That's not exactly how I meant it. I meant what twenty albums do you own that everyone else should but probably don't. Still any way you take it is fine.
Sorry, I knew I missed the mark.
In that case,
All Porcupine Tree:
Voyage 34
Signify - and Insignificance, the UK version.
Coma Divine
Up the Down Stair
On the Sunday Side of life ...
Warzawa
Sky Moves Sideways
and the blessed DVD-A releases,
In Absentia
and Deadwing
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Bob
Recently, I have had a chance to see the Boston Red Sox win the World Series and the New England Patriots win THREE Superbowls. Not bad eh?
Can't think of 20 albums you must have, but here's a few that I would highly recommend.
Richard Wright - Wet Dream - a little mellow, a little jazzy, a little bluesy, a little Floyd. An album from Pink Floyd's keyboard player, one of my favorite discs.
Toy Matinee - Simply one of the best rock/pop albums of all-time.
Kevin Gilbert's Thud - Driving force behind Toy Matinee's one and only cd is Kevin Gilbert. An enormous talent who died far too young. This album is a little edgier than the TM release, but superb.
Pete Bardens - Speed of Light - Soothing, electronic, dreamy, a bit Floydish. Solo album by keyboardist and one of the founding members of the prog band Camel. Features Mick Fleetwood on drums.
Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways - Their last two cds, In Absentia and now Deadwing, are many folk's first introduction to PT. This album, from 10 years ago is well worth exploring.
The Zombies - As Far As I Can See - Yes...the Zombies. Rod Argent's songwriting and hammond organ mastery mesh so nicely with Colin Blunstone's "breathy" vocals. They still have it.
Freudiana - This 1989 release was supposed to be the 11th Alan Parsons Project album. It instead became the soundtrack to a musical based on Sigmund Freud and some of his patients. Many Parsons fans consider this album to be among the best ever penned by Woolfson/Parsons.
ELO - Time - One of my personal favorite ELO albums. Damn, how I wish this would be released on SACD or DVD-A surround format.
Camel - A Nod and a Wink - Will this be the last album Camel ever releases? Very nicely recorded. Andy Lattimer shines on guitar, sounding, at times, very David Gilmour-ish. Some of the most emotional guitar you'll hear. The song For Today, drawing inspiration from the WTC victims, will leave a lump in your throat.
Chris Rea - Road to Hell - Good guitar and the type of voice that I can only imagine must come from 2 packs of non-filtered Camels a day.
Have you had a chance to evaluate it? If so , what do you think, particularly of tracks 16 and 17?
"Rise" is the main reason I bought the CD. I remember when it got a lot of radio play...............love it. I used to play the trumpet many moons ago. Track 17 is also nice.
Sounds great too.
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3. Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin: This one is honestly the Dark Side of the Moon for the modern day. The followup album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, is killer too, but The Soft Bulletin is a great intro to the band.
I agree with this. This is probably the most enjoyable album I have. It is a litle hard to pick up. I would just recommend playing it a few times before judging it. Also, the album, like many great ones, gets better as it goes along. Make sure to listen past the 5th track.
Also, personally, I think this one needs a good sounds system (or headphones). Not nearly as good in the car (too much gets lost).
I heard they are working on a DVD-Audio version of it. I hope it gets mixed well. I thought the 5.1 version of Yoshimi was a little distracting.
Does anyone else hear the beach boys influence on this one? My wife thinks I'm nuts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Babcock
12. Sonny Rollins - Way Out West: Most would say if you only buy one real jazz records to make it Miles Davis' Kind of Blue- and it's hard to argue with that choice. But for my money, I'll take tenor-sax-god Sonny Rollins Way Out West. This one's simply more compelling to me than anything by Davis. Go for the XRCD version if you can; it's spendy, but the sound is fantastic.
Great album, but I would recommend Saxophone Colossus over Way out West. Way out West is available on SACD hybrid and sounds great in that format.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Babcock
13. Dave Brubeck - Time Out: Okay, I'm not 'Mr Jazz' by any means, but to me Time Out is the greatest album in jazz history. Filled with catchy tunes and wild experiments in rhythm, this one at once accessible and eccentric. Listen to it once before you decide you don't like jazz.
Agreed, accessible but deeper than is immediately apparent. If you are familiar with that weird mathematical harmonic that great Jazz can set off in your brain, try this one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Babcock
17. Beck - Sea Change: Beck is probably mostly thought of as a sardonic jokester (much like me ), but this rare album of totally sincere and un-ironic music is quite a departure for Bech, but very powerful. Especially good on DVD-A.
Awesome lead off track. I have the SACD version which also sounds great; unfortunately, it is not a hybrid. When I play this with guests in the house, it never fails to generate a "Wow, who is that?" from them.
I see that so many people on here love the P-Tree CDs, and rightly so, I'm a huge fan and I espically love that they are embracing multi-channel recording. What I am surprised about is that almost NO one talks about Opeth. In fact, the first post on this thread that mentioned them in the same breath as Porcupine Tree was the first I've heard them on this site.
Now granted, Opeth is a metal band, and most of their music is VERY heavy. But their newest CD "Damnation" would probably be right up the ally for any P-tree fan, as its totally acoustic, very mellow and has a 70's prog rock feel to it. It was an experiment album for them, but if you like it, you'd might be able to get into their other cds, which while heavier, still have moments of quiet glory that Damnation have. And not to mention the guitar work and song writing in general are incredible.
They were even mentioned in the New York Times recently, something that has never happened to a small underground Metal band from Sweden that gets no radio airtime whatso-ever.
If you like heavy music even a bit, and you have an openmind I highly recommend you pick up some of their albums.
Below is a list of all their albums to help you get into the band with comments
-Damnation
"The mellow album" My favorite guitar solo of all time is on the track Windowpane.
- Still Life
Much more classic Opeth. Here the duality of the band is shown in all its glory on the track "Godhead's Lament", where the band flows seamlessly from heavy riffing with growling vocals to soaring interludes of harmony with acoustic guitars.
-Deliverance
The sister album to Damnation, very heavy and more in tune with what the band would say is their true self. "A Fair Judgement" might be my favorite song of all time and is hands down their easiest song for a non-metal head to enjoy. At about 3:45 into the song is the most incredible passage of music I've ever listened to. I use it to test out speakers, and to see if they are able to convey emotion.
-Blackwater Park
Often critizised, but still great. Harvest is a crowd favorite at their concerts and one of their best "mellow" songs.
- Morningrise
The album that made this band explode in the underground scene, this is not for the faint of heart. 20 minute songs and incredible mood swings will make you rethink everything you've ever thought about how music is supposed to be written. "To Bid You Farewell" is the song that got me into this band
-My Arms, Your Hearse
Often called their most "metal" album, still filled with great soft interludes and breathtaking melody. "Demon of the Fall" is the song that the old school metal heads love.
-Orchid
Their first CD and not my favorite. While still being a great CD overall, its not nearly as genius as their other albums.
Also they have a live DVD thats is recorded in GREAT 5.1, and focuses mostly on their more mellow songs. The recording is really professional and does a great job showing off the band.
They have a new CD coming out next month as well.
Please be advised though, this band is not for the faint of heart, your subwoofer will get a workout on all but their acoustic CD, and if you think metallica is too loud you might need to ease into this
IF you are into this band even a little, back me up here and get some of these Forum members into this wonderful group of musicans.
My twenty (some of these are for one song only - some for the whole album) in no particular order.
Folkjokeopus - Roy Harper. Roy is the guy from track 10 of Led Zepplin III (Hats off to {Roy}Harper). Great songs especially McGooHan's Blues. You could pick Live at Les Cousins, but Folkjokeopus is probably better overall.
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd.
Physical Graffiti - Led Zepplin
KEΦAΛHΞΘ - Ministry. Hey, Jesus built my hotrod. Nuf Said.
Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails.
The Guitarist - John Williams. Excellent classical guitar
Passion - Peter Gabriel
Led Zepplin IV - Led Zepplin
Who's Next - The Who. The flotsam from one of Pete's abandon projects becomes one of the greatest albums of all time.
Pink World - Planet Project P (Tony Cary). Can you say apocalypse?
Meddle - Pink Floyd.
Native Tongue - Poison. A very good album from them (for once).
Greetings from Asbury Park - Bruce Springsteen. Just listen to "Lost in the Flood".
In Concert - The Doors. The best version of The End and When The Music's Over. Also the only album in which you'll hear "The Celebration of the Lizard King".
I Robot - Alan Parsons
Led Zepplin III - Led Zepplin. Gallows Pole, Immigrant Song, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp. Nuf Said.
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys - Traffic.
Broken - Nine Inch Nails.
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #3 - Ashkenazy. You want to hear good piano playing? Listen to this.
No particular order here...no particular genre either...
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Honestly on of the best jazz albums ever recorded. Period.
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Fagen on his own. Incredible music, somewhat goofy themes, but a great album for music and sound quality alike
Keith Jarret - Belonging
Great quartet jazz, and track 3 is the influence for Steely Dan's song Gaucho
Dave Grusin - Mountain Dance
Smooth jazzish, but with great jazz chops thrown into the mix. Add to that a straight-up 2 track recording in the studio (all digital, as it's GRP), and you've got a great album.
Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy
Seeing how most people only tend to know songs off of Can't Buy a Thrill and Aja, I added this to the list. Their sophomore effort, it expands much farther into jazz and latin rhythms.
Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree
A greatest hits collection from Gabriel, but still an excellent album.
Maceo Parker - Life on Planet Groove
A live recording from the early 90's. Funky as it gets. Features live versions of songs off Mo' Roots (another good one to pick up).
Dave Brubeck - Time Out
As Buckeye mentioned earlier, a jazz masterpiece. A must buy.
Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Awesome fusion music with Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius.
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Both of these albums are sonic and musical masterpieces. Touching lyrics, infectious grooves, and a very honest look at life and spirituality.
Passport - Cross Collateral
Klaus Doldinger's debut album with Passport. Funky, jazzy, and unique.
Passport - Blue Tattoo
One of my favorite, if not my favorite Passport album. Hard to find though, as I have the import version.
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive
Great live 70's rock album. Do you feel like we do?
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Another great live album, also recorded in hotels and on busses.
That's all for now...
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I have that Sigur Ros. Interesting, but it definitely has to grow on you. After the first few listens, I wasn't so impressed with it, but a few of the tracks do start to stick after a while. I'd have to say it isn't for everyone for sure; not sure if it is for me either, but I listen to it once in a while.
I bought Alison Krauss SACD New Favorite too, based on dozens of great reviews, and found that it isn't my kind of stuff. Very well recorded, but not my groove.
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing DVD-A. I'd pick this over In Absentia because while IA is a great collection of songs, Deadwing is a great album (a minor distinction perhaps). The multi-channel mix is fantastic.
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up. A 68 minute prog-jazz "suite", both challenging and beautiful. And as always, top notch production as well as playing. Look for a live DVD at some point, it could be the definitive performance of this piece.
Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays - As Falls Witchita, So Falls Witchita Falls. The 20 minute title track (for awhile it had working titles of "Apocolypse Later" and then "I Don't Want To Get Drafted") is a masterpiece.
Donald Fagan - The Nightfly. A reference CD from the early days of digital recording. Great tunes, great sound.
Miles Davis - Complete B*tches Brew Sessions. The birth of Jazz Fusion.
Camel - Never Let Go. A direct to DAT document from their 1992 tour. Disc One is a nice overview of their earlier work ("Ice" is a show-stopper, showing just what a talented guiratist the under-appreciated Andy Latimer is). Disc Two contains a complete performance of "Dust and Dreams" that tops the studio version, plus two encores. As an aside, Andy is a genuinely nice person, every item I've bought from Camel Productions has come signed by him, often with a personalized note.
David Crosby - It's All Coming Back to Me Now. Another direct to DAT document, this of a post-rehab Crosby flexing his musical muscles in a December 2003 show at the Whisky-a-Go-Go (what a place!). Crosby is such a talented guy, perhaps with a better ear for harmony that anybody working in the rock genre.
And some non-official "releases":
Steve Kimock Band - Gothic Theater 2/22/02. There's a ton of excellent Kimock shows, but this one just does something special for me. Jazz/Rock fusion with a killer band (Alphonso Johnson on bass, the amazing Rodney Holmes on drums, Mitch Stein on guitar) and a superb "fan" recording using an onstage rig. It's like being there in the front row. You can find it in lossless format on the Live Music Archives at: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-d...db.php?id=1237
Grateful Dead - RFK Stadium 6/10/73. 1973 was a special year for the Dead as they integrated their new keyboardist and moved into some more jazzy explorations. Some of the first set is hit or miss, but they really cooked later on. The 3rd set had some members of the Allman Brothers (who shared the bill) joining in. Bass Great / Lesh Philling! This is the most downloaded Dead show on LMA, at http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-d...b.php?id=12091
Allman Brothers "Live at the Fillmore East"
Pink Floyd "Dark Side o t Moon" and "Animals" and "Wish You Were Here"
Al Stewart "Time Passages"and "24 Carrots"
Alan Parson's Project " Piramid" and "Eve" and "Turn of a Friendly Card"
Yes "Fragile" and "Close to the Edge"
Uriah Heep "Demons and Wizards"
Genesis "And Then There Were Three"
C, S, N & Y "Deja Vu"
Roger Waters "Amused to Death"
Gordon Lightfoot "Shadows"
I meant what twenty albums do you own that everyone else should but probably don't. Still any way you take it is fine.
), but this rare album of totally sincere and un-ironic music is quite a departure for Bech, but very powerful. Especially good on DVD-A.
Linear Mode
