# Payn's Ponderings... Top 10 Essential Albums



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Greetings,

So, local public radio channel The Current is doing their spring drive. They collect ballots from listeners and the public and compile a list to play on the radio/stream for a week as they count down. It's a lot of fun listening to see when your songs/albums drop. In the past they have done; top 893 debut albums, top 893 songs of all time, top 893 bands, etc...

This year it is top essential albums of all time. The ballot only allows 10 (which is very very difficult to come down to for me...) so for this thread that's our rule. What are your top 10 essential albums of all time. (By essential I'm guessing it's albums you cant live without. What are you taking to your deserted island?) This is about albums so keep that in mind as the complete work and not just folks you really like!

Mine.

Tom Waits-Rain Dogs
George Harrison-All Things Must Pass
Led zeppelin II
Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique
Pharcyde-Bizarre Ride II
Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Buena Vista Social Club
Johnny Cash-American Music Vol. IV
Dwight Yokham Guitars, Cadillacs, etc...etc...
B-52's-Self Titled
*I reserve the right to change this for the next week or so while I have time to change my Current ballot.

Cheers!

Complied playlist


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 5, 2022)

Sure, I'll play.

These are the albums I go back to year after year and keep in the rotation. I never tire of hearing them, and I always get the same emotional response and/or satisfaction when I listen to them. (And in no particular order.)

Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Judas Priest - Painkiller
AC/DC - Fly on the Wall
Lamb of God - Sacrament
Fear Factory - Genexus
Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal for Life
Anthrax - Sound of White Noise
Damn! I knew 10 wouldn't be enough... we're gonna need a bigger island.


----------



## Hex08 (Apr 5, 2022)

Not necessarily in order, and not using any greatest hits albums:
1. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. Metalica - The Black Album
3. Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
4. Billy Joel - Glass Houses
5. Ramones - Ramones
6. Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
7. Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
8. U2 - Rattle and Hum
9. Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (almost went with From the Inside)
10. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

Honestly, there are so many albums I love that a top 10 list is hard to come up with


----------



## Cadence (Apr 5, 2022)

Are greatest hits albums cheating?


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Cadence said:


> Are greatest hits albums cheating?



Kinda, but if a particular greatest hits album is so good its on your top 10 best albums go for it. I'll blow a raspberry if all 10 on your list are greatest hits tho


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 5, 2022)

Cadence said:


> Are greatest hits albums cheating?



Yes. Yes, it is.


----------



## Cadence (Apr 5, 2022)

payn said:


> Kinda, but if a particular greatest hits album is so good its on your top 10 best albums go for it. I'll blow a raspberry if all 10 on your list are greatest hits tho



Probably half the albums I ever owned (CD, Cassette, etc...) were greatest hits ones.   But I can see which originals had the highlights.


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Cadence said:


> Probably half the albums I ever owned (CD, Cassette, etc...) were greatest hits ones.   But I can see which originals had the highlights.



As a good exercise, perhaps start with your favorite greatest hits and then look through that artist's catalogue. Find the album that has the most songs you like. Give it a listen and see if that a good selection.

I know its out of fashion now, but I'm a big fan of the album.


----------



## Mallus (Apr 5, 2022)

Are soundtracks & cast albums allowed?


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Mallus said:


> Are soundtracks & cast albums allowed?



Oh absolutely! Now I have to consider if the S_ingles _soundtrack can bump anything on my list


----------



## Cadence (Apr 5, 2022)

1. U2 - Rattle and Hum
2. Pink Floyd - The Wall
3. Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
4. U2 - Joshua Tree
5. Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & II  (go with The Stranger if you make me pick one)
6. Lost Boys (Soundtrack)
7. Queen - Greatest Hits (I don't think any one of their usual albums would make the list for me)
8. Randy Newman - Sail Away
9. Eagles - Hotel California  (would go greatest hits vol. II except trying to avoid those)
10. Chicago - 17


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 5, 2022)

First attempt:

Massive Attack- Mezzanine
Nine Inch Nails- The Fragile
Portishead- Dummy
Black Sabbath
Pearl Jam- Ten
Alice in Chains – Dirt
Radiohead- A Moon-Shaped Pool Sinead O'Connor, The Lion and the Cobra
Led Zeppelin- Mothership (yes, picking a GH album)
Beatles- Abbey Road
Bjork, volumen 1993-2003 (one more GH album)
The latter probably edging out Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Explosions in the Sky- The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place or another Beatles album.  Or, damn; Violent Femmes.

If I was going to select soundtracks.., Ugh.  Singles, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Royal Tenebaums, Velvet Goldmine, Romeo + Juliet, Cool World, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Crow, Tank Girl.... There are a lot of classics out there.


----------



## Hex08 (Apr 5, 2022)

Now reading other people's lists I'm tempted to go back and edit mine, so much good stuff especially if we can count soundtracks.

Last year I got a turntable and have slowly been buying vinyl again. Hunting down stuff at used record stores is tons of fun.


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Hex08 said:


> Now reading other people's lists I'm tempted to go back and edit mine, so much good stuff especially if we can count soundtracks.
> 
> Last year I got a turntable and have slowly been buying vinyl again. Hunting down stuff at used record stores is tons of fun.



Getting down to 10 is so very very difficult!

I got about 300 vinyl records of various condition. Vinyl hunting is fun, but gotten tougher in recent years. Lots of hand me down stuff from the old man (Allman Brothers, Lynrd Skynrd) and the step father (Kiss, Motely Crew). Funny how about 5 years a difference makes.


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 5, 2022)

Argh. I didn't get a Cure album on there.  Probably Kiss Me, Kiss, Me, Kiss me or Disintegration, though I might need another Greatest Hits.


----------



## Mallus (Apr 5, 2022)

Mannahnin said:


> If I was going to select soundtracks.., Ugh.  Singles, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Royal Tenebaums, Velvet Goldmine, Romeo + Juliet, Cool World, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Crow, Tank Girl.... There are a lot of classics out there.



Trainspotting.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 5, 2022)

Oh. 

Oh no. Um ... okay, @payn you really need to come up with better rules!

Here are my rules for answering this-
1. No "Best of" Albums.
2. It has to be an actual album that the artist wanted released.
3. No more than one album by any artist.
4. I will try to use a combination of what the album means to me (I like it) with what the album means generally (overall importance).
5. No soundtracks.
6. No music prior to 1966.
7. No jazz (although the 1966 barrier excludes some of the best, like The Shape of Jazz to Come, it's just to hard to compare), no classical, no country. This is strictly pop/rock/hip hop.

This is not in order.

1. Low, David Bowie. Tough one. Station to Station is more listenable. Ziggy Stardust has the most hits. Hunky Dory is a sneaky favorite. But Low is the sound of the future crashing into the present.

2. Doolittle, Pixies. If you want to explain the early 90s, you don't start with _Nevermind. _You start here. Still, arguably, the best 90s album ... and it was 1989.

3. Yeezus, Kanye. I know that Ye is more of a punchline than an artist today, but the run from 2004 (College Dropout) to 2016 (Life of Pablo) is right there with any artist you can name. And Yeezus is abrasive, flawed, alienating ... and Ye at his best. 

4. Kid A, Radiohead. It is nearly impossible to believe that this album was controversial when it was released as the followup to their second-best album (OK Computer), yet ... it was. Timeless and magic.

5. The Velvet Underground & Nico, Velvet Underground. One of the few albums that can never sounds dated; it always sounds like it's coming from some impossibly cool party occurring three years in the future.

6. Aja, Steely Dan. Technically, doesn't violate the "no jazz" rule. Steely Dan is what would happen if Joan Didion and William S. Burroughs had an unholy love child that loved jazz and studio perfection. 

7. Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths. Okay, this is skirting the "no best of," but it was a contemporaneous compilation originally released in 1984 from BBC sessions. Say what you will about Morrissey, The Smiths were amazing.

8. Dummy, Portishead. I wanted to go with Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk for its importance, but ... I love Portishead. Three albums, three stone-cold classics. 

9. Random Access Memories, Daft Punk. Do you remember when a French Electronica band was the biggest thing in the world? I do, and they deserved it. I wanted to put in Human After All, or even Homework ... but this is just a stone-cold classic album, with every single track being amazing.

10. Blonde, Frank Ocean. If you're not living too much, maybe you're not living at all.


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Oh.
> 
> Oh no. Um ... okay, @payn you really need to come up with better rules!
> 
> ...



I like it.


Snarf Zagyg said:


> 6. No music prior to 1966.
> 7. No jazz (although the 1966 barrier excludes some of the best, like The Shape of Jazz to Come, it's just to hard to compare), no classical, no country. This is strictly pop/rock/hip hop.



No can do, my OP breaks all of these happily.


----------



## GreyLord (Apr 5, 2022)

1.  Metallica - The Black Album
2.  U2 - Joshua Tree
3.  The Greatest Classical Hits - The Complete Collection (it had 4 different sets each with 2 or 3 dvd's each).
4.  The Complete Beethoven
5.  The Complete Bach
6.  My selfmade 80s collection album
7.  Greatest hits of enya
8.  Metallica - S&M
9.  Metallica - Master of Puppets
10.  Metallica - Death Magnet


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 5, 2022)

payn said:


> I like it.
> 
> No can do, my OP breaks all of these happily.




No worries. It's a nearly impossible list to make. Even with the restrictions I placed on myself, I still didn't put in any albums by the Beatles or Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd, I didn't have Nirvana or Hole, I didn't have Neutral Milk Hotel or Modest Mouse, I incorporated Brian Eno by reference but missed out on some of his classics, I didn't get any classic hip hop in there (Jay Z, Snoop, Dre, Tupac, Eminem), I didn't get Kedrick Lamar in, there isn't any 80s new wave, or 70s punk, and I couldn't list the Strokes or Cage the Elephant or Vampire Weekend and barely touched on Electronica and some 80s synth-pop revival..... 

10 Albums is HARD.


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> No worries. It's a nearly impossible list to make. Even with the restrictions I placed on myself, I still didn't put in any albums by the Beatles or Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd, I didn't have Nirvana or Hole, I didn't have Neutral Milk Hotel or Modest Mouse, I incorporated Brian Eno by reference but missed out on some of his classics, I didn't get any classic hip hop in there (Jay Z, Snoop, Dre, Tupac, Eminem), I didn't get Kedrick Lamar in, there isn't any 80s new wave, or 70s punk, and I couldn't list the Strokes or Cage the Elephant or Vampire Weekend and barely touched on Electronica and some 80s synth-pop revival.....
> 
> 10 Albums is HARD.



Right its hella hard. I didnt get any The National on my list or Prince or....


----------



## le Redoutable (Apr 5, 2022)

what about
Frank Zappa
King Crimson
or the Duos
Peter Gabriel / Kate Bush
Aerosmith / Run DMC
Tina Turner / Bryan Adams
and
Pat Benatar
( during the mid-eighties I managed to hear the American Top 40,
and remember things like
Boys Don't Cry with " I wanna be a Cow Boy " )
Talk Talk
Tears For Fears
Duran Duran


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

So, Ill give you my thoughts Snarf style;

Tom Waits-Rain Dogs; No best of list is complete without a Tom Waits selection. _Rain Dogs_ is the ultimate Waits alabum becasue its the only one that has his jazz, vaudville, country, rock, spanish influence all in one place. It's liek agreatest hits album while being a kick ass album in its own right.  
George Harrison-All Things Must Pass; What happens when your two best friends are a couple of dicks and dont let you contribute your share of the music? You compile a list of kick ass songs about love, life, loss, sadness, and just general interreflection. No solo Beatle would top it. 
Led zeppelin II; What can I say? Zep was something totally special and this happens to be my favorite of a big list of options. Picking one is almost as hard as picking 10 of all time!
Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique; Beasties could have continued down the path of joksters with another license to ill, but they didnt. They proved to everyone that they have every right to be considered true hip hop artists. This is a master class in sampling something that likely will never be done again unless they start shelling out 25 mill for rights to make albums. 
Pharcyde-Bizarre Ride II; 90's hip hop had a revolution in Jazz influence. The beats were great, the lyrics were fun, edgy, emo, and all things nice. Its true you had a pack of contenders in De La Soul, Tribe, Diggable Planets, but nobody put together quite a fly album on the level of Pharcyde cementing a place on the best of all time list. 
Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; So, what is an Alt-Country rock band to do when their label drops them due to a "radio unfriendly" album? They say f it and find somebody to put it out because history just has to be made. This just redefined what the alt-country indie whatever you want to call it sound of the aughts was going to be.   
Buena Vista Social Club; Jazz is incredible, but its hard to really put a single album up as best of all time. These Cuban all stars are the best kept secret of the Jazz world. A straight up jam album from start to finish that shows how expertly crafted albums know no borders or limits.
Johnny Cash-American Music Vol. IV; A country legend on his last round of the valley. The man just took a collection of fantastic songs and gave them a ghostly makeover that makes them immortal if they weren't already. A true gift he gave us with the last of his life.
Dwight Yokham Guitars, Cadillacs, etc...etc...; They dont make country music like they used to. I mea, Dwight had to quit and become a movie star becasue the state of things is so bad. Though, if you want to hit the final days of great country music, you cant do better than DY.
B-52's-Self Titled; Just a college band out of Athens. Taking the all but dead surf rock genre and giving it a defibrillator shock right to the chest. Funny, sheik, sexy, and fun. This is how you do retro folks, this right here.


----------



## Mallus (Apr 5, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Steely Dan is what would happen if Joan Didion and William S. Burroughs had an unholy love child that loved jazz and studio perfection.



This might be the best description of Steely Dan's music I've ever seen. 

(sings "Deacon Blues" and "Kid Charlemagne" quietly, to himself)

Yes, can confirm. It is.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 5, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> 6. No music prior to 1966.
> 7. No jazz (although the 1966 barrier excludes some of the best, like The Shape of Jazz to Come, it's just to hard to compare), no classical, no country. This is strictly pop/rock/hip hop.



Those are TERRIBAD rules!


----------



## billd91 (Apr 5, 2022)

This is a very difficult assignment. But if I had to limit myself to 10:

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Cheap Trick - In Color
Billy Bragg - Back to Basics
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo!
Jethro Tull - Benefit
Midnight Oil - Earth and Sun and Moon
Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 5, 2022)

I wish I could play along, but I might have trouble narrowing down to 1 album per artist for some groups.  Because I listen to A LOT of music.

I mean…this is _part_ of my CD collection.

