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For me, Radiohead, The Bends. You stick most of their stuff up your arse, but for me, it's a certain time and place that it just got me through. Pub singing in The Crown (I think) in Ramsbottom is a particular memory. It's a chippy now. Nevermind.
What's yours?
Ooh. Good one.
Trying to take away nostalgia... Let's go with Vertigo of Bliss by Biffy Clyro, they're the only band I've got inked on me so it probably better be them 😆
Close runners up would be Troublegum by Therapy? though, and August And Everything After by the Counting Crows. Though I think I'm not doing too well at the "taking away nostalgia" thing there.
Nine Inch Nails- Fixed Ep.
Had it on at work the other day, still spectacular.
Edit: Because when I was 14 I would fall asleep with it on pretending I was Neo with Winamp visualizations on. I truly loved that life.
Does anyone else remember waking up hot as hell after leaving undercooled old fashioned beige units on all night ripping off Audiogalaxy...
Sigh.
Soul Mining by The The.
The one album I go back to more than any other.
My first cd to play in my first(only)CD player, Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits :D. Suggested at the time by the shop due to the "modern" production techniques at the time. Just fired up my old "hifi" last night for the first time in ages, think my old Mission 7s are a bit past it!
Diffusion rooms by Guardians of daliance.
The Wedding Present - George Best
Soundtrack to my first year at university, and according to John Peel:
The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!
Endtroducing-DJ Shadow.Hated electronic music before I heard it.
Prodigy music for the jilted generation. Was primal scream xtrmntr for a while but I've gone back to the prodigy as my go to album when I don't fancy anything else.
Why? Cause its bouncing! 😀 I like my music upbeat!
Although Cymande was suggested on my thread the other month by someone. That's getting there.
Today, Stories from the city stories from the sea, PJ Harvey, will have changed my mind tomorrow
[b]ABBA[/b] - time of peace and happiness (not album title).
[b]Carpenter [/b]- same but with hint of sadness (not album title).
After that time we just have organised noise.
Apetite for destruction. I still think its amazing.
I
am a stranger to myself
and nobody knows I'm here
When I looked into my face
It wasn't myself I'd seen
But who
I tried
to be
mmm, radiohead 'the bends' would make my top five but I will have to go for the stone roses first, don't think you can choose a favourite album without a bit of nostalgia.
For me it might be "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco, because its fantastic.
Madvillain - Madvilliany.
With Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Enter The Wu Tang in a close second.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel.
The outlet for my teenage angst but also a brilliantly simple and evocative piece of songwriting.
Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins - every track is great in it's own way and all seem to match the previous and following one well. One of the few albums I can listen to from start to finish and think it's all brill.
Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin. Because there has never been anyone better.
Mind you, some good suggestions above. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is excellent, but for NIN I prefer Pretty Hate Machine.
.....or Low,Things We Lost In The Fire.13 years after first hearing it,it can still make me cry.
Another vote for The Stone Roses
Every song a great and it's survived the years very well
thanks lemonysam, just gave neutral milk hotel a go on Spotify, not gonna win my album of all time but good stuff
My absolute favourite album for all eternity is Aretha Franklin I never loved a man the way I love you.* It has the best version of "A change is gonna come" ever
*For the moment 🙂
Aretha Franklin a change is gonna come
I keep going back to Lo Fi Allstars, How to Operate With A Blown Mind.
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin.
Has always sounded so completely unique, whilst influencing so many other acts. Plus, it just about fits every mood.
A more recent album I can't leave alone is The Seer by Swans. Nothing else sounds like Swans.
Selected ambient works - totally mind blowing, still 100% relevant today
New order, substance! Why? Just listen, simple!
Hmmm. In terms of nostalgia, Metallica And justice for all. Got it for Xmas 89 on LP and tape, immense. Needs remastering coz it sounds shit mind.
Converge, Jane Doe. Sounds like the workings of me brain, bit like Hulk smash all the time.
Quicksand, Slip. Mega influence.
Thinking about it though, probably Now 7 coz it were the first album I actually chose.
A lot of good albums mentioned already.
Paul Simon - Graceland for me. It's the one record that has been with me from childhood into my 30s and it never gets boring.
Oh, and obviously Reign in blood. Why? Because it's ****ing Slayer.
There could never be one, i could never choose, even harder than choosing one bike, which is probably impossible and usually impractical
Top three on playlist in the last decade or more:
Magma 'MDK'
Gas 'NAH UND FERN'
Boredoms 'VISION CREATION NEWSUN'
And someone mentioned the the's 'Soulmining', amazing LP, that was in the prior decade's top three
Van Halen Fair Warning.
A bit darker than their usual stuff but I just love the sound. Great riffs and solos by Eddie and Mike and Alex's rhythm section is sublime. Some cool lyrics by Dave.
The art work on the album is very interesting too.
Favourite track is Mean Street but Hear About it Later is a close second.
Probably either Repeater by Fugazi (or maybe the argument), or RATM self titled. Never mind the bollocks brings back some fun memories of jam sessions with my mate on drums in year 9 at school haha
Exile on Main St - The Rolling Stones.
Something of all guitar based music on this, never have it far from reach. Kids ask for it to sometimes.
Newer stuff, can't stop listening to Admiral Fallow - Tree bursts in snow.
The Bends would be up there for me too, as would OK Computer. Another one of mine would be The Joshua Tree - it's all about the memories.
Leftism by Leftfield
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Sublime track selection and flawless mixing. Nearly 20 years old and it's still peerless.
Great thread but there must be more than one choice surely?
"Dark Side of The Moon' Pink Floyd, my older brother played it so many times late at night when we went to sleep.
"Nevermind" Nirvana, it's just so good never gets old.
"Dre 2001" Dr Dre, best Rap album ever the rest is just noise.
OK Computer, and other Radiohead songs if that era. I was completing my GCSE's, had my first girlfriend, was learning about alcohol, my first festival, it was a long hot summer spent with lifelong mates riding bikes. But it's not all about nostalgia it's an incredible album.
Other favourites:
Stories from the city stories from the sea, PJ Harvey
Operation Doomsday MF DOOM
Entroducing DJ Shadow
"Dre 2001" Dr Dre, best Rap album ever the rest is just noise.
Just as well I like noise then. In terms of rap albums pick one from Beastie Boys - Ill Communication,
nas - illmatic, PE - It takes a nation of millions to hold us back, Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full, Wu-Tang - Enter the Wu-Tang. For something a bit more recent, I really like Childish Gambino - because the internet.
Favourite all time though would have to be Gorillaz - Demon Days.
IMO obviously!
"Just as well I like noise then"
ooops...
Today, it is Digital Ash In A Digital Urn by bright Eyes.
Changed my life maaaan.
Townes Van Zandt live at the old quarter
Micos no worries, I was just suggesting a few to listen to as I think even by Dre's standards that's a pretty average album.
Berlin - Lou reed
From before my time, but was introduced to it in my teens.
Depends upon my mood and as Leftism has been mentioned, as has Physical Graffiti, I'll plump for Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd
If it's judged by being the album you go back to time and time again, then for me it's The Holy Bible from The Manics. Ferocious, intelligent and unrelenting.
Other contenders. The The again, but I'd go for Infected. For purely nostalgic reasons The Sisters of Mercy and Floodland. To not be totally rooted in the past (although I guess a favourite album has to stay with you over a period of time) I'd also consider Distraction Pieces from Scroobius Pip.
The Postal Service - Give Up
Soundtracked my time at university and still gets played regularly now. Not one duff track on the whole album.
Can always go back to Pesence by Led Zeppelin. It's got the spook.
Pink floyd - dark side of the moon .
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard and Linda Thompson.
I remember buying it just because I recognised some of the backing musicians on it and then being blown away by it. Great songs wonderful lyrics and great musicianship.
Difficult to remove nostalgia and need different tunes for different moods but keep coming back to this.
KLF The White Room
"Nevermind" Nirvana, it's just so good never gets old.
I always thought this was their weakest album. Bleach and In Utero are way better imo. So many good songs on those!
Bomb The Bass & their Enter The Dragon is my current go to in the garage, before that it was my own Cypress Hill compilation Bong Hits, in the car it's Amy MacDonald.
It was between the stone roses, and air - moon safari.
According to play count on itunes, moon safari wins.
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Hmm, SBH is right' "Exile" is pretty hard to beat.
"Ziggy" by Bowie as well, of course.
I forgot to mention "Violator" by Depeche Mode.
Faith no more - Angeldust. Obsessed over it as a teen, and nothing has come along to beat it.
Lostprophets - Start Something is still my favourite album. I just replace Ian Watkins with the other Ian Watkins (H from Steps)
Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
Probably listened to this more than anything else these last few years, suppose it must be my fave off of that...
Notable mention though for Jawbreaker - Etc
Some of my favourites on here: give up, the bends, stone roses.
At the minute I'm liking sophtware slump by grandaddy. Like radiohead vs postal service.
One of my favourite albums is Whatever and Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five. Which is odd because it's got none of my favourite songs on, it's a really good album as an album, like a good film.
