duga

There are tons of albums that I absolutely love, but some get much much more attention than others. Some of this is a result of back when I was just getting into music...I just didn't have a whole lot of music, so what I did have I dissected to a ridiculous degree. Sometimes I just run across an album that I can't stop listening to and it is soon added to my ever growing list of essential albums.

So, what albums do you know inside and out? You know what I'm talking about. You know every note like the back of your hand. Hell, you may have even found mistakes or listened so deeply you could hear the band members talking in the studio to each other. Listening has become an automatic, cathartic experience. Here are some of mine:


Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
This was one of the first albums that I was really proud to show off. It sounded badass and I didn't know many other kids at school who listened to it. It's a grunge album that I still listen to today...and I will probably always listen to it. This also kicked off a giant 90's alt rock/grunge phase for me, which lead to the discovery of the album that changed it all...


Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Considering this is the album that changed my life and resulted in the music fiend that I am today, of course I know it inside and out. I know every song on guitar. I know the story behind every song and I have listened to it so many times that I don't even think about the lyrics when I sing along to it...I just do it.


Radiohead - OK Computer
The album that taught me the art of the grower. It sat on my shelf for ages after I first got it...the first listen having not done much for me. One day, I felt like I didn't want to let it become a waste of money so I stuck it on and was BLOWN AWAY. All the sudden, I just GOT it. I then listened to it over and over and over.


Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Another of my early-days-of-music albums. After hearing some comparisons to Radiohead, I was inspired to actually check out a whole album. Again, it didn't do much for me at first, but coming fresh off my "grower album" awakening, I gave it more of a chance. This kind of positively reinforced the grower idea because I couldn't get enough eventually. It basically started a huge prog rock phase for me that then lead to discovering...


Rush - Moving Pictures
If the Smashing Pumpkins inspired my love of music and motivated me to learn guitar, Rush taught me how to play it with some skill. I credit Alex Lifeson for teaching me how to play guitar properly. Once I heard this, I was immediately hooked. It had everything I wanted. Crunching guitars, a singer with a unique voice, and catchy music with SKILL. Another album that I also know (most) of the songs on guitar for.

Ok, one more...


Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
I had always had a decent respect for electronic music, but I didn't realize what it could do until I heard this. Despite how many times I've listened to it, the feeling I get from listening to it is still unreal. If I ever feel like things are getting TOO out of hand for me, I bust out my studio headphones and get lost in this. It's pure meditation.

And a few honorable mentions...

Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
The Cure - Disintegration
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Dr. Dre- The Chronic 2001
The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
Mars Volta - Deloused In the Comatorium
Deftones - White Pony
Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Sonic Youth - Dirty
Tool - Lateralus
White Stripes - Elephant
Asobi Seksu - Citrus

__________________
Confusion will be my epitaph...

Paedantic Basterd

I'd have to say these three.







Listened to these more than anything else, Hissing Fauna in particular.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Off the top of my head

Black Sabbath - First 6 Albums + First 2 Dio era Albums
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
Primal Scream - Screamadelia & XTRMNTR
Judas Priest - Everything from Rocka Rolla till Painkiller
Rolling Stones - Satanic Majesties / Sticky Fingers / Beggers Banquet / Get Yer Ya Ya's Out / Let It Bleed / Exile / Goats Head Soup / Some Girls
Van Halen - Everything with David Lee Roth
Iron Maiden - Everything up to Somewhere In Time
The Cure - Everything up till Head On The Door
AC/DC - Everything with Bon Scott + first 4 Brian Johnson albums
Motorhead - Everything up till 1916
Aerosmith - Everything up till Pump
MC 5 - Kick Out The Jams
The Fall Everything from Live At the Witch Trials to Extricate / The Infotainment Scan / Everything from Levitate to Imperial Wax Solvent
The Clash - Everything except Cut The Crap
New York Dolls - S/T
Hanoi Rocks - Everything from Bangkok Shocks to Two Steps From The Move
Ozzy - First 3 albums
Groundhogs - Thank Christ For The Bomb
Damned - Damned Damned Damned & Machine Gun Etiquette
Public Image Ltd - Everything from S/T to 'Album'
Alice Cooper - Everything from Pretties For You to Trash (Except Lace & Whiskey & Zipper Catches Skin)
Bowie - Everything from Hunky Dory to Let's Dance (Except Pin Ups & Young Americans)


This could go on longer than I thought.

__________________

duga

Yeah, that's a good one. I can see why. I was going to add the Sundlandic Twins to my list, but it was getting gigantic so I scaled it back to the ones I have REALLY devoured.

I feel like this is a good way to really see what people's roots are...what they crave at the end of the day, regardless of how far they explore. There is some great stuff here that I would have been proud to memorize.

I had to stop thinking of albums myself.

__________________
Confusion will be my epitaph...

Urban Hat€monger ?

Some of those albums I've listened to almost every week for around 25 years.
Which is pretty scary.

I didn't listen to Van Halen for something like 10 years maybe even more, put on a few albums a couple of years ago & still knew them off by heart.

__________________

Paedantic Basterd

It's really dense. He doesn't waste space in it, or neglect his components, not to mention the mythology of it. I've found Hissing Fauna and The Devil and God are two albums that keep on giving.

Goofle

Disclaimer: I am basically going to list some of my "most played albums overall" on last.fm.

Death Grips – The Money Store
Danny Brown – XXX
Aesop Rock – Labor Days
Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Kendrick Lamar – Section.80
The Clash – London Calling
Madvillain – Madvillainy
The Pixies – Doolittle
People Under The Stairs – Fun DMC
Cunninlynguists – Oneirology
The Breeders – Last Splash
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
The Roots – Phrenology
The xx – xx
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
The Replacements – Let It Be
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Public Enemy – Fear Of A Black Planet
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
Aceyalone – All Balls Don't Bounce
The Dirtbombs – Ultraglide in Black
Ugly Duckling – Bang For The Buck
Death Grips – Exmilitary
Mos Def – Black On Both Sides
Beck – Odelay
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
The Replacements – Tim

Since only getting into music in the last two or three years (basically when I created my current last.fm account) I find that most of my "most played" are albums that helped me "discover" alternative music, (see ITAOTS and Doolittle, or Labor Days). Albums like The Money Store are so high up because they are my current favourites in my phase or really getting into music, where I have spent every last moment consuming as much as I can.

There are loads of others that I have listened to at least ten times (or more on CD), but it had to end somewhere.

__________________

duga

^

If those are from you just getting into music, then you've done a great job. There are some choice cuts there. I think there is a huge difference between when I got into music and how the current generation does it. I could never have shotgunned it so much. I would scour forums and read magazines and then buy a couple albums a week hoping one of them was worth my time. I found some great stuff, but I found a LOT of crappy stuff, too. It really limited how risky I was willing to get with my music as well.

__________________
Confusion will be my epitaph...

Trollheart

I definitely did it the other way, the old, boring way: get into one band, decide then to see what else is out there like them, essentially move through phases.

So my first ever albums bought were ELO and Genesis, which then moved me on to Supertramp, Marillion, Twelfth Night, Pallas et al and began my "progressive rock" phase, during which I had a mini-phase of Van der Graaf Generator, even the solo Peter Hammill albums. Later I got into metal via Maiden and then Saxon, Leppard, Motorhead, Twisted Sister and so on.

Nowadays I'm trying to break out into different genres, though with limited success. I must say though, my discovery of Tom Waits certainly broadened my musical outlook and allowed me to listen to music I would never have envisioned listening to prior to that. It's been a slow but steady growth since then, and I mean slow.

Albums I know inside out: Marillion's first four, Genesis from Wind and Wuthering to about Duke (I know the others too, just not as well), Maiden to Fear of the dark, all the Mostly Autumn catalogue, all the Shadow Gallery and all the Threshold albums, all the Asia albums, all the Bob Seger up to and including The fire inside, Bon Jovi from Slippery on, Springsteen from Born to run to Tunnel of love, ELO from El Dorado to Secret messages, Supretramp from Crime to Famous last words, and probably a whole lot more I can't think of.

Oh yeah: and Jeff Wayne's "War of the worlds" --- I love that album!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Goofle

Yeah, most of them are my first few albums I loved in a particular genre. I have kept listening to them over three years, therefore they have so many plays.

I agree about the "shotgun" approach, but I am certainly more selective in the way I go about it.

__________________