Best Ever Albums

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

GeevyDallas — Sat, 7 Jul 2012 19:21:12 GMT

Author: GeevyDallas

Posted: 07/07/2012 23:21

Black people rapping

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

btener11 — Sat, 7 Jul 2012 16:58:28 GMT

Author: btener11

Posted: 07/07/2012 20:58

For me, it's a KILLER closing track. Either something epic and grand, or a short song that captures the sentiment of the entire album and seems to say "goodbye." Some of my all-time favorites are:

The Beatles - "A Day in the Life" (Sgt. Pepper)
Tom Waits - "Anywhere I Lay My Head" (Rain Dogs)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Raining in Darling" (I See a Darkness)
Tool - "Third Eye" (Aenima)
Joy Division - "Decades" (Closer)
Nirvana - "All Apologies" (In Utero)
Yes - "Heart of the Sunrise" (Fragile)
Slowdive - "Dagger" (Souvlaki)
David Bowie - "Rock n Roll Suicide" (Ziggy Stardust)

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

SquishypuffDave — Sat, 7 Jul 2012 10:04:34 GMT

Author: SquishypuffDave

Posted: 07/07/2012 14:04

Ambient background sounds.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Facetious — Sat, 7 Jul 2012 03:06:34 GMT

Author: Facetious

Posted: 07/07/2012 07:06

RFNAPLES wrote:

The music

Curses, you beat me to it.
Also, if the cover is exceptionally great, it may have a very tiny influence on my opinion 😨

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

lancashirearab — Sat, 7 Jul 2012 01:47:23 GMT

Author: lancashirearab

Posted: 07/07/2012 05:47

I like the extra buzz from finding a message scratched into the spaces between the run-out grooves. 😎

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Anonymous — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 21:11:53 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/07/2012 01:11

Despite not being religious in any way for some reason I am often attracted towards albums or music with some sort of underlying spiritual themes, purpose or references (Children of God, Hosianna Mantra, A love Supreme, lots of other albums or individual songs in a vaguer sense). I fucking love gregorian chant.

Also: more song than album related but I like melodies built around the pentatonic scale. Particularly when they just go up and down it very obviously. Its the prettiest thing in the world. See: Fleet Foxes' Oliver James or Rain Machine's Driftwood Heart.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Noise Pollution — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 20:29:09 GMT

Author: Noise Pollution

Posted: 07/07/2012 00:29

RFNAPLES wrote:

The music

Bam!

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

pearljammer13 — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 18:19:41 GMT

Author: pearljammer13

Posted: 07/06/2012 22:19

Overall mood and flow.

An album can be made up of mostly great songs, but if it seems choppy like it isn't flowing well, it doesn't seem as good overall.

One example of a great mood and flow for me is The Moon and Antarctica. I have it in my top 20, even though there are probably 5 or so songs I don't particularly like too much. The thing that makes it great is the mood. It's easily the best album I've ever heard for a cold winter day. The whole album makes me feel like I'm somewhere in the Yukon in the middle of January. It's truly amazing the mood it creates, and the flow that mood produces.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Anonymous — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 14:29:50 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/06/2012 18:29

If the album was recorded.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

RFNAPLES — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 13:04:08 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 07/06/2012 17:04

The music

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

monosyllables — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 12:08:18 GMT

Author: monosyllables

Posted: 07/06/2012 16:08

I can second that, Applerill

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Applerill — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 08:08:38 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 07/06/2012 12:08

I think Hammonds are sexy.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

albummaster — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 05:34:08 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 07/06/2012 09:34

instrumental bridge tracks add something for me e.g. Embryonic Journey, Pet Sounds (title track), Voices of Old People (on Bookends) etc

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Anonymous — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 05:27:52 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/06/2012 09:27

Hayden wrote:

The cover 😨

^This.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Anonymous — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 04:08:36 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 07/06/2012 08:08

I'm always a sucker for a violin. Or a great female voice.

But for an album, I think a great song in the middle that just brings everything together without sucking the life out of the album is absolutely crucial for an album to go from good to great.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

monosyllables — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 03:59:25 GMT

Author: monosyllables

Posted: 07/06/2012 07:59

I am an absolute sucker for certain chord progressions for some reason, and then other ones tend to irk me irrationally. I could listen to songs in that "Blitzkrieg Bop" A-D-E for DAYS, and that Phil Specter-prom night classic, G-Em-C-D (Notable for its use in "In the Aeroplane over the Sea"); sometimes I don't even realize it about a song that I've liked for a long time.
On the other side of the coin, it seems like Portugal. The Man continually has some certain chord change that just bugs the shit out of me, because it sounds like an overly-cheesy, "everybody-wave-your-hands-in-the-air-but-be-all-chill-about-it" ploy for quote-unquote epic'ness.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Xavygravy — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 03:18:17 GMT

Author: Xavygravy

Posted: 07/06/2012 07:18

Happy wrote:

The last song has to be enjoyable. It's like the concluding paragraph of an essay in that if it isn't good, the rest will seem worse.

Totally agree with this. I'm not a fan of "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" (although, everyone seems to think it's awesome), so even though the rest of the album is awesome, I rate it lower because it ends on a sour note, and that's what sticks with you (even if the average suggests it should be half a star higher). I guess it would also be the equivalent of sticking "Wild Honey Pie" after "Good Night" on The White Album. That would totally ruin it.

Research has even supported this. I read an article (find it yourself) about this experiment where patients recorded how much pain they felt during a non-anesthetized check-up (I forgot what), and were then asked how much pain they felt overall after it was over. The results showed that, even in patients who recorded very high levels of pain for the majority of the experiment, if the ending was relatively painless, their 'overall pain level' was significantly lower than the average. And same goes for the other way around (if it ended badly, then the overall pain level was significantly higher than the average). This just goes to show how much weight we put on how things end in terms of the overall experience.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Happy — Fri, 6 Jul 2012 02:19:16 GMT

Author: Happy

Posted: 07/06/2012 06:19

The last song has to be enjoyable. It's like the concluding paragraph of an essay in that if it isn't good, the rest will seem worse.

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

Noise Pollution — Thu, 5 Jul 2012 21:18:18 GMT

Author: Noise Pollution

Posted: 07/06/2012 01:18

Blues based guitar riffs played in a hard rock style

Re: What aspects of an album are you a sucker for?

revolver94 — Thu, 5 Jul 2012 19:01:49 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 07/05/2012 23:01

Any sort of vibe I get just by looking at the album that makes it feel cool. It can be a combination of the cover, the name of the album/artist, or other stray bits of information I've picked up. I've gotten into so much music just because I got a good vibe from it... well I guess it's mostly the cover, haha.

I found Exile in Guyville amongst a list of 90's albums on some random ass website, but the cover caught my eye, so I looked it up, saw it was critically reviewed and bought it. Now, it's one of my all time favorite albums. It seems like a total accident, though.