What is the greatest album of the last fifty years?

mrblue

In my opinion, you can't beat 'The White Album', even if you had a very big stick.

Kali

If I had to go with one it would be narrowly be Pet Sounds from The Beach Boys.

However there really are too many to mention.. those that are very very close imo:
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Beatles - Sgt. Peppers
Miles Davis - A Kind Of Blue
John Coltrane - A Love Supereme

This is in extreme danger of being another "top ten" thread...

mrblue

Respect on the Pink Floyd choice.

The white album still my fav though

Greenbean

I go with dark side of the moon

Kali

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mrblue:
Respect on the Pink Floyd choice.

The white album still my fav though </font>

ahhh but who said anything about favourites? topic said greatest..
big difference

DiscoStu

The Bends, the stone roses first album or sgt pepper

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harVee

There is far too much guff on the white album to allow it in the reckoning. maybe if you took the best 10 songs from it you'd have a chance but as it stands, it's not even the beatles best (though it is the only one i have).
In fairness, i reckon most people choosing an album from the first 30 of the last 50 (52-72) are going to be far too influenced by the likes of Q magizine polls(a must for phil collins fans).
Also I reckon I have more albums from this year than i do from the whole of the 50's, and I reckon this is the case in general. But of course, there are more albums released now than then so there should be a bias this way.
As Kali pointed out, there is a difference between fav and greatest, which is why i reckon i'm going with

Gil Scott Heron - Winter in America

harVee

Kali, what year is a love supreme? Kind of blue is better though. So What is probably one of the best opening tracks on any album ever.

Kali

A Love Supreme is (looks at album booklet) 1964
Kind Of Blue is easily my favourite of the two.
A Love Supreme deserves to be on the list though due to what it meant to Coltrane personally and the huge influence it has had on musicians since.

DadaKopf

A Love Supreme is really fantastic, yeah but if you like Coltrane, there's other things to check out. After he split with Blue Note and went on to Impulse!, the standard of his stuff just soared. Kali, you should definitely check out the Live at Birdland album, on it is Afro Blue and Alabama, arguably Coltrane's finest ever. The later stuff with the new drummer Rashied Ali is pretty 'far out' and a bit headwrecking sometimes but once you get through the clatter, you really start to get it.

You might like to check out stuff by Elvin Jones also, that amazing drummer Coltrane worked with right through the early quartet years. He's still doing the rounds and player Vicar St. a few months ago. He's just incredible!

As for my favourite albums of the past 50 years? Blonde on Blonde and White Light/White Heat possibly. I dunno, there's so many.

There, i did it. I feel dirty.

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"I collect spores, moulds and fungus."

_CreeD_

"The Bends" - Radio Head

3 runners up (Best in their Genres):
"The Songs of Distant Earth" - Mike Oldfield
"Strange Cargo 3" - William Orbit
"Filligree & Shadow" - This Mortal Coil.

--Kaiser--

The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

mrblue

The white album was highly experimental. OK so it had some dire shi-te like "piggies" on it, but at the same time I think it layed down the foundations for much modern Rock & Pop. This is why I think it is the greatest album of the last fifty years. Not only did it have some cracking tunes on it, it also managed to be original. The tunes are not there just to please, or to make money. The strengths of the white album highlight a lot of the things wrong with modern COMMERCIAL music. I mean can you ever envisage big pop groups producing songs like *Revolution 9* in this day & age?

My choice remains - while other albums are more consistent or listenable, The White Album is still one of the most striking & ahead-of-it's-time recordings to come out of the last five decades.

Dustaz

Sgt Peppers or Pet Sounds
I read Q

Excelsior

I think New Adventures In Hi-Fi actually.

Commence flaming....

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mrblue

OK Harvee,

so 'greatest' is a loose term. I'm no expert on music history so I can't comment on 'the most influential'. Anyway, I think you can trace the origins of a hell of a lot of modern music back to the original Blues artists.

