Your favourite albums

[tealovertoma]

I think it's kinda useless to make a "top 10" out of your albums as they're all completely different, but what are your personal favourites? Here's the trick: only 1 album per band!


Here's some of mine (mostly newer stuff, can't get into a whole lot of older bands, wonder why)



Queen - A Night At The Opera
One of the bands I grew up with. I didn't buy this album until a few years ago but it's easily one of my favourites. Some very powerful and very emotional songs in there, along with Bohemian Rhapsody of course.



Radiohead - OK Computer
It took me like 5 tries to get into Radiohead but I knew I'd like them so I kept trying - turns out I was trying out the wrong album. Everyone said OK Computer was their best, but it took me a more "normal" alternative rock album (The Bends) to get me into them. I don't liking picking favourites as I love all Radiohead albums (let's not mention Pablo Honey) but this one has Paranoid Android (Radiohead's Bohemian Rhapsody - I love songs that are divided in sections like that*), Karma Police, Exit Music, No Surprises, etc etc



Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
Gorgeous and full of emotion from the first song to the last. Ben Gibbard is one of the most gifted lyrics writers I know, and his singing is just as good. "Plans" is easier to get into but you need to give this a shot after that. Their latest album, "Narrow Stairs", was released today and isn't bad either. But this is their best.



Howling Bells - Selftitled
I couldn't resist. Simply put, my favourite (real) indie album and probably my favourite debut album ever (sorry people, don't get all the Oasis hype), along with Arctic Monkeys that is. Yes, there's a reason why I'm here. Don't need to explain to you all why this is as great as it is.

More to come!

* this brings me to another question: does anyone know any other songs that are obviously divided into sections like that? Another good example would be Muse's Citizen Erased. Usually these songs are 5+ minutes and have fast paced and slow, emotional sections. Anyone?

[johnnyfromthewood]

There are a lot of great albums.
It does not make it easier for me just to chose one album per band.
But let's have a try.


Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Probably my favorite for all time.
Together with Blood Sugar Sex Magik (also RHCP), the best two albums that have ever been made by a band.
Californication is just the best for the summertime. Warm, catchy, melodic, minimalistic. Everyone knows the singles or should know i think.


John Frusciante - The Will To Death
John Frusciante is my musician, guitarist, singer, songwriter #1.
If you know the Chili Peppers, you know John.
But John's solo stuff is completely different than the Chili Peppers work. I can just recommend it to you.
If you want to check it out, I recommend the Songs: 'The Will To Death', 'Loss' and 'The Days Have Turned'.
This album is a real masterpiece. It took me a long time to realize this. I could not live without his music anymore. I need it like air to breathe.


The Beatles - White Album
It was also hard to choose one album by this band.
I've chosen this, because it is a very miscellaneous album with a lot of great songs written by John Lennon.
The Beatles are faboulos. I love them. So much creativity and energy. It's so sad that John and George are already dead. My two favorite Beatles :/ Great guitarists, Great vocalists. Well Paul and Ringo also are
Just naming a few songs from the album: 'Yer Blues', 'Glass Onion', 'I'm So Tired', 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun', 'Julia', 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'


Howling Bells - Howling Bells
Don't have to say anything here.


Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Also a perfect album by a very good band. Everyone knows 'Don't Look Back in Anger', 'Wonderwall' or 'Champagne Supernova'.
Each track on this album has the quality of the 3 i named.
This album must not be missing in any collection.


The Libertines - The Libertines
Who does not love them?
It is a shame that Pete and Carl are not making any music together, despite Dirty Pretty Things and Babyshamles are also 2 good bands.
'What Katie Did' and 'Music When The Lights Go Out' are very nice ongs, which i recommend.


Travis - The Invisible Band
That relaxing atmosphere on this album is not describable.
Just check it out.


That's it for the first. I didn't mention some great German albums. You will not know them anyway. Maybe i'll post them later.

Right now i'm also into the albums Substance by Joy Division and The Black and White Album by The Hives.
But the ones i listed above are albums for eternity for me

tealovertoma, Queen is a real great band. I started to listen to them a few weeks ago. I really like the Wembley concert.
They sound live really great. The version of Bohemian Rhapsody is unbelievable and they are all really good musicians.

Not very but a little bit similar to Bohemian Rhapsody is Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, which is also a great band

[tealovertoma]

I still have to properly check out Libertines and Travis. Am a fan of RHCP and Beatles (of course!) as well, but only own the greatest hits CD of RHCP as I can only get into half of their songs, and this CD has pretty much all of their good songs. I'd post it in my list but I don't consider Greatest Hits CD's to be fair compared to the rest. As for Beatles it's about the same story - I've got like 50 songs that I love, but they're all spread out over their entire career, thus it's hard to pick a CD. Any CD I'd pick would have many good songs, but also many I can't get into. Personaly favourites would be "Across The Universe" (probably one of the best songs ever IMO), "Here Comes The Sun", "I've Just Seen A Face" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". It's hard enough to find a "Best Of" CD that includes all of those as it is...

Thanks, Kid B, I'll check out ¡Forward, Russia!'s "Gravity & Heat"

And johnnyfromthewood, as much as I love "Stairway To Heaven" (again, who doesn't?) it's not really what I'm looking for. It doesn't have the same segmented and - almost - broken sections that Paranoid Android / Citizen Erased / Bohemian Rhapsody seem to have,

EDIT: Also, I'm planning on checking out all of the albums posted in this thread, so it better be good ones

EDIT2: I'm not going to post the entire album cause I haven't heard it properly, but you should both check out "Comforting Sounds" by Mew:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6IeaJHoPPE

Yes, that is where I got my avatar from ;D

[chrome3d]

It looks something like this this week. Just one album by one artist is tricky. Good luck if you plan to check out all of them! More stuff is seen in the link below that has 5 of my recent albums.

My Top 10

The Church - After Everything Now This (or 5-7 other albums)
Jimi Hendrix - Are you experienced
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Silver Ray - New Love
R.E.M. - The Fables of Reconstruction
Judee Sill - Heartfood
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
The Triffids - Calenture

[chrome3d]

Fables is their third album. It´s the one I got first and it will always be the best for me because of that. It´s quite mellow compared to many of their other efforts. It could be many other things too. Accelerate...I have it, but I´m not totally sold. It has some good songs that´s for sure. I don´t have all of their 14 albums. Still missing 3.
----------------------------------------------

John Frusciante. Heh, I´ve heard him. He has some good lo-fi stuff. I dig that kind of wonky acoustic stuff, like Sparklehorse etc. Had some Chili Peppers too, but it´s not on my rotation anymore.

[riseandfall]

Too many of my favourite albums are by the same bands' so I've selected a couple of favourites (aside from Howling Bells) in no particular order whatsoever (well apart from the first one lol)



Garbage - Garbage

My all time favourite band and this combined with Version 2.0 my two favourite albums (regardless on what people think of the new stuff the old stuff still powerful as ever). Thus by default its my favourite debut album of all time. Shirley Manson is a fantastically emotive singer. Witty, articulate, brash but often neurotic with amazing stage presence.

Garbage awoken me to alternative/ pop/rock music so on another level they are deeply precious to me. Hadn't been for them never have discovered other amazing bands like Howling Bells. Can go on all day about how much I love them but I've gone on too long anyway.

Fav tracks (hard to pick could easily put 10/12 tracks) but Supervixen, Queer, Only Happy When it Rains,As Heaven Is Wide, Vow, Stupid Girl, My Lover's Box, Fix Me Now and Milk.



Skunk Anansie - Stoosh

I love my female singers and Skin no exception to the rule. Truly amazing voice (speaking as someone whose heard her live). Again love her to pieces including her solo work. Very hard to pick one of their albums but I go with Stoosh.

Favourite tracks: All I Want, Infidelity (Only You), Hedonism, Twisted (Everyday Hurts), We Love Your Apathy, Brazen (Weep), Glorious Pop Song





Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing

Tremendously underrated band sometimes but another absolute fav of mine. Without a doubt this second album being their best (closely followed by the debut - the rest don't come close). Again got into them along with Garbage and also Muse about the same time been a huge fan for years. Astonishing live outfit aswell.

Favourite Tracks: Pure Morning, You Don't Care About Us, Ask For Answers, Without You I'm Nothing, Allergic (to the thoughts of mother earth), Scared of Girls, The Crawl



PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Could pick a number of her albums as my favourite but went with album no.5 which won the Mercury Music Prize. Polly Jean is in a league of her own - truly unique voice this album is just amazing all the way through so many highlights.

Favourite tracks: Big Exit, Good Fortune, Kamikaze, This is Love, This Mess We're In, Whores Hustle..., We'll Float, Horses In My Dreams

[Deleted]

This is such a difficult question that I always ask it myself in a way like "If you had only 10 albumw to choose for a lonely island , which would you take?" I imagine being on this lonely island, beaches, tranquility. Which would I want to hear...? At the moment I can nail down only three albums:

The Church - Unititled #23
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
The Refo:mation - Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units

Other candidates:
Lamb - What Sound
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Bat For Lahes - Fur And Gold
Emilíana Torrini - Love In Time Of Science
Howling Bells - Howling Bells
Halogen - Save The Ones You Love
The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean, Basically?
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
U2 - The Joshua Tree
and lots of other albums by The Church....

[blade]

To me, favourite albums have to have some personal significance, in terms of, say, growing up or your 'musical development' (for want of a better phrase). They also have to 'stand the test of time', i.e. you still listen to them regularly two, three, ten, even forty years after release.

So here's my ten, not including Howling Bells' debut, which would of course be at No.1. By my definition I couldn't include Radio Wars as it hasn't been out long enough.

Nos. 10, 9, 8
JUDIE TZUKE
Welcome to the Cruise (1979)


KATE BUSH
The Kick Inside (1978)


HEART
Dreamboat Annie (1976)


I'm cataloguing these three together as these were the three artists that changed my musical tastes from the heavy rock bands I had been into previously. A friend at university loaned them from the university library and lent them to me, saying "You might like these". I ended up loving them. I saw Judie Tzuke live around ten times, Heart three times and Kate Bush never (she only toured once in her career). Note that all three are debut albums and also note that Heart went downhill when they conquered Britain in 1985, changed the line-up and became all commercial. But some of their late seventies stuff, inspired by the Wilson sisters, was breathtaking. Kate Bush needs no introduction. A rare talent for one so young.

No.7
WAIKIKI
Presents… (2000)


This is a bit of a cheat as it’s not an album, it’s an EP, with only five tracks. I’m including it as one of the songs, “Love Is”, was the first time (in 2001) I ever heard Juanita Stein and I fell in love. Listen to her teenage voice now and her maturation is plain to hear.

No.6
SANTANA
Santana (1969)


Santana are one of the groups I listened to in the sixth form and, along with Jimi Hendrix and The Doors, are the only ones from that distant time that I have stayed with. Santana’s first album is a classic fusion of Latin rock, funk, jazz and incredible guitar playing. The album cover is a classic too. Study it closely and see how many faces you can make out.

No.5
ALL ABOUT EVE
Ultraviolet (1992)


This album alienated a lot of All About Eve fans who had been with them since their Goth days but, for me, Marty Willson-Piper took them to a different level with this album. However, the record-buying public didn’t agree and it was the last album they made.

No.4
THE CHURCH
Heyday (1986)


Mention of Marty Willson-Piper brings me on to The Church. I first came across The Church when All About Eve’s Julianne Regan said they were her favourite band so I thought I’d try them. Good decision. “Heyday” is my favourite of their many albums, full of jangly guitars and surreal lyrics. And dig those 1980s hairstyles!

Nos. 3 and 2
HEATHER NOVA
Siren (1998)


GARBAGE
Garbage (1995)


I’m lumping these two together as well because I discovered them at around the same time, 1994/95. I really struggled with music in the mid-nineties. The Oasis/Blur/Britpop thing did nothing for me and I listened to a lot of stuff without finding much I really liked. Apart from Garbage and Heather Nova. Shirley Manson’s vocals on this album are snarled with real venom (“I came around to tear your little world apart….. rip your soul apart…”) and darkness (“I’m riding high upon a deep depression…..”). Sends shivers up your spine. Heather Nova, is brighter, gentler, but she has a dark side too.

No.1
THE LONG BLONDES
Someone to Drive You Home (2006)


By some years the most recent album on my list. Released around the same time as Howling Bells, it was No.7 in NME’s albums of the year (Howling Bells was No.11). Because they were formed in Sheffield, I’d followed The Long Blondes’ progress in the local papers and saw them live once and for a couple of years they were described as the best unsigned band in the country, waiting and waiting to sign a record deal with labels queuing up to get them. Brilliant indie-rock with Kate Jackson’s powerful voice to the fore. She’s a visual artist too - the album cover is her artwork. Unfortunately, after two albums, The Long Blondes are no more as guitarist Dorian Cox suffered a stroke at only 27 years old. Kate is now going solo and, intriguingly, she has the same management company as Howling Bells.

[skeffington]

Certainly not definitive but offf the top of my head and in no particular order...


Black Sabbath - Vol.4

R.E.M. - Reckoning

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire De Melody Nelson

Townes Van Zandt - Live at the Old Quarter

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money

The Stooges - The Stooges

Nico - The Marble Index

[lowhappynun]

first ones that came to mind

pixies - surfer rosa
blondie - parallel lines
mclusky - do dallas
doors - doors
sleater-kinney - the woods
de la soul - 3 feet high & rising
prince - parade
boards of canada - music has the right...
smashing pumpkins - siamese dream
the smiths - the queen is dead

i dunno

[riseandfall]

^ Blade - could not agree with you more about Shirley Manson!

[kerbdodger]

oh this is tricky... ....Tonights the night ,Neil Young,London calling,The Clash,Manifesto,Roxy Music,Wishing tree.....,and mmm maybe the Elastica 1st album.

[shred]

Just a few:

[incoasterble]

Ok so something I've wannedado for like 6 months was list all the albums I honestly couldn't live without having access to at all times... Started as ten but TBH I'm knocking on the door of 30 now... so in no particular order:

Howling Bells – The Loudest Engine & Radio Wars & Howling Bells
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81 & Beat The Devil's Tattoo
Catatonia – Way Beyond Blue
Cursive – Happy Hollow
Modest Mouse – We were dead before the ship even sank
Metallica – Reload
Blood Red Shoes – Box of Secrets
Loaded – Dark Days
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
Pendulum – Hold Your Colour
The Kills – Blood Pressures & No Wow
Cream – Disraeli Gears
Open Hand – You and I & Honey
The Vines – Highly Evolved, Winning Days, Melodia & Future Primitive
Metric – Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Presets – Apocalypso
Slash’s Snakepit – Ain’t Life Grand
Tantric – After We Go
Scars On Broadway – Scars On Broadway
The Rakes – Capture Release
Unkle – War Stories
Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R & Era Vulgaris
DJ Fresh – Escape from Planet Monday
The Mooney Suzuki – Alive & Amplified
Suede - Suede
The Duke Spirit – Bruiser
Velvet Revolver – Libertad
Electric Soft Parade - Holes In The Wall
The White Stripes – De Stijl
Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
The Coral - Roots and Echoes
Garbage - Garbage
10 Minute Warning - 10 Minute Warning
Rocket Science - Contact High
Kasabian - Valociraptor

[lespino]

1. Veckatimest- Grizzly Bear
2. Since I Left You- The Avalance
3. As Day Follows Night- Sarah Blasko
4. Apocalypso- The Presets
5. Frogstomp- Silverchair
6. It's Blitz- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
7. Treats- Sleigh Bells
8. Vows- Kimbra
9. Wonder- Lisa Mitchell
10. Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend
11. Funeral- Arcade Fire
12. The Suburbs- Arcade Fire
13. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not- Arctic Monkeys
14. Cease To Begin- Band of Horses
15. Rombarama- The Bloody Beetroots

Just some that come to my head, they're all pretty recent because I'm always tuned to the radio (triple j) and they have a feature album every week! (: