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

[buttgammon]

I've probably made about fifty posts in this thread already but it changes so often. It changes according to what I'm listening to at the moment, to my mood and even to the time of year. Currently, it's (in no particular order):

Part 1:

David Bowie - Station to Station
There always has to be a Bowie album in there, but it changes all the time. There are many time when I would have put Low, "Heroes" or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars here instead and they are all spectacular albums. Scary Monsters and Young Americans aren't far off either, but having listened to Station to Station in full the other day and sat there in awe yet again, I think I have to give it the honour of being 'the best Bowie album today from where I'm sitting'.

Station to Station was the meeting of so many crossroads for Bowie, both creative and personal. Very much in his personal 'wilderness years', Bowie found himself in total flux, caught between so many different ideas and different positions without feeling at home with anything. Most importantly, Bowie found himself caught between America and Europe. The United States had given birth to his previous album, Young Americans, but living in Los Angeles was a horrible experience for Bowie and I feel more than a hint of criticism of the hollowness Bowie felt bubbling beneath the surface of Young Americans, in spite of its embrace of American culture (i.e. soul music). While Golden Years in particular recalls the exuberant funk of the previous album, Station to Station prefigures Low and "Heroes" in its European influences, particularly from Germany. The title track makes this explicit with a relentless motorik rhythm which owes a lot to Neu! (as does his masterpiece "Heroes" - c.f. their song "Hero").

Although the Krautrock influence ebbs away as the album progresses, there is something of the sprawling landscape of Europe in the album in a way which reminds me of Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. The structure of the album is immediately unorthodox: just six songs, all of which are longer than average. Even a superficially straightforward song like TVC15 has a sense of propulsion to it, as well as the dark workings of psychosis (the song was supposedly based on Iggy Pop's hallucination of a cannibal television), both in the sheer relentlessness of the track as it bounds on and in Bowie's fevered vocals. Speaking of which, the album also has some of his very best vocal performances, especially Wild is the Wind, where his voice soars and shimmers. In spite of the dangerous undercurrents of the album, Bowie manages to balance on the tightrope between madness and sanity, order and disorder and Europe and America, somehow holding everything together to enter one of the most extraordinary periods of creative fervour in music.

Oval - 94 Diskont
My knowledge of glitch music isn't great but that doesn't hamper how much I like this album. Pretty much all I know is that most of this album's sound was built out of samples of damaged CDs, which is simply astonishing. It is amazing to think that an act of mutilation and demolition created something as beautiful as this.

The centrepiece of 94 Diskont is Do While, an amazing, glittering piece of music which bookends the album. It is hard to use words to do justice to something as abstract as Do While (apart from making a terrible attempt at imitating futurist poetry) and the indescribable quality of it is its strength. Constructed from the tiniest samples, it builds layer on layer of gorgeousness. It sounds fluid and solid at the same time, and the strange way in which the song is built seems to allow it to defy every convention of sound you would expect to hear - in fact, it is virtually impossible to separate any of the elements which make it.

The album becomes darker and more disintegrated as it goes on, with choppier sounds and the unpredicatable changes in dynamics that come with music taken from damaged CDs. Shop in Store is another highlight, a strange dream which pulls itself apart several times. There is an abiding feeling that things are becoming more violent and visceral in its ripped fabric, but heavily cloaked violins come out of nowhere, adding a strangely classical hue to something which takes music so far away from its traditions.

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Probably the only album that would always make one of my fickle 'best albums' lists, this one is a great band at its creative best. As much as I like David Byrne and Brian Eno's album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, I think this one has the edge - the two have their similarities but Remain in Light has the advantage of adding David Byrne's lyrical talents and one of the best rhythm sections around in Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, a rhythmic union which is the perfect channel for a western version of African music. They give the album the density which sets it apart from the band's previous, perhaps flimsier work, making things incredibly funky while building a platform for all kinds of diversions.

