Why is Wolfgang Gartner’s Weekend in America on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Great electro house music with crushing grooves for days.
What does Wolfgang Gartner’s Weekend in America mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
My first interaction with Wolfgang Gartner was the song called “Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony,” and it’s still one of my favorites of his.
On top of exceptionally exciting beats, it’s crystal clear that Gartner has an innate sense of musicality, craftsmanship, and – importantly – a sense of humor. It’s all there from the jump. Over the years, Gartner has become one of my most favorite electronic artists.
I mention this because many of the songs Wolfgang Gartner releases tend to be singles or as a package of just a few songs. Very modern and hip and with the times, of course, but problematic for me in terms of my little best 1,000 albums ever project. While Gartner does compile a bunch of his singles in Weekend in America the later and similarly compiled Back Story is considerably better.
But that doesn’t mean what we get from Weekend in America isn’t good – quite the contrary, in fact.
Like “Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony,” Gartner’s best songs build from an initial sound or mood into an ecstatic fusillade of crunching electronic beats. Check it in action with “Illmerica.”
Very effective guest rap vocals from Jim Jones and Cam’ron on “Circus Freaks.”
Interestingly, “Space Junk” starts off as a song that I’m not going to get into but then blasts off (perhaps jettisoning its space junk, so to speak?).
And more recently, “The Champ,” which has a kind of sonic cinematic quality, has emerged as my favorite song on the album.
This album also sounds like
I’d say Tiësto or Benny Benassi, though you can argue that there’s some similarities with deadmau5 as well. Speaking of, here’s a really fun Gartner and deadmau5 collab called “Animal Rights.”
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Wolfgang Gartner’s Weekend in America
Okay, this might come out sounding colossally dumb, but as a writer you’re supposed to draw on personal experiences and push yourself out of your comfort zone. Or some such. Anyway, here goes.
I’ve listened to Wolfgang Gartner a ton over the years at the gym or while working out, which if nothing else I hope you’ll agree makes perfect sense as it’s super exciting, upbeat music that ideally fits with getting one’s exercise on, and particularly aerobic exercise at that.
Here’s where things get stupid dumb, as my dudes in the Beastie Boys might say: while listening to some of Gartner’s songs – but especially “Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony,” I start thinking about the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope, from way back in 1977.
You’re thinking, “Not that big a deal, Eric, maybe a little nerdy that you think about Star Wars while working out, but then again you’re doing this whole best 1,000 albums ever thing, so it kind of tracks.”
But… that’s not all.
As the song builds and gets to its fastest paced and most intense section, I think specifically about the scene where Prince Leia’s home planet, Alderaan, gets blown up by the evil Darth Vader and his minion-y British henchmen.
What I’m really focused on is the huge green lasers that get fired from the Death Star and start out individually, but then combine into one enormous death laser before heading off to destroy an entire planet in one go. But while I’m imagining this, I replace Alderaan in my little though bubble, as the thought of an entire planet getting wiped out is unconscionably grizzly if you really start to think about it.
Instead, I imagine stressful situations or someone from my past who did me wrong, and I imagine they get wiped out by the combination of the individual green lasers that combine into the planet destroyer-grade mega green laser. So it’s not like they get wiped out wiped out, but it’s more of a cathartic thing.
Like I said, colossally dumb! But yeah, Wolfgang Gartner, great to bring along to the gym.
Some stats & info about Wolfgang Gartner – Weekend in America
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? electronic music, dance music, house music, electro house
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 of 5 stars
- When was Weekend in America released? 2011
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #993 out of 1,000
Wolfgang Gartner’s Weekend in America on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.