What are your top 5 Albums of all time?

[Dave5N]

In no particular order:

Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
Brilliant Trees - David Sylvian
Together Alone - Crowded House
The Colour Of Spring - Talk Talk
In Rainbows - Radiohead

Bubbling under i.e. the nearlies that could be elevated by the time I get up tomorrow:

Pigeonhed - Pigeonhed
The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion - The Black Crowes
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
Long Gone By Daylight - The Cardigans
The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy
Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam And The Ants
Shame - Brad
Lapalco - Brendan Benson
Out Of Time - REM
Between The Senses - Haven
Adolescent Sex - Japan

This is meant to be your top five albums, not a competition to see who can type 'dull and obscure but worthy music' into Google the best.

 

[Dave5N]

Ooh, that one's very good; have you got "This Film’s Crap Let’s Slash The Seats?" I only have a couple of things from it on the ipod and they're excellent.

PM me your address and I'll break the law for you

 

[Andy in Sig]

Of more recent jazz, I liked EST (RIP) quite a lot, but for me, we are a long way past the golden age of jazz...

Then check out Barbara Dennerlein and your faith shall be restored.

 

[Haitch]

Five is too many. Two will suffice:

Arvo Pärt - Fratres, played by I Flaminghi, The Orchestra of Flanders
The Cure - Galore

 

[NickM]

I'll have a Thomas Tallis 'best of' please.

Now That's What I Call Tallis, volume 43 is supposed to be pretty good.

 

[Crackle]

I completely excluded jazz from my list too!
Possibly because I absolutely loathe it.

Me too. I once left a restaurant before ordering when I realized the band was a jazz band who'd just started tuning up. Well I say tuning up but they may well have been playing. They were certainly all standing together but they seemed to be ignoring each others music.

The White Stripes - Elephant
Led Zepp - 4 symbols album
Buddy Guy - Feels Like Rain
Fleetwood mac - Rumours
Paul Weller - Wild Wood

 

[NickM]

Then check out Barbara Dennerlein and your faith shall be restored.

Or maybe the Tord Gustavsen Trio...

Mainly slow, but does more for me than any amount of frantic/aimless bebop noodling.

 

[theclaud]

Or maybe the Tord Gustavsen Trio...

Mainly slow, but does more for me than any amount of frantic/aimless bebop noodling.

Nothing aimless or noodley about bebop, Nick. But I'll check out Tord G anyway.

 

[NickM]

Nothing aimless or noodley about bebop, Nick. But I'll check out Tord G anyway.

Probably not... but I hear it like that. Sorry!

Anyway, also in the jazz section (it's a little ghetto next to the klezmer one on my groaning shelves):

Mike Westbrook: Citadel/Room 315 (with John Surman - the best British jazz album ever? Certainly tremendously satisfying, even in squeezed-onto-an-LP form - in fact probably all the better for losing the usual Westbrook prolixity)

Neil Ardley: Kaleidoscope of Rainbows (the divine sax solo by Barbara Thompson on track four is so ineffably sad it brings tears to the eyes)

Gil Evans: Svengali (he hardly needs tunes, the sounds are just so entrancing)

Michael Gibbs: the eponymous first album - I don't think he has done anything better, though Big Music is fun

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Some interesting looking choices there, Nick - I will check them out - John Surman and Gil Evans I already know, but I don't have either of these albusm. I have been meaning to get that Tord Gustaven album for a while - Norway does seem to have the most interesting contemporary jazz scene.

 

[Andy in Sig]

As far as I can make out Scandanavian culture consists in its entirety of doing decent jazz and writing clever murder stories.

 

[Kirstie]

Lordy. There's some great suggestions on here, particularly Arvo Part, Stone Roses, The Cure, Daivd Holmes (I have 'bow down to the exit sign' and 'this film's crap let's slash the seats') etc.

To pick 5 off the top of my head:

Different Trains (composed by Steve Reich) - played by Pat Metheny
Front by Front - Front 242
DE9 Transitions - Richie Hawtin
Lightweights and Gentlemen - Lau
Infected - The The

 

[WelshYiddo]

Infected - The The

another gem! Soulmining could make it into a top 5 aswell.

 

[simonali]

This is meant to be your top five albums, not a competition to see who can type 'dull and obscure but worthy music' into Google the best.

I obviously like dull! And they're not obscure just because you've not heard of them.

 

[simonali]

Infected - The The

I still have that on a VHS video album. I wonder if it still plays?