Author Topic: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres  (Read 26188 times)

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Offline jingle.boy

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #140 on: November 03, 2011, 02:54:43 PM »
Just gave Why Should the Fire Die a whirl.  "moody, catchy" is a very good way to describe it.  Kinda gave me a bit of a Sheryl Crow feel... but better.  I liked it.
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #141 on: November 04, 2011, 06:58:44 AM »
Just gave Why Should the Fire Die a whirl.  "moody, catchy" is a very good way to describe it.  Kinda gave me a bit of a Sheryl Crow feel... but better.  I liked it.

Glad you liked it.

17.  Muse - Absolution (2003)


I had not heard much Muse prior to last year.  It wasn't until I sampled "Uprising" on Napster that I realized that I liked them.  But I never really explored their discography.  However, I discovered that my Korean exchange student who has a huge library of music (mostly rap unfortunately), had Absolution.  So I burned his copy onto a disk and stuck it in my car.  That was probably 6 months ago and it's still in my car.  I'm still enjoying it and I think "Butterflies & Hurricanes" and "Stockholm Syndrome" are two of the best songs I've ever heard.

Favorite Songs: Stockholm Syndrome, Hysteria, Blackout, Butterflies & Hurricanes, Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
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Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #142 on: November 04, 2011, 07:00:58 AM »
16.  Alison Krauss - Forget About It (1999)


I have a confession to make.  Alison Krauss's voice just moves me.  It takes me to a happy place.  If it were not for the fact that the lyrics of this music makes me a little depressed it would be ranked very near the top.  The lyrics are so sad and depressing that it's hard to deal with.  But the music is so beautiful and amazing.  Alison sings with much less of the nasally bluegrass voice in this more mainstream album and of course Union Station is technically proficient and amazing harmonizers as well. 

Without question the best song on this album is "Ghost in this House".  But there are so many amazing moody moments in this album that toy with your emotions.  Plus, in addition to the emotion filled lyrics and the gorgeous way Alison delivers them there are so many amazing Union Station moments where a acoustic guitar, steel guitar, or fiddle solo that just sounds so amazing.  The production on this album is also top notch.

Favorite Songs: Stay, Forget About It, Maybe, Ghost in This House, Dreaming My Dreams With You
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Offline ReaperKK

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #143 on: November 04, 2011, 07:08:05 AM »
That Muse album is very, very good.

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #144 on: November 04, 2011, 07:20:51 AM »
15. Kings X - Kings X (1992)


It's tough being a Christian and loving heavy music.  So much of the Christian metal and rock that was out there in the 80's and 90's were quite frankly lame.  Kings X never claimed to be a Christian band and in fact sort of resented the label.  But you can sense that there was faith mixed in with those soulful vocals and riffs in their earlier works and that really drew me to this band. So many have claimed that King's X was a big influence in their musical influences and certainly that is the case with me.  This album doesn't get the praise it deserves.  The harmonies, the heaviness, and grove of the album are better than Faith Hope Love.  Black Flag got a lot of radio play and is one of my favorite Kings X songs.  There's really not a weakness on it.

Favorite Songs: The World Around Me, Lost In Germany, Black Flag, Dream In My Life
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Offline MK_Ultra

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #145 on: November 04, 2011, 11:22:10 AM »
Absolution yeah!!

In my top 5  :)

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #146 on: November 04, 2011, 12:26:38 PM »
Durg, have you heard Shadow Gallery?  Might be right up your alley.  Don't listen to the nooblets who bash them.  King, back me on this one...
     

Offline Ravenheart

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #147 on: November 04, 2011, 12:28:55 PM »
Absolution is a really good album. I've heard of King's X for the longest time but just haven't gotten around to listening to them. I'm unfamiliar with Alison Krauss.

Offline jingle.boy

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #148 on: November 04, 2011, 01:56:10 PM »
Durg, have you heard Shadow Gallery?  Might be right up your alley.  Don't listen to the nooblets who bash them.  King, back me on this one...

Backing you ...  Oh wait, I'm not King, just a dictator.  Not to derail this thread, but since you brought up SG, have you had your listen to Elinoire yet?
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #149 on: November 04, 2011, 02:00:35 PM »
Yes I have.  15 listens according to my last.fm.  I find something new I like every listen it seems.  Actually, in the middle of listening to it now, Adam's Theme just started.

I'll take any SG fans I can find since there is a vocal clique here that hates them but never articulates their hate.
     

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #150 on: November 04, 2011, 06:11:08 PM »
I'm with you.  I love SG.  Very melodic and emotional.

