The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Jeepers on May 18, 2006, 04:09:04 pm
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What are your top 5 albums of all time?
The requirements be such:
these are the albums that have never lost their cool in your eyes.
Every song on the record is incredible, without exception.
You can listen to this album from beginning to end without getting bored or skipping a track.
And finally, This album has changed (or at least enhanced) your life in some way.
here's my list.
1. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink *****s
2. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
3. The Locust - Flight Of The Wounded Locust
4. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
5. Ween - Chocolate and Cheese
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1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Denali - Denali
3. Radiohead - Amnesiac
4. Broken Social Scene - Feel Good Lost
5. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
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This is somehow much harder than 25 bands and I have no idea why.
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1. Gomez - Liquid Skin
2. Wilco - Being There
3. They Might Be Giants - John Henry
4. Radiohead - OK Computer
5. Travis - Good Feeling
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1. The Flaming Lips-The Soft Bulletin
2. Pavement-Slanted Enchanted
3. Daniel Johnston-Retired Boxer
4. Dr. Octagon-Dr. Octagonecologist
5. The Arcade Fire-Funeral
There we have it.
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Adding the "this record changed your life" qualifier makes my list slightly different than just "What are your five favorite albums."
R.E.M. "Fables of the Reconstruction"
Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"
Big Audio Dynamite "This Is B.A.D."
Kitchens of Distinction "Strange Free World"
Pearl Jam "Ten"
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This is way hard. Luckily I know basically zilch about pre-1995 music which really cuts down my options.
1. The New Pornographers - The Electric Version
2. Pixies - Doolittle
3. Weezer - Blue
4. They Might Be Giants - Lincoln
5. Mary Prankster - Roulette Girl
With about 15 honorable mentions.
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Yeah I am agonizing over this even more than the 25 as well.
Dammit people we've already determined that the greatest TMBG album is Lincoln. This is clear... as for Ween it's The Pod.. hands down.
1. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. Aesop Rock - Labor
3. TMBG - Lincoln
4. Pixies - Doolittle
5. Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Dammit.. that isn't even resemblant of anything... bah.. whatever.
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Adding the "this record changed your life" qualifier makes my list slightly different than just "What are your five favorite albums."
Kitchens of Distinction "Strange Free World"
Seconded!
TMBG - Self-Titled
Pixies - "Doolittle"
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Kitches of Distinction - "Strange Free World"
Men At Work - Business As Usual
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cort-- the blue album. YES.
I cannot even pretend to make this list.
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Seconded!
TMBG - Self-Titled
Pixies - "Doolittle"
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Kitches of Distinction - "Strange Free World"
Men At Work - Business As Usual
I feel like I should like The Pink Album more than I do, because of course "their old stuff is better" but I just can't get into that one as much. The only song I really get into is 32 Footsteps.
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as for Ween it's The Pod.. hands down.
This is true, the reason that Chocolate and Cheese made the top 5 for me was it's role in my life. The Pod is a superior album, but C&C has links to awesome times in my life.
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I feel like I should like The Pink Album more than I do, because of course "their old stuff is better" but I just can't get into that one as much. The only song I really get into is 32 Footsteps.
Nothing's Gonna Change my clothes is basically like treasure.
Also, Don't Let's Start of course, but that's on Miscellaneous T as well... um... Rhythm Section Want Ad is pretty good too.
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5. Exposure - Robert Fripp
4. Outside - David Bowie
3. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner - The Ben Folds Five
2. Red - King Crimson
1. Abbey Road - The Beatles
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I can't believe it took this long to get a Beatles album on the list.
edit: Good choice on the Bowie album, but back off... he's mine.
I'm going to get him pregnant.
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4. Outside - David Bowie
It's nice to finally meet the OTHER person who owns this album. Good day to you sir.
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1. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
3. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
4. Parliament Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking of War Babies
5. King Crimson - Three Of A Perfect Pair
Eight years ago, this list would have been
1. Metallica - Ride The Lightning
2. Green Day - Dookie
3. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
4. Metallica - Master of Puppets
5. some other randomly selected Metallica album
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Dammit. I tried so hard to stay away from the top 25 thread because this is the hardest thing for me. But you keep on pushing, so here we go:
The Who - Sell Out
The Stooges - Funhouse
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City (I know, those are two different albums, but I have both on a single CD so they've always been a single enttity for me)
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
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This is really hard, but off the top of my head, and in no order:
Zappa and the Mothers: Hot Rats
The Band: The Band
Grateful Dead: Europe '72
Pink Floyd: Piper or Meddle or Wish You Were Here
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisted
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I feel like I should like The Pink Album more than I do, because of course "their old stuff is better" but I just can't get into that one as much. The only song I really get into is 32 Footsteps.
Well, I first heard a lot of it in 5th grade (When it came out) but then finally got a dubbed copy in 9th grade. It shaped a lot of my growing musical tastes.
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Okay...deep breath. I'm not going to stand by any of these in the morning....
In Hi Fidelity biographical order...
(edit, upon further review, I should probably push the bottom two out and put:
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger and
Rocket From the Crypt - Scream, Dracula, Scream on top and push out the bottom two...or...)
The Clash - London Calling
The Who - Who's Next
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Fugazi - The Argument
Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight
(...put
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium at the bottom, and push out, God knows what...shit, is this hard)
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This is really hard, but off the top of my head, and in no order:
Zappa and the Mothers: Hot Rats
The Band: The Band
Grateful Dead: Europe '72
Pink Floyd: Piper or Meddle or Wish You Were Here
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisted
What about the Inkspots? Tommy Dorsey?
Just fuckin' with you, this is a rare music list on this board on which I have listened to and like everyone on it.
Rock on, Old Man.
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Oh, mother fuck, this is hard. But I'll try.
Four I'm sure of, and two that tie for fifth:
Moxy Fruvous, You Will Go To The Moon
TMBG, John Henry
R.E.M., Life's Rich Pageant
Semisonic, Feeling Strangely Fine
Cake, Comfort Eagle / Ben Folds Five, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
The TMBG and R.E.M. choices are especially hard, since there are about three or four albums by each of them that could make this list.
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What about the Inkspots? Tommy Dorsey?
Just fuckin' with you, this is a rare music list on this board on which I have listened to and like everyone on it.
Rock on, Old Man.
1) Go ahead and laugh Mr. Notaspringchickeneither.
2) I could have included some Charlie Parker or Theolonius Monk. Or Bach.
3) Check back in 20 years and I betcha these young pukes' lists will be just as dated as mine.
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1) Go ahead and laugh Mr. Notaspringchickeneither.
That was the only reason I figured I'd get away with it.
Hey, I found this onion over here. Did it fall off your belt?
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That was the only reason I figured I'd get away with it.
Hey, I found this onion over here. Did it fall off your belt?
Let me tell you a rambling and pointless story about that...
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really? that big star thing? I cannot get into it beyond a few songs. I will try harder.
also: the pink album? what band are you talking about?
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also: the pink album? what band are you talking about?
They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants
Came out in 1985
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Oh, holy shit. This is an impossible task.
I will just list the first five albums that I can think of that I know I have listened to over 100 times in my lifetime (and by "over 100" I mean several hundred or thousand times for some of them).
1) The Velvet Underground "Loaded"
2) R.E.M. "Automatic For The People"
3) The Sex Pistols "Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols"
4) David Bowie "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars"
5) Ben Folds Five "Whatever And Ever Amen"
6) The Mothers "Fillmore East, June 1971"
7) The Magnetic Fields "69 Love Songs - Disc 1"
8) The Pixies "Trompe Le Monde"
9) The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead"
10) Radiohead "OK Computer"
11) Air "Moon Safari"
12) Weezer "Blue Album"
13) Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"
14) The Beatles "The White Album"
15) Morrissey "Vauxhall And I"
16) Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral"
17) Sonny Rollins "Saxophone Colossus"
18) Nirvana "Nevermind"
19) The Beastie Boys "License To Ill"
20) Morphine "Cure For Pain"
21) Soul Coughing ""
22) Ministry "The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste"
23) Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue"
24) Metallica "Master Of Puppets"
25) Lenny Kravitz "Mama Said"
26) Led Zeppelin "Houses Of The Holy"
27) The Doors "Greatest Hits" (the 2-disc one)
28) Joe Satriani "Surfing With The Alien"
29) Jane's Addiction "Ritual De Lo Habitual"
30) Green Day "Dookie"
31) They Might Be Giants "John Henry"
32) The Dead Kennedys "Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death"
33) Frank Sinatra "Sinatra At The Sands"
34) Faith No More "Angel Dust"
35) Eric Johnson "Ah Via Musicom"
36) Elastica "Elastica"
37) Counting Crows "August And Everything After"
38) Black Crowes "Shake Your Money Maker"
39) George Harrison "Cloud Nine"
40) Bruce Springsteen "Born In The U.S.A."
41) Bob Dylan "Highway 61 Revisited"
42) Blur "Parklife"
43) Billy Joel "The Stranger"
44) Belle & Sebastian "If You're Feeling Sinister"
45) Beck "Midnite Vultures" (I keep editing this to "Mutations" too - back and forth)
46) Van Halen "Van Halen"
47) Violent Femmes "Why Do Birds Sing?"
48) U2 "Achtung Baby"
49) Tom Waits "Rain Dogs"
50) Tom Petty "Full Moon Fever"
EDIT: Every time I save, I think "Holy Shit, I forgot ________! I listened to that album way more than these other ones!"
I stopped at 20 30 40 a lot, and as I was adding them I couldn't believe that I put Radiohead that far down on the list. That one is probably my most listened to ever. Also, I only listed one album for any one artist, but of course for The Smiths, R.E.M., Radiohead, heck, pretty much any of the bands listed here I could almost have gone with another album in that slot on any given day. I was just trying to come to terms with the ones I just played (and still play) over and over and over and over again.
I may come back and add more later.
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really? that big star thing? I cannot get into it beyond a few songs. I will try harder.
Oh you must at least give it one more try. Maybe you'll like Radio City better, since they recorded it after the departure of Chris Bell (the poppier, sweeter half of the original songwriting duo), leaving more room for the rawest of the two, Alex Chilton.
And then if you're brave enough you'll move on to Third AKA Sister Lovers, in which that rawness becomes desperation and mental disintegration. A song titled Holocaust might give you a hint that it's not an album to be listened to in your most vulnerable moments.
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That was the only reason I figured I'd get away with it.
Hey, I found this onion over here. Did it fall off your belt?
It's too bad they didn't have white onions (because of the war); you had to resort to those big yellow ones.
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This is difficult to write since most of my CD collection was stolen, so I don't have many "albums" around, but these are the Important Ones I can think of, in alphabetical order:
Dave Matthews Band - Remember Two Things
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
Propellerheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
R.E.M. - Nightswimming
Honorable mention (they fit the criteria but are not Top 5):
Barenaked Ladies - Rock Spectacle
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Beck - Odelay
Beta Band - Champion Versions*
Cake - Pressure Chief
Crystal Method - Tweekend
Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry
Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons
Moby - Play
Powerman 5000 - Tonight The Stars Revolt!
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Smashing Pumpkins - Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
TMBG - Lincoln
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
*Does it count if it's an EP, only had 4 songs, and I actually owned a CD which collected that EP and others?
Also, there are a lot of artists whose work is really important to me, but their catalog is released piecemeal now and never really had "albums," specifically most of the early jazz bands and singers. I only know these artists through various compilations:
Louis Armstrong
Harry Belafonte
Cab Calloway
Ray Charles
Bobby Darin
Tommy Dorsey
Ella Fitzgerald
Benny Goodman
Eartha Kitt
Louis Prima
Sarah Vaughan
As a final note, let me say FUCK YOU to the person who stole my CDs. Okay? FUCK. YOU.
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Hmm... this is pretty hard (a good lot of the bands I put on my top 25 list are important but indiv. albums, I still skip around some yet see the collection as a whole as great beyond that aspect, so yeah, this'll just be based on ones I recall frequently getting out in the past 6yrs), but I'm going to go on first instinct, yo:
1. The Notwist - Neon Golden (yessssss)
2. Ella Guru - The First Album (I wrote a review (http://www.sardonic-hee.com/music/ellagurureview.shtml) for it for my cousin's old zine back in '04. not sure if it ever got published, but that review made me listen more than I would've originally and it still is great all the way through.. I get chills each time I get it out)
3. Knife in the Water - Plays One Sound & Others ('Red River' is great, but I relate more with this one... especially 'Norma' -- it's where the 'Texas only kept me awake' line comes from -- and the last track)
4. Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
5. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
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It's too bad they didn't have white onions (because of the war); you had to resort to those big yellow ones.
Look girly, you don't remember back in the day when it was so bad we had to wear scallions. Those were the hard times.
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Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Oooo, that's a great album! I haven't heard it in forever because I have it on vinyl but don't have a working turntable anymore.
Know who else is good? Herbie Mann. And Jimmy Smith. And Kenny Burrell. And Wes Montgomery. And Ray Charles, Roland Kirk, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard and Eric Dolphy.
