Essential Studio Albums

[washing machine]

Haven't heard that one, but I have Free Jazz with Ornette Coleman's double quartet on vinyl and I'll usually spin it when doing chores.

Wild stuff. Rhythm and sound all over the place.

[liebzz]

Haven't heard that one, but I have Free Jazz with Ornette Coleman's double quartet on vinyl and I'll usually spin it when doing chores.

Wild stuff. Rhythm and sound all over the place.

The Shape of Jazz to Come is still high on my list of favorites. This one here is definitely also a must hear, it’s got more definition and shape than The Shape of Jazz to Come, but it’s still a wild ride.

[liebzz]

Sonic Youth - EVOL

EVOL seems to mark at least the start of a big turn for Sonic Youth. While this can certainly still be considered noise rock, the groove they are hitting with the sound is becoming much more accessible. Tom Violence, Shadow of a Doubt, Green Light, and Secret Girl all have their experimental moments but also feel almost comparatively like pop songs. And then there’s their classic song, Expressway to Yr Skull, certainly an adventure but maybe the most rewarding track in the end. This is a really good Sonic Youth album.

The Essential Track: Expressway to Yr Skull

Up Next: Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey

[liebzz]

Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey

On this album, Husker Du seems to have taken their collective feet off the pedal just a tiny bit, resulting in the easiest listen of all their albums. This sound seems to be a direct preview of the alternative rock to come, especially in the 90s, and even if for some reason you didn’t hear their influence before this, at this point it’s pretty undeniable. Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely, Sorry Somehow, Hardly Getting Over It, and Dead Set on Destruction should all be massive hits, and perhaps they would have been 5 years from this, but that’s perhaps a demonstration of being ahead of their time. Excellent album!

The Essential Track: Hardly Getting Over It

Up Next: The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash

[liebzz]

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy and the Lash

This seems like a cross between Irish folk and punk rock - so it basically is the soundtrack to an epic bar fight in an Irish pub, and that’s more enjoyable than meets the eye. The Old Main Drag, Wild Cats of Kilkenny, Sally MacLennane, their version of Jesse James, and the Gentleman Soldier were all highlights for me. Another in the bucket of not really my preference but certainly something valuable to take in.

The Essential Track: The Gentleman Soldier

Up Next: The Feelies - The Good Earth

[liebzz]

The Feelies - The Good Earth

It feels like forever since we discussed their debut album. Crazy Rhythms is still hanging around in the top 15% or so on my list, and this one comes in right behind it. They are just a great band, the kind of layered rhythms that R.E.M. was influenced by, with the pop instincts of the Beatles and the adventurousness of the Velvet Underground. A wide swath of ideas that fit into this tidy package. Slipping (Into Something) could easily be on a Lou Reed album, while On the Roof, The High Road, The Last Roundup, When Company Comes, Two Rooms, and Tomorrow Today are all highlights here. Another gem of an album from these guys.

The Essential Track: Tomorrow Today

Up Next: The Smithereens - Especially For You

[liebzz]

The Smithereens - Especially For You

Yet another really solid album in what has been a really good run. The Smithereens have some elements of the jangly rock pop, but seem to be a little less rhythm focused (at least compared to The Feelies). Strangers When We Meet, Cigarette, Time and Time Again, In a Lonely Place, Alone At Midnight, and Blood and Roses were the highlights of this album, though the extended version had two really good b-sides in White Castle Blues (yup, exactly what that sounds like) and Mr. Eliminator, which show a more raucous and fun side to the band.

The Essential Track: Strangers When We Meet

Up Next: XTC - Slylarking

[wease]

Love the Smithereens. Blood and Roses is classic.

[liebzz]

XTC - Skylarking

Some albums simply demand that you listen a second time. This was one of those. XTC approach this with a grandness of scale and with lush instrumentation that rivals the Beach Boys at their most adventurous. There’s definitely that 60s orchestral pop sound happening, but the theme of this album seems to be even more ambitious than that, as they sort of flow through life’s moments with just enough mystery to not be fully sure if they’re celebrating milestones or questioning the value of those moments in delivery - just because the delivery is really that big. Makes Pet Sounds almost seem quaint.

The Essential Track: (this is hard) 1000 Umbrellas

Up Next: The Trffids - Born Sandy Devotional

[liebzz]

The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional

This may not be quite as epic as Skylarking just was, but it’s damn close. Another fantastic album that takes big lush swings and hits the mark again and again. The Seabirds starts this off with no intro, just feels like we’re halfway in, a jarring start but somehow the approach works, and you’re in for the run of this thing, through Estuary Bed, Lonely Stretch, Wide Open Road, Personal Things, and Stolen Property - a barrage of highlights that may not immediately smack you over the head, but by the time each song is done, you’re surprised how much you were sucked in and did not really know it.

