Thursday 22 January 2009

Greatest Albums.

Most albums have great songs, but occasionally, artists have great albums.

What constitutes a great album for me is when you listen to it straight through or on shuffle and you don't feel the need to skip a song.

Examples:

  • Korn, Follow The Leader.
  • Nirvana, Nevermind.
  • Pearl Jam, Ten.
  • Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magic.
  • Gomez, In Our Gun.
  • Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might Find.
  • Silverchair, Frogstomp.
  • VAST, Visual Audio Sensory Theatre.
  • Metallica, Kill 'em All.
...and on and on it goes. If I put my mind to it I could easily think of a dozen more. Double that if you venture into the 70's and 60's. There's plenty of excellent compilations around as well. Black Sabbath, Back Trackin', and Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Ultimate Experience are just two.

What makes a good album and what are a coupla of your favourites?.

13 comments:

  1. anything but metallica..even ABBA (spelled backwards is Abba..amazing)
    God I loath hetfield and his bitch..the euro-drummer.

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  2. Pretty much like you said there-you listen to the whole thing without skipping any songs, or you can leave it in the car and listen to it for several days in a row.

    Since my musical tastes appear to be somewhat older than yours, here are a few faves:

    Johnny Cash-Live at San Quentin
    The Who-Quadrephenia
    Jimmy Buffett-Songs You Know By Heart
    Rush-Moving Pictures
    Beatles-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    AC/DC-Back In Black
    Led Zeppelin-Led Zeppelin IV
    Zeppelin again-Physical Graffiti
    Eagles-Greatest Hits 1971-75

    If I have those in the car, I can go cross country.

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  3. 1968: The Kinks, Village Green Preservation Society. Awesomely good.

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  4. oooooooo The Kinks. Forgot about them.

    Ya've got some good ones I haven't heard in YONKS YDog. Cheers.

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  5. What makes a good one, well, you've pretty much covered it. Its good when they mix it up a bit, different styles, tempo etc on the one album.
    Although that rules out most ACDC albums ;) but agree with YD, Back in Black is one of the best!
    Also liking :

    Nightwish - Once
    ZZ Top - Eliminator, Afterburner
    Metallica - The Black Album
    Iron Maiden - 7th Son of a 7th Son
    Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall
    Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien
    Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell

    Though theres a lot less album buying going on now in the age of the mighty Ipod !

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  6. Alice, From the inside
    Floyd's early to middle stuff
    War of the worlds, 'nuf said
    Early nah most Queen albums
    Ridgeway
    Bob Hillman
    and the still listen to Ellen Reid, I want more.

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  7. I could second ZZ Top's 'Eliminator' and Satriani's 'Surfing with the Alien' and any '70s Queen album.

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  8. I'd replace Metallica with Tiesto.
    Nightwish's Once is kickass.

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  9. Ah yes, the great lost art of the "album". I have been lamenting the loss of the artist vision of an album since the invention of pods... there are still some good ones coming out though.

    Anything by Augie March. These are albums you can listen from 1 to 13 and detect (even if you don't understand) the underlying narrative.

    In the same vein, The Drones have that album mentality as well.

    Further afield and you'll find some great album-esque storytelling from Irish superstars The Frames. Specifically try The Cost or Burn The Maps.

    Listen to Human Frailty by Hunters and Collectors right now. Such a document of the times. Lovely.

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  10. Stevie Ray Vaughn -- Blues at Sunrise
    Radiohead -- The Bends
    Radiohead -- Ok Computer
    Led Zeppelin -- III
    Jeff Beck -- Truth
    Jefferson Airplane -- Surrealistic Pillow
    Nat King Cole -- The Very Best Of
    Doris Day -- Her Life In Music

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  11. I can listen to any of the first five Creedence Clearwater Revival albums straight through and one after the other :-)

    Any Beatles album after they started writing their own stuff.

    Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Sky is Crying, Texas Flood

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  12. This is tough because I reckon iTunes might spell the end for the album, with the focus on singles and picking the eyes out of bands' catalogues. I hope not because the good-from-start-to-finish album is a rare and awesome thing. That and my HD packed up last week taking my iTunes library with it so I'm a bit down on electronic music right now...

    Good-throughout albums? Start with a couple of your lot:
    Either album from the D4 (6Twenty and Out Of My Head)
    Shihad - General Electric (bar the soft first/last tracks)
    Datsuns debut album

    Strayans:
    Obviously pretty much anything by AC/DC - let's say the double Live album if we gots to narrow it (unless we're banning live albums or compiles)
    Airbourne - Runnin' Wild (it's boganlicious)
    Wolfmother's first and probably only album
    Gurus - Crank
    Monarchs - Make Yer Own Fun
    Frenzal Rhomb - A Man's Not A Camel
    Spiderbait - Tonight Alright
    Powderfinger - Vulture St
    The Casanovas' debut album
    Grinspoon - Easy
    The Stalkers (OK it's only a long-ish EP but it is awesome)
    Most of Even's albums - massively underrated Melbourne indie band

    Internationals:
    Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
    Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
    Donnas - Spend The Night
    Stooges - Raw Power
    Oasis - Definitely Maybe
    RATM's debut album (back into '92, still in a room without a view)
    RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
    Spinal Tap soundtrack
    Veruca Salt - 8 Arms To Hold You
    Obviously Hendrix, Zep et al - I'd suggest the BBC Sessions albums of both
    Cream - Disraeli Gears
    Blues Explosion - Damage
    Black Keys - Thickfreakness
    Deep Purple - Machine Head
    The Hives - Your New Favourite Band (which is technically a compile, so Veni Vidi Vicious then)
    Electric Six - Fire
    Guitar Wolf - Jet Generation (seminal Jap garage punk band - don't understand a word but Christ it sounds big)

    Really there's loads, where do you stop? Here I guess, before I bore everyone witless.

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