Your top 5 albums of all time?

People's Instinctive Travels A Tribe Called Quest
Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage Through The Milky Night Stereolab
Music For A New Society John Cale
The Shape Of Jazz To Come Ornette Coleman
At Carnegie Hall Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane

This is a one day only offer....

 

Tough to decide, but here goes:

Iggy and the Stooges -Funhouse
The clash -London Calling
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band- Will the Circle be Unbroken
Kate Bush-Hounds of Love
Neil Young--Time Fades Away
Very Hard to decide, these albums for me have stood the test of time. I have been loving these since I was a teenager, that's 30 + years. Jeez time flies!

 

Van Morrison - Moondance (no, not astral weeks)
Queen - A night at the Opera
Willie Nelson - Red headed Stranger
Led Zeppelin- IV
Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon

 

Path changers for me.....

Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
Van der Graaf - Vital
UFO - Lights Out
Television - Marquee Moon
Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune

 

At the moment, I'd say;

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Doors - LA Woman
Keith Richards - Talk is Cheap
Oasis - Definitely Maybe

 

In no order (as this would have me chasing my tail all day long)

Powerslave - Iron maiden
The lamb Lies down on Broadway - Genesis
Reggatta de Blanc - The Police
Scenes from a Memory - Dream Theater
Voulez-Vous - ABBA

 

David Bowie "Diamond Dogs"
Roxy Music "Roxy Music"
Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"
Steve Hillage "Green"
King Crimson "Red"

 

Completely agree with you. One of my favourites. I don't have it in my top five, but it's nice to see that someone does.

 

Ok Computer - Radiohead
Rubber Sould - Beatles
Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams
For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
Ghost of the Great Highway - Sun Kil Moon

 

I'm going to fight temptation and not simply list four Rolling Stones albums plus Who's Next...

1. Exile On Main St - The Rolling Stones
2. Who's Next - The Who
3. Cosmos Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
5. The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks

It's a tad predictable, but who cares? I will probably expand on the reasons for my outrageous decisions a little later in the evening (I must watch the replay of today's AFL match first).

 

ZONE - Z, O, N, E, and ura E.

Absolutely beautiful work by five high school girls from Sapporo. I love that little band.

 

Only 5? this is going to be tough...

Surf's Up - The Beach Boys
Duck Stab - The Residents
Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart
The Gospel According to Themeninblack - The Stranglers
Aja - Steely Dan

This list really needs to be top 50 as it killed to leave out works by Zappa, Van Morrison, Queen, The Kinks, The Doobie Brothers, Chicago, Kate Bush, T-Rex, Genesis etc...

 

This is VERY hard to choose from a collection of almost 3500 albums on vinyl, CD or tape...but I will try:

MORBID ANGEL - Abominations Of Desolation
INFERNAL MAJESTY - None Shall Defy
CELTIC FROST - Morbid Tales
KING CRIMSON - In The Court Of The Crimson King
ABBA - The Album

Five albums is a very limited amount I think...it should be fifty

 

I could never get into Zep 2, otherwise great choices.

 

Clearly a very subjective exercise but I'll play along.

Top 5 not in order...

1. Sam Cooke - Night Beat
2. Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
3. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
4. Neil Young - On the Beach
5. Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan

This will probably change by the afternoon.

 

The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
Paul Revere & The Raiders - Alias Pink Puzz
Myracle Brah - Life On Planet Eartsnop
XTC - Skylarking

It'll change by tomorrow.

 

Pet Sounds Beach Boys What more can possibly be written about this album. The songs, the arrangements, the meticulous attention to detail have all given this album my top spot in my list. Brian Wilson's genius was in full bloom and at the same time on the verge of tipping into insanity.

A Salty Dog Procol Harum Epic classical sounding songs like "Wreck Of The Hesperus" and tales of fated souls sailing the seas like "A Salty Dog" are coupled with a great blues tune like "Juicy John Pink" to make this one of the greatest collection of unlikely songs to ever fit together like pieces of a beautifully crafted puzzle.

Blonde On Blonde Bob Dylan Classic double LP masterpiece with his backing band, The Band. Has there been a more tongue-in-cheek song ever written as the wry "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat"? He was teasing someone mercilessly here. "One of Us Must Know" is one of the saddest and remorseful songs that I have ever heard. "Just Like A Woman" has become a often covered classic with lyrics that hit the bulls eye with each line. And "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35" is a raucous good time for the band as well as the listener.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Neil Young The music that pours out of this album became my standard for all singer songwriters. Whenvever I play this album, I find myself drawn in and unable to focus on anything else. The words are clairvoyant in the way they tune right into your head while at the same time make almost no literal sense. His thin, reedy voice juxtaposes itself over heavy guitar riffs and somehow it all blends together into a delicious country rock stew. This album is his finest hour in a long and glorious career.

Wolfking Of L. A. John Phillips Papa John Phillips was a great songwriter. The tunes and arrangements on this album are as good or better than any of his earlier work in M&P. His lyrics expose a drug hazed and world-weary life. This, for me, is the definitive album for looking at the world immediately after the wild and carefree '60s and waking up with the feeling of "What the hell happened here?" An indispensable album for me.

 

Neil Young - After The Goldrush
Jackson Browne - Late For The Sky
Derek And The Dominos - Layla & .....
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home/Highway 61 Revisited > they're brothers - I can't separate them!

 

The Dream Syndicate, The days of wine and roses
R.E.M., Live at the Olympia in Dublin
Alejandro Escovedo, Man under the influence
The Long Ryders, Native sons
Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time out
.

 

Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
Louis Armstrong - Plays W.C. Handy
Radiohead - Kid A
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over The Sea
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

All special for their own unique reasons but all shifted the direction I headed with my musical tastes.

 

Nominations at the moment:

Days of Future Passed-tied with-To Our Children's Children's Children-The Moody Blues
Hotel California-The Eagles
Pirates-Rickie Lee Jones
Quadrophenia-The Who
Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs-Derek & the Dominos

 

Fairly obvious choices for the forum, I think, but I tend to revisit albums that continue to reveal themselves after many, many listens. Each of these has some fundamental ambiguities that I'm still exploring after, in some cases, decades. And all of them, in their own ways, swing.

1. The Beatles, The Beatles
2. The Pentangle, Basket of Light
3. Van Morrison, Astral Weeks
4. King Crimson, Beat
5. Charles Mingus, Blues & Roots

 

Nope... nope... nope... nope... nope

Too many...too many... too many...too many...too many

 

1. Led Zeppelin-IV
2. Jethro Tull-Aqualung
3. AC/DC -Back in Black
4. Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers
5. David Bowie-Ziggy Stardust

I list these, with some difficulty, as perhaps the top 5 in the history of rock & roll because they are examples of albums with really no weak tracks. Just awesomeness from start to finish. They are far from the only examples of this though so choosing a definitive top 5 is literally impossible for me. Oddly enough, I've heard these all so many times I rarely play them anymore. I prefer to keep discovering new music for variety.

 

* Janis Ian: "Stars"
* Janis Ian: "Between the Lines"
* Sally Oldfield: "Strange Day In Berlin"
* Various: "Jeff Wayne´s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds"
* Bing Crosby: "Live at the London Palladium"

A highly subjective selection, but I stand by it.