Favourite Albums

[thefutureofpolitics]

I thought I would start a post about favourite albums because I am a bit of a music obsessive. These are ten of my favourite albums, although I have many favourites:

1. Suede 'Dog Man Star'
2. David Bowie 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'
3. Sex Pistols 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols'
4. Pulp 'Different Class'
5. Oasis 'Definitely Maybe'
6. The Smiths 'Hatful of Hollow'
7. Elvis Costello 'Armed Forces'
8. Pixies 'Surfer Rosa'
9. The Beatles 'Revolver'

10. Dexys Midnight Runners 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels'

I forgot Tom Waits - Closing Time

Yes Mewkins, I agree that there should be more female-fronted bands these days, that is one of the reasons that I loved growing up in the 90s, it was a great and very empowering time for women, particularly women in bands. Britpop, with bands like Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly, Skunk Anansie, Lush, Salad and so on was great. I haven't heard the Maccabees album but will definitely make that my next album to listen to, so thank you. Thank you MyBoysAreFab, I absolutely love your choices too! It is nice to hear The Go-Betweens mentioned, so underrated! And more great memories with Teenage Fanclub being mentioned there! I remember buying Grand Prix and all the singles from it so well! Loving all these wonderful lists so much!

Some amazing albums mentioned here

My list would be along the lines of...
Pulp - Different Class
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (or Wish You Were Here, I can never decide)

Some amazing albums mentioned here

My list would be something like:
Pulp - Different Class
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (or Wish You Were Here - I can never decide)
Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man
Black Box Recorder - Facts Of Life
Cooper Temple Clause - See This Through and Leave
Flipron - Biscuits for Cerberus
Sleeper - The It Girl
Queen Adreena - The Butcher and the Butterfly

I say something like - I'm already questioning whether I could really leave Radiohead or the Manics out...

David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Beatles - Sgt Pepper
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Jeff Buckley - Grace
The Mystery Jets - Radlands
Frank Sinatra - Songs For Swinging Lovers
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!

That's my first ten...

Oh, cringe. Accidental double post, I thought the first one had been eaten

Elle, I think I would put The Bends in there. I never ever listen to the album on its own right through but whenever I hear a song on the radio or on shuffle I suddenly remember how brilliant each one is in its own right.

There are some wonderful choices on here!!! I don't really know where to start but Elledouble, I love that you mentioned Sleeper 'The It Girl', such a great album! If you haven't already, you should read Louise's autobiography, it was one of the best books I had read in ages, lots of music memories!

mewkins, I totally agree and actually wish I had put The Bends in my list. Oddly often overlooked after OK Computer was released. Both albums are great obviously but I think I must have listened to The Bends more.

And I also regret leaving Manics out, so a mention for The Holy Bible from me. A list of ten is so impossible, isn't it? I think everybody's combined choices would make the best 'Greatest Albums' list ever.

Haha, yes maybe a top 500 or something?
These lists though make me think there isn't enough time in the world to listen to all the good music out there.

mewkins/thefuture I can never decide between The Bends and Ok Computer. Ok Computer is more of a complete work, I think (like Wish You Were Here compared to Dark Side of the Moon, I always think!) but there are just some blinding songs on The Bends. I saw them at Glastonbury in 2003 and they played Just and Fake Plastic Trees and it was one of the greatest moments of my whole life. Saw the Manics too, in fact.

I agree Elledouble, I think OK Computer was definitely their Pink Floyd-style concept album moment. I will never forget hearing Paranoid Android for the first time and thinking, it's over, nobody is ever going to be able to do anything better than this. I love The Bends and have probably listened to it more but probably only because it came before OK Computer. I saw them live in 1997 in Blackpool, supported by a really good band called Laika, and they were so wonderful! I love the title track of The Bends and Johnny's odd guitar parts. I am so jealous that you were at that Glastonbury, I remember watching on TV so well! I am still kicking myself for not putting Manics on my list because they are the band I have seen live more times than any other. And yes Mewkins, how amazing would it be to have enough time to compile a list of 500 and have the time to listen to them back to back?! I think we would have a much better list than a lot of lists of greatest albums I have seen in magazines in recent times. The last NME list was notoriously shocking! I think the people on this thread must be the last surviving purveyors of good music!

Ha! I love the nme backlash at the moment. Do you follow on facebook? It is really dumbing down and trying to appeal to the masses (see also Radio X!) hence why I suspect they include lots of albums by major labels aka the advertisers! Sad really. Maybe it has had its day. Anyway I am constantly surprised to hear stuff I love that has been around for years but has bypassed me. I am currently enjoying everything the Replacements have to offer from the 80s (and I thought the 80s were full of crap) but I love it!

I don't do Facebook I'm afraid but I have seen so much negative stuff about NME recently. It is such a shame because I used to love NME but that was when there was a good music scene and people who had something to say. I think it is a victim of a really dire music scene at the moment, the advent of the internet and very bad journalism. It completely dumbed down, like you say, the same as Radio X, but then everything seems to have dumbed down, we only have to look at TV for that. I think NME really has had it's day though. Perhaps it should have stopped a few years back in the same way that Smash Hits did and preserved some credibility and heritage. Ooh, Replacements! That was one of the bands my boyfriend introduced me to ... He has a great Replacements T-shirt from years ago! I am listening to a lot of this band at the moment. I remember them from either John Peel, The Evening Session or Mark Radcliffe, one of the three, and rediscovered them recently ...

NME has been going downhill for a long time. I used to buy it all the time 10 years ago but nw i don't even bother to flick through it when i'm in the supermarket! Their facebook page was just full of gossip rather than music journalism. Shame really because what with XFM and NME gone there is only really Later with Jools Holland left for independent music labels in the media now.

I stopped buying the NME in about 2005, when they kept latching on to the latest big thing and just writing about then to the exclusion of all else, or so it felt.

I have very fond memories of doing the NME crossword (did anyone actually complete it ever?!) in bed with a lad I was having a holiday romance with, and him flinging it aside when we couldn't do any more and kissing me...

1. Neil Young After the Gold Rush. Because I was 15/16 with chicken pox and beginning to move away from What Was On Top Of The Pops as a reference point. And because Birds is sublime. And because he can't actually sing but no-one has ever dared tell him.

2. Cowboy Junkies Black Eyed Man. Because it reminds me of the period in my life when I was deciding that maybe I needed to leave the country. To Live To Fly therefore became my anthem. 3. REM Out of Time. Because of a lovely boy and drinking whisky out of mugs in 1991 while playing Country Feedback (him) and Texarkana (me) over and over. 4. Year of the Cat- Al Stewart: Because of another boy who used to listen to this in my bedroom in 1986. 5. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Because everyone needs a Floydy on their desert island and I would take this one just for last 2 tracks. 6. Stevie Nicks Bella Donna. Because I still want to be her when I grow up. 7. Kitaro can't remember name of album, the one about the birth of Japan. Because it's my woo-y candle music. 8. Oasis What's the Story. Because it reminds me of summer 96 working on a language course. Possibly my last not quite grown up summer. 9. Heart Heart. Because it was on my bedroom wall at university and because Ann Wilson has the best voice in rock, male or female. If you don't believe me watch her make Robert Plant cry covering Stairway. 10. Top Gun soundtrack.

Yes, penguinsarecool, thank goodness for Jools! The whole gossip thing really is a prime example of how much everything has dumbed down, it is all people are interested in these days, so once important things like NME are now OK Magazine with prestige badge, which isn't even prestige anymore because it's readership are now generally not interested in or don't remember how important it used to be.

Elledouble, I love your story and it is so true because for real music lovers, the NME used to feature in every aspect of their lives. I think Danny Baker summed it's decline up best: "And so... the NME is a free sheet now. Why not? The game's up and the fire's gone out."

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark, Another wonderful list! And there is no shame in the Top Gun soundtrack, such an 80's classic! "And because he can't actually sing but no-one has ever dared tell him" ... that really made me laugh! I think all the best and most recognised singers probably can't actually sing, in any erm, classic sense of the word, they are the best because they are unique ... Bob Dylan, John Lydon etc etc. Who wants to listen to something ridiculously polished, that is usually just incredibly boring.

Current favourite is Terry Callier Occasional Rain

Ordinary Joe and Lean on me are sublime :)

Thefuture, currently listening to Replacements Let it Be on a loop. Love it! Will give your Cardiacs link a listen.

Mewkins I really like that Replacements album too, probably my favourite actually. My other half comes up with some real gems sometimes! I love Cardiacs just for their absolute bizarreness and not sounding like anybody else at all. I don't think any other band can get away with some of their tempo changes / key changes, usually at completely inappropriate places in songs! I also rediscovered this band recently (another one I remember from late night radio, I think Mark and Lard's Graveyard Shift): This song isn't actually on an album but it's my favourite of theirs. Their albums are very good though, usually compared to Tindersticks, who I also very much recommend!

The band is The Flaming Stars and the song is 'Bury My Heart at Pier 13' by the way, just in case it doesn't show! Ooh, and here's some Tindersticks, 'Rented Rooms' from the album Curtains (1997), just because I mentioned them ...

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