I tend to listen to CDs endlessly, put them down and forget about them, then pick them back up and listen to them months later. A few manage to still be astoundingly good after all that listening and I go “Wow! This is still awesome!” What albums still impress you after all this time?
A Perfect Circle-Mer de Noms-This one actually gave me the idea for this thread. I hadn’t listened to it in about a year but got the hankering last night. Popped it in the CD player and…WOW! It’s such a magnificent album.
Pink Floyd-Is There Anybody Out There? (The Wall Live)-I just never get tired of this one.
Nine Inch Nails-*And All That Could’ve Been (live)-This is one of the reasons I love live albums. An amazing NIN album.
The Catherine Wheel-Chrome-One of my top 10 favorite CDs. Every song is a good song and they work together to make the whole album greater.
Barenaked Ladies-Rock Spectacle-Every time I listen to it, it’s like listening for the first time.
Tool-AEnima-Still one of my favorite CDs, even if I neglect it for ages.
David Bowie-Outside-He’s done so much great work, but this is my favorite album of his.
Rolling Stones Exile on Mainstreet
Husker Du Zen Arcade
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti
Clash Give Em Enough Rope
Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets
David Bowie Ziggy Stardust
John Henry/Factory Showroom - They Might Be Giants
Outside/Heathen - David Bowie
(Reality will end up on this list eventually)
Automatic For the People - REM
Pisces Iscariot - Smashing Pumpkins
Play - Moby
aenima - TOOL
-King Crimson - Red, Bill Bruford’s first time as THE KC drummer.
-Willie Nelson - Stardust, Willies finest hour IMO.
-Tony Levin Band - Double Espresso, an incredible live album (check out the cover of Black Dog) by a band of legends (Jerry Marotta, Larry Fast, TL and a guitar phenom in Jessie Gress).
-Adrian Belew - Twang Bar King, a true guitar god who can write too.
I am sure there are more but these come to mind immediately.
Limiting it to pop/rock (otherwise a lot of Bach, Schubert and Mahler would be lsited for instance):
Kayak - Bard of the Unseen (Best.CD.EVer)
Kate Bush - Hounds of love
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
Genesis - Selling England by the pound
Tori Amos - Scarlets walk
“Spine of God” by Monster Magnet. Every song on the album is great. Every album they have made since sucked.
“…And Justice for All” by Metallica. Although I can’t decide whether I like “Master of Puppets” or “…And Justice for All” better, I think that, considered as an album, not just a collection of songs, that “…And Justice for All” is superior because of the unrelenting intensity of it. “Master of Puppets” may have more catchy songs, but they don’t seem to have any relation to each other.
“Independent Worm Saloon” by the Butthole Surfers. I know that most Butthole Surfers fans consider this one of their weakest albums, but then, I haven’t found another Butthole Surfers album that I liked. I guess it was a departure from the norm from them, and I liked where they went with it.
Anything by Richard Thompson. If you don’t know his work, check out Rumor and Sigh for starters, or if you can find a copy, “Watching the Dark,” which is an excellent retrospective. Thompson is consistantly excellent, and under the radar.
The Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. I’ve loved this album since the year it came out, and it still sounds as good to me now as it did when I was 13.
The Violent Femmes first album. Except for the last song, “Good Feelings”, Its as close to being a perfect record as it gets.
The Stooges Funhouse. It took a good twenty years for rock and roll to catch up with that album.
Alice Cooper Love It To Death and Killers. Two more albums that come close to being perfect. Alice Cooper (the band) was probably the single most influential band of the post-60s era.
