Why is The Fratellis’ We Need Medicine on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
One part evil, three-fifths blind.
What does The Fratellis’ We Need Medicine mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
At times my passion for pop culture can turn into something close to obsession. “What, you, the guy writing a full blown article about your best ONE THOUSAND albums ever?”
Uh… yeah. Point taken.
One aspect to it is that when I get really into a song, I’ll play it… let’s just say a lot. Sometimes I’ll play a certain song a few times a day (or more!) for weeks. A recent example of this is Devo’s “Love Without Anger.”
There’s no real reason for it typically except that I just get really really into stuff. Then there were the several months or so that I got really into a Spotify playlist that I created of 1970s rock and proto punk, where I’d always start off with John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.”
Which is all prelude to saying that The Fratellis’ “She’s Not Gone Yet But She’s Leaving” is absolutely in that category. I still play it all the time, and often several times in a row when I do. It’s simply catchy as hell, with a fabulous rocking swinging groove. It flies by effortlessly, it has a great guitar hook, and incredible lyrics such as, “Well there’s a chance that she knows where the bodies are kept.”
“Whiskey Saga” isn’t quite in that tier, but it’s really damned good and catchy in its own right. I love the jangling uptempo piano, and the plucking strings give it a rollicking Western-flavored twang which is fun mapped against these Scottish lad’s alternative rock roots.
“Shotgun Shoes” (not to be confused with Guns ‘n Roses’ “Shotgun Blues”) has a really fun piano-based chord structure on top of which another fun rocker is constructed.
See also: The Fratellis – Here We Stand (#686 of best 1,000 albums ever)
Some stats & info about The Fratellis – We Need Medicine
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? British Bands, Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was We Need Medicine released? 2013
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #674 out of 1,000
The Fratellis’ We Need Medicine 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 review of 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.