What's your top 10 Albums?

Saw this Tweet the other day from Simon Shackleton discussing whether EPs are still relevant

https://twitter.com/S_K_Shackleton/status/1500012350660919303?s=20&t=Xl64OeymXSAqSBtol1KDXg

And it got me thinking one stage further back in time - who here remembers Albums?

I know that vinyl is creating a bit of a comeback and Adele made a stand recently, but it definitely feels like the 'Golden Age' of when an artist would package up a batch of songs onto a piece of vinyl, tape or metallic plastic and release it for us to buy and listen to in a single sitting, is now becoming a thing of the past.

Personally I think that's a shame and seeing as I'm a bit of a Nick Hornby-like nerd, it made me think about what my all-time top 10 favourite albums might be. So I came up with a list and the only rule I applied was I wasn't allowed to pick any various artist compilations or greatest hits albums, they had to be albums released by a band or artist as a distinct collection of work.

Here's my list, which could have easily been a different set of 10 on any other given day, as I did switch a few out; Daft Punk and Leftfield didn't make the cut and when I'm feeling a bit more nostalgic for my childhood, Rio by Duran Duran might get added in.

I wanted to pick albums where I felt nearly every track stood out in some way and every one contributed to making the album what it is as a listening experience.

So here goes, in no particular order...

Massive Attack - Blue Lines
The KLF - Chill Out
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Seal - Seal
Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Phil Collins - Face Value
Royksopp - Melody AM
Moby - Play
Kraftwerk - Man Machine
Air - Moon Safari


Would be really interesting to see other people's top 10s...

Nice selection! It is a fun game isn't it!! Here's mine (like you, it's taken from a larger pool that could easily change day to day, but I won't sweat that because I'd spend forever trying to decide otherwise!)

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic
Beck - Odelay
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Amon Tobin - Supermodified
Burial - Untrue
Tipper - Forward Escape
Fat Boy Slim - Better Living through Chemistry
Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul
Kaytranada - 99.9%
Portishead - Dummy

I'm not sure which ones to take out so that I can add...

Avalanches - Since I left You
Bobby McFerrin - Medicine Music
Cypress Hill - Black Sunday
Beatles - Rubber Soul (could be one of about 5 or 6!)

....and so on!

I have lots of different fav genre albums but I cant colalte them so I'll just focus on electronic music:

Skee Mask - Compro (My all time fav electronic album - so fkin good)
Special Request - Soul Music
Goldie - Timeless
Horsepower Productions - In Fine Style
Eastman - Red, White & Zero
Yamaneko - Spa Commisions
The ORB - UFORB
The KLF - Chill Out
Akkord - Akkord
K-Lone - Cape Cira

Im not very good at listening to albums (low attention span) so for me to have actually listened to these albums as a whole is testament to itself.... I like to think that if you listened to every electronic track I ever made, you would find almost all the musical ideas in these 10 album.

Missing Orbital - Orbital II because i only know like 3 tracks, but those three tracks are hugely influential - but it felt wrong including it becuase I only know three songs

[quote="simon unsigned"]


So here goes, in no particular order...

Massive Attack - Blue Lines
The KLF - Chill Out
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Seal - Seal
Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Phil Collins - Face Value
Royksopp - Melody AM
Moby - Play
Kraftwerk - Man Machine
Air - Moon Safari


Would be really interesting to see other people's top 10s...
[/quote]

WOW, hysterical that I agree on several points. I had so many remixes of Seal's first album. Some great early tracks, great sampling (I can hear a HIGHLANDER sample in one track). And Face Value was a very important album from a songwriting perspective and a drum perspective... Droned/Hand in Hand is still one of the best modern drum performances live or in studio. Public Enemy is also awesome.

But, I have to say

Digital Underground - Sex Packets (early Tupac!)
OutKast - Stankonia AND Speakerboxxx/Love Below
Heart - HEART
Amy WInehouse - AMY (first release, import only in US)
Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room
Julia Fordham - Porcelain AND Concrete Love.

And I gotta add Beastie Boys (pick something, "Anything!!" "Kick it!!")

But I know those last three women are gonna be lost on quite a few here...
Yes, Amy was more talented at 18 than most of us are our whole lives.
Diana is the single best jazz pianist in the world... I'm not kidding. And if her and Costello's kids aren't prodigies... should be a Mozart
And Julia Forham is one of the greatest songwriters ever... in addition to a 4 octave range that will make you think it's all post production until you realize she was doing that in the 80s before the post- software existed to make you sound that full and rich electronically.

I am now off my soapbox and going to walk away... just walk away....

OMG HOW DID I FORGET... The Roots. Phrenology. OMG.... mic drop

updated by @betterledproductions: 09/13/22 12:28:35AM