I often think about stellar albums. The ones where they’re really isn’t a skip-able track. Off the top of my head, these come to mind: The Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Collective Soul Collective Soul (blue album), Bush 16 Stone, and Green Day Dookie. What are some of your perfect albums?
It’s cliche, but Dark Side of the Moon. There’s a reason it’s on every list of all time best albums. The whole thing just flows so well together.
It’s the 50th of that album this year.
See if your local planetarium is doing the show. It is something else. 10/10 would recommend.
Agreed from start to finish.
Tool - Aenima
Sky Cries Mary - A Return to the Inner Experience
Dead Can Dance - Spirit chaser
Depeche Mode - Violator
Faith No More - The Real Thing.
Spiritchaser is amazing. Dead Can Dance in general is really good music.
Personally. DCD is my all time favorite artist for over 30 years of my life. Every album of theirs is perfection. Aion and Spleen & Ideal are my favorites.
I’d go with “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun”. Track 7 (“Summoning of the Muse”) is my favorite song by any artist.
Ok, now that more people have posted long lists, I don’t feel so bad about mine ;)
- Arcade Fire – Funeral
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
- At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command (also their EPs Vaya and In/Casino/Out)
- Kae Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos
- Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs
- My Morning Jacket – Z
- Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley
- Radiohead – OK Computer
- Radiohead – In Rainbows
- The Decemberists – Picaresque
- The Diggs – Commute
- The Dismemberment Plan – Emergency & I
- The Libertines – s/t
- The Mars Volta – Deloused in the Comatorium
- The Notwist – Shrink
- Tokyo Police Club – A Lesson in Crime (just a fantastic debut; barely an album though)
German:
- Deichkind – Niveau Weshalb Warum
Some may be an acquired taste (PSB?, also I know that The Libertines’ is not everyone’s favorite – but it’s mine :). The Arcade Fire, even though I don’t listen to them these days that much, is decade-defining for me, as is Radiohead’s OK Computer (together with Nevermind, although for some reason it didn’t make this list).
Lovely to see a mention of PSB here. Inform - Educate - Entertain is such a great record, and I loved Bright Magic so much that I bought it on CD so I could rip the highest quality possible for my iPod.
A Lesson in Crime was definitely a fantastic debut, I’m also a big fan of their Champ album. Breakneck Speed is one of my favorite songs!
Discovery by Daft Punk is a no skip for me. Also food and liquor by lupe fiasco.
Revolver by the Beatles
- Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Modest Mouse
- Sgt Pepper, The Beatles
- The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga
- Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John
- Folie a Deux, Fall Out Boy
Going by music genre:
Hip Hop: To Pimp A Butterfly (by Kendrick Lamar), The Forever Story (JID), Madvillainy (MF DOOM), Hell on Earth (Mobb Deep)
Electronic: Selected Ambient Works (Aphex Twin), Exai (Autechre), Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (μ-Ziq)
Black Metal: Filosofem (Burzum), Panzerfaust (Darkthrone), Pure Holocaust (Immortal), Exuvia (The Ruins of Beverast)
Death Metal: Scream Bloody Gore (Death), Realm of Chaos (Bolt Thrower), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (Bathory)
Country: Southbound (Doc Watson), Poor David’s Almanack (David Rawlings)
I’m just breaking into country and jazz. If anyone has some classic must-listen albums, I’d be all ears.
It’s been almost a year since The Forever Story came out, but it was a classic in my mind from the first second I heard it. I haven’t listened to as much hip hop these past few years but that album pulled me right back in.
I’m not the biggest fan of J Cole, but he’s discovered and boosted some amazing artists.
I felt the same way. And an album hasn’t stuck with me this long since To pimp a butterfly
- Dream Theater: Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
- Pink Floyd: The Final Cut
- Tool: Lateralus
- The Prodigy: The Fat of the Land
Blackwater Park - Opeth
This is going to be a random list but:
Tool - Lateralus
Green Day - American Idiot
Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory and Meteora
Basically anything by Animals As Leaders
Iron Maiden - Number of the beast
Sepultura - Arise and Chaos AD
Nirvana - Bleach and Nevermind
Elder - Lore and Reflections of a floating world
Blood Incantation - Starspawn
Killswitch Engage - Alive or just breathing
Bongripper - Satan Worshipping Doom
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Architects - LF/LT
Dr Dre - 2001
“Gorillaz - Demon Days” It is like a story unfolding, where they really have fun with the music, and effortlessly meld through different genres.
I know I am alone on this but,
my chemical romance - three cheers for sweet revenge
I’ve always been more of a Black Parade fan, but Three Cheers is possibly a more cohesive experience that doesn’t jump around different genres as much.
I like the fact that The Black Parade jumps genres it really adds to the ‘world-building’ and storytelling of the patient and the parader.
The Black Crowes - Southern Harmony Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Honorable mention
The Black Keys - Thickfreakness The White Stripes - Icky Thump CeeLo Green - The Lady Killer
I have very little concept of what songs are from which albums anymore thanks to modern streaming subscriptions.
Siamese Dreams is one album I have been able to go back to year after year and enjoy from start to finish. First album I ever owned.
I’ve just started listening to Siamese Dream again, it’s one of my go-to summer albums. My favorite Pumpkins album my far, It’s just so crisp and crunchy in such a pleasing way
Radiohead’s Kid A has no filler tracks. Anyone who thinks Treefingers is filler is wrong
Do people think Treefingers is filler? Wtf, that track is fucking awesome and a much needed breather for that album
It’s odd but Kid A didn’t click with me until after I’d heard Amnesiac. I think the follow-up album might’ve worked as a kind of gateway into a more electronic sound.
I listened through Amnesiac maybe half a dozen times before I was curious and tried Kid A again, and it was like I was hearing a completely different album. It’s funny to have my opinion of an album change so much by listening to something else entirely.
Nirvana - Nevermind