Best albums

[Strong Bad]

I was having a discussion the other day about music and it took a turn toward the best albums ever recorded. We really focused on albums that seemed to be great from beginning to end, not just a few good songs. We also talked about how it seemed as though the group was just in a serious zone and firing on all cylinders when writing, recording and producing the album. Almost like all the stars were in perfect alignment when they made the albums and were never able to capture that magic again.

Here is my list (not complete) of what I think are the best of the best, with a few comments.

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon: Although they had a few more successful albums after this one, they never ever hit perfection like this again.

2. Led Zeppelin - 4: Their crowning achievement. They had some excellant albums and songs to follow this up (good ones prior to this also), but forget about it. Too big a hill to climb!

3. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours: Good lord did they nail this one! Too bad they never came remotely close to capturing this magic again.

4. Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms: This is one that some may disagree on, but if you get past the first 3 songs (the pop hits), there's some seriously creative and wonderful music to be heard. Great to the end. Always been in my top list! They never did anything worthwhile again.

5. AC/DC - Back in Black: Of course most people thought they were history when Bon Scott bit the dust, but this one proved the world wrong. They never got it perfect again!

6. U2 - Joshua Tree: Every album since had me wishing for more of Joshua Tree. They blew all their creativity on this one. AMAZING!

7. Van Halen - #1: This one just turned 26 years old a few days ago. This one blew the world away! Hell of a debut album that was never matched again.

8. Guns n Roses - #1: Like Van Halen, they nailed it literally perfect right out of the gate. Too bad they too spent all their creative juices on the first one.


Ok guys, lets hear some of yours.


John

[pjdami]

Ditto your list there John. Some great albums indeed.

I would replace U2 - Joshua Tree with "the unforgetable fire" as being my favorite from them. Van Halen 1984 was pretty cool but Van Halen 1 was better.

What about the Eagles "Hotel California."

Led Zeppelin 1 was revolutionary and one of my favs too.

Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here".

Rush "Exit Stage Left"; Red Barchetta makes me want to drive the stang fast. Tom Sawyer is one of my all time favorite songs.

Boston "Third Stage"

CCR Vol One..

Man I could go on and on...

[woodyjacobs]

Great post and some great albums above. I don't know if Live albums should count since they are kind of Greatest Hits albums but Rush's Exit Stage Left was included above (and it is one of the best live albums ever) so I'm going to add a few more below. Here's some I'd like to add:

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - I never tire of it.

Cake - Fashion Nugget. One of the few CDs that I own that I can get through without even thinking about taking it out.

Nirvana - Nevermind - Besides being the most influential rock album of the 90's it had no bad songs.

Led Zeppelin II - My favorite Zep album. How frickin' great is the riff from Heartbreaker?

Lyle Lovett - Live In Texas - Great recording and great backing performances. I used to use this as a demo but then I realized it sounds so good that it can make any system sound better than it really is.

Billy Joel - The Stranger - If he would have just stopped before "Uptown Girl..."

Pixies - Doolittle - If you've never heard the Pixies start here.

Sting - Bring on the Night - Succeeded in doing something that one of my all-time favorite bands, The Police, never did - make an album with no duds on it.

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

The The - Mind Bomb

Violent Femmes - 1st - Nothing before or since has ever been more capable of producing a vulgar sing-along

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction - My favorite metal album ever.

That's all I can think of right now.

[dorokusai]

Anything by Weird Al Yankovich.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Didn't see Miles mentioned anywhere...Aside from the others mentioned already:

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
John Coltrane: Giant Steps & Blue train
Charlie Parker: April in Paris & Dancing in the Dark
Michael Brecker: Tales From the Hudson & self titled
Lenny Pickett: With the Borneo Horns
Maynard Ferguson: Carnival
Arturo Sandoval: Swingin'
Scott Joplin: Elite Syncopations
UNT One O'clock Lab Band: Lab 92 and Lab 95
Live: Secret Samadhi
Dave Matthews Band: Under the Table and Dreaming
Dream Theater: Scened From a Memory & Images and Words
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced
Take 6: Self Titled
Harry Connick Jr: Blue Light, Red Light

those are the first few that come to mind...

[gmorris]

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!!

Audioslave - Audioslave

Bare Naked Ladies - Rock Spectacle

-great th'd BTW-

[ninerbj]

Frank Zappa: Joe's Garage

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here

The Tragically Hip: Day For Night

SRV: Texas Flood

Rush: Signals

Steely Dan: Aja

Neil Young: Decade

Queensryche: Operation Mind Crime

Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything

Donald Fagan: The Nightfly

[Billm57]

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Yes - Close To The Edge
Led Zeppelin - IV
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Allman Brothers - At The Fillmore
Agitation Free - Second
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Santana - I , Abraxas, and III
The Who - Whos Next
Pink FLoyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Deep Purple - Machine Head

[dcarlson]

Nice to see The Hip - Day for Night. That's a great one for sure. :)

Sparing the usual Floyd and Zeppelin, tops in my books right now are:

Radiohead - Ok Computer, Kid A
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
The Stones - Sticky Fingers, Let it Bleed, Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main Street....
Any Neil Young

[gregure]

Nice to see so many music fans with similar interests to mine. I too feel the following are great albums:

1. Led Zeppelin I is still my favorite. Ending the album with "How Many More Times" was genius. Of course I like IV, but Physical Grafitti also really gets me going. Nice to see so many Led Heads out there.
2. Dark Side of the Moon
3. The Who-Who's Next -how can you not love this album?
4. U2-I also feel Joshua Tree is the best.
5. Best of The Doors-One single album just doesn't do them justice.
6. The Verve-Urban Hymns.
7. Van Halen I
8. Jeff Buckley-Grace. An ecclectic mix of songs, not quite a consistent album, but a lot of great music from an excellent singer, who died way too early.
9. AC/DC-Back in Black
10. Bon Jovi-Slippery When Wet

And even though it doesn't fit with any of the above, one I listen to a lot (and a great disc to demo your speakers) is the score to Gladiator by Hanz Zimmer.

[mhw58]

Beatles
A Hard Days Night
Rubber Soul
Revolver
White Album
Abbey Road

CCR
Will and the Poorboys
Cosmos Factory

Rolling Stones
Let it Bleed

The Who
Who's Next

Jimi Hendrix
Are you experienced

Elton John
Honkey Chateau
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Pink Floyd
DSOTM
Wish you were Here
The Wall

Dylan
Highway 61
Blood on the Tracks

Beach Boys
Pet Sounds

Led Zepplin
1, 2 and 4

Deep Purple
Machine Head

Fleetwood Mac
Rumours

Springsteen
Born to Run
Darkness on the edge of town

Jackson Browne
Late for the sky

Steely Dan
The Royal scam
Aja

Radiohead
The Bends
OK Computer

Nirvana
Nevermind

Cat Stevens
Tea for the Tillerman

Oasis
What's the story morning glory

Barenaked Ladies
Gordon

Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
Porgy and Bess

John Coltrane
My Favorite Things
Love supreme

Tom Petty
Damn the Torpedos

White Stripes
Elephant


Mike

[mhw58]

8. Jeff Buckley-Grace. An ecclectic mix of songs, not quite a consistent album, but a lot of great music from an excellent singer, who died way too early.



Just read on Billboard that Grace is being rereleased, remastered with a disc of bonus tracks in a couple of months.
Mike

[gidrah]

Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's
Sun Ra - Lanquidity
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Styx - Grand Illusion

Just to name a few.

[pjdami]

Gidrah,

Yeah man, Pink Floyd "Obscured by Clouds". Dude that is one that I used to spin a lot studying or just to put me to sleep.

I'll have to add Pink Floyd "Meddle". Before I leave this earth I will have a dog named Seamus for sure.

I will also add Journey "Frontiers". Great effin album.

How could I forget Styx too. Good call there.

[gidrah]

Oops - new thread error. I hope the C&P works.

