The Listening Project - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Mies

sp4cetiger wrote:

I knew I’d be busy during today’s listening project, so I prepared a few notes/talking points:

- Dark Side of the Moon is really a production more than an album. The tracks blend seamlessly into one another and seem to tell a story, even if a larger narrative is never explicit. The theatrical elements run afoul of many on BEA, but I have to credit Pink Floyd for what they accomplished here.

- I’ve seen a number of online sources reference this as a prototypical progressive rock album, but aside from the broad scope and theatrical nature of it, I think it sounds different from most of the other prog of the time. In particular, I think it owes very little to classical music. If I had to pick a genre for it, I’d go with space rock.

- Clare Torry’s performance on “Great Gig in the Sky” is easily the highlight of the album

- Despite the obvious space theme, I think the album is more grounded than meets the ear. Both of these first two albums have been very critical of the human experience, but OK Computer keeps its distance at all times. Part of what makes Dark Side of the Moon so haunting is that it’s often too close for comfort.

Anxiety, mortality, futility, insanity… I’m going to go hug a pillow.

Wow, I agree with everything you said. Applause

Some time ago I would put this album on the top of my overall chart, but I think it was more because I liked the idea than because I like the music itself. I mean, the theatrical elements, the fact it's a concept album, the critical acclaim together with people acclaim, the electronic effects, etc., all these elements made this album good and great to me, more than how I really enjoyed the music.
I still love the album, but some songs like "On the Run" and "Money" lost a big part of charm. On the other hand, other songs are still incredible, expecially "The Great Gig in the Sky" always leaves me speechless.

Dingerbell

Gender: Male
Age: 27

Currently on Songs of Leonard Cohen, so that means I've just about finished the top 50, and so I'm going to give a few thoughts:

- It's clear, at least to me, that almost all these albums deserve all the acclaim they get. The only albums I feel aren't pretty exceptional are: Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Sgt. Pepper's, White Album, Animals, Blood on the Tracks and Led Zeppelin II, and that's it. And let me get this straight, none of these albums are bad, there may be a few songs I really like from them, I just don't think, as a whole album, they deserve an all-time top 50 position. And I would say that having only six albums that I'm not a huge fan of is pretty good going, in terms of a list that isn't mine.

- However, I still don't think OK Computer and Dark Side of the Moon (despite me loving both albums) should be the clear number one and two albums on both RYM and here. I don't even think they're the artist's best albums (Radiohead has In Rainbows and Kid A and Pink Floyd has Piper at the Gates of Dawn and, on some days, Wish You Were Here). That's just a personal criticism of these charts, I would probably prefer VU&N or Revolver (if not Origin of Symmetry, of course) personally.

- I think, from these 50 albums alone, RYM's chart is leagues ahead of our own chart, both in terms of diversity and the actual quality of the albums. I've known it for a while, but listening to each of these albums confirms it.

- I had already listened to all of the albums in the top 50 (which is going to change quite soon), but there were a few re-discoveries which were particularly strong, or maybe they were just better than I previously thought. These were: VU&N, Kind of Blue, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde (which made my chart), Closer, Bringing It All Back Home and Red. However, there were two albums which completely blew my mind and exceeded my expectations massively. These were Led Zeppelin and Songs of Leonard Cohen (which still hasn't quite finished). Before hearing these, I would have put both of these in the list of albums I didn't feel to be particularly exceptional, but I absolutely loved everything about them on the listens which was hugely surprising and gives me hope that I can love the other albums which I don't think are that special.

- I have thoroughly enjoyed this project so far, and will keep going at a fast pace until I go off to Uni on Sunday. After that progress will probably be slower, but I'm enjoying this so much that I will try and continue as much as I can and attempt not to get side-tracked.

NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

Dingerbell wrote:

Currently on Songs of Leonard Cohen, so that means I've just about finished the top 50, and so I'm going to give a few thoughts:

- It's clear, at least to me, that almost all these albums deserve all the acclaim they get. The only albums I feel aren't pretty exceptional are: Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Sgt. Pepper's, White Album, Animals, Blood on the Tracks and Led Zeppelin II, and that's it. And let me get this straight, none of these albums are bad, there may be a few songs I really like from them, I just don't think, as a whole album, they deserve an all-time top 50 position. And I would say that having only six albums that I'm not a huge fan of is pretty good going, in terms of a list that isn't mine.

- However, I still don't think OK Computer and Dark Side of the Moon (despite me loving both albums) should be the clear number one and two albums on both RYM and here. I don't even think they're the artist's best albums (Radiohead has In Rainbows and Kid A and Pink Floyd has Piper at the Gates of Dawn and, on some days, Wish You Were Here). That's just a personal criticism of these charts, I would probably prefer VU&N or Revolver (if not Origin of Symmetry, of course) personally.

- I think, from these 50 albums alone, RYM's chart is leagues ahead of our own chart, both in terms of diversity and the actual quality of the albums. I've known it for a while, but listening to each of these albums confirms it.

- I had already listened to all of the albums in the top 50 (which is going to change quite soon), but there were a few re-discoveries which were particularly strong, or maybe they were just better than I previously thought. These were: VU&N, Kind of Blue, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde (which made my chart), Closer, Bringing It All Back Home and Red. However, there were two albums which completely blew my mind and exceeded my expectations massively. These were Led Zeppelin and Songs of Leonard Cohen (which still hasn't quite finished). Before hearing these, I would have put both of these in the list of albums I didn't feel to be particularly exceptional, but I absolutely loved everything about them on the listens which was hugely surprising and gives me hope that I can love the other albums which I don't think are that special.

- I have thoroughly enjoyed this project so far, and will keep going at a fast pace until I go off to Uni on Sunday. After that progress will probably be slower, but I'm enjoying this so much that I will try and continue as much as I can and attempt not to get side-tracked.

I agree and have always thought that OK Computer was grossly overerrated - yes it's good, but nothing captivating IMO.

I am up to 27, ready for Mingus and his masterpiece.

I was really disappointed with Talking Heads and My Bloody Valentine though - really average stuff.
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eyezayzay

Gender: Male
Age: 34

I listened to Dark Side of the Moon on my way to Mt. Erie, it was kinda cool actually. Yeah it's pretty theatrical, to the point where it lines up with the Wizard of Oz. Also did that Dark Side of the Rainbow thing. It's really good but doesn't stand out to me. That's my only thing against it. But for the time in which it was created it's definitely one of the best, without a doubt.
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