriel: So
68. Postal Service: Give Up
69. Songs:Ohia: Magnolia Electric Co.
70. Mark Kozelek: White Christmas Live
71. The Smiths: Strangeways, Here We Come
72. Morrissey: Viva Hate
73. Pedro the Lion: It’s Hard to Find a Friend
74. Rilo Kiley: The Execution of All Things
75. Pet Shop Boys: Discography
76. Wedding Present: Tommy (you should know them)
77. The Pretenders: The Pretenders
78. The Cure: Disintegration
79. They Might Be Giants: Flood
80. Soft Cell: Say Hello To Soft Cell (happy music)
81. Randy Stonehill: Welcome To Paradise
82. R.E.M.: Eponymous
83. Public Image Ltd.: Greatest Hits, So Far
84. The Smithereens: Blown to Smithereens
85. Jane’s Addiction: Nothing’s Shocking
86. Harry Nilsson: The Point
87. Ayssandra Nighswonger (and all her incarnations)
88. Lost in the Trees: All Alone In An Empty House (obsessed)
89. Bat For Lashes: Fur and Gold
90. Bauhaus: Swing the Heartache
91. Beastie Boys: (various stuff)
92. Joy Division: Permanent (remixes in the right way)
93. Thursday: Full Collapse
94. The Frames: The Cost (damn good)
95. Mountain Goats: The Coroner’s Gambit
96. Sun Kil Moon: Ghosts of the Great Highway
97. The Specials: Singles Collection (don’t care if “singles/best of” is cheating)
98. Spandau Ballet: Singles Collection
99. Damien Jurado: Maraqopa
100. The Editors: An End Has A Start
101. First Aid Kit: Big Black and the Blue (perfection)
102. Sade: Best of…
103. Moldy Peaches: The Moldy Peaches
104. Swell Season: Strict Joy
105. Group Love: Never Trust A Happy Song (so pop, but addicting)
106. Placebo: Black Market Music
107. New Order: Brotherhood
108. The National: Alligator
109. Lucero: That Much Further West (The Pogues of The South)
110. Lost in the Trees: Time Taunts Me (must have)
111. Arcade Fire: Arcade Fire
112. First Aid Kit: Lion’s Roar (yes)
113. Kimya Dawson: Remember That I Love You
114. Dead Man’s Bones: Dead Man’s Bones (right on so many levels)
115. Matthew Ryan: Boxer (but really everything he does)
116. Samantha Crain: Kid Face
117. Death Cab for Cutie: Plans
118. Damien Rice: O
119. Glen Hansard: Rhythm & Repose
120. Ben Fold: Whatever & Ever Amen
121. Florence & the Machine: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
122. Brandie Carlile: Brandie Carlile
Tag: Dinosaur Jr.
Last and Final Poem to N.L.
I loved you
I admit it two years
Since we last spoke
Your potato chip voice
And bony hands
The way you grouped your fingers
At your mouth
And your big off-center teeth
I loved the way you got into your car
Like a grown up with limbs too long
The way you walked into the grocery store
As awkward as a Muppet’s legs
You and your rail thin body
And old man’s clothes
I loved your shoes
The blue One Stars
And green Vans
I loved the way you couldn’t look me in the eye
The way you never took your hat off in three years
And wore glassed on your tiny head
We were children in our grown up bodies
So we went to parks at midnight
And climbed fences in schoolyards
I loved that you still skated at twenty-two
That you liked stickers and sugary Kool-Aid
I loved that you cut my hair
And painted pictures
I only saw once
That you watched G-Force
And lent me taped episodes
Even more, I loved your music
The ones you loved
You gave me Dinosaur Jr.
And the Wedding Present
You read James Joyce and
Introduced me to Holden Caulfield
(Your secret alias)
Your random letters
And indirect thoughts
I overlooked your snobbery
Your cruel remarks
I hoped to be as good as I saw you
Exclusive and without remorse
I loved the way you resisted me
I loved that you spoke to me for hours
On the telephone
I loved you then
For leaving me without apology
For digging this pit in my heart
For watching with me
The train pass deafening loud
And fingers clenched on the chain fence
You said it made you feel empty
I loved you for those words
For hating my poetry
And ridiculing my insecurities
I loved you
I know you did not understand
You thought me unimaginative
I thought you good and hateful and real
I loved you for the tiny things
Like smelly car fresheners
And emails about diluting ice
But you gave the most unkind cut
Words of detest and spite
You, who loved cartoons and butter tortillas
You did not love me
You repulsed at my weakness
Without remorse or hesitation
You broke clean of me
And I was left with your letters
And musical taste
Left with the emptiness of passing trains
Bootleg copies of foreign films
A heart gouged and affected
Left with these descriptive words
And useless opinions
This is to be your last poem
The last time I love you this way
The last of you haunting me
The last conclusion in these memories
But you knew then what my honesty was
A moment’s passing thought
You thought my sentiment cheap
I know now, you were so wrong
8-25-99
Originally published in The Long Beach Union (CSULB), 3-20-00
Also appeared in Healing the Heart of Ophelia, 2001
Sarah Thursday 