Here's a list of CDs my mom owns

My mom has a comically 90s CD collection that she never listens to. My dad is the big music collector in our family and used to own thousands of vinyls. My dad has continued to be deep into the collecting aspect of music, but my mom's collection lives on as a time capsule from the beginning to the peak of the CD era.

I'm home for a few days right now and there are two containers of CDs next to the bed here with her CDs. They are:

Morrissey - Your Arsenal
Moby – Play
Neil Young – Tonight's the Night
Pixies – Trompe Le Monde
Beck – Sea Change
Matthew Sweet – 100% Fun
Nada Surf – High/Low
The X Files – Songs in the Key of X
The Pogues – Peace and Love
Saint Etienne – So Tough
Luscious Jackson – Natural Ingredients
The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
Meat Beat Manifesto – Acid Again
The Orange Peels – Square
Bob Mould – Body of Song
Hive – s/t
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Beck – Guero
Beck – Midnight Vultures
David Sylvian – Blemish
Paul Weller – Wild Wood
Penelope Houston – Cut You
Sonic Youth – Dirty
Patti Smith – Gung Ho
Iggy Pop – Avenue B
David Sylvian – Dead Bees on a Cake
Aimee Mann – Ultimate Collection
Hector Zazou – Sahara Blue
Rufus Wainwright – Dreamworks
Ivy – Apartment Life
Fatboy Slim – You've Come a Long Way, Baby
Tarnation - Mirador
Ramones – All the Stuff (And More)... Vol. 1
Sugar – File Under: Easy Listening
Babe the Blue Ox – The Way We Were
Dj Cheb I Sabbah – Krishna Lila
Fiona Apple – When the Pawn
Ramones – Too Tough to Die
Pulp – This is Hardcore
Depeche Mode – The Singles 81>85
Tom Waits – Bone Machine
Kristin Hersh – Sunny Border Blue
They Might Be Giants – Factory Showroom
Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot


I think anything anyone wants to say about their memories of any of these records (good or bad), their favorites, what album/track I should check out right away would be fun. If you need more structure, maybe pick our your five favorite albums from this list (or five favorite albums that aren't "classics" like The Queen is Dead).

Solid list.

My mother only owns two of those records.

Beck – Guero
Beck – Midnight Vultures

I own Dirty, the DM singles collection, and Bone Machine.

EDIT: Oh, shit, and Sea Change.  I also have a burned copy of Moby's Play which I used for editing/putting sound to a movie during my senior year of high school.

i think trompe le monde was my favorite pixies record when about 15 years ago. i remember buying it at the local cd store after class in community college.

both my parents own zero CDs

i think my dad bought my mom the beatles bbc sessions around the time it came out along with a cd player. it was the first and last cd she listened to until i burned her a copy of the 2005 new order singles compilation which she enjoyed

i own a copy of :drrty: of course but i dont remember what it sounds like. thats one of those geffen joints they did right?

chrono: is your mom single?

Ivy – Apartment Life

this shit is a pop classique.

i also dig the depeche mode singles collection

So many jams on this album

also had a dope song on the "There's Something About Mary" soundtrack:

That's some real devotion to just owning one album per artist.

chrondog wrote:
Sonic Youth – Dirty

This is one of my favorite things but I'm done trying to impress that upon other people.

I think Tonight’s the Night is a damn fine recording and maybe my second favorite Neil Young album. Good tunes to drink to!

Bone Machine is one of my favorite albums. That's a real cool collection.

My parents have the worst taste imaginable. My Dad actually dragged my Mom to see Jimmy Buffet tonight at Wrigley Field. It is literally unimaginable to think of my Mom listening to Sonic Youth or anything on that list.

My mother didn't have much of a youth so her second adolescence hit pretty hard. Lots of Pearl Jam and Tool as well as old Beatles, Zeppelin, Kinks, and Pink Floyd. Pretty much anything white that pairs well with weed. And Frank Sinatra.

zappo wrote:I also have a burned copy of Moby's Play which I used for editing/putting sound to a movie during my senior year of high school.

That's about perfect. I made a lot of terrible paintings to that record.

My mother was the graphic artist/layout person at a Bay Area alt-weekly newspaper in the 90s, so this is where most of this taste comes from. As she put it, "I don't think your dad would listen to a single one of these."

She appreciates all your comments and personally suggested I dive into the Matthew Sweet and Sugar records.

Tonight's the night is fucking awesome if you haven't heard it do so

That Ivy record is a legit Sunny pop 90s record, it's nice

I agree w undo I love Dirty...aged a bit but it was out during my adolescence and played it a ton

Bone Machine should be good idk

Ramones V1 played that a thousand times, essential

Beck sea change, loved it when it came out never want to hear it ever again

So Tough is an essential listen and I bet you in particular would love it

Get her to board here.

I keep thinking of all of the great Aimee Mann music Mrs. Hitchens is missing out on by freezing her mind space in 1998.

Trompe le Monde is a really underappreciated Pixies record.  It's a fantastic set of songs, including a slamming Jesus and Mary Chain cover. It's got it all.

I still love Sea Change.  I really think that Beck has something to say in the dolorous, Nick Drake on valium idiom.  There are some truly lovely expressions of the pain of losing love on that record.  And Morning Phase has nothing on Sea Change.

So Tough totally holds up.  I don't like its sound as much as the follow-up, Tiger Bay, but there are a lot of great songs on it.

That Luscious Jackson debut is pretty good I guess, though Fever In, Fever Out is leagues better.

That Hector Zazou album is a big high end concept album based on the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud.  It has a ton of collaborators on it.  It's pretty all over the map and floaty. There are some nice moments there.

I don't really know either of those David Sylvian records, but I generally dig his late 80's and early 90's post-Japan work.  He has a very beautiful vocal instrument, very croony and sentimental, collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto a lot.  His records from that time tend to trade in lush ambient instrumentation and arrangements featuring excellent musicians playing his wistful etiolated dream and chamber pop.