Gray on 14/10/2019 at 23:14
We've done this thing before, but it's been a few years now, and I can't remember the last time we did it, and I can't find the last thread for it.
This was triggered in (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122433&page=138&p=2431211&viewfull=1#post2431211) another thread by Gryzemuis. I replied to it there, but the more I thought about it, the more curious I got about what everybody else think.
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
What are your 10 favorite albums of all time ?
Artists should appear not more than once on the list. It's only 10 entries. If you can't pick an album, you can combine two, or three, albums from one artist. E.g. if I wanted something from The Cure on my list, I'd put Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography combined as one entry on the list. (FYI, that combination would not be in my top 10, but it would be in my top 100).
No fads of the day. I'd like to hear what sticks.
I'll start. I've trimmed my list down a bit to just be 10 albums. It's very hard for me to do so, my list would ideally be a lot longer, but those are the rules. 10. No more. :ahem: Here we go:
Autechre: Tri Repetae (techno)
Covenant: Sequencer (EBM/electronic noise-pop, absolutely perfect in every way)
Depeche Mode: Black Celebration (electronic pop)
Front Line Assembly: Tactical Neural Implant (EBM/techno/industrial)
Kraftwerk: Computerwelt (genre defining electronic pop/techno)
KMFDM: WWIII (industrial rock)
Sisters of Mercy: Floodland (goth rock, except Eldritch always hated being labelled "goth")
They Might Be Giants: Flood (quirky surreal alternative rock)
Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman (techno)
VNV Nation: Empires (EBM/electronic pop)
Ordered alphabetically, not by quality.
It pains me to have to delete classics like Front 242 and Clan of Xymox and 808 State, and many others, but hey, 10 albums is the rule. I stand by my choice. What's yours?
icemann on 15/10/2019 at 03:51
I'm going to do this by albums with ratios of good songs, and restricting myself to 1 album per artist, but will add mentions about close calls with other albums:
1 - Thriller - Michael Jackson (every single last song on this album is perfect)
2 - Use Your Illusion 1&2 - Guns'n'Roses. I'm cheating a bit here as they are technically 2 separate albums. But they released at the exact same time, and really should have been a singular double album.
3 - Melon Colie and the Infinite Silence - Smashing Pumpkins. The Siamese Dream album is a close second.
4 - Dookie - Greenday - Every song on this album is gold.
5 - Black Album - Metallica. Injustice for All, close second, Master of Puppets closely following.
6 - The Real Thing - Faith No More. Angel Dust close second. King for a Day, Fool for a lifetime, gets third place.
7 - Born to do it - Craig David
8 - Deadwing - Porcupine Tree
9 - Forever Blue - Chris Isaak
10 - Machiavelli and the Four Seasons - T.I.S.M
henke on 15/10/2019 at 06:15
Yeah good idea, it has been a while since we did one of these, and I like Gryz' idea of combining albums for artists where you're uncertain which is the best one.
TOP 10!1. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
2. Todd Snider - The Devil You Know
3. MF DOOM - MM... FOOD/Madvillain
4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
5. Cake - Fashion Nugget/Comfort Eagle
6. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
7. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In/Murder Ballads/The Boatman's Call
9. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells/Elephant
10. Björk - Debut/Post/Vespertine
In lieu of descriptions, give em a listen, here's (
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0h1AiEEKtaTonXW7HJsbQ6?si=ZeyGxgaGRT2xyeg6EpJkog) a 10-song Spotify playlist with some of my fave tunes from these albums.
Quote Posted by Gray
They Might Be Giants: Flood (quirky surreal alternative rock)
As it happens, I listened to this for the first time last week! Was scrolling through their discography and noticed
"wow, this one has Birdhouse, Istanbul and Particle Man! I love those, bet the rest of the album will be great!" Sadly, aside from "Whistling in the Dark" none of the other tracks really stuck with me after the first listen.
Gray on 15/10/2019 at 11:39
Oh, they will. They'll get stuck in your head and you'll never, ever be able to get them out again. Ever. Trust me on this. It's been 30 years and they're still in there.
Shoshin on 15/10/2019 at 19:44
Top 10, in no particular order
Abbey Road - The Beatles
A Stranger in the Alps - Phoebe Bridgers
A Black Mile To The Surface - Manchester Orchestra
Glow and Fade - Kilbey Kennedy
Between Dog and Wolf - New Model Army
Heyday - The Church
Priest=Aura - The Church
man woman life death infinity - the church
Disintegration - The Cure
Rain Dogs - Tom Waits
Alright, so I could have just listed 10 albums by the Church (a neo-psychedelic group from Australia most famous for their late 80s hit "Under the Milky Way"), but that would be no fun. Nonetheless, far and away my favorite group of all time, and I could just listen to them forever.
Another vote for Rain Dogs, Tom Waits' best work (in, of course, my opinion).
Abbey Road is a classic in all senses of the word. 2 stellar George Harrison songs, Come Together, Oh Darling!, the great medley on side 2. Even Ringo's contribution doesn't suck.
Phoebe Bridgers' debut album is stunning. Also very sad. I quite like her voice. If you like folky sad music, find the song Funeral online & listen to it.
Kilbey Kennedy is a side project of the lead singer from the Church. Glow and Fade is an album for Pink Floyd fans.
Manchester Orchestra is an indie rock band from Georgia (USA). I liked individual songs off of their previous records, but never all of them. A Black Mile to the Surface is solid all the way through.
New Model Army. A folk-punk band from Bradford, England. Been around since 1980. Never very popular here in the states. Political, but nuanced. I lost track of them after the mid 90s, but I heard a track or two off of Between Dog and Wolf, and got the album immediately. Very different from all their other output.
Disintegration by the Cure. Very definitely goth, also pop. Also their best work.
Tocky on 16/10/2019 at 02:54
1. Dark Side of the Moon- Pink Floyd
2. I Robot- Alan Parsons Project
3. The Stranger- Billy Joel
4. News of the World- Queen
5. Toys in the Attic- Areosmith
6. Whatever and Ever Amen- Ben Folds Five
7. Dreamboat Annie- Heart
8. The Joshua Tree- U2
9. The Book of Secrets- Loreena McKennitt
10. Black Holes and Revelations- Muse
11. Robot Hive Exodus- Clutch
12. Hellbilly Deluxe- Rob Zombie
13. The Strange Case of... - Halestorm
14. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge- My Chemical Romance
I went over. Sue me. It's roughly based on how they affected me at the time and there is sentiment mixed in with the decisions. Oddly no one Bowie or Beatles or Tom Petty album though I liked so many of their songs.
Gray on 16/10/2019 at 02:58
I'm not here to enforce the rules, I'll happily leave that to Gryz, even though he didn't start this thread or might even be aware of it yet, I just pasted in what he said in another thread and that will serve as my basis here. And in that thread, I believe my top 10 was about 18 albums. I trimmed it down for this thread.
Aja on 16/10/2019 at 03:13
This is funny for me. I used to be all about top-10 lists and regularly kept a mental record of what my favourite albums are (a lot of my embarrassing music writing lives on in this forum). I haven't thought about it in a long time, though, and some of my so-called favourite albums I never really listen to anymore. So that being said, here's my revised list in no order.
Steely Dan, Aja/Gaucho/Two Against Nature -- A three-way tie. I get why lots of people don't like Steely Dan, and I wish it wasn't my namesake here, but I still love these records so much; they have such depth and nuance. Steely Dan reminds me of summer road trips and Saturday night steak dinners with my family.
LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver -- This is my coming-of-age album. I moved out of my parents' house to live with my bandmates and had a few fun years trying to make that work.
Stars of the Lid, Avec Laudenum -- Really any Stars of the Lid record could go here, but this one is concise and mysterious and pretty much a perfect drone album.
Tetsu Inoue, World Receiver -- My favourite of the 90s ambient/new age/synth albums. It reminds me of the kind of dreams you get during an afternoon nap
Eluder, The Most Beautiful Blue -- A mostly unknown ambient album/artist that I discovered just as I was really becoming interested in the genre, and this one has stuck with me since. It's dark and swirling and relaxing but with a sense of urgency.
Donald Fagen, Kamakiriad / Walter Becker, 11 Tracks of Whack -- Steely Dan solo albums that no one except me likes. Whatever.
Tosca, Opera -- This was on my old list, and I think it still belongs here. Great classic downtempo but still weird and kinda ambient.
Well, that's 10 albums, and half of them are Steely Dan or related. I've had this list open for a couple hours now, typing it out here and there while I work, and now that it's done I feel a little embarrassed at how similar it is to my old list.
