#thoushaltnot

Let the congealed blood of the idol sizzle through and corrode this bridle Holds me in and blinds my eyes, but I live to serve, to be despised All turn in and join chagrin ahead Can't behold the words of old they said You'll see - You'll see

Gleefully stolen from @tinknevertalks. I wanted to do something a little different than just listing seven albums and posting so I did something a little more in-depth and included my top track off the album and a small sample of the lyrics, for flavor. You don't have to be so elaborate in yours if you do it!

Inland Territory, by Vienna Teng (2009). I love every note of every song that Vienna has ever recorded, so picking my favorite was very hard. This album is thoughtful, emotional, and all-around brilliant. Her clear voice really shines, coming into a melodic, well-rounded tone that speaks of her maturity in both vocals and songwriting. Favorite Song: Augustine - "Lead me now/I understand/Faith is both the prison and the open hand..."

Scarlet's Walk, by Tori Amos (2002). It was also unbelievably complicated to pick my favorite Tori album, but this is the one that I come back to again and again over the years, and I always find something new to sink my teeth into with this one. A love-song to a soul 'lost in America' (specifically post-9/11 America, when the wound was still fresh), Tori has moved from the deeply personal POVs of her earlier albums and into something with more world-building and lusher storytelling. The album as a whole is less inscrutable than the albums that come before it, but this just makes the journey more universal. Favorite Song: Carbon - "carbon made only wants to be unmade..."

The Magic Position, by Patrick Wolf (2007). This album is NOTHING like Patrick's previous albums, departing from the stripped and experimental sound of his first two offerings, with flourishing instrumentals and a catchy pop vibe. From start-to-finish, this album is FUN. Pulsing bass and snazzy horns and really intimate, well-crafted lyrics. Patrick has never made a bad album and this one is a banger. Favorite Song: Augustine - "As the bell tower blocks the summer light/All the seeds in our garden fight/To break and blossom, all to be adored/And look, your skirt is torn/And there's blood on our sheets..."

The White Beyond, by ThouShaltNot (2003). This album is everything to me. Driving, passionate electronic dance music with spiritual themes, social commentary, alchemy of both the flesh and the elements, and a passionate plea for your brain as well as your blood on the dancefloor. I have written so much while listening to this album - it is one of the most creative of my springboards, including inspiring the structure of my woefully unfinished but much-beloved novel, Snow Untouched (the title of my novel comes from the album's title track). Since the theme of the album is alchemy, it is fitting that the first and last lines of the album are identical. I can't get over how that simple but masterful move gives me chills. Favorite Song: Cardinal Directions - "And if I had my way, I'd make the clock rewind/I'd live again that moment, though I know I'll never find/The future that I missed, a parallel line/Where the world would be so bright that it could make us all go blind..."

Rebel, Sweetheart, by The Wallflowers (2005). It's not Bringing Down the Horse, I know. But Rebel (and it's 'rebel' as in 'the action of rebelling' not the rebel who does it, according to Paste Magazine back in the day) does something to me emotionally that Horse just never did. This album is a post-9/11 journey through melancholy, war, regret, and grief. It's 12 tracks of sonorous and glorious pain. The melodies are gorgeous, the lyrics poignant and clever. There's something almost religious in what is very much an atheistic album. People sleep on this one in favor of their earlier albums but this one is fire and lightening in a bottle. Favorite Song: From the Bottom of My Heart - "Pale-faced and hollowed eyes/Buried under ruptured skies/Not every smile means I'm laughing inside/Two-faced and compromised/I've enraptured you with lies/Where everything means nothing and tonight everything is mine..."

Ashes, by Kyla La Grange (2012). It's very rare for me to listen to an album by a singer I've never heard of before and fall in love with each and every word of every track. I love music but I don't often listen to an album again and again and again unless it's something really special. This album is that special. Her soft, delicate voice, the sparse instrumentation, and the lyrics, the LYRICS. Beautiful, vulnerable, tender, terrified and terrorizing, emotional and melancholy. This is an album about love, and love can be tender, love can be frightening, and love can ruin everything for you. Another album that just makes me want to write and write and write - a well of inspiration that will never run dry. Favorite Song: Catalyst - "Come in, take your coat off, I'll sit you down/I've watched you from shadows, I made no sound/I'll light you a fire, your hands are cracked/I've slashed all your tires, you cannot go back..."

American Demo, by The Indelicates (2008). This album is superb. The Indelicates are a strange sort of band - hopelessly indie, tragically obscure. For years, they've made a small but loyal following by offering their music for free on various platforms and blogs. They are just plain talented - a rare male/female vocal duo, both share the weight and trade off song-by-song, creating a vocal and lyrical relationship as rewarding as their lyrics. Those lyrics cover everything from the state of the commercial music industry to domestic violence and Western cultural misogyny to drug use and party culture to society's obsession with youth and ignorance, and above all, how we must, as a society, rebel against all of these things. Favorite Song: If Jeff Buckley Had Lived - "And there's a fog growing at the edge of the lake/And there's a star falling at the edge of the lake/And there's a man praying at the edge of the lake/And there's a flicker of religion in the chances you take..."

Honorable Mentions:

Go Farther in Lightness, by Gang of Youths (2017)

Not a Pretty Girl, by Ani DiFranco (1995)

Melodrama, by Lorde (2017)