What are your top 5 Albums of all time?

[nickb]

My top album is Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.

I'd find it very difficult to come up with a consistent top 5. Contenders for the other places could include: Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Van Morrison, more Bob Dylan, The Stones & The Beatles, however Sgt. Pepper's would even be in my top 3 Beatles albums.

 

[User482]

I suspect I'd give a different list every time you asked, but for today:

Miles Davis - A Kind of Blue
Radiohead - The Bends
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Stone Roses - Stone Roses
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

 

[WelshYiddo]

like most people this list might change daily:

Cud - When In Rome Kill Me
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Radiohead - The Bends
Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky
James - Gold Mother

but then no room for:
The Cure - Japenese Whispers
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
Murray the Hump - Songs of Ignorance
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Del a Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising
The Wonder Stuff - Hup
Happy Mondays - Bummed
The Wedding Present - Seamonsters
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
etc
etc
etc
etc

 

[theclaud]

Another day, another list, this time completely jazz (because I was deliberately excluding jazz last time):

Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (heartbreaking for so many reasons)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (it just isn't possible to overrate this album)
Dexter Gordon - Go (be-bop at its best)
Thelonius Monk - Monk's Dream (the most singular jazz pianist)
Al Di Meola, John MacLaughlin and Paco De Lucia - Friday Night in San Francisco (three men and three guitars and absolute fretwork fireworks)

Good choices, Monkey. Mine at the moment:

Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Thelonious Monk and Johnny Griffin - Live at the Five-Spot
Bill Evans Trio - Explorations
Errol Garner - Concert by the Sea

 

[Andy in Sig]

Another day, another list, this time completely jazz (because I was deliberately excluding jazz last time):

Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (heartbreaking for so many reasons)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (it just isn't possible to overrate this album)
Dexter Gordon - Go (be-bop at its best)
Thelonius Monk - Monk's Dream (the most singular jazz pianist)
Al Di Meola, John MacLaughlin and Paco De Lucia - Friday Night in San Francisco (three men and three guitars and absolute fretwork fireworks)

I'd go along with the Dexter Gordon and Thelonius Monk and add Collossus by Sonny Rollins (if only for Hesitation) and then Straight Ahead by Barbara Dennerlein (surely the jazz genius at the moment and my 4 CD best of Ben Webster album.

Does anything awful happen to you if you say that you don't think that Miles Davis was all that good?

 

[theclaud]

Does anything awful happen to you if you say that you don't think that Miles Davis was all that good?

You'll find out shortly.

Actually I think Miles was brilliant enough for his oeuvre to cope with the admission that he was technically a bit of a limited trumpet player. I reckon if a magic pill could make you sound like Clifford or Louis, he'd have taken it. Who wouldn't? He still sounds cool, though, and made arguably the best album ever.

 

[User482]

You'll find out shortly.

Actually I think Miles was brilliant enough for his oeuvre to cope with the admission that he was technically a bit of a limited trumpet player. I reckon if a magic pill could make you sound like Clifford or Louis, he'd have taken it. Who wouldn't? He still sounds cool, though, and made arguably the best album ever.

Yes, I don't think it's in dispute that it wasn't his trumpet playing that made Davis great.

Still, I'm surprised at the omission of Herbie Hancock from the jazz lists. Surely Headhunters deserves a look in?

 

[goo_mason]

As with others, this list will vary depending on the day you ask - but here's today's 5:

Mike Oldfield - 'Amarok'
Barclay James Harvest - 'Octoberon'
Camel - 'Coming Of Age'
Phideaux - 'Doomsday Afternoon'
Fischer Z - 'Going Deaf For A Living'

 

[theclaud]

Still, I'm surprised at the omission of Herbie Hancock from the jazz lists. Surely Headhunters deserves a look in?

Well, there's a lot of it. Can't do it all in five albums. But I have to admit Headhunters leaves me a bit cold anyway - I'd have Speak Like A Child if Hancock was going to make the list.

 

[cchapman]

Does anything awful happen to you if you say that you don't think that Miles Davis was all that good?

Only that people would suspect your judgement, they might think you "not quite sound".

My five would be
1, Kind of Blue
2, Aretha Franklin double album with Southern California Community Baptist choir etc
3, Bob Dylan Highway 61 revisited
4 Emmy Lou Harris/Dolly Parton/Linda Ronstadt
5 Fats Domino - collected works.

I only stop at five because five is where I stop.

 

[User482]

Well, there's a lot of it. Can't do it all in five albums. But I have to admit Headhunters leaves me a bit cold anyway - I'd have Speak Like A Child if Hancock was going to make the list.

I think it's a stunningly inventive album, with a fantastic funky rhythm section, particularly on Chameleon. But for pure "stick the record on, sit back and enjoy" it's Fat Alberta Rotunda for me. If you like his earlier stuff, try Maiden Voyage.

 

[Andy in Sig]

You'll find out shortly.

Actually I think Miles was brilliant enough for his oeuvre to cope with the admission that he was technically a bit of a limited trumpet player. I reckon if a magic pill could make you sound like Clifford or Louis, he'd have taken it. Who wouldn't? He still sounds cool, though, and made arguably the best album ever.

I prefer him on that Canonball Adderley album (Somethin' Else is it called), in fact I really like him on that. I suppose I'll have to give Kind Of Blue another listen.

 

[cchapman]

I'm beginning to enjoy this trawling through memory.

1. Coltrane - Ole.
2.James Brown - Live at the Apollo
3. Ella Fitzgerald sings Cole Porter
4.Funky Kingston nah - Toots and the Maytals
5.Miles Davis - Ascenceur a l'echafaud

 

[theclaud]

I think it's a stunningly inventive album, with a fantastic funky rhythm section, particularly on Chameleon. But for pure "stick the record on, sit back and enjoy" it's Fat Alberta Rotunda for me. If you like his earlier stuff, try Maiden Voyage.

Sorry. I just meant comparatively. If you like albums that are fantastically funky but nothing much happens, Miles's In A Silent Way could be the answer. I haven't got Fat A.R. - I'll check it out.

 

[jpembroke]

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Ocean Rain - Echo & the Bunnymen
Stone Roses - Stone Roses
Leftism - Leftfield
Green - REM