Mladen's Top 50 albums v. #1 "Sorry, but it's time to go."

[jjrock88]

AJFA is amazing. Not quite my favorite Metallica album, but I can respect it being in your top 3.

[Prog Snob]

Animals is just...flawless.  Well done Sir!


For those who don't like Robert Plant and or Zep..... you have no souls.....

I sold my soul and decided to listen to The Who instead - much better.   


AJFA is my favorite Metallica CD just beating out MoP. 

[CrimsonSunrise]

I sold my soul and decided to listen to The Who instead - much better.   

Ahhhh... I understand now.  Funny....  I was just watching a special on Quadrophenia the other day.   Very insightful into Pete's way of thinking and his true feelings about his bandmates.  I was pretty much your opposite, Loved Zep, and the Who was just OK.  Now, I appreciate the Who more than I did back in the day.

[Mladen]

Getting closer to the number one...

2. Iron Maiden - Somewhere in time (1986)



From the various biographies and documentaries, you can learn that the band members were tired, burned out and not all that happy about the enormous success they were having as one might expect. This explains perfectly the feeling I always get when I listen to this album. I find it to be the saddest, most emotional of all the Iron Maiden releases. There a lot of songs about being lost, lonely, melancholic and even a bit mad, but still knowing that you’ve got to keep going and work it off. The masterful songwriting and guitar playing of Adrian Smith reinforces all of those messages and ideas that I can gather from the lyrics.

Favorite songs: Stranger in a strange land, Wasted years, Alexander the Great

[jingle.boy]

Excellent album for sure.  Wasted years is one of my favorite all time Maiden tracks. 

[Prog Snob]

I sold my soul and decided to listen to The Who instead - much better.   

Ahhhh... I understand now.  Funny....  I was just watching a special on Quadrophenia the other day.   Very insightful into Pete's way of thinking and his true feelings about his bandmates.  I was pretty much your opposite, Loved Zep, and the Who was just OK.  Now, I appreciate the Who more than I did back in the day.

Don't get me wrong.  LZ do have some really good songs and of course being a Tolkien geek, some of their lyrics definitely appeal to me.  As a whole though, I don't like RP's vocals. 

Excellent album for sure.  Wasted years is one of my favorite all time Maiden tracks. 

This

[sneakyblueberry]

I think Adrian really hit his peak here.  Nice.

[TAC]

  "Blackened" remains my all-time favorite Metallica song.

It might be mine as well.


M, great write up for Somewhere In Time.

[wolfking]

I think Adrian really hit his peak here.  Nice.

This definitely was his album for sure.  Amazing album too.

[rickhawk80]

Getting closer to the number one...

2. Iron Maiden - Somewhere in time (1986)



From the various biographies and documentaries, you can learn that the band members were tired, burned out and not all that happy about the enormous success they were having as one might expect. This explains perfectly the feeling I always get when I listen to this album. I find it to be the saddest, most emotional of all the Iron Maiden releases. There a lot of songs about being lost, lonely, melancholic and even a bit mad, but still knowing that you’ve got to keep going and work it off. The masterful songwriting and guitar playing of Adrian Smith reinforces all of those messages and ideas that I can gather from the lyrics.

Favorite songs: Stranger in a strange land, Wasted years, Alexander the Great

  Nope -- just lost me.    This one isn't even in my top 5 Maiden albums.  There's some good stuff on it for sure, but IMO it just hasn't stood the test of time that so many of their other albums have.

[Prog Snob]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure.  Anything after that is inferior. 

[jingle.boy]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure except the 90s.  Anything after during that decade is inferior.

Fix'd (a second time)

[rickhawk80]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure.  Anything after that is inferior.

Anything?  Including albums after Bruce returned?  I'd rate "Brave New World" higher overall than "Somewhere In Time."

[jjrock88]

Excellent album for sure.  Wasted years is one of my favorite all time Maiden tracks.

[Prog Snob]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure during the 90s.  Anything after during that decade is inferior.

Fix'd

Didn't you get the hearing aid I sent you for the Kris Kringle gift?        But you are right about the second part as I was originally saying. Anything during the 90s was inferior.

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure.  Anything after that is inferior.

Anything?  Including albums after Bruce returned?  I'd rate "Brave New World" higher overall than "Somewhere In Time."

There are a couple of good songs on BNW, but nowhere near the amazement of SIT.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

One comes into this problem when ranking the first seven Maiden albums, as they're all absolute gold.

[nicmos]

Classic Maiden, it's just such high quality music.  If I were still a teenager I think I'd listen to it a lot, but there's something about it that doesn't speak to me anymore.  But I appreciate it intellectually.  For craftsmanship I can't argue with your pick.

[Mladen]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure except the 90s except the early 90s.  Anything after during that decade during that period is inferior.

Fix'd (a second time)

Fix'd once again. 

Nice discussion about Maiden as every time. 

[Prog Snob]

You really can't go wrong with anything before Bruce's departure except the 90s except the early 90s.  Anything after during that decade during that period is inferior.

Fix'd (a second time)

Fix'd once again. 

Nice discussion about Maiden as every time. 

Yeah real nice.  I forgot what I originally typed now.      

Oh that's right.  From Iron Maiden up to Fear of the Dark is Maiden Gold!  Anything after is Maiden Silver.

[jingle.boy]

Oh that's right.  From Iron Maiden up to Fear of the Dark is Maiden Gold!  Anything after is Maiden Silver.

No Prayer would like a word with you to remind you how shit it is.

[Prog Snob]

Oh that's right.  From Iron Maiden up to Fear of the Dark is Maiden Gold!  Anything after is Maiden Silver.

No Prayer would like a word with you to remind you how shit it is.

While it's probably the worst of the bunch, I'd still pick it over anything after FOTD. 

[Mladen]

Alright, number one is coming your way tomorrow (any predictions maybe?), but before that, I would like to give an immense thank you to everybody that followed this thread, shared the appreciation for some of the albums and maybe criticize a few. I truly enjoyed reading all of your comments and opinions, there was some cool discussion going on. 

One other thing. I felt like sharing just a few more albums with you - 15 more albums that didn't make it but were incredibly close. I wanted to go with 10, but I had to list 15 because it was impossible to decide. So, here are the honorable mentions in alphabetical order:

AC/DC – Highway to hell
Aerosmith – Draw the line
David Bowie – The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust
Gentle Giant – Acquiring the taste
Iron Maiden – Dance of death
Mastodon – Crack the Skye
Megadeth – Killing is my business
Muse – Origin of symmetry
of Montreal – Aldhilds arboretum
Opeth – Still life
Radiohead – OK Computer
Rush – Grace under pressure
Rooney – Rooney
Stone Sour – House of gold and bones part 1
The Decemberists – The Crane wife

[rickhawk80]

Kudos for calling out The Decemberists in that list.  They kick all kinda ass!!

[Mladen]

Wow, so I'm not the only one who loves both Iron Maiden and The Decemberists? Awesome! 

[rickhawk80]

The Crane Wife was the first of their CDs I purchased but it was so fantastic it compelled me to go back further in their catalog and to also purchase each album they've made thereafter.   Unbelievable songwriting, creative storytelling, great musicianship, unique sound.  Their earlier stuff is far more sea shanty-sounding, but still nonetheless very good.  Their epic early fan favorite sea shanty is "The Mariner's Revenge."  Have you heard it?  Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0CR1IJKMPo

Not all Maiden fans will dig it, but the ones looking to expand their horizons will.   
 

[Mladen]

I don't like that song as much as most of the fans, but that video was brilliant. As for the early stuff, I adore Castaways and cutouts. The last two albums weren't as amazing, but hopefully they're working on something new to blow our minds again.

[Onno]

Good to see Crack the Skye there, it's one of my favourite albums 

[Mladen]

1. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (1967)



An album that changed the course of rock music. Forty seven years after its release date, not a single band managed to capture such an amount of variety in styles on one single album, and yet make it incredibly cohesive and entertaining all the way through. I remember liking some of these songs back when I was a kid, since my father used to play me compilations. So to go on and discover the full album years later and still enjoy and love all of it to bits is absolutely incredible. And you know what? I promised myself I won’t write “there’s nothing that hasn’t already been said about this album’’ in a writeup. But here, it seems appropriate.

Favorites: A day in the life, Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite, Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Once again, guys - thank you very much for following the list. 

Who's up next?

[jingle.boy]

Who's up next?

Nugget!

Certainly worthy of being on any 'top' list, being one of the (if not, the) greatest classic rock albums of all time.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I respect the album for its influence, but it honestly does nothing for me. Alas.

[rickhawk80]

I respect the album for its influence, but it honestly does nothing for me. Alas.

Same here, but "Revolver" would be my top Beatles album. 

[Big Hath]

first mention of Sgt Pepper in a top 50 list.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Not my favorite Beatles album, but it's pretty worthy of being in this list.

Twas a pleasure following your list. Had some great picks and tuned me to some other ones.

[jjrock88]

Cool list!

[Elite]

first mention of Sgt Pepper in a top 50 list.

I had it at #48 in my v2.