Tareq Abuissa’s All-Time Favorite Music
The music industry has been hard hit during the coronavirus crisis, but different people in the music world have found creative ways to respond to the need for social distancing. The Soundshop is highlighting the alternative roles of music in the age of COVID-19 with a series of guest blog posts. If you have an idea you’d like to contribute, email founders@the-soundshop.com.
While we’re all stuck at home unable to put on or attend live concerts, it’s a good time to catch up on all of the albums worth listening to. Tareq Abuissa, who performed at The Soundshop’s Music and Romance salon in 2018, compiled his all-time favorite music selections for your listening pleasure.
“From symphonies through the history of recorded music, around 40 minutes seems to hit a certain attentional sweet spot. Now that COVID-19 has given us all so much time to occupy, I wanted to offer my friends a curated invitation into some longer-form entertainment. I’m a great admirer of artists that can fill out the LP form with several sublime tracks, and these selections are the crème de la crème of the main genres I listen to,” said Abuissa. Let us know what you think and if you have any additions!
Classic Rock (deserve to be listened to all the way through)
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (1967)
The Beatles: Abbey Road (1969)
Joni Mitchell: Clouds (1969)
Joni Mitchell: Blue (1971)
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (1970)
Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon (1970)
The Beach Boys: Surf’s Up (1972)
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (1973)
Soul/R&B (some on vinyl, some contemporary, all funky)
Curtis Mayfield: Super Fly (1972)
The Spinners: Spinners (1973)
Earth, Wind & Fire: That’s the Way of the World (1975)
Marvin Gaye: I Want You (1976)
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982)
Frank Ocean: Channel ORANGE (2012)
D’Angelo and The Vanguard: Black Messiah (2014)
Calvin Harris: Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 (2017)
Hip-Hop (artists Q-Tip, DJ Premier, Madlib and Big Boi make double appearances)
Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (1993)
Nas: Illmatic (1994)
Gang Starr: Moment of Truth (1998)
Quasimoto: The Unseen (2000)
Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
Madvillain: Madvillainy (2004)
Big Boi: Sir Lucius Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty (2010)
Kendrick Lamar: DAMN. (2017)
Indie (comprised my high school rotation and have stayed with me since)
Radiohead: OK Computer (1997)
The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
of Montreal: Satanic Panic in the Attic (2004)
Gorillaz: Demon Days (2005)
Grizzly Bear: Yellow House (2006)
Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes (2008)
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
St. Vincent: Actor (2009)
Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan (2012)
Classical (where I got my start in music)
Beethoven: Symphony №5 in C Minor (bonus, №7 mvt. II) (1808)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)
Fauré: The World of Fauré (various pieces, ~1880s)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade — Capriccio Espagnol (1888)
Dvořák: String Quartet in F Major, “American” (1893)
Sibelius: Symphony №1 in E Minor (1899)
Debussy: Images, Children’s Corner, Suite bergamasque (piano collection, 1905–9)
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (1912)
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (1941)
Tareq Abuissa is a New York-based composer. He works for the Society of Composers & Lyricists, a film music guild, and serves as a Teaching Artist with the New York Philharmonic.
— Melissa Lee, Head of Social Media
