Get Happy!! is my all-time favorite, but I love all of his “real” albums (i.e., the ones consisting of rock songs written by EC) so much that there’s little to choose between them. Since it was multiple choice, I gave nods to Trust, Imperial Bedroom, Brutal Youth, All This Useless Beauty, and * When I Was Cruel*.
Hard to pick - so much wonderful stuff. Pump it Up is my touchstone song with him, but Watching the Detectives is the song that set him apart in my mind as a cut above as a songwriter (and that organ note at the end of the chorus hypnotizes me…)…
Well, I’m glad it was an oversight and not a deliberate slight. Coulda got ugly. woodstockbirdybird - I didn’t realize that; I have the original vinyl.
Gotta go with My Aim Is True. I wish he had done a live album of the “Giant Songwheel” tour, it was really a blast. He’s playing the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this weekend and The Bridge Concert in a couple of weeks…what a treat for Bay Area fans!
I also thought Imperial Bedroom and TYM would have fared better. My Aim is True and Armed Forces are good, they’re just a little lightweight (especially Armed Forces.) Compared to my two picks which really bring the awesome.
Get Happy and This Years Model are perpetual favorites to make my Top 10 Albums of All Time at any given moment I attempt to compile that. The punch provided by the drums and bass of the Attractions is just unreal.
Love Delivery Man and Imperial Bedroom also, but can’t quite put 'em in the same league as GH and TYM myself…
ETA: Agree with Ludovic on the relative merits of My Aim and Armed Forces. Great albums–and the Attractions definitely nail the performances in AF–but the songwriting isn’t quite as powerful to me.