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The best 10 albums ever made ACCORDING TO YOU!
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,773
in Other Music
OK, Rolling Stone can keep their top ten list. Let's see yours. What do you think are the 10 best albums ever made? Not necessarily your 10 favorite, but the best 10 records based on influence on music, songwriting, composition, musicianship, and impact of soul/feeling/expression on listeners.
I'm listing mine alpha by artist/band because at this level, this differences are tissue paper thin:
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles: Revolver*
Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison**
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue***
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited****
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced
Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues
Carole King: Tapestry
*George saw Rubber Soul and Revolver as parts A and B, almost like a double album. I agree, so pretty hard to pick. Abbey Road is right up there too.
** So much wanted to go with Willie Nelson's, Redheaded Stranger, but too much personal preference. But are GREAT!
*** Could just as equally gone with Bitches Brew. Tough choice!
**** Beats Blonde on Blonde but barely!
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
The Beatles - Revolver
Nirvana - Nevermind
REM - Reckoning
Otis Redding - Otis Blue
Radiohead - Kid A
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Burial - Untrue
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Bowie-hunky dory
Randy newman-sail away
Queen-sheer heart attack
Joy division-unknown pleasures
X-wild gift
Pet shop boys-behavior
D'Angelo-brown sugar
Afrika Bambaataa and the soul sonic force-Planet Rock the Album
Deep purple-machine head
Solomon Burke-rock and soul
(I only know 2 from above list)
I'll try to come up with my own later.
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Supergrass - In It For The Money
U2 - War
REM - Out Of Time
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere
The Replacements - Tim or Pleased To Meet Me *struggled to pick one
RUN-DMC - RUN-DMC
The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers
Sparks - Kimono My House
Led Zeppelin - III
Bjork - Debut
Beastie Boys - License to Ill
The Cure - Disintegration
Lou Reed - New York
Neil Young - Live Rust
Prince - One Night Alone
Tom Waits - Small Change
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
Audioslave - Audioslave
Rare Creatures - Rare Creatures
Frank Sinatra - My Way
Janes Addiction - The Great Escape Artist
Shinedown - Leave a Whisper
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Foals - Everything Not Saved Will be Lost (pt. 1)
The Growlers - Hung at Heart
Arctic Monkeys - Live at Royal Albert Hall (I think this should count!)
Personal favorites. In no particular order though.
Cincinnati 2014
Greenville 2016
(Raleigh 2016)
Columbia 2016
-Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
-The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
-The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
-The Gaslight Anthem - The 59’Sound
-Pearl Jam - Ten
-Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels to Be Something On
-Radiohead - In Rainbows
-Prince - Purple Rain
-Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
PJ - No Code
Metallica- Master Of Puppets
FNM - The Real Thing
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Soundgarden - Superunknown
TOTD - TOTD
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Acdc Back in Black
MJ - Thriller
Live - Throwing Copper
NIN - Broken
EXPLOSIONS - The Earth is not a cold dead place
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood ti the Head
MMJ - It Still Moves
Thievery Corp. Radio Retaliation
U2 Joshua Tree
HENDRIX - The Blues
Janes Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Def Leppard- hysteria
Train - Train
Enya - sheppard Moons
Mazzy Star so tonight that i may see
Them - The story of Them
Spacemen 3 taking drugs to make music to take drugs to
Yanni- Voices
Aerosmith - GH1
Zucchero - Zucchero
Tool - Fear Innoculum
Zep X
Any Beatles compilation like Love
I think thats is 10, I probably need about 10 more
QotSA - Songs for the Deaf
Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
You Am I - Hourly Daily
Grinspoon- Guide to Better Living
Kiss - Alive!
Spiderbait - Ivy and the Big Apples
Tool - Lateralus
RHCP - Stadium Arcadium
Fleetwood Mac- Rumours
these are some albums I keep coming back to lately. They’re the ones I really enjoy listening too. I could add Rolling Stones, Beatles, the Who but I’d be putting them in based on what other people might have on their list.
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14
That's OK, I suck at math as well.
Neil Young - Harvest
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Joakim Thåström - Skebokvarnsv. 209
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Leonard Cohen - I'm your man
ABBA - The Visitors
The Doors - Waiting for the Sun or Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hil
Nirvana - Nevermind
Now, morning meeting at work so can't think about it more. This I guess is more favorite albums than "best albums". Who cares.
Jeff Buckley- Grace
Van Morrison- Astral Weeks
Ryan Adams- Gold
Pink Floyd- DSOTM
Dylan- Blood on the Tracks (I prefer the NY sessions)
Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's
Led Zeppelin- IV
Steely Dan- Aja
Neil Young- Harvest
Damn. This is tough. Just went back and bumped U2 for Neil.
Good to see Harvest getting some votes, it's a crazy good album of songwriting, performing, and producing.
Well, today it’s ...
Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters (it doesn’t need to withstand the test of time, IMO, because it’s already timeless)
Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
The Cure, Disintegration
Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Catch a Fire
Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
Red Hot Chili Peppers, By the Way
Slayer, Reign in Blood
Tom Waits, Swordfishtrombones
I guess a good exercise to come up with a good list for me would be to do this every day for a while and see which 10 repeat themselves the most.
So many I knocked off of this list because they weren't exactly influential or I had another on the list in the same vein (e.g., Beefheart and Zappa fell off because I already had Apple and Waits; Sabbath, Deep Purple, Zeppelin passed over for Tull). Also, how the hell do you decide on a best album by Hendrix, Prince, Bowie? (That last one is especially difficult.)
I know what I like!
Yes, it is hard for sure! I saw that you put Van Morrison's Astral Weeks on your list and thought, OMG, how did I not include that in mine? That really is one of the all-time greatest albums ever!
Also a good point. I can see a strong argument for Aja being on a 10 best list. It has, after all, inspired enough that it's actually been used as the central focus for some college and university classes. I didn't include it because for me, what it offers in composition and musicianship, it lacks in the "soul/feeling/expression" category which is mostly subjective. For others though, it fits the bill in all ways.
In no order!
Beach Boys- Pet Sounds
Sublime-40 oz to Freedom
Metallica-Master Of Puppets
James Brown-Into the Jungle Groove
Beastie Boys- Pauls Boutique
PJ Harvey-Dry I don't think Alanis Morrissette exists without this album...
Black Sabbath-Masters of Reality
The Eurythmics-Sweet Dreams
The Dead Kennedys-Frankenchrist
The Misfits-Walk Among us
EDIT: Or maybe 2001 like Mr Simmons wrote above