Spin magazine asked Rage Against the Machine punk activist Tom Morello to list five albums he "can't live without." His list includes Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz, Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking, Conor Oberst's Ruminations, and Knife Party's Rage Valley. But it's his #1 pick that is surprising and yet makes total sense:
Peter Gabriel's 3 is a spectacular album of ennui and desperation. "Games Without Frontiers" is the track that draws you in with its brilliant, disjointed poetry and equally disjointed, brilliant Robert Fripp guitars. "Family Snapshot" is a quiet and terrifying assassin's novella and "Intruder" is even scarier than that. Phil Collins plays drums on this record and Gabriel forbade him from using any hi-hats or cymbals on the entire record, adding to the suffocating tone. And then there's "Biko," one of the greatest human-rights anthems of all time about the martyred South African dissident Stephen Biko. It is a song that galvanized the global anti-apartheid movement and stirred in me the realization that music really could change the world.
"5 Albums I Can't Live Without: Tom Morello" (Spin)