Not pictured: _more_ CDs, cassettes, LPs, 45s, reel-to-reels


----------



## payn (Apr 5, 2022)

billd91 said:


> Midnight Oil - Earth and Sun and Moon



Wow, nice! I think they are on a north American tour.


----------



## billd91 (Apr 5, 2022)

payn said:


> Wow, nice! I think they are on a north American tour.



We saw them at Summerfest in 2002, shortly before they broke up, and they were awesome. I'd totally go see them again, but it looks like the closest they're coming to my area is Chicago.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 6, 2022)

@Cadence So good to see some Warren Zevon appreciation here. My band (actually more of a coffeehouse duo akin to Tenacious D) covered several of those songs. We played "Excitable Boy" at our religious college's talent show, which raised a few eyebrows. Probably the strangest moment was playing "Gorilla You're a Desperado" while I was wearing only boxers, a cape, and a Viking helmet in a pool hall.


----------



## Cadence (Apr 6, 2022)

Retreater said:


> @Cadence So good to see some Warren Zevon appreciation here. My band (actually more of a coffeehouse duo akin to Tenacious D) covered several of those songs. We played "Excitable Boy" at our religious college's talent show, which raised a few eyebrows. Probably the strangest moment was playing "Gorilla You're a Desperado" while I was wearing only boxers, a cape, and a Viking helmet in a pool hall.




I hadn't heard that one before  
I obviously need to expand beyond the two albums of his I have.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 6, 2022)

My top 10, in no order and without giving it too much thought ...
1. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
2. The Beatles - Revolver
3. Pink Floyd - Animals
4. Jethro Tull - Songs from the Wood
5. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
6. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
7. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
8. Rush - Moving Pictures
9. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue (if I can also include Bambu as the double album version, so be it.)
10. Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

Edit: Had to put George Harrison on here.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 6, 2022)

Cadence said:


> I hadn't heard that one before
> I obviously need to expand beyond the two albums of his I have.



He's got a great catalog, well worth diving into. 
His self-titled "Warren Zevon" is excellent, of course "Excitable Boy," then I'd probably add "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" and "Sentimental Hygiene." His later albums "Life'll Kill Ya" and "The Wind" are also great, but there's a sadness to them knowing he was facing death.


----------



## Cadence (Apr 6, 2022)

Retreater said:


> He's got a great catalog, well worth diving into.
> His self-titled "Warren Zevon" is excellent, of course "Excitable Boy," then I'd probably add "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" and "Sentimental Hygiene." His later albums "Life'll Kill Ya" and "The Wind" are also great, but there's a sadness to them knowing he was facing death.



The Wind is the other one I have.  I know what you mean.


----------



## Malmuria (Apr 6, 2022)

Hmm, hard to choose.
Here’s a few more than 10, in no particular order

Outkast - Atliens
Prince - Purple Rain
The Clash - London Calling
Nas - Illmatic
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Atari Teenage Riot - Burn Berlin Burn
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid M.a.a.d City
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless 
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 6, 2022)

No order. The way I consume music now is no longer at the "album" level; but instead at the "song" level. So most/all of the works on this list are older pre-2000 except one.

Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy - Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury (Angry, political, woke decades before being woke was a thing)
David Bowie -  Low (as someone said up thread - this one is the present crashing into the future (or maybe the same car))
Dag Nasty - Can I Say (Minor Threat's oeuvre is greater, but they don't have a standout album - but every song on this one is a banger)
Metallica - Ride the Lightning (Until I heard the transition from classical music into full on crunch in Fight Fire with Fire I didn't know I liked metal - I thought I liked punk (which I still do). But this is the album that turned me onto metal 4-evah  )
John Coltrane - My favorite things (I just love the loops in My Favorite things, where the music gets recursive and comes back to the same refrain)
Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg (The Host of the Seraphim is probably the greatest song to play really loud when I'm feeling emotionally bad)
The Prodigy - Songs for a Jilted Generation (There are some EDM songs I like better; but end to end this album has great music on it; and No Good is just one of my top 10 dance songs)
Hole - Live through this (Courtney Love's unabashed anger on Violet is so refreshing and in contrast to the societal roles placed on women)
Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill (Speaking of pissed off women - I think we know the key song on this multi-platinum album that fits that mold. But so many others on here are just tunes that stick in my head. Just saw her perform for the 25th anniversary of the release, and she still rips)
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (I was torn between this and the eponymous Fleet Foxes; but this one edged out as there are at least 3 tracks including the most popular Little Lion Man that I love.)
I didn't get into classic rock much, The Who - The Who; Led Zep Houses of the Holy; Boston Boston; Beatles White Album; etc etc. Could have an entire other list there. But others have covered those better and earlier in this thread.

Anyway, fun exercise.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 6, 2022)

I see the work of a lot of great bands being listed, and it’s nifty to me that I‘m not necessarily agreeing that a particular album is the best by certain ones.


----------



## Lanefan (Apr 6, 2022)

In no particular order and with occasional overlap of artists:

Cars - Panorama (or Candy-O, or Shake It Up - pick one)
Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust (or Earth and Sky and Moon - pick one)
Dio - Holy Diver
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
Lordi - Monsterman
Blackmore's Night - Fires at Midnight
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Patrick O'Hearn - Ancient Dreams (or pretty much any - pick one)
Billy Squier - Emotions in Motion

Might change my mind later - who knows.  ...ETA...and did, replacing ACDC Back in Black with Lordi.


----------



## nyvinter (Apr 6, 2022)

Hmmm. This is problematic and will change _every _minute but let's give it a go.


Anaïs Mitchell - Young Man In America
The Band - Last Waltz
Beth Orton - Comfort Of Strangers
CunninLynguists - Dirty Acres
Mekons - OOOH
The Mountain Goats - Sunset Tree
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Thea Gilmore - Avalanche
Unbunny - Black Strawberries
William Elliott Whitmore - Ashes to Dust
This still feels wrong. Only ten? TEN?! Didn't even get The Shape Of Punk To Come in there. The premise is faulty, yes, that must be it,


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Findings so far;

George Harrison _All Things Must Pass_ a narrow lead for EN World favorite.
Metallica (I mean c'mon its a gaming site), Warren Zevon, Fleetwood, and U2 (for two different albums) coming up in second place.
Pink Floyd has the most selections, but no repeats
Midnight Oil mentioned twice for different albums


----------



## Ath-kethin (Apr 6, 2022)

What's funny is I can talk all day about what albums I feel are "best," but the proof is in the playlist. And the albums I listen to most often are:

Pink Floyd: Wish You We're Here
The Cure: Wish 
Ramones: Pleasant Dreams 
Charlie Hunter: Songs from the Analog Playground 
Dream Theater: Scenes From A Memory Saul Williams: Saul Williams
Ace of Base: Flowers
Green Day: American Idiot 
REM: New Adventures in Hi-Fi 
White Zombie: La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One 

Sad lack of girls there. But so it goes I guess.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 6, 2022)

payn said:


> Findings so far;
> 
> George Harrison _All Things Must Pass_ a narrow lead for EN World favorite.
> Metallica (I mean c'mon its a gaming site), Warren Zevon, Fleetwood, and U2 (for two different albums) coming up in second place.
> ...



Oh! I didn't know this was a popularity contest. Not that it changes anything for me, but I just listed some of the top essentials for me, and I can't even say they are my actual top 10. (And I honestly don't know that I could whittle it down to 10 anyway.) I may need to rethink my approach... What would Snarf do?


----------



## Cadence (Apr 6, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> What would Snarf do?




Probably type a lot?


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Oh! I didn't know this was a popularity contest. Not that it changes anything for me, but I just listed some of the top essentials for me, and I can't even say they are my actual top 10. (And I honestly don't know that I could whittle it down to 10 anyway.) I may need to rethink my approach... What would Snarf do?



It's not, this is just for conversation.


----------



## Ralif Redhammer (Apr 6, 2022)

Doing this one fast so I don't overthink it...

1 - David Bowie "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
2 - Bauhaus "Burning From the Inside"
3 - Skinny Puppy "Rabies"
4 - Rhapsody of Fire "Triumph or Agony"
5 - Tom Waits "Mule Variations"
6 - Howard Shore "The Fellowship of the Ring"
7 - Basil Poledouris "Conan the Barbarian"
8 - Das Ich "Die Propheten"
9 - Dio "Holy Diver"
10 - Black Sabbath "Paranoid"

There's some stuff that got edged out but probably should be on it, like Ministry's "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" and Brighter Death Now's "Greatest Death."


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

Ath-kethin said:


> Sad lack of girls there. But so it goes I guess.




Snarf's Top 10 Female Artist Albums, following Snarf's Previous Rules:

1. _Third_, Portishead. I'm totally cheating, but this gets me TWO Portishead albums. If you ever asked yourself, "How can a band make albums that sound completely different, yet always remain identifiably that band?" then you're ready to listen to Portishead.

2. _Live Through This_, Hole. When you're done playing by the rules society has placed on you, and just need to lash out.

3. _The Dreaming_, Kate Bush. I really wanted to put Aerial in this spot (Washing Machine_ ...._ will always be in my head) but this is what would happen if you take the second half of _Hounds of Love_ and made it into a full album. Woah. Wait. You know what?

CHANGE UP!

3. _Hounds of Love_, Kate Bush. Remember when "records" had sides? Actually, vinyl is back, so you do remember! It's not just an amazing album, it's two amazing albums. Come for the first half that you remember (the ethereal pop of Cloudbusting and Running up that Hill) and stay for the superior and devastating second half and feel the water close over you.

4. _Kala_, M.I.A. Powerful and uncompromising and sounding like nothing else at the time. This is the soundtrack to a revolution in a place in a place you've never been.

5. _The Woods_, Sleater-Kinney. Another tough call. My personal favorite, and most consistent album, is _All Hands on the Bad One_. The best, and rawest, sound is definitely _Dig Me Out. _But this is the sound of a band being challenged to evolve, and not just meeting the challenge, but aggressively overcoming it.

6. _Blue_, Joni Mitchell_. _Not including Joni Mitchell on this list would be sacrilege. _Court and Spark? Hejira? _Great albums, but this is one of the all-time greatest for a reason. Every person who listens to this album knows that it speaks to them, and them alone.

7. _Back to Black_, Amy Winehouse_. _Most great artists have the talent to give you something you never realized you wanted. But that wasn't Amy. Her talent was different. When you heard her music for the first time, you realized that you had always known it, and that it had always been a part of your existence.

8. _Like a Virgin, _Madonna. You'd be hard-pressed to go wrong with any of the four albums that formed her supernova explosion in the 80s (_Madonna, Like a Virgin, True Blue, Like a Prayer) _but I'm going with the one that first cemented her into the mainstream.

9. _CrazySexyCool_, TLC. If you've heard any pop music after 1994, you've heard this album.

10. _Future Nostalgia_, Dua Lipa. Too soon? No. Straight-up bangers, from the first track to the last track. To hear this album is to love it.

Honorable mentions (artists)-
Billie Eilish, The Distillers, Patti Smith, Missy Elliot, Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift (!!!), Janis, Lauryn Hill, Carole King, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Björk, St. Vincent.
​


----------



## le Redoutable (Apr 6, 2022)

Ralif Redhammer said:


> Doing this one fast so I don't overthink it...
> 
> 
> 5 - Tom Waits "Mule Variations"
> ...



Conan, a Thief/Warrior/Gladiator/King !


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Snarf's Top 10 Female Artist Albums, following Snarf's Previous Rules:



I like where this is going;

Babes in Toyland-_Spanking Machine_ Lets get this started with a bang. There would be no Hole or Sleater-Kinney without the Babes. Period. This all lady rock band combined the sounds of rock and metal into an early era grundge. Pioneers of the female band in the 80/90's. 

PJ Harvey-_Dry _Just the beginning of a great career guitarist, emo-laden vocalist, activist, etc... What cant PJ do?

Liz Phair-_Exile in Guylville _Liz did what a lot of ladies did, but had a more polished veneer to her final product. Impressive to see a solo act leading alternative out of the new wave era. Its not all smooth with Liz either (F and run since 14...)

Nina Simmone-_Pastel Blues_ Nina was a great voice in music and activism. She had an uncanny sense about her that let her go into well to do white audiences and drop a whole lotta politics on them. I mean, how genius was Mississippi God Damn? Not even on the album but gotta mention it. Pastel Blues just happens to be my favorite recordings from Nina which is very hard to narrow down.

Ella Fitzgerald-_Get Happy_ Ella is sort of an opposite to Nina. She was always joyful and optimistic. A voice like silk and ability to brighten up any blue sky. 

Heart-_Little Queen _So, all these dudes hard rocking out of the 70's into the 80's and where are the ladies? Right here is the answer from Heart. Just solid rock tunes that pass the test of time decade after decade.

Lauren Hill-_The miseducation of Lauren Hill _I certainly dont want Lauren's kids to starve but I gotta have that album! The female activist voice in music had all but been drowned out. Lauren comes in with a sledgehammer and lays it on us. The best of the Fugees indeed.

Neheh Cherry-_Raw like Sushi _So, is Neheh English? Spanish? Who knows but her music is an incredible melting pot of 80/90's hip hop. A real pop sensability while holding onto cultural beats that were sadly missing at the time as music moved into a standardized product.

Kate Bush-_The Whole Story _Not many women were doing it their way in the 80's. I mean, Kate just picked up where Joni and King left off and added some synth for good measure. A long and great career that really was rolling at this point in the 80's Just admirable.

Feist-_Pleasure _Last, but not least, Feist. Thats right the Apple commercial 3..2..1 chick. Of course, those who know Fiest also know she is a kick ass guitar player. I mean, her Gibson SG has gouges of wood missing from her shredding the damn thing. Pleasure is a semiconcept album that really hits hard in the center of indie rock and leaves no doubt that Feist is a great musician and writer. Best female album hands down in quite some time. Dont sleep on this!


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

payn said:


> Lauren Hill-.... The best of the Fugees indeed.


----------



## Zaukrie (Apr 6, 2022)

payn said:


> Greetings,
> 
> So, local public radio channel The Current is doing their spring drive. They collect ballots from listeners and the public and compile a list to play on the radio/stream for a week as they count down. It's a lot of fun listening to see when your songs/albums drop. In the past they have done; top 893 debut albums, top 893 songs of all time, top 893 bands, etc...
> 
> ...



Didn't the Current do this a few years ago, or am I recalling incorrectly?

I mean, I still listen, and moved to Oregon 6 years ago......and by still listen I literally am listening now...


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> Didn't the Current do this a few years ago, or am I recalling incorrectly?
> 
> I mean, I still listen, and moved to Oregon 6 years ago......and by still listen I literally am listening now...



They do this during their Spring drive every year now. Its way cool and Im super thankful to have the station. I'd certainly still listen if I moved away too.

Im a founding supporter and have my name etched on the wall in the studio (along with like 200,000 other people but its there!)


----------



## Deset Gled (Apr 6, 2022)

I am extremely disappointed by the lack of Sgt. Pepper in this thread.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

Deset Gled said:


> I am extremely disappointed by the lack of Sgt. Pepper in this thread.




Saying the Beatles are great is like saying water is wet, or Bards are the font of all evil.

It's just, you know, there.


----------



## Umbran (Apr 6, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Yes. Yes, it is.




I submit that the Beatles' Red and Blue albums, while not the first of their kind, pretty much _define the "best of" genre_, and should therefore be allowed.


----------



## Zaukrie (Apr 6, 2022)

I'll just say that one of my 10 is World Clique by Dee Lite, and leave it there for y'all to laugh at......Seriously, there are 4 great songs there....


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> I'll just say that one of my 10 is World Clique by Dee Lite, and leave it there for y'all to laugh at......Seriously, there are 4 great songs there....



Is it an album of 4 songs?


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Deset Gled said:


> I am extremely disappointed by the lack of Sgt. Pepper in this thread.



I'm not a huge fan of concept albums in general, but its a good one. I'm more partial to Abbey Road, White Album, and especially Revolver myself. Though my hot take is Harrison's _All Things Must Pass_ rises above all.


----------



## Zaukrie (Apr 6, 2022)

payn said:


> Is it an album of 4 songs?



Ha, no.....but the others are fine or better....


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

payn said:


> I'm not a huge fan of concept albums in general, but its a good one. I'm more partial to Abbey Road, White Album, and especially Revolver myself. Though my hot take is Harrison's _All Things Must Pass_ rises above all.




That's not a hawt taek.

That's a scorcher. That's .... that's going *GALAXY BRAINED *on the subject. I think it demands an essay, of not less than 10,000 words.


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 6, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> That's not a hawt taek.
> 
> That's a scorcher. That's .... that's going *GALAXY BRAINED *on the subject. I think it demands an essay, of not less than 10,000 words.



Three or four different people in this thread have apparently had this same take, if you read the responses.     I'm a bit thrown by it myself.


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 6, 2022)

Top ten going women vocalists only

*Bjork*, Debut if I can’t have Volumen 1993-2003.
*Portishead*, Dummy, again. Beth Gibbons is incredible.
*Amy Winehouse*, Back to Black, agreed.
*Tori Amos*, Boys for Pele or To Venus and Back (perfectly good cases to be made for Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, or From the Choirgirl Hotel, though)
*Cocteau Twins*, Heaven or Las Vegas (seeing Liz Fraser on the Massive Attack Mezzanine 2019 tour was a dream)
*PJ Harvey*, To Bring You My Love (Let England Shake is a banger, though)
*Fiona Apple*, Tidal
*Sinead O’Connor*, The Lion and the Cobra (so unbelievably good, it might have to go on my main list in retrospect)
*Siouxie and the Banshees*, Twice Upon a Time, the Singles (or maybe Superstition, if I can’t do a GH)
*Concrete Blonde*, Bloodletting (though Walking in London and Mexican Moon are really strong)
*Cindi Lauper*, probably She’s So Unusual.  An all-time great singer.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

Mannahnin said:


> Three or four different people in this thread have apparently had this same take.




I mean, there's no accounting for taste. And I certainly put some idiosyncratic choices in my top 10 (both of them). IIRC, no one has even mentioned classics like Stevie Wonder (Songs in the Key of Life) or Marvin Gaye (What's Going On) ... not to mention the Clash, Who, Kinks, Queen, Public Enemy, Dylan, Hendrix, Prince and Michael Jackson are tragically underrepresented.

Oh. Wait. You're saying something happened with Michael? (googles) Oh. Never .... mind. 

....but going with George Harrison's _All Things Must Pass_ before .... any Beatles album? I just can't. It was a very, very good album! Clearly, Harrison had a lot he wanted to get out (it was a triple album after all). And I certainly understand the impulse to want to rate underappreciated art more highly- I call it the Season 6 effect.

Let me explain that. For reasons that are too complicated to get into here, I think S6 of Buffy is tragically misunderstood and underrated. In fact, I might have even said that it is the best season of Buffy ... probably after overconsumption of tequila. But ... it isn't. By pretty much any metric, S3 is pinnacle Buffy. I think that S6 has a good argument to be in the conversation as the second-best season (with S2), but to say it's the best is just ... overestimating how good it is because other people don't appreciate it at all.

Same thing here. _All Things Must Pass _is an all-time great album. But it's not even as quite as good as _Let It Be_, which is a middle-of-the-road Beatles album. It's not denigrating to Harrison to note that album is not as great as the best albums of arguably the best band to ever play. If nothing else, his songwriting just doesn't measure up (again, IMO).


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 6, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Same thing here. _All Things Must Pass _is an all-time great album. But it's not even as quite as good as _Let It Be_, which is a middle-of-the-road Beatles album. It's not denigrating to Harrison to note that album is not as great as the best albums of arguably the best band to ever play. If nothing else, his songwriting just doesn't measure up (again, IMO).



I 90% agree with your post, but I will quibble with that last statement.  At his best, his songwriting was extremely good.  With a gun to my head, if I had to pick a single favorite or greatest Beatles song, I might have to pick While My Guitar Gently Weeps.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 6, 2022)

Mannahnin said:


> I 90% agree with your post, but I will quibble with that last statement.  At his best, his songwriting was extremely good.  With a gun to my head, if I had to pick a single favorite or greatest Beatles song, I might have to pick While My Guitar Gently Weeps.




My bad- I should have been more clear; I meant lyrics. 

At his best, Harrison could approximate profundity by obscurity. 

At his worst .... _I got my mind set on you ...._

Regardless, solo Harrison wasn't a match for Lennon/McCartney. That said, even when it came to the actual songs I would still go with the L/M combo- for various reasons, they brought out the best in each other and minimized the worst (as we later saw when they went solo).


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> My bad- I should have been more clear; I meant lyrics.
> 
> At his best, Harrison could approximate profundity by obscurity.
> 
> ...



I dont think any of the Beatles solo came close to Beatles good except Harrison (and only one album). I think Lennon would have gotten there eventually he was on a journey and going places and tragically taken out. Paul, as John likes to say, was the over polish of the Beatles and writes stupid love songs. Stupid love songs folks think are really really good but are really really not. Paul needed the Beatles a lot more than they needed him. /sizzle


----------



## Cadence (Apr 6, 2022)

_Updated: Went back and listened to Wreck of the Day again and I had forgotten how much I liked it (beyond just having Breath (2am) that I love.  It's really different now thinking about things having Sirius for most of my music instead of a bunch of CDs (or Cassette's back in the day)_

I need a lot more time to think probably for the female vocalist/lead vocalist one, so everything but the top five listed are all in pencil (they might not stay top 5, but would certainly be in my top 10).  If it was CDs/cassettes I used to own there would be several more Alanis and Dido ones on there.

Heart - Heart (Bad Animals?)
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight (Sweet Dreams? Touch?)
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Dido - Life for Rent (No Angel?)
Anna Nalick - Wreck of the Day
GoGos - Beauty and the Beat
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow
Cranberries - No Need to Argue
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion


One of my top handful of favorite songs doesn't show up on either list and I don't think I've ever even made it through the whole album (song is Heart and Soul by T'pau with lead Carol Decker).


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 6, 2022)

Lanefan said:


> In no particular order and with occasional overlap of artists:
> 
> Cars - Panorama (or Candy-O, or Shake It Up - pick one)
> Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
> ...



I do like Patrick O'Hearn - nice one!


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 6, 2022)

Cadence said:


> Cranberries - No Need to Argue
> Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion



Pat Benatar and Dolores O'Riordan were strong contenders for my list.  Probably should have gotten a Cranberries album on there.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 6, 2022)

All Things Must Pass was an exceptional recording by Harrison, definitely the best of his solo work - though I like Cloud 9's 80s cheez production and Brainwashed. It's folksy and has fantastic backing musicians (Phil Collins, Badfinger, etc., not to mention all the other Beatles). To me, it's up there with Zeppelin 3 as one of the great "folk rock" albums. (The instrumental "jam sessions" does sort of take it down a few steps.)
I don't think any of the other Beatles ever produced as solid of a solo album. John Lennon shared tracks with Yoko, and Paul McCartney is the least interesting Beatle - with the exception of his masterpiece "Monkberry Moon Delight" (one of my karaoke staples).


----------



## payn (Apr 6, 2022)

Retreater said:


> All Things Must Pass was an exceptional recording by Harrison, definitely the best of his solo work - though I like Cloud 9's 80s cheez production and Brainwashed. It's folksy and has fantastic backing musicians (Phil Collins, Badfinger, etc., not to mention all the other Beatles). To me, it's up there with Zeppelin 3 as one of the great "folk rock" albums. (The instrumental "jam sessions" does sort of take it down a few steps.)
> I don't think any of the other Beatles ever produced as solid of a solo album. John Lennon shared tracks with Yoko, and Paul McCartney is the least interesting Beatle - with the exception of his masterpiece "Monkberry Moon Delight" (one of my karaoke staples).



This is an unusually good song from Paul. I never knew Screamin Jay Hawkins covered Monkberry Moon Delight in 72'...


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 6, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> I'll just say that one of my 10 is World Clique by Dee Lite, and leave it there for y'all to laugh at......Seriously, there are 4 great songs there....



It got cut, but just at the last minute. Such a great album. Of course, I was a night club bartender from 1991-95, so that disc got lots of play...


----------



## Lanefan (Apr 7, 2022)

I've already done my list thus don't get to put in an all-female one, but I have to express surprise that in the all-female lists thus far there's nary a mention of either Patti Smith or Nightwish


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

Lanefan said:


> I've already done my list thus don't get to put in an all-female one, but I have to express surprise that in the all-female lists thus far there's nary a mention of either Patti Smith or Nightwish



You can certainly do an all female list if you'd like. 

I love Patti Smith, but I'm working with top albums here and only 10, so all stars do and can get bumped. Not a Nightwish fan, but didn't they also have like 3-4 different singers?


----------



## Cadence (Apr 7, 2022)

Lanefan said:


> I've already done my list thus don't get to put in an all-female one, but I have to express surprise that in the all-female lists thus far there's nary a mention of either Patti Smith or Nightwish



I think a lot of us are doing an overall one and an all-female one.


----------



## CleverNickName (Apr 7, 2022)

Well, here's what I got.  A little bit of everything, for just about every mood.

1.  Massive Attack, "Mezzanine."
2.  Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Revival."
3.  They Might Be Giants, "Flood"
4.  Cake, "Fashion Nugget"
5.  Counting Crows, "August and Everything After"
6.  The Airborne Toxic Event, self-titled
7.  Moby, "Play"
8.  Adelle, "30"
9.  Of Monsters and Men, "Dirty Paws"
10.  Aurora, "Running With the Wolves"


----------



## Retreater (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> This is an unusually good song from Paul. I never knew Screamin Jay Hawkins covered Monkberry Moon Delight in 72'...



I was so proud to have introduced this song to my wife at karaoke. She thought I'd lost my mind - which was a big feat. 
Screamin' Jay Hawkins is amazing - I just can't match his vocal style. I tried to do his "I Put a Spell on You" but couldn't do it justice. I read that McCartney wrote Monkberry with Hawkins in mind, and it definitely suits him.


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

Retreater said:


> I was so proud to have introduced this song to my wife at karaoke. She thought I'd lost my mind - which was a big feat.
> Screamin' Jay Hawkins is amazing - I just can't match his vocal style. I tried to do his "I Put a Spell on You" but couldn't do it justice. I read that McCartney wrote Monkberry with Hawkins in mind, and it definitely suits him.



I've been in a lot of dive bars and not seen this particular selection offered for karaoke.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> I've been in a lot of dive bars and not seen this particular selection offered for karaoke.



The KJ was a friend of mine who would download stuff I requested, and he even helped me pull off my karaoke marriage proposal. 
I enjoy performing strange music: "Rasputin" by Boney M., "Eat It" (sung over "Beat It" with the Weird Al lyrics), "P*ss up a Rope" by Ween, "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco (in German). Then I did ventriloquism duets with a monkey puppet for "Ape Man" by the Kinks and "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson.


----------



## Richards (Apr 7, 2022)

Ten, huh?  Okay, here goes (in no particular order):

  1.  The Serpent's Egg - Dead Can Dance
  2.  Automatic - VNV Nation
  3.  Amused to Death - Roger Waters
  4.  In Visible Silence - The Art of Noise
  5.  Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
  6.  Joe's Garage, Act I - Frank Zappa
  7.  Prototype Two - zer0 0ne
  8.  Koyaanisqatsi - Philip Glass
  9.  Are You Shpongled? - Shpongle
10.  Fire Garden - Steve Vai

Wow, ten went pretty quickly there!  I ended up swapping out a few just to nominate some that hadn't shown up on previous lists, but there was no way I could have left off "The Serpent's Egg" in good conscience.  I also made a conscious effort not to list multiple albums from the same group, although I easily could have (in particular with Dead Can Dance and Shpongle).

Johnathan


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

Retreater said:


> The KJ was a friend of mine who would download stuff I requested, and he even helped me pull off my karaoke marriage proposal.
> I enjoy performing strange music: "Rasputin" by Boney M., "Eat It" (sung over "Beat It" with the Weird Al lyrics), "P*ss up a Rope" by Ween, "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco (in German). Then I did ventriloquism duets with a monkey puppet for "Ape Man" by the Kinks and "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson.



I did _Short People _by Randy Neuman a few weeks ago. Folks didn't know it, but had a riot with it.


----------



## Lanefan (Apr 7, 2022)

OK, an all-female-lead list: (one overlaps with my main list)

Patti Smith - Easter
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
Loreena McKinnitt - The Visit
Enya - Watermark (or pick any one of several others)
Blackmore's Night - Fires at Midnight
Cranberries - To the Faithful Departed
Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor
Warlock - Triumph and Agony
Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything
(Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow) - yes Grace only sang a few of the songs but they are the important ones...


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> I did _Short People _by Randy Neuman a few weeks ago. Folks didn't know it, but had a riot with it.



It's been years since I done karaoke. But this is me doing "_Rebel Yell_" with a live band... and I'm dressed like a pirate.


----------



## Older Beholder (Apr 7, 2022)

REM - Automatic for the people
The National - Boxer
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Beck - Odelay
Blur - Parklife
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Radiohead - OK Computer
The Cure - Disintegration
Future Islands - In Evening Air
Death Grips - Exmilitary


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 7, 2022)

Richards said:


> 8.  Koyaanisqatsi - Philip Glass



Oh yes! Good call out... And the movie - wow.


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 7, 2022)

I kind of want to make a playlist of all the albums listed here, then put it on shuffle and... ENjoy


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> I kind of want to make a playlist of all the albums listed here, then put it on shuffle and... ENjoy



Check back to my OP! (I'm updating when I have time)


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

The Lizard Wizard said:


> The National - Boxer



yes, Yes, YES!!! (Just got tickets for Sept here in MPLS.)


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> yes, Yes, YES!!! (Just got tickets for Sept here in MPLS.)



My Pet Likes Shorts?
More People Love Spam?
Mankind Proves Lemmings Swim?

I feel like I'm solving the Davinci code...


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 7, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> My Pet Likes Shorts?
> More People Love Spam?
> Mankind Proves Lemmings Swim?
> 
> I feel like I'm solving the Davinci code...




Most pineapple lovers suck?


----------



## Older Beholder (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> yes, Yes, YES!!! (Just got tickets for Sept here in MPLS.)




That’s awesome. I’ve seen them a bunch of times, and they’re always great live. I had tickets to see them when Covid first hit in early 2020, so the gig ended up being canceled.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 7, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Most pineapple lovers suck?



Too soon. But yes.


----------



## payn (Apr 7, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Most pineapple lovers suck?



There is a thread for this non-sense please head over there.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 7, 2022)

payn said:


> There is a thread for this non-sense please head over there.




Oh, I did.


----------



## Older Beholder (Apr 8, 2022)

Another 10...

Belle and Sebastian - If you're feeling sinister
Nirvana - Nevermind
Cat Power - Moon pix
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi battles the pink robots
TV on the Radio - Return to cookie mountain
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let love in 
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard -  I'm in your mind fuzz
Modest Mouse -  The Moon and Antarctica
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Tropical F*** Storm - A laughing death in meatspace


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

The Lizard Wizard said:


> Another 10...
> 
> Belle and Sebastian - If you're feeling sinister
> Nirvana - Nevermind
> ...



I scold you for going over your ten, but your picks are so damn good!


----------



## Older Beholder (Apr 8, 2022)

payn said:


> I scold you for going over your ten, but your picks are so damn good!




There were a few albums I couldn't believe I forgot about in the first 10.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 8, 2022)

I'm gonna need to give this another go. The category of "essential albums" is too broad for my tastes. Even though my initial picks showed a particular bias towards the hard and heavy stuff, I do listen to other music. So allow me to diversify with <drum roll>...

Jacob's 10 Essential 80s Pop Albums

Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair
Howard Jones - Dream Into Action
Thompson Twins - Into the Gap
Huey Lewis & the News - Sports
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
INXS - Listen Like Thieves
Men at Work - Business as Usual
Culture Club - Colour By Numbers
Bonus Picks:
Since soundtracks and greatist hits seemed to go against the spirit of picking original albums for their entirety, I thought we could include one of each as bonus picks. One for each, to be precise.

_Greatest Hits_ - Duran Duran
_Soundtrack_ - Ghostbusters (I was gonna pick something else but its more rock than pop)


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 8, 2022)

Thing about soundtracks is that some of them DO have some or even ALL original songs.  And some of that music is, IMHO, important for the artists or even music history.

Some I can think of:
_Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal FAKK
The Crow
Judgement Night
1984
Strange Days
Legend
Dead Man
Rush Hour
Godzilla _(1998)

Some of the songs on these soundtrack appear only on those soundtracks or artist’s song collections.  Some of them are reworked versions of the artists’ music done _specifically_ for the soundtracks.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 8, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Thing about soundtracks is that some of them DO have some or even ALL original songs.  And some of that music is, IMHO, important for the artists or even music history.
> 
> Some I can think of:
> _Heavy Metal
> ...



That's a fair point. It would be easy to categorize them in their own sub-genre. Some soundtracks are just collections of previously recorded songs from pre-existing albums, like _Dazed and Confused_, or _Guardians of the Galaxy_. Still, they're great collections on their own.

_Miami Vice_, on the other hand, had a great collection of songs from various contemporary artists capturing the feel and the lifestyle perpetuated by the popular series at the time. _Less Than Zero_, however, had an interesting mix of rock, rap, r&b, and metal covers. Perhaps the most notable track was _Slayer_ doing an abridged cover of _Iron Butterfly's_ In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. But the most iconic track, IMO, was the surprising hit from the _Bangles_, A Hazy Shade of Winter.

But that leads into the category of original scores. You might not think of this as regular music the majority of us would listen to casually on a regular basis. But you can't deny the power and emotion of some of the best known and iconic scores, especially when they're tied into a beloved movie or scene. George Lucas has said that the music was the only thing that _exceeded_ his expectations for the original _Star Wars _movie.

_Conan the Barbarian_ was another standout of original scores that helped define the movie picture. When I hear the opening drums and horns of _The Anvil of Crom_, I am instantly transported to the days of high adventure. And let me tell you, there is no better way to wake up feeling ready to take on the world than setting your morning alarm to this. Try it. (Just make sure the volume isn't so loud you wake up with heart palpitations! I am speaking from personal experience on that one.)

Edit: I need to throw in one more--_Last Action Hero_. I love this movie, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites ever. Most were original songs that were hits in their own right (like _Big Guns_ by AC/DC, _Angry Again_ by Megadeth). But it also featured *two* new songs from Alice In Chains (_What the Hell Have I?_ and _A Little Bitter_), which I think was among their best songs ever. And if that ain't enough, let's throw in some killer tracks by Anthrax (_Poison My Eyes_), Tesla (_Last Action Hero_), and Queensryche (_The Real World_).


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 8, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Edit: I need to throw in one more--_Last Action Hero_. I love this movie, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites ever. Most were original songs that were hits in their own right (like _Big Guns_ by AC/DC, _Angry Again_ by Megadeth). But it also featured *two* new songs from Alice In Chains (_What the Hell Have I?_ and _A Little Bitter_), which I think was among their best songs ever.



You know, I'm not sure if I've ever listened to that soundtrack straight through, and I totally didn't remember that there are two original AiC songs on there.  This was in the period between Dirt and Jar of Flies, too (arguably the band's peak), so I'm kicking myself right now for not knowing those songs.  Similar to how the Singles soundtrack has two great Pearl Jam songs on it from after Ten but before Vs., making it absolutely essential for fans of that band.

(Great post overall, btw)


----------



## aco175 (Apr 8, 2022)

Damm, we old.  Who has one of these.


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

aco175 said:


> Damm, we old.  Who has one of these.
> 
> View attachment 155004View attachment 155005
> 
> View attachment 155006View attachment 155007


----------



## Cadence (Apr 8, 2022)

aco175 said:


> Damm, we old.  Who has one of these.
> 
> View attachment 155004View attachment 155005
> 
> View attachment 155006View attachment 155007




The freedom rock ad wouldn't stop playing on the big screen TV in the dorm lounge.  I finally wondered if I ordered one if it would just stop.  I did, it didn't.


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> I'm gonna need to give this another go. The category of "essential albums" is too broad for my tastes. Even though my initial picks showed a particular bias towards the hard and heavy stuff, I do listen to other music. So allow me to diversify with <drum roll>...



It's certainly tough but thats what makes it interesting. You have ten in all categories of music so what are you going to pick? Keep in mind we are also playing by a radio stations rules. They will get thousands of lists and boil it down to 893 albums! So, everything is going to show up there.


----------



## LongTimeLurker (Apr 8, 2022)

6. No music prior to 1966.


You know that rock and roll was a thing at least 10, 15 years before 1966?


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 8, 2022)

LongTimeLurker said:


> 6. No music prior to 1966.
> 
> 
> You know that rock and roll was a thing at least 10, 15 years before 1966?




_Here are my rules for answering this-_


Obviously, my prior posts demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of music, and I appreciate your correction. I look forward to your next post where you patiently explain, as if I was a slightly dumb golden retriever, that some artists have more than one album.


----------



## Mannahnin (Apr 8, 2022)

Mannahnin said:


> Top ten going women vocalists only
> 
> *Bjork*, Debut if I can’t have Volumen 1993-2003.
> *Portishead*, Dummy, again. Beth Gibbons is incredible.
> ...



Listened to The Lion and the Cobra last night and moved Sinead to my main list, bumping Radiohead.  Gods, she was so powerful and lovely.

Conveniently this fixes my cheaty "top ten" women list which actually had 11 albums on it.


----------



## Cadence (Apr 8, 2022)

Another variant.  If you asked me senior year of high school (alpha by artist)...

Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Cars - Greatest Hits
Chicago - 17
Duran Duran - Rio
Foreigner - Records
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Glass Tiger - Thin Red Line
Lost Boys (Soundtrack)
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Styx - Kilroy Was Here

Edit: Europe - The Final Countdown might edge one of those out...


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

Cadence said:


> Another variant.  If you asked me senior year of high school (alpha by artist)...
> 
> Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
> Cars - Greatest Hits
> ...



Are...you my step dad?


----------



## Lidgar (Apr 8, 2022)

1. Radiohead - The Bends
2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
3. Peter Gabriel - melting face (3rd album)
4. Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the Gallery 
5. Rush - Fly by Night
6. David Bowie - Low
7. The Decemberists - Crane Wife
8. Genesis - Foxtrot
9. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
10. Led Zeppelin - II


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

Pink Floyd finally has a double submission. 

I just heard Pink Floyd is getting together to record a song for Ukraine right now.


----------



## Cadence (Apr 8, 2022)

payn said:


> Pink Floyd finally has a double submission.
> 
> I just heard Pink Floyd is getting together to record a song for Ukraine right now.











						Pink Floyd reunite for Ukraine protest song
					

The band's first new material in 28 years was inspired by David Gilmour's "anger" over the war.



					www.bbc.com


----------



## TheAlkaizer (Apr 8, 2022)

I'm from a different generation than many on ENWorld, so my stuff is often much more recent. This is also probably not an accurate list, but it's what is coming to my mind right now:

Archipelago, by Hidden Orchestra
Lifa, by Heilung
The Joy of Motion, by Animals as Leaders
AM, by Arctic Monkeys
Metropolis, by Dream Theater.
The World Within, by Moderator
Ghost Reverie, by Opeth
Californication, by Red Hot Chili Peppers
La Grande Messe, by Les Cowboy Fringants
From Mars to Sirius, by Gojira.


----------



## Retreater (Apr 8, 2022)

payn said:


> I just heard Pink Floyd is getting together to record a song for Ukraine right now.



Well, half of Pink Floyd - or 2/5ths of Pink Floyd, depending on how you look at it.
IMO, Pink Floyd's not Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. And if you can't get him, you at least need Seamus the dog.


----------



## payn (Apr 8, 2022)

Retreater said:


> Well, half of Pink Floyd - or 2/5ths of Pink Floyd, depending on how you look at it.
> IMO, Pink Floyd's not Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. And if you can't get him, you at least need Seamus the dog.



Sounds good. I'm not a Pink Floyd fan, not to say I don't enjoy the music, I'm just not up to date on the members and goings of the band.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 8, 2022)

payn said:


> Sounds good. I'm not a Pink Floyd fan, not to say I don't enjoy the music, I'm just not up to date on the members and goings of the band.




I mean .... the Roger Waters thing .... that's ... you know ....

It's been a while! 

(On the plus side, you didn't ask which one was Pink!)


----------



## Retreater (Apr 8, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> It's been a while!



Isn't that Staind?


----------



## Scottius (Apr 8, 2022)

Oof these kind of lists are so difficult for me. Have to throw out so many essential albums and artists to carve it down. Usual caveats, this list is off the top of my head, it could change any time I was asked. 

10 essential albums/desert island list (in no particular order)

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral 
2. Nirvana - Nevermind
3. The Pixies - Doolittle
4. Tori Amos - Boys For Pelee
5. The Beatles - Revolver
6. Metallica - Master of Puppets
7. Talking Heads - Remain In Light
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
9. Gang of Four - Entertainment
10. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 8, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> That's a fair point. It would be easy to categorize them in their own sub-genre. Some soundtracks are just collections of previously recorded songs from pre-existing albums, like _Dazed and Confused_, or _Guardians of the Galaxy_. Still, they're great collections on their own.
> 
> _Miami Vice_, on the other hand, had a great collection of songs from various contemporary artists capturing the feel and the lifestyle perpetuated by the popular series at the time. _Less Than Zero_, however, had an interesting mix of rock, rap, r&b, and metal covers. Perhaps the most notable track was _Slayer_ doing an abridged cover of _Iron Butterfly's_ In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. But the most iconic track, IMO, was the surprising hit from the _Bangles_, A Hazy Shade of Winter.
> 
> ...



I’ll just note that most of those you mentioned are in my collection.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 8, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I’ll just note that most of those you mentioned are in my collection.



That should qualify them for "essential" status.


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 9, 2022)

Lidgar said:


> 6. David Bowie - Low




Not just David Bowie fans, but _Low_ fans here in this thread. Loving it



TheAlkaizer said:


> I'm from a different generation than many on ENWorld, so my stuff is often much more recent. This is also probably not an accurate list, but it's what is coming to my mind right now:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Heilung is one of my pandemic discoveries. Along with Haim, Wolf Alice, and the Hu.
Glad we got the Peppers in here, my kids basically grew up listening to them, and thus so did I.

Ran out of space to add Rage Against the Machine's eponymous album; and System of A Down _Toxicity... _(Totally cheating here  )


----------



## TheAlkaizer (Apr 9, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Heilung is one of my pandemic discoveries.



Heilung is a one of a kind band for me. There's definitely others in the same genre; but it has a very unique place in my musical library. It's music that has little value in being understood and is almost entirely _felt_. It evokes very primal feelings inside me. I find it incredibly therapeutic and efficient at pulling me out of whatever taken hold of my head at the time.



> Glad we got the Peppers in here, my kids basically grew up listening to them, and thus so did I.



I could also add John Frusciante's solo album from 2005 if I recall, _Curtains_. It's a perfect album that's a very transparent window into someone's soul. Magical album.


----------



## LongTimeLurker (Apr 9, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> _Here are my rules for answering this-_
> 
> 
> Obviously, my prior posts demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of music, and I appreciate your correction. I look forward to your next post where you patiently explain, as if I was a slightly dumb golden retriever, that some artists have more than one album.



Little Richard and Chuck Berry, amongst others, think your rules suck.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 9, 2022)

LongTimeLurker said:


> Little Richard and Chuck Berry, amongst others, think your rules suck.




I'm sure Dolly Parton, Ornette Colman, Benny Goodman, Maria Callas, Hank Williams Sr., James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Peggy Lee, Woodie Guthrie, Lead Belly and many others understand that I created exclusionary criteria because 10 albums is hard to do. Something I'm sure you'd understand if you'd bother making your own. But hey, you do you. Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.


----------



## le Redoutable (Apr 9, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> As opposed to meaningless bleatings. But I am still looking forward to your post where, you know, you actually put forward a competent list! Or where you pay attention to the fact that I had multiple criteria! But hey- not *holding my breath.*
> 
> Heck, let's see your top 10. Or wait- just here to argue? I appreciate your teaching me that I am not allowed to create my own criteria for my own lists! Thank you for that amazing edification! You must be so proud of yourself. You get all the points today.



holding breath ===> Mind Blank ( whereas Telepathy ===> Thought Shield )

( just in case )


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 9, 2022)

TheAlkaizer said:


> I could also add John Frusciante's solo album from 2005 if I recall, _Curtains_. It's a perfect album that's a very transparent window into someone's soul. Magical album.




I was going to mention this- if you're an RHCP fan, you probably already know this, but still ...

Frusciante rejoined the band and they have released their new album (Unlimited Love). They are doing a stadium tour this summer, and the opener is The Strokes.

If you're like me, you're super-excited, and I recommend getting tix immediately. I did. 

(I haven't seen RHCP live since the 90s ....)


Edit- given the longevity of bands like the Stones, you never want to say never, but between Frusciante's frequent absences (the last one was 10 years and just ended) and increasing age, I'm not sure how much longer we'll have to see them live. Also? The Strokes!


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 10, 2022)

Thanks for the tip on the RHCP tour! Think we might see them in Vegas. Locally, HAIM and Beck are opening for them (depending on whether I go to LA or San Diego). But the Vegas date matches up with my schedule better. I would prefer either of those frankly over the Strokes, but RHCP is the focus


----------



## payn (Apr 10, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Thanks for the tip on the RHCP tour! Think we might see them in Vegas. Locally, HAIM and Beck are opening for them (depending on whether I go to LA or San Diego). But the Vegas date matches up with my schedule better. I would prefer either of those frankly over the Strokes, but RHCP is the focus



Oh man, RHCP, Haim, and Beck in one show would be incredible.


----------



## Zaukrie (Apr 10, 2022)

payn said:


> Greetings,
> 
> So, local public radio channel The Current is doing their spring drive. They collect ballots from listeners and the public and compile a list to play on the radio/stream for a week as they count down. It's a lot of fun listening to see when your songs/albums drop. In the past they have done; top 893 debut albums, top 893 songs of all time, top 893 bands, etc...
> 
> ...



The playlist doesn't appear when I search. Is it something we can subscribe to?


----------



## payn (Apr 10, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> The playlist doesn't appear when I search. Is it something we can subscribe to?



Strange I have it shared, and when I log out and click it takes me right to the playlist. Do you have a firewall up or are using a work PC? Are you in the U.S.?


----------



## Zaukrie (Apr 10, 2022)

payn said:


> Strange I have it shared, and when I log out and click it takes me right to the playlist. Do you have a firewall up or are using a work PC? Are you in the U.S.?



Oregon....no firewall. That was on my phone, let me check the PC....works on the PC no issues. Interesting....


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 11, 2022)

Like most human beings, I am a person of many moods and many tastes, and I cannot predict which island I will be stranded or that I will be addressed appropriately for my undetermined lengthy stay. These focus lists don't contribute to the overall goal of the thread of trying to ascertain the essential albums of all time and all genres. It's mostly just for fun. 

This time, I am continuing my eccentric album lists with Hair Metal albums. What is Hair Metal? Its hard to pinpoint as many musicians straddle the lines or completely ignore them. Some groups evolve and change over the years, while some just experiment with new directions. Hair Metal isn't just a particular sound, its also a look and an attitude. One could even argue that some albums by one band might fit the bill, but other albums don't and that's fine. 

One thing to keep in mind is we're talking _albums_. Not just the ones that had a couple of favorites or well-known songs, but complete albums with tracks that were, as the saying goes, "all thrillers, no fillers". And they had to be albums I owned, or at least heard more than once in its entirety. So here's my picks in no particular order:

Jacob's 10 Essential Hair Metal Albums

Extreme - Extreme (self-titled debut)
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Whitesnake - Whitesnake (self-titled)
W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. (self-titled debut)
Skid Row - Skid Row (self-titled debut)
Dangerous Toys - Dangerous Toys (self-titled) _I would honestly pick any of their first three albums._
Bulletboys - Bulletboys (self-titled debut)
Love/Hate - Black Out in the Red Room
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Jackyl - Jackyl (self-titled debut)
Bonus Picks:
Once again, I will pick a single greatest hits album and a single soundtrack for the category.

_Greatest Hits_: _The Best of Both Worlds_ - Van Halen 
There's actually a number of Van Halen albums I could pick for this category, and some I would not. But there is no divide between Roth and Hagar for me. Both frontmen brought a different sound and energy to the group and still remained Van Halen. So this one splits the difference nicely. And if I had to choose one from each singer (and had space on the list), I'd probably pick _1984 _and _5150_.

_Soundtrack_ - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Honestly, I'm a little hard-pressed to find a soundtrack filled with "hair metal" tracks. The soundtrack from the first movie also qualifies, but the sequel had more familiar tunes by popular bands at the time. At least I can say owned both at one time.


----------



## payn (Apr 11, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Like most human beings, I am a person of many moods and many tastes, and I cannot predict which island I will be stranded or that I will be addressed appropriately for my undetermined lengthy stay. These focus lists don't contribute to the overall goal of the thread of trying to ascertain the essential albums of all time and all genres. It's mostly just for fun.
> 
> This time, I am continuing my eccentric album lists with Hair Metal albums. What is Hair Metal? Its hard to pinpoint as many musicians straddle the lines or completely ignore them. Some groups evolve and change over the years, while some just experiment with new directions. Hair Metal isn't just a particular sound, its also a look and an attitude. One could even argue that some albums by one band might fit the bill, but other albums don't and that's fine.
> 
> ...



No Dokken?


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 11, 2022)

payn said:


> No Dokken?



To this day, I still can't get into them. They're just "okay" to me.


----------



## payn (Apr 11, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Like most human beings, I am a person of many moods and many tastes, and I cannot predict which island I will be stranded or that I will be addressed appropriately for my undetermined lengthy stay. These focus lists don't contribute to the overall goal of the thread of trying to ascertain the essential albums of all time and all genres. It's mostly just for fun.
> 
> This time, I am continuing my eccentric album lists with Hair Metal albums. What is Hair Metal? Its hard to pinpoint as many musicians straddle the lines or completely ignore them. Some groups evolve and change over the years, while some just experiment with new directions. Hair Metal isn't just a particular sound, its also a look and an attitude. One could even argue that some albums by one band might fit the bill, but other albums don't and that's fine.
> 
> ...



The hair metal era just doesn't draw a lot of sentimentality out of me. I do like thinking a lot about early Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and hearing them make the leap from hair metal to grundge tho.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 11, 2022)

payn said:


> The hair metal era just doesn't draw a lot of sentimentality out of me. I do like thinking a lot about early Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and hearing them make the leap from hair metal to grundge tho.



I'll get there eventually. Still got classic rock, hard rock, power metal, thrash metal, etc....


----------



## payn (Apr 11, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> I'll get there eventually. Still got classic rock, hard rock, power metal, thrash metal, etc....



I do love the glam rock era. I think the hair metal has a few things going against it. Mostly for me it was the MTV commercialization. It just felt samey and I suppose the beginning of the "brand" era. In contrast I think rap/hip-hop was going through a renaissance (and complete 180 from hair metal) and just eclipsed my attention at the time for that style of music.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 11, 2022)

payn said:


> I do love the glam rock era. I think the hair metal has a few things going against it. Mostly for me it was the MTV commercialization. It just felt samey and I suppose the beginning of the "brand" era. In contrast I think rap/hip-hop was going through a renaissance (and complete 180 from hair metal) and just eclipsed my attention at the time for that style of music.



I'd love to see that list from you and then we can compare notes!


----------



## payn (Apr 11, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> I'd love to see that list from you and then we can compare notes!



I mean it really goes back to glam rock. This is where you got the long hair and makeup. The acts embraced feminine and even gay culture and put out some great bumpin tracks and albums (Bowie, T-Rex, Roxy Music, NY Dolls, etc...). Then, along comes K.I.S.S with the satanic panic edge brand. "They wear makeup... but also leather and I just bet they smoke cigs. No way these guys are gay!" Then, comes Motely Crew, Poisson, R.A.T.T, etc... The songs all become about gettin chicks (girls, girls, girls, bangin them in my old man's Ford..) a backlash of hyper machismo. Late in the 80's a shift towards more emo cultural awareness started to grow with Soundgarden and Alice and Chains putting out stuff we didnt have since Black Sabbath. Grundge would soon follow.

Hip hop and rap on the other hand was born out of social awareness and modern urban living. Jazz influenced, but from folks who didnt have the instrumental education or access. Technology and ingenuity allowed folks to make this modern music. It was very niche though and the burbs where extremely resistant. Enter Sugarhill Gang, Fat Boys, and The Beastie Boys. Samples from some of the most culturally neutral music and songs about chicks, food, and being foolish made the style more palatable.

Once there was a foot in the door for hip-hop and rap, you got some outliers going. 2live Crew with their blatantly promiscuously misogynist sample tracks and N.W.A plus Public Enemy with their punk style criticism of American democracy gave hip-hop a forbidden edge that made K.I.S.S just look downright silly. Beasties though, would really break the mold and show how strong sample choice and a lean on jazz instrumentals would show a new path forward. A marriage of social consciousness and pop sensibility began to pour out in the 90's. Now you had acts like De La Soul, Diggable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pharcyde. Finally, that urban African American sound and style would grow and prosper. For a time anyway, eventually the forbidden edge of 2-Live Crew, NWA, and Body Count would give way to Gansta Rap and so on.

With all styles of American music you have a sort of cyclical process. Trend setters and cultural icons grow out of necessity to give voice to the voiceless. Eventually, it becomes exploited and enters a commercial brand era. So, on and so forth. No music style is immune to it and they all seem to fall victim of the cycle. One thing is for sure though, we can all agree a special place in hell exists for the person who invented Autotune...


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 11, 2022)

payn said:


> I do like thinking a lot about early Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and hearing them make the leap from hair metal to grundge tho.



Alice In Chains definitely started as a glam metal band, as did Pantera, which they've admitted, but Soundgarden was never glam or hair metal.  The song Big Dumb Sex was making fun of how vapid that whole scene was.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

R_J_K75 said:


> Alice In Chains definitely started as a glam metal band, as did Pantera, which they've admitted, but Soundgarden was never glam or hair metal.  The song Big Dumb Sex was making fun of how vapid that whole scene was.



Guess we will have to disagree on this one. Soundgarden was hair metal as _Sh_ when they got started. A pinch of psychedelic made them stand out but its all there in the beginning.


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> Guess we will have to disagree on this one. Soundgarden was hair metal as _Sh_ when they got started. A pinch of psychedelic made them stand out but its all there in the beginning.



I dont hear the connection. Just of curiosity, which song or songs would you consider from Deep Six (1986) and Screaming Life (1987) their fist 2 releases resemble glam/hair metal?


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

R_J_K75 said:


> I dont hear the connection. Just of curiosity, which song or songs would you consider from Deep Six (1986) and Screaming Life (1987) their fist 2 releases resemble glam/hair metal?



All of them? I mean there is a hint of psychedelic, which was unique at the time, but sounds very hair metal to me. SG actually starts sounding very prog metal in Badmotorfinger and beyond. They had a real unique blend of style and sound, but the hair metal is there. Are they the first band I think of when hair metal comes up? No, they are not, but I can hear the roots clearly.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> Soundgarden was hair metal as _Sh_ when they got started.



*What?*

Soundgarden’s early stuff sounded nothing like Poison, Mötley Crüe, Kix, Slaughter, VVI, etc.  They were the antithesis of hair metal.  Thayil’s playing had far more in common with Iommi than Sixx, Beach or any of those dudes.

They didn’t even look the part.

The closest to hair metal among the new Seattle bands back then was probably Mother Love Bone, and that’s mostly because of the vocalist.


----------



## CleverNickName (Apr 12, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> The closest to hair metal among the new Seattle bands back then was probably Mother Love Bone, and that’s mostly because of the vocalist.



Are you suggesting that Pearl Jam has hair metal roots?


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 12, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> *What?*
> 
> Soundgarden’s early stuff sounded nothing like Poison, Mötley Crüe, Kix, Slaughter, VVI, etc.  They were the antithesis of hair metal.  Thayil’s playing had far more in common with Iommi than Sixx, Beach or any of those dudes.
> 
> They didn’t even look the part.



I'd say the only comparison that could be made would be Cornells vocals, but even that's a stretch.  There was nothing formulaic to there sound. Some of Thayils solos are off kilter, almost discordant at times. Their time signatures are far from your standard 4/4, to the point I remember I reading an article that they said they never paid attention to them they just wrote what they felt like.  Their use of dropped and alternate tunings and the keys they played in just shows that they were trying to remove themselves from the sound that was popular then, hair metal, and new wave.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

CleverNickName said:


> Are you suggesting that Pearl Jam has hair metal roots?



I've heard this asked before.


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 12, 2022)

CleverNickName said:


> Are you suggesting that Pearl Jam has hair metal roots?



Absolutely


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

R_J_K75 said:


> I'd say the only comparison that could be made would be Cornells vocals, but even that's a stretch.  There was nothing formulaic to there sound. Some of Thayils solos are off kilter, almost discordant at times. Their time signatures are far from your standard 4/4, to the point I remember I reading an article that they said they never paid attention to them they just wrote what they felt like.  Their use of dropped and alternate tunings and the keys they played in just shows that they were trying to remove themselves from the sound that was popular then, hair metal, and new wave.



I do think they were pioneers in this respect. I mean, if you sit somebody down and ask them, "what genre Soundgarden is?", most people will say grundge. I dont really agree with it because their sound (on every album) is so multifaceted. It's pretty unique and a bit difficult to pin down at the same time.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> *What?*
> 
> Soundgarden’s early stuff sounded nothing like Poison, Mötley Crüe, Kix, Slaughter, VVI, etc.  They were the antithesis of hair metal.  Thayil’s playing had far more in common with Iommi than Sixx, Beach or any of those dudes.
> 
> ...



If you cant hear the missing links, you cant hear them.


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> I do think they were pioneers in this respect. I mean, if you sit somebody down and ask them, "what genre Soundgarden is?", most people will say grundge. I dont really agree with it because their sound (on every album) is so multifaceted. It's pretty unique and a bit difficult to pin down at the same time.



Agreed, they definitely progressed from release to release and as you said even from track to track, especially from Badmotorfinger to King Animal. Chris Cornell said in an interview that he considered them hard rock/heavy metal akin to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.  They got lumped in with grunge, but they had left the underground Seattle scene before it broke big, so I don't really consider them grunge either.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> If you cant hear the missing links, you cant hear them.



Dude, I _love_ hair metal.  There’s hair metal in my collection that most people haven’t heard.  I’ve _played_ hair metal.

Time sigs, tunings, mode selections, tempos… the similarities are almost nil.

It’s an extraordinary claim- please point out the connections.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Dude, I _love_ hair metal.  There’s hair metal in my collection that most people haven’t heard.  I’ve _played_ hair metal.
> 
> Time sigs, tunings, mode selections, tempos… the similarities are almost nil.
> 
> It’s an extraordinary claim- please point out the connections.



Vocals, drums, etc.. The timings dont line up and I dont think SG was ever solidly "hair metal", but I can hear them moving around looking for a new sound (on every album).


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 12, 2022)

CleverNickName said:


> Are you suggesting that Pearl Jam has hair metal roots?



No.  I’m saying Mother Love Bone’s _vocalist_- Andrew Woods- sounded a lot like guys in the hair metal scene, like Taime Down (Faster Pussycat).  That’s the only overlap I perceived.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> Vocals, drums, etc.. The timings dont line up and I dont think SG was ever solidly "hair metal", but I can hear them moving around looking for a new sound (on every album).



I guess I’m with R_J, then- we’ll agree to disagree.


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 12, 2022)

It'd be impossible for me to narrow down 10 albums as my favorite, there's just too many.  If I had to narrow it down to 3, they'd be (in no particular order) the Beatles: Revolver, Pink Floyd: Darkside of the Moon, and Led Zeppelin III. Anything after those I couldnt decide on 7 more as I'd always feel like somethings missing. 

Though one very underrated Pink Floyd record is Obscured By Clouds.


----------



## StreamMonk (Apr 12, 2022)

1. New Model Army - No Rest for the Wicked
2. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
3. Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
4. Wagner - Götterdämmerung (Berliner Philharmoniker)
5. Lara St. John - Bach Works for Violin Solo
6. Shriekback - Oil & Gold
7. David Sylvian & Robert Fripp - The First Day/Damaged
8. Killing Joke - The Fire Dances
9. The Hu Band - The Gereg
10. The Police - Ghost in the Machine


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I guess I’m with R_J, then- we’ll agree to disagree.



What do we have to do to coax a list from you? Its hard but not impossible Mr. second hand CD shop.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> What do we have to do to coax a list from you? Its hard but not impossible Mr. second hand CD shop.



Honestly, I can’t even begin to compose a list of 10 albums out of the 5k+ I have and the unknown thousands on my shopping list.

When I first got into CDs, their expense led me to limit my CD purchases to 7 bands: Led Zeppelin, Yes, King Crimson, Santana, Duran Duran, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.  That lasted 3 months, 

At this point, a 10 CD list would have me skipping entire _genres._


----------



## Cadence (Apr 12, 2022)

@payn   RE: Soundgarden grunge and whatnot









						New Grunge Supergroup Featuring Members of Soundgarden and Nirvana Drops Debut LP
					

Krist Novoselic, Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron’s 3rd Secret made their debut performance at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture




					www.rollingstone.com


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 12, 2022)

@payn That was an interesting write up, btw. It definitely gave me a different perspective through someone else's point of view, and I learned a few things. I wasn't sure what you considered "glam rock", but now I have a better idea. I appreciate that!

I had never considered any of the grunge bands as hair metal. Perhaps you and I have different ideas of what a "hair band" is. Maybe they started out as one before making their first record. I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. My exposure is about as limited as everyone else's (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains). But the conversation here did inspire me to do some research to help me get a better perspective. So here's my own take:

Hair (metal) bands were known for big hair, makeup, costumes, etc. as much as their of high-spirited, super-machismo songs and ballads. Grunge was a statement of defiance; a direct response to the commercialized (and sometimes embarrassing) public representation of what rock and metal was at the time. They refused to be lumped in with that category, or expected to dress up and look the part. I don't blame them.

The term "grunge" itself is synonymous with "dirt". This is how most Seattle bands would see their unwashed and unkempt style of dress, as well as their hard and edgy sound. The idea gained traction as more local bands were separating themselves from the endless wave of pretty boys hair bands and their clean-cut, made-for-radio, commercial music. They fused rock and punk, taking their cues from early innovators like Black Sabbath, Steppenwolf, and Led Zeppelin. And their songs spoke about the political and social problems of the day, often with a dark and introspective tone even when being humorous.

Regarding hair metal, I wasn't a big fan at the time. I was moving away towards harder, heavier, and faster. I was just a lonely kid with some self-esteem issues, so I (thankfully) didn't relate to songs about "doing it with the ladies". There were exceptions, of course. But I didn't have space for them in my limited budget, or in my cassette rotation. But like a lot of things as I get older, I have come to appreciate them more. They certainly filled a niche. And if you'll notice on my list, there's not a lot of "popular" or "goto" selections that others might expect. My picks could easily fill another list, whether hard rock or heavy metal. To me, they absolutely rock.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> @payn That was an interesting write up, btw. It definitely gave me a different perspective through someone else's point of view, and I learned a few things. I wasn't sure what you considered "glam rock", but now I have a better idea. I appreciate that!
> 
> I had never considered any of the grunge bands as hair metal. Perhaps you and I have different ideas of what a "hair band" is. Maybe they started out as one before making their first record. I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. My exposure is about as limited as everyone else's (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains). But the conversation here did inspire me to do some research to help me get a better perspective. So here's my own take:
> 
> ...



Very nice! Im an amateur expert at best, take what I say with a grain of salt and through the lens of a super fan of music. All genres tend to sprout as a response to something else. Black Sabbath, Steppenwolf, and Led Zeppelin were riffing off other styles and doing backlashing of their own. The next generation likely had their own criticisms of their music and general style too. Likely, some not so flattering too.   

Critics, shop keeps, and most fans might feel like they need lines in the sand when it comes to bands. I like looking at the influence and seeing the progression. Where are they getting this sound? What are they rebelling against? Bands like Soundgarden are so interesting because they are on the cusp of a pop culture genre change. Probably, the worst example for this since their music is so multifaceted in every album. Let's look at Motley Crew. These guys were KISS rip offs at the start of their career. They ditched the full face paint and went hair metal. A lot of folks probably dont even remember that change. The Clash? People look at me like I have an arm growing out of my head when I talk about the Reggae invasion of the U.K. back in the late 70's. "Oh no no they are punk man...pure punk no doubt about it. Reggae, dub, step, get the hell outta here..." 

I think the radio and the branding has a major effect on what people think and remember about music. I'm probably a little too invested in the socioeconomic and historic aspect of music and don't get the real theory talk like what Danny is throwing down. A look, a voice, a drum roll is usually enough for me. I like seeing the changes and the bands that fall between. Like The Replacements a Minneapolis punk band that probably should have been a new wave band. If they were not so prone to self sabotage, they could have been a household name like R.E.M. Instead, you get songs decades later by Art Brute asking why they are just finding out about them?

I just want to talk about this stuff with people who love music. I'm not always right about it. If I got a good talk and got folks to think about it, my job is done.


----------



## Yora (Apr 12, 2022)

We are simply going with personal favorites?
Let me see, then.

In alphabetical order:

Apocalyptica - Reflections
Dargaard - Eternity Rites
Ensiferum - Iron
In Extremo - Sünder ohne Zügel
KoRn - Untouchables
Nightwish - Century Child
Pertubator - The Uncanny Valley
System of a Down - Toxicity
Trevor Something - Trevor Something Does Not Exist
Within Temptation - Mother Earth

I guess with that list, you couldn't just determine what year I was born, but also the month.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Yora said:


> Pertubator - The Uncanny Valley



Nice.


----------



## el-remmen (Apr 12, 2022)

1. Prince - Sign o' the Times (or Dirty Mind)
2. The Beatles - Revolver (or HELP!)
3. Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come
4. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (or Innervisions)
5. The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
6. Pink Floyd - Meddle (or Obscured By Clouds)
7. Joni Mitchell - Blue
8. Florence & the Machine - Lungs (or Ceremonials)
9. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
10. Radiohead - Amnesiac (or OK Computer)

Honorable Mention: Neil Young - Harvest

I limited myself to one per artist because I easily could have included four Prince albums here. I could easily change out most of these depending on mood (so I included alternatives).


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

el-remmen said:


> I limited myself to one per artist because I easily could have included four Prince albums here. I could easily change out most of these depending on mood (so I included alternatives).


----------



## Yora (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> Nice.



A few weeks ago I was hearing Purple Disco Machine on the radio at work and hearing it clearly for the first time, realized "hey, that's Synthwave!"
More pop-leaning than what I usually listen to, but definitely coming from the Synthwave scene. ("Purple" in the name gives it away.) And looking it up, that song specifically had been #1 in Germany for weeks.
Finally, our day has come!

I'm really surprised to see so little recent metal and gothic stuff here. Back in my day (naughty word, that's almost 20 years ago now), that seemed to be what all the RPG crowd in Germany were into.
In contrast, all the bands I recognize seem so very mainstream.


----------



## Scottius (Apr 12, 2022)

Yora said:


> A few weeks ago I was hearing Purple Disco Machine on the radio at work and hearing it clearly for the first time, realized "hey, that's Synthwave!"
> More pop-leaning than what I usually listen to, but definitely coming from the Synthwave scene. ("Purple" in the name gives it away.) And looking it up, that song specifically had been #1 in Germany for weeks.
> Finally, our day has come!
> 
> ...



I'm into a decent amount of recent metal (mostly doom, sludge/stoner, progressive, and new wave of traditional metal stuff) but it's hard for me to bump something like Master of Puppets from my list for any of that.


----------



## Yora (Apr 12, 2022)

I do agree that it's amazing. 

And well, my definition of "recent" is from two decades ago, so who am I to judge.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 12, 2022)

payn said:


> I just want to talk about this stuff with people who love music. I'm not always right about it. If I got a good talk and got folks to think about it, my job is done.



True story coming in.

A couple months before my 40th birthday, I decided I was going to get a tattoo. Never had one. Figured I was due. But I had no idea what I was going to get. It had to be something personal. It had to say something obvious about me. Something that was consistent that I wasn't going to feel different about or regret later. I needed to think about it, and do some soul searching.

I flew out to a friend's place in Florida for a week for her birthday. My gift was that I was going to use her tattoo guy for my first ink. We had been friends for years reading each other's blogs and figured it was time we meet. A number of her friends and family also followed us online. I got to meet several of them in person for the first time, including her husband.

So it turned out that David, unlike his wife, listened to a lot of the same stuff that I did. And he was pleased as anything to be able to crank up the Pantera when he and I went places in his car. And we started talking about other bands. Turns out we were big fans of W.A.S.P., and I hooked him up with my albums saved as mp3s. And on it went.

And that is when it hit me. I was as happy and passionate to talk about  music as I was when I was in high school. Metal has always been the consistent love of my life, and still is. So I imagined the one thing that was the undeniable, iconic symbol for "metal". I choose the most metal of all guitars: the B.C. Rich Warlock.


----------



## payn (Apr 12, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> True story coming in.
> 
> A couple months before my 40th birthday, I decided I was going to get a tattoo. Never had one. Figured I was due. But I had no idea what I was going to get. It had to be something personal. It had to say something obvious about me. Something that was consistent that I wasn't going to feel different about or regret later. I needed to think about it, and do some soul searching.
> 
> ...



I was going to get a nu-skool redhead pinup riding a bike on my calf. Then, my ex-wife left me, so that idea was shot. I think I need to give Rain Dogs a nice long listen with a bottle of bourbon, and decide what I'll get instead.


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 13, 2022)

payn said:


> I was going to get a nu-skool redhead pinup riding a bike on my calf. Then, my ex-wife left me, so that idea was shot. I think I need to give Rain Dogs a nice long listen with a bottle of bourbon, and decide what I'll get instead.



Be careful you don't get a tattoo of a one-armed dwarf captain - even if in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king...


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 13, 2022)

Yora said:


> I'm really surprised to see so little recent metal and gothic stuff here. Back in my day (naughty word, that's almost 20 years ago now), that seemed to be what all the RPG crowd in Germany were into.
> In contrast, all the bands I recognize seem so very mainstream.



All my goth stuff would be from the 80's and 90's too lol.

But here's my Top 10 albums released since April 2002.

Blind Guardian _Live_
Rising Apalachia _Filthy Dirty South_
Sofi Tukker _Tree House_ (although my favorite song, Awoo, isn't on there)
Death Cab for Cutie _Plans_
Fleet Foxes _Fleet Foxes_
Flobots _Fight with Tools_
Florence and the Machine _Ceremonials_
MC Yogi _Elephant Power_
Rodrigo y Gabriela _Rodrigo y Gabriela _
Vulfpeck _The Beautiful Game_


----------



## Ralif Redhammer (Apr 13, 2022)

There's a ton of recent metal stuff that I dig. Just about anything by Rhapsody of Fire. Early Darkmoor, Gloryhammer, Wind Rose, Visigoth.

As for newer goth stuff and industrial stuff, I find it to resonate less with me than the stuff of decades past. I definitely have seen my tastes start to ossify there. 



