OT: - Your favorite album (or cd, or download, etc.) | The Boneyard

OT: Your favorite album (or cd, or download, etc.)

Centerstream

Centerstream

Another loooooong offseason
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Due to the great recruiting news the BY saw today, time for another OT music thread while we are feeling good.
So, what is your favorite album of all time?
I could go with quite a few, the White Album, Zeppelin II, Appetite For Destruction but have decided on
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
 
Mods - I thought I preceded the thread title with OT but it didn't appear. Can one of you all correct this?
 
Recent album: Cleopatra - The Lumineers
Classic album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton
 
This one - Crosby, Stills, & Nash 1st album


I'd say it just nudges out my other fav's of all time: Beatles Rubber Soul and Revolver, Jefferson Airplanes Surrealistic Pillow, Creedence's Bayou Country, Santana's Abraxas and a few others.
 
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Tough one. I'm going with Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. She's a generational vocal talent and strong song writer. The album is very bluesy yet it was received as contemporary music when it came out. It's a little dark with titles like You Know That I'm No Good, Back to Black, Wake Up Alone, Tears Dry on Their Own and Love is a Losing Game. Ironically enough its peppy uptempo hit is Rehab. Her voice is an amazing cross between Billie Holiday and Ronnie Specter.



NSW
 
Tough to narrow it down to just one.


The Low End Theory --- A Tribe Called Quest
The Way it Is --- Bruce Hornsby and The Range
Watermark ---- Enya
5150 ----- Van Halen

I know I know... my musical tastes are all over the board :oops:
 
As some may know, I'm a Mark Knopfler fan, and while other albums have gotten more play and acclaim, my favorite is one of his gentler ones, where each song tells a story about a memorable character. It's called "Kill to Get Crimson," and it contains some of his most folk-oriented songs.
 
Two recordings I play everyday without fail. One is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto's. Everyone seems to like Trevor Pinnock and The European Brandenburg Ensemble, but I prefer Nicholas McGegan and The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on USA Harmonia Mundi. The other is this, which seems to me a collection of some of the most joyful music this very sad man ever made. Here's a nice lush version that doesn't take the andante too fast or too slow.

 
A lot of great choices.

I don't have any idea of the "greatest" - but, I always liked albums that "hung together" like, for example, Al Stewart's "The Past through Tomorrow" if I have the name correct - many, many years ago.

This bumps up "Tommy", also liked "Songs? from the Woods" by Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens "Greatest Hits" because the sound was so consistent, Sgt Pepper and a lot of others. CSN (and Y) had a consistent sound as well.

Of course, of albums I actually listen to, that's a different story. But I listen because I enjoy the music, not because I think they were great albums.
 
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I'm going to interpret this literally and give only albums from the era of the CD's heyday (early 1990s to early 2010s):

Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
10,000 Manics, Our Time in Eden
Third Eye Blind, Third Eye Blind
Oasis, What's the Story (Morning Glory)?***
Sheryl Crowe, Globe Sessions
Tori Amos, Under the Pink
Shania Twain, Come on Over
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Natalie Merchant, Tigerlily
U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
Destiny's Child, Survivor
Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
Jay Z, Black Album
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
Kanye West, Graduation
Tim Mcgraw, Tim Mcgraw
Taylor Swift, Fearless
John Mayer, Battle Studies
Adele, 25
Beyonce, Lemonade

My criteria is albums I love to listen to all the way through from start to finish, and only one per artist. Some on this list could arguably have 2 or 3 on the list. I also picked generally popular mainstream albums. I have some more obscure picks as well.

***Best album since at least 1990, IMHO.
 
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I don't know if it's my favorite but I've purchased Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" 3 times in three different formats (8-track, cassette, CD). It still sounds great.
 
TheFarmFan said:
I'm going to interpret this literally and give only albums from the era of the CD's heyday (early 1990s to early 2010s):

Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
10,000 Manics, Our Time in Eden
Third Eye Blind, Third Eye Blind
Oasis, What's the Story (Morning Glory)?***
Sheryl Crowe, Globe Sessions
Tori Amos, Under the Pink
Shania Twain, Come on Over
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Natalie Merchant, Tigerlily
U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
Destiny's Child, Survivor
Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
Jay Z, Black Album
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
Kanye West, Graduation
Tim Mcgraw, Tim Mcgraw
Taylor Swift, Fearless
John Mayer, Battle Studies
Adele, 25
Beyonce, Lemonade

My criteria is albums I love to listen to all the way through from start to finish, and only one per artist. Some on this list could arguably have 2 or 3 on the list. I also picked generally popular mainstream albums. I have some more obscure picks as well.

***Best album since at least 1990, IMHO.
Expand ...
We'd get along well
 
I love U2's Achtung Baby, and the song Until The End of the World always tears me up once I knew it was written about the crucifixion of Jesus.


Also a little bit of trivia, I was at U2's first USA gig, The Ritz, East 11th Street, NYC. I lived two blocks away at the time. I thought they were pretty good.
U2 first gig
 
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Not my favorite song of a liketime, but it expresses my love for the Huskies and my rocky love of the BY:



I'm the one on the left.
 
JordyG said:
Two recordings I play everyday without fail. One is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto's. Everyone seems to like Trevor Pinnock and The European Brandenburg Ensemble, but I prefer Nicholas McGegan and The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on USA Harmonia Mundi. The other is this, which seems to me a collection of some of the most joyful music this very sad man ever made. Here's a nice lush version that doesn't take the andante too fast or too slow.

Expand ...


Hard to go wrong with that, but you know from our recent chatn I'm a big fan of this great conductor.

www.youtube.com

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 - Szell, Cleveland Orchestra

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 - Szell, Cleveland Orchestra
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
RockyMTblue2 said:
Hard to go wrong with that, but you know from our recent chatn I'm a big fan of this great conductor.

www.youtube.com

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 - Szell, Cleveland Orchestra

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 - Szell, Cleveland Orchestra
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Expand ...
I have two friends that strongly agree with you, and they'll go on and on about Szell. I agree, he is easily among the best of the American conductors and along with Fritz Reiner, highly underrated. Szell had this funny audio thing going however. As I understand in his house he placed his speakers behind his couches, and he insisted that his recordings on Epic/Columbia reflect what he heard at home. Now as to vinyl, the English Columbia SAX recordings are not too bad, but the sound on his American recordings is just egregious. Which is why his SAX recordings go for (too) much more money. Also to me (and @mbr33ct can help me here) some of his performances can sound a little didactic and clinical, and there is no doubt that he conducted with an iron fist. I listen to Tchaikovsky and I generally hear and one very tortured soul, and I like a conductor that taps into that despair. I prefer Mravinsky doing the 4th, 5th and 6th, and in many ways I find these interpretations definitive. Give those a try.
 
Wrecking Ball, by Emmy Lou Harris.
I like many of the songs on the record. But my favorite would have to be her cover of the title track, which is a Neil Young song. When I first heard the lyrics, "I'll wear something pretty and white," I tried to imagine a past that was simpler, and when courtship was something special.

 
JordyG said:
I have two friends that strongly agree with you, and they'll go on and on about Szell. I agree, he is easily among the best of the American conductors and along with Fritz Reiner, highly underrated. Szell had this funny audio thing going however. As I understand in his house he placed his speakers behind his couches, and he insisted that his recordings on Epic/Columbia reflect what he heard at home. Now as to vinyl, the English Columbia SAX recordings are not too bad, but the sound on his American recordings is just egregious. Which is why his SAX recordings go for (too) much more money. Also to me (and @mbr33ct can help me here) some of his performances can sound a little didactic and clinical, and there is no doubt that he conducted with an iron fist. I listen to Tchaikovsky and I generally hear and one very tortured soul, and I like a conductor that taps into that despair. I prefer Mravinsky doing the 4th, 5th and 6th, and in many ways I find these interpretations definitive. Give those a try.
Expand ...

The didactic and clinical I concede, but when the man is playing in Europe with no wall of couches in front of the audience he's a gas! His Right of Spring is one of my favs, and the Cleveland has some high quality recordings, but I hear you.
 
.-.
JordyG said:
I have two friends that strongly agree with you, and they'll go on and on about Szell. I agree, he is easily among the best of the American conductors and along with Fritz Reiner, highly underrated. Szell had this funny audio thing going however. As I understand in his house he placed his speakers behind his couches, and he insisted that his recordings on Epic/Columbia reflect what he heard at home. Now as to vinyl, the English Columbia SAX recordings are not too bad, but the sound on his American recordings is just egregious. Which is why his SAX recordings go for (too) much more money. Also to me (and @mbr33ct can help me here) some of his performances can sound a little didactic and clinical, and there is no doubt that he conducted with an iron fist. I listen to Tchaikovsky and I generally hear and one very tortured soul, and I like a conductor that taps into that despair. I prefer Mravinsky doing the 4th, 5th and 6th, and in many ways I find these interpretations definitive. Give those a try.
Expand ...

Try this early foreign recording, to your point of better in Europe. One of the top 25 essential Ludvig recordings:



Pulled it out of that box I mentioned. ;) You made me do it!! You provoked me. :D
 
And then there is this:



True, he looks sorta like Geno trying to digest a stupid 4th foul he just saw ONO get! :p Or better, Mr. Bean conducting a German orchestra!
 
KnightBridgeAZ said:
I don't have any idea of the "greatest" - but, I always liked albums that "hung together" like, for example, Al Stewart's "The Past through Tomorrow" if I have the name correct - many, many years ago.
Expand ...
Thanks for reminding me of that one (Past, present and future). I listened to it on youtube, great piece of work, especially Old Admirals and Road to Moscow.
 
I couldn't possibly pick a favorite album, in most cases even a favorite album by one artist. I can narrow down a few things:

Classical: Rostropovich and Ozawa, Dvorak Concerto and Rococo Variations; Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music, Brandenburg Concerti. Also Akiko Suwanai and Arabella Steinbacher's youtube rendition of the Bach double concerto.

Jazz: Kind of Blue; Masterpieces by Ellington

21st cnetury: Ayreon, Universal Migrator; Tom Waits Orphans

Live: Gentle Giant, Playing the Fool; Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall

For the Beethoven symphonies I like the Karajan recordings of the 60's; for Dvorak, Istvan Kertesz.
 
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