Album Reviews of After Hours' Recommended Order You Should Follow When Tackling My Greatest Albums List (most recent: RSN)
Submitted by diaskeaus on Fri, 05/11/2007 - 11:48
Tags:
- CHALLENGE RATING: 5.0/10
- 1) The Doors-The Doors (1967)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 5.5/10
- 2) The Survivor's Suite-Keith Jarrett (1976)
- 3) Blonde On Blonde-Bob Dylan (1966)
- 4) Spirit of Eden-Talk Talk (1988)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 6.0/10
- 5) A Rainbow In Curved Air-Terry Riley (1968)
- 6) Desertshore-Nico (1970)
- 7) The Downward Spiral-Nine Inch Nails (1994)
- 8) Remnants of a Deeper Purity-Black Tape For A Blue Girl (1996)
- 9) Spiderland-Slint (1991)
- 10) Kind of Blue-Miles Davis (1959)
- 11) A Love Supreme-John Coltrane (1964)
- 12) Les Stances A Sophie-Art Ensemble of Chicago (1970)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 6.5/10
- 13) The Shape of Jazz To Come-Ornette Coleman (1959)
- 14) The Modern Dance-Pere Ubu (1978)
- 15) Astral Weeks-Van Morrison (1968)
- 16) Yerself Is Steam-Mercury Rev (1991)
- 17) The Velvet Underground & Nico-The Velvet Underground (1967)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 7.0/10
- 18) The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady-Charles Mingus (1963)
- 19) Lullaby Land-Vampire Rodents (1993)
- 20) Third-Soft Machine (1970)
- 21) Bitches Brew-Miles Davis (1969)
- 22) The Ascension-Glenn Branca (1981)
- 23) Loveless-My Bloody Valentine (1991)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 7.5/10
- 24) White Light/White Heat-The Velvet Underground (1967)
- 25) Neu!-Neu! (1972)
- 26) Irrlicht-Klaus Schulze (1972)
- 27) Lorca-Tim Buckley (1970)
- 28) Rock Bottom-Robert Wyatt (1974)
- 29) Parable of Arable Land-Red Crayola (1967)
- 30) Spiritual Unity-Albert Ayler (1964)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 8.0/10
- 31) Out To Lunch-Eric Dolphy (1964)
- 32) Ascension-John Coltrane (1965)
- 33) Hosianna Mantra-Popol Vuh (1973)
- 34) Dolmen Music-Meredith Monk (1981)
- 35) Improvisie-Paul Bley (1971)
- 36) For Alto-Anthony Braxton (1968)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 8.5/10
- 37) Atlantis-Sun Ra (1967)
- 38) Unit Structures-Cecil Taylor (1966)
- 39) Saxophone Improvisations, Series F-Anthony Braxton (1972)
- 40) Y-Pop Group (1979)
- 41) Not Available-Residents (1978)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 9.0/10
- 42) Faust-Faust (1971)
- 43) Trout Mask Replica-Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (1969)
- CHALLENGE RATING: 9.5/10
- 44) Twin Infinitives-Royal Trux (1990)
Author Comments:
I've always had a hard time with avant-garde music. This is my little quest to rid myself of my "hard time." Thanks goes to AfterHours for such a fantastic list.
My reviews will be italicized. I've never reviewed albums before, so this is my first attempt.
Intial comment: RSN means "real soon now." Which means when I get around to it.
Cloned From:
I really, really look forward to this. I'd like to know if my own love for good avant-garde music is coded into me somehow, or if it is possible for everyone to work up to appreciating avant-garde music. Your journey won't be a definitive answer to that question, but it should shed some light.
You're going to do them in order, right?
I wonder if listening to just these albums might be too quick a journey to grow comfortably into an appreciation for the avant-garde. That kind of journey should take some time. Perhaps you should listen to some additional excellent albums at each progressive "challenge" level. Going from The Doors to A Rainbow in Curved Air in 5 albums seems a bit ambitious if you've listened to pop your whole life like most people.
Yes, in order. I've listened to The Doors album five times today. Which is extreme for me, as I've grown up more performing classical pieces than ever having listened to albums and considered them on a whole as works of art.
I'm getting a much better picture of it already, in light of the other stuff that is coming in. Someone suggested I download this program called SoulSeek, which has really been helpful in getting some of the harder to find songs.
Yes. In my experience, Soulseek has a better selection (if you give it time) than all the torrent trackers and Google rapidshare searches combined. :)
Of course, I eagerly anticipate your reviews! And needless to say, I'll be checking in on this frequently. Good luck!
Heads-up: there are quite a few changes taking place on my list with some of the albums that were once on there falling off, inculding a handful of the less challenging ones. Even though I don't quite consider these masterpieces any longer, I still recommend acquiring and listening to them for 2 main reasons:
1. They are all amazing albums.
2. They are fundamental musical works and I would consider them pretty essential towards ascending this list and getting maximum gains (especially A Rainbow In Curved Air).
Another aspect I am learning more and more is that it is rather essential to listen to these albums on a powerful system (350 watts produces astonishing results), or on an excellent set of headphones. A system with low wattage (probably under 150) is unlikely to properly bring out albums like Loveless, and especially Yerself Is Steam, i.e with enough force to exhibit their full emotional impact. Which brings up another point: I strongly recommend that all albums on the list should be listened to very closely (as on headphones) or loud, such as on a stereo/CD system, and not reduced to background noise.
Just some tips that I have realized over the last couple days to be worth mentioning.
Any thoughts on the albums you've checked out so far?
My computer broke, so I've only listened to The Doors so far, and I'm still in process of coming up with words to describe it.
Never fear, though. At some point, I will jump into this challenge.
I do, however, have most of the albums. :) Yey!
Good to hear, and I am glad you've been industrious with The Doors. You should check out my updated "Recommended Order" list for the most recent additions and subtractions. It is different now than what you have posted here.
Thanks for that... I'm probably going to have to work on what I have now, though, no offense, as I don't have the option anymore to download through file sharing or BT. But I'll keep your list in mind and maybe (? - not likely though) I might be able to find some of these bands here in China. Still a beautiful list, and I'm really enjoying the Survivor's Suite, and wondering on the off-hand why it is known so little.
I think it is a fantastic idea to accumulate as much of the music as possible. Even "non-masterpieces" (but still amazing) like Survivor's Suite are more than worth checking out as they are far above practically all other jazz or rock music. Survivor's Suite is also a perfect bridge between more experimental (track #2) and non-experimental (track #1) jazz.