Your 11 favourite albums of ALL TIME

[Hollow Island]

What the hell are these?

4. 1965-67 Cambridge Station
7. 1968 Germination
9. 1969 Dramatisation

are albums from the Early Years box set. I'm pretty sure they're up on Spotify and are fucking amazing. The first set has pre-Floyd recordings, the early singles, unreleased tracks, and what is basically an unreleased album based on improv. There's also a live set that slays. Syd was the man!

1968 has singles, compilation tracks, and live tracks and is brilliant.

1969 is mostly live and has The Man and the Journey.

If you like Floyd you need to hear this set, it's essential.

 

[womanfish]

Good to see another vote for TWFM and Lonerism would be in my top 30 or so I think.

I love this album so much. To me, probably the most complete album I can think of along with Achtung Baby. There is just a aura or atmosphere that wraps you up listening through it. Definitely in my top 5

 

[monkeyskin]

Alright then. Probably tl;dr, but I had fun writing all of this:

1. U2 - Achtung Baby
This was the fourth U2 I got in 1999, following my Dad receiving the 80s Best Of for Xmas 98. Most of what I knew of U2 was what was on that compilation and whatever was played in MTV/VH1 (wasn't listening to much radio around that time), so it was mostly 80s, some Pop as it was their most recent original material and One. But then Mysterious Ways started getting shown, with its trippy video a revelation next to Sweetest Thing. A late night bloc introduced me to the exhuburant EBTTRT, the one off sighting fueling my desire to hear the album which housed all these exciting songs away from the always in rotation 90s and the hard to penetrate Pop (which is already got by mid-99). Then came The Fly on a 91 retrospective and I suddenly didn't know what to make of it, until that first listen on Xmas night 99. It's been my favourite album since that first listen, when everything clicked and only got deeper with each subsequent spin. I don't see it ever being dethroned and it's the only album for which I have every single for on 12", those masters are niiice.

2. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (but it'll always be self titled to me)
I'm actually surprised that this is so high, but I've played it so many times over the years it didn't feel right being any lower. They're one of the few bands I'll go see every time even if the new album sucks, and luckily my wife is just as keen. Most recently at their January show I saw them break out If You Don't, Don't for the first time since 2005 and it was my personal highlight of the show. I'm always amazed at how sincerely earnest Jim Adkins delivers each song and it's all right here on record. Early 00s emo is a bit of a punching bag since its heyday, but this has lasted due to a complete lack of cynicism. Clarity may be better, but I heard this first because The Middle was everywhere, and it will always have a special place in my heart.

3. Radiohead - The Bends
I was fairly late to Radiohead, hearing the major singles in the background and understanding that Kid A was both Very Important and Highly Inpenetrable, but it wasn't until I was browsing a HMV sale in 2002 that I picked this up (along with The Unforgettable Fire, good day!) and gave them a proper go. The loud ones hit first, with Bones, Just and the title track making the initial impressions. But after another couple of listens it was Fake Plastic Trees, and that amazing closing trio of Black Star, Sulk and Street Spirit that kept me listening. OK Computer was a swift purchase back at the same sale and when Kid A finally clicked for me it was a revelation. In Rainbows was a regular on the turntable this past summer and I expect Kid A will make a comeback once the nights draw in. But I can happily and instantly put on The Bends any time no matter my mood.

4. The National - Boxer
This might be too high, but recent evening spins have given me an added appreciation of it. I think it's their most focussed record, pushing up against monotonous but finding enough variants to make each of its 12 tracks stand apart. Fake Empire is a towering introduction, but the frantic Mistaken for Strangers, fragile Green Gloves, love story for the Netflix generation Apartment Story, wistful Start a War and teetering on the brink Ava make this a true front to back record. Even Gospel works as a great postscript. Ultimately for me, this is The National record which contains both "Cinderella through the room" and "You were always weird but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now". Probably for the best it doesn't also have "Now you're thinking too fast, you're like marbles on glass", I don't think I could handle it all on one album.

5. R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant (fuck you autocorrect with your erroneous apostrophe)
Given the day this could easily switch with either Automatic for the People (loved it forever) or Out of Time (had a life changing listen on vinyl one wet Sunday evening). But it's sunny today, so the propulsive rocker wins the day. With Begin the Begin into These Days, it's their most dynamic album and the one I'd show to anyone only familiar with the 90s hits. It's perfectly balanced with the gorgeous Flowers of Guatemala, the delirious, otherwise knocked off Just a Touch and the seriousness of These Days and Cuyahoga juxtaposed against Underneath the Bunker and Superman. You can tell they had something to say, but we're having a blast saying it.

6. The White Stripes - Elephant
The early 00s garage revival was kicked off by The Strokes, with their Ramones by way of the Gap store sound demolishing all comers. Seriously, I don't think a day went by in my senior year of high school that Is This It? wasn't spun at lunch. The White Stripes were on album #3 by that point, but it was their fourth which remains the final word on that short lived era. If The Strokes threw down a statement of intent, Elephant delivered. I remember hearing the opening notes of Seven Nation Army and having chills. The rest of the album is a whirlwind, an almost coked up assault of riffage by a crazed weirdo barely held in check with the most basic of beats, but if the drum patterns were even slightly complex the whole album would spin out of control. Meg anchored that album in an almost derogatory used of the word, but it's perfect. It's always the record people want to hear when they browse through my collection.

7. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
"Holy shit, is that Dave Grohl on drums?" The excitement this caused for a bunch of Foo Fighters fans juuuuust too young to have been into Nirvana before Cobain ended it and having to make do with heavy rotation on MTV2 was immense. To do this day it's still my go to cd for when I've got an hours drive ahead of me. But it probably seared itself into my soul when this, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief were on constant, exclusive rotation as I rode across the land of Hyrule in the GameCube edition of Ocarina of Time. And that is not a short game.

8. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
From the opening chords of Tangled Up in Blue I was in love, which was probably the best way to experience the devestating album to follow for the first time. There's too much mythology to unpack here, so I'll just say that this was my white whale when starting out my vinyl collection, and I finally found a mint copy in the first record store I went to on my birthday one year. Definitely one of my most played and most treasured, and makes for an excellent whiskey session soundtrack along with Sticky Fingers (which just missed this list).

9. David Bowie - Station to Station
When I was first going through (and supremely enjoying!) Bowie's discography, I had a wary eye on Station to Station. Wikipedia informed me it was cold, a distant drugged out record that served merely as a transition to his even more experimental, but more successful Berlin period. So I was a bit unsure when I double clicked on the 10 minute title track and remained so during the discordant opening and jerky rhythm. But my word, when he started singing "It's not the side effects of the cocaine, I'm thinking that it must be love" I was all in. The practically celebratory vocals and party on guitar are so joyful. Then you get the warmth and archness of Golden Years, the drugged out frenzy of TVC15 and the sexiest guitar this side of Prince with Stay. Not to mention the aching gorgeousness of Word on a Wing and Wild is the Wind. And all of this in a delightfully compact 36 minutes. In my most recent binge following Bowie's death last year, this was my second most played after Blackstar and it felt like I was discovering it all over again.

10. Arcade Fire - Funeral
Not being hip to the musics of the day back in 2004, the first I heard of this was when U2 were using Wake Up as their entrance music. I think it wasn't until later in 2005 that I spent time with the album itself, but I fast became a staple during my uni commutes. I'm also one that rates every subsequent release a step down from its predescor. The plaintiff vocals and bombastic touches were more grounded than on Neon Bible, the personal reminisces less pretentious than The Suburbs and it's not Reflektor. Funeral stands as their best, thanks to a perfectly sequenced five song suite at the start, and one of the all time great final four song stretches I've ever heard. No coincidence that The Suburbs highlight is a Regine track, her two here play off Win's spectacularly.

11. Led Zeppelin - II
Most here seem to prefer IV or Houses. They're great and make up my top 3, but I'm always drawn back to the thrill of II. With riffs to die for, I have to go for the focus of the straight and direct versus the highs and lows of a broader ambition. If IV is the Die Hard of rock albums against which all have always been judged, this is the Fury Road, against which no more shall ever compete.

