10 Best Albums of All-Time

[glynparson]

These are my ten favorite from lesser known or lesser selling artists.

1. Bryter Later- Nick Drake (All his albums are fantastic)
2. Tago Mago- Can
3. Os Mutantes-Os Mustantes
4. Oar- Skip Spence
5. Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators- 13th Floor Elevators
6. Call Of The Valley-Shivkumar Sharma, Brijbhushan Kabra & Haripra
7. Modern Lovers-Modern Lovers
8. Million Seller- The Pooh Sticks
9. Chelsea Girl- Nico
10. The Last Puff- Spooky Tooth

Some albums i also love but i thought mybe a little too well known for the list i just made but still more obscure. my top ten has also changed from original post. i will repost a list.


1. Love Devotion Surrender-Santana/Mahavishnu
2. Da Capo-Love
3. Marquee Moon-Television
4. Trout Mask Replica- Captain beefheart
5. White Light White Heat-The Velvet Underground
6. Hoist- Phish
7. Sea Change-Beck (he's famous album not as much, but is a critics favorite)
8. pacific ocean blue- dennis wilson

[familytoad]

This is harder for me than choosing my favorite baseball cards

I guess these change by mood, as others have commented...here is today's list in random order:

R.E.M - Automatic For The People
Rainbow-Rising
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Jethro Tull - Songs From The Wood
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
Metallica - the Black Album
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
Ambrosia- Somewhere I've Never Traveled
Eagles- Hotel California
Sister Hazel - Fortress
Carole King - Tapestry
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Coil

Have fun!

[Paul S]

Milestones - Miles Davis
The Black Sea - XTC
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
Disraeli Gears - Cream
The Inner Mounting Flame - Mahavishnu Orchestra
Never Mind The Bullocks, Here Come The Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols
(Plays) Villa Lobos - Julian Bream
Imperial Bedroom - Elvis Costello
In A Silent Way - Miles Davis
In The Wee Hours - Sinatra
Then Play On - Fleetwood Mac

and on and on...

[bnorth]

AC/DC pick any 10 of their albums as long as Back in Black is #1.

[milkit1]

Originally Posted by glynparson

Some albums i also love but i thought mybe a little too well known for the list i just made but still more obscure. my top ten has also changed from original post. i will repost a list.


1. Love Devotion Surrender-Santana/Mahavishnu
2. Da Capo-Love
3. Marquee Moon-Television
4. Trout Mask Replica- Captain beefheart
5. White Light White Heat-The Velvet Underground
6. Hoist- Phish
7. Sea Change-Beck (he's famous album not as much, but is a critics favorite)
8. pacific ocean blue- dennis wilson

Nice to see Pacific Ocean Blue on a list. Heres my signed Dennis poster from that album
dennis wilson.jpg

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by glynparson

What do you guys think are the 10 best albums of all time. My list every album was released before I was born in 1972

1. Revolver- The Beatles
2. Astral Weeks- Van Morrison
3. Sgt. Peppers- The Beatles
4. Everyboby Knows This Is Nowhere- Neil young
5. Blonde On Blonde-Bob Dylan
6. White Light/ White Heat- The Velvet Underground
7. American Beauty- Grateful Dead
8. All Things Must Pass- George Harrison
9. Stand!- Sly and the Family Stone
10. Who's Next- The Who
Honorable mention to: Trout Mask Replica- Captain Beefheart, Stooges-Stooges, Psychedelic Sounds Of The-13th Floor Elevators, Plastic Ono Band- John Lennon, Axis Bold As Love- Jimi Hendrix Experience

Reading Bill's comment, this is very interesting - the OP asked for us to list the '10 best', not our '10 favorite', yet he clearly listed some albums that no one could possibly consider to be among the '10 best' ever, so I think he really meant '10 favorite'. Not that they aren't great albums - I love most of them, but this just shows how subjective of a question this is.

Also, I posted my list without reading anyone else's, so as not to be influenced. Now I'm seeing other albums that would have to be in my list;e.g-'American Beauty', so it makes me realize that I can't even limit myself to 10 favorites - probably need at least 50.

Maybe 50 isn't even enough - over the years I have culled down my vinyl collection to about 250 albums, every now and then adding another. It's as small as it could possibly get . I have almost all of Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw and Roy Buchanan - can't imagine letting go of any of them, but none are 'top 10' material.

Great thread - thanks for the memories!

[Al C.risafulli]

I just saw this thread and thought I'd chime in (my first non-cards post ever on 54) because I'm a music buff.

This is always an interesting question because our lists are always colored by music we like and don't like. My "BEST" albums list would not include Michael Jackson's "Thriller" or any Beatles albums, but it would be tough to argue that they don't belong in a Top 10 all-time list of albums. I just don't like either artist, and so they're not in my list.

So my list is a list of the top 10 albums of all-time, by artists I like. It has nothing to do with sales or popularity, just a list of artistically solid albums, each of which is a powerful body of work.

1) The Clash - "London Calling"
2) John Coltrane - "A Love Supreme"
3) The Rolling Stones - "Exile on Main Street"
4) Pavement - "Slanted and Enchanted"
5) The Replacements - "Let It Be"
6) The Who - "Who's Next"
7) Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Electric Ladyland"
8) Nirvana - "Nevermind"
9) Traffic - "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys"
10) The Pixies - "Doolittle"

Honorable mentions to:

Led Zeppelin II
Prince - "Purple Rain"
The Band - "The Last Waltz"
Husker Du - "Flip Your Wig"
The Minutemen - "Double Nickels On The Dime"
Miles Davis - "Steamin'"
Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Time Out"
Bob Dylan - "Blonde On Blonde"


-Al

[jiw98]

Not listed in any order, just 10 albums I like.

1) Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
2) untitled (Zeppelin IV) - Led Zeppelin
3) Harvest - Neil Young
4) Toys in the Attic - Aerosmith
5) Hotel California - Eagles
6) Abbey Road - Beatles
7) Centerfield - John Fogerty
8) Night at the Opera - Queen
9) Fly Like an Eagle - Steve Miller Band
10) Hot August Night - Neil Diamond

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Reading Bill's comment, this is very interesting - the OP asked for us to list the '10 best', not our '10 favorite', yet he clearly listed some albums that no one could possibly consider to be among the '10 best' ever, so I think he really meant '10 favorite'. Not that they aren't great albums - I love most of them, but this just shows how subjective of a question this is.

Right, and that's all I'm asking for, Scott, is some clarification. Are we listing the 10 greatest albums of all-time, or our ten favorite albums? Because those lists are going to be vastly different.

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys might be on my ten greatest albums list, but it wouldn't be in my top 100 favorite albums of all-time. Rio by Duran Duran might end up in my top ten favorite albums of all-time, but I doubt it would supplant something like Carole King's Tapestry from any all-time great list. Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends and Revolver by the Beatles might be listed in a lot of top ten all-time lists, but I don't know if I'd put Revolver ahead of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Abbey Road on my all-time top ten list.

I just don't know how I'm supposed to respond until this is made clear.

[the 'stache]

Ok, I'm going to try and come up with my top ten all-time favorite album list, which is a near impossibility. These are the ten albums, if I were forced to live on a deserted island the rest of my life (with a lifetime supply of batteries!), that I couldn't live without.

Good lord, this is going to be hard, because I love metal, progressive rock/metal, pop, rock, jazz, the blues, fusion, classical...everything but country, really. How do I limit myself to ten albums? Do I take a greatest hits compilation as one album, which is really cheating?

Sigh...

Ok, here goes nothing. And tomorrow I might change it.

Bill's top ten all-time favorite albums right now.

Queen-II
the Beatles-Abbey Road
Jeff Buckley-Grace
U2-the Unforgettable Fire
Tori Amos-Little Earthquakes
Dream Theater-Images and Words
Duran Duran-Rio
Van Halen-1984
Rush-Moving Pictures
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon

How the hell do I leave Queen's Sheer Heart Attack or A Night at the Opera off this list, or Van Halen I? Do I drop Rio for Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? What do I take off to pop in The Who's Who's Next? What about the aforementioned Sgt. Pepper, or Rubber Soul? I really want The Police's Synchronicity in there, and Toto IV. And I don't know where the hell I'm going to get some Led Zeppelin, or Cream in there. Zep IV, Disraeli Gears?



Edit: oh crap, no Thriller, no Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, or Bitches Brew--both could easily make my list. Songs From the Big Chair by Tears For Fears is another favorite. Hotel California by the Eagles, and I'll go nuts not having 2112 if I'm listening to Moving Pictures.

No Rainbow or Deep Purple, how the hell am I going to live on an island with no Ritchie Blackmore?

Just shoot me. I will never be happy with this top ten!

[CamaroCPA]

I kow the guys that mentioned Brother Cane did so a few years ago when this thread was begun. I see they are still active on the boards so, on the off chance they still check this thread I thought I post post this pic. Maybe they, or someone else will get a kick out of it!


I was a fan in the early to mid-nineties. I saw them open for Van Halen (maybe... or was it Lynyrd Skynyrd?) in Huntsville, Alabama. By the time I saw them in 1998 in Colorado Springs they were playing small clubs again. It gave me the opportunity to meet them and chat a while and get their autographs! I can't recall if I got the pick during the show or if one of the guys gave it to me afterwards.

Now, as for the topic at hand, my top ten albums in no particular order (and with the disclaimer that there could be many, many more to make this list):

1. Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers - Includes my second favorite guitar solo of all time on Sway. (Favorite solo is Ocean by John Butler.)
2. Rolling Stones, Voodoo Lounge - They have stronger albums but this reminds me of some really good times.
3. Third Eye Blind, Third Eye Blind - Again, brings me back to a time. It wasn't the best of times and this album helped me through.
4. Metallica, Metallica - I wore out all of my cassette tapes of their preceding albums. This was one of the first CDs I purchased.
5. Boston, Third Stage - Tom Scholtz's guitar tone is so cool!
6. John Butler Trio, April Uprising - Hard to pick a favorite of mine from him so I'll go with the album that has my wife's and my first dance song.
7. Tool, Undertow - Just badass.
8. Cure, Show - A live album that is really, really good. Brings me back to good times too.
9. Guns N Roses, Use Your Illusion - Take your pick: I or II. I think they were at their peak with the range of the songs and the guitar solos on this album.
10. Bad Company, 10 From 6 - A "best of" album that I started listening to in high school. It opened my eyes to classic, blues based rock and broadened my horizons from just the eighties pop and hair metal that were my staples until then.

[TheBig6]

In no particular order,
Grand Funk...The Red Album
Pink Floyd...Dark Side of the Moon
Rod Stewart and the Faces...Every Picture Tells a Story
Led Zepplin...First Album
Jimmy Hendrix, Buddy Miles, Billy Cox....Band of Gypsy's
The Doors...Morrison Hotel
Trapeze...Medusa
Deep Purple...Machine Head
Jethro Tull...Benefit
Neil Young...Everybody Knows this is Nowhere


Some of my other favorites of which I wore out Vinyl
Spooky Tooth...The Last Puff (I am the Walrus is very Heavy)
Traffic..Forget the album name but one with 40,000 Headmen
Beatles..Revolver, Sgt.Pepers & White Album
Mountain...First Album (Mississippi Queen if you know what I mean)
13 Floor Elevators..Album with (Slip inside this House as I pass by)
CSNY...Deja Vu
Rare Earth..Rare Earth
Bob Dylan...Highway 61 Revisited
Jimmy Hendrix Experience...Axis Bold as Love

[drcy]

Since some of the rock list included non-rock albums (Miles Davis, John Coltraine), I'll make my second top ten list. I listen to classical as much as I do rock

CLASSICAL MUSIC FAVORITES

Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. The soundtrack to Eisenstein's 1937 epic war film. I'm a big fan of nearly all of Prokofiev's work. Challenging, powerful, exotic and very Russian. Romeo & Juliet is another good pick by him. Famous scene from the movie Alexander Nevsky Prokofiev's score from youtube Based on a real 13th century battle, the dark Russian army is waiting for the white German Crusading Knights on horseback to cross the ice for the final epic battle on the frozen Russian lake Piepus. Known as the 'Battle on the Ice,' it is one of the key events in Russian history. Powerful, visceral filmmaking, the extras were real soldiers in the Soviet army.

Gyorgi Ligeti – Atmospheres and Lontano. Ligeti is a famous 20th century Transylavnian avant garde classical composer. Mind expanding orchestral experiences.

Sergei Rachmaninoff-- Piano Concerto #2 and Rhapsody on a Theme on Paganini. Classical ear candy. Piano Concerto #2 was amusingly featured in Marilyn Monroe's Seven Year Itch.

Beethoven's Complete Symphonies. Got the complete symphonies box set for Christmas one year and not a bad symphony in the lot. Hours of music here.

Frederic Handel's Water and Fire Music. The German born Handel became the official composer for the British King, and his music is the epitemy of regal and sophistication.

Samuel Barber Adagio for Springs/Concerto for Violin/School for Scandal/Essay #1 and 2. Barber was a 20th century composer from Pennsylvania. As with Rachmaninoff, his music is ear candy and sounds like movie music.

Hilary Hahn Plays Bach. Excellent CD of the young American violinist solo playing beautiful J.S. Bach pieces. My sister went to school with Hahn.

Sviatoslav Richter, the great Soviet pianist, solo playing JS Bach on is hard to beat. Youtube sample of Richter playing Bach

Soundtracks to 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining (assorted composers old to new). Movie director Stanley Kubruick had great and esoteric musical taste, and the CDs include excellent assortments of works by modern and traditional composers including Bartok, Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki. The completely orchestral Penderecki pieces on The Shining are quite simply the darkest, most disturbing music ever composed (fitting for a horror movie). I say his music is the language of the Devil. I got the 2001 CD in college, and that's what got me into avant garde classical music, in particular Ligeti.

[AMBST95]

My Top Ten (no special order)

Beatles - Abbey Road
Nirvana - Nevermind
Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Beach Boys - Smile
The Allman Brothers - Live at Fillmore East
Beastie Boys - License to Ill
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

I made my list without looking at others. It was tough to cut albums out and as I look at other people's I see some commonalities and other albums I'll need to look in to. Some of my honorable mentions included:

The Band - The Last Waltz
Pearl Jam - Ten
Metallica - Black Album
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
The Who - Quadrophenia
Radiohead - OK Computer
CSNY - Deja Vu