The Greatest Album Of All Time

[Sethren]

U2 - The Joshua Tree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olei_boE9fE

[gbeenie]

I enjoy Bowie, but I really don't think any of his albums qualify as the greatest of all time. I humbly suggest:

(Yes, Achtung Baby. I said it.)

That's a toughie. The members of U2 aren't fit to lick Bowie's boots. I DO think "Who's Next" is right up there (it's certainly The Who's best album).

As for Zeppelin, well, they're hamstrung by the principle of "The More You Know...". To wit: in 1990 Columbia Records issued a two-CD set of the complete recordings of Robert Johnson (he was murdered in 1937 at a very young age); once I bought and listened to it, I was unable to listen to Led Zeppelin for a LONG time. Because every time I DID, I heard something I'd already heard, that was recorded before any of the members of Zeppelin were born. In interviews, Jimmy Page admits that all he listened to growing up was old American blues records; and, brother, does it show. There's a reason Zeppelin was successfully sued by the estate of Willie Dixon over songwriting credit for "Whole Lotta Love." Nowadays, I can listen to them and be okay with it, but that's only with the understanding of just how derivative they were.

p.s. Frank Zappa's cover of "Stairway To Heaven" RULES.

[gbeenie]

Bach is math. Math is boring.

Math is NOT boring; math is the highest expression of purely human beauty there is.

[gbeenie]

I really am partial to The Wall.

[gbeenie]

My two cents worth:

The climax to "Backstreets" still gets me.

[gbeenie]

My greatest albums of all time, subject to change and sans any fancy album cover graphic linking:
(in no particular order and in no way THE greatest albums of all time, just my personal favorites)

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

What a terrific album.

[gbeenie]

was thinking about rifftrax references and it brought me to Tom Waits and then I saw this thread, couldn't resist 

What, no "Third Reich n' Roll"?

[Conor]

I have that song on the bootleg I have and still like it... First song on the bootleg though, which sold me instantly too, was "Oh Comedy" which for the most part is only vocals/guitar I think

Could be the voice that overlaps them...  That and their unconventional sound.  Those are 2 major parts of Tom Waits obviously.  Probably part of the reason that there's a huge overlap in Les Claypool and Tom Waits fans too

edit - BY THE WAY, I keep forgetting, any idea which of the guys sang "Downtown Train" during Daredevil?

That was Kevin, I believe. 

Oh Comely is the only song on the album I don't like actually, i find myself skipping over it.  Due in part to its length, but mostly to the downer tone of the whole thing.  Lots of other NMH songs sound like pure joy coming through your speakers, and Oh Comely just sort of plods along (in my opinion.)  I still encourage you to check out the whole thing.

The Jeff Mangum (nmh singer) and Tom Wait comparison is one that has been made before, based on the uniqueness of their voice and the fact that it could be instantly jarring to the first time listener.  The voices themself couldn't be more different.  The first time I ever heard Waits, it was Franks Wild Years, and it didn't play past the first song.  Later I heard Nighthawks at the Diner in a friends car, and worked my way up through Small Change, then Heartattack and Vine to the wierd stuff, then back down to the first two albums.

[gbeenie]

My personal faves:

Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy or Night and Day -- I go back-and-forth over which of these is my favorite; Beat Crazy is just a phenomenal way to spend forty minutes of your life, whereas Night and Day is more idiosyncratic and fully executed. I can't imagine not owning either of these.

Talking Heads - Little Creatures -- one of those albums that is SO GOOD you just know the band's going to break up inside five years. 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Original Soundtrack -- Stephen Trask may be the greatest songwriter currently walking the earth.

The Who - Who's Next -- I know this has already shown up on a few lists, but... holy shit. Thoroughly amazing from top to bottom. "Baba O'reilly" may be the most perfect rock n' roll song ever recorded. If the members of The Who knew then what they know now (that they would NEVER be better than this), they would have completed a suicide pact in 1974, and avoided the Dinosaurs of Rock fate they've consigned themselves to.

They Might Be Giants - John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.

[stirrell]

They Might Be Giants - John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.

That's interesting... I think many fans were disappointed that it was a more "mainstream" album with a full band and much less quirky than their previous efforts.

Also, something funny I noticed about their previous album, Apollo 18 is that that online stores sell each "piece" of Fingertips separately. So if you were to purchase the album by track, you'd be buying 38 tracks ;-). A friend of mine in college would have Apollo 18 in his CD changer (among others). He'd play his music on shuffle so you'd always get these random three second songs interspersed amongst the music.

For the record, I liked John Henry quite a bit. I also like Factory Showroom a lot and The Spine. They Might Be Giants were the first band I ever saw live.

[gbeenie]

They Might Be Giants - John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.

That's interesting... I think many fans were disappointed that it was a more "mainstream" album with a full band and much less quirky than their previous efforts.

Also, something funny I noticed about their previous album, Apollo 18 is that that online stores sell each "piece" of Fingertips separately. So if you were to purchase the album by track, you'd be buying 38 tracks ;-). A friend of mine in college would have Apollo 18 in his CD changer (among others). He'd play his music on shuffle so you'd always get these random three second songs interspersed amongst the music.

