# Best rock album ... your preference. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972 "2019-11-04T01:05:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/61 "2019-11-06T04:38:11Z")
I’ve been listening to the recently released _Abbey Road_ 5.1 mix lately, so I’ll pick that. There aren’t many artists that go out on top with a work like that. ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/62 "2019-11-06T06:48:42Z")
Pink Floyd: Animals ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/63 "2019-11-06T07:10:20Z")
_Songs from the Wood_ is an overlooked gem. _Never Turn Your Back on a Friend_ not only has no weak spots, the album title is delightfully ambiguous. But, lamentably, no one has heard of that band. ---
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken_1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/64 "2019-11-06T17:49:29Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Born To Run** > > Absolutely perfect - the narrative, the wall of sound…everything. Of course this is the correct answer. Close second: ‘Back in Black’ AC/DC ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/65 "2019-11-06T19:52:42Z")
My go-to answer is usually “Exile on Main Street”, but Derek & The Dominos “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is right up there too…not a bad tune on that one either. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/66 "2019-11-06T20:03:37Z")
Many of mine have been sniped…but here are some that don’t get enough love and I’ve recently rediscovered as feeling fresh as the day they were stamped… Joe Walsh - Barnstorm Cheap Trick - Dream Police Social Distortion - Social Distortion ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/67 "2019-11-06T20:09:07Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Many of mine have been sniped…but here are some that don’t get enough love and I’ve recently rediscovered as feeling fresh as the day they were stamped… > > Joe Walsh - Barnstorm > Cheap Trick - Dream Police > Social Distortion - Social Distortion This post reminds me again that this thread is a great inspiration for my playlist (or anybody’s). Though I know most of the usual suspects mentioned, there are still white spots in my musical map. So I always wanted to check out Joe Walsh and Social Distortion, and this gives me a good hint at where to start. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/68 "2019-11-06T20:31:43Z")
I’m a huge VH and Zep fan, but I will go with a slightly different definition of Rock… Outlandos d’Amour ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/69 "2019-11-06T20:48:23Z")
Reaching forward a bit, I found _Grave Dancers Union_ by Soul Asylum to be excellent all the way through. It has a quality I describe as “comfort music”, which does not mean that it is pleasant or inoffensive but that it evokes the sense of a bygone era, bringing some relief to these severely damaged present days. And how could no one have mentioned _A Space in Time_ by Ten Years After, which is solid as a rock. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/70 "2019-11-06T20:59:32Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Reaching forward a bit, I found _Grave Dancers Union_ by Soul Asylum to be excellent all the way through. It has a quality I describe as “comfort music”, which does not mean that it is pleasant or inoffensive but that it evokes the sense of a bygone era, bringing some relief to these severely damaged present days. I fondly remember that album, it’s just like you described. It was the album of the month in [Musikexpress](https://www.musikexpress.de/) and I bought it because of that review, not even knowing THE single “Runaway Train” or any other song. I hadn’t even ever heard of the band before. But I remember that many people in the alternative scene (which just had begun to go massively mainstream after Nirvana’s smash) hated it and cried “Sellout!”, not remembering that countless earlier bands also had begun in punk and developed their music into something subtler later in their career. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/71 "2019-11-06T21:09:10Z")
They keep on bringing it down in YouTube, you might have to search for it, but David Bowie “Life at Santa Monica 1972” is the best bootleg rock and roll I have ever heard. [Listen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMd0oZWo5yQ&t=3216s) loud, specially “I’m waiting for my man”, around 56’. Mick Ronson at his best. Of course the OP is right and there are not only no right answers, my answer could change a lot from one day to the next. There are days where I would consider even Leonard Cohen to be rock. That is my answer today. Many other answers given ring a bell too. I fell in good company. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/72 "2019-11-07T11:53:44Z")
Told you my opinion might change: today I am for Dead Kennedys “In God We Trust Inc.” Raw! ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/73 "2019-11-07T16:36:14Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > _Songs from the Wood_ is an overlooked gem. Yes. It is. Excellent tunes that album has. ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/74 "2019-11-07T16:50:14Z")
Pretenders - self titled first album ---
**Author:** ![bionic\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@bionic\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bionic_man)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/75 "2019-11-08T00:51:09Z")
Kinks One for the road. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/76 "2019-11-10T03:25:53Z")
I thought this was decided - Tonio K. - Life in the Food Chain - [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUGpYrl8Tc) "Steve Simels at Stereo Review proclaimed it “the greatest album ever recorded”. Tonio K. was/is Steven Krikorian. See wiki for a biography. Another one that will rock with out a lot of love - Captain Beyond - Thousand Days of Yesterday. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S0v6yVow4tU/hqdefault.jpg "A Thousand Days Of Yesterday (Time Since Come and Gone) - Captain Beyond") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0v6yVow4tU) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/77 "2019-11-16T01:44:00Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > I thought this was decided - Tonio K. - Life in the Food Chain - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUGpYrl8Tc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUGpYrl8Tc) > "Steve Simels at Stereo Review proclaimed it “the greatest album ever recorded”. [Holy crap, you weren’t kidding.](http://powerpop.blogspot.com/2019/11/i-loved-it-it-was-better-than-cats.html) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/78 "2019-11-16T01:50:36Z")
_Zeppelin IV_ or _Wish You Were Here_ Yes’s \*Fragile \*& Beatles _Abbey Road_ are strong contenders as are _Dark Side of the Moon_ & \*Animals \*by Floyd and _Crosby, Stills & Nash_. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/79 "2019-11-16T23:31:22Z")
Always and forever my answer will be _Quadrophenia_. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972/80 "2019-11-16T23:41:20Z")
I’d vote for Cream - _Wheels of Fire_, but they were a jazz trio. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-album-your-preference/842972.md?page=5)