Favorite Music Albums - Share Your Top 5!

[nonequilibrium]

So there have been some music threads but I haven't seen an album thread, although I'm usually more interested in albums rather than specific songs.

What is your favorite music album? Feel free to include what it does to you/what aspect of it blows you away.

Also try to limit it to a top 5.

I'm curious!

 

[micromass]

My favorite album is "Blood on the tracks" by Bob Dylan. It deals with the loss of a significant other and I find the album difficult to listen to because it's so sad. Dylan is a master in conveying his emotions and his feelings, without going too emotional. I rarely listen to the album though, it's only for special sad occasions.

It's to be expected of me, but most albums of pink floyd also are my favorite. Specifically, "The Dark Side of the Moon", "Animals", "Wish you were here" and "The wall". It are concept albums, meaning that the entire album follows one larger theme. This theme is usually an inability to interact normally with other people. Because of personal problems, this is quite a recognizable theme.

Another great album is "LA woman" by The Doors. The last album before Jim Morrison died. It's a beauty to the ear. Especially the last song: "Riders on the Storm" is my absolute favorite song.

There are a lot other albums that I really like, such as things by Jimi Hendrix, MUSE, Leonard Cohen, etc. But you only asked for the favorite.

 

[zoobyshoe]

As albums:

Abbey Road
The White Album
Tommy
Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall
Automatic for the People

 

[turbo]

The eponymous Pure Prairie League. To my knowledge it has never been re-released on CD, so you'd have to find a rare vinyl copy.

 

[Char. Limit]

I'm not really fitting in here, but my favorite album is 7th Symphony by Apocalyptica.

 

[mege]

Rush - 2112/A Farewell to Kings/Hemispheres
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Epic Stories and Epic Sound bring music together for me.

 

[MisterX]

There are concept albums, long compositions, etc. But there are also albums that are more just a collection of shorter songs. Picking from that second group and not allowing compilation albums, here are three that come to my mind

Boston - Boston - every song on the album has received significant radio play. Personally I might prefer only to listen to the track "Hitch a Ride," but the whole album is listenable

Michael Jackson - Bad

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker score (if this counts as an album)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It's to be expected of me, but most albums of pink floyd also are my favorite. Specifically, "The Dark Side of the Moon", "Animals", "Wish you were here" and "The wall".

Yep.

I had a reel-to-reel tape that was all Floyd. I played that tape almost daily for years. In my view there was Floyd, and then everyone else.

Course there was Elton - he too was definitive and iconic for me. I played the Yellow Brick Road album almost as much as I played Pink Floyd [PF].

 

[KrisOhn]

I've really only come across one album that has really blown me out of the water:

Royksopp - Junior

Other albums that I've really appreciated:
Elton John - Elton John
Modest Mouse - We were dead before the ship even sank
Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold As Love

 

[Curious3141]

All-time favs? Just five? Well I have to go with:

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Led Zeppelin IV (yes, yes, that one with Stairway to Heaven)
Tool - Aenima
Slayer - Reign in Blood

Note that these are albums I listen to very infrequently nowadays, owing to the fact that I've probably heard each of them 10^6 times. But these are the classics, the ones that defined and firmly cemented my musical tastes.

 

[Curious3141]

I'm not really fitting in here, but my favorite album is 7th Symphony by Apocalyptica.

Have you listened to the latest Fleshgod Apocalypse album, Agony? If you like neoclassical death metal, you might just get your rocks off. Better than Dimmu Borgir or Septic Flesh by a mile, I tell ya.

 

[Char. Limit]

Have you listened to the latest Fleshgod Apocalypse album, Agony? If you like neoclassical death metal, you might just get your rocks off. Better than Dimmu Borgir or Septic Flesh by a mile, I tell ya.

I'm actually listening to them at your recommendation right now. They're very, very nice. :)

 

[theneedtoknow]

Hard to pick just 5, given that I am a major music junkie, but they most likely are:

Cibo Matto - Stereotype A
Cibo Matto - Viva la Woman
Depeche Mode - Violator
Leftfield - Leftism
Moloko - Do you like my tight sweater?

