Albums that were worth it

[Pica Pica]

i don't think that Sgt Pepper's is your full moneys worth, its an album of experiment and ideas, more an impact when it came out and a rallying point for a certain aesthetic, but not a wonderful album.

[Constance]

Caverna Magica by Andreas Vollenweider.

I can't think of any others from my collection where every last track was inexplicably incredible. But since we're moving now, things are turning up that I'd forgotten I owned. So, I might be adding others. We'll see...

[Ell]

Traffic, John Barleycorn Must Die

bought it used, can't tell you how many times i played it.

[tekla]

Down by law with John Barleycorn.  Awesome.

[Luc]

I love so many different types of music so much that it's really difficult to pick even just 10 essential albums...  I'll try though.

In no particular order:

The Beatles box set, 1963-1970
All-American Rejects- Move Along
Counting Crows- August and Everything After
Cake- Fashion Nugget
Flobots- Fight With Tools
Ratatat- Classics
Angels and Airwaves- We Don't Need to Whisper
Brian Setzer Orchestra- The Dirty Boogie
Collective Soul- Dosage
Everclear- So Much for the Afterglow
ICP- The Great Milenko
The Killers- Hot Fuss
Kottonmouth Kings- Hidden Stash
Nine Inch Nails- Pretty Hate Machine
Serj Tankian- Elect the Dead
She Wants Revenge (self-titled)
Simple Plan- No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls
Best of Van Halen


Yeah, that's a list. And I'm sure I missed a lot. However, I still maintain that the best put-together album I've ever heard, the one with the best flow and overall best consistent musical quality is Pretty Hate Machine.

SD

[Laura91]

Napalm Death "From Enslavement To Obliteration"

[Jay]

• Queen Greatest Hits 3 CD.


• My Chemical Romance The Black Parade.


• Usher Here I stand

[RebeccaFog]

B. Dylan "John Wesley Harding"

[tekla]

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks.

[RebeccaFog]

bob dylan

Highway 61 revisited

and

Bringing it all back home

[Arch]

The Kingston Trio--The Kingston Trio/From the Hungry i
You can get both albums on one CD. I can think of no better introduction to the greatest American folk group ever (well, in my humble opinion). One studio, one live.

Led Zeppelin--Physical Graffiti
One of the classics. Nuff said.

The Police--Synchronicity
Okay, this album has the extremely overplayed and misunderstood "Every Breath You Take," but have you really listened to that song? It's scary as all heck. And a lot of the other songs on this album make you think, if you bother to listen to the lyrics.

The Doors--The Doors
Despite the commercial appeal of "Light My Fire," still a great debut album. Some might say that "The End" is a bit self-indulgent, but those folks probably feel the same way about Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (the Pateticheskaya). Screw 'em, I say.

The Talking Heads--More Songs about Buildings and Food, Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues
Keepers, all of them.

Gary Numan--Replicas
Are "friends" electric? I've always wondered.

The Residents--Meet the Residents
Their debut album is alternately jarring and hilarious. "Boots," that perennial Nancy Sinatra favorite, is given the bizarro treatment here. And who can resist the sweet strains of "Rest Aria," the deeply moving "Spotted Pinto Bean," and "N-Er-Gee (Crisis Blues)," as relevant now as it was in 1973?

Sparks--Whomp That Sucker
"Too commercial!" this album's detractors cry. Maybe so, but it's all so much fun for anyone with a goofy sense of humor. "Take a foreign girl upstairs and learn a lot of foreign words." 

These are just off the top of my head. No doubt I could do better with more time.

[funnygrl]

i don't think that Sgt Pepper's is your full moneys worth, its an album of experiment and ideas, more an impact when it came out and a rallying point for a certain aesthetic, but not a wonderful album.

DARN IT PICA QUIT BEING SO DAMN BRITISH

'KISS' : KISS, Hotter than Hell, Dressed To Kill, Alive 1

[tekla]

I agree with Pica here.

Revolver and Rubber Soul are much better records.

[funnygrl]

I agree with Pica here.

Revolver and Rubber Soul are much better records.

I totally understand, but everything the Beatles ever did is just gold to me; especially, Sgt. Peppers because it was given to me at a very weird and depressing time when I was very young. Parents divorcing, my GID issues, vicious bullying @ school. It was the epitome of "escapism" for me.

[tekla]

But I'm not sure that the Beatles at their best were about escapism, they were real, which is why they sold what they did.  Then and now.  Which is why Rubber Soul and Revolver are such awesome records.  Its the reality, not the surreality in them that makes them great.  Not that Sgt. Peppers is some sort of drek, it's not, and its hard to imagine rock post Sgt. Peppers without it.

[funnygrl]

But I'm not sure that the Beatles at their best were about escapism, they were real, which is why they sold what they did.  Then and now.  Which is why Rubber Soul and Revolver are such awesome records.  Its the reality, not the surreality in them that makes them great.  Not that Sgt. Peppers is some sort of drek, it's not, and its hard to imagine rock post Sgt. Peppers without it.

I agree. It was just a time in my life that i felt that album in particular gave me that "escape" from all the reality going on around me.

[tekla]

No problem there.  I think if you look at it in context SP is THE rock record of all time.  When it came out the local (Chicago) AM top-40 station played it from start to finish, no commercials, it was that important in its day.

[joannatsf]

Famous Blue Raincoat, Jinnifer Warnes and Leonard Cohen

Cohen is really a poet playing a musician and Warnes brings her pop sensibility to the project.  I'm on copy number 2, which is MP3 this time.

Rubber Soul, The Beatles
Let It Bleed ties Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones

The Doors, title and group

The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell

[tekla]

Hissing and all that comes after YES!  Court and Spark and all that folk junk, boo!  Boring. Dull.  But stuff like Dog Eat Dog,  Wild Things Run Fast. Mingus,  Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Hejira - sign me up!

[funnygrl]

KING CRIMSON- "In The Court Of The Crimson King".