Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

…and a top 100, 80s edition:

100. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - In Step
99. The Clash - Sandanista!
98. Fugazi - 13 Songs
97. The Cure - Disintigration
96. The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
95. The Feelies - The Good Earth
94. Soundgarden - Ultramega OK
93. Dinosaur Jr. - Bug
92. Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
91. Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny - Song X
90. Peter Gabriel - So
89. The Cult - Love
88. The Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves
87. Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
86. Peter Gabriel - 4 (Security)
85. Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches
84. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
83. The Feelies - Only Life
82. Living Colour - Vivid
81. Michael Jackson - Bad
80. Run-DMC - Raising Hell
79. The Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
78. The Psychedelic Furs
77. The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me
76. Metallica - Kill ‘Em All
75. Rush - Moving Pictures
74. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother’s Milk
73. Tragically Hip - Up to Here
72. Faith No More - The Real Thing
71. The Replacements - Tim
70. The Police - Synchronicity
69. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
68. The Replacements - Let It Be
67. Neil Young - Re-Ac-Tor
66. Killing Joke - Night Time
65. Grateful Dead - In the Dark
64. Warren Zevon - Transverse City
63. Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene
62. Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
61. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
60. Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
59. The Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
58. Nirvana - “Bleach”
57. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
56. Michael Jackson - Thriller
55. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises
54. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
53. R.E.M. - Life’s Rich Pageant
52. Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
51. Van Halen - 1984
50. Prince - Sign O’ the Times
49. Metallica - …and Justice For All
48. Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
47. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
46. The Sugarcubes - Life’s Too Good
45. Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy
44. Violent Femmes
43. XTC - The Big Express
42. R.E.M. - Reckoning
41. The Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
40. Prince - 1999
39. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
38. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
37. The Waterboys - Fisherman’s Blues
36. Dire Straits - Making Movies
35. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
34. Crowded House
33. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
32. Iron Maiden
31. Tom Waits - Heartattack & Vine
30. XTC - Skylarking
29. Bob Mould - Workbook
28. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
27. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
26. Peter Gabriel - 3 (Melt)
25. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
24. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
23. Tom Waits - Frank’s Wild Years
22. U2 - War
21. Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
20. The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
19. U2 - The Joshua Tree
18. R.E.M. - Murmur
17. Bruce Springsteen - The River
16. Pixies - Doolittle
15. R.E.M. - Document
14. Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
13. Guns N’ Roses - Appetite for Destruction
12. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
11. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
10. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
9. The Waterboys - This Is the Sea
8. The Stone Roses
7. Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love
6. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
5. Mission of Burma - Vs.
4. Metallica - Master of Puppets
3. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
2. Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
1. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

[liebzz]

Traveling Wilburys - Vol. 3

This second album from the Traveling Wilburys, without Roy Orbison who had recently passed, is one I rarely visit (I have heard Vol. 1 more times than I can recall) - mostly because if I want to listen to this band it’s the other volume’s songs I gravitate to. That said, there a fun and tossed off vibe to this album, a zero stakes interplay between four legends. she’s My Baby, Inside Out, Cool Dry Place, and the real fun Wilbury Twist are highlights for me, though my favorite on this listen was New Blue Moon, which could have easily fit on that first volume.

The Essential Track: New Blue Moon

Up Next: John Hiatt - Stolen Moments

[liebzz]

John Hiatt - Stolen Moments

This is another good album from John Hiatt, bridging country and rock in ways that are still massively popular today. The opening Real Fine Love and Stolen Moments were great highlights here. The first artist really that came into my mind listening to this was Jason Isbell, and really that speaks to the relative timelessness to this approach: excellent song writing, and bridging genres in a manner that’s seamless and doesn’t distract from its songs.

The Essential Track: Stolen Moments

Up Next: Tom Waits - Night On Earth

[liebzz]

Tom Waits - Night On Earth

Not sure how this ended up on my 1990 list given its ‘92 release, but no matter. I quickly learned that if the world turned upside down and I had to become a filmmaker, I would most certainly have Tom Waits at the top of my list to score it. This largely instrumental album focuses on setting, in cities all over the world, and Waits’ abstract sense of place through music does more than set a scene, it does its own form of storytelling independent of a film (I haven’t seen the film but now I sort of want to). This isn’t the first time that the way Tom Waits thinks about and executes music has just blown my mind. As much as I think spending those early albums in this thread focusing on jazz classics shaped a new path for how I experience music, so has Tom Waits’ albums. Just an absolute creative treasure.

The Essential Track: Los Angeles Theme

Up Next: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son

[liebzz]

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - The Good Son

The remarks on this seem to suggest this being a much lighter album in tone than the prior couple albums, and that’s really correct. There is a sense here that this newfound levity might be tenuous - I am thinking in particular in The Witness Song, whose levity is touched with gospel level uplift, but it feels almost sarcastic, as if we as the listener are supposed to know the gospel is not as it seems. As far as my feeling on this album, not quite the last one, but I really quite enjoyed it, especially the aforementioned The Witness Song, The Hammer Song, The Ship Song, Lament, Lucy (what an amazing ending that was), and The Good Son. His choices musically here seem pretty impeccable.

The Essential Track: The Witness Song

Up Next: Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining

[liebzz]

Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining

While this band has done a lot of evolving over the years, I think I associate this and Diesel and Dust as the sort of center point of their sound. If you blindfolded me, and I selected an album without seeing which one it was, this what I would expect the album to sound like - for them, that’s a real good thing. It’s peak sound, peak message, the Oils at the top of their game, even if 10, 9… is probably my favorite overall. Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years, and Our Country were my favorites, though I was really also feeling Antarctica on this listen. This band is really really good.

The Essential Track: Forgotten Years

Up Next: Sinead O’Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

[Birds in Hell]

Tom Waits - Night On Earth

Not sure how this ended up on my 1990 list given its ‘92 release, but no matter. I quickly learned that if the world turned upside down and I had to become a filmmaker, I would most certainly have Tom Waits at the top of my list to score it. This largely instrumental album focuses on setting, in cities all over the world, and Waits’ abstract sense of place through music does more than set a scene, it does its own form of storytelling independent of a film (I haven’t seen the film but now I sort of want to). This isn’t the first time that the way Tom Waits thinks about and executes music has just blown my mind. As much as I think spending those early albums in this thread focusing on jazz classics shaped a new path for how I experience music, so has Tom Waits’ albums. Just an absolute creative treasure.

The Essential Track: Los Angeles Theme

Up Next: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son

Good film, great soundtrack!

(Also, the only Tom Waits album I enjoy.)

[LoathedVermin72]

wth spenno

[liebzz]

Yeah I don’t think I disliked a single Tom Waits album now through 1990.

[Birds in Hell]

I listen to barely any music with vocals at this point, and most Waits records feel very driven by his very idiosyncratic singing.

I'll try again at some point, I'm sure, but his stuff hasn't stuck with me at all.

Even on Night on Earth, I'm mainly jazzed about Joe Gore's noisy guitar playing.

[Kalevi]

I have my disagreements and plenty of stuff I've never heard but the 80s list is pretty reasonable. However ph mercy is too low.

[liebzz]

Yeah, I would say it’s a matter of preference but every one of those albums I would posit is great.

[liebzz]

Sinead O’Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

As we stride into the 90s, albums are trending longer, I am sure with the popularization of the compact disc and the expanded run times it allowed for. Granted, some longer albums feel right or feel short even, but there are plenty of albums that feel like they could have benefited from some additional editing. That strike a chord but that chord grows more tired the longer the album progresses. This is one of those albums, where there’s quality tracks throughout but it just sort of keeps going. It seemed that through the Prince cover turned mega hit, Nothing Compare 2 U, there was no stopping this album - thoughtful, lots of musical range and great ideas, and genuinely enjoyable. I ended up yearning for distraction though not too long later, a sense that this could have ended much sooner. But while I was caught in the moment, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Black Boys on Mopeds, and Nothing Compares 2 U pretty much hit the spot perfectly.

The Essential Track: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Up Next: Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs For Drella

[liebzz]

Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs For Drella

Upon the death of their friend and artistic partner, Andy Warhol, Reed & Cale present a haunting tribute - haunting because much of the album feels like a conversation (spoken word lyrics aside). It’s a singular statement and conversation for their fallen friend and colleague (see Style It Takes and Work), and quickly moves from being an album of songs, many of which are quite good, into a eulogy worthy of the lofty artistic spaces Warhol had explored (including the Velvet Underground themselves). That it ends with goodbye, Andy is rather heartbreaking given all the precedes it.

The Essential Track: Trouble With Classicists

Up Next: Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

[VinylGuy]

I remember when it came out, it was probably seen as the serious and mature album for Reed specially.

I should pay more attention to it.

[liebzz]

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

Well, this is a fantastic rock album. Once Joey came on at the end I recognized it immediately, but that’s not really all that indicative of the sound of this album in my head. Maybe not completely different, but enough that the song surprised me. This album is pretty dark sounding without seeming morose, apparently a breakup album. Bloodletting, The Sky is a Poisonous Garden, Caroline, and Days and Days were immediate favorites, as was the closing Tomorrow Wendy - but everything on here is pretty great. This is band is bridging what my head thinks 80s rock and 90s rock. Excellent recommendation.

The Essential Track: Bloodletting

Up Next: Depeche Mode - Violator

[oasisfan35]

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

Well, this is a fantastic rock album. Once Joey came on at the end I recognized it immediately, but that’s not really all that indicative of the sound of this album in my head. Maybe not completely different, but enough that the song surprised me. This album is pretty dark sounding without seeming morose, apparently a breakup album. Bloodletting, The Sky is a Poisonous Garden, Caroline, and Days and Days were immediate favorites, as was the closing Tomorrow Wendy - but everything on here is pretty great. This is band is bridging what my head thinks 80s rock and 90s rock. Excellent recommendation.

The Essential Track: Bloodletting

Definitely listen to this one often

[liebzz]

Depeche Mode - Violator

To this point, I have generally struggled with synth-pop, though I found some things I have liked pretty well, and with this band at points in particular. All that is water under the bridge for what really was a fantastic listen here. The hits are like shots of adrenaline for my childhood of osmosis listening. Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence and Policy of Truth are all etched somewhere in my brain from this time period and beyond. Add World in My Eyes to that highlight reel, and everything sort of fits into place, even if it’s a bit of a downer album.

The Essential Track: Policy of Truth

Up Next: Marshall Tucker Band - Southern Spirit

[liebzz]

Marshall Tucker Band - Southern Spirit

Southern rock makes its return to the essential studio albums thread with a few selections here. This album is the proper build up, mostly because I already am aware I will like it the least of this particular trilogy, but also because it’s a good return to the southern blues rock standards of the 70s. Stay in the Country, Destruction, and Country Road were the big highlights for me here, and the rest was sort of middle of the road but it helps that it’s a fresh sound after a lengthy layoff.

The Essential Track: Country Road

Up Next: Allman Brothers Band - Seven Turns

[liebzz]

Allman Brothers Band - Seven Turns

They’re back! After a 9 year breakup, and way way longer than that since their last great album, the Allman’s rejuvenated lineup, with Warren Haynes and Allen Woody joining the fold are really back. Granted, much of this lineup played in the Dickey Betts Band album before this, but this album is huge for the band and well the brand. A lot of this is blues rock to its core, and in that there’s an energy here that would be hard to believe given the long hiatus and that they last showed this sort of fire in the 70s. Good Clean Fun, Low Down Dirty Mean, Loaded Dice, Seven Turns, Gambler’s Roll, and the album closing It Ain’t Over Yet (no kidding) are all essential, but the winner here is the instrumental True Gravity, bringing back all that was so great and powerful about this band.

The Essential Track: True Gravity

Up Next: The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker