Shelf Dusting (for the week of 7/6 - 7/12)

Here we remind you of old albums that might have gotten lost in the clutter or have slipped from your mind along the way. So take these records down from the shelf, blow the dust off of them, turn the stereo up, and just push play.

Beach Boys
Pet Sounds (1966)

The shear brilliance contained within this album can hardly be expressed by mere words alone. The musical mosaics and breathtaking soundscapes that Brian Wilson guides us through are jarring to say the least. Forty-two years later we have yet to catch up to where Wilson was headed on this sonic manifesto. The songs are honest, sad, and gentle - the perfect portrait of a young artist who was becoming acutely aware of his own fleeting sanity. Pet Sounds almost feels like a farewell letter from the true soul of Brian Wilson, that would soon be held captive in a prison with no bars, by an increasingly traitorous mind infiltrated by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the demons of childhood abuse.

Rediscover these songs: "That's Not Me", "I'm Waiting For the Day", "Sloop John B", "God Only Knows", "I Know There's an Answer", "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", and "Caroline, No"

Soul Asylum
Let Your Dim Light Shine (1995)

This is the oft overlooked follow-up to Soul Asylum's smash breakthrough Grave Dancer's Union - which featured the inescapable song "Runaway Train". Let Your Dim Light Shine in my opinion eclipses its predecessor as far as entire albums go. Sure there are no hits on this album that even came close to their previous successes, but the quality of the songwriting here is head and shoulders above anything they had done before. This album also really delves into the influence of country music on the band - a highly unpopular sentiment in the mid-nineties Alternative Rock scene; but still evoking contemporaries like Golden Smog and Uncle Tupelo. Soul Asylum is too often defined by "Runaway Train" the infectious, monstrously catchy, career defining song that the band will forever be known for. These guys were truly the best band to come out of Minneapolis since The Replacements and yet no one seems to appreciate them. Find this album. Buy this album. Love this album and come to love this band as well.

Rediscover these songs: "Misery", "To My Own Devices", "Promises Broken", "Bittersweetheart", "String of Pearls", "Just Like Anyone", "Nothing to Write Home About", and "I Did My Best"