I’ve been spending a bit of time recently listening to a pretty good podcast called “The Canon”.
The premise is very simple: each week movie critics Devin Faraci and Amy Nicholson pick a film and debate (often hotly) whether it merits entry into “The Canon”. Occasionally, they’ll do a head to head (e.g. Rocky vs First Blood) with only one movie being granted entry.
The hosts have pretty good chemistry, they clearly love/hate the movies they’re discussing and they also get some decent guests to help them out: Henry Rollins on Apocalypse Now being a recent highlight.
I’d recommend giving it a listen if you’re a movie fan Details below.
http://thecanon.wolfpop.com/audio/playlists/3968
Anyway, the thought this lead me to was that this concept would probably make for a pretty decent thread or two on here. So, I propose we start with music: which albums do you feel are worthy/unworthy of gaining entry to the Afterword Canon? Feel free to debate with all the snark and vim evident on the podcast itself.
A couple of quick ground rules:
* We’re looking for consensus choices. I think Revolver is a load of old cobblers, but it’s clearly going to make any notional Afterword Canon – just shouting “well I don’t like it” isn’t enough, you need to make an argument for why the record in question is good/bad and merits a precious place in the firmament of aceness/should be expelled into the dark wasteland of the UnCanon.
* Just to sweeten the pot a little: no more than one album per artist will be admitted into the Afterword Canon.
* Don’t just chuck a list of album titles out there. Take the opportunity to present a bit of a supporting argument, otherwise your selections will be more easily swatted away.
Let the nominations/recriminations begin!
Forgot this bit —->
How about OK Computer vs Dark Side of the Moon? I know which I’d go for but I have to pretend to work at the moment….
That’s a good one.
Personally, I’m not a fan of either, but I’d probably suggest that Dark Side of the Moon is Canon-worthy. It seems to be a big album for a fairly large number of the Massive, and I also think we can probably get comfortable with it being the sole Floyd contribution in a way that will simply not be true of OK Computer.
OK Computer has aged really badly, as far as I’m concerned. All that pre-millennial tension and the stuff about people living their synthetic, cut out and keep lives, man… it just sounds daft now, to my ears at least. The worst thing about the late 90s, even worse than the music, was listening to tedes wanging on about how Ikea furniture was dehumanising us all (see also: Fight Club).
Also, and this is my own personal prejudice, whenever I hear Thom Yorke sing it calls to mind one of those teenage boys who thinks the world is a terrible place because he’s not getting laid. He needs a clip round the bloody ear and to stop feeling so sorry for himself.
I’d personally oppose the inclusion of a Radiohead album. I think they’re grindingly dull, and no one ever really seems to talk about them on here. But if we must, my guess is that it’s probably going to be a fairly even split in opinion between the Bends and Kid A.
Leave Radiohead aloooone!! Kid A is miles better than anything PF have ever done.
I’m not a Pink Floyd fan, by any means. In fact, I’ve listened to Radiohead way, way more. I just think their albums have aged quite badly, with the possible exceptions of The Bends, Kid A and In Rainbows.
It’s In Rainbows for me. Or The Bends.
Kid A is a shit attempt at “difficult”. A poor, sixth form effort.
I prefer Amnesiac to Kid A. It’s not trying to be such a statement. Pyramid Song beats anything on Kid A. In Rainbows would be my choice though. It all gels, it’s their most satisfying collection. Full of subtlety and complexity.
Kid A is one of those albums which is greater than the sum of its parts. Each track fits with the next perfectly. Some of the transitions are blissful. There is such a variety of styles but every choice they made (Amnesiac was recorded at the same time) is perfect. It is an album that demands to be listened to as one whole. It is magnificent.
It isn’t.
I’m blackballing Kid A solely on the basis you just used the word “blissful” to describe it.
Let this be a lesson to you.
I know Amnesiac was same sessions but it doesn’t seem to try so hard. I think their albums bar In Rainbows and The Bends are quite patchy.
In spite of my soft spot for Hail to the Thief I’d have to nominate The Bends for its consistency and beauty.
Another vote here for The Bends with In Rainbows as a hot second.
This isn’t good. I can’t read it properly on my phone & you’re GETTING RADIOHEAD WRONG!!!
*removes Tigger from Christmas card list*
Again?
arf!
this is the best way to listen to Radiohead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzK8vOP1Q24
It’s a great idea. I’d like us to have a canon of some sort. But the chances of agreement are not great. This place thrives on marmite and perhaps is at its best when coated with black sticky stuff. Just look at the Best Albums of 2015 list.
“the chances of agreement are not great..”
I disagree.
The whole question of Marmite is in itself a Marmite issue.
Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper?
On second thoughts, let’s have them both? Really, it’s not worth getting angry or upset about. No, wait, er, put that cudgel down. No! STEP AWAY FROM THE SCISSORS!
Pet Sounds. Obviously. Pepper is shite.
Which Bowie album?
Consensus probably split between Hunky Dory and Ziggy here.
Myself – Station To Station. His best listen from start to finish and the title track is (I may be on my own here) my favourite track of his.
One of a minority of acts who deserve two entries perhaps? But if we stick to rules I’ll second that choice. 76-80 is my favourite period and this has diversity of style plus perfection, with no weak track. I think the musicians he chose to work with during this time were the best of his collaborators. Though Ronson was clearly brilliant, the music became more interesting, with more going on. I feel like Bowie possibly got more closely involved with the precise sounds he wanted after Young Americans. His singing on Station to Station is also his best and he never looked cooler. I also rate the title track as at least in the top 5 of all his recordings.
Low is the one for me. Intensely personal (painfully so), revolutionary sound (like nothing else on Earth), a wonderful contrast between side one and side two and not a single weak moment. A proper piece of vinyl and, therefore, a proper album.
As has been covered, I’m by no means Bowie fan, but… I agree completely. It’s a brilliant album, fully Canon-worthy and the best thing he ever did (that I’ve heard, anyway).
That said, I’m going to vote for Earthling. Because I can.
Low would be my choice too.
A proper immersive experience – one of those albums that you don’t want to skip tracks, or turn off early. All the way through or nothing at all.
I really like Low as well. It’s my vote for the Bowie entry in the canon.
I’m a big Mick Ronson fan, so my first thoughts would be either Hunky Dory or Ziggy.
However 76-80 is pretty good too, so if we go for Station to Station & then stick in Lou Reed’s Transformer, both eras are covered without breaking the rules.
Lou Reed? Got to be Berlin. Transformer is quite slight in places. I also prefer Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal. But Berlin is more substantial than either.
done deal Diddley a masterpiece.
Lou Reed? New York.
Can’t believe I’ve pipped Tigger at the post by being the first to nominate Metal Machine Music. Or is it too obvious a choice – too civilian, too MOR, not quite shitty and unloved enough?
There’s an obscure late 70s recording of Lou falling down a New York fire escape while carrying an old bin full of discarded cutlery. Got to be be included, quite surprised it’s not been mentioned yet.
ah, but have you heard the demo of it? Much better.
As a matter of fact, Blue Mask is my favourite Lou solo and Loaded my favourite VU.
Tiggerlion – The Afterword loose cannon.
As a fan of the mix album, I’d like to get at least one go in the canon, and the one I’m proposing is the set many see as the best of the progressive house era: John Digweed’s Global Underground 19: Los Angeles.
Often cited as the moment prog house got dark, GU 19 does indeed have a foreboding quality that kicks in right from the beginning, with Pole Folder’s atmospheric Apollo Vibes, and if you like this, you may well be in for a treat…
… because after this it’s a two-CD journey into the art of the DJ. Digweed’s transitions are flawless and his track selection inspired. There’s something about this set that has a narcotic and transporting quality. At the very least it’s a deep and immersive two-and-half-hour trip into the best of this much-maligned sub-genre.
Poppy, obvious though it is I’d have to go for Digweed and Sasha’s first Northern Exposure (UK double CD obvs) – much though I love GU19 too.
That was in my thinking too. That, the follow-up (ah, that opening!), and Digweed’s Bedrock ‘compiled and mixed by’ set were in my initial thoughts.
But of course now I’m thinking fave mix albums, it’s opened a whole ‘nother can of worms. 🙁
If we can only have one mix CD – love us inventing these rules then I’d put up
70 Minutes of Madness – Coldcut
Richie Hawtin – Decks, EFX and 909 or possibly Mixmag Live!
Sasha – Involver (personal fave)
Kruder and Dorfmeister – K and D Sessions
All good (except I haven’t heard Hawtin’s Mixmag live). The Involver albums are just beautiful. They send me!
As well as those mentioned I’d have to add ….
Sasha, all his GUs
Joris Voorn, Balance 014
Agoria. Balance 016
Henry Saiz, Balance 019
Dave Clarke, World Service 1 & 2
Luke Slater, Fear & Loathing 1 & 2
Billy Nasty, Trust The DJ BN01
Deep Dish, Renaissance Ibiza
James Holden, At The Controls
James Holden, DJ Kicks
Danny Tengalia, GU 010
UNKLEsounds, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Beats
Michael Mayer, Immer 1, 2 & 3
James Lavelle, GU 041, Naples
I suppose they could all fight for second place behind Jeff Mills Live At The Liquid Room.
Dang, forgot about that. And Exhibitionist.
That is an mix I massively admire, but can I listen to it all the way through. it’s an album that captures the feel of a sweaty techno club in the 90s perfectly – but feel I need to be in a sweaty techno club to really enjoy it
I like the idea of one mix CD.
My personal vote would be for disc 2 of Logical Progression volume 2, which consists of the previous disc, all mixed to perfection and with MC Conrad chatting shit over the top, but that’s mainly down to pure force of nostalgia.
If we’re going to be objective, Jeff Mills is a huge shout.
Now we’re down to the nuts and bolts, it seems unfair to have a representative of only one genre. Live At The Liquid Room is a very different proposition to Bukem and Digweed.
What if we limit it to one per sub-genre (without getting too granular)?
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, or Buckingham Nicks era Fleetwood Mac?
I worship the former and have every note they recorded on vinyl and CD (much of it on bootleg), yet I wouldn’t give you tuppence for the latter and own nothing by them, not even the absurdly ubiquitous Rumours.
The only common factor are the bassist and drummer of course neither of whom contribute diddly squat to the overall sound and once Peter Green took the one-way ticket to Palookaville it was game over for the Mac as far as I was concerned…
(continues in similar vein for 2,000 words)
I like Rumours, though little else from that era, and overall too prefer Peter Green’s time.
Rumours is a fantastic pop album and Tusk is bonkers brilliant. But then again I think the Blues is the dullest music ever created with the possible exception of Schlager.
I’m with the heretics here. Infinitely prefer the popped-up coked-out Mac to the blues. (Ducks the hail of bullets)
Me, too. I vote for Tusk. Deranged and beautiful at the same time.
Tusk has my vote.
Rumours or Tusk, but damn right I hate the blues.
The original Mac did great singles but best ofs are not allowed so let’s not be churlish, Rumours is just chock-full of great melodies. Canon beckons.
