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Classic Albums
flamebroiledchicken
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Similar to the "old films" thread, I want to talk about old albums that are considered "classic". You can talk about classic albums you have recently discovered or re-discovered, or the idea of "classic-ness" in general. Do you put any stock into an album's "classic" status?
Note: I'm not really interested in this being a "Classic album X is so overrated!" thread.
But I do feel some sort of unexplainable urge to listen to "classic" albums, in order to be culturally informed or relevant or whatever. I mean, one part of my brain knows that critics and best-of lists are just random people with random opinions that are no more or less correct than anyone else's, but another part of my brain says that if practically every critic says "Album X is amazing!" then it probably is, and if I don't like it, there's probably something wrong with me. Do you think it's important, for someone who really loves music, to be familiar with certain albums?
As for classic albums I recently discovered, I listened to all of Nevermind for the first time back in the fall, and despite its absurd levels of hype ("the defining album of a generation" and all that nonsense), it really kind of kicks ass. Also, I recently listened to Daydream Nation again, which I was kind of confused by the first time I listened to it (in a "this is very noisy and weird, why do people love this again?" sort of way) and I think I understood it a lot more. Also I listened to DJ Shadow's "Entroducing....." for the first time yesterday and was pretty blown away.
Incidentally, here is a list of "classic" albums I'm embarassed to say I still have never listened to (note, some of these might only be "classic" for people who are into post-punk/new wave):
The Beach Boys- Pet Sounds
The Rolling Stones- Exile on Main St.
The Velvet Underground- The Velvet Underground and Nico, White Light/White Heat
Television- Marquee Moon
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures, Closer
Miles Davis- Bitches Brew
The Clash- London Calling
Husker Du- Zen Arcade
The Replacements- Let it Be
The Minutemen- Double Nickels on the Dime
Talking Heads- Remain in Light
The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy
Echo and the Bunnymen- Ocean Rain
Kraftwerk- Computer World
David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust, Low
Edit: Note: This discussion isn't limited to alternative rock, that's just what I'm personally most familiar with/most interested in.
Note: I'm not really interested in this being a "Classic album X is so overrated!" thread.
But I do feel some sort of unexplainable urge to listen to "classic" albums, in order to be culturally informed or relevant or whatever. I mean, one part of my brain knows that critics and best-of lists are just random people with random opinions that are no more or less correct than anyone else's, but another part of my brain says that if practically every critic says "Album X is amazing!" then it probably is, and if I don't like it, there's probably something wrong with me. Do you think it's important, for someone who really loves music, to be familiar with certain albums?
As for classic albums I recently discovered, I listened to all of Nevermind for the first time back in the fall, and despite its absurd levels of hype ("the defining album of a generation" and all that nonsense), it really kind of kicks ass. Also, I recently listened to Daydream Nation again, which I was kind of confused by the first time I listened to it (in a "this is very noisy and weird, why do people love this again?" sort of way) and I think I understood it a lot more. Also I listened to DJ Shadow's "Entroducing....." for the first time yesterday and was pretty blown away.
Incidentally, here is a list of "classic" albums I'm embarassed to say I still have never listened to (note, some of these might only be "classic" for people who are into post-punk/new wave):
The Beach Boys- Pet Sounds
The Rolling Stones- Exile on Main St.
The Velvet Underground- The Velvet Underground and Nico, White Light/White Heat
Television- Marquee Moon
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures, Closer
Miles Davis- Bitches Brew
The Clash- London Calling
Husker Du- Zen Arcade
The Replacements- Let it Be
The Minutemen- Double Nickels on the Dime
Talking Heads- Remain in Light
The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy
Echo and the Bunnymen- Ocean Rain
Kraftwerk- Computer World
David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust, Low
Edit: Note: This discussion isn't limited to alternative rock, that's just what I'm personally most familiar with/most interested in.
flamebroiledchicken on
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Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White album (although I love Revolver and Abbey Road equally, if not more)
Led Zeppelin - IV (the first four albums, together, are a major landmark)
Queen - A Night at the Opera (see if you can still find the version that comes with a DVD containing a 5.1 mix of this one)
Radiohead - OK Computer (although The Bends is also very very good, and the albums after OK Computer take some getting used to -- but they're still good)
These are all major landmarks that I consider unavoidable unless you're one of those people who either don't like Rock music at all, or who only listens to a few sub-genres to the exclusion of everything else.
Now, somewhat more obscure stuff that you really should check out, and which should have made more of a splash, if only...
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (although the other two recent albums are also really good: The Soft Bulletin, and At War with the Mystics) And you say you have an interest in punk, so you should check out their earlier albums, which are more punk-infused and less prog-drenched.
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer? (the latest album, especially good if you don't mind a more techno/poppy feel) and Coquelicot, Asleep in the Poppies (older, more obscure, but really really good, even though it'll probably make you dizzy.
The White Stripes - Elephant (not that obscure, and very good) or their latest, which I like the best, "Icky Thump"
I'll post some more if anything comes to mind.
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I just bought two Rolling Stones LP's (Love you Live and a greatest hits 2 record set) this weekend, so that's awesome. I've also got Tattoo You and eventually I'll save up and buy Exile.
I've got Ziggy Stardust and two greatest hits Bowie compilations on my Ipod, but no vinyl.
My record collection is small, but powerful.
I own the classic '77 Star Wars soundtrack, four lp's!, but it's missing the fold out poster. I found one online for $200 that I might buy and frame if I don't just get lazy and get a fake.
The Offspring - Americana
O_o
or you know, the stuff green day did like a year or two before that
sorry, I just felt that there were about five or six too many songs on americana that ripped off green day. Which yes, I know everyone rips of everyone, and it just boils down to taste in the end, but even parts of Pretty Fly for a White Guy were taken directly from another song.
For example, grunge doesn’t make a lot of sense without having listened to ‘80s metal, which doesn’t make much sense without having listened to first-wave punk and ‘70s rock, which doesn’t make much sense without the ‘60s... and so it goes.
I respectively disagree. My opinions of the album are largely due to my obsession when I was younger, the fact that it was one of the few albums I was into that my friends also loved, and the fact that every couple years I get the strong to desire to go back and listen to it again. And everyone that hears me listening to it says "OMG, I loved that album!"
Then again, I wasn't a huge Green Day fan at the time.
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
Maybe Nevermind is an even better example. I know quite a few people who really hate Nirvana, which I guess it understandable- their hype was so ludicrous that it destroyed their lead singer. But regardless of the way you feel about their music, Nevermind is still culturally relevant just because a shit-ton of people love it and say it is.
I guess I'm just wondering about the line between greatness and cultural relevance. Or if they are even separate concepts.
PS I don't really know what I'm talking about
See, now we're cool again. : )
"Paradise By The Dashboard Light" is one of the best songs of all time. The rest of the album is icing on the cake.
I feel like it was the epitome of the whole power ballad movement. The piano playing was epic. It's the pinnacle of the "I'm a bad ass with a heart of gold" album. And it was just cheesy enough, yet just rocking enough.
Like Boston, or the Eagles?
And how about Offspring - Ignition
Thriller
I agree, this, and guns and roses, and poison were kind of the epitome of the power ballad phase, which Nirvana completely eliminated.
Plus, I would do anything for Love is like the only song I can properly do justice to during karaoke.
whatever bee guy...
Thriller, Bad, Moonwalker, etc. These were all decent songs, made famous by over the top music videos and dance routines. I wouldn't call them amazing albums becaue to me they weren't any better or worse t han other pop albums, but MJ made them his own by being so fucking awesome in the videos
I liked Songs a hell of a lot more than both of those
I would put Soft Bulletin above Yoshimi for being "classic"
Nevermind (Nirvana), Ten (Pearl Jam), Purple (Stone Temple Pilots), Siamese Dream (Smashing Pumpkins) for more mainstream alt rock classics. Also, Downward Spiral (NIN).
Van Halen's first album (with "Eruption") is probably really important.
Elizium (Fields of the Nephilim) ... I believe this is a definitive goth album. In any case, it's the only goth album I have, and it is pretty awesome. Undead cowboys!
Um. I don't actually know anything about music.
:^:
The Flaming Lips are really amazing, and one of my favourite bands. The whole concept behind the Yoshimi album, the art and the depth and beauty behind some of the songs is really beautiful. Do You Realize is the one song me and my friends can agree on that we'd like played at our funerals (We have great conversations like that)
e: Shit, I misread your post. Well, still, you've still got a good choice in music :P
New York Dolls-New York Dolls
Television-Marquee Moon
Bob Dylan-Highway 61 revisited
Beatles-Abbey Road
Whatever Chuck Berry thing you consider since he really just had a shitload of singles
Stooges-Raw Power
Lou Reed-Transformer
That's just off the top of my head, though. There's records I'd say are better than these, but for my money these are the "classics."
Weezer - Pinkerton
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
Denying that albums are classics just because of their age is dumb. Denying stuff like Nevermind or The Black Album just because of the year they were released is just plain wrong, and then, it's like saying stuff like Sgt. Peppers and Led Zep IV are only classics because of their age and not for their impact and obvious awesomeness.
e: This thread has gone on too long without mention of Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
I think there is something inherently fascinating about bands (which explains their cult status)—they are like human families that give birth to evolving ideas instead of genetic children. When I stumble upon a song on Pandora that I like, I usually go to Wikipedia and look up the band, who their influences are, what important things were going on in their lives.
"Classic" albums are, I think, the ones that are most evolutionarily important. Like legs or wings, a classic album is something that a lot of music thereafter incorporates into its own genetic makeup because it is selected by natural forces (i.e. popularity).
I feel like if I understand the arrows and adaptations of this musical evolution, it helps me appreciate other kinds of music that is evolutionarily connected to the stuff I already like. Of course, the pot also helps.
I mean cars are registered as classics based on age, as are houses, and antiques. Now if you want to confer collector's status, like you would with a new shelby mustang or some house made by a famous architect last year, or some new band album that sold out the first print, that's cool, but I agree that we should at least have a 1988 cap on the music here. 20 years is reasonable for classic albums.
Me: blah blah blah Nevermind blah blah blah
Other person: Man, fuck that album. I hate Nirvana.
Me: ...But you can't hate it. It's a classic!
And then I stop and realize that I sound like an asshole.
But it kind of made me wonder about what it means for something to be a "classic". Does it mean anything to you?