[Closed] Your perfect albums

Power, corruption and lies and Lowlife – New Order

Surely Technique 🙂

I said lowlife in my list. Power would be second and technique would be third on my list for new order.

the-muffin-man

Member
I can’t list a top ten too many variables depending on mood…

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love is easily my number one album though. A stunning piece of work.

Forgot that one. Saw her live in 2014. Awesome.

Salmonella Dub - One Drop East

The Notwist - Neon Golden
Dire Straits - Dire Straits
Jim White - Wrong Eyed Jesus!
Faith No More - Angel Dust

Rancid – …And Out Come The Wolves

Good call. It’s a pity everything since has been a bit shit.

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday is another that’s just sprung to mind. There really are too many good albums.

Think a thread of almost perfect albums would be better. Those that are spoiled by one or two duff tracks.

i assume you know the story behind it, and why theyll never play it live. i actually like having a slow, haunting song in the middle of all the noise and never skip it.

That’s why I skip it. I’m a big softie and it’s very sad.

Brutalism is a far better album anyway.

Agreed and I think Mother is their best track

talk talk - laughing stock and spirit of eden
matt johnson - burning blue soul
the outsiders - cq
simply saucer - cyborg revisited
paul marcano - 100001 dreams
folke rabe - what??
natural information society - mandatory reality
lichens - the psychic nature of being
oren ambarchi - hubris

Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars- David Bowie
Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here- Pink Floyd
Modern Times and Year of the Cat- Al Stewart
New Gold Dream- Simple Minds
Katy Lied- Steely Dan
Never Mind the Bollocks- Sex Pistols
Bat Out of Hell- Meat Loaf
Nightclubbing- Grace Jones
Boston- Boston
Raise the Pressure- Electronic
The Nightfly- Donald Fagen
Technique- New Order
Actually- The Pet Shop Boys

Interpol - Turn on the bright lights

JAMC - Psychocandy, Darklands
Wedding Present - Bizarro, Seamonsters
The Cure - Head on the Door, Disintegration
The Cult - Love
Bunnymen - Ocean Rain

Do the people saying Dark Side of the Moon honestly never skip On The Run?

Love - Forever Changes
Spirit - Future games
Notorious Byrds Brothers
Hilltop Hoods- The Calling
Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Ooooooh too many to list.

New Order-Republic
U2-Achtung Baby
The The-Soul Mining

never skip On The Run?

NEVER!

Lots but off the top of my head:
DJ Format, Music for the Mature B-Boy
Portishead, Dummy
The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tango in the Night
Orbital, In Sides
Radiohead, The Bends and OK Computer
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing
Pixies, Doolittle

Think a thread of almost perfect albums would be better. Those that are spoiled by one or two duff tracks.

Car Button Cloth! Your thread is imminent!

Youth and Young Manhood by Kings of Leon

Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot out the lights
Bob Dylan - Desire
Joni Mitchell - Hissing of Summer lawns
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
Nick Cave - No more shall we part
The Trials of Cato - Hide and Hair
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Offa Rex - The Queen of Hearts
Clash - London calling
Jack Bruce - Songs for a Tailor.
... and many more

So many excellent suggestions here, in fact my two all time favourite albums have already been mentioned several times over...

I'm a David Bowie fanboi, so my top two are Hunky Dory and Low.

Spiritualized - Laides & Gentlemen

Pulp - Different Class and This is Hardcore

Libertines - Up the bracket. Don't think I've listened to it for about ten years, might have to dig it out.

Outkast - Stankonia (probably prefer Aquemini but usually skip a couple)

Andy Shauf - The party

Faithless - Reverence
Skinnyman - Council Estate of Mind

Lots of good 'uns already mentioned! I'd also have Paul Simon's Gracelands, Bob Dylan's Desire, Weezer's Blue Album, Joni Mitchell's Hissing of Summer Lawns, Pixies' Surfa Rosa, Nirvana Nevermind and Unplugged in New York, Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie.

And I'd probably add (a non-exhaustive, unordered list):

* Kaya (Bob Marley and The Wailers)
* Death Is This Communion (High on Fire)
* Reflections of a Floating World (Elder)
* Hot Rats (Frank Zappa)
* Kind of Blue (Miles Davies)

ABC - The Lexicon of Love
ABC - Lexicon of Love Part Two
and
Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks
and whilst I am at it
Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Thanks NJA - so you have covered A and B, now for C through to Z 😉

So, every New Order album then?

I'd go along with that 😀

Another couple of nominations...

Spiceworld, The Spicegirls

Oh, and Slates by The Fall.

