Essential Studio Albums

[LoathedVermin72]

PHM is pretty accessible and not very abrasive, IMO. It's kind of a pop album, really.

[liebzz]

PHM is pretty accessible and not very abrasive, IMO. It's kind of a pop album, really.

Agreed, but I also think it needs that.

[liebzz]

Killdozer - Twelve Point Buck

Well, someone was going to have to give Swans a run for their money, and this is dangerously close to the bottom of the list for me. I will say that I liked their use and sound of drums and bass here, I know it’s a thing that attracted Kurt Cobain to these guys…but oh man did the vocals and songs turn me way off them. The growl-speak vocal approach is just grating after a couple of songs, and much of this seems like they want to sound serious and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. It was just a mess for me.

The Essential Track: Space: 1999

Up Next: The Replacements - Don’t Tell a Soul

[LoathedVermin72]

At least you chose the correct essential track!

Butch Vig's production is so fucking rad on that album. I get not being into what they do though.

[liebzz]

The Replacements - Don’t Tell a Soul

The first half of this album is good, but it didn’t spark for me what the prior few albums had managed, so I sort of got lulled into this a bit. Talent Show, We’ll Inherit the Earth, and Achin’ To Be are certainly good songs, but I admit I wasn’t fully sold until the great jump scare this side of Sometimes>Hail, Hail: the end of They’re Blind into Anywhere’s Better Than Here, and it’s from there that this album really finds its footing. Each of the remainder of the tracks are essential and provide that spark I had all but assumed was starting to fade in the first half.

The Essential Track: I’ll Be You

Up Next: XTC - Oranges & Lemons

[liebzz]

XTC - Oranges & Lemons

It seems like here the alter-ego of the Dukes of Stratosphear have melded with XTC, and the results are a wild album that is pretty spectacular. Psychedelic but constantly full of pop hooks, songs like Garden of Earthly Delights, Mayor of Simpleton, King For a Day, Here Comes President Kill Again, Poor Skeleton Steps Out, One of the Millions, Scarecrow People, Merely a Man, Cynical Days, Across This Antheap, and Miniature Sun feel like they’ve unlocked some sort of magic combination of the 60s and 80s. It makes the album a constant adventure but always on point due to the hooks in there. This is a real sleeper for a band that had a bunch of great albums.

The Essential Track: Across This Antheap

Up Next: The Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique

[liebzz]

Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique

Somehow, the Beastie Boys put together a game changing album without ever having to grow up. This pushes hip hop into some new territory, with layering of samples provide a more diverse musical palette for them to work with rather than a simpler beat structure. It brings sudden shifts in tone and sound even within the tracks that feels almost psychedelic or at least a bit like you are listening to the album through some sort of kaleidoscope. This album doesn’t feature the massive hits that Licensed to Ill had, but ultimately makes that album seem almost quaint in the sudden sonic nimbleness that underscores this one. It’s hard to pick a single track on this given the wild swings, and certainly songs like The Sounds of Science, Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun, What Comes Around, and Shadrach are contenders, but our escape hatch for an essential track is the Beastie Boys answer to Abbey Road’s closing suite, B-Boy Bouillabaisse, which captures all the twists and turns of this album in head spinning package.

The Essential Track: B-Boy Bouillabaisse

Up Next: De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising

[liebzz]

De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

Here’s another sample heavy album, though I think this is not nearly as encompassing as the last, and it could be that this album doesn’t have the heft of some of these others in this timeframe, even though I think it’s a really excellent album - well save for that weird horny run of songs somewhere in the last third of the album. There’s still a lot here that’s pretty essential for this lighter sort of hip hop album, including the hit songs (3 is) The Magic Number, Eye Know, and Me Myself and I. Potholes in My Lawn, Say No Go, and Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin’s Revenge) also stuck out as highlights as was the closer D.A.I.S.Y. Age. A very overall enjoyable listen even if it could have been a bit shorter.

The Essential Track: Eye Know

Up Next: Prince - Batman

[liebzz]

Prince - Batman

For the accompanying album to this iconic movie that finished off the 80s blockbusters, Prince opens up with The Future and Electric Chair - immediate proof that he’s still at the top of his game as a rock and pop artist. Partyman, Trust, and Lemon Crush are the other highlights here complete with a Jack Nicholson cameo. This album them closes with a wild collage of soundscapes from Prince paired with sampled lines from the movie. Really just another excellent Prince album that captures the tone and energy of the film.

The Essential Track: The Future

Up Next: The B-52s - Cosmic Thing

[Jorge]

I loooove "Scandalous"

[wease]

I loooove "Scandalous"

Yeah. The winner, here

[liebzz]

We’re closing in on 1,200 albums so far so I’ll share the updated personal top 100. I am probably going to put together a list for the 80s to close out that decade when we get there in about 20 albums…

100. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
99. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album
98. Rolling Stones - Some Girls
97. Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
96. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
95. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
94. Miles Davis - Miles Smiles
93. Led Zeppelin II
92. Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love
91. Led Zeppelin III
90. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
89. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
88. Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus
87. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
86. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
85. Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
84. Dr. John - In the Right Place
83. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
82. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
81. Jerry Garcia - Garcia
80. Tom Waits - Frank’s Wild Years
79. U2 - War
78. Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
77. Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
76. Television - Adventure
75. U2 - The Joshua Tree
74. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
73. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
72. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
71. R.E.M. - Murmur
70. Bruce Springsteen - The River
69. Pink Floyd - The Wall
68. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd
67. Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
66. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
65. Pixies - Doolittle
64. R.E.M. - Document
63. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
62. The Who - Who’s Next
61. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the a Moneygoround
60. Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
59. Guns N’ Roses - Appetite For Destruction
58. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
57. Van Halen
56. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
55. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
54. Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
53. Allman Brothers Band
52. Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
51. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
50. Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
49. The Waterboys - This Is the Sea
48. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
47. Credence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
46. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
45. The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
44. The Stone Roses
43. Tom Waits - Closing Time
42. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
41. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
40. Neil Young - After the Goldrush
39. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
38. Mission of Burma - Vs.
37. Metallica - Master of Puppets
36. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
35. Television - Marquee Moon
34. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
33. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
32. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
31. Neil Young - Harvest
30. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
29. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
28. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
27. Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
26. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
25. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
24. Led Zeppelin IV
23. The Who - Quadrophenia
22. Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
21. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
20. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
19. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2
18. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
17. John Coltrane - Blue Train
16. The Clash - London Calling
15. The Beatles - Abbey Road
14. Pink Floyd - Animals
13. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
12. The Beatles - Revolver
11. The Beatles
10. Neil Young - On the Beach
9. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
8. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
5. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
4. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
2. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

[liebzz]

The B-52s - Cosmic Thing

It would be inevitable that this album would be overwhelmed by their two huge singles from this: Love Shack and Roam. These songs took over the radio in 1990 (even if released in ‘89), and there’s no way you could avoid them at that point - and they are gloriously upbeat pop songs delivered to near perfection for that time, and still hold up pretty well today. Cosmic Thing, Topaz, Channel S, and Brushfire are also worth visiting here, it wasn’t just the singles, but they loom large on this one for sure. The band itself seems pretty tight throughout as well, really a solid album mostly front to back, and they are perfectly situated between pure pop and rock. Well done.

The Essential Track: Love Shack

Up Next: Madonna - Like a Prayer

[liebzz]

Madonna - Like a Prayer

This is the third Madonna album in this thread, and I know how important she is and was for pop music and had an incredible career, and for whatever reason, I have never been able to get into it. As for the 80s work we covered here, including this album, the sound has an artificial or synthetic hollow sound to it that makes it feel almost tinny. Like a Prayer is a solid hit as is Express Yourself, but I really didn’t care for the rest, especially Cherish, which is one of those songs I am sure turned me off of this sort of pop music in the back seat of my parents’ car.

The Essential Track: Express Yourself

Up Next: Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814

[liebzz]

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814

What’s astounding to me listening to this album is that I have never heard this album front to back before, yet somehow there are so many successful singles that came from it that I have heard most of this before. As with the prior pop albums I have covered, I found myself drawn in to the more uptempo tracks like the title track, but thrown completely off by the ballads and candy pop. Rhythm Nation, Black Cat, Alright, and State of the World - I’m in. Probably not as much Come Back to Me or Miss You Much or Escapade. But when she hits the right spot, she gives her brother or anyone else for that matter a run for their money.

The Essential Track: Rhythm Nation

Up Next: The Blue Nile - Hats

[wease]

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814

What’s astounding to me listening to this album is that I have never heard this album front to back before, yet somehow there are so many successful singles that came from it that I have heard most of this before. As with the prior pop albums I have covered, I found myself drawn in to the more uptempo tracks like the title track, but thrown completely off by the ballads and candy pop. Rhythm Nation, Black Cat, Alright, and State of the World - I’m in. Probably not as much Come Back to Me or Miss You Much or Escapade. But when she hits the right spot, she gives her brother or anyone else for that matter a run for their money.

The Essential Track: Rhythm Nation

Up Next: The Blue Nile - Hats

Disagree with your take on the latter songs you mention but glad you seemed to enjoy it overall.

[Higgs]

... but I really didn’t care for the rest, especially Cherish, which is one of those songs I am sure turned me off of this sort of pop music in the back seat of my parents’ car.

Dude. That video was... formative.

[liebzz]

I don’t even remember the video.

[liebzz]

The Blue Nile - Hats

This album is a fascinating one: taking many of the elements of a minimalist or ambient vibe and creating pop music over top. For a bunch of the songs, I started out feeling uneasy about whether I was going to enjoy it or get bored, but then by the middle of each song I found myself enveloped in it. Each of these songs are lengthy for what you’d expect but build nicely. Over the Hillside, Headlights on the Parade, Seven A.M., and Saturday Night were all favorites here. Very solid album here in a space that I wasn’t expecting.

The Essential Track: Headlights on the Parade

Up Next: John Mellencamp - Big Daddy

[Jorge]

Probably a top 20 album for me