Favorite Albums from bands whose devotees think you're nuts for thinking that that album is their best

This was a pretty cool thread (see the third link on this web archive) from a few years ago that mysteriously vanished from ILM in that time. It sparked some interesting discussion at the time and I was sad I couldn't reference it again...

Here are some of mine:

Motorhead 'Orgasmatron' had an atypical line-up and an atypical sound thanks to it being produced by Bill Laswell, but damn do I love it even more than the other Motorhead albums that fans of the band will say shit all over it (usually "Ace Of Spades" or "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith.") Some great songs too!

I prefer "Isn't Anything" to "Loveless" which puts me at odds with My Bloody Valentine supporters.

Few people other than me think that "I Against I" is the best Bad Brains release.

I listen to "It's Only Life" by The Feelies a hell of a lot more than "Crazy Rhythms."

Is it possible to like a live album by a band as their best that isn't Motorhead's "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith?" I adore "The Living End" by Husker Du and find that the simplistic ham-fisted soundboard tape-production and set list from both primordial noise and latter day fuzzy pop encapsulates the band far better than any of their studio albums. And I hate live albums!

"Wow" Moby Grape

The self-titled "Echo and the Bunnymen" album, "lips like sugar", "the game", all that.

Pablo Honey

I don't know if it's their best but it's my fav and can't stand the rest tbh. Ppl think that's weird.

I like "Kid A" a lot and am not fussed about any of the others.

so this is basically where your favourite album by an artist differs from the critical consensus on that artist's best album amirite

in that case let me add

Cowboy Junkies, The Caution Horses
Spiritualized, Pure Phase

That Spiritualized one is miles offside, this is the thread for liking "Let it all come down" or "Songs in A&E" innit?

"Their Majesties Satanic Request" by Stones and "The Elder" by Kiss. Probably also "The Visitors" by ABBA.

Most Metallica fans probably also disagree with me that the black self-titled one is their best, but in that case they also know that a lot of non-fans agree with me.

Know Your Enemy and Journal For Plague Lovers - The Manic Street Preachers

http://www.loriblakeley.name/loriblakeley_music/beatles_white_album378383_19681122.jpg

Few people other than me think that "I Against I" is the best Bad Brains release.

wait, really?

I think I'm one of the few Sparks fans who rates Propaganda as their best.

I like the second albums by The Cars and Devo a lot more than their much more popular debuts but i'm sure there's few people on here that agree.

I really like DI Goes Pop but I think Technicolour is Disco Inferno's masterpiece.

Should preface by saying I haven't actually heard every Superchunk album, but my fave is Come Pick Me Up.

Sleater-Kinney's All Hands on the Bad One never seems like anyone's favorite S-K album but mine. That's cool...more for me!

I think I'm one of the few Sparks fans who rates Propaganda as their best.

No I do too, owing to the fact that they gave me it, personally.

Tangerine Dream's White Eagle is my favorite album by them, but most TD fans seem to hate the stuff they did after 1979.

Ok, I'm one of the chowderheads that thinks Brain Salad Surgery is ELP's best album (ouch)

Also I always thought They Might Be Giants' s/t album was the best they ever did, haven't found anyone that agrees with that one yet. I'm a huge TMBG fan too and love all the early material but there's a weird quality in the first album that they haven't really been able to capture.

Ween - always loved Quebec the most, IMO it's the album with the most great songs on it

Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Feelies - Time For a Witness
Maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight

Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Also I always thought They Might Be Giants' s/t album was the best they ever did, haven't found anyone that agrees with that one yet. I'm a huge TMBG fan too and love all the early material but there's a weird quality in the first album that they haven't really been able to capture.

― frogbs, Monday, March 7, 2011 10:12 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

self-titled isn't as highly regarded as the next 2 or 3 but it's definitely pretty big in the TMBG canon, much moreso than any later album

Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - Perspex Island

mid-late '90s indie bands on the wane edition:
Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Dinosaur Jr. - Hand It Over
Pavement - Brighten The Corners

I'm with you re Pavement.

Is it possible to like a live album by a band as their best that isn't Motorhead's "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith?"

U2 - Under A Blood Red Sky

A few other (non-live) ones that this thread brought to mind for me (which shouldn't surprise anybody)

Bad Religion - Into The Unknown
Teena Marie - Emerald City
Flaming Lips - self-titled debut EP (and probably lots of other bands' debuts, too.)

my favourite King Crimson album is The Construkction of Light. this makes me a leper in KC circles.

Five days a week, Delay 1968 is often my favourite Can album.

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

― da croupier, Monday, March 7, 2011 3:34 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Fugazi - Red Medicine
Pavement - Brighten The Corners

― TIGER BLOOD aka the sheendriver (some dude), Monday, March 7, 2011 3:42 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

I like all of Modest Mouse albums (though Moon And Antarctica the least), I just appreciate Dead's lack of dirgey ruts.

Al's Superchunk choice reminds me I'd probably take Here's To Shutting Up on the whole, though again it's not like I don't like earlier albums.

The self-titled "Echo and the Bunnymen" album, "lips like sugar", "the game", all that.

i like pretty much all Echo stuff but this is one of my favs ^^

That Spiritualized one is miles offside, this is the thread for liking "Let it all come down" or "Songs in A&E" innit?

on many days Let It Come Down is my fav Spz-- the album where the ideas & song suites of Ladies & Gentlemen got the grandiose production they were crying out for

I totally don't get the Red Medicine and Brighten The Corners action, though.

self-titled isn't as highly regarded as the next 2 or 3 but it's definitely pretty big in the TMBG canon, much moreso than any later album

absolutely but everyone says Lincoln is just a better version of the debut, which I guess is true in some respects but I get more mileage out of the s/t. I mean both albums are bizarre but there are songs like "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" which is just an awkward goofy pop gem that hasn't really been equalled by anyone.

Actually, I get BTC in the sense that it's arguably be the best of the Malkmus-over-groovy-backing-band era if you have no time for the sloppy-noisy-toonz early stuff. But the Red Medicine cult really baffles me. Do people really prefer all the interstitial dub bull over 13 Songs and The Argument?

my favourite King Crimson album is The Construkction of Light

that is bonkers

Tangerine Dream's White Eagle is my favorite album by them, but most TD fans seem to hate the stuff they did after 1979.

totally agree.
(i rate hyperborea very highly as well .. )

xxp I just kind of zone out on the dub until they start rockin like a house on fire again

Repeater is probly my fav. but Red Medicine has some real gems ("Bed For The Scraping" is all time top-5 for me — I DON'T WANNA BE DEFEATED I DON'T WANNA BE DEFEATED I DON'T WANNA BE DEFEATED I DON'T WANNA BE DEFEATED *guitar break*)

re: Fugazi, In on the Kill Taker is my no.1, Not really sure how that one's regarded...

my favourite King Crimson album is The Construkction of Light. this makes me a leper in KC circles.

Five days a week, Delay 1968 is often my favourite Can album.

yeah actually I think both of these opinions are pretty nuts

I can see liking the "bad" KC albums like Lizard or Islands the most, because they are at least unique and unhinged (in spots), but ConstruKction to my ears sounds like a bad Metallica imitation that only bothered to write a few new tunes...IMO the follow up Power to Believe is way better

Delay is decent but doesn't really have any great songs on it nor is the sound quality really good enough to listen to regularly..

my favourite King Crimson album is The Construkction of Light

that is bonkers

I'd agree that there are several other KC albums whose highs are better than anything on CoL, but it's the only one of theirs I like all the way through. most of the others have large swathes of stuff I can't really abide. I do like Power to Believe too, but it's a little patchier...

I generally dig CoL's relentless heaviness, but the thing that really gets me is the insanely intricite guitar lines that bounce between belew and fripp as they play alternate notes.

they do that on "Discipline" which is a way better album

totally agree.
(i rate hyperborea very highly as well .. )

― mark e, Monday, March 7, 2011 10:01 AM (9 minutes ago)

69-79 TD < 80-85 TD for me

Death of a Ladies' Man is Leonard Cohen's best album

I was thinking about this kind of thing yesterday when I was listening to Prince's Diamonds and Pearls, which I love and hear people say bad things about. (I also love even less well-considered albums of his, stuff like Emancipation and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, but can't fairly call them favorites.) Also, Stakes Is High is De La Soul's best album. 8 Diagrams is my favorite Wu-Tang Clan album. Edutainment is my favorite Boogie Down Productions. Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant is generally my favorite Belle & Sebastian album. And I like Rock and Roll With the Modern Lovers more than the Modern Lovers' debut.

8 Diagrams is my favorite Wu-Tang Clan album.

(and I say that as someone who likes [some of] that album!)

My favourite Fugazi album is End Hits which seems to be nobody's favourite (although I couldn't say how it ranks against Red Medicine for most fans).

Wouldn't necessarily say it was his best but the Bob Dylan album I put on more than any other is Infidels.

Rock and Roll With the Modern Lovers

dunno if this is counts really, it's an entirely different band

xxp maybe we need some kind of ILM poll to establish once and for all the Fugazi canon

oh wait no I'm thinkin of rock n' roll with Jonathan Richman nm

rateyourmusic yields:

13 Songs > Repeater = Argument >> Red Medicine >> Kill Taker >>> End Hits >>>>> Steady Diet of Nothing

they do that on "Discipline" which is a way better album

not really, it's more parallel patterns that wind around each other. CoL is way more explicitly ping-pong-oriented, and I'd suggest it's a more successful, powerful realisation of their latterday sound.

and I'd definitely opt for CoL over discipline, without a moment's hesitation.

I listen to "It's Only Life" by The Feelies a hell of a lot more than "Crazy Rhythms."

Only Life is my favorite Feelies by a fair margin.

Killing Joke - Fire Dances

(though Mark Prindle has my back on this one)

ha Steady Diet is probably my fave Fugazi

R.E.M., Monster

Pixies- Trompe Le Monde

All Shook Down is in my Top 3 Replacements albums.

^^This. But my favorite Replacements is Hootenanny.

agree with mizzell re: Trompe Le Monde

"Wow" Moby Grape

^ this. Murder In My Heart For The Judge, He, Miller's Blues. Yes!

Bowie's "Outside" is his best album
An opinion shared by a handful of 'devotees', and the Man himself, but not by anybody else

"Strangers When We Meet" and "Thru These Architects' Eyes" are godly.

Matthew Sweet - In Reverse
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
Ween - White Pepper
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother

Never heard that about 'Outside' before. What's he been saying on the record about it?

When he played 'Boys Keep Swinging' on The White Room in 1996, Mark Radcliffe said Lodger was (at that point) Bowie's personal favourite.

DUDE, YES. Also, "Heart's Filthy Lesson"? "The Motel"? "A Small Plot Of Land"? "Voyeur Of Utter Destruction"? "I'm Deranged"? Best Mike Garson solos? Bowie's best vocal performance?
The only strike against it is the booklet art

booklet art is a strike against most bowie albums, to be perfectly fair

It's the most unreadable prose I've ever seen.

Uh, yes. It is. I bought that album at an impressionable age and genuinely tried to figure it all out, what with different narrators on each song-- the specifics of which were obscured by the digital art-- and was left feeling duped. But the songs are immense, affecting, and this is the one record of his that nobody could accuse him of genre tourism, not that I feel that way, because I don't, but some do.

College-era Soto would have agreed: I gave this the five-star treatment in my college newspaper in fall '95.

I'm not a fan of theatrical Bowie, but I'll take "The Motel" over "Time."

Re: Replacements

I prefer the chaos and enthusiasm of Sorry Ma which is a minority opinion but generally not one considered bonkers. Even fans of the more heralded mature Place Mats releases kinda chalk that up as "Well, if you like that sort of thing..."

I'll second (third?) the All Shook Down love.

I used to champion Brighten the Corners over other Pavement albums, but now I really don't have a favorite. As long as I'm listening to something besides Terror Twilight, I'm okay.

xpost - "Sorry Ma" for me too, I've made this assertion elsewhere.

Nirvana.. In Utero was always the one I'd keep if I had to throw all the rest away.

and I guess Kate Bush's The Dreaming, tho lately I've been seeing a sorta renaissance for the unacknowledged genius of that album... I think, actually, 33 1/3 is doing a new book on it.

U2 October

Slayer-South of Heaven

Alan Jackson - Like Red On A Rose
Pam Tillis - Above And Beyond the Doll Of Cutey

(no idea what their fanbase's consensus picks would be, but definitely wouldn't be these.)

Squeeze - Cool For Cats

And I'd almost definitely pick the Replacements' Sorry Ma these days, too.

I will second the Monster mention above.

Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi

Everyone likes Butterfly better. Whatever, I'm over the introspective insect album.

Squeeze - Cool For Cats

I always thought this was their best by consensus?

Really? In the States, the next couple -- Argy Bargy and East Side Story -- got way more love from both critics and consumers; Cool For Cats didn't even chart here. But yeah, I can see how things might be different in the U.K.