Moar:

<Jools Holland voice> Erykah Baduuuu! </JH voice>

Youth and Young Manhood by Kings of Leon

What happened to them? Phenomenal album followed by lots and lots of utter shite

Aha Shake Heartbreak isn't bad as such, but it's certainly not as good - agree that after that it drops off a cliff.
I guess it's the classic "you work your whole life on the first album, then work for a year on tour on the second one", coupled with a shift towards stadium cock-rock that comes with playing ever-bigger venues. Shame though.

Oh! Rock Formations by Yawning Man too...

You're just making names up now 😀

Matchstick Armagedon by Hunting With Hammers

choppersquad

Member

Probably not a hugely popular one but ‘101 Damnations’ by Carter.

Ooh, good shout. Loses points for not having The Music That Nobody Likes on it though

PS, this is a bloody brlliant thread, I've been listening to stuff I've not even thought about for years, cheers!

Moar 2:

Julian Cope - Fried
David Bowie - Station to Station
Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
Johnathan Richman & the Modern Lovers - Rock n Roll with the Modern Lovers

Fantastic thread, much to investigate hear - had a spin of Hell Is For Heroes - Neon Handshake last night, very good! 🙂

Mine are all going to be achingly more mainstream but...

Eponymous Roses
Eponymous RATM
Coldplay - Parachutes
Finley Quaye - Maverick A Strike
Ash - Free All Angels
And absolutely Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik. That album changed my life, and they've done nothing approaching it since. Nobody has, for me.

Faith no more: Angel dust.
Verve : Urban hymns
Massive Attack : Mezzanine
Def Leopard : Hysteria
GnR : Appetite for Destruction
Unkle: psyence fiction

The Best of the Beatles

Moar 3:

Simon And Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
The Doors - LA Women
Siouxsie & the Banshees -The Scream
Nirvana - In Utero

Sylvan Esso, either album.
John Martyn, Solid Air.

I'd like to say Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92, but I just have to skip Green Calx, it just clashes so badly when the rest of it has chilled me out.

British Sea Power - The decline of british sea power
The National - Alligator & Boxer
Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
The Cribs - Men’s needs
Interpol - Turn on the bright lights
Gomez - Liquid Skin
Idlwild - 100 broken windows
Radiohead - Amnesiac & In rainbows

All as good as perfect to my ears.

Moar:

Catatonia - International Velvet.
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit.
Clive Gregson and Christine Collister - Home and Away.

Julian Cope – Fried

Good call. Think there were three releases though, with more tracks added on each!

+1 here for ‘Peggy Suicide’ too. It does itself all the justice.

Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones
Portishead - Dummy
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Talk Talk - It’s My Life/The Colour Of Spring/Laughing Stock
Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlantisism
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Emmylou Harris - Cowgirl’s Prayer/Wrecking Ball
Daniel Lanois - Acadie
XTC - Apple Venus
Thea Gilmore - Keep On Singing
Steely Dan - Aja
Aimee Mann - Whatever
Belly - Star
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Talking Heads - ‘77
Shawn Colvin - Steady On
There isn’t anything about any of the above that I would want to change, and all of them I listen to right through, although having all of them on my phone, along with many, many others, they usually get randomised in shuffle play.

I’d like to say Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92, but I just have to skip Green Calx, it just clashes so badly when the rest of it has chilled me out.

First listen tonight and totally get you, I skipped it too.

Sigur Ros - Takk
Morcheeba - Big Calm
Faithless - Reverence
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
Sia - Colour the Small One

Already listed Graceland as my favourite album of all time and so may have listed Appetite, Troublegum and Nevermind. Musing over this thread brought a couple of 90s bangers back to mind.

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep

Radio head: The Bends
U2: Zooropa
Ocean Colour Scene: Moseley Shoals

I got some more
Burial - Untrue (probably Burial too)
Siouxsie & the Banshees - The Scream
T Rex - The Slider
Factory Floor - Factory Floor
Suicide - Suicide

Colour by the Christians as i was listening to it this morning, maybe chuck in Franz Ferdinand too the black covered one

Loads above that I agree with (and loads that I have never heard of)

I'll add

Springsteen - Born to Run

Lots of my favourite albums already mentioned, and quite a few that I need to investigate further. I'll suggest....

Lloyd Cole - Rattlesnakes

He sort of passed me by in the 80s. I just didn't get his music. I've been listening to this a lot this year, though, and think its genius.

Tracy Chapman albums are fairly good, Roy Orbison A Black and White Night is a perfect live album but then he is geeting a wee help from pals

Tracy Chapman albums are fairly good

The world needs more fairly good albums 😉

Perfect albums are few and far between IMO.

MBV - Loveless is the first that springs to mind. It was (and is) just so different and amazing that I wouldn't dare suggest changing anything.

What's Going on for sure as well.

There was a US indie band called Beulah who did an LP called When Your Heartstrings Break and to me that was a perfect pop album.

Also, The Avalanches' Since I left You is a perfectly formed piece of art.

The Go! Team's Thunder Lightning Strike was such a breath of fresh air and pushed my buttons so well (in terms of influences) that I can't really criticise it.

Screamadelica is a very strong album and one that I like more now that I've got over my dislike of Primal Scream (it's arguably more of a Weatherall album anyway).

Seeing the Fannies mentioned on the previous page, I'd like to suggest Bandwagonesque alongside Grand Prix.

And on the early 1990s indie tip, how about...

Sonic Youth - Goo
Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

And I always have a soft spot for Pixies's Trompe Le Monde.

Morcheeba: Who Can you Trust
Carter USM: 30 Something
The Shins: Oh Inverted World. Also, tbh, Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Cut Chemist: The Audience's Listening (although subsequent albums seem really hit or miss)

Just one more - Kid Loco - A Grand Love Story

If you've never heard it, treat yourself...

Some solid suggestions already. Would add:
Faze Action - Plans and designs
Guru - Jazammataz Vol 1

Not strictly an artist album, but the original Renaissance mix CD and Sasha & Digweed Northern Exposure 1 still do it after all these years!

We should have a separate thread for mix CDs, I reckon.

Another album worth a mention...

Moar 4:

I think everyone should have a copy of this...

And a copy of this..

Gentlemen _ The Afghan Whigs
16 Lovers Lane - The Go Betweens

and another vote for Forever Changes

Killing Joke - Killing Joke (1st One) & What's This For?
The Birthday Party - Junkyard
Fugazi - Repeater
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity & Tupelo
Godflesh - Songs of Love & Hate
Echo & The Bunnymen - Crocodiles
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About The Weather
Einsturzende Neubauten - Silence Is Sexy
Joy Divison - Unknown Pleasures
The Sisterhood - The Gift
The Cramps - Off The Bone
Esplendor Geometrico - Arispejal Astisaró
The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys
NWA - Straight Out Of Compton
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
The Damned - Damned Damned Canned
Youth Code - Youth Code
The Cult - Dreamtime......

Devin Townsend - Terria
Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

I’m no prog rock fan by any measure, but I do know a damn fine piece of musicianship when I hear it..

And yes, many of my mates BITD tried in vein to get me into them, but they didn’t really succeed..

Yet, a damn fine set of tracks..

The hives- your new favourite band

Don't want to add any more albums. Just really happy there's at least one other The Go! Team fan out there. Massively underrated, but that's another thread...

Don’t want to add any more albums. Just really happy there’s at least one other The Go! Team fan out there.

*fist bump*

When I heard them I thought the combination of Sonic Youth/MBV noise with Jackson 5 pop, old-school hip-hop and a bit of funky soundtrack nostalgia was like someone had condensed my record collection into a single band.

Did you ever see them live? I caught them a few times in the year or two after Thunder Lightning Strike and they were great fun. One gig in Oxford is among my all time best, crowd seemed to totally get them and it was a really joyous atmosphere.

Stereolab - ‘DOTS AND LOOPS’

Vaccines - What Did You Expect. . .

Nirvana - Nevermind

You’re just making names up now

Keep up Grandad! 🤣🤣🤣

Siouxsie and the Banshees - JuJu.

Utter perfection.

Loads of excellent suggestions, especially Rumours, Nevermind and Graceland. Hysteria is a good call, which I must revisit.

I'd add;

The Killers - Hot Fuss
REM - Green
Silly Wizard - Wild & Beautiful (bet nobody else says that one! Tad obscure, and about places as much as music)
Maybe Mumford & Sons first album for me, but they've gone downhill and spoilt it a bit.
If a live album is allowed, Alchemy

The Devil’s Walk - Apparat.
Parallel Lines - Blondie.

Fila Brazilia maim that tune
Jackie Mittoo Keyboard king at studio one
Orbital Snivillisation
Orb UFOrb (not the best orb album, but no stinkers on it)

chakaping
*fist bump*

Never seen them live. Picked up on them when Radio 1 playlisted Ladyflash a few years back.

For me they're less the distilled essence of my music collection (precious little Motown in that), but they do sound exactly like the imaginary ideal pop music I hear in my head... It's like Basement Jaxx found some guitars and a whole pile of old school hip hop albums, or Lush got mugged by Melle Mel and while recovering suddenly discovered a love of early 70s cinema, or something...

dsotm, meddle
Any velvet underground
Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
A few by the Orb: uforb, cydonia, orblivion
A couple by the doors, wfts is my fave
Peoples instinctive travels and the paths of rhythm
Selected ambient works
Sound of silver
Nowhere just to keep the Mrs happy
Janes addiction (the live one)

The Best of the Beatles

Blue or red?