My Favorite Albums of All Time

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Just listening through my music collection while working (album shuffle is the only way to go), and I thought I would throw this up here so that every time one of my favorite front-to-back albums pop up, I would make an entry. Because why not? This is in no particular order, naturally:

Running list:

1. Third, Portishead
2. I Believe You Are a Star, Dimmer
3. Elastica, Elastica
4. One Nation Under a Groove, Funkadelic
5. Liege & Lief, Fairport Convention
6. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Spiritualized
7. Before the Poison, Marianne Faithfull

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Playing Now:



Title: Third
Artist: Portishead
Released: 2008
Top Tracks: The Rip, Magic Doors, Machine Gun
Cover Art Rating: 7/10. I like the simplicity, but it looks like it was made in literally 10 seconds.

I liked Portishead's first two albums just fine, but I would never have called myself a Portishead fan as such (I found my way to them through the criminally underrated Stealing Beauty, actually, which had Glory Box on its soundtrack). But after a 10-year hiatus, they returned with a masterpiece. I've never really come across an album quite like it, a mix of electronica, trip-hop, industrial jagged edges and just lovely songwriting....This is a pure desert island disc for me.

[Dukefrukem]

Love this idea. Keep going.

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Love this idea. Keep going.

Cheers! Every time I'm on my computer and something worthy pops up, I will.

[Skitch]

So far, so good. I love Portishead.

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Playing Now:



Title: I Believe You Are a Star
Artist: Dimmer
Released: 2001
Top Tracks: Seed, Powercord
Cover Art Rating: 8/10. Nice composition. The loneliness of trying to be good.

Not a lot of NZ albums I truly love front to back, but this is one of them. Lazy, smoky electronic pop songs, perfect for sitting on the porch on a late summer's evening, hanging with friends.

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Not a favorite yet, because I've only just started listening to it, but Barry Adamson's Oedipus Schmoedipus is something else.

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Playing Now:



Title: Elastica
Artist: Elastica
Released: 1995
Top Tracks: Stutter, Never Here
Cover Art Rating: 6/10. It's the band against a wall.

Twenty-three years ago, I remember Elastica getting a bit of shit from music critics for being nothing more than a Wire rip-off with a glammier facade; I thought that was overly harsh and unfair at the time, and I think that is true even more so now - I would argue that this is up there with Chairs Missing and Pink Flag as a front-to-back great album, and the last three tracks are its high point, flicking from dismissive sneer at less than sexually active boyfriend to a sad epic (by the album's standards, at least), to a perfectly silly throwaway about lubricant use or the lack of it.

[Spinal]

Love Elastica! Wish they'd stayed together a little longer.

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Love Elastica! Wish they'd stayed together a little longer.

I even like The Menace. It is poppier and sillier, but they could write a hook or two.

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Playing Now:



Title: One Nation Under a Groove
Artist: Funkadelic
Released: 1978
Top Tracks: Maggot Brain (Live), Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?
Cover Art Rating: 8/10. It's pretty damn good representation of the sound of the album, it must be said.

A wonderful smash-marriage of funk and rock, this album is capped by the brilliant "Maggot Brain (Live)", which itself is capped by a rapturous guitar solo that I could listen to on repeat for hours.

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Playing Now:



Title: Liege & Lief
Artist: Fairport Convention
Released: 1969
Top Tracks: Come All Ye, Matty Groves, Tam Lin
Cover Art Rating: 2/10. It's as 60s as fuck.

So, I know nothing about British folk-rock except that the genre has produced one of the greatest albums ever in Liege & Lief. Five of the eight songs are rearrangements of traditional folk songs, though it does start with an original in the rollicking "Come All Ye." Sandy Dennis has the voice of the honeyed voice of a gentle English summer, and the breakdown at the end of "Matty Groves" is just several shades of awesome. A band fully in sync with each other, with the past, and (given the lickings of rock that crop up now and then), with the future as well.

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Title: Ladies and Gentlemen, We are Floating in Space
Artist: Spiritualized
Released: 1997
Top Tracks: I Think I'm in Love, Stay With Me, Cop Shoot Cop
Cover Art Rating: 8/10. Medicinal.


I bought this way back in university, liked it, but then kind of forgot about it for a decade and a half. But returning to it now, this is a fantastically cohesive effort, gliding effortlessly from self-effacing call-response riffs ("I Think I'm in Love"), spazzy little freakouts ("Electricity"), messes of horns ("No God Only Religion"), sad strings ("Broken Heart"), and just big fuck off jams ("Cop Shoot Cop"). I almost exclusively listen to albums in full at home, and its embracing, ambitious albums like this that explain why. Streaming playlists suck, is what I'm saying.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Spiritualized is a blind spot for me. I did however see them live a couple years ago and it was good show, but I got a little tired of the extended sing-song codas. Not every song has to be Hey Jude.

[Spun Lepton]

Just found this thread and discovered that I didn't even know about Portishead's Third album for 13 years. They were one of my absolute favorites in the 90s. How does something like that happen? I will have to fire that up very soon.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Third is super weird, very different from Portishead's other albums but possibly their best.

[Yxklyx]

I think I would like Portishead but there's just too much music and too little time - off the top of my head, favorite albums would be:

Lush - Split
Love and Rockets - Express
Radiohead - OK Computer
...

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Third is super weird, very different from Portishead's other albums but possibly their best.

possibly --> definitely

[StuSmallz]

Any chance we'll see any of the records from this project show up here, Trans?

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Any chance we'll see any of the records from this project show up here, Trans?

Just taking a look at that... a couple definitely would if the stars align and I'm listening to it while (a) remembering this list exists in the first place and (b) being bothered to add to it. It was only a three year gap between the last two on the list

[Dukefrukem]

I've listened to everything you have posted so far.

[StuSmallz]

Just taking a look at that... a couple definitely would if the stars align and I'm listening to it while (a) remembering this list exists in the first place and (b) being bothered to add to it. It was only a three year gap between the last two on the list

Well, just in case you don't bother to add 'em to this list, mind if I ask which ones would've made it...?

= )

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Well, just in case you don't bother to add 'em to this list, mind if I ask which ones would've made it...?

= )

No comment. That ruins all the fun.

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I've listened to everything you have posted so far.

I don't have a handle on your music taste, so hopefully you find something worth your while.

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Title: Before the Poison
Artist: Marianne Faithfull
Released: 2004
Top Tracks: No Child of Mine, Mystery of Love, Before the Poison
Cover Art Rating: 8/10. Stately.


Yes, I know Broken English is her anointed classic (and it is very, very good) but hear me out: this is co-written with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Damon Albarn, and Jon Brion. So. Fucking. Good.