Alternately a 'government man', an existentially minded preacher, a shape-shifter able to change his appearance at will and the narrator of a chilling tale of colonisation and terrorism, Byrne moves in many directions of the album's landscape. His lyrics, so funny and wise and downright odd have always made Talking Heads but they reach a new level here as he wears so many different theatrical masks, creating a cast of characters which belongs both to western and African culture, exactly in tune with the musical sentiment of the album.

Of course, the crowning glory is Once in a Lifetime, at once a distillation of the radio preachers sampled on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, an Enofied funk masterpiece and one of the greatest pop songs ever written. But there is so much else, from the tropical funk of the first few tracks through to the dusty dryness left in the empty spaces of the last few. Through all of its changes, Remain in Light knits everything together perfectly to create a 'real album', eight tracks which work with each other so well. That's why this is such a consistent favourite of mine, as it epitomises exactly what an album should be.

Bjork - Vespertine
There is something strangely natural about Bjork's music, as though she is channeling the lifeblood of the world around her into every note. This album seems to feed into nature as much as it reflects it, and it is the only thing I would ever choose to listen to while walking through snow. Apparently, one of the tracks samples the sound of shoes treading through snowfall, forming a perfect circle between music and listener whenever played in snowy surroundings. No wonder it is my default 'wintry' album.

There is a sense of smallness about Vespertine. Like 94 Diskont, so much of it is made from the tiniest samples, every tiny click adding to the bigger picture of the album. What takes this music from the abstract territory of, say, Oval or Snd, is her voice. Stunning, unique, delicate and strong. Bjork is a bit of an acquired taste and although I accept that, there is also a lot of ignorance about her: she has far too much ability to ever be just an aimless weirdo. Working in perfect tandem with the beats and soundscapes which envelop her, she carries such a sense of sensual intimacy through tracks like Hidden Place and Pagan Poetry that every syllable sounds as thought it could either explode into sonic orgasm or melt into the snow. Neither really happens but that is the beauty of this album - it exudes such warmth that it almost becomes the audio equivalent of a caress, erotic and loving but quiet and calm. Somehow, Bjork has captured the essence of those sensations and feelings which we have no words for.

Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box
In between the Sex Pistols and the Butter Marketing Board, John Lydon made stuff with a real cutting edge (and that's just Keith Levene's lascerating guitar sound). The sleek metal film tin packaging says a lot about the musical textures of the album: cold, metallic and faintly tasting of blood.

The album is the result of a triumvirate of brilliance: the aforementioned stabs of guitar perfected by Keith Levene, Jah Wobble providing bass that shows up on the Richter scale and John Lydon with paranoid vocals which tell us all we need to know about different kinds of brutality. Post-punk was a period of amazing musical fecundity and I reckon this album might be the best product of it. Metal Box is dark and often disturbing but its eternally looping grooves also hint at something oddly danceable; although the dub influence is obvious, there is a faint echo of disco beneath the murky, urban exterior of the music (although I don't doubt Death Disco is a bitterly ironic title for a song which exudes such raw grief). Although the album has one of the most distinctive sounds of any album short of Low, it also has an eclectic core. Aside from the obvious reggae influence and the hints of disco, Memories breaks into Arabic guitar figures, while there is ambience in Radio 4 and Krautrock influences all over the place. If the Sex Pistols owed a debt to Neu!'s more abrasive material, this album is more the child of Can, both in the studied repetition of tracks like Poptones and in Lydon's almost Damo Suzuki like delivery, playing with every aspect of his own voice to create something which sounds as alien as the music. But although they wore their influences on their sleeve, PiL created something truly original with this album.

[buttgammon]

This is getting quite self-indulgent to be honest but I can't stop now. Part 2:

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
Although undoubtedly futuristic, there is also something of the past about Kraftwerk. The original cover of this album shows the band members looking smart but slightly archaic, with wistful looks on their faces. It is often said that Kraftwerk (as well as Krautrock in general and any radical post-war composer like Stockausen) made innovative music because of a need to break from the past, but I think there is something nostalgic about Kraftwerk. Their fetishism for roads and rail seems to hark back to a golden age in both of these modes, to the construction of the autobahns in Germany and to a more opulent age in pan-European rail travel. The sense of grandeur felt by speeding across Europe on a train comes across beautifully on Europe Endless, which has a nostalgic, almost classical melody and the sort of gently insistent rhythm which drove Autobahn.

They diverge from here, straying into newer territory with the proto-techno Showroom Dummies and the title track, a great piece of electro which definitely looks to the future, but I still get the sense that the fascination with mechanisation and technology across this album (and across the Kraftwerk back catalogue in general) is harking back to the old visions of the future found in futurism.  The very name Kling Klang (an early track and the name of the band's studio) could appear in an F.T. Marinetti poem or a piece of music by Luigi Russolo. Kraftwerk's music synthesises their 'high art' influences with pop sensibilities, tempering their fascination with the future with an interest in the past and creating something which is timeless. Although they may never become automated showroom dummies, their music may well be seen as a 'history of the future', the perfect place for a group which balanced its interest in the past with an eye to the future.

Steve Reich - Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
Speaking of music and railways, there's always Steve Reich. A Jewish kid who grew up in America during World War II, Reich used to travel by train across the country between his separated parents. Many years later, he realised that he would have been making far more sinister train trips had he been from Europe instead. As anyone who has visited former ghettos or concentration camps can testify, 'what if' can be a powerful thought in situations like this and it compelled Reich to make a piece of music which explored the possibilities and connections of the period. Reich had been experimenting with human speech since the sixties (most notably on his process pieces Come Out and It's Gonna Rain, which utilised tape loops of speech samples) but he decided to use a huge body of samples from different speakers in Different Trains. The piece is built around samples of Holocaust survivors and Americans who frequently used rail travel, working them around one another and around a multi-tracked string quartet. The genius of the piece is the way the two main elements merge: the musicians mirror the speech samples, allowing the speakers to influence the actual melody of the music.

The second piece on the album is Electric Counterpoint, the piece which introduced me to Reich as a result of being sampled by The Orb. Played by Pat Metheny, it is a dreamy guitar piece made of many different guitar tracks which were fused together afterwards. Metheny's guitar playing is amazing, creating so much just by noodling in front of the backdrop of his own loops. Unusually for a 'classical' composer, Reich uses the studio as an instrument in its own right, as the whole point to the piece is that each component is played by one instrumentalist. On both of these pieces, he uses technological innovation to his advantage to create something which goes beyond the perimeters of traditional music.

Gang of Four - Entertainment!
As rhythmically tight as anyone else but still with the blood-rushing onslaught of punk in their veins, Gang of Four produced one incredible album before they started to fade. But what an album it was. Unlike some of their more naive contemporaries, they had more than an ounce of political sense as well, showing more than a hint of the influence of all sorts of interesting people, from the Frankfurt School to Guy Debord and everyone in between. It says a lot that this album soundtracked my attempt at reivising Louis Althusser and Pierre Macherey before Christmas, and I got as much from it as from my lecture notes. Their insights about capitalism, society and the media are as sharp as Andy Gill's guitar playing, which leaves its scars across all of their music. I can even forgive them allowing Natural's Not In It to be used in an Xbox advert (which sounds more ironic with every listen).

The music here is very minimal, stripped down to guitar, drums and bass, but everything connects so well that to add anything else would be heresy. Who needs frills when you have the mangled guitar work of Glass? In an album which often concerns itself with the distractions we face in life, from the increasing commercialisation of leisure to bullshit love songs, it's only fair to not use itself as another needless distraction. It is very rare to find a band which has such a deep engagement with serious ideas beyong a self-righteous reference to politics here and there, but these things seep out of every pore of the album, bringing in everything from the North of Ireland to the politics of personal relationships. And, in spite of the seemingly deadpan delivery, there is a good sense of humour to them as well. I've played it hundreds of times and I don't intend to stop now.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Having given us three brilliant albums (four if 45:33 counts), it was always going to be hard to choose which LCD Soundsystem album to mention. The dust has now settled on that chapter of James Murphy's career, and I think Sound of SIlver showed him at the height of his powers. For starters, the scope of it is amazing: we have great funky tracks (Time to Get Away), supreme songwriting craft (All My Friends) and joyous electronic stuff (Get Innocuous). On this album more than any other, Murphy managed to distill pretty much everything I have already mentioned to make music which genuinely managed to shape my tastes by revealing all of these influences to me.

As the guy who introduced Daft Punk to the rock kids, Murphy has had his fingers in so many pies but he manages to combine it all here without it feeling disjointed. Plodding pianos and blocky arpeggiators and funk-infused clavinets all co-exist beautifully, and that's just the keyboards. As something of a musical auteur, Murphy is the component that holds everything together, with his hand in practically everything. He isn't the greatest of singers strictly speaking but he can adapt and besides, I don't think it matters at all. He has a simple sincerity which underpins New York I Love You and the moving Someone Great, a terrific song about bereavement with music adapted from 45:33. With so many different stylistic shifts, Sound of Silver somehow manages to balance everything to form a coherent whole - it is the classic album of the last ten years.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
(A copied and pasted blog post - obviously).

Human culture has developed at such a pace since the industrial revolution that its changes are now barely noticable. Only when you stop and look back at the past is it possible to realise how things have changed (or not changed at all). This has led to a strange feeling that the past and the present are somehow bled into one. No wonder fashions and fads keep reappearing, altering our perceptions of the past before our views on it have even had enough time to settle.

This makes it very difficult to classify our current era in cultural taxonomy. 'Postmodernism' is the typical word to describe our age, but this refers to a very loose set of traits that doesn't satiate any real attempts to understand what distinguishes this from previous trends and what will set it apart from emerging ones. These definitions seem pointless and vague until they start to become paired with more nuanced ideas.

One of the more apparent features of postmodernity is the appropriation of cultural detritus from the past. This is no more evident than in music, where the advent of sampling has given us much brilliant music (and an equal amount of unimaginative bullshit). Sampling has been such a successful medium that it has given itself its own language, meaning that it can now seem too...obvious. It's ironic (but inevitable) that this has happened to something which deliberately subverts musical conventions, as it is very much a victim of its own success.

Sampling usually draws on musical culture, but this is just a part of the sort of cultural appropriation that can take place. Which finally brings me round to Replica. The album contains many obscure, often unidentifiable samples (perhaps the most notable one comes from a soft drinks commercial, linking nicely to my idea of cultural detritus), which weave together with one another in strange loops. Some gorgeous piano playing (influenced by jazz and my beloved minimalist composers) transforms this into something else. All manner of odd noises, including subtle but intense shots of bass, fill the sound out, turning it into something which sounds quite unlike anything else I've ever heard. The sublime undulations of the piano and intricate repetitions of the various sounds I can't identify suggest ambient music, and this definitely suits the mood of much of the album, but there is also something very much not of ambient music in here, though I don't know what. This is one of those pieces of music that is so uncommon that it completely defies all existing classifications, forcing you to look at music in a totally different manner.

Every time I hear this album my jaw drops, because it sounds like I'm hearing the future. It is an odd place, melding all sorts of seemingly contradictory emotions, particularly in the constant play of warm and cold that comes through the mechanical clicks and jolts of the samples and the loveliness of the piano (which invokes thoughts of being tenderly kissed in the bright sunlight in a conservatory while in a somnolent daze). This combination makes the album what it is, and it is by pairing the mother of all musical instruments with the remnants of stagnant shards of popular culture that gives it a real place. Somehow, this sums up the way I see the world today. The contemporary world contains a constant wrangling between organic and synthetic, ancient and modern, high and low culture. This album embraces all of the above and in doing so, finally puts these wearisome struggles aside, combining all of these things into an extraordinary whole which manages to define our present and possibly create our future.

[Nowhere Man]

edit

[veletision]

Mbv - Loveless
Pavement - Slanted
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Weezer - Pinkerton
Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl
Stone Roses - Stone Roses
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar
PRML SCRM - XTRMNTR
Smiths - Queen is Dead



(11- Don't have me banned)

[zomgmouse]

In no order:

Yes, Fragile
Deep Purple, Burn
Art Tatum, The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 8
The Doors, Strange Days (or Waiting for the Sun)
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (or The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike
Django Reinhardt and Stépane Grappelli, Le Quintette du Hot Club de France
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Tadpoles
Dire Straits, Love Over Gold
Nino Rota, Soundtrack to 8½

[Neville Chamberlain]

Mbv - Loveless
Pavement - Slanted
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Weezer - Pinkerton
Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl
Stone Roses - Stone Roses
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar
PRML SCRM - XTRMNTR
Smiths - Queen is Dead



(11- Don't have me banned)

Just get rid of the Primal Scream album because they're rubbish!

[ziggy starbucks]

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Pulp - Different Class (1995)
Elastica - Elastica (1995)
Gene - Olympian (1995)
The Boo Radleys - Wake Up! (1995)
The Charlatans - The Charlatans (1995)
Sleeper - Smart (1995)
The Verve - A Northern Soul (1995)
Cast - All Change (1995)
Menswear - Nuisance (1995)

[CaledonianGonzo]

I Should Coco!

[checkoutgirl]

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6.

7. 

8. 

9. 

10.


I've just realised how futile and redundant top 10 lists are. If Jimmy Carr has thought/taught/taut us anything etc...

[Kane Jones]

I've just realised how futile and redundant top 10 lists are. If Jimmy Carr has thought us anything etc...

I know 'you lot' say it the same, but they are actually two different words.

[gabrielconroy]

Radiohead - Kid A
Autechre - Tri Repetae
Burial - Untrue
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Glenn Gould/Bach - Goldberg Variations, 1981 recording
GY!BE - F#A# Infinity
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Portishead - Third
Horowitz/Chopin - Complete Collection

[greencalx]

Hmmm. This is tough. If by "all-time favourite" we mean "took ages to leave the CD player and has been frequently reinserted ever since" then my list might look something like this, in no apparent order:

Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Kraftwerk - Trance Europe Express
Earthling - Radar
Portishead - Dummy
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
The Cure - Head on the Door
Prince - Lovesexy
Depeche Mode - Violator
17 Hippies - Heimlich
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

but it could easily look very different.

[dark now my pies]

Beatles White Album
Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon
Coldplay Mylo Xyloto
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Scritti Politti Cupid And Psyche '85
NRBQ Wild Weekend
E A Man Called E
The Orb Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
Boards Of Canada The Campfire Headphase
Guns N Roses Appetite For Destruction

[Lost Oliver]

Daft Punk - Get Lucky

[El Unicornio, mang]

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Pulp - Different Class (1995)
Elastica - Elastica (1995)
Gene - Olympian (1995)
The Boo Radleys - Wake Up! (1995)
The Charlatans - The Charlatans (1995)
Sleeper - Smart (1995)
The Verve - A Northern Soul (1995)
Cast - All Change (1995)
Menswear - Nuisance (1995)

I know this was meant as a joke, but when we did the 1000 greatest albums thread on here a few years ago, I'm pretty sure that 1995 had more albums than any other year. Possibly an indicator of the age range on here more than anything, mind.

[Sam]

Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine

I've listened to this album hundreds, maybe even thousands of times and it blows me away every time. There is a purity of concept, expression and execution which is awe-inspiring. It's the most perfect example of 'bi-polar' creation I've heard. The sound of hypomania, the sound of unbridled ecstasy. It's a deeply personal album to me, it's kept me company through dark times of my life, it's been the album I've stared out of train windows too and felt infinity. It's a painfully beautiful album and Devin will always be a God to me because of it.

Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream 

A brilliant band with many phases to their sound, all good in their own way. This album has a bit of everything: ambience, catchy pop songs, heavy riffs, funky bass and drum grooves, multi-layered vocal harmonies, brilliant lyrics.

Boards of Canada - Music Has a Right to Children

Seems to be a CaB fave. A magical, charming tone throughout. Nostalgic, ethereal, comforting.

David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive

'Let the Happiness In' might be my favourite track of all time. The whole album oozes class and is swathed in sophisticated arrangements.

Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place

A blissed-out warm bath of an album.

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

I could easily have gone for Blue Valentine, Mule Variations, Small Change or Rain Dogs. I love the mixture of very dark songs with the aching melancholy of 'A Little Rain' and the rawness of 'Who Are You'.

Sun Kil Moon - April

Has a slow-burning ecstatic melancholy, like white coals. Listen to 'Tonight in Bilbao' a song about moodily looking out of train windows, while yourself looking out of a train and you're heart will melt out into the washed-out sky.

Pat Metheny Group - Still Life (Talking)

This has all the elements of the PMG sound. A gorgeous, tropical sound permeates. 'Last Train Home' is sublime.

Imogen Heap - Ellipse

This was the soundtrack to the blossoming of the relationship with my now wife. It'll always feel special because of that, but it's got great tunes and some of the best production and audio engineering ever recorded.

Sting - The Soul Cages

Yeah, I know he's a twit but this early album combines wistful grief-imbued lyrics with the salt breezes of the dark, mysterious ocean. 'Why Should I Cry For You' and 'The Wild Wild Sea' are good examples. Nothing like a bit of massive bereavement to give you artistic juices a squirt.

[DukeDeMondo]

1. The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy & the Lash / If I Should Fall From Grace With God.

Then, in no particular order:

Whiskeytown: Faithless Street
Billy Bragg: Talking with the Taxman About Poetry
The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
Bright Eyes: Lifted...
Dead Kennedys: Frankenchrist
Bjork: Medulla
Weezer: Pinkerton
Townes Van Zandt: Live from the Old Quarter

Those are the constants, any road. Plenty records I'll get obsessed with for a time, but them there are the ones I've never let go of for even a second.

[Neville Chamberlain]

This is what I've come up with off the top of my head, but it might still need a little tweaking...

Cardiacs - Sing to God (I & II)
NoMeansNo - Wrong
The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Pigment Vehicle - Independent Women Are so Damned Good
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Amon Duul II - Yeti
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
The Fall - The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
Bark Psychosis - Hex

As much as I love Bark Psychosis' Hex, I might just have to replace it with Voivod's Nothingface...

[Morrison Lard]

9 copies[nb]In case 8 of em break[/nb] of Why Do They Call Me Mr Happy by NoMeansNo
and then Dare by The Human League

_{Edit : Thought it was 10 albums you couldn't live without, but fuck it - I stand by my decision.}

[Morrison Lard]

Dead Kennedys: Frankenchrist

Unusual choice, most your DK purists would've had that about 3rd or 4th.
I agree with you completely though, Soup is good food.

[DukeDeMondo]

Unusual choice, most your DK purists would've had that about 3rd or 4th.
I agree with you completely though, Soup is good food.

It's an incredible record. I adore the first two (and In God We Trust, Inc.) and at least two thirds of Bedtime... but Frankenchrist is the pinnacle for me.

I would've included Prairie Home Invasion, as well, if the list had gone to 15. Also, Rubber Soul by The Beatles, Ice-T's Home Invasion[nb]Was in the top 10 till I saw the tag down below, there.[/nb] and Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral by Half Man Half Biscuit.

[Olarrio]

Out of the way, my turn:

Either/Or - Elliott Smith
OK Computer - Radiohead
Moon Pix - Cat Power
Relationship of Command - At the Drive-In
01010101 - Portraits of Past
Today's Active Lifestyles - Polvo
Zen Arcade - Husker Du
Magnolia Electric Co. - Songs: Ohia
Around the Fur - Deftones
The Glow Pt.2 - The Microphones

All pretty much mainstays in a Top 20 of mine - if I devoted serious consideration it may, of course, look slightly different.

