10 albums everyone should own

[DarrenW]

weird or what

 

[space cadet]

Late entry here... still not quite sure about why 10 records everyone should own shouldn't be your own favourites, but hey, I'll have a stab at some serious genre-mixing... so in no particular order of course:

Oval – diskont94

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci – Patio

Pelt – Ayahuasca

Spacemen 3 – Playing with fire

Charles Mingus – Pithecanthropus Erectus

Egypte/Les Musiciens du Nil – vol 1 & 2

The Bats – Daddy's highway

Felt – The splendour of fear

John Coltrane – Sun Ship (just to be different, point is, everyone should at least have one)

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth

 

[johnhunt]

elvis costello - get happy
billy bragg - worker's playtime
art blakey jazz m's with T monk
scritti polliti - provision
miles - ESP
the lurkers fulham fall out
bob dylan - street legal
pat metheney/Ornette coleman - song x
Ayler spritual unity
trane cresent
monk solo monk

 

[Paul Mc]

Song X. Much as I like Pat Metheny the majority of Song X sounds like a duck being strangled to me. Each to their own I guess.

 

[sideshowbob]

John, top list. Has sprog 2 arrived yet? Are you ever about for a drink?

-- Ian

 

[david ellwood]

Had some time to think and there are some additions i would like to make:

Original list:
martin stephenson - boat to bolivia
bare naked ladies - maybe you should drive
bob dylan - oh mercy
suzanne vega - 99.9 degrees
edie brickell - shooting rubberbands at the sky (sorry stars)
tom waits - blue valentine
nick drake - five leaves left
michelle shocked - short sharp shocked
loudon wainwright - more love songs
beautiful south - welcome to the

Additions:
Elvis Costello - Spike
JJ Cale - shades
America - greatest hits
Nerina Pallot - fires
Paul Simon - furry Parker
Depeche Mode - Violator
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - broadcasting from home
Goldfrapp - felt mountain
turin brakes - the optomist
Obi - golden age of radio

hang on though.....

 

[The Captain]

somehow shooting rubber bands -at the sky is less evocative than -at the stars. A bit like the Plough (constellation) renamed by the aussies as the Saucepan.. sort of. Fine album though!

 

[kjb]

Just played Pere Ubu's 'The Modern Dance' which should, of course, be on any list of the ten best / most recommended / must have records. Or of the best five. Or even the best three. One of the very finest records ever made. Goodness knows how it slipped my mind while putting an initial list together. 'Non Allignment Pact' is one of the great opening moments of any record, 'Humor me' is one of the finest closing songs and always makes me want to play the whole record again. Great cover , too.

Kevin

 

[jay]

So maybe this thread should be changed to the top 1000 albums you MUST own

 

[Paul Gravett]

Bjork Debut

The Zombies Odessey and Oracle

The The Soul Mining

Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique

Curtis Mayfield There's no Place like America Today

Goldfrapp Black Cherry

Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinoise

John Lennon Plastic Ono Band

Tim Buckley Happy/Sad

Richard & Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver

 

[bluefish]

Put it another way, what do you keep in the car?

My long term car CD's are

Pixies greatest hits
5 Leaves left
Manic Street Preachers
Vivaldi 4 seasons
Rigoletto
Physical Graffitti

 

[foxwelljsly]

Just played Pere Ubu's 'The Modern Dance' which should, of course, be on any list of the ten best / most recommended / must have records. Or of the best five. Or even the best three. One of the very finest records ever made. Goodness knows how it slipped my mind while putting an initial list together. 'Non Allignment Pact' is one of the great opening moments of any record, 'Humor me' is one of the finest closing songs and always makes me want to play the whole record again. Great cover , too.

Kevin

Totally, I love 'Street Waves' too. An absolutely fantastic LP. Anyone for 'Rocket from the Tombs' as well? The greatest band that almost was? The CD that came out a few years ago was amazing, if not exactly audiophile.

 

[duncan]

Trying to avoid other peoples choices, these have all got regularly pulled off the shelves over many years. This selection is more than a bit unrepresentative in that it has no singles in it hence no Ragga, Rap, Disco, House or Electronica made the cut. They are all great records though and everyone should own them!

Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus

Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners

Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder

Beatles – Rubber Soul

Miles Davis – In a Silent Way

Sun Ra – Space is the Place

Fela Kuti – No Agreement

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown – Augustus Pablo

Prince Far I – Cry Tuff Dub Encounters Chapter 3

Various – Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos
(I’m still looking for this on vinyl if anyone ever spots a copy…)

 

[The Captain]

These are my 10 essential 'B-sides'.. in no particular order (although Moistboyz II narrowly missed my top 10) but also essential IMO.

Velvet Underground & Nico
Janes' Addiction- Ritual de lo Habitual
Bjork- Post
Moistboyz II
Led Zeppelin 1
Kanda Bongo Man- Zing Zing
Trumans Water- Spasm Smash XXXOXOX OX & Ass
PJ Harvey- Dry/ or Rid of Me
Buffalo Tom- Buffalo Tom
M.I.A. -Arular

 

[Fox]

Trying to avoid other peoples choices, these have all got regularly pulled off the shelves over many years. This selection is more than a bit unrepresentative in that it has no singles in it hence no Ragga, Rap, Disco, House or Electronica made the cut. They are all great records though and everyone should own them!

Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus

Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners

Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder

Beatles – Rubber Soul

Miles Davis – In a Silent Way

Sun Ra – Space is the Place

Fela Kuti – No Agreement

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown – Augustus Pablo

Prince Far I – Cry Tuff Dub Encounters Chapter 3

Various – Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos
(I’m still looking for this on vinyl if anyone ever spots a copy…)

...apart from the Beatles I really like your selection. Try "Vinyl Junkies" on Dean Street, London (if its still there -- opposite where Sister Ray used to be) for Nigeria 70... that's where I get most of my Afrobeat stuff and there is a guy there who knows his stuff...

I got Rollins' Saxophone Colossus on the http://www.zyx.de reissues a year or so back for £6 and very pleased with it. Awesome! Perfect tuneful mix of hard bop and real song-talent.

 

[kasperhauser]

Roughly 70 or so lists, and there's a full 25% of them from which I own not a single selection. If it wasn't for Astral Weeks, Physical Graffiti, and Pink Moon, that number would be much lower.

Somewhat distressing.

 

[duncan]

Fox, thanks for the suggestion, I'm due another Berwick Street trawl.

 

[Kit Taylor]

Here's my list, with enticing images to make you buy them! The list is not does cover all the albums I couldn't live without, but does cover all the the textures I like, eg Pink Flag shares a nice metallic tone with Interstellar Space (who could live without hearing that rasping tambourine rattle at the beginning of "Jupiter"? ever again), and is a loud and agressive unfussy rock album like Slade ALive!.

Dan Reeder
Dan Reeder

Dave Clarke
Fuse Presents: Dave Clarke

Death
Live in LA

Dorothy Ashby
Afro-Harping

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartmann
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman

Lonnie Liston Smith
Expansions

Max Roach & Antony Braxton
One in Two, Two in One

Queen
Queen II - This is a really good album. Very ambitious and intense, with the band out to make the most massive and epic sound possible...with no time, no money and a clueless recording engineer. All the compression, distortion, excessively close mic-ing, dead acoustics, iffy 70s studio fx and "louder!" mixing adds up to a far out sound that could probably never be replicated. Like a cheap and sleazy but naieve and emotionally intense end of the pier cabaret via Black Sabbath and Boston. And the songs are all about goblins and faeries.

Susumu Yokota
The Boy and the Tree

Wire
Pink Flag

 

[RickyC6]

Wow - I've never heard of anyone liking Wire and Queen until now. No diversity training needed for you!

Cheers

Rich

 

[Kit Taylor]

Then not enough people have heard Queen II!

Boston and Black Sabbath only begins to describe it. Anything like it was almost certainly made by mad people in Japan. Try it if you like the noiser end of that New Weird Folk. It has "Seven Seas of Rye" on it, but that's quite weedy compared to the rest of it. It's the rawest over-produced record ever. There are no guitar solos IIRC, at least that aren't buried beneath layers of murky riffing and stereo panning.