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Albums that not only stand the test of time, but improve listen after listen.

Finnegan said:
Everything from Bless The Weather to One World is indispensable. Grace & Danger is a brilliant album, marred (for me) by the presence of Phil Collins. After that it’s diminishing returns. There’s material to like on Cooltide, And, Church With One Bell, Glasgow Walker etc. I don’t think, with the exception of Piece By Piece, he ever really made a true stinker.
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I don't want to hijack this thread with too many posts about JM - suffice to say that I think PC's contributions (particularly backing vocals) on Grace & Danger are a big plus. Piece By Piece I agree is not one of his stronger works but any album containing the gem 'Angeline' doesn't deserve to be categorised as a stinker imo.
 
Personal favourites that always get a spin, probably as much to relive the experience of the first listen as for enjoying now! But these really never age for me.
Pere Ubu Modern Dance
Dr Alimentado Best Dressed Chicken in Town
The Fall Live at the Witch Trials
The Fall I Am Kurious Oranj
PIL Metal Box
The Slits Cut
Patti Smith
Horses
Radio Ethopia
Easter
The Rezillos Can’t Stand the Rezillos
Dillinger CB 200
Prince Far I & The Arabs Crytuff Dub Encounter(s) 1, II, III , IV
Prince Far I Message from the King


Doesn't bear thinking about- me harking back 45 yrs is equivalent to my parents reminiscing to 15 year old me about the golden days of Tin Pan Alley!
 
For me Black Sabbath, Masters of Reality, is probably not mainstream enough to have a collective test of time, but I find it fabulously fresh whenever I listen to it, just gets better and better.
 
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ff1d1l said:
First album I ever bought, Focus 3, double lp. Still listen to it today...everything from dirty jazz-rock jamming to a lute piece (don't think Sting, Akkerman could really play it) via a jazz fugue. A stupendous record that keeps on giving. Very decent recording too.
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Still love this album also. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was recorded more or less live in the studio, with minimal additional takes etc. Certainly sounds like it. The longer tracks swing like hell, jazz without traditional jazz instruments. Focus are unique, and still going. Saw them live last year.
 
deek said:
All these albums are about 20+ years old now and still sound as fresh and original to me as they did the first time.

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 95-92
Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children - if I had to pick one album here, it would be this one.

And I couldn't resist a Metal album:

Death - Individual Thought Patterns (although you could pick any of their albums really)
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As I sit here listening to the new Aphex Twin, I have to say that of the Death albums it’s Symbolic for me. First saw them on that tour, and though I saw them many more times on the Sound of Perseverance tour, it’s always Symbolic I go back to first.

To a similar extent, De Mysteriis Don Sathanas. But probably even more so, Entombed - Clandestine.

Every time I think I’ve heard it too many times, I give it a while then listen again. And it’s always ace again.
 
I've had a certain musician who fits this 'albums that improve..' agenda, right in front of me all this time.

Elliott Smith. Every album, I 1st thought "hmm.. fair but I probably won't play much". I actually actively disliked it as much I thought the guitar 'had something, but a bit rough'. And "too obvious Beatles touches" sprinkled everywhere I sniffed. And the voice tends to throw you off too- true still & could easily be deemed flawed.

But incrementally I've grown to not just love his albums, flaws & all, but obsessed to the point I think he is quite possibly the greatest ever modern songwriter, apart from the great classical composers.

Strange then, that my favourite two musicians' albums I first so disliked, but also have the most ordinary surname: Smith(s).

Here's a beautiful song he discarded/ not actually on any album, astonishingly to me, & almost lost: he was so prodigious this isn't unusual either:


Thanks (ES), Capt
 
A lot of discussion earlier in the thread about Kraftwerk.

Kraftwerk were the first band I got into (a UK Vertigo copy of Autobahn bought from a local library for 50p).

But as much as love KW I don't think that most of their albums improve with age.

My first listen to Autobahn (on my father's Garrard deck with his Sennheiser 414 headphones) was mesmerising...

...but since that point nothing about the title track has much improved.

Most of KW's albums feature very upfront melodies (which you digest fully on the first listen).

IMHO it only Side Two of Autobahn and the traffic cone albums plus "Ralf and Florian" which improve with age.

I hated the traffic cone albums on first listen...

...but they are now (along with R+F) my most listened to KW albums.

In contrast Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" keep getting better and better with age.

I didn't like UP on first listen. But then - around two weeks later (in a Maths lesson at school) got a strange desire to hear the "Unknown Pleasures" album again...

...I raced home on my bike and stuck UP on (it was only on that 2nd listen that the magic started to happen).

Difficult albums (like those from Zappa and Beefheart) - all sound wonderful to me now.

For a long time I didn't totally get The Fall (but I knuckled down and now love them).

With some artists you have to put the hard graft in early doors (but in many cases the long term benefits are greater).

A related psychological effect is that of music "over exposure".

The Beatles albums were all great on the first listen (and many years after that)...

...but over exposure makes Sgt Pepper less fun to listen to now.

Similarly - these days - I rarely seek out my "Blue Monday" 12" single for a listen (funilly enough Kraftwerk were reported to be impressed by "Blue Monday").
 
'Different Class' by Pulp. The consistency and quality of song writing put it firmly in the all time classic albums list for me. Not many Britpop era albums make it.

'Blue Lines' by Massive Attack. How on earth did a few scruffs in Bristol make such a good album as that? Never tire of listening to it.
 
Juju Music by King Suny Ade and his African Beats has been a favourite since first hearing it that has continuously rewarded repeated playings (and system improvements) with a sense of having deeper insight into the source of the magic.

I feel the same about In a Silent Way by Miles Davis, Aerial by Kate Bush, You by Gong, both Joy Diision albums, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of, Syd's PF Piper and some of their post Syd LPs, various recordings of Beethoven's 9th, and agree about Pulp's incredible Different Class LP. This is just a small selection.
 
Armatrading - Show Some Emotion - I only have it on vinyl, and every listen impresses me more, one of the reasons I’ve not sold my vinyl setup, but haven’t listened to it for 12 months + now… Off to check if it’s available on CD :)
 
ABC - Lexicon Of Love. Yes it's peak 80s but what a peak - superb production and not a filler on it.
Sparks - No.1 in Heaven. Just groundbreaking.
The The - Infected. Gets stronger for me with each playing (maybe that's me changing not the album!)
 
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