 

[MarcoD]

De Phazz - Detunized Gravity
Moon Safari - Air (or Morcheeba or Zero 7)
Leftfield - Leftism
Groove Armada - Goodbey Country
M Ward - Transfiguration of Vincent
Moby - Moby
Waldeck - Balance of the Force

And then all kinds of stuff, Amy Winehouse, Wir Sind Helden, Andre Hazes, The Doors, Herman Brood & Nina Hagen, Joujouka, uhm, it doesn't stop really.

(I mean really a lot, I saw Pink Floyd mentioned too, I loved that but also the same contemporary Robert Fripp's stuff.)

 

[Adyssa]

My favorite album is "Blood on the tracks" by Bob Dylan. It deals with the loss of a significant other and I find the album difficult to listen to because it's so sad. Dylan is a master in conveying his emotions and his feelings, without going too emotional. I rarely listen to the album though, it's only for special sad occasions.

It's to be expected of me, but most albums of pink floyd also are my favorite. Specifically, "The Dark Side of the Moon", "Animals", "Wish you were here" and "The wall". It are concept albums, meaning that the entire album follows one larger theme. This theme is usually an inability to interact normally with other people. Because of personal problems, this is quite a recognizable theme.

Another great album is "LA woman" by The Doors. The last album before Jim Morrison died. It's a beauty to the ear. Especially the last song: "Riders on the Storm" is my absolute favorite song.

There are a lot other albums that I really like, such as things by Jimi Hendrix, MUSE, Leonard Cohen, etc. But you only asked for the favorite.

Man! I agree with you so much! Blood On The Tracks, Animals and LA Woman and Axis: Bold As Love are all in my list of favourite albums! For the record, my favourite tune from LA Woman is Hyacinth House, I don't fully grasp the lyrics but I love them. :)

A few others I'd like to mention:

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (this is worth finding, it's a beautiful Balkan concept album and it brings me to my knees!)
Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy (not sure if it's their best, but it's my favourite :)
Ween - The Mollusk (perfection, albumified)
Sigur Ros - Takk (hard to pick a favourite, but I play this one the most, it's glorious)

and while I wasn't going to mention any techno, I will mention just one:

Carl Craig - More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art (a desert island techno album, timeless and groovy)
cv313 - Live (ok one more! this is deep dub techno, where the sub-bass is far more important than the kickdrum, it's like a rainy day with sunlight peaking through holes in the clouds)

:)

 

[MarcoD]

If you like deeb dub techo but also singer-songwriter I think Gil Scott-Heron's return "I'm new Here" is probably one of the most overlooked albums around.

(Hmm, if I remember correctly I met Graig once on one of the parties I worked the lighting stuff, not sure, Carl Cox for sure; they invited most famous Detroit techno DJs there.)

 

[theneedtoknow]

De Phazz - Detunized Gravity
Moon Safari - Air (or Morcheeba or Zero 7)
Leftfield - Leftism
Groove Armada - Goodbey Country
M Ward - Transfiguration of Vincent
Moby - Moby
Waldeck - Balance of the Force

I love every album on your list, good taste in music!

 

[MarcoD]

I love every album on your list, good taste in music!

I've got way extreme tastes in jazz, fusion, punk, acid, goatrance, drum and bass, and other stuff you probably wouldn't enjoy. But that only satisfies my curiosity. It doesn't seem to stick.

A number of the above records now are really dated, most of the soundscapes they invented now have become mainstream. I find it easy to find good music these days, but hard to find interesting stuff. (It used to be the opposite.)

But I lost track of most labels I was interested in, seems most progressive stuff now is fusion with hiphop.

 

[Adyssa]

If you like deeb dub techo but also singer-songwriter I think Gil Scott-Heron's return "I'm new Here" is probably one of the most overlooked albums around.

Taking note :) I have a few 12" release from Gil-Scott Heron, but no albums. Dude's got soul (RIP).

 

[checkitagain]

"Terrapin Station" - - - The Grateful Dead, except the song "Dancing in the Streets"

"Frampton Comes Alive" - - - Peter Frampton

"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" - - - Genesis

"Wish You Were Here" - - - Pink Floyd

"Benefit" - - - Jethro Tull


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Really, dozens of other groups' songs are missing from here,
because these are mostly ones off the top of my head.

 

[Jack8rkin]

My favourites are:

Tony MacAlpine
Maximum Security
Evolution

Vinnie Moore
The Maze

Marty Friedman
Dragon's Kiss

Accept
Balls to the Wall
Metal Heart

U.D.O.
Animal House