what was the last 'classic album' you got and were knocked out by?

also Nick Drake - Bryter Later - but I already knew most of the songs on that, so it wasn't quite such a revelation.

:-) :-) I'm most happy to hear that!

pre-1990: Poison, Open Up And Say Ahh....

Also that Joe Cuba Sextette Diggin' the Most I just got is pretty great, except for the English language tunes. But the tracks that Cheo Feliciano sings on are uniformly very good.

i more or less have all of his records and i have the feeling otb is his best studio album. it's the most intense of his folky/soft songwriter albums. there are no real standouts except the first song which i knew from decade. it's all pretty much made of one stone. by the way neil did many shit and average albums. most of his 90s (except ragged glory, dead man was ok) and a lot of his 80s releases (trans, reactor, landing on water etc., hawks + doves was ace) should be mentioned here.

Later period Coltrane had always seemed a chore ( my fave jc is usually crescent) but something clicked.

Oh, we’re fording the river together!

What “clicked” with Interstellar Space: I’m approaching it more as a continuous sound environment (in relation to really minimal, monotonous, drone-y music I guess), than as a performance across linear time.

I’m not saying that’s the “right” approach. I have no idea what I’m “doing”.

It’s so different to anything else tho! A hard, mirrorlike sound-crust suspended atop a bottomless void of neg space, a "top heavy" architecture that is singular in his work or maybe anyone's. The starkness of it allows me to take it in as like a seductive, kinetic surface-texture, pristine and bone dry, absent obvious reference to the clock. (Saturn has a head, I guess. That’s more striking as a disruption of the continuity than as a structural reinforcement, or as a sign of decay in a landscape otherwise devoid of past or future?) Fuck this one might be my favorite now.

That’s saying a lot! The very small music collection on my phone includes both Coltrane and the Complete VV Recordings, the former is the thing i instantly cue up in my headphones whenever I’m overwhelmed and need to soothe my frazzled nerves. I put on ‘Out of This World’ and it’s such a balm, right away. People talk about the “turbulence” of Coltrane, and I get it but the thing is he is *so centered* as a player that I feel stabilized just listening to him.

Nice! Terrific description.

for me today this was Dwight Twilley Band - Sincerely

had no idea he was this good, i typed up a longer thing but deleted it

but this thread is making me want to listen to Coltrane (in my new Coltrane shirt that Austin sent me, lol)

"out of this world" is so great

HELL YEAH BJ THAT’S WHAT I'M TALKIN ABOUT LOL

...also how very serious i am in the band shirt topic(s)! #onethread

i swear i want nothing in return!

okay maybe a shoutout in the liner notes. but not my real name; one of those esoteric ones iykyk

I'm going to pick Remain in Light. I grew up in the 1980s, so as a kid I associated Talking Heads with "Road to Nowhere", which got to #6 and was all over the radio when I was ten years old. Many years later I borrowed Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads from the library, which had "Once in a Lifetime", but nothing else from Remain in Light. "Lifetime" is a top song, but trying to extrapolate the rest of the album from it is like trying to imagine Future Days based entirely on listening to "Moonshake".

So it wasn't until the MP3 era that I heard Remain all the way through. I remember thinking "yes" and "this is good" and "yes". I don't like the kind of precise, fussy funk music the band majored in at the time - I have a mental vision of Adrian Belew smiling at Bernie Worrell, who smiles back, and they high-five each other, and everybody is happy, and it's sickening - but I do like Remain because it's a full-on sensory assault, a wall of sound. Like having your face thrust into the guts of a grandfather clock, but in a nice way. Or like being buried in sand at a beach by a girl who then rides on top of you, and you feel funny. Or staring at the back of your pet cat and wondering why it doesn't like to be touched there. All of those things went through my mind the first time I heard Remain in Light.

Also, several years later I downloaded Deep Purple's Made in Japan. I have no idea why. I despise organ-led early-70s rock music and deep Purple haven't aged well. They were the biggest band in the world at one point, but nowadays they're totally overshadowed by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. But I can see why they were such a top live act. I grew up in the wake of punk so I should be physically allergic to ten-minute organ solos, but Made in Japan won me over. For a fleeting moment I could feel the power of early-70s organ led progressive first-generation heavy metal.

thin lizzy - johnnny the fox

Great album

the songwriting! the solos! the funk! 🤩

One of my fave album covers too

and the love songs. everything sounds so spacious. i've been flirting with this band for a while and the time was finally right for them to sink me lol. ofc i've always loved "the boys are back in town" and "jailbreak".

xp gah yeah it's stupendous

"Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed" sounds like it could be a Captain Beefheart cover

Borderline is in the pantheon of “lighters up” hard rock cowboy ballads.

Fools Gold also has that cheesy spoken word intro, then brings the thunder.

Love this album.

everyone otm; thin lizzy rules. i'm due a revisit myself.

I’ve only recently at the dawn of my sixth decade come to enjoy (not just appreciate) Jimi Hendrix. The current Mojo issue has an article about the making of Axis, and it’s inspired me to listen to the whole discography.

Surely this has been discussed but boy, does the most famous studio version of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” sounds like a Charles Stepney production.

Thin Lizzy has never clicked for me. Maybe I should try again.

There's a new deluxe box set version of Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love out that includes the mono mix, and that has really made that album hit so much harder for me. I have always liked the album, but the mono version rules.

I'm finally listening to Coroner's Mental Vortex, and completely infatuated.

dunno why I never listened to "you're never alone with a schizophrenic" by Ian Hunter until yesterday but I really enjoyed it

There's a new deluxe box set version of Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love out that includes the mono mix, and that has really made that album hit so much harder for me. I have always liked the album, but the mono version rules.

Yeah, first heard the mono via a reissue LP (not even a fancy pants audiophile thing) and it knocked me the F out. I mean obviously an incredible album but yeah sounds great.

I will say the new version has what might be the worst updated (?) cover art of all time.

Yeah, the cover suuuuucks.

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-rdecee92oy/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/58266/6409240/leglp39361__13005.1757471267.jpg

What the fuck am I looