So good that Silver Spring didn’t even make the cut. That album is perfection with absolutely no skips. Even the deluxe edition doesn’t contain a skip.
Need to Add: Queen - Night at Opera, Pink Floyd - The Wall, Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, my favorite Pat Methany is First Circle, Beatles - White Album or Revolver, Tom Petty - Wildflowers, Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
Great selection and 100% agreement on your list here. Depeche Mode's Violator is so underrated and not often mentioned as an audiophile album listen. Sounds so good nearly every song is solid through and through , the bass hits hard and tight and the instrument separation with Dave Gahans vocals is simply sublime.
Actually a pretty decent list that you came up with. I am right there with most of them. Here are a few additional ones that you may want to look at - Marillion (Clutching at Straws) - Rolling Stones (Exile on main Street) - Velvet Underground (VU and Nico) - Fleetwood Mac (Rumors) - Phil Collins (Face Value) - U2 (Joshua Tree) - David and David (Boomtown) - David Bowie (Rise and Fall of Ziggy) - The Blue Nile (Hats) - The Cure (Disintegration) - Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells)
The tracks on Dark Side of the Moon are like potato chips. You can't have just one. Much lesser known are a couple Waters' solo efforts The Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking and Radio Kaos. Both are impeccably produced 45 minute stories that walk you through a host of emotions while providing the critical listener with all the ear candy one could ask for.
Narrowing it down to 10 would be difficult even though I agree with your list. Supertramp's Breakfast in America and Deep Purple's Machine Head are others on my list and I can't forget Van Halen's debut album.
The bass and drums on moving pictures are amazing. Tom Sawyer has been played to death but the bass and drums on great speakers with subs are out of this world.
Yeah, Tom Sawyer was overplayed, but it's hard not to drum Neil Peart's drum break on the steering wheel while driving. Red Barchetta (pronounced correctly it has a hard K instead of a CH) is probably the greatest driving song ever recorded, and we're closer to that reality than you think.
Some albums not on your list which I favour... Marvin Gaye - What's Going On Paul Weller - Wild Wood The Who - Quadrophenia 10,000 Maniacs - Blind Man's Zoo Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible Carole King - Tapestry Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Also, I would agree that Sgt. Pepper's... is a sonic treasure. The separation is bliss!
Artist: Florence + The Machine Album: Lungs or Ceremonials. Every time RU-vid Music or Amazon Music plays a random track from either of these albums I switch over to playing the whole album.
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms...... is the definitive album of all time. It will never be surpassed. Hepcats - Out of Nowhere, or Hepcats - Scientific ............. absolutely fantastic albums. If you like ska music, the drums are out of control.
Nice list. For me it's hard to pick a top ten as I like a lot of genres and albums for different reasons. That said if we are talking favorite albums by groups. I would change the following on your list. Dire Straights - Love Over Gold Pink Floyd - Animals Rush - Signals
@@johnloupis9344 I have a format called dtsCD, no longer produced, that sounds fantastic. 5.1 surround, mixed brilliantly, yet sounds smooth and lively like vinyl. Available on SACD too. Haven’t heard that version yet.
While I'm not sure it has as much mass appeal, i would vote Radiohead's OK Computer on a GOAT list for sure . Have a listen Gene if you haven't already its a great one! :)
Rush- Farewell to kings King Crimson- Red Khan - Space Shanty II Balleto di Bronzo- Ys Osanna- Palepoli Electric Moon- Stardust Rituals Neu-Neu Lard Free- Lard Free Nektar- A tab in the Ocean Pulsar- Pollen Prog bands for the adventurous, just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you Sir for sharing your knowledge, Fabian Cheers from San Francisco
Great selections Gene. So difficult to narrow down to just 10, but some notable worthy omissions, AC/DC - Back In Black, Boston self titled, Fleetwood Mac - Rumours or even their self titled album is amazing from start to finish.
Not a bad list! I would probably leave out Genesis, Peter Gabriel, and Depeche Mode to include Supertramp's Breakfast in America, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and Jethro Tull's songs From the Woods. Also very difficult to leave out the first Boston album. Making a 10-album list is necessarily cruel.
