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Essential listening:
The KUAM team's top albums of all time

Jason Salas
KUAM.COM Web Manager

A little rock never hurt anyone...
Having grown up mainly in Guam, you might be surprised to know that I’m not really big about island music. I’ve warmed up to it over the years, but I’m a rocker at heart (that’s probably because of the Dededo stigma, but I digress). I’ve been influenced both as athlete, musician and professional by music of all types. Being a product of the 80’s, I was really into MTV and "Headbanger's Ball". I’ll listen to just about anything, but I’m a sucker for a good 80’s power ballad.

I have tons of individual tracks that I like, but these are my essential listening albums. This is stuff I'd pay good money for, even with the availability of MP3s all over the 'Net. A good album to me is something that you’d be late for an appointment for, just to hear the end of the song. And every track means something special to you…even the songs that suck rock out.

This list is in no particular order! I tried and it was waaaay too hard!

1	Depeche Mode – “Depeche Mode: 101” Man, I love live albums. There’s just that raw energy and un-preproduced quality in live performances that’s rarely replicated in the studio. This one really showed what a DM concert is really about, and it covered most of their big late-80’s songs. This was pretty much a given at any party I went to in high school.
2	Pantera – “Vulgar Display of Power” If any of the tracks don’t at the very least make you bang your head just a little bit, or tap your feet, you’re probably dead. From the first seconds of Track 1 all the way through, this is uncompromising, raw metal - the group’s brutal best.
3	Nine Inch Nails – “The Downward Spiral” Again, I love it when artists capitalize on a central theme. NIN is just all about self-doubt and antipathy on this one. Trent Reznor is a genius at weaving a tapestry of emotion all around a basic concept…this one being pure angst and self-pity. You can’t just isolate one track and listen to it to “get it”…you have to listen all the way through. (And as an IT professional, he shows that there’s still some use for Macs left in the world.)
4	Jimi Hendrix – “Experience Hendrix –The Best of Jimi” I bought this as my first Hendrix album and was blown away. 30 years ago, he was doing stuff people now still can’t touch. “Red House” was the song that got me into listening to the blues. He was so far ahead of his time; it’s hard to imagine hard rock without his influence.
5	Metallica – “Ride the Lightning” / Metallica – “Master of Puppets” A straight out tie. Oh man, I must have listened to “Fade to Black” a million times over. It was, at one point in my life, a ritual of sorts to play that track as I drove to UOG, and then again when I went home. I would also always play “Creeping Death” to help get my psyched for a volleyball game before a tournament. The e-minor dirge in the middle is the ultimate in heavy. “Orion” is my all-time favorite instrumental piece. Too bad that “Disposable Heroes” never got the fair attention it should have, or that the guys rarely, if ever, play this one live. It’s the fastest thing they’ve ever recorded.
6	Prince – “Purple Rain” Although I still have yet to see the movie, this is always in my CD changer. The title track, “When Doves Cry,” and “I Would Die 4 U” are simply amazing. Lesser players laugh at Prince’s playing, but real guitarists know this guy’s always had killer chops.
7	Megadeth – “Rust in Peace” Another example of a great album where everything's done perfectly. An amazing display of technical ability and melodic songwriting, with just enough of Dave Mustaine’s signature snarl to make it reek of angst against…well, everything.
8	The Cure – “Mixed Up” Ecstasy, anyone? Having gone to school at SSHS, you couldn’t help but be exposed and subsequently influenced by new wave music. The remixes on this one are astounding…most notably the 7-minute version of the excellent “Fascination Street”.
9	Kiss – “Alive III” Another incredible live piece that shows just how good these guys are – and have been – and how the crowd reacts to them. The playlist is a blend with some cuts from their make-up days (the first time around), and then with the Bruce Kulick years. Ballads and rockers. Does life get any better?
10	Fleetwood Mac – “Rumours” My dad is a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. He would sit us down and play this daily on our big reel-to-reel player, and the sounds would resonate throughout our house. I got so sick of this! Even through I went to great lengths to deny it in my formative years, the melodies and arrangements influenced me and shape my playing today.
11	Iron Maiden – “Live After Death” This was Maiden ripping it up in Long Beach when they were at their shredding finest. “The Number of the Beast” was the first record I ever bought, and I was hooked instantly. Their unique style of harmonies blended in with double guitar solos and Bruce Dickinson’s operatic screams really showed why these guys ruled. They will forever be enshrined as the band that had the sickest cover art. Eddie rules! This one also has sentimental value because Acid Jazz played “The Trooper” at our senior skip-out in ’92 at Cabras.
12	Various Artists – “The Crow: Soundtrack” I don’t normally buy soundtracks, but this one is a definite keeper!
13	Smashing Pumpkins – “Siamese Dream” I got this during a very tumultuous time in my life when I was beginning to find my independence – and not having a good time doing it. I could really identify with what Billy Corgan was saying. The sadness of “Mayonaise” intermixed with balls-out rockers like “Geek U.S.A.” and “Cherub Rock”, and the pop-friendly “Today” is the perfect mix. It was a damn shame when they broke up.
14	Duran Duran – “Decade” Now how in the world could you have been alive in the 80’s and not liked Duran Duran?
15	Ozzy Osbourne & Randy Rhoads – “Tribute” Now if I had to pick my 3 best CDs of all time, this would be one of them. Again, this is one of the CDs I spun nearly religiously in my daily college commutes. Randy had such a brutal beauty in his neoclassical playing, I shudder to think what he’d be doing now, were he still alive. This album fittingly captures just how good Ozzy is live.

Next list: Mindy - gimme something with a groove
Last member of the News8 team

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