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What albums do you keep going back to?


Ernest Buckley

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Been ripping lots of CDs into my iTunes lately and was wondering if anyone else does this... I seem to listen to the same records over and over and over again. I mean, I have lots of CDs and love lots of different genres but I continue to return to certain records or songs from certain artists...

 

Heres a list of some records I turn to constantly...

 

U2, The Joshua Tree,

U2, No Line on The Horizon (at first I didn`t like it but it has grown on me)

U2, Achtung Baby

Shawn Colvin, A Few Small Repairs and Whole New You

Seal, System

Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine (same instrumentalists, something about their sound...)

Marc Cohn, (John Leventhal produced albums only)

Mat Kearney, Nothing Left To Lose and City of Black and White

Josh Rouse, most of his stuff

Madonna, Confessions on a Dance Floor

Coldplay, as much as they get a bad rap, I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, each record of theirs is completely different

Def Lepperd, Hysteria, I think I`m still shocked that this record sold as much as it did... still trying to figure out the secret of it

ABBA, I know I`m going to get killed for this but I find their productions to be top notch and the melodies are friggin` catchy...

Pink Floyd, Dark Side... Another record that just grabs me each time

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ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

Deep Purple - Machine Head

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True through Get Happy

Graham Parker - Squeezing Out the Sparks

Crowded House - the 1st 3

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations (1st one)

Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers

Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Waters

XTC - Black Sea and Oranges and Lemons

Willian Orbit - Strange Cargo III

Orbital - Snivilization

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"OK Computer" by Radiohead, a lot of Zeppelin stuff, Javanese gamelan CDs on Smithsonian-Folkways, Emmylou Harris "Wrecking Ball", Ted Hawkins, R.E.M. "Murmur", Brian Eno, Sade "Rocks", Black Sabbath, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters, and much more.

 

I haven't mentioned more recent stuff because the question is "what do you keep going back to?" implying that it's older stuff that you keep returning to, not recent stuff that you really love.

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For starters,,, complete catalogs of the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Elvis , Gene Vincent, Bill Doggett, Duane Eddy, Don Gibson, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Jerry Lee Lewis, Link Wray, even Ricky Nelson, well, not so much him but his butt-kickin' back-up band...(the best his dad Ozzie could buy)

 

Music I was introduced to by my older brother, and learned to play guitar to by listening to the 45's over and over playing my acoustc Stella guitar.

 

 

60's British Invasion next.... my Halcyon Days:)

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Hmmmm.... off the top of my head

 

Abbey Road

Let it Be Naked

Jazz Rocket Science (among others) - Adam Holzman

Romantic Warrior - RTF

most Weather Report albums

Golden Age of Wireless - T Dolby

Dark Blue Dream - Steve Weingart

Best of ELP

Aja

the first ZZ Top best of

One of a Kind - Bruford

Inside Out - Corea Elektric Band

Wired - J Beck

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Stuff I always go back to....

 

I love the Rhino HAVE A NICE DAY: SUPER HITS OF THE SEVENTIES anthology. It's no secret here on SSS that I am a big fan of the "perfect three minute single". It's like, can you make three minutes of pure ear-candy... where every note and every voice has to function correctly within its little tightly-knit web of entertainment.... Hooks-within-hooks.... almost like the equivalent of a short-story, when nothing must be superfluous... no room at all for self-indulgence, vacant posturing or eternal, navel-gazing soloes. Nice vocal harmonies, innocent lyrics, clever beats/grooves, engaging melodies, old-school dipping and swooping string parts..... arrangements that have a beginning, a middle, and an end.... This series covers not your great big acts, but rather your one-hit wonders and lower-charting gems, from the period in American radio when one AM station would play an eclectic mix of pop, novelty, country, bubblegum, psychedelia, Brit-pop, Eurovision, ballads, R&B, Funk, Disco, Broadway-derived hits, and so forth. Included here, surely, are some "songs you love to hate and songs you hate to love" ("I Like Dreamin'" by Kenny Nolan, anybody?) but whose recordmaking finesse is undeniable.

