If someone you knew had never listened to your favorite musician/band/singer, what is the one album that you would give to that person to introduce her or him to their music? It doesn’t necessarily have to be your personal favorite album by that artist, although it can be. For instance, my favorite artist is Tori Amos, and my favorite album of hers is Boys For Pele, but that’s not the album I’d give to someone who’d never listened to Tori before. For someone who’s new to her music, I’d recommend either Little Earthquakes or else Scarlett’s Walk, depending on what I know of the other person’s taste in music. Little Earthquakes is a good introduction to Tori, but I think that overall, Scarlett’s Walk is more mature and more easily accessible to the first-time listener.
So, favorite artist, and the album you’d recommend to a first-time listener. Tell us your favorite album, too, if the two are different.
Favorite band is Husker Du; my personal favorite album of theirs (this week) is New Day Rising, but for a beginner, I’d probably recommend “Candy Apple Grey”.
I’d probably introduce someone to Stevie Ray Vaughan with Couldn’t Stand the Weather. Even though I don’t think it’s his absolute best album, I do think it’s his most accessible.
Whreas I’d pick their first album, before Annie joined. They definitely lost their edge when the lost Jane Relf.
For me, it’s the Bonzo Dog Band. Assuming no compilations, I’d pick “Tadpoles,” for their insane version of “Monster Mash,” plus “Doctor Jazz,” “Ali Baba’s Camel,” and “Mr. Apollo.”
woodstockbirdybird, Refer to my location for another good album
But I digress. I must admit that I am again going through my yearly Flogging Molly and Pogues jag kicks in. March seems to be a good month for hard rocking Irish drinking music.
I am going to cheat because have three artists that I consider favorites (strangely they all end with the letter o)
Devo: Freedom of Choice to start, *Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! * is my favorite.
Elvis Costello: King of America to start, hard to pick a favorite but I vacillate between When I Was Cruel, Blood and Chocolate, and Imperial Bedroom (and others)
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky to start, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is my favorite.
Alice Cooper. If I wanted to separate the man from the band, I’d pick Brutal Planet for his solo career and Billion Dollar Babies from when he was still with the original group.
Pink Floyd - Yeah, I know everyone has heard The Wall, seen The Wall, and performed The Wall for their high school play. But if someone had never heard of Pink Floyd, or all they’d ever heard was The Wall, I’d give them Wish You Were Here. It’s definitely their best work (IMO).
Alien Ant Farm’s second album, TruANT.
The first one was okay, it’s what got me interested in the band. A lot of loud rock, banging on the drums, angry screaming singing just like a lot of alternative rock bands. The second album really rocked, though. Just by listening to the songs you could hear how much they improved as a band. Unlike the first album each song is distinct from one another…Some are still guitar-chugging rock, some have a Latin-vibe, and others have such awesome beats I feel like I could take on the world with those songs as my background music. The lyrics are really good, too. The second album has the perfect mix of songs- not too sour (like the first) and not too sweet (like the third). The second album is what made me a fan to AAF, it’s just too bad that so few people couldn’t move past the band’s one hit wonder to see all of the good songs they have to offer.
Hard!
Well, according to my last.fm profile They Might Be Giants are my favorite band, or at least the band I have listened to most often over the past few years on my PC anyway. Are they my favorite band?
Hmm. I think no. I might have to give that to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, but the Ramones are way up there too.
OK hell. Let’s go with The Ramones. Even though I started listening to Bruce before the Ramones, I’ve seen them many, many times live and they hold a special place in my heart.
The album - The Ramones. Their first release. It is simple and solid from beginning to end. I love it, and I’d recommend it to a first time listener. The fact that it does NOT have I Wanna Be Sedated is just a bonus. (Love the song, sick of people only knowing of or playing it.) It does have Blitzkrieg Bop, which was almost ruined by some cell phone company or something, but was saved by their only using it in small doses.
And for the hell of it. If I were to turn someone on to Bruce, I’d definitely go with Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
And They Might Be Giants - Lincoln.
All 3 of those albums to my ears are perfect in their entirety. I love every song on every one and can (and do) listen to them over and over.
You might consider giving Happy Rhodes a listen (link is to her main MySpace page). Famous Happy Rhodes fans include your girl Tori (who I know for a fact has all of Happy’s albums) and Imogen Heap. Hap has 11 albums, so it’s hard to pick one. I’m partial to Many Worlds Are Born Tonight, which is much more layered and lush and electronic than my 2nd favorite, The Keep, which is simple and acoustic and awe-inspiringly breathtakingly beautiful.
You can download and listen to a large portion of the songs on her first 10 albums at my Song Samples site (which is fully authorized by Happy). Songs from her 11th album can be downloaded at that album’s MySpace page
For Pink Floyd, I’m torn between Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. The latter may be technically better, although that’s subjective, but I think the former more accurately represents them and their sound. YMMV.
Tom Waits, with two perfect albums: Rain Dogs (for a perfect glimpse of the pinnacle of his career, between his boozy, bluesy beatnik and world-weary hobo carny personas) and *Nighthawks at the Diner * (an older “live” album playing up his retro-hipster side, with plenty of ballads, spoken-word jazz poetry, and witty inter-song banter).
**Jethro Tull … hrm. That would be really hard because they reinvented their sound a zillion times. It would depend who I was recommending them to. Possibly I’d go with Heavy Horses or Songs from the Wood for a more acoustic-tending person… Broadsword and the Beast for more rock? I have puzzled over this before and never come up with a good solution. They’re just too everywhere, style-wise, to really have a good introductory point that covers much.