No, you're right. I do hear "Up The Junction" on radio more often than anything off Argybargy

Television Adventure have read a lot of people disparaging it but I think I prefer it. Think I prefer live stuff over it but it's the source of what studio material I have on my walkman. Live stuff is 2nd My Father's Place '78, not the Blow Up stuff

Is it possible to like a live album by a band as their best that isn't Motorhead's "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith?"

Caspar Brotzman massaker's Home lp is their best & is live in the studio.
Isn't most jazz stuff live in the studio too?

I'd take Sam Cooke's Harlem Square Club over his studio work, though I'd hate to lose Night Beat.

For some reason The Top by The Cure always gets a bad rep, but I think it is high up there with their most creative and amazing work.

low - the great destroyer
silver jews - tanglewood numbers

8 Diagrams is my favorite Wu-Tang Clan album.

I'm sorry but this is just straight-up heresy

Isn't heresy the point of this thread, though, really? I'm completely in favor of heresy

A Quick One is my favorite Who record that's not a compilation.

clinic - winchester cathedral
michael gira related - Angels of Light "we are him"
six organs of admittance - shelter from the ash

clinic - winchester cathedral
michael gira related - Angels of Light "we are him"
six organs of admittance - shelter from the ash

good picks for clinic/six organs + the best AOL (though it doesnt eclipse Swans imo)

I totally don't get the Red Medicine and Brighten The Corners action, though.

― da croupier, Monday, March 7, 2011 10:54 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Actually, I get BTC in the sense that it's arguably be the best of the Malkmus-over-groovy-backing-band era if you have no time for the sloppy-noisy-toonz early stuff. But the Red Medicine cult really baffles me. Do people really prefer all the interstitial dub bull over 13 Songs and The Argument?

― da croupier, Monday, March 7, 2011 10:58 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

i guess what you're saying is that you're a devotee of those bands and you think i'm nuts, eh?

seriously, though, a lot of that is from getting into those bands late and 'the wrong way' -- BITC was the first Pavement album i heard, and i really liked it at first but as i heard the whole back catalog i thought less and less of them overall, and now i just don't regard them as a particularly good band at all (and i'm being slightly facetious with my pick; at any given time i might rate Wowee Zowee as my favorite and for a while it was Crooked Rain). also Killtaker was the first Fugazi i heard, and End Hits was the first one i listened to a lot, and later i got into Red Medicine and realized it was a really appealing halfway point between those two. have since gotten into some of the earlier stuff, but for some reason i have just not been able to find much affection for The Argument.

xxp maybe we need some kind of ILM poll to establish once and for all the Fugazi canon

― save a tree, write a twitter (bernard snowy), Monday, March 7, 2011 11:27 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

we've had at least 2 with wildly divergent results:

best Fugazi album
Best of Fugazi records (poll ends 9th of may)

I prefer You Know Us to any of Faust's 70s albums...this may be because You Know Us was the first avant/out/whatever album I ever heard and it gave me about five mindmelting epiphanies in the space of an hour one beautiful day in 1997 (I think) but it's still the one I listen to most often and I can hum most of the "tunes" from memory.

I prefer every Boards of Canada album to Music Has The Right... it's a great concept album, but only about 3 songs have staying power for me. I could listen to Campfire/Geogaddi/Beautiful Place up until infinity.

So I guess I could say my favorite album is Geogaddi, tho I think most ppl would regard that as a quality release. Or, "more of the same shit" in other circles.

at least you didn't say "A Few Old Tunes"

Oh, I have a weird one: Squarepusher "Music Is Rotted One Note"

No, that's definitely his best.

I can answer this in reverse with a couple of LPs I don't really like that are really highly regarded by devotees (of whom I'm one myself, but not in the case of these two LPs...make sense?): Zen Arcade and On the Beach.

i much much prefer End Hits and Red Medicine to 13 songs era fugazi.

I've bumped "Second Coming" WAY more than "The Stone Roses".

Matthew Sweet - In Reverse

While I probably rate "Girlfriend" ahead of it, this is a pretty fine album, and a return to form after some slightly disappointing grungey albums in the mid 90s.

Regarding Squeeze, I rank "Cool For Cats", "Argybargy" and "East Side Story" roughly the same. I also rate "Play" and "Ridiculous" highly, and I know huge Squeeze fans don't find me bonkers for liking those either, as Squeeze-devotees tend to rate their 90s material rather highly.

Replacements - Don't Tell a Soul
Scritti Politti - Provision
Japan - Obscure Alternatives
Scott Walker - anything but Climate of Hunter, Tilt or The Drift

My favorite Squeeze song of all is on Play, but I don't think it's a great album by any means.

Scritti Politti - Provision

I love "Provision". It isn't as great as "Cupid & Psyche", but it is the one Scritti album that sounds the most like it, and thus their second best by far.

"thus"

Well, I like what I like and I like what I like to sound the way I like it. Thus, "Alphabet Street" is my second favourite ABC album because it is the one that sounds the most like "Lexicon Of Love".

On that note, How To Be a Zillionaire is def. my favorite ABC album

tryin to think of some good rap ones

its hard to fight the rap canon because it's basically an invitation to have someone call you a lame

yeah it's tough! i feel like with rap stronger and more obvious consensus tends to form around which albums are someone's best or worst

In My Life Time Vol. 1 really is my 2nd or 3rd favorite Jay-Z album though

American Gangster is my favorite Jay-Z record, and people here seem to hate the shit out of it.

i feel like with rap stronger and more obvious consensus tends to form around which albums are someone's best or worst

or the opposite -- i mean, ppl cite anything from southernplayalistic to speakerboxxx/love below as their fav outkast and no one bats an eye. if anything, it's a lack of obvious consensus that makes any answer correct

outkast are pretty rare in that respect i think

On that note, How To Be a Zillionaire is def. my favorite ABC album

I guess ABC fans would find you considerably more crazy had you picked "Beauty Stab" or "Skyscraper".

I used to much prefer Speakerboxxx over Love below which seemed contrary to popular opinion at the time

Yeah but this threads about devotees not idiot rock critics

Pete Rock & CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient
De La Soul - The Grind Date

Skinny Puppy - Greater Wrong of the Right

Seems fairly universally sneered at by oldschool SP fans but I like it a lot.

De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State

Seconding U2's October

Also:
The Cars' Panorama (weird, icy, disconnected)
Love And Rockets Hot Trip To Heaven (if this album had been released a year earlier, it would have been one of the canonical albums of the 90s)

I was a heretic for years for liking OMD's Dazzle Ships and The Church's Priest = Aura, but apparently I was merely just ahead of the curve.

Ultravox, Ha! Ha! Ha!

All the 90s Squeeze albums were great except for Domino. Ridiculous loses steam a bit in the second half though. 'The Truth' from Play is easily one of their best ever songs.

Back to the spirit of the thread, many years ago I considered Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti their best album.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_AiF9pcw1q1k/R_AEvDQJeRI/AAAAAAAAAVM/HqtmtsBPG2E/s1600-h/The+Velvet+Underground+-+Loaded+%281970%29.jpg

Velvet Underground - Loaded
Stereolab - Peng!

Scott Walker - anything but Climate of Hunter, Tilt or The Drift

speaking as a scott devotee, I don't think there's anything bonkers about this.

(personally: 3>drift>2>4>1>tilt>>>>>climate)

Kraftwerk - The Mix
I always get shit for this one, but - y'know - I really like the arrangements and the cleanness of it all.

REM - Fables of the Reconstruction
Though I know this one does have a minority group claiming it as the best

Van Morrison - Moondance
Hate Astral Weeks with a vengeance. Love Moondance.

Re: Fables, it's always weird when the band themselves don't think much of a record.

I really love the lyrical and musical murkiness of Fables, and the fact that it's so much more about the South than the first two, maybe because they were in London at the time. I wish Stipe had written more of those magical realism short story songs.

Yeah but this threads about devotees not idiot rock critics

Not very surprising that devotee fans of a hip-hop act don't tend to prefer their least hip-hop oriented album, even if critics (critics are critics though - there is no such thing as "rock critics", critics are generalist experts) do.

Back to the spirit of the thread, many years ago I considered Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti their best album.

Now that is crazy. Picking Squeeze's "Let's try to sound like Paul Young"-album as their best. :)

"Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants" is not my favourite album by Oasis, but still my second favourite by far.

(Hows the Beady Eye sounding to you, Geir?)

I think I'm one of the few Sparks fans who rates Propaganda as their best.

No. I prefer it to "Kimono"

(Hows the Beady Eye sounding to you, Geir?)

I like the way they sound better than Oasis, but the songs don't hold up to quote the same extent.

What I hope is that Noel will come up with a truly Beatlesque-sounding album, something like an entire album consisting exlusively of anthemic ballads in the style of "Wonderwall" or "The Masterplan". That would be great.

Well, it could happen..

Anyroad, back to the 'nuts'...

No-one's picked a "wha?" Stereolab record yet?

Prefer "Field Day" to "Marshall Crenshaw"
Prefer the "Heyday" BBC sessions to any "real" Fairport Convention album, and "Unhalfbricking" to "Liege and Lief"
Prefer "Pandemonium Shadow Show" and "Aerial Ballet" to "Nilsson Schmillson"
Prefer "Greetings from Asbury Park" to "Born to Run"
Prefer Chris Issac's "San Francisco Days" (and "Forever Blue" for that matter) to "Heart Shaped World"
Prefer "In Utero" to "Nevermind"

Prefer "Pandemonium Shadow Show" and "Aerial Ballet" to "Nilsson Schmillson"

I'm a 'devotee' of Nilsson and this is not even remotely nuts

No-one's picked a "wha?" Stereolab record yet?

― Mark G, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 1:09 PM (54 minutes ago)

Stereolab - Peng!

― Moka, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 11:40 AM (2 hours ago)

Although I don't think Peng! is a strange choice at all, it's pretty much tied as favourite with ETK for me.

I just stuck wasabi in my eye

Oh, and another vote for R.E.M.'s "Fables" - always liked Joe Boyd's production on just about everything he's worked on. He convinced Stipe to start singing legibly.

Van Morrison - also prefer Moondance over Astral Weeks, but only slightly, and only the first side of the LP. From his later work, I always liked "No Guru, No Method, No Teacher" (from 1986) which seems forgotten, ignored, or underrated.

>>Prefer "Pandemonium Shadow Show" and "Aerial Ballet" to "Nilsson Schmillson"

>I'm a 'devotee' of Nilsson and this is not even remotely nuts

But NS was his biggest seller and the one that seems to most often be cited as his best

Oops, Chris IssaK.... checked spelling of name to make sure I posted it correctly and *still* got it wrong....

But NS was his biggest seller and the one that seems to most often be cited as his best

Yes, but thread said 'devotees', and they tend to be perverse little bastards who ignore sales figures, hit record status, popularity, shit like that

Well, it could happen..

Anyroad, back to the 'nuts'...

No-one's picked a "wha?" Stereolab record yet?

― Mark G

Well I picked Peng!... not really sure if its a controversial choice. It's one of my favorite debut albums by any band ever. People tend to pick in between 'transient random noise', 'dots and loops' and 'emperor tomato ketchup' as their best work from the 90s.

Also tend to prefer their singles and eps over their actual albums.

I mean:

Low-Fi
Lo Boob Oscillator
French Disko
Rose, My Rocket-Brain!
Solar Throw-Away / Jump Drive Shut-Out

These contain much better songs than the ones on albums from the same era.

So, it's all about the Refried Ectoplasm, right?

I'd choose that one, I admit.

How could I forget this one:

P-Furs - Forever Now

although I still love Talk Talk Talk

Kraftwerk - The Mix
I always get shit for this one, but - y'know - I really like the arrangements and the cleanness of it all.

have you heard the live album yet? the arrangements are similar but mostly better, and it actually sounds cleaner and better

Surely "live" Kraftwerk isn't particularly live after all, so no wonder they may sound just as great live as in the studio. :)

speaking as a scott devotee, I don't think there's anything bonkers about this.

(personally: 3>drift>2>4>1>tilt>>>>>climate)

This is exactly my ranking. 3's got the best of everything. I'd put Nite Flights up there somewhere too.

"Peng" is my second favourite Stereolab record. "Switched On" is my favourite.

"Isn't it weird that I totally love this record?"
"No son."

peng is my favourite stereolab lp too...

Pete Rock & CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient
De La Soul - The Grind Date

i'm with you on Pete & CL... my de la favorite is Stakes Is High, also kinda non-canonical

best stereolab is peng!/transient era stuff obv.

"P-Furs - Forever Now
although I still love Talk Talk Talk"

I don't know if it's my favourite, but I really like Book of Days.
Also soft spot Time for a Witness seconded.

Kraftwerk - The Mix
I always get shit for this one, but - y'know - I really like the arrangements and the cleanness of it all.

I always tell people I like Radioactivity best, but secretly I think The Mix might be my favourite.

JAMC Stoned and Dethroned no kidding

Ralf und Florian is my favorite xp

"my de la favorite is Stakes Is High"

That was the first one I bought and is my second favorite.

JAMC Stoned and Dethroned no kidding

It's not mine, but I can see why...

Bobby G said it was his favorite JAMC LP...

Spectres is my favorite Blue Oyster Cult album, and I have them all, up through and including Cultosuarus Erectus.

x-post "Peng" is my fave Lab, "Forever Now" my fave Furs.

And "Peace and Love" is my fave Pogues.

Surely "live" Kraftwerk isn't particularly live after all, so no wonder they may sound just as great live as in the studio. :)

some of it is ....i saw them in milwaukee and they definitely tried to give the impression that they do nothing, but they all get these tiny keyboards and even play them from time to time

The Throwing Muses - Hunkpapa.

Prefer the "Heyday" BBC sessions to any "real" Fairport Convention album, and "Unhalfbricking" to "Liege and Lief"

most record guides I've read rate Unhalfbricking highest (def above Liege). Repping Heyday over all of them is idiosyncratic, though I get the logic.

Funny thing about a lot of these is that, while most of the choices are atypical, they're still albums with a fairly unique identity within in the band's work - it's not like people are repping for albums that are uniformly considered to be dry runs or rehashes of greater triumphs.

get behind me satan, zooropa, laurie anderson's strange angels (maybe? i actually only know like three "laurie anderson fans" and two of them agree with me so maybe i shouldn't list this), bikini kill's reject all american (similarly unsure of consensus here but it seems overlooked), against me!'s white crosses, the liz phair s/t. oh and the only fiery furnaces album i ever listen to is the grandma one.

animal collective - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished
radiohead - Hail to the Thief
of montreal - Skeletal Lamping
the white stripes - s/t

the CURE - The Top
PRINCE - Parade

the last two are not my favorites by the artists, but I always have them way up higher than most fans.

Bowie - Station to Station
Van Morrison - St. Dominic's Preview

skeletal lamping is also my favorite of montreal album

I'm also one of those people who think Trompe Le Monde is the best Pixies album. This opinion seems to be getting less and less rare over time though.

For a long time A Thousand Leaves was my favorite Sonic Youth album, I'm not sure about that anymore, but overall I still listen to 90s Sonic Youth more than 80s Sonic Youth.

will anyone cop to "Milk and Kisses" being their favorite Cocteaus album?

the three albums i listen to most by my favorite(?) band are a thousand leaves, experimental jet set and nyc ghosts and flowers.

experimental jetset probably still my favorite sy album, though i have been coming around to sister recently

yeah Jet Set is not my fav SY album but definitely top 3 or 4, which is way higher than most fans would place it

by the same token Prince's 1979 self-titled album was the first full-length i heard by him and i love it to bits, although i wouldn't necessarily call it my favorite over SOTT

Joya over I See a Darkness or Ease Down the Road

will anyone cop to "Milk and Kisses" being their favorite Cocteaus album?

Yes! Garlands is very close, though.

The Throwing Muses - Hunkpapa.

― Hippocratic Oaf (DavidM), Tuesday, March 8, 2011 1:27 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Not crazy at all, IMO. It's certainly not "House Tornado" but as a collection of songs there's a strong argument to be made. It's not like Kristin dislikes it or anything - "Mania" is still a concert staple IIRC.

Bet everyone has an answer for Sonic Youth.... my favorite has always, always been Sonic Nurse. Daydream Nation I think has some cool parts in songs, but there's never a song I've wanted to listen to all the way thru.

Nirvana.. In Utero was always the one I'd keep if I had to throw all the rest away.

Thought this was the fans' choice?

I'd pick Get Behind Me Satan too and had no idea it was regarded poorly by fans. Zooropa is my favourite U2 album as well but I'm not a big fan.

I think that in my heart, I've always also rated the white album and was embarrassed to say it.

xpost OK, Thousand Leaves is actually pretty great but picking Jet Set or Sonic Nurse is just perverse, sorry.:P I've heard this Jet Set thing from a few people though, so I'm guessing the qualities that make me think it's their worst are what make it stand out as great for others. In the case of Sonic Nurse, the album just seems patchy to me and not terribly exceptional or distinctive.

xxxp cool — Victorialand is probably my favorite but I don't think that's too outré.

Bad Moon Rising is my favorite Sonic Youth record.

Warehouse: Songs and Stories - Hüsker Dü

xtc's "Big Express"

Hm, Mark Prindle seems to really like ConstruKction of Light ... Maybe I should check it out? (Interestingly, I have met a couple of big KC fans seem to think In the Court of the Crimson King and Red are among their worst albums.)

"who seem"

Bowie - Station to Station

― sofatruck, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 6:57 PM

same here. not sure if that's really controversial.

Agree with Warehouse: Songs and Stories.

Never Say Die! is my favorite Sabbath album.

landing in water

yeah Station to Station doesn't work on this thread imo

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uB-0D-gV8mY/SHl3h0JvH8I/AAAAAAAAKMM/ke47BNNAkjc/s400/talk+talk

that belongs here :)

it's not like people are repping for albums that are uniformly considered to be dry runs or rehashes of greater triumphs.

I often love what a lot of fans may considered to be "rehashes of greater triumphs", because I prefer more of what I already like rather than something that sounds completely different.
Still, those "rehashes" are hardly ever better than the major work they are trying to repeat, so it isn't like they will be picked as my one fave album by the act.

The Stooges debut.

REM - Fables of the Reconstruction

Wut, this is my fave REM album by a long way!

that belongs here :)

However, I suppose Talk Talk must have had fans at the time too. After all, the first two albums sold quite a bit and also spawned a handful of Top 20 hits.

And those fans, I am pretty sure were not fans anymore, at least not after "The Colour Of Spring". Those who got into Talk Talk on the strength of their last two albums I am pretty sure were not Talk Talk fans in the first half of the 80s.

I like all eras of Talk Talk! Colour of Spring is my favorite.

I like all eras of Talk Talk! Colour of Spring is my favorite.

And I think that album is a typical favourite of somebody who is into all eras, because it is a little of both. An archetypical example of a transitional album if there ever was one. :)

Also, while it isnt my fave I definitely love "Stoned and Dethroned" a lot, and it is v high in my JAMC estimation.

My favorite Who album is the fan-club-only live compilation View From A Backstage Pass. I don't think anyone would necessarily think I'm nuts for thinking it's their best, but it's pretty under-the-radar.

I think one of the weirdest facts here is that a lot of the most fanatical Elvis Presley devotees will actually consider his 70s Las Vegas work to be among his best.

In Debt is my favorite Disco Inferno album.

Its a pretty good album!

the three albums i listen to most by my favorite(?) band are a thousand leaves, experimental jet set and nyc ghosts and flowers.

― the people's squee (kiss out the jams), Tuesday, 8 March 2011 19:15 (Yesterday)

But have they always been your most-listened-to SY, or have they moved up over the years because you've played everything else to death? F'rinstance, I'm much more likely to pull out More or Atom Heart Mother than any other Pink Floyd album nowadays, but not because I think they're better than Dark Side/Piper/Wish/Saucerful/Animals/Meddle.

Sonic Youth probably isn't the best band to use in this thread--witness the various SY polls of the past year or so, where every album has as many boosters as detractors (FWIW, 1000 Leaves never hooked me at all; Experimental is great).

In Debt is my favorite Disco Inferno album.

can't decide if this is more or less weird than me liking Technicolour best

Highway To Hell. I've even lost work because of this.

Never Say Die! is my favorite Sabbath album.

― henry s, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 9:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

It doesnt happen to be mine, but this is a completely legitimate opinion. True devotees would not think you're nuts.

I have a friend who still likes The Green Album the best, yet it was he who insisted on taping me the first two Weezer albums and b-sides in 1997. I see his point.

Highway To Hell. I've even lost work because of this.

that seems bizarre. isn't this generally considered one of their all-time classics?

Sonic Youth - "Dirty"

Sonic Youth probably isn't the best band to use in this thread--witness the various SY polls of the past year or so, where every album has as many boosters as detractors (FWIW, 1000 Leaves never hooked me at all; Experimental is great).

― Hideous Lump, Wednesday, March 9, 2011 12:31 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

They have so many different 'modes'. I've listened to s/t EP, Whitey Album, Confusion Is Sex, SYR1-3 and Rather Ripped more than their other records

Highway To Hell. I've even lost work because of this.

that seems bizarre. isn't this generally considered one of their all-time classics?

― m the g, Wednesday, March 9, 2011 9:54 AM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Trust me, a real devotee of AC/DC does not think that Heaven and Hell as the favorite is nuts. Maybe one of those ACDC fans who gets their fill from soundtracks of Adam Sandler movies, and have never heard of Bon Scott. Back in Black doesnt even rate in my top five for ACDC

Ok, I'm one of the chowderheads that thinks Brain Salad SurgeryLove Beach is ELP's best album (ouch)

o boi... elp's luv bitch. ooo boi.

Sonic Youth probably isn't the best band to use in this thread-

Oops, I missed that, and it's OTM to boot

Rock journalists tend to be beasts of consensus and literally everyone I know says Powerage. I'm kind of guessing if I said TNT/Jailbreak, I'd get a respectful nod, like Kirk talking to a high ranking Klingon during onscreen communications but they would essentially know that I was wrong. If I said Dirty Deeds, then people might look at me like I was a maverick to be admired but not to be trusted.

To choose the big shiny, Mutt Lange album, is just plain fighting talk according to most people I know.

Just as long as they werent giving you crap for not picking a B. Johnson album.

but surely everyone knows that the real answer is If You Want Blood...?

(and yes, it counts.)

I'd place Powerage (and Let there be Rock) over Highway too, to be fair.

Y'see, I like Powerage but I also think it's the What's Going On of heavy blues rock.

I do see

It's interesting how Powerage has crept up on the world. It certainly didn't have that status in the early 80s - Let There Be Rock was THE AC/DC album back then – but it's slowly gained it over the past 20 years. And I think it fits in with the point upthread about so many of these albums not actually being wholly typical of the rest of the band's work - I think it's the only AC/DC album free of sexual innuendo, for example, and without a single joke song. Also much their most musically understated. It's rare to hear a Powerage song in the live set, though, and I bet in a Best AC/DC album poll involving 1000 general rock fans Back in Black would be top by miles.

Anyway, it's always been my favourite AC/DC album, because it was the first AC/DC album I bought.

PS xpost to Doran ... We all know, though, that anything before Let There Be Rock as the DC album of choice actually is wrong. They're still unformed - all that choogling, which doesn't get wiped away until 1977. (I'm surprised, though, that they've never done "collectors" editions of the first three Australian albums with their original tracklistings. Instead they plonked the remaining tracks on that ludicrous box the other year. I'm sure there'd be a market for original TNY/High Voltage/Dirty Deeds.

High Voltage is my AC/DC fav. Though all the Bon albums are amazing.

Slayer-South of Heaven

― Thraft of Cleveland (Bill Magill)

hah, this is what I came here to post.

Dirty Deeds is def my favorite AC/DC. Houses of the Holy is my favorite Zep, though I"m not sure if that goes against consensus or not.

In through the Out Door is my favorite Zep.

Master of Puppets used to be my favorite Metallica, but the older I get the better Ride the Lightning gets. Definitely my favorite now.

Somewhere in Time is my favorite Iron Maiden (flees thread)

i don't know if anyone would think i was nuts exactly...

The Band Stage Fright
Steely Dan Katy Lied (my fave SD does rotate regularly and my other top picks would be fairly standard tbh)
Black Sabbath Sabotage
The Faces Oh La La
Guided By Voices Under the Bushes Under the Stars
The Kinks Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round

what about Lambchop's Nixon? it seems like it would be consensus, but it always seems like i run across rather lukewarm reviews. anyway, def my favorite of theirs.

My faves shift , but I listen to "Automatic" more than any other JAMC album.

I also like "Eternally Yours" better than "(I'm) Stranded" by the Saints.

I still think Reverence is the best JAMC

er rather Honey's Dead

Hymns by Godflesh. Probably need to listen to earlier stuff by them but this with Ted Parsons on drums I find pretty great and I think I've read it dismissed elsewhere

Also Let Us Prey by Electric Wizard i really liked when I got it and had it dismissed as an aberation by a friend who follows them, or actually sells tshirts for them. Think I might prefer more recent stuff now but I still like that record.

The Beach Boys - Friends (Seems to be a well-liked record but not anyone's #1 pick for the band)
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel Of Love (Actually I do know one other person who agrees with me on this)

harry nilsson - pussy cats (interesting, unhinged, unpredictable and virtually free of schmaltz)
frank black - the cult of ray (it gets a bad rap -- but it's one of the only ones i return to, probably because i like how it sounds. really straightforward and such.)

Ok, I'm one of the chowderheads that thinks Love Beach is ELP's best album (ouch)

I'd really like to hear the justification for this because that would be one of the GOAT nuts opinions

The Kinks Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round

Prior to, say, 1995, wasn't that the go-to "classic" Kinks album? Meaning, a casual classic-rock-radio listener would either buy that or a comp if they were buying one Kinks album.

The Beach Boys - Friends (Seems to be a well-liked record but not anyone's #1 pick for the band)

No, I think all the Kinks old albums were cult records throughout the '80s and '90s. Wouldn't be surprised if the later Reprise albums were even out-of-print at times.

Before CDs, anyway.

Which Tim Buckley album are devotees supposed to like best?

Probably not "Greetings from L.A." ...

The first Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album I bought was Acme Plus, basically because it had a cool cover and the words BLUES! EXPLOSION! on the front. It's basically a b-sides and remixes album. I have all the other JSBX stuff now, I just still like this way more. It definitely destroys the original Acme. Even the Moby remix sounds great.

Katy Lied has got to be the real fan fave other than Royal Scam/Gaucho...I hate it when the band (or in this case Fagen) dislikes or is ambivalent about your fave. Katy Lied is also my fave

Ummagumma will forever stand as Pink Floyd's best album to my ears. That's that.

OK whoever can dig up that early-2000s gonzo review site that had a monstrously long "top 100 albums of all time" list and had Katy Lied at #1 gets a cookie.

Ummagumma will forever stand as Pink Floyd's best album to my ears. That's that.

― Spectrist, Thursday, March 10, 2011 3:15 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That doesn't sound crazy at all. The live disc is incredible. I've been on a Floyd bootleg kick as of late and that's one of the best shows they ever did.

Now, if you had said Delicate Sound of Thunder...

of montreal - Skeletal Lamping

― nicky lo-fi, Tuesday, March 8, 2011

i loved seeing that as the SK album is massively underrated.

haha SK should be SL

Boo Radleys - Kingsize (have talked about this many times on Boo Radleys threads)
Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Charlatans UK - s/t (just to add something else)
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (i guess i like dad rock)
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

this is madness

Haha, I like that album too.

Cold Lake - Celtic Frost

No, I think all the Kinks old albums were cult records throughout the '80s and '90s. Wouldn't be surprised if the later Reprise albums were even out-of-print at times.

I think all the Reprise stuff was out of print (in every format) by the mid-80s. I first heard VGPS from a second-generation dub in 1989, and never even knew what the actual album cover looked like until a year later when it was first issued on CD. A lot of Kinks shit wasn't just scarce then, it was unknown even to people who considered themselves Kinks fans (maybe got on the bus around Low Budget, bought subsequent releases and whatever was in print).

That doesn't sound crazy at all. The live disc is incredible. I've been on a Floyd bootleg kick as of late and that's one of the best shows they ever did.

I'll have to dig into the live half again; my evaluation of Ummagumma is based strictly on the nww-list-worthy studio half.

Which Tim Buckley album are devotees supposed to like best?

Probably not "Greetings from L.A." ...

I dunno. greetings and happy sad are probably the consensus picks, starsailor and lorca maybe. if you were to pick look at the fool or sefronia, you'd have to be put away.

Never Say Die is my favourite Sabbath record too.

I dunno. greetings and happy sad are probably the consensus picks, starsailor and lorca maybe. if you were to pick look at the fool or sefronia, you'd have to be put away.

I thought it was the first two that everyone liked, and occasionally the mid-period stuff.

I'm realizing after reading through this thread, how very few artists or bands I've actually heard the entire output of...

I dunno. greetings and happy sad are probably the consensus picks, starsailor and lorca maybe. if you were to pick look at the fool or sefronia, you'd have to be put away.

I thought it was the first two that everyone liked, and occasionally the mid-period stuff.

I'm realizing after reading through this thread, how very few artists or bands I've actually heard the entire output of...

I don't think the first lp has had that much acclaim up to now has it? It's just been rhino handmade-ed remastered & heavily expanded. Still probably seems like a step along the way to somewhere rather than arrival.
Would think it would be Goodbye & Hello & Happy Sad so the 2nd 2.
Blue Afternoon is beautiful & should be readily available on cd. I had it once a long time ago but its been OOP since the early 90s, though I think there's a vinyl version on 4 Men With Beards.

Starsailor is probably considered too weird, though it may actually be his most famous lp. My Fleeting House the official Buckley dvd actually cut out about 10 minutes of Boboquivari the televised performance from the era because the anthologist didn't feel it matched his personal vision of what Buckley was about. Great shame (or worse) since it's the one complete concert by Buckley captured & presumably shows how he'd pace a performance. Would love to see the whole thing remastered and released intact, I have an old fuzzy version of it and it has been otherwise in circulation for years.

Lorca is possibly his weirdest, but was in print a long time after Blue Afternoon & Starsailor cos it hadn't been on Straight so couldn't be messed around by Herb Cohen's whims. Hopefully the straight catalogue material will now reappear over the next while. Some of it has already though not the Buckley or Beefheart stuff. Reminds me, it is a drastic shame that Rev-ola haven't rethought releasing their version of Henske & Yester's Farewell Alderbaraan which was supposed to be from masters. Joe Foster said he was stopped in his tracks pre-release when the radioactive needle drop appeared.

& back to Tim Buckley. Greetings From L.A. is a great lp, so I was surprised to see Jeanette Leech lumped it in with the last 2 in Seasons They Change. Influence may have moved onto soul/funk but it has some classic material on. Sweet Surrender possibly the best of those, some others not that far behind.

Sefronia is a bit weak I guess(, & Look At The Fool at least has some decent songs on but Tim sounds like he has a cold. Both of these lps have better contemporary-to-them live sets circulating.
I really like the Knebworth set from '74 that appears on the Return Of The Starsailor lp. There was a video of this set advertised for years in the back of Goldmine & other US collector publications, I haven't come across any evidence other than that that this was filmed. I'm subsequently wondering if it was actually that. Does anybody here know?

The more I think about it, the more I think that Let Us Prey is also my favourite Electric Wizard album. And it has their trip hop song, 'Night Of The Shape' on it, which is pretty odd.

Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Charlatans UK - s/t (just to add something else)

Neither of these seem crazy, especially the latter.

"Blue Afternoon" is my favourite Tim Buckley album (xxp) Don't think I'm nuts for thinking that tho.

I cannot lie: I play Vive La Trance more than any other Amon Duul II

I can top that, I play Made In Germany more

^ slight fib

... tho only because I play Wolf City and Vive la Tance more

Vive le Trance is one of only three albums I ever bought and then took back to the shop the next day due to extreme musical displeasure.

(the others: NIN's fixed and Bally Sagoo's Nusrat remixes)

I like!

Albums you bought and then took back to the shop the next day due to extreme musical displeasure

Black and Blue is my favourite Rolling Stones album.
Tour De France Soundtracks is my favourite Kraftwerk album.

I think The Knife's first album is their best one.

I like the first Titus Andronicus way way more than the Monitor.

I think Tomorrow In A Year is The Knife's best one

Smashing Pumpkins, Adore

There's a pretty strong cult of Adoreheads out there, actually (although I think most of them post here, lol)

Golden Earring, Switch
UFO, No Heavy Petting
Status Quo, Quo

I think Tomorrow In A Year is The Knife's best one

Do Knife fans think this is a nuts opinion? I think the album is great (but I've also never listened to their other albums tbh).

My gf loves Adore and Machina and doesn't care for the first two Pumpkins albums. I think she's nuts but it might just be that she's five years younger than me.

My SP choices:

Mellon Collie > Gish > Adore = Pisces Iscariot > Siamese Dream (that's right!)

The rest I haven't heard.

most Knife fans I know of fall into either the Deep Cuts or Silent Shout camps; the arty ones will go for TIAY

I don't know anyone besides me who is all about The Knife

For me:

Nirvana - Incesticide
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Beach Boys - Smiley Smile

Are any of the other Knife albums similar to TIAY?

Siamese Dream is pretty much the only one I still pull out tbh, maybe individual tracks from Gish or Mellon Collie. I really loved Pisces Iscariot when I was 15 though.

Are any of the other Knife albums similar to TIAY?

not really. You can see a certain progression in their sound which ultimately leads to TIAY, but there's a pretty huge leap between Silent Shout and TIAY.

Here's a good one: The Yardbirds - Little Games

And though I can't call it my favorite, I have a soft spot for Frank Sinatra's "A Man Alone", which most devotees of ol' blue eys consider crud.

eyes

Prior to, say, 1995, wasn't that the go-to "classic" Kinks album? Meaning, a casual classic-rock-radio listener would either buy that or a comp if they were buying one Kinks album.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat,

very possibly... when i started getting into them (outside of thinking their big mid-60s single were rad) it always seemed like Something else, Village Green.., Face to Face and Arthur were the ones everybody went nuts for.

xpost I have a big soft spot for September of My Years, which while not anyone's idea of crud doesn't tend to get mentioned alongside the Capitol albums.

The Cure - Wish

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Only album I ever bought from them (I'm lying. I also bought Mellon Collie but gave it away to a friend a few months later). There's a psychedelic, sort of tropical quality that no other record from them had. Also only SP where Corgan's voice doesn't annoy me after a few tracks, not sure why.

X-Post. "Wish" is a great album. But then, my favourites are "Head On The Door" and "Japanese Whispers" and I feel the latter in particular is a favourite which would really raise eybrows among devotees. :)

don't forget that you are like the only person on Earth who still likes Wild Mood Swings

Best Elvis Presley album - Having Fun With Elvis On Stage

(just kidding!)

I cannot lie: I play Vive La Trance more than any other Amon Duul II

Made In Germany for me, which may be even more looked down upon by most fans.

Best Elvis Presley album - Having Fun With Elvis On Stage

I came here to post that just now! And I'm NOT kidding. (The only one which might get more play 'round my stereo is the boot "Greatest Shit")

The Beatles - Help!

Hellacopters-Super Shitty to the Max
People can't get passed the production, I think its brilliant!

don't forget that you are like the only person on Earth who still likes Wild Mood Swings

It is patchy but I like some of it. I still rank it behind "Head On The Door", "Japanese Whispers", "Faith", "17 Seconds", "Wish" and "Three Imaginary Boys" so it isn't like it's anywhere close to my favourite albums by them. I feel they've lost it considerably more after that album (even though "Bloodflowers" has its moments.

But, really, "Wild Mood Swings" is the closest The Cure has gotten to a pure pop album after those two albums that are my favourites by them. "Wish" has a few pop songs (and those are songs that I really love) but also some more rock oriented tracks that I like considerably less. "Wild Mood Swings" is pure pop again, although surely not conducted as well as they did in the mid 80s. But even though I also love the early 80s postpunk Cure, I love the pop Cure most of all.

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Superstition

I still love this album. I like some of their other songs more than anything here but as an album, this is my favorite.

My favorite Hawkwind album is Quark, Strangeness & Charm. J0n W1ll1@m5 thinks I'm a fucking fool.

Best Elvis Presley album - Having Fun With Elvis On Stage

I came here to post that just now! And I'm NOT kidding. (The only one which might get more play 'round my stereo is the boot "Greatest Shit")

LOL I just recently had my first 'wait this is Elvis and I really like it!' moment, aged 40, when my wife played me 'Roustabout' and 'Flaming Star'. Lo and behold these turn out to be from his movie stuff which apparently is cringe-worthy and abysmal.

tbh, Siouxise & the Banshees is one of the few groups whose entire discography is made up of albums that could be their best album; I think the only one that falls short for me (still haven't heard The Rapture yet) is Join Hands, and that is 100% because of the way it was recorded rather than because I think the songs are weak

having said that, Superstition? u crazy ^_^

I'm one of the people who thinks you're nuts for liking Superstition best! Not only it isn't close to being their best, it isn't even good. It was such a disapointment when it came out I really wonder which songs you enjoy on it. Maybe "Silver Waterfalls"?
(x-post)

"Kiss Them For Me", "The Ghost In You" and "Little Sister" are all great

Kiss Them For me is one of my favorite Siouxsie songs ever. Kinda like when Love Shack blew up and I was feeling vindicated for loving the B-52's all those years.

Jesus & Mary Chain - Automatic

P.M. Dawn - Jesus Wept

I saw Siouxsie on that tour. I loved the remixes for KTFM on the 12", especially the ambient kissapella with the indian drums. I think it may have been Talvin Singh? Maybe i'm making that up. I still have the promo cd single for Fear with all the house mixes, which used to be very popular when I Dj'd in college. The album tracks mentioned above are all great and the combined memories from my first year in college and seeing them live push Superstition into my fav. S&tB album. I see this opinion fits the thread's intent.

Pere Ubu - Ray Gun Suitcase

See, I might actually pick "Join Hands" as my fav at the moment...

The Beatles - Help!

This is probably my fav too.

Yeah, that is the definitive "Beatles" album.