The Ten Greatest Albums Of All Time

[Clara]

After The Goldrush - Neil Young

[Lea]

After The Goldrush - Neil Young

Has it been nominated? If not it's the one I'd choose

I didn't see anything for him.

[Clara]

Neil is my favourite artist ever. I'm hoping he comes to Australia with his new show. Fingers crossed.

[_Laurie_]

After The Goldrush - Neil Young

Mr. Neil Young That's the album I was waiting for someone to nominate....Harvest is good too.

[Lea]

I don't think anyone has nominated him yet and I already have two. Hopefully someone will nominate him. I did CS&N tho.

[Viaene]

is By the way nominated?

I'd like to nominate

By the way - Red Hot Chili Peppers

1. "By The Way" - 3:37

2. "Universally Speaking" - 4:19

3. "This Is The Place" - 4:17

4. "Dosed" - 5:12

5. "Don't Forget Me" - 4:37

6. "The Zephyr Song" - 3:52

7. "Can't Stop" - 4:29

8. "I Could Die For You" - 3:13

9. "Midnight" - 4:55

10. "Throw Away Your Television" - 3:44

11. "Cabron" - 3:38

12. "Tear" - 5:17

13. "On Mercury" - 3:28

14. "Minor Thing" - 3:37

15. "Warm Tape" - 4:16

16. "Venice Queen" - 6:08

It has all kinds of styles in it, lot of experimental sounds, and it's rockin'

[scott]

Already an RHCP on the nominee list, sorry bro.

and By the Way lacks soul anyway...

as far as Chili Peppers go... I shall editorialize, for it's 3 AM and I am bored, songfacts community, please ignore me if you wish.

Pre-sexmagick, while occaisionally fun, is ultimately supercrappy.

Sexmagick has some great tunes, and was when Frusciante first lent his great musical talented to an otherwise marginal band (sorry folks... flea gets much better as the 90s progress tho) has some awesome guitar work, the only thing that works against it is that it sometimes gets a little too... '80s' for my taste.

...Then there is One Hot Minute... blech, puke, etc. I will go ahead and leave it at that.

Californication- the return of the prodigal John!

Great songs, great album

there is one problem... and it does kind of get to me, while John's musical talent obviously shines thru the work, it is mixed super awfully, it uses the modern pop formula of 'MAKE EVERYTHING LOUDER LOUDER!!!' in the fact that it's very loud, but still very flat sounding... a sacrifice that has been made quite a lot with the transfer from analog to digital.

- see the only thing I can find wrong with Californication is a musicdork thing that many people probably won't even notice...

Then By The Way... while it does have John, the album is kind of... dreary... mind you By The Way and Can't Stop are great songs (especially Can't Stop) the overall music of it... can be kinda lame, which is explained by the 'behind the scenes' action goin' on during the recording.

See, By The Way was the album that almost broke the band up (and I would say for good reason...) See Flea wanted control on all the musical overdubs, even tho John had a clear vision, Flea won out and his arrangements and versions are what made the final cut, and while Flea is a great bass player... the final product of By The Way would lead one to question his compositional skill.

Then there is Stadium Arcadium! If the chili peppers continue to make music for another 15 years, I would argue that this album is the true 'start' of their musical career, it's two discs of rock'n'roll awesomeness, John is once again in charge of most of the arrangements, overdubs, and general musical direction, and it definately pays off, it lacks the 'flatness' of californication, and gets over the boredom and lazyness that was in BTW.

and it's two discs, how awesome is that?

[Levis]

Thanks Bluesy. Sorry, all... 'fraid I counted How The West Was Won as a 'Greatest Concerts' compilation ergo not eligible. (don't whine)

Clara, you still have one more nomination available to you. And those are a couple of great choices, ledjam... you're making this difficulter and difficulter. I'm almost scared to vote now

Viaene, Blood Sugar Sex Magik has already been nominated and we're operating on a 'one album per artist' basis. If you've got another couple of choices in mind, let us have 'em.

Scott, you're the second person I've ever heard say Californication was an overproduced mess (paraphrasing). I am a weird Chili Pepper fan who actually whole-heartedly likes One Hot Minute (My Friends, Aeroplane, Shallow Be Thy Game, Transcending, Falling Into Grace... ) and I might well be the only one Californication is... good, but I preferred By The Way. Stadium Arcadium, Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Mother's Milk are the best ever in my opinion.

