What ridiculously famous album did you only just listen to now you fucking loser?

I only recently heard the Bowie album Lodger. It's now become one of my favorite Bowie of the Berlin trilogy.

My vote for best thread title.

Second the best thread title vote.
Oh, Dark Side of the Moon. Can't really explain missing that one.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

It's really good.

If you regularly listen to any rock stations, you've probably already hear Dark Side in it's entirety by now.

I just recently listened to Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing." Don't know how or why it took me this long, but it did.

Exhile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones

Fucking great album. "Rip This Joint" is the single greatest Rock 'n Roll song of all time.

Not as good as ROCKS OFF is.

It's way better.

Primal who?

. Indeed...

Yes rules.

I advise people to seek out the album Relayer.

It was only about a year ago that I finally gave Bowie a chance. Watching The Life Aquatic and Velvet Goldmine on concurrent days stirred up interest, so I went and bought Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Diamond Dogs. My experience was a little more positive than cognizant's. Bowie's my favorite artist now and I think I have everything he recorded prior to Scary Monsters.
I still haven't develed into much after that. I'm going to be a little selective there. I'm not changing my dislike for that China Girl/Blue Jean era. The early stuff though, I'm just disappointed I didn't listen to it earlier.

Just recently gave Motorhead it's day in court and I'm loving them as well.

I just bought Pink Floyds Wish You Were Here a few weeks ago. I don't know how I called myself a Floyd fan without owning that album, it's so great.

One month ago, I only just heard Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. I fucking hated it and still hate it. It doesn't really help that I've always hated the Beach Boys.

Aladdin Sane is his best. I also dig Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust.

His last album was utter shit. Watch your ears.

I agree with this. I will say you should probably stop at Scary Monsters. If you like the singles on Lets Dance, then go for it. But I would stop with SM.

Back on topic, I also just listened to The Clash's London Calling for the first time. I always like them, but never got around to any of their albums.

While I make plenty of snap judgments on people's taste based on a single like or dislike, I seldom make judgments on their characters. Today, I make an exception:

You are a sad, incomplete, and morally questionable person.

I'd say be picky with your latter-day Bowie purchases, but don't write them off completely. The first Tin Machine album is one of my favorite albums of his.

Outside is a great album as well. I think it's one of his best.

Usually I'm not insulted until after I've clicked on a thread. Kudos Cognizant!

Am I the only person who doesn't listen to music by albums? I've been pirating songs off of Kazaa and Limewire since high school, and thus haven't ever seen the necessity to buy music in CD form (or really had the luxury), and just download bands' music in individual songs. I've always seen it as a good thing as I get all the good songs from a CD and make my own, without having to skip through any of the tracks that I don't particularly enjoy. But have I really missed out on much by listening to music this way instead of going straight through certain albums? With the exception of, say, Dark Side Of The Moon set to the Wizard Of Oz, are there any real album experiences that one would say are imperative simply for the music grouping/ordering or what have you?

i dont own the white album
just bought hunky dory and
own a burned copy of closing time but have never listened

This thread made me feel bad, so yesterday I went off and listened to a bunch of 'classics' that I know I had been missing out on for a while. I aquired Husker-Du's Zen Aracade, some Misfits, The Replacements and The Minutemen (all which I had briefly listened to back in high school), as well as a bit of Dinosaur Jr, a band that I've tried often to get into, but I just never get the full appeal of them.

The band that made me feel like I was missing out on the most was Sebadoh. I knew of them for so many years know, and I kept hearing the comparisions to my cherished Pavement, but laziness just prevented me from really checking them out. III is a really great album, and Total Peace is a lovely track.

I agree. I've never understood the Beach Boys reverence or why this album always shows up between 1 and 3 on critics greatest albums ever lists. It's a more mature Beach Boys, but it's still the Beach Boys. Nothing in the lyrics or the music moves me in the least bit. It's always seemed like a lot of people love this album because they have to say they love it.

I respect DaveB's musical taste's and opinions, so I'd like to hear him explain this album to me. I'd really love to understand why this is genius, but I just don't get it.

BTW Dave, kudos for the Tin Machine recommendation. I remember that coming out when I worked in a record store and it was surprisingly good. I'd forgotten all about it.