You're maybe 10 years older than I. The more I get into quality audio, the more I find myself listening to all of these old albums. And now a few more. thanks.
You make a great point with DSOTM, it is popular and overplayed, but for good reason and was part of Pink Floyds’ peak. Wish You Were Here is my favorite, and Animals is right up there…but I usually want to hear all of DSOTM, while others I generally pick songs. For better or worse, it is an album that makes you want to stop what you are doing and just listen…hard to be productive when it draws you in…for me, not many other albums illicit that kind of response(for the entire album)
Love the prog picks Gene! Rush - Moving Pictures is definitely at the top of my list. I would round out my list with these: Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory Transatlantic - Whirlwind Yes - Close to the Edge Asia - Asia
Great list. I was going to mention Violator but you included it and I agree about Music for the Masses. DM is my favorite band. I like Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here more than DSOTM. Def Leopard-Hysteria, but I like Pyromania more. The Cure-Disintegration Metallica-Black album Alice in Chains-Dirt AC/DC-Back in Black Boston-Boston The Cars-The Cars U2-Joshua Tree Duran Duran-Rio Evanescence-Fallen INXS-Kick Led Zepplin-IV Madonna-True Blue Pearl Jam-Ten Nirvana-Nevermind Prince-Purple Rain The Police-Synchronicity The Sisters of Mercy-Floodland Tears for Fears-Songs From The Big Chair (The Hurting is my choice) Van Halen-Van Halen Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath So many choices to make a top 10 list.
Nice List Gene! I grew up and started to listen to music regularly in the 80's on Long Island. I have half of the albums on your list and I'll purchase the others to improve my library.
Great album choices! One thing I miss about the "old days" (the pre-Napster days) was that you fell in love with not just one or two songs from a good album but most or all of the songs in the album. When I bought an album, I would listen to the whole album and really get to like the songs that don't get much airtime and wind up really liking the album. These days, you just listen to the songs you know, and don't really get to know the other songs in the album.
Hi Gene, excellent choices. The trick with The Trick Of The Tail is the original LP or CD. The remastered CD is 'harsh' in comparison. I stupidly bought the remaster & gave the original to a relative. After a couple of years of trying to like the remaster I gave up. Luckily my non-audiophile relative agreed to a swap! I've had to do that with several remasters, so the're used to my requests!! Enjoy!!!
There are so many great albums out there, and I agree with all your favorites. If the list were expanded, I would add "Return to forever, Romantic Warrior" , as well as "Jeff Becks, Wired". Chick and Jeff Rip.
Gene thanks for the video. Top 10 lists are always fun to review and debate. There are probably no 2 lists that are identical. All 10 on your list are excellent. Two that I would add are one, A Space in Time by Ten Years After. I remember playing side one over and over and eventually flipping the record to side two. The second is Bridge of Sighs by Robin Trower. Incidentally the 50th anniversary edition was just released. Every song on the album is essential. Rock on!
I agree with your criteria but not a couple of your picks (although they _are_ pretty good!). I would skip the first, and potentially the second _and_ third tracks from _Thriller_ before you really get to the good stuff! I always thought this album was overrated in that way. As such, my additional criteria would be that a good album overall trumps an album with some of the best songs, but lots of average ones too. Some picks I think definitely show your (our) age(s) or possibly the ages of our parents, as I would definitely pick _Rubber Soul_ and _52nd Street_ for The Beatles and Billy Joel respectively. Looking though my "albums" playlist of 233 hours, I decided to pick a theme to narrow it down and went with Australian music, as it should be different to other lists here and might give your audience a few things they have not heard before. They are in no particular order except perhaps where they appeared in the playlist (which is probably alphabetical by artist, I just totally contradicted myself)! Birds of Tokyo - Birds of Tokyo Choirboys - Big Bad Noise Cold Chisel - East Icehouse - Measure for Measure INXS - The Swing James Reyne - James Reyne (The Australian version, sadly I think most streaming services have the US version which is not as good.) Jimmy Barnes - For the Working Class Man Midnight Oil - Red Sails in the Sunset Noiseworks - Noiseworks Turns out I ended up with just as many "honorable mentions", listed below with the reason they did not make the cut. Australian Crawl - Sons of Beaches: This may not be to everyone's taste, the mixing is quite agricultural. Boom Crash Opera - Boom Crash Opera: Would probably be 11 on the list. Company of Strangers - Company of Strangers: Excluded because of the woeful track _Welcome to the Sounds of Detroit._ Daryl Braithwaite - Edge: Once again, the last track is terrible. At least it is the last track, so you can just stop the CD/LP! INXS - Listen Like Thieves: Pretty much bumped out in favour of _The Swing_. One of the two bands in this list that I would say had 4 great albums in a row (along with Midnight Oil). Models - Media: Hmm, maybe this would have been 11! Pseudo Echo - Autumnal Park: Once again, this just didn't quite make the list. Even the newer CD version of this album with some added tracks doesn't really slip up. Savage Garden - Savage Garden: Both their albums are good, but I am sure everyone knows them already. Silverchair - Neon Ballroom: I think this album takes quite a bit of time and a number of listens to really appreciate. The Superjesus - Jet Age: Once again no real reason, it is not quite of the standard of the top 10. I am looking forward to other's lists, especially of someone does a British one. I saw enough in my playlist to probably do one myself!
Good list. Agree with a lot of it. Mine would be (grew up in the eighties so...) in no particular order: Curiosity Killed the Cat - Keep Your Distance (not a great production though) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (great in Atmos) Depeche Mode - Violator (but Music for the Masses, Ultra and Songs of Faith and Devotion are right up there). Please give us Atmos versions of all of those! Donald Fagen - The Nightfly Steely Dan - Gaucho George Michael - Ladies and Gentlemen (compilation, I know... But it's just a great collection of fantastic songs) Peter Gabriel - So Kate Bush - Hounds of Love Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms or Love Over Gold Many honorable mentions. Like: Norah Jones, Jamiroquai, Zero 7, INXS, Eagles... Hard to choose 🙂
Love your top 10 list as I owns all of them and listen to them regularly. But for me, my taste, my humble opinion 😅, my #2 spot right after Pink Floyd DSM is Supertramp Crime of the Century. To me it’s a non-skip album with a story telling from the beginning to the end. I’ll make sure to listen to your top 10 keeping in mind what you have said about them so I audition them differently . And for that, I thank you! Keep the good work and stay safe.
I prefer the Gabriel era of Genesis but I appreciate Trick of the tail... Selling is amazing. I will check out Violator as I love depeche mode. Animals and Wish you were Here are amazing for sure. As a Canadian anything Rush is amazing. 2112 especially.
A few of mine: Garbage’s first album. Stone Temple Pilot’s Core and Purple album, Lincoln Park’s first album, Beach Fossils’ Somersault, and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream.
Well, we do have similar tastes. Regarding Pink Floyd, I tend to gravitate more towards The Wall. Turns out, last weekend, I listened to CD-1 on Friday, then CD-2 on Saturday. Yes, I don't get tired of listening to Dark Side of the Moon. Rush, I am currently working on completing my collection. I listen to Xanadu almost every weekend. Music transports and "Soothes the Soul." Last, you can never go wrong with Pat Metheny.
My personal top three: Spock's Beard "Snow" Dream Theater "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory" Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucía "Friday Night in San Francisco"
DSOTM is awesome, especially in Dolby Atmos, the remastering has removed the background tape hiss. Better than the SACD in dynamics and information retrieval.
No Purple Rain? IMO the most perfect album ever made. Absolutely no skip tracks. Every single song is a classic. Opens with a banger in Let’s Go Crazy, with When Doves Cry in the middle, ending with one of the most epic closers in music history….Purple Rain. Greatest album of all time.
Mostly agree however, for me, I like Genesis Duke better than Trick of the Tail. Each track builds on the others and it just flows so well starting with Behind the Lines and concluding with Duke’s Travels/End. I’m also a big fan of Wish You Were Here, especially knowing some of the Sid Barrett backstory.
