All time favorite album (with art)
OK, I know the title dates me a bit... just wondering if you had to pick only one original (not greatest hits/compilation) album/cd/tape as your favorite of all time, what would it be? Include album art if possible.
I'll start... yea, this is tough... Being a long-time Zeppelin fan, I'd have to go with IV (even though I've grown tired of Black Dog and Rock and Roll). Great all around work. Here's the art:
I'll start... yea, this is tough... Being a long-time Zeppelin fan, I'd have to go with IV (even though I've grown tired of Black Dog and Rock and Roll). Great all around work. Here's the art:
Comments
I'm not sure if it counts as a real album because I believe it was originally released as a series of singles, but I'd have to pick Robert Johnson's works. The music is almost secondary to the pure emotion that comes through. (OK that sounded like a music critic, but it's so true.)
It folded open and within was the album and a comic book with the lyrics.
Underoath is a good band. They rock hard and loud.
BTW: that is "They're Only Chasing Safety"
Thrice - The Ilusion of Safety
Denali - The Instinct
Hot Water Music - Caution
Björk - Vespertine
Minus the Bear - Highly Refined Pirates
Whew... that was hard. I can't imagine picking just one.
Mew - Frengers. An amazing album that I have listened to since it came out in 2003. Most albums fade to the back of the collection after a few months, and only get listened to occasionally, but I listen to Frengers all of the time. I believe it has just been released in the US this year, so check it out.
One that is consistently awesome, and not yet mentioned, is Grateful Dead's Reckoning.
It is a compilation, but not in the normal sense of the word. They mixed a few live performances (from shows played within a few months of each other) into two double albums (Reckoning, and Dead Set). This was one of my favorite Deads for much of grade school. "Monkey and the Engineer," in particular, is a fun story as well as being a great song.
I don't have an all-time favorite. My tastes vary with the wind.
One that is consistently awesome, and not yet mentioned, is Grateful Dead's Reckoning.
The late, great Rick Griffin was the artist of this and many other record covers. Truly an inspiration for me.
(Click on the thumbnails to see larger images. These look best in Safari, which honors color profiles.)
And from the "self-indulgent" file:
Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans
I know. Even the band hates this record. Especially Rick Wakeman who split with the band specifically BECAUSE of this record. It's everything that was wrong with prog. All the pretentiousness that could fit in a box... But I LOVE it. this record induced an drug-free "out-of-body" endorphin rush when I was 16 that I've never felt again in my life.
Nous Sommes Du Soleil is a great, 20+ minute track. The other three are kind of lacking in focus, though. Even if castigated by Yes, this album seems to have been pivotal to Christian Vander: if you think Tales is weird, Magma brings the weird to 11.
I have no idea what album is my fave, because it changes fairly regularly. I tend to like 'concept' albums, though.
Moreover, I'm of the opinion that the only thing "wrong" with prog is that record companies can't market it easily, and have spent years and years convincing us that it is wrong. I like prog. There's only so far the three-and-a-half minute lyric-driven melody can go, and for me it got there a while ago.
These are my Desert Island Discs.
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
I just scored Led Zeppelin's The Complete Studio Recordings 10-disc set on Amazon for $60 brand new!
But I love the current prog revival. Bands like Muse (Knights of Cydonia!!!! WOW!) and stuff like Mars Volta ("cocaine prog") are showing us once again that there's magic in the music.
Muse is very close to doing something amazing. I like Black Holes a lot. If it were a little bit tighter and as an album honed-in a little more on the whole martian colonization thing, I would adore it. It probably wouldn't sell as well, though! Good prog is like the musical equivalent of a Dali painting: technically brilliant, but otherwise insane. I like a dose of isanity!
Muse needs another instrument, though. The three-piece band is a little too shallow. Case in point is Dream Theater's song "Never Enough" which is more or less an intentional Muse facsimile. Too self indulgent as you'd expect, but the extra layer(s) of melodies add a lot.