Every time I see them in concert, if they play "Fingertips," when they're done I ALWAYS shout, "Now play it on 'Shuffle'!" It's a lame joke, I know, but it's MY lame joke, dammit. 

p.s. If you join their email list, every several weeks or so, you receive a link for a free .mp3 of a new song. Pretty boss.

[BEERxTaco]

My personal faves:

Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy or Night and Day -- I go back-and-forth over which of these is my favorite; Beat Crazy is just a phenomenal way to spend forty minutes of your life, whereas Night and Day is more idiosyncratic and fully executed. I can't imagine not owning either of these.

Talking Heads - Little Creatures -- one of those albums that is SO GOOD you just know the band's going to break up inside five years. 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Original Soundtrack -- Stephen Trask may be the greatest songwriter currently walking the earth.

The Who - Who's Next -- I know this has already shown up on a few lists, but... holy shit. Thoroughly amazing from top to bottom. "Baba O'reilly" may be the most perfect rock n' roll song ever recorded. If the members of The Who knew then what they know now (that they would NEVER be better than this), they would have completed a suicide pact in 1974, and avoided the Dinosaurs of Rock fate they've consigned themselves to.

They Might Be Giants - John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.

Loved Joe Jackson... all of them. What an array of styles, from Look Sharp to Night & Day (also one of my personal favorites) to Jumpin Jive and Big World... I don't hear much about him anymore, but then again I haven't really been in touch with the music scene since 1989, lol.

[gbeenie]

My personal faves:

Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy or Night and Day -- I go back-and-forth over which of these is my favorite; Beat Crazy is just a phenomenal way to spend forty minutes of your life, whereas Night and Day is more idiosyncratic and fully executed. I can't imagine not owning either of these.

Talking Heads - Little Creatures -- one of those albums that is SO GOOD you just know the band's going to break up inside five years. 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Original Soundtrack -- Stephen Trask may be the greatest songwriter currently walking the earth.

The Who - Who's Next -- I know this has already shown up on a few lists, but... holy shit. Thoroughly amazing from top to bottom. "Baba O'reilly" may be the most perfect rock n' roll song ever recorded. If the members of The Who knew then what they know now (that they would NEVER be better than this), they would have completed a suicide pact in 1974, and avoided the Dinosaurs of Rock fate they've consigned themselves to.

They Might Be Giants - John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.

Loved Joe Jackson... all of them. What an array of styles, from Look Sharp to Night & Day (also one of my personal favorites) to Jumpin Jive and Big World... I don't hear much about him anymore, but then again I haven't really been in touch with the music scene since 1989, lol.

In 2003, he reunited with the other members of the Joe Jackson Band (their last album together had been Beat Crazy in 1980) and recorded Volume 4 on Ryko. GodDAMN is it good. They toured afterward, and the excellent album Afterlife (also on Ryko) was the result.

Speaking of live, pick up Two Rainy Nights (it's a 2001 album that got reissued in 2004 on Koch Records); it features his great guitar-less touring band, and has most of the best songs from 2000's Night & Day II (including a version of "Glamour and Pain" that's even better than the album track).

[pyro]

What, no "Third Reich n' Roll"?

One of the ones I haven't heard but should....  I've only heard/own so many of their albums, like 10 out of 650 or something

[pyro]

I have that song on the bootleg I have and still like it... First song on the bootleg though, which sold me instantly too, was "Oh Comedy" which for the most part is only vocals/guitar I think

Could be the voice that overlaps them...  That and their unconventional sound.  Those are 2 major parts of Tom Waits obviously.  Probably part of the reason that there's a huge overlap in Les Claypool and Tom Waits fans too

edit - BY THE WAY, I keep forgetting, any idea which of the guys sang "Downtown Train" during Daredevil?

That was Kevin, I believe. 

Oh Comely is the only song on the album I don't like actually, i find myself skipping over it.  Due in part to its length, but mostly to the downer tone of the whole thing.  Lots of other NMH songs sound like pure joy coming through your speakers, and Oh Comely just sort of plods along (in my opinion.)  I still encourage you to check out the whole thing.

The Jeff Mangum (nmh singer) and Tom Wait comparison is one that has been made before, based on the uniqueness of their voice and the fact that it could be instantly jarring to the first time listener.  The voices themself couldn't be more different.  The first time I ever heard Waits, it was Franks Wild Years, and it didn't play past the first song.  Later I heard Nighthawks at the Diner in a friends car, and worked my way up through Small Change, then Heartattack and Vine to the wierd stuff, then back down to the first two albums.

Thanks, that's sort of what I figured since I catch him quoting songs most and quotes stuff like Frank Zappa and etc...


I had no idea it was Oh Comely, I even have it labled wrong in my ipod... I don't listen to lyrics a lot of times so I sorta figured it was an irony thing with the dark sound...  I do intend to check out the entire album at some point though, it's partly a matter of finding it now

I'm almost the complete opposite on him, I still love Nighthawks but that's probably my least favorite sound of his voice...  But I didn't get that till sometime down the road, I had already known what to expect with his voice since I learned about him from my old bass teacher who calls himself Rev T Bagg where my lessons early on would consist of him coming in, telling some random story, then teaching me to play whatever Tom Waits song he had recently learned as he would play guitar and sing it similar to him.  And he mostly got me into him through his humor with songs like Xmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis (I was about 14-15 at the time I think)