Steve Albini stood up to hear a sound. But he also defended a spirit.
Famous among rock fans for his work in the recording studio with artists such as Nirvana and Pixies, and for his own bands Shellac and Big Black, Albini was known for his harsh guitars and booming drums presented without the sweetness that can make a rock. The album sounds like a country of candy. As a producer (although he preferred to be called an engineer), he took a “documentary approach to recording music,” he told The Times in 1993, shortly after overseeing the making of Nirvana's final studio album, “In Utero.” .
Yet Albini, who died Tuesday at age 61, was almost equally revered for his direct criticism of the recording industry and its propensity to corrupt the purity of creative expression. For him, stardom was a trap, which is why for years he was known for recording virtually any band that asked him to in his Chicago studio. What he offered to musicians was wisdom, honesty and technical knowledge; What he got from his clients most of the time was some of his best work. Here, in the order they were released, are 12 of Albini's essential recordings.
1. Great Black, “Kerosene” (1986)
A would-be arsonist explains himself (his motive: boredom) as cutting guitars scrape against the mechanized thump of a Roland drum machine. Not Big Black, not Nine Inch Nails.
2. Pixies, “Where is my mind?” (1988)
“I have never seen four cows more eager to be led by their nose rings,” Albini wrote after recording the debut album of this seminal alt-rock quartet. Yet even now nothing sounds like the Pixies' most enduring tune: a haunted psychedelic soul jam in which ultra-reverb choruses evoke the terrifying underwater expanse that singer Black Francis describes in his lyrics. Thanks in part to a prominent place in 1999's “Fight Club,” “Where's My Mind?” has been streamed more than 850 million times on Spotify.
3. The breeders, “Iris” (1990)
Clearly unconcerned by the nose ring comment, the Pixies' Kim Deal recruited Albini to oversee her other band's first record, and it's not hard to see why: No one ever showed off the wild beauty of Deal's singing like he.
4. Casco, “Meanwhile” (1992)
Albini recorded just one song for this New York noise-rock group's major-label debut, but it's a scorcher. “Earth tone suits you, so smile at it,” Page Hamilton barks over a beat so stiff it's almost funky.
5. PJ Harvey, “Get Rid of Me” (1993)
“Lick my legs, I'm on fire / Lick my legs with desire,” Harvey shouts unaccompanied to end this fast-paced blues-punk provocation, perhaps his most unwavering vocal performance in a career full of them.
6. Nirvana, “Serve the Servants” (1993)
Nirvana's follow-up to their landmark “Nevermind” begins like a grunge version of “A Hard Day's Night,” with a burst of rebellious guitar noise that quickly gives way to a catchy complaint about having worked like a dog only to end: surprise . ! — boring and old. Dave Grohl's drums have never sounded louder.
7. Jawbreaker, “Do You Still Hate Me?” (1994)
Working under his cat's name, Fluss, Albini helped give this Bay Area punk trio a muscular edge that perfectly balanced singer Blake Schwarzenbach's desperate tone.
8. Shellac, “Pull the Cup” (1994)
After years of putting together riffs, Albini tried to take one apart.
9. Bush, “Swallowed” (1996)
Despite his distaste for the conventional record business, Albini was more than willing to accept a check from a major label, as when Gavin Rossdale's band came to him in what seemed an obvious attempt to fill the void left after the death by Kurt Cobain. But Albini never took easy money as an opportunity to let loose: listen to how carefully he introduces the sound of his fingers on the guitar strings in this powerful ballad.
10. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, “Please Read the Letter” (1998)
A decade before Plant and Alison Krauss won a Grammy for record of the year with it, Albini captured the former Led Zeppelin bandmates' original version of this plaintive folk-rock tune. It stomps, creaks, jingles.
11. Songs: Ohia, “Farewell Transmission” (2003)
Cut, so the story goes, into a single, unrehearsed take, this seven-minute epic from the group led by songwriter Jason Molina (who died in 2013) sounds like Neil Young fronting the Allman Brothers Band. A testament to Albini's ability to recognize the moment when he arrives.
12. Joanna Newsom, “Monkey and Bear” (2006)
There's not a jagged guitar in sight: just Newsom's voice, his harp, and Van Dyke Parks' orchestral arrangements, each recorded with such precision and intimacy that listening to it feels like being told a secret.
