Image via Complex Original
Producer Justin Nealis and instrumentalist Sean Mahone are Party Supplies, a duo who made their name producing Action Bronson's Blue Chips and Blue Chips 2. Last year, the two released a solo album, Tough Love, which spoke to their interest in an unusual source for samples and spiritual inspiration: '80s MOR, the soft/ lite rock stylings of artists like Phil Collins, Gram Parsons, and John Cougar. We decided to get more from Justin, who spoke about his favorite albums and inspirations over a course of phone conversations earlier this month.
It's a story of history that inverts your usual assumptions about what was worth remembering. While it's easy to see these as all a part of the same "genre," there's a fluidity to the boundaries; each album Nealis mentions expands your idea of what he values in music. (Just look at No. 25, or No. 18, or No. 8.) It's a list full of albums the average crate digger avoids, and much more interesting for it.
These are Party Supplies' 25 Favorite Albums.
25. Bob Dylan "Infidels" (1983)
"It's pretty much because of the song 'Jokerman.' If you listen to that, it's a different side of Bob Dylan, it's like a reggae, pop type song."
24. Paul Simon "Graceland" (1986)
"All of these albums embody the sound that I grew up with, and try to put across with Sean and all this stuff is related to our influences. These are the top 25 influential albums to us. Definitely Graceland...'You Can Call Me Al' is such a great song. The live video in Africa is amazing too. Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon would go and shoot in South Africa and they would absorb the culture. If you ever see Peter Gabriel live in Italy, the song 'In Your Eyes' has a full African band with him. People like Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel just embrace that."
23. Talking Heads "Remain In Light" (1980)
"'Once In A Lifetime' is one of my favorite songs, Brian Eno produced it and it's just…that's definitely one of the best albums. 'Once In A Lifetime' is the definitive song off the album. That's probably my second favorite Talking Heads album. It needs to be on the list."
22. Billy Joel "The Stranger" (1977)
"The Stranger by Billy Joel. Or maybe 52nd Street. It's gonna be a toss-up between those two. You know something funny about BIlly Joel? He wrote 'Piano Man' on his first album and no one took him seriously. All of a sudden he dropped The Stranger and he blew up and that was in like, '77. But he had already written 'Piano Man' five albums before that. So that just goes to show like, the album, and the history behind it, and the blueprint of how rock and roll was made. You can't really have a hit song sometimes until a year later [after your debut]. Because he did this album, which was like 'Only the Good Die Young' and "Movin' Out." Like 'Just The Way You Are'? Those songs are crazy."
21. Don Henley "The End of Innocence" (1989)
"Don Henley, fucking legend. It's the corniest album cover of all time, like him in some 1920's car. He's got hair over his eyes and shit. Henley is just an epic poet, a poetic lyricist. One of the greatest songwriters who ever lived. I kind of fuck with Don Henley a little bit more than The Eagles to be honest. I like The Eagles but I like Don Henley more. 'Fuck The Eagles,' as they say. 'The Boys of Summer' is a classic song. It's not on The End of Innocence though. He's a dying breed. They don't make them like that anymore."
20. Jackson Browne "Somebody's Baby" (1982)
"My next album is gonna be a single. Jackson Browne, 'Somebody's Baby.' That's an album in itself, it was never on an album, and it's Jackson Browne's biggest song. And he has many albums. That goes to show you that a song could be an album in itself. 'Gotta be somebody's baby…It's one of the greatest songs ever written in terms of arrangements. It broke the archetype of pop music at the time. The way it came in, the way the chorus dropped, it was lite rock, the beginning of lite rock. But it's a great pop song."
19. Randy Newman "Good Old Boys" (1974)
"Good Old Boys by Randy Newman. 'Rednecks' is a fucking psychotic song, bro, and it's a really intellectual song for those who understand what it means. It's such an edgy, racy song. That's what makes music cooler than other types of shit, when people do that type of thing. He's so smart, the original hipster. A genius piano player. I listened to this album going out to Ohio recently, when we drove out. And it's a really wild album. Basically, it's his take on the South, but satire. A genius album."
