Greatest Albums (Expanded)
Submitted by Parable on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 03:39
Tags:
- ROCK:
- Amon Tobin - Bricolage (1997)
- Babes in Toyland - Fontanelle (1992)
- Big Black - Atomizer (1986)
- Black Tape for a Blue Girl - Remnants of a Deeper Purity (1996)
- Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)
- Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
- Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)
- Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On (1997)
- Butthole Surfers - Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac (1984)
- Can - Future Days (1973)
- Can - Tago Mago (1971)
- Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe as Milk (1967)
- Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
- Carla Bozulich - Evangelista (2006)
- Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves (1979)
- Codeine - Frigid Stars (1990)
- Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegtables (1980)
- Dirty Three - Ocean Songs (1998)
- Dirty Three - Whatever You Love, You Are (2000)
- Faust - Faust (1971)
- Faust - Faust IV (1973)
- Foetus - Nail (1985)
- Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Uncle Meat (1969)
- Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1980)
- Gong - Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1) (1973)
- Hash Jar Tempo - Well Oiled (1997)
- Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade (1984)
- Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced (1967)
- Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006)
- Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979)
- King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
- Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1968)
- Lisa Germano - Excerpts From a Love Circus (1996)
- Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl (1994)
- Lisa Germano - Happiness (1994)
- Lofty Pillars - Amsterdam (2001)
- Low - Trust (2002)
- Low - I Could Live in Hope (1994)
- Magnetic Fields - The Charm of the Highway Strip (1994)
- MC5 - Kick Out the Jams (1969)
- Mercury Rev - Yerself is Steam (1991)
- Morphine - Good (1992)
- Morphine - Yes (1995)
- My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything (1988)
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
- Neu! - Neu! (1972)
- Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity (1984)
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Firstborn is Dead (1985)
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son (1990)
- Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1971)
- Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (1969)
- Nico - Desertshore (1971)
- Nico - The Marble Index (1968)
- Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (1994)
- Patti Smith Group - Radio Ethiopa (1976)
- Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (1978)
- Phish - A Picture of Necar (1992)
- Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
- Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
- Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)
- Portishead - Dummy (1994)
- Public Image Ltd. - The Flowers of Romance (1981)
- Red House Painters - Down Colorful Hill (1992)
- Red House Painters - Red House Painters (Rollercoster) (1993)
- Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)
- Royal Trux - Twin Infinitives (1990)
- Shit & Shine - Ladybird (2005)
- Slint - Spiderland (1991)
- Soft Machine - Third (1970)
- Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)
- Suicide - Suicide (1977)
- Swans - Children of God (1987)
- Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991)
- Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden (1988)
- Television - Marquee Moon (1977)
- The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us (1979)
- The Doors - The Doors (1967)
- The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses (1982)
- The Geraldine Fibbers - Butch (1997)
- The Gun Club - Fire of Love (1981)
- The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute (2005)
- The Pop Group - Y (1979)
- The Red Crayola - The Parable of Arable Land (1967)
- The Replacements - Let it Be (1984)
- The Residents - Meet The Residents (1974)
- The Residents - Not Available (1974)
- The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St. (1972)
- The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight (1980)
- The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
- The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1967)
- Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report (1977)
- Tim Buckley - Happy Sad (1969)
- Tim Buckley - Lorca (1970)
- Tim Buckley - Starsailor (1970)
- Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (1985)
- Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones (1983)
- Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years (1987)
- Tortoise - Millions Living Now Will Never Die (1996)
- Vampire Rodents - Lullaby Land (1994)
- Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)
- Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001)
- JAZZ:
- Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity (1964)
- Anthony Braxton - For Alto (1968)
- Carla Bley & Paul Haines - Escalator Over the Hill (1971)
- Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures (1966)
- Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (1969)
- Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956)
- Charles Mingus - The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (1963)
- John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964)
- John Coltrane - Ascension (1965)
- Keith Jarret - The Survivor's Suite (1976)
- Marion Brown - Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (1970)
- Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1969)
- Miles Davis - In a Silent Way (1969)
- Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959)
- Myra Melford - Even the Sounds Shine (1995)
- Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1961)
- Stan Kenton - City of Glass (1951)
- Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)
- CLASSICAL/MINIMALISM:
- Bach - Partita for Violin No. 2 (1723)
- Bach - Toccata and Fugue (1707)
- Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 (1808)
- Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (1824)
- Mahler - Symphony No. 9 (1910)
- Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time (1941)
- Pärt - Fratres I (1977)
- Pärt - Tabula Rasa (1977)
- Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
- Philip Glass - Minimal Piano Works, Volume 1 (1979-1988)
- Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8 (1960)
- Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15 (1972)
- OTHER (FOLK, ELECTRONICA, AVANTE-GARDE):
- Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)
- Diamanda Galás - The Litanies Of Satan (1982)
- Harold Budd - Pavilion of Dreams (1978)
- John Fahey - America (1971)
- John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice) (1973)
- Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (1972)
- Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music (1980)
- Spring Heel Jack - Disappeared (2000)
Fratres is its own work? - i guess i will label that separate from Tabula Rasa. my copy from the library did not stipulate the difference between the works, but wikipedia does. my copy has two parts both titled "Fratres" split up by "Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten", are they both one piece or separate?
is that version of the The Clash fair game? - it came out 2 years after the original UK version with pre-released singles tacked on and original tracks removed. if it is, then that changes everything!
"Fratres is its own work? - i guess i will label that separate from Tabula Rasa. my copy from the library did not stipulate the difference between the works, but wikipedia does. my copy has two parts both titled "Fratres" split up by "Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten", are they both one piece or separate?"
Fratres is a single work (not broken up into movements), but there are multiple versions of the piece. The version I am listing is for violin, string orchestra and percussion, although I don't think I have the definitive recording. I think you might have the original recording, while I have a later rendition by Gil Shaham.
"is that version of the The Clash fair game? - it came out 2 years after the original UK version with pre-released singles tacked on and original tracks removed. if it is, then that changes everything!"
I had the same question. When I realized that my CD was not in fact the original release I asked Scaruffi which one he ranks as an 8/10, to which he replied "USA Version". I'll have to pick up the UK version at some point to see for myself. Regardless, the US version is breathtaking, despite the record company's meddling.
The USA version is the rare instance of across-the-pond track-list-meddling that does indeed improve the original album, in my opinion...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
definitely. do you know of any other instances that this is true?
Nothing's jumping out at me at the second.
I can think of a few instances where the songs swapped out may be better, but the album's flow is sunk. A good example is Costello's This Year's Model. Radio Radio (on the US version) is terrific, but hardly an album closer.
Many swear the US Rubber Soul beats the UK. I disagree, but not violently. It does make the album a more unified folk album, but I'm not convinced it is an improvement. Besides, you get the US bizarro mastering problems most of the US Beatles albums have...
I shall ponder some...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I kind of like it that way though. I like the idea of the last song being really awesome and upbeat (I can think of a few Modest Mouse albums that do it). Maybe it's also because I think "Night Rally" is the weakest track and thus I don't like it as a closer. My Aim is True and Armed Forces also had 'bonus tracks' that were big singles. It's strange, I thought "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding" was a great closer.
I think I must like Night Rally more than you do, but then I never buy my share of souvenirs... :)
The US version is also missing Chelsea, though, and that is a BIG problem...
Funny works much better than Radio as an album closer, but in my world, Armed Forces MUST end with Two Little Hitlers...
(Besides, I like Sunday's Best, and the US is missing that one...)
Armed Forces does get much closer than most albums, though, to satisfy the US-is-better-than-UK criteria...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is another album that mutated on its skip across the pond. this one i do not understand. it is missing "Astronomy Domine" for some reason, and i would think that they would have wanted to sell the "See Emily Play" single separately from the album to boost profits??? or maybe they fixed that into the price!!! the wik reports that the 8 parts of "Cassandra Gemini" by Mars Volta was arbitrarily split into 8 tracks so they could get paid LP wages rather than EP - i guess to record executives an EP is the amount of tracks and not the amount of material (10-25 minutes), but "Cassandra Gemini" is 30+ minutes, so that alone is an EP. this may be minor fallout from the online purchase era of music or some other consistent phenomenon of which i am unaware.
That I didn't know. I love Piper at the Gates of Dawn just as it is; however Interstellar Overdrive is not a bad way to close the album.
As for the EP issue, I think that's just another example of the (il)logic at work in today's record industry.
Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? is another...
on "Fratres": i do not have the CD anymore so i do not know what it says, but it is listed as "Fratres" twice (tracks 1 & 3) without any notation of I, II, III.... that is fine, i will just have to research the details on the version i have.
I asked Scaruffi which one he ranks as an 8/10, to which he replied "USA Version". I'll have to pick up the UK version at some point to see for myself
do not buy the UK version! it only has 4 other tracks - "Protex Blue", "Cheat", "Deny" and "48 Hours" - none of which match up to the singles that were added to the US version! not that they are bad tracks, but they are not worth another purchase. if i decide that is ok as well, which i do not now, then that album definitely goes on my list. i think that the US version is much better than London Calling (it has too much filler for me, but still ok). i do not know why scaruffi would use the US version...the UK version had already had stature in the US as a bootleg before the US version hit the shelves.
"do not buy the UK version"
By "pick up", I mean "pick up from the library". I don't buy many CD's, only those few I consider essential to own.
"i think that the US version is much better than London Calling"
I agree. I would rate London Calling as a 7.5/10, while The Clash is a solid 8/10.
"i do not know why scaruffi would use the US version"
I was suprised by this as well. As lbangs mentioned, this seems to be a rare instance of a modified reissue actually improving upon the original album.
By the way, are you still on Bearcast?
By the way, are you still on Bearcast?
haha, no. seriously, LOL!!!! i have to respond that way because you must be the ONLY person who looked forward, you know in the future (possibly the year 2000?), to my radio show. i think i got 11 listeners on one of my last shows last quarter i did it, and that is good and not at all consistent. a reason i stopped was because the station is a bit lame (90% indie pitchfork.com crap), and at the time i did not feel that anyone really cared about making the station better and i was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! from the emails that i received all quarter, they really turned it around, or at the very least TRIED. and sad to say, as usual, i may have burned that bridge for the future with an email i sent to one of the managers of the station as to why i suddenly decided to quit the station (apparently they actually wanted ME to come back).
the thing that was most troubling was the drive. i live 20 mins from that campus, i go to the satellite campus near my house (an upgraded high school), and it was difficult to stomach that i was spending so much money on gas and parking (sometimes), and spending so much time coming up with play lists, and yes walking to a fro from the station that the things i did not like about the station started to mutate inside me and everything started to erupt. another reason i probably will not go back is my friend (the person who notified me that UC even had a radio station, internet or not - see, no one knows it exists) has since "Moved Down To Florida" to dance one-legged off in the rain or ride his motorcycle...and it is VERY boring and tiresome to do a radio show for presumably no one by oneself.
it does feel good that someONE wants me back on the air, i think, and that may be enough to get me to try to patch things up with that manager and try to get back on, but there is still one more important obstacle: time slot. i start to go downtown to that campus this Fall quarter, but i am down there for two hours and then have to drive directly back to the mini-campus for another class, so i cannot squeeze a slot in there. my only other option would be to do it Friday or Saturday night, which much to my chagrin will probably be wide open (no girlfriend, and really only two of my friends from high school have not moved away). and, to stay on point, i would like to do a show for the same reason i started, which is to be a radio friendly unit shifter of the obscure, the underdog. i know i played a lot of scaruffi minded material in the first two quarters, and that was on purpose and i would definitely keep the great stuff for the future, but i would love to play Charlamagne Palestine's Strumming Music or Christian Marclay's Record Without A Cover and get some discussion on that material (now they have it set up so people can chat with the DJ's on the internet during the show - another addition to the quarter i quit, but i am not so sure i would like this).
sorry for the long response; it could have been longer. and i am very tired, so i tend to ramble more when i am so. also, there are probably more than the usual amount of grammatical errors in this post, do your best to dicipher...i hope this answers your question. LOL ;-D
Well, that does answer my question. If you're not enjoying it anymore it's probably not worth it to continue doing the show.
However, if you do decide to start doing the show again you'll have at least one regular listener.
well, that was my only expectation with the show (1 consistent listener, not that i would expect you to ditch other more important things to listen).
i will seriously consider it: check my schedule (open), and check with the tryout manager (the one i sent the apparently insulting email to), and finally, if i can actually 'get up' for it every time.
hey, i may be going on my friend's show tonight at 8pm EST. i plan on playing a demo track from Ant-Bee's upcoming Electronic Church Muzik album that Billy James (Ant-Bee) sent me in advance and i was wondering, if you would listen, if you wanted to make a special request of a song or two. let me know. just throw out a bunch of possibilities if you like - i can help you decide if you like.
it is my friend's show and not mine, but he would probably be more than happy to allow me to play some music if it would guarantee a listener.
Cool, I'll definitely be listening.
I'd love to hear something from Mother of All Saints, Pure Electric Honey, Parson Sound or anything from '77 Live. I caught the tail-end of Virgin Forest on your last show, so I wouldn't mind hearing the rest of that.
Also, can you give me the link to the webcast?
hey Parable, i am doing the show again tomorrow night at 8 EST. here is the link if you need it again. i will get some of that material in. let me know if you can stream it.
The good news is that the link works and the show is streaming fine. The bad news is that I'm now working two jobs and will be unable to tune in :-(.
Is there any way you can "record" the show so I can listen to it later? Catching any live streams is nigh impossible given my current schedule.
i could record it, but i do not know how to get it too you.
Can you save it to a WMA or WAV file?
yeah, i would burn it onto a disc while i am in the studio. but how would i get it to you?
You can e-mail it to "parablesque@yahoo.com".
Hello!?!? You should just play it aloud throughout your daytime workplace while you're there. Then you'll only have one job and you can find more time to listen by yourself. Try everyone's favorite boy band, Pop Group, and see how it goes.
"Hello!?!?"
Hi.
"You should just play it aloud throughout your daytime workplace while you're there."
Yes, nothing goes better with Real Estate & Legal Research than industrial noise, backwards guitars and insane warbling.
On a related note, The Latah County Treasurer's Office is now officially badass for having "Blue Velvet" as their on hold music.
It isn't working. Again. I wonder if Media Player is incompatible with whatever format the show is streamed in...
sorry about that. i am not part of the radio station so i will not be able to ask any of the directors about that problem. my friend said that his mom has the same trouble all the time, but it works with my version of Windows Media Player just fine - it is just the latest update, but i assume you would have that as well. MP10 or something. so, hmmmmm.
you did not miss anything. i did not play any music because someone was reconfiguring the auxiliary port on the sound board, so, i sat in limbo.
i may join my friend's show on the 14th (or possibly next week - 7th). i will try to find some time to play some of the requests above. i am thinking about getting a show for next quarter as well.
Brian Eno - Music for Airports a ROCK album? Whaaaaaaaaaa
The first incarnation of this list had three Eno albums (Another Green World, Taking Tiger Mountain, and Music for Airports), so I decided to lump them all together under "Rock" for the sake of simplicity.
However, now that Music for Airports is all on it's lonesome I'll relocate it to the "Other" section.
Why did you take the other two off? Those along with Before and After Science and Here Come the Warm Jets are four of my favorite albums...he was simply gold back in those days!
I removed them from the list because I didn't consider them to be all-time favorites, although I do like both of them very much. I have considered returning Taking Tiger Mountain to the list, and Another Green World is never far off.