New to this thread. I’ve been researching all my adult life! I even managed to get jobs that helps my research (around music etc).
I’ve been getting into a YouTube channel called Virgin Rock recently. It’s a classical musician who has never listened to any type of popular music before getting into a relationship with a rock fan called Vlad. She claims she’d never even properly listened to the Beatles (except to say she’d heard snippets just from being a human being alive in the last 40 years). Her channel is a journey of discovery and she breaks down the music so beautifully and insightfully - worth investigating.
That’s a wonderful example of presenting information visually, interesting for that aspect whether or not you care anything about albums or “greatest” lists.
Daft Punk - all the studio albums. 1-3 are interesting. They do tend to be minimalist and repetitive, but as background while reading the dope, say, they’re fine. And if you get through the first 3, the fourth is your reward - they discovered pop, and added great dollops of it to the mix. And they co-opted some quality guest musicians - without a word of a lie, listening to track 6 I recognized the guitarist! (Not that clever actually - they’re very recognizable )
Smashing Pumpkins - they keep cropping up in @Mean_Mr.Mustard’s “Songs beginning with …” threads, so I gave them a go. Whoops - not for me at all. I have a mental picture of a white boy in denim posturing with a flying vee guitar.
The Smile - thanks to @EinsteinsHund - most of Radiohead on their day off - Thom Yorke, it turns out, has a lighter, less serious side. Like Radiohead with added fun.
The Killers - in progress, every album up to Pressure Machine. Much as I expected, really - new wavey, poppy, enjoyable. Though I have noticed that, just now and then, they do sound a bit like the acceptable face of Meat Loaf.
And to finish, going back to the Rolling Stone article, @Fiendish_Astronaut, you do realize what you’ve done, don’t you? I have never listened to What’s Going On, Nevermind, Rumours, Purple Rain…
A while back I set up a Spotify playlist of the first several albums from the Rolling Stone list and listened to them in order during my work commute. I made it through the first 20 or so. I have since retired, and it’s not quite as easy to find the time as it once was. Ironic.
I hadn’t heard “What’s Going On?” either, outside of the hits. I liked it, but I wouldn’t have placed it in the top 10, let alone #1.
Though to be fair I understand there is an added cultural significance to the album. Plus I can’t make an adjustment for how it must have sounded to an audience in 1971. (There may well be what one might term a Hill Street Blues Effect. I can’t explain the importance of the show to Trep jr - he just thinks it looks the same as every other cop show. Nope, every other cop show looks like Hill Street Blues.)
And I have never listened to the The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill which means I can’t even say I’ve heard the current top 10 in that Rolling Stones list. My Rolling Stones number is therefore 9.
I actually own that one. I bought it, listened with astonishment to a beautiful fusion of soul and rap, and had a vision of the birth of a whole new genre and a glorious musical future, to be enjoyed for decades to come.
OK, so I listened to Rumours for the first time last week, thanks to your thread.
I discovered Fleetwood Mac when they released Tango in the Night. I was about 12 and to me they were an “old” band. I did like a lot of the singles from that album, however. Actually, I’m pretty sure I bought the Big Love 45. They’ve been on my radar since then. I knew two dozens of their songs but I had never listened to a full album.
So, Rumours. Excellent album for sure but not the masterpiece I thought it was.
It turns out that I already knew, and loved, half of the songs : Dreams, Don’t Stop, Go Your Own Way, You Make Loving Fun, and The Chain. The latter didn’t seem familiar at first but as soon as the chorus kicked in, I went “Oh, that song!” Great stuff really.
But the other songs, the ones that I wasn’t already familiar with, didn’t leave much of an impression. Silver Springs, originally an outtake, was the best of the lot. Second Hand News in particular was a weak start, especially for such a revered album.
One thing that I loved overall was the how amazing the bass lines were. The one in Go Your Own Way’s chorus has been an absolute favourite of mine for decades, irresistably driving, and melodically catchy as hell at the same time. But the one at the end of The Chain could give it a run for its money.
Well, now’s the time! Feel free to report back when you’ve given it a go.
It does raise the question of who can claim the most shameful omission. Looking at the most recent Rolling Stone Best Ever Albums list, I decided that I should at least make sure I listened to those in the the top 10 that I didn’t already know. Then it occurred to me that I would have to confess that I had never listened to Abbey Road. But actually, it’s worse than that - I don’t think I’ve ever listened to any Beatles album (!)
(I would argue that’s not quite as bad as it sounds. Being a late Boomer, they were long finished before I really started listening to music; and in truth, I’ve never been the biggest fan.)
From all the great classic rock bands and artists of the 60s, I think the Doors are the only band I never listened to a whole studio album from. I have 2 CD live sampler, a compilation of two regular live albums containing “Absolutely Live” and a second one whose title I don’t remember, but that’s it, never had the inclination to listen to a whole album. I don’t find them bad, I like a few songs (and I know all the major ones), but somehow they don’t do it for me. Doesn’t help that I think that Jim Morrison was a pretentious wanker and a bad lyricist.
There’s another board favorite I never could get into, Rush. I like nerdy stuff, prog and hard rock, and Rush are a nerdy, hard rocking prog band, aren’t they? Though I tried, I never finished to listen to a whole album. And it’s not Geddy Lee’s voice, I can stand and even like Neil Young or Jon Anderson in their highest registers, too.