What are your top 5

[volchef]

Albums of all time? I don't mean in the whole Rolling Stone "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" way. I mean albums that have touched your heart and really mean something to you. I had a really hard time choosing my last 3, so I listed my 10 honorable mentions.

#5 New Order - Technique (this one was the first album given to me by my first love)
#4 Grant Lee Phillips - Humankind
#3 Babyshambles - Down in Albion
#2 Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
#1 Taj Mahal - Phantom Blues (this one has helped me through the toughest of times. It will never be replaced)

Honorable Mentions:
Amos Lee - Amos Lee
My Latest Novel - Wolves
Lou Reed - Transformer
Marc Cohn - Marc Cohn
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
New Order - Substance
Nina Simone - The Blues
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis - Indian Giver

[ZippyVol]

Tool: 10,000 days (honestly, in this respect 10000 days and Aenema are interchangable)
A Perfect Circle: Mer De Noms
Nirvana: Nevermind
Sublime: 40oz to Freedom

and number one...

Soundgarden: Ultramega OK

Those are the one's that meant more to me personally than any others, but there are lots of them. Alice in Chains (particularly Whale and Wasp off of Jar of Flies...odd that moved me more than any of their others considering there is no Layne Staley in that song), The Reverend Horton Heat, Dag.

Ultramega OK is number one for me because that's the album which instantly changed my view of music 2 notes into Flower. In retrospect it really isnt that great of an album/song. Its just that for me, at the time, it was completely different from all the music I had really been exposed to previously. I spent most of my adolescence listenting to my dad's Beatles records & 8 tracks because I knew all the current stuff (like... Poison and the other hair band garbage in the 80s) was just ass awful. Hearing Ultramega OK was the first time I really had any interest whatsoever in modern music. The first time I had any appreciation for a musical genre as ... my own, or something. Hard to explain.

[volchef]

Actually I understand exactly what you're saying Zip. Sometimes things are just transcendent in life and change us. Most of the albums I listed touched me in terrible ways, but they made me a better/stronger person. Some of them are just downright painful for me to listen to and I know I can't explain that to anyone else, but for me life altering moments are meant to be embraced and cherished.

[ZippyVol]

Also...as odd as it sounds...

I could listen to Tori Amos sing for...forever.

[Blacksheepvol]

I used to listen to a mix of "little fluffy clouds" and Tori Amos' first album to fall asleep in my dorm room every night... with some Cocteau Twins thrown in.

UltramegaOK was one of my favorite cassette tapes. I'm still in mourning over that loss.

My top 5 albums (for my own reasons):
1) Radiohead - Amnesiac
2) Pixies - Surfer Rosa
3) Consolidated - Play More Music
4) Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
5) Beck - Guero

In there on a different day:
Sodom - Persecution Mania
Queens of the Stone Age (several)
R.E.M. (any pre-Green)
Radiohead (all other albums)
Slayer (all albums)
Testament (The Legacy)
Tool (All)
A Perfect Circle (All)
All (all)
Descendents (all)
Tha Playah (all, technically most are EPs and singles)
Cocteau Twins (Blue Bell Knoll)

[ZippyVol]

Yeah, Surfer Rosa is another great album. That and No Pocky for Kitty by Superchunk are two of the better Indie album's I've ever heard.

[LegendofNation]

Appetite for Destruction best album ever made.

who cares about 2-4?

[TheDeeble]

Tool: 10,000 days (honestly, in this respect 10000 days and Aenema are interchangable)
A Perfect Circle: Mer De Noms
Nirvana: Nevermind
Sublime: 40oz to Freedom

and number one...

Soundgarden: Ultramega OK

Those are the one's that meant more to me personally than any others, but there are lots of them. Alice in Chains (particularly Whale and Wasp off of Jar of Flies...odd that moved me more than any of their others considering there is no Layne Staley in that song), The Reverend Horton Heat, Dag.

Ultramega OK is number one for me because that's the album which instantly changed my view of music 2 notes into Flower. In retrospect it really isnt that great of an album/song. Its just that for me, at the time, it was completely different from all the music I had really been exposed to previously. I spent most of my adolescence listenting to my dad's Beatles records & 8 tracks because I knew all the current stuff (like... Poison and the other hair band garbage in the 80s) was just ass awful. Hearing Ultramega OK was the first time I really had any interest whatsoever in modern music. The first time I had any appreciation for a musical genre as ... my own, or something. Hard to explain.


