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Features:MyLine

Date published: 10/29/2002

To frequent readers of Revolver, and dear friends and family of mine, it is clear that I am an avid music fan. I get specific about what I'm listening to with my contemporary (yes, there is only one) and tell people like my mother that "I'm [currently] listening to a lot of [literally] noise." Here, for your benefit, are Eric Marth's Top Eight Records of Right Now, and the Two Worst.

Eight best:

8. New Order--"Power, Corruption and Lies." I was recently turned on to New Order by a string of events. My good friend Bob and I were in the Blue Dog store. One of the store's friendliest clerks was working, and we asked him for a record recommendation.

In the used bin was "Power, Corruption and Lies." The album cover (with its flowers and unappealing gray slate background) was an immediate turnoff. Bob checked the album out and had me do the same. This is '80s synthetic pop at one of its finest moments.

7. Max Tundra--"Mastered By The Guy At The Exchange." An electronic pop record that feels like it's ahead of itself at all times. Somehow, despite its ridiculous speeds and propulsion, it remains on mark at all points start to finish.

"Merman," a short pop tune from Tundra, features the artist singing coolly over a stumbling and epileptic beat.

Something you must experience to understand.

6. Joy Division--"Unknown Pleasures." After being introduced to New Order, I backtracked to the band New Order had formed from.

Joy Division came to an end with the suicide of its singer in the early 1980s. But before that end came this, their first album. Joy Division helped pave the way for many significant British artists of the 1980s, including My Bloody Valentine and Ride.

I first gave Joy Division a thought when I heard that local band Skywave had covered their tune "Ceremony."

5. Sonic Youth--"Murray Street." I'll admit that I didn't give Sonic Youth a listen until Jim O'Rourke joined the band. And I'll also admit that listening to the latest album from a band that is 20 years old and has long passed its heyday is a bad starting point.

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Date published: 10/29/2002