Obscured by Clouds is my favorite Floyd album followed closely by Animals. Then again I'd rather listen to Atom Heart Mother than DSOTM. Meddle would top the list if Echoes could fit as one song. Great stuff, but the split makes for a rough album to love.

[kuntasensei]

Ditto on the aforementioned Radiohead - OK Computer and Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.

Others for me:
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
The Twilight Singers - Twilight
Tool - Aenima
Brad - Shame

[amulford]

Oh man, for me to even try to put some of these down would be doing others injustice, but...

All of Led Zeppelin - I got a friggin tattoo!!!
Pink Floyd - DSOTM, Animals, Wish you were Here, Momentarry Lapse of Reason
Yes - 90125, open your eyes, the yes album
Rush - Moving pictures
CSNY - Deja Vue
Metallica - All of it
Audioslave -
Days of the new


Man, I could be here all day!!!!

[Strong Bad]

Damn, how could I have forgotten about Rush Moving Pictures and Yes 90125.

Don't ya wish these groups could go back just one more time and get the magic back. This modern day rock is killing me! Not much good going on. Just alot of yelling and F-Bomb dropping.

Audioslave did really well though. Big thumbs up on that one!


Dorokusai (Mark), you're sick man! I'll see you guys soon though. Will shoot ya an email about an upcoming weekend.


John

[organ]

Oh man, where do I start:) This is in no particular order and I'm sure I'll miss many along the way but here's my list.

Nightwish- 'Oceanborn', 'Wishmaster' and 'Century Child'

Cradle of Filth- 'Vempire', 'Dusk and her Embrace', 'Cruelty and the Beast' and 'Midian'

Lacuna Coil- 'Lacuna Coil'

Therion- 'Vovin', 'Secrets of the Runes'

Rhapsody- Any album

Immortal- 'Sons of Northern Darkness'

Amon Amarth- 'Versus the World'

Kamelot- 'The Fourth Legacy', 'Karma' and 'Epica'

Moonspell- 'Wolfheart'

Sarah Brightman- 'Eden', 'La Luna', 'Classics', and 'Harem' I just purchased 3 more of her albums today (will buy 2 more tomorrow). I have to listen to all of them first but I'm sure they'll make it because I LOVE all her music.

Maurice

[danger boy]

thought i'd add Supertramp's Breakfast in America.

Carole King - Tapestry

BareNaked Ladies - Stunt

[woodyjacobs]

Crap, how could I forget Breakfast in America. What a classic!

I couple more that I think are near perfect:

Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Weezer - "Blue album"
Rush - Hemispheres
Seal - Seal (1st album - so sue me)
Pink Floyd - The Wall, DSOTM (obviously)
Yes - Yessongs
Hedwig and Angry Inch - Original Soundtrack (it's one artist so it qualifies)
SRV - Couldn't Stand the Weather, Texas Flood
The Cure - Pornography

[Pablo]

All my favorites have been mentioned (Zep, Rush, Yes, the Who, ect.). Aside from the classics, one of my all time favorites;

Counting Crows - August and Everything After

Also (but not as good as the later);

Blues Traveler - Four

[setzer808]

Can't believe no one has mentioned:

Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan

I'd also say,

ZZ Top: Eliminator

[bland_flabbis]

I'll re-emphasise the person who put doolittle by the pixies as that's got to be on everyones list surely! mine are

pixies - doolittle
radiohead - kid a
acid mothers temple - la novia
squarepusher - music is a rotted one note
boards of canada - music has the right to children
nile - in their darkened shrines
mogwai - happy songs for happy people

[danger boy]

don't know if it's been mentioned already or not..

Slowhand - Eric Clapton

[danger boy]

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions

Melissa Ethridge - Yes I am

[George Grand]

The Carpenter's Greatest Hits
Zamfir's Greatest Hits (Master of the Pan Flute)

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[danger boy]

Originally posted by George Grand
The Carpenter's Greatest Hits
Zamfir's Greatest Hits (Master of the Pan Flute)

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

come on George.... play the right way or don't play at all. sheesh! :p

your faves are all compilations.. not single albums/CD's.

You got a lot to learn... now pay attention will ya. :D