Your Top 10 Favourite Albums of All Time, Ever!: The Thread

[massive bereavement]

Can - Tago Mago

Miles Davis - Complete On the Corner Sessions (Or Bitches Brew sessions or In a Silent Way sessions)

Captain Beefheart - Mirror Man Sessions

Faust - IV

Syd Barrett - Barrett

Yoko Ono - Fly

Herbie Hancock - Crossings

Stooges - Raw Power

Funkadelic - Funkadelic

Stereolab - Transient Random Noise Bursts

[Barberism]

1) OK Computer - Radiohead
2) The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
3) Murmur - REM
4) Disintegration - The Cure
5) In Utero - Nirvana
6) The Soft Bulletin - Flaming Lips
7) Riot Act - Pearl Jam
8) Alligator - The National
9) Wowee Zowee - Pavement
10) Is This It? - The Strokes

[ThickAndCreamy]

Haha, I only just saw your list. I wasn't specifically taking the piss out of you.


That said, have you not found one single record in your entire life that you loved more than 'the critics' did?

No. If Rolling Stone didn't give it 4 stars or more, I don't listen to it.

[The Boston Crab]

Yeah, I could tell from your list!!!

lol

Here's my real one:

Beatles For Sale -The Beatles
Their Satanic Majesties Request - The Rolling Stones
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
Adventure - Television
Squeeze - The Velvet Underground
On Avery Island - Neutral Milk Hotel
E.S.P. - Miles Davis
Danse Manatee - Animal Collective
Buhloone Mindstate - De La Soul
Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 - The Beach Boys

[babyshambler]

Quadrophenia (Who)
Arthur (Kinks)
Up the Bracket (Libertines)
Scott 2 (Scott Walker)
Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces)
Never mind the Bollocks (Sex Pistols)
What's the story morning glory (Oasis)
Different Class (Pulp)
Permission to land (Darkness)
The official adventures of Grandmaster flash (GMF)

[Absorb the anus burn]

In no particular order....

Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (Remain In Light / Fear of music would be in my top twenty, but this is the live album that keeps on giving)

Can: Ege Bamyasi (Tago Mago / Babaluma / Future Days all come close - as would Holger Czukay's Movies LP - but Ege always thrills me)

This Heat: Deceit (as close as any English band got to the intelligence & intensity of Faust & Can)

P-Model: In A Model Room (always makes me want to dance - super frenetic catchy as fuck Japanese pop)

XTC: English Settlement (their last album with drummer Terry Chambers, a double, all great)

Amon Düül II: Tanz Der Lemming (Wolf City / Only Human / Made In Germany all run close, but Tanz is one of my favourite psyche and prog LPs)

Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick (everything progressive rock should be)

La Dusseldorf: Viva (Klaus Dinger had a unique gift for both rhythm and melody. NEU 75 nearly made the list, but this is Krautrock at its catchiest and least complicated)

Zamla Mammaz Manna: Family Cracks (1980 Swedish RIO masterpiece that sometimes ties with Remain In Light as the most inventive and fascinating production from a golden year / their Samla Mammas Manna albums are all dandy too)

Tangerine Dream: Zeit (one of my favourite bands. Pretty much everything is great up until 1983 ish, but Zeit is really special and even manages to nudge out chilly Klaus Schulze masterpieces such as X or Mirage)

[WesterlyWinds]

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
The Smiths - Hatfull of Hollow
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
Why? - Alopecia

[Nobody Soup]

that is a pretty good 10, maybe even similar to one I would have done if I was in another mood, Oh, Inverted world especially. I already want to change mine to put the sophtware slump and fevers and mirrors in.

[WesterlyWinds]

The Mountain Goats narrowly missed out on my list with "Get Lonely". I was torn for quite a while between "Nighthawks at the Diner" and "Small Change" for Tom Waits. Then again I could easily pick from quite a few of his numerous albums for best one. I've recently been getting back into The Velvet Underground because I chanced to hear a Lou Reed song on the radio the other day and forgot how much of an excellent album "The Velvet Underground" is. I wish this was a top 15. Or 20.

[Nobody Soup]

albums in general I find quite hard to list, I feel pretty wrong about that list because some of my favourite songs ever aren't there. one nick cave album feels just like betrayal, and I usually the view the goats as just a random mass of songs rather than by album. However though, tis all usually for a good cause as I didn't buy the bill callahan album because I was sort of fed up with smog by that point but I might now that a goats/shins/smiths/eels/waits/nick cave fan listed it.

[WesterlyWinds]

It's a really good album, definitely worth a listen. "Jim Cain" might possibly be my favourite song of his under any moniker. He's recently released a new album called Apocalypse (in the past year or so); I particularly like "One Fine Morning" which is an excellent song, if quite different from the eclectic mix (as per usual) that is the rest of the album. I find the same thing for listing the albums, some of them don't contain my favourite songs. However, I think they are just perfectly crafted ensembles, rather than necessarily being a collection of stand out songs.

[Retinend]

Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
YMO - Technodelic
Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle
Sven Libaek - Inner Space

I feel as though XTC and REM should be in there, but it's difficult to single out just one album from each band (given that they each did about 5 albums that would be worthy of this list).

Those are all albums I really love (except Song Cycle), so I'll check out Sven, whom I've never heard of.

[Brundle-Fly]

Some people here cannot bear to list their top ten without name-checking other albums. It's as if they've cheated on a partner or spurned a child.

Oh..I forgot Attack Of The Grey Lantern by Mansun....The agony.








It's 'ard, isn't it?

[Petey Pate]

It changes pretty often:

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Count Basie - Atomic Basie
Gentle Giant - Free Hand
Funkadelic - Standing on the Verge of Getting it On
Toots and the Maytals - In the Dark
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsies
BB King - Live at the Regal
Madvillian - Madvilliany

[doppelkorn]

Permission to land (Darkness)

I considered putting this in but feared reprisals from Oscillationistas.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Blind Guardian "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" - Ludicrously over-the-top, progressive speed metal with classical themes and a Queen influence.  Just glorious fun.
Dillinger Escape Plan "Miss Machine" - I love the mixture of DEP's aggressive mathcore and the NIN styled industrial rock on this, and a really passionate performance from Greg Puciato.
Lovage "Music to Make Love To Your Old Lady By" - Fantastically cheesy, tongue-in-cheek trip-hop.
Paradise Lost "Host" - I think this has overtaken One Second.  The way they stripped back the guitars and still retained the core of the sound they'd developed is brilliant.
The Cooper Temple Clause "Kick Up the Fire, and Let the Flames Break Loose" - Great bit of indie rock mixed with electronic stuff.
Bonnie Prince Billy "I See A Darkness" - Mmm.
Faith No More "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime" - I really love the breadth of the song-writing on this one.
Ulver "Perdition City" - The most compelling piece of mood music I've heard.
Amorphis "Tuonela" - An fantastic mix of stoner type rock with more gothic doom, some great hooks thrown in too.
Lake of Tears "Forever Autumn" - Another goth-y album.  But a real nice folk influence on this.  Quite raw in approach but very moving.

[Roy*Mallard]

Some people here cannot bear to list their top ten without name-checking other albums. It's as if they've cheated on a partner or spurned a child.

Oh..I forgot Attack Of The Grey Lantern by Mansun....The agony.
It's 'ard, isn't it?

Is IS hard tho. If you love music, and different albums mean different things to you, then to leave out certain albums in the confines of a list such as this then yeah, it's bloody hard.

So, fuck it, here's a list of all the albums i adore........

Psychic TV – Force The Hand Of Chance, Dreams Less Sweet, Themes 2, Peak Hour; Death In June - Nada!, The World That Summer, The Wall Of Sacrifice; Faust & Tony Conrad – Outside The Dream Syndicate; Faust IV, Neu! – Neu! 75; Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro; Nurse With Wound – Spiral Insana, To The Quiet Men From A Tiny Girl, Sylvie & Babs High-Fi Companion, Second Pirate Session, Shipwreck Radio Volume 1; Daevid Allen – N'Existe Pas, Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life; Gong - Camembert Electrique, Continental Circus; Kraftwerk – Techno Pop (Electric Café); La Dusseldorf – Individuellos, The Orb - Live 93, Pomme Fritz; Coil - Gold Is The Metal, Worship The Glitch, Black Light District, Horse Rotorvator; Throbbing Gristle - Live At The Factory, Manchester May 1979, Heathen Earth, TGCD1; The Rolling Stones – Their Satanic Majesties Request, Aftermath; Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick, The Who Sell Out, Zoviet France – What Is Not True, 23 Skidoo – The Culling Is Coming, Lee Perry – Kung Fu Meets The Dragon, The Upsetters – Super Ape, Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn, Funkadelic – Maggot Brain, Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On, Free Your Mind; The Residents – 3rd Reich n Roll, The Commercial Album; Ivor Cutler - Prince Ivor, Can – Unlimited Edition, Future Days, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Soundtracks; The Fall – Slates, Are Your Are Missing Winner, Room To Live, The Wonderful & Frightening World Of, Levitate;  Depeche Mode - Black Celebration, Music For The Masses; Shock Headed Peters – Not Born Beautiful, Zappa/Mothers – We're Only In It For the Money, Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Uncle Meat, Weasels Ripped My Flesh; Richard H Kirk - Time High Fiction, Foetus – Hole; The Kinks – Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Face To Face; Miles Davis - Dark Magus, Bitches Brew, Live/Evil; Thighpaulsandra - I, Thighpaulsandra, Chamber Music; PIL - Metal Box; Sixth Comm - Archive 1 & 2; The Shiny Men - Again; Rapeman - Two Nuns & A Pack Mule; Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Let Love In; New Order - Technique; Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth, Fried, St Julian, Skellington, Droolian, Jehovahkill, Rite2, Odin, Floored Genius 3; Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland; Gunner Moller Pederson - Stoned: An Electric Symphony; Durutti Column - Without Mercy, Vini Reilly, Current 93 - Dogs Blood Rising; Crass - Christ The Album; Boyd Rice - Music Martinis & Misanthropy; Blackbeard - Strictly Dub;  Alternative TV - Vibing Up The Senile Man, Strange Kick, The Image Is Cracked 

Sod it, that'll do - there are many more that i can listen to without skipping. Fuck the rules! Fuck 'em!

[Vitalstatistix]

Madvillainy
The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
dEUS - The Ideal Crash
The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
Bjork - Homogenic
Bob Marley - Catch a Fire
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher

Ehh, that'll do.

Granddads!

[Vitalstatistix]

It changes pretty often:

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Count Basie - Atomic Basie
Gentle Giant - Free Hand
Funkadelic - Standing on the Verge of Getting it On
Toots and the Maytals - In the Dark
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsies
BB King - Live at the Regal
Madvillian - Madvilliany

I think we can safely award Petey Pate coolest guy and lock thread

[Serge]

Interesting to see some love for the second and third La Dusseldorf albums in this thread. I've never been able to get on with them myself - though I love the first one, and it's fair to say I'm more Rother than Dinger - but I know Copey was well into them.

[Gavin M]

Hmm, the ten albums I consider to be the best might be:

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Love - Forever Changes
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Beatles - Revolver
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Radiohead - OK Computer
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Nick Drake - Pink Moon

But my ten FAVOURITE albums may well be:

Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Beach Boys - Holland
Pet Shop Boys - Introspective
Frank Sinatra & A.C Jobim - S/T
ELO - Time
Human League - Dare
Radiohead - Kid A
Scott Walker - Scott 4
And finish off with a Now, probably Vol. 3

I find 'best albums' tend to fall into one of two categories: either excelling through trying out lots of different wonderful things but having the odd dud on it (Pet Sounds) or those where there is focus on one particular style which may not have the dizzying highs of the previous type but which doesn't put a note wrong (Kind of Blue).  Spirit of Eden is probably the record that I'd consider to be absolute ear candy AND consistent which would probably make it my overall favourite.

[Retinend]

Beach Boys - Holland

Yes! A severely underrated album, mainly because it was a direction that was "unconsummated", if you will. "The Trader" is one of the Beach Boys' most haunting, epic tracks, and the California trilogy is equally majestic.

[Johnny Yesno]

I found it easier to list those albums that I've never totally got bored of even with hundreds of listenings. They may not all be my favourites right now but I can guarantee I will revisit them all at some point and wonder why I don't listen to them all the time.

1. Chrome - Blood on the Moon
2. Cabaret Voltaire - The Living Legends (I don't actually own this compilation but it's a good way for me to hat tip to all their early singles, which I do own)
3. Naked City - Torture Garden
4. Pan Sonic - A
5. Plus-tech Squeeze Box - Cartooom!
6. Coil - Stolen and Contaminated Songs
7. Can - Future Days
8. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
9. Download - The Eyes of Stanley Pain
10. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Strictly Personal

[Famous Mortimer]

Blimey, I wish I could find the old thread we did about this, as I would probably just rip that thread off. It's sad that I don't remember what some of my favourites are, which I think warrants a lot of listening.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! - "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven"
Because nothing bent my brain the first time I heard it like this one did, and still does when I pop it on.

Pixies - "Surfer Rosa"
Not heard this album in years and may not do for years more, but it's hard to overstate the effect this had on the teenage me. Walking back from the record shop, put this on my walkman (tape) and by the time I got to the bus stop I was a fan of this band for life. Yet I had no desire to see their reform tour a few years ago, would have been too painful.

Jandek - "Ready for the House"
Just because I could listen to this every day for a million years and never figure it out. Maybe there's nothing to figure out.

Cassette Boy - "The Parker Tapes"
Without wanting to give our very own Robot De Niro a swelled head, I've played the crap out of this album down the years. "Fly Me To New York" is a regular when I do mixes for people, or when I did my Desert Island Discs for a pub night my mate put on.

Stars of the Lid - "...and Their Refinement of the Decline"
The first time I heard this (as a result of someone on here, I think) I hated it. I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to listen to something like this where nothing seemed to happen - and I'm a big fan of drone music. I deleted it and thought nothing more of it, until about a year later when out of the blue I saw it on some blog I was following and gave it another go. Absolutely adored it the second time. God knows why.

Can - "Tago Mago"
I know Ege Bamyasi is supposed to be their prime achievement, but I had this one at Uni and played it hundreds of times, where I've played Ege... about three times. One of the rare albums that still sounds great quiet (which is handy when it's 3am, you can't sleep but everyone else in your house can).

Lift To Experience - "The Texas - Jerusalem Crossroads"
I'm lucky in that main LTE guy is, last time I checked, seeing a girl from just up the road from me, so he plays more gigs in this area than he might elsewhere. Aces when he's electric, but not so good when he did an acoustic set recently, which was so quiet it was a struggle to hear more than halfway back in the not-terribly-big venue he was at. Anyway, this album fucking storms it.

Big Black - "Songs About Fucking"
Again, "Atomiser" is seen as their best achievement, but when I was 17 and my mate said "my big brother has tons of the sort of noisy shit you like, come round and borrow some of his stuff", this was the album he had, so this was the album I taped and played to death. A band who absolutely did not give a fuck.

Spacemen 3 - "Playing With Fire"
I realise as the years go on this has the same place in my heart as "Surfer Rosa", in that although I love it and could hum along to every note of the damn thing, I haven't actually listened to it in years (I listen to "Recurring" more often, for no good reason). Anyway, this is the album I usually tell people is my favourite, whenever I get asked.

Slint - "Spiderland"
This is usually my no.2. Inspiration for a million boring post-rock bands, I have Steve Albini's "Rebellious Jukebox" column for Melody Maker to thank for me getting into this. I'd love to read those old columns again, they were great.

