I’ve been fighting with myself over how to phrase this and losing on all fronts so I’ll just put it like this.
I’m looking to expand my fairly small music collection. In order to obtain inspiration toward this end, I’m starting this thread. I’m not picky about genre, style and the like. Good music is good music.
What CDs do you believe should be required listening for every music lover?
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream. Mostly alternative rock if you’re not familiar with them, but the CD is very diverse within the genre from song to song.
All I can say is that it’s beautiful.
Violent Femmes self titled, pure 100% teen angnst
K.D. Lang Ingenue, pure sexy
Ultra Lounge, the Fuzzy Sampler, quirky tunes in the coolest cd ever, its leopard print velvet
Tool Undertow, possibly my all time favorite album ever. a master piece.
Rage Against the Machine self titled, the first band to truly fuse rap and metal in a way that wasnt some gimp attempt. fantastic stuff.
Moby Play, another fantastic album that you have heard a lot of weather you know it or not. beautiful through and through.
They Might be Giants Flood, pure nerd rock 2 guys who between them can play about 500 instruments, the cover of Istanbul is worth it alone but its a great one as well. (the lyrics to one song are "MINIMUM WAAAAAAAAGE HEYA!)
Neil Young Decade. its a great place to start with the old man.
one more (or 3 more)
Betty Davis, self titled, Nasty Gal, and They Say I’m Different. I cant recomend this woman enough. take your pick or get all 3, if you like your women strong sexy and in control then this girl is for you.
Miles Davis - “Porgy and Bess”
Harrys Smith’s - “Anthology of American Folk Music”
Any decent Hank Williams Compilation
that’s all anyone should need.
Crowded House - Crowded House
Paul Simon - Graceland
Sting - Mercury Falling
U2 - The Joshua Tree
I’m not including compilations or best of collections, and I’ll look over my collection of music more carefully when I get home - this is mostly off the top of my head
Beck - ‘Mutations’ is a must have.
Fat Freddy’s Drop - ‘Based on a True Story’ is the f*cking nuts!
The Cure - ‘Disintergration’ is their best album IMHO
Common - ‘Finding Forever’ is just about as good as rap get’s, again IMHO.
This is a cross section of reasonably ‘mainstream’ music tastes but if you are willing to expand on what types of music you like most I could give some more specific recommendations?
No one’s mentioned the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Pink Floyd, or the Grateful Dead?
Shame.
I don’t believe there’s any cd that everyone “should” own.
I know. I’m shocked. I expected to see at least The Beatles (The White Album) and Dark Side of the Moon in the first couple of posts.
Allman Brothers: Live at the Fillmore East. Quintessential Southern Blues-Rock Guitar Brilliance.
It is a pretty wide open question. I tried to think of “music to cover most occasions” and came up with:
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Bach Cello Suites (mine are recorded by YoYo Ma)
John Mayall - Blues Breakers
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Bing Crosby - some compilation (or Christmas album if you’re inclined that way)
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison
Carole King - Tapestry
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Then I hit “preview” and agree with almost all of the suggestions already made. I hope your decision to build the collection is backed by a large budget.
Well, we figured even in a small collection you must already have those…doesn’t everybody?
Good lord I wouldn’t know where to begin. So many for so many genres for so many different reasons.
Where to start? I mostly get greatest hits compilations…
Just a few that haven’t been named:
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Greatest Hits
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
James Taylor - Greatest Hits
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
Queen - Greatest Hits
Santana - Abraxas
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood
Woodstock
ZZ Top - Fandango
A few from the 90s:
Nirvana - Nevermind
Green Day - Dookie
Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View
Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
Mozart – anything
Beethoven – Symphonies and Piano concertos
Beatles – Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road
Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
The Who – Who’s Next
Elvis Presley – self-titled album
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew
Robert Johnson – King of the Delta Blues
Muddy Waters – Fathers and Sons
Johnny Cash – At Folsum Prison
Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger
Patsy Cline – Showcase
And no collection would be complete without the greatest album of all time!
XTC- Skylarking
Pearl Jam- Yield
The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow
Replacements- Tim
Red Hot Chili Peppers- BloodSugarSexMagic
Genesis- Selling England by the Pound
King Crimson- Discipline, Beat
Yeah, tastes differ. Every list of essentials I’ve seen includes some that I do own, or at least am familiar with, that leave me “meh.”
With that caveat, a couple years ago ultrafilter started a series of threads listing The Essential Music Library for various musical genres. Here’s the “project planning” thread, which includes links to the various individual threads.
Chiming in:
KISS-Destroyer
Def Leppard-Hysteria
Metallica-The Black Album [s/t]
INXS- Kick
Rush-Roll The Bones
Foreigner-4
David Bowie-Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Anything by Rory Gallagher, Mick Ronson or Steve Ray Vaughn
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Al Green - Greatest Hits
Beck - Midnite Vultures
My tastes swerve towards a more poppy/funky sound with a good beat.
I don’t. I don’t really own any CDs. I have some sitting in the garage, but I don’t actively listen to them, or any other music.