The L-Power Official greatest Albums of all time discussion thread

Go!

Like we discussed in the other thread let's make this educational. I don't want to know that an album rocks...I want to know why! I want to know what makes it special to help grow my appreciation of music. Maybe it's the lyrics or the sampling. Maybe it is the novel use of an instrument or the inclusion of a new sound.

 

Hit me with that knowledge VCR!

 

One of my all time favourites. Think it was the first time a rock band and orchestra teamed up. IIRC Jon Lord (RIP - Deep Purple keyboardist) wrote the entire score - he was so far ahead of his time.

 

Here's the first movement with the Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo.

 

Pink Floyd The Wall

Led Zeppelin I

Joy Division Unknown Pleasures

Start with the obvious, The White album and Thriller, both those albums should speak for themselves...

 

Ramones - The bands first album, this album lead the punk/alternative revolution, they broke the rock music mold for all no conforming artists to come.

 

Apetite for Destruction - kicked the glam out of rock and made it tuff, explicit lyrics became the norm in mainstream music, and 30 years later many bands are still trying to sound like GnR did on this album.

 

The Eminem Show - This album is all about anger and emotion

The Band The Last Waltz. A final concert in 1978 for a great band, but it was the guest list that made it a standout. It was also filmed by a young upstart director named Martin Scorsese.

 

All these greats in one place while in their prime.

 

Not to derail the thread, but this list is a great resource with in depth explanations.

I will have to narrow it down to one album for this thread, but I would say that any of Dave Mathew's albums could go. They all have lyrics that mean something, tell a story, and are interesting. He is very diverse in the how his songs sound and the Dave Mathews Band is fantastic in their ability to connect with people. Give me some time to find the best album though.

this

and all of these

 

and these

forgot one

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon

 

King Crimson - In the Court of The Krimsom King (VERY controversial for 1969)

 

John Coltrane - Giant Steps (I'm not a big Coltrane fan but this is a great album)

 

Led Zeppelin - Houses of The Holy

 

Weather Report - Heavy Weather

 

Jimi Hendrix - Can't remember the album names, but yeah.

 

Most others seemed to have been listed haha.

For me the album qualifies if you can listen to it through and like every song, even in it's own way. These stood out in their day for me, along with above Eminem show.

 

 

 

Great production, classic lyrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surprisingly, this. 9.3 copies million sold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

kanye west college dropout.

 

 

A knockout debut, with a fresh take on rap, on production via sampling, and general honest swagger.

 

 

 

 

The way it was recorded, the studio was it recorded in, the way the tracks flow together mixing one into the other, it is mixed perfectly. The sound is very balanced. The vocals + the instrumentation.

 

No other band in history sounded this way at the time. They created a new genre of music (or mixed multiple together) and was the first "political" music to make it mainstream, raising awareness to the world around us and its injustices. Bringing up topics you might have not thought of before.

 

The raw emotion in the lyrics and instruments, you feel involved in every track.

 

When killing in the name of comes on....the way it creeps in, then drops, OMG. The way every instrument just hits you at once. Everything just seems to perfect and in sync.

 

Historic album and one of my favorites. Sets a benchmark for everything. Great complex sounds + lyrics, a little something for everyone here.

 

 

 

The way it was recorded, the studio was it recorded in, the way the tracks flow together mixing one into the other, it is mixed perfectly. The sound is very balanced. The vocals + the instrumentation.

 

No other band in history sounded this way at the time. They created a new genre of music (or mixed multiple together) and was the first "political" music to make it mainstream, raising awareness to the world around us and its injustices. Bringing up topics you might have not thought of before.

 

The raw emotion in the lyrics and instruments, you feel involved in every track.

 

When killing in the name of comes on....the way it creeps in, then drops, OMG. The way every instrument just hits you at once. Everything just seems to perfect and in sync.

 

Historic album and one of my favorites. Sets a benchmark for everything. Great complex sounds + lyrics, a little something for everyone here.

 

 

That's a great one.

I have had the privilege of being in the musical sweet spot so to speak.

 

My parents listened to some of the great music of the 50's and 60's. Consequently, my musical tastes were shaped early.

 

My teenage years were when I began to form my own musical tastes. As a result, the music from this era is most embedded in my psyche.

 

Two particular albums stood out for me.

 

Both had a full side of vinyl dedicated to the musical telling of a story.

In both cases the musicianship was incredible.

The audio was also well done considering they were recorded in the early to mid 70's.

 

More importantly, I would still pay to see each of these performed live.

 

My votes go for:

 

RUSH .........................2112

 

Rick Wakeman..............Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Sorry might be a slight derail but this is just great.

 

RMB - Widescreen is cornerstone in electronic music for me:

It is just perfect. Took a couple of times to open fully at the time.

 

 

The Roots - Phrenology

Fugees - The Score

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

The Killers - Hot Fuss

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

 

 

 

The way it was recorded, the studio was it recorded in, the way the tracks flow together mixing one into the other, it is mixed perfectly. The sound is very balanced. The vocals + the instrumentation.

 

No other band in history sounded this way at the time. They created a new genre of music (or mixed multiple together) and was the first "political" music to make it mainstream, raising awareness to the world around us and its injustices. Bringing up topics you might have not thought of before.

 

The raw emotion in the lyrics and instruments, you feel involved in every track.

 

When killing in the name of comes on....the way it creeps in, then drops, OMG. The way every instrument just hits you at once. Everything just seems to perfect and in sync.

 

Historic album and one of my favorites. Sets a benchmark for everything. Great complex sounds + lyrics, a little something for everyone here.

 

 

 

:icon_thumleft:

Like we discussed in the other thread let's make this educational. I don't want to know that an album rocks...I want to know why! I want to know what makes it special to help grow my appreciation of music. Maybe it's the lyrics or the sampling. Maybe it is the novel use of an instrument or the inclusion of a new sound.

 

Hit me with that knowledge VCR!

 

Oh great, I guess I got myself into this from the Natalie Cole thread. Anyway, I would try to answer your quest but this could both be trivial and challenging at the same time. And it obviously can be pages and pages long which I don't think anyone has the appetite for.

 

Bear with me but let's start with a prologue: for those in the know, I'm into hi-end hi-fi so my definition of "greatest" would primarily be based on its sound quality. And that is the easy/trivial part --- any recording, regardless of medium, that comes close to resembling live performance (including just plain speech or sound effects such as broken glass) would be a great album to me (yes, it is highly subjective). The challenging part would be --- as "real" as these recordings can be, they might not be very "musical" or "entertaining" (honestly, listening to how "real" shattered/broken glass sounds won't be very entertaining nor would you sing/hum/tap along with it either). And I am not sure if my selections or rationale on my choices would be fitting for this thread. It may comply with Hannibal's quest but just not sure if it would be agreed by all. Please also keep in mind that the same recordings may be great on one medium but rather crappy on another as some medium are simply inferior storage device to begin with or the remastering was just poorly done during the transfer. Playback hardware, speaker placement and even the room itself also play vital roles (see where I may lead this into?) so there are a large number of factors to consider. For my choice, I will fundamentally concentrate on the "realism" of the recording over the "entertaining" factor (yes, some audiophile are crazy enough to buy an entire set of albums for just that one movement within the entire musical where the recording truly mirrors the actual voicing of the instruments and/or the recording artists). So, read at your own perils please. I will make multiple posts as it's simply too long of a read to list everything in one post.

 

Let's start with something that supports what I wrote above:

 

"English.Scottish & Cornish Dance", Malcolm Arnold, Lyrita SRCS.109

 

Yes, the same guy in escobar's post on the Deep Purple with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Many of you likely frown on the title already. I admit that, with due respect to our UK members here, the scores are not exactly entertaining. It may not even fit the general descriptions of orchestral classical music. But the recording on this album is likely one of the best in human recording history. It truly captures the dimension of the venue (width, depth & height); it captures the ability/artistry of the members of the orchestra, i.e. you can distinguish which violinist is good and which one is great; it also showcases the talent of Mr. Arnold as a composer and a conductor. This is an album when played through a properly set up system (no need to be $$$$ but of course it does help), you will have the London Philharmonic Orchestra "appearing" in your listening room/area where all the ambiance, the size of the instruments, the proper sound that they make are all coherently being reproduced. Having said that, though, one needs to know the structure of the orchestra, which instruments are at where and the recording venue itself. And nothing can substitute that unless one has a basic knowledge of the place and the instruments singularly and collectively. Photos of the venue and during the actual recording certainly helps but one just needs to know to determine whether it sounds "correct" or not. And this is where we get into the "science" of recording: microphone placements, number of microphones, type of recording medium, mixing, mastering and even the materials of the recording medium etc... In plain layman speak, for example, the celli should have a lower, fuller sound than the violins whereas the violins should have a brighter and more "airy" sound than the celli but they also cannot have a "bigger" sound than the celli as it's just physically impossible. This particular album precisely captured the proper size of every single instrument as well as the collectively effect on the overall sound. As hocus-pocus as it may be, one can almost literally "see" the orchestra playing in front of one's eye. And that, to me, is what defines as a "greatest" album. The music scores are ok but I would not call it highly entertaining and it isn't something that you will hear on a regular basis. But it is one hell of a great recording. Yes, flame suit on already and I am fine with those who opposes on what I described. As said before, this is and shall be very subjective.

 

Now. let's try something that more of us can relate to:

 

"Hell Freezes Over", Eagles, Geffen GED 24725

 

This one should be known and/or have a lot more audience than the one above. One of the best live recordings of country/pop music. A number of formats are available (LP, CD, LD, DVD etc...). All are quite good. The DVD with DTS surround give you the biggest "kick" in terms of ambiance with the digital processing but the CD/LP format offer the purist in sound quality. Even the CD comes in various guises (gold CD, 24/192 sampling etc...); those may have their own merits in specific criteria but overall, the original silver CD has the most balanced sound. To me, LP is still the absolute best but we don't need another 8-page debate so I'll just leave it at that. A quick search on YouTube will let you see what the venue was like, where the band members sat and played and where the crowds were. This one is much much easier than the orchestral work above because there are only a small number of people on stage. From the music alone, one can easier pinpoint who was sitting where, who played what instruments and how the crowd reacted at when. This album was done during the era when "unplugged" was the fad so the musical instrument was very basic and simple. Most pop music recordings are very "equalized" but this seems to be an exception; again, perhaps due to the unplugged craze at that time but it reproduced what was being played/sang in quite a faithful manner. Dynamic range and transparency are both great and the sound stage was extremely accurate.

 

That's plentiful to read already so let's pause from here.

Mr Doctor and VCR deliver! Thank you gents.

These 3 are all contenders.

 

 

 

 

 

"Hell Freezes Over", Eagles, Geffen GED 24725

 

This one should be known and/or have a lot more audience than the one above. One of the best live recordings of country/pop music. A number of formats are available (LP, CD, LD, DVD etc...). All are quite good. The DVD with DTS surround give you the biggest "kick" in terms of ambiance with the digital processing but the CD/LP format offer the purist in sound quality. Even the CD comes in various guises (gold CD, 24/192 sampling etc...); those may have their own merits in specific criteria but overall, the original silver CD has the most balanced sound. To me, LP is still the absolute best but we don't need another 8-page debate so I'll just leave it at that. A quick search on YouTube will let you see what the venue was like, where the band members sat and played and where the crowds were. This one is much much easier than the orchestral work above because there are only a small number of people on stage. From the music alone, one can easier pinpoint who was sitting where, who played what instruments and how the crowd reacted at when. This album was done during the era when "unplugged" was the fad so the musical instrument was very basic and simple. Most pop music recordings are very "equalized" but this seems to be an exception; again, perhaps due to the unplugged craze at that time but it reproduced what was being played/sang in quite a faithful manner. Dynamic range and transparency are both great and the sound stage was extremely accurate.

 

That's plentiful to read already so let's pause from here.

 

 

I completely forgot about this! I definitely agree with you, this is one of the best sounding sets I've ever heard and the DVD is just amazing.

Some good stuff in here.

 

pockmark listed several of my favorites

 

Anyone remember years ago when Mtv had their "Unplugged" sets?

 

Grab a band ..rock, etc hand em acoustic instruments, a "live" setting and see what they are really worth.

 

 

Well , absolute Top of the Heap EVER in that series is Alice in Chains.