[The Boston Crab]

My actual Top 10 Albums:

   
• Paul Williams - Bugsy Malone - as fundamental to me as the sun coming up every morning.
• Etienne de Crecy - Super Discount - my first adult realisations and emotions.
• Animal Collective - Sung Tongs - a breakthrough moment in my consciousness.
• John Coltrane - My Favourite Things - the title piece has not stopped playing inside me since the day it began.
• Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue - the greatest work of art that America has produced, justifies the development of the entire nation.
• Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish - my early teenage years, England.
• Madonna - The Immaculate Collection - my childhood, the giddy warmth of expression.
• A Reminiscent Drive - Mercy Street - discovering meditation when I was 18, new worlds in my mind.
• Supergrass - I Should Coco - water fights, smoking fags on the roof, hopelessly in love with the girl at the top of the street.
• Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA- right now I feel I'll love this for the rest of my life.

[garbed_attic]

In a vague attempt at a ranked order, but Heaven knows...

Cardiacs - A Little Man and a House and the Whole Wide Window
The Residents - Demons Dance Alone
The National - Alligator
R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
Paul Simon - Graceland
The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
Oingo-Boingo - Dead Man's Party

[Absorb the anus burn]

^^^^
Nice to see Oingo Boingo on the list. Underrated band. 'Nothing To Fear' would be likely be in my top 25.

Also great to see so many mentions of 'Remain In Light' which I think is a bona fide modern classic, but looking at my Ipod tally, expanded 'The Name Of This Band...' has been my most played LP of the past five years.

Re: Serge's comment on La Dusseldorf... I used to think the same. I still adore the opening track on s/t, which is so amazingly driven, but 'Viva' and 'Individuellos' slowly reveal their charms. 'Cha Cha 2000' is so epic. I dig Rother & Harmonia, but Dinger had a mad wizard quality - hence Julian Cope's obsession.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Not in any order except for the first one

REM - Automatic for the People
Crowded House - Together Alone
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of Bewilderbeast
Radiohead - The Bends
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

I was surprised I couldn't fit a Beatles album on there. Although I think they are the greatest singles band of all time, I just couldn't think of an album of theirs which I like from start to finish (although Sgt. Pepper comes close), unlike the ones listed above.

[Retinend]

I was surprised I couldn't fit a Beatles album on there. Although I think they are the greatest singles band of all time, I just couldn't think of an album of theirs which I like from start to finish (although Sgt. Pepper comes close), unlike the ones listed above.

As well as the Beatles, I feel the same about: Frank Zappa, Keith Jarrett, Moondog, Randy Newman, The Beach Boys, The High Llamas, Todd Rundgren and Teenage Fanclub, who would have been contenders for a list of generic favourites. I love them because of works taken as a familiar whole. Of that list, none made "the great album", though they definitely have certain albums I enjoy from start to finish - Zappa's Grand Wazoo, The Fannies Bandwagonesque or The Llama's Gideon Gaye come to mind, though they don't approach "of all time" levels of worship.

[Johnny Yesno]

1. Chrome - Blood on the Moon
2. Cabaret Voltaire - The Living Legends (I don't actually own this compilation but it's a good way for me to hat tip to all their early singles, which I do own)
3. Naked City - Torture Garden
4. Pan Sonic - A
5. Plus-tech Squeeze Box - Cartooom!
6. Coil - Stolen and Contaminated Songs
7. Can - Future Days
8. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
9. Download - The Eyes of Stanley Pain
10. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Strictly Personal

Aagh! What was I thinking? I've missed one of my all time favourite albums of all time and that means the order's fucked. Right:

1. Chrome - Blood on the Moon
2. Cabaret Voltaire - The Living Legends (I don't actually own this compilation but it's a good way for me to hat tip to all their early singles, which I do own)
3. Brian Eno and David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
4. Naked City - Torture Garden
5. Pan Sonic - A
6. Plus-tech Squeeze Box - Cartooom!
7. Coil - Stolen and Contaminated Songs
8. Can - Future Days
9. Download - The Eyes of Stanley Pain
10. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Strictly Personal