I'm not the biggest music person in the world. I got into it rather late, due to my sheltered, nerdly childhood -- and when I did, the first several albums I bought were Genesis and Moody Blues. I still explore new groups and genres quite slowly, though I'm maybe somewhat pointlessly proud that I've continued at more or less the same rate at least into my mid-30s. (Oh, yeah, Feb 4 marked my official entry into the middle-third of this decade. Weird.) But while there is a lot of new music I'm quite into, like everyone else I keep coming back to the music I was listening to in high school. I've come to accept that no matter how much I like new music, the chances are that I'll get tired of it sooner or later and move on, leaving just another laying of songs on my ipod that I may or may not skip when they come up. It's kind of sad that the window for finding Perfect Albums has closed. It makes me wish I had listened to more music back then! That hallowed honor only goes to a handful of albums: Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine, Depeche Mode's Violator, and The Violent Femmes' Why Do Birds Sing. With maybe Nirvana's Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magic also placing. That's it. Those are the few and the proud which I just can't fault. I can listen to them in their entirety regularly and not get bored, and probably will for the rest of my life.
At the risk of being transparently comment-trolling, what are your Perfect Albums?
At the risk of being transparently comment-trolling, what are your Perfect Albums?
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Cecilia Eng's Of Shoes and Ships (Yes I have been listening to Filk my whole life)
TMBG's Appollo 18 Just has too many good memories with it.
Pat Benetar's Greatest Hits Album
Some other Filk Tapes I would have to look up, since they aren't on my playlist as they aren't digital.
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- Picaresque, by the Decemberists [1]
- Nightmare Before Christmas, by Danny Elfman [2]
- Fashion Nugget, by Cake [3]
[1] My first taste of that band. Each song is a perfect introduction to the Decemberists in its own way.
[2] Don't ask, I can't explain, there's just something about this soundtrack.
[3] The funny thing is, I almost never listen to these songs individually anymore. I tend to skip 'em when they come up on my ipod. But as a unit, they move so smoothly into each other.
I also have Apollo 18 and a couple other TMBG albums. John Linell could pretty much have both my kidneys and my left lung if he just asked for them.
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John Linell OF COURSE HE CAN HAVE DAS ORGANS
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For the most part, I have always been a Top 40, Greatest Hits collection kinda girl, so very few albums made into my collection.
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Eagles, Hell Freezes Over. Yeah, this is a post-1990 album, but the problem was, if you wanted all the good stuff before this one, you had to get Volume I and Volume II, and then weed out the crap and make your own custom mix tape. (dating myself!) There's only a few skippers on "Hell Freezes Over", and while I prefer the original studio version of "Take It Easy" (banjo solo!), the live one with the twelve-string doesn't suck egregiously, and the version of "Hotel California" with the classical guitar intro is perhaps the finest piece the group has ever recorded.
Billy Joel, Nylon Curtain. I don't listen much to Billy Joel anymore, but that was a damn fine album....
Enya, Watermark. Enya was good on The Celts, and this, her second album, definitely did NOT suffer from the sophomore jinx; I got hooked from the vid to "Orinoco Flow" and reeled in by "Storms of Africa"... from "Watermark" to "Miss Claire Remembers", this was Enya's finest work. She went totally pop after that, and alas hasn't recovered.
Gaia Consort, Gaia Circles and Secret Voices. I miss the old stuff. Further deponent sayeth not.
Vixy and Tony, Thirteen. I don't think I gotta 'splain this one. :)
Talis Kimberley, The Hearth and the Hive. Ditto.
Show of Hands, Arrogance, Ignorance, and Greed I don't know how much you (or anyone else reading this) has listened to them other than "The Napoli" and "Keys to Canterbury", but the title cut is hammered awesome, hits the bankers and the politicians right on the head, and there are several other tracks that really hit home, too, not all of them sad. I'd love to see these guys (and Miranda!) live someday.
Great Big Sea, Fortune's Favour and Great Big DVD. Favour is the right mix of pop and trad, and Great Big DVD is the B'ys analog to Hell Freezes Over, it gives you the full concert experience...
OK. Enough. I like FAR too many things... (The Nutcracker, the one with the Sendak artwork on the cover? :)
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Thing is, I didn't discover that until recently. I mean, I grew up hearing the music, but not hearing it played as a cohesive album, and since it was my sister's music, I grew up mostly hearing some of the songs and not knowing who they were or what the titles were.
It was only when Tony and I were talking music on a road trip a few years ago and he put it on and we listened to it from start to finish that I really fell in love. And then that documentary cemented it.
