jingle.boy's Top 50 Albums - v. the Necrominicon epilogue

[jsem]

Milliontown is absolutely lovely.

[Nick]

Yikes, in one update we have one of Dream Theater's weakest efforts, one of this forum's most overrated albums, and AC/DC, the implications of which should speak for themselves.

[jingle.boy]

Yikes, in one update we have one of Dream Theater's weakest efforts, one of this forum's most overrated albums, and AC/DC, the implications of which should speak for themselves.

How do you really feel Nick?  Don't hold back, cuz I sense some restraint in the above comments.   

Sometimes I think you have Turrets.   

[Dr. DTVT]

Tell Nick to go write some roulette results

Nick doesn't have Tourette's Syndrome, I've seen him and he doesn't twitch unless you say, "HEY LOOK!  IT'S GEDDY LEE!!"

[Pols Voice]

Yikes, in one update we have one of Dream Theater's weakest efforts, one of this forum's most overrated albums, and AC/DC, the implications of which should speak for themselves.

Gonna have to agree. I've never heard Milliontown except for one song I wasn't thrilled about, but Octavarium is my least favorite DT album and AC/DC is one of my least favorite bands. *runs away*

[Dr. DTVT]

Haters gonna hate, Frost* is awesome.

[The King in Crimson]

Octavarium is awesome, Milliontown is alright, and, for as much shit as AC/DC deserves, Back In Black is pretty great.

[obscure]

26) Coverdale/Page, Coverdale/Page (1993)



During the 80s, Robert Plant did his best to distance himself from his Led Zeppelin legacy, despite pressure from the music industry, and his band-mates to re-form.  So, for some unknown reason, David Coverdale was seen as the next best thing to team with Page musically.  With both being signed to Geffen, and after Coverdale “disbanded” Whitesnake, the timing was just right.  The resulting one-time album was a mild commercial success.  For me, it came at a time when I was still a fan of the glam rock genre, but (as mentioned) was starting to transition my tastes.  Zeppelin was (and still is) my favorite band, so this collaboration (and the resulting output) hit a home run for me.  Page is dynamite… gritty riffs flow throughout the album, along with his unmistakable blues sound and feel.  Coverdale’s vocals on a few of the tracks are as good as anything he ever did with Deep Purple or Whitesnake.   Some of the tracks invariably slide into the realm of glam, but by and large, the album is what one would expect from the union of the guitar king of the 70s, and one of the better vocalists of the 80s.  It moulds elements of metal, blues, and rock with a Zeppelin-esque influence that probably would’ve received much more attention had it been released in the prior decade when the market was craving that sound.

Fav Songs – Whisper a Prayer For the Dying, Absolution Blues, Feeling Hot

25) Circus Maximus, The First Chapter (2005)



Some would say Dream Theater rip-offs.  Kris would say lazy-unfocused-pricks-that-make-fans-wait-five-years-for-another-great-album.  I like to think of them as what would result if DT and Symphony X had a love child together.  However you want to classify them, this quintet from Norway put out an absolutely stunning debut prog-metal album, blending rock, metal, symphonic, prog and pop into 8 fantastic tracks.  Lyrically, themes representing a journey to salvation dominate throughout – highlighted by their interpretation of Gladiator in Glory of the Empire.  Vocally, Michael Eriksen shines the way James did on I&W.  Melodies range from slow/soft/acoustic, to pure head-banging/raunchy/double bass pounding riffs.  Keyboard support, blistering unisons, sporadic time and key changes makes this a fully rounded progressive experience.  Musically, one could hardly say this album was ground-breaking, or filled with any sense of ingenuity.  None-the-less, the content in and of itself more than compensates for the slight lack of originality within the prog-metal genre.

Fav Songs – Glory of the Empire, Biosfear, Alive

let me show some love to these two... 

[Durg]

Yikes, in one update we have one of Dream Theater's weakest efforts, one of this forum's most overrated albums, and AC/DC, the implications of which should speak for themselves.

