Top 10 Greatest Musical Albums Ever

[Keyrock]

Apologies if this type of thread has been done, I searched and found nothing.  Anyway, it's simple, list your top 10 greatest musical albums ever, any group, any genre, any style.  You can list reasons to your heart's desire.

 

Here are mine:

 

1)Pink Floyd ~ Dark Side of the Moon (I know it's a mainstream choice, but holy **** it's an amazing album!

 

2)Opeth ~ Damnation

 

3)Queensruyche ~ Operation Mindcrime  (even though it's highly regarded, this album is STILL one of the most underappreciated albums out there.  It's straight up amazing

 

4) Metallica ~ ...And Justice For All

 

5) Pantera ~ A Vulgar Display of Power (possibly the most adrenalin charging album of all time).

[Leferd]

The Clash - London Calling

The Postal Service - Give Up

Weezer - Pinkerton

Radiohead - OK Computer

Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory

Green Day - Dookie

Michael Jackson - HIStory Vol. 1

Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2

My own mix tape: The Jams! - combining Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Meatloaf, Heart, Wilson Phillips, and other soft rock balladeering legends!

Sublime - 40oz to Freedom

[Humanoid]

You're not playing by your own rules!

 

 

Anyway, I don't really have a definitive list, just nominated the ten below while looking at my library and picking stuff out of it in the moment (hence the excess, but hey, if you undershoot by five, I'll make up for it). All very much stuff you'd find in mainstream best-albums lists.

 

Abbey Road - The Beatles

- Because I need to have a Beatles album here. Truthfully, it's sort of an arbitrary pick between it, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.

 

After the Gold Rush - Neil Young

- I don't always listen to folk music, but when I do, it's this.

 

Horses - Patti Smith

- The greatest debut album of all time. Side A in particular may be the best sound ever committed to vinyl.

 

Let England Shake - PJ Harvey

 

Low - David Bowie

- The first and best of the Berlin trilogy, a delicately beautiful collection of song fragments to charm someone who had no prior appreciation of instrumental music in the mainstream.

 

More Songs About Buildings and Food - Talking Heads

- The best of Talking Heads as a four-piece, nothing can brighten a dark mood like this can.

 

Parallel Lines - Blondie

 

Remain in Light - Talking Heads

- And the best of Talking Head in expanded form (I know it technically was just after this). Nothing makes me want to move more than this.

 

Scary Monsters - David Bowie

 

So - Peter Gabriel

 

Bonus 5 from the 80s, my favourite decade:

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Faith - George Michael

Rhythm Nation 1814 - Janet Jackson

Rio - Duran Duran

Songs from the Big Chair - Tears for Fears

[Bartimaeus]

"Top 10"

 

*author lists five*

 

I would make my own list, but I have difficulties equating my favorites from different artists.

[Krookie]

I don't know about top 10 but Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is definitely on my list. 

[Blarghagh]

I don't know about "greatest musical albums", but these are the albums that have resonated most with me personally throughout my life.

 

01. Electro-Shock Blues by Eels.

02. The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse.

03. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.

04. Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens.

05. Skittish by Mike Doughty.

06. Funeral by The Arcade Fire.

07. You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene.

08. Ghost by Radical Face.

09. Sea Sew by Lisa Hannigan.

10. This Desert Life by The Counting Crows.

[Oerwinde]

No particular order

• Master of Puppets - Metallica
• Destiny - Stratovarius
• Back in Black - AC/DC
• Endgame - Rise Against
• Dethalbum - Dethklok
• Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi (ok, not an album, but generally collected as one)
• Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood - Volbeat
• Somewhere Back in Time (Best of 1980-1989) - Iron Maiden
• Steamboy Official Soundtrack - Steve Jablonsky
• The Arockalypse - Lordi

I generally throw entire discographies on my phone and hit shuffle so I don't usually listen to albums, so that was actually pretty hard.

[Randomthom]

Tough to call a top ten 'cause I know I'll forget some & a week later others will take their place but here goes;

 

No particular order...

 

Radiohead - OK Computer

Counting Crows - August & Everything After

Led Zepplin - Led Zepplin IV

Guns & Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Jason Mraz - Mr A-Z

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Nirvana - Unplugged in New York

Paul Simon - Graceland

Five for Fighting - America Town

Muse - Origin of Symmetry

[Gorth]

Haven't really thought about this for years... usually it's game soundtracks that keeps popping up

 

Just a few that stick out.

 

Accept - 'Staying Alive'

Led Zeppelin - 'II'

Led Zeppelin - 'IV'

Fleetwood Mac - 'Live'

Pink Floyd - 'The Delicate Sound of Thunder'

Lord of The Dance Soundtrack - Self Titled? (Mostly for nostalgic reasons because I went and see the show back when they were touring Europe)

Queen - 'Live Killers'

Queen - 'A kind of Magic'

 

Well, those were the 'albums' I could remember playing a lot over the years. Having a few hundred CD albums, there are probably some runners up and momentarily forgotten ones.

[LadyCrimson]

Hm, maybe something like this:

 

Oingo Boingo - Boingo:Alive

Peter Gabriel - his 3rd album, nicknamed Melt for the cover art.

Beatles - Abbey Road

Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu

Talking Heads - Little Creatures (plus Sand in the Vaseline double best-of CD I have...)

Moody Blues - A Question of Balance

Barenaked Ladies - All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001  ( )

 

...uh...a 10th one would have to be the composite list of every other album I've listened to on repeat forever at some point in my life. 

[Walsingham]

My thanks to Randomthon, because I'd have otherwise forgotten Counting Crows. I blank it most of the time because it remidns me of looking after my dying mum, and a rather lovely ex girlfriend who I can't help hating. Great album tho.

 

I've only included albums I can listen to the whole way through, since I come from the black stuff (vinyl). And I've tried to only include albums I actually do listen to regularly rather than trying to sound clever (with teh exception noted of Counting Crows)

 

1. Raising Hell - Run DMC

2. Temples of Boom - Cypress Hill

3. Nabucco - Giuseppe Verdi (Sinopoli)

4. Fat of the Land - Prodigy

5. August and Everything After - Counting Crows

6. Shockheaded Peter - The Tiger Lillies

7. Clandestino - Manu Chao

8. Astrakan Cafe - Anouar Brahem

9. Black Hawk Down (soundtrack) - Hans Zimmer et al.

10. Old Crow Medicine Show - Old Crow Medicine Show

[Amentep]

I love soundtracks, I could easily list fifteen soundtracks that I've listened to often and recently - Jerry Goldsmith , Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, John Williams, Michael Giacchino, Danny Elfman, Ennio Morricone ... all great talents who've done wonderful soundtracks.

That said, I will not use soundtracks as they're not really created to be a musical album and will instead concentrate on music released on albums that did not double as soundtracks (which sadly rules out Pink Floyd's Obscured by Clouds and Queen's Flash Gordon and A Kind of Magic as well...). I'm also excluding collections which are typically going to be great by their nature of including great singles from other albums.

• Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (probably my favorite PF album - but I like most of their work)
• The Madcap Laughs by Syd Barrett (Syd's best solo album, IMO)
• Paranoid by Black Sabbath (I could have put their first 4-5 albums on the list)
• "the Four Symbols logo album" by Led Zeppelin (toss-up with Houses of the Holy)
• Revolver by The Beatles (toss up with Sgt. Pepper, White Album)
• Dummy by Portishead (I like the other albums too - they wore the influence of the wonderful John Cameron soundtrack for PSYCHOMANIA on their sleeve on this album and I love them for it)
• Nice by Puffy Ami Yumi (they have an expansive catalog of good stuff - lots of reissues too)
• Version 2.0 by Garbage (I like the first album pretty well as well)
• Destroyer by Kiss (coin flip between this and Queen II by Queen)
• Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise by Art of Noise (wonderful group; bit hard to keep track of the variations of their songs through albums and EPs and singles...)

I imagine, like others, it'd be easy to create a top 50 or top 100 list.

[Walsingham]

For the record - no pun intended - I've never liked Pink Floyd one tiny bit. Despite my friends liking them.

 

 

Good shout on Portishead, Amentep. Perfect for some occasions but not my top ten all the time.

[Amentep]

Any particular reason you don't like Floyd?  Not trying to change your mind, just curious.

[Maedhros]

In no particular order:

 

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Radiohead - Ok Computer

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

The Eels - Electro-shock blues

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

The Cure - Disintegration

Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's

Led Zeppelin - IV

Pink Floyd - Animals

[Pidesco]

Roughly 10:

 

Radiohead - OK Computer

Led Zeppelin - IV

Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

Cake - Fashion Nugget

Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Katzenjammer - Le Pop

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun

Movits! - Ut Ur Min Skalle

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends

ISIS - Wavering Radiant

Lhasa de Sela - La Llorona

Melvins - Stone Witch

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Pantera - Cowboys from Hell

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind

Moonspell - Irreligious

Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

Nico - Chelsea Girl

St. Vincent - Actor

Ornatos Violeta - Cão

Nirvana - Nevermind

Patti Smith - Horses

Patxi Andíon - Una Dos y Tres

Propagandhi - Less Talk, More Rock

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

Rancid - ...And Out Come The Wolves

Sara Tavares - Xinti

Sérgio Godinho - Campolide

Suzanne Vega - 99.9 Fº

And So I Watch You From Afar - And So I Watch You From Afar

Banyan - Anytime At All

Björk - Homogenic

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Can - Future Days

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming

Exitmusic - Passage

Fantômas - Director's Cut

Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

Florence + The Machine - Lungs

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

Janis Joplin - Pearl

Jeffrey Lewis - City and Eastern Songs

John Lee Hooker - Live At The Café Au Go-Go

Wir Sind Helden - Von Hier an Blind

Tom Waits - Small Change

Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances

The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Offspring - Ixnay on the Hombre

The Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime

Gathering - Mandylion

The Clash - London Calling

The Black Keys - Brothers

The Antlers - Hospice

Stevie Wonder - Songs In the Key Of Life

Skip James - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues

Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

Queen - A Night At the Opera

Portishead - Dummy

Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns

Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal

Deolinda - Dois Selos e Um Carimbo

Cradle of Filth - Cruelty and the Beast

Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a dit

 

Kept things to one album per artist.

[melkathi]

Any particular reason you don't like Floyd?  Not trying to change your mind, just curious.

 

I don't like them either. For no particular reason other than not liking them

[Guest The Architect]

1. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

2. The Beatles - Abbey Road

3. The Beatles - Revolver

4. The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

5. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

7. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

8. The Beatles - The White Album

9. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

10. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

[Amentep]

 

Any particular reason you don't like Floyd?  Not trying to change your mind, just curious.

 

I don't like them either. For no particular reason other than not liking them

 

 

That's cool - there's no accounting for taste, my own included!  I'm just curious sometimes why people don't like certain things.

[Walsingham]

 

 

Any particular reason you don't like Floyd?  Not trying to change your mind, just curious.

 

I don't like them either. For no particular reason other than not liking them

 

 

That's cool - there's no accounting for taste, my own included!  I'm just curious sometimes why people don't like certain things.

 

 

It's definitely to do with the chords they use, IMO. That and they always seem so bloody miserable.

[melkathi]

This thread is seriously lacking in the Simon and Garfunkel department.

[Walsingham]

The only thing which is ever lacking Simon and Garfunkel is the feotid slavering maw of an angry ANGRY velociraptor.

[Amentep]

 

 

 

Any particular reason you don't like Floyd?  Not trying to change your mind, just curious.

 

I don't like them either. For no particular reason other than not liking them

 

 

That's cool - there's no accounting for taste, my own included!  I'm just curious sometimes why people don't like certain things.

 

 

It's definitely to do with the chords they use, IMO. That and they always seem so bloody miserable.

 

 

Well Roger Waters was pretty miserable for their stuff leading into THE WALL (including contemptuously spitting on a fan at a concert at one point, IIRC).

 

Syd Barrett's stuff in early PF is usually pretty upbeat psychedelia (well and slightly crazed or fantastical).

[Guard Dog]

In no particular order:

 

Bob Marley - Legend

Led Zeppelin - 1990 Box set (Yes I know but I'm counting this as one)

Johnny Cash - The Legend of Johnny Cash

The Doors - LA Woman & Strange Days (consider them tied)

The Beatles - Abbey Road

Tesla - Five Man Acoustic Jam

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

The Who - Who's Next

U2 - The Joshua Tree

The Eagles - Hotel California

Van Halen - 5150

[Rosbjerg]

Man, I don't know.. I'm gonna change my mind 15 times before I'm done and a few times after that as well..

of course I should pick Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd (DARK SIDE!!), Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Beatles, The Doors, The Who, Queen, Beastie Boys and so on..

But I'll go with what I've heard the most, since that's gotta be a better indicator of what I consider great.. right?

 

1. Bon Iver - Emma, Forever Ago

2-3.Kashmir - Cruzential or Zitilites.. Tough choice, **** it I'll take both

4. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street

5. Counting Crows - Live Across The Wire

6. Django Reinhardt - eh.. 'Jazz in Paris' if I had to make a choice, but basically all of them.

7. Jeff Buckley - Grace

8. Coldplay - Parachutes

9. Cliff Martinez - Solaris Soundtrack

10.. I'll get back to you on that.