December 15, 2002 | 9:12 PM

This is a continuation of my record project.

1. Oh Inverted World by The Shins

Oh holy hell. Has anything more beautiful been produced in the past thirty years? Listening to this record is like being in church. I am overcome with religious ecstasy. It�s the Beach Boys by way of Built to Spill. It�s Tears for Fears by way of The Soft Boys. I haven�t been so smitten, so crushing on anyone or anything since I met my ex-boyfriend seven years ago.

But your lips when we speak are the valleys and peaks of a mountain range on fire.
So let me walk these coals till you believe I can cut the mustard well enough
�Cause you know as soon as breathe we scrutinize

So unabashedly sincere. So deeply moving. So full of poprocks and soda. Cotton candy and LSD. Berkeley and Bennington. Heaven and Hell. Douglas Sirk and Spike Jonze. Wide eyed innocent and cynically rebellious.

Walking down Com Ave on a bad bad day. Rain and dark skies. Wanting to slit my wrists. And hearing

lucked out and found my favorite records lying in wait at the Birmingham mall.
the songs that I heard, the occasional book were the only fun I ever took.
and I got on with making myself.
the trick is just making yourself.

This is another one of those records that without a doubt saved my life.

2. The Best of the Lemonheads by (duh) The Lemonheads

Yeah yeah make fun. I don�t care. Perfect early 90�s pop with some nasty little non sequitors and agitating prose. Evan Dando�s a joke, but kiddies, he�s in on it. And nobody has ever written a better pop song than My Drug Buddy

She's comin� over
we'll go out walking
make a call on the way
she's in the phone booth
I'm looking in
there comes a smile on her face
�there's still some the same stuff we got yesterday�

A perfect moment captured in a silly little bubblegum toon. Evan Dando wants to be Brian Wilson and he fails miserably yet succeeds probably in ways he never would have imagined.

I always made fun of this band with my alterna-clique in high school . And then I�d race home and secretly listen compulsively to It�s a Shame About Ray again and again.

If you hate this band, you have no heart. Case closed.

2. Erotica by The Darling Buds

Silly silly SILLY record. Don�t we all need more silliness? Ear candy for the alterna-set. Wore out the tape in my walkmin sophomore year of high school. Cured those sugar blues. Didn�t make me a better human being or anything, but it certainly didn�t hurt either.

I don�t mind I don�t mind oh I don�t mind
Just please yourself

Hallelujah to that, folks.

3. Expose Your Overdubs by Stephen Brodsky

Local hero. Boston�s favorite indie rock son. Lead singer of spacey metal kings, Cave In. Has secret passion for Elliot Smith and cutesy pop hooks.

My friend Seth told me a story about Stephen�s girlfriend stealing all of his beers at a party. But who wouldn�t donate their entire supply of brew to Mr. Brodsky, who recorded this entire album in his fucking bedroom on a four track and makes it sound like Alex Chilton�s wet dream?

I would throw down my life for this egomaniacal man-child. He is genius. Case closed.

Whenever I put this record on, sharp images float up to the surface of my consciousness�like magic 8-ball fortunes. I remember the white plaster walls on Thurston Street in Somerville. And sitting cross legged on the blue futon rocking back and forth to

But you can�t take the chances that he�ll beat you into dances
Where you�re stepping on another�s toes
But it still feels good to know that I�m still worried about when I�m missing you

One of the only rock stars I�ve written fan mail to. A total inspiration. I think if I ever got to met him in person I�d shit myself. That�s how much I look up to this man.

4. God Fodder by Ned�s Atomic Dustbin

Yeah this isn�t a great record by any means really. It has no business being on anyone�s top ten list. But to 14 year old me, it was a return to good pop music. Not relevant but super catchy and fantastical.. What should have been playing on the radio instead of Paula Abdul and Mili Vanili.

I used to stay awake all night being baby-sat by Mtv just in the hopes of catching a whiff of these boys. This was back in the day when if you were willing to brave the 3 O� clock horrors of sleeplessness, Mtv would reward you with REAL alterna-videos. This was when Dsave Kendal (the biggest dork Mtv could find) ran 120 Minutes and nobody this side of the Atlantic gave a flying fuck about the Mersey Beat. It was Ned�s and the La�s and early Oasis. It was Lesley Gore anthems masquerading as indie music with the mask of fuzzy guitars. But nothing can drone out those Beatle hooks.

Just fucking lovely. I still dig the shit out of this record.

You�re telling me it�s mother earth some sign of birth
It�s not inside me uh huh!