I agree with many of these--especially the need of Graceland to be in spatial audio! In my case, I would substitute Dire Straits Love Over Gold over the more "commercial" BIA. LoG also has my favorite Dire Straits song in "Industrial Disease" And add: John Cougar Mellencamp Scarecrow Supertramp Crime of the Century J Geils Band Freeze Frame Talking Heads Little Creatures ELP Brain Salad Surgery (esp in 5.1 w/Lucky Man) The Tubes Outside / Inside Men at Work Business as Usual Human League Dare And the genius of Los Lobos Kiko
I have one that won't make many lists, but I encourage anyone looking for a great album full of unique lyrics and fantastic music craft from Jack Holder on guitar and production. It's John Kilzer's Memory in the Making. There are some killer tracks with "Give me a Highway" stealing the show as an unreleased killer tune.
Easy to disagree with some of these. I would add Supertramps Crime of the century, and Queens Night at the opera. Also, I think Genesis was better with Gabriel as vocalist.
This is a good case for owning albums or LP etc (as well as streaming). So take Thriller for example, on Tidal at least there is no OG version, only special versions which DEFINITELY have skippable tracks Don't rely of streaming only people! I would add, but not for everyone Chemical Brothers - Exit Plant Dust Nick Cave - Live From KCRW
While great albums I wouldn’t say most of those are perfect. Agree with Thriller and Dark Side. I’d have to go with The Cars first album, Led Zep IV, Appetite For Destruction, Rumours, The Joshua Tree, Van Halen 1 to name a few. That said the albums in this list are amongst my favorite of all time.
Gene, I can tell u are a huge progressive rock fan. I'm surprised u didn't put Rush in that group. 76' 2112 & 81' Moving Pictures were my favs. Neil Peart is arguably the best drummer that ever lived.
Opinions are many and on most of these, I agree with you. Not all of course. The version of Dark Side that is most engaging is the Toshiba/EMI Pro Use version and particularly SHLV 804 AH. There are two Pro Use pressings of this and both are great. They even beat the UHQR version. Keep in mind the debate on this is armchair debateville! This album brings out the emotions of all who love prog. ❤
I would agree with Pink Floyd - Dark Side...and Rush - Moving Pictures and add the following for my list: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Journey - Infinity Queen - A Night at the Opera Crimson Glory - Transcendence Eagles - Hotel California Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water Styx - The Grand Illusion ELO - Out of the Blue
I got chills. I agree (and have) all of these except Depeche mode. Definitely a list for 50 somethings. Lol absolutely love Pat Metheny and Genesis. Thanks again for your fine work
@audioholics Gene, thank you for all the continued great content. This was a highly anticipated video. However, you brushed the topic of the multiple formats of each of these albums. Is there any way in the video description narrative you can tell us which versions of each of these albums stood out as the best presentation: SACD, DVD-A, Atmos, Blu-ray, or plain old original or re-release rebook? (I agree with you that Animals was great, especially the SACD 2018 remix release).
This was the first album I ever bought. I had just purchased a Sansui AU-7700, KLH 2 way speakers and a Phillips Turntable all for $250 new from Bryn Mawr Stereo, I believe it was the summer of 1974. I still have this album and play it often. Take Care Bill
What about Who’s Next? When they used to play Perfect Album Sides in NYC (can’t remember if it was WPLJ or WNEW), that was one where they could play either side.
Mine would include Radiohead Moon Shaped Pool, U2 Achtung Baby, Metallica Justice for All , Eric Clapton Unplugged and Elvis That’s the Way It Is - and Nigel Kennedy Vivaldi Four Seasons
Thanks to this impressions. Some of your favourite albums are some of mine, too. Others are new to me and are now scheduled to my next time playlists. Just missing Queen. Imho "A kind of Magic" as well as "Innuendo" are worth to be mentioned. Best regards from northern germany.
Nice list, lots of British artists there. I don't think I could come up with a list of 10 albums with unskippable tracks, but there's one album that got me into metal and is still one of my all time favourite albums: Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Totally agree with Thriller, there's a reason why it's one of the best selling records of all time.