18. The Clash "London Calling" (1979)
"The Clash, London Calling. That's a great album, and I love that song 'Train In Vain.' I'm a huge Clash fan. I think The Clash had a lot of crazy weird punk songs I wasn't really into. But whenever they wrote these pop songs—and clearly they wrote these for the radio. It may have not been who The Clash was, but at the same time, it was who they were.Those songs were insanely melodic. So upbeat, and it's got 'hit' written all over it, the way it comes in, how the chorus is."
17. Paul McCartney & Wings "Band on the Run" (1973)
"I'm not the biggest Beatles fan. I like them and all, but there's a lot of stuff I didn't like from The Beatles. 'Let It Be' is a classic song. 'Jet' is such a crazy song—'Jet' is a Wings song, Paul McCartney. I think Paul is probably the most talented of the four of them. 'Jet' is so futuristic for the time it came out, like in the early '70s. It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time, it's so ahead of its time. The way he recorded the bass and compressed everything. And that album cover is amazing too."
16. Gram Parsons "Grievous Angel" (1974)
"He was the lead singer of this band the Flying Burrito Brothers, and he was a solo artist. It was country rock. A lot of the Party Supplies stuff sounds like pop and electro and shit, but another side of our music has this country rock type of vibe. You heard it in that Gotye song. It's kind of a country rock type of song. Gram Parsons is probably one of the only country singers I like, other than Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan and Elton John. Emmylou Harris.
"There's a handful of country that's cool, that was edgy and shit. And then there's the wack shit. But the older stuff in the '60s and '70s was really trippy. That's a big influence. One of my good friends is really into the Flying Burrito Brothers, he's put me onto a lot of that shit. Gram Parsons was a fucking rockstar.They made a movie about him too and buried him out in Joshua Tree."
15. Brian Eno "Another Green World" (1975)
"It's the same instrumental-type vein [as Music For Airports], but he sounds like he's having a good time. That song 'Big Ship' is really next level. There's a song called 'Becalmed.' And there's a song called 'Everything Merges With The Night.' It's smack. It's total futuristic shit, man. It's an old album, it's from the 70's, but it sounds like some shit you'd hear at Coachella now. From the early 70's, that's some next level shit. One of the most influential albums."
14. Brian Eno "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" (1978)
"It's a conceptual album. Just heard it throughout the years. Eno's shit is just next level. The song 'Big Green World,' all the instrumental shit is so epic. It sounds like soundtrack music, you know? No vocals. It's just music for airports. I'm a big fan of 'Chariots of Fire' by Vangelis, just soundtrack music in general is amazing. Eno is a G, man. He produced the greatest albums of all time. That's the homie right there. It's a really ambient album. Listen to it while you're walking around the city or something. The songs are titled like '1/1' and '2/1' and then '1/2'...that's how the tracks are named on the album. He's a genius, man. Steve Reich is cool too."
13. Talking Heads "True Stories" (1986)
"David Byrne is a genius. The songs are great. The songs really spoke to me, 'People Like Us' is a great song. That's one of the weirder albums. I love the thought, too. The artwork. The theme of that album is simple stories or some shit like that. Just people's everyday lives, but David Byrne takes simple lyrics that weren't too deep, what people did during the day, and turns it into songs. All their albums are amazing but that one is special to me. 'Wild Wild Life' is such a great song. And 'Hey Now' is another epic song off that album."
12. Meat Loaf "Bat Out Of Hell II Back Into Hell" (1977)
"Jim Steinman and 'I’d Do Anything For Love.' It’s a 12 minute song and it’s got an end at 8 minutes, and you think it’s gonna end but it goes for another 4 minutes. What he’s saying is insane, like 'I’d do anything for love, but I won’t do that.' He’s really saying, 'I will never stop loving you,' to this girl. Once it hits you, what the song's about, it becomes epic. It’s such a simple lyric and a lot of people overthink it.
