The Chorus.Fm Users Definitive Albums List • Page 38

I’ve heard of Kate Bush (usually in conversations about Bjork I think) but never have heard a song of hers.

 

So, I'm new here and I can already tell that in the Venn diagram of music I like and what others here like, the intersection is kinda small. But I love discovering new (and old) music so your lists are hugely inspiring. So, here's my 50 (56 really) following my own rule of each artist only once. I also compiled this by going into iTunes (I am not calling it the Music App. You're lucky I don't call it SoundJam) and sorting my entire library by play count. That got me the first 25 albums or so (and I discovered how very many songs I love that are stand-alone. As in, I never listened to the albums they come from) and then the rest was my just browsing around my albums. That got me to 45. And then remaining 11 came from reading your lists and going, "Oh RIGHT! THAT!" Soooooo... hi, nice to meet you all. Here you go.

1. James — Laid, 1993 (Sometimes)
2. New Order — Substance 1987, 1987 (Subculture)
3. Muse — Black Holes and Revelations, 2006 (Supermassive Black Hole)
4. Shearwater — Winged Life, 2004 (Whipping Boy)
5. The Shins — Chutes Too Narrow, 2003 (Saint Simon)
6. Ok Go — Oh No, 2005 (A Million Ways)
7. Nick Drake — Way To Blue, 1994 (Cello Song)
8. Thompson Twins — Into the Gap, 1984 (The Gap)
9. US3 — Hand on the Torch, 1993 (Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia))
10. R.E.M. — Out of Time (Losing my Religion)
11. Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here, 1975 (Wish You Were Here)
12. Depeche Mode — Playing the Angel, 2005 (Precious)
13. Iron & Wine — Our Endless Numbered Days, 2004 (On Your Wings)
14. Moby — Play, 1999 (Natural Blues)
15. Toad the Wet Sprocket — Dulcinea, 1994 (Something’s Always Wrong)
16. Mika — Life in Cartoon Motion, 2007 (Grace Kelly)
17. Coldplay — Viva la Vida, 2008 (Viva la Vida)
18. Enigma — MCMXC A.D., 1990 (Sadeness (Part I))
19. Mike Doughty — Haughty Melodic, 2005 (I Hear the Bells)
20. Peter Gabriel — Up, 2002 (Sky Blue)
21. The B-52’s — The B-52’s, 1979 (Rock Lobster)
22. The Clash — Combat Rock, 2000 (Should I Stay or Should I Go?)
23. Broken Bells — Broken Bells, 2010 (The High Road)
24. Various Artists — Never Mind the Mainstream, 1991 (Every damn song)
25. Liz Phair — Whitechocolatespaceegg, 1998 (Polyester Bride)
26. Squeeze — Singles, 45 and Under, 1982 (Another Nail in my Heart)
27. Tommy Flanagan — Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Peace)
28. Eric Clapton — Unplugged, 1992 (Layla)
29. A Charlie Brown Christmas — Vince Guaraldi Trio, 1965 (Entire Album)
30. U2 — War, 1983 (Sunday Bloody Sunday)
31. Death Cab for Cutie — Plans, 2005 (Soul Meets Body)
32. Bronski Beat — Age of Consent, 1984 (Small-town Boy)
33. Cake — Prolonging the Magic, 1998 (Never There)
34. The Smiths — The Queen is Dead, 1986 (Bigmouth Strikes Again)
35. The Decemberists — The Crane Wife, 2006 (O Valencia!)
36. Twenty One Pilots — Blurryface, 2015 (Heavydirtysoul)
37. Colin Hay — Are You Lookin’ at Me?, 2007 (Are You Lookin’ at Me?)
38. The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967 (Whole album)
39. Tom Waits — Alice, 2002 (Kommienezuspadt)
40. David Bowie — The Next Day, 2013 (Whole Album)
41. Sleater-Kinney — The Center Won’t Hold, 2019 (Hurry on Home)
42. Gorillaz — Demon Days, 2005 (Feel Good, Inc.)
43. Gogol Bordello — Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, 2005 (Start Wearing Purple)
44. Talking Heads — True Stories, 1986 (Love for Sale)
45. Violent Femmes — Violent Femmes, 1983 (Kiss Off)
46. The National — Sleep Well Beast, 2017 (The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness)
47. Portugal, the Man — Woodstock, 2017 (Noise Pollution)
48. Taylor Swift — folklore, 2020 (Whole Album)
49. Love Fame Tragedy — Wherever I Go, I Want to Leave, 2020 (My Cheating Heart)
50. Paul Simon — Graceland, 1986 (You Can Call Me Al)

