Classic albums that I definitely prefer as albums:
Dire Straits Brothers in Arms
Eurythmics Savage
Fairport Convention* Liege & Lief*
Double concur.
Depeche Mode, Black Celebration. One of my favorite albums ever - when I’m feeling particularly depressed, I put it on and wallow in the depression for a while, then by the time But Not Tonight comes on, I’m done with wallowing and ready to accept the hand up that it offers.
Agreed, except I listen to the remaster, which restored the album to its original ending - sans “But Not Tonight”. Oftentimes, I’ll still then flip to that track.
I listen to a lot of albums all the way through, so I’ll just list the ones I’ve done so lately or really like:
Mesh The Perfect Solution
VNV Nation Of Faith, Power and Glory
Goldfrapp Seventh Tree
Chris Isaak Forever Blue
Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism
Depeche Mode Some Great Reward
IAMX Kingdom of Welcome Addiction
Nine Inch Nails Broken (though it’s only an EP)
Postal Service Give Up
Tool ænima
!!!
No I didn’t. I just sorta assumed the two guys made that one great album then went their own ways; I had no idea David B was even still around.
Although I love her version of ‘First Cut is the Deepest’ (and in fact my band covered her version a few years back), I’ve never been that big of Sheryl Crow fan. But now I’m going to have to go back and listen to TNMC again.
And while I’m at it - what White Stripes album would you recommend? I’ll give them one more chance to prove me wrong.
Two Dire Straits albums; Love Over Gold and Making Movies. I don’t mind listening to singles off of any other Dire Straits or Mark Knopfler album, but these two must be listened to as albums.
The Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks and my Benninghoff’s Bad Rock Blues Band album.
Not too obscure, and I definitely like to listen to those albums the whole way through. But I love Third/Sisters Lovers too, so what do I know…
I mostly listen to albums at least one side at a time, if not the whole way through. But certain albums come to mind as really working much better listened to in one sitting:
Kraftwerk - Radio-Acctivity/Autobahn/Computer World/Trans-Europe etc., at least one side at a time is best
Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On
Guided by Voices - Under the Bushes, Under the Stars
Neil Young - Tonight’s the night, Everybody, Zuma, etc. (you just need to get the feel of what he is doing.)
White Stripes - to me, De Stijl, their second CD, is a solid entry point. He’s not quite as aggressively, well, *Jack White *about everything - so if you haven’t acquired the taste yet, you don’t feel overwhelmed. After that, Elephant.
David B and Sheryl Crow - here’s the wikipedia entry, but it doesn’t capture the buzz of the moment. The TNMC was friends with John O’Brien, who wrote Leaving Las Vegas, the novel which became the movie. To my knowledge, David B or another TNMC’er brought the idea to the table for a song when Sheryl landed the record deal. I don’t know who wrote the actual song, but it emerged from the book and her association with the TNMC. When the song broke and she played it on Letterman, Dave gave her props by approaching her after the song to actually talk. He complimented her on the song and asked if she wrote it based on stuff in *her *life. And, to her everlasting regret, she answered Yes (I read later that she has said that she just got caught like a deer in the headlights when Dave approached her and she babbled out an answer…). That exacerbated the already-strained relationships she had with the TNMC who were stunned by her album’s overwhelming success (sold over 5million copies)…
…really too bad because Sheryl Crow is entirely legit as a musician and songwriter (you are welcome to not like the songs or how she has been marketed - but I don’t want to hear someone just dismiss her like a cougar Britney Spears - Crow is hugely talented) - it took a while for her to get some distance from that buzz. Having a massive second album certainly helped…
I would have to list all 5000-6000 of my albums. I prefer to listen to albums. I only really use the shuffle feature on my iPod when I’m hiking or training or maybe on a long drive.
Nope, you mentioned their 2nd and 3rd albums. I posted their first self-titled album 8 posts before that but he’ll still kick himself when he finds that out!
Some that come to mind immediately:
Small Faces - Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
Procol Harum - A Salty Dog
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Yas Out
The Clash - London Calling
But there are so many others. Those of us who grew up with vinyl and turntables are predisposed to listen to the whole album, because that’s what we did. There weren’t remote controls and track skipping. Frankly, it had to be a pretty crappy song to make you get up, walk across the room, pick up the tonearm, and move it to the next track! All of the albums I list above are organic entities. I think it’s weird if I hear them with the sequence if the songs changed!
Old age; it’s a bitch…:smack:
Deep purple- Machine head. Just last week for old times sake.
Frank zappa-Joe’s Garage. On my ipod for long trips.
Timepeace by Tery Callier. Really needs to be listened to from start to finish. I don’t like listening to it any other way.
Dark Side Of The Moon. Definitely.
This brings up an interesting point about listening habits.
One of the reasons I like to listen to whole albums is because it is presented as a collection of things to be experienced as a set, IMO.
I know that often the songs on an album are written as just songs, with no real relation to each other. But other artists write songs around or about or in relation to other songs , so that the entire album is more than just 10 songs, it’s a mini-opus. Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps, Art Of Noise’s The Seduction Of Claude Debussy are all examples of great albums whose songs were written to compliment each other and to further a narrative or exposition. Listening to just one song out of the whole album might be an enjoyable enough 3 minutes and 30 seconds, but the song has greater depth and meaning when heard in proper relation to the rest of the album.
In fact, I consider even albums like AC/DC’s Back In Black or Joe Walsh’s But Seriously Folks to be more than just a random collection of singles: they are a slice of time and of an artists life, views, mores, and abilities. I find much greater satisfaction in listening to the whole album than I would if I was constantly skipping around individual songs.
I mean, who would read a novel a chapter at a time, and out of order? Re-read chapter 9 over and over and over, but only read chapter 14 once? Who would watch a movie in 8 minute segments, destroying the narrative structure that the filmmaker had created?
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s fun to shuffle songs up, but mostly I prefer to experience the music in the manner the artist presented it to me: as a distinct and meaningful anthology.
I’m old fashioned - I only buy whole albums.
Ditto.
Even if there’s only one song on the album I know and like, I’ll take the chance on the other 9 songs rather than pay $1 for a download. I’d even buy a 33 1/3 before I’d pay for a download of a song (at least I get a 2nd “mystery” song that way), but if the song is on an album, I’ll buy the album.
pearl jam- 10
Pink Floyd -Dark side of the moon
Beastie Boys -Paul’s Boutique
coldplay -a rush of blood to the head
wilco- yankee hotel foxtrot, sky blue sky & a ghost is born
STP -purple & core
counting crows- august and everything after
flaming lips - yoshimi battle the pink robots