So a lot of guitar. Feels right, given my listening habits over the years. I've been branching out into hip hop and electronica for the past 2-3 years, but whilst I've found some all timers in these genres they don't have the same emotional connection as these 11 do. And whilst almost every band featured here has an objectively better album, these are my true favourites that still have yet to succumb to mere nostalgia.

 

[LemonMelon]

Another Station to Station pick

 

[martha]

I could have put Songs for the Deaf on my list if I'd thought of it.

 

[cobl04]

That was a great read mate

Pound-for-pound, Station to Station is his best album, I think. Still couldn't call it my #1.

 

[Partyslammer]

Not in any serious order but here's my eleven:

Van Halen -Fair Warning
The Lords Of The New Church - Self Titled debut album
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Killing Joke - 2003 Self Titled album
The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us
U2 - Achtung Baby
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Bauhaus - In The Flat Field
Brian Eno - Apollo
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Bernard Herrmann - The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann

 

[MrPryck2U]

Fair Warning: One of Van Halen's best

 

[bono_212]

I mean, at this point, I'm pretty set in my ways, I think this is probably the same list I've provided every single time we've ever done this

1. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire - I still have the strongest memories of being mesmerized by the title track to this album when I first received Best of 1980-1990, but the album itself was one of the last I heard. Funny enough, a friend of mine in high school bought it for me as a last minute Christmas gift. I haven't talked to her in a decade, but I can't thank her enough for introducing me to something so wonderful.

2. U2 - Achtung Baby - God, I still can't believe how strongly this album stirs my emotions. I've told you all this story before, but when I was 14 years old in Jr. High, I would listen to this album on repeat while I was working on a play as a stage hand. One of my strongest and longest lasting crushes was also working on that play, and U2 was one of the only things we ever had a semi-normal conversation about. I'm embarrassed to think back on it, on one hand, but on the other, boy is that a fun childhood memory. I also remember sitting at lunch carrying the lyric book with me around almost all of the time and thinking that So Cruel was the deepest song ever written.

3. U2 - The Joshua Tree - Funny enough, this was the second to last U2 album I heard >_>. I have no strong memories, besides laying in my room in the dark and just focusing in on it as I FINALLY heard it, way too late into my fandom at that point (The first time I heard it straight through was after my mom bought it for me when the 20th anniversary addition came out. So 7 years after I got into U2.)

4. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. - No real explanation, just whenever I hear this album, I'm sucked in until the end, despite kinda hating two tracks on it.

> 5. The Cure - Disintegration - Notating that this is a change on my list, this album used to come in at #7. It honestly might really be my 3rd or 4th favorite album at this point, I'm not really sure. But when I listen to it, it's the fastest 70 minutes of my life. I cry evrytime.

6. James Horner - The Land Before Time Soundtrack - speaking of crying everytime. This album is almost too much for me, most of the time I can't get through it without shedding a few tears. And since Horner's untimely passing in 2015, I've been even more emotional whenever I hear that familiar theme.

7. Pink Floyd - The Wall - Part memory, part true love. I was about 8 or 9 years old the first time I listened to The Wall with my dad in his new truck. When I was in college, I decided I was going to be "into music" in the sense that I was now going to listen to more albums. One of the first things I did was decide to see if I actually liked The Wall or not, since I hadn't heard it in about 11 years at that point. It turned out that I did.

8. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - I am noticing that a lot of the albums on this list make me very emotional . There's not deeper reason to this one, really, it's just a beautiful album and I love it.

9. The Killers - Hot Fuss - The first CD I bought for the radio in my first car. I listened to this and L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani on constant loop, when I wasn't listening to my mix CDs. It's never stopped being one of the most important musical pieces in my life.

10. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run - Another of those, "well I liked this when I was little, I wonder if I still do" moments. Except that instead of the album, I used to be obsessed with the Sesame Street song Born to Add. The very first time I ever bought a song because it was on the front page of iTunes was when I was in college and Radio Nowhere first came out. They were advertising it, and I thought, "hmm, I was always told I like Bruce Springsteen." So I bought it. That was in 2007. Nearly 10 years later and the Boss and I are pretty much inseparable. This was the first thing I got after I went ahead and purchased Magic. It was at the top of my list for the longest time. The only reason I think it's fallen so low, at this point, is that I've listened to it TOO many times.

11. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel IV (Security)- Picking my favorite album by Peter Gabriel is one of the hardest decisions for me to make, but in the end I always default to this one, as I think it's his most successfully ambitious.


And of course, I could go on....the next few albums on the list are also those albums that I almost feel define me:
Full Moon Fever
Feed the Animals
The Hurting
Lonesome Jubilee
Rumors

Get that classic rock, pop plunderphonics nonsense, new wave, heartland music, and Fleetwood Mac all mashed together and you get yourself a bono_212

 

[Hewson]

Van Halen -Fair Warning

Nice, just a hair behind WaCF for me.

As I've said before when I was a youngster found one of those dual cassettes at Strawberries with 2 albums on it, Women and Children First on one side and Fair Warning on the other, played the crap out of that thing.

 

[womanfish]

Ok, So these are my favorites at the moment. Some are cemented there. Others will be different month to month.

1. U2 - Achtung Baby - After being a young fan for 6 years, this changed my world, and my musical perceptions
2. The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs - Yes, i know it's kind of cheating as it's a compilation album. But it was the soundtrack of my later high school years and will always mean so much to me.
3. REM - Lifes Rich Pageant - breakout, beautiful, bold, perfect.
4. The National - Trouble Will Find Me - Just entrancing from beginning to end.
5. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker - remains my favorite of his. His voice just carries true emotion to me
6. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell - Absolutely heart-shatteringly beautiful and honest. Brings me back to moments I simultaneously want to remember and forget.
7. REM - Murmur - Nothing like this. Innocence and wisdom colliding, sparse yet complete.
8. Death Cab - Transatlanticism - A delicate, deep, achingly good album.
9. Tegan and Sara - So Jealous - One of the most complete albums I've ever heard. No weak points. 2 voices like no others.
10. Arcade Fire - Suburbs - A bit too long? maybe. But each song is like a transport to a piece of your past.
11. Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses - One of the greatest singer/songwriters of the past 20 years. Cuts to your gut.

others:

Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Travis - The Man Who
James - Seven
The New Pornographers - Electric Version
Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
U2 - POP
David Gray - White Ladder

 

[cobl04]

I'm not really into Death Cab for Cutie at all, but Transatlantacism is sensational.

 

[lazarus]

Dork Cap For Cobbler

Spoiler

[tweet]841490829692739590[/tweet]

 

[Hewson]

 

[Partyslammer]

Nice, just a hair behind WaCF for me.

As I've said before when I was a youngster found one of those dual cassettes at Strawberries with 2 albums on it, Women and Children First on one side and Fair Warning on the other, played the crap out of that thing.

Being an old guy, the first live band I ever saw was Van Halen in a club more then a year before they released their first album. I went on to see them every tour and the Fair Warning tour in '81 was their live peak.

 

[intedomine]

Alright then. Probably tl;dr, but I had fun writing all of this:


4. The National - Boxer
This might be too high, but recent evening spins have given me an added appreciation of it. I think it's their most focussed record, pushing up against monotonous but finding enough variants to make each of its 12 tracks stand apart. Fake Empire is a towering introduction, but the frantic Mistaken for Strangers, fragile Green Gloves, love story for the Netflix generation Apartment Story, wistful Start a War and teetering on the brink Ava make this a true front to back record. Even Gospel works as a great postscript. Ultimately for me, this is The National record which contains both "Cinderella through the room" and "You were always weird but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now". Probably for the best it doesn't also have "Now you're thinking too fast, you're like marbles on glass", I don't think I could handle it all on one album.

[emoji106] been a National fan for a while now and Boxer is really settling as my favourite. I agree with it being the most focussed and lyrically, for me, I find myself consistently identifying with the songs one way or another. I just keep getting more and more out of it. It's succinct as well, it doesn't dawdle. No songs outstay their welcome.

Love reading some of these lists.. I probably shouldn't be but surprised at how consistently Achtung Baby is getting Top 2. I have to keep reminding myself I'm on a U2 forum.

Working on my 11. The struggle is trying to fit in the newer albums or discoveries amongst the dinosaurs that have been up the top for a good 10-15 years. Can I find a place for Grimes or Lamar yet? I feel I need more time. I'll see how I go.

 

[cobl04]

For all those naming Boxer, or those who'd call it their fav National record - when did you come to the band? I'm finding that those of us who jumped on the bandwagon around High Violet time think it pales in comparison to that record and Trouble Will Find Me.

I've always found it to be a pretty stuffy, insular record. It starts extremely well, Fake Empire through Brainy is as good a three-song stretch as they've got in their catalogue (even if I think Fake Empire is generally overrated), and I've really come around to Squalor Victoria (I was always indifferent towards it because the live version is so much better, but fuck me, Bryan Devendorf sells it completely on his own) but Green Gloves has always bored me. Slow Show wins me back if only for its wonderful chorus and that lovely, melancholy last third. All National fans adore Apartment Story, and it's a great song, but it still can't escape the album's overall staid feel. From then onwards it bores me to death, with Ada the only saving grace in the last 20 minutes.

I am too harsh on it, but I grew up on this forum and there was a period where it was spoken of in the same breath as the likes of Funeral, it was that revered. And I've just always found it to be one-paced and uninspiring. I actually listen to it reasonably often, but that's when I need an unchallenging album playing in the background.

 

[womanfish]

For all those naming Boxer, or those who'd call it their fav National record - when did you come to the band? I'm finding that those of us who jumped on the bandwagon around High Violet time think it pales in comparison to that record and Trouble Will Find Me.

I've always found it to be a pretty stuffy, insular record. It starts extremely well, Fake Empire through Brainy is as good a three-song stretch as they've got in their catalogue (even if I think Fake Empire is generally overrated), and I've really come around to Squalor Victoria (I was always indifferent towards it because the live version is so much better, but fuck me, Bryan Devendorf sells it completely on his own) but Green Gloves has always bored me. Slow Show wins me back if only for its wonderful chorus and that lovely, melancholy last third. All National fans adore Apartment Story, and it's a great song, but it still can't escape the album's overall staid feel. From then onwards it bores me to death, with Ada the only saving grace in the last 20 minutes.

I am too harsh on it, but I grew up on this forum and there was a period where it was spoken of in the same breath as the likes of Funeral, it was that revered. And I've just always found it to be one-paced and uninspiring. I actually listen to it reasonably often, but that's when I need an unchallenging album playing in the background.

You hit the nail on the head. I got into them with High Violet, after I heard Conversation 16. I went back to Boxer and Alligator and just couldn't get into them that much. Had some great moments, but like you said, it just felt too one note and at times uninspired. Then TWFM came out and it completely bowled me over. I listened to it, front to back for weeks. Just right on every level to me.

 

[cobl04]

FWIW I think Boxer's a probably better album than Alligator. Alligator has a huge amount of great songs but the sequencing is atrocious.

 

[iron yuppie]

Boxer is their most atmospheric album, acknowledging that's a strange word to apply to The National. It feels like a specific place, whereas the others feel more like a walk through a maze of messy emotions and relationships. I enjoy it a great deal, but it has to be the right moment for it. Alligator is their best work, brimming with nervous, foreboding energy. It does have a scattershot quality, as Cobbler seems to be saying above, but that works in its favor IMO. To Womanfish, "uninspired" is one of the last words I would use to describe any National album.

The (minor) critique I would have of Trouble in retrospect is that some of the ballads don't flow well in the scope of the album - Heavenfaced is the best example, though Fireproof fits the bill as well. Never been crazy about Hard to Find as a closer, either.

 

[womanfish]

Boxer is their most atmospheric album, acknowledging that's a strange word to apply to The National. It feels like a specific place, whereas the others feel more like a walk through a maze of messy emotions and relationships. I enjoy it a great deal, but it has to be the right moment for it. Alligator is their best work, brimming with nervous, foreboding energy. It does have a scattershot quality, as Cobbler seems to be saying above, but that works in its favor IMO. To Womanfish, "uninspired" is one of the last words I would use to describe any National album.

The (minor) critique I would have of Trouble in retrospect is that some of the ballads don't flow well in the scope of the album - Heavenfaced is the best example, though Fireproof fits the bill as well. Never been crazy about Hard to Find as a closer, either.

I think it is probably more about me as a fan discovering them later in their game. Uninspired isn't the right word... I feel more like, when i listen to the older stuff, it feels now, like they are trying to find their footing, and are at times, but are wobbly at times.
I find myself kinda losing interest listening to the older stuff, skipping tracks, where I may feel that way on a couple on High Violet and none on TWFM.

For me TWFM is them completely on solid ground. But again, i think i am looking at a different perspective than those that have been into the band for much longer.

 

[the tourist]

For all those naming Boxer, or those who'd call it their fav National record - when did you come to the band? I'm finding that those of us who jumped on the bandwagon around High Violet time think it pales in comparison to that record and Trouble Will Find Me.

I got into them between the releases of Boxer and High Violet. I've never gotten into their first album. I'd rank them like this:

1. Trouble Will Find Me
2. Alligator (very close second)
3. High Violet
4. Boxer
5. Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers

I'd probably put the EL VY album between High Violet and Boxer.

 

[LemonMelon]

I got into them after seeing them open for Arcade Fire in 2007 and still see Boxer as their definitive statement (with the more visceral Alligator as a close second). High Violet and TFWM, much as I appreciate them, feel redundant to me in many ways and I hope they mix it up next time.

 

[intedomine]

The (minor) critique I would have of Trouble in retrospect is that some of the ballads don't flow well in the scope of the album - Heavenfaced is the best example, though Fireproof fits the bill as well. Never been crazy about Hard to Find as a closer, either.

I'd agree on all these points. I love the album, but none of these songs have actually gripped me as much as the rest of the album.

There is also an autobiographical resonance (and my bias) of Boxer that is particularly powerful. The idea of actually coming across as accomplished or enviable in the eyes of others, yet still feeling a sort of displacement whichever way you go. Living vicariously through others, craving the comforts of familiarity, but never being being truly satisfied either which way.

Green Gloves I adore, and the sequence through to tragic Guest Room is brilliant.

 

[lazarus]

http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f221/the-national-sunshine-on-my-b-and-ck-218243.html

 

[IWasBored]

I'm ignoring Laz's last post to be like hey so i'm an outlier who got into the band after High Violet (mostly thanks to peef selling the band to me out of anyone on here), but Bloodbuzz and Abel were the ones that hooked me. I would say Boxer is my favorite album of theirs, however I could probably talk myself into voting for anything Alligator onward.

 

[gump]

I got into them after seeing them open for Arcade Fire in 2007 and still see Boxer as their definitive statement (with the more visceral Alligator as a close second). High Violet and TFWM, much as I appreciate them, feel redundant to me in many ways and I hope they mix it up next time.

All of this. I will also say that Slow Show-Apartment Story-Start a War is my favorite stretch of music by them.

I got into them around the time Boxer was released. Got to see them on tour that time front row in a club for maybe 200/300 people at most, which was incredible. It didn't take me long at all to become a fan.

 

[cobl04]

Was he knocking down a bottle of wine pre-show back then too?

 

[PhilsFan]

I'm ignoring Laz's last post to be like hey so i'm an outlier who got into the band after High Violet (mostly thanks to peef selling the band to me out of anyone on here), but Bloodbuzz and Abel were the ones that hooked me. I would say Boxer is my favorite album of theirs, however I could probably talk myself into voting for anything Alligator onward.

I'm glad my time on this forum has had some positive impact.

 

[gump]

Was he knocking down a bottle of wine pre-show back then too?

Pretty sure he came to the stage holding a bottle of wine.