Comments | axver: My Top 50 Albums

axver

My Top 50 Albums

Jan 12, 2008 22:31

Yesterday, liamtreasure challenged me top compile a list of my top fifty albums. For some insane reason, I have accepted the challenge despite the fact that I find even a top ten to be close to impossible. I already disagree with this list; I doubt I could ever make a list that I would stand behind for more than five minutes. However, I do feel that it is a ( Read more... )

the shadows, u2, anathema, dream theater, joy division, crowded house, pure reason revolution, porcupine tree, music, agalloch, alcest, orphaned land

Comments 58

torak303 January 12 2008, 13:32:43 UTC

I have to admit, I don't own one of those.

axver January 13 2008, 10:03:57 UTC

I can't say I'm too surprised, given the obscurity of most of my selections. But I was under the impression that it was hard to live on this side of the planet without owning a Crowded House album!

evilmissbecky January 12 2008, 15:12:56 UTC

I'm surprised how far down The Joshua Tree is on the list.

The Unforgettable Fire is truly a great album, but the placement of 4th of July bugs the crap out of me. I don't like it, and it takes me right out of the listening experience. I honestly feel it should be the first song on the album. Promenade --> Bad is a far better segue.

Just my two cents. :-)

axver January 13 2008, 10:07:40 UTC

It's not really that far down. Anything placed between 11-25 could have placed in the top ten. Until recently, I would lock in The Joshua Tree in at fourth place without thinking. It was actually the remaster that made me reconsider - ISHFWILF is boring as shit and Bullet just does not achieve half of its potential on the album.

And aren't you aware your comment is heresy on my journal? ;) I think 4th Of July cohesively links Promenade and Bad; anything else would lack the subtlety to pull the job off with such apparent effortlessness. I tried Promenade --> Bad once and couldn't stand it, as I feel the shift in moods is all wrong. That said, I wouldn't object to Bass Trap taking 4th Of July's place.

evilmissbecky January 13 2008, 14:26:15 UTC

And aren't you aware your comment is heresy on my journal? ;)

Actually I figured my icon would get me banned. ;-)

I just think 4th of July works better to open the album. It sets the stage for everything that is to come. Coming between Promenade and Bad, it becomes a mood killer.

So, shall it be pistols at dawn then? :-)

axver January 14 2008, 05:34:54 UTC

Haha. That's one bloody ugly cover, but you'd have to do worse to be banned. ;)

I can't even imagine 4th Of July as the opener. That seems so counter-intuitive. It's a good mood piece to slot into the middle of the album and to help transition between two soft but thematically grossly dissimilar tracks.

Also, the reason I still listen to U2 at all is because of the first 30 seconds of the UF album. If ASOH weren't kicking things off and sucking me back in, well ...

*grabs submachine gun pistol and waits for dawn*

palinurus January 12 2008, 17:15:19 UTC

Mate, you're a bit cracked in the head if you think Judgement is (20 places!) better than the Joshua Tree.

axver January 13 2008, 10:09:18 UTC

Considering how Judgement has drawn an emotional response from me that no other album has even come remotely close to achieving, I think you're the one who's cracked in the head! Though to be fair to The Joshua Tree, it could have easily placed the top five. Anything in the top 25 could've. At the end of the day, it's ISHFWILF and Bullet that held back The Joshua Tree from a higher placing.

palinurus January 13 2008, 18:37:06 UTC

Psh...Alternative 4 is better too.

axver January 14 2008, 05:32:10 UTC

Alternative 4 is their second best, it's close to the same level. The title track just creeps me out though - I can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing.

Thread 10

chariadeone January 13 2008, 01:22:57 UTC

Wow, Unfortgettable Fire. That's pretty interesting. It's not really up there for me. It's groovy seeing that different parts of one band touch people in diverse ways.

axver January 13 2008, 10:12:45 UTC

I've noticed one thing about The Unforgettable Fire in the last few years of championing it as U2's greatest artistic achievement - people either agree that it is right up there as one of the best albums and qualifies as one of the band's masterpieces, or it simply slips by them and they don't really notice it that much.