 

 

Another alltime fave album of mine is BELEZA TROPICAL, an anthology of Brazilian pop hits, compiled lovingly by David Byrne, in the "Tropicalismo" style (circa 1969--1980). What Brazilian pop evolved into after the Bossa Nova movement and the rise of Rock and American R&B sensibilities. Hits by Chico Buarque, Maria Bethania, the wonderfully appealing voice of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Lo Borges. Every cut on this album is a stunner.... jaw-dropping arrangements tinged with African urgency, fascinating unpredictable melodies and chord-progressions, gorgeous harmonies, infectious, intoxicating jungley rhythms... Yet everything has that tightly-knit "three minute gem" quality I so admire and aspire to. Brazilian recordmakers had a freedom of expressive possibility that their American counterparts didn't dare.

 

Mercury Records GROWIN' UP TOO FAST. Anthology of lesser-known girl group hits from the period approximately 1962--1966. Perfect, sweet American three-minute pop, written by great Brill Building and Philly composers. Their records that woulda-shoulda-coulda. When rock 'n' roll songwriting still was tinged with the lofty imprimatur of Tin Pan Alley. It's all aural Prozac. Impossibly catchy, infectious little grooves and melodies. Sometimes the lyrics are simplistic, even ludicrous or banal, but that's part of the fun.

 

FRENCH SIXTIES. A great album of French pop from the period 1961--1969. The "Yeh Yeh" style is presented, as well as the anthemic songs that graced San Remo and Eurovision of the day. and A number of covers of American hits, in the French language. Much charm, much integrity, much beauty. Not as hard-polished as American discs of the period, a certain "roughness" there, but redeemed by emotional sincerity, is very winning.

SONGS THAT WON THE WAR. Series. Vocal pop hits with Big Band/orchestral accompaniments from the WWII era: Dinah Shore, The Ink Spots, Buddy Clark, Vaughan Monroe, a young Frank Sinatra, the Pied Pipers, The Andrews Sisters. Precious, often heartstring-tugging ballads and ditties with an uber-patriotic American zeal. "When America was America", you might say.... Sensuous, sophisticated, dazzlingly authoritative string and horn arrangements when nothing but the best would do. Flawless lyric-writing, Bebop influences, "hep harmony" tight choirs.

 

 

These are records I just never tire of. I do like Various Artist collections because I like to get a feel for the larger styles that swept a country during any given decade.

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I tend to go back to artists, rather than albums. I'm finishing up a 6-week re-immersion of Hall & Oates, to be replaced now with a Sade fest, thanks to their decade-too-long dry spell.

Before that, it was Zappa, a long dose of Zack Claxton, and I think it was Donald Fagen before that (discovered a DVD-A in 5.1 to play on my new system!).

Other artists I keep going back to: Chicago, EW&F, FoW, Bryan Ferry, BT, Steely Dan, Basia, Joni, etc. Just seem to go thru all the albums over a period of weeks before going on to the next (except Zappa, it'd take me 14 months to go thru them all again at once).

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In The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson never forget the first time I heard it

all Beatles.

Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix

Standup - Jethro Tull

Fumbling Towards Ecstacy - Sarah McLaughlan

Heavy Weather - Weather Report

Allman Bros. first album and Idlewild South

ELP 1st album

Ummagumma, Echos, Dark Side - Pink Floyd

Concerto for Orchestra - Chicago Symphony, Seiji Ozawa

A Step Forward - Savoy Brown

Home - Procol Harum

Phantasmagoria - Curved Air

Alone Together - Dave Mason

Octopus - Gentle Giant

Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot - Genesis

Electric Outlet - John Scofield

Turning Point - John Mayall

The Doors 1st

The Yes Album - Yes

 

many more

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Many by -

XTC

David Sylvian

Neil Finn (bands and solo)

Kit Watkins

Bill Withers

Led Zeppelin

David Sancious

Jeff Beck

Eno

Squeeze

Miles Davis (older)

Trilok Gurtu

Brand X

Kate Bush

801

Bill Nelson

King Crimson

Peter Gabriel (solo and Genesis)

many more......

 

albums I stay away from -

let's start with Return To Forever - Musicmagic.

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Sorry to be "complicated" about this....BUT!!!!

 

I go back to some albums for many many repeat listens as a kind of audible comfort food:

 

Faure: Pelleas et Melisande and Complete Music for Cello

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

Beethoven piano sonatas Nos. 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 30

Chopin Piano Preludes

Debussy: La Mer

The Album Leaf - In A Safe Place

Beck - Sea Change

Robert Rich & Lustmord - Stalker

Biosphere - Substrata

The Blue Nile - Hats

Spacetime Continuum - Sea Biscuit

Charlie Haden Quartet - Haunted Heart

Pat Metheny - Secret Story

Dave Mason - Alone Together

Fleet Foxes - self titled first album

Weather Report albums about the 3rd through the 8th or so

Jack Dangers - Loudness Clarifies

Medeski, Martin & Wood - Shackman

Joe Henderson - Double Rainbow

John Abercrombie - November

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

Kenny Burrell - Moon and Sand

Kiln - Ampday

The Orb - Orblivion, The Dream

Patrick O'Hearn - Metaphor

 

this is ridiculous - I could list 100 more......that'll have to do

 

And the OTHER category are albums that I return to only rarely because they so blow my mind I don't want to dull the experience with too much exposure....but they are definitely "repeaters" of the most exalted kind. Here's just a few before I get carried away again..

 

Mozart String Quintet in G minor K.516

Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes - Question and Answer

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up

Peter Gabriel - Passion

Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void

Bach Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites

 

and too many more....must stop.....

 

nat whilk ii

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Too many in my collection to pick. I'm gradually converting my vinyl to digital and when I listen I normally have playback in random mode. I guess a related question is "If you were stuck on an uninhabited island with nothing more than all the food you could eat for the rest of your life and a great sound system what record would you select to accompany you?" I would select a record by a formally local Minneapolis band, the first album, self titled, (I'm cheating because it's a double) by the band Gypsy. I pick this because it's a great album (er, pair of albums) and it brings back nice memories.

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These days, that list gets shorter and shorter. When I was younger--I had musical tastes that some might call, er...questionable. Lets just say I was a big adult contemporary fan. There were a ton of albums I kept going back to, by Celine Dion, Michael Bolton (yeah I know), old school Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, Whitney, etc.. I was much into the production and musical arrangements, rather than the artists themselves, who I think were often interchangeable. My heroes were people like David Foster, Walter A., Babyface, Narada Michael Walden, etc. Now, I can only take that music in small doses, or I start getting a toothache. But whether you like that music or not, there's no question the musical arrangements and production were top-notch, and I feel that I learned a lot musically by listening to them.

 

Nowadays, it seems the only thing I've consistenly gone back to is classic Elton John. I love the sound of Tumbleweed Connection, Madman, Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. You can't beat that early to mid '70s string of albums he put out.

 

Everything else I sort of go through phases with. Some exceptional stuff I've listened to recently is John Mayer-Continuum, Arcade Fire-Neon Bible, Wilco's latest one, Regina Spektor-Begin To Hope. There's one I'm currently planning on purchasing and that's the one from the guy who calls himself Owl City. From what I've heard so far, the guys a darn good songwriter. So that CD should keep me entertained for a few months. And then I'll probably move on to something else.

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Joni Mitchell - Hijira, Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns and Don Juan's

Pink Floyd - DSoTM, Wish You Were Here, Animals

King Crimson - Discipline and Beat

Beatles - Rubber Soul through Let It Be

The Who - Quadrophenia, Who's Next, Who Are You, By Numbers

US - Achtung Baby, War, Joshua Tree

John Coltrane - Love Supreme

Miles Davis - Kinda Blue

Led Zep - Been on a Zep kick lately and have been going back listening to all of them.

Allman Bros - The Allman Brothers Band

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