3 Albums For Life.

[Glasser]

Choose no more than 3 albums right now for the rest of your life. Any genre, order doesn't matter. Mine are......

KISS - Alive 2.
Barbara Streisand - Guilty.
The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over.

[King Postwhore]

Rush - Power Windows
DT - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Dada - El Subliminoso

[TAC]

Dream Theater-Images And Words
UFO-Strangers In The Night
Helloween-Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt.2.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Opeth - Blackwater Park SE
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty

[MinistroRaven]

Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura
Stryper - To Hell with the Devil
Dream theater - Scenes from a Memory

[jammindude]

Holy crap that’s hard. I mean, I would intentionally pick some extremely different genres just for the purpose of keeping it diverse.

As much as prog is my first love, I couldn’t deal with ONLY 3 prog albums.

Right now, probably:

Haken - The Mountain
Crystal Method - Vegas
PM Dawn - Dearest Christian, I’m So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here. Love, Dad.

[Cool Chris]

That is indeed very hard. Off the top of my head I only came up with one that had to be on the list. Thinking of the other two will take a little time.

[TAC]

That is indeed very hard. Off the top of my head I only came up with one that had to be on the list. Thinking of the other two will take a little time.

The boat leaves in 5 minutes.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I'm tempted to just pick my top 3 favorite albums of all time, but I don't think that would satisfy me enough. So my list would probably be...

Marillion - Marbles
Rush - Different Stages
Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet

[Dave_Manchester]

3 albums for life, I'm maximising my listening with my top 3 double albums:

1. The Wall, Pink Floyd
2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Genesis
3. Alchemy, Dire Straits

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

3 albums for life, I'm maximising my listening with my top 3 double albums:

1. The Wall, Pink Floyd
2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Genesis
3. Alchemy, Dire Straits

Ooh, Alchemy is a good one for live albums.

[Phoenix87x]

1. Pink floyd - wish you were here
2. Fate's warning - a pleasant shade of grey
3. Trevor Something - Trevor something does not exist

[The Letter M]

Oh gosh, let's see...
Rush - Exit... Stage Left
Spock's Beard - Snow
Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

In a few days I could probably pick a different group and still feel unsure. 😅

-Marc.

[WilliamMunny]

Such a good thread!

I suppose, for me, they’d need to be albums I literally never get sick of listening to, as well as records I couldn’t bear to not hear again.

Top of my head:

Nine Inch Nails — The Fragile
Poe — Haunted
Matthew Good — Lights of Endangered Species 

[DTA]

Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

[Glasser]

Holy crap that’s hard. I mean, I would intentionally pick some extremely different genres just for the purpose of keeping it diverse.

As much as prog is my first love, I couldn’t deal with ONLY 3 prog albums.

Right now, probably:

Haken - The Mountain
Crystal Method - Vegas
PM Dawn - Dearest Christian, I’m So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here. Love, Dad.

This is not about prog. From birth until today certain albums are embedded in us. Prog is my truest musical love but the albums I chose satisfy all my deepest musical needs. This is meant to be difficult honestly.. I love the responses.

[DTwwbwMP]

Elton John 'Goodbye Yellowbrick Road'
Queen 'A Night At The Opera'
The Who 'Who's Next'

[Glasser]

Elton John 'Goodbye Yellowbrick Road'
Queen 'A Night At The Opera'
The Who 'Who's Next'

That Elton John album was almost in mine. Should have been. Love it sooooooo much!!!!!!!

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Such a good thread!

I suppose, for me, they’d need to be albums I literally never get sick of listening to, as well as records I couldn’t bear to not hear again.

Top of my head:

Nine Inch Nails — The Fragile
Poe — Haunted
Matthew Good — Lights of Endangered Species

Interesting pick for a Matthew Good album. Personally I am partial to Avalanche and to a slightly lesser extent Hospital Music.

[Cool Chris]

The Who 'Who's Next'

Who's Next is in the running for my list. But then I considered Live at Leeds (the extended version), and thought "dang, how do I pick between these two?"

[425]

Images and Words is a given.

My cheat option is Whirld Tour by Transatlantic, which gets me the entirety of my favorite of their albums, my favorite three out of the four songs on my second favorite of their albums, and my favorite of their songs.

Third choice is hard. I would like to include something non-prog, or something heavy, or something sad. My inclination is to go for two of three and take Coldplay - Ghost Stories.

[Zydar]

The Beatles - Abbey Road
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Dream Theater - Images & Words

[wolfking]

Iron Maiden - The X Factor
Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding
Dream Theater - Images and Words

Images and Words ranked high on my top 50 many years ago but not as high as the first two.  I've grown to appreciate this album even more over the last few years and it would rank a lot higher these days.  It's perfect music and perfect for this concept.  I'm drawn to it a lot more than I used to be.  The other two hold special places in my heart and even though most would think I'm crazy, I'd be contempt with both of these albums for the thread subject.

[Elite]

uhhh, can I be an asshole and pick a boxset as one of my albums?

otherwise at this point in time, I'd go with:

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Leprous - Bilateral

ask me again next month and I'll probably answer differently

[wolfking]

uhhh, can I be an asshole and pick a boxset as one of my albums?

otherwise at this point in time, I'd go with:

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Leprous - Bilateral

ask me again next month and I'll probably answer differently

I seriously thought about that.   

[MirrorMask]

Can I pick three USB sticks filled to the brink with mp3's? no three albums are that good to not eventually bore you after the gazillionth time.

[Elite]

no three albums are that good to not eventually bore you after the gazillionth time.

that's always going to me my problem with questions like these. It's impossible to answer and rather pointless as well, because you would never be put in such a situation. It make a nice discussion topic I suppose.

[wolfking]

Can I pick three USB sticks filled to the brink with mp3's? no three albums are that good to not eventually bore you after the gazillionth time.

I think you're missing the point of the thread......

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I just pick albums I still enjoy after decades.

Toto - IV (I'm choosing this as a benchmark since i've been listening to Africa for sooo many years and it's still has the greatest chorus ever made)

Iron Maiden - SSoaSS

Dream Theater - I&W

Those albums laid the groundwork for my musical taste and I still listen to them and probably will until i'm no more so I guess it's handy to pick them.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Metallica-Master of Puppets
Dream Theater-Scenes From a Memory
Dream Theater-Octavarium

One of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make.

[PixelDream]

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Dream Theater - Awake
Radiohead - In Rainbows

[Peter Mc]

Can’t do it.

I know that my top two favourite albums ever are Images & Words and Operation:Mindcrime but I honestly don’t know that I’d take even those two albums! 

Bon Jovi, Queen, Guns N’ Roses and Dire Straits were all huge parts of my life growing up.  Then there’s bands like Opeth, Radiohead, Tool, Spock’s Beard (plus offshoots like NM, NMB, Transatlantic), Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree.

Even though I haven’t listened to it in forever, I’d probably choose Live Scenes From New York just because it has most of my favourite DT songs. 

I’d have to take a Bon Jovi album just because I was obsessed with them from the age of 10 up to about the age of 20 so their music is just ingrained in me.  Part of me would want to take Slippery When Wet as Wanted Dead Or Alive is my favourite song ever, another part of me would want to take Keep The Faith as I love a number of songs on that.  I’d probably go with New Jersey though as I can listen to that from start to finish and never skip a track.

After that I really don’t know.  Alchemy by Dire Straits is a really good shout, obviously Mindcrime is a favourite. In Absentia, Hand Cannot Erase, Blackwater Park, Opeth live at the Albert Hall. Spock’s V or Snow, TA SMPTe or Bridge Across Forever. Appetite For Destruction, there’s too much to choose from.

[ReaperKK]

Damn this is really hard:

Incubus - Morning View
Kaki King - Glow
Michael Kelsey - Submerged

[Adami]

Oddly, for the sake of variety, have to not have albums by PoS, my favorite band.

1. That Thing You Do soundtrack
2. Metallica binge and purge (yea, I'm counting it as one album cause I'm a baller)
3. The Planets by Holst.

[WilliamMunny]

Such a good thread!

I suppose, for me, they’d need to be albums I literally never get sick of listening to, as well as records I couldn’t bear to not hear again.

Top of my head:

Nine Inch Nails — The Fragile
Poe — Haunted
Matthew Good — Lights of Endangered Species

Interesting pick for a Matthew Good album. Personally I am partial to Avalanche and to a slightly lesser extent Hospital Music.

Honestly, I could take any of his solo albums, but to me, 'Lights...' is easily his finest hour, and more importantly, I NEVER get tired of listening to it.

I was tempted to pick a DT release, but there are large stretches of time where I'm not in the mood for uber-noodly prog, and I suspect that will only increase as I grow older.