Over the Summer I had a conversation with a couple of old friends about two urgent subjects; how we consume music, and my appalling lack of costly hobbies.
In the course of the discussion, we broadly agreed that none of us would go back from streaming to “the old ways”, and that the album is largely a dead format from here, with the caveat that there are probably 20-30 records that do demand to be listened to in their totality, rather than being strip mined into individual tracks.
On the back of the above, I’m conducting a small experiment. I’ve been gifted a tiny, incredibly basic record player, which I’ve set up in the kitchen, and I’m going to buy a limited number of albums on vinyl to play on it to see whether it actually changes the listening experience. The speakers are tiny, so this really isn’t about audio quality, it’s about vibe – does it feel any different to return home late at night and go through the abject labour of sticking on a physical album rather than just clicking two buttons and having Sonos do the rest.
The rule is that I can’t order anything online, so I will be forced to once again trouble the record shops of Soho after an absence of nearly 20 years. The other rule is to be obnoxiously selective – I’m not looking to build the great vinyl Library of Alexandria, I just want a few albums that will really work in this setting – the other speakers will still be in the room ready to serve up everything else via streaming. Oh, and the final rule is one album per artist.
The idea is to test some of my own prejudices and to see whether the reality of nostalgia is as sweet as the fantasy. Plus, I can plug the painful gaps in streaming’s offering: Logic Progression Volume 2 and Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me will be high up the list, as will GY!BE, who seem to have taken their ball from Spotify and gone home with it.
So, my question to you is this: what are the albums that must be listened to as albums? Not just the albums you like, or the ones with great songs on – the ones where even the weakest track is great and the whole thing conjures a singular vibe that beats listening to the best bits in isolation. The ones where a slice isn’t enough; you have to eat the entire cake.
Over to you, the cognoscenti, who have forgotten more about this subject than I will ever know. Just please god don’t bring me the fucking Beatles.
Tubular Bells.
I have never actually listened to Tubular Bells. You have just prompted me to do so – ta.
The Snow Goose.
I’ve not heard of this, so I will give it a stream first and go from there.
It’s a gem.
A truly great album
Altogether now “John, John the snow goose has gone and the fox is on the town-o”
Camel had at least 3 albums that should be listened to as full albums e.g. Nude, Rajaz…
..of which Snow Goose is the best!
Just to say that Colin Bass has mentioned that Andy Latimer has a new piece of music and linked to this piece by Prog Magazine Readers.
Andrew Latimer’s last offering in his Bandcamp page, 18-minute “Journey’s End Suite”, is a thing of beauty, up there with his very best. Melancholy, atmospheric, sweeping… Do check it out.
Due to my age I think I’m doing streaming wrong in as much that I stream entire albums. I don’t cherry pick from them and only rarely do I listen to playlists. Old habits die hard I guess. To answer your question I’ll chuck an album I long ago abandoned having wrung it dry decades ago…Dark Side of the Moon.
You beat me to it P.
Someone had to do it. I can hear Donna whispering very loudly in my ear ” the PINK BLOODY FLOYD!! GOOD GRIEF!!”
There’s no doing it wrong – it’s all just different ways of listening to music, and from what you post on here I’d say you’re certainly doing something right as you clearly find enormous joy in it.
I’m a little Floyd-allergic, but I’ll have a think on DSM. It almost seems rude not to.
Don’t have any expensive hobbies?
You will when you start buying vinyl – as happened to me during
the latter stages of COVID.
As for musth-have vinyl?
Jeez, where to start?
With Andrew WK’s immortal I Get Wet?
Pet Sounds.
I don’t get this ‘people don’t listen to albums anymore’ spiel. For a start 90% of pop music lists seem to be about albums, not individual songs or singles, and 90% of Uncut/Mojo/RC Specials focus on, yes, albums.
The one caveat is that thirty years ago when CD was king, albums were SOOOOOO long, so I guess a bit of pruning there is logical. However, all the LPs I listen to are 30-40 minutes, and frankly it’s significantly harder work to work out which of it not to listen to, rather than to just listen to it all.
I feel like this is probably a boilerplate response by this stage but; it’s a generational thing.
There has to be a Beach Boys album in there but I would pick the compilation ‘Endless Summer’.
