Amazing Studio Albums

[Terrapin Ben]

In this thread we will list and discuss really good, ney, AMAZING studio albums.

 

Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan

Pet Sounds - Beach Boys

Sgt. Peppers - The Beatles

DSOTM - Pink Floyd

American Beauty - Grateful Dead

London Calling - The Clash

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

Graceland - Paul Simon

Rain Dogs- Tom Waits

Blood Sugar Sex Magic - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sea Change - Beck

Paul's Boutique- The Beastie Boys

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

Pinkerton - Weezer

Z - My Morning Jacket

Stankonia- Outkast

3 Feet High and Rising - De la Soul

[intodeep]

I may be biased because i am a very big pearl jam fan but i do think Ten was a pretty amazing album.

 

I would say wilco's Yankee hotel foxtrot is as well.

 

Radiohead's ok computer althoug electioneering is a little weak

 

neal youngs after the gold rush

[Terrapin Ben]

i will also add...

 

Quebec - Ween

[remphish1]

These are perfect front to back albums in my book and a necessary addition to any collection

Beck: Odelay, Mutations, Midnight Vultures

Belle and Sebastian: If Your Feeling Sinister

Ben Folds Five:Self Titled, Whatever

Bjork:Post, Homogenic

Blur:Modern Life

Bruce Springsteen:Greetings, Wild, Born to Run, Darkness

Cracker:Kerosene Hat

Cure:Faith, Pornography, Disintegration

Elliott Smith: Roman Candle, Self Titled, Either/Or, XO

Flaming Lips: Soft Bulletin

Gorillaz: Self Titled

Jayhawks: Blue Earth, Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow

Matthew Sweet: 100% Fun, Blue Sky on Mars

Morphine: Yes, Cure for Pain

Oasis: Def Maybe

Radiohead:The Bends, OK Computer

REM: Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Life's Rich, Automatic

Sigur Ros: Ageatis, (), Takk

Son Volt: Trace, Wide Swing

Toad The Wet Sprocket: Bread, Pale, Dulcenia

Uncle Tupelo: Still Feel

U2: Achtung, POP

Walkmen: You and Me

White Stripes: Self Titled, De Stilj

Wilco: Being, Summer, Yankee

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic

Super Furry Animals - Radiator

Super Furry Animals - Guerilla

Super Furry Animals - Out Spaced

Super Furry Animals - Mwng

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World

Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power

Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft

Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus!

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years

 

I can not ever fully express how great each and every one of these albums are.

[Lammycat]

First album that always pops into my mind on these threads is:

U2, Joshua Tree.

 

Also:

Little Feat Waiting for Columbus

 

 

ed. oops. WFC isn't studion. My b.

[jff]

Rubber Soul.

 

Marquee Moon.

[jff]

Neil Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush

 

Captain Beefheart - Safe as Milk

 

Kinks - Are the Village Green Preservation Society

[Gobias Industries]

Sorted by artist and then arranged approximately by release, but artists also arranged by decade:

 

The Beatles - Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Let It Be

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat, The Velvet Underground, Loaded, VU

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Blood on the Tracks, Time Out of Mind, "Love and Theft"

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

The Band - Music from Big Pink, The Band

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Imagine

Paul McCartney - McCartney, Ram, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Neil Young - After the Gold Rush, Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Time Fades Away, Comes a Time

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here

The Stooges - Raw Power

Derek & the Dominos - Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs

The Grateful Dead - American Beauty

Kraftwerk - Autobahn, Trans-Europe Express

Bob Dylan & the Band - The Basement Tapes

Iggy Pop - Lust for Life, The Idiot

David Bowie - Low, "Heroes

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures, Closer

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True, This Year's Model

The Clash - London Calling

Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Remain in Light

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Bone Machine

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

R.E.M. - Murmur, Reckoning, Automatic for the People

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Wowee Zowee, Brighten the Corners

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Wilco - Being There, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born

The Avalanches - Since I Left You

The White Stripes - White Blood Cells

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Streetcore

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

 

I think that's, um, it, at least for me. I compiled, like, everything I consider flawless, mostly for my own amusement (and because I've never done so before).

[cryptique]

Hey, everybody list all of your favorite albums!

[Wild Frank]

I have many favourite albums but very few of them are perfect from beginning to end. My favourite album ever is Nixon by Lambchop but it has a couple of duff songs on. My very short list of perfect albums would be:

 

Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece;

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs;

Neil Young - On The Beach;

Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane....;

Micah. P Hinson...and The Opera Circuit;

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue;

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Re-Visited.

 

Thats about it.

[Moss]

Hey, everybody list all of your favorite albums!

 

 

Yeah, I'm kind of at a loss here. Every non live album I like is an amazing studio album. Is there some kind of limit we are looking for? Like great production values?

[Guest Speed Racer]

Magical Mystery Tour

Yellow Submarine

 

Really? These two have always struck me as the compilations that they are. Great songs, don't get me wrong, but they don't do much more for me than a greatist hits album would.

[Lammycat]

Yeah, I'm kind of at a loss here. Every non live album I like is an amazing studio album. Is there some kind of limit we are looking for? Like great production values?

 

I find that most studio albums that I enjoy have at least 1 track that I don't mind skipping. I can't say that about The Joshua Tree and have trouble coming up with others.....

[Terrapin Ben]

i have lots of favorite albums that i don't consider to be studio master pieces. i listen to lost of live albums and bootlegs. Often these are my favorite albums. every studio album i own is not a perfect studio album. Would you put Sky Blue Sky on the same page as YHF? Would you put The Free Wheeling Bob on the same page as Time Out of Mind? While i love and listen to Sky Blue Sky and The Free Wheeling Bob often, there is something that seperates the latter from the former. Honestly, as a newer wilco fan i think i actaully listen to SBS more than YHF.

 

I guess i don't understand what's not to get about this thread.

 

EDIT for typos and wording.

[tinnitus photography]

Hey, everybody list all of your favorite albums!

 

 

lots of listing, little discussion.

[Lammycat]

i have lots of favorite albums that i don't consider to be studio master pieces. i listen to lost of live albums and bootlegs. Often these are my favorite albums. every studio album i own is not a perfect studio album. Would you put Sky Blue Sky on the same page as YHF? Would you put The Free Wheeling Bob on the same page as Time Out of Mind? While i love and listen to Sky Blue Sky and The Free Wheeling Bob often, there is something that seperates the latter from the former. Honestly, as a newer wilco fan i think i actaully listen to SBS more than YHF.

 

I guess i don't understand what's not to get about this thread.

 

EDIT for typos and wording.

 

What sperates an "amazing" studio album from one that you listen to and like?

[LouieB]

Hey, everybody list all of your favorite albums!

That was sort of my thought, considering The Basement Tapes is hardly the greatest sounding studio album ever...

 

LouieB

[Terrapin Ben]

it can't be, like, defined.... maaaan.

 

but honestly, i don't really know how to say it. i know what you're getting at but am having trouble coming up with a good response. you just feel it? i don't know.

 

maybe the thread should be changed to "What makes a studio album great? What are some examples?"

 

if i can do lots of re-listens to an album without skipping a track, that's probably an indicator of it being an exceptional album.

 

if i can't listen to a song on its own, but am able to enjoy in the context of album (ie a track 6 comes up on shuffle and you're like wtf is this, but when track 6 comes up after track 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and is followed by track 7 and 8 - you enjoy it more)

[Gobias Industries]

Hey, everybody list all of your favorite albums!

 

Actually, I don't consider a lot of those records I listed to be, like, anywhere near my favorite albums (some of them are, obviously), but yeah. There are a lot of flawless albums out there, which is the problem, so you end up listing a whole lot.

 

Really? These two have always struck me as the compilations that they are. Great songs, don't get me wrong, but they don't do much more for me than a greatist hits album would.

 

I love them all as if they were my children.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

it can't be, like, defined

Which is why this thread is basically "list some good albums"

[Guest Speed Racer]

I love them all as if they were my children.

 

I get that, but that doesn't mean all your children should be up for nominations in every single category.

 

To me, a studio album qualifies as a venture where a (group of) musician(s) sat down and said, "Hey, here's the project," and an album was birthed from that experience. I don't think either YS or MMT qualify, in that case. That's not always the case for many great albums, but YS and MMT feel like a cut-and-paste to me, and since each of the other Beatles records has such a distinct feel, those two are just different to me.

 

My flawless studio albums are the ones where I can sit down and be competlely satisfied with the idea of listening to it, start to finish, no matter the mood I'm in.

 

Uncle Tupelo, March 16-20, 1992

YHF

AGIB

Television, Marquee Moon

Jandek; Glad to Get Away, Your Turn to Fall

Sleater-Kinney, The Woods

Silver Jews, Tanglewood Numbers

Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home, Blood On the Tracks

 

I'm sure there are more, but those are my consistent go-tos.

[Terrapin Ben]

Which is why this thread is basically "list some good albums"

 

well then why don't you pop into the Bad Albums by Good Bands thread and ask them to define what makes an album bad. Take it easy. I thought this would be a fun idea for a thread. Sorry it upset you. If you don't want to participate, you don't need to post in the thread. No one's forcing you.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

well then why don't you pop into the Bad Albums by Good Bands thread and ask them to define what makes an album bad. Take it easy. I thought this would be a fun idea for a thread. Sorry it upset you. If you don't want to participate, you don't need to post in the thread. No one's forcing you.

Easy there. I wasn't attacking you. I'm just saying, an "amazing studio album" is different from person to person. There's no universal definition, which is why this thread is just people listing a bunch of albums they like.

[Winston Legthigh]

I've always felt that Zappa's albums had an outstanding sonic quality, like Apostrophe, Overnite Sensation, One Size Fits All, and Joe's Garage. They just sounded so "thick" to me. Part of the appeal to discovering his catalogue was the incredible production.