Ledgie Top Tens: Album Edition

[Meowi]

Originally Posted by StreetAngel95

haha i thought it was pretty self-explanatory!

anyways, my dad told me this story about how my grandpa once bought BN at a record store the week it came out. He brought it home and told my dad, "this is the future of rock 'n' roll. These guys are gonna get somewhere." Ironically, my dad listened to it, hated it, and sold it to help pay for college.

A couple years ago i was at Princeton record Exchange, and found it on sale for 175$....yes a bit pricey, but worth it! so i bought it, brought it home, and put it in my turn-table to listen to..(of course eventually transferring it to mp3)

my dad now has a new found appreciation for album, cuz his 14-yr old daughter is in love with it!

LOL! We are the same age, and I too try to convert people to the Mac... Although most of the time it does not work...

[StreetAngel95]

Originally Posted by Meowi

LOL! We are the same age, and I too try to convert people to the Mac... Although most of the time it does not work...

haha nice to meet you!

yeah converting people to MAC usually is a fail...

[ButterCookie]

Never give up on the conversion

I converted my younger sister, and I thought that would NEVER happen, I've been trying to get her onto Blondie for years.

[Sleepless-Child]

Never give up on the conversion

I converted my younger sister, and I thought that would NEVER happen, I've been trying to get her onto Blondie for years.

Haha, my sister is older than me, but pretty impressionable. So now we listen to and sing all the Mac and Blondie albums together ! *Twenty-eight or fifty-eight walkin' to refrigerator...*

[HejiraNYC]

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Rickie Lee Jones - Flying Cowboys - For me this was the first album where Rickie truly found her voice. While I do like her earlier albums, she seemed to be trying too hard to be a latter day white chick version of Satchmo, or just blindly ripping off Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen. With Rickie's "all growed-up" songs and Walter Becker's incredibly tasteful production, this whole album shimmers as it paints haunting portraits of the characters that inhabit Rickie-land.

Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage - Don't let the folkie crunchiness fool you. This is it- perhaps the most solid collection of songs ever recorded by anybody. Not a clunker in the bunch.

David Bowie - Station to Station - The Thin White Duke will always be my favorite Bowie. It's funky, it's soulful, it's rockin'... it's quintessential mid-70's New York City and all of its excesses and abysses.

Mark Eitzel - Sixty Watt Silver Lining - It's out of print, but you must seek it out. It's too good for words.

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head - Yeah, everyone hates Coldplay, but this album is so addictive. It's over-the-top, dramatic and sentimental... but every song is so infectious.

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love - What hasn't been said about this brilliant masterwork?

Carly Simon - The Bedroom Tapes - This is the last great Carly Simon recording before her voice completely went to seed. As the name implies, it's the most heartfelt, intimate album of her entire career.

Joni Mitchell - Hejira - But of course!

[Travis]

Originally Posted by tilthefirefades

She Wolf is amazing! I was going to put Oral Fixation (which I think is her best) on my list, but I decided to put Janet on there instead. But I find myself listening to "Did It Again" over and over sometimes, I love the spanish version.

Although I don't speak spanish, I've been listening to the CD in full ... I'm going to make it a point to read the words to the 3 spanish versions so I can at least sing along to them. The peeps at the club will be so impressed. I hear "Gypsy" is the new single. I hope "Men In This Town" gets a video.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by Dodfather

Hey travis. Great choices! I love Belinda and good call on choosing this album! The tracks you mention are all brilliant, especially I Plead Insanity. Do you also have Real (1993)? That's a really overlooked record, it had 2 great singles (Lay Down Your Arms and Big Scary Animal) and the rest of the album is pretty damn good too!

I wondered if there's be a Kylie one in your list... I do like Light Years (especially Disco Down, it so should have been a single instead of the dreaded Please Stay that the UK got) but I'd still have to go for Impossible Princess as her best album. You heard it yet?

I do have "Real" but I hate to admit, it never did anything for me. I do recall "Lay Down Your Arms" as being one of the better songs I liked but overall, eh LOL. I hate it when they try to get "real", just put on the make up, the lip gloss and shine and work that magic girl :-)

Kylie - again, we are different here. I can not get into "Impossible Princess." This is another example of an artist trying to be taken more seriously (in my opinion). Although I do like all of the singles from the album, I can't get into the CD as a whole. Kylie smartened up and returned to her pop roots, what she does best. I LOVE "X" btw.

[JohnL]

Here we go...

1) Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna
2) Shakira - Laundry Service
3) Lori Morgan - Watch Me
4) Stevie Nicks - TISL
5) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
6) Keith Urban - Keith Urban - Its a Love Thing...enuf said. lol
7) Stevie Nicks - OSOTM
8) Whitney Houston - Greatest Hits (love the 2nd cd with all the mixes)
9) Carole King - Tapestry
10) Shania Twain - The Woman In Me

[Dodfather]

Originally Posted by Travis

I do have "Real" but I hate to admit, it never did anything for me. I do recall "Lay Down Your Arms" as being one of the better songs I liked but overall, eh LOL. I hate it when they try to get "real", just put on the make up, the lip gloss and shine and work that magic girl :-)

Kylie - again, we are different here. I can not get into "Impossible Princess." This is another example of an artist trying to be taken more seriously (in my opinion). Although I do like all of the singles from the album, I can't get into the CD as a whole. Kylie smartened up and returned to her pop roots, what she does best. I LOVE "X" btw.

If you consider her earliest punk (ish) influences and how these were tamed for the Go-Gos there is an argument that Real is a more honest reflection of Belinda's personality than the polished power pop of her earlier albums. Or that's how it was spun anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love her earlier solo work! I actually just bought the Runaway Horses album on vinyl for £1.75! I'm waiting excitedly for it to arrive. Summer Rain (her best song!), Leave A Light On and Emotional Highway are all especially good. I also really, really love Always Breaking My Heart from A Woman And A Man (1996). Then again, that was written by Per Gessle from Roxette (who I love!) so no wonder I like it. She did it when I saw her live.

Oh I think you're right that, for singles anyway, it's pure pop that Kylie does best. I just really, really rate Impossible Princess as an entirely cohesive album. Great singles and no filler, but yeah, her best songs are probably Better The Devil You Know (which is actually a very dark song if you listen to the lyrics), Hand On Your Heart, Step Back In Time etc... the Rhythm Of Love era was Kylie at her absolute best!

Oooh, I so wanted to like X. I really, really did - especially after 2 Hearts was a great and different style for her. I just can't get into it though. I was hoping it would grow on me like Body Language did, but no. In My Arms is good and a couple of others are ok but on the whole I'd have to say it's one of her weakest, after Let's Get To It of course! I just hate Nu-di-ty. What on earth was she thiniking?!

Oh well, imagine how boring it would be if we all liked the same thing?!?

[chiliD]

Hmmmmm....ok.....here goes...

DISCLAIMER: This is as of this very moment, could change at any time:

(no particular order)

ANY Beatles album...for me, they transcend music.

The Allman Brothers Band - Live At The Fillmore East
The best live album ever released...THIS is what the ABB is all about, being on stage, playing the blues, mixing in lengthy jazz improvisation....doesn't get to much better than this for "white boy blues".

Derek & The Dominos - Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
Eric Clapton's anguish....and it comes through the music.

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
That "Lil' Ol' Band From Texas" at their best before the beards & MTV made them caracatures of themselves

Little Feat - Dixie Chicken
Solid from song to song....no filler anywhere...also could substitute their Sailin' Shoes, Feats Don't Fail Me Now, or Last Record Album albums here, as well...all are equally strong.

(tie) Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue & Dave Brubeck - Take Five
When I want to get away from rock, I head for two the greatest jazz albums ever recorded

The Motels - All Four One
Like with Little Feat, strong throughout, could also substitute their prior album Careful here, as well. "I never knew mercy could feel this way....."

Concrete Blonde - Walking In London
Could've named any of their albums, but this one doesn't have a skippable song, the others have at least one.

The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
Kind of a toss up between this & Exile On Main St or Sticky Fingers, but this one just kind of came out of the blue...didn't think the Stones still had a studio album this strong still in them at the time.

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Jimi's best...while he was alive....just wonder what he would've released had he lived...there was a whole lot of great material that was left unfinished that was hastily released just after his death...even CDs such as Voodoo Soup & First Rays Of The New Rising Sun give a glimpse, but who knows how that material would've been presented had Jimi been able to complete the process.

**************************
Can't go without mentioning:

The Who - Live At Leeds (Deluxe Edition)
Loved this album when it first came out, but thought it was too short, then MCA released an expanded version which was awesome...then they released the entire show...THAT version is the closest rival to the Allman's Fillmore album

The first five Led Zeppelin albums...and to a slightly lesser extent Physical Graffiti...material so good that I just can't stand to listen to it anymore due to radio airplay overkill as well as listening to their albums on my own. Thought Presence sucked and never really liked them after that.

The albums during the initial go-round of Steely Dan...from Can't Buy A Thrill through Gaucho...not a "filler" track in the bunch.

and you'll probably have noticed that no Fleetwood Mac or related albums were mentioned...intentional. Discussed those here ad nauseum, so no need to mention them again.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by chiliD

The first five Led Zeppelin albums...and to a slightly lesser extent Physical Graffiti...material so good that I just can't stand to listen to it anymore due to radio airplay overkill as well as listening to their albums on my own. Thought Presence sucked and never really liked them after that.

I think every band has their version of Presence- that one anomally recording that, for whatever reason, just never found an audience. Van Halen had Women and Children First. Fleetwood Mac had Time. Queen had Hot Space. I personally love Presence, but I have to admit that I would be hard pressed to name more than two songs from it off the top of my head! And how can you hate on In Through the Out Door?? That is probably my favorite LZ album- probably up there with Physical Graffiti.

The albums during the initial go-round of Steely Dan...from Can't Buy A Thrill through Gaucho...not a "filler" track in the bunch.

Well, I would gladly skip "Glamor Profession" . But other than that, I would agree that SD in the 70's was incredible- I think they peaked with The Royal Scam. But the 2000-era stuff isn't too bad either, especially Everything Must Go. And Donald Fagen's solo album Morph the Cat is really, really good!

[Rod]

I love these lists - though it's impossible to give a definitive answer. Mine would look something like this. Sometimes I'd choose different albums by these artists.

Kate Bush - Aerial

Jane Siberry - The Walking

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Carly Simon - No Secrets

Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates

Indigo Girls - Swamp Ophelia

10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden

Björk - Vespertine

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Laura Nyro - Gonna Take a Miracle

[tilthefirefades]

Originally Posted by Rod

I love these lists - though it's impossible to give a definitive answer. Mine would look something like this. Sometimes I'd choose different albums by these artists.

Kate Bush - Aerial

Jane Siberry - The Walking

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Carly Simon - No Secrets

Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates

Indigo Girls - Swamp Ophelia

10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden

Björk - Vespertine

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Laura Nyro - Gonna Take a Miracle

INCREDIBLE album This is with Labelle isn't it?

[Rod]

Yes - the one with Labelle. It's all covers but sung with such conviction that it seems as personal and heartfelt as her self-written epics.

[tilthefirefades]

Originally Posted by Rod

Yes - the one with Labelle. It's all covers but sung with such conviction that it seems as personal and heartfelt as her self-written epics.

Very true, "It's Gonna Take A Miracle" almost brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. I love Desiree and The Wind too.