Love’s Forever Changes. Zero duff tracks. The bonus of the vinyl version – as with many other recordings – is that it stops where it should stop and there’s no bonus tracks, alternative mixes and other cr*p like that to spoil it all! Other opinions on bonus tracks, etc, are available of course.
Oh, this is a very good shout.
You beat me to it.
Also: Family, Music in a Doll’s House. Consistently surprising, even after all this time.
You’ve got me spending money now! Never owned it, but have now put in my ‘Wish List’. Saw them once back in the day. Crikey, they were good.
Certainly one of my favourite albums, and I’m always happy to paraphrase the quip from (IIRC) one of The Coral: “everywhere in England you get given a bike when you turn 14, in Liverpool you get a copy of Forever Changes…”
I think it’s rather a shame that vinyl has become such an expensive luxury product nowadays which must exclude many from buying it.
I have to admit that my first reaction has been surprise that this stuff costs as much as it does. But then I guess if we factor in inflation it’s probably about what I was spending on a CD in my teens.
https://rewarddeals.co.uk/?s=vinyl+LP
is your friend and well worth checking on a regular basis
Get thee to a charity shop. And buy a Knosti wet cleaner – the best 40 quid I’ve ever spent.
40 quid? They’re over a grand new in Germany!
Knosti Disco Antistat. The manually-operated wet bath cleaner.
No longer 40 quid last time I looked, more like double that. Still fantastic VFM.
ah OK. I have a spindisc. It’s a bit of a faff and it didn’t seem to work well til YouTube told me to give them all a rinse in distilled water after cleaning with the required three capfuls of the supplied stuff.
I also have a Pro-Ject vacuum cleaning machine which only does one side at a time and doesn’t clean so well. I think it is squeezing between the two wet goat hair brushes that really gets the grot out of the grooves.
The Pro-Ject is good for getting the bits of paper and static off new vinyl. I barley use it, though.
Righty-ho having chucked in an album I no longer listen to I’ll throw in one I still play regularly.
Sparklehorse – Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot.
Nice.
You’ve just prompted me to play this one, after many years… it’s like a little world of strange on a record. “850… double pumper Holley “
A fabulous album.
I recommended this to a mate last night. I got a message this morning saying it was stunning. If anything, he’s underplaying how good it is.
Gosh. Fifteen years ago I bought this little gem and I haven’t played it in yonks. Note to self: give this another spin today.
Haven’t played that for a while. Must give it another listen.
The follow up, Good Morning Spider, is every bit as good.
Yes to all of the above. A fantastic band – all albums worth your time. But Vivadixie is the winner. Strangely I’ve been revisiting them over the last few days, then saw these comments.
Well given that 5 or so threads down we are discussing Kate Bush, an obvious choice would be Hounds Of Love – the whole of the second side is one suite that needs to be listened to in its entirety. Could also go with Aerial for the same reasoning.
Blimey – Aerial might be a winner here.
Muddy Waters – Folk singer
Clean uncluttered definitive acoustic blues.
One of my all time favourite albums.
Excellent shout.
Incredible performance and one of the best recordings… it’s pure atmosphere. Beautiful music.
There are two come to mind, and part of it is the packaging, because it’s nice when what’s on the vinyl record sort of matches the sleeve, isn’t it?
Introspective by Pet Shop Boys. Early limited versions came out as a six sided set of 45rpm 12″ singles. You’ll hardly track that down but if ever an album had 12″ wrote large (and yet invisibly) on it, it’s this. It’d probably sound a bajillion times better on a high end system but I’d be hard pushed to think of any situation where it’d ever not sound merely great.
Some Girls by the Rolling Stones. See can you get an old copy second hand that has *ALL* the faces on it rather than the ‘cover under reconstruction’ cop-out but either way, it’s a cover that’s somewhat trashy, sleezy, leery and ohmychrist so is the record.
I’ve a small record player here in the office; I’ve got a decent speaker that can stream but when i need to focus in The Big Room and put on a record, theses are the two i keep going back to. They’re very satisfying fortysomething minute listens.
weirdly enough, I found both that PSB Introspective 12″ set AND an original copy of ‘Some Girls’, yep, that ‘all the faces’ version, in the last few months.
Introspective sounds massive, just a fabulous sound to it.
I only have Introspective on one 33rpm LP and it still sounds fab.
I was pondering the PSBs the other day. Should Greatest Hits be allowed here? It sort of feels like cheating.
well quite. Which is why i didn’t suggest THIS behemoth which would probably sound good played with a rusty nail for a stylus
https://hmv.com/store/music/vinyl/motown-chartbusters
Ooooh…! I need that.
Sod the PSBs, great though they are, if you’re stretching the concept to include GHits, you simply MUST include Motown Chartbusters Volume 3. WIWAL (back in the day) this LP was the one we played from start to finish probably more often than any folk or rock album – it’s just gem after gem of top notch pop music. Other Chartbuster volumes (obv) are available, but Volume 3 seriously nails things.
I reckon such records would fit into three categories:
1) Concept albums or records with an explicit theme running through it;
2) records which create a particular mood or vibe which builds and sustains across the whole album
3) records on which every single track is a banger and indispensable.
So for (1)The Who ‘Quadrophenia’ – not all great but everything depends on the rest of the album
For (2) Charles Lloyd and the Miracles ‘I Long to See You’
For (3) Joni Mitchell ‘Blue’
Oh and then there’s ‘Revolver’ (ducks for cover…)
Doctor Robert alone is reason enough to disqualify Revolver.
Joni is an interesting one. Still deliberating between Blue, Court and Hissing.
I will check out the Charles Lloyd – that one’s new to me.
Hejira on vinyl is lovely.
YES. THIS.
Finest of all things Joni. Wonderful road album. Fabulous playing. If this doesn’t make you want to play it on a proper hi-fi, nothing will.
Another vote for Hejira. Funnily enough, it’s not my favourite JM LP – but for this exercise, it’s the perfect choice. And it sounds sublime!
[edit to add: if I ever think about selling off my LPs and selling on my turntable, I listen to Hejira and that notion vanishes…]
Ooh Hejira’s a beauty. Just the best Joni Mitchell vinyl “experience”
Ah, don’t have a turntable anymore but Night Ride Home which is far from Joni’s best is sonically superb and one I used to use to show my system off
I think of Closer by Joy Division as all of a piece. I feel I need to hear it that way for it to work. I probably am influenced by listening to LPs the right way growing up, but some can be broken up more easily than others.
While we’re on the downbeat track I would suggest Tonight’s The Night by Neil Young. The whole album carries a certain mood and frame of mind.
I love Closer, but I think if I put it on in the kitchen the rest of my family will race to the stereo to yoink it off the turntable. One for headphones, until one of the kids goes through their moody phase.
Taking my cue from the penultimate paragraph in the OP – and with due acknowledgement of my playing into a stereotype – I have two to suggest:
Close to the Edge by The Yes
Godbluff by Van der Graaf Generator
“Even the weakest track is great” – check!
“The whole thing conjures a singular vibe that beats listening to the best bits in isolation” – check!!
“A slice isn’t enough; you have to eat the entire cake” – check!!!
I don’t know these at all, which is a good thing. Will investigate.
Miles Davis – In A Silent Way
Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul
Little Feat – The Last Record Album
Grace Jones – Nightclubbing
Pixies – Doolittle
I have been mulling over all of these, bar Little Feat. That said, I know my Dad has a copy in the loft if needed.
Doolittle is a great ‘package’ too – sleeve, inserts etc. That’s what I miss most now that my music consumption is all streaming.
In a Silent Way, absolutely yes! Once the atmosphere has pulled you in, you won’t want it to end.
A Hard Day’s Night (anybody who says “not the fuckin Beatles” needs education)
Odessey and Oracle
Forever Changes
Exile on Main St
Astral Weeks
I don’t need no education. Not of that sort, anyway – awful.
Astral Weeks very high up my personal list. Torn on Exile – my recollection is that it contains some deeply non-essential tracks, but maybe I need to go back and have another listen.
Exile was a total jumble of noises to me when I first encountered it as a Stones newbie teen, being definitely more of a Rolled Gold sort of chap at the time. But once you’re in that world, you’re in and songs keep shifting and emerging in that hot haze that hangs over the four sides. Yes, you could argue any of the tracks are ‘deeply non essential’ but that overlooks the fact that this is definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
If it really doesn’t appeal, you can’t go wrong with Sticky Fingers, again, sequenced as a perfect vinyl listening experience.
I love this explanation. OK – will revisit.
Well no accounting for taste. Some of the greatest pop music ever created for me and it flows really well (and the only album with 100% Lennon-McCartney originals)
Astral Weeks, like Hejira really needs a decent source; don’t spoil them for yourself unless you are prepared to play them again on something befitting their quality.
The Man Machine by Kraftwerk flies by.
If it’s going to be in the kitchen why not get something that will get those bones moving like the first Madonna album? Those eggs won’t beat themselves.
Kraftwerk is an interesting shout!
I actually do have the first Madonna and Whitney records on my list. Has to be done.
For a top-notch Kraftwerk album experience, I would go for Trans Europe Express. Bookended by Europe Endless and Endless Endless – you are on an exotic and exciting train journey. Hall of Mirrors and Showroom Dummies break up the rhythm until we plunge into side 2, which is effectively one 19 minute song – makes cleaning the kitchen a joy.
Absolutely agree – can’t just listen to an odd track on TEE: once you’re in, you’re in for the whole journey…
Liege and Lief would be an obvious one, as a new genre found its feet.
Please To See the King as it re-routed with
No Roses for a further deviation.
All Ashley Hutchings mediated, of course.
Funnily enough, Liege and Lief used to get a lot of kitchen play back when the CD collection still held sway.
Oh. “Late for the sky”. Jackson Browne. Every track a winner but playing the whole thing there’s a multiplier effect.
Oh, this is a very good shout indeed.
Running on Empty is also one that stands out to me as an overall album listening experience. All the songs are great, it has a brilliant atmosphere that it maintains throughout and contains some real spine tingling moments like the transition from hotel room recording to stage performance in “The Road”. I recently picked up a 2nd hand copy on vinyl for about a tenner. Money well spent in my book….
It’s great isn’t it? Easily a shoe-in for the best alternative soundtrack to Almost Famous.
Several of my choices have been mentioned, but how about Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde..?
The one album per artist thing is truly painful for both Dylan and Springsteen.
For the former, I’ve gone for Live At The Albert Hall, because the acoustic side is the perfect embodiment of what I’m after here. It’s such a total vibe. I wrote pretty much all my essays at university to it back in the day, because it’s tremendous 2am on your own music. Plus, you get a little bit of the good stuff from multiple albums.
Bowie, Low. A side of short, dry bleepy tracks and then longer, colder, bleepy instrumentals, designed immaculately to balance each other. An album made for vinyl.
Yes, more cohesive than Heroes.
If not Low then from Five Years through to Rock and Roll Suicide without a single duff track the answer is Ziggy Stardust.
My personal favourite, Station To Station, as well. The title track is practically a whole album in itself.
I agree with this. The side with the short songs is for loading the dishwasher in a brisk and efficient way and wiping down the surfaces. The instrumental side is a great soundtrack for the more intense work, the soaking and then scrubbing of larger items – like an iron frying pan, or a challenging baking tray.
You need to ideally pre-rinse before loading the dishwasher and for that I suggest you play side 2 first. It has the required glacial pace, mysterious ambiance and suggestive rhythms that will make short work of that challenging baking tray or stubborn iron pan.
Then, once primed, you load up the machine to the brisk sounds of ‘Breaking Glass’ (oops!) ‘Sound and Vision’ ‘Always Crashing In The Same Car’ and so on. Job done.
Spirit “Future Games” The more popular choice would be “the 12 dreams of Dr Sardonicus” or their first album, but this is a mix of sci fi samples, half songs & fades, and really only works in a complete sitting.
It’s a masterpiece.
Once you’ve immersed yourself in the West Coast glisten of “Future Games”, break your own ‘one album per artist’ rule and wallow in the glorious Hawaiian warmth of “Spirit of ’76” – a double LP of their carefree and fabulously relaxed playing that includes the best ever psychedelically swirling cover of a Dylan song – Like A Rolling Stone – lurking quietly at the end of side 2. A cover version that is so good that it has been known for listeners to lift the stylus and repeat that last track half a dozen times before reaching for the second record. Oh, and play it loud to hear everything that’s going on in there.
Daniel Lanois is a producer who creates a real and distinctive feel on his albums that makes the whole record more than the sum of its parts (though I know he’s not for everyone). His solo album ‘Acadie’ is a gorgeous example of this but he never did better work than his production on Emmylou Harris’s magnificent ‘Wrecking Ball’.
Oh god, I hadn’t even considered Wrecking Ball. Huge miss.
Don’t dismiss Acadie – Wrecking Ball rightly gets the plaudits, but Acadie is a special LP which has rather slipped through the cracks.
Been scrolling down the thread thinking “I’m going to say Wrecking Ball”
Emmylou, Bruce or Miley?
all of them, simultaneously
I have a non technical theory that albums which were recorded primarily for CD should be remastered (deffo) and remixed (maybe) for later vinyl. The target listening format informs the recording decisions. FentonSteve come on down. Anyway I rarely buy vinyl versions of CDs.
I concur, and so do my mastering engineer & hi-fi reviewer chums. Sadly, the likes of GZ will happily accept cash to press a CD onto (coloured) vinyl.
The first Undertones album. Go for the one with the colour sleeve as you get Teenage Kicks and Get Over You which were (bafflingly) left off of the original release. Its about 30 minutes of noisy pop banger after banger. And Listening In has John Peel in the background (I think).
Yeah! I’d forgotten the pure joy of the Undertones – stuck in traffic on Friday I listened to loads of their stuff – remembered most of it word for word – and was disappointed when traffic started moving again. Package-wise, I always loved the embossed sleeve with the cool symbols of their third album(Positive Touch)
World Party’s Goodbye Jumbo.
Oh my, I haven’t played that for ages, and it’s on vinyl chez T! Terrific LP.
Eno – Another Green World.
The title track is worth the price of the album alone.
Alone at 2 am in the morning – has to be Neil Young’s Tonight’s The Night
Easing yourself into a Sunday morning – Eno’s Music For Airports
Alternatively, On The Beach.
David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name.
Let’s get away from Mojo style classic rock for a moment. I slagged off Lawrence in a recent thread (very reasonably, due to his last 30 years of crap) but this sent me back to Felt feeling slightly guilty.
I genuinely don’t think there were better albums made during the 80s than Forever Breathes the Lonely Word and Me and a Monkey on the Moon. Perfect, short and to the point, no skip, records.
Me And A Monkey On The Moon is definitely one I need to drag out and hear again.
Off the top of my head:
Rickie Lee Jones – 1st
Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece
Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Ay
The Special AKA – In the studio
Eagles – Desperado
Residents – Eskimo
Talking Heads – True Stories
John Hiatt – Bring the Family
Camper Van Beethoven – Telephone Free Landslide Victory
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
Oh. Lexicon of Love.
Some great suggestions here.
Full disclosure; these are the albums I picked up in an initial sweep:
T.Rex – Electric Warrior
The Low End Theory – Tribe Called Quest
Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen
Live Albert Hall – Dylan
Diamond Life – Sade
Punisher – Phoebe Bridgers
Rhythm of the Saints – Paul Simon
Grace – Jeff Buckley
Martha Wainright – Martha Wainright
Thumbs up for Diamond Life. It’s my birthday today and my lovely family bought me my first set of over the ear headphones (as opposed to earbuds) like ever. I’m looking forward greatly to trying them out and that Sade album may be a winner for the first thing is listen to. Though I’m willing to give many others in the comments a go, as well.
I relistened recently and was amazed how good the production is. And a stellar set of songs. Like their second album a lot too. Great headphones choice.
Me too. Looking for a vinyl copy ATM.
It really is a glorious thing. Ageing beautifully too.
On which note: happy birthday!
Thanks – I did give it a listen and the bass lines came through beautifully in a way they never had before.
Agreed. Diamond Life is a thing of beauty.
You need some Prince. Around The World in a Day would be a good crowd pleaser, and a nice companion to Love’s Forever Changes.
