Vatican City, Feb 19, 2010 / 10:36 am
The Holy See's newspaper has released its picks for the "top ten" albums "to take to a desert island." Among the selections are works from the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
Offering a list of favorites as "musical resistance" to the "growing tide of festival songs" released at this time of year in Italy, the Vatican paper, L'Osservatore Romano (LOR), suggests that its own "modest manual can indicate the way of good music."
The Beatles' "Revolver" is "definitely the first work to recommend," notes the Vatican daily. The paper then cites some of its tracks which "anticipate the rock revolution represented by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and still today manage to produce "goosebumps."
Pink Floyd's disc, "Dark Side of the Moon" is "extraordinarily enjoyable" and the words, described as "extremely beautiful," don't come anywhere close to giving it justice, LOR states.
Michael Jackson's "Thriller," the Vatican paper continues, is a "masterpiece of the king of pop,” precisely because Jackson added his innovative style to the previously-stereotyped “black music.”
The article is the latest from LOR in a list of commentaries on elements of popular culture, covering everything from disappointment in the "stale" plot of Avatar to praise for The Simpsons' "realistic and intelligent writing," although the newspaper deplored the "excessively rude language, violence and extreme choices by the scriptwriters" in the series.
Rounding out the list of musical favorites "to take to a desert island" are albums from Paul Simon, Oasis, Santana and U2, as well as discs from Donald Fagen, Fleetwood Mac and David Crosby.