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What "Masterpiece" Albums Mean the Most to You?


kayd_mon

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I'm talking about those landmark albums that are usually on people's best-of lists.

 

For me, I'd say Sgt. Pepper. Every track is perfect, and just listening to the record can transport me to another place, just like a good book can. I honesty get this effect from a few Beatles records, but Sgt. Pepper does it the most.

 

Who's Next is another one for me. It was the soundtrack of my high school days (even though I was in high school in the 90s), and I consider it to be the zenith of one of my all-time favorite bands. Another everything-is-perfect album.

 

What about you guys?

 

 

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I have three: Allmans at Fillmore East, Stones- Exile on Main Street and probably my favorite, Beatles-Revolver. The Allman's Fillmore album's long jams have lost perhaps a bit of relevance for me but the Stones' and Beatles' albums seem timeless.

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(One of) Mine is Ritual de lo habitual from Jane's addiction. 

As a kid into metal in the 80's that album preceded the explosion of the seattle scene but was completely different to basically everything out there.  

In my opinion the mainstream success it got, although small, was big enough to make record companies take notice that some changes might be on the horizon.   I think that it almost single handedly opened the door for bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam etc...to be heard and given a chance by the big labels.  Once that door had been pried open a little by Jane's (been caught stealing) those other bands just poured through.

Also seeing them on that tour was a revelation.  At the time metal crowds and punk crowds did NOT mix.  But Janes appealed to people in both groups.  So the concert was a crazy divison of punks and metal heads at the same show.  I think both sides learned a little something....Most of us metal heads had probably never been to a concert with such a fun crowd atmosphere...where crowd surfing and slam dancing were accepted and people helped you back up with a smile.  As opposed to your typical metal concert where everyone was so agro that you thought there would be a fight at any time.   And I think the punks realized that a bunch of talented players could make more complicated music that would still appeal to them.

To this day..it's the greatest show I've ever seen. 

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Albums that had a big impact on me that I think are pretty much perfect all the way through:

Hendrix's Electric Ladyland and Band of Gpysies

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Animals

Zeppelin IV

SRV's Texas Flood

Santana I

Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East

Metallica's Master of Puppets and And Justice for All

Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath and Paranoid

Tool's Aenima

Steve Vai's Passion & Warfare

Lucinda Williams' Essence

Van Halen's 1984

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto

 

Hm... listing these out, there's a lot more than I thought.  That said, Electric Ladyland & Dark Side of the Moon are my #1 & #2 albums of all time.  They're a cut above.

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Number of The Beast, Iron Maiden. I have gone out of my way to spin this record more times than the next ten all together.

 

Cheap Trick, Live at Boudakon. The one record that truely changed my l ife. Made me go from being a music liker and an

instrument noodler to knowing music is what I will do for the rest of my life .

 

ACDC Back in Black. MASTERPIECE. Enough said

 

VH1: This album blew me away and was in my top ten for many years

 

Blizzard of Oz; Such a huge fan of Ozzy and Randy, always considered this one a masterpiece.

 

Rush, All tge World's a stage. Picking apart This record note for note by ear, along with some Iron Maiden records REALLY tought me how to play bass.

 

Who's Next. The Who. Huge part of the soundtrack of my teens.

 

Gold And Platinum, Lynyrd Skynyrd. NO band have I loved as much as this band for as long as this band. Gold and Platinum is a best of record, and today, probably not their best best of, but for years and years I wore this record out. Still probably my all time favorite band.

 

There are many many other records I consider masterpices, but these are the ones, by far, that have had the most impact on me.

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Cynic - Focus

First heard it in 2002 and it blew my mind. When I heard (in 2007) that they are doing a reunion tour I knew I had to be there. I flew to France to see the first show of that tour (in hellfest festival). I still remember myself standing in front of the stage before they even got on it, overwhelmed with excitement.

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Lots for me:

Debuts:

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

The Doors - The Doors

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

The Police - Outlandos d'Amour

 

Double albums:

The Beatles - The Beatles

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

 

Live Albums:

Badger - One Live Badger

Rush - Exit ... Stage Left

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same

 

Regular studio LPs:

Led Zeppelin - Presence

 

Bob Dylan - Desire

 

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

 

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

Rush - Moving Pictures

Prince - Purple Rain

The Police - Synchronicity

U2 - The Joshua Tree

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

Stone Temple Pilots - Core

 

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

 

 

And of course:

 

Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

 

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle

 

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

 

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Van Morrison "Astral Weeks".   Seamless stream of beautiful songs, and we put it on when my wife went into labor with our first kid.  It just takes me to a better place

 

Some others that are on my list:

Love "Forever Changes" -- only discovered this a few years ago

Talking Heads "More Songs About Buildings and Food" -- one of the soundtracks of my favorite college apartment

Beatles "White Album" -- number nine, number nine...Eldorado

Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"

Sex Pistols "Never Minds the Bollocks..."

Bob Dylan "Blood on the Tracks" -- the ultimate breakup album, it's helped me through a few rough spots

Rolling Stones "Let It Bleed"

U2 "Joshua Tree" -- met my wife at one of the concerts on this tour

Sufjan Stevens "...Illinoise" -- think I had this in rotation in my car for a couple of years

Bright Eyes "Cassadaga" -- same as above, plus it might have the best cd cover ever

Grateful Dead "American Beauty" -- has my favorite Phil and Bobby songs

 

 

 

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kayd_mon wrote:

 

@PurpleTrails

 

 

 

Good call on Sufjan's Illinoise. That is, IMO, one of the greatest albums of all time.

 

Ooooh! I forgot about that one.  I must have listened to that 1000 times the first month I got it.  It really is incredible. 

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kayd_mon wrote:

 

Misplaced Childhood is incredible. Great performances by all those guys. It took them almost 10 years to make a comparable album with Brave.

 

Funny you should mention that.  I more or less stopped following Marillion after the first Hogarth album.  I met a girl in the office who has pretty much the complete post-Fish catalog... she even convinced me to go see Marillion last summer [at the Fillmore West where I saw them perform the entire Misplaced Childhood album during that tour in the 80's.]

Anyway, I just ripped all her Marillion CD's last weekend and outside of Marbles hadn't (yet) found anything particularly interesting.  On your recommendation, I've been listening to Brave today and you're right... good stuff. 

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Hogarth Marillion is uneven, to be honest. Marbles and Brave are great. There are a few tracks from Anoraoknophobia and Marillion.com that are good, but the rest are meh. I liked Somewhere Else quite a bit, Happiness Is the Road is uneven, and the new ome shows promise (haven't listened to all of it yet). I consider myself a fan of the band, but of their many records, there's a lot of uninteresting stuff IMO.

 

I read once that Radiohead was listening to Brave during their sessions for The Bends. Interesting.

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