Yora said:


> I'm really surprised to see so little recent metal and gothic stuff here. Back in my day (naughty word, that's almost 20 years ago now), that seemed to be what all the RPG crowd in Germany were into.
> In contrast, all the bands I recognize seem so very mainstream.


----------



## Scottius (Apr 13, 2022)

Ralif Redhammer said:


> There's a ton of recent metal stuff that I dig. Just about anything by Rhapsody of Fire. Early Darkmoor, Gloryhammer, Wind Rose, Visigoth.
> 
> As for newer goth stuff and industrial stuff, I find it to resonate less with me than the stuff of decades past. I definitely have seen my tastes start to ossify there.



Nice to see a mention of Visigoth. I really dig them as well. I'll have to check out those other groups.


----------



## Ralif Redhammer (Apr 13, 2022)

The other bands are all more on the Symphonic Metal side of things, but I think they're worth checking out. Rhapsody of Fire is an absolute favorite of mine - I'd recommend Triumph or Agony in particular (it's even got a cover by Jeff Easley!).



Scottius said:


> Nice to see a mention of Visigoth. I really dig them as well. I'll have to check out those other groups.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 13, 2022)

payn said:


> What do we have to do to coax a list from you? Its hard but not impossible Mr. second hand CD shop.



Also, I _did_ list a bunch of highly regarded soundtracks…

Just sayin’.

Maybe if you gave me something narrower than 10 desert island discs to work with?


----------



## payn (Apr 13, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Also, I _did_ list a bunch of highly regarded soundtracks…
> 
> Just sayin’.
> 
> Maybe if you gave me something narrower than 10 desert island discs to work with?



The assignment is the assignment. There will be more threads if you just cant do it.


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 14, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Also, I _did_ list a bunch of highly regarded soundtracks…
> 
> Just sayin’.
> 
> Maybe if you gave me something narrower than 10 desert island discs to work with?



Here you go Danny alcatraz:


Top 10 NuMetal
Top 10 Post Punk
Top 10 Smooth Jazz
Top 10 Deep House
Top 10 Celtic
Top 10 Celtic Metal
Top 10 Albums similar to or by bands featured in Dave Grohl's Probot album
Top 10 Grunge
Top 10 Political Hip Hop from the aughts
Top 10 women pop singers post 2015
Top 10 Album titles or bands with names that could be awesome D&D adventures or supplements (I'm thinking like "Unleash the Archers")


----------



## payn (Apr 14, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Here you go Danny alcatraz:
> 
> 
> Top 10 NuMetal
> ...



The theme of the thread is about essential albums. Albums construction in it's entirety and not just good artists and/or tracks. Many on this list are so narrow in scope that albums will land on it, not because they are great start to finish, but due to lack of option/competition.

I mean, lets take top 10 women pop singers post 2015. I can maybe think of one album in this category. A lot of music isn't produced by the album anymore but by the single. So, selection will be more based on the most hits than by having a great album. In spirit of the thread, its likely even more difficult than just a top 10 albums of all genres, IMO. 

When you think of it in terms of great albums, you can weed out many great artists and albums because often singles are easier to produce. Thinking in entire album terms, actually makes this assignment easier than folks think, while still being very challenging.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 14, 2022)

payn said:


> The theme of the thread is about essential albums. Albums construction in it's entirety and not just good artists and/or tracks. Many on this list are so narrow in scope that albums will land on it, not because they are great start to finish, but due to lack of option/competition.
> 
> I mean, lets take top 10 women pop singers post 2015. I can maybe think of one album in this category. A lot of music isn't produced by the album anymore but by the single. So, selection will be more based on the most hits than by having a great album. In spirit of the thread, its likely even more difficult than just a top 10 albums of all genres, IMO.
> 
> When you think of it in terms of great albums, you can weed out many great artists and albums because often singles are easier to produce. Thinking in entire album terms, actually makes this assignment easier than folks think, while still being very challenging.




I think that this is an important element - or it was for me. To be honest, it does rule out a lot early music IMO, since the "album" as a technological concept didn't arrive until the 50s and as an artistic concept (as opposed to singles, put together) until the 60s.

Arguably, the rise of streaming has led to a decline in the "essential" nature of the album. I think that many artists today still put out cohesive albums, influenced by the past, but I'm not sure how long that will continue.

Anyway, it was decidedly necessary for me to think about the album as a whole as opposed to just good music- they are very different things.


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 14, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> To be honest, it does rule out a lot early music IMO, since the "album" as a technological concept didn't arrive until the 50s and as an artistic concept (as opposed to singles, put together) until the 60s.



I think the same could be said for many records/CDs/cassettes that came out after CDs became the dominant format. Excluding the double LPs of the 70s most runtimes on records were ~40 mins. CD pushed that runtime to the limit with 14-15 songs so most recordings in the 80s, 90s and 2000s had filler on it.  There's some records from that period I'd consider great start to finish but non-essential. One band that stick out to me as having an inability to edit their music anymore is Iron Maiden, anything after Fear of the Dark is just too long, lots a filler and just beats you over the head after the third song.  I love their early stuff but they've got more progressive and it just doesn't hold my attention.  The last 4-5 releases just sound the same to me.  I honestly dont know why I've bought their last few, probably holding out hope that they have one more Piece of Mind or Powerslave in them.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 15, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Here you go Danny alcatraz:
> 
> 
> Top 10 NuMetal
> ...



I’m giving these serious thought…*some* of them, at least.


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 15, 2022)

R_J_K75 said:


> One band that stick out to me as having an inability to edit their music anymore is Iron Maiden, anything after Fear of the Dark is just too long, lots a filler and just beats you over the head after the third song.  I love their early stuff but they've got more progressive and it just doesn't hold my attention.  The last 4-5 releases just sound the same to me.  I honestly dont know why I've bought their last few, probably holding out hope that they have one more Piece of Mind or Powerslave in them.



Largely in agreement with you there. My Maiden collection basic plateaued at Fear of the Dark. However, my favorite album to date (and I believe it is on my essentail list here) is *A Matter of Life and Death*.

There is just something both raw and epic about it. Its not just that its long or has a theme to it. It has a "garage band" feel, sometimes rough and unpolished. But that just makes it pure and unfiltered. You get a sense of musicians just jamming out and playing something they really feel. And Dickinson's voice is as powerful as ever.

Its definitely not Powerslave or Piece of Mind, but it is a fantastic album in its own right. (I'm almost sure its on my list. I need to double-check now.)

Edit: It is!


----------



## R_J_K75 (Apr 15, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Largely in agreement with you there. My Maiden collection basic plateaued at Fear of the Dark. However, my favorite album to date (and I believe it is on my essentail list here) is *A Matter of Life and Death*.
> 
> There is just something both raw and epic about it. Its not just that its long or has a theme to it. It has a "garage band" feel, sometimes rough and unpolished. But that just makes it pure and unfiltered. You get a sense of musicians just jamming out and playing something they really feel. And Dickinson's voice is as powerful as ever.
> 
> ...



I own all of their recording except the era with Blaze Bailey.  I think I'm going to relisten to Brave New World forward over the next few days and see if they're any better than I remember.  I know I've tried a few times and just couldn't get through them, but we'll see. I think there a lot to be said that if you asked anyone ten years ago, now or ten years from now what their favorite 10 records are the answer would be completely different.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 17, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Here you go Danny alcatraz:
> 
> Top 10 Deep House
> Top 10 Celtic
> ...



So, here’s my thoughts on a couple of those categories so far:


Top 10 Deep House
Deep House is enjoyable background music for me.  However, too many genre cliches exist- certain discrete elements present in WAY too many songs- for me to really get into it with any depth.  Are there essential albums in the genre?  Possibly.  But so far, none has been presented to me, at least not as such.  Nobody I know is a bigger fan of Deep House than I am, and I’m clearly not a big fan.


Top 10 Celtic
Top 10 Celtic Metal
Sorry to disappoint, but most of my Celtic music is either collections of the straight up traditional stuff or Enya.


Top 10 Political Hip Hop from the aughts
Lupe Fiasco _Food & Liquor _

The rest of the political rappers of that period haven’t done much to impress me as compared to their predecessors like Public Enemy, Michael Franti, etc., or some that followed.


----------



## wicked cool (Apr 18, 2022)

Jacob Lewis said:


> Like most human beings, I am a person of many moods and many tastes, and I cannot predict which island I will be stranded or that I will be addressed appropriately for my undetermined lengthy stay. These focus lists don't contribute to the overall goal of the thread of trying to ascertain the essential albums of all time and all genres. It's mostly just for fun.
> 
> This time, I am continuing my eccentric album lists with Hair Metal albums. What is Hair Metal? Its hard to pinpoint as many musicians straddle the lines or completely ignore them. Some groups evolve and change over the years, while some just experiment with new directions. Hair Metal isn't just a particular sound, its also a look and an attitude. One could even argue that some albums by one band might fit the bill, but other albums don't and that's fine.
> 
> ...



no bon jovi? Poison? scorpions? Motley Crue. some of these on your list i had to look  up as i hadnt heard of them


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 18, 2022)

wicked cool said:


> no bon jovi? Poison? scorpions? Motley Crue. some of these on your list i had to look  up as i hadnt heard of them



Exactly.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 19, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Here you go Danny alcatraz:
> 
> 
> Top 10 Albums similar to or by bands featured in Dave Grohl's Probot album
> Top 10 Grunge)



Some more…

Top 10 Albums similar to or by bands featured in Dave Grohl's Probot album
AFAIK, there’s not a lot of artists releasing albums like that.  Besides _Probot_, there’s Carlos Santana’s _Supernatural_ and Tony Iommi’s _Iommi_.  Dr. John did an album called _Locked Down _with a host of young guns selected by Dan Aurbach (The Black Keys). Kodo did _Mondo Head_, featuring musicians from around the world, fusing their styles.  Mickey Hart’s _Planet Drum_ qualifies,  IMHO.  Jason Becker’s 5 albums since his ALS diagnosis robbed him of his ability to play are arguably also key.  But Bill Laswell is the 800lb gorilla here.  A huge portion of his discography of HUNDREDS of albums consist of groups he’s put together for projects in particular styles- actually, usually FUSIONS of styles.


Top 10 Grunge

Neil Young _Rust Never Sleeps_
Sonic Youth _Daydream Nation_
Nirvana _Bleach_
Soundgarden _Badmotorfinger_
Pearl Jam _Ten_
Mad Season _Above_
Temple of the Dog _Temple of the Dog_
Green River _Rehab Doll_
Mother Love Bone _Apple_
Alice In Chains _Dirt_

(Now technically, Young & Sonic Youth’s albums might more accurately be called proto-grunge by some, but that’s splitting hairs to me.)


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 19, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Some more…




So, one of my favorite quotes (and I do have a lot of them!) is this-

_Anyone who insists they like "all kinds of music," is, in fact, telling you that they like no kinds of music._

That's a paraphrase of Chuck Klosterman. And yes, he does like a lot of music. He's ... kinda good at the music thing. 

Another point Chuck hits on is that talking about your favorite music, _identifying_ your favorite music, is usually not about the music you love, so much as establishing your own bona fides. It's really about signaling. It's not just about saying what type of music you like, it's about saying _what kind of person you are_.

Anyway, this is a long way of getting around to the main point- the benefit (to the extent there is one) of these types of exercises isn't about the final list, _per se_, it's about your own internal exercise as to how you arrived at it, and what that means for you. It doesn't mean the list is immutable (my list at 14 would have been very different!), but the exercise in making it is what makes it interesting. For example, I knew that I had to narrow my list to "rock/pop/hip hop" because I've been listening to a LOT of jazz recently and I just didn't have the capacity to compare.

But it's not supposed to be easy! If I made this list two years ago, or maybe two years in the future, I probably wouldn't have Portishead on it. But right now, I can't imagine them not being on it. 

Point being- just give us 10 albums Danny. I promise (with 98% certainty) that the albums you don't include will not form together in some type of Voltron-esque critter and murder you in your sleep.

Okay. Maybe 80% certain. Still, good odds!


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 20, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> So, one of my favorite quotes (and I do have a lot of them!) is this-
> 
> _Anyone who insists they like "all kinds of music," is, in fact, telling you that they like no kinds of music._
> 
> ...



I simply can’t, Klosterman be damned.  I tell you my own internal movie soundtrack- the music I hear in my head without benefit of devices- is deep and broad.  If I were asked to grab 10 CDs from my collection- Hell, let’s make it out of all CDs ever recorded- to take with me as we evacuated the planet, never to return, I’d ask to take a guitar instead, so I could play what‘s running on my iBrain.  (And write new stuff besides.)

Or I’d stay on Earth so someone else could take their 10 and be saved.

Please believe me, I do NOT like all kinds of music.  I would probably have trouble *expanding* my list of opera I like to 10 songs, much less 10 whole operas.  And that’s with me growing up as the son of a music teacher who loves opera.


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 20, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Some more…
> 
> Top 10 Albums similar to or by bands featured in Dave Grohl's Probot album
> AFAIK, there’s not a lot of artists releasing albums like that.  Besides _Probot_, there’s Carlos Santana’s _Supernatural_ and Tony Iommi’s _Iommi_.  Dr. John did an album called _Locked Down _with a host of young guns selected by Dan Aurbach (The Black Keys). Kodo did _Mondo Head_, featuring musicians from around the world, fusing their styles.  Mickey Hart’s _Planet Drum_ qualifies,  IMHO.  Jason Becker’s 5 albums since his ALS diagnosis robbed him of his ability to play are arguably also key.  But Bill Laswell is the 800lb gorilla here.  A huge portion of his discography of HUNDREDS of albums consist of groups he’s put together for projects in particular styles- actually, usually FUSIONS of styles.
> ...



L7's _Bricks are Heavy_ is one of my top grunge albums; but your list is very strong and I'm not sure I would replace any (maybe Green River) with L7.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 20, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> L7's _Bricks are Heavy_ is one of my top grunge albums; but your list is very strong and I'm not sure I would replace any (maybe Green River) with L7.



L7 had some killer tunes!


----------



## Jacob Lewis (Apr 20, 2022)

Right. This is why I don't pay much attention to lists created by other people unless they're people I want to know about. If I create a top10 list of anything, it's always going to be _my_ top 10. Not yours, and not what others expect it to be. In other words, if someone says you forget x, y, and z, they're not really interested in your opinion.

Also, there is a real difference between "I like all music" and "I can appreciate music in all forms".


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 21, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Here you go Danny alcatraz:
> 
> 
> Top 10 NuMetal
> ...






Top 10 NuMetal
Top 10 Post Punk
Tough calls on these.  A lot of the bands called post-punk now were called New Wave (or other things) back when I was a teen.  And the distinctions between Rap Rock and NuMetal are blurry, especially considering the efforts of some of the earliest bands.  So, still thinking it through,


Top 10 Smooth Jazz
George Benson _Breezin_
Chuck Mangione _Feels So Good_
Spyro Gyra _Morning Dance_
Sade _Stronger Than Pride_
Herb Alpert _Rise_
Bill Withers _Menagerie_
Grover Washington, Jr. _Mister Magic_
Al Jarreau _Breakin’ Away_
Anita Baker _Rapture_

You’ll note 1) that’s just 9 albums and, 2) Kenny G is not on the list.  Kenny G has talent and skill that has made him one of smooth jazz’s biggest names…but I don’t care for his stuff.  So while one of his albums probably belongs on a list like this, I couldn’t tell you which one.


----------



## amethal (Apr 21, 2022)

I don't actually own that many albums - I'm more of a "greatest hits" sort of person (cue Alan Partridge comparisons). I put it down to not listening to much music growing up, so everything was new to me and it was difficult to know where to start. Anyway, in alphabetical order:

Adele _21_
Bruce Springsteen _Born in the USA_
Chris Rea _Road to Hell_
Dire Straits_ Brothers in Arms_
Karl Jenkins (composer) _Adiemus_
Leonard Cohen_ I'm Your Man_
Queen _A Kind of Magic_
Show of Hands _Witness_
Space Pirates of Rocquaine _Vraic and Ruin_
Susanne Vega _Solitude Standing_


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 21, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> 2) Kenny G is not on the list.  Kenny G has talent and skill that has made him one of smooth jazz’s biggest names…but I don’t care for his stuff.  So while one of his albums probably belongs on a list like this, I couldn’t tell you which one.




You have to watch the HBO Max Kenny G documentary.

It had the weird effect in that it made me understand him, and then I appreciated him more ... and less ... at the same time.

ETA- By the way, Kenny G is responsible for the genre we call smooth jazz. Other artists later get lumped into it.


----------



## payn (Apr 21, 2022)

Cool Jazz > Smooth Jazz

Though, I do occasionally enjoy some Chuck Mangione.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 21, 2022)

payn said:


> Cool Jazz > Smooth Jazz
> 
> Though, I do occasionally enjoy some Chuck Mangione.




Personally, I can't get enough free jazz.

I love all sorts of jazz, but as soon as I heard Ornette Coleman, I was hooked. I felt like I was on ... a nightflight to venus.

Oh .....


No .....

I said today's phrase!


----------



## payn (Apr 21, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Personally, I can't get enough free jazz.
> 
> I love all sorts of jazz, but as soon ass I heard Ornette Coleman, I was hooked. I felt like I was on ... a nightflight to venus.
> 
> ...


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 22, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> By the way, Kenny G is responsible for the genre we call smooth jazz. Other artists later get lumped into it.



I’m would assert to the contrary, that the “smooth radio” format of the 1970s was renamed “smooth jazz” in the 1980s because of Kenny G.  He didn’t create it, he was the catalyst for renaming the genre.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 22, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I’m would assert to the contrary, that the “smooth radio” format of the 1970s was renamed “smooth jazz” in the 1980s because of Kenny G.  He didn’t create it, he was the catalyst for renaming the genre.




Have you seen the documentary?

it explains how the term came about.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 22, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Have you seen the documentary?
> 
> it explains how the term came about.



Nope.  Like I said, not his fan, soooo…


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Apr 22, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Nope.  Like I said, not his fan, soooo…




That was my point. I’m not a fan of his either, but the documentary was eye-opening.

It is rare to watch something and both end up with a staggering amount of respect for a person, and also find that it ratifies exactly why you don’t you like them.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 22, 2022)

Oh, 


Snarf Zagyg said:


> That was my point. I’m not a fan of his either, but the documentary was eye-opening.
> 
> It is rare to watch something and both end up with a staggering amount of respect for a person, and also find that it ratifies exactly why you don’t you like them.



Oh, believe you me, I respect his TALENTS and SKILLS!  I just don’t care for his musical _taste._

It’s like the writer James Joyce.  I greatly respect the skills the man applied to the written word.  I just never want to read any more of his stuff than what has already been required of me.


----------



## payn (Apr 22, 2022)

Cmon folks, a top ten album thread should certainly not die as a smooth jazz debate!


----------



## Eyes of Nine (Apr 22, 2022)

Isn't smooth jazz where music went to die? (kidding).

It's always good to end any thread on Rain Dogs


----------



## payn (May 5, 2022)

So, gonna bump this and let folks know if you are looking for a cool stream The Current's listener compiled list is getting run from 7am-8pm CST today until next Thursday.  

#893 is DJ Shadow _Endtroducing_


----------



## payn (May 5, 2022)

A mix of indie and classic rock and hint of hip hop.

Macy Gray
Kurt Vile
X
The New Pornographers
Lynyrd Skynyrd (Free bird of course) 
Fleetwood Mac (surprised to see this in the upper 800s)
Elliot Smith


----------



## Zaukrie (May 5, 2022)

Given that Sweet Baby James is at over 850...I predict at least 700 albums in the list will be worse than that (for me).....I'm clearly going to enjoy this more for the nostalgia than the actual rankings....


----------



## payn (May 5, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> Given that Sweet Baby James is at over 850...I predict at least 700 albums in the list will be worse than that (for me).....I'm clearly going to enjoy this more for the nostalgia than the actual rankings....



Well, Motely Crew just landed on the list so... Yeap, these things are a crapshoot you just gotta sit back and enjoy.


----------



## payn (May 5, 2022)

Oh hell yeah the Libertines!


----------



## Mercurius (May 6, 2022)

Wow, skimming through this thread and it really strikes me how different my tastes are from the hivemind of ENWorld, which seem to constellate towards rock, metal, alt, and bits and pieces mixed in.

Without thinking too much about it, and with the caveat that I could replace some of these with a couple dozen others, my "desert island albums" are, in order of date...

*List 1: A Possible Essential Album List (c. 2022)*
Ravi Shankar - _Ragas & Talas_ (1959)
Pharoah Sanders - _Jewels of Thought _(1970)
Funkadelic - _Funkadelic _(1970)
Alice Coltrane - _Journey in Satchidananda _(1971)
Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters - _Man-child _(1975)
Roy Ayers Ubiquity - _Mystic Voyage _(1975)
Embryo - _Apo Calypso _(1977)
Jamiroquai - _Traveling Without Moving _(1995)
The Bulgarian Voices/Angelite & Huun-Huur-Tuu - _Fly, Fly My Sadness _(1996)
MeShell Ndegeocello - _The Spirit Music Jamia _(2005)
Aqua Bassino - _Rue de Paris _(2006)
Anderson .Paak - _Malibu _(2016)
Yussef Kamaal - _Black Focus _(2016)

I know, that's thirteen, but I couldn't decide which to cut, and really there are already a bunch more that could be on that list.

Honorable Mentions (couldn't find a place, or didn't have a single album--other than a compilation--that stood out, but I'd really like them on the list): Miles Davis, John Coltrane, James Brown, Don Cherry, The Headhunters, Shakti, Steve Coleman & the Five Elements, Curandero, Atjazz, St Germain, Sade, Kerri Chandler, A Tribe Called Quest, Slum Village, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Tora, etc....

*List 2: Old Favorites & Guilty Pleasures (circa 1993)*
I include this second list as more of a "blast from the past" - and I think it resonates more with the general trend of this thread.

Pink Floyd - _Meddle _(1972)
King Crimson - _Larks' Tongues in Aspic _(1973)
King Crimson - _Starless and Bible Black _(1974)
Joy Division - _Closer_ (1980)
Bauhaus - _The Sky's Gone Out _(1982)
The The - _Soul Mining _(1983)
The Smiths - _Louder Than Bombs _(1984)
New Order - _Substance _(1987)
The Cure - _Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me _(1987)
Nine Inch Nails - _Pretty Hate Machine_ (1989)
Dead Can Dance - _Into the Labyrinth _(1993)


----------



## payn (May 11, 2022)

The Current's list is almost into the 200's. Since hitting the 300's the consistency of great albums has been steadily going up. Still some head scratchers tho. When they did this the first time the top 10 was as you expect Beatles and Rolling Stones. About 5 years ago it was The Clash and Nirvana. It will be interesting to see how it goes now. (Nirvana Nevermind already dropped on the list so listeners most not be pinning for it as much)


----------



## payn (May 11, 2022)

...and _Rain Dogs_ just hit at 182. Thats just not low enough!


----------



## Zaukrie (May 11, 2022)

Nevermind already dropped? Yikes.

I've always wondered how close the votes are.... Like, did all the albums in this range get ten votes and it's randomly ordered?


----------



## payn (May 11, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> Nevermind already dropped? Yikes.
> 
> I've always wondered how close the votes are.... Like, did all the albums in this range get ten votes and it's randomly ordered?



Correction, In Utero dropped already. Nevermind will likely be top 25.


----------



## Zaukrie (May 11, 2022)

payn said:


> Correction, In Utero dropped already. Nevermind will likely be top 25.



That makes more sense.


----------



## payn (May 11, 2022)

Interesting... Suftjan Stevens and Violent Femmes slid about 50 spots back from 5 years ago on the list.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (May 12, 2022)

payn said:


> Violent Femmes slid about 50 spots back from 5 years ago on the list.




Why can't I top just one list?
Why can't I top just one list?
Believe me,
Some of these bands you wouldn't miss
But I know when you add it up I’ll top you list


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Snarf Zagyg said:


> Why can't I top just one list?
> Why can't I top just one list?
> Believe me,
> Some of these bands you wouldn't miss
> But I know when you add it up I’ll top you list



I've seen them more times than I can count, and I cant say they ever had an off night. I do like _American Music_.


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Oh cmon, _All Things Must Pass _is 117?


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Nice #94 Funeral by Arcade Fire. Great album. 

I'll probably be posting a bit today for the final 100 countdown and then let this thread die.


----------



## Zaukrie (May 12, 2022)

For me, Dookie is higher, as they're my second favorite band.


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> For me, Dookie is higher, as they're my second favorite band.



_Dookie _was huge, but I'm not a big fan of Greenday in general. Though, 85 is still pretty high on the list!


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (May 12, 2022)

Zaukrie said:


> For me, Dookie is higher, as they're my second favorite band.




Allow me to help!

_*Dookie should be higher, because Green Day is #2!*_


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Elvis Costello at 42? That's a surprise.


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Ohhh _Revolver_ at 38? I thought it would be top 25.


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Lookie at Liz Phair coming up at #28 with _Exile in Guyville_. Was on my top female album list


----------



## payn (May 12, 2022)

Sweet, my 15 seconds of fame! I contributed my funds for the year (always do during the Top 893 drive) and they read my email on air (in the top 10 no less!) 

Yeah, I look forward to this every year. I'll be back with the top 10 list later tonight. Going on a date now.


----------



## payn (May 13, 2022)

Ok, I promised one final post. Here are the top 10 Current listeners essential albums.


Purple Rain - Prince (A great musician belongs on the list. Obvious home field advantage)
Nevermind - Nirvana (Exact same place as 5 years ago)
Blue - Joni Mitchel (Ok super surprise this wasnt close 5 years ago. Very interesting uptick)
Abbey Road - Beatles (Totally expected has always been in the top 10)
London Calling  Clash (Slipped from #1 5 years ago to #5)
Rumors - Fleetwood (Meh, dont mind Fleetwood but not sure why the surge or placement on any list?)
Ziggy Stardust - Bowie (I voted for Hunky Dory but nice to see Bowie climbing the ranks)
I never loved a man the way I love you - Aretha Franklin (Super interesting another major climber to the top 10)
Joshua Tree - U2 (This was like 40 years ago can we forget about it yet? Congratz guys on making the top 10 this time)
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis (Ok, super interesting, first time a Jazz record cracked the top 10!)
See y'all next year.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (May 13, 2022)

payn said:


> This was like 40 years ago can we forget about it yet?



No, we cannot!


----------



## Ulfgeir (May 13, 2022)

payn said:


> Greetings,
> 
> So, local public radio channel The Current is doing their spring drive. They collect ballots from listeners and the public and compile a list to play on the radio/stream for a week as they count down. It's a lot of fun listening to see when your songs/albums drop. In the past they have done; top 893 debut albums, top 893 songs of all time, top 893 bands, etc...
> 
> This year it is top essential albums of all time. The ballot only allows 10 (which is very very difficult to come down to for me...) so for this thread that's our rule. What are your top 10 essential albums of all time. (By essential I'm guessing it's albums you cant live without. What are you taking to your deserted island?) This is about albums so keep that in mind as the complete work and not just folks you really like!




This list is my "essential" list. Had it been to list the albums that was most influental on music as such, well I think maybe 1 or 2 on this list would still be there, but it would be a lot of stuff I would not necessarily like as well..

This is hard..  But without order:

*Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene*
This is the best instrumental electronic music around

*Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast*
Their greatest album as far as I remember.  I don't listen enough to them enough though.

*Hawai'ian Style Band - Vanishing Treasures*
Smooth music that makes me feel of summer, and lets me dream of far away places.

*Niagara - Quel enfer!  *
I am talking about the French group that was active in late 80' early 90's, and made vibrant colourful music videos.

*Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85*
Here are all their really good songs

*Warlock - Triumph and Agony*
Good hard metal.

*Rammstein - Sehnsucht*
Their best album, tied with "Reise, reise".

*Mediaeval Baebes - Salva Nos*
Their debut album. Very nice harmonies.

*Nightwish - Highest hopes*
Lots of good songs on that one

*Urga - Etanol*
Swedish group that sang in an invented language. Very uptempo and quite weird.


----------



## eyeheartawk (May 13, 2022)

Okay, in no particular order:

Kidz Bop 
Kidz Bop 2
Kidz Bop 3
Kidz Bop 4
Kidz Bop 5
Kidz Bop 6
Kidz Bop 7
Kidz Bop 8
Kidz Bop 9
Kidz Bop 10


----------



## payn (May 13, 2022)

eyeheartawk said:


> Okay, in no particular order:
> 
> Kidz Bop
> Kidz Bop 2
> ...


----------