5. Le Tigre�s Self Titled Debut

The album that dared ask many important questions.

What�s your take on Cassevetes?

How Are You?

Who put the bomp in the bomp a lomp a lomp? Who put the ram in the ramamramdingdong?

This was another album that came out while I was laid off from the idiotic and asinine Stupid Company. And on a daily basis got me up outta bed and shakin� my booty in the best politically correct feminist way possible.

Who knew that secretly Kathleen Hannah was not only the spokeswoman for a disgruntled and disaffected group of mid- 90�s feminists (myself among them) but that secretly, she was a Studio 54 diva just waiting for a decent roller derby to hit the proverbial G-spot.

An absolute fucking revelation. The marriage of leftist politics and good times sex-o-rama.

And a few of the greatest lyrics EVER

Oh fuck Guiliani!
He�s such a fucking jerk!
Shut down all the strip bars
Work fare does not work!

God damn this fucking record, man. This is something to thank Santa Clause for.

6. Los Angeles by X

Dear Exene Cervanka,

Thank you so much for being one of my earliest female role models. Thank you for being so dead sexy and not a size six. Thank you for wearing black eyeliner and not combing your hair. Thank you for saying FUCK YOU to the orange county dominated premature ejaculation set of now forgotten male punk stars. Yeah I like John Doe too. But you were the heart and soul of this band. Thanks for re-establishing harmony in punk rock. Thanks for making things danceable but grave. Thanks for saying ugly sentiments with a beautiful voice. I love you. You made high school bearable. Please let me know if I can help you in any way, like licking your postage stamps or re-paving your driveway.

Love,

Your devoted servant 4-eva,

Anna Price

7. Lost in Space by Aimee Mann

A concept album. With a black and blue cover depicting power lines. A song cycle about addiction and obsession. Two states of being I know all too well. Nuanced and full of fucking heart. Deliberate and scholarly. Confined me to my bed for evenings on end, shivering and shaking in junky worship with my head phones on full blast.

There comes a time when you swim or sink
So I jumped in the drink
�Cause I couldn�t make myself clear.

Aimee, I couldn�t have said it better myself.

I�ve loved and adored and worshipped at the altar of every single album she�s made. But this is the most bare bones, most real. Most desperate. The culmination of a great career.

You split like a cell
And then cannot tell
The line from the parallel

God I love this woman. I want to take her out for soup and coffee and kiss her blind.

8. The Boy with The Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastien.

So many albums I like are HARD to listen to.

There are many reasons to love Belle and Sebastien. Like the fact that they got their record contract by entering a contest in Scotland and they all just want to be engineers as opposed to musicians. Or that their album covers are odes to Twiggy era Swinging London with doe eyed waifs staring plaintively into the camera.

But the best and biggest reason to love Belle and Sebastian is that their compositions are as sweet and confectionery as AOR A.M radio circa 19 75.But their words are straight outta the Velvets.

20-something artists dying of strokes. Homosexual affairs. Girls who wish they were fat rather than deal with the jaded Brooke Shields cult at their high School.

Tossed off and yet completely articulated. Phil Spector couldn�t have produced a better record about mid nineties suburban ennui. Even if they ARE Scots.

9. Best of by Duran Duran

It seems like nobody knows this but to set the record straight, Duran Duran were devotees of the Velvets. That this arty hole in the wall Brittish group of wanna be�s became a household name and the crushiest bunch of boys since Elvis Prestley is both a revelation and a cruel joke.

Yes yes, they�re silly. So? I want my pop music served up silly. With a slice of mensa and a squeeze of lemon, please. And plenty of ice, of course.

What I wouldn�t give to turn on the radio and hear

Cherry ice cream smile
I suppose it's very nice
With a step to your left and a flick to the right you catch that mirror way out west
You know you're something special and you look like you're the best

Sooooo 1982. And yet so timeless. Gotta fucking love Duran Duran.

10. 13 Songs by Fugazi

Why can�t I walk down the street
Without suggestion?
Well I�ve got some skin you might wanna look in

This album is so special and so sentimental to me that even writing about it just feel like too much. Like I�ve dropped the towel and am standing in front of you all naked. A million midnight moments of sobbing and hitting a bloody fist against the wall are what this record is to me.

Promises are shit
We speak the way we breathe

I love love LUV Ian Mac Kaye. For only charging a couple bucks per concert. For licensing the �This Is Not a Fugazi� tee shirt. For being straight when it would be so much easier to be stoned. For carrying the real torch of indie rock and being a god damned human being.

Bless this man. Bless this band. May they carry on until the end of time. Amen

more to come