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Yeah, the life-changing requirement alters the list a little bit, but also makes it easier to compile:
--Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited
--Built to Spill: Ultimate Alternative Wavers (I know, it's not their best, but it's tied for my favorite, and holy fuck did it change my life)
--Saint Etienne: Tiger Bay
--The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
--Fugazi: In on the Killtaker
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This is leaning on life changing, but most of these artists would be on if it was just top 5, just different albums. In fact, I am going to put my favorite album in parenthesis after the first album.
1. Bob Dylan- Blonde on Blonde (Bringing it all back Home)
2. Beck- Mellow Gold (Mellow Gold)
3. Velvet Underground- VU w/ Nico (Self-Titled)
4. Beatles- Revolver (Revolver)
5. Radiohead- OK Computer (I can never decide what my favorite radiohead album is, I like them all)
And I guess by life changing, I mean changed the music I listened to. But music is pretty important to me. Most of them do have moments that I can immediately see in my head nostalgically, though. And, for the record, the memory is not just my with my headphones on.
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Allow me to weigh in and state that I find the best Beatles album to be Magical Mystery Tour.
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Propellerheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
Your list could've been one album long. D&D&R&R is a masterpiece and should've been more influential than Nevermind. I shall demonstrate my happiness by bestowing tiny cans.
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Your list could've been one album long. D&D&R&R is a masterpiece and should've been more influential than Nevermind. I shall demonstrate my happiness by bestowing tiny cans.
Concurrance here.
So much so that this (http://www.jerkcity.com/jerkcity1509.html) is my favorite jerkcity ever.
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I'll shoot...
1) Propeller by Guided by Voices
2) Hex Enduction Hour by the Fall
3) London Calling by the Clash
4) Bizarro by the Wedding Present
5) Perfect Teeth by Unrest
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I lost my copy of London calling. But I have a poster in my room of it.
this is a Pose, because while the cover is great, and I really like a few of the songs, I have never gotten that into it.
That said, I do remember the first time I ever heard "London Calling." It came on on the radio just as I woke up, and I jumped out of bed so that I could write down the song title and artist when they announced it.
I listened to Big Star. Never put a man/boy in a position to listen to "thirteen" when he is within a week of turning 18 and graduating from highschool. Also: he is moving away.
It's litany of typical teenage experiences made me realize that I will never experience many of these things again. or that i never did experience them. I am at a dual point: part of me still hates being a teenager, but part of me is already nostalgic.
Another song that does this: "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper. This song is so good. so good.
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I listened to Big Star. Never put a man/boy in a position to listen to "thirteen" when he is within a week of turning 18 and graduating from highschool. Also: he is moving away.
It's litany of typical teenage experiences made me realize that I will never experience many of these things again. or that i never did experience them. I am at a dual point: part of me still hates being a teenager, but part of me is already nostalgic.
Another song that does this: "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper. This song is so good. so good.
This feeling does not go away in conjunction with the end of high school. Every moment, no matter how minute, will be endowed with the glowing edges of significance, even as you are experiencing it. This is only the beginning of when you will make tally-marks to record life-changing events to take note of the fact that you will never be in the same place in your life again. From now on, everything counts.
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NOOOOOOO
"no, I don't want to celebrate my birthday. It just reminds me that I'm closer to dying."
that will be me. that will be me.
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Welcome to Hobot's World. Wristwatches do not tell the current hour, but instead count down the remaining time before your death.
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NOOOOOOO
"no, I don't want to celebrate my birthday. It just reminds me that I'm closer to dying."
that will be me. that will be me.
http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/temporary/PBF048BCTodayismyBirthday.html (http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/temporary/PBF048BCTodayismyBirthday.html)
Top five: (remember, not necessarily BEST)
1. Talking Heads - Little Creatures
2. The Clash - London Calling
3. Pulp - Different Class
4. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
5. Echo And The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
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http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/temporary/PBF048BCTodayismyBirthday.html (http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/temporary/PBF048BCTodayismyBirthday.html)
Yes. PBF understands me.
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next step:
someone from the boards' friend comes to visit me on my birthday, and I tell them that sentiment. Then the CYCLE WILL BE COMPLETE.
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I cut the list down to twelve, but each time I thought about removing any more I felt a sharp pain in my side. The list shall remain:
Bob Dylan - (1965) Bringing It All Back Home
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - (1968) We're Only In It For The Money
Van Morrison - (1968) Astral Weeks
The Band - (1969) The Band
John Lennon - (1970) John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
The Move - (1970) Shazam!
David Bowie - (1971) Hunky Dory
Paul Simon - (1972) Paul Simon
The Rolling Stones - (1972) Exile On Main St.
Brian Eno - (1974) Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
David Bowie - (1980) Scary Monsters
Arcade Fire - (2004) Funeral
Also, doesn't anyone listen to rap? Granted, I'm hesitant to put any MF Doom or Ghostface on my list just yet, but come on white folks...
Who are your favorite rapsters?
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Also, doesn't anyone listen to rap? Granted, I'm hesitant to put any MF Doom or Ghostface on my list just yet, but come on white folks...
Who are your favorite rapsters?
Good Sir I do believe Aesop Rock was on my list.
I'm pretty picky when it comes to hip-hop though. I love the Wu, but Ghostface is far from my favorite. (Shoutouts to Gza, Tiger Style!)
Also, even though he went insane for whatever reason a lot of the early Canibus tracks are kind of fun in their own way.
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Who are your favorite rapsters?
I like rap but I can't keep up with modern stuff. Kool Keith is the obvious one, of course, but otherwise I just listen to a lot of old and sort of corny stuff: De La Soul, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest. I have a Missy Elliot album too, that is okay. I think I have been pretty spoiled by the Kool Keith weirdness and cleverness and have higher standards for everything else. I mean to get some Jurassic 5 too.
Is this embarassing? I know all the lyrics to Ice Ice Baby, and I draw on U Can't Touch This to motivate me through difficult running.
Mostly I just like to freestyle on my friends' answering machines.
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Man. Rap. Where to begin?
I'll just throw a list of my favorites out there.
Kool Keith
Wu-Tang
Busta Rhymes
NWA
Public Enemy
The Coup
3rd Bass
Three 6 Mafia
Krayzie Bone
Snoop Doggy Dogg
Rip Slyme (Japanese Rap, all kinds of yeah)
Wax Tailor
Eric B and Rakim
Nas
Yeah, I like rap.
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I try so hard to like rap, but it does not work very well.
is Wu Tang a good place to start? their first album... 36 something-or-other?
I think I downloaded it a while ago... I'll have to check it out.
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I try so hard to like rap, but it does not work very well.
is Wu Tang a good place to start? their first album... 36 something-or-other?
I think I downloaded it a while ago... I'll have to check it out.
Wu-Tang is pretty hard stuff. (Ex: "Chop his head off... Peace!") But, 36 Chambers is soooo good. For a jumpoff point, something like Jurassic 5, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, or even Aesop Rock would probably work better.
In fact, I highly recommend starting with Deltron 3030 now that I think about it.
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I've known a lot of indie rock kids who start their transition to underground hiphop with Atmosphere, featuring my hometown boy Slug. I second Jurassic 5, and Mr. Homosapien. You may also like Giant Panda, Little Brother, Blackalicious, Common, Bus Driver, Talib Kweli, MF Doom, Danger penis, The Roots, Nappy Roots, and Dialated Peoples. (I am working my way through all of those artists at the moment - there's just so much!)
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yeah. my friends who like underground hip-hop listen to all of this stuff like... Dead Prez. They are pretty... wow.
I have some Deltron 3030, and Dangerpenis, and Wu-Tang. So I'll check those out.
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Lately, when it comes to rap, I mostly stick to anticon (http://www.anticon.com/). especially Why? and 13+God... I think when it comes to the latter, it's mostly 'cause The Notwist is a part of it.. hah.
I used to be a rap fiend in h.s. though.. I even made my own rap parody radio show with my cousin and another friend -- our dj names were masta lis (that was me; at the time I liked to go by Lisa which was weird since my name isn't even close to this), AK (an ak-47 sound clip would play as the opening) and Spanky (she was crazy; donkey kong country monkey noises was her opening) [still have it all on 4 cassette tapes in a drawer somewhere]... my favs at that time were 2pac, Warren G, Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony, Master P, Biggie, DJ Screw, Da Brat (Funkdafied!) and Too $hort (F*** my car). some of it is still fun to return to in a joking way, but yeah, I tended towards ghetto 90's rap as can be seen, so I can't say most of it had much long term value..
Some was genuinely good for the time, but some I just bought for "cool factor" -- a boy I liked at the time who lived down the street was a wannabe gangster and he nodded in an approving way if I had the latest rap albums at his disposal while he'd hang playing video games while using my phone to call his other friends. no, I don't know either.
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I love rap, too, but am always afraid to be too vocal about it as my tastes run a bit commercial, and it seems that aside from Nas and Wu-Tang, commerical rap is frowned upon here, and I so need all of your approval.
With a few exceptions, I don't like really old school rap, politcal rap, and most underground rap.
My favorites:
-Wu-Tang (GZA and Ghostface and my favorites, though GZA hasn't done anything worthwhile in at least a couple years)
-MF Doom
-Madlib
-Dr. Dre (who can do nothing on the mic, but who is also responsible for so much of what I love in rap)
-Ice Cube (It Was a Good Day is the best song EVER)
-Snoop Dogg
-Nas
-2Pac
-Kool Keith
-OutKast
-Public Enemy
-Cam'Ron
-Jay-Z
-The Roots
Favorite albums:
GZA: Liquid Swords
Madvillain: Madvillainy
(the first two are among my favorite albums of any genre ever, just barely missing the top 5 cut)
Snoop Dogg: Doggystyle
Nas: Illmatic
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Quasimoto: The Unseen
Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint
My main issue with rap albums is the tendency to go overboard on skits. Also, the tendency to make albums that are way too long. There are dozens of albums that I love, or at least love several tracks off of, but aren't really favorites. Not only is Illmatic an excellent record, it also should serve as a template for the ideal rap record: No skits, an intro you can actually listen to, no outro, and clocking in well under 45 minutes.
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I need to go back and check out a lot of stuff from before I started listening to rap (which would be basically all of it). I missed out on nearly all of pre-crunk commercial hip-hop. And here that's all you get on the radio now, which is a damn shame. I really can't stand Lil John or TI or Dem Franchize Boyz or D4L or any of them. Well, except for Ludacris, whom I adore.
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Let It Be
Abbey Road
Ram
There Goes Rhymin Simon
Bad Co.
Houses of the Holy
This is an impossible list to make of course and some of these albums wouldn't rate that high (Bad Co.) if it weren't based on the "changed your life" qualification. These are five albums that harken back to my early childhood that made a strong impact on my musical appreciation.
Let it Be/Abbey Road could also include McCartney's first album which were all contained on a single reel to reel tape that I listened to inscentaly as a young boy.
Ram isn't my all time favorite McCartney album, but the whole family was into it and we sang along together. I could also include the Beach Boys here, but we mostly sang along to In Concert which I haven't listened to in 25 years.
My mother bought this album when it was new in 1973 and I have been in love with Paul Simon's music ever since. I was surprised to see that Pitchfork reviewed his latest album. I wasn't surprised to see that they didn't like it much. Oh well, I probably will.
Bad Co is a great album, but I don't listen to it that much anymore. You can only squeeze so much entertainment value out of 7 songs. But it was this album that really turned me on to hard rock in a major way.
Houses of the Holy was given to me by my Aunt for Christmas when it came out in 1973. It was a mistake as I really wanted II. I had heard Whole Lot of Love on the Radio and thought the apocalypse was upon us. But I soon came to love this album and all heavy rock. Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Deep Purple I got into later. I could probably list Let There Be Rock here as well as it really kicked my ass in '76, but I was already into hard rock so I just became a super fan. Whole Lot of Somebody nice still kicks 9 kinds of ass. Corpulent female ass, I love it.
~Paul
PS- OMG, A Night At The Opera.
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I love rap, too, but am always afraid to be too vocal about it as my tastes run a bit commercial, and it seems that aside from Nas and Wu-Tang, commerical rap is frowned upon here, and I so need all of your approval.
DUDE, I put THREE 6 MAFIA. You are alright here. Commercial rap is okay. Nothing to be ashamed of.
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OutKast
Thank you!
They may be huge beyond belief now, but for a pleasant change in commercial music, it's merited.
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I've known a lot of indie rock kids who start their transition to underground hiphop with Atmosphere, featuring my hometown boy Slug. I second Jurassic 5, and Mr. Homosapien. You may also like Giant Panda, Little Brother, Blackalicious, Common, Bus Driver, Talib Kweli, MF Doom, Danger penis, The Roots, Nappy Roots, and Dialated Peoples. (I am working my way through all of those artists at the moment - there's just so much!)
Mmm Speaking of Jurassic 5 and Blackalicious: Lyrics Born is particularly awesome.