So why is The Creation’s Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I first discovered The Creation via Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, a film with a stellar soundtrack in its own right. “Making Time” helped to set the movie’s super unique tone (think back to when a Wes Anderson movie wasn’t yet its own genre or full-on cultural event!): whimsical, retro, arch, melancholy, and hilarious, often all at the same time.
“Making Time” at first sounds like early Who. But, wait, it’s great early Who. But then, wait again: it’s actually its own thing.
It’s The Creation. Dig it.
And here’s a really cool live recording of “Making Time” from 1966.
Just me or does The Creation’s lead singer, Kenny Pickett, remind you looks-wise of mid-1990s Liam Gallagher?
“Painter Man” showcases The Creation’s playful side, with its upbeat melody and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. The chorus, which features the band members shouting, “He’s a painter man!” in unison is both catchy and fun.
“How Does It Feel to Feel?” leans into the band’s psychedelic rock side, with its swirling guitars, dreamy vocals, and trippy lyrics.
The Creation never reached the commercial heights of fellow mod and psych bands like The Who and The Kinks, but they carved out a sharper, artsy edge that feels weirdly ahead of its time (and thus perfect to get resuscitated by Wes Anderson).
Their fusion of aggressive guitar work, splashy feedback, and tongue-in-cheek attitude helped set the stage for the psychedelic rock explosion of the late ’60s and, later, the Britpop revival decades later.
Stuff that has something to do with The Creation’s Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes
Perhaps more than your average American*, I’m particularly obsessed with the differences in how the Brits versus we Yanks use our shared English language.
* I lived over in the UK – east of London in the town of Rochester, for six months during my early twenties – which has something to do with it. And of course my dear old American mum was always something of an Anglophile (and still is to this day).
And this is just one small thing, but the “With Purple Flashes” in The Creation’s album title reminds that it completely delights me when Brits use the term flash e.g. that bloke was real flash like, or some such.
Some stats & info about The Creation – Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, British Bands, British Invasion, Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes released? 1998
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #517 out of 1,000
The Creation’s Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Creation’s Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Why do we have to carry on? Always singing the same old song.
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.