Too add to the latter-day Bowie albums worth checking out, I'll submit heathen. I might be alone on this one, but I think it's a solid little piece. Not up with his classic stuff, but worth a listen.

DaveB, I respect your music views, I really do. Let me pick your brain and ask what would you have on your best album ever list(s)?

It's all in the melodies and arrangements. The lyrics, in all their youthful naivete, wouldn't work with any other music. In fact, they would sound utterly ridiculous. But combined with those harmonies, they speak to some universal feelings on happiness, sadness, the loss of innocence, and the yearning for love.

Its greatest strength is the detail work. I don't mean this in any sort of "you need to be a music major" to get what Wilson was attempting, but rather that there's a ton of emotional nuance going on under those simple melodies and lyrics. For instance, "Wouldn't It Be Nice," which contains a fairly simple (and even happy and optimistic) sentiment on its face, has these quick moments in which the music expresses a weird trepidation and almost a melancholy.

"Caroline, No" does almost the opposite. It's probably the most downbeat song on Pet Sounds, lyrically and musically. Yet there are these sublime moments where the music climbs despite the lyric. It's one of music's most impressive moments of wallowing in sorrow - it's the way you wallow in sorrow when you're a teenager and everything is dramatic.

As for "God Only Knows," I don't really know how to explain it if you don't get it. The appeal just seems sort of obvious to me, and I'm an atheist, at that.

Sure, "Sloop John B." and some of the other more straightforward moments like "I Know There's a Reason/Hang on to Your Ego" - they're palate cleansers on Pet Sounds, but tuneful enough that, on any other album, they'd probably be highlights.

I get not liking the Beach Boys of "Surfin' Safari" or the Beach Boys of Smile (though I know some who consider it the equal to Pet Sounds, the lyrics are just too flakey, the music too cutesy for me to put it on that level). I certainly get not liking the Beach Boys of "Kokomo." But I've always thought of Pet Sounds as the single great undeniable moment in their history - something not just nostalgists, music snobs, advertising execs (does anyone else's first Beach Boys memory involve Sunkist?), or John Stamos and his fabulous bongo playing, but anyone who's been a teenager in the 20th century West, should be able to appreciate on some level.

Pet Sounds - Beach Boys, which I thought was great.

Liege and Leif - Fairport Convention - considering I don't really like folk music i was suprised at how much I liked this.

I'll have to consider this question a bit, but, while I can think of rock albums as good as London Calling, I can't think of any that are better.

I like Fairport okay (at least the Thomson/Denny era - a lot of the later stuff I've heard is pretty weak), but, if you haven't already, check out Richard Thompson's solo stuff. It's a little less focused on the folk, more on the rock and pop.

In fact, I'd say Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights could easily fit somewhere on my 'best album ever' list.

I own both Leige and Leif and the best of. The best of appears to be reworkings of thier older stuff which is unfortuantly awfull.

My friend is really into the folk scene and keeps pressing me to try new stuff, the only other recomendation of her's ive tried so far is the best of Eliza Carthy. Carthy is ok but by all accounts her dad is better.

Of the British folk scene, the only ones that really clicked with me were early Fairport, the Thompsons (above all), and Nick Drake, all of whom were mostly just dabblers in trad style, not straight-up traditionalists. Some of Sandy Denny's solo stuff is good, too. Didn't care too much for the one Steeleye Span album I've heard.

Not sure if it counts as rock, but it took WALK THE LINE to get me to really listen (not just hear a song on the radio) to Johnny Cash. Now I can't get enough of his really old stuff.

Last year, I heard Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" and Neil Young's "Harvest" for the first time. I really liked the Young, but I haven't really listened to it in a while. "Court and Spark", however, soon became one of my favorite, most-played albums and kicked off a "Joni Mitchell phase" for me--I have the Geffen set in my collection (Night Ride Home, Dog Eat Dog, Wild Things Run Fast, and Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm), and I love every one of them. I know her earlier stuff, but I haven't sat down and listened to, say "Ladies of the Canyon." This thread makes me want to track them down, though.

I also got into Charlie Parker recently, picking up the "Birdman" anthology, and Billie Holiday, thanks to Ken Burns's "Jazz" documentary. Love 'em both, especially Parker, who may just be my second favorite jazz artist next to Miles now, although I always feel completely inadequate when it comes to jazz music.

The big gap in my musical knowledge, though, has to probally be Zepplin. They're a band I appreciate, and I like some of their songs like "When the Levee Breaks" and "Kashmir"--but I haven't sat down and listened to an album straight through. I've heard that every music aficianado goes through a Zepplin phase--I guess I haven't hit mine yet.

And while DaveB said it better than I did, I'll concur: Anyone who doesn't like or appreciate "Pet Sounds" has no soul. End of story.

Despite the fact that I saw Depeche Mode in London earlier this year and thought it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, I only just listened to Violator.

And if that album isnt ridiculously famous, it ought to be.

I didn't get Pet Sounds until about 6 months ago. I've heard plenty of Beach Boys, but never got the whole experience. As a San Diego boy, It was always hardwired in my brain to love The Beach Boys, and I always liked them, but now I love them.

If you're not affected by Wilson's anguished wail in "Wouldn't it be Nice" around the 1:40 mark or get what a beautiful longing love song "God Only Knows", you really have no soul

You know, the more we talk about it, it only makes it worse to live without it...

Honestly, I think that Pet Sounds has one of the best openings to an album ever (along with "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" from Folsom Prison Blues), but my favorite track will probally always be "Sloop John B." For me, the Beach Boys (despite the inherent irony of the song) did more to romanticize the sailing life in that one song than Jimmy Buffett's been able to do in his entire career. (Okay, I'll give you "Son of a Son of A Sailor.")

This thread makes me want to listen to it again.

You know, not necessarily a particular album but along the same vein I suppose. For whatever reason, most of my life I have had an aversion to older music. I can think of no particular reason why, maybe because it was my mom's music and as a teen I didn't want to listen to what my mom listened to, but Old Rock stations are never tuned in at my place or car. Well, while out and about one day last week I came across Black Sabbath - Symptom Of The Universe. I really don't listen to anything prior to my teenage years (aka the 90's) but for some reason decided to get this. Change of pace I suppose. That is some awesome music that I cannot believe I have never gotten into before. Of course, that has now opened the door to an unbelievable amount of music that I must now have. I would just like to state for the record that for most of my life I was seemingly a fucking idiot for passing all this music up.

I picked up London Calling last spring. I had never heard it before. Decent album I guess. Guns of Brixton is pretty fucking nice.

Shelby the first four Sabbath are all must owns if not the entire Ozzy fronted discography.

Great post.

Another element to throw in is simply the time it came out.
That record is so influential that much of said influence is lost on some.

It's like showing someone Citizen Kane for the first time and getting the "wha?" response. That's considered the greatest movie of all time? Yes, just like PET SOUNDS it still stands on it's own as a timeless masterpiece. But without a little history I can understand the expectations not always being reached.

I agree with you about SMILE., it's not quite in the same leauge. But some of those tracks; Wonderful, Wind Chimes, Surf's Up, not to mention Good Vibrations, are beautiful. Astounding. (I'm talking the shelved original verisons, not the re-worked Smiley Smile verisons.)

Our Prayer? Wowee. (Seriously, if you can get past the image of a chubby Mike Love is a baseball cap singing at a 4th of July picnic, you'd probably be able to hear and appreciate some of the truly amazing nugggets even within the "Surf" era. And Carl Wilson, has there ever been a more angelic rock voice?)

I'd say the same things goes for LONDON CALLING. I suppose the expectation is too great. But really, if can't listen to that and get chills, literal chills, I weep for you.

As for myself, I just finally discovered NEU! (Does that qualify for this thread? I vote yay) As a casual fan of Stereolab, it was a revelation to discover that pretty much everything they do is a variation of NEU!

Have you listened to any of the Vashti Bunyan stuff? I don't recall but I think I remember you not really being into Animal Collective much, but the Prospect Hummer EP she did with them really did it for me, and JUST ANOTHER DIAMOND DAY is great, as is LOOKAFTERING, which came out last year to an 8.5 by the Pfork.

As for me, just started listening to Giorgio Moroder's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Holy smokes.