The Community
ROCK AND ROLL! => All Them Other Guys => Topic started by: Charger on July 22, 2024, 12:44:27 PM
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Okay been a while since our last Top Ten list and I thought this might be an interesting concept to explore.
I think we all have those album where we like EVERY SINGLE TRACK that's on the album. So why not put them up?
And I think the only real restriction here is that you have to really really really LIKE every single track on the album....no yeah but there's 6 awesome tracks so eventhough there's a one complete stinker it should be here.
:nono:
NO!
You must really like every song. No bad songs allowed.
Can we come up with 10 such albums?
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Thick as a Brick? :smug:
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^^^
If you say "Thick as a Brick" ONE MORE TIME you should be given a 7 day ban!! :twitch:
As for the thread concept, it is really gonna take some thinking about! 2 or 3 spring to mind straight away... but 10 might be going some!
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I'm up for it - will definitely be a challenge but then again we might all surprise ourselves :)
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Yeah I have started piling my list and I think I have come up with 6-7 right now...need more research! :)
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^^^
If you say "Thick as a Brick" ONE MORE TIME you should be given a 7 day ban!! :twitch:
That's a fair rule, I can respect that. :D
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My standard is not just "like every song" but end-to-end perfection. I want it to be where, after playing the album whose songs I'm 100% liking, I've got a wonderful buzz from the music.
I'm also going to try and dig deep on this one. We all know albums like Heaven and Hell, Rainbow Rising, and Machine Head are monsters that are well-nigh unstoppable. I'm going to consider albums that might be overlooked.
So I gotta think this one over...
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So how are our lists looking? Are we soon ready to kick things off?
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While I need to finish off my list, I'm good to start.
My main concern is having too many albums by the same band, I will try and limit myself to just the two I think.
I am irritated that some of my favourites never had a perfect album. For instance, Hawkwind always seem to add little bits of spoken word or experimental pieces which I'm not a fan of.
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I managed to compile a list of one album per band which turned out rather shocking! Only one Sabbath album, one from Purple and one from DIO and biggest shock of them all only one from Blaze!! ;D
I think we'll kick this thing off tomorrow then!
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I'll be ready, but I'm taking this one slowly and carefully.
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Okay let's kick things off here!
I'm not necessarily putting these all in order but I think the top 5 will be...
#10
YEAH YEAH YEAHs - SHOW YOUR BONES
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Yeah_Yeah_Yeahs_-_Show_Your_Bones.png)
First I heard of this band was on Late Night With Conan O'Brien where they preformed Cheated Hearts from this album and I was hooked.
Oh I found the clip!! Thank you tube!
They combine some punk elements to hard rock to pop and it all kind of works...Karen O's vocals are quite unique as well which adds to their charm.
When I bought this album right after that preformance I was blown away on how good it was. Solid solid stuff. They have rockier tunes and softer tunes and they're all very good!
Sadly their later albums were never this solid. But this one rocks...HARD!
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My first of ten proposed "perfects" is a big one.
Magma - Theusz Hamtaahk (Trilogie en vive de Trianon)
First Movement "Theusz Hamtaahk" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbXi7WN5n-c
Second Movement "Ẁurdah Ïtah" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYevo_wyd70
Third Movement "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoZIXPvHPoY
The second and third movements have different versions on the studio albums - I consider the Trianon live recordings to be reworkings of those, and in excellent form.
I have many a "good" album, but playing all of the Magma Trianon 2001 concert I consider to be a spiritual event.
The trilogy is essentially a rock opera with interplanetary conflict as its subject.
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I'll go with one. Like Charger I won't necessarily do them in order.
The first choice is quite straight forward...
Yes - Close to the Edge
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Yes-close.jpg)
Only the 3 songs on this album, the side long Close to the Edge (18:43), And You and I (10:12) and Siberian Khatru (8:56) that last track is very close to my favourite Yes song, but the other two are awesome as well.
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I was busy yesterday and forget to post. I'll catch up later!
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Been waiting for Vyn to post so haven't done mine yet either... :) But I'll do one tomorrow as well then.
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I was traveling all day today, but I'm in the hotel room and it's time for me to reckon with another album that gives me chills, thrills, and/or dolla bills. :D
David Gilmour - David Gilmour
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/David_Gilmour_self-titled.jpg/220px-David_Gilmour_self-titled.jpg)
This is how I start my autumns... when the air temperature drops and the sky turns steely with the first proper cold front of October, I have this album on hand to go with that chill feeling in the atmosphere. It's by no means a widely-hailed album by critics, but to me it's a clever gem that I'll always have a fondness for in the cold wet months of October and November.
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Here's two since I tripped and missed a day:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid. Perfect album, songs perfectly sequenced, perfectly packaged (I always thought the goofy-ass sword-dude looked paranoid) and the inner picture is just pure 1970.
I won't bother with a picture, because I'm guessing you all know what it looks like. I won't post a YouTube, because I'm guessing you all have heard it as well haha.
These aren't in any order, either. I just happened to be listening to Paranoid so it came first.