If you Google the words 'What would…' it’s gonna give you recommendations and it’s gonna say, 'What would Meat Loaf not do?' A lot of people wanna know what he wouldn’t do. There’s a lot of rumors about what he wouldn’t do, but me and Sean did some research, when we were on tour a few weeks ago, in the car. We were like, 'What wouldn't he do?' And we found out he did an interview in the '90s where he told people what he wouldn’t do, and said he would never not love the girl. And it’s kind of a let down, like, 'Are you kidding me? That’s what you wouldn’t do?'
But at the end of the day it’s genius songwriting, because he’s coming from an honest place. He’s just trying to tell the girl, 'Listen, I would do anything for love, and I’d do anything to have you, but I won’t do that.' And 'that' is 'I’m never ever gonna stop loving you.' It’s crazy songwriting. The song is insane. Jim Steinman’s a Broadway guy, and I know he wrote a majority of that material for Peter Pan, so it's the most theatrical I’m gonna get ever for music, like not Glee-esque music, but definitely a Broadway theatrical-type album that I’m into is that one. That’s the only song I’d listen to that’s like, 12 minutes."
11. John Cougar "American Fool" (1982)
"I know a little history about that. Apparently when he made 'Jack & Diane,' 'Small Town,' and 'Hurts So Good,' those were three songs which he took a lot of money from a New York label for. He went down to Florida and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for weeks and didn't do anything. And he kept on being like, 'Don't worry, I got these songs.' And they didn't believe him, and he was down there spending money and the label was going insane, like, 'Are you fucking kidding me?' But he handed them these three songs...John Mellencamp don't give a fuck about people's money and shit. He's a fucking G, bro. An epic dude. In the music industry, he's an outcast.
A lot of people don't play like that. You can't even play like that any more."
10. Elton John "Tumbleweed Connection" (1970)
"It's a country record that he did. A lot of British people are obsessed with American culture and history. Like, I know Phil Collins is obsessed with the Alamo. He's a famous Alamo guy, Phil. And that's Elton John's American country record, sorta. It's not something people would think of when they think Elton John. There's a song called 'Country Comfort' on there, which is a great country song, and if you were ever to drive in America on the West Coast or in Ohio, it's definitely a good feeling. That album is a classic because it's a bunch of country songs written by Elton John. Who isn't usually writing country songs. So it's a British take on American country."
9. Bruce Springsteen "Nebraska" (1982)
"My favorite Bruce Springsteen album is Born In The U.S.A. man. Or you know what? I'm gonna go with Nebraska. Bruce recorded it on a little two-track and an acoustic guitar. It really defines your singer-songwriter. I don't really fuck with singer-songwriters, I don't really like it and it's not for me, but Bruce makes that cool for me. And that's one of the only times where that kind of thing works for me.
"I chopped up 'Atlantic City.' It's really next level. Sean and I chopped up the chorus on an MPC. You can watch it online, it's called 'Live Rehearsal Video 1,' or '2.'
"That's a really crazy song, man. The whole chord progression and how it comes together is such a beautiful thing. He's so talented. He really defined that song, and he's able to do it over and over. It's kinda like he's able to strike lightning, to put lightning in a bottle more than one time. It's an epic feat for any entertainer to do. Bruce teaches you that the song is crucial. That's the heart of it all. That three-minute thing, you can't define it."
8. George Michael "Faith" (1987)
"How's that sound? 'Father Figure' is also one of the greatest songs. George Michael is a fucking G, bro. And if you watch the video to—he did a Christmas song called ["Last Christmas"], 'Alll I want for Christmastime is youuu' [sings]. If you watch the video for that Christmas song, ['Last Christmas'], the video is so next level, bro. It's insane. He meets his friends in like, Aspen, and they go skiing, and then they go back to his winter crib, and they all have like, massive duffle bags and trench coats. The haircuts! You gotta watch that video. I always wanted to do a video like that. That video is great.
"I fuck with George Michael, and that album is his quintessential album. 'Father Figure' and 'I Want Your Sex.' He was in Wham! I fuck with Wham! heavy. And that Christmas song is actually a Wham! song, not George Michael. [Note: Wham! was formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. George Michael has writing and producing credits on 'Last Christmas.'] His sex was mad ambiguous and shit, for the time. I kind of thought that was cool, and he used to rock the gloves and the little short shorts, he always had models in his vids. He was a wild dude, a next-level pop entertainer. We don't really see people like that anymore. You don't see figures like that any more."
7. Raekwon "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" (1995)
"Classic. I remember I was 19, I took ecstasy once, I remember throwing [Cuban Linx] on and it changed my life. I'll never forget this one night in this kid's crib. It was a very sharp memory. What was that one song where he like, boom, it was a breakbeat? It's like a bongo break. I forget which one it is. It's the best song on there, although people don't consider it the best song. Oh man, whatever. I just have a very sharp experience with that one album. I'm not like, on weed listening to that record. But it's a great record."
6. Mott the Hoople "All The Young Dudes" (1972)
"It's such a great song. I don't know the album too well. But that's one of my favorite songs, man. 'All the young dudes carry the news.' That's kinda an epic line. It's especially relatable to everything going down in 2014. It could relate to any time period, really. It's a great simple lyric. Those are the best songs, the more simple the lyric the better the song. Have you heard the song "Security"? The hook is just 'Security.'"
5. Fine Young Cannibals "The Raw & The Cooked" (1989)
"It’s got this song called 'She Drives Me Crazy.' Remember that song? [sings] 'She drives me crazy…' One of my favorite albums of all time. That song is so good dude. I fuck with their lead singer, Roland Gift. The way he would sing, like, [warbles] 'Haaa…' He had this kind of weird…you know what I’m saying? The way he sang is how I try to sing, to be honest. A mixture between that guy and Sting."
4. Phil Collins "...But Seriously" (1989)
"Crazy fucking album. He was a jokester. His whole approach to music was kinda like a joke. I think that's kinda cool, cause I don't think a lot of people do that anymore. He'd be like, everything was a joke, everything was a joke...but seriously! And the photo is him looking mad serious.
"He kinda helped to find a lane for all this hipster shit that you hear and see and I think he helped to really make that lane. And, pretty much, hipsters came from England. People don't know that. If you look at [photos from] the 60's and 70's, all the bands used to rock the big rim glasses. If you want to talk about the original shit, that was Phil Collins and all that. Phil is such a legend."
3. Steve Winwood "Arc of a Diver" (1980)
"'Back In the High Life Again'? That's one of my favorite songs of all time. If every song that I could write as a band with Sean could sound like that song, I would probably be a happy man.
"I'm a big Steve Winwood fan, I love his haircuts. He had probably some of the greatest haircuts, and some of the illest moves in his trench coat. If you look up his videos, he used to do videos like you'd do at a bar mitzvah. Like with the VHS? It looks like that, he's in a trench coat, it's insane. When he did it at the time, this would have been new shit. He just made a classic, a fucking amazingly ridiculous video."
2. Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" (1977)
"That's another intense album. I think everything on there is a hit song. That's one of the first times, I think, in music, where every song was a hit. They didn't fuck around, Mick Fleetwood was a legend. They would mic the kick drum for like days. The guy was obsessed with an airy, clean sound.
"The songs just start—There's no intro. And the way he arranged the album, like a song with no drums would go into a song with mad drums. I think that's an archetypal record for if you're trying to make an album of hits and you want it to work, that's the way to do it. It's a great album.
"I'm just a big fan of Fleetwood Mac. I just think Mick Fleetwood was a legend. And if you know the story of how they started with Peter Green, and this guy didn't want to be a rock star. He was mad self-destructive, they moved to L.A., and Mick Fleetwood really saw the vision. But I can't name a single song as my favorite. Some of them are better than others.
"I would say 'Second Hand News' is my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, from Rumours. The way he comes in…That may be the best one on the whole album."
1. Peter Gabriel "So" (1986)
"Probably my favorite album of all time is So by Peter Gabriel. I think he's a genius and he had his own thing. He really defined a pretty big percentage of popular music 25 or 30 years ago. The guy is a legend, and I'm a huge fan of his music. It just moves me, it's very inspiring. I feel like Sean [Mahon] and me can help bring back that kind of music."
