The album thread - Discussion and recommendations

cant take triviums Shogun of at the moment. chinese democracy was good but no Appetite that i still play 20 years after buying my first copy

im not really listening to an album but i am listening to this on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmRZnRp8_...=1&index=3

dalebags Wrote:At the moment Im listening to the new Prodigy album. Fucking love it . Welcome return back to form .

New single "Omen" is tops

Also listening to new U2 album but so far after about 4 listens still not sure of it.

Totally agree, I love the Prodigy! The track 'Thunder' is my fave - amazing!

sinister Wrote:

dalebags Wrote:At the moment Im listening to the new Prodigy album. Fucking love it . Welcome return back to form .

New single "Omen" is tops

Also listening to new U2 album but so far after about 4 listens still not sure of it.

Totally agree, I love the Prodigy! The track 'Thunder' is my fave - amazing!

I was quite pleased with the new Prodigy album as well, far surpassed my expectations after the, quite frankly, very poor 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' album.

Currently I'm listening to 'Is This It?' by the Strokes (one of my alltime favourites), 'The '59 Sound' by the Gaslight Anthem (one of my favourites from 2008), and 'Marquee Moon' by Television, something that I've recently discovered

I have almost only been listening to Invaders Must Die ever since I bought it, the first two tracks are the best, although I did take it off today to put on All Hope is Gone, and my mate put on the Blink 182 greatest hits in my car the other day, love it.

There's more than one person who uses the Currently listening thread on a frequent basis, but that thread has (perhaps as intended) has become somewhere to an embed a video and skedaddle, rather than somewhere to discuss the music on offer. With that in mind, I've decided to start this one for discussion of music in general, maybe with a focus on albums, more than individual songs, although there's always room for that too, since singles are often released ahead of albums or in the case of smaller labels, as a thing in their own right.

Anyway, I thought I'd get the ball rolling by recommending a few of the more prominent and obvious albums of the past 12-18 months, to test the waters and see if this actually takes off and other people join in. If they do, then I might get a bit more wide ranging and esoteric in my recommendations.

The xx: xx - This years Mercury prize winners, the album is a joy from start to finish. Melodic, haunting and beautifully arranged and produced.

Biffy Clyro: Only Revolutions - Commercial, slick and thoroughly enjoyable. After labouring for years under the (slightly unfair) label of post-grunge, emo-dirge wailers, the Biff have become progressively more populist in their sound and it suits them well. An album filled with top rate, stadium oriented, British indie power pop.

Plan B: The Defamation of Strickland Banks - From his beginnings as a south London rapper with a good line in brooding beats and dark lyrics, Plan B's second album came right out of left field, with a motown inspired, soulful concept album about the rise and fall of a superstar musician. Inspired at times, it's well worth a few listens. Supposedly reggae or dubstep are his next direction. Someone to keep an eye on.

Mark Ronson and The Business intl.: Record Collection - A well named album, since - like so many dance/electronica albums - it feels more like a collection of individual singles than a coherent whole, but by god, they're a bunch of really good singles.

She & Him: Volume Two - Zooey Deschanel's musical project, the album is filled with quirky, interesting pop music. The sixties influence is clear from the get go, but it doesn't overpower the music, or make it seem backward looking. Excellent stuff and several orders of magnitude better than most actors-turned-musicians.

There we go. Those are my first recommendations. Feel free to join in with your own and don't feel like you have to stick with the most recent releases...

Mr G I’m with you on Biffy Clyro - a great album, taking them into the mainstream. I’m hoping they are on before U2 at Glastonbury as that’s the warm up they need.

So in no order whatsoever:

Gaslight Anthem - American Slang. Follow up to the debut, 59 sound. As good as it’s predecessor. Best new band in a long time.

Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a young man. Every manics album since Everything Must Go has been billed as a return to form. This is it back to ‘Generation Terrorists’ territory. Album of the year for me at the moment.

R.E.M. - Fables of the reconstruction special edition. Leave it where it is if you’ve got the original. The disc of demo’s adds nothing, three or four unheard songs, yes. Anything worth a second listen, no.

Oasis - Time Flies a) the world doesn’t need another Oasis compilation cd b)the world does need the dvd that comes in the 4 disc box set because Noel’s commentary is three hours of stand up comedy.

Finally let’s go out at a tangent with one of Noel’s heroes

Burt Bacharach @ the Sydney opera house: amazing 32 song concert, I was lucky enough to see him in London. A true musical genius, this is like having the notes to the bible. Someone of his age should not be this good. Everyone who goes on the x factor should be forced to listen to this in the hope they’ll realise how bad they actually are compared to real singers and musicians.

I'm always hesitant to recommend albums because everyone's taste is different.I can only tell you what I like and hope you do too but if not don't blame me. My own personal taste for example extends to female fronted metal but of course I recognise thats not everyones cup of tea.Still if you're prepared to give it a go you could do worse than check out these:
The Silent Force- Within Temptation/A mix of styles but all showcase Sharon Den Adels voice from the quieter acoustic moments of Somewhere to the more driving rock sounds of Stand My Ground.

April Rain- Delain Simailar to Within Temptation,although Charlotte may not quite have Sharons voice it is still spellbinding at times.

My Fatal Kiss-Krypteria (if you can find it in the UK) Just a collection of good driving power rock accentuated beautifully by Ji-In Choo


For something a tiny bit more mainstream:
Shallow Life- Lacuna Coil they've been around a few years now, and it shows in the way they know how to deliver a proper rock album

Fire Like This- Blood Red Shoes/ everything a good indie album should be,fresh original and energetic.

Ok thats my personal 'fetish' dealt with. on a more genaeral level:
West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum- Kasabian.A bit commercial maybe but still extremely well crafted.

Slash-Slash Just a guitar hero at work.

If you want to talk about what classic albums should be in every collection then start with Electric Ladyland(Hendrix), Exile On Mainstreet(Stones) and Dark Side of The Moon(Pink Floyd)

Thats enough for now before I get started on a real rant about whats wrong with the music industry in the UK today.

(01-10-2010 20:01 )brummie Wrote:  Thats enough for now before I get started on a real rant about whats wrong with the music industry in the UK today.

I seem to have spent a lot of this week on various forums having that very rant.

Anyway a couple more entries from old folks corner:

David Bowie - Station to Station No one has ever (or will ever, see opening sentence) put together a run of albums comparable to Bowie’s 1970’s releases. If you give him the benefit of the doubt with a couple you can even stretch it from 1971’s ‘Man Who Sold the World’ to ‘Let’s Dance’ in 1983. STS is the pivotal moment in that period. It turns the corner from ‘Young Americans’ to ‘Low’. It’s an album he doesn’t remember making, it clocks in at 38 minutes, comprises 6 songs but it’s 38 minutes and 6 songs you can’t forget in a hurry. A masterpiece. Now remastered with bonus Nassau coliseum 1976 concert (minus the drum solo - obsessives take note of these things).

Brian Wilson - Live at the roxy. The night no one thought they’d see. Brian Wilson sings the Beach Boys. He hardly moves, he barely if at all plays the keyboard he sits (hides?) behind, his voice isn’t great but you have to keep telling yourself he wrote ALL these songs and you have to admire the sheer nerve of someone finally confronting their inner demons and doing it on stage in Los Angeles.

(01-10-2010 19:40 )m100 Wrote:  Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a young man. Every manics album since Everything Must Go has been billed as a return to form. This is it back to ‘Generation Terrorists’ territory. Album of the year for me at the moment.

I do love that album. I wouldn't say it's anything like "Generation Terrorists", apart from it clearly being influenced by a lot of "classic rock" in the same way they were well into Guns N Roses back in the day. This is very much the "Everything Must Go" side of the Manics, and I'm completely cool with that, although I've liked pretty much all their stuff.

Quote:Oasis - Time Flies a) the world doesn’t need another Oasis compilation cd b)the world does need the dvd that comes in the 4 disc box set because Noel’s commentary is three hours of stand up comedy.

I NEED TO BUY THIS. Noel has long been one of my heroes, and I can listen to that man speak forever, because he's always good with stories and the way he gives his opinions on stuff.