What was, in your opinion, the last truly great album released?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by garrincha, Jan 19, 2018.

  1. 0476pearljam

    0476pearljam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium
    I don't agree with that view...For me "a truly great album" is a record that can be in your 30 to 50 desert islands disc...I do really like music but if I have to choose only 50 records to go to the moon, the newer one would be from 1992...I have bought and loved hundreds records since then and I go to hear new bands live 20 times a year but I can't consider that what I like now very much (Jonathan Wilson, Mapache, Graveyard, Rival sons, Ryley Walker, and numerous others ....) are on the same level of greatness as what was done in the past (Exile, electric lady land, layla, gilded palace of sin, forever changes, television, clash, harvest, ....)
     
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  2. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    But this isn't a desert island disc thread.

    No reason why you can't have 100 or more truly great albums in your collection, I would think? Any limitations here come from within.
     
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  3. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Exactly. There is a rather clear difference, at least for me, between an album that I would define "truly great" and one I simply enjoy. Or I'm just taking the term "truly great" too literally perhaps?

    I'm the first to scoff at the notion that "no good music is made today", yet I know what albums like "Pet Sounds" or "Sketches Of Spain" or "Led Zeppelin IV" or "Purple Rain" mean to me relative to something made today that I simply like. That's just my view. Others mileage may vary. If someone finds that select albums today are as "truly great" as the many great albums of the past, then more power to them! That's the beauty of music - we all have our definitions of truly great.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2018
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  4. onionmaster

    onionmaster Tropical new waver from the future

    In fact I think this is probably the most recent 'truly great' album. The crown jewel of the synthwave genre. It just sounds fantastic immediately and there are no flaws to get used to, unlike a lot of modern music.

    Crystal City, by Robert Parker
     
  5. 0476pearljam

    0476pearljam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium
    I see what you mean but...It's perhaps not a "desert island disc" thread but there is the word "truly" in the title and the guy that started the thread says for him it was radiohead more than 15 years ago...So, it's more about "truly" great than simply "I have heard 20 great records this year and the last one was...". But what you said is very true : the limitations come from within and it's too painful for me to label "truly great" a record that I love but I know something in the same style was done before and better ...Exemple: i love the record from the band Mapache that came out last october but it's Gene Clark/ everly brothers all over the place...so it's a great record but not "truly great" for me...
     
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  6. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I count ten albums out of my personal Top 100 that are from Year 2000 or later. As an album has to be perfect to be placed on my list, that, to me, qualifies as 'truly great' (as there aren't variations on perfection).

    Roger Waters' 2017 release misses the mark due to the inclusion of the first 2 minute track. I never listen to it, so what I hear is truly great, but I suppose it isn't fair to start making edits and exceptions in order to squeeze it in.

    The last 'truly great' album is New Multitudes self titled, the 2-disc version. Jay Farrar, Andersen Parker, Jim James and Will Johnson with lyrics by Woody Guthrie. That's from 2012.

    Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit "Live From Alabama ", also 2012, is truly great, too.

    Normally, I self impose a five year window, a waiting period to see if the album holds up (for me). That's why things stop at 2012.
     
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  7. sonci

    sonci Forum Resident

    Location:
    Albania
    I think we are mostly nostalgic, we identify old albums with our youth.
    Whatever great new album, is not going to make me feel young enough..
     
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  8. 0476pearljam

    0476pearljam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium
    I also think it's important to wait a bit to label something as truly great...We all have multiple examples of records that are "truly great" but made little impression in the beginning...and far too often we have records that we like at first listen but after a few months, they don't grow even more and don't deserve the label "truly great"...
     
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  9. Frobozky

    Frobozky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    Since musical tastes are like fingerprints, I enjoy these threads as a way of discovering new music to me. With that in mind in the Indie rock category I nominate Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest as the last truly great album released.
    -Mike
     
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  10. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    I had chosen Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. My own internal decision process was anything where I not only enjoy it greatly today, but I expect that it will be enjoyed for many years to come. Because we all have those albums that we like a lot now, but a year or two down the road it might just end up on the shelf.

    Usually these are the same albums that I always want to carry around with me, as they are frequently on the "I want to hear this now" playlist.
     
  11. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Maybe Kendrick will be enjoyed for many years to come.

    Time will tell.

    About your prediction.

    I'm just not a big fan of derivative explicit rap.

    And anyway, I think Kanye has already done it better.
     
  12. pig bodine

    pig bodine God’s Consolation Prize

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY USA
    As far as I’m concerned, it was To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015 and Black Messiah at the end of 2014. I haven’t heard anything I would consider “great” as in 4 1/2 - 5 star albums from 2016 or 2017. I am very particular about what I consider to be “great” as opposed to “very good,” to be “great” would be in the top 2-5 % of my collection, which is close to 9000 (but getting smaller and more manageable by the day) albums.
     
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  13. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    I think they are the best.

    If that means I've put them on some kind of "special pedestal"...fine.

    Some opinions just are hard for other people to accept...
     
  14. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    It's true, and I think some research studies actually support this theory. Supposedly we identify most strongly with the music we loved when we were 17. That works uncannily well for me. I was born in 1956 and my favorite year for music was indeed 1973.
     
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  15. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    I would agree that there's some truth to that maxim, that we felt a special kind of passion for music at that age that can sometimes be hard to rekindle. But at the same time, I can think of several times in my 20s, 30s and even 40s where I felt that same kind of thrill from music, some of it older stuff that I've discovered for the first time and sometimes, yes, even more contemporary stuff. I'm not ready to give up on the hope of feeling that way again.
     
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  16. fairies

    fairies Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
  17. myles

    myles Argyle, before you ask ....

    Location:
    Plymouth, UK
    Whichever, whatever...it's a nigh on impossible question for me to answer, but this is a fantastic 'suggestions box'...now, I must investigate these Beatles!
     
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  18. robargebl

    robargebl Forum Resident

    David Bowie Blackstar.
     
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  19. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    :D I hate to find myself fitting this theory...but I'm right there, too. I'm two years younger than you with my peak year(s) from my top 100 (in descending order): 1971, 1970, 1973, 1975, '69/'74 tie, '72/'79/'95 three way tie. So I had a resurgent year when I was 37.

    Little by little, though, the 70's albums are getting culled. (The 14 60's era albums? I can't see them going anywhere.)
     
  20. Davey

    Davey NP: Hania Rani/Dobrawa Czocher ~ Inner Symphonies

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus - Beauty Will Save the World (2015)

    Or maybe Tomorrow's Gift by Virginia Wing/XAM Duo from last year, didn't get much notoriety (except by me around here) since it came out near the end of the year and neither group is very well known, but I've been playing that record all the time for the last month or so and get truly lost in the moment each time.
     
  21. nodeerforamonth

    nodeerforamonth Consistently misunderstood

    Location:
    San Diego,CA USA
    reading through past posts.... I thought I was behind the times when I picked an album that was 3 years old (This Is The Sonics).

    Maybe people aren't understanding the question?
     
  22. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    I think they do.
     
  23. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    I can easily accept that people think that the Beatles are the greatest. That's a pretty common opinion around here. I can't accept the notion that they were last (only?) truly great band.
     
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  24. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I'm odd, I suppose, in that many of my favorite albums are actually before my time. Strangely, I have much fewer favorites from the window of music that was big during my late teens or 20's.

    In other words, I don't seem to be inherently drawn to any specific period. The albums of the 50's and 60's are just as "removed of my time" as albums from the past decade are (from a youthful perspective). And yet I simply find many more gems or "truly great" albums from those formative years in the 20th century than I do albums from the 21st century.

    But then again I've always had a "historian's mind", so to speak. I enjoy history, and things place in history etc. Which is why I agree with those who say that albums need a modest to lengthy amount of time to really "judge" them. You can like them immediatedly of course. But even albums I've always loved from a half century ago can always show new facets in my appreciation or view of them over time. I mean, I'm still appreciating and observing all the doors that are still being opened as a result of an album like "Sgt Pepper's", which is over a half century old! So I don't stand a chance in attempting to label an album from 2011 in any sort of all-time or "truly great" way. The most I can do is say, "Yeah, I really like this. I think this might remain a favorite for years to come". But that's about the extent of it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2018
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  25. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    It's been rather similar for me. I was born in 1970, the youngest of six kids, so I had my older siblings to turn me on to the Beatles and other classic rock that was big before I was even born. So I had one foot in the past, but I was also following newer music in the 80s. I wanted to have music that was fresh and current, my own thing not just my brothers' hand me downs, though I'm still strongly drawn to the music of the late 60s and early and 70s.
     
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