Expand My Musical Horizons

[daveharty]

I'm sure it's been done here before, but I'm posting a list of my Top 10 Albums Of All Time, in the hope that others will do the same and give me some inspiration for expanding my musical collection. Okay, actually it's the Top 15 Albums Of All Time; I couldn't narrow it down any further. In no particular order:

 

The Velvet Underground, "The Velvet Underground & Nico"

Genesis, "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"

Massive Attack, "Mezzanine"

Stereolab, "Mars Audiac Quintet"

R.E.M., "Reckoning"

The Police, "Synchronicity"

Beth Orton, "Central Reservation"

Liz Phair, "Exile in Guyville"

My Bloody Valentine, "Loveless"

Jane's Addiction, "Nothing's Shocking"

PJ Harvey, "Dry"

Yo La Tengo, "Prisoners of Love"

Sugarcubes, "Life's Too Good"

Talking Heads, "Speaking in Tongues"

Cowboy Junkies, "The Trinity Session"

 

What are your favorites?

[jjbrr]

1. Call Me Maybe

[Bbradley62]

Bat Out of Hell is still the best album ever.

[squealydan]

A random collection from the top of my head :

 

1. The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed

2. Van Morrion - Astral Weeks

3. Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

4. Paul Weller - Wildwood

5. Radiohead - OK Computer

6. Aimee Mann - Bachelor no. 2

7. Iron and Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle

8. Gillian Welch - Time (the Revelator)

9. Jackson Browne - Solo acoustic (vol 1 or 2)

10. Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

 

 

and here's some songs from my corner of the world (NZ/Aus) that you may not have heard.

 

1. Hannah Howes - 8 (google Live at Bodegas)

2. The Jezabels - Unmarked Helicopters

3. Paul Kelly - Deeper Water

4. Hunters and Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me

5. The Muttonbirds - A Thing Well Made

6. The Waifs - Sunflower Man

7. Powderfinger - These Days

8. Paul Dempsey - Out the Airlock

9. Augie March - One Crowded Hour

10. Angus and Julia Stone - Hollywood

[hrothgar]

1. Sleater-Kinney: The Woods

2. Garbage: Beautiful

3. Concrete Blonde: Bloodletting

4. Fleetwood Mac: Rumors

5. Changes 1: David Bowie

6. Liz Phair: Exile in Guyville

7. Aimee Mann: Bachelor #1

[Cyberyeti]

Are we talking:

 

Albums we feel are the best

Personal favourites

Albums we feel are important ?

 

Beastie boys - licensed to ill

Elvis Costello - armed forces (first album I ever bought)

Nirvana - Nevermind

Blondie - Parallel lines

Green Day - American idiot

Sex Pistols - Never mind the bollocks

Fairport Convention - Liege and lief

 

All qualify for me in some of the above but not all.

 

Velvet underground and Nico gets another vote from me

[jjbrr]

1. Call Me Maybe

2.

NSFW

[daveharty]

Are we talking:

 

Albums we feel are the best

Personal favourites

Albums we feel are important ?

 

 

I personally would prefer to hear about the former; I don't really need someone to tell me that "London Calling" or "Sgt. Pepper's" were important albums, I already know that. I'd like something more personal.

 

"Nevermind" was one of my last cuts.

[BunnyGo]

In no particular order--and I'm sure something will come up later:

 

Magnetic Fields, 69 Love songs

Michael Jackson, Bad

Billy Joel, The Stranger

Ennio Maricone, Soundtrack to The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Radiohead, OK Computer (In rainbows was pretty good too)

The Offspring, Smash

Nirvan, Unplugged

They Might Be Giants, Flood

Greenday, Dookie,

Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi

 

 

There should be some other artists on there, but that's a first pass from the gut without too much thought---probably left off something I'm going to hate myself for later.

[Cyberyeti]

In no particular order--and I'm sure something will come up later:

 

The Offspring, Smash

Nirvan, Unplugged

Greenday, Dookie,

Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi

 

 

There should be some other artists on there, but that's a first pass from the gut without too much thought---probably left off something I'm going to hate myself for later.

This interested me, as you've chosen different albums for these 4 artists to me.

 

Nirvana and Green Day were very close decisions for me between the ones you chose and the ones I chose, but I'd have gone for Slippery when wet and any of several Offspring albums in front of Smash which I don't know well. I have a soft spot for the Offspring partly due to the story of the high school students recruiting the janitor into the band because he was old enough to buy beer.

[mike777]

If only the last 20 years then Nevermind must be number one.

 

Tough but I would need one album with Louie Louie by the Kingsmen and Like a Rolling Stone by Dylan and House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. I need to throw one Beatles album in there, maybe Abbey Road or the White Album or the one with all of there number one songs on it, but tough choices. I could see London Calling. What the heck lets throw in the Monkees greatest hits and throw in the that Stones one with all their greatest hits. I could live with a Three Dog Night and Guess Who and Cream.

 

If we have room lets throw in Excitable Boy album by Warren Zevon.

[billw55]

No love for Led Zeppelin? Odd.

 

Personally I gotta put in one Rush album. Perhaps Permanent Waves, although it is not easy to choose.

[Phil]

Such a moving target. Whose taste hasn't changed over the last 10 or 20 years? And I hope nobody tries to 'rank' their favorite albums 1 to 10.

 

Judging from my Pandora account, and what I have chosen to listen to from 2009 to the present, here's a representative list:

 

1. Black Keys - Brothers

2. Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach

3. Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea

4. Morphine - Like Swimming

5. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

6. Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties

7. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

8. Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy

9. Wax Tailor - In the Mood for Life

10. Aaron Copeland - Rodeo

 

I could easily be convinced there are better albums by these artists. Radiohead should be on there too, but I had to choose 10...

