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Essential Albums


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Posted

Personally, when I think of essential albums, I think of albums that you must own or have heard, for example:

 

The Beatles: Revolver

Nirvana: Nevermind

Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon

The Clash: London's Calling

Marvin Gaye: What's Going On

Led Zeppelin: IV

R.E.M.: Automatic For The People

Radiohead: OK Computer

 

Albums that everyone should hear, regardless of their musical tastes. Albums which are creative and cultural highpoints. Albums that you can listen from start to finish, and every track stands out.

 

Meddle is simply a good album. I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone who didn't like Floyd's type of music. I like it, but it doesn't deserve to be in the same class as the albums above.

 

Besides which, I think more people like Wish You Were Here, don't they?

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Posted
Oh, I haven't noticed it in this thread (and if it has been mentioned, I apologize), but Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is The Jazz Album to Start With.

i did i did!

 

'bitches brew' seems to have a reputation as an essential album (i.e., people own it who don't own have any other miles albums or jazz albums), but...i don't know if i could tell somebody "you must own this."

Rolling Stones have released what I consider two essentials, Let it Bleed and Exile on Main Street.

no 'sticky fingers'?

I'd consider Dark Side of the Moon and Meddle to be essentials and some Pink Floyd marks can debate that The Wall is an essential purchase. However I think the Wall is pretentious crap,

i'm not a floyd mark, but i'd argue that 'the wall' is more essential, just cause i think it has better songs on it. before it turns too pretentious about 2/3 of the way through, there's some great stuff ("hey you," "goodbye blue sky," "young lust," & almost everything else).

Posted
I'd consider Dark Side of the Moon and Meddle to be essentials and some Pink Floyd marks can debate that The Wall is an essential purchase. However I think the Wall is pretentious crap,

i'm not a floyd mark, but i'd argue that 'the wall' is more essential, just cause i think it has better songs on it. before it turns too pretentious about 2/3 of the way through, there's some great stuff ("hey you," "goodbye blue sky," "young lust," & almost everything else).

While that albums got some good stuff on it, it's also got some absolute bollocks. "Annother Brick In The Wall pt. 1", "Vera", "Bring The Boys Back Home", "In The Flesh", "Mother", "The Show Must Go On", "The Trial" etc.

 

Although "Nobody Home" is possibly Roger Waters best song.

Posted

If we're talking REM, let me just say that I never was a huge fan of Automatic For The People. I much prefer Murmur, and I'd consider it somewhat essential.

 

And I don't know about it, but would you guys consider Van Morrison's Astral Works to be essential?

Posted
If we're talking REM, let me just say that I never was a huge fan of Automatic For The People. I much prefer Murmur, and I'd consider it somewhat essential.

 

And I don't know about it, but would you guys consider Van Morrison's Astral Works to be essential?

"Astral Weeks" is a great album, but I don't know if it transcends musical tastes like others, which I would say an "essential" album would have to do.

 

And I think that "Automatic", while not their best album, is the one that defines REM, and the one I would reccomend to someone as their first REM album...

Posted

What band do you think has the most essential albums? I'd argue Led Zeppelin, because pretty much everything in their somewhat small catalog can be argued as essential except for Prescene and In Through The Out Door(I'm not counting Coda....cause that sucked)

Posted

I think you're overshooting. The Beatles albums I'd consider *absolutely* essential:

 

Revolver

Sgt. Pepper's

Abbey Road

 

Which is not to say that I don't own and adore everything from A Hard Day's Night forward. Those three--and, if you stretch it, the White Album--are the only ones I think everyone *needs*. Similar take on Zeppelin, though I don't kow their whole catalogue as well as I do the Beatles.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

 

How could any punk fan be without it?

 

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

 

Two of the most important metal albums ever.

Guest Agent of Oblivion
Posted
Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

 

Two of the most important metal albums ever.

 

Stab.

 

Paranoid is great shit, but it's like the paramecium that evolved from the glorious primordial soup that is the self-titled debut. They do a lot more on the first album, and put things together a little better. Paranoid is all about great songs, Black Sabbath is all about being a great album.

 

Kill 'em All did nothing good for metal. As evidence, I present all the horrible bands around today that were greatly influenced by it.

Guest Agent of Oblivion
Posted
Meddle is simply a good album. I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone who didn't like Floyd's type of music. I like it, but it doesn't deserve to be in the same class as the albums above.

 

Besides which, I think more people like Wish You Were Here, don't they?

I would based on its diversity. There's pretty much something on there for everyone, from proto-metal stuff like "One of these days" to a stupid pop ditty in "San Tropez." Let's not forget "Echoes" the massive progressive epic. "Seamus" is a nice little bluesy kind of song, and "A Pillow of Winds" sounds exactly like its title. Great, GREAT album. Floyd's best in my book.

 

WYWH is completely inferior to Dark Side. They were travelling down the long pretentious road of aging and turmoil at that point, and I think it shows on the album. Everyone knows the title track well enough, but the rest of the album really leaves me wanting something else.

Posted
Meddle is simply a good album. I wouldn't reccomend it to anyone who didn't like Floyd's type of music. I like it, but it doesn't deserve to be in the same class as the albums above.

 

Besides which, I think more people like Wish You Were Here, don't they?

I would based on its diversity. There's pretty much something on there for everyone, from proto-metal stuff like "One of these days" to a stupid pop ditty in "San Tropez." Let's not forget "Echoes" the massive progressive epic. "Seamus" is a nice little bluesy kind of song, and "A Pillow of Winds" sounds exactly like its title. Great, GREAT album. Floyd's best in my book.

 

WYWH is completely inferior to Dark Side. They were travelling down the long pretentious road of aging and turmoil at that point, and I think it shows on the album. Everyone knows the title track well enough, but the rest of the album really leaves me wanting something else.

Welcome To The Machine and Have A Cigar are great songs. There are a few boring parts of SOYCD, which are mostly at the beginning. The funkier part, I'm inclined to say Part 8, is a favorite of mine.

 

 

I'd list Dark Side, WWYH, and The Wall as essential. Whoever said Another Brick Part 1 was bad was stupid. 2 is the worst one, naturally. It goes 3, 1, 2. (Also: Chicago's area code)

Posted

and AoO. If there wasn't a Life Till Leather demo tape by Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax wouldn't be around with out the exposure thrash music had got, and neither were Metallica. Of course it spawned out some real bad shit (Overkill especially...ugh). You can't deny it, like it or not, don't say Venom or Celtic Frost, or Motorhead started thrash music.

Posted
Has no one mentioned Nirvana "Nevermind" and "In Utero" yet?

Probably cause they're way overrated. I like them both, but Nirvana's not near as great as they're built up as

NIRVANA ROCKS

but I like the Unplugged Album better then Nevermind

Guest Agent of Oblivion
Posted

Slayer would still be around. They never got a boatload of exposure in the first place.

 

If Megadeth or whoever would've sent a demo in to the same people, the exact same thing would've happened. They all had the same image going for them, and similar sounds. Metallica being there was incidental.

Guest Agent of Oblivion
Posted

No, he was busy with Metallica, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Either way, that still doesn't address the point that any other thrash band of the era could've done what they did, in terms of getting thrash some exposure.

Guest mike mayhem
Posted

The Mad Capsule Markets- OSC DIS [Oscillator in Distortion] - a brilliant album by a brill Japanese band B-)

 

Audioslave - an album that is full of Rock & Chris Cornell is a good singer

 

Both are worth getting :D

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