Some excellent choices there Gene, like Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and of course, my all-time favorite album Steely Dan’s Aja. I would also add iRobot by Alan Parsons, 2112 by Rush, bridge Of Sighs by Robin Trower and morning phase by Beck among others, of course.
I think your list is spot on but there was so much iconic music that came out of the 60's, 70's and early 80's. So, IMHO it is impossible for any to define a perfect album. My list is comprised of notable songs that the album is known for, I did not focus on the quantity of hits or continuity of an overall theme, but that the song/songs that is on it is one that everyone knows and is able to sing the lyrics to. My 10 picks: Chicago 17, Eagles Desperado, Kansas Point of No Return, Led Zeppelin IV, REO Speedwagon Hi Infidelity, Doobie Brothers What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Natalie Merchant Tiger Lily, Sade Diamond Life, Journey Infinity. Honorable mentions: Aerosmith Aerosmith, Steppenwolf Steppenwolf, The Doors L.A. Women, Rolling Stones (I can't get no.) Satisfaction, Metallica Metallica ( The Black Album) AC DC Back in Black..
Can't do just 10. Here's my list, then a discussion of criteria Tool: AEnima....but also Opiate, Undertow, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days Tori Amos: Boys For Pele Sia: Some People Have Real Problems (before she was famous. If you want the best singing there it is) Fiona Apple: Tidal Animals as Leaders: Weightless (instrumental progressive metal with jazz and classical influences with the best Guitar Player and drummer (the current drummer) in the world) and also their self titled. Ani Difranco: Living In Clip (this is a live compilation album) The Head and the Heart: Self Titled (didn't like anything after that album) Intronaut: Habitual Levitations Khruangbin: both "The Universe Smiles Upon You" and "Con Todo El Mundo" A Mighty Wind: The Album Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas: Songs extracted manually by myself Metallica: And Justice For All Primus: Frizzle Fry Protest the Hero: "Kezia" and "Scurrilous" Radiohead: both "The Bends" and "OK Computer" Rage Against the Machine: Both "Self Titled" and "Evil Empire" The Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream System of A Down: Self titled, Toxicity, Steal This Album, Hypnotize, Mezmerize (Some of the best harmony vocals of all time, Particularly after the self titled but even on that one.) Infinien: Self Titled Pink Floyd: Dark Side and The Wall Mine has completely different criteria and while people should check them all out, most of it won't appeal to most people. Some of it is very heavy. Some of it, your grandmother would love. My "top ten" (30ish) has instrumental albums on it with, on average, drastically more progressive and complex music than your list, and is mostly albums with between zero and medium mass appeal. Mass appeal holds no weight on my list as requiring mass appeal puts limitations on creative choices. It's (Often) making a product for money vs simply letting the art flow out of you. Either way I word that, requiring it as criteria is definitely excluding much of the best music. I value creativity and originality above all else. A truly great original album will make you feel something you have never felt before. Vocals and lyrics are the least important (though still very important) part of music to me. My list also has drastically newer albums and artists. I don't disqualify every album with skip tracks either. I just require all actual songs are not skip tracks. For example, Tool in the early days of CD burning added one or two sort of non song noise tracks to make the album 80 minutes. At the time that made it a little trickier to copy since most affordable blank CDs were not 80 min discs. Top ten is so tough because I have about 30 that I like to throw in the conversation and not feel the need to order them or widdle them down to 10. That said, Dark Side of the Moon is on my list as well despite there being such a huge difference in my criteria. Must say something about Dark Side of the Moon that it can't bridge the divide between someone with tastes like yours and even someone with more obscure tastes. Not that I don't also really like some of the other stuff on your list. It just doesn't make my top 30ish.
Love Brothers in Arms. I have the Anniversarry SACD. One of the albums that sounds really great in multi channel audio. Also takes me back to happier simpler times too. But an amazing album.