I am a heretic WRT Fleetwood Mac, I much prefer the coked up version, but my choice would be the (to me anyway) faultless Tango in the night.
Both versions of the band quite patchy. Former version probably more patchy than the latter.
Ah, yes, but did Peter Green’s incarnation record a classic canon-worthy album? I’d make the argument that the Greatest Hits is really the only PGFM album you really need.
Quite
Any album that routinely released singles before its release and for donkey’s years afterwards can p— right off.
NOT part of the canon.
Gee, sorry, anything by Jackson, Madonna, REM, U2, ‘Dare’, ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ etc. Release a single or release an album, don’t fleece the great unwashed.
True, it’s a system that has its casualties (‘Blonde on Blonde’ and, alas, ‘Pet Sounds’) but it has a much higher success than failure rate.
And so……’The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ v. ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan’.
That’s a terrible, terrible idea, which would restrict the Canon to a mere handful of records and prejudice proceedings towards the dawn of rock and roll in a most unacceptable manner.
For Bob: it’s gotta Blonde on Blonde. Think about it – we, the assembled, can only listen to one Dylan album ever again. All the rest will be burned down into sludge and used to repave old roads. You’re not going to live without Like A Rolling Stone, Visions of Johanna and I Want You.
As for the rest, you make an excellent point: we’ll be needing representation from all those artists in the Canon.
*races to be first to correct bingo
Yes but, ‘Rolling Stone’ is on Highway 61 Revisited.
Are you quite sure you’re qualified to be the curator of the canon?
Fucking. Hell.
I can’t believe I got that wrong. And here, of all places.
Clear your desk and hand your credibility to Security on the way out.
If you want marmite albums, I’d throw all rules to the wind in a fit of anarchy and nominate two David Sylvian albums for inclusion in the AW canon: Blemish and Manafon. On both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com Blemish and Manafon receive mostly 5-star and 1-star reviews, with very few reviewers opting for the middle ground.
I remember my first glimpse of David Sylvian was seeing Japan perform Swing on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1980. I liked the song immediately but wasn’t that interested until the release of Tin Drum a year later. I thought then and still think now that it’s a totally unique album. There is absolutely nothing else like it in the pantheon of pop. The uniqueness was due to Mick Karn’s fretless bass and Steve Jansen’s polyrhythmic percussion as much as Sylvian’s songs, based loosely around the theme of Communist China. As the BBC review says “Tin Drum has no flashy waste or needless bombast, just evocative skill that remains fresh to this day.” The standout track was Ghosts, one of the weirdest, most bonkers singles ever to hit the charts. Its haunting, sparse arrangement and lack of conventional music marked the first step on the path to Blemish and Manafon.
As a solo artist, Sylvian turned his back on pop stardom and recorded increasingly un-commercial albums, including some ambient instrumentals (Flux & Mutability being a personal favourite) and a very long list of collaborations. But as much as I loved his more conventional albums (especially Dead Bees On A Cake) Blemish and Manafon are the albums that fascinate me most.
Sylvian’s stated intent in these two largely improvised albums was to see how far he could strip the songs of their conventional musical framework. With melody provided only by the vocals, which are very much to the fore, the music is both minimalist and abstract. Blemish was written and recorded in six weeks following the disintegration of his relationship with his wife Ingrid Chavez and features only two other musicians, avant-garde guitarist Derek Bailey and electronic musician Christian Fennesz. Its lyrics are dark, full of pain and despair. Manafon is “a companion piece to Blemish” exploring the same improvisational techniques and sparse arrangements as its predecessor but with a larger group of musicians. (The two both have interesting remix albums -The Good Son vs The Only Daughter and Died In The Wool- which offer an ever so slightly more conventional musical backing to the songs.) As BBC Music says of Sylvian: “He now inhabits (like Scott Walker) that most rarified of zones where artistic credibility eschews commercialism in any form … If only all so-called artists could display such courage.” I consider Blemish and Manafon to be quite simply the most interesting records I’ve ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrVXtFmjgTo
I believe Little Mix are bringing out a tribute “reimagined” version of Dead Bees on a Cake later this year.
That’s all very well and good, Gary , but which Pink Floyd album do you save if you can only save one? I think you’re probably the resident Floydie on here.
It certainly wouldn’t be OK Computer.
I’m tempted to say Endless River. It’s the only choice no one else on the planet would agree with, so that’s good.
You’ve got your Syd fans, but that sound does nothing for me at all. Obscured is only fab in parts. Meddle would be a popular choice, but One Of These Days isn’t great and Seamus is just plain stoopid. I think Dark Side and Wish You Were Here are both faultless, perfect in every way, but way too well known to be interesting. Animals is a very strong contender and would be my second choice. The Wall is impressively ambitious (and largely successful in achieving its ambitions) but it’s also overblown and bombastic. The Final Cut, Momentary Lapse and Division Bell have nothing to do with Floyd. But Endless River does! Despite Roger not being involved it sounds like classic line-up Floyd, with sounds nicked from most of their phases. It’s not my fave, but it’s the most interesting right now and was the best ever epitaph for a career – until Blackstar came along.
You appear to be voting for a record to be placed in the Canon on the basis that it’s largely unknown and no one else will agree with it.
Sounds perfect for the Afterword.
Exactamundo!
Sorry, but UmmaGumma is more Floyd than anything else they ever did, and hence is the best choice for canonical Floyd.
Actually, I’m warming to Endless River. The worst track on it is the song.
Dark Side is the obvious choice and hard to argue with but a boring choice nevertheless. Meddle is a more interesting possibility. One of These Days no good? It’s among their best, a thrilling, driving piece, revisited on DSOTM and WYWH but this is the original, without all the deep and meaningful, ponderous lyrics in the way.
I love Manafon, but it took me about five years to see the light!
BIngo! I think we’re getting “mission creep” here… anyway, totally agree re Radiohead v Floyd. I have tried to like Radiohead, God knows, but it just ain’t happening.
The Who – Who’s Next /Quadrophenia era over Sell Out/My Genetation era. I’d go for Who’s Next over anything else by them, it’s when all 4 members were at their peak, the powerful sound and Behind Blue Eyes is the song I’d play to anyone who’d want their sound in one song (or maybe Baba O’Riley). Plus, 4 of them peeing or post pee on the cover. Honestly, nothing to object to, not even My Wife.
Led Zep – No 3 or Physical Graffitti. Can I have both ? No, alright then Physical Graffitti then because playing this loud at home is just ROCK.
Blimey – Led Zep is a tough one. For me, it’s III, all the way. That’s the record I go straight to when I want to get the Led out.
Why not leave Led out altogether?
2 is the 1. None more Zeppelin. The single most glorious recorded-on-the-road-in-studios-like-toilets-and-in-scuzzy-hotel-rooms album ever made, ever, ever, anywhere in the known universe.
Who’s Next is that rare case of having a phenomenal opening track and a phenomenal closing track, and the bits in between are none too shabby.
However, Quadrophenia triumphs as the album of choice because … it does
Who’s Next / Sell Out. It’s too close to call.
Led Zep – 1&2 over everything else they produced (I’ve tried to love 3, honest).
Pixies – Doolittle.
The sound of my youth, and I still adore it to this day.
It starts with Debaser and ends with Gouge Away (2 of my favourites)
Short, sharp, superb songs.
I’ll second this one. Seminal record, the best thing they ever did, and there’s a segment of the massive who will not be able to live without the sweet sound of Black Francis’ screaming his goddam lungs out.
Thirded
Too obvious????
Everyone knows it’s Surfer Rosa: sexy, thrashy- ‘Where Is My Mind’, ‘Oh My Golly’, ‘Bone Machine’…
Erotic tits on the fabulous album sleeve…
But what about the erotic shoulders on Come On Pilgrim?
Phwoarrrr…
Yes yes yes
Okay. But which album of theirs?
Since you ask it has to be Fragile.
What is WRONG with you people? The Yes Album is the only possible choice.
My vote goes to It’s Blitz.
A corker.
No votes for Toby’s Telepathic Go-Kart ?
Tigger knows.
So right, Vulpes.
Meant to be the Pixies
Okay ruling needed on singles compilations that were released as albums
For The Smiths can we go with Hatful of Hollow?
For The Sisters of Mercy can we go with Some Girls Wander By Mistake….
If not then The Queen Is Dead and First And Last And Always.
Good question. For singles compilations, I think we need to go case-by-case.
I’m all for allowing an appeal to be made for Hatful of Hollow, but my personal vote would go to The Queen is Dead, which always seems to me to hang together better as an album, even if it has got a couple of duds on it.
Soundtracks too – few albums, if any, represent the diskoteka era better than Saturday Night Fever OST..
Balls to that.
Rocky IV soundtrack crew represent!
if I’m only allowed one singles compilation, it’d have to be Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Once Upon a Time.
Why am I the only one who thinks “Meat Is Murder” is the best Smiths album? No argument for the canon I know but it just my favourite…
You’re not the only one, Dave. We are legion.
Side one of MIM is as good as they ever got.
Right, I’m gonna move us beyond the obvious choices and push into bold new areas.
Siamese Dream, Smashing Pumpkins.
Smashing Pumpkins are not a seminal band. They were falling apart before they even got together, they looked ridiculous and their only real creative talent had a voice that could cut sheet metal and a god complex that made Jose Mourinho look like Woody Allen. They did, however, manage one absolutely stone cold classic album, and that was Siamese Dream.
From front to back and side to side it’s absolutely classic; it has ace tunes, it hangs together brilliantly and cohesively, it has stellar guitar work, some fucking regal licks and propulsive drumming. There’s also so much going on that you can listen to it a million times and still find new stuff.
The sound is simultaneously that of the 90s and the 70s, and it manages to be both punk and prog, all at once. It’s an album out of time and a proper labour of love that would be getting properly raved over to this day if it had been released by a more credible act.
Here’s Geek USA, a song which starts out like Van Halen on a skate ramp, evolves to full on wig-out, swings back to a quieter, cherubs-whispering from the trees interlude before rounding the final corner and rolling out a proper 18 wheeler of a riff to make its exit. It’s about five different songs in one track. It’s fantastic and it belong in the Canon along with the album from whence it came, giving proper representation to the helter-skelter genre mashing madness of the early to mid 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf98kqzAEHw
Yes, Siamese Dream is ace. Disarm and Spaceboy are mighty fine tunes.
I would also add “Dirty” by Sonic Youth, another classic of that time.
Not a seminal band but Siamese Dream was well received as one of the best rock albums of that era, so maybe not so bold. Cherub Rock is as good and dramatic an opening track as one could wish for. A fine choice.
Nice work Bingo. You certainly made me want to give it a listen. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one track by the Pumpkins.
I learned all my hyperbole from the NME.
Make sure you report back.
“Smashing Pumpkins are not a seminal band”.
They are a bit wanky, though.
Bob Marley & The Wailers? Live! obviously.
Is the correct answer.
Okay @bingolittle I’ll bite on the U2. Someone has to. I think it has to be their debut Boy. Forget everything that was to come and try and listen to Boy without knowing anything else. It’s got hit singles – I will Follow and A Day Without Me (no really Bono – we can manage) – and just a great sense of space, mystery and atmosphere across all the tracks.
Someone will argue for Achtung Baby but if you had to listen to one U2 album on a 24-hour loop…
Nope. Joshua Tree every time.
I’m confused – the original premise seemed to be “only one of these two albums can make it to the canon”. Now we are simply saying ” this record is great”?
So howsabout Feats Don’t Fail Me v Katy Lied
Obviously Katy Lied
Okay Boy vs Achtung Baby. I’m with the Boy.
Siamese Dream vs Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. With Melon Collie.
Led Zep III v Physical Graffiti. Physical Graffiti.
Who’s Next v Quadrophenia. Who’s Next.
Hunky Dory v Station To Station. Station To Station.
Melon Collie over Siamese Dream? No chance in hell.
I love Melon Collie, but it’s nowhere near as good an album as SD – there’s an ace single album in there, desperately fighting to get out, but in the mean time you have to put up with stuff like Tales of a Scorched Earth, Stumbleine and the three or four identical sounding tracks at the end of disc 2.
Even if you do whittle it down to a single disc (and that’s an exercise I’ve painstakingly performed in the past) it still doesn’t sound as full and cohesive as Siamese Dream. SD sounds like a real ALBUM, Melon Collie sounds like a greatest hits package.
All of that said, I freaking love the title track, Tonight, Tonight, Here Is No Why, Zero, Galapagos and Muzzle (awesome drum work).
The premise is simple: which albums are worthy of entry to the Afterword Canon, no more than one per artist.
If people wish to do album vs album to help aid their thinking, that’s OK by me. If someone wants to argue “well, there needs to be a dubstep album in there, but only one”, that’s OK by me too.
Burial – Untrue.
A dark, urban masterpiece. Dystopic Prog for slow dancers.
Pinch – Underwater Dancehall. Features Qawwali, which has some claim to being the best dubstep track in the world…ever!
I never really think of Untrue as a proper dubstep album, and I reckon it makes the Canon on its own merits anyway.
For dubstep, I think it has to be the utterly essential “Five Years of Hyperdub” collection.
Complete rot. The answer is Dixie Chicken.
The Last Record Album is simply perfect.
Absolutely.
Shit. I was agreeing with Vulpes.
Agreed. But the golden Feat albums are better than almost everything, let’s face it.
Right then “Dare” or “The Lexicon of Love”? I’ll be back later when I have some time for some proper reasoning,,,
Rio or Pelican West?
Visage or Age Of Plastic or The Golden Age Of Wireless or Assemblage
(Okay, the last one’s a compilation but I was struggling..)
Neither. It’s Architecture & Morality.
Ok so if we assume we are discussing an era of electronic glitz, glam and pop. An era of Radio 1, the charts and TOTP. New electronic sounds, a new look, something that defines the early 80’s then I must insist that it is not any of the above. It must be The Associates “Sulk”. Music made squeezing every last dropout of the available technology mixed with Billys voice, look and sheer aura. If you are in any doubt listen again, it is glorious and deserves its place in any canon. I love all of the above but none are the equal of “Sulk”, argue if you must but you’ll lose. “I’ll have a shower and then phone my brother up” indeed…….
No need to limit yerself tho’. Considering all the sweaty scrotum chooga booga getting in the gate on this thread you need all the squelchy synths you can muster. You gotta have Dare, if only to annoy deramdaze.
And such shenanigans only lead us to the real question: Man Machine or Trans Europe Express?
*tap tap* is this thing on? I said the real question is Man machine or Trans Europe Express?
(I knew I’d spend my dotage replying to my own posts, but this seems premature…)
Sorry, so hard to follow these long threads. I’m no help here Kraftwerk passed me by. I will however take your advice and ask for “Dare”, “Pelican West”, “Lexicon of Love”, “A & M” to join “Sulk”. I’ll also push my luck and add “Humans Lib”, that should cover it….
Trans Europa Express (in German) is the bomb.
Wir sind Schaufensterpuppen!!
Digging this thread. Next up Blondie. Conventional wisdom would go for Parallel Lines, but for me as an album there’s a bit too much throwaway stuff. I’m Gonna Love You Too (a cover) and Just Go Away are two very disposable tracks.
So instead it’s Eat To the Beat. Possibly only Sound-A-Sleep is not stellar.
Horses for courses. I would go with Parallel Lines. Sound A Sleep is a lovely song from Eat To The Beat but I’m Not Living In A Real World is the weak link.
even if that were true, then PL still has a downer of an ending. Trails off badly side 2
could the “compromise choice” be Plastic Letters?
Certainly consistent, if not perhaps as gob-smacking as Parallel Lines or Eat To The Beat.
A Love Supreme
NOOOOOOO!
Live At The Village Vanguard The Master Takes
Nooooo. You might as well be caught eating Maltesers at Singalonga Sound of Music.
I’d go for ‘Are you Damn Sure that Needle’s Clean?’, the little known and even less heard collaboration between John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charlie Drake. Recorded in a toilet in Kings Cross, it’s almost purely spoken word, with what little instrumentation there is being provided by the dropping of syringes, flushing of toilets and the zipping up of Charlie’s strides. Universally reviled then and now, it’s truly an Afterword masterpiece of pseudery and bullshit snobbisme.
Harrumph.
Everyone should have a copy of A Love Supreme. That’s Coltrane covered.
Miles Davis? You all need a copy of Jack Johnson, for McLaughlin’s pre-Mahavishnu filthy chords, the restrained but bouncy and funky rhythm section of Billy Cobham and Michael Henderson, and Miles for once not merely breathing into his horn but attacking it like a demon. Nice!
Further jazz? Art Ensemble of Chicago have produced a lot of stuff over 40 years, of which Nice Guys stands out. John Zorn needs representing as one of our true geniuses and 50 4 is rather good, although performed live. Otherwise Spillane.
Agree with A Love Supreme
If you want Miles at his most weird I would go for Agharta
The Waterboys A Pagan Place.
A truly great album with no weak songs on it and including Church Not Made With Hands, All The Things She Gave Me, Rags and Red Army Blues.
Rock perfection.
but not as good as Fisherman’s Blues, is it?
I love Pagan Place but I’d be inclined towards This is the Sea as their classic album. Fisherman’s Blues also wonderful is more Marmite as the overall folky vibe might alienate many prospective listeners.
Have we mentioned Broooce yet? If not, allow me to be heretical and suggest Magic is the one. Never liked Born To Run or The Wild, The Innocent etc. *Ducks*.
And Neil Young? On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night are such predictable choices. Ragged Glory every time.
WRT Neil Young – can I please have Harvest?
I do love Ragged Glory, but I reckon the one for Neil has to be Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (or maybe Weld, if we’re allowed live albums)
Wrongity. It’s Darkness.
Rightity. If we must have him, it’s Magic – in so far as it’s the only album of his I can listen to.
The three stages of Richard Thompson:
The Fairport years – Unhalfbricking wins out over Leige and Lief due to greater innovation, being less gimmicky (though it’s a wonderful gimmick) and having A Sailor’s Life on it .
The Richard and Linda years – Pour Down Like Silver rather than Shoot Out the Lights or Bright Lights. Great songs (not that the others don’t have great songs) and wins for consistency of mood. It’s not just a stand out album but quite unlike anything else.
Solo – Mock Tudor takes the laurels and not, as sales would suggest, Rumor and Sigh. Again it wins points for cohesion (a unifying theme of London in this case) and is as good a set of songs as the all time great singer/songwriter/guitarist has ever put out. If allowed, the officially released bootleg from the tour, the punninglybtitled Semi Deteached Mock Tudor would replace the studio album.
I’d like to nominate The Ramones for having blasted.away the boring, bland crud that was so prevalent in the mid-70s. I think I’ll nominate the very first album as it set the template, though it’s not my favourite of theirs. Tight, fast pop songs, referencing early rock n roll, the British Invasion and the Beach Boys. Funny, clever lyrics, cartoon image and buzzsaw attack. Thrilling, relentless and hilarious.
Is that the one with Sheena on it? If so, I’m seconding that suggestion.
No, that’s Rocket to Russia which is probably my favourite of theirs – Sheens, Cretin Hop, Happy Family, Surfing Bird. Blisteringly great.
Awesome. My mate Jez pogoed the top of his head through the attic window in his garret room as a result of that album. He didn’t notice until it started raining later that night and he woke to soggy feet.
Rocket To Russia would be my choice.
There’s no stopping the cretins from hopping.
Not forgetting ‘LOBOTOMY…’
I’ve actually just put R2R on. It really makes me happy, that record. Thanks for the reminder, Ian. I am 20 again whenever I hear it.
and Rocket To Russia has Rockaway Beach on, which is my favourite Ramones song
‘Chewing out a rhythm on my bubblegum’ – what a fantastic opening line.
That’s the one with Like A Rolling Stone on, right?
I’ll third this nomination, although “It’s Alive” is my go-to Ramones record.
The 40 second version.
Can I recommend the pink coloured DVD ‘it’s Alive ’74-96’. It has most of the Roundhouse gig on it and it’s ferociously exciting.
Being a professional contrarian, I would like to make a case for Road To Ruin.
But …
Despite the presence of both “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Don’t Come Close”, I cannot escape from the fact that Rocket To Russia is the stronger of the two
So R2R it is.
(is that fourthed or fifthed? don’t know. Another nomination, anyway)
‘The Road to Ruin’?
Nahhhh…….’The Tumbler’ for me every time.
See what I did there?
Yes. The first two John Martyn LPs are essential. The two John and Beverley albums are patchy, then he gets essential again with the fifth LP Bless The Weather.
In 1969 or thereabouts I went into Selmer’s guitar shop on Charing Cross Road and there was John Martyn, the celebrated acoustic folk musician, trying out a Gibson SG electric guitar.
I should have grabbed it from him and said in Harry Enfield style:
“Oi, Martyn, No! I admire your cheeky chappie Glasgow/Cockney antics and your boozy on-stage persona, but this electric guitar will literally be the death of you. So NO!”
But I didn’t. Probably because Harry Enfield was only 8 years old in 1969 and had yet to enter show business.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in the mid 90s I possessed a C120 with the first four Ramones albums on it.
Home taping is killing music? Stroll on.
From my recollection of the strain C 120s used to put on my tape machine, by the time you were half way through album number two The Ramones buzz saw attack would sound more like the plodding dirge of Oasis.
(*lightbulb moment* -> maybe young Noel G had a stack of C 120s and a wheezing tape deck..?)
What was disconcerting about their live shows was that they were immensely proud of being even faster than on record. It would take me around 10 minutes to adjust to the blur of noise and start actually identifying songs.
In England’s Dreaming, Jon Savage recounts reports that at the early gigs some patrons could be seen holding on to the edges of their tables, as if the whole place was some kind of denim rollercoaster.
There’s a great quote, could be from the magnificent, highly recommended ‘Please Kill Me’ as it’s from an American – to paraphrase – ‘I was completely dumbfounded at first, but after about 20 minutes I was seized with an overwhelming urge to smash up the tables and chairs, it was so exciting’
Calls to mind the following, from Pitchfork’s (negative) review of the immortal “I Get Wet”:
“I Get Wet is an insidious beast, planting itself into the deepest instinctual recesses of your brainstem, where it instantly detonates in a visceral adrenal charge. There is suddenly no respect for proper behavior, just the urge to turn acrobatic flips and smash everything within a fifty-foot radius.”
Endtroducing. Has to be there.
Is there any other choice?
It takes a nation of millions …. Yes
But also
Straight outta Compton
And
The illmatic
Straight Outta Compton? Really?
I don’t believe that anyone actually listens to NWA, three songs aside. I’ve not known anyone to actually reach for an album of theirs since I was about 14, when they still had shock value.
Sure, Straight Outta Compton and Fuck Tha Police, but If It Ain’t Ruff? 8 Ball? Gangsta Gangsta? They’re shit, aren’t they? And Dre is such a scumbag that I’m not inclined to forgive the shitness either.
I agree wholeheartedly with your other choices, but there are a hundred better hip hop albums than Straight Outta Compton.
If It Ain’t Ruff and Quiet on tha Set aren’t bad. But that is a very patchy album indeed.
You can get what you think you want from SOC from Ice T’s unjustly forgotten OG Original Gangster.
I am, as usual, utterly alone in thinking this.
“but I live in South Central LA, and….shit ain’t like that!”
You’ve got to love an album that concludes with a monologue, recorded the night the first Gulf War started, which ends “F*** Tipper Gore, f*** Bush and his crippled bitch!”
More tea, vicar?
Ah! The last Great Ice Age. It was the coolest of times, it was the slippiest of times? There was the no-frills frugality of Just Ice, the hard-to-crack solidity of Ice Cube, the dribble-chinned banality of Vanilla Ice and Ice T, who was, of course, mostly water..
Not much for NWA here, and even less for the post-Compton stuff, but 100 Miles And Runnin’ is a choon, you know
I’d like to nominate a non-entry to the canon (twice)
In the last 2 days I have re-listened to Nirvana’s Nevermind and In Utero.
They aren’t that great are they?
I’ll admit there are some good songs (arguably almost great at times), but they are just above average.
It’s all about context – 1991/92 was a bit of a fallow time (I think I’m about to be corrected, but …) and the media salivation made sure this was THE album to be seen with (long with accompanying T-Shirt (often long sleeved)).
Both are listed in “1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die” – why? just to see what all the fuss was about?
I agree the Neds double bass-tastic debut is the grunge album to represent them all. Kurt Cobain would have given quite a lot to write Stop Throwing Things or Kill Your Television
You’re very wrong, but the good news is that we’re inducting Bleach anyway, so it doesn’t matter and nobody needs to know the silly things you just said in jest.
The serious point being no Nirvana album is that inductable. I’d choose Mtv unplugged over bleach any day if one has to go in
No way! I like Unplugged, but if we induct that we miss the very point of Nirvana, which is that ferocious energy. They can’t be remembered simply for acoustic strumalongs, that’s all wrong.
They’re a colossally “important” band (in the sense that they were probably the most difficult and out there act ever to become the biggest band in the world) and they have a lot of fervent fans on here – they’re an Afterword Canon must-have, like em or not. If I have to put up with Pink Fucking Floyd you lot are getting Nirvana.
Live at Reading. Done.
Yep. Bingo’s on a hot streak. Live At Reading. It’s monumentally thrilling and captures everything that this band were all about.
Is that the gig where he came on stage in a wheelchair? If so, I am standing in the wings, a mere 10 feet or so away from Kurt.
That’s the one! Colour me impressed.
Has to be Bleach. Apart from being brilliant, it’s also their only good album.
Let’s all stop posting about and just put Incesticide in instead. Better than Nevermind and In Utero, more varied than Bleach and works as a primer for their whole career/sound without relying on the hits, some of which have started to perish due to the production values on Nevermind now sounding as dated as mid 80s pop rock tinniness in their own way.
Rolling Stones – 1968 – 72 vs any other era of the band.
Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street trounce any of the previous releases (OK, it is a different incarnation/approach) and certainly p*sses all over anything post 1974 (but “Beast Of Burden” is on Some Girls, so there is some redemption ahead)
Of the 4, I nominate Sticky Fingers for inclusion in the Canon.
Opening with the almost perfect rock riff to Brown Sugar, you get dirty swagger, blues, jamming, tenderness , and a bit of country drawl thrown in.
If I’m honest, Exile is over long and ultimately outstays it’s welcome. The previous 2 were just warm up acts for this fine masterpiece.
I’ll back that. It’s the one album from that golden period that’s absolutely flawless. It also contains one of my favourite ever Stones tracks – the magnificent, hypnotic ‘Sway’.
It’s probably The Stones at their peak but Dead Flowers is awful.
Cracking little country-pop song. You’d be creaming your jeans about it if Gram Parsons had warbled it first.
Agreed. Dead Flowers is ace.
Not that keen on Gram, either. Love Ry.
Me too, @Tiggerlion. Best album? I would tend towards the Paris Texas OST for its exquisite specialness.
Ry has a Bob Marley problem (too many wonderful albums to choose from). His quality was so consistently high for so long. In the end, I tend to return to the one I loved first, Chicken Skin Music.
It’s not just me, then. I really like Dead Flowers, but Tig is not the first person I’ve seen giving it a slagging here. I was keeping schtum for fear the cool kids of the Afterword would point and laugh. It’d be like school all over again.
Don’t worry – it’s only snobbish nerds who couldn’t recognise a choon in a million years who’d make fun of you. Same song intoned in a tune-free, dirge-like fashion by some Americana twat, with background screeching from Bjork and PJ Harvey would be acclaimed as a lost masterpiece.
I like it too. I like wry, tongue in cheek (as opposed to hanging out of the mouth) songs and this a very good example of that kind of thing.
It’s the cod Southern accent that gets me. Tune is nice enough. Durby, indeed!
SO we have our first entry then. Sticky Fingers it is.
And Dead Flowers is wonderful too.
As if there were any doubt as to the worth of the song.
(Mind you, if it were actually by TVZ and covered by the Stones would that fulfil the rationale to loathe it, Nessie?)
Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
The only consistent album produced by the band. It is the very essence of Lizzy. Earlier effforts were un-focussed and unsure of what they were, later efforts suffered from production which sucked the life out of many tracks *, and were home to much filler. Corking songs throughout, but too much filler.
* for a prime example of lifeless production, compare Southbound on Bad Reputation with the version on Live & Dangerous
Portishead – Dummy.
An absolute no brainer for the Canon. There’s still nothing that sounds quite like it, to this day, and what a voice!
Fine choice,
I hereby offer my support to the above motion submitted by the honourable member
Thirded.
Fourthed
Startling at first but ended up as rather tasteful, dinner party music. The danger with more mellow, chilled out type dance music/trip hop.
Yeah, but listen to it again now. It’s been long enough that those connotations are gone.
Plus, it reminds me of This Life, which can never be a bad thing.
You said that before and I didn’t. I probably should. It’s on the shelf, unloved. This Life, that was great. Much about the nineties was great but they just go on about Britpop, Oasis v Blur, yawn.
While we’re on the subject of caned Bristolians, I’d like to recommend Maxinquaye by Tricky and Mezzanine by Massive Attack.
I know Blue Lines is the usual “correct” answer, but time has transfigured it into untruth. Mezzanine is the one, if only for the interplay between Horace Andy’s voice and Andy Gangadeen’s side stick on Angel.
Agree with every golden word.
Me too. However, Tricky has lots of overlooked albums. How about Angels With Dirty Faces?
It’s good but it’s not as good as Maxinquaye.
And anyway, the “who made the best album called Angels With Dirty Faces” contest is always going to be won by the Sugababes, as any fule kno.
No way. Mezzanine has a pleasing throb, granted, but side two drops right off. Blue Lines, on the other hand, is the greatest British hip hop album ever recorded. From the sweeping soul diva moments to the stoned whispering into the microphone, I wouldn’t change a single note. On this album, Massive Attack conjured up the idea of the band as gang more effectively than anyone since The Clash (and they had girls in their gang as well, which can only be good). There have been flashes of brilliance since (2010’s Heligoland is a seriously underrated album), but nothing as cohesive and immersive as Blue Lines.
With you there Kid. Teardrop is their single finest moment, but Mezzanine is not their finest album.
Another vote for Maxinquaye.
Leftism
Dig your own hole
Beau coup fish
Orbital brown album
Exit Planet Dust over Dig Your Own Hole. Aged way better, and the opening 1-2 punch of Leave Home heading into In Dust We Trust is still all kinds of exciting. All that psychedelic bollocks gets boring after a while.
Here we go: just try keeping your hands out the air.
Brilliantly, while I was looking for that I came across a website advertising the “lyrics” to the song. When I clicked on it, it just said “[instrumental]”.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/in-dust-we-trust-lyrics-the-chemical-brothers.html
Not having that. Dust is too samey they’d cracked the ‘djs make a proper album’ by the second time around
Nah, it’s a boring album. Setting Sun is shit, isn’t it?
The last three tracks are great, but everything up to that is a snore fest, and you can’t put it in the Canon just for the massive drop on the Private Psychedelic Reel.
Listen to EPD again. I know the orthodoxy is for DYOH, and it makes all the magazine lists, but the debut is where the good energy is.
Still gonna stick up for it but Setting Sun is shit. The drop on the Private Psychedelic Reel oh the drop. Block Rockin Beats is tough as nails.
No, Bingo’s right. Dig Your Own Hole is their Kasabian album: the faintly boring one that sports casual types bought.
Dust is the one. Dirty, snarly and euphoric.
Moseleymoles is right. EPD is a fine album with a good opening and a superb finale, but many of its best moments were already over a year old and by 1995, in the wake of Theme by Sabres, Monkey Mafia and Lionrock, sounding a bit stodgy and tired. This was a scene that was routinely producing tracks like Rampant Prankster and Sugar Is Sweeter. EPD just wasn’t quite distinctive enough. Nothing on here, for example, can hold a candle to the original of Bug Powder Dust, while their own remixes around this time were far superior to anything on EPD: Bring The Pain, Like A Motorway, Tow Truck, Open Up and Packet Of Peace are all better than the majority of EPD. Nah, if you want ‘pure’ big beat I’d suggest there are more worthy candidates. Monkey Mafia’s album is immense, and more creative than EPD.
I’m not slagging off EPD, by the way, and I do think there’s only a hair’s breadth between them, but DYOH was where they found their feet; where they developed a unique fingerprint and started to leave the rest of the crowd behind. It’s big beat opeing is much lighter on its feet than EPD, and more frsh-sounding. Setting Sun may well feel a bit careworn now, but live it came to typify the Chems’ newfound psychedelia, and was transcendent, and as for the last two tracks, where do you begin? (see what I did there?). Fatboy still ends sets with Private Psychedelic Reel, and whatever you feel about the Fatboy, he can read and move a crowd like no other DJ.
EPD, good album, great in parts (Alive Alone in particular), but DYOH shades it.
Apols for typos, bad grammar etc.
It’s all the “proper album” stuff that turns me off DYOH. It’s a dance album self consciously designed for the Rock crowd, and that takes the edge off a little. What I will say is that I went back to it last night to double check my prejudices and the title track is a bit of a banger – I’d forgotten that.
I do agree about the remixes. There must be a comp out there that has them all on, and would be an alternative.
I don’t share your fond memories of that Monkey Mafia record, but it’s been a long time. I’ll go back and check it out.
Work Mi Body by Monkey Mafia is one of the best tunes that ever came out of big beat. It’s a banger.
Second Toughest In The Infants is genius. As is Dubnobassinmyheadman.
In Sides is the Orbital to reach for.
Don’t forget Music For The Jilted Generation.
No no no no no no no.
The Prodigy have never made a good album, much less a great album.
They’ve made some individually amazing tunes – I was listening to Poison only the other day – but every single one of their albums is at least 60% drudgey filler.
Oooh! I love Jilted. I’ll listen again now to see if 60% is crap.
Some crap. But 60% ace I reckon.
I adore No Good, Poison, 3 Kilos and Voodoo People. Break and Enter is alright. The rest is either shite or meh to my ears.
Bob knows.
Their Law, in particular, is woeful.
But No Good? Jesus, what a tune that remains. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be 15 when it was released.
So true. I still get the most enormous rush when it drops. And the mental “YAAHH!” in Poison, and that stuttering, shuddering kick drum just before the bass drops. Amazing.
“Fuck’s sake…. I’m trying to write this fucking tune, man”
I like all the Underworld, but Beaucoup I think is the one that I’ve listened too most, where I’m not feeling that the tracks are all just a leetle too long.
Beaucoup Fish just edges it for me and for that very reason. Good call on the Brown Album up thread as well.
Forgotten big beat classic has to be Unknown Territory by Bomb the Bass. Tim Simenon was the inspiration for so many of these acts but this album has disappeared from history. If you don’t know it, check it out. Great guest appearances by the Tack>head boys and Denis Bovell.
Zappa/Mothers “One Size Fits All” vs Mothers of Invention “Uncle Meat”.
“Hot Rats”, “Fillmore East – June 1971” and “Over-nite Sensation” are his most successful trio (in the UK, at any rate) but Hot Rats is rather noodly once you get past “Peaches en Regalia” and “Willie the Pimp” has not aged well at all.
The Flo & Eddie era band weren’t actually all that good, on mature reflection. A rather amusing smutty cabaret act. That schtick hasn’t aged well.
“Over-nite Sensation” is pretty good stuff with a squad of superb players, but “One Size Fits All” is the v-16 turbo version of what that band was about, in my opinion.
It’s my opinion the so-called “Classic” MOI, reached it’s zenith on “Uncle Meat”. A musically somewhat limited band, but willing to learn and play the weird music FZ threw at them.
By this time the MOI ranks had swelled to approximately 10, all on a (admittedly paltry) wage with gigs hard to come by and low record sales. Not long after he fired them all apart from Don Preston and Ian Underwood.
“Weasels Ripped My Flesh” is a fantastic album, but it’s a collection of leftovers. Some of it is from the “Hot Rats” sessions and other non-MOI recordings so it doesn’t count as an MOI album AFAIC.
Well put, Mike. Agree on practically everything you say. Weasels is fantastic and should be in the running, absolutely irrelevant how it was sourced. One Size Fits All as well, good rock disc, minimal silliness, no smut. Uncle Meat, possibly Zappa’s greatest, is too weird, man, for any canon. Let me add the glossy and snappy Apostrophe.
Oh yes, and spot on on Flo and Eddie @Mike_H
No record collection is complete without Full House (Live) by the J. Geils Band.
Nothing else of theirs is worth owning, but that is not only an amazing record in its own right, it’s also the greatest live album ever recorded.
Greatest live album ever recorded? Nope.
Yep!
Hope. Infinity.
Infinity Dub Sessions – Deadbeat & St. John Hilaire
F#A#∞
Black Love by The Afghan Whigs is a noir novel made music. Greg Dulli unleashes a torrent of self loathing, revenge and remorse to the sound of rock made by people who really love soul and classic R&B.. The crime narratives and alpha male posturing put you in mind of classic hiphop, while Dulli’s howl echoes a thousand impassioned soul singers. It’s the music equivalent of a Scorsese mob movie. You know these are bad people doing bad things, and you wouldn’t want them in your house, but at the same time, damn, they’re cool.
This is a great shout. I’d humbly offer 1965 into consideration too.
I’ll second 1965.
1965’s closing punch of Omerta / The Vampire Lanois is as good as anything they ever recorded. I ripped them as one track, and it’s the most played song in my iTunes library.
Hell yeah for Black Love (and pretty much all of their stuff actually)
I’m surprised Tigger hasn’t suggested Appetite For Destruction yet.
If he doesn’t, I will. It’s amazing. All hard rock before and since wishes it was this album.
Pardon? I can’t hear you. What’s she saying?
Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine.
I know. The vocals. The lyrics. I know everything that is bad about this album.
But….
We need a rap/rock record in the Canon. It’s not a genre we can possibly overlook given how much we all love nu-metal.
Plus, RATM is a fucking riff monster. You can put it up against any record ever made, and it’s riffier. Every single track is a beast, from Bombtrack on down. You think they can’t possibly keep up the intensity, but they do, and Morello just keeps pulling bigger and better guitar lines from his enormous back pocket of riffology.
Block out the common room politics, pretend Zack De La Rocha isn’t there and just listen to that fucking guitar and wonder what the reaction must have been like when they formed and started playing Florida house parties with these songs.
Hell of a bloody rhythm section too. What Jones and Bonham could’ve been if someone had taught them the virtues of economy.
Shit yeah. Led Zep is actually a really good comparison that I’ve somehow never considered before.
The debt to Ver Zep is much more obvious in their woeful Audioslave work, but those riffs made me hear RATM in a new light. You can totally imagine that band banging out Heartbreaker.
Agreed. Thrilling and rebellious, it’s exactly what proper rock music should be. And the riff on Know Your Enemy is amazing.
Conventional widom says All Mod Cons. Critical wisdom says Sound Affects. Rigid Digit wisdom says Setting Sons.
Despite the throwaway ropey cover version of Heatwave, this collection of songs is The Jam at the top of their game. Thick As Thieves, Little Boy Soldiers, Eton Rifles and the best song Bruce Foxton ever wrote (Smithers Jones).
No need to add Strange Town, Butterfly Collector or When You’re Young – all fine singles, but would/could not make the album any stronger
I was thinking about The Jam, as my first proper band I followed, saw live etc I hold strong views. Agree AMC is brilliant but flawed. But have just listened to Sound Affects and got to go with that. Setting Sons undermined by ropey cover and a disjointed feel of a not-quite concept album. Sound Affects just a stronger collection overall.
Sons for me.
I’d like to nominate ‘Morrison Hotel’. Kicks off with the storming ‘Roadhouse Blues’, has some beautiful crooning from Jimbo on ‘Indian Summer’, downbeat paranoia on ‘The Spy’, jazzy noodling at the start of ‘Peace Frog’ and several spiffy little numbers in between.
Not sure if I could choose between this and LA Woman.
I love LA Woman. The title track is probably their finest song, but the reason I’m slightly agin it is because I really dislike ‘Cars hiss’ and ‘King Snake’. Dull, dreary and depressing.
Bollox to that, Nessie, Hiss and King Snake are 2 of the highest spots.
If only for Sonic boom (boooom) and Get down on your hands and knees, babe, crawl all over me.
Can do without the fake harmonica vocales on Hiss, mind.
Thanks again for precisely identifying the two most grating aspects of these tracks, Shipman. Dull, turgid and depressing. No surprise you identify.
The Soft Parade, for me. The opening one-two combo of Tell All the People and Touch Me is about as good as it gets.
That’s a good shout.
(Morrison Hotel, not The Soft Parade)
Can you believe I was just about to post their debut. So I think we are far from consensus on the Doors. Break On Through, Soul Kitchen, End of the Night, The Crystal Ship….plus Light My Fire and The End.
……and I can’t choose between ‘Strange Days’ or ‘Waiting For The Sun’.
Not a mean feat, for your whole back catalogue to be considered in just eight posts!
The first Doors LP for me. It’s a proper 60s psych classic. After that they slowly became a generic rock band.
I like at least bits of all their albums but the debut is the one for me too.
They were born fully-formed and sounding like no-one else.
Very good points made there and, as Light my Fire is a classic, I’ll go with the debut also.
First album stands up well, second was a rerun, Soft and Hotel both pretty patchy, L.A.Woman excellent but let down by the first half of side 2.
Om balance, the first.
Bjork – Debut?
My favourite track is Pagan Poetry on “Vespertine” but I think Debut is consistently the best album as a whole.
Homogenic, for me. Its high points are lower than Debut, but it hangs together really well.
Joni Mitchell – Court And Spark.
Very very hard to pick one from that purplest of purple patches, but I went with my heart. It was this or Hissing.
Yes, Court And Spark gets my vote too. Or Hejira.
Yes, to both.
Talking of purple patches, Parade.
No! It’s Ladies Of The Canyon and Blue. After that she got too arty and the tunes weren’t nearly as good (Hissing excepted)
I was talking about Prince! ?
If we’re talking Prince @tiggerlion got to go with Sign ‘O’ The Times. It’s not an original call but it’s the right call. All of the many facets of Prince in one mighty opus.
No, the first answer was right. Parade is wonderful from start to finish. Girls And Boys, Mountains, Kiss, Sometimes It Snows In April, all on one album?
Yebbut…you’ll get no arguments from me about the absolute genius of both albums, but if there’s only one allowed, it’s very difficult to look past the most obvious choice, Purple Rain. It has all the hallmarks of all his best work – innovation, subversion, weirdness, mystique, passion, humour and soul – presented in an all-killer, no-filler package that found its way into millions of homes and ate the world for a year or so.
You’re just not getting the point nominating such a great, popular album.
We’re supposed to nominate the most obscure, (rightly) disregarded, bravest experiment, critical and commercial disaster so that we can distinguish ourselves from the civilians.
Think of it as a form of virtue signalling mixed with Pseuds Corner.
I’d like to nominate Waiting For The Young Soul Rebels. It says something that Geno is one of the weaker tracks on the album.
I’d like to second your opinion. A strong case can be made for all of their albums but …Soul Rebels shades it on danceability.
Searching For The Young Soul Rebels is a brilliant, brilliant shout.
Ha – I was just scrolling down to nominate this myself. The best debut album ever?
For David Bowie my choice would be The man who sold the world – dark, heavy masterpiece.
My real struggle is with the Beatles.. Abbey Road is my all time favourite album & the one I have listened to most in my life.
So far, so straightforward, however,
Whenever I listen to Sergeant pepper I think it is the finest record ever made.
Decisions decisions…
My Zavid choice is Scary Monsters.
I wouldn’t care if I never heard the Beatles ever again.
If there must be a Beatles album, can it please not be Revolver?
Just listen to the state of Taxman. Those lyrics. If the Beatles had never recorded it and Scouting for Girls released that track tomorrow they’d be rightly pilloried on here and in all right thinking sections of society for being grasping little shites who got a rhyming dictionary for Christmas. Ditto the insufferable vocal on Here There and Everywhere.
One of the early Beatles records, please. At least those have a bit of energy and joie de vivre about them.
A Hard Day’s Night.
Point of order as regards being ‘grasping’. Tax rates at the time were at a level that Corbyn and McDonnell can only have wet dreams about.
95% tax, right? Sounds like utter madness.
Still – don’t write a self pitying song about it, you’re multi-millionaires. Or at least spend more than five minutes on the lyrics.
Think it’s more anger and resentment than self-pity. George was on an upward curve, even though he’d plagiarised the ‘Batman’ theme.
Who cares about the lyrics, which are so so, and typically whingeing George, although the backing vocals make me smile ‘Mr Heath’? The whole thing swings and bounces along beautifully thanks to McCartney’s bass and his guitar solo, which is great. Lyrics I can set aside if everything else is present and correct, which it is.
Here There and Everywhere – yuk, agreed.
Any of the first four or ‘Live at the BBC’ or ‘Past Masters 1′.
Seriously thinking about off-loading everything else by the HJHs.
It’s not that I don’t like, say, ”Sgt. Pepper’s’ or ‘Abbey Road’, it’s simply that I never, ever listen to any of them.
‘Wonderwall Music’ or ‘Electronic Sound’ (George’s two best albums)……now there’s a conundrum.
I have got the box set, and having only listened to the whole lot of them for the first time later in life (bit before my time. just.) I have to say Rubber Soul is my favourite non-collection. Lands between the immaturity early years and the knowingness of the later ones.
I do love Sgt. Pepper for its playful druggy exuberance and play it often. The White Album should also be a contender, even though it overstays its welcome (but only slightly). Please not Revolver, too much padding.
Good grief! Padding on Revolver? You are mistaking it for The White Album!
There’s padding on every single Beatles album.
If Doctor flipping Robert isn’t padding, I don’t know what is.
What’s wrong with Doctor Robert? It bounces along nicely on a bubbling bass, neat guitar figure and jolly backing vocals. Dodgy clinical practice, mind. More than mere filler. Pretty good for an album’s *worst* track.
Exactly! Are we all forgetting that Love You To is on Revolver?
Good Day Sunshine is no great shakes either.
What’s wrong with it? It’s shit.
Just read your own post, tigger. “Bubbling bass”? “Jolly backing vocal”?
Also I Want To Tell You is quite ordinary. We’ve previously established beyond reasonable doubt that Here There and Everywhere is quite sickly. Are there any decent tracks on this godamn album?
I think you’ll also find that Got To Get You Into My Life suffers by comparison with EWS’s version, hell, even Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers did it better.
..sorry, EWF’s..
Wow! Look at all the haterz, all with cloth ears.
Steady on!
Tomorrow Never Knows – what a load of crap! Half of it is bloody backwards! Talk about ineptitude!!
Don’t get me started on Strawberry Fields. Cellos? How poofy is that??
Padding?
That song about a brightly coloured submersible
(or is it “cool” to like that song now?)
Marvin Gaye up next. Convention has What’s Going On. I say Let’s Get It On. One of the best produced albums ever. Just a fabulous sound and stronger songs than WGO
Hear My Dear is The One.
Here, My Dear.
Yes, absolutely.
I’ve only got sides 2 and 3 of that, but yes it’s very good. Not sure it beats WGO though (I’ll let you know, if I find the other disc).
Final one tonight from me. Going out on a high – let’s make our way through the forest of tangled thickets that is The Fall’s studio output.
Has to be Hex Enduction Hour. The Classical, Who Makes The Nazis?, Hip Priest…twin-drummer line-up, incredibly obscure LP cover…all there. Properly canonical.
I can’t argue against that.
Fair enough. Though some would propose ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ as the more focused, punchy and better sounding incarnation of The Fall.
ThingabouttheFallis I can never remember which album is which* . I agreed with the suggestion of Hex but was a bit baffled by mosley’s mention of the cover. Checked myTunes – turns out I don’t even have it. I have got, and love, Saving Grace though, and would happily chuck my bulk behind that.
*I have the same problem with the La’s.
How about XTC? My head says Skylarking but I won’t hear a word against Drums &Wires, mainly because it has Complicated Game on it. Which is still my favourite song of theirs.
I’d take oranges and lemons over skylarking on the same reasoning but I’d also put a word in for Nonsuch on the grounds that it gives a solid representation of all their facets.
I’m a Drums & Wires man, especially the Wilson remix.
Another vote for Nonsuch here. Just because.
Another shout for Drums & Wires.
Done Nick Drake yet?
I’d plump, narrowly, for ‘Five Leaves Left’…..then ‘Pink Moon’…..then ‘Bryter Layter’.
Nick Drake – I’m all good with any of the three.
As I take it everyone’s agreed on Deram DM 123 (matrixes upside down on the original pressing) as THE go-to David Bowie 45, has anything else been universally agreed upon yet?
And here it is, upside-down matrix and all.
70s re-issues were the right way up – it’s the difference between 200 quid and a fiver, you know.
http://i.imgur.com/WnTiCsV.jpg
Woodstock soundtrack vs The Last Waltz soundtrack. I’m gonna surprise myself and go for Woodstock just because it doesn’t feature a sing-a-long-a-Bob.
I listened to the expanded 4CD box set of Woodstock from soup to nuts recently (just so you don’t have to) and I’m here to tell you it hasn’t aged gracefully.
Parts of it are unlistenable now. All that cringeworthy “New York State Freeway is closed man!” stuff and Joan Baez bragging about how her jailed husband David “has got a pretty good hunger strike going”.
Joe Cocker, CS&N, Santana and The Who are still relevant, but most of the rest just sounds too pleased with itself and way too hippy dippy. And even the much lauded Hendrix set just sounds like a cacophonony now.
or a cacophony, even
From soup to nuts? We could do better than that. From grass to brown acid, perhaps.
I was going to say “from grass to Mud” but that’s really the story of British rock 1966-73.
Would it be at Glastonbury, I wonder?
From hair-straightener to Power Bar phone charging tent?
What about Reading:
From “John Peel’s a c*** to Jo Whiley’s, er, fantastic”
See that Q Magazine? Calcified and senile with its Mount Rushmore of Rawk. All pregnant with preposterone and so last century daahling. Not us.
The Afterword Canon, pictured:
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o615/JohnDetail/image_zpsld5cshxf.jpeg
Kate Bush – Aerial
Wu Tang – 36 Chambers
What are we saying for metal? Master of Puppets?
How did we not mention 36 Chambers before now?
Metal? We can’t only have one album for the whole genre. But if it’s Metallica then yep, Master is it. But I’d also argue we’d need Reign In Blood, Vulgar Display Of Power, Number Of The Beast (or Powerslave), Rust In Peace and Paranoid.
Metal? I’m leading a plucky band of Neurosis devotees who nominate Through Silver In Blood.
Ha, if you’re having that, I’m having The Hunter by Mastodon.
Right then, I’m having Celestial Lineage by Wolves In The Throne Room, Kentucky by Panopticon, Sky Valley by Kyuss, The Mantle by Agalloch, Bergtatt by Ulver and The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw by Pelican
Crack The Skye, surely?
Kate Bush ? – I would pick her fabulous debut album “The kick inside”.
I am betting there is a little consensus over Bush as Bowie. For me can’t look beyond Hounds of Love. Side 1 immaculate pop, side 2 wigged-out concept. Perfectly balanced Bush album.
Bowie currently has Station To Station, Low and Scary Monsters up – and less plausibly Earthling.
Don’t you be downtalking Earthling!
It is less plausibly part of the Canon though isn’t it.
[No comment]
See 3 Kate Bush already – am willing to bet we get people who want The Dreaming as well.
That would be me!
Her best album by far. I also really dislike Hounds of Love! 🙂
I’m guessing that for Bush there will be a fairly even split between Hounds of Love and Aerial, with a few folk opting for A Kick Inside, and probably some mad bastard chucking Director’s Cut into the mix.
Kick Inside or Hounds Of Love?? Gaaaah! It’s impossible to choose!
Somebody choose for me…
Another vote for Aerial then.
Cheeky!
Oi! Who you calling a mad bastard? I likes what I likes!
Actually, my vote goes to Aerial (gets my shirts nice and white) but I do think Director’s Cut gets unfairly slagged off around here. One day you’ll all come to your senses.
Some more to get people going:
New Order – Low Life. Their most consistently brilliant album, even the instrumental.
Talking Heads – Remain In Light – surely a pretty clear one.
Television – Marquee Moon
Where’s @black-celebration to sort out Depeche Mode?
I agree with Low-life as studio album, though some would say Technique, but I actually like Substance best. It’s got the essential full length singles on it.
Talking Heads? I prefer Fear of Music but I think The Name of This Band Is Called… features the best versions of most of their stuff and I’d have the expanded reissue. The studio recordings all sound just a little bit sterile after you listen to this live album. So, a live reissue it is!
Marquee Moon? That’s got to be a cert. Mind you the live Blow Up! is pretty great too.
@salwarpe will have a thing or two to say about Television.
More Songs About Buildings And Food!
More Songs… the first of theirs I owned. It’s superb as well but you also get the best tracks in live versions on TNOTBICTH.
No,it’s OK, @Tiggerlion – you have your conventional choice. It’s what everyone goes for, after all. I just think it’s overrated and prefer Adventure, as it’s the one I first heard.
For New Order I’d regard Brotherhood as their most consistent album with the two sides showcasing their guitar based and more synth based sides to great effect.
As for Talking Heads I’d agree with Remain in Light while also regarding many of the Name of this Band… versions as superior. Remain in Light just works so well as an album.
Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
AVE IT YOU SLAGS!
I, for one, am not living without Repeater by Fugazi, so that has to be in there.
Loveless
Scott 4
The Clash
There was a thread recently which claimed give em enough rope as the essential clash. That’s before the London calling heads – of which I am one. So plenty of mileage in a clash album- off.
The opening 3 tracks of Give ‘Em Enough Rope are enough to secure a win against the competition.
The Clash is (potentially) flawed. The opening track Janie Jones is a killer, 2nd track Remote Control could’ve been better, still great but not on the same level as JJ. Although I hesitate to say it, some does feel like filler (albeit top quality filler) hastily written and recorded and could do with perhaps a little extra Quality Control.
(OK, the year 1977 was all about energy and directness, and this certainly meets the criteria)
London Calling is ambitious, but does tend to flag in places.
Combat Rock seems to have been written with one eye on the US (and why not?), and really only achieves “OK” status.
Cut The Crap is two words too long.
Give Em Enough Rope sounded to clean, too produced to be The Clash after the debut, and was written off by many as a wrong turn.
Of the catalogue, I think it has aged the best.
(plus it includes “Stay Free” – just about the best song they ever did)
I agree with all you say about Give Em Enough Rope, but the debut is the authentic document, and not only has White Riot, Career Opportunities and London’s Burning on it, but also the majestic Complete Control, which just gets better every time you hear it.
Complete Control is indeed majestic, but only appears (sadly) on the US version of the debut (which also has White Man In Hammersmith Palais, Clash City Rockers and I Fought The Law). Ignoring the chronology, this version of the debut would’ve been better.
And I’ve just realised, no mention of Sandinista.
The cliche is: overlong, has anyone got past side 5?
(in this case the cliche is probably correct)
I consider Sandinista!, for all its faults, to be the most interesting Clash album. For its variety and its vibe of reckless spontaneity.
After 21 years of listening to it I’ve finally realised that I really love Sandinista. Broadway, The Street Parade, Rebel Waltz… beautifully atmospheric. Six sides and the closest they get to punk rock, three years out from 1977, is an Eddy Grant cover. Ace!
After 35 years of listening to Sandinista I can’t recall Broadway, The Street Parade or Rebel Waltz at all! Oo-er. I’m going to give them a spin now.
When I think of Sandinista I immediately think of The Equaliser and Junco Partner… then Washington Bullets, The Call Up, One More Time, Hitsville UK, Mag 7 etc.
Rebel Waltz – some days – is my favourite Clash song. I love the production on Sandinista, it’s slightly fuzzy and out of focus, but so warm.
The U.S. Version is the only one I’ve ever owned, and is the one that belongs in the canon.
….department of no surprise…
Do you even have an Uncle Sam toothbrush holder?
Every Clash album is magnificently flawed. That’s why they are so compelling. (London Calling for me please.)
I understand the case for all albums by the Clash, but my boringly predictable choice has to be London Calling.
So there.
I think the time is right for a best Top 10 hit by the clash.
Erm…..oh yeah, forgot.
The more I listen to Repeater and the other Fugazi albums, the more I am convinced that Brendan Canty and Joe Lally are the best rhythm section I’ve heard. You can keep your Bonhams and Joneses, your Moons and Entwhistles.
I could not agree more. Criminally underrated band, musically and otherwise.
Homework by Daft Punk
Surely no one would deny the entry credentials of Electric Warrior?
Roxy Music – Stranded. Strong arguments can be made for any of the first five for their invention and style, and Avalon for it’s sophistication and depth, but for me, Stranded has the best elements of both approaches: brilliant songwriting, a refined take on the previous sonic experimentation, creation of particular atmospheres and lyrical focus on yearning and ennui. Their definitive statement.
Spot on.
I fear I am setting myself up to be tarred & feathered, but my Roxy Music choice would be Flesh & Blood.
My choice would be the obvious jewel – For your Pleasure. Great writing, storming performances, superb songs like Do the Strand and In Every Dream Home. The second side of the original album was magnificent with the electronic beeping of Bogus Man leading into lush, romantic crooning of Grey Lagoons.
You’re right on every level, but the same qualities are present on all the albums I mentioned. It’s all personal choice of course, but I think they distilled all their gifts to best effect on Stranded. If we’re talking sample songs, I’m thinking of Street Life, Psalm, A Song For Europe, Mother Of Pearl, Sunset…
It’s definitely a great album and Mother of Pearl is one of his finest tracks, but it’s just that little too heavy on the ennui and slightly one-paced to make it my top choice.
No decent music collection should be without Jim Carroll Band’s Catholic Boy. “The last great punk album”? Championed by Patti Smith and Keith Richards, adored by Pete Townshend and Joe Strummer. It’s more NYC than Lou Reed. He never made another album anywhere near as good.
Some Prog suggestions:
Genesis – Selling England
Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
King Crimson – in the Court of the Crimson King
Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick
Hatfield – Rotters
And for my money the definitive Pink Floyd is WYWH though I am sure the sensible money is on DSOTM
Genesis and King Crimson choices would be mine as well, but Caravan’s If I Could.. nudges this one, as does Stand Up from Tull (the sheer variety). Pink Floyd’s too close to call. I like Meddle myself but it’s too weird..@Steerpike
This is the trouble with the notion of a canon. It exists but the candidates are inevitably rather boringly predictable and as soon as anything is declared the greatest ever it can’t really live up to that hype, but to chose something less obvious just seems like being contrary and snobbishly obscure for the sake of it. Best forget the whole thing.
So far down, and no mention of Pachelbel’s Canon? The origin of so much popular music, it has to be in the, er, canon, surely?
That’s enough ephemera. So, to important decisions. Is it 8 piece agit p(r)op Chumbawamba or mellower folk radicals Chumbawamba?
I’d choose A Singsong and a Scrap as pivotal between the 2 styles.
Now @retropath2 if you go back to the OP you’ve certainly answered one question – which Chumbawumba album should be the one submitted. But to these second – is it worth of entry to the Afterword Canon. (sighs knowing the answer he’ll get).
Worthy? It’s there, mate, it’s there! I’ve seen the balls.
AC/DC comes down to Highway to Hell or Back In Black. Back In Black has some way stronger and hookier riffage, but for me it has to be Highway to Hell because every track is great. And if you ask me tomorrow I might have to change my mind.
I was thinking the same thing. Has to be Highway to Hell as the strongest overall album .
If You Want Blood, Shirley? Unless it’s excluded for being a live album.
I was going to go with IYWB for the live option. Anyone who can get that reaction in Glasgow has got to have their stuff together. My favourite ever accadacca track, Problem Child is off there, so I can’t not love it.
But as far as the AC/DC canon, that’s just a complete f-you in the face of punk rolling into 78, whereas HTH is sleazy, mean and powerful, end to end.
Or bugger the rules and I put all 3 in there.
and also squeeze in Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and hope no-one notices 4 entries
And Del Amitri (where’s Dave when you need him). Twisted just beats out Change Everything for mine, every one a gem.
Crowded House – the debut has so many beautiful songs, Temple of Low Men close behind, but Woodface with the brothers Finn in harmony very briefly. Lovely stuff.
Wood face is very front-loaded though. Too many duffers n side two to qualify.
The The – Matt Johnson has done almost nothing that wasn’t incredibly interesting (well, I can live without Hanky Panky), and I could just as easily argue for Dusk, Infected and Mind Bomb, but Soul Mining is just wall to wall great songs.
The The are coming back. HP is great, I think.
Lloyd Cole, with or without the Commotions. The Commotions album Mainstream has a lot of really great songs, but the “Lloyd Code” solo debut is just a string of beautiful songs, moods, stories, themes….end to end gorgeousness I could easily put in the desert island pack and play repeatedly. I do already so won’t be much difference really.
I cannot concur HH. Rattlesnakes was the Commotions’ pinnacle, one of the greatest guitar albums production wise. I’d also regard Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe (bar the atrocious Butterfly) as a masterpiece with two distinct styles on either “side”.
World famous on the afterword, Jackie Leven has a vast canon (and you should have seen his balls, so good I joked it twice). But the stand out?
I’d go for his first, Songs From the Argyll Cycle, Vol 1 (even tho’ chronologically later), as being the introduction to his post Doll by Doll grandeur, all songs on merit alone and relying a little less on craft and structure cleverness. (Good as he was on that)
Good enough for the canon? hell, yes.
But this’ll rile some: does RT have anything sufficient. I would argue not, despite his popularity with me, my shelves and many here. In short his records are all too patchy, hopping from masterpiece to afterthought in a seamless segue. If pushed it would be right back to “and Linda”, probably Bright Lights, maybe Lights, shoot out the.
See my comment above. I’d argue for a couple of Fairports, a few of the Richard and Linda albums, and at least one or two from the solo years. The ones I nominated from each are shoo ins to my mind.
Soz, Mr G, hadn’t spotted your bit, astonished still it didn’t produce a flurry. Still stand by my comments.
If pushed I would go for Hand of Kindness from the solo years, but it is Liege for Fairport, it’s the law, official and compulsory.
Electric is probably his “best” complete album of songs unsullied by filler, but sadly are all to troped, being cut n pastes of previous (good) songs
Your point about tropes on recent albums is a good one, though I would argue for Sweet Warrior out of his 21c output. It’s too long, and the best two songs (Dust and Wine + Any Old Body) were left of it in favour of some far weaker tracks, but the very fact we can say that records made well over 30 years into his career are contenders attest to the strength of his catalogue.
Point of order: you are setting up for a fail if you go with one record per genre.
Lewis Taylor – Lost Album
Prince – SOTT
Stones – Sticky Fingers
Pixies – Doolittle
Costello – Get Happy!
Steely Dan – Gaucho
Bowie – STS
Nick Cave – Push The Sky Away
…aaand relax
Cave – hmmm – the last couple of albums haven’t really got under my skin in the way Let Love in or Henry’s Dream did.
Sticky Fingers – yes.
Station to Station – yes.
Steely Dan is harder. Gaucho is superb, obviously, but they had already morphed into this super-slinky Hollywood machine. I’d suggest the guitar-driven Royal Scam.
No can do with the Pixies: Surfer Rosa would be the one for me, for the better songs, the shock value, and Albini’s rawer production.
The Royal Scam, because Kid Charlemagne.
It isn’t long since we had a vote. Countdown To Ecstasy won.
Agree. I find Gaucho unlistenable.
From the shambles of the early nineties can we rescue:
Suede – Suede
Screamadelica
Scream hasn’t aged well.
Vanishing Point, however, is monumental. PS obviously agree – they’ve tried repeating it several times since.
XTRMNTR!
My vote would go to Give Out But Don’t Give Up.
It sounded aged when released (Stones riffs, 70s Boogie, great wodges of funk), and still sounds rooted in those times. Therefore, it hasn’t aged at all.
We’re ignoring the obvious here. Are we having Valhalla Avenue or Viva Dead ponies?
Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot or Good Morning Spider?
and which REM? Reckoning for me, but I can’t imagine it being the most loved. Life’s Rich Pageant maybe?
I think REM will be massively split. Easier to name the albums which aren’t some people’s nominations. I seem to recall on a distant and dusty thread someone even got around Behind The Sun.
should read behind Around The Sun.
I’ve been a bit of a champion of the otherwise-reviled ATS on here. Still maintain at least half of it is top-notch.
I think Up is their most interesting, least like the rest of their oevre (and also fab) and therefore most worthy of inclusion.
I’m guessing nobody’s to object to me nominating Front 242’s Front By Front?
nobody’s *going* to object…
I object!!
*slames fists on table*
Headhunter is a CHOOOOON. Used to get the heads flailing down at Club Zoo (Plymouth’s premiere alternative nightspot – don’t bother looking for it, it isn’t there anymore), and if you had the 12″ you got Welcome To Paradise on the B-side. It doesn’t get much better than that.
We should have the Beastie Boys in, but I am torn three ways between Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and Paul’s Boutique. Help a brother out?
(I like Check Your Head as well, now I think of it)
Paul’s Boutique for me.
Gotta be Paul’s Boutique.
Another vote for PB, possibly the best album of the 80s – and the 70s at the same time!
(that’s probably settled it, with my taste in music being so profundly influential)
PB would have walked it for me, if it wasn’t for that B-Boy Bouillabaisse mess on the end.
No High Land Hard Rain nomination yet. A timeless classic ( if you can ignore the Eastenders drums). Only Love with Aztec Camera or his solo Surf album could be considered as alternative high points for the boy wonder.
Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix. Sure, many would go for Bandwagonesque – but it’s not as consistent, and Songs from Northern Britain is a bit twee in places. Plus GP has Sparky’s Dream and Neil Jung.
Stiff Little Fingers – Go For It, or Hanx! if live albums are allowed.
With you on the Fannies, but way off on SLF – can’t look past Inflammable Material.
(SLF catnip alert)
Hanx is indeed a fine live album and ranks alongisdie Live At Leeds and Live & Dangerous as among the very best.
It’s position in the Canon is also helped by the (slightly mundane) knowledge, that it was issued in the UK as a Budget Price album.
The reason? it was originally intended for the US market only (Chrysalis’s attempt to introduce/break the band in the US). The band’s concern was that UK and Europe fans would be ripped off paying high Import prices to get their hands on the album, and they felt it was too soon to release a live album – hence they took a hit on the royalties to ensure it was available at a decent price.
A social conscience must “smooth” entry to the AW Canon?
Agreeing on the best Lucinda could be a problem. Car Wheels got me into her but, personally, I feel both Essence and World Without Tears far surpassed it and for a long time I could never decide which I preferred. Then along came Spirit Meets The Bone and the reviews of the new one suggest further confusion. God bless ’em all I say.
Wot, no Hendrix, etc.
Well, of the three original albums Id have to plump for Are You Experienced? The US version, mind, with the singles and no Red House.
Red House is sublime. I’d go for Electric Ladyland though. Shows his development – more adventurous and more range stylistically. Bursting with ideas. Plus there’s Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and All Along The Watchtower. Two of the best things he ever did (obviously). There are a few lesser tracks but such is the nature of the sprawling double album.
Red House is just about my favourite Hendrix track, but on a point of order, there are two different versions.
The one on the UK AYE album is a different recording to the version which turned up on the US Smash Hits LP. One has Noel Redding on rhythm guitar and no bass, while the other has the usual guitar, bass , drums line-up.
I think the UK AYE version is the one with no bass and that’s the best for me.
For a while the US version turned up on the AYE CDs, but I think that’s been fixed now.
Not too sure about Jimi, the jury’s out on which one to have, but the ol’ son-of-a-gun needn’t worry too much because he is an absolute shoe-in for best posthumous album, namely ‘Cry of Love’.
No one else comes close.
Plus it’s got the ladies in the nip!
If you can get past Little Miss Strange then I’d probably say EL as well.
Fair appraisal @Diddley Farquar and in fact it’s only got one clunker, the Redding one, as @ruff-diamond notes. Done.
Can. Tago Mago. Nothing else of theirs comes close. Over and out.
I prefer Future Days. Not so hard work. They reached a peak there I think. Had become a different band. Refined their own style to perfection. Ege Bamyasi also has a serious claim. Not so cut and dried then.
Good albums indeed but hadn’t they become a little, umm, conciliatory by then? Oh, okay, it’s the Uncle Meat defence (bit too weird for the Canon). Fair point. @Diddley Farquar
Wire: Pink Flag or Chairs Missing? Minimalist, sardonic punk attack, or the surprisingly lovely avant-pop of the follow-up? The first has more impact and immediacy (the definitive art school punk album in fact), but the second album shows their particular originality and has lyrics that have stuck in my head for years, so Chairs Missing it is.
I fully agree with your well-reasoned post.
Felt: – Poem Of The River over Forever Breathes The Lonely Word
A sublime album.
I’d like to nominate Mythical Kings And Iguanas by Dory Previn.
It’s unique.
Alice Cooper – Killer
Love It To Death identified the bands sound after Pretties For You and Easy Action. Despite that jump, Killer really is a case of “Woah, where did that come from?” – the album is truly the beginning of the bands Imperial Phase.
Side 1 contains “Under My Wheels” (a dirty 12 bar blues on speed, almost punk before punk was invented), “Be My Lover” (slower, still blues based but verging on Doo-Wop), “Halo Of Flies” is an attempt at Prog (King Crimsom-ish?) and “Desperado” is probably the best song The Doors never wrote (stick a Ray Manzarek keyboard on it, and it’d probably sit nicely on LA Woman).
Note: this is purely my opinion, and whilst it may upset Doors fans, then so be it!
Side 2 could never really compete after those 4 tracks, but they do manage to lever in controversy with “Dead Babies” and the title track “Killer” is as good as anything on Side 1 and closes the album pretty much perfectly.
Plus it is John Lydon’s favourite album – as endorsements go, that’ll do for me
What about Peej?
Got to be either To Bring You My Love or Stories…. and Stories edged it for me
Heard Meet Ze Monsta earlier on 6Music and it reminded me how much I love To Bring You My Love. But Stories just doesn’t have a duff track on it and it’s the one of all her albums that I come back to most often.
No Fulham Fallout?
Numpties!
A few more options:
Groundhogs – Thank Christ for the Bomb, where the dreaded blues rock didn’t lose its slouch and rubbed up against underground (prog in modern parlance).
Pretty Things – Parachute, an alternative Abbey Road, runs it very close.
Paul Simon – Paul Simon. Crap headgear on the cover but a wonderfully atmospheric set where he had a lot to prove (I guess). Such an underrated guitar player too.
Van der Graaf Generator – This won’t be the popular choice but The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, their second, is quite brilliant. IMO.
Definitely agree with Paul Simon.
A camel is a horse designed by committee.
That’s yer problem wi’ yer canon.
Best bet is to find out what’s 2nd – 7th (depending on the size of the catalogue) in any list and pick that one.
Examples: ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ gets the nod over ‘Abbey Road’/’Sgt. Pepper’s’ etc.
‘Da Capo’ or ‘Love’ over ‘Forever Changes’.
‘Small Faces’ (Immediate or Decca) over ‘Ogdens’.
‘Something Else’ over ‘Village Green’.
Otherwise it’ll be just an Uncut/Mojo Top 200 under another name.
We need some more Soul. Here are a few suggestions:
Al Green Explores Your Mind
Alice Clark
Ann Peebles – Straight From The Heart
Aretha Franklin – Lady Soul
Arthur Alexander – Lonely Like Me
Average White Band
Here Is Barbara Lynn
Bar-Kays – Soul Finger
Ben E. King – Don’t Play That Song
Bettye Swann – The Soul View Now!
Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall
360 Degrees Of Billy Paul
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe
Booker T & The MGs – Melting Pot
Cate Bros.
Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
Chairmen Of The Board – Skin I’m In
C’ést Chic
The Dynamic Clarence Carter
Cody Chesnutt – Landing On A Hundred
Curtis Mayfield – Got To Find A Way
Dan Penn – Do Right Man
D’Angelo & The Vanguard – Black Messiah
David Ruffin – David
Diana Ross – Diana
Dionne Warwick – The Windows Of The World
Don Covay & J. Lemon Blues – House Of The Blue Light
Donny Hathaway Live
Doris Duke – I’m A Loser
The Drifters – Under The Boardwalk
Dusty In Memphis
Earth, Wind & Fire – I Am
Edwin Starr – Soul Master
Etta James At Last!
Four Tops
The Four Seasons – Who Loves You
Frankie Valli – Inside You
Gladys Knight & The Pips – Everybody Needs Love
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Wake Up Everybody
Howard Tate
Ike & Tina Turner – Sing The Blues
The Impressions – The Young Mod’s Forgotten Story
Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul
The Isley Brothers – 3+3
The Jackson 5 – ABC
James Brown Live At The Apollo
James Carr – You Got My Mind Messed Up
Janet Jackson – Control
Jerry Butler – The Ice Man Cometh
Joan Armatrading
Joe Tex – From The Roots…
Junior Walker & The All Stars – Shotgun
Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places
King Curtis Live At Fillmore West
Lady Marmalade – Nightbirds
Lee Moses – Time & Place
Little Milton – If Walls Could Talk
Lorraine Ellison – Stay With Me
Luther Vandross – Dance With My Father
MFSB – Love Is The Message
Martha Reeves& The Vandellas – Dance Party
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – United
Merry Clayton
Me’Shell Ndegéocello – Peace Beyond Passion
The Meters – Rejuvenation
Michael Jackson – Off The Wall
The Miracles – Going To A Go-Go
Nina Simone – I Put A Spell On You
The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
Otis Blue
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas – King And Queen
Patti LaBelle – I’m In Love Again
Ray Charles – Modern Sounds In Country And Western
Real Thing – 4 From 8
Roberta Flack – Blue Light In The Basement
Sade – Love Deluxe
Sam & Dave – Soul Men
Sam Cooke – One Night Stand
Sandra Phillips – Too Many People In One Bed
Sandra St. Victor – Oya’s Daughter
Sandra Wright – Wounded Woman
Shuggie Otis – Inspiration Information
Sly & The Family Stone – Fresh
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Make It Happen
Solomon Burke – Proud Mary
Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. 1
The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go?
The Temptations – Sky’s The Limit
Terry Callier – What Color Is Love
The Three Degrees
Tyrone Davis – Turn Back The Hands Of Time
War – Galaxy
William Bell – The Soul Of A Bell
The Exciting Wilson Pickett!
Oh dear! I appear to have killed the thread.
Killed the thread Tigger? You’ve gone and broken the Internet!
Naughty corner and no Kendrick for you all evening!
Instead of Ike and Tina’s Sing The Blues, might I recommend Workin’ Together instead?
Proud Mary, Let It Be, The Way You Love me and Funkier Than a Mosquita’s Tweeter!
Wonderful! Tina is such an under-rated vocalist.
Hot Buttered Soul is one of the greatest records ever made. If it wasn’t in my top 5 when we did that hundred favourite albums palaver, I can only plead temporary insanity.
Talk Talk – The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden or Laughing Stock? Each has something to recommend them, but I think my vote goes to Spirit Of Eden.
Quite right, Ruff, Eden just edges it amid that fine run of albums. Good call @ruff-diamond.
Can’t not have the Eagles. First album for me as being worthy of our Canon being that they appeared fully formed and nicely sprinkled with ol’ time (-ish) music making. Can certainly imagine others preferring Hotel California as the quintessence of glossy mid-70s rock, however, at which it is very good.
Can’t be arsed to find The Beatles bit again (!) so, after a period of much ponder…..
1. Girls dug it more than boys.
2. Completely stands on its own, no ‘previously/to be released’ a or b sides.
3. Hasn’t been analysed to death (see point 1).
4. Iconic sleeve photograph.
5. Came out in mono.
6. Still ‘ours’, the Yanks hadn’t heard of them.
7. Likely to only be a footnote in any Top 100/200/500 list in Uncut/Q/Mojo etc.
8. They were happy.
‘With The Beatles’.
Oooh! My first LP, a fifth year birthday present. Bought for me by a fifteen year old girl (my aunt). I’d never thought that girls and children were The Beatles audience at the time but I think you’re right.
Girls listening to The Beatles? That’s crazy talk!