Bonus:

51. Steely Dan — Aja
52. Dexter Gordon — Daddy Plays the Horn
53. Laurie Anderson — Strange Angels, 1989 (Babydoll)
54. Indigo Girls — Indigo Girls, 1988 (Closer to Fine)
55. Blondie — Parallel Lines
56. Florence and the Machine — Lungs, 2009

 

Gotta finalize this today

 

I had Overseas on my list, haven’t heard this one though!

 

Really awesome to see somebody list this one. Really good album that seems mostly forgotten.

 

On a couple of lists, I listened to Flies in all Directions by Weatherbox, who I didn’t know about before this.

It’s pretty decent, kind of that meeting point between indie rock and punk sound. Reminded me at times of the Weakerthans album I listened to for the first time recently, or maybe Manchester Orchestra (Andy Hull actually pops up on this!) or The Hotelier. Altogether pretty solid stuff, I can imagine they’re quite popular on this site, definitely has that “mature” or “thoughtful” sounding pop-punk / emo band vibe to it.

 

Thanks man! Loved that record so much. Joel's vocals are a thing of beauty.

 

On @cshadows2887 and @Meerkat ’s list, I checked out IV by Toto. I only know Africa by Toto , I don’t think I could name another song of theirs other than that, so I didn’t know what to expect from this really.

It was a really nice surprise and better than I thought, opening track Rosanna was a great way to start, a classic 80s pop-rock song, great vocals, and awesome instrumentation. There were a few moments where I felt it slightly dipped into “cheesy montage from a bad 80s movie”, but they didn’t last too long. Overall I preferred the rockier or more upbeat stuff to the ballads, I think. The faster paced songs were just great fun, really enjoyed them.

A really pleasant surprise, and one I’ll be returning to, at least for a handful of songs.

 

If you want to appreciate just how good a drummer Jeff Porcaro is, listen to how effortless the shuffle on "Rosanna" sounds, and then listen to how terribly the drummer from Weezer labors over it in their cover. I never realized how complicated it is.

 

alright, y'all. gonna spend the next few days updating this. feel free to post yours by tomorrow afternoon and then we'll probably cut it off there

 

1. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica ("Life Like Weeds")
2. Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts & We're Voting Yes ("No Joy in Mudville")
3. Deftones - White Pony ("Teenager")
4. Alex G - Beach Music ("Kicker")
5. Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence ("Time Stops")
6. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days ("Brother")
7. The National - Trouble Will Find Me ("This is the Last Time")
8. Say Anything - ...Is a Real Boy ("Chia-Like, I Shall Grow")
9. Weezer - Weezer (Blue) ("Only in Dreams")
10. Title Fight - Floral Green ("Head in the Ceiling Fan")

11. Radiohead - In Rainbows ("All I Need")
12. Nirvana - In Utero ("Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge")
13. Nick Drake - Pink Moon ("Which Will")
14. Porches - The House ("Country")
15. King Krule - The OOZ ("Lonely Blue")
16. Jeff Buckley - Grace ("Lover, You Should've Come Over")
17. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo ("Real Friends")
18. Hum - Downward is Heavenward ("Apollo")
19. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors ("You Make Loving Fun")
20. Anthony Green - Avalon ("Babygirl")

21. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE ("Chambers")
22. Deafheaven - New Bermuda ("Gifts For the Earth")
23. Clairo - Immunity ("Softly")
24. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy ("Smoochie")
25. Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner ("Army")
26. Deftones - Diamond Eyes ("You've Seen the Butcher")
27. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs ("The Mint")
28. Modest Mouse - This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About ("Dramamine")
29. Radiohead - Kid A ("Idioteque")
30. System of a Down - Toxicity ("Prison Song")

31. Wild Nothing - Nocturne ("Through the Grass")
32. The Sidekicks - Runners in the Nerved World ("Everything in Twos")
33. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy ("911 / Mr. Lonely")
34. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica ("Replica")
35. Murder By Death - Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing ("I'm Afraid of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe")
36. The Killers - Hot Fuss ("All These Things That I've Done")
37. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism ("Passenger Seat")
38. Tame Impala - Currents ("New Person, Same Old Mistakes")
39. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell ("Fourth of July")
40. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps ("Demi Moore")