[Famous Mortimer]

I just took my list from a few years ago in this thread, and altered it a little. One bump, a few rewrites. But at least three of the albums on this list, I haven't played since I compiled it the first time. Makes me feel a bit bummed out at the lack of music listening in my life currently, so I may have a binge soon and a huge rewrite of this.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! - "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven"
Because nothing altered my ideas about music the first time I heard it like this one did. I have Uncut Magazine's "100 Heaviest Albums of All Time" article from years ago to thank for getting me into this band, and even all their spin-off groups are still pale imitations.

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. Irwin Chusid (WFMU DJ, and asshole nowadays) said this sounded like a recording made by someone after they'd died, which I like.

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).

Phillip Glass - "Music From Candyman"
He probably considers this something he tossed off in an afternoon, but it's my favourite thing he ever did and uses that repetition thing he's been criticised for to the best effect. The organ and the vocals could well sound cheesy, but he just nails it...it made the film better by its presence too.

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 stuck to their guns and didn't give a fuck about the music biz (except to keep other bands from getting mired in it), and still sound great.

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. Several years later, it's even more difficult to find them online, except the odd one or two of musicians I didn't care about at the time and care even less about now.

[NoSleep]

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).

Almost every Can fan I've asked puts Tago Mago as their number one choice. The critics' choice used to be Future Days, and even the band weren't too keen on Ege Bamyasi as they had made about half an album by their own painstaking methods (well, Holger Czukay's), then realised they had to deliver the album to the record company the next day and so recorded two longish jams. So Ege Bamyasi has some killer tracks on it but doesn't really make it as a great album.

[BlodwynPig]

1. Orville - Orville's Kitchen Dust
2. My Favourite Gripe - Trash Talking
3. Bowled Soup Origami - Ladle of Filth
4. Roar Object - Here come the objects
5. Cinnamon Smith - 1 Gun Salute
6. Stanislav - Waltzing in Tashkent
7. The Microscopes - Tiny Fear Bucket
8. The Cider Troupe - Somerset Yarns
9. Black Eyed Peas - Wanna Wanna Wanna
10. Grub Machete - Headlice

[Nmkl Pkjl Ftmsch]

This thread is so pretentious it could suck itself up its own arse with a bendy straw and never be seen again.

Seriously, are the choices on here for fucking real? Are you all on some mass wind-up or what? Trying to impress each other with your uber-obscure choices? "Yah, my favourite album is Goosebumps On Pluto by the Olivia Newton Coughdrop... you probably never heard of them..."

Come off it. ANY album by Journey would shit all over the majority of the drivel listed here. Yes, Journey. I fucking said it.

[goldrush almighty]

This thread is so pretentious it could suck itself up its own arse with a bendy straw and never be seen again.

I didn't realise that pretentiousness meant impressive suction power. Warning: do not put this Dyson near your anus. It's so pretentious it'll pull you inside out through your ringpiece.   

[Why I Hate Tables]

I'm amused by a defender of Pete Townshend calling anyone else pretentious: excuse me, I'm just off to write some interactive hyper-cycle musical theatre about how funny that is. Don't play Lifehouse Chronicles much then, eh, Nmkl?

You've got a point though: people have listed albums by bands as obscure as The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac among their favourites in here, it's sickening (although I'm one to talk, I've got a copy of that rare cassette only release Rumours myself). No, I don't know why I get as pissed off as I do by that "I've not heard of it so it must be pretentious" attitude, it's definitely more my problem than yours.

[graffic]

Blur - Parklife
Blur - Modern life is rubbish
Blur - The Great Escape
Blur - Blur
Suede - Suede
Suede - Dog man Star
Oasis - Whats the story morning glory
David Bowie - Earthling
Gary Numan - Pure
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

I've never been a big fan of Radiohead, I find Thom Yorkes lyrics and voice annoying, although The Bends is a good album. I think Blur were the best band to come out of England since the kinks and Damon Albarn is just as talented as David Bowie. I also like house/dance music but didn't include any albums on the list. Snow patrol are probably my favourite "current" band that are still making music. I think coldplay can be hit and miss and I used to the like the killers but am not that keen on them anymore.

[BlodwynPig]

If you are a blur fan graffic, check out Roar Object, their seminal "Here come the objects" is a milestone in Twit-pop.