Tom Waits - definitely Blue Valentine. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis might be the best song he’s ever done. Of course, Nighthawks at the Diner was what got me into him. (Well, Spider Robinson got me into him, but that was the first album I got.) I like the younger Waits, can you tell?
I wouldn’t mind a recommendation of a Waits-like writer/singer, if anybody’s got one.
The Name of This Band… is probably the best entry point, as it has songs from the band’s first four albums and is one of the best live albums out there.
Go ahead and pick up the DVD for the concert movie Stop Making Sense. Assuming your CD player will play DVD’s. A greatest hits album that’s also well worth watching.
I received both Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and The Soft Bulletin at the same time back in 2003. I was immediately drawn to Yoshimi and consider it a brilliant and facsinating album.
I’d listened to The Soft Bulletin here and there, and after a long time (a year!) things slowly began to slip into place. Only a few bits really, um, stick out, you might say . . . but on the whole, I now consider The Soft Bulletin is one of the best CD’s I’ve ever owned.
I actually remember it specifically, at one point, when doing something else (ironing?), when Coyne wailed, “I stood up and I said yeah” sort of grabbed my attention, even though I’d probably already heard it about 30 times over the prior year. But this time was different. I immediately turned everything off, played the entire CD in silence, and it just got better and better ever since. Wow, I rambled there, sorry.
It’s hard to go wrong with Monk. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane would be a great starting place, followed by Misterioso.
Actually, Louder Than Bombs is a compilation. I’d be hesitant in recommending it to a newbie because it is so long and because it doesn’t feature a lot of their best work. Plus, you can find almost every track on it elsewhere, which makes it a redundant purchase if you have other Smiths albums (especially Hatful of Hollow). I’d recommend Singles. Every song on it (with the personal exception of “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”) is perfect. It converted me from a Smiths disliker to a Smiths lover. As far as actual albums go, the consensus seems to be The Queen is Dead, with which I agree.
And help me with St Etienne.
for anyone into Hiphop, Tame One - When Rappers Attack, is a great album. anyone else able to suggest good Hiphop to check out? and i mean Hiphop not hip-pop.
Louder Than Bombs is my favorite even though it is a compilation.
Plus there is no duplication between it and their best regular album, The Queen is Dead, so those two are great places to start.
For the Flaming Lips, I still think Clouds Taste Metallic is their best, followed by Transmissions From the Satellite Heart.
My favorite Bowie is Station to Station, but of course Ziggy Stardust is essential.
Leonard Cohen, specifically the album I’m Your Man, where his voice has gotten lower and more gravelly than on his early albums. This album also happens to have three or four of the best songs of all time.
For St. Etienne, get Foxbase Alpha.
And I don’t think I knew that *Louder Than Bombs * was a compilation. I just bought all the Smiths albums offered by BMG Music Service: The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, and Strangeways Here We Come. Since none of them have any overlapping material, I figured Louder Than Bombs was a new album that just happened to be an extra-long one. BMG also offered the singles collections, but not Hatful of Hollow.
This Year’s Model, for other Tom Waits-like recommendations, let me offer Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (get their Best Of collection for the best variety of material), Mike Ness, the singer of rootsy rockabilly-punk band Social Distortion (get his solo album Cheatin’ At Solitaire), and a smaller-time Boston band called Josh Lederman y Los Diablos (order their album The Town’s Old Faire from the excellent CDBaby.com).
Howzabout any recommendations for stuff by Bill Laswell?
For Saint Etienne, the new compliation Travel Edition is a good starting point. For proper albums, any of the first three are equally great (Foxbase Alpha, So Tough or Tiger Bay). Avoid Sound Of Water and Casino Classics to start with.
I recommend Bloodmoney, or Alice, if you like old, weird Tom waits. But old, weird Waits is still good.
Do you like pirate music?
The best pirate music is by Scarlet’s Well.
Where should I start with Bright Eyes?
I’m personally more partial to the “real music” driven hip hop artists/groups. I really like:
Pharcyde
Blackalicious
Jurassic 5
Having only dabbled in jazz for a couple of years (and only having the Monk’s Ken Burn Jazz Compilation), I’m gonna borrow those recommendations.
As a jazz hijack/sidenote question:
I recall hearing & reading a few times that jazz (as a genre) artist’s works doesn’t transpose well to a compilation format. Why?. For that sentiment to be true, that would mean either:
(a) There’s no difference in an the quality of a specific artist’s works (song to song/album to album)
(b) Quality is more relative in the jazz world than it is in other types of music
It could also mean that classic jazz albums, many of which were recorded in a single session, are best heard in their original format. I completely disagree with the premise, however.
I would highly recommend checking out a fella named Johnny Dowd… start with either The Pawnbroker’s Wife or Cemetary Shoes (one of my picks for best album of 2004).
Anyone care to recommend an Iggy Pop album? 
I’m not an expert by any means but I’ll recommend:
Mos Def, Black on Both Sides
Talib Kweli, Reflection Eternal
Or both of them together on *Black Star * (1998).