Amph Your top 5 albums of all time (with explanation)

OK, so first things you should read:

1) Yes, 5. I don't want "here's my 12 best plus some moar" because you can't decide, you special unique milliennial flower you, and
2) So people might get something out of it, try and say why an album is a favourite


OK, so. Album lists as complied by Rolling Stone et al are usually complete arse because their unwillingness to explore genres leaves a boring, predictable list that really tells you nothing. But I think you can learn a bit about someone by the music they like and their articulation of why.

i.e. the essays Rogue1-and-a-half will hopefully write here will be enormously entertaining, and probably prompt people to give his top 5 a listen. And whilst he's the pinnacle for eloquently articulating his thoughts, he should also be a standard for everyone else to aspire to.

Without further ado:

1. Megadeth, "Rust in Peace" (1990)



Facing his demons - heroin addiction, miscellaneous substance addiction, alcoholism, abandonment issues, oscillating across the scale of towering ******** - and getting sober might have been expected to get some of the fire out of former Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine. Ha. Haaaaaa.

No, instead he came back with an album that his former band and perennial torturers Metallica could never hope to cover, so far out of their league is the musicianship on it. Mustaine's talent is as a guitarist - his riffs are as complex as some people's leads (hi, Kirk Hammett) and he plays in a way which should intimidate anyone who has picked up an axe. The songs are fast, incredibly technical, angry, and yet without any real bloat (Dawn Patrol, you ruined it for everyone).

Mustaine's voice might grate for some, but listen to Holy Wars...The Punishment Due and tell me this isn't epic. I mean, Mustaine's using palm muting and artificial harmonics prior to his solo and it goddamn sounds like a violin bow is tapping the strings a la Jimmy Page. And the addition of Marty Friedman? His clean, Arabic solo? Dear god what's wrong with you people that you don't love this?

Standout tracks: All of them bar Dawn Patrol

2. deftones, "Around the Fur" (1997)



I would have to admit that on a certain level, 2000's White Pony is a better album. But, having picked up a copy of Adrenaline (they signed to Madonna's label! was the prevailing buzz about this band) after reading about them and how much Max Cavalera loved them in Metal Hammer magazine (remember how he wore that Dickies-style deftones t-shirt in the Roots Bloody Roots video?



Yeah) I liked this band and when I bought their sophmore effort as I finished high school I was hooked. It wasn't straight up heavy, and Chino Moreno's voice was just so chill at times that I couldn't stop listening. Plus it came out about October/November 1997 so I was heading into my first non-school summer. I was 18, I could buy booze and cigarettes, I was meeting girls and playing gigs and my soundtrack began with a song called "In My Own Summer".

The album is packed with great songs and a solid dose of nostalgia for me, but the reason it has this place is the second single, "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)". The opening slow strum of those detuned chords, all languid. Moreno's intake of breath. The explosion of the main riff. The lyrics, the sentiment - just someone who wants to get away from everything. I'm listening to it now and it feels as electric as it did then.



Standout tracks: Be Quiet And Drive; In My Own Summer; Headup (feat Max Cavalera)

3. William Ørbit, "Pieces In A Modern Style" (2000)



You may not know Ørbit by name, unless you have been big into British EDM for some time. What you might know, without knowing it, is Orbit's signature sound and production style. How?

Remember this Madonna song?



Ørbit produced the album "Ray of Light" for Madge, and it's what makes it such a solid record (her subsequent team-up with French producer Mirwais produced utter arse).

Here, Ørbit takes a number of noted classical pieces and reimagines them with modern, electronic instruments. Some is very straightforward, such as the take on Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings. But others, such as the incorrectly named Ogive #1 by Erik Satie (it's Ogive #2, actually) are utterly breathtaking in their own right. Satie's minimalism on piano is in and of itself haunting and sparse, though memorable too (go listen to Gymnopédie #1 and tell me if you haven't heard the main tune elsewhere). Ørbit, on the other hand, makes it sound like a piece out of the Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack.

It's beautiful music to listen to at work; it's perfect rainy day music.
Standout tracks: Ogive #1 (Erik Satie); Adagio For Strings (Samuel Barber), and Xerxes (Georg Friedrich Händel).

4. DJ Shadow, "Entroducing..." (1996)



The first album from producer and Quannum MCs mainstay DJ Shadow (Josh Davis) is also the first record to be constructed entirely from samples, and my god... everyone should own this record. A landmark instrumental hip hop record, and very much a key trip hop release, it's a mix of slow, smooth tracks and uptempo jams that flow seemlessly into one another. Whilst Shadow's next album, Private Press, was stellar he never captured the holistic brilliance of this release.

It's hard to capture what it is that works. Part of it just feels like another time and place, such as "Midnight In A Perfect World". Others are a succinct and still relevant attack on what's wrong with hip hop and rap music today, such as "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96" ("it's the money!"). "Stem/Long Stem" is a strange one, in that is covers so many styles in one track and even has hardcore/Napalm Death style drumming and some standup from the late Murray Roman.

You can't really talk about this album and do it justice. You just have to tell people their life is missing it and hope they listen.

Standout tracks: Stem/Long Stem; Midnight in a Perfect World; Mutual Slump

5. ISIS, "Panopticon" (2004)



ISIS were always ahead of the curve. Their albums pioneered the post-metal genre, in which traditional song structured were thrown out the window for a less structured and formal approach that relied on atmospherics rather than detuning an 8-string guitar and singing songs about lunch with Satan.

They also tackled much more cerebral issues than their peers. 2002's "Oceanic" told a story of depression and redemption as a protagonist, intent on suicide by drowning, meets a woman who redeems him. He learns later she had an incestuous affair and unable to cope with the news, drowns himself and is free. In 2006's "In The Absence of Truth", the band look primarily at the role Hassan i-Sabbah played in shaping history (Rivers of Kings, Firdous e-Bareen, Garden of Light), with occasional forays into Cervantes' Don Quixote (Dulcinea).

But in Panopticon, they nailed it. The title is taken from a centrally controlled prison designed by utilitarian liberal Jeremy Benetham, and subject to a rebuke by Michel Foucault (Ramza), the album deals with urban isolation, surveillance, and systemic bias:

"I can see why Bentham found the design to be inspirational and possibly rewarding, but it also strikes me as this completely insidious and manipulative idea at the same time, a way of controlling and segregating individuals – which is the focal point of Foucault’s essay" - Aaron Turner

Singer, guitarist, lyricist and band head guy thingy Aaron Turner was fascinated by this idea of a world where surveillance is a control mechanism:

"One thing that I was referring to is maybe a certain controlling force, the modern parallel of it would be the US government and specifically its administration. If you want to look at it from that perspective than there is a certain kind of a central power and they're using the technology to further their means of surveillance. It's a different sort of construction but the same idea: there's a central controlling force and they're using multiple tools in the case of the internet in sort of surveilling and directing the focus of their populous." - Aaron Turner

The music is grand, towering, and epic. It layers its structure, repeating a bar a few times before adding a note or two to it. It builds to a seeming crescendo, only to scale back in the name of creating atmosphere and tension. You expect a crash of guitars and an epic section, but you don't get it. And when you do, such as in tracks "In Fiction" (7:07) and "Wills Dissolve" (5:57), it's otherwordly.

I can't stress how brilliant this album is.

Standout tracks: In Fiction; So Did We, and Altered Course (instrumental feat Justin Chancellor of Tool)

So, share away - what are your top 5?

 

IS IT OKAY IF I LIST FIVE BUT NOT RANK THEM?!

 

Yes. For you, yes.

But tell me why on some, you have good taste and ****.

 

1. The Beatles - Revolver




A semi-personal one for me because not only is it the first album I ever listened to, but I first discovered it in my Dad's vinyl collection. The cover just spoke to me because it looked noting like the other album covers. Then, I turned it over and saw that on the back side of the cover was a handwritten note from his Mum wishing him a Happy Birthday. As it turns out, it was HIS very first album he ever received for his Birthday. So, the album in strange sort of way is my introduction to music that Dad has handed down to me after receiving it as his first album.

But, onto the music. This album is such a melting pot of sounds as it's the Beatles during their mid-era when they're breaking out of their fab four type phase and coming into their own style. Rock and roll, classical, acoustic, psychedelia and plastic pop - it's all here. It's a watershed album because it marks the period of their career that would begin to establish them as bona fide songwriters and outstanding musicians, more than just pop stars. The album begins uncharacteristically with a George sung and penned track, Taxman and concludes with Tomorrow Never Knows - one of the early tracks that would go on to inspire genres such as trance.


2. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers




This album opens with the band, including session musicians, firing on all cylinders. Brown Sugar kicks the album off with Richards' dirty and slightly funky riff while also featuring a very iconic sax solo by the late Bobby Keys. As with the previously mentioned Beatles album, Sticky Fingers is not embedded in one particular style. Again, like Revolver, it features rock, country, blues, and psychedelia. You won't find much in the way of pop, but this is The Rolling Stones. There are a lot of great stories behind this album too, beginning with the recording studio, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Shoals studio at the time was unlike any other recording studio in the world because the acoustics were described as perfect and fast developed a reputation with musicians around the world that this was the premier recording studio. They've never been able to explain it, but apparently the location has the perfect flow of air and temperature that helps reverberate sound. Not even Abbey Road Studios can produce this sound - so the legend goes.

The song, Sister Morphine is in fact not about a drug addiction but told fro the perspective of Richards who was administered morphine after being involved in a car crash. hence, the lines "why does the Doctor have no face?" should be taken almost as literally as possible.

Overall, Sticky Fingers is just a perfectly played, recorded and write album by a band that was in their prime. Not even Exile On Mainstreet could match the flow and feel of this album. I was lucky enough to hear and see the guys play Wild Horses on their tour of Australia last year. The best concert i've been to.


3. Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory



Can't decide between Stones or Beatles? Easy, pick up Oasis - you get the best of both worlds. Strong rock and roll musicianship with pop sensibilities? Check. Pristine, soaring vocals with a gravelling sneer beneath it? Check. Simple but compelling 4/4 verse-chorus-verse pop/rock perfection? You bet.

This album is from my generation and is a reminder of why Oasis were seen as The Beatles of the 1990s. Yes, it strongly and frequently borrows from rock acts of the 1960s and 1970s. But the point is, it is done perfectly. Honestly, if simply ripping off a Beatles song and making it sound good was that easy, wouldn't more rock acts (especially in the 1990s) have matched the success of Oasis? When I first heard Wonderwall on the radio, I knew this was the band for me. I never cared for grunge or metal back then because I was too young to appreciate it. If it didn't sound like The Beatles, I didn't want it. Then there were songs like Roll With It,Don't Look Back In Anger, and Champagne Supernova. This album has aged well and is a much needed flashback when the current trends of music become too sickly or repetitive.

The 1980s had Appetite For Destruction, but GnR never had a Morning Glory. That's what the 1990s were about for me. Not Nevermind, not Ten, not Ok Computer, not even Melancholy. This album is just the perfect feel good album.


4. Neil Finn - Try Whistling This



My username. Truthfully, I actually did try reserving Revolver but I signed up too late.

Anyway.

This album was released in 1998 after Neil Finn broke up Crowded House ceremoniously on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1996. Try Whistling This is a stark departure for Neil because sonically it takes him into murkier, moodier, and slightly gothic territory. By far, this album is amongst the less pop driven from his eclectic career as it's more along the lines of moody trip hop and alternative rock. There are some poppy tunes here but those moments are brief. Usually the debut solo album from an artist who has previously been a part of a successful band is a difficult transition. Not this one. Neil Finn really steps up and embraces the creative freedom that his isolation brings him. Got onto this album after hearing the minor hit, Sinner on the radio. It just struck all the right chords.