Although Peter Gabriels "So" is a great record with mass appeal, I love his third self-titled album (AKA "Melt). It had a hit with Games Without Frontiers and Biko also got some airplay. But the rest of the tracks are weirdly outstanding with some great musicians lending a hand. I love "Intruder" (Phil Collins on drums using the gated reverb technique), "Family Snaphot" (A song imagining the assassination of a leader) and "Lead A Normal Life" about someone in a mental institution (Where else are you going to get the lyrics "Eating with a spoon, they don't give your knives"? All in all, a great list you came up with!
Agree, so is excellent, but PG III steals the show for me. Music, lyrics, concepts all are amazing. To me it is a concept album of a journey into the real life, challenges with society starting with his own issue- Intruder, I Don't Remember, Start, Family snapshot, then expanding to the society we live in "Games without frontiers", borders we create "Not one of us", the sufferings "Lead a normal life" and then finally ultimate sacrifice for the society with "Biko" to show the resistance against the oppression by the socirty
As a big Genesis (Gabriel era) fan....I have to agree with your assessment of A Trick of the Tail, I prefer Selling England, Foxtrot and my personal fav. The Lamb...however none of those have the mass appeal of Trick. Aja and The Stranger brings my mind back to a carefree time, single, doing whatever I want.....almost brings tears to my eyes. Thanks Gene!
Brothers in Arms is a favorite. But even better is the XRCD version taken from the same master tape. Separation is phenomenal and puts the soundstage further apart and to the outside of the speakers.
I agree with all of your "perfect album picks". We grew up in roughly the same music era. However, most guys my age (58) stopped listening to anything new after their mid to late 20's. But for some reason I seem to have an insatiable Appetite for new music! There are new albums that are every bit as good if you take the time to EXPLORE. No one is curating new music for you anymore. Streaming services are force feeding everyone with content that their algorithm thinks you want to hear. I still purchase most of my music. mostly in the form of digital downloads from the likes of Bandcamp. Some of my perfect album picks over just the last month are; Audio Vertigo by Elbow, What Kinda Music by Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes, A Southern Gothic by Adia Victoria and Nobody Smiling by Common. These are just some of my most recent dicoveries.
Very good list. Some albums not (or barely) mentioned here that I would put on the same table: Band on the Run. Rumors. Wish You Were Here. Breakfast in America. God Shuffled His Feet. The Trinity Session. Zoso (4). Abbey Road. Madman Across the Water. No need to mention the artists; if you know, you know. If you don't, find out.
I own Brothers in Arms on SACD. Sound quality is phenomenal to my ears. Also have Dark Side of the Moon in SACD. Pink Floyd is best heard in well done surround sound. I also have Wish You Hear on SACD, very good but could be better. Animals on Blu~ray is stellar. Sargent Peppers on Blu-ray is awesome. Somebody above mentioned Rumors. The DVD-Audio is excellent. SACD great too. I have yet to get a Dolby Atmos AVR, plan to soon. I still listen to vinyl too. One quick mention, not an original studio album it’s a best of: Bob Marley Legends on blu-ray, deluxe edition(looks like a book). Every song is a legend and the mix is top notch. I truly believe it’s how Marley intended it to be heard. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Mojo(I have the Blu-ray) and his solo album Highway Companion stellar from start to finish. Bad Company : Bad Company(I have the HDCD). Also just about any album by Larkin Poe. Every song every album. Whether I’m streaming, listening to SACD, DVD-Audio, vinyl or even HDCD & regular CD I enjoy too many entire albums to list. Even at work streaming onto small Bluetooth speakers I will play whole albums from time to time, whether it’s music older than myself or something from recent years. I would struggle to narrow down a top 10.
Great list although I haven't yet heard Aja or any Pat Metheny. Reading through the comments I'm picking up a lot or recommendations which will keep me busy for a while. So I have a recommendation of my own - Tangled in Reins by Steel Heart. I love this album from start to finish and the production is very good. I think it's a sound thing, if you love the sound you will love the whole album, if you don't then never mind. Tommy Vance (Friday Night Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 80's and 90's) thought they would be huge but they came around just as grunge was taking over and then the lead singer nearly died when a lighting rig collapsed on him in the middle of a concert.