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Number two:
Something a but more esoteric, and a bit more current (relative to Paranoid, anyway):
Groovy Uncle - One Vowel Away from the Truth
About ten years old now, it is just a fantastic set of wonky British sensibility with a late 1960's feel. Nothing too serious, all in good fun, but with some traps that will bite you if you aren't paying attention :)
They mix it up with vocals by Suzi and Glenn and some instrument stuff. I actually got turned on to Suzi via Dark Chunk, and then followed her over to Groovy Uncle. Dark Chunk would get a nod in this list if they had anything approaching a full album of tunes. A lot of fun, but I guess "runk" music just didn't have enough depth lol
Here's the opener, "I Know Where the Sun Shines" This YouTube version sucks, but it gets the point across.
Here's the closing song, "Human Scaffold"
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I recently played the first David Bowie album, the 1967 one, and these tracks remind me of that. Cool stuff!
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Choice number 2
There's 2 Rush albums I think are perfect. But neither is my favourite Rush album but I think they're both in my Top 5. My favourite (Moving Pictures) has the song Witch Hunt on it which I don't really like, and Camera Eye is a little too long... but the rest is just perfection but as a whole it didn;t qualify for this list.
This one has no bad tracks, maybe overall nopthing quite matches the best on Moving Pictures but that's how it goes...
Rush - Test For Echoes (1996)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Rush_Test_for_Echo.jpg)
1. "Test for Echo"
2. "Driven"
3. "Half the World"
4. "The Color of Right"
5. "Time and Motion"
6. "Totem"
7. "Dog Years"
8. "Virtuality"
9. "Resist"
10. "Limbo"
11. "Carve Away the Stone"
I did have to check that Half the World was ok, and it's at least a 7½/10.
Overall it's less synth-y than recent albums, more guitars and the songs are quite light-hearted.
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I need to catch up with what others have posted, but it's nearly mid-night, so I'll do that in the morning.
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My second one is going to be a new one!
SAXON - HELL, FIRE & DAMNATION!
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Hell%2C_Fire_and_Damnation.jpg)
What's extra special about this is that this was also the album that introduced me to Saxon. One of those bands that somehow just slipped through the cracks for me but once again thanks youtube for letting me know that something this EXCELLENT exists!
Not only is this album a high contender for the album of the year title it's also one of those perfect album without a single weak track. I think Super Charger is my least favourite and even that song is brilliant!
Biff's vocals are absolutely brilliant through out and some of his lyrics are just incredible...mainly in Madame Guillotine.
"Just let me introduce you
To Madame Guillotine
She’ll be pleased to meet you
But please don’t lose your head
For Madame Guillotine"
Come on if that's not pure brilliance I don't know what is!! :D
It's incredibly hard to find any faults in this album...in fact I can't find any!
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^ I find no faults, as well.
:applause:
With that release and =1 from Deep Purple, we are in clover this year for hard rock and metal releases.
I'm going to put out there that Rainbow Rising, Machine Head, Made in Japan, Sabotage - those are all albums that give me the thrills, but we know them very well. T**** as a B**** is another one that I truly do consider a great experience, but I don't want to be banned, so... yeah... :smug:
For this top ten list, I want to keep digging deeper for albums I've not talked about much around here that I think deserve a turn in 2024. With that, my next entry is...
Superstition by Spacegoat. Really wish they'd been able to get another album out, but this one will have to stand as their current last, best work. And it's a great album, end-to-end. Riffs obviously influenced by Iommi, coupled with strong female vocals and a solid rhythm section make this a real treasure in my collection.
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Agree about Spacegoat. I was talking to Gina Rios a while back, demanding more music, or at least a tour that stopped by KC. She was enthusiastic but indicated that unless I was willing to finance them, I'd just have to be happy with what I've got. :)
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Damn....that Spacegoat is something I was meant to check out a while ago and had forgotten about it! Need to do it now!
And go ahead Vyn they sound good enough to finance! ;D
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And, today's perfect album from the heartland of America:
Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest
This was the first record I heard by them, not too long after it came out. It was so different from anything "hard rock" at the time that I was blown away and have listened to it regularly ever since. The tone, atmosphere, lyrics, subject matter, Rob's vocal range, the cover, the GUITARS...it sounded like "serious, pissed-off, grown-up music".
In the context of today, I think it is easy to dismiss it as an interesting, if slightly odd-ball effort by JP on their way to their true sound. I think of it more like The Who: I Can See for Miles is not Athena anymore than The Ripper is No Surrender. But no less impactful!
YouTube delivers the goods - here's the whole album, in HD:
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And go ahead Vyn they sound good enough to finance! ;D
If I rolled in that financial league, I'd probably do it!
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I've never fully gotten into that album personally part from the obivous two tracks...and addition of Deceiver... Genocide has it's moments but never liked Rob's vocal melody on that one...
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I've found it is such a tough record to gauge how anyone is going to feel about it. Some folks are all over it, others dislike it entirely, then others are in between.
I went out and bought it the first chance I got, and I remember inviting a friend of mine over to listen to it. I was stoked, and after a few songs he was like, "this is horseshit" lol
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Oh, forgot to add - keep in mind this was when it was new. There was no British Steel, or Turbo or Nostradamus to compare it to. Hell, Black Sabbath was still the ruling active heavy band that everyone targeted.
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I've found it is such a tough record to gauge how anyone is going to feel about it. Some folks are all over it, others dislike it entirely, then others are in between.
I went out and bought it the first chance I got, and I remember inviting a friend of mine over to listen to it. I was stoked, and after a few songs he was like, "this is horseshit" lol
One man's garbage is another man's living room, as my mom used to say. :D
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I've found it is such a tough record to gauge how anyone is going to feel about it. Some folks are all over it, others dislike it entirely, then others are in between.
I went out and bought it the first chance I got, and I remember inviting a friend of mine over to listen to it. I was stoked, and after a few songs he was like, "this is horseshit" lol
I have also noticed that Sad Wings is quite the divisive album indeed. And yes I also do think that if you heard it when it was brand new it might hold a different meaning than for us who heard it the first time in the late 90s early 00s...
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My 3rd one is going to be the DIO album!
MAGICA
(https://dmme.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/diomag1.jpg)
Someone might go...What!??! Why not Holy Diver? Well simply because a track called Caught In The Middle which is a bad song...granted it's the only bad song on the album but it's still a bad song...where as Magica has none. Even the short instrumentals are cool! Not a song there I don't like.
Bests are Fever Dreams, Turn To Stone, Eriel, Challis and Losing My Insanity but as said no bad tracks here...no weak tracks just pure gold. The concept isn't the easiest one to follow but honestly that's secondary to the quality of the music!
Here's DIO playing almost the entire album in Argentina back in 2001
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The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Perfect - and as far as "perfect" albums go, this one tops my list of perfection.
It isn't my fave record, but I think everything about it fits together masterfully; the songs are pretty good, too :)
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.KfkrkJdTixMe-lKgEJqivgHaHa?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
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My 3rd choice... and yes, I seem to have gotten behind!
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/Damned_machine_gun_etiquette.jpg)
While there's about 3 or 4 Damned albums I like better than this one, they all have a misfire somewhere in their listing. And just for clarity this relates to the original vinyl release not any subsequent releases with somewhat lacklustre bonus tracks.
1. "Love Song"
2. "Machine Gun Etiquette"
3. "I Just Can't Be Happy Today"
4. "Melody Lee"
5. "Anti-Pope"
6. "These Hands"
7. "Plan 9 Channel 7"
8. "Noise, Noise, Noise"
9. "Looking at You" (MC5 cover)
10. "Liar"
11. "Smash It Up (Part 1)
12. "Smash It Up (Part 2)"
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Bit of top notch DOOOM Metal for my choice number 4!
DEATH PENALTY
(https://i.discogs.com/VSTa8HM61nHYi20Smt8V8wiByrT7Rsv7HVV-R-OzGdU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:402/w:399/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTYyMTk3/NDItMTQxNDAxNzM5/My0yNDQ3LmpwZWc.jpeg)
When Cathedral called it quits Gaz Jennings started a new band called Death Penalty (taking it's name from a Witchfinder General album of the same name) with singer Michelle Nocon and the result was a fantastic outing of excellent DOOM METAL!
Powered on by incredible riffing from Gaz and Michelle's suberb vocals this album is an absolute masterpiece.
It was such a shame this band didn't get to carry on. They did preform live few times but then just faded away...truly a shame as this had huuuuge pontential and being one of the greatest debut albums of all time. Sadly remained the only album of the band.
Here's my favourite tune from the album:
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I need to get two more in... let's see...
I need to tip my hat to Chris Joss, for his ability to make some amazing instrumental tracks. Although he's not limited to just 60s/70s-sounding pieces, he's at his strength there.
This was the first of his albums that I listened to after hearing his "Tune Down" used in an episode of Better Call Saul - the part where Mike does a stakeout on the Kettlemans' home. Great track, I had to run down more from this guy Chris Joss...
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3926277404_10.jpg)
It's a soundtrack for a movie that was never made. From the sound of it, the movie was never made around 1966 or 1967. It didn't star Gene Hackman and Steve McQueen and it didn't feature stunning location shots all around the world.
I love to put this album on and let my imagination run wild with the tracks. It either gets my writing juices flowing or I imagine the movie I've never seen, down to the nth detail. It's not just great on every track, it gives me so much more fun with whatever I'm doing as I listen to it. It's like mental Legos.
I took a business trip to Albuquerque last year and played nothing but Chris Joss as I drove around, it was perfect, especially as I discovered a few locations used in Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. Great fun.
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Next one I want to tout is from a heavy prog-psych band, Hanford Flyover
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3754958016_16.jpg)
This one's a complete palette-cleanser, a great chill-out disc, a work that stirs reflections... it's a strong offering from the band and truly takes me away as I play it through. It's soft on the edges without being mushy.
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Machine Gun Etiquette was on my short list.
I had never heard anything from Death Penalty before, but recall seeing the name somewhere. After listening to that bit you posted Charger, I have to agree that it is a heavy slab of doom!
Another band I have never heard of - Hanford Flyover. Will have to go find something from them to listen to at some point it seems!
Next up from me is a record that has always been loved by a lot of people including music critics:
That's The Way of the World by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
I was very much anti-popular music when they released that. I mean, come on. "Shining Star"? Fuck off with that bullshit.
As my musical palette matured, I came to see that the entire record is a perfectly crafted piece of sociological analysis presented as music. It was rather innovative as well, for ear-food so obviously meant for mass consumption. Others were doing funk, rock, soul, pop better, individually, but these guys managed to mix it all together and come up with something that sounded good for two entire sides of an album. It just took me about twenty years to figure that out :)
(https://iconicauctions.com/ItemImages/000078/78013a_lg.jpeg)
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^ That EWF is a stone groove, all right!
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I'm gonna carry on with the DOOOM for my number 5. (After which I think I'll go in order leading up to top 3)
MOUNT SALEM - ENDLESS
(https://i.discogs.com/R4yRLEyDDeHlnlpF1vbewqPDXiyXE58gWxI-4K81QQM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:572/w:573/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU0Njk5/ODgtMTM5NDE4NTEw/NS0xMzY0LmpwZWc.jpeg)
This is yet another band that only released one album and that's a damn big shame as they are absolutely BRILLIANT!
I was soooo hoping for another album when I got this one back in 2014 and I understood they were going to do more material but then they just disappeared... :(
Emily Kopplin's vocals are sublime and Kyle Morrison's 70s style guitar playing is top notch. Emily also plays the organ here and that adds another layer to the doomy music and it works really really well.
No bad songs on this one... Good Times, and Lucid are both fantastic!
Brilliant album this one no two doubts about it!
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(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2157575494_16.jpg)
Like =1 and Whooosh!, Time//Wounds plays all the way through, no stopping. Excellently played, I think it's Mos Generator's best album to date. Both Shadowlands and Abyssinia were fantastic, this one takes things to a new direction and I love how I feel at the end of listening to it. Covers a wide range of sounds, but is overall a hard rock album, very much like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Caress of Steel.
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I will have to post a couple today to catch up!
4th Choice
New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/ThunderConsolation.jpg)
Going back maybe 10 or 15 years this wouldn't have been on my list because I wasn't a fan of the tracks Vagabonds or Archway Towers. But as we grow old our tastes must change because I actually quite like those two now!
"I Love the World" 5:08
"Stupid Questions" 3:26
"225" 4:47
"Inheritance" 3:23
"Green and Grey" 5:47
"Ballad of Bodmin Pill" 4:47
"Family" 4:01
"Family Life" 3:00
"Vagabonds" 5:21
"Archway Towers" 4:54
I was going to post a live version but they didn't have the violin on it and it just sounded wrong!
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5th Choice
Bruce Dickenson - Chemical Wedding
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/The_Chemical_Wedding.jpg)
For a long time I only really listened to songs 1-6 and then I thought I ought to listen to the rest of the songs a little more and realised that they were rather good too... so if I play the album it's all the way through baby!!
1. "King in Crimson"
2. "Chemical Wedding"
3. "The Tower"
4. "Killing Floor"
5. "Book of Thel"
6. "Gates of Urizen"
7. "Jerusalem"
8. "Trumpets of Jericho"
9. "Machine Men"
10. "The Alchemist"
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I clicked on the New Model Army tune and listened to a bit of it, then decided to listen to the Bruce D song. I though I had stopped NMA, but I hadn't. So when I clicked "Machine Men" it sounded like "Machine Men" by Bruce Dickenson mixed with "Vagabonds" by New Model Army. But with no attempt at synchronization.
It sounded so bad for a moment I determined that Kilo had lost his damn mind.
But, no. The whereabouts of KDC's Captain Cortex remain known. My noodle, on the other hand, is questionable.
With that as a completely unrelated background story, I present my next selection for the most perfect album ever created by man, an album so perfect some have called it Jesus in the form of vinyl with sound waves stamped onto it. A set of songs so incredible that wars have been averted simply by mentioning its name, whores have become virgins, volcanoes have recapped themselves.
If those superlatives seem hyperbolic, at the very least it's a collection of 11 pretty good tunes:
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
I've talked about this platter before; a brief recap is that these songs are mostly covers originally conceived by pioneers in the blues genre. Covers done in a way that is unmistakably Chicago. Covers done so well that to the uninitiated they sound like The Paul Butterfield Blues Band were the pioneers.
I can only imagine how awesome those guys must have been playing live in a dive bar in south-side Chicago.
Here's a picture. I don't think the internet can handle another link to a video that causes those sounds to enter the universe again:
(https://www.justfortherecord.co.nz/assets/Images/Albums/81DCRuSH25L.-AC-SL1500-.jpg)
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I was considering Chemical Wedding but there are two songs I don't really like all that much...the title track which drags on with that mid tempo chug that never gets going and Trumpets Of Jericho which is bit on the meh side...so it didn't make it to my list.
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Alright time to move to the TOP 5 albums
In 5th place we have
BENEDICTUM - UNCREATION
(https://i.discogs.com/T1hpLsHhef5e9gW4a-lTX2DzMozSViaczsAPcMdlAXw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:528/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4MjIx/NjQtMTUwNzEyMzIy/My0xNjIyLmpwZWc.jpeg)
I discovered this band back when Tim Ripper Owens forum as going strong and from a friend there (who has since passed away in a car accident, RIP buddy Bulletproof) who was raving about a new band with stellar vocals...and he linked the title track of this album and I was instantly blown away.
Since then I became friends with Veronica Freeman on facebook and I was a big part of the facebook group and also got liner note thanks from Veronica on two of their albums.
Sadly after their 4th album Obey (where one Tony Martin also made an appearance) the band disbanded after the devastating death of Veronica's husband...
But there are talks that they might come back.
The guitar work of Pete Wells (who is the biggest fan of the movie Event Horizon I've ever known! :D ) is absolutely fantastic here...great riffing and stellar soloing as well.
Here's the full album for your listening pleasure!
Uncreation is one of those absolutely perfect debut albums. Not a single weak track and plus there are two Black Sabbath covers there. And especially Heaven And Hell works really well!
The title track, Two Steps To The Sun, #4, Wicca and Valkyrie Rising are all absolutely STELLAR!
Benedictum is one of my all time favourite bands and they deserved to be much much bigger than they ever got!
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When listening to YouTube recordings, I simply click the play arrow and listen to then on my computer.
I did the same thing for the Benedictum video you posted, Charger. For about 20 seconds and I had to turn it off.
...
Then I turned on my stereo rig, set my computer to cast sound to it, and am blasting it through some real equipment.
Sounds great at 0930 on a Saturday morning!
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My next choice is from Jethro Tull.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Uogc1hSlL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
And it's Aqualung, famous for being more than one song on two sides of an album. :smug:
Aqualung is also famous for being a concept album once the fans got hold of it, as the band never intended it to be anything of the sort. It was that fan/critic decision to make it a concept album that got Ian Anderson to decide, "Well, I'll give you a concept album, all right!" and the TaaB release with just the one song, intended as something of a parody.
But I digress, as Aqualung is the topic here. Tracks include standouts Aqualung, Cross-Eyed Mary, Locomotive Breath, and Hymn 43. But also on the album are some beautiful, more progressive tunes that create a lovely musical tapestry blah blah blah, look, it's a great album and deserves to be dusted off and given a spin again for those that haven't played it in a while or given an honest try by those that haven't heard it at all.
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You took my album! lol It was on my list - fantastic recording!
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You took my album! lol It was on my list - fantastic recording!
:smug:
Ha-ha, I snaked ya, Vyn! I snaked ya!
It truly is the best full album from the Jethro Tull catalog.
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My next one is American Beauty from The Grateful Dead.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Grateful_Dead_-_American_Beauty.jpg)
On a whim one day in a used record shop, I picked up a Grateful Dead album. It had Truckin' on it, and I remembered that from the radio. None of the other nine songs on the album rang a bell, so it was just on that one single that I bought American Beauty.
Glad I did. I was recently getting into Texas folk/country music and this fit right in with that vibe. It's got beautiful layers throughout. I couldn't stop playing it for like a month and I frequently go back to it. It's been a good friend to me for almost 40 years. Sure, I bought it for Truckin', but I stayed for Box of Rain and Ripple and the rest.
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My 6th choice (and I'll do my 7th later today so as not to get behind again!)
Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer
I shan't bother with the cover or a video! :D
My 3rd favourite Sabbath album, behind Sabotage and another one, but Sabotage has Am I going Insane on it (Aaaarrrggghhh!!!), just imagine how good that album would be if it had another song as good as say Hole in the Sky instead!
Like with an earlier selection I would suggest that for the first 20 years I had this album I couldn't call it perfect, I didn't much like Master of Insanity and Letters From Earth felt a little like filler... but again I've grown to really love those songs. And if anything Sins of the Father has faded a little even though I still love it. There's a bunch of songs that are right up there with the best that RID ever recorded!
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Number Seven:
No Remorse by Motörhead
TWO records, basically a best of but with some new tunes. I can listen to all one hour and twenty minutes of it and enjoy every track.
Speaking of which, here it is in its entirety:
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My 7th pick is:
Yes - Going for the One
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/95/Yes_Going_for_the_One.jpg)
I know I've already posted one Yes album, it's difficult to say which of their 70s albums is the best... we can definitely exclude Tales of From Topographic Oceans and Tormato, but the rest from The Yes Album through to Going for the One are all of a par. 5 tracks including the 15 minute "Awaken" which may just be my favourite Yes song.
1. "Going for the One"
2. "Turn of the Century"
3. "Parallels"
4. "Wonderous Stories"
5. "Awaken"
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One might say putting a best of collection here is cheating....BUT since it does have new tracks I'll let it slide cause I'm a nice guy and all... :smug:
On 4th Place I have
TONY MARTIN - THORNS
(https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b273d94018e19199b6d5472a87b0)
This is an album that grabbed me right away! First listen BAM! This is some great stuff here. And ofcourse it jumped right up to the top of the albums of 2022 list and stayed there through the year...and hell I think it'll probably be very high on the list of best albums of the whole 2020's!
No weak tracks here. Pure magic from start to finish.
Best track is the first track but the rest aren't too far behind!
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^ AW HELL YES!!! :headbanger:
Now I know how Vyn felt when I snaked one of his picks! :D
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^ AW HELL YES!!! :headbanger:
Now I know how Vyn felt when I snaked one of his picks! :D
:evillaugh:
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One might say putting a best of collection here is cheating....BUT since it does have new tracks I'll let it slide cause I'm a nice guy and all... :smug:
In my defense I didn't even think about it until after I added it to my list, and then it was like, "uh, this is a compilation. But with FOUR new tracks!" hahaha
Up next, we have Aqualung...I mean Powerage by AC/DC. I think Let There Be Rock and Highway to Hell both had individual songs that were better, but Powerage still set a high bar and all of the tracks hit or exceeded it. A very solid collection of hard-ass blues music that ends as good as it starts.
(https://img.discogs.com/rG7-iAQ0L-c0AcOrO5JHy05XH8Q=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1302831-1267059690.jpeg.jpg)
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Then we're getting down to the finest of the fine...The MOST perfect of the perfect..the top 3!!
And on 3rd place we have....
:drummer:
DEEP PURPLE - MACHINE HEAD
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Machine_Head_album_cover.jpg)
What's there to say? This is pure brilliance from back to front, start to finish, inside out!
Albums like this don't come around too often when just everything clicks into place. Perfection.
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Glad to see Machine Head get a good mention, as I was leaving it off my list so I could make room for more variety.
Like Purpendicular.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71xgEpCqgdL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)
After all the chaos of Blackmore's departure in the early 90s. the band chose to do things much, much differently. This is that differently, recorded in the studio. It flows extremely well and is such a familiar-sounding album from the first listen. Has it been almost 30 years since it came out? Yep. It has. And I would put it right up alongside Machine Head for excellence, track by track never missing or making me wait patiently for the one I liked better to come up on the mix. It has aged so well and has such a wonderful feel to it... such a pleasure to be playing it now.
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8th Choice
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Rush_Grace_Under_Pressure.jpg)
Such a good album. It may not have the absolute classics from the earlier albums but this is such a consistent album. It's certainly a Top 5 album of theirs possibly Top 3.
1. "Distant Early Warning"
2. "Afterimage"
3. "Red Sector A"
4. "The Enemy Within"
5. "The Body Electric"
6. "Kid Gloves"
7. "Red Lenses"
8. "Between the Wheels"
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Eight:
2022's The Singularity by that little ol' band from Texas...Wo-Fat!
The whole freakin' thing, right here, right now, because words don't suffice:
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Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Of course, I could look it up, and probably will at some point, but I recall that there is a lot of backstory to this record. Or, rather, a lot of inspiration. Stemming from Geddy's grandmother/mother? I think, and her experience in Poland with the Nazi's.
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Purpendicular! Yes that would have been my other Purple album that could have been eligible for the list.
And at #2 we have
BLAZE - TENTH DIMENSION
(https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/blaze-tenth-dimension-500x500.jpg)
I have talked about this album before on these lists so no need to say anything other than this is pure perfection from start to finish plain and simple.
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Eight:
2022's The Singularity by that little ol' band from Texas...Wo-Fat!
This one's a total scorcher, no doubt. And you very nearly snaked *another* of my picks, but I got one Wo Fat album that I enjoy a teensy bit more than The Singularity...
(https://i9.ytimg.com/s_p/OLAK5uy_mT61P5YSOZERLK-C8zrSdSVzIgWyLmOV8/sddefault.jpg?sqp=CJyazrUGir7X7AMICM-MvLUGEAE=&rs=AOn4CLAPorRQSFk-5GRFscv0780dF0FpTQ&v=1722746447)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQxvEz21R1U
Best thing about a Wo Fat album is that it's not going to mess around. It keeps things straightforward with bass, drums, guitar, and vocals and the adopted the early Deep Purple philosophy of not recording anything they couldn't also play the same way or better live. They also kept a page from Mötorhead about staying true to their roots, in this case blues-based metal from the early 70s. The boogie, the jam, the riff, the groove, it's all there, every album. And I'm spinning this one once I'm done with the suggestions immediately prior to it, thank you Vyn and Charger! :yes:
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...blues-based metal from the early 70s. The boogie, the jam, the riff, the groove, it's all there, every album.
I can hear Iommi's imprimatur all over their guitar tone, and it's great.
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Dawn broke on April 8th, 1985 just as it had always done. But when the sun went down that evening, it did so on a changed world. That is the day Slayer unleashed their second long-player into the collective ear of the human race, a record that 39 years and four months into the future would become my number nine offering: Hell Awaits.
Brocephus, this isn't music. Hell Awaits is a sonic assault akin to a nightmare ride on Satan's own rollercoaster. There is life before listening to it, then there is life after listening to it...and they are not the same. The raw production, frenzied guitar work, medieval combat-style percussion, guttural vocals, and creepy-ass basslines refuse to be integrated into anyone's preconceived notions. They demand to be dealt with on their own terms, or they will simply send the listener home crying.
Enjoy!
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9th Pick
The Damned - The Black Album
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Thedamnedblackalbum.jpg)
I'm only really looking at the first CD release as the original 1980 double album had a 4th side of songs recorded live in front of their fan club members. Whilst there was a punky element to the album I thinks it's fair to say the goth rock is to the fore here. The 17-minute Curtain Call takes up the whole of side 3 and often gets sited as an example of Prog!
1. "Wait for the Blackout"
2. "Lively Arts"
3. "Silly Kids Games"
4. "Drinking About My Baby"
5. "Twisted Nerve"
6. "Hit or Miss"
7. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
8. "Sick of This and That"
9. "The History of the World (Part 1)"
10. "13th Floor Vendetta"
11. "Therapy"
12. "Curtain Call"
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Photo-Finish by Rory Gallagher
I was trying to think of a non-prog album that left me 100% satisfied and remembered good ol' Mr. Gallagher! And I *love* Photo-Finish. There are albums of his with better individual songs on them, but none that flow as well as this one. It's not a concept album, just 8 songs that string really well together. Bonus is that you get Rory Gallagher's guitar work, which is about as good as an axeman gets. It's got fun tracks, sad tracks, rocking tracks, thinking tracks... it's a great work of art.
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The time for my last one has arrived. I ended up with more of these, "perfect," albums than I thought I would at the start. I mentioned Mercyful Fate's Don't Break the Oath previously, and here are a few more:
Black Sabbath Black Sabbath
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed
Herbie Hancock Headhunters
Sabbath's debut would have nailed it but with one imperfection - "Evil Woman". Warner Brothers rectified that issue on the American release, of course, but the fact that there was some bobbling going on with the album makes it imperfect enough to not make the cut, for me. And the two jazz albums are, well, jazz. Not anything wrong with that, but they seem outside of the spirit of this endeavor. I mean, what's next, classical? Indigenous hollow-log thumping? lol
The others listed above each have their own, very slight imperfections. This one here, though, does not:
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin' by Gerry and the Pacemakers.
HAHAHA, no.
Seriously, though, number ten:
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
Here's a YouTube video of the title track - I couldn't find the entire record in one video, but it doesn't matter because the format does it no justice at all. Obviously a reggae outfit, Bob and crew performed the tracks on this album with a solid blues-rock underpinning that make each one of them stand out. Collectively they all make sense, and I can listen to this thing on my record player repeatedly. Tackling the big things in life - faith, getting along with other people, individual intimacy...yet it never feels heavy.
Not necessarily my number one perfect album, but a damn excellent release.
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Well well well...it's time for THE most PERFECT album of them all.
And as you lot might have noticed one band has been absent from my list so far....but no more.
BLACK SABBATH - THE MOB RULES!!
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/SabbathMob.jpg)
Absolutely no weak spots on this album. This has to be THE most consistant album ever made. The quality of all the songs is incredible. And there's a whole bunch of variety here as well. No two songs are twins but they are all brothers.
This was the high water mark of Black Sabbath for sure. They made some great albums after this one but no album matched this in perfection...not before...not after....
I can boldly say that no other band ever has touched this piece of perfection....and I seriously doubt there will ever be an album this perfect again.
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Excellent way to wrap things up!
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@Charger
My 4th or 5th favourite Sabbath album (depending which I prefer on any given day with H&H)! But given that those 5 are my favourite 5 albums of all time shouldn't lead you to think that I don't adore Mob Rules, I do.
FINAL PICK
This will probably come as no surprise to anyone...
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbth
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Black_Sabbath_SbS.jpg)
Yes! I even love Fluff!! although I agree that it is maybe a minute too long! But from start to finish this is Sabbath at their finest, even Ozzy hits the vocals right out of the park... so much so that he would never be able to re-produce them live ever again!
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I can't argue with those Sabbath picks! I was literally writing out my post about Sabbath's debut when it struck me that they had that song swap. And it doesn't even have to do with liking one of the songs over the other so much as Evil Woman just did not fit with the rest of the record. It's like going out on a date with what you think is a beautiful woman and then later discovering they have a rather large guitar pick. JARRING
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Yes! I even love Fluff!! although I agree that it is maybe a minute too long! But from start to finish this is Sabbath at their finest, even Ozzy hits the vocals right out of the park... so much so that he would never be able to re-produce them live ever again!
I don't like Fluff at all but agree about Ozzy's vocals here. He sure nailed them on this one...indeed in a way he could never redo them again in a live setting.
Looking For Today is another track that I don't much care for but the rest...pure gold Jerry pure GOLD!
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Had a thought about three more from Steely Dan/Walter Fagen:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Aja_album_cover.jpg/220px-Aja_album_cover.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Steely_Dan_-_Gaucho.jpg) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Donald_Fagen_-_The_Nightfly.jpg)
Aja, Gaucho, and The Nightfly. The last two Steely Dan albums and Donald Fagen's first solo album. I love these three, end to end to end, and they are a great experience to play all the way through. Different moods, textures, and the like in each release, but the songwriting and arrangements are 100% on point with each album. True desert island discs.
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Time for some honorable mentions of albums that just didn't make it on the list or were cut due to just having one album per band.
BLACK SABBATH - Paranoid
See Vyn's comments on the album BUT one per band!
Savatage - Hall Of The Mountain King
Leaving this out really hurt but only room for 10...Suberb album from start to finish.
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
One of THE best concept albums of all time...But there are few tracks that aren't 100% perfect.
Alice Cooper - Brutal Planet and Along Came A Spider
Either one of these could have made the list but barely didn't.
Slayer - South Of Heaven
Again...just edged out...can't say a bad thing about this album either.
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Lether Rebel is the weakling that kind of dropped this out of the race...
Deep Purple - Purpendicular
See ZZz's comments on the album but again one album per band so this had to go...
And last but not least
RAINBOW - RISING
Damn Do You Close Your Eyes...if that song would have a bit more punch this would have been in top 3...but that song just isn't quite up to par with the other works of pure brilliance so it didn't make it to the list...but goddamn...goddamn...
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RAINBOW - RISING
Damn Do You Close Your Eyes...if that song would have a bit more punch this would have been in top 3...but that song just isn't quite up to par with the other works of pure brilliance so it didn't make it to the list...but goddamn...goddamn...
I would have loved to have dropped this in the list, but also put off with that same song. It doesn't even fit tone and timbre wise. Add in the fact that it's weak-sauce and I just could not rationalize it.
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I'd love to have included Sabotage... but for that god awful Am I Going Insane (Radio)!! I don't mind Supertzar, it's not a classic but it doesn't drag the album down... like AIGI(R)
Perhaps we should do a top 10 with the most perfect Half of an Album!! I'd have so many more to choose from. :)
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Sabotage surely would be up there on that list! But yeah...as a whole...never ever because of that damn song...it is THE worst song Sabbath has ever done that's for damn sure!
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Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
Damn, I keep finding these for random reasons. Someone mentioned he was from Maine and then I remembered the line from this song "It's so lonely in the state of Maine!" and then how I love every other track on it... yeah, it's a great one.
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That album has never received the accolades it deserves on a broader scale. Those who know, know. Those who don't...think BOC began and ended with Don't Fear the Reaper.,
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Just saw this thread from the recent past, and am thinking of giving it a go. :think:
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Yes please! Always happy to see more takes on these top ten lists of ours!
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Yes please! Always happy to see more takes on these top ten lists of ours!
Hear! Hear! Most certainly!
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Just scanned through the thread... I really should have chosen differently (ie only 1 per band), never mind.
Typhon, go for it, I'm sure your choices will be very interesting.
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Absolutely - get down on it!
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Holy smoke! I don't usually participate in these music threads all that much, so I didn't expect this level of enthusiasm. I'll have to try and work on this this weekend.
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^^^^^^
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Holy smoke! I don't usually participate in these music threads all that much, so I didn't expect this level of enthusiasm. I'll have to try and work on this this weekend.
We just like being able to see the music we enjoy from different perspectives, there are some potential gems out there that we've overlooked, but someone can bring to our attention. :)
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First I will present my list of perfect albums in chronological order, keeping to the rule that one must really really like every song. The second list is my comment concerning each choice. In a separate post I will present a list of near misses. Looking at some of the choices others have made, has led me to believe they were not as strict as I was. I could not even make it to 10 on my list.
1. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
2. Paranoid by Black Sabbath
3. Master Of Reality by Black Sabbath
4. Machine Head by Deep Purple
5. We're An American Band by Grand Funk Railroad
6. Never Say Die by Black Sabbath
7. Bricks Are Heavy by L7
8. Bloody Hammers by Bloody Hammers
9. Scatter The Rats by L7
Comments for each selection:
1. I know there is some dispute about Evil Woman being on this album, but I've owned this release, in one form or another, for over 50 years without having that song on it. In fact, I did not even know it was on the European version for the first 35 of those years. Therefore , I only know this album in the condition it was shown to me. A perfect condition.
2. Is it really even necessary to defend this selection? A groundbreaking, mind blowing, everlasting piece of work.
3. A somewhat heavier sound, yet, that same upper level of perfection. I challenge anybody who did not have this selection on their list to tell me where the flaw is.
4. I'm sure all Community members know how great this album is and why it has to be here.
5. A quintessential rock & roll band: guitars, drums, singer. Good old fashion hard rock at its best.
6. Sorry Charger, but I honestly love every track on this album, even Breakout.
7. Were it not for Sabbath, this would probably be my favorite band. And this release containing no less than 11 songs is only some of their great work.
8. Perhaps the least known band on my list. Anyone here who has not heard this release from start to finish, is really missing something. Trust me.
9. The most incredible thing about this particular selection is that the band released it nearly 20 years after ending their run. They got back together and produced this group of new songs for their fans, and it is perfect.
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3. A somewhat heavier sound, yet, that same upper level of perfection. I challenge anybody who did not have this selection on their list to tell me where the flaw is.
Cough Cough Cough...Sweet Leaf. ;)
If not for that song that album would have most certainly been on the list.
6. Sorry Charger, but I honestly love every track on this album, even Breakout.
Well I can accept your apology. :lol:
GFR is a band I know about but don't think I've heard a single song...so might have to check that album out....L7 I only remember from your posts back in the day...I think I checked them out back then but can't remember so I'll do that again. Bloody Hammers I will check out as well!
This is why we do these lists. Potentially finding bands we've never even heard off...and maybe end up liking them too! ;D
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We're going to have to do something about your cough. :P
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GFR is a band I know about but don't think I've heard a single song...so might have to check that album out....
Here is one of my favorite songs from the album. Remember, this is not metal, it is hard rock. Also, you should listen to this through a stereo system, not your phone or ordinary computer speakers. That way you will get the proper sound.
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Todd Rundgren's production on We're an American Band and Shinin' On, the follow-up, is phenomenal. The band was at its peak with both of those albums, in terms of combining musical success with critical acclaim.
To be sure, I prefer Born to Die from the GFR catalog, even though it was done as the band was coming apart and needed to end. Good Singin' Good Playin' is also a strong album, that one with Frank Zappa producing, but the band really show their fatigue in those tracks.
I can't fault picking We're An American Band, and it's well worth exploring. Their first live album is also worth a spin, it's got some great energy in those performances.