| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10469 Registered: 05-2005 |
A lot of the YouTube videos popping up lately are people talking about the 10 albums they listen to most, and some of them are very interesting. So here are mine. Not in any order, and not necessarily my favourite ever albums - and I’m writing them as they come to mind, so if I did it again tomorrow it might be different. Kate Bush - The Hounds Of Love (on CD, because I stupidly sold the record in my biggest ever musical regret. The original vinyl goes for ridiculous prices and the reissues have a different version of one of the songs) The Waterboys - Fisherman’s Blues (vinyl, or the remastered CD) Whipping Boy - Heartworm (CD) The Blue Nile - A Walk Across The Rooftops (CD/streaming) The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (tape/vinyl/remastered stereo CD) Underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman (vinyl/CD box set version/streaming) The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane (CD/vinyl) Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy (CD) The Chills - Soft Bomb (CD) Yes - Yessongs (vinyl) | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10470 Registered: 05-2005 |
And as soon as I clicked post, of course, other records that should/could have been included have flooded into my thoughts. No point saying what they are, I’ll stick with what’s above. | ||
| Uli B Member Username: Marenhannes Post Number: 36 Registered: 03-2006 |
Steely Dan - Aja Xtc - Drums and Wires Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways Mink deVille - Cabretta Robert Forster - The Candle and the Flame Mickey Jupp - Juppanese Wire - Chairs Missing David Bowie - Young Americans Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom Orange Juice - Rip It Up | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 211 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge Margaret Glaspy - Devotion The Delines - Colfax Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers The Clientele - Strange Geometry Laura Cantrell - Not The Tremblin’ Kind The National- High Violet The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter Low - Christmas. Apparently it’s an EP, whatever. I listen to a lot of Christmas music in December. Honourable mentions for Molly Burch, The Staple Singers, She & Him, Shelby Lynne, Kacey Musgraves and Ella Fitzgerald | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2220 Registered: 10-2006 |
New to me here are Whipping Boy, Mickey Jupp (something to do with synths, I thought, but why? and no…) and Margaret Glaspy. Coincidentally, I just heard a track from The Delines’ Colfax yesterday, excellent. Taking a long view, here’s what I came up with… 1 – 6 because they provide a glorious sequence of tunes from songwriters on a roll I’ll happily listen to start to finish and have an organic sound as if they were produced in a rush of inspiration over a shortish period of time (also true of 8). 7 & 8 are great summer albums. 9 & 10 mainly because their opening tracks are songs I’ll go back to again and again, whether on the album or on Youtube, through all the various versions I can find. Lemonheads – Shame about Ray Van Morrison – Veedon fleece Roxy Music – Stranded Robert Forster – Warm nights Miossec – 1964 Focus – Hamburger Concerto Stereolab – Chemical chords Al Green – Belle album Bob Dylan – Blood on the tracks Pink Floyd – Wish you were here | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 511 Registered: 02-2007 |
Stuart I had a hunch you wd put Hamburger Concerto on the list. Great album. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10472 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've heard of Mickey Jupp, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard him. I'll have to check him out. Well, I'm assuming it's a him. I've never heard of Miossec. I will check them out. I think, Stuart, you may be the only person who ranks Warm Nights as RF's finest, or at least the one you listen to most. The Lemonheads album is one of the many I forgot to include. | ||
| Uli B Member Username: Marenhannes Post Number: 37 Registered: 03-2006 |
Mickey Jupp had three wonderful albums with The Legend in the 70's, especially the Red Boot album. Then he was picked up by the Stiff label. At Juppanese, Nick Low has produced a side. Honest British Pub Rock music. Today he lives in the Lake District and self-publishes Favorites. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 212 Registered: 05-2005 |
I love It’s A Shame About Ray but for me it’s got to be the original version without the very dreadful Mrs Robinson. The same goes for High Land, Hard Rain and Boat to Bolivia. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2221 Registered: 10-2006 |
Yes, David. One must remain true to one’s first love! And I do listen to it a hell of a lot, as well as a rather heart-warming international rendition of Side 2 on Youtube. Pádraig, Christophe Miossec is a guttural-growl singer-songwriter from Brest with, since 1995, a stream of excellent albums to his name, especially the first six or seven. Voice is a bit of a deal-breaker, I imagine. I said quite a lot about my apparently aberrant affection for Warm Nights on the new RF remasters thread. Would a judicious ranking of all Robert’s solo work pop it out at no. 1? Possibly not. Is it the album of his I listen to most of all? Absolutely! Will the remaster have a new cover? That would be nice. Mrs R is indeed a pointless addition to a gem of album. Is it the actual song you object to, Burgers, or this particular version of it, or just because it is in fact a pointless thing? Boat to Bolivia! Haven’t heard that in ages, was a favourite once. Don’t think I’ve ever heard the added track, which ironically gives the album its title. No good? Must check it out anyway. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 213 Registered: 05-2005 |
I don’t particularly like the version whereas the version of Frank Mills is great. Mrs Robinson was a minor hit so the label reissued the album with it tacked on inevitably and detrimentally. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4850 Registered: 03-2005 |
This thread immobilized me for weeks. I seldom listen to whole albums nowadays, relying instead on a huge iPod with constantly updated songs in shuffle mode. And so many of my favorite songs come from decidedly flawed albums. Look no further than Spring Hill Fair for an example of that. But of course there are still some albums that get through. As for the rest of you this list is not ranked. Julen Y La Gente Sola -- s/t. A nearly perfect first (I think) album by Uruguayans clearly smitten by the sounds of Postcard and the Go-Betweens. Definitely my favorite discovery in the past few years and definitely an album I like to hear all the way through in its correct sequence. Go-Betweens -- Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express. Or on another day, 16 Lovers Lane. But most of the time it's Liberty Belle. Francoiz Breut -- Zoo. On another day it can be La Chirurgie des Sentiments. But most of the time it's Zoo. Gene Clark & Carla Olson -- So Rebellious a Lover Cats on Fire -- All Blackshirts to Me. The final and definitive album by Finland's most serious candidate for international music acclaim. Born Sandy Devotional -- Triffids Alain Bashung -- Fantaisie Militaire. Sometimes it might be Bleu Petrole. Robert Forster -- Calling From a Country Phone. This has always been my clear favorite of his. Viva Elastico -- s/t Scott Walker -- Scott 4. On another day it might be Scott, but the nod has to go to the album of all original songs. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10485 Registered: 05-2005 |
I’ve been waiting anxiously for your list, Randy. Some albums there I’ve never heard, though I’m sure you’ve mentioned them all here before. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 2226 Registered: 10-2006 |
5 contributions so far and not one repeat! (Except, almost, for 16 LL...). That's pretty cool. | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 149 Registered: 03-2015 |
In no particular order below are the albums I play the most in whatever format. Liberty Belle & 16 Lovers Lane may have better songs, but Before Hollywood is perfect the way it is. More than half the list is what I would consider night music. The Boatman’s Call - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Before Hollywood - The Go-Betweens Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan Forever Changes - Love California – American Music Club Either/Or – Elliott Smith Proof Through the Night – T-Bone Burnett Hats - The Blue Nile Shoot Out the Lights - Richard & Linda Thompson Spirit of Eden – Talk Talk | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4851 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yeah but just like you, Pádraig, the next day I looked at it and thought "damn! how could I forget ____?!?!?!" | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10487 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, I also rarely listen to entire albums any more, apart from new releases. It’s mostly playlists and mixes. When I do play older albums all the way through, it’s the ones that are, to me, time worn classics. Even the most recent of my picks is almost 30 years old. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4852 Registered: 03-2005 |
For me the overwhelming majority of albums by artists I like have enough weak numbers that I'm much more inclined to upload all of the good songs and abandon the duds. This has spoilt me and left me less willing to sit through the weaklings. One of the reasons that I like listening in "shuffle" mode taken from a large song selection is that some songs that I didn't delete as outright weaklings but definitely didn't consider standouts can come into their own when heard in a multi-artist context. And some songs die an unexpected death in that context as well, usually because I haven't heard them in a long time and my tastes have moved on. Like you I always play the new albums two or three times to evaluate them and then pluck whatever I consider worthwhile for uploading. The albums I find that do honestly flow well from beginning to end will be played in full when the mood strikes me but it can take quite a while for any newer album to graduate to that status simply because of how relatively seldom I decide to pull out an individual album for play. The move from vinyl to CD changed the way we relate to albums, I think. When you have a medium that has only 20 minutes to offer you are much more likely to sit there and listen. This is even more true if you have a fully manual turntable like I've had for decades. You have to pick up the tonearm at the end to save the stylus. When the medium gives you 40 or more minutes of uninterrupted play the odds are much greater that music will turn into a background while you do something else. And once it became possible to move around digital files listening habits changed hopelessly. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 512 Registered: 02-2007 |
Randy, that Gene Clark & Carla Olson album is very good. I was just listening to it recently....one of the albums I picked up at the giant sale of CDs. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4853 Registered: 03-2005 |
David, I've been a Gene Clark fan nearly as long as I've had ears. I'm not so keen on some of his later albums such as Fire Byrd or Two Sides to Every Story, both of which suffer from slick LA studio feel but Carla Olson's involvement brought the focus right back to where it belonged: the classic old Dylanesque folk rocker with suitably organic instrumentation. |