Recommended cut:





5. R.E.M - New Adventures In HiFi





This is the sound of a band releasing the safety net from beneath them and relying solely upon their instincts as artists. Most of this album was not recorded in a studio but rather recorded at various sound checks from a tour they were doing in the 1990s. By far, this is REM at their darkest, and most cynical because they seem to channel the likes of Neil Young and Bob Dylan quite closely with their mix of rock, country, and grunge. Speaking of grunge, Michael's love for Kurt Cobain is also apparent on this record as the Nirvana front man would have taken his life less than half a decade earlier before the album's release.

 

liked for Oasis and Null Funn (jp-30)

 

Nil Funn

 

Dipinds whiere in New Zulund?

 

Te Awamutu. The very one referenced in Mean To Me.

 

Ah yiss.

 

Forgive me if this is too short and vague, but I had a longer version that got eaten by my web browser. O Woe Iz Me.

Carmina Burana -- Carl Orff, St. Louis Symphony



I actually don't care that much about the St. Louis Symphony--this is just the version of the Carmina Burana that I happen to have. How can you not love the Carmina Burana? Faintly filthy medieval lyrics, powerful 20th century score. "O Fortuna" is what "Duel of the Fates" wishes it was. "Dance" is lovely and bouncy, "Floret Silva" soars. And if you listen to it enough, you can sing the words to Apotheosis' techno "O Fortuna," and look awesome while you thrash around.



Oil and Gold -- Shriekback



Gloriously demented lyrics ("Big black nemesis/ Parthenogenesis/ Everybody happy as the dead come home") punctuate music that ranges from rock-anthem to eerie. This is the only album I know of that is entirely about bad relationships, Crowlean magic, and fish.

The Hazards of Love -- The Decembrists



A wonderful amalgam of old and new--music by the Newport Folk Festival, lyrics by one of the Brontë sisters. "The Rake's Song" is horrifying, "An Interlude" is sweet, and "The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)" is beautiful and terribly sad. There's not a loser on the album.

Violent Femmes -- Violent Femmes



Another album with 100% good songs on it. A dance-to-you-drop, slightly-brain-dead early 80's alternative album. "Blister in the Sun" is the most famous track, but "Good Feeling" always inexplicably makes me cry. You'll want to put on your black Converse, spike your hair out three feet, and bounce up and down, slamming into all of your friends.

Peter, Paul, and Mary in Concert -- Peter, Paul and Mary



I freely admit that this is a sentimental favorite for me. My mom used to play it for me when I was tiny, despite the fact that some of the songs are not terribly kid-friendly. "Three Ravens" and "One Kind Favor" are about death, for example. With the exception of Paul's attempts at stand-up, ("Paultalk" and the beginning of "A'Soulin',") the album never gets old.

 

You have no idea how much this got on my nerves.

 

Seventies child here.

On the day I was born, this came out:



1. Yes - Close To The Edge
Best album ever. Just three tracks; the title track takes up side A and is the best song ever made. It's got everything: stillness and chaos, a groove and close harmony, hard rock and a church organ. And then it wraps all that together and elevates itself above it to achieve majesty. Albeit vague and tentative, the song is about being close to the edge of full self-realization, and I've never heard anything come as close.

Forty years ago this month, this thing came out:



2. Utopia - Another Live
Seventies live albums are the best live albums there are, and this is the best Seventies live album. As soon as he became somewhat famous with pop ditties, Todd Rundgren - prone to do the opposite of what's good for his career - put together the symphonic rock band Utopia and started releasing 20-minute tracks. This live album is only their second album, and they've already traded in the superlong noodly tracks for leaner, better arranged, stronger songs. What's amazing to me is that the two best songs on here were never recorded in the studio: "Another Life" and "The Seven Rays" are rousing rock songs with three keyboard players. And sandwiched between them is the beautiful, almost off-the-cuff seeming acoustic song "The Wheel". Listen to this album and the seventies are alive once more.

A year later, this was released:



3. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
Strong, slick, snarky, with a supreme level of musicianship. There's nothing to find here for those looking for sentimentality; it's all just a lot of fun. And it's chock full of outstanding musical feats. How can it not be when you can count Chuck Rainey, Larry Carlton, Bernard Purdie and Michael McDonald as your band members. These were the days when records still got budgets, and the Dan spent it wisely by employing top session musicians with a perfect match for every instrument on every song. Stories of their diligence are plenty. How Donald Fagen would sneek away under the mixing console, ordering his technician to get rid of some guitar player before he'd be back from lunch. Having Mark Knopfler play the guitar for seven hours, only to end up using no more than seven seconds of it on the record. Bernard Purdie hanging up signs saying "Another hit being made!" around his drum kit. Muso soul food.

Another year later:



4. Weather Report - Heavy Weather
The ultimate jazz-rock album, and the best showcase of Jaco Pastorius' incredible talent. I always used to love this album, but over time I've come to absolutely adore it. It's like it gains power with every listen. And the more you find out about it, the more intriguing it becomes. For instance, there's this track Teen Town, prominently featuring a cool but complicated bass melody, working in pair meticulously with the drums. I always thought it fit well together and sounded amazingly clear, but then I found out that the bass player actually played the drums too, and that the bass line is doubled note for note by Zawinul's keys. Now that's nuance.

And to sound out the decade:



5. Pink Floyd - The Wall
Used to think this was one drab, dreary, forboding album with an overly long playing time. Because I was young and I didn't get the message. That blank white wall, ew. Unfriendly. Unwelcoming. And on the record are false starts of songs, people singing badly, and ugly noises of a man going insane and smashing his guitars. But I dig the Floyd and I dig Roger Waters so I went to see the show.
"So you thought you might like to go the show?" was the first line, from the first track "In The Flesh". "Tell me, is something eluding you, sunshine?", Roger asked in his inimitable ironic way. An awesome spectacle followed, and the message started to dawn on me. And with it came the realization that this is actually one of the most profound works ever brought forth by a rock band. The concept of the wall as an emotional barrier between an individual and the world around him, all elements that hold the individual back from full self-realization being bricks in the wall, and breaking through the wall and forming a true connection with people being the most important goal in life - it works as a framework for so many struggles in life, and it's beautiful. Especially so when sung in the shadow of the Berlin Wall by Sinéad O´Connor.

 

i actually heard the b side acoustic version of deftones 'be quiet and drive (far away)' before the original, and fell in love with it, and so now I always think of the acoustic version first. both versions are pretty spectacular though.

also yes to entroducing and obviously revolver, although arguing that one of the most famous albums of all time is a personal choice made me chuckle.

ill put up a list in a bit

 

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd


One of the first albums I ever remember listening to, back sometime in the seventies when I was a young kid. It's an incredibly theatrical album that had me, my sister, and our friends (it was their father's album) running around the living room and totally freaking out. It has great lyrics too - "Forward he cried, from the rear, and the front rank died. And the general sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side"

Animals - Pink Floyd

Well I thought twice about putting another Pink Floyd album on my list - it makes me look like a die-hard Pink Floyd fan, which I'm not really; it also uses up a spot that could go to another of my favourite artists. However, I couldn't bring myself to leave DSotM off my list it was just so important to my personal musical history, whilst Animals is an album that I return to time and again. It's a really incredible album - weird and angry whilst surprisingly melodic. Both music and lyrics are superb, and I'm never disappointed when I decide to listen to it again.

Together Alone - Crowded House


Back when I first listened to this album I didn't think it would replace Woodface as my favourite Crowded House album, but over the last twenty years or so I keep coming back to this one. Black and White Boy still sends shivers up my spine, Skin Feeling still makes me smile, and Together Alone still makes me sad it's all over.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie


This one kind of snuck up on me. First heard it in the eighties, lost my audio-cassette of it sometime in the early nineties, then found it again maybe fifteen years ago. Listening to it reminded me how much I loved the album so I went out and bought the cd. I think it's the lyrics that give this album its longevity for me - sometimes the album may be a bit pretentious but Bowie manages to balance that out with a playful sense of humour.

Peter Gabriel 3 - Peter Gabriel

I don't think there is a weak track on this album. Gabriel is not afraid to experiment with music, and his lyrics are always thoughtful and interesting. Games Without Frontiers stuck with me when I first heard it on the radio in the early eighties, but I think Family Snapshot/Through the Wire might be the album's high-point.

 

I was actually going to list this instead of TWT but my journey began with Neil's debut solo which led onto this. Nevertheless, excellent album. It would actually be in my top ten.

I really love Catherine Wheel, that's an old Neil and Tim composition from the Split Enz days apparently. Walking On The Spot is almost the darkest thing written by Neil.

 

I will reply as a soon as I mull this over, but I just wanted to post first to annoy Ender with a one-line post.

 

Eight Line Poem and Song For Bob Dylan are good. Hunky Dory and Ziggy are both great. But my favorite Bowie album is Station To Station.

 

Strictly speaking, that was actually for this:

1. Gaucho - Steely Dan



Ruthlessly tepid, if such a thing can exist. Only Fagen and Becker could quasi-deliberately try and destroy something and make it so compelling. A myriad of issues afflict the album, chief among them the fact that they lost the recording of "The Second Arrangement", which from what survives may well have been their finest effort... ever. The replacement track, "Third World Man" is probably their most somber and dejected track ever, but it's a perfectly suitable capper to an album populated by some of the most repugnant losers you could imagine. I think what draws me back to this album so often is that the strong imagery that is present in the Dan since Can't Buy a Thrill is still there but it's been pared back from the overload of Aja - it's a withdrawal that almost had to happen and it's a band saying farewell while introducing drum machines and the like. It's toe-tapping stuff but it also wants you to feel guilty, and I think that probably embodies what Fagen and Becker found so funny all along, and what the band probably was about anyway.

2. Modern Times - Al Stewart



Past, Present and Future is more interesting conceptually, Year of the Cat is a slicker hit parade -- this fits square in the middle. An A side of light, wryly amusing pieces, the highlight being a swift precis of Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan, and then the B side which is just pure magic for me - the romanticism of "Apple Cider Re-Constitution" giving way to Stewart's best seafaring song in "The Dark and the Rolling Sea" to his ultra-narrative of "Modern Times", a piece that's almost scarily easy to relate to. Lush Andrew Powell orchestration helps heaps, I have to say.

3. All Things Must Pass - George Harrison



Such value! Though truth be told, it might've got on here even if it only had "Run of the Mill" on here. Towering Spector production, great mix of session musicians and it's basically something in the range of 80-90% great music across a double album. It's undeniable, albeit probably a boring choice.

4. The Nightfly - Donald Fagen



Still laden with cynicism and backhanders of course but by comparison with the Dan work there's almost fondness coming from Fagen here, and the whole thing is just a breeze that never fails to slap a grin on my face. "New Frontier" in particular I think I could listen to forever, but then I'd be depriving myself of "The Nightfly", "Green Flower Street" and the "Ruby Baby" cover. Consistency is what puts this here instead of Kamakiriad, which boasts my favourite Fagen solo track ("On the Dunes").

5. White Trails - Chris Rainbow



Dunno why it is I can take to such a blatant emulation of someone's style (Brian Wilson in this case) without necessarily being a huge fan of that someone, but there you go. Can't quantify exactly what works here for me, and I don't really recommend it either as I'm sure it would drive most people up the wall - I think it's again, consistency that makes it more appealing than some other efforts.

 

I want to get this album but i'm kind of spooked by the fact that this is not a double album but in fact a triple album.

 

You're right but it was too funny not to mention it. I tried to sneak the secret Chuck Rainey slap bass anecdote in there as well but that was too obviously from Aja. Gaucho is special to me because of that Larry Carlton solo in "Third World Man" - it's one of the best guitar solos I've ever heard, and it's even very moving.

 

Smashing Pumpkins-Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-East 1999 Eternal

Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral

Korn-Korn

Tool-Aenima

Sent from my HUAWEI Y536A1 using Tapatalk

 

Apple Jam is kinda a bonus that stands apart from the first two records.

 

1. Bitches Brew - Miles Davis



After mulling it over for a while, it occurred to me that this was the album I most consistently named as my favorite album, so I might as well make it official with this here post on a Star Wars message board, the notary public of remarks.

Bitches Brew is awesome - it's got tons of interesting melodies all merged together in a musique concrète inspired mishmash of samples to produce uneven bubbling bursts of rhythm. Most of what's going on is, on the surface, complicated, or maybe even noisey, but it rewards multiple listens as the logic of the edits becomes more and more apparent. Consequently, it ends up not only being a showcase of some of the best jazz musicians... ever, actually, but also one of the best arguments for the importance of a competent producer to the album as a final product.

2. English Settlement - XTC



Where Bitches Brew is the album I most enjoy listening to, English Settlement is an album I was constantly going back to during a couple of the worst months of my entire life as I was battling for the, uh... privilege? of staying in grad school via examination. We've seen some ****, this album and I, but fortunately it's a really fun listen, a new wave double album with no real standout bombs and many a solid track.

Also those blowhards at Pitchfork gave it a 10, so I am objectively correct to list it in my top 5. That's how art works, yo.

3. The Smile Sessions - The Beach Boys



I was really, really, really close to putting Pet Sounds here, but ultimately I think this is the better album, despite basically being a Frankenstein made out of studio sessions based on Brian Wilson's 2004 album (which I also hold in very high regard). The Smile Sessions is everything I ever want out of pop music, plus more outtakes than I can shake a stick at so that I can imagine the myriad ways this album would've turned out had things gone differently. Alas, it was not meant to be, and we all had to settle for The Beatles becoming the dominant pop group in the public consciousness even though Brian Wilson is god.

At least we got another version of "Surf's Up." "Surf's Up" is awesome.

4. Bathory - Bathory



Bathory, more than any other album, changed my life. I don't mean that in any interesting or spiritual senses of the phrase, I mean that you can actually divide my listening habits up into "Ramza before Bathory" and "Ramza after Bathory." It all began one fateful evening when I was listening to some station on Pandora and, whether by chance or by sound algorithm, I was suddenly exposed to two minutes and thirty seconds of ****ing metal. I decided immediately after that that I needed to promptly locate and listen to whatever the hell that sound had come out of, and flash forward to 2015, "Metal" is still second only to the too-broad "Alternative & Punk" category in my iTunes. Hell, metal got me into jazz, and consequently this album is still, in some basic, crude way, affecting my taste.

I think if I was being honest with myself, Bathory isn't even Bathory's best album, or maybe even in the top five of Quorthon's output alone, but for me it's an album less about the music than about the meaning.

5. Songs About ****ing - Big Black

Ramza Edit: NOPE.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Ramza, did you choose Big Black's famous sophomore release for its stellar song structure, idiosyncratic production, and weirdly workable combination of catchy hooks and outright noise, all hallmarks of Steve Albini's stellar catalog, or did you just want to make a dumb Ramza Edit joke because the album artwork has not one but two language violations?"

The answer is yes.

 

1. Quadrophenia.



The first girl I ever fell in love with gave this to me as a birthday present.

2. Music for Airports

I actually listen to it in airports.

3. The Star Wars soundtrack album


The first LP I ever bought. I still own it.

4. L'ascenseur pour L'echafaud



Superwatto hates that I almost only connect to music through movies.

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World


I could listen to Garbage Truck all day long

Honorable mention:

The Rushmore soundtrack album.