The One Album

[Benji]

You can only choose ONE album as your favourite, what is it?

For me it'd have to be Nirvana Unplugged, every time I listen I find something new in this album, it's depressing and yet inspirational in the exact same moment and is totally human to me, every imperfection, every wonderful note, every stupid comment inbetween the big events, it's wonderful and contains the most under rated cover ever ("Lake of Fire"). It's not an album I can always listen to as a whole, but I can always pick one song and it'll match my current emotion no matter what.

[Cactus Drags]

Brand New, Deja Entendu. Easy.

[Nerf]

I really don't know. I'm tempted to say Hardcore Superstar's self titled album, but there's so, so many others I could choose from for varying reasons.

[ROC]

This is tough. Normally, I'd have a Rage Against the Machine record or my favorite record as a younger kid, Metallica's self-titled record. But I think Muse's Absolution covers that emotional palette that Benji is referring to. Either you have the RAWK of "Hysteria", the sleepy torment of "Time is Running Out", the paranoid nature of "Thoughts of a Dying Atheist" and "The Small Print" or the bittersweet romance of the rest of the record. I like that level of beauty throughout it, and it's still the best of all of their CDs.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Queen "Live At Wembeley" narrowly beats out The New Pornographers' "Challengers", although I listen to very few complete albums.

[Gabriel]

AFI's Sing the Sorrow.

It was the soundtrack of my high school years. Depressing, uplifting, angry, joyful... the pinnacle of AFI's existance. Lots of older fans don't like it, but I think it's the best album they've put out.

[YI]

Absolution...Muse.

[lari]

^_^

[GRIFT]

Mule Variations by Tom Waits...

It has your gritty knock down songs, your beautiful ballads, some real oddities, and lyrics that shine on every track.

Honorable mention to Born to Run, and also the soundtrack to Be Here to Love Me: A film about Townes Van Zandt, but Mule Variations takes the win here for the Grifterman.

[Skummy]

Mule Variations by Tom Waits...

It has your gritty knock down songs, your beautiful ballads, some real oddities, and lyrics that shine on every track.

The thing I find with Mule Variations, though, is that it seems very self-conscious in including "everything"; it's almost Tom Waits-by-numbers, like he's sat down and gone "here's the rocker, here's the ballad, now a creepy spoken word piece"...it's a brilliant album, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem to have the flow and feel of some of his other works.

Which, incidentally, would lead me to say that, probably, "Rain Dogs" by Tom Waits would by my ONE album. It flows brilliantly from start to finish, is utterly timeless, unique, and overall just full of brilliant songs.

Honourable mention, though, goes to "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits, "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" by The Velvet Underground, "The Queen Is Dead" by The Smiths, "Warmer Corners" by The Lucksmiths, and probably lots of other things.

[NobBe Nobbs]

S&M.

Fuck emotional depth, I want music that even the weakest of the lot makes you want to run out into the street and headbutt some people. I want loud, I want orchestral backing, I want guitar solos up the ass.

[New Damage]

"Badmotorfinger", Soundgarden

The awesome power and flow of the first four songs is dynamite, the intro to "Searching With My Good Eye Closed", the power of Cornell's voice on "Holy Water" and then despite an intro that doesn't appeal to me on the last track "New Damage", the chorus and Cornell's signing of it saves it.

[DMN in the House]

I know its kind of cheating because its a live, basically 'greatest hits' album, but DI's Live at at Dive. From the beginning with them ripping Gary Glitter and 'Rock and Roll (Pt 2), to 'OC Life', 'Guns', 'Chiva', and, of course, 'Hang Ten in East Berlin', its the epitome of SoCal punk. Fuck I love that album.

Fuck, now I'm going to have to go and copy my single scratched up burned shitty copy I got from this tweeker chick to a new CD. The CD will sound a little shitty, but thats fucking punk right there, bitches.

Edited April 24, 2008 by DMN

[GRIFT]

Mule Variations by Tom Waits...

It has your gritty knock down songs, your beautiful ballads, some real oddities, and lyrics that shine on every track.

The thing I find with Mule Variations, though, is that it seems very self-conscious in including "everything"; it's almost Tom Waits-by-numbers, like he's sat down and gone "here's the rocker, here's the ballad, now a creepy spoken word piece"...it's a brilliant album, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem to have the flow and feel of some of his other works.

Which, incidentally, would lead me to say that, probably, "Rain Dogs" by Tom Waits would by my ONE album. It flows brilliantly from start to finish, is utterly timeless, unique, and overall just full of brilliant songs.

Honourable mention, though, goes to "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits, "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" by The Velvet Underground, "The Queen Is Dead" by The Smiths, "Warmer Corners" by The Lucksmiths, and probably lots of other things.

I always quite liked the flow of Mule, I mean it starts out with a song that absolutely typifies his experimental style and gets the album off with a bang. The next song, Lowside of the Road, continues the feel but slows it down slightly, then Hold On slows it down further. The next few songs balance the ballads until Cold Water (my consummate drunken slurred song, many a night has ended with me and a friend walking arm and arm howling the lyrics at the moon on our way home from the bars) the spoken track splits the album, breaking it from the more traditional folky stuff and the more industrial. A couple ballads later Box spring hog wakes you up, Take it With Me me kills you and breaks your heart, and finally you are delivered when he invites you to Come On Up to the House.

Also I don't know how I missed mentioning Nebraska... on a side note that album has my all time favorite album cover.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I'd probably go with "All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone", Explosions In The Sky.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Ocean Doesn't Want Cloudy

[Kaney]

Down on the Upside by Soundgarden. I rarely listen to full albums either, and most of my favourite Soundgarden songs appear on Superunknown, but as a whole, DOTU is just amazing, especially when you consider it as pretty much their swan song. The calm, bridge/solo/whatever you call it bit in the middle of Blow Up The Outside World is pretty much my favourite piece of 'rock' music I've ever heard.

A close second would go to Pink Floyd with The Wall.

[R.W.]

Add another one to the "Absolution" list

[Gazz]

Bah! I'm torn.

I could go with 'Hullabaloo' by Muse, because its my favourite live album ever, but because of its age, it's missing tracks like Hysteria, Stockholm Syndrome, Supermassive Blackhole etc. Or I could go with H.A.A.R.P, but that's missing older tracks Citizen Erased, Uno, Sunburn, Muscle Museum etc, plus its too short.

Or I could go with my favourite Foos album, 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose', but that hasn't got my fave Foos track, 'Everlong'.

Spose I could just go with Absolution

[METALMAN]

Just copied and pasted from the last one of these >_>

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.

[DFF]

I'd probably go with Good Apollo, I Am Burning Star IV: Volume 1, From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness by Coheed and Cambria.

I know a lot of CoCam fans prefer IKSOSE:3, etc but this was the album that got me into them and I love it.