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Post by petea on Apr 24, 2019 19:53:44 GMT
I guess like most people on the forum I have far more albums than makes sense ,especially given that I often play only a small sub-set of them. I was talking about this to a friend fairly recently and we ended up discussing whether one has a core set of albums that sort of defines one's musical preference / taste as it were. Thinking about this further I recognised that there was maybe an element of truth about this, but thinking about what might represent my core set did not really help me understand what my general 'taste' might be. Now there are certain albums that have been in my core set for decades and there are certainly new ones that have entered it over time, and some of these are quite different in style suggesting that my taste is far from fixed. And there have been a few that have either dropped away completely or at least are played much less often now. Anyway, enough of this rambling, pseudo-philosophical nonsense, what do you consider to be your core albums? And, to focus the mind a bit, you are not allowed more than 11! Yes, that is effectively a randomly chosen number, but to accommodate taste-drift (I'm either on a conceptual roll or have had too much wine too early in the evening) I'll permit a 2 album change every 23 days! And, to make it trickier let's make the list ranked based on how long the album has been on the list - longest to shortest! So, my list then (I'll probably need to shuffle the order a bit I suspect and only 11 is proving to be a bit tricky, but rules is rules!): "Hunky Dory" - David Bowie "Transformer" - Lou Reed "Selling England by the Pound" - Genesis "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" - Joni Mitchell "Ricky Lee Jones" - first album "Blue Valentine" - Tom Waits "Hearts and Bones" - Paul Simon "Automatic for the People" - REM "Time Out" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet "Paradise is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings" - Natalie Merchant "Peepers" - Polar Bear
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Post by petea on Apr 24, 2019 19:55:47 GMT
And just a couple of qualifications now that I have pressed the 'post' button. The new Tiger Lily recordings ousted the 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged album a while back and Suzanne Vega really should be in there but...
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Post by MartinT on Apr 24, 2019 20:42:23 GMT
Great thread, Pete. I'll get my thinking cap on - is this non-classical, otherwise I'm gonna have a BIG problem!
Also - the big differentiator - I'll eliminate many albums that have one or two great tracks. There's only place here for all-round greatness.
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Post by MartinT on Apr 24, 2019 21:09:17 GMT
Ry Cooder - Bop Till You Drop Dire Straits - Communique Yello - Flag k d lang - Drag Jeff Beck - You Had It Coming Leonard Cohen - The Future Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts Calvin Russell - A Crack in Time Alt-J - An Awesome Wave John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts Shpongle - Museum of Consciousness
(now shuffled chronologically by 'time spent as core')
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Post by petea on Apr 24, 2019 21:27:14 GMT
Great thread, Pete. I'll get my thinking cap on - is this non-classical, otherwise I'm gonna have a BIG problem! Also - the big differentiator - I'll eliminate many albums that have one or two great tracks. There's only place here for all-round greatness. Good question - I hadn't thought that far. I think for this thread, yes it has to be non-classical. Overall greatness or overal influence I guess. For example, I have listed "Blue Valentine" as that coincides with my first awareness of Tom Waits although I first saw him live after "Heart Attack and Vine". If I had to name my favourite album of his I would be hard pressed and I'd be split between his early works (eg "Small Change") and his more avant-garde later works (like "Glitter and Doom" live), but when it comes to a core album, one that seems to have been there forever as it were, it has to be "Blue Valentine".
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Post by Slinger on Apr 24, 2019 22:30:38 GMT
Here's my 11, and I've named two substitutes in case of injury. Or maybe I'm just 23 days ahead of myself. Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young - Deja Vu Emmylou Harris - Portraits Al Stewart - Past, Present, and Future Hawkwind - Space Ritual Harry Chapin - Greatest Stories, Live. Pink Floyd - Pulse Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure V.A. - The Almost Complete Woodstock (40th Anniversary Edition) Bruce Springsteen - The Essential V.A. - No Thanks! (The '70s Punk Rebellion Sampler) Aly & Fila - The Chill Out
Warren Zevon - I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Jackie Leven - Fairy Tales For Hard MenI have cheated, unashamedly, by including live albums, Best Of albums and Various Artists collections. There are double albums, triple albums, and one is actually a 24 disc set. Any one of my choices could, without much trouble, be replaced by three, or four, or five, or ten others. The albums I've chosen don't necessarily get more playing-time than the rest of my music, but I've tried to represent " me" rather than just my record music collection. There was no room left to include Reggae, or Jazz, or Folk, or Blues, and there really should be albums in there representing all of those styles, and more. None of my guitar heroes get a mention. There wasn't a place left for any of the huge number of Symphonic Metal, Classical Metal, Neo-Classical Metal, and Operatic Metal albums I own and love. No boggo Heavy Rock either. And no Tom Waits. Perhaps if you made it one-hundred-and-eleven..?
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Post by ChrisB on Apr 24, 2019 22:30:47 GMT
Gosh, this could be tricky! I shall have a go at it. How often did you say it could be changed? Every 2.3 days or something, I think you said...
Bowie - 'Ziggy Stardust' Black Sabbath - 'Sabotage' Love - 'Forever Changes' CSNY - 'Deja Vu' Neil Young - 'Rust Never Sleeps' Frank Zappa - 'The Grand Wazoo' Rory Gallagher - 'Top Priority' Dexter Gordon - 'Go' Champion Jack Dupree - 'Blues From the Gutter' Kelly Joe Phelps - 'Lead Me On' Dusty Springfield - 'Dusty in Memphis'
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Post by MartinT on Apr 25, 2019 4:54:17 GMT
Damn, that is such a go-to album for me. I guess it may well make a future appearance.
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Post by MartinT on Apr 25, 2019 4:55:52 GMT
Black Sabbath - 'Sabotage' Interesting choice of Sabbath album. Again, I may have to sneak one in at the next change.
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Post by ChrisB on Apr 25, 2019 5:15:05 GMT
I bet I can guess which one that will be! Sabotage has always been my favourite.
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Post by ChrisB on Apr 25, 2019 5:16:58 GMT
I shall have to juggle my list around a bit to reflect the chronology, as Pete intended.
EDIT: Now sorted(ish)
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Post by John on Apr 25, 2019 5:27:39 GMT
Great thread I tend to mostly listen to a lot of new music but the albums I find myself still coming back to include the following Dream Theater: Systematic Chaos Surinder Sandhu: Cycles and Stories Nick Cave: The Boatman Call Shawn Lane: Temporal Analogues of Paradise Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert Peter Gabriel: Passion The Last Temptation Rush{ Permanent Waves Jeff Buckley: Grace Some newer albums I am playing a lot Adam Baldych Helge Lein Trio: Brothers Marcus King Band: Due North EP
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Post by MartinT on Apr 25, 2019 5:46:37 GMT
I shall have to juggle my list around a bit to reflect the chronology, as Pete intended. I forgot the chronology - my list is now sorted.
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Post by Barrington on Apr 25, 2019 6:16:05 GMT
Calvin Russell - A Crack in Time Wow , my album club pick on AOS all them years ago , we spoke about it Martin at Scalford
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Post by MartinT on Apr 25, 2019 6:19:01 GMT
Gosh, Barry, I had completely forgotten that! It has never been far from my go-to pile in all those years.
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Post by Barrington on Apr 25, 2019 6:45:51 GMT
Think I have this right , albums I go back to time after time in the order I bought them (not the album's release date).
"The Six Wives of Henry VIII" - Rick Wakeman "Selling England by the Pound" - Genesis "Argus" - Wishbone Ash "Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd "Songs From The Wood" - Jethro Tull "The Wall" - Pink Floyd "Blue Valentine" - Tom Waits "Amused To Death" - Roger Waters "The Stone Roses" - The Stone Roses
"An Appointment with Mr Yeats" - The Waterboys "You Want It Darker" - Leonard Cohen
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Post by ChrisB on Apr 25, 2019 8:11:00 GMT
Interesting. No albums yet, on this Core Albums thread, from the Apple label. Or by the band Magma, for that matter.
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Post by MikeMusic on Apr 25, 2019 9:26:12 GMT
I've trimmed my list back to 75. Not sure how much lower I can go. These are only the 10/10 albums. There are some essentials that only get an 8 or a 9 Will think on. Very difficult
3 of the above in my 75 Ry Cooder - Bop Till You Drop Jeff Beck - You Had It Coming Argus - Wishbone Ash
Looking at all those wonderful albums makes me want to play all of them
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Post by MartinT on Apr 25, 2019 9:50:19 GMT
No cheating now - 11 is your maximum!
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Post by MikeMusic on Apr 25, 2019 10:04:24 GMT
I will always remember this book I Want You to Cheat_Have never read it. Love the title. Have applied it a few times His first book I Want You To Think is a good start I think a lot
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