41. Mac Miller - Swimming ("Small Worlds")
42. Alex G - House of Sugar ("Gretel")
43. Mansions - Best of the Bs ("Never Enuff")
44. Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog ("This Old Dog")
45. Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See ("Five String Serenade")
46. Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle ("Faded From Winter")
47. Hum - You'd Prefer an Astronaut ("I'd Like Your Hair Long")
48. M.Ward - Post-War ("Eyes on the Prize")
49. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ("Devil in a New Dress")
50. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet ("Road Head")

This was weird and tough. I wasn't really sure how to approach it, so I started with my vinyl collection, kept it to a max of two from each artist (my personal favorite along with what I thought was their best), then hit Spotify for everything else I don't own but listen to regularly, and threw all 70 or so albums into the Bias Sorter. Had to make some decisions regarding problematic artists, and then try and figure out if the music I grew up with was more important than the music I'd prefer to listen to now. Not stoked with the amount of marginalized folks on my list (and would love some recs - my next step is to dive back through this thread), but for now, I'd say this is pretty accurate in terms of what I listen to most often.

edit: Updated with my favorite songs from each. The more I sit with this, the happier I am. Really excited to dig back through everyone's lists and hopefully turn some folks onto some new music!

 

Beach Music in the top 5 is awesome. Pretty sure that’s my favorite Alex record and it narrowly missed my list.

 

I got very, very into him this time last year and honestly haven't stopped listening since. It's funny, I don't think Beach Music was close to being my favorite at first, but over time, those songs have just latched onto my brain. It's simultaneously one of his weirdest and most cohesive, a perfect transition between the older stuff and the newer stuff.

 

An abundance of all-time favourite albums on these two lists!

@aaffleck - appreciate the pop & new wave love! Especially Bronski Beat, New Order, Muse, R.E.M. and Coldplay

@Aaron Mook - The Moon and Antarctica doesn’t get old. Still means a lot to me. Your Radiohead choices, Pink Moon, Mazzy Star and heaps of other picks would show up on my list, too.

 

Not sure if you read Tom Breihan’s column The Number Ones, but the one on “Africa” (and Toto IV) is really fun.

The Number Ones: Toto’s “Africa”

 

Completely agree. Listening to this for the first time based on the recommendations that I'm seeing on this forum, and this album is 100% the type of stuff that I totally eat up. Awesome to be finding new gems from these lists.

 

Similar to Transatlanticism, I think The Moon & Antarctica is just one of those records that perfectly marries the band's early work with where they were headed. Still haven't heard anything quite like it.

The Radiohead and Mazzy Star choices were tough! She Hangs Brightly almost made the cut!

 

This is cool. A little snarky, but generally on the right page.

 

Yeah, he can be a bit of a jerk but this series is one of the best things on the music internet for me. Great research, strong writing.

I've been trying to think of the right CTA for a music thread that's like "Recommend an Album and tell a story about it" but I can't quite figure it out yet.

 

On multiple people's lists, I listened to Flower Boy by Tyler, The Creator. I remember Odd Future and all the controversy around them, and I enjoyed Tyler's song "Yonkers" a lot, even though the lyrics were quite gross. I had heard he'd mellowed out, or stopped being so "edgy", so was interested in hearing this.

I definitely think it's an album that would need more than one listen, the songs kind of washed over me for a first time, without any of the specifically standing out, but I enjoyed the overall vibe. The songs twist and turn in directions I didn't always expect, especially with all the guest verses, which kept it interesting and varied. Some cool beats and cool sounds - didn't blow me away, but pretty good!

 

This is cool to read! I wish he'd talk a little more about some of the things he said in the late 2000s/early 2010s, but I'm also thankful he's grown both as an artist and a person. The way he used Flower Boy to approach and analyze his own sexuality certainly makes everything that came before it a bit more peculiar, but I think it's his best lyrically and find the production to be outstanding. I hope it continues to grow on you. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on Igor, the album that followed! Seems like that's the one where he dropped all preconceptions and truly did what he wanted.

 

Maybe I should listen to a Bjork album

 

nick