Gonna have to agree. I've never heard Milliontown except for one song I wasn't thrilled about, but Octavarium is my least favorite DT album and AC/DC is one of my least favorite bands. *runs away*

Yeah.  I'll run away too because I just can't stand Brian Johnson's voice.  I can't take a rock & roll band seriously when the lead singer sounds like Donald Duck.  Bon Scott was OK though and I really like Anus Young's playing.  It doesn't help that classic rock stations and hard rock stations play AC DC songs like every 10 songs.  I was tired of hearing them by the age of 15.

Still I'll agree that Back in Black is a really good album with some great catchy riffs. 

[King Postwhore]

Back in Black is a great album by AC/DC.  Top to bottom.  I may not like most of their albums (Songs here and there)  but every song on this album is great.

[jingle.boy]

Back in Black is a great album by AC/DC.  Top to bottom.  I may not like most of their albums (Songs here and there)  but every song on this album is great.

That's kinda my point.  As a whole, AC/DC is mediocre at best.  They aren't overly talented, and don't write with much diversity.  However, this is a top album list.  And this is a worthy album.  For those of us that got to experience the album in it's prime, there's a different perspective taken from it.  If I heard this for the first time today (or 10 years ago, or even 20 years ago), given my musical tastes, I'd likely be pretty 'meh' about it.  However, I got it when AC/DC was in their prime, and when that was the style of music that most appealed to me.  49 million others thought it was pretty darned good too.

[Durg]

Back in Black is a great album by AC/DC.  Top to bottom.  I may not like most of their albums (Songs here and there)  but every song on this album is great.

That's kinda my point.  As a whole, AC/DC is mediocre at best.  They aren't overly talented, and don't write with much diversity.  However, this is a top album list.  And this is a worthy album.  For those of us that got to experience the album in it's prime, there's a different perspective taken from it.  If I heard this for the first time today (or 10 years ago, or even 20 years ago), given my musical tastes, I'd likely be pretty 'meh' about it.  However, I got it when AC/DC was in their prime, and when that was the style of music that most appealed to me.  49 million others thought it was pretty darned good too.

I totally understand this point of view.  That's why Huey Lewis & the News' Sports album was so high on my list.  However, if I heard Sports for the first time 10 or 15 years ago.  I wouldn't even pay attention to it. 

It's all about memories and how music affects you in your life. 

[jingle.boy]

It's all about memories and how music affects you in your life. 

BINGO! 

[WebRaider]

Back in Black is a great album by AC/DC.  Top to bottom.  I may not like most of their albums (Songs here and there)  but every song on this album is great.

Agreed!

[Arch Benemy]

I discovered Dr. Feelgood because the whole album was available to download for Rock Band, and through playing the songs I developed a great appreciation for them. Some really really great tracks. Octavarium may not be one of my favourite DT albums, but the title track is also my favourite DT song. Good stuff!

[obscure]

It's all about memories and how music affects you in your life. 

BINGO! 

this.... it also explains the cheesy stuff I adore.... memories....

[jingle.boy]

It's all about memories and how music affects you in your life. 

BINGO! 

this.... it also explains the cheesy stuff I adore.... memories....

Oh yeah, tons of cheese that I love ... Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Twisted Sister... the list could go on and on.

[Jamesman42]

Not that other choices aren't good, but Milliontown = LOVE.

[obscure]

Twisted Sister 

[jingle.boy]

For some reason, here’s where my write-ups start getting a little bit longer.  Hopefully they’re not too long or verbose.  As such, I’m only going to post two at a time.  10 more days to go.

18) Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)



If you’ve never seen TSO live in concert, do yourself a favour, buy a ticket and go this year if you still can.  NOW!  If you like rock music, it’s an experience you’ll not soon forget.  I’ve gone every year for the last 5, and the core of the 1st half of the concert is Christmas Eve and Other Stories.  From 2000-2009 TSO played over 700 shows in front of 5 million plus people – the 25th highest grossing touring act in that decade … and they only toured 2 months out of the year!  What’s really cool is that they will use a local orchestra/symphony group to perform with them on stage, with a different group depending on the location of the show.  Born from Savatage after Christmas Eve, Sarajevo 12-24 garnered some mainstream attention in the mid 90s, TSO’s first release is a concept telling a story of an Angel coming to earth, searching for something good in humanity, and witnesses a child trying to find her way home for Christmas.  With a blend of rock, classical, orchestral, prog, and metal, this album is not just to be listened to at Christmas time.  Mixed into the story are 4 acoustic Christmas themed instrumentals, and 4 blazing instrumentals with melodies that will give you chills while demonstrating the proficiency with which the band blends rock and orchestra together.  Arranging familiar Christmas songs into the story is done magnificently.  Seven different lead vocalists grace the album, giving a different and unique experience for the listener.  Vocally, it’s got so much range – harmonizations, choirs, opera, duets, gospel and inspirational solo’s.  Several songs give me goose bumps every time I hear them – Old City Bar and This Christmas Day in particular.

Fav Songs – along with the aforementioned 2, Good King Joy, A Mad Russian’s Christmas, Ornament

[jingle.boy]

17) Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here (1975)



This has shown up on a few top 50 lists, so no surprise here.  Smack dead in the middle of Floyd’s amazing five album run (from Meddle to The Wall), WYWH is just a brilliant (and yes, I’m using this word over and over again, but it’s appropriate) piece of progressive/psychedelic rock from an era that was starting to wane on that kind of music, proving that they could essentially transcend the tastes of the music industry.  With about an equal mix of acoustic and electric melodies and solo’s, Gilmour’s guitar work is at its peak on this album.  Waters’ lyrics and vocals are mesmerizing.  The keyboard/synth work by Wright is a marvel, particularly in Welcome to the Machine.  Gilmour and Waters split the vocal duties equally as became the case for many of their albums.  Creative instrumentation yet again highlights the sound of Floyd, with subtle contributions from wine glasses and car radio static; violins, and sax making more prominent appearances.  While not a true concept album (ie, character and story line driven), all songs carry the theme of Waters’ critical view of the music industry, and its contribution to Sid Barrett’s mental breakdown.  All songs flow into one another beautifully, and this is one of those albums where you can listen to the tracks on their own, but why the hell would you want to?  The arrangements are just incredibly complex, but just magnificent to listen to.  There’s a music troupe called “Classic Albums Live” that do concerts covering classic albums (duh)… but their tagline is “note for note, cut for cut”.  They don’t worry themselves with the appearance, visuals or the pomp and circumstance of recreating the band, just the music.  I’ve seen them do WYWH, and it takes 9 musicians to reproduce this album.

Fav Songs – all four of them (yes, Shine On is one song).

[obscure]

For some reason, here’s where my write-ups start getting a little bit longer.  Hopefully they’re not too long or verbose.  As such, I’m only going to post two at a time.  10 more days to go.

18) Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)



If you’ve never seen TSO live in concert, do yourself a favour, buy a ticket and go this year if you still can.  NOW!  If you like rock music, it’s an experience you’ll not soon forget.  I’ve gone every year for the last 5, and the core of the 1st half of the concert is Christmas Eve and Other Stories.  From 2000-2009 TSO played over 700 shows in front of 5 million plus people – the 25th highest grossing touring act in that decade … and they only toured 2 months out of the year!  What’s really cool is that they will use a local orchestra/symphony group to perform with them on stage, with a different group depending on the location of the show.  Born from Savatage after Christmas Eve, Sarajevo 12-24 garnered some mainstream attention in the mid 90s, TSO’s first release is a concept telling a story of an Angel coming to earth, searching for something good in humanity, and witnesses a child trying to find her way home for Christmas.  With a blend of rock, classical, orchestral, prog, and metal, this album is not just to be listened to at Christmas time.  Mixed into the story are 4 acoustic Christmas themed instrumentals, and 4 blazing instrumentals with melodies that will give you chills while demonstrating the proficiency with which the band blends rock and orchestra together.  Arranging familiar Christmas songs into the story is done magnificently.  Seven different lead vocalists grace the album, giving a different and unique experience for the listener.  Vocally, it’s got so much range – harmonizations, choirs, opera, duets, gospel and inspirational solo’s.  Several songs give me goose bumps every time I hear them – Old City Bar and This Christmas Day in particular.

