Al128
November 6, 2026, 4:52pm
1
… I was thinking about those albums that really stand out for any given artist (very few artists have one, to begin with)
… albums with lots of hits/great songs - some qualify even as Greates Hits albums
INXS: Kick
METALLICA: Black Album
PEARL JAM: Ten
JACKSON BROWN: Running on empty
KING CRIMSON: The court of the crimson king
MICHAEL JACKSON: Thriller
NORAH JONES: Come away with me
FLEETWOOD MAC: Rumors
PETER GABRIEL: So
TRACY CHAPMAN: Tracy Chapman
ACDC: Back in Black
BRYAN ADAMS: Reckless
CAT STEVENS: Tea for the Tillerman
…
which ones did I forget?
Paul Simon - Graceland
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
The Cure - Disintegration
The Clash - London Calling
Boston: Boston
The Cars: The Cars
Styx: The Grand Illusion
Steely Dan: Aja
REO Speedwagon: You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish
Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band: Live Bullet
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run AND Born in the USA
Madona: Like a Virgin
Def Leppard: Hysterica
Led Zepplin: Led Zepplin II
Eric Clapton: Slowhand
I could go on and on.
Boston, Boston . First album out of the gate (even though it was the product of five-plus years of work by Tom Scholz); every song on it is a banger, and they never came close to that level of brilliance on subsequent albums.
Al128:
which ones did I forget?
You mistyped Back in Black when you meant Highway to Hell
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
I dunno. “Back In Black” and “Highway To Hell” are real bangers, but I prefer all AC/DC albums from before 1979 (international editions).
The Who: Who’s Next, Live At Leeds
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Joan Baez: Diamonds and Rust
I’m not sure if supergroups count for the OP, but I submit:
Asia, Asia .
Their first album was a brilliant blend of progressive and pop, and every track is excellent. Another twelve albums have been released, but with increasingly fewer of the original four members (only two other albums had all four), and none came close to recapturing the original excellence.
Television - Marquee Moon
Blondie: Parallel Lines
Granted, they only had three studio albums, and the other two are also not that bad. But of course “Marquee Moon” is a masterpiece.
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Wishbone Ash - Argus
The Smashing Pumpkins - Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
It helps that it was a double album with a ton of songs in it.
7 Grammy nominations, 9 nominations at the MTV Music Awards. Before that album the band did not have a Top 40 hit, and that album had 4 of them.
And how could I (or anyone else) forget:
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
It was a double CD , both playing for over an hour, so it would have been a triple LP. Those were the nineties.
Billy Joel - The Stranger
True, it was a triple LP. It was also released as a double cassette and a double minidisc.