(We've really got to have that viewing party.)
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She - Days Hon. mention: She - Coloris, less one (1) song.
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Blur - Parklife
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Great Big Sea - Road Rage
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
光宗 信吉, J.A. Seazer, and Rika ARAI - 少女革命ウテナ 絶対進化革命前夜
riddim saunter - Current (more because of the associations than anything else, but it's a solid, solid album)
Steely Dan - Aja
Ringo Shiina - Memorandum (椎名林檎 - 無罪モラトリアム)
Zebra - Zebra
It's kind of funny how many of my favourite songs are not on these albums. (C.f. Lush - "For Love". I can listen to that song on repeat for hours. And there are other good songs on that album. But..)
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Aja is definitely a masterpiece, too, but I am incredibly tickled that you mentioned ABC.
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Kansas - Kansas
Coheed and Cambria - The Year of the Black Rainbow
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Ayreon - 01011001
The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
There are many more, but those are the ones that easily bubble to the top of my mind.
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Paul Simon - Graceland
Paul Simon - Paul Simon
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
Tank Girl soundtrack
Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen
The Smugglers - Selling the Sizzle
Notre Dame de Paris, recorded by I don't know who, some Québecois production of it.
Man I had kind of a Paul Simon phase at a formative age.
I also get intensely nostalgic about the Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Hole albums my sister played over and over in highschool, but I have no idea what any of the song or album names are, having experienced them exclusively through the thin walls between our bedrooms. Except the ones on the Tank Girl soundtrack, which I flat-out stole from her and still have.
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It's not all that old, but We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Thrust_Mastery) has solidly stood the test of time so far. Not a bad track on there.
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Tomato_Ketchup_(album)) will always hold a place in my heart.
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Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours; Excellent, excellent electro-pop from Australia. Catchier and more song-oriented than their breakout album "Bright Like Neon Love", but without losing the synth-based dance edge.
Prodigy - Experience; Back when the Prodigy were a bunch of peace-and-love hippies, they made happy hardcore when happy hardcore hadn't even been named. Never gets old.
KMFDM - XTORT; Their overall best album, IMHO. Crunchy, aggressive, makes you wanna stomp around in some heavy boots. "Son of a Gun" is 4:24 of pure ass-kicking.
Honorable mention -
Propellerheads - Deckanddrumandrockandroll; The soundtrack to every single action movie from the mid-nineties to about 2003. He's got a nice body. He's wearing velvet pants.
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Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Hard to describe why this one is great. The first half is the titular story of robot-fighting Yoshimi, and is immensely charming. The second half is what really does it for me, serving as an emotional come-down from the intensity of the first. The sheer genuineness of feeling in "Do You Realize" manages to overcome all the product tie-ins and shameless plugs the song's been used in to make me start tearing up every time.
The Protomen - The Protomen; A concept album about the video game "Megaman". But it's not just that. It's a howling, crashing metal opera about freedom, death, regret, revenge, duty, and betrayal. Every word, every screaming phrase is soaked with meaning and emotion. The production is pitch-perfect. Epic.
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Actually, even in my childhood some of my fondest memories are of singles, there's something ineffably cool about them, or at least there was in the late '80s and early '90s.
I think the last time I listened to an album repeatedly on vinyl was Pet Shop Boys' "Actually" — on tape was Pet Shop Boys' "Introspective" (or perhaps the Twin Peaks soundtrack.) It's harder to remember for CDs since there have been road trips and times when CDs got left in a car stereo for months, but perhaps that's not the same thing.
I do sometimes listen to just a single album on random repeat, which is perhaps closer, but not quite the same.
There are albums that generally come together and which I don't get sick of, though.
The Church's "Destination" has very listenable lows and fantastic highs. Likewise for a-Ha's "Scoundrel Days" and And One's "Bodypop". Hm. And: Anything Box's "Peace"; Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 85-92"; Concrete Blonde's "Mexican Moon"; The Cranberries' "No Need to Argue"; Dar Williams' "End of the Summer"; Deacon Blue's "Raintown"; ilyAIMY's "Myxomatosis Failed"; IRIS' "Wrath"; the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's "Shag Times"; Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love"; Machines of Loving Grace's self-titled album; Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor"; Ministry's "With Sympathy"; Nelly Furtado's "Loose"; New Order's "Republic"; Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"; Ozzy Osbourne's "Ozzmosis"; Peter Murphy's "Deep"; Propaganda's "A Secret Wish"; Tears for Fears' "Elemental"; Thomas Dolby's "Astronauts & Heretics"; Tori Amos' "Little Earthquakes"; The Tribe's "Abort"; Wolfsheim's "Casting Shadows" and Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Technodelic".