I'm similiar to you Zippy. Never cared for the 80s hair bands, and listened to music from the 60s when I was young. The Beatles were a favorite. Rocky Raccon was the first song I ever memorized.

SoundGarden was one of the bands that revolutionized my music interest as well. Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots were two others.

For me.....

5. Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
4. Stone Temple Pilots- Core
3. Any Soundgarden
2. Early Korn. Don't care for their more recent stuff at all that's come out the past 4 years.
1. Anything by The Chemical Brothers.

[Blacksheepvol]

2. Early Korn. Don't care for their more recent stuff at all that's come out the past 4 years.
1. Anything by The Chemical Brothers.

Wow, you reminded me of some CDs I have ignored for ages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKdHa6-M2cg (no embedding allowed on Chemical Brothers, evidently)

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[rosefeathers]

No way I could narrow it down to 5...50 MAYBE, oh and Appetite wouldn't be one of them.

[volchef]

Well, tell us what you got. You can give 49 honorable mentions, but surely 1 album is your all time favorite. :)

[rosefeathers]

The ones that a mean a lot to me are like children...I can't pick one over the other but I would like to compile a list. When I get off work and get the kids in bed I'll crack open a brew or ten and put together a good list:alc:

[etowahnative]

My are:

5-Aqualung-Jethro Tull (first albumn I heard on a high quality stereo)
4-Who's Next-The Who
3-Filmore East-Allman Brothers
2-Led Zepplin IV
1-Dark Side of the Moon-Pink Floyd

Guess I am showing my age.

[volchef]

Led Zeppelin IV
and Dark Side of the Moon are fantastic albums. I don't think age has anything to do with it at all.

Mine are more recent because music has only relatively recently come into my life. (In the last 3 years or so I've become a bit of a junkie) and most of these albums (not all) had something to do with my "musical dawning" you could say. But I have a soft spot for classic rock. No one should ever feel bad or embarassed by what they like. I like everything including:

Rick Astley (ha ha ha! it's true)

Oh dear God, do I say it? : Cats and Phantom of the Opera

I enjoy ambient from artists such as
Marsen Jules, Krill.minima, and Epic45

I also enjoy hard ass bad ass hot ass Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. A bit of Oasis. and a touch of electronic folk from that gay cutie pie everyone hates to love but we do: Jim Moray.

So post away friends. If you think your ears have listened to shit. Believe me, I've heard far far worse. As a matter of fact I'll go work on a shittiest song play list for you at imeem. It will contain works by : The Warlocks for sure and likely a few by The Music Tapes, and the always quirky Major Organ and the Adding Machine. Finally. Something fun to do!!!

[humbletx]

Albums of all time? I don't mean in the whole Rolling Stone "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" way. I mean albums that have touched your heart and really mean something to you. I had a really hard time choosing my last 3, so I listed my 10 honorable mentions.

#5 New Order - Technique (this one was the first album given to me by my first love)
#4 Grant Lee Phillips - Humankind
#3 Babyshambles - Down in Albion
#2 Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
#1 Taj Mahal - Phantom Blues (this one has helped me through the toughest of times. It will never be replaced)

Honorable Mentions:
Amos Lee - Amos Lee
My Latest Novel - Wolves
Lou Reed - Transformer
Marc Cohn - Marc Cohn
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
New Order - Substance
Nina Simone - The Blues
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis - Indian Giver

Kinda Blue - Miles Davis
Southern Rock Opera - Drive By Truckers
Snake Bite Love - Zachary Richard
Dominos - Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys
Cosmo's Factory - CCR

[birminghamvol]

so many great ones I love and play often ...

1. Allman Brothers Band .. Eat A Peach (half with Duane .. half without .. half from filmore ... other half not .... ALL great .... used to go to the Library/Lap and play Mountain Jam on the Juke Box x4 ... 2.5 hours of music for 1 freaking dollar!!!)
2. Gram Parsons .. GP/Grievous Angel (two'fer .. "now available on 1 CD).:cool2:
3. Guns n Roses .. Appetite for Destruction (I'm a child of the 80's .. what can I say)
4. Drive By Truckers .. Southern Rock Opera (PERFECT in every single way ... Cooley and Hood is the best songwriters in the same band this side of Lennon and McCartney)
5. Townes Van Zandt .. High Low and In Between / The Late Great (another two'fer)


other great ones
Steve Earle .. I fell Alright
Big Star .. #1 Record
Uncle Tupelo .. Anodyne
Sly and the Family Stone .. There's A Riot Goin' On
Neil Young .. Tonight's the Night
Black Crowes .. Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Miles Davis .. Kind of Blue (all blues is probably my favorite track of all time)
Keith Jarrett .. At the Blue Note
Ray Charles .. Country and Western 1 and 2
Pearl Jam .. 10
Wilco .. Sky Blue Sky (Nils Cline is unreal on this "record")
Hank .. EVERYTHING (especially his "new" Unreleased Recordings of Mother's Best stuff)

and so on .. and on

[volchef]

Tonight's the Night is such a heartbreaking album. Very touching choice.

[aadicof]

I'm gonna try here.

Appetite for Destruction- GnR
Purple Rain Soundtrack- Prince
The Road to Endenada- Lyle Lovett
Gringo Honeymoon- Robert Earl Keen
1200 Curfews- Indigo Girls

Top 4 in no particular order, there's at least 10 that could go in the last spot, but I like the Dylan cover.

[volchef]

My favorite Dylan cover of all time is Nina Simone's I Shall Be Released. It's hard to do a good cover of anything, much less Dylan, but her keyboard is just so beautiful in everything.

Probably my least favorite cover of any song ever made is Tori Amos' cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. The keyboard just doesn't cut it for me....not that anything would. Some songs just shouldn't be touched. Another one is the cover of Wonderwall by Ryan Adams. Just, not a fan. But then, I don't particularly care for Wonderwall tbh. Oh, and the Beatles did do a pretty bad cover of Roll Over Beethoven too.

Haha. I guess you could say I'm not a big cover person. Though the favorite album on my list is mostly covers. hahaha. Irony will bite you in the ass sometimes.

[Stoli]

1. Eat A Peach Extended Version-ABB (Includes a second CD of live Fillmore)
2. Led Zeppelin II
3. Pink Floyd Live (Includes Dark Side of the Moon Live plus another CD of live songs
4. Desperado-Eagles
5. Mettalica-Black Album

I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fleetwood Mac, Dwight Yoakum, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Allison Krauss, and bunch of other classic rock records quite a bit.

[BrassVols]

Led Zeppelin IV
and Dark Side of the Moon are fantastic albums. I don't think age has anything to do with it at all.

Mine are more recent because music has only relatively recently come into my life. (In the last 3 years or so I've become a bit of a junkie) and most of these albums (not all) had something to do with my "musical dawning" you could say. But I have a soft spot for classic rock. No one should ever feel bad or embarassed by what they like. I like everything including:

Rick Astley (ha ha ha! it's true)

Oh dear God, do I say it? : Cats and Phantom of the Opera

I enjoy ambient from artists such as
Marsen Jules, Krill.minima, and Epic45

I also enjoy hard ass bad ass hot ass Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. A bit of Oasis. and a touch of electronic folk from that gay cutie pie everyone hates to love but we do: Jim Moray.

So post away friends. If you think your ears have listened to shit. Believe me, I've heard far far worse. As a matter of fact I'll go work on a shittiest song play list for you at imeem. It will contain works by : The Warlocks for sure and likely a few by The Music Tapes, and the always quirky Major Organ and the Adding Machine. Finally. Something fun to do!!!

The overture to the POTA is one of my all time favorite songs. Too many people have too narrow a field of view and will only listen to one genre. Great music is great music, no matter when it was written or performed.

Sarah Brightman & Antonio Banderas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S88rkpPu8_g&feature=related)

[BrassVols]

which albums or recordings had the biggest effects in forming my musical tastes. Naturally when put like that, they correspond time wise with when I 1st started getting into music.

1. Chicago II - This was released around 1970 and had a number of hits on AM. But what drew me to it was the type of music -- an interesting blend of rock, jazz, jazz fusion, big band, classical with some very interesting rhythms, chord progressions and structures that you might expect from musicians formally trained as some of them were. I didn't care for the strong anti-war aspect of some of their music but that can be overlooked.

2. Tommy - Released 68-ish, this had a common theme in music I like -- based on a more classical format but using rock instrumentation. When have you ever heard a french horn featured in a piece of rock music (Overture) to such great effect? Other cuts were like an indoctrination into late 60's British rock music (See Me, Feel Me; Pinball Wizzard, etc.).

3. Who's Next - 1st album I ever owned. Nuff said.

4. Queen, Sheer Heart Attack - Introduced me to a band that's still one of my faves.

5. ELP, Brain Salad Surgery - Pushed me over the edge into the prog rock genre (had dabbled in Trilogy, DSOTM, Close to the Edge, Thick as a Brick, etc.) It left a very vivid imprint in my mind from the 1st time I listened to it and ultimately ended up opening up my musical tastes to classical music. Plus, who couldn't like an album named after a blowjob?

[TennesseeTuxedo]

These are not necessarily my favorite albums, but they are the albums that moved me the most at the time that heard them.

1) Van Halen - I remember first hearing it played at the baseball field as we dressed for practice my sophomore year in high school. I was hooked from the first note. It is one of my favorite albums to this day.

2) A Stranger In This Town - Richie Sambora. The lyrics to the songs on this piece flow like water. There are some great tunes here. Mr. Clapton lent his expertise a few times on this as well. Awesome blue-rock guitar. Has almost a haunting sound.

3) Beethoven's 9th Symphony Naranja Mecanica - I first heard it while watching "A Clockwork Orange". I was mesmerized by the beauty and the movement of the piece...so much that I had to go out and buy it and learn about Beethoven. He was deaf when he wrote this symphony. When he directed it's performance for the first time, he did not see or hear the thundering ovation from the audience.

4) Netherlands - Dan Fogelberg - My first foray into the folk-pop sound-right at the time I was getting serious about girls. Lets just say that I shared it and a sleeping bag during a few romantic interludes.

5) Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues - I first heard an orchestra backing a rock/pop band. I was captured and made a willing prisoner for life. This was also the first album with both John Lodge and Justin Hayward playing together with TMB. Also another shared classic.

[volchef]

Very very sweet Tux. I especially love the Beethoven story.

[douggoss]

So here they are in no particular order. Sorry, I just could not do 5, and even had a hard time with a top 10 list:
1. Aerosmith - Rocks - boy did we play a bunch of this in HS in the band I was in. Rock does not get better than this
2. Allman Bros - Beginnings - every classic but Melissa is on here
3. Chicago - 7 - The first album I even bought
4. Earth, Wind, Fire - Greatest Hits - solid memories of high school
5. Frampton - Comes Alive - wanted to be him while playing in HS. Did have the look down
6. Heart - Dreamboat Annie - not a bad tune on here and the first females to really break the door down
7. Kansas - Leftoverture - great songwriting by Kerry Livegren
8. Todd Rundgren - Faithful - some of his best songwriting. Lost track of how many times we saw him in HS & college
9. Steely Dan - Aja - great mix of jazz and rock, one of the first
10. Gino Vannelli - Gist of the Gemini -most phenominal vocalist I have ever heard

Honorable Mention top 10 (somehow thinking you can only have a band on one list with one album, else there would be much more Vannelli and Rundgren:
1.Ambrosia - One Eighty - forget the wimpy radio stuff, this is really progressive
2.Asia - Asia - saw this band before the cd ever came out, we were that sure they would be great - and we were right
3.Van Morrison - Moondance - I can frickin believe I just put Van Morrison on the hororable mention list. Dammit this is hard
4. Alan Parsons - I Robot - very well written and produced
5. Santana - Moonflower - his best in my opinion
6.Swingout Sister - Get In Touch With Yourself - I really like the catchy tunes and vocals
7.Thin Lizzy - Live & Dangerous - saw them open for Queen in the early 70's and have been a fan since
8.Pat Travers - Putting It Straight - a great record for a guy that should be a lot more recognized
9.Stevie Wonder - Musiquarium - awasome musician and writer
10. Yes - Fragile - Yes at the bottom of the honorable mention list. I am going to shoot myself now.

This was really hard for me

[douggoss]

1. George Benson - Breezin - the album that started a lot of folks on smooth jazz
2. Alex Bugnon - Love Season - his best, I think
3. Joyce Cooling - Playing It Cool - a great talent and better person, as well as very hot in my book
4. Michael Franks - Barefoot On The Beach - the smoothest singer I have ever heard
5. Dave Grusin/Lee Rittenour - Harlequin - first introduced me to Brazilian music
6. Paul Hardcastle - III - another guy that can flat texture a song. Very mood setting stuff. Whenever I want to get the wife in the mood this goes on and some wine comes out (tequila does ok too)
7. Incognito - Positivity - supberb writer that Bluey, I think this is their best
8. Joe Sample - Spellbound - first heard this with the top down cruising in Hawaii. Fit very well
9. Spyro Gyra - Catching The Sun - along with Benson created a movement
10. Yutaka - Brazasia - a VERY unheralded musician. Everyone I have ever played this for has really liked it. No idea why he never got more airplay