Pyrian on 16/10/2019 at 03:59
Hrm. Going through my music collection with this idea in mind really brings home just how much of my collection is old Greatest Hits/Best Of albums and newer singles (now that singles aren't as ridiculously overpriced). For this I'm going to focus on "original" albums which I like as a whole, in alphabetic order:
At Sixes and Sevens by Sirenia (I have a pile of old Sirenia, of which this is the most listenable to me - Nine Destinies and a Downfall used to be my favorite but now I find it too depressing, lol)
Dark Passion Play by Nightwish (Most Nightwish is very hit-or-miss to me, this one's almost all hits)
Revival by Selena Gomez (not just 'cause she's naked on the cover, I swear)
The Silent Force by Within Temptation (Somehow nothing like other Within Temptation albums)
Speak Now by Taylor Swift (Ah the sheer lovely blatant cattiness of this album)
Top Gun soundtrack (Ever feel the need for a shot of pure 80's?)
Twilight by Woodland (Now this is an obscure group. I downloaded the samples, and listened to them - just samples - on repeat for two days straight before realizing I really needed to buy this, which turned out to be much more difficult than I'd imagined, lol)
The Unforgettable Fire by U2 (My favorite U2 album, probably because I was youngish teen at the time)
The Unforgiving by Within Temptation (Their breakout hit album, and for damn good reasons)
Vinland Saga by Leave's Eyes
Gryzemuis on 16/10/2019 at 09:02
Quote Posted by Gray
I'm not here to enforce the rules, I'll happily leave that to Gryz, even though he didn't start this thread or might even be aware of it yet, I just pasted in what he said in another thread and that will serve as my basis here. And in that thread, I believe my top 10 was about 18 albums. I trimmed it down for this thread.
I'm not gonna enforce rules either.
The reason I asked Gray for his top 10 list was selfish. I noticed that there is a certain overlap between some of his music tastes and mine. It turns out it was less than I thought. Gray seems to like faster more aggressive electronic music. While I like the slower, more mellow electronic music (ambient, lounge, dark ambient, chillout, etc). I wanted to hear his top-10 (or top-50), just so I would get to know maybe a few albums that are worth it (for me).
That's why I asked for "no beatles, no pink floyd". Because I already know those artists and songs. There's not much to discover there. Gray didn't include that "rule" in the copy&paste. But for me, that was kinda the essential point of me asking. I also mentioned that it was ok to include an entry that consisted of 2 or 3 albums by the same artist. If you can't chose, I wanna know, because then I can listen all 2 or 3 albums, to see if I like that music.
I also included my own list of favorites later. Because I think many people might appreciate these albums, even if you are not into this type of music. I can understand how some people won't enjoy The Cramps. But I don't believe anyone wouldn't like "It'll End In Tears". E.g. "Worlds in a Small Room" is a truly beautiful album. Not niche at all. But I doubt many people have heard (of) it before.
Anyway, here's my personal top 10. I hope someone enjoys discovering some songs they like, because of this list.
1980-85 - Tuxedomoon - Half Mute/Desire/Holy Wars
1981-83 - Durutti Column - LC/Another Setting
1982 - Virgin Prunes - If I Die I Die
1983-84 - Sisters Of Mercy - Alice/Reptile House/Temple Of Love/Body & Soul
1984 - Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance
1984 - This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears
1985 - Jansen & Barbieri - Worlds in a Small Room
1985 - The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
1986 - SPK - Zahmia Lehmanni
1988 - Harold Budd - The White Arcades
1988-93 - Benjamin Lew - Nebka/Parfum Du Raki
1995 - Tricky - Maxinquaye
Some more "classic" albums that not enough people have heard.
1980 - Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth (everyone should listen to this one. unique sound)
2015 - Atrium Carceri - The Old City - Leviathan (soundtrack of a game)
1982 - The Cramps - Off The Bone (true rock&roll)
1983 - The Gunclub - Miami
1997 - Bran Van 3000 - Glee (suprisingly diverse album)
1986 - Coil - Horse Rotorvator
2004 - Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague (only listen if you like/know 80's new wave music)
1969/1972 - Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left/Bryter Layer/Pink Moon (more well known these days, and rightly so)
2001 - Neil Halstead - Sleeping on Roads
1983 - Marine Girls - Lazy Ways