BTW Durg.  I love Kings X what a great album and Muse's Absolution is amazing.
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Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #151 on: November 04, 2011, 07:22:35 PM »
Yes.  I've listened to Shadow Gallery.  I like them pretty well.  I have Room V.
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Offline Pols Voice

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #152 on: November 04, 2011, 07:27:29 PM »
If you like Room V, you should check out Tyranny, which I think is a good deal better.
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #153 on: November 04, 2011, 07:28:26 PM »
I'll do that.
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #154 on: November 04, 2011, 08:21:01 PM »
While we're at it: Durg, have you ever listened to Nightingale or Evergrey? Both are really good and might be right up your alley.

Nightingale: https://grooveshark.com/#/s/The+Dreamreader/1P80gJ?src=5

Evergrey: https://grooveshark.com/#/s/As+I+Lie+Here+Bleeding/3Dcvz3?src=5

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #155 on: November 04, 2011, 08:30:22 PM »
Evergrey is awesome.  I'll second that recommendation, and check out Nightingale.
     

Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #156 on: November 04, 2011, 08:37:48 PM »
Evergrey is awesome.  I'll second that recommendation, and check out Nightingale.

o/

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #157 on: November 04, 2011, 09:01:53 PM »
*\o
     

Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #158 on: November 05, 2011, 06:40:50 AM »
Moving right along....

14.  Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)


This is such a great musical experience from start to finish.  There is so much brilliance and lyrical intelligence with these CDs.  Even "The Great Debate", which is one of my least favorite DT songs, is really a great song.  "Misunderstood" with it's backward guitar riffs are just so interesting and different.  The collection of songs that make up the title track is a musical experience that just blows me away every time I listen to it from start to finish.

Favorite Songs: The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, Misunderstood, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
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Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #159 on: November 05, 2011, 06:43:02 AM »
13.  Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea (1994)


It's just a commercial pop album right.  I guess.  So why is it so high on this list.  I don't know.  I've spent much of the late 90's and early 2000's obsessing over Toad the Wet Sprocket.  Glen Phillips is a GREAT singer and is masterful at capturing the moment and emotion of a song.  This band is great and there are so many creative twists in the music itself.  I don't know why but I just love this album so much.

I actually do know why I love this album.  In the mid 90's I sang and played in a band that had a sound very similar to this music.  I was living in Columbia, South Carolina at the time and Hootie & the Blowfish had become superstars.  They were very loyal to their South Carolina roots and decided to do an MTV unplugged performance live and right there on the campus of the University of South Carolina.  The concert was fairly unremarkable.  However, they asked Glen Phillips to join them because in Darius Rucker's words, "we love Toad".  So Glen Phillips made an impression on me during that concert and I went out bought this album.  I actually have several of their albums now but this one is such an amazing piece of art.

Favorite Songs: Fly From Heaven, Something's Always Wrong, Crowing, Listen, Windmills, Fall Down, Begin
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Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #160 on: November 05, 2011, 06:45:50 AM »
12.  Yes - 90125 (1983)


This album is going to always go down as the one that got me into Yes.  I can still remember roller skating to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" as it blasts out of the speakers and thinking to myself, "I must own this album".  Sure this Yes album was more pop oriented and not as progressive.  However, I would have never heard of progressive music if they had not released this album.  I had also never heard anyone play mixed meter times in a rock song until I heard "Changes".  Still I love the singing and the harmonies.  "Leave It" just makes me happy.  I know Yes has a huge catalog and the progressive purest might hate this one.  But not me, besides, I'm not a progressive purest anyway.  I have consistently pulled this CD out and listened to it probably the most out of all my collection.  I really never get tired of it.

For those of you who love "Leave It" there is an Expanded version of 90125 that contains the A Capella version of it.  You absolutely must hear this version.   

Favorite Songs: Owner Of a Lonely Heart, Hold On, Cinema, Changes, Leave It, Out Song
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #161 on: November 05, 2011, 09:08:49 AM »
Big Toad fan here Durg.  Boy can they write a simple but beautiful harmony and melodies.  I love Fear a little bit more than Dulcinea.

90125 was light years ahead of it's time.  The production was second to non in 1983.  Progressive yet pop sensibilities.

6DOIT may be my favorite DT album of all time.  It blends everything I love about DT.
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Offline Mladen

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #162 on: November 05, 2011, 11:11:01 AM »
A lot of great and a lot of odd choices indeed. Very interesting nonetheless.  :smiley:

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #163 on: November 05, 2011, 12:29:32 PM »
Way to go with Yes. That album has some really good songs.

SDOIT is one of DTs best.

Lots of great stuff in your list and a lot I've never heard of.
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #164 on: November 05, 2011, 07:46:54 PM »
Yes and DT! Great picks, particularly 6DOIT.

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #165 on: November 06, 2011, 05:40:43 AM »
11.  Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)


I've already talked about how I started to get into Opeth in my review of Damnation and this is a very high ranking for an album that contains a vocal style that I don't really like in the death growls.  In fact I only downloaded this a couple months ago because so many people are so high on this album.  Of course I had been listening to it on Napster at work but that is always a tough way to really get into an album when your constantly being interrupted with people asking how to get rid of stupid Java errors or needing help building Web pages that work.  Yes, this is one of those albums that must be experienced, uninterrupted, from start to finish to really understand how the harsh vocals, the atmosphere, and the beauty all fit together.  Quite simply it is brilliant and I'm still in a sort of awed mood when I listen to it due to the fact that it's still relatively new to me.

I don't understand the lyrics and really don't care.  For me it's all about the music and when I hear "Harvest" or "Patterns in the Ivy" I'm inspired to learn how to play these songs.  The sound is so unique and cutting edge for me that I just can't believe what I'm hearing.  I've always like wild emotion swings and huge changes in song dynamics and Opeth are the professors of the musical emotion.

Favorite Songs: Bleak, Harvest, The Drapery Falls, Dirge For November, Blackwater Park
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Offline Durg

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #166 on: November 06, 2011, 05:42:32 AM »
Did I mention I really like Dream Theater.   :biggrin:

10.  Dream Theater - Awake (1994)


When I first heard Awake I didn't like the edgy rasp that James LaBrie was singing with.  However, the music is so amazing that you can't ignore this album.  There are a couple songs that I really haven't cared for and a few that I love to listen to all the time.  Not to mention that Voices is, in my humble opinion, one of the best Dream Theater song ever.

Favorite Songs: 6:00,Caught In a Web, Voices, The Mirror, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream,
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #167 on: November 06, 2011, 05:44:19 AM »
9.  Neal Morse - One (2004)


I've only known about Neal Morse since my resent discovery of Dream Theater.  Someone recommended that I check him out and I was amazed that not only does Mike Portnoy play on his albums, I was excited that he's Christian and the album is a Christian concept album.  For this album, though, I was even more exceted that Phil Keaggy plays and sings on this album. . . .

WIN!

I've been a major Phil Keaggy fanatic for years and have seen him in concerts many times.  Anyway this album was a real eye opener for me because I never knew that there was Christian prog.  Happy was me to find this.  But then the music is amazing.  "Author of Confusion" just makes me go.... like..... WOW! and then Reunion with the horns.... YES!  I'm really at a loss for words.  The start to finish this is an awesome album.  I have not heard Testimony and so many claim it is his best.  But I can't imagine how it can get better.

Favorite Songs: Author of Confusion, Cradle to the Grave, Father of Forgiveness, Reunion: No Separation/Grand Finale/Make Us One
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #168 on: November 06, 2011, 06:02:00 AM »
Opeth is the one true band that I don't mind growls.  The music is so hauntingly beautiful and the use of the growls as more like a guitar pedal as an affect and not full blast growls the whole time.

Believe it or not, I'm one of the rare few that doesn't put Awake that high on my list.  That doesn't mean I don't like it,  I just don't look at it as a masterpiece as others do.

One is my favorite Neal solo album and has my favorite song of his of all time, Help Me / The Spirit and the Flesh.
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Offline Jirpo

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #169 on: November 06, 2011, 06:44:29 AM »
BWP and Awake! Nice picks!

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #170 on: November 06, 2011, 06:45:52 AM »
Very nice updates there. Blackwater Park is one of my favourites ever, as is Awake.
As for Shadow Gallery, I recommend you check out the (less accessible) Legacy, imho their best work.
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Offline jingle.boy

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #171 on: November 06, 2011, 06:46:21 AM »
Believe it or not, I'm one of the rare few that doesn't put Awake that high on my list.  That doesn't mean I don't like it,  I just don't look at it as a masterpiece as others do.

I'm there with ya King.  It's an excellent album, but it took me a REAL long time to really appreciate it.  Even still, there are a few songs that I just don't really care for.  For me, it's a pretty polarizing album - mostly great songs, but a few duds.

Will be checking out Neal Morse.  I love SB, but never really tried his solo stuff.
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Offline ReaperKK

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #172 on: November 06, 2011, 07:22:52 AM »
I've never checked out Neal Morse's solo work but I was so turned off by Transatlantic, is there any reason to check out his work?

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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #173 on: November 06, 2011, 08:09:27 AM »
Depends on what it was you didn't like about Transatlantic. So, what was that?
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Re: Durg's Top 50 Albums Spanning Decades and Genres
« Reply #174 on: November 06, 2011, 09:30:07 AM »
Surprised (but happy) to see BWP so high.

Reaper, I'm sure you know this already but all but two of Neal's solo albums are very religious, and this is one of those religious albums.  I don't know where you stand on that, but thought I would give you a heads up on it because in general I LOVE Neil's work, but I just can't sit through musical preaching.