My dictionary says
*Great - important, pre-eminent; worthy or most worthy of consideration*

Their, that should help.

Well, as a controversial alternative to the white album, I offer you "Five Leaves Left" by Nick Drake. A truly 'great' album.

Brummers

In my humble opinion i would have to say either:

• The Beatles - Revolver
• Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
• Bob Dylan - Highway 61 revisited

This is mainly because of the amount of times i can play the albums and not get bored of them. Also if i had to have an album from the nineties, it would prolly have to be either:

• Gomez - Liquid Skin
• Weezer - Weezer
• Rage against the machine - RATM
• Ben Folds Five - Whatever & ever Amen

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harVee

didn't mean to be so anal about it...
nick drake ? pink moon is better

TwoShedsJackson

Nothing's Shocking - Janes Addiction

harVee

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mrblue:
I mean can you ever envisage big pop groups producing songs like *Revolution 9* in this day & age?
</font>

Yeah, but you must remember that the Beatles had gained a lot of artistic freedom by the time they made the white album. Epstein would not have been allowed them do that sort of stuff in the early days. Pop bands today don't last long enough to develop this kind of freedom. The beatles had already released over 10 albums by 68, and had only 2 left in the can, Let it be and Abbey road. Peppers the year before set all the groundwork for the white album, which i think is a great album, but it more than any is where the listener can start to hear the band come off the rails.

And c'mon, there's no way that the white album is the most influential of the last 50 years. Peppers is infinatly more so. So is the velvet underground & nico, and I would argue that marvin gayes What's going on is more influential than any of them. R&B isn't nearly as big here as it is in the UK or US, but you can still hear it's influence in every boy and girl band.
I was listening to it last night and some of the basslines are a ringer for stuff Massive Attack have done (weren't samples though, i checked). It also has very overt political overtones that is missing from most of the lame ass r&b heard nowadays.
And what about Straight outa compton...

mrblue

Yeh, Pink Moon is my favorate. Not terribly accessible to non-Drake fans though!

From the Morning is one of my favorate songs.

Excelsior

I like the Ben Folds vote. I know one person in particular who'd argue for that.

Where is Mr Mullen and his vote for Luther College?

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http://www.iol.net/~mullent

nesf

About time someone mentioned Hendrix!!

New adventures in Hi-Fi can't touch Automatic for overall sound and polish, the album fits seamlessly together, unlike alot of newer pop albums that seem to try and fit a song from each genre in just to boost sales.

Rabbit_Fascist

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

neuro-praxis

Me! it's ME! I'D VOTE FOR BEN FOLDS!

What a collection of dreamboats.

Canaboid

Favourite - Desire, Bob Dylan

Best - Dunno, have to think about it.

plastic membrane

Automatic For The People- REM. Its for the people, after all...

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Damn it Jim, im a doctor, not a Beefy King !

Karl Hungus

Cradle Of Filth - Dusk And Her Embrace

I mention this not because it is nessicerily the best, or most influencal.
But it had a greater impact on how I see music, and it was one THE album that actualy got me interested enough to learn guitar.

I don't think anyone can say what is the greatest album, or most influencial album, only what had the most influence on them, and what is their favorite.

StarScream

nobodys mentioned nevermind yet, WHY!
btw if anyone replies saying it was everyones fav when they were 14 ill snap!

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joey joe joe junior shabadu...thats the worst name i ever heard

Kali

nevermind is good, but put it up against any of the aforementioned "greatest" albums and it looks decidedely out of place.

BTW about Q magazine.. didn't they rate OK Computer as one of the greatest albums of all time at one stage? whatever did happen to that?

Sliotar

ok i know i should'nt say this but,

Smash - The Offspring

i know its not the greatest album of the last 50 years, but its definitly my fav. the thing is, without it punk rock would probably have been forgotten about by now. NOFX and TSOL might be much more hardcore punk then the Offspring are right now, but they *probably* would'nt have been able to keep punk alive with their level of success.
had to mention it....