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Best all around album all-time


Danielj

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It's funny, because I was thinking yesterday: "Is there such a thing as the PERFECT album" - a groundbreaking album, brilliant in its conception and execution from start to finish. I was going to start a discussion, but thought it (or something similar) would already have been done on this site.

Anyway, when I was thinking about it yesterday, I figured it would have to be an album by The Beatles, as they are the albums that I play most - even now, I still keep going back to them.

"Revolver" is my favourite album. 13 of the 14 tracks are just absolutely sublime. However, that there is one track which I have never liked ("Yellow Submarine") means that it cannot qualify as the PERFECT album - not-even-withstanding the fact that the other 13 tracks are pure genius.

Well... to cut a very long story short, I narrowed my choice down to "Sgt. Pepper" and "Dark Side Of The Moon" as being the two most perfectly-rounded albums where every track is (at least) good, the lyrics and production inventive and ground-breaking and the musicians at their creative peak. Both albums work well conceptually (without being - ugh! "concept albums"). However, I would say that "Pepper" was significantly more influential than "Dark Side" (in fact, we probably wouldn't have had "Dark Side" if there hadn't been a "Revolver" and a "Pepper" before it). Of the two albums, I play "Pepper" more than "Dark Side" (the latter I'm playing right now just to refresh my memory about it!). And if I had to pick an all-time favourite album track (from these two albums), it would be "A Day In The Life" from "Sgt. Pepper". And, finally, the "Pepper" sessions also gave us "Strawberry Fields Forever".

So, there you go. "Sgt. Pepper" gets my vote. [sh*t - even the cover was influential!!!]

Martin

=============================================

..And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right...

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These questions are always so difficult to answer accurately because, if you're anything like me, your opinion will change from one month to another.

At any one time my favourite [which is really what we mean by 'best all-time', isn't it?] could come from a list such as the following;

Bowie; Ziggy Stardust

Stones; Exile on Main Street

Stones; Beggars Banquet

Beatles; Sgt Pepper

Beatles; Revolver

Beatles; Abbey Road

Love; Forever Changes

But ask me this month and it's Every Picture Tells A Story by Rod Stewart.

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I say

either

In Utero

or

Sgt. Pepper's

From reading your posts Scott, I am a bit surprised that you have In Utero on your all-time best album list! I mean, I cannot deny that it was influential, but probably in a bad way. On the major scale, we had Guns n' Roses then Nirvana. Guns n' Roses played good old time rock n' roll. Shredding guitar solos, wailing vocals etc. Then Nirvana came around and now look at rock music.

IMO In Utero could be on a 'Most Influential' post, but not best ever. Of course it's your opinion.

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Though I must say, all of this 'new rock' crap is more inspired by the "Nevermind" album (you know simplistic stuff, a 'look at me I'm cool' kind of attitude) Whereas In Utero was nowhere near as popular, but about 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times better than Nevermind.

Every single song on In Utero was solid gold.

and IMO most bands now a days are trying to copy Ed Vedder way more than they try to copy Nirvana.

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I have never heard Sgt Peppers believe or not. I have heard one of the songs from it a couple times on the radio. He says something about brushing his teeth and putting his socks on, while the piano is just hammering out this major chord in quarter notes. The songs has a few different sections. That's all I can remember.

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I can't narrow it down to just one either. There's a bunch that come to mind.

Avalon and Heart Still Beating by Roxy Music

Low and Station To Station by David Bowie

Quiet Life and Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan

Some Great Reward and Black Celebration by Depeche Mode

Low Life and Substance NewOrder

That's ten albums right there that can be easily categorized as the best all-around album of all time. I can go on listing more... but this will suffice - for now :headphones:

To narrow down those ten to one, I'll go with Gentlemen Take Polaroids. This album pretty much was the invented and polished version of the music that was to be played for the next four years by bands like Duran Duran, OMD, Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet, etc.

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Actually, I would say Pink Floyd really paved the way for all of the 80s music. With their clever use of technology on DSoTM, and The Wall, above all others. Run Like Hell was like an overture of all 80s songs to come. And On The Run also had a ton of advanced technology. It looks like when it came to synthesizers, Roger Waters had some running fetish.

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Actually, I would say Pink Floyd really paved the way for all of the 80s music. With their clever use of technology on DSoTM, and The Wall, above all others. Run Like Hell was like an overture of all 80s songs to come. And On The Run also had a ton of advanced technology. It looks like when it came to synthesizers, Roger Waters had some running fetish.

Ever hear of The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide...? Any of these bands probably had much more influence than PF ever did. Hell! By the time The Sex Pistols and the rest of the Punks had arrived they were wearing shirts that had a picture of a Pink Floyd album crossed out with the caption: "I HATE" :beatnik:

David Bowie, Roxy Music, and Giorgio Moroder pretty much paved the way for the sub-genre of music known as New Romantic. Japan just packaged it for everyone else to emulate them. At best, The Human League also got there at the same time, but their music sounded too stilted compared to David Sylvian's work of the time.

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LOL I think Johnny Rotten got hired even before he was auditioned just because he was wearing one of those 'I hate Pink Floyd' t-shirts. Which is good cuz without a Dark Side Of The Moon there wouldn't be Pink-Floyd-Hating Sex Pistols and so many others. :rockon:

I like Pink Floyd and I know that directly (and indirectly) they influenced a lot of bands that came after them, but if I were to think they are the be-all, end-all of inspirations for subsequent forms of music - that would probably inspire me to wear one of those shirts too because they are not by a long shot... it wasn't Pink Floyd they were playing at Blitz, The Hacienda, CBGBs, and the like :headphones:

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I didn't say they influenced the music solely, but I would bet my money that they had more of an influence than any one of the bands you mentioned. Maybe not a direct influence, but they definitely carved out what lied ahead. I mean 1972. That beats all everything you said, because not only was DSoTM early, but very concetrated. It was never weak or boring, and had a ton of cool effects and futuristic sounds all the way through. If someone announces they hate Pink Floyd, I will lose all musical respect for them. So far, I have not seen a better band come along than Pink Floyd. All that early Punk, like the Sex Pistols. Sure, it was innovative and fresh, I wouldn't even really call it that innovative. But, the nature of the genre isn't very deep, and it can't match up lyrically or musically to anything Pink Floyd has done, with the exception of Bring The Boys Back Home.

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