Fav Songs – along with the aforementioned 2, Good King Joy, A Mad Russian’s Christmas, Ornament

Damn...this guys are awesome... shame that they sold out in Hammersmith last year in a day 

[Durg]

No cheese today.  Both of these albums are so great.  And such nice time with with the TSO entry and Christmas just around the corner.

[jingle.boy]

16) Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II (1969)



Took long enough for my favorite band to show up.  Ya know, there are just some albums, songs, riffs, lyrics that leave a mark on you in such a way that every time you hear it, you are brought right back to the primal feelings you had the first time you heard it.  The opening riff from this album does it every time.  I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I remember being in my bedroom around 14 or 15 years old, and having just gotten this CD, plopped it in the player, and the opening riff just opening up an unbridled awe within me.  25 year later, that riff still brings back that feeling every time I hear it.  Now, Whole Lotta Love isn’t my favorite song on the album, but man, that riff.  So simple.  So raw.  So pure.  The rest of the album just expands on those themes.  Simple… the soft and mellow side of tracks like Ramble On, Thank You, and parts of What Is and What Should Never Be; Raw… albums just aren’t made this way anymore (and this was their SECOND album released in 1969).  Zeppelin wrote this entirely while on tour, and recorded/mixed/produced each song in separate sessions in separate studios in the UK and North America.  Jimmy coaxes some very raw sounds and licks from the guitar like in Hearbreaker and the The Lemon Song (wow… that instrumental breakdown!); Pure… just the tremendously smooth flow that you feel in the melodies from Living Loving Maid and Bring it on Home.  There isn’t much that you can say about Plant’s vocals other than that he’s one of the best ever.  Zeppelin expanded on the variety of styles they deliver, incorporating their ever present blues and folk side, but also some psychedelic, atmospheric and pop musings.  Its popularity and anticipation in ’69 was so huge, that it knocked Abbey Road from the top spot from the charts … twice.  Zeppelin I was a helluva debut, but Zeppelin II cemented their place, and the mark they would leave in music history.

Fav Songs – Ramble On, Bring it on Home, The Lemon Song

[jingle.boy]

15) Boston, Boston (1976)



Boston’s self titled debut release is a great example of the kind of rock music that is like your favorite home-cooked meal as a kid.  It’s comforting to go back and listen to a simpler style of music – clean and refreshing melodies is what you’ll find at the heart of what is one of the best rock albums of all time.  There’s nothing overly flashy, experimental or grandiose about it.  Vocally, Brad Delp was a wizard - More Than A Feeling has the best scream in rock history.  His voice is almost angelic at times.  Sholz – the mastermind behind the band – gives us an amazing blend of acoustic and electric guitar throughout the album, as well as contrasts between simple runs and scorching power chords.  Most albums would have two or three radio hits to them, but with all eight songs still on classic rock radio rotation today, song-for-song, this has to be at the top of anyone’s classic rock collection – it outperformed Destroyer (Kiss) and Rocks (Aerosmith) in 1976 … arguably those bands greatest albums.  Selling 1 million copies in less than six months, the album was the fastest debut to do so, and only Appetite for Destruction has sold more copies as a debut album.  It garnered them so much visibility, that they were the first band in history to make their New York concert debut headlining Madison Square Garden.  Pretty impressive for “just another band out of Boston”

Fav Songs – Foreplay/Longtime, Something About You, Rock & Roll Band

[ReaperKK]

I could never get into Milliontown Yay for WYWH!

[WebRaider]

Lots of great material in these last few updates!