Okay, end of bulletin. Please stay tuned for more excitement-filled updates/inputs

[Viaene]

I was seriously doubting between stadium arcadium and by the way, to me their both awesome albums.

as you say, none can argue john being the real musical artist behind the band, he's really extraordanary, in both albums for sure

by the way has some very good basslines (by the way, don't forget me, throw away your television) and I happen to be a great bass lover

I think flea *shines* just a little bit more in by the way then in stadium arcadium.

regarding the lyrics, by the way has better lyrics then stadium arcadium, that's just my opinion, and it's probably therefore I like that album most

Clearly the red hots have gone into a new musical street with stadium arcadium, which sounds extremely promising for any future albums, I'm really looking forward to more anthony, john, flea & chad!

and oh yeah, pitty By the way can't be nominated :<

[Levis]

This Is The Place has my favourite bassline (off By the Way). What I like about Stadium Arcadium is that considering they're two discs, they're not at all reptitive or boring - quite a feat.

[Steel2Velvet]

Mad Dogs and Englishmen - Joe Cocker

Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Simon and Garfunkel

[Farin]

I nominate...

Vs. - Pearl Jam

Released - October 19th, 1993

Track Listings:

1. Go

2. Animal

3. Daughter

4. Glorified G

5. Dissident

6. W.M.A.

7. Blood

8. Rearviewmirror

9. Rats

10. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town

11. Leash

12. Indifference

I like every single song from that album

[scott]

oh I agree, Flea is an awesome bass player, and his lines in By The Way are sick- but Flea is no good with overall arranging, which was his position during the recording of By The Way... and it just lacks flair.

As far as the term 'overproducing' goes, that's not quite what I would label Californication, as I think of overproduction as just adding more noise for the sake of adding more noise- which doesn't mean that all songs with lots of instruments are overproduced, for example 'Crawling up the Walls' I couldn't picture that song without all the creeks and spookiness, so therefore Radiohead didn't 'overproduce' it.

In the case of Californication, there is no DB control, every frequency, every instrument is cranked as high as it will go, and if you listen to it there's no emotional drive, no push, like 'ScarTissue' could be much better than it is, as the verses are pumped up so high, there's no where for the chorus to go...blech.

This 'volume adjustment' is actually a huge problem with music now, as people are gearing their songs for people listening with crappy computer speakers on mp3s(boo mp3s!) rather than highfidelity speaker systems... for example, the entire Arctic Monkeys album.... listen to it in the context of dynamics and contrast....

Now, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' altho loud, does not have a single waveform, like Californication and Arctic Monkeys, it actually dips down, see Kurt knew what he was doing... he let the quiet parts be real quiet so the loud stuff had some punch.... that's what the pixies did, and that's what mozart did.

[coldwind]

"Meet the Beatles"

Side One

1. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"

2. "I Saw Her Standing There"

3. "This Boy"

4. "It Won't Be Long"

5. "All I've Got to Do"

6. "All My Loving"

Side Two

1. "Don't Bother Me"

2. "Little Child"

3. "Till There Was You"

4. "Hold Me Tight"

5. "I Wanna Be Your Man"

6. "Not a Second Time

I know it wasn't the first, but it influenced everything that came after it.

And (drumroll)

The Velvet Underground and Nico

Side One

1. "Sunday Morning"

2. "I'm Waiting for the Man"

3. "Femme Fatale"

4. "Venus in Furs"

5. "Run Run Run"

6. "All Tomorrow's Parties"

Side Two

7. "Heroin"

8. "There She Goes Again"

9. "I'll Be Your Mirror"

10. "The Black Angel's Death Song"

11. "European Son"

It influenced everyone who wanted to break away from what came after "Meet the Beatles".

Coldwind.

[edna]

Hello, coldwind... welcome to songfacts!!

You should nominate some other album by a non-nominated performer as The Beatles have already been nominated with the White Album... (I wish someone had nominated "Rubber Soul"... )

I nominated Lou Reed but VU isn´t Lou Reed, so I guess it´s a good nomination...

[Levis]

Isn't fair that I nominate Nirvana and ignore these guys:

Doolittle - The Pixies

Track List:

1. Debaser

2. Tame

3. Wave Of Mutilation

4. I Bleed

5. Here Comes Your Man

6. Dead

7. Monkey Gone To Heaven

8. Mr. Grieves

9. Crackity Jones

10. La La Love You

11. No. 13 Baby

12. There Goes My Gun

13. Hey

14. Silver

15. Gouge Away

I could give you a link to the wiki entry but that's long and complicated. Instead, I'll pick out what you need to know:

- Doolittle has continued to sell consistently well in the eighteen years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been cited as inspirational by many alternative artists, while numerous music publications have ranked it as one of the most influential albums ever. A 2003 poll of NME writers ranked Doolittle as the second greatest album of all time.

- The album's opening track " Debaser " references surrealism, a theme that runs throughout the album. "Debaser" alludes to Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's 1929 surrealist film Un chien andalou

- The lyrics for " Monkey Gone To Heaven " reference environmentalism and man's relationship with the divine. It was the first Pixies song to feature guest musicians - the band is accompanied by two cellists, Arthur Fiacco and Ann Rorich, and two violinists, Karen Karlsrud and Corine Metter.

- " Here Comes Your Man " was recorded for the band's 1987 demo tape, but not included on either Come on Pilgrim or Surfer Rosa; it was seen as an anomaly in the band's repertoire by their producers. Critics saw "Here Comes Your Man" as the Pixies' breakthrough song; Jon Dolan of Spin magazine commented that it was "the most accessible song ever by an underground-type band."

And an endnote on who they were:

- The group is frequently posited as the immediate forebearer of the alternative rock boom of the early 1990s, though they disbanded before reaping any of the benefits this might have brought them. Avowed fan Kurt Cobain's acknowledgement of the debt Nirvana owed to the Pixies, along with similar tributes by other alternative bands, ensured that the Pixies' legacy and influence grew substantially in the years following their demise.

[The Seeker]

[big]Who's Next -- The Who[/big]

1. Baba O'Riley (5:00)

2. Bargain (5:33)

3. Love Ain't for Keeping (2:12)

4. My Wife (Entwistle) (3:41)

5. The Song Is Over (6:16)

6. Getting in Tune (4:50)

7. Going Mobile (3:42)

8. Behind Blue Eyes (3:42)

9. Won't Get Fooled Again (8:32)

All songs written by Pete Townshend except where noted.

Compared to earlier Who albums, "Who's Next" has a very mature sound, it sounds more polished but at the same time still possesses the band's raw power and is one of the very first albums to use synthesizers. Even though it was released only two years after "Tommy", the band seems to have grown a lot older, and not just the music, but the lyrics as well seem to be a lot more contemplative and self-reflecting than their earlier songs. "Who's Next" is a big step away from the psychedelia and youthfulness of their first albums, and to me it's also a bit of a phoenix from the ashes album. After "Tommy", Pete Townshend's visions of the road he wanted the band to go down became even greater and more complicated, and he started to work on his most ambitious project: 'Lifehouse'. It was so complicated and ahead of its time that it never got off the ground, resulted in considerable friction within the band and eventually led to nervous breakdowns that nearly made Townshend kill himself. But with the help of a new producer, the project was stripped down to the very basics, just the songs, and other songs were added that hadn't originally been part of it. Upon its release, it soared to number one on the UK charts and was a huge success in other countries as well, and finally rid the band of the burden that "Tommy" had become, at least for the time being.

Baba O'Riley

My favourite out of their singles and big hits, "Baba O'Riley" was part of the "Lifehouse" storyline and is accompanied by a synthesizer part that is supposed to represent Pete Townshend's spiritual guru Meher Baba's personality.

Bargain

Probably my favourite song off this album, "Bargain" is about finding your way to God, but if you're like me, you might prefer to see it as just a simple love song, and not necessarily to a divine creature.

The Song Is Over

Pretty much sums up a lot of music to me.

I'll sing my song to the wide open spaces

I'll sing my heart out to the infinite sea

I'll sing my visions to the sky high mountains

I'll sing my song to the free, to the free

Won't Get Fooled Again

Never mind CSI and commercials, this is the ultimate anti-war, anti-government and anti-everything-you-want anthem.

...YEAH!

[_Laurie_]

^^^^ ^^^^

[The Seeker]

[_Laurie_]

I wanted to nominate a WHO album, but I'm pretty sure "someone" will nominate one...

And "Who's Next" would be the one!

[The Seeker]

I;m glad we agree!

[edna]

I need a Top Fourty by now...

[Levis]

Hola all... Voting will start tonight so if you've got a nomination to spare and don't want to waste it, now's the time to get it in.

[Tenacious_Peaches]

I shall nominate "A Night at the Opera" by Queen. I'll come back in a few hours with a full review and a full review of my other neglected nomination, "London Calling" by The Clash.

[Viaene]

others have nominated my favorites, i'll just be the determinant vote