Your Favourite Album

[Sadok]

We've got a couple of music threads already, but they're usually focused on single tracks from various artists and often have very limited discussion involved.

The album has always been an underappreciated format in my opinion - if done well, the whole can be far greater than the sum of its parts. That is to say that an great album is far more than a series of great songs - it represents a journey, a statement made by an artist that incorporates variables such as the length of songs, the number of songs, their placement on the album and their relation to one another.

As someone who is constantly on the look-out for new music, I'd appreciate if everyone would share their favourite album. Far more importantly, I'd like you to explain why it's your favourite album - you don't need to write an essay, much less a lengthy paragraph, but at least share a couple of reasons why you're drawn to the album in question.

Hopefully we can start a discussion that enriches the musical understanding and appreciation of all involved.



My contribution:

Time Out Of Mind (1997) - Bob Dylan

“I got no place left to turn, I got nothing left to burn.”

Ironically enough, I do not consider my favourite album the best album of all time, let alone within the top five albums released by the artist in question. Nonetheless, Time Out Of Mind represents an unprecedented musical achievement by an artist who had struggled with irrelevancy for over two decades prior.

The Bob Dylan of this record is not the idealistic, charismatic champion of social change and singer of protest songs. He is not the untouchable rock-star of the mid-to-late sixties, spouting ingeniously psychedelic lyrics, nor is he the tender, lovelorn poet of the mid-seventies.

Rather, the Bob Dylan of the late nineties is a broken-down husk of a man - his voice reduced to an acerbic raspy croak, his best work thirty years behind him and his songs more famous as covers (Adele’s cover of Make You Feel My Love proves that even this album is not exempt from this particular phenomenon).

From the depths of irrelevancy, after a long string of unremarkable records and failed experiments, a forlorn and washed-up Dylan strikes gold with this cynical, dark gem of an album capturing a tormented artist with nothing to lose wandering a vast, unrecognisable cultural, political and moral wasteland.

In this record, Dylan reinvents himself with a combination of bitter, weary ballads and dirty blues-rock riffs. The album is filled with brilliantly dark lyrics, stripped-down and distorted instrumentation, and throughout, Dylan’s razor-sharp and dilapidated singing-voice.

The album has its emotional peaks and troughs - in places, the void of Dylan’s soul is gripped by a hopeless nihilism (Love Sick, Cold Irons Bound); elsewhere, he finds a stoic determination to carry on and stand alone (Dirt Road Blues, Make You Feel My Love). The lyrics dwell on themes of isolation, lost love and a certain death - Dylan is forced to admit that “It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.”

The album concludes with a sprawling seventeen-minute ramble entitled “Highlands”, that sees Dylan struggling to reconcile a romantic and idealistic conception of the world with the cold, cynical reality of modern life. Ultimately, he cannot reach the lush poetic landscape he describes, for the Highlands are as much a fantasy born of his imagination as they are a remote land far from the American wasteland.

From start to finish, Time Out Of Mind is a remarkable journey of an album - one with no beginning and no destination save for the grave and the closed doors of Heaven. Creatively, it represents a late-career revival for Dylan that has allowed him to ride a wave of momentum all the way to this year’s Tempest, another similarly-bleak album full of blood and tears.

Sample songs:
Love Sick: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuepy6_bob-dylan-love-sick_music?search_algo=2
Not Dark Yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6UyTkJXdIM&feature=related

Purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Out-Mind-Bob-Dylan/dp/B000024UY9

[Mozrogg]

Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock edition.

Having my dad force Hendrix down my throat from a young age has sort of made me think Hendrix -is- the boss when it comes to guitar, and I just love the raw un-edited sound of his live performances. Also he just seemed to ooze cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLyzxqipnqQ - The sound quality of the video does it no justice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy0fuqVATpY

The Black Keys - Brothers

While not necessarily my favourite album of all-time I find it hard to not get a number of the songs from this album stuck in my head, bangers such as Howlin' For you, She's Long Gone and Sinister Kid just get me in the mood to jam ha, also such a feel good chill factor about their music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnSdjIpMVsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5SHOX6eomk

The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

Probably a bit poppier than I usually go for, but Gaslight Anthem remind me of a modern Bruce Springsteen, heck he's even come on stage before with them live to perform a few songs with them! Again wouldn't class it as one of my top albums however their music is simple yet enjoyable!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnemgbZIQWE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_2F9x_Gxw4

More Money, Less Grief - The Metros

Perhaps one of my favourite albums of all time. A shame they have broken up now, but their music is full of energy, probably not appreciated by many on these forums but I myself can't get enough of them! The fact that they were almost always completely smashed on stage was rather funny also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0tFGZE69CA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEY3Ik1V09o

Two songs I could literally listen back to back.


SBTRKT - SBTRKT

Probably one of the best albums I have purchased this year, again probably won't be appreciated by you guys much haha, however I can listen to this album, anywhere, anytime any mood, it's such a chill factor yet with that slight kick that just makes you wanna get up and move! Also makes a change to all the robot sex noise "eledctronc" music floating about these days and going back to garage roots. Gets me two steppin'!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-LEiOzXHWM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHsyogLZ7I


And lastly probably my favourite album at the current time,

A Flash Flood Of Colour - Enter Shikari

On the surface these guys may seem rather simple, but scratch below the surface and they draw influences from all over. I was watching a documentary on the filming etc of this album and these guys seem like such intelligent individuals, well at least the lead vocalist and song writer Roughton 'Rou' Reynolds. Their earlier albums was filled with subtle hints on the political side of things, however this album just comes out, pulling no punches and tells it how it is, basically expressing their opinions on the current state of the world and human-race in heavy guitar, dubstep, screaming shouting singing and growling format. It's easy to see how many people view this type of music as being untalented junk, however again going back to the documentary they really bring some ingenius methods when it came to recording this album as well as really knowing their stuff as well as not just spouting any random political agenda so that people will jump on the band wagon.

Again these won't be for everyone but yeah, thought I would throw them out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH-ZYpM8yvw - Their first two songs on the album blended into one. The common trend of all three of their album is a slow introduction build up leading into some heavy drops and wubwubs, and their outro ending on almost always on strings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNYL3XIWAKM - One of the meaner more gnarly tracks on their album

So yeah that's my two cents! Didn't go into as much depth as Sadok, but eh thought i'd share my views

[Braggha]

My lastly most listened album - Iced Earth-Dystopya. Best stuff i heard in months.
Recommend to all metal-lovers like myself ^)