10 Ten Music albums you like

[JWR]

I have been thinking about certain musical artists albums that have had quite an influence in my life over the years.

Yes I know in this day & age with mp3 players & ipods , the concept of listening to a complete album or cd may seem passe.

Anyway here’s a list of my top ten that still find there way onto my play list when I need to have something to listen to. I know it will not be everyone’s favorite but hopefully some might be interested enough to check mine out as well as post their favorites that may open some to some music they have not heard and might like.

In no particular order:

The White Album, The Beatles 1968. This was a two record set that had a very interesting mix of so many memorable songs. The Music of Lennon & McCartney had a large effect on me growing up.

Ladies and gentlemen, Emerson , Lake and Palmer 1974.
This is a 3 record set by a group of true musicians. Keith Emerson on keyboards , Greg Lake on guitar and Carl Palmer on drums. No one else but they could put on a live concert so full of music that inspired the imagination. Mostly instrumental pieces with a few vocal one. I could put this live album on and just let the trial and tribulations melt away.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road , Elton John 1973.
Not a bad song on the 2 record set.

Boston , debut album 1976
Every song had a drive to it , all potential #1 hits.

Teaser and the fire cat , Cat Stevens 1971
Long before the Islamic controversy Cat Stevens wrote some of the best ballads I have ever heard. This album had hits Morning has broken and Peace Train and Moonshadow. Simple yet powerful songs.

Harvest , Neil Young 1972
Music from the heart , I can remember every word.

Year of the Cat , Al Stewart 1976.
The first album I ever listened to in which the words were more important than the music. Al Stewart told stories set to music with each song.

The Wall , Pink Floyd 1979
Even before they made the movie of this album , it’s message rang true.


The concert for Bangladesh , George Harrison & Friends 1971.
Long before Live Aid or any of the other such charity concerts to raise awareness of issues around the world , there was this concert recorded in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. George Harrison , Eric Clapton , Ravi Shankar and others got together to raise funds and awareness to the plight of those in this impoverished country. I do think that this album helped inspire me to work in charitable groups as I got older.

Automatic for the people , REM 1992
Yes I do like music not made in the 70’s . REM has been a favorite and this album is one that is a perfect on the road album.


Honorable mention:

American Pie , Don Mclean 1971
Tommy , The Who 1969
FLCL , The Pillows 2001

These are mine , let's see yours.

[blueheaven]

Great list, Joe. Some of yours are on my playlist. I'll choose artists and albums that you haven't covered yet.

In no particular order...

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP(2000): Great lyrics and beats. No one thought he could top his first album. They were wrong.

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb(2004): I never thought they could top The Joshua Tree for my favorite U2 album. There are songs on this one that I could listen to all day.

Nirvana - Unplugged in New York(1994): Their last album. Kurt did covers of The Meat Puppets, David Bowie, Leadbelly, and The Vaselines along with their own classic material. What a show.

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over(1994): Their live reunion show, after a "fourteen year vacation." Classic Eagles fare along with new songs.

Johnny Cash - Live from Folsom Prison(1968): Cash's FU to the recording industry and his fly by night fans.

Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction(1987): One of the greatest debut albums of all time.

David Bowie - Station to Station(1976): When Bowie ruled the world.

The Ramones - It's Alive(1979): It doesn't get better than the Ramones. Ever.

The Doors - The Doors(1967): Before Zeppelin did their thing, The Doors were innovating rock music for half a decade.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Wildflowers(1994): I listen to this album at least once a week. You Wreck Me is on every playlist I have.

Other Great Albums:
Dropkick Murphys - Do or Die
Black Flag - Damaged
Green Day - Dookie
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
The Cure - Disintegration

[Govogeta]

Here goes and in no special order.


Blue October - Foiled

Sublime - 40oz to Freedom

Pixies - Doolittle

Tool - Anema

Nirvana - In Utero

Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral

The Killers - Hot Fuss

Green Day - American Idiot

O.A.R. - Any Time Now

Well I could only come with 9 but I chose these cause I could listen to them from beginning to end without skipping a beat.

[JuniorMintKiss]

Queen - The Miracle (1989): Queen is my favorite band of all time, but this album is the one that introduced me to Freddie, Brian, Roger, and John. I own all of their other 18 albums, but this one I will never, EVER get rid of. Freddie has a distinct tone and vibe for every individual song, and you can not only hear his passion, but feel it as well. *sigh* I highly recommend it.

Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want (1999): I was pissed when Gary Allen? covered 'Best I Ever Had - Grey Sky Morning' with his droning, whiny country voice. I love this album even more now because of it. Great crisp sound and poetic lyrics. Love it!

AC/DC - Back in Black (1980): So, no one can top Bon Scott, but Brian Johnson in his debut with AC/DC is unparalleled. A great album to play when you need to vent or want to drown out the rush hour traffic noise.

Loreena McKennitt - Book of Secrets (1997): If you're into New Age, Celtic kind of melodies or whatnot, Loreena pulls it off. I love all her albums, but this one takes the cake for me.

Shades Apart - Eyewitness (1999): The song 'Valentine' got me hooked on this hardcore punk band. The riffs and lyrics are truly poetic, but still has that head-banging, foot-thumping pulse that rides along with it. Great album to blast in your car! I strongly, strongly recommend it.

Weezer - Blue Album (1994): "Ooh ee ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly..." Every short, punchy song is great. It will always be in my collection.

Coldplay - X&Y (2005): My best friend hates me for introducing her to Coldplay; it's now one of her favorite bands. This one just is truly great - I love it...that's all I can say.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell II - Back Into Hell (1993): I was raised listening to this album with my mom. It reminds me of roadtrips to Park City. My whole family just can't resist this over-the-top album.

The Glory (????) of the Human Voice - Florence Foster Jenkins: I can't describe this. You just have to listen to how deliciously horrible she sounds. It's a riot at parties. It'll be sure to grab everyone's attention.

Dire Straits - Love Over Gold (1990): Another album I grew up with. It's the best camping music! You fall asleep easily while listening to it (no it's not THAT boring). 'Industrial Disease' is one of my favorite songs. Ever. Mark Knopfler is a talented musician. An amazon.com essential recording.

[LinaLoN]

Me? I have (Non-Anime)

Queen
Guns and Roses
Bon Jovi
Janis Joplin
Aerosmith
Sheryl Crow
Gloria Estefan
Maroon 5
Sarah MacLaughlin
John Lenon

[Maiko]

Oh man...I can only pick 10!!!??? Extremely difficult when my tastes range from Broadyway/Musicals to Progressive Metal, Classic Rock and Folk, Celtic and Classical, and Instrumental/Movie/Film scores...

Hmmm..okay, I guess I will start with:

The Moody Blues- "Days of Future Passed" - Actually, their album, "Long Distance Voyager" is my all-time favorite album of theirs, but I am choosing this one as the 'most impactful' because it was one of my father's favorite records to play when I was a small child. Desperate to find something in common with him, I decided to fall in love with his music. Regardless, I eventually truely loved the band, and went to many of their concerts with my father over the years. Many people hear songs by 'The Moody Blues' several times a week and don't even know it- songs such as "Nights in White Satin" and "In Your Wildest Dreams" are the audio staples of many a shopping mall, restaurant, and business office radio.

Kamelot - "Epica" - One of my all-time favorite bands, and probably my favorite power metal band. They recently started touring again in the USA, after staying away for many, many years, and I managed to catch their first US tour in many years in Los Angeles last October. I already have tickets for their return this September. "Epica" is the first album of theirs that I ever heard, and still one of my all-time favorites. It is based on the famous story of "Faust", and is a clear story from start to finish. So pivotal and ground-breaking in it's genre; that another rising metal band named itself after this album.

Within Temptation - "The Silent Force" - A perfect marriage of my love for power-driven sound with beautiful choirs and celtic instruments. Tracks on this album, particularly, "Jillian ( I'd Give my Heart )" and "Stand my Ground" are breath-taking. Their latest album, "The Heart of Everything", is a bit of a sell-out to the 'Evanescence' crowd, but a single track on there, "The Cross" makes it completely forgivable.

Nightwish - "Century Child" - I'm sure many of you might be familiar with this Finnish metal band, especially with their gaining popularity and recent inclusion of tracks on the soundtracks of several Hollywood films these days. Sadly, the group and the unique, operatic voice of Tarja had a recent falling out, and the band is now forever changed. They have found a lovely new singer in Anette, but she is no Tarja, and her range is nowhere near what is required of 'Nightwish's' style and sound. Oh well. I still have Marco.

October Project - "October Project" - If you ask me, Mary Fahl, the hauntingly beautiful, unique front voice of this band, would have been the best person to fill Tarja ( of Nightwish )'s shoes. This was one of my favorite albums in High School, a proud discovery I made that my father eventually fell in love with, and bought his own copies of their albums. Sadly, they only released 2 albums before their record label dropped their contract, and the flustered group eventually disbanded. It saw a short resurrection as the band "November Project", but without Mary Fahl's strong vocals, it fell flat on it's face. Mary went on to produce a solo album, which I think is bleedingly gorgeous. But without the band, she didn't make it very far, either. A very sad case of an up and coming band with an entirely unique sound put to an early death.

Sonata Arctica - "Reckoning Night" - Probably their greatest masterpiece, and a return to the glory days of metal ballads.

Neil Diamond -( Any of the collections ) Another performing artist I fell in love with at an early age while listening to my parents' 8-tracks and records. Oddly enough, Neil Diamond doesn't have 'albums' so much as he has 'collections' of his songs. Any actual 'album' has only maybe 1 or 2 good songs or well-known hits, and the others are total misses. So buying his collections are the best way to go. Some of my favorite songs have always been "Holly Holy", "I Am...I said", "Brooklyn Roads", "Soolaimon", "Solitary Man", and "If You Know what I Mean". In Junior High when classmates were going to Nirvana and Green Day concerts, I was going to Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, and The Moody Blues.

Erasure - "The Innocents" - Another High School favorite. The synth pop duo dominated my first car's cassette player, as well my boombox at home. They are still going strong, and have managed to complete several brand new albums over the past couple of years. Strangely enough, I do not like ANY of their new albums at all. They just released another album this past month, and I'm not going to even bother buying it. I'll continue to reminisce about the glory days of their old synthesizer days of goofy lyrics and simple tunes.

Pat Benatar - "Best Shots" ( actually a collections ) Another staple of my junior high days. I had only one female cousin, who was 6 years older than me and that I was very close to. I liked to pretend she was my big sister, and I thought she was so beautiful and so cool and I wanted to be just like her. So when she discovered Pat Benatar, I instantly idolized the singer. Some of my favorite memories are of when my cousin would take me on car rides to her favorite "hang-outs" and we would blast her Pat Benatar cassettes and sing out loud along with them. I always felt so important when the person I admired most took me out with her. My cousin eventually had a hard falling out with my mother years ago, and she hasn't spoken to my mother's side of the family, including me, for the past 5 years. I am still absolutely crushed by it. Anyhoo- my fave songs are "We Belong", "Hell is For Children", "Shadows of the Night", "Invincible", and "Promises in the Dark". I saw Pat in concert once- and I remember the audience was infuriated because she showed up 45 minutes late to her own concert, and then, didn't even perform the whole thing.

...and.....hoo boy...what do I include? Meatloaf? ELO/Electric Light Orchestra? Oleander? Enya? Anggun? Lacuna Coil?...I guess I will just have to give my last props to:

Pink Floyd - "The Wall" - I had loved this group for many, many years, but I re-discovered their film musical, "The Wall" in college, and during a tumultous, burnt-out 2nd year of a University, it became my staple. In fact, it was a strong influence upon my second year's animated film, which was a thematic, music and angst driven montage of animated scenes. I'll never forget that the night it was debuted, the audience was dead silent, and when it ended and the credits were rolling, I heard someone 3 rows ahead of me exclaim, "What the f*** is wrong with the person who made that?" It was one of my most humiliating and humbling moments when breaking into the field of Western Animation. I don't think I'll ever live that moment down, but I forgive "The Wall" for it's strong hold on me and it's influence upon my own creativity.

[frozentime]

What a tough list to pick. Like several of the others who have posted, I have a wide range of taste complicating things, but what do you do for something like classical when you have so many recordings of the same music? Anyway, I guess I'll get on with the list using blueheaven's template....

Tool - Aenima: Pretty amazing music with very layered (metaphor wise) lyrics.

Tori Amos - Boys for Pele: I'm still blown away by the quality of production of this album, and the edgy, creative, and honest music.

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime: One of the best concept albums, and one of the most talented voices in the business.

10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged: I don't think I would have considered any single album of theirs, but this makes quite the collection, and a nice change of pace.

Soundgarden - Superunknown: It's easy to forget how original this album sounded when it came out.

Beth Orton - pass in time: Another well produced album that will test the quality of your sound system.

Rush - Chronicles: As with the other collections, I wouldn't have considered any single original Rush album, but this quite a collection.

Mozart - Le Nozze Di Figaro or Don Giovanni: Tough to choose, because a deffinative recoding exists for Don Giovanni, but I might prefer the former as a composition.... and I didn't want to lose two slots with one artist..... that's the same reason I don't have symphonies 40 and 41 listed.

Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms: Obviously I really respect Maynard.

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos: Tough choice though since I love quite of bit of his compositions.


Difficult to believe I didn't put anything on there by Pink Floyd, the Doors, or Led Zeppelin, but there weren't any single albums that quite did it, and the good collections would have been much more of a stretch at calling them a single "album"....... if I think about too long though, a Pink Floyd album may still creep in there..... I also had a really difficult time not including a soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi or Yoko Kanno, but stuck with the theme of excluding anime related music.

[aernath]

Well, I don't have ten. I grew up listening to Roger Whittaker, Ronnie Milsap, and Barry Manilow, and no choice in the matter. (Don't get me started.)

So, it wasn't until my last year of high school that I stumbled upon David Bowie. *sigh* *purr*
The album I first picked up? Low.
To this day, it still remains my favorite. The A side was pretty good, but the B side... I'd pop that in my tape player and let it send me to sleep every night for ... I don't know how many months.
That album hooked me, and then Alladin Sane sunk me.
David Bowie was my obsession for years. He's still a large part of me.
And yeah, I see a resemblance between Ichigo and Bowie.


But before that, the seed was planted for the Moody Blues.
Sitting at the Wheel. That song caught my attention, but alas, my attention was as bad then as it is now. I could not remember the band.
Not until: You're Wildest Dreams. That song hit me like a rock.
We'd just moved from Orlando, to Kansas (see Shampoo? I understand!), and I left behind my first True Love. That song got me through a LOT.
And then it was followed up by I Know You're Out There Somewhere.
I still couldn't hold the band's name in my head though, and it wasn't until the Second Guy I Almost Married - about my sophomore year in college - that I was finally introduced to their music, and the name stuck.
He loved the band, and it got me interested, and started my obsession with the music of the Moody Blues. (And hey, Justin Hayward looked an awful lot like my lost True Love! ~_^)
I ended up breaking up with that boyfriend/fiance, but the music of the Moody Blues still courses through my veins. Choosing only one album? Never! Just not possible. Even putting these in some order is a tough call. And these are just the top faves!
But here ya go:
1. The Present.
Blue World. Sitting At the Wheel.
Hey, this even sparked a small fascination with Maxfield Parrish that I still enjoy!
2. Long Distance Voyager.
Mein Gott, so many good songs!
Every one of them, a keeper.
I can sing them all!
3. Seventh Sojourn.
For My Lady. *sigh*
Isn't Life Strange. Lost in a Lost World.
4. On The Threshold of a Dream
One of those you have to listen to in order.
Pop any of those on the ol' turntable, and I instantly perk up and tune everything else in the world OUT.


So, I guess in total six albums. One artist, one band.

Now, there are others I like and really enjoy, but none have touched me with anywhere near the magic of these two.
There are single songs that will be all time favorites, but not albums.
(Songs: Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins)