Top 10 Favourite Albums of All-Time

[Liam]

Simple really, what are you top 10 (or more, if you wanna go that far) albums of all time? I say of all time, as I'm suggesting not just flavour of the month stuff that you may like now, more stuff that is endearing to you in the long term.

Top 10 (in no particular order)

REM "Automatic For The People"

David Gray "White Ladder"

Jeff Buckley "Grace"

Tool "Aenima"

Alice In Chains "Dirt"

Ben Folds "Rockin' The Suburbs"

Radiohead "The Bends"

Deftones "White Pony"

In Flames "Clayman"

Faith No More "Angel Dust"

Next 10 (as I was bored, again no order)

Nirvana "Nevermind"

RHCP "Bloodsugarsexmagic"

Mastodon "Remission"

Killswitch Engage "Alive Or Just Breathing?"

The Mars Volta "De-loused In The Comatorium"

Hundred Reasons "Ideas Above Our Station"

Pearl Jam "Ten"

Opeth "Blackwater Park"

Joy Division "Closer"

Soundgarden "Superunknown"

Bands that miss out due to me not having any of their CD's aside from Best Of's

The Smiths

U2

Crowded House

Depeche Mode

New Order

I tried to keep it down to one album per band/artist, but it doesn't really matter.

Edited June 25, 2006 by liamwannabe

[TAFKA Castroneves]

TAFKA's Top 10...

QOTSA - "Rated R"

A Perfect Circle - "Thirteenth Step"

Ill Nino - "Revolution/Revolucion"

KoRn - "Untouchables"

Nothingface - "Violence"

Sevendust - "Animosity"

Soulfly - "Primitive"

Spineshank - "The Height of Callousness"

Static-X - "Machine"

System of a Down - "Mezmerize/Hypnotize"

[Bushmeister]

Napalm Death - Scum

Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction

Meshuggah - Chaosphere

Marduk - Panzer Division Marduk

Mayhem - Deathcrush

Emperor - Anthems To The Weldkin At Dusk

Cannibal Corpse - Tomb Of The Mutilated

The Berzerker - Dissimulate

Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw

Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come

[tristy]

No order, really. I find that impossible as it changes from mood to mood.

Tool's Ænema

Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon

KoЯn's Follow The Leader

Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile

50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

Porcupine Tree's In Absentia

OTEP's Sevas Tra

Type O Negative's October Rust

The Mars Volta's De-Loused In The Comatorium

Refused's The Shape Of Punk To Come

I basically compiled that list by the following: me knowing all of the lyrics to the songs on the albums, how good the music is, and the impact it had on me personally.

[probablyoliver]

This will no doubtedly change from time to time, but as good a list as I can get it is what follows:

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

The Beatles - White Album

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American / Jimmy Eat World

Bright Eyes - Fevers & Mirrors

Fun Lovin' Criminals - 100% Columbian

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

The Wedding Present - Bizarro

The Bronx - White Drugs

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

And a few stragglers on:

RHCP - BloodSexSugarMagik

Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters

Hundred Reasons - Ideas Above Our Station.

And the way things are going, I'm sure I'll be including the following two in the next few months / years / whatever, because no matter how much I listen to them, they never get old:

Say Anything - ...Is a Real Boy

Panic! at the Disco - A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

[ROC]

And now for the most ridiculously mainstream of all the all time lists... Oh, and I'll admit most of these are more nostalgia than anything else.

Metallica - The Black Album (Probably my favorite rock record ever, if only for how much I still love it today. It's probably not Metallica's best, but it's one that holds the most memories to me.)

AC/DC - Back in Black (Again, another record that I always remembered from childhood, though, I don't think it's harder to dispute this one being the best AC/DC record IMO.)

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

Nappy Roots - Watermelon, Chicken, and Gritz

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

Van Halen - 1984

Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill

Audioslave - Out of Exile

Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Then again, this is probably a terrible gauge, considering I legally own around nine albums...

[Steeb]

No particular order, again, as that'd be pretty fuckin' hard.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic

Pearl Jam - Binaural

Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning

Coheed & Cambria - In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness

At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene

Mindless Self Indulgence - Tight

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

I've probably forgotten one though. Can't think what.

[DMN in the House]

In no particular order...

Sublime 40oz to Freedom

KoRn Follow the Leader

Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction

DI Live at a Dive

Sex Pistols Nevermind the Bollocks

Kid Rock Devil Without a Cause

NWA Straight Outta Compton

Metallica Ride the Lightning

Atmosphere Lucy Ford LP

Atmosphere God Loves Ugly

[ClaRK! Kent]

I've been sitting here, attempting a Top 10 in my head... I just can't do it. I can, at a massive pinch and by imposing a few rules on myself, come up with a Top 20. So I'll do one of those, then.

I'm limiting myself to a maximum of two albums by any particular artist, because otherwise I'd be sitting here for 3 hours trying to work out what order to rank all my Bob Dylan/Smiths albums in, and that'd be just silly.

I haven't ordered them exactly, a lot of them are equal or 'unsure', I just know whereabouts they would be, in which group of ten.

20-11, in no particular order

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Rufus Wainwright - Want (the double album version)

Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

Jay-Z - The Black Album

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Goldfrapp - Black Cherry

Cream - Disraeli Gears

The Smiths - The Smiths

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

10-1, in no particular order

Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish

The Beatles - Revolver

Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground and Nico

Joy Division - Substance

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf

Beck - Odelay

Muse - Absolution

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

There. A few bands that might've made it, but didn't as I haven't heard enough of their stuff/only have Best Ofs, similar to Liam...

- No Doubt

- REM

- Faithless

- Michael Jackson

- Ryan Adams (never actually heard a whole album, just bits and pieces)

- Nick Drake

- Rolling Stones

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Hamster's top ten:

(Suddenly making the list is nigh on impossible!)

Some of these may be a little surprising. Some of my favourite groups may have released many amazing songs, but this list of is albums I will listen to pretty much completely and LOVE.

DEFINITES:

"Homogenic" by Bjork

No surprises here as I'm one of EWBs biggest Bjork-whores. I listen to the album and EVERY time I come out of it with a new favourite. I just can't find a weak link in this album....Maybe "Alarm Call" but to SOMETIMES skip one track on an album is pretty special.

"Mezzanine" by Massive Attack

MA released a best of album recently and ever since I've annoyed my wife by saying "What's that then? Mezzanine with "Unfinished Sympathy" tacked on at the end? "Mezzanine" is everything: Moody music, sex music, psyche music, revision music....It's served me for all of those and more. Nothing beats "Angel", "Teardrop" and "Inertia Creeps".

"OK Computer" by Radiohead

I'm one of those who prefer "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" to "The Bends" and "Hail To The Thief". But there's one album that stands out and it is the massively hyped "OK Computer". The highlight of the best Radiohead album? "Let Down". But "Paranoid Android", "Karma Police", "No Surprises" all push it close.

"Polysics Or Die!!!!" by Polysics

It's kinda a best of but with new tracks, unreleased tracks and remixes of the originals. It's amazing and Japanese-electro-punk-pop has never tasted better.

PROBABLES:

"Yesterday Went Too Soon" by Feeder

Feeder's 1999 album release linked together the raw and fresh energy of "Polythene" with the poptacularly popular "Echo Park".

YWTS, to me, is more complete than either. It also includes some of my favourite Feeder songs, namely "Insomnia", "Yesterday Went Too Soon", "Tinsel Town" and "Hole In My Head".

To be continued.

[YI]

Hmmm, this is really, really tough. A lot harder than I thought it would be. Anyways, here goes. In no order (I decided bands can only appear once...not sure why...but I just have);

"Absolution" by Muse

"Return Of The Space Cowboy" by Jamiroquai (Toss up with "Travelling Without Moving")

"Metropolis Pt2 : Scenes From a Memory" by Dream Theater

"Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues" by Strung Out (Toss up with "The Element Of Sonic Defiance"...but that's not a 'real/full' album anyway)

"Blackwater Park" by Opeth

"Transatlanticism" by Death Cab For Cutie

"Colma" by Buckethead (I can imagine some BH fans have shit on it. I absolutely adore it)

"Rockin' The Suburbs" by Ben Folds

"Guilt Show" by The Get Up Kids (I used to hate late GUK and their power-pop ballads (Or whatever) but all the songs on the album are top notch)

"Hopes & Fears" by Keane (Fucking difficult last choice)

[R.W.]

Oooh, let's see.....

1. Crowded House - Together Alone.

2. Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions.

3. Coldplay - X & Y.

4. Genesis - Invisible Touch

5. Muse - Absolution

6. Neil Finn - One Nil

7. The Divine Comedy - Casanova

8. KT Tunstall - Eye To The Telescope

9. Natalie Imbruglia - White Lillies Island

10. Bryan Adams - Reckless

[thatshortguy]

Eh, why not?

10. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

-Not an album I can generally sit all the way through, but the moments of greatness and absolutely soul-shaking. "The World At Large" is the best album-opening song ever created, and a song that I can't even play on the guitar without getting misty-eyed. "The Ocean Breathes Salty" and "One Chance" (a song that, although it seems made for radio, still has a good deal of emotion to it.) The fact this album was almost never released is staggering.

9. Thornley - Come Again

-The first album of the ten that I can listen to from start to finish (although the last two or three songs tend to drag, comparatively speaking.) A straight-up rock record with fantastic vocals...and not because Ian Thornley pulls pages from the Chris Cornell mid-range vocal book. I was a moderate fan of Big Wreck, but this album just seems to show his real rock ability.

8. Lostprophets - Start Something

-I felt that this band was on the verge of creating a new kind of sound with how they combined hard rock tendencies with more emotional melodies and arrangements. This album is apparently the pinnacle of that, since their latest album seems to deviate from that trend. Honorable mention goes to "The Fake Sound of Progress", as it is a good blueprint for this work.

7. Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Pushing The Salmonella Envelope

-Don't get me wrong, "Bring Your Own Stereo" is a fine album, but it is nowhere near the showcase of musicianship that this album is. It's aged well, as "High" is always a good track to just roll the windows down and bang the head slowly. "Dropping Anchor" is just an excellent opening and melody, and the album's final track is surprisingly powerful, despite it's redundant nature.

6. Devin Townsend - Physicist

-Just absolute power. "Material" is like some strange surf metal song, while "Planet Rain" has very good lyrics throughout. Canada, I envy you.

5. The Devin Townsend Band - Synchestra

-All of the power that "Accelerated Evolution" had, only mixed in with moments of sheer beauty and straight-up rock. "Notes From Africa", "Let It Roll", and "Mental Tan" are just the tip of the iceberg. It's an album that can draw in both old and new-school metal fans.

4. Days of the New - Days of the New (Yellow)

-It's kind of a shame that Tantric came about, becuase the debut lineup of this band just exudes talent. A great album from beginning to end, it was a breath of fresh air at the time and still stands as a well-produced and fairly thought-out album (even if the lyrics to "Where I Stand" are a bit childish.) Whereas Travis Meeks would eventually work with a couple of members of the original DotN later and produce great stuff, this album is easily the best overall submission.

3. Tool - 10,000 Days

-I catch so much crap for this, but this is the most fluid album of Tool's career. Yes, Aenima had their best songs and Lateralus was their most technical work. This album, though, flows perfectly. Despite what Maynard may say, there is a story told throughout. Even as individual songs, it can't be argued that Tool aren't one of the most talented group of musicians in the world.

2. Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

-It's the perfect photograph of an experienced band on its last leg. Oftentimes I wonder if Soundgarden would ever get back together, and after listening to this album, I'd rather them not do so. Not out of fear of tarnishing a legacy (they're good enough musicians and minds to keep that from happening,) but more because DotU is the perfect send-off. The lows are heart-wrenchingly low ("Zero Chance") and the highs are badass ("Burden In My Hand", "An Unkind".) SG's best album, hands down.

1. Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning

-I always have a hard time explaining this. I mean, "Sunshower" is easily Cornell's best solo track, but it isn't here. "Seasons" is another excellent work, but it's nowhere to be found on this album. The original, slower demo of "Flutter Girl" is much more haunting, yet what we have here is a sped-up, commercialized version. Yet, somehow, the whole album works. "Disappearing One" is just an amazing message from Cornell to former wife Susan Silver (whom he was in the process of divorcing) and the music is just so beyond anything Soundgarden fans would expect. A smoke-y jazz song like "When I'm Down"? Country in "Moonchild"? Culture shock all the way around. Yet, it sticks. Arguably Cornell's shining moment in his entire career.

[Farmer Reil]

This doesn't include live albums (because I love them so much more than studio albums, so there'd be no room for studio albums in the list) or Best Of's.

-

Edguy - Rocket Ride (All Edguy albums are fantastic (except Theatre of Salvation which is merely great, but I listen to this one more, because it's more rocky).

Hammerfall - Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. (Previously I only liked their live stuff, because they're studio stuff tended to be a bit dull. But this is utterly fantastic).

Dragonforce - Valley Of The Damned (JUST edges out Inhuman Rampage, for me. Probably mostly due to Heart of a Dragon. Not too keen on the "Death Metal Backing Vocals" on IR either ).

Blind Guardian - A Night At The Opera (So fucking difficult picking a favourite BG album . This one has more of my favourites on it though, especially Harvest of Sorrow, one of my all time favourite songs).

Metallica - Load (I haven't heard all of their albums, because I'm not terribly into them, but Load has a load of good songs (no pun intended)).

Manowar - The Kingdom of Steel (Yeah, so it's kinda a best of. But I don't care, it's fucking immense.).

Nightwish - Wishmaster (They never put out a bad album, but this is the one that jumps out and says "I have loads of good songs on me". OTHAFA is good too, but it's mostly a live album, so doesn't really count).

Sonata Arctica - Silence (Another band where I literally had to count the awesome songs. Silence won, just).

Judas Priest - Painkiller (Surely this doesn't need a description? ).

Honourable mentions to Lordi, Rhapsody and Helloween who almost made the list, and Kotiteollisuus who probably would've if I'd discovered them sooner and had time to get bored of the songs (as in, I haven't had time to see if I do or not, so don't know yet whether '7' is a great album or just a really fucking good one, and whether their others are better).

And, because I'm bored, Reil's top five Live albums, the first three of which are definately in order. The other two are just there by default because I only own six and one of those is only half live:

1. Edguy - Burning Down The Opera

2. Blind Guardian - Blind Guardian Live

3. Hammerfall - One Crimson Night

4. Metallica - S&M

5. Manowar - Hell On Stage

Edited June 26, 2006 by TheReilDeal

[Pepsi]

1. Radiohead "OK Computer"

2. Nine Inch Nails "The Fragile"

3. Marilyn Manson "Holywood"

4. Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie"

5. Portishead "Dummy"

6. David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust"

7. The Beatles "The White Album"

8. Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californication"

9. System of a Down "Toxicity"

10. Beck "Odelay"

[Guest Ringo Mars]

The 10 best

The Cure - Pornography

The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone.

Depeche Mode - Violator

Joy Division - Closer

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Radiohead - The Bends

The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Elliott Smith - XO

The Sex Pistols - Nevermind The Bollocks.

I'd probably add Islands - Return to the Sea or Ballboy - Guide for the Daylight Hours in there too.

[VerbalPuke]

So many albums so little time.

The Dead Boys - Young, Loud, and Snotty

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.

Big Boys - The Fat Elvis

Battalion of Saints - Death R Us

The Adolescents - Self titled

G.G. Allin and the Jabbers - Banned in Boston

Feederz - Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss?

The Gears - Rocking At Ground Zero

The Minutemen - Double Nickels On the Dime

Reagan Youth - A Collection of Pop Classics

Next list...

The Rotters - Pull it and Yell

No Alternative - Johnny Got His Gun 1978-1982

The Offs - Live at the Mabuhay Gardens

The Plugz - Electrify Me

Subhumans - Incorrect Thoughts

Wasted Youth - Reagan's In

The Weirdos - Weird World Vol. 1

Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust Inc.

The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People

Blitz - Voice of a Generation

On the outside looking in...

Billy Childish and his many different bands.

The Mummies

Angelic Upstarts

Government Issue

D.O.A.

D.R.I.

Even Worse

[Disengager]

No particular order, but my top 10 favorites of all time.

CKY - Volume 1

Opeth - Damnation

Rascal Flatts - Me and My Gang

Dream Theater - Images and Words

James Labrie - Elements of Persuasion

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness

Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons

Agalloch - The Mantle

ISIS - Panopticon

If I took hours to actually think about this, I'm sure Coheed or Isis wouldn't make the list, but w/e

[gunnar hendershow]

There are about 5 I'm certain about it. The rest would be guesses of sorts.

KMFDM - Symbols

Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Radiohead - OK Computer

Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground and Nico

Ensiferum - Ensiferum

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

KMFDM - Nihil

Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

[Liam]

Opeth "Blackwater Park" seems to be the most suggested album thus far, it wins, kthxbye >_>

Although YI gets kudos for also picking out "Rockin The Suburbs" ....as does Ringy for getting 3 albums I listed, and another that I was tempted to (The Flaming Lips).

Edited June 26, 2006 by liamwannabe