Must-have albums?

For anyone like me who got an iPod or similar device for Christmas, what are some MUST HAVE albums? Include genre, please!

Fleetwood Mac - Rumors is the quintessential album for any fan of rock/soft rock from the 70s.

Kanye West - College Dropout is a great album if you're into hippity hop.

Nirvana Unplugged in New York - essential for any grunge/folk listener(also my favorite album ever)

Macklemore - The Heist. Probably the best hippity-hop out there atm.

Err this is hard because we have different tastes...

Everybody loves RHCP




Here's something a little riskier but I know you appreciate folk.


Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave

I'm more of an individual song guy, I usually can't enjoy every song from an album. As of now I have a little under four hundred songs, all of them downloaded individually and placed into playlists that are labeled under the corresponding band name. My entire system for my music is redundant, but I've built it so far that there's no reason to stop at this point.

I'll just dish out some of my most played and you can go from there. My tactic for finding new bands is to, y'know, get a referral (Muah.) and use the ol' google to search for similar bands, listen to their gigs, et cetera.

































Not really a contribution because it doesn't meet the criteria. Just throw whatever you want onto your iPod, these are just to get you moving. If you even enjoy any of them.

The Defamation Of Strickland Banks. it's a soul album but with a story to it. Plan B is one of the most talented artist out there making music and being in really amazing movies also creating his own. check him out he has lots of different music styles.

This soon will become a movie after he releases his album "Ballad Of Bell-Marsh"


The story.

The album tells the story from the first-hand perspective of Strickland Banks, a fictional character played by Plan B. The album's opening tracks, "Love Goes Down" and "Writing's on the Wall", are love songs sung by Strickland Banks at a concert. "Stay Too Long" follows him and his entourage as they celebrate the success of his concert with a night out which culminates in him having a one-night stand with a woman. In "She Said", we learn that this woman is obsessed with his music and believes herself to be in love with him. He rejects her so she alleges that he raped her. The subsequent trial results in his incarceration, and in "Welcome to Hell" he is sent to prison, and much of the rest of the album is about his experience inside. Throughout the course of the songs "Hard Times" and "The Recluse" we see Strickland get more isolated and insecure throughout as he struggles to cope with prison life. This results in his abuse at the hands of other prisoners, resulting in him purchasing a shiv on the prison black market throughout the course of "Traded in My Cigarettes". In "Prayin'" he is confronted by another prisoner who attacks him. With the help of another inmate Strickland kills the attacker in self-defence, with the other inmate taking the blame, and is burdened with this guilt during "Darkest Place". The next two tracks, "Free" and "I Know a Song" detail initially his anger, then his acceptance of his life inside prison. In the last track, "What You Gonna Do", Strickland is in court again as new evidence has been brought up on his case. The album finishes with the listener not sure of whether he is sent back to prison or released, leaving it open to interpretation.

I know this is SMK's topic. But thanks Apoc you just introduced me to like 10 really good songs I've never heard.

You really can't go wrong with Is This It by The Strokes. I love a lot of albums, but this of one of a handful I've listened to where I'm not tempted to skip a track upon repeated listens. It's very tight and composed alternative rock record. There's not a filler track to be found.



Another really tight album is The National's Boxer. I really love this record. I love the rich baritone of the singer's voice. I love the intricate and interesting drumming patterns that are featured on a lot of the tracks. I love the polyrhythms in the opening track (featured below). I like the lush instrumentation. It's a really kickass indie rock album. If you like depressing, Joy Division type music, I'd recommend this record.
(Excuse the SODEEPMAN music video, it's the best quality audio of this track I could find on Youtube. The rest all had peaked, shitty audio.)


My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is another fantastic record. It's not exactly a record everyone can easily get into though. It's practically a testament to noise and sound textures, and the vocals are buried pretty deep in the mix. It obscures it's melodies and it's vocal lines beneath layers of guitar distortion and reverb, and it's lovely. I love this album mostly because I really love filthy, dirty, noisy music. It's the king of shoegaze albums. The only thing I can really fault this album for is that it will sometimes get a bit heavy on the repetition of it's hooks.



A final recommendation for now would be Cure for Pain by Morphine. It's sort of hard to even stick this band in a genre. It eschews the typical "guitars, bass, and drums" lineup of your standard rock band, for "two string slide bass, saxophone, and drums". Frontman Mark Sandman described it as "low rock", which I suppose is as apt a descriptor as just calling it "alternative rock." Very mellow, very jazzy, very nice.

Good stuff Spaz. Just recently got into the National. Never heard of Morphine and I found that song to be pretty damn good so I'll definitely be checking them out.


Gil Scott- Heron was a poet who died earlier in 2012. Jamie XX is the frontman of The XX.

Artist: Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx
Album: We're New Here

I have been listening to 3 albums since christmas. THey are pretty much all rock/indie rock.

AWOLNATION- Megalithic Symphony



Muse- The 2nd Law



Imagine Dragons- Night Visions

Goblin


Bastard


Ocular Spectacular