Your Favourite Ever Albums

[YI]

This is a topic that crops up every now and then. But it's always an interesting one.

For me, I have different criteria when thinking of my favourite albums. There's of course the musical credit, with the best songs, the best sound etc. But I also like to take into account the whole 'legendary' status of albums. For example, I honestly think "Sink Or Swim" by The Gaslight Anthem will one day be a 'classic' album in some way, if only to me. But now, seeing as it's less than a year old, I really cannot bring myself to name it as one of my favourite albums...even though it clearly is. Similarly "Our Darkest Days" by Ignite...I know it's fucking amazing, I already view it was a somewhat punk-rock classic, but the fact it's only two years old...I just can't bring myself to put it as one of my favourite albums.

Then there's the ranking not done on musical credit. The albums where I have an emotional connection with. "All Killer No Filler" by Sum 41 is one that screams right out at me. It was basically the soundtrack to my Year 9 school trip to France...and basically my entire 14/15 years of age period is wrapped up in that album. Blink 182 and Pennywise bring up similar feelings.

But anyways...my top 5 albums;

1. "Absolution" by Muse (2003)

I know a lot of people prefer "Origin..." and I admit to a certain extent, "Origin..." has some of the 'better songs'...but "Absolution" just flows so perfectly, it is probably the only album ever where I actually ENJOY the "interlude". And "Falling Away With You" is one of the greatest songs ever. It's quite strange, my love of Muse has been slipping recently, but my love of this album just continues to grow and grow.

2. "Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues" by Strung Out (1996)

This album...it's me. This album. I just can't explain it. I just connect with this thing...it also helps that it's fucking rocking and every single track on here is "Grade A".

3. "Travelling Without Moving" by Jamiroquai (1996)

One of the first albums I'd ever heard. My brother's a few years older than me, and he was into Blur, Oasis and Jamiroquai etc. around this time. And like most younger brothers, I basically worshipped the ground my brother walked on. And listened to what he listened to. And my love of Jamiroquai has stayed all throughout these years. They're the only band where I really go out of my way to buy stuff, rare singles and stuff...especially the late 90's stuff, as their singles were full of cool stuff and remixes, you always feel like you're getting your money's worth. So many amazing tunes on this album, Jamiroquai at THEIR best.

4. "Revolver" by The Beatles (1966)

Just...what an album. One problem I sometimes have with Beatles stuff, as it often really didn't flow, as they tried and did so much stuff on an album. But this is basically near perfection. Nothing can touch "Eleanor Rigby".

5. "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab For Cutie (2003)

This is just...love. Much like Strung Out, this album means so much to me, I have feelings and memories invested into so many of the songs...all of which, like Strung Out, are "Grade A"...fucking amazing.

[Clawson]

1. "Definitely Maybe" by Oasis (1994)

I remember one time a couple of years back my friends were ragging on me for the Oasis love so I secretly slipped it on and by the time "Columbia" came around they were begging me to tell them who it was. I couldn't stop laughing. And I honestly can't see any other album ever coming close to the brilliance that Definitely Maybe is. The fact that it has my top two songs of all time in "Supersonic" and "Live Forever" pretty much cements the fact.

2. "The Queen Is Dead" by The Smiths (1986)

It could have gotten in on "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" alone but the other nine songs on the album are extremely catchy and some of them (mainly "Vicar in a Tutu" and "Frankly, Mr. Shankley") are funny. I'd say Morrissey was at his best lyrically for this one and Johnny Marr is pure fucking class as always.

3. "Up To Here" by The Tragically Hip (1989)

One of only two albums (along with #1) that I think every song on is un-skipable. The first five songs remain, quite possibly, my favourite five song block on any album anyway. Also my favourite party album as all time since anytime you have a bunch of drunken Canadians and the Hip playing you end up with the best sing a long of you life. Somehow everybody knows every word to every song on this album it seems.

4. "The Stone Roses" by The Stone Roses (1989)

My former #2, the Roses debut has dropped in the past couple of months as I realizied they are just as not much fun to listen to as The Smiths. Nonetheless the album's best tracks, "Made of Stone" and "Waterfall", remain in my top ten to fifteen songs of all-time. Shame it took them so long to release the second album and only have one good tune on it ("Breaking Into Heaven", which was worth the price of the album alone).

5. "Absolution" by Muse (2003)

Through Grade 11 this was my favourite album, yet unfortunately when I got into Definitely Maybe it somehow went out of rotation. I can't explain what happened in the last two years but my Muse playtime went way down hill and even though I considered Absolution one of my top ten albums throughout that whole time I never really listened to it. Anyway, my friends at uni started to listen to Muse through Guitar Hero and I brought Absolution over to show it to them and I've fallen in love again. "Hysteria" is an amazing song and "Falling Away With You" remains the best chill-out song ever.

[Liam]

Always a tough one, but here we go:

1) REM 'Automatic For The People'

I dunno what it is about this album, as I'm not a huge REM fan otherwise, but it is just brilliant. Beautiful, and with some great pop songs, its hard to beat it song by song, personally.

2) David Gray 'White Ladder'

Naff choice, maybe, but there is just something about David Gray that I really like. He's one of the only commerical singer-songwriters these days that seems to retain some sense of credibility, and this was his best work.

3) Deftones 'White Pony'

There are always albums that you get into straight away, and then there are ones that take you a while, but may often live longer in your memory for it. 'White Pony' is one of those for me. I wasn't into alternative music, but bought it as I'd heard of them, around the same time I also bought Tool 'Lateralus'. Both ended up on the shelf for a fair while, but when I took them both down, I realised how good they both where. Deftones gets the nod for me, just as its one that I return to more often. Elements of raw power, mixed with other more beautiful aspects.

4) In Flames 'Clayman'

The next step up to heavier metal was assisted by this album. In Flames are one of my favourite bands, and this is personally my favourite offering.

5) Neutral Milk Hotel 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea'

Realistically, on any given day this could be closer to the top. Just glorious all around, lo-fi folky rock, with excellently written songs. One of the best albums of the 90's that I've heard, and I recommend anyone to at least give it thier time.

EDIT: Bah, should have found space for Pulp 'Different Class'.

Edited March 31, 2008 by rvdwannabe

[Skummy]

Right...narrowing down to five is tricky...three of them are definites, the other two could have been any of twenty or thirty different albums...and I've purposefully narrowed it down to one album per artist...

1. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

Just pure class from start to finish...still sounds fresh now, while not sounding "new", it's something completely outside of pop culture, completely timeless and ageless. While not many of the tracks would find their way into a list of my favourite Tom Waits songs individually, as an album this just flows organically and perfectly and really creates an atmosphere completely unheard of anywhere else...it builds on the down and out beatnik drunken style of Waits' earlier work, but transposes it into a wider context; while before this Waits was the voice of the drunk at the end of the bar bemoaning his lot in life, here he becomes the voice of a whole world of freaks and outsiders in a kind of Weill cabaret soundscape, as well as introducing the world to the sinister spoken word pieces that would come to typify Waits' work.

2. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

A near perfect album by a near perfect band...and obviously it's flawed, but it's The Smiths, that's the point. Anyone wanting to get into The Smiths, this is the starting point; the epic melancholy of I Know It's Over, the finest love song ever penned in There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, the bawdy "Carry On" humour of Vicar In A Tutu or Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, and the best fucking drum intro ever recorded. The band, working together as a whole, at their best; maybe Marr's been better elsewhere, maybe Moz has written better lyrics, maybe Rourke's played better basslines, but the Smiths as a whole have never come together so brilliantly as they did on this album. It's the sound of tortured sexuality, teenage angst and self-doubt and melancholy, but also a masterpiece of tongue-in-cheek British humour.

3. Scott Walker - The Drift

Scott Walker is one of the finest singers in pop music history, one of the finest curators of the "singer as artist" image, and a wonderful reclusive genius, who wilfully rejected boyband pop stardom to sing complex orchestrated ballads and covers of songs by the (relatively obscure) French songwriter Jacques Brel. Fast forward nearly thirty years, past years of obscurity and then the utter tortured genius of 1995's Tilt (another of my favourite albums, just edged out here by The Drift), and the Scott Walker of 2006 is an entirely different animal. His lyrics have grown even more impenetrable and bizarre than previous gems "dragons of disgust" or "the fire escape in the sky", and while the lush string sections and orchestrations remain, they're playing a far more twisted, horrific, damn right terrifying music than the sweeping backing to his earlier crooning pop hits - that and they're backed up by such instrumental oddities as a giant wooden box and a man punching a lump of pork to no real rhythm. Walker's voice is melodramatic and haunting, his music completely nightmarish, his lyrics thoroughly (and willfully) obscure, but somehow it never seems that this is an album meant to test the listener...it's still listenable, it's still a fascinating and tremendous album which, while perhaps difficult, never seems a chore to sit through as the avant-garde so often can. This is, without doubt, the finest album of the 21st century so far, and in twenty or thirty years time, I still doubt there'll be anything else quite like it.

4. Julian Cope - Jehovahkill

This comes and goes from my list of favourite albums, as Cope does from my list of favourite artists. This, though, is Cope at his finest - covering all bases of his extensive musical influence, without ever losing the listener or seeming too self-indulgent, to produce a real post-punk and indie masterpiece, as well as really letting loose his fascination for Krautrock and the love of British history and Paganism that would consume his later albums to an almost embarassing extent, and before he'd attempted to reinvent himself as some kind of heavy metal God. It's not the most spectacular album, nor the most groundbreaking, and there's more than one nicked riff in there, but it's one of my favourites all the same.

5. Jeff Buckley - Grace

Well, who the fuck else could get away with a song like "Eternal Life" on the same album as a cover of "Corpus Christi Carol"? The utterly majestic "Lover, You Should've Come Over", "Dream Brother", "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" alone would have made this a classic album, the fact that they're only half of it ensure that this is just fucking superb through and through, and it's a real shame it was the only album he ever completed.

Honourable mentions: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip, The Velvet Underground & Nico.

[METALMAN]

It was tough to put these in order and even tougher to whittle it down to just five, especially seeing as my tastes constantly change.

1. Up The Bracket - The Libertines

This was the album that got me into music. Proper music I mean. If it weren't for this album I'd still be listening to blink-182, Green Day and would have probably picked up on the likes of Aiden and The Used along the way. (not that anything particularly wrong with the first two - they just tend to lead to bad places). Anyway, onto the album. Every song on this is brilliant. There's the instant catchiness of "Up The Bracket" and "I Get Along", as well as songs that take a few listens to get into, but are ultimately just as enjoyable, like "Radio America" and "Begging". It was also the album that made me want to pick up a guitar and try music for myself. It's had a massive impact on me.

2. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle & Sebastian

Another album from which I genuinely love every song. I could say that for pretty much every Belle & Sebastian album, but this one is so special to me. It was my soundtrack to last summer really, and songs like "I'm A Cuckoo" and "Step Into My Office, Baby" fill me with bittersweet happiness every time I hear them. There's also the beautiful "If She Wants Me" and "Piazza, New York Catcher", the upbeat "Roy Walker" and so many other fantastic songs. Definitely a must have album.

3. Gold - Ryan Adams

Yet another album where I love every song. The only difference is this has sixteen of them. At first I found it a bit tough to get into save for the poppy "New York, New York" and "Firecracker". It was those two songs that kept pulling me back to the album and once I finally got into the rest of the album, I couldn't believe what I had been missing. "Answering Bells", "The Rescue Blues" and "Touch Feel and Loose" are all fantastic. In general I'm a huge Ryan Adams fan. "Heartbreaker" was also a fantastic album, and I really liked "Rock n Roll" regardless of what most others though. His other albums were a bit iffy but last year's "Easy Tiger" was a startling return to form.

4. Rubber Soul - The Beatles

Perhaps an underappreciated Beatles album, but it's excellence can't be denied. Unfortunately, it's the first album in the list that I don't like every song from, as "Wait" is pretty shit. Nevertheless, the other thirteen tracks more than make up for it. "Drive My Car" is the best cowbell song ever and totally puts "Don't Fear The Reaper" to shame. "Norwegian Wood" is all amazing psychedelicoustica(neologism ) and "Michelle" has French lyrics. Cowbell, psychedelicoustica and French. All essential ingredients for a fantastic album.

5. Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie

This has already been mentioned by YI. Partially because it's a great album and partially because he has really good music taste. I know some people that refuse to listen to this because Death Cab "sold out", but those people are just twats. They're missing the likes of the punchy "Sound of Settling" and solemn "Passenger Seat". Also, "Transatlanticism" is one of the best title tracks ever. It builds up, and up, and up into a truly epic cadence. I struggle to think of a better way to bookmark an album than with the opposite poles of "The New Year" and "A Lack of Color"

Honourable mentions:

Gemstones - Adam Green

Funeral - Arcade Fire

Down In Albion - Babyshambles

Revolver - The Beatles

With The Beatles - The Beatles

If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle & Sebastian

Tigermilk - Belle & Sebastian

Ben Folds Five

Enema Of The State - blink-182

Silent Alarm - Bloc Party

Cassadaga - Bright Eyes

Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever - The Cribs

Everything In Transit - Jack's Mannequin

October Road - James Taylor

Myths of the Near Future - Klaxons

The Libertines

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Origin of Symmetry - Muse

Purple Rain - Prince

Easy Tiger - Ryan Adams

Wincing the Night Away - The Shins

The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths

Hatful of Hollow - The Smiths

Is This It - The Strokes

Illinois - Sufjan Stevens

Band On the Run - Wings

Edited March 31, 2008 by metalman

[Nerf]

After going through my CD collection, my top 25 favourites of all time include...

1. "Veneer" by Jose Gonzalez

2. "Valley of the Damned" by Dragonforce

3. "Is This It?" by The Strokes

4. "The Black Album" by Hardcore Superstar

5. "Blood, Sweat & Towers" by Towers of London

6. "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" by Foo Fighters

7. "Too Fast For Love" by Motley Crue

8. "What's The Story Morning Glory?" by Oasis

9. "Among The Living" by Anthrax

10. "Appetite For Destruction" by Guns N' Roses

11. "The Poison" by Bullet For My Valentine

12. "Ascendency" by Trivium

13. "One Day Remains" by Alter Bridge

14. "Chocolate Starfish..." by Limp Bizkit

15. "Nevermind" by Nirvana

16. "Alive Or Just Breathing" by Killswitch Engage

17. "Getting Away With Murder" by Papa Roach

18. "Rising Tied" by Fort Minor

19. "Graduation" by Kanye West

20. "Audioslave" by Audioslave

21. "Made Of Bricks" by Kate Nash

22. "Billy Talent II" by Billy Talent

23. "Blood Sugar Sex Majik" by Red Hot Chili peppers

24. "Shout At The Devil" by Motley Crue

25. "12 Stones" by 12 Stones

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Hmmm a fine thread.

On first thoughts my favourites would be:

1. "Takk" by Sigur Ros

Standout moment: The epic and emotional "Sæglópur".

2. "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" by PJ Harvey

Standout moment: The stunning whistful smiles of "You Said Something".

3. "Homogenic" by Bjork

Standout moment: The mind-bending brilliance of "All Neon Like".

4. "OK Computer" by Radiohead

Standout moment: The hopeful beauty of "Let Down".

....and I can't think what my fifth choice would be...Too much responsibility to be the album that rounds out my top five

[Farmer Reil]

My top three are all live albums. Coincidence? No. Live albums rock more.

#1, Blind Guardian - "Live"

- Simply the best album I've ever owned, and am ever likely to own. Hansi was awesome, the crowd were awesome, everything was awesome.

#2, Hammerfall - "One Crimson Night"

- Yeah, another live album. But another fucking great one. After the intro, which gets you in the mood, the first two riffs of 'Riders Of The Storm' hit, and it's just non-stop awesome from there.

#3, Edguy - "Burning Down The Opera"

- Rounding off the Holy Trinity, we've got Edguy. Well I couldn't leave them out, could I? Not after all my hours of hard pimping them on EWB. Seriously though, BDTO is, again, brilliant from the first strains of Fallen Angels, through the token crowd-interaction songs and ballads, right up to the end of Out Of Control, which isn't a song I particularly like, but was a fitting song to end on. Including two Avantasia songs along the way to seperate the hardcore Sammetites from the mere Edguy fans

[supergrass]

It was tough to put these in order and even tougher to whittle it down to just five, especially seeing as my tastes constantly change.

1. Up The Bracket - The Libertines

This was the album that got me into music. Proper music I mean. If it weren't for this album I'd still be listening to blink-182, Green Day and would have probably picked up on the likes of Aiden and The Used along the way. (not that anything particularly wrong with the first two - they just tend to lead to bad places). Anyway, onto the album. Every song on this is brilliant. There's the instant catchiness of "Up The Bracket" and "I Get Along", as well as songs that take a few listens to get into, but are ultimately just as enjoyable, like "Radio America" and "Begging". It was also the album that made me want to pick up a guitar and try music for myself. It's had a massive impact on me.

I'm still trying to sort my list, this at number one is my only defininte. Like you, this was the first album that I sort out and found myself, the first band I wasn't introduced to but had the pleasure of turning others on to. Plus the memories of going to the gigs at the flats, a bunch of live shows in proper venues too, this was my favourite point in music hands down. Death On The Stairs, Time For Heroes and The Good Old Days are probably my favourite tracks.

[SRN]

1. Black Earth, by Arch Enemy

The debut record of my favorite band. Indecribably awesome and incredibly shredding. It just stands out as being one of their best albums to date as well. From start till finish they show amazing musicianship and you can clearly hear how both Amotts work incredibly well together. Thanks to this album I have begun venturing into so many other genres of Metal and I have Arch Enemy to thank for it. If not for this I would still be "stuck" with just listening to Dimmu Borgir and stuff like that. I even began walking into more lighter rock before listening to Black Earth, and that thought still makes me chill as I really dont like stuff like that but needed something new. Thank you Michael Amott.

2. Reign In Blood, by Slayer

This one made the list both because of the historic value and because it the best built album I've ever heard. The song structure and album structure is just a testament to have brilliant Slayer were, and still are. It seems that everything adds up with the Raining Blood and that from Angel Of Death to Postmortem, everything just builds up to the gigantic finish that is Raining Blood. An album I enjoy listening to over and over again and something I will never get tired of. Slayer are gods within the Metal world and inspired to many great aftercomers, one of them being Arch Enemy!

3. The New Black, by Strapping Young Lad

Now although this has been billed by many hardcore fans as the decline of SYL and an album that alienates them from their previous very aggressive style, this is simply here because it was the first album by Strapping that I ever heard. From Decimator to The New Black I enjoyed the album every step of the way and this made me a fan of Devin Townsend. Afterwards I discovered the greatness of SYL's older work but although this is not their best effort, it will always be a special record to me.

4. Dark Endless, by Marduk

At first I did not think much of this album, despite enjoying it. It was something I enjoyed but not something that got me into Marduk. But after going over it time and time again, I got to like their dark and malicious style of playing and the lyrics they proposed. Now, luckily, this is their debut album so it paid it's dues and I have recently bought two more Marduk albums. It's a great showing of black and evil metal and it's a good way to show off that awesome genre.

5. Black Sabbath, by Black Sabbath

Despite this not begin their rise to fame, this is definetely my favorite Sabbath record out of what I've heard. I can't make my final judgment as I do not own every Sabbath album ever produced but out of the four I have this one stands out as my favorite. Paranoid and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath are amazing but there is just something about this album that puts it over the others. I can't put my finger on it but there is just something special about it. Maybe it is the raw sound of yet undefined style? The fact that is the debut album of one the most important bands in musical history? I don't know but is sure as hell is great.