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Which albums to you go back to most often?

My albums which have had a more than their fair share of plays:

Ashra - New Age of Earth
The Church - Starfish
The Cure - Faith
Free System Projekt - Atmospheric Conditions
Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale
Peter Hammill - Fools Mate
Hawkwind - Space Ritual Live
Steve Hillage - Live Herald
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk 1,
Mergener & Weisser - Phancyful Fire
Pat Metheny Group - American Garage
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Five Miles Out
Pink Floyd - More, Volcanic Destruction (Live at Pompeii)
Roedelius - Selbstportait 1, Selbstportrait 2
Klaus Schulze - Body Love II, X, Live
Mark Shreeve - Assassin
The Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always
Software - Chip Meditation
Tangerine Dream - Encore, Exit, Poland
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
 
Visions of the Emerald Beyond - Mahavishnu Orchestra
Seconds Out - Genesis
Are You Experienced? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
 
Anais Mitchell, Young Man in America
Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon
Ben Howard, Every Kingdom
The Wailin Jennys, 40 Days
Nick Drake... all of them
Rickie Lee Jones, self titled
Melody Gardot, My One and Only Thrill
Laura Veirs, July Flame
Angus and Julia Stone, Down the Way
Martha Tilston, Lucy and the Wolves
Beth Nielsen Chapman, Sand and Water
June Tabor, At the Woods Heart
Bon Iver, For Emma Forever Ago
Cara Dillon self titled
David Gray, White Ladder
Diane Reeves, Quiet After the Storm
Elton John, self titled
First Aid Kit, The Lion's Roar
John Smith, Great Lakes
Karine Polwart, Traces
No particular reason for these albums, just that I love them.
Sorry, I was never any good at maths!
Mac
 
Roy Harper - Flat Baroque and Berserk started following Harper in tiny venues in Manchester in the 60s. This album was played to death at the time.
Incredible String Band - The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. Favourites whilst at school. Still love their idiosyncratic song structures.
Leonard Cohen - Recent Songs. Of all his albums this one has the best songs on it I think.
Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed. Still rocks after 50 years.
Steve Forbert - Alive on Arrival. A terrific songsmith, undervalued.

I’m a big Cohen fan and absolutely agree that Recent Song is his best, musically especially above all others
 
Some great choices from other Fishies with some of my favourites; these are probably mine:
  • Fairport Convention – first album (followed by their second)
  • Nick Drake – Bryter Layter (and occasionally the others)
  • Can – Future Days (Soon Over Babaluma piped into 2nd place)
  • Ashra - New Age Of Earth
  • Caravan – In The Land Of Grey And Pink
 
Funkadelic, America Eats Its Young
Missy Elliott, Under Construction
James Brown, There It Is
Isley Brothers, Brother, Brother, Brother
Al Green, I’m Still in Love With You
Eric B and Rakim, Paid in Full
Karen Dalton, In My Own Time
Wayne Wade, Black is Our Colour
 
Kate Bush - This Sensual World - more raw than HoL and the KB album I find most rewarding to listen to either in detail or as background accompaniment. It also includes This Woman's Work, one of the finest songs ever written.

Peter Gabriel - IV - took me a while to get this album, but its impact has never left me since I did. Eight perfectly crafted tracks with just enough Gabriel weirdness to keep me entertained for nearly 40 years. Wallflower is my favourite Gabriel track and is on this album... hard to believe that songwriting as good as that used to be in Genesis.

U2 - Joshua Tree - yes I know everyone else says they hate it, but it's still, for me, the best album U2 have made and one of the best albums ever made. A band so in sync with the time and themselves that there is not a single wasted note on it.

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars - Released when I was just 7 years old I didn't get to hear it until I was 14, but from the opening faded in drums of Five Years to the last tortured note of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide I was captivated and still am. It is for me the perfect album and the one I would take with me to a desert island if I could only take one.

Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowd - simply when someone asks me what is trance I hand them this CD, it is trance perfection and never fails to send me back to those fantastic 90s times dancing the weekend away and occasionally (when I was lucky enough) watching the sunrise in Ibiza.
 
Michael Brook - Cobalt Blue (Bellcurve too...)
Carbon Based Lifeforms - World Of Sleepers
Shpongle - Codex VI
Matt Johnson - Burning Blue Soul
Popol Vuh - Cœur De Verre
Hawkwind - Roadhawks
Durutti Column - The Guitar And Other Machines
Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow
Can - Can
Martyn Bennett - Grit
Mothers Of Invention - Cruising With Ruben And The Jets
Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy
Ruts DC - Rythm Collision Vol 2
King Crimson - Red
Van Der Graaf Generator - The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other
Banco Da Gaia - 9th Of Nine Hearts
 
Neil Young - Harvest, Zuma.
Pink Floyd - Animals
The Eagles - Hotel California
Poco - Rose of Cimmaron
Joe Walsh - But Seriously Folks
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Richard Thompson - Action Packed compilation
REM - Out of Time
Lou Reed - New York
Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus
The Only Ones - Even Serpents Shine
The Cure - Standing On A Beach compilation
Lucinda Williams - West, Essence, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
 
Miles Davis, Bitches Brew
Arthur Russell, Instrumentals
Alice Coltrane, Universal Consciousness
Alban Berg, Lyric Suite for String Quartet
Iannis Xenakis, ST/4...
Jon Hassell, Power Spot
Charlie Haden, Closeness

Cheated a bit, that’s seven. Not necessarily my favourite albums but the ones I keep going back to, one or other of them at least once a month.
 
Five albums I repeatedly go back to :-

John Martyn - One World
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden
Steely Dan - Gaucho
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Free - Fire & Water

Bubbling under :-

Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
The Blue Nile - Hats
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
 


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