I was actually the latter originally. I used to think the title track was dull; it took five whole years to get my attention! I would put that down to the folly of being 11-16 years old, but I loved Bad from the moment I heard it so I have no explanation. Now, it's my third favourite U2 song ever, right behind One Tree Hill and Bad. I think the fact that three songs from The Unforgettable Fire (the aforementioned two and A Sort Of Homecoming) are in my top ten U2 tracks speaks volumes.

chariadeone January 13 2008, 11:34:39 UTC

That's another thing. Time passes and we embrace things we didn't before. That happened with me and October. When I first got it, I think it was almost out of duty because I had all other U2 albums or most of them at the time. But then I started to really listen to it or it really started to speak to me. I am not sure why, but then all of a sudden I grew to really love it.

axver January 13 2008, 12:20:42 UTC

I remember when I got October. I knew it had a bad reputation - but I loved it straight away. It's honestly in my top five U2 albums, top four if you don't count Passengers, and I think it easily has Larry's best drumming (only War is even in the same ballpark). Songs like Gloria, I Threw A Brick, Rejoice, Fire, Tomorrow, and Scarlet are absolute quality. It's heresy, but if there were a fire and I could save the master tapes of either October or Achtung Baby but not both, I'd grab October without even hesitating.

Thread 12

ladyphoenixia January 14 2008, 09:19:13 UTC

I'm surprised not to see U2: War up there, as in my opinion that's by far the best of their albums, and Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day are my two favourite of their songs... on the other hand, apart from The Cure, Pink Floyd (of whom I would go The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon before Animals) and Crowded House, none of your bands I even know.

I can't imagine even trying to do a top albums list. There are just so many good ones out there...

axver January 14 2008, 09:36:40 UTC

War is my halfway mark for U2. With the exclusion of the Rattle And Hum album, I think it's the weakest of their eighties albums, but that's not at all a put-down. It's just marred by Red Light, and some of the other songs (Two Hearts Beat As One and 40) don't stand out to me enough for it to break my top fifty. I've also always thought Sunday Bloody Sunday's studio version was a bit over-rated, especially in light of the incredible "Fuck the Revolution" performance on the Rattle And Hum movie. But New Year's Day, Like A Song, and Drowning Man are three of my top U2 songs.

It may be Pink Floyd heresy, but I cannot stand The Wall. I feel that there are only about four or so listenable songs, and the rest of the album sacrifices musical quality at the altar of its concept. As for DSOTM, I enjoy almost all of it, but it happens to have by far my least favourite Pink Floyd song, The Great Gig In The Sky. I would place four albums ahead of it - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Atom Heart Mother, and the two that made this list. I also ( ... )

ladyphoenixia January 14 2008, 10:00:36 UTC

Hmm, fair enough. The Wall was the first Pink Floyd album I ever really got into, but Wish You Were Here would certainly be their best. And I'm not a big enough U2 fan to have that much of an opinion, really.

New Zealand has decent music, really? All I know, apart from the Finn Brothers, are Evermore and Shihad (which i don't mind, though they wouldn't make my top bands) and Scribe (which I hate).

axver January 14 2008, 11:52:26 UTC

Depending on my mood, I sometimes rank Wish You Were Here ahead of Animals. My one really bizarre Pink Floyd opinion is that I think Summer '68 is their best song. Yes, of all songs. liamtreasure convinced me that it was well worth my time, and then one night I was standing in the rain waiting for a tram and it just hit me. As for U2, I used to be a serious fanatic (I'm still the co-maintainer of a U2 setlist archive) - that has waned quite considerably in the last two years though, and I wouldn't even consider them to be one of my top three bands any more. Still love The Unforgettable Fire though ( ... )

Thread 22