NSC's 100 essential albums

[stugbhafc1]

Dont think the prodigy have been mentioned?

 

[stugbhafc1]

Or daft punk

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

The The - Dusk.

I have listened to this album a million times.

Marillion - Misplaced Childhood



I have listened to this one 2 million times

Another vote for misplaced childhood,I think i'm up to 3 million.

 

[BrickTamland]

Not many here will know what it is, but I can assure you, if you listen to it, you will smile and to me that's what music is about.

 

[Norman Potting]

I have used "search" cannot believe that this album isn't in the list - "Stupidity" by Dr. Feelgood.

 

[catfish]

I have used "search" cannot believe that this album isn't in the list - "Stupidity" by Dr. Feelgood.

Seconded. And add Malpractice to the list.

 

[piersa]

This is just bullshit if it's albums that 'Scampi' likes, it should be top 100 in the view of NSC for better of worse not what forum poster Scampi deigns to believe is good enough.

you got it in one. Why does Scampi not just post his favourite 100 albums and we can all nod approvingly.

 

[Gwylan]

He was still on coke living in Berlin when he made Low, which isn't a patch on Ziggy Stardust. Just because he grew to detest the glam persona doesn't negate the quality of the music.

I'm with Xenophon on this: I think Low is the Bowie album that sounds like it could have been recorded last week. Loved Ziggy when it came out but it does sound a bit dated.
If you're going to diss albums because they were made when the artist was on drugs, you're going to have to omit about half the albums on this list.

Very very good call. But, was it Man Machine or the slightly earlier Trans-Europe Express which was the more influential? A lot of very early NY hip-hop and electro sampled Trans Europe. That said a hell of a lot of bands owe a debt to Kraftwerk. It is astonishing to think Autobahn came out in '74.

Good point. Trans-Europe Express is probably more influential. I think though that Can are the truly astonishing band: they were laying down samples over some thumping beats about 15 years before hip-hop made it fashionable. Between them, Kraftwerk and Can must have influenced about 80% of modern music.

The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
Madvillain - Madvillainy
XTC - English Settlement

Some good calls there. I'd have had lots of jazz albums but I thought this was more about rock and pop. A Love Supreme is brilliant but Miles's Kind of Blue is even better. Seagull58 would say that they should be disregarded as the artists were on drugs though

Modern Lovers is a fantastic album and much under-rated.

 

[Lower West Stander]

Nick Drake - Pink. Moon

 

[brakespear]

I know many people look at the Wall as the pinnacle of Floyd but it was the album that turned me off them

Fair enough - 'The Wall' was my first Pink Floyd album and has remained, in the 32 years or so since, probably my all-time favourite album, but I would acknowledge that 'Dark Side of the Moon' or 'Wish You Were Here' would possibly be more popular inclusions. Indeed, neither of my equal favourite Pink Floyd tracks ('Echoes' and 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 9') are from the 'The Wall', it's just more of a complete experience for me

Oh, and 'Radio Activity' - Kraftwerk

 

[warsaw]

Hmmmmmm

There seem to be a few omissions, mainly from this century.

Arctic Monkeys: Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not, The best album of the noughties BAR NONE

Editors: The Back Room

Rage Against The Machine

Chillis: Stadium Arcadium

Massive Attack : Mezzanine

Starsailor: Love is Here


Also missing the best pop album of the 80s :
Duran Duran : Rio

Also agree Dark Side of the Moon, and great that Forever Changes is in the list

 

[Guinness Boy]

Has anyone mentioned Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexys since I've been away? Can't see it. So a shout for that. I'll also go a second nomination on The Decline of British Sea Power. And if we're talking The The I'd say Soul Mining has to be their best.

 

[1234andcounting]

OK Computer or The Bends for Radiohead
Hounds of Love for the divine Kate
The Message - Grandmaster Flash for being the breakthrough rap album
The Royal Scam for Steely Dan
For Your Pleasure for Roxy Music
Blood On The Tracks for Dylan
Everything Must Go for the Manix
Stanley Road for The Modfather
My Aim Is True for Elvis
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns for Roberta Anderson (AKA Joni Mitchell)
Bat Out of Hell - because.....

 

[ewe2]

......Solid Air......!

 

[jakarta]

Oi, another vote for Space Ritual by Hawkwind, once heard never forgotten, even if you hate it. First listened to on a dodgy bootleg cassette in 1975 it seemed like a view into another world compared to Noel Edmonds and Tony Blackburns mind deadening faves on wonderful Radio 1.

Heavy metal meets hippy whimsy with Stockhausen electronics and Poetry (!) as well - it is imperative to bring all bodies to orgasm simultaneously

 

[m20gull]

Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails, just a completely superb calling card on which to build a shining career.

On the Pink Floyd debate: as much as I love Dark Side I vote for the Wall as it is the most consistent album; all of the earlier albums being a compliation of the different inputs and therefore variable.

 

[Jim D]

On the Pink Floyd debate: as much as I love Dark Side I vote for the Wall as it is the most consistent album; all of the earlier albums being a compliation of the different inputs and therefore variable.

Wish You Were Here is featured on BBC4 tonight

 

[Greyrun]

Otis blue otis redding
kind of blue miles davis
quadrophenia

 

[Guinness Boy]

Hmmmmmm

There seem to be a few omissions, mainly from this century.

OK, wife's out this evening so I just opened a beer and put on some tunes and it got me thinking. Possibly the reason that more recent stuff has been left out is that it is not yet considered classic. Possibly it's because there are a lot of us old farts on NSC. Or it could be this.

Many of the classic albums mentioned to date have accompanied sea changes in youth culture. The Beatles and Stones being the start of pop and rock as we in the UK know it, Mods starting with Northern Soul and reappearing with The Who and The Jam. Punk sees the Pistols and Clash. New Order, The Smiths and The Cure define post punk miserablism before the nation cheers up and goes raving with The Stone Roses, Orbital and Screamadelica era Scream before going for a spliff with Massive Attack and Portishead. @xenaphon makes the very same point about Bowie and he's right. Every classic album starts or follows a youth movement.

And then the century changes.

Youth culture to me now appears to consist of wearing tight trousers and a hat and deck shoes. Of buying every gadget you're told to. Simon f***ing Cowell on the telly every weekend. Has there been anything to rival punk or ska or rave or even f***ing Britpop in the last 12 years. Not for me. Maybe I'm old but I think the next classic album will be made when the nations youth invent new culture instead of spending their days consuming other peoples.

 

[Marxo]

Most of the classic albums have been mentioned already so I'll name some lesser known gems.
Stackridge - The Man In The Bowler Hat (produced by George Martin)
The Move - Shazam
JJ Cale - Troubadour
And some great live albums:
Lou Reed - Rock 'n' Roll animal
Thin Lizzy - Live And Dangerous
Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Frank Zappa - Live At The Roxy And Elsewhere