Music recommendations

Would people please recommend to me one album that you think is absolutely the "hundes kugeln". Something that you can highly recommend as pure excellence. I don't care what genre as I want to try some different stuff.

So, bring it on. Once I've had a listen to some new stuff I'll buy a pint for the person who recommends the one I like the most.

Thanks in advance.

Just one album per person please.

[img]http://www.keydeck.com/smilies/band.gif[/img]

well it's not the latest one, but it's one that i love and could listen to relentlessly:

Coldplay: Parachutes

Hello my good man.

I would recommend you, and everyone else, get a copy of Elliott Smith's either/or. The most breathtaking album of sublime beauty ever.

Failing that, try and download the tracks 'between the bars' and 'angeles' from it.

He was the best songwriter in the world, ever. Promise.

I'll be quiet now.

Old, but fantastic for late night listening - Portishead "Dummy", or perhaps Dirty Vegas (not title - it's their first album). OK, that's two albums so take Dummy as my choice but buy Dirty Vegas anyway.

One? You can't ask a question about music and expect only one suggestion!

Mainstream classics EVERYONE should own:

Bob Dylan "Blood on the Tracks" All Dylan albums really
The Beatles "Rubber Soul" same as above
The Doors "Morrison Hotel"
Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon"
Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin IV"
Talking Heads "Remain in Light"
Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"

Neo-Classics (recognized or soon to be):

Outkast "Aquemini"
Elliot Smith "Either/Or"
Nirvana "Nevermind"
Weezer "Pinkerton"
Massive Attack "Blue Lines"
Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted"
Jack Johnson "On and On"

More obscure stuff that will be hard to find but WELL worth owning:

moe. "Dither"
Guster "Parachute" and "Long and Gone Forever"
String Cheese Incident "Round The Wheel"
Phish "A picture of Nectar" and "Rift"

If I had to pic one to recommend as your next purchase I'd say Phish's "Rift." Very weird, very trippy, very catchy, and very different.

Stereophonics - Word Gets Around

Real hard to put a finger on just one album, so I will try and select some of my favorites that differ from each other the most.

From the familiar stuff category I would reccomend Stevie Wonders "Songs in the Key of Life" and "Hotter than July" albums, but you probably know all the songs already.

From the phattest dnb album I have heard in ages category I would suggest " Uprising" by Concord Dawn.

Some really mellow but musically clever stuff can be found on Funki Porcinis Fast Asleep album. Wicked smoking album, comes with trippy dvd.

NWAs Efil4zaggin remains my favorite rap album of all time, but if its too immature then my second favorite, Ice Cubes Lethal Injection is a bit more intelligent (while remaining firmly in the gangsta category).

And lastly my favorite album of the past year, a reggae album with a good mix of poppy and not-so-poppy tracks on it. Katchafires Revival is a must. It comes with a free dub remix bonus cd.

get a bit of Sigur Rós in your collection too.

'Agaetis Bryjun' or () whichever one you see first.

"This is amniotic, alt-folk, post-chamber music backed up by a winter wonderland of elemental Icelandic landscape metaphors to aid critics who get stuck for reference points: glaciers, geysers, waterfalls, jagged peaks, lapping waves, volcanic vistas, you get the picture." NME bollix talk for dead good.

but get elliott smith first.

and Pinkerton rules.

sorry.

Lushious Jackson - Electric Honey
Smashing Pumpkins - Melon choly (sp??) and the infinite sadness
Pixies - Doolittle
Dead Kennedys - fresh fruit for rotten vegetables

Ooh as an afterthought also...
Wicked Beat Sound System - Inna Styles.. I LOVE THIS ONE!!

I ask Chris the 4th I think he has ace taste in music... oh he already posted... so go with what he said!

Oh just one albulm. Well, I guess my favourite would have to be... you can´t say just one.. they´re all good for different moods! But my favourite in regards to how it makes me respond emotionally is prob the Smashing Pumpkins one.

best ever album is OK Computer by Radiohead

it's a bit dark though so don't play it just before a hot date...

Hi
off the top of my head, these ones.
New: "Fly or Die" by N.E.R.D.
[img]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000C6BQD.03.MZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
Old: "Songs from Northern Britain" Teenage Fanclub
[img]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000265XH.03.MZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
Compilation: St. Germain des Prés Café Volumes 1-4
[img]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005OC4P.03.MZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
Katrina

Sticking with the orignal request of one album: Leonard Cohen, The Future.

And you can borrow it from me if you like.

Masters at work 10th aniversary Volume 2 Box Set
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004WEYP
30 tracks from the masters great mix of stuff

Ian Pooley: Since then
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TL0B

And the best til last:
Jazzanova The Remixes 1997-2000
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004YTVD
I'll buy YOU a pint if you buy this CD. Best ever.

Contemporary piano music -

Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call - I think Dave Fanning said this was the best album ever made - and some of the tracks are poor! Listen in awe as a man turns his soul inside out accompanied by faint plonkings on a piano.

The Stone Roses - "The Stone Roses" and "Turns into Stone" - there are reasons why "I am the resurrection" is still the most played track amongst most music hacks. Produced by John Leckie of Radiohead fame - this is the zenith of guitar driven beauty.

Primal Scream - "Give out but don't give up" - how anyone can say "Scremadelica" is better than this is beyond me. This is the Rolling Stones at their best with a turbocharger and a jet engine stuck on.

Lenoard Cohen - "Death of a ladies man" - tough album to get into because the humour is so black - but once you do - there is more wisdom and emotion in this album than just about any other that i kno - the fact that Phil Spector did the production on this and the two were at their creative peaks at this time says quite a lot.

Any recordings of Beethoven symphonies with conduction by Carlos Kleiber are peerless.
Bruch/Tchaikovsky violin concertos with Kyung Wha Chung on lead make Nigel Kennedy and co. look like the over-marketed laughing stock they are.
Anything with Mitslav Rostropovich on cello is unsurpassed.

Loads more but that's a solid couple of months of bliss right there.

@DrivinWest
i thought "Pinkerton" was an incredible dissappointment after "weezer".

@chris
but yeh Sigur Ros are unreal.

If you really wanna hear something to knock your shit off the wall get Jeffrey Lewis's "chelsea hotel oral sex song"

If I was u keydeck , I'd start from the top down on that list. All of these albums take time to get into tho.

Just one is really hard. My trapped on a desert island top 10 list gets occasional substitutions. One that has stuck through the years though: Pearl Jam - Ten.

hi key, these three i could listen to over and over and over, endlessly, you get the picture...

The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" (sadly, don't own any more)
Van Morrison "Moondance"
Madonna "Ray Of Light"

@bb, 10 was on my short list too.

OK Computer is very cool, and I have not heard it for yonks. Thanks billybob.

Devil's Night by D12 is surprisingly good for a crew band if you like all that.

A real gem is Anouk. Urban Solitude is a good album to try. Great set of lungs on 'er.

Keep on your Mean Side by The Kills is pretty good.


Yeah man, but Kennedy plays Hendrix! 1983 on an electric violin is awesome.

Oh, I almost forgot. A MUST for all music lovers:

Devastatin' Dave "Zip Zap Rap"

[img]http://www.io.com/~dork/pics/recpics7/zipzaprap.jpg[/img]

Completely different genre as what has been listed so far but I would recommend:

Metallica- Master of Puppets
Queensryche- Operation: Mindcrime

I can't think of any 1 album, but here is one you must own: Michael Jackson - Thriller - the best pop album ever made.

I do love Royksopp - Melody AM as well.

Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

Find out what started all the fuss:

NERD- In Search Of...

But guys and gals. Im really impressed with peoples music tastes.

What a great thread. I have enjoyed looking all the bands up and listening to samples etc. A little too much of the soft sad guitar stuff for me, but there were some definite good ones there. If I see jazzanova anywhere I will download that.

Already downloaded "Devastatin Dave - The Turntable Slave" of course, not bad oldschool styles, but the anti-drug bullshit lets it down.

Reminds me a lot of the 80s classic Dont copy that floppy what could have otherwise been a real hit was let down by an imposing moral viewpoint.

Hard to enjoy rap music when it preaches too much, I prefer rap to affirm my behaviour rather than condemn it.

Vitamins, by Supernova

Hey
I'm gonna take my vitamins
Vitamins
You gotta take your vitamins
They're good for you
I gotta take my vitamins
Vitamins
You gotta take your vitamins
They're good for you

You gotta take your vitamins
You gotta tek them if you're fat or thin
You gotta take your vitamins
Two by two

Vitamins
Gotta take your vitamins
Two by two

--

EDIT: Oh yeah, Keydeck, follow Presh's advice, get mellon chollie and the inifite sadness. Great album, my favourite too.

lloyd cole - negatives.

I would recommend anything by Creed. The songs this band puts out are consistently top notch with almost no filler. The radio has been nice to Creed for several years now. Sure it's a heavy sound but consistently good.

Wow, that's such an unfair question to ask! One album, indeed...

Recent/New stuff

Wax Poetic - Nublue Sessions

Marques Wyatt - Horizons

Louie Vega - Elements Of Life

Various Artists - Blue Note Revisted

All-time

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

Elvis Costello - My Aim is True

Fela Kuti - London Scene

Miscellaneous good stuff you may not have considered already

Beach Boys - Sunflower & Surf's Up compilation reissue

Ozomatli - Self Titled

Jurassic 5 - Quality Control

The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

American Music Club - Everclear

Fiona Apple - When the Pawn Hits the Conflict He Thinks Like a King

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange

Wilco - Being There

Don't know if you were a fan Keydeck, but The Stunning re-released their first album at the start of the year.

Could bring back the odd happy memory. And the bogger anthem that is Brewing Up A Storm is still class.

You probably already have this but I recommend

Keane - hopes and fears

http://www.keanemusic.com/

i LOVE the soundtrack to The Royal Tennenbaums (it helps if you've seen the movie...LOVE it too)

Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

Ladytron - Light & Magic

The Avalanches - Since I Left You (love it )

Was listening to some excellent Maori music last night, specifically:
Prince Tui Teka which has a mix on it really, some international easy listening classics which I dont get into that much. Its his songs in Maori that really stand out. The best track on it is "E Ipo". And
Patea Maori Club. Their "Poi E" (heh original names eh) is an absolute classic, and a favorite of every aotearoan.

Kia mau ki to tanga!

Afro Celt Sound System - mixes African and Irish tunes

Banco de Gaia

Transglobal Undrground- Arab Indian and African

These three broadened my mind.

Haven't heard of Wheat, MM - but their reviews sound pretty good. I'll check 'em out

Based on Wheat's review, you might like Iron & Wine, in case you've not already heard. Actually, I'd recommend him to anyone...

@jeremy
agree with you on the Banco de Gaia thing

Talking of which, how about choosing the best track of all time?
Mine would be Banco de Gaia's Last Train to Lhasa - 15 minutes long and all of it real quality

If you're looking for a good variety of music, try Radio Paradise. Been listening to it at work the past few years and am always writing down songs I want to add to my library.

Here's a link to the recent playlist so you can get a feel for what they play . The DJ also does a pretty good job keeping a mood going and changing from song to song.

To quote the website information (i think it's pretty accurate):
Radio Paradise is Old Fashioned Radio for the 21st Century
Each hour of music is carefully blended together to flow smoothly between different musical styles & genres - just like real DJs used to do on FM. We don't use the computer-generated playlists or "carefully researched music libraries" that have sucked the soul out of FM radio - and we never just throw songs together at random the way many web stations do.

Band: PURACANE
Album: THINGS YOU SHOULD LEAVE ALONE

TTers have good taste! Is it, or is it not true that that element of taste is somehow, well, missing over here?

BAND: Sam Roberts
ALBUM: We were born in a flame

Canadian band you never heard of. Extremely good album.

As far as newer stuff goes i like:
oo good question

some one already mentioned N.E.R.D. Fly or Die ... thats a really cool album
Kanye West "College Dropout"
Chingy "Jackpot"
Fabolous "Street Dreams"
Fabolous "Ghetto Fabolous"
D12 "D12 World"
Outkast "The Speakerboxxx..."
I dont think theres one bad song on the chingy and fab albumss

Evenescence "Fallen" is pretty good
Any Nirvana Album is good
The Darkness album is good... its so different from what they play today so its cool
Limp Bizkit "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water"
Linkin Park "Hybrid Theory"

CCR 20 Greatest Hits
The Doors, Best of
The Beatles ... i like all all their stuff

The new Norah Jones album is prolly pretty good... her stuff is kinda slow but its good for when want relaxing type music thats not too boring.

well, if anybody's at a lose end and can listen to music in work try this: In Position

irish fella by the name of Ollie Cole from a band called Turn.

top band, top fella, top tune.

