My top ten favorite audio albums which I listened ever (so far)

[w1k0]

This is the thread in which we list our top ten favorite audio albums. Some albums contain a few discs but they are still single albums – the same concerns the boxes.

Here we list our favorite audio albums. If you listen the separate songs rather than the complete albums this thread is not for you. In such a case you may start your own thread: “My top ten songs”.

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The title of the present thread together with the above statements seems self-explanatory. There is just one additional rule which applies here:

Do not comment here the other forum members’ tastes. They like the other music and you like the other one. That is good. To condemn someone because of his or her taste is not good at all. To praise someone’s taste seems purposeless.

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If you feel that you need more rules to get the right direction visit the following thread: “My top ten favorite books which I read ever (so far)” and read the rules translating “books” to “albums” or “music”, “literary genres” to “music genres”, etc. The rule #5 from that parallel thread does not apply literally here though the albums which you list may be out of stock now.

The same as in each other thread published on our forum the entire “Posting Guidelines” are valid here as well.

[w1k0]

My top ten favorite audio albums (so far):

• Albert Ayler Trio – Spiritual Unity (Jazz, 1964)
• Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come (Jazz, 1959)
• Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (Rock, 1980)
• Charlie Haden – Liberation Music Orchestra (Jazz, 1969)
• Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (Jazz, 1963)
• Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance (Rock, 1978)
• The Residents – Not Available (Rock, 1978)
• Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel – Nail (Rock, 1985)
• Igor Stravinsky – Le Sacre du Printemps; 100th Anniversary – A History of Le Sacre du Printemps (Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire – Pierre Monteux, 1956; Detroit Symphony Orchestra – Antal Dorati, 1981; The Cleveland Orchestra – Riccardo Chailly, 1985; The Cleveland Orchestra – Pierre Boulez, 1991; Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre – Valery Gergiev, 1999; Los Angeles Philharmonic – Esa-Pekka Salonen, 2006)
• Suicide – Suicide (Rock, 1977)

Here is my second ten:

• Albert Ayler Quartet – Ghosts (aka Vibrations) (Jazz, 1964)
• Johann Sebastian Bach – St. Matthew Passion (aka Matthäus–Passion) (The Monteverdi Choir; The London Oratory Junior Choir; The English Baroque Soloists – John Eliot Gardiner, 1988)
• Georges Bizet – Carmen (Teresa Berganza; London Symphony Orchestra – Claudio Abbado, 1977)
• Dirty Three – Ocean Songs (Rock, 1998)
• Faust – Faust (Rock, 1971)
• Lisa Germano – Geek the Girl (Rock, 1994)
• Gong – Flying Teapot (aka Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1) (Rock, 1973)
• Arvo Pärt – Fratres; Tabula Rasa; Symphony No. 3 (Various Artists; Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – Neeme Järvi, 1997)
• Bruce Springsteen – The River (Rock, 1980)
• Swans – Soundtracks for the Blind (Rock, 1996)

Here is my third ten:

• Béla Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches (Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Fritz Reiner, 1955–1958)
• Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica (Rock, 1969)
• John Coltrane – Ascension (Jazz, 1965)
• György Ligeti – Hamburg Concerto; Double Concerto; Ramifications; Requiem – The Ligeti Project IV (Various Artists, 2001–2002)
• The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute (Rock, 2005)
• Olivier Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time; Theme and Variations (Amici Ensemble, 1999)
• Lawrence Butch Morris – Dust to Dust (Jazz, 1990)
• Sun Ra – Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One (Jazz, 1965)
• Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures (Jazz, 1966)
• Edgard Varèse – The Complete Works (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Asko Ensemble – Riccardo Chailly, 1992–1998)

Here is my fourth ten:

• Syd Barrett – Barrett (Rock, 1970)
• Carla Bley, Paul Haines – Escalator Over the Hill (Jazz, 1971)
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Good Son (Rock, 1990)
• Miles Davis – In a Silent Way (Jazz, 1969)
• Claude Debussy – Préludes (Krystian Zimerman, 1991)
• Brian Eno – Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Rock, 1974)
• George Frideric Handel – Messiah (The English Concert and Choir – Trevor Pinnock, 1988)
• Pink Floyd – The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Rock, 1967)
• The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico (Deluxe Edition; Mono Version) (Rock, 1967)
• Giuseppe Verdi – Requiem (Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala – Claudio Abbado, 1980)

Here is my fifth ten:

• Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Safe as Milk (Rock, 1967)
• Don Cherry – “Mu” First Part; “Mu” Second Part (Jazz, 1969)
• The Clash – The Clash (Rock, 1977)
• Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain (Jazz, 1960)
• The Doors – The Doors (Rock, 1967)
• Morphine – Good (Rock, 1992)
• The Red Crayola With the Familiar Ugly – The Parable of Arable Land (Rock, 1967)
• Steve Reich – Drumming (Steve Reich and Musicians, 1974)
• Alfred Schnittke – Concerti Grossi Nos. 1 & 5; Quasi Una Sonata (Various Artists, 1988–1991)
• Antonio Vivaldi – Stabat Mater; Various Works (Andreas Sholl; Ensemble 415 – Chiara Banchini, 1995)

And so on...

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If I should choose just one disc it would be a CD-ROM with all audio albums from my top ten list in MP3 format. In fact I already prepared such a disc – just in a case...

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And here is the illustrated version of my top fifty list published on RYM (Rate Your Music):
My top fifty favorite audio albums which I listened ever (so far)

[doubleshuffle]

.....

[Graham]

In order of release:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (Rock, 1973)
ELO - A New World Record (Rock, 1976)
Television - Marquee Moon (Rock, 1977)
Magazine - Secondhand Daylight (Rock, 1979)
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (Rock, 1980)
Original Cast Album - Little Shop of Horrors (Musical, 1982)
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones (Rock, 1983)
Radiohead - The Bends (Rock, 1995)
Green Day - American Idiot (Rock, 2004)
Muse -The 2nd Law (Rock, 2012)

Actually, the whole list could have been Tom Waits... my favourite might even be the most recent release "Bad As Me", "Real Gone" is brilliant, and "Alice" wonderful, but I'm in a "Swordfishtrombones" mood today.

I do enjoy a lot of jazz and folk, but I couldn't think of any individual album that I'd want to keep with me more than the above. Classical's a different list, I think. I can't weigh up a Brahms symphony, or Mendelsshon's violin concerto against my rock favourites. And the rock albums get played much more often.

I've restricted myself to one album per artist. I've suprised myself with deciding that Muse's latest is actually my favourite, and been honest that for all Radiohead's glorious experimentation it's the guitar thrash of "The Bends" that I play the most often.

Graham

[HomeInMyShoes]

Ten books is easy in comparison to ten albums. So my list is way past ten. One album per artist and alternatives in brackets.

Glenn Gould - Bach, The Goldberg Variations
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Holly Cole - Temptation
Oscar Peterson - Night Train (Canadiana Suite)
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream
Belly - Star (Spaceman EP)
Sons of Freedom - Sons of Freedom
Crash Vegas - Aurora
Billy Bragg - Talking with the Taxman about Poetry (Mr. Love and Justice, disc 2, the one with just Billy and a guitar)
New Order - Low-Life

Pixies - Surfer Rosa / Come on Pilgrim
R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant (Eponymous)
Mary Lou Lord - Live City Sounds
Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
The The - Infected (Soul Mining)
Man or Astroman - Made From Technetium
The Smiths - Louder than Bombs
Mazzy Star - So Tonight that I Might See (She Hangs Brightly)
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (Sand in the Vaseline)
XTC - English Settlement

Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene (Equinoxe)
Marta Deyanova - Rakhmaninov: 24 Preludes
The Replacements - Tim
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
Sarah McLaclan -Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

[Graham]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Oscar Peterson - Night Train

That's the jazz album that almost made my list. What would I knock off to make room for it though? "American Idiot" probably.

Graham