I get the feeling a lot of albums are just a collection of songs these days. Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly is another good one.
Journeys By DJ: Coldcut - 70 Minutes Of Madness
[i]Never[/i] tire of it
Blue Lines
Bucks Fizz, Greatest Hits.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In.
Some question! So many albums, across such an expanse of time...
I guess the one that has never palled, that I go back to and play right through, is Paul Simon's [i]Hearts and Bones[/i].
Probably his finest work, almost criminally under-appreciated, with stunning production values, truly superb.
There are others I could choose; Shawn Colvin's [i]A Few Small Repairs[/i], Goldfrapp's [i]Felt Mountain[/i], Portishead's [i]Dummy[/i], King Crimson's [i]In The Court of the Crimson King[/i] and Arcade Fire's [i]Funeral[/i] could all be my greatest album, at any given time, each one has a valid and compelling reason, mainly because most of them completely opened my mind to a different type of music to what I'd been listening to before.
yossarian - Member
Selected ambient works - totally mind blowing, still 100% relevant today
Forgotten how good that one was!
A-ha the singles
every song a classic!
One album, you got to be kidding, right?
Three is just so much. From Astral weeks, What's Goin On, Greetings From LA, There's a Riot Goin on,
To things like Tago Mago (Can) In a Silent Way (Miles) and Sextet/Six Marimbas (Reich).
To more modern stuff like Hell Among the Yearlings (Gillian Welch), Silur (Tarwater), Homogenic (Bjork) and White Chalk (PJ).
But if I absolutely had to I'd have to choose from Greatest Palace Music (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Sometimes I wish We Were An Eagle (Bill Callahan) and (if push comes to shove I guess at the moment it would have to be) Jukebox by Cat Power.
Why? God knows, partly because it has a sublime version of (Joni Mitchell's) Blue and Metal Heart of course. But partly because I can remember the first time I heard it and that, to me, seems like better days....
Air - Moon Safari.
An album that remains relevant to every aspect of my life. It's indescribable...
For me,
The Skinny Boys, Weightless.
Pure, stripped down rap. No fancy nonsense. Just a drum machine, scratching, beatbox and rapping.
also, Black Flag, Damaged. Intense, simple, pure.
I can't pick a fav, but i come back time and time again to Blue Lines by Massive Attack:
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My mind seems to make some complex distinction between albums that contain great songs and albums that are in some integrated manner great albums. There are many albums I love because of the songs they contain, but many fewer where I love the album as much as its songs.
One such album, Angel Dust, has been mentioned above. Another is Jim White's Wrong-Eyed Jesus! but the one that springs to mind as my greatest album is Neon Golden, by The Notwist. As well as loving all the music on it there's just something about it which makes me love it even more as a unified whole.
Plus, it's on YouTube in it's entirety, so any one of you can listen to it and wonder what on earth I'm talking about. 🙂
No Steel Panther?
Love for "Blue Lines" here, and I agree.
It saved my life once, did I ever tell you about that? I had a long term girlfriend who qualified and then couldn't get work in Scotland. Nearest place of work was in Newcastle, so the long-distance romance began.
Went on for about 2 years, but I'd began to have doubts about her/some of her excuses for not turning up....I'd bring up the subject of our future and she'd always convince me that she saw it with me.
Anyway....one day, just as she's due to set off back home to Newcastle, she handed me the copy of Blue Lines she'd borrowed from me a few weeks ago, on CD....except I owned it on cassette 🙁
Pennies dropped over the next 2 weeks, and some not very exhaustive digging found she was f*cking not one but TWO other guys!! Welcome to Dumpsville, population= you!
So, if you ended up married to a lunatic ginger Pediatric nurse from Saltcoats, who'll remain nameless- hopefully no-one on here married her?- I hope she's changed.
Whoever recommended "I want to see the bright lights tonight"- its an album I've always meant to check out, and you're right, Spotify tells me after one listen that I'll be listening to it from hereon in. I thank you.
Impossible task but someone said Physical Graffiti and don't think I could argue with that.
[b]ABBA/Carpenter to rule them all![/b]
😈
Never thought much of it at the time but really enjoyed Keane-Hopes and Fears.
Listened to it non stop during a trip around France with my eldest daughter back in 2006 she was 14 at the time. I dont get the chance to see her much as she lives in the States with her mum.
That was the last time we were really close and she was still my little girl wanting to hold my hand and snuggle.
This album has grown on me over the years and brings back such lovely memories for me I get a lump in my throat every time I listen to it.
*I know! Keane huh wtf.*