Legend by Bob Marley, if you already have that one, anything from The Clash will do.
peace.

Some really decent suggestions here (Elliot Smith either/or is genius), but I'm ever so slightly biased towards:

Jeff Buckley - Grace . His version of Hallelujah is sublime, if your heart doesn't slip in two listening to that, you're already dead.

Ok, I'll have to add on to the Elliott Smith suggestions and say anything by Elliott Smith is absolutely fantastic (definitely Either/Or, Figure 8 and XO).

--Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
--Pixies - Death to the Pixies (great compilation of all their best - though it's ALL good - Bossanova, Surfer Rosa, Come on Pilgrim, Doolittle, Trompe Le Monde, etc...)
--Replacements - Stink, Hootenanny and Sorry, Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash
--Camper van Beethoven - Camper van Beethoven
--Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
--Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
--Richard Thompson - The Best of the Capitol Years and Rumor and Sigh (at least for 1952 Vincent Black Lightenin')
--Tom Waits - Early Years Volume 2
--Jeremy Enigk - Return of the Frog Queen
--Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes
--Smog - Red Apple Falls
--Pavement - Crooked Rain
--Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur Jr. and Where You Been
--Buena Vista Social Club
--Paco De Lucia - Antologia

--Mississippi John Hurt - Today
--Anything by Lightnin' Hopkins

And it goes without saying, anything by Dylan, though I'm with DW - Blood on the Tracks is top. Best song? It's Alright Ma on Bringin' It All Back Home.

Not to mention Dave Brubeck, Fletcher Henderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, etc., etc...

And, of course, anything by the Grateful Dead.

An album by an Irish singer by the name of Damien Rice called O is very very good.
Sigur Ros would recommend to anyone, fantastic stuff.
I saw someone recommended the Portishead album, well go for the singer's own album as well, which is also brilliant stuff. Called Out of Season and is by beth gibbons and rustin man.

Exile on Guyville by Liz Phair is brilliant and more or less anything by PJ Harvey.

Neil Young
Sting
Björk
Avril Levigne

renaissance italian music

['cause the rythms and melodies are jazzy and
help me to forget about the irrevocable damage
done by having to practice Bach's Wohltemperiertes Klavier for 9 f...g years
over and over and over again because it was considered "good for us" (public high school) and because the rythms were so pure...and... mathematically exact.]

Really unusual one - Mikis Theodorakis: Alxis Zorbas.
It's a balley, and yeah it's got evrything to do with the movie Zorba the Greek, including THAT song. But there's a load more great stuff on it. If you like that slightly off-harmony sound.

Cool to see so many Elliott Smith fans about the place. Irish band Turn are fully fledged elliott enthusiasts, so id recommend them.

Actually, ive just found a brand spanking new tune from them to listen too, not sure of the sound quality. Too Beat

For the musio heads out there id recommend Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot too. Really amazing record.

And if you're still here when the snow comes, take a walk about in it listening to Sigur Ros - cause it rules.

anything on the putumayo label to get you started in the wonderful world of "world music", then you can take it from there in whichever direction you want. presuming you don't already have a world music collection - if you do, let me know, we can compare CD's :-)

lots of great music was mentioned. im proud of Toytown! oh and ANY velvet underground album is a must. mooney suzuki tunes have been stuck in my head all day...

Eleni Mandell - Afternoon

West Indian Girl - Self-Titled - heard a couple songs on the radio from this; seems interesting.

Amp Fiddler - Waltz of a Ghetto Fly

Phoenix - Alphabetical

Jem - Finally Woken - props to the old workplace for promoting her

Mocean Worker - Enter The Mowo

Daniele Luppi - An Italian Story

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

@Keydeck --

My Top 3

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Sublime - 40 oz to Freedom

JJ Cale - The Very Best of JJ Cale

and for good measure -- one of the greatest albums I've heard -

Tom Petty - Wildflowers