Nice to hear from some Kitchens of Distinction lovers
here.  I put The Death of Cool high on my list of the
best albums of the 90s.  "Smiling" and "When In
Heaven" are a couple of favorites from that one, but
really I love the whole epic, swirling thing.  And KoD
were a great live band too.  Extremely powerful and
utterly hypnotic.

And props as well for Hitchcock's Perspex Island.  I
want to go listen to "So You Think You're in Love" and
"Ultra Unbelievable Love" right now.  There's also a
great B-side from that era called "Dark Green Energy"
that has Robyn dueting with Michael Stipe (It's
included on Hitchcock and the Egyptians' Greatest
Hits).

I remember that tour with Robyn headlining and Matthew
Sweet opening in early 1992.  I was in college, and a
guy I liked from my college radio station had asked me
to go to the show with him.  But then he realized it
was on Valentine's Day, and had to cancel in order to
go out with his girlfriend!  I'm not sure which I was
more disappointed about: missing the chance to hang
out with him or having to miss the show itself!  Oh
well, it worked out better for the both of us in the
long run, but I sure was sad at the time.

And finally, coming in late to the party, but I must
agree with the people who've said that you can't count
the twofer of #1 Record and Radio City as a single
album.  No way - not fair!  These are two very
different albums, and I'm sorry, but you MUST choose
between them.

Agh.  So while I'm here, I suppose I have to do this
damn list too.  Well, I'm not going to agonize over it
for once.  Here are my top 20 poppish albums of all
time as of this minute:

1. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
2. Big Star - Radio City
3. The Replacements - Tim
4. Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
5. Big Star - Third
6. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
7. R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant
8. The Loud Family - Plants & Birds & Rocks & Things
9. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
10. Cub - Come Out, Come Out
11. Aimee Mann - Whatever
12. Frisbie - The Subversive Sounds of Love
13. Redd Kross - Third Eye
14. Luna - Bewitched
15. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
16. The Sundays - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
17. Lloyd Cole - The Negatives
18. T. Rex - The Slider
19. Material Issue - Destination Universe
20. Zombies - Oddessey and Oracle

It will be different five minutes from now.

If you like French pop of the ye-ye variety with a
little taste of Velocity Girl thrown in here and
there, I recommend checking out Miou Miou, a band from
the Czech Republic with a female vocalist who sings in
French.  Their debut album, 'La La Grande Finale' is
quite charming.

http://www.myspace.com/mioumiou

--Shawn


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