Post your favourite 20 albums and I'll rate your musical taste out of 10

In no particular order...
1 S&M, Metallica
2 The Fame, Lady Gaga
3 All Hope Is Gone, Slipknot
4 Black Holes and Revelations, Muse
5 Cheshire Cat, Blink 182
6 Invaders Must Die, The Prodigy
7 Load, Metallica
8 Master of Puppets, Metallica
9 Operation Ivy, Operation Ivy
10 Reign in Blood, Slayer
11 Sing Loud Sing Proud, Dropkick Murphys
12 So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, NOFX
13 Songs for the Deaf, QOTSA
14 The Sufferer to the Witness, Rise Against
15 Whatever People Say I Am Thats What Im Not, Arctic Monkeys
16 No Line On The Horizon, U2
17 Scream Aim Fire, BFMV
18 The Libertines, The Libertines
19 Hot Fuss, The Killers
20 Dont Believe the Truth, Oasis

Al Stewart - Past, Present & Future
Joni Mitchell - Blue
The Mountain Goats - Zopilote Machine
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World!
The Decemberists - Picturesque
Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People
Operation Ivy - Operation Ivy
Inner Terrestrials - X
Owen Pallet - Heartland
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Okkervil River- The Stage Names
Antlers - Hospice
The Luyas - Faker Death
Moutpiece - Moutpiece
The Clash - Sandinista!
The Restarts - System Error
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
The Rezillos - Can't Stand The Rezillos
Zounds - Curse Of Zounds

lordgoat wrote: »

Pretty impressive to see this here seen as it's so new.

Great mountain goats album too

I was a bit hesitant to put it in, but decided to in the end. His best album I think, haven't stopped listening to it since it came out.

1. Wings: Back to the Egg
2. Huey Lewis and the News: Sports
3. Men at Work: Business as Usual
4. Holiday Rock: Ghost and ghoulies
5. Venga Boys: Up and down the party album
6. The Darkness: one way ticket to hell and back
7. Steps: Steptacular
8. Will Smith: Big willie style
9. Steven Seagal: Songs from the Crystal Cave
10. Dogstar: Happy Ending
11: Los del Río: Macarena non stop
12: Cliff Richard: Wanted
13: Toploader: Onkas Big Moka
14: Goo Goo Dolls: Let love in
15: Shawn Mullins: Souls Core
16: Billy Ray Cyrus: Some Gave all
17: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipmunks in low places
18: Garth Brooks: Fresh Horses
19: Shania Twain: Up!
20: The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World

right here goes , top 5 are my all time favs rest is just this month
John Martyn -Grace & danger
John Martyn - And
Bob Dylan -Nashville Skyline
Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
John Mayall & Eric Clapton- Bluesbreakers
Ron Sexsmith - Exit Strategy of the soul
Nina Simone - Silk & Soul
Various Artists -Jazzin the blues
Gomez - Bring it on
Buddy & julie Miller- Written in chalk
Chuck Prophet - age of miracles
Lenord Cohen -Live in London
Cuban Cafe -Disc 2
The Doors- Morrison Hotel
Fela Kuti - London Scene

lordgoat wrote: »

I'm not a beatles fan at all, i find them grossly over rated.

I find it difficult to understand how someone can think that the Beatles are overrated. Sure, you might not like their music (though for me it's the equivalent of someone not liking the Simpsons), but their influence alone has shaped popular music in ways that can't be measured.

You rave about Elliot Smith a lot. He was a huge Beatles fan, as you must know, and his music is testament to that. Most of it has a very Beatles sound to it. Have you listened to the Beatles much? Are you familiar with all the albums and EPs?

lordgoat wrote: »

See it's this attitude that annoys me. Of course i can say i think the beatles are over rated. I don't like the majority of their songs i find them annoying and pretty whiny at times. I think alot of their music is ruined by pop lyrics and macca. I think Roy O is as much of an influence on the bealtes as they are on Elliott Smith yet he imo is someone completely under rated for his musical contribution. So to me they are far from the be all and end all. The Beatles were in face just a band.

Whoah! I never said that you couldn't say that they were over rated. Of course you can. I was just expressing an opinion that I found it hard to understand how someone could think that. More of a statement about my inability to understand, given the self evidence of their influence on pop music, rather than an attack on your right to say or think whatever you want. I didn't intend for you to get annoyed. I'm finding more and more people who either don't like or are indifferent to the Beatles and it's come to the point that it's almost 'uncool' to like them. I'm not referring to you by the way, I'm sure you're not bothered by what's perceived as cool. Neither am I. Too old at this stage. I'm a musician though and sometimes get a nagging feeling that certain interviewers/journos etc, look down on musicians that site the Beatles as an influence. I don't really care though. I likes what I likes...

You're right though, their lyrics are definitely lacking a lot of the time, but Across the Universe are my favourite lyrics of all... apart from maybe that bit in Nature Boy by Nat King Cole, "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return". Though there were far, far better lyricists at the time, Ray Davies being just one. The thing is, they pioneered a sound, very much indebted to George Martin in that respect. They pushed studio techniques to breaking point. They pioneered the idea of an album as a cohesive piece of work instead of a vehicle for singles. I mean, Sgt Pepper ffs. Nothing like that had EVER been done before. They started psychedelia with Revolver and informed countless bands, even becoming a genre. They pioneered so many other things writing an exhaustive list would take too long. These thing might have happened anyway, but the fact that one band did them in such a short career is remarkable.

and ready for a first post pasting :cool:

AC/DC - Powerage
Horslips - Book of Invasions
Air - Moon Safari
Tragically Hip - Road Apples
Black Crowes - Southern Harmony & Musical Companion
Cat Power - The Greatest
Faith No More - King For A Day
Jellyfish - Belly Button
The The - Dusk
The Who - Live at Leeds
Regina Spektor Begin To Hope
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on A Gravel Road
Radiohead - The Bends
Sigur Ros - Takk
Screaming Trees - Sweet Oblivion
Polly Paulusma - Scissors in my Pocket
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Jesus Jones - Doubt
AC/DC Back in Black
Zero 7 Simple Things

I'm really, really sick of the Beatles at this stage. To the extent that I can't really hear what I liked about them in the first stage. They've been copied and ripped off so many times much of their innovation isn't really detectable to my ears anymore. It's just become MOR rock sludge. Ditto with Eagles, Rolling Stones and the like. There's a fair bit of other 60's/70's music I'd much rather listen to because it hasn't been ran into the ground by excessive radio play. No music is so brilliant its immune to being overexposed.

lordgoat wrote: »

To me the bealtes were the right good looking boy band in the right place at the right time. Not directed at you pinky (you displayed the opposite of what you said in your previous post) but when i come across fan boi's that disregard people's opinions because they don't like the beatles i laugh.

To be honest, I don't really do that. I have found that when I do come across people who don't like the Beatles it's usually because they're not that familiar with them. In other words they've heard the number 1 album and maybe a few bits and pieces. I defy anyone to listen to Abbey Road from start to finish and not enjoy it immensely.

I agree that they were in the right place at the right time. That's the case for absolutely every huge band ever. That's the nature of the business. At their time bands had a shelf life of a couple of years at best. If you ever see any interviews with them from their early career they're very self deprecating. They know they're lucky to be where they are and that it will be transient. The fact that they were able to make a career of it was due the the fact that they pushed the bar out. They pushed the limits of what pop music could be. Sure, they were just a band. I absolutely believe that without George Martin they would have disappeared after a couple of years and be footnotes. But the competition between Lennon and McCartney, and Harrison's battle with them to even get songs on an album was a massive driving force, meaning the standard kept raising as both Lennon and McCartney tried to outdo one another and Harrison tried to keep up.

They were not the be all and end all. I think it's wrong for bands to be above criticism. I love alot of whingy morbid ridden doom masters when someone says how can i listen to that i find it easier to either ignore them or meet them half way. Regardless of the outcome i will still to what i consider great music.

No bands should be above criticism. I can't listen to much of the Beatles early stuff. Please Please me is a terrible album and I find it hard to hear how they could have been popular based on that. I also can't listen to a lot of their hits. You mentioned Hey Jude earlier. That song annoys me so much.

Also if you want to talk social commentary you have the clash, the specials, the ramones even the kinks spring to mind more than the beatles. They were a pop band. I can actually see your simpsons reference more than the beatles one, not saying it's not there at all.

Social commentary, yeah. But when I was talking about disparate elements of culture I meant it in relation to reference points. In the same way that the Simpsons reference a massively diverse section of popular culture in a very subtle way - everything from Charlie Chaplin to Dr Suess, so did the Beatles reference a diverse aural popular culture. In 'Girl' they give a nod to traditional Greek music, 'Michelle' is french chanson, 'Honey Pie' is 40's big band, 'Back in the USSR' is a Beach Boys homage, and that's not even mentioning 'Tomorrow Never Knows' which gave birth to a whole musical movement based on Indian mysticism. They're just obvious examples though. They're music, like the Simpsons, was so clever and subtle that you're not aware of a lot of the reference points, but you can go back and listen again, after a little more life/cultural experience, and see or hear a new reference point and it takes on more weight than before.

One of the most important things they achieved was the marriage of so called high and low culture though. After they got into Dylan they began bringing together folk music and rock and roll, which were considered working class, honest expressions of that way of life, and classical music which was considered decadent and superficial, and was largely irrelevant to young people. This was one of the most important events in popular music. Before it was three chord songs. It opened up massive opportunities. This culminated in Sgt Pepper.

When people talk about not liking the Beatles it doesn't even really make sense. Their songs are so diverse and crossed so many disparate genres that no two sound alike. No album sounds anything like the last. Each song was looked at as a new project, never an attempt to cash in on the success of a previous one. I guarantee that if you were to go through every Beatles song you'd find that you liked at least as many as you didn't, and I'd even wager that you'd like the majority, but the few that you don't have coloured your opinion... I find a lot of people dislike the idea of the Beatles (let's be honest, who doesn't think Macca is a gimp), but when they actually listen to them they find them to be... most agreeable.

Aside: Maybe think of splitting the thread i'm sure some of the people waiting for Kolds scathing attacks aren't enjoying our back and forth...

I agree. Interesting discussion...