Considered A Classic Album ( But You Don't Call It That )

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Wildest cat from montana, Mar 4, 2020.

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  1. John Lennon Imagine
     
  2. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    The Beach Boys has fallen off commercially and were widely considered irrelevant by the time those albums came out. Not a lot of people heard them and even fewer people acclaimed them, so there wasn’t much chance of them becoming classics. The Beach Boys’ reputation has improved over the years and hardcore fans have embraced Sunflower and Surf’s Up as some of their finest work, but their legacy is still unfairly tied to that of Brian Wilson, so most people tend to focus on Pet Sounds, Smile, and the early singles. I love The Beach Boys’ early 70’s albums and think they deserve more credit than they get, but I think the way the 60’s and 70’s played out and the result it had on The Beach Boys’ image has had more effect on what’s considered a “classic” in their discography than the actual quality of the work has.
     
  3. Somerset Scholar

    Somerset Scholar Ace of Spades

    Location:
    Bath
    Yeah....it is an album that I have grown less fond of over time.
    How do you sleep is a really black mark on it. I think solo John starts going downhill at this point (of course disregarding the avant garde rubbish).
     
  4. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    I feel much the same. The Byrds are one of my favourite bands and so much that I listen to and enjoy springs from having discovered their music at an early age but I regard NBB as the least of their albums. It's decent enough and I'm glad to have it but it feels like a mish mash of styles that don't come together well enough to make up a satisfying whole.
     
  5. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    "It's decent enough and I'm glad to have it but it feels like a mish mash of styles that don't come together well enough to make up a satisfying whole."

    Couldn't agree more!
     
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  6. skimminstones

    skimminstones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    Radioheads OK Computer.

    I have never been able to get into it and is the point i stopped being into the band. Never understood the praise it gets on all the top album lists.
     
  7. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Gee whiz....I think side one of this album is one of the best sides in rock music. Love it !
     
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  8. Billchi_11

    Billchi_11 What would DBoon do?

    Location:
    Chicago
    The voice/singing alone is enough for me. But the melodies and emotion put it over the top
     
  9. Frank Zappa also cited Blue as a Joni album he liked, and I doubt in the case of Zappa that it would be because of its "strong feminine statement"...

    I too think its musical qualities are exceptional enough to rank it where it stands.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2020
  10. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Right-o ! And I prefer this Joni over jazzy-Joni.
     
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  11. Like Wildest cat from montana, I can hardly sit through "In The Court...". However, it's not because it's prog rock but because the kids who operated the PA radio in my highschool back in 1970/71 tried to shove the album down our throat every f&&&&&& day of the week...

    Also, I've never understood the tolerance among old-days Pink Floyd fans towards "Dark Side Of The Moon"...
     
  12. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    I’m not a fan at all of say, Dark Side of the Moon, or What’s the Story Morning Glory, but I totally get why academics call them “classics”.

    These though, if I’m persuaded to think about it, I can’t get my head around at all. Although I’ve only heard them probably once, many years ago now, apart from some singles I’ve heard more than once coming out of radios, cars, or TV ads. Maybe I’d feel differently if I listened to them again? Not Blur though, no way. I’ve fled from shops, televisions and streets when I’ve heard the Parklife song coming out of them.

    THE STONE ROSES: The Stone Roses

    BLUR: Parklife

    THE ROLLING STONES: Let It Bleed / Beggars Banquet (the only two of their albums I’ve heard)

    PRIMAL SCREAM: Screamadelica

    PRINCE: Sign of the Times
     
  13. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Me too. Not only that, but out of her early "folky" period, I prefer both "Song To a Seagull" and "Ladies of the Canyon" to "Blue". At the risk of repeating myself, I think "Blue" is a good album, but think some of her others are better.
     
  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    29 years old isn't old enough? :confused:
     
  15. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I don't think there's any filler on either of those albums! :shrug:
     
  16. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Here's another one: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours.

    Not that it isn't a good album. But compare it with its predecessor the self-titled album (the second Fleetwood Mac album to be self-titled; thanks guys). Listening to these two albums back to back, they could very easily be two halves of a double album. Songs from one could easily be interchanged with songs from the other without sounding in any way out of place. They even both have a "Daddy" song, for heaven's sake. Even the covers are similar. If ranking the FM albums I would find it very difficult to separate these two. Yet while Rumours was a mega-smash, the self-titled was merely successful. Was it a case of the public needing to be softened up to their new sound with the first of these two albums, before being prepared to fully embrace it on the second?
     
  17. More Than A Feeling

    More Than A Feeling Little River, Big Adventures!

    Location:
    Boston
    "judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind."
    I think it takes longer than 29 years. Like about 40. There are some instant classics like OK Computer and Nevermind but most stuff isn't old enough.
     
  18. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    Yeah. My favourites are Hejira, Night Ride Home and Don Juan, all far more than Blue.
     
  19. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    Hang on now. Either it takes longer than 29 years or it doesn't.You can't disqualify one album on the grounds of being too recent while allowing others.

    Personally I think 29 years is plenty of time. Albums and songs, on release, go through a period of popularity and being in the public consciousness that lasts for a few weeks, maybe months, a couple of years if they are lucky. Once that initial flurry of buying and listening is done, it gradually falls off the charts and off radio playlists. After that, some get forgotten by the majority, while others continue to get requested, played as radio flashbacks, cited as influences etc.

    How long is long enough? I'd say ten years or so. That's long enough for a fanbase to become more mature, develop new tastes, and know whether their love for a particular song or album is enduring or was basically a fashion or novelty thing.

    The term "instant classic" is a popular hyperbole, and I have probably used it myself, but it's an oxymoron. I think when people use the term what they are trying to say is that they confidently predict that it will come to be regarded as a classic.
     
  20. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    I would love to enjoy it more than I do. I'm sure that Bobcat & I are part of a very small minority of Byrds fans that rank it so far down the pecking order. As I said. I don't it's beyond the pale just not as good as any of their others.

    I thought, for years, it would eventually wear me down but so far, no such luck. :)
     
  21. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Way too long! I got into the Beatles in 1979 when I was 12, and everyone already regarded a bunch of their albums as classics.

    According to your rule, we should've had to wait until 2006 or later! :help:
     
  22. I don't understand the classic status of "Beggar's Banquet". Good album, just as "Exile...", although I do think I understand better the latter's cult/classic status. As an album it holds together, kind of a journey, which I can dig. But I don't play it really that often.

    For me, "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" is a better Stones album than BB. Also "Aftermath" (for obviously different reasons).
     
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  23. More Than A Feeling

    More Than A Feeling Little River, Big Adventures!

    Location:
    Boston
    Some albums are so good they are classics the moment they come out. When Nevermind came out most people knew it would become a classic. There are a few every decade where you know it will be a classic. 10 Years is way too short to determine what is or isn't a classic unless it is an instant classic.

    Did you see the part about instant classics? Every Beatles album was one. Same for major ones by the Stones, Who, Pink Floyd etc.
     
  24. FAC 287

    FAC 287 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South-west England
    Anything by The Beach Boys that isn’t Pet Sounds, which I think is amazing. Any version of Smile, Sunflower, Surf’s Up — the lot. Weak, amateurish, melodically unlovely. I’ve listened to their back catalogue twice through, a year apart, and almost everything after 1966 was appalling, key singles aside. Second-best album to me was Summer Days, most of which is excellent.

    But I’m an outlier on this sub; a lot of American music sounds joyless to me. Conversely, I’ve seen The Stone Roses get singled out as overrated here, and now Court of the Crimson King has joined the ranks; I love them both.
     
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  25. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Yes, I saw it, but "instant classic" is arbitrary.

    So is "classic", for that matter, but there are plenty of albums that people would deem to be "instant classics" that don't hold up long term.

    For instance, in the UK circa 1988, people would've called Terence Trent D'Arby's debut an "instant classic" but I doubt it's held in much regard now.

    I get your point but attempts to put a time span on the designation "classic" seems futile... :shrug:
     
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