Top Ten "Perfect" Albums!

[Vyn]

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.

[Zzzptm]

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.

[Charger]

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...

[Charger]

My 3rd one is going to be the DIO album!

MAGICA



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

[Vyn]

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

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My 3rd choice... and yes, I seem to have gotten behind!

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette



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)"

[Charger]

Bit of top notch DOOOM Metal for my choice number 4!

DEATH PENALTY




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:

[Zzzptm]

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...



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.

[Zzzptm]

Next one I want to tout is from a heavy prog-psych band, Hanford Flyover



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.

[Vyn]

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

[Zzzptm]

^ That EWF is a stone groove, all right!

[Charger]

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

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!

[Zzzptm]

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.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I will have to post a couple today to catch up!

4th Choice

New Model Army - Thunder And Consolation



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!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

5th Choice

Bruce Dickenson - Chemical Wedding



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"