I’ve been mulling over which Prince this should be. I’m an obvious kind of guy, but I really find it hard to look beyond Purple Rain, because unlike all the other albums it has Purple Rain on it, as well as one of the best openings of any record ever made.
In fact, here’s a sub question: is there any album with a better opening and closing couple of minutes than Purple Rain?
I don’t know, but for sure, Prince really was a master at sequencing albums. He was so good.
Revolver! 😉
See me after class, Tigger.
The most hated band’s most hated album- ELO’s Out of the Blue. It’s flipping amazing pop music that only sounds right on vinyl. I’ll die on that hill.
The first album I ever bought, alongside Parallel Lines by Blondie, on my 13th birthday.
It was on cassette though!
2 I had on an iPod and jarred everytime tracks popped up on random play.
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
(and probably others that I can’t think of right now)
I could make a case for many of my favourite albums, but I do concede that they could be cherry-picked for individual tracks.
“Consume as a whole” maybe more about my preference and expectation of what the next track SHOULD be, rather than an artistic or aesthetic absolute.
Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure and Avalon definitely, and strong arguments for Stranded and Siren.
RM are such a strong albums band. Really only Flesh and Blood doesn’t demand a full playthrough.
Agreed.
I picked up a Roxy Music box of the first 8 albums, half-speed remastered, at a record fair the other week. Avalon is a revelation – just absolutely sublime. Country Life sounds marvellous too.
You really need all of them – and each of them are a “soup to nuts, listen to the whole album” experience, remarkably well sequenced.
I agree with mosleymoles that Flesh + Blood is the (relatively) weak link in the context of the OP, in that it doesn’t pull you through the complete LP in quite the same way…
Two covers a sign of the creative well running dry.
Wide Angle by Hybrid
Supertramp – Crime of the Century
Yes, indeed!
Billy Bragg: Life’s a Riot With Spy vs Spy.
It’s only 15 minutes long from soup to nuts but still brilliant, if an acquired taste.
Tom Robinson Band: Power in the Darkness.
Hits the ground running and keeps going. I’ll let you off the title track at the end because the lyrics have aged badly, even if the sentiment hasn’t.
Life’s A Riot is a wonderful shout. Absolutely brilliant…great songs, a raw but very much alive delivery and over all too quickly.
Julian Cope – Saint Julian. Perfect, every track’s a banger (this goes for every album on my list, BTW).
Pete Shelley – Homosapien.
Talking Heads – Remain in Light.
Taj Mahal – The Real Thing (best live album ever, IMO).
Great to see Homosapien mentioned, I’ve never owned it on vinyl, but it would be nice to have. I suppose we could also nominate a Buzzcocks album, Singles Going Steady for example…
Homosapien and XL1 have just been reissued as reasonably-priced 2LP sets.
Remain In Light – YES.
An absolute triumph. I was with them from 77/Psycho Killer onwards, but this was the album that really pulled me up short and made me realise they were something very special, not just a bunch of talented New Yorkers singing about weird American things.
The two early Jackie Leven’s, The Mystery of Love Is Greater Than the Mystery of Death(1994) and Forbidden Songs of the Dying West (1995) need to be heard each as single flowing pieces, given the mix of spoken word, found sound and songs, seguing together as a single narrative. True, the songs aren’t always his best material, and some of the readings are a little too much, but they were fashioned to be taken all in as a single doses.
P.S. I suddenly realise they were designed for CD and have possibly not even had a vinyl release. As you were.
@retropath2
The Mystery of Love… is out on LP – recently got a copy off the dodgers for – IIRC – about £16 for a double vinyl
The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues – Forty odd minutes of delirious joy.
Roy Harper – Stormcock. Simply stunning
Stormcock. Well said that man.
Another vote for Stormcock – you’re obligated to turn it over and listen to all of it.
There is a very good reason why Roy’s email discussion group is called Stormcock.
Three from the more recently set free pile.
Agnus Obel – Aventine
Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch.
Er .. surely someone must’ve nominated John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” already, no?
[quickly scans thread]
No?
Oh well, then, it’s a must.
John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” .
Recorded in four hours, one evening in 1964.
A wonderful suite that must be heard in its entirety.
+1
This one is on the list!
Joan Armatrading.
Gorgeous from beginning to end
Wonderful album – great shout. Consider yourself redeemed. 🙂
Phew! 😅
So you’re open to persuasion?
Persuasion by Adam Ant? Was it ever even released on vinyl?
Jane Austen, the audiobook?
Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen is pop perfection. John Grant The Queen of Denmark, one of my favourites!
Not a particularly big fan and only discovered it recently but Billy Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger. Released just before he hit the big time, it captures a (New York) time and place perfectly it also has a couple of fillers which adds to its vibe as to what an album used to be like. Can never get tired of listening to Scenes from an Italian Restaurant as perfect storytelling (three stories in one song)!
The filler tracks are the last two, as if he gives up on his muse. The rest is solid gold though.
A dear friend who is prone to spending long hours in our kitchen over a bottle of wine is a huge Billy Joel fan. Might have to be done just for him.
The other album to name-check Sullivan Street is also a belter.
Skylarking: XTC
Solid Air: John Martyn
A Walk Across the Rooftops: The Blue Nile
Spirit of Eden: Talk Talk
The Heart of Saturday Night/Swordfishtrombone: Tom Waits
Oh man. Spirit of Eden and The Blue Nile.
Spirit of Eden, absolutely.
Solid Air is a fine choice for this exercise – all of a piece, and vibey as all get out…
Indeed. You can keep Talk Talk though. **shudder**
Well, quite: I didn’t want to sully the mood – but I agree, of course.
I don’t know if a smaller record player will do it justice but the recent reissue of Nick Drake’s ‘Five Years Left’ makes for a superb vinyl experience. Vinyl brings out the woodiness, breathiness and rub of fingers on guitar strings, sure, but it’s the gorgeous swirling strings on ‘River Man’ and ‘Fruit Tree’ that I’ve been blown away by. And the hollow, resonating percussion giving an eerie dark feel to ‘Three Hours’ too.
Pink Moon is also an unmissable experience on vinyl too
Nick Drake feels an absolute gimme here. No love for Bryter Later? I guess you lost a lot of the elements you’re talking about above.
Have to say, I’ve always rated Bryter Later…it’s a fine album, unfairly in the shadow of its predecessor.
I absolutely love Bryter Layter – I always think of it as his ‘London’ album, contrasting with its lush, bucolic predecessor and the emotional starkness of Pink Moon.
But for the purposes of this exercise, thinking in terms of albums that offer something noticeably special when heard on vinyl, I reckon Five Leaves and Pink Moon each have very distinct characters – you hear a track from one of those albums and it could only be from that album – and with these two, the warmth and fullness of vinyl works with the music beautifully.. But damn, now you mention it, Bryter Layter would sound gorgeous too!
I caused outrage on the Nick Drake podcast by admitting I don’t much like it. I think it’s over produced, and I suspect so did Nick, given what came next.
Just realized my previous submission isn’t really available on vinyl unless you want to shell out abut 700 quid.
So, how about The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
Ooh yes, late period masterpiece etc. Took me a while to get into it but absolutely essential.
So many excellent suggestions above – this is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for; albums that aren’t necessarily the obvious “great” records but which are super vibey. The shopping list grows.
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band – Clear Spot
King Crimson – Red
Bill Evans/Jim Hall – Undercurrent
Tubby Hayes Quintet – Down In The Village
Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking
To add another bleak suggestion to my misery melodies, I wonder about Berlin by Lou Reed. It’s a suite of songs of a kind. Although the story is grim, there is beauty in the music and it’s well sequenced. Experienced as a whole it’s more powerful than as separate tunes. Fun for all the family with uncle Lou.
One could alternatively have New York which has a different energy and a cohesive theme. It gains by being taken as a whole, although I’m not so wild about it myself.
I love both Berlin and New York, but the one album per artist rule bites hard here, so I’m opting for Coney Island Baby (and Loaded for the VU). Plus, Berlin would last about 30 seconds if aired for general consumption in my household. 🙂
Fair enough. I had also thought about VU and that particular one. It’s got a certain mood.
A mood ruined by too many Doug Yule lead vocals
As I scrolled (see above) I was also thinking Loaded
Loaded is a great example of what this thread is ostensibly about. There’s no way in hell it’s the “best” VU album, but it is almost certainly the vibiest.
Aside from all of those ^
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
The Band – Cahoots
The Waterboys – A Pagan Place
Lynrd Skynrd – Street Survivors
Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions
Have an “up” for The Trinity Sessions!
I got rid of my turntable and LPs about 30 years ago. I have thought about vinyl often, but no way was I buying new hifi. I already have a(30 year old) mini hifi and a couple of Denon cd players so I have enough. About a year ago, I got a record that I wanted to digitise (Michael Marra’s, A Can Of Mind and A Tin Of Think So….since you ask)but had no way to play the record. I discovered that I could connect a turntable to the Denon units and I wouldn’t need to buy an amp. I bought a Denon turntable about 3 weeks ago, and I connected it to the unit in my bedroom. After enjoying listening, and physically holding and being able to read the info on my new vinyl, I decided to buy some more. I have no intention of buying tons of these as I have 1500 cos and that’s enough for me. I do come across new to me music now and again but I mostly enjoy old. I gave myself some rules too. No best ofs and only one album per artist. I was hoping too that the experience would take me back to my youth(and it did!). I’m loving every minute of it. Every day since I got it, I have lay on my bed and listened to at least one side of an LP. Listened that is! Every word and every note that I can hear. When I am cooking or working in the garden, I like music in the background, but that’s not really listening…..LPs in my bedroom is listening! Here are the ones I have bought so far. I know them well anyway, but there’s not a duff song an any of them.
Warren Zevon ‐ Warren Zevon
Van Morrison – Moondance
Steely Dan ‐ Can’t Buy A Thrill
Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps
Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Tom Waits – Mule Variations
I haven’t yet decided which Dylan, Springsteen, Prine, Hiatt, Simon, Petty etc etc etc to get. One a week maybe.
That’s a really good start – five more to get the first eleven, four more again for a first fifteen. Before you know it, you’ll be looking planning for the entire premier division…
@bigstevie that is a good starting point. I would add:
Kate and Anna McGarrigle – debut
Loudon Wainwright – Little ship (for Primrose Hill)
Steve Earle Guitar Town
Ry Cooder Chicken skin music
Songs of Leonard Cohen
Pentangle Basket of light
Ron Sexsmith self titled
John Martyn Grace and Danger
Richard and Linda Thompson – Bright lights
Paul Simon – Still crazy after all these years
Thanks Steve!
I have almost all of these on cd. Not Kate and Anna though. Much as I love ‘different’ voices, I can’t get Kate’s.
The Cure – Disintegration
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (may not pass the family test, but definitely ticks the vibe box. Also unforgivably broken into six tracks on streaming when it is clearly just two pieces of music, one per side)
Would say Graceland, but I see you’ve already covered Paul Simon (and on that note, has anyone else heard Emily Breeze’s recent cover of the title track? Was nonplussed at first, now I think it’s great)
Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs. Another album that inhabits its own world, and invites you into it for forty odd minutes
Speaking of Graceland, there was a BBC R4 doc about it this morning. I missed most of it due to someone at work calling me.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002bhx5
Disintegration and Deserter’s Songs both already on my list! Great minds – as ever.
Oh I’ll check out the Emily Breeze cover! Have you heard Willie’s version?
Carole King – Tapestry
I still believe that one day I will somehow meet the early 70s Carole and then everything will be fine.
Beware, the new vinyl copy has a totally unwanted live version of Smackwater Jack tacked on the end. Vandalism!
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.
For me this is very vibey – and I always appreciate it most on those bright blue brittle days you occasionally get in November. Plus the cover is beautiful and looks handsome at full album size.
It’s a shame about Ray – by The Lemonheads
A bit grungey, a bit LA pop. It’s cinematic and warm and jagged and would probably sound a treat on vinyl.
Hats by Blue Nile
Achingly sad, upliftingly euphoric – just made for quiet nights in, sitting in a low-lit kitchen with a glass of something warming to hand.
Seventh Tree by Goldfrapp
Lovely pastoral pop, which always sounds to me like the essence of late summer / early autumn. It has that harvest festival vibe – all bountiful indulgence and melancholy