The Essential Track: Lonely Stretch

Up Next: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox

[liebzz]

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox

This is album #999 of this journey. Crazy. It still hasn’t gotten old yet and this album is yet another in this band’s growing collection of great albums. Hyaena was incredible and this one gets close enough to be in the same conversation. Cities in Dust is really a helluva song, and perhaps the clear winner here, but every song here just hits right. I would note here I really took notice on this album with Siouxsie’s vocals, which are well highlighted on this one. Candyman, 92 degrees, and Lands End were all also spectacular here.

The Essential Track: Cities in Dust

Up Next: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral…My Trial

[liebzz]

With # 1,000 next, I would just note that at least for me, over this 15 months so far, I have discovered so much more music than I thought possible. Bands like XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, King Crimson, and the Psychedelic Furs, amongst many others, weren’t even on my radar but for this and I find myself quickly becoming a fan. Then there’s stuff like Tom Waits, Dire Straits, and Talking Heads - and he’ll, jazz generally, where I wanted to expand my exposure and never made the time until now, which has been thoroughly rewarding. And of course many of my existing favorites in 60s and 70s classic rock fit well into this rubric.

The next thousand will offer new rewards to be sure. We hit this in a timeline where in the next 50 albums or so we start to engage with bands that formed much of the nucleus of my taste in music, the albums that I lived in when they were released. Discovering how those albums now fit into this is going to be as exciting for me as continuing to engage with your suggestions along the way. Many more happy listens to come!

[LoathedVermin72]

Hell yeah. For the record, I thought I was done with RM at the end of 2025, but the lure of suggesting albums in this thread is what brought me back.

[VinylGuy]

Goddamn liebzz

[liebzz]

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral…My Trial

This album gives off some Doors vibes, except it seems much darker than even that. Even in moments of carnival-like atmospheres, as in The Carny, the sound is still sinister, and reading afterwards that Cave was in the throws of addiction seems to put some pieces together here. Even if not, the music here is pretty stellar, creating that atmosphere, and going to some interesting and unique places on Hard On For Love and She Fell Away in particular. This is one of those pulls that might be a challenge to swallow, but there is a pay off that’s worth it in the end. Dark, off balance, but set with strong musical bones that keep it engaging.

The Essential Track: Hard On For Love

Up Next: Big Black - Atomizer

[liebzz]

Big Black - Atomizer

This album immediately feels like a decade ahead of its time. It hints pretty hard at the sort of industrial rock that made a Nine Inch Nails huge, but sports a punk edge to it as well again slightly ahead of its time. I obviously associate Steve Albini more with the production side of his career, but this album is a really good representation of the future of rock music. Dude knew the deal way before the rest of us. Jordan Minnesota, Kerosine, and Strange Things I think ended up being favorites here, but this was quite good.

The Essential Track: Jordan, Minnesota

Up Next: Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

[coptheriotact]

it seems like there could be a lot of forgotten music in the mid to late 80s that was lost in between the major releases, thrash, glam and failed transitions from 60's and 70s artists

the counter culture of more abrasive and difficult post punk albums and jangly indie rock are represented, but not much in between.

deep six compilation came out in 86, i think i need to find some similar compilations from other parts of the world, that fill in some gaps in this time period.

that being said, i need to listen to about 6 albums from this page alone.

[liebzz]

it seems like there could be a lot of forgotten music in the mid to late 80s that was lost in between the major releases, thrash, glam and failed transitions from 60's and 70s artists

the counter culture of more abrasive and difficult post punk albums and jangly indie rock are represented, but not much in between.

deep six compilation came out in 86, i think i need to find some similar compilations from other parts of the world, that fill in some gaps in this time period.

that being said, i need to listen to about 6 albums from this page alone.

This entire page is top shelf, none of which I had heard before a few days ago.

[liebzz]

I would like to share my favorites thus far, an expanded top quarter. It’s still even striking to me the great essential albums not on this list - seems as time passes it’s only going to be more astonishing:

250. Steely Dan - Aja
249. The Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me
248. Aerosmith - Get Your Wings
247. The Who - Sell Out
246. King Crimson - Red
245. Van Halen - Women and Children First
244. The Who - Odds N Sods
243. New York Dolls - Too Much Too Soon
242. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
241. Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
240. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena
239. Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
238. The Beatles - Help!
237. The Beach Boys - Wild Honey
236. Tom Waits - Small Change
235. Bob Dylan - Desire
234. Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah
233. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
232. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
231. Joy Division - Closer
230. Cheap Trick - In Color
229. The Ramones - Road to Ruin
228. Big Star - #1 Record
227. Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
226. Aerosmith - Rocks
225. Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
224. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
223. New York Dolls
222. ZZ Top - Eliminator
221. Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
220. Velvet Underground - Loaded
219. The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
218. Rolling Stones - Out of Our Heads
217. Rolling Stones - Aftermath
216. The Doors - Morrison Hotel
215. Curtis Mayfield - Roots
214. The Who - Tommy
213. Blind Faith
212. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
211. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
210. Grateful Dead
209. Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa
208. Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
207. Otis Redding - Dock of the Bay
206. King Crimson - Discipline
205. Big Star - Radio City
204. King Crimson - Lizard
203. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
202. The Band - Stage Fright
201. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand
200. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
199. Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly
198. Wings - Band on the Run
197. King Crimson - Larks Tongue in Aspic
196. Genesis - Selling England By the Pound
195. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
194. Paul McCartney - Tug of War
193. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstacy
192. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Natty Dread
191. The Police - Outlandos D’Amour
190. The Clash - Sandinista!
189. The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
188. The Feelies - The Good Earth
187. Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
186. Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny - Song X
185. Peter Gabriel - So
184. The Cult - Love
183. Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves
182. Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
181. Peter Gabriel - 4 (Security)
180. Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls, and Marches
179. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
178. Run-DMC - Raising Hell
177. The Beastie Boys - License to Ill
176. Psychedelic Furs
175. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
174. Miles Davis - On the Corner
173. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
172. Metallica - Kill ‘ Em All
171. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year’s Model
170. Rush - Moving Pictures
169. The Replacements - Tim
168. The Police - Synchronicity
167. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma
166. Santana - Abraxas
165. The Doors - LA Woman
164. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
163. The Stooges - Fun House
162. Van Morrison - Moondance
161. The Stooges - Raw Power
160. Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood
159. Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
158. The Replacements - Let It Be
157. Neil Young - Re-Ac-Tor
156. Killing Joke - Night Time
155. Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
154. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
153. Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
152. Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
151. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark

[liebzz]

150. Michael Jackson - Thriller
149. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises
148. Talking Heads - Fear of Music
147. Parliament - Mothership Connection
146. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
145. Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead
144. Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night
143. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
142. Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
141. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
140. Credence Clearwater Revival
139. Bob Dylan & the Band - The Basement Tapes
138. Credence Clearwater Revival - Green River
137. The Band - Music From Big Pink
136. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
135. Thelonious Monk - Monk’s Dream
134. R.E.M. - Life’s Rich Pageant
133. Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
132. The Beatles - Let It Be
131. Black Sabbath
130. Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
129. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Kaya
128. Van Halen - 1984
127. Violent Femmes
126. XTC - The Big Express
125. R.E.M. - Reckoning
124. Prince - 1999
123. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
122. Deep Purple - Machine Head
121. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
120. Credence Clearwater Revival - Willie and the Poor Boys
119. The Band
118. Credence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
117. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
116. Dire Straits - Making Movies
115. Heart - Little Queen
114. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
113. Led Zeppelin
112. Led Zeppelin - Presence
111. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
110. Santana III
109. Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
108. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire
107. Iron Maiden
106. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
105. Muddy Waters - Hard Again
104. Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine
103. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
102. XTC - Skylarking
101. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
100. The Doors
99. Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
98. Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
97. Dr. John - Gris Gris
96. Cannonball Adderly - Somethin’ Else
95. Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
94. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
93. Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
92. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
91. Tom Waits - Swirdfishtrombones
90. Peter Gabriel - 3 (Melt)
89. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
88. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album
87. Rolling Stones - Some Girls
86. Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
85. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
84. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
83. Led Zeppelin II
82. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
81. Led Zeppelin III
80. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
79. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
78. Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus
77. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
76. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
75. Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
74. Dr. John - In the Right Place
73. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
72. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
71. Jerry Garcia - Garcia
70. U2 - War
69. Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
68. Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
67. Television- Adventure
66. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
65. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
64. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
63. R.E.M. - Murmur
62. Bruce Springsteen - The River
61. Pink Floyd - The Wall
60. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd
59. Derek and the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
58. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
57. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
56. The Who - Who’s Next
55. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
54. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
53. Van Halen
52. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
51. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska