Your favourite albums?

@Sloop_John_B currently loving your Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges selection.

Definitely my type of laid back jazz.

The Tidal stream is fantastic quality as well.

In the spirit of the festive season - this is really good fun.

Not just a mariachi band covering Morrissey songs - but also well recorded and reverential without being stuffy. Moz is huge in Mexico apparently.

If you want to dip a toe, it’s on Tidal and track 2 - Cada Día Es Domingo (Everyday Is Like Sunday) - is great.

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My December pick. The Dirty Three at the height of their powers. Thom Jurek’s review speaks of “wounded pulsing beauty”. Wonderful production also. Many favourite moments, but the entry of the violin on the second song “She Passed Through” always sends a chill up my spine. Sounds like a small brave apology. The fourth track “Sad Sexy” is evocative of a resigned determination, very beautiful.

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This album sounds so good. Yet it reminds me of my tormented teenage years when the kind of girls who liked this music were totally inaccessible to this geek. Those ladies are present in these songs but not in a particular image or identity. I must’ve heard this at a party in college when all the girls had dates and their dates had good stereos. LOL. I probably was thinking, “When I get some money, I’m gonna have a killer stereo and invite her over so we can listen to my new Todd Rundgren album.”

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My January choice.


Horslips, The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony.





Horslips were huge in Ireland in the 1970’s and this is their best album and a sure fired classic.
Marrying as they had always done, rock guitars and drums, with fiddle, whistles, oileann pipes and mandolin into a superbly crafted concept album. It recounts the 12 century chronicle of the mystical Tuatha Dé Dannan’s colonisation of pre-Christian Ireland. IMO it rather loosely chronicles this but where it’s concept credentials come into play are with the musical themes that repeat and morph throughout the piece.




Horslips took traditional Irish tunes and turned them into rock n’ roll, which sounds horrific, but where Horslips excel is that they were all very capable players (without being virtuosos) and all the tracks have traditional instruments playing along with the giutar bass and drums, and this cross pollination just works, combining the power and attack of rock with the joyous abandon of Irish Traditional music.




Not a hint of filler, if they were not unlucky with their timing, releasing this at the close of 1976 just as The Clash were tuning up in London, you’d all be as aware of this album as you are of Dark Side of the Moon. It’s on Tidal, so now’s your chance to catch up if it passed you by.




.sjb

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If the album that you have purchased the most is a test of a favourite then for me, the answer is “Post” by Paul Kelly. I have purchased, with my own money, 2 vinyl copies and a CD and favourited it in Tidal/Roon. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.

It didn’t chart when first released but has since been re-released twice and is now regarded by Australian Rolling Stone as the best record of 1985.

The title works on several levels. It is Paul’s first solo album and looks back to his childhood in Adelaide, leaving Melbourne (and its drug scene), the breakup of his band and first marriage and the death of a friend (Paul Hewson from Dragon) from a heroin overdose. It also works as a report on the past and a signpost for the future. Paul has said the album is about addictions of various sorts, but is not strictly autobiographical; he developed stories out of the circumstances around him.

I first came to the album because of its beautifully clean and uncluttered production. The recording was self funded for $3,500 and Clive Shakespeare (Sherbet) did a wonderful job of engineering and co-production. A couple of notable guest players including Ian Rilen on bass (track 2) (X, Rose Tattoo) and “Evil” Graham Lee on guitars (tracks 8 and 10)(The Triffids).

But in the end its the lyrics and performance that keep this spinning in your head. From the banal horror of “Incident on South Darling” or “White Train” to the reckless abandoned love of “You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed” and the resigned optimism of “Little Decisions” the lyrics here just work.

It is a credit to Paul’s career that there are many people who know of his work but haven’t listened closely to “Post” as an album in itself. Every time I do, I enjoy it all over again.

Edit: Reference to Graham Lee always raises the vexed question as to how he acquired his nickname. This is his answer:

Re “Evil” Dave had the idea that all steel players have nicknames - and quite a few do eg Lucky Oceans, Speedy West, Pee Wee Clark, Weldon Myrick (just joking that’s his real name) - and that he would be shortchanged if his steel player was nick-less. So one night as we had a few drinks and watched the movie Evil Roy Slade on telly he had a moment’s inspiration and I’ve been stuck with it since. Not many people call me that, just friends from the 80s who I rarely see and the remaining Triffids.
Source

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This is a great album Andy! I’m enjoying it very much and looking forward to listening to some of his other albums.

Next to Ned Kelly, Paul Kelly is now my second favorite Aussie Kelly.

:relaxed:

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Listening to it now John…they have produced a few albums as well…bloody good!

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Thanks Wayne,
Don’t know how I missed Talk Talk, especially as I already have the Mark Hollis solo debut album. Have just downloaded this and Spirit of Eden.

Excellent!

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No worries Paul. Try Colour of spring as well

Just listening to The Rainbow, in 24/96, on Spirit of Eden…wow, great stuff!
As you say, I need to add Colour of Spring.
Thanks

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Great stuff. My fave track is new grass on laughing stock.

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https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41R8xaiXd6L._SS500.jpg

My pick is St. Vincent (self titled)
I first saw her perform on SNL a few years ago and I had not heard anything quite like it. Vocals need some work, lyrics are wonderful, and musician ship is outstanding! Then I saw her performance with Nirvana during their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This was also my very first hi-res audio purchase ever and is one of my reference albums.

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O, how I wish I could discover these albums for the first time all over again…

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My choice for January.
Total Musik by Sigi Schwab, Chris Hinze and Jasper van’t Hof from 1982
One of my favorite jazz albums. Three virtuosi together. Loved it on Vinyl in the 80s, later on CD and now through Roon :slight_smile:

After I can’t get it identified in Roon, surprised that it is available on Tidal.

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In a similar vain to the Talk Talk album I recommended earlier, this is one of those haunting albums for late night listening that sounds fabulous.
Miss De Biasio’s vocals are truly haunting and the instruments sound marvellous, especially the array of different drums. Very highly recommended.

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When you have something on repeat 24/7 for over three days already, doesn’t the question pretty much answer itself…? :wink: Since 1997 I pretty much limited myself to her Cole Porter Songbook, perhaps also the Gershwin and Ellington Songbooks, but although I played all of her Songbooks, it wasn’t until this week that this one really kicked in.

Just listen to #2 (“A Fine Romance”)… the way the Nelson Riddle Orchestra kicks in! No synth can even approach this today… (yawn, old soul talking here, born way after this was recorded…;-))

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Just listening to this, sounds very promising. Good call.

.sjb

If I can be so bold to add another criterion, that the album is available on Tidal.
This is a thread for sharing great music and being able to access that music is a worthwhile addition to the “rules”.

.sjb.

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I spent an inordinate amount of time this month listening to Miles Davis ‘The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions’… Every time is like the first time… and I have listened many, many times over the years.