| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3709 Registered: 05-2005 |
Australia's music press are having a competition to rate the best 10 Australian albums and will collate the votes into a top 100. Enter at bestozalbums@streetpress.com.au The prize is a new book on the best 100 Oz albums (featuring two from our heroes) and a 5 CD comp with tracks from 98 of those albums (guess they couldn't license the last two). My top 10 are: 1 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane 2 Ed Kuepper - Honey Steel's Gold 3 The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional 4 The Church - Starfish 5 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call 6 Midnight Oil - Diesel And Dust 7 The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart 8 Single Gun Theory - Flow, River of My Soul 9 Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir 10 Died Pretty - Doughboy Hollow | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2509 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, Honey Steel's Gold? There's too much filler on that one. I'd either nominate "Character Assassination" or "Jean Lee & the Yellow Dog." Jimmy Little's "Messenger" is a strong contender too. Died Pretty and Midnight Oil wouldn't find spots on my list. No "Prehistoric Sounds?" Ok, I'm going to have to go there and vote. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2510 Registered: 03-2005 |
My list: 1. Go Betweens--Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express 2 Triffids--Born Sandy Devotional 3. Saints--Prehistoric Sounds 4. Augie March--Moo, You Bloody Choir 5. Jimmy Little--Messenger 6. Paradise Motel--Flight Paths 7. Ed Keupper--Character Assassination 8. Easybeats--Volume 3 9. Tactics--Blue & White Future Whale 10. Bee Gees--Monday's Rain I'm sure I'll remember something essential in a few minutes, but this one's already sent! Sadly, the Easybeats' best album was never released except in fragments over the years. In late 1967/early 1968 they recorded what would have been their masterpiece with Glyn Johns but one of their contracts expired and that was the end of that. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3710 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, it was hard to leave out a Saints album. I am, however, nothing less than astonished that you think so little of Honey Steel's Gold. It's a stone classic Randy! There is not a wasted moment on it. When Kuepper played in the classic albums concerts in Sydney in February 2008 that is the album he played. I implore you to listen again and to also listen to the lyrics. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 21 Registered: 05-2005 |
I went for 5 Go-Betweens albums in my top 10. I'll have to listen to Moo, You Bloody Choir again. It's left me underwhelmed in the past. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2511 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, I went back to listen to "Honey Steel's Gold" in light of your comments. We'll just have to agree to disagree. What would have been Side Two is superb. What would have been Side One has one good song wedged between two interminable numbers that could have had many minutes trimmed off without any creative harm at all, and then left space for one or two additional songs. As they are, they're just very boring to me. Any album I have to say that about is not a top ten choice for me. And now I'll listen to "Character Assassination" to make sure I still like it as much as I used to. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2096 Registered: 10-2004 |
Not listing any bands more than once - this would be my top 10: 1. Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle 2. Saints - Prehistoric Sounds 3. The Church - Seance 4. Ed Keupper - Rooms of the Magnificent 5. Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire 6. Nick Cave - From Her to Eternity 7. AC/DC - High Voltage 8. Tactics - Blue & White Future Whale 9. Laughing Clowns - History of Rock n' Roll Vol. 1 (am I allowed to list a comp?) 10. Nice - Nice | ||
| Shane Greentree Member Username: Realinspectorshane Post Number: 74 Registered: 03-2007 |
I hadn't realised that MYBC is that popular around here. Speaking as a long-time Augie March fan, its got some great songs (I'm very fond of The Cold Acre, and One Crowded Hour is very good even with its becoming so overplayed---kinda weird to remember that that song had been played in live sets since at least 2002/03), but as an album I think Sunset Studies and Strange Bird work much more effectively. Waltz too, which even though its an EP has a consistent album feel to it. And it has Departure, which is one of my very favourite AM songs. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2513 Registered: 03-2005 |
Shane, I happen to agree with you and am delighted to find that somebody else thinks the two LPs before Moo are better albums. (I remember arguing in their favor with Geoff.) Moo doesn't quite hold together as an album somehow. My guess is that it doesn't have enough breathers on it. Nonetheless, I pulled the lever for it on my Top Ten list on the theory that it has the highest density of great stand-alone songs. That might be a mistake given that the point of the exercise is to name the best albums. I'm still hoping to get my mitts on their early EPs. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 715 Registered: 05-2005 |
Me arguing.....! My Auz top ten (which of course won't be the judges...'cause I can't count) 1. Sleepless (technically a mini album but the UK(?) US(?) releases had the second and third singles with it) - Ups and Downs 2. Remote Luxury/Persia eps - The Church 3. Temple of Low Men - Crowded House (2/3's Auz and Neil was living in Melbourne) 4. Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express - The Go Betweens 5. Born Sandy Devotional - The Triffids 6. The Moffs - The Moffs (technically an ep but if you add on a couple of the singles and the b sides...) 7. The Little Desert - Not Drowning, Waving 8. Stoneage Romeos - Hoodoo Gurus 9. Dear Friends and Enemies - Big Heavy Stuff 10. Sleeps Like a Curse - The Panics 11. Drift - The Apartments The judges top ten? Are we talking "mainstream" or are we talking "mainstream and/or middle finger"?( a very Australian concoction) 1. Diesel and Dust - Midnight Oil 2. East - Cold Chisel 3. Back in Black - AC/DC 4. Whispering Jack - John Farnham 5. Vulture Street - Powderfinger 6. Crowded House - Crowded House 7. Starfish - The Church 8. Human Fraility - Hunters and Collecters 9. One of the Easybeats albums 10. A Kylie album 11. A Nick Cave album If we are REALLY lucky, we might even get some solo Jimmy Barnes(Working Class Man), Delta Goodrum or Vanessa Amarossi! It's been a long night marking papers...... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2514 Registered: 03-2005 |
Geoff, they have to include an Easybeats record. The Easies were by far Oz' most important artistic contribution to the universe in the 60s. My guess is that they'd include "Good Friday." I opted for "Volume 3" because it's a purely Aussie production and IMO has just as strong a set of songs. I would have pulled the lever for the British Glyn Johns album if it had ever been released. I decided to include the Bee Gees' "Monday's Rain" because it's an all-Aussie production and their first solid album and I think you have to include something by them as the OTHER Aussie contribution to the international music world. But I just can't look at their British productions as at all Aussie related. The Bee Gees just seem to me to have a weaker Oz connection than the Easys. I really wanted to include an Apartments record but decided that PMW's wayward vocal pitch killed him. That was probably a bad decision on my part. I'd choose "The Evening Visits . . . ." I definitely thought about "Sleeps Like a Curse" and ultimately decided that my other choices crowded it out. I thought about the Drones whose best work is way up there. While everybody compares Gareth Liddiard to Van Morrison--shudder!--I compare him to a more gothic John Doe--pulling from many of the same musical sources--and his band to a modern X. BUT they've been too undisciplined with their releases. They're putting out too many with the result that no individual album is strong enough to get on the list. Wish I could find even ONE Ups & Downs CD. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2099 Registered: 10-2004 |
You know, looking back at my list, I realize I've selected *three* albums with Ed Kuepper on them, and the funny thing is that I'm not a particularly big Ed Kuepper fan. I mean, I love Prehistoric Sounds and I dig *some* Laughing Clowns songs and Kuepper's early solo work, but I'm not an obsessive Kuepper fan. I suppose I should have dropped the Laughing Clowns album and substituted it with the Apartments' "The Evening Visits... (although I agree with Randy that Walsh's iffy pitch makes him a hard sell). Or better yet, replace it with Robert Forster's "Calling From a Country Phone." | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3711 Registered: 05-2005 |
No more takers for top 10s? Kevin, surely you have a top 10 featuring Liberty Belle and nine Northern Territory industrial dub reggae albums played exclusively on didgeridoo that only you have heard of? Hugh, surely must have a top 10 featuring several Melbourne bands about whom only you can be sure which bit is the band name and which bit is the album title? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3712 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, both Gareth Liddiard and Glenn Richards have recently released solo albums. I have them both but have not played them yet. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 480 Registered: 01-2007 |
I'll go for 5 1. Liberty Belle 2. BSD 3. Boatmans Call 4 Danger in the past 5. Prehistoric Sounds I know a fairly skewed sample to the 80's | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 227 Registered: 05-2005 |
Life has become very competitive at every level. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 332 Registered: 02-2007 |
Heres a few that I like that arent listed yet. Dave Graney - Night of the Wolverine Radio Birdman- Radios Appear Icecream Hands - Sweeter Than The Radio Paul Kelly - Post |