Some things are basically all highs, though, and I suppose are more what you're asking about: Cocteau Twins' "Heaven or Las Vegas"; Depeche Mode's "Violator"; Electronic's "Electronic"; The KLF's "The White Room Original Motion Picture Soundtrack"; Peter Gabriel's "So"; Talk Talk's "It's My Life"; Thomas Dolby's "The Sole Inhabitant"; many Toad the Wet Sprocket albums; Toy Matinee's self-titled album; Underworld's "Underneath the Radar" and Xymox's "Twist of Shadows".
I've even surprised myself with a very-late-to-the-party addition of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds".
And there are things I much more appreciate as albums than as collections of songs, like most albums by the Smiths, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, VNV Nation, the Razor Skyline, Prefab Sprout, Japan and The The; The KLF's "Chill Out", of course.
I won't enumerate all of the Pet Shop Boys albums, but most of them fall into some category like that.
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"Surfer Rosa", The Pixies, 1988
"Funeral", Arcade Fire, 2004
"Time Out", Dave Brubeck et al, 1959
"Rubber Soul", The Beatles, 1965
"Sixteen Stone", Bush, 1994.
Those are the albums I can least imagine living without, the ones I've been listening to regularly since they came out. I could make cases for Kate Bush's "Hounds Of Love" or "Sensual World", Placebo's "Sleeping With Ghosts", and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" and "Animals" but I don't find myself listening to them on a monthly basis over the course of years or decades.
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So much of how I've come to classic rock is through greatest hits albums, actually. Says something about my age. "Best of Bowie" and the two disc Queen set and Billy Joel's set are early influences as well. And all the many rereleases and collections of the Beatles. I've never even owned a regular Beatles album.
That was only tangentially related to the origInal post, there. Oops.
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I'm glad to see some other people selecting albums that I would have chosen. Dark Side, Boston, Graceland, Violator, yup. The thing is, those others all shift position depending on the mood I'm in. There's only really one album that will top my list, and will always be at the top. Moving Pictures. Single most perfect unified experience in rock.
Some other good ones to think about:
So
Thick as a Brick
Night at the Opera
Sgt Pepper
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Joan Baez: Farewell Angelina, From Every Stage; Bob Dylan: Highhway 61 Revisited; Steeleye Span: Below the Salt; Stan Rogers: Between the Breaks Live, Northwest Passage, From Fresh Water; Richard Rogers, Victory At Sea (ok, it's a multi-disk set -- it's still fantastic); Dave Brubeck: Adventures In Time; Michael Tilson Thomas: Carl Orff's Carmina Burana; Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (either Stravinsky or Thomas conducting)...
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Dead Can Dance--In The Light Of A Dying Sun
Also really good:
Beatles--Revolver and Rubber Soul
Rush--Moving Pictures
Pink Floyd--Dark Side Of The Moon
Police--Regatta De Blanc
Radiohead--OK Computer
Cracker--Kerosene Hat
REM--Green
Cure--Disintegration and Faith/Carnage Visors
Jethro Tull--Aqualung
DJ Shadow--Outroducing
Tom Waits--Swordfish Trombones and Frank's Wild Years and The Black Rider
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IV (Zoso) by Led Zeppelin (\m/\m/)
Gringo Honeymoon by Robert Earl Keen
Dove C'è Musica by Eros Ramazzotti (the closest to pop perfection I can find)
Play by Great Big Sea
Chapitre 7 by MC Solaar (which replaced his previous opus, Prose Combat, on this list)
Rubber Soul (UK version) by the Beatles (which usually leads me to the rest of their stuff again)
Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan
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Honorable mentions:
Bedrock by John Digweed
In Sides by Orbital
Flood by They Might Be Giants
In Ghost Colors by Cut Copy
San Francisco Sessions vol. 1 by Mark Farina
Discovery by Daft Punk
Rumors by Fleetwood Mac
Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
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Beethoven's 9th
Ladytron - Witching Hour (every single track has gotten stuck in my head!)
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
The "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack (ah, the formative period of my youth...)
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My off-hand deeply beloved:
Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
Chicago - Greatest Hits 1982–1989
And because I am a nerd, there are any number of Broadway or London musical cast recordings that I have listened to hundreds of times, and will listen to in perpetuity. (Particularly, from childhood LPs: Godspell, West Side Story. I got tired of Grease a long long time ago.)
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Original Star Wars Sound Track
Albums I like to listen to straight through
Re: Albums I like to listen to straight through, part 2
Re: Albums I like to listen to straight through