[jjbrr]

2.

NSFW

 

3. Nikki Minaj

[JLOGIC]

2 people put liz phair? guess i should listen, color me surprised, I thought she was like pink lol.

[Cthulhu D]

Listing some more unusual choices, I'm going to skip over Chuck Berry, anything by Who, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Master of Puppets by Metallica and Iron Maiden to mix it up a bit.

 

Bad Religion - Grey Race

Bad Religion - Process of Belief

Bad Religion - Suffer

 

One of the best punk bands ever. Why yes I am a massive fan. Note: Suffer has awful production values as it was recorded for $2 dollars in a dumpster, so it might be wise to start with Grey Race or Process of Belief which has slick production and excellent song writing.

 

Motorhead - Ace of Spades - Great british heavy metal band. Probably one of their best albums, Bomber is good to.

Finntroll - Jaktens Tid - Swedish band doing a hybrid of traditional finnish folk music and death metal.

Ulver - Kveldssanger - An entirely acoustics album that is impossible to sum up. Let me leave it to a professional to try "Vocals tend towards an obscure hymnal, almost Gregorian warble, though under-utilized, they're richly textured and melodiously delivered, complemented by an amalgamation of layered guitars, flutes, and cellos. There are literally zero modern equivalents to this pensive mood-setting oddity [...] A somber and skillfully executed alternative to the norm; the entire affair just reeks of class." Source: ssmt-reviews.com

 

Ulver - Perdition City - Okay as you might have guessed the guy behind ulver is insane, and this is some sort of electronic accoustic.. thing. It's really good.

NOFX - White Trash, Two Heebs & A Bean - NOFX defines pop punk and this or Ribbed defines NOFX. Your pick. "I heard they suck live" is the best live album ever by anyone as well, if you like that sort of thing.

[daveharty]

2 people put liz phair? guess i should listen, color me surprised, I thought she was like pink lol.

1st album > 2nd album >>>>>> anything else she's done

 

One of the most baffling careers in music IMO. She came hard out of the gate, and then turned into something completely different.

[RunemPard]

I'll put some albums I like a lot up too...wth...lol

Maybe not my "favorites of all time", but some I listen to a bit...

 

A Day To Remember - What Seperates Me From You

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

Linkin Park - Meteora

Sum 41 - Chuck

R.E.M. - (don't really have a favorite album, I mix and mash my own)

Metallica - Ride The Lightning

Megadeth - (but again, mostly my own mix cds or best hits)(I do love their album covers though)

The Offspring - (can listen to any of their albums all day)

[daveharty]

 

and here's some songs from my corner of the world (NZ/Aus) that you may not have heard.

 

 

 

Thanks for this list, there are some good tunes here. I really like the Muttonbirds song; a little disturbing, but really sharp. Here are a few songs that are on heavy rotation for me right now:

 

Yo La Tengo, "Pablo and Andrea" (probably my current favorite)

Velvet Underground, "Heroin"

Massive Attack, "Inertia Creeps"

R.E.M., "7 Chinese Bros."

Liz Phair, "Shatter"

Dinosaur Jr., "Out There"

Frogpond, "I Did"

Pamper the Madman, "Preoccupation"

Superchunk, "Driveway to Driveway"

Fugazi, anything from 13 Songs

The Jayhawks, "Martin's Song"

Mono, "Karelia (Opus 2)"

Stereolab, "Les Yper-Sound", "Nihilist Assault Group", "Outer Accelerator"

[Trinidad]

Johnny Cash - At San Quentin

Dire Straits - Alchemy

Supertramp - Paris

 

I'm old :(

 

Rik

[jjbrr]

3. Nikki Minaj

 

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

[Flem72]

What are your favorites?

 

At the time I left the Music Bidness (only peripherally in it, no need to ask), I had over 5000 vinyl 33s, courtesy of record company A&R folks. I'm telling you, it was pretty exhaustive (for 1978), rock and jazz. Since I had to get rid of about 4200 of them, only keeping the ones I coldn't bear to sell, I gravitated to Greatest Hits CDs, b/c, really, out of 10-12 on a record, we were always lucky to get 3-5 real quality recordings (there are exceptions, mostly the best of all timers).

 

That said, I'd have to put Zep's first one and the "all star blues session" recordings on my list: Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, Fathers & Sons, London Howin' Wolf Sessions, others, and the good live ones, Allman Bros at Fillmore East, some of those. Because although I have sat in enough recording studios to really come to appreciate the "mix our sound" approach to recording, nothing beats spontaneous energy in combo with real chops.

[blackshoe]

The Cruxshadows - Ethernaut

Metallica - Metallica

Alannah Myles - Alannah Myles

Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill

The Animals - Retrospective

Eric Clapton - The Complete Clapton

Cream - Disraeli Gears

Heart - Dreamboat Annie

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

Jeff Healey - Mess of Blues

Johnny and June Carter Cash - Duets

Led Zepellin - IV

Meatloaf - Bat Out of Hell

Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends

Carole King - Tapestry

Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday

Uriah Heep - Demons and Wizards

Heather Alexander - Midsummer

[mike777]

why of all the Animals albums did you pick that one?

 

I am having a hard time picking one.

[blackshoe]

Because it was the first one that came to mind. If I were picking from all of them, it would probably be the 1991(?) "Best of the Animals".