[Gorille85]

WISH YOU WERE HERE

[King Postwhore]

Boston is an epic album.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard ever song from this album on the radio.

[Jirpo]

Great 2 picks! WYWH is awesome too.

[jingle.boy]

14) Pink Floyd, The Wall (1979)



What really can/needs to be said about this album?  Without a doubt, the greatest Concept Album/Rock Opera of all time.  I defy anyone to point out a band that has also written a Concept Album since 1979, and doesn’t cite The Wall as an influence.  You can’t.  This caps off that 5 album run from Floyd that I already mentioned, and really was the climax of the bands career (The Final Cut was a definite drop off, and Water-less Floyd – while fantastic – was still Waters-less).  The Wall is noticeably harsher and ‘angrier’ than any other Floyd release preceding or following.  Inspired by Waters’ and Gilmour’s feelings of alienation while touring in 1977, and culminating by spitting on a fan in Montreal, Waters wrote the story of protagonist's (Pink) self-imposed isolation after years of traumatic interactions with authority figures and the loss of his father as a young child, all symbolized through a metaphorical wall.   The album brings together so many themes (musical and lyrical), so much emotion, so much reality that it sucks you into the world that Waters writes, and you can feel the panic, anxiety, loathing (self and for others), distress and terror that consumes Pink.  Choirs, helicopters, orchestra’s, telephone operators, screeching tires, TV shows, movie samples all contribute to the reality of the experience – and that’s what listening to the Wall is … an experience.  Classic Albums Live has also done re-creations of The Wall, and it takes a dozen musicians (+ the child choir) to recreate this one.  Add to that what is arguably the best guitar solo EVER, and this is an album that is an absolute must for everyone’s library and listening repertoire.

Fav Songs … I just can’t call out individual songs.  Fav Moments – Mother guitar solo, intro of Goodbye Blue Sky (“Did did did did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?”), end of Happiest Days of Our Lives, the Judge in The Trial.

[jingle.boy]

13) Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III (1970)



What Jimmy Page did with the opening riff on Zeppelin II, Bobby Plant did perhaps more so with his opening scream in Immigrant Song.  This was the album that showcased Zeppelin’s diversity, as they digressed from being predominantly a hard rock band (of that era).  Branching out with styles sounding more like country, blues, and folk, this album gives the listener fewer signature guitar riffs, and more songs with a laid back feel, allowing all four members to demonstrate the excellence in their craft.  If all you know about this album is The Immigrant Song, you are sorely missing out.  That’s like giving up on Seinfeld after the first season.  While a fantastic track, it’s over-valued relative to the rest of this (under-appreciated) album.  Perhaps because it lacks any kind of stand-out track that most other Zeppelin albums contain (Dazed & Confused, Whole Lotta Love, Stairway to Heaven etc …), the critical and commercial reception at the time was luke warm at best.  Most would argue it has aged the best out of their catalogue though - it certainly did for me.  If you listen to it with pre-conceived notions about what Zeppelin is, this album definitely does take a while to appreciate.  However, like a fine bottle of wine or Cuban cigar, the first sip/puff does not define the product, nor does the first listen define the excellence of this album.  If not for the final track (which is the only Zeppelin song that I truly dislike), this would be in my top 3.  Replace it with Hey Hey What Can I Do - which until 1990’s box set, was only found on the B-side of The Immigrant Side’s 45 (if you’re with what I’m saying, go look it up kids), and it might even be my #1 album.

Fav Songs – That’s The Way, Gallows Pole, Since I’ve Been Loving You

[Jirpo]

Great picks! Not my favourites by those respective bands though, but those are two bands where you can go anywhere in their discography and it would still be great.

[ReaperKK]

I'd probably rate WYWH higher than the wall but still good picks.

[Arch Benemy]

Haha Boston, another band that I was introduced to via Guitar Hero / Rock Band. Great band, great album. Led Zep too obviously, though I'm not a massive Floyd fan.