Winner and still champion
Sep. 5th, 2008 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurOne of the best things about getting the huge new iPod for my birthday is that it gives me carte blanche to rip our whole huge CD collection. But me being me, I'm going through it all, listening to each disc as I go and rating all the tracks. I don't actually tend to listen to albums much on the iPod: instead, I have three main playlists titled "Good", "Better" and "Creme de la Creme", based on how each track is rated. I leave the thing on shuffle, and pick which playlist I want depending on whether I'd prefer more variety or higher quality.
My musical tastes have gradually shifted over the years -- I do a lot more electronica and metal than I once did, following my fondness for kicky and loud music. But having inventoried something like 500 discs so far, I find that the head-and-shoulders Best Album of All Time in my book is still Between the Breaks... Live! by Stan Rogers. I mean, I am *very* strict about the Creme de la Creme list, but this one album has four tracks for it (Barrett's Privateers, The Mary Ellen Carter, The White Collar Holler and Rolling Down to Old Maui). The best album by one of the greatest musicians ever, still more powerful and beautiful than just about anything else out there.
(Just to drive home how eclectic my musical tastes are, my number-two album is Aqualung -- not nearly as pretty, but perhaps the best channeling of raw anger I've ever heard in music.)
So turning this into a good Friday conversation: do you have a favorite? I mean, the One Best Album Ever?
My musical tastes have gradually shifted over the years -- I do a lot more electronica and metal than I once did, following my fondness for kicky and loud music. But having inventoried something like 500 discs so far, I find that the head-and-shoulders Best Album of All Time in my book is still Between the Breaks... Live! by Stan Rogers. I mean, I am *very* strict about the Creme de la Creme list, but this one album has four tracks for it (Barrett's Privateers, The Mary Ellen Carter, The White Collar Holler and Rolling Down to Old Maui). The best album by one of the greatest musicians ever, still more powerful and beautiful than just about anything else out there.
(Just to drive home how eclectic my musical tastes are, my number-two album is Aqualung -- not nearly as pretty, but perhaps the best channeling of raw anger I've ever heard in music.)
So turning this into a good Friday conversation: do you have a favorite? I mean, the One Best Album Ever?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Funny, I was just thinking about Desert Island Discs
Date: 2008-09-05 07:39 pm (UTC)"Best Album?" Not really, no. I have listened to certain albums way too many times over and over, mostly in the decade-ago-or-more time frame, and yet still like the songs on them: Eagles Greatest Hits; Tracy Chapman's self-titled; likewise Indigo Girls; The Pretender; Listen Without Prejudice (with a few tracks skipped); Chicago's Greatest Hits (1982-)... Assuming greatest hits 'albums' count. ;)
Some albums are perfect in a particular setting. Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" on a clear, cool country road just as the sun sets is perfect. Billy Joel's "Cold Spring Harbor", likewise, for a quiet morning sitting in a lake house -- and is added fun as I can play the entire album on the piano, with only a few slips on the fastest song. I have the sheet music for Hornsby, too, but don't fool myself that I can keep up with him. (Sheesh!)
And Sgt. Pepper is still the "king of all albums", I just don't listen to it all that much specifically, partly because if I do, it's a 45 minute investment (or the subsequent tracks will get stuck in my head...)
Oddly, Led Zeppelin IV, which has so many classic songs on it, doesn't seem very "album"ish to me.
Re: Funny, I was just thinking about Desert Island Discs
Date: 2008-09-05 09:21 pm (UTC)Hmm. This semester is probably the best chance for that --
Assuming greatest hits 'albums' count.
Kinda cheating, but I'll take it -- heaven knows that several of my faves are greatest-hits collections. Indeed, a bunch of mid-level groups have truly excellent greatest-hits albums...
Re: Funny, I was just thinking about Desert Island Discs
Date: 2008-09-05 09:36 pm (UTC)Re: Funny, I was just thinking about Desert Island Discs
Date: 2008-09-05 10:35 pm (UTC)Re: Funny, I was just thinking about Desert Island Discs
Date: 2008-09-07 03:51 pm (UTC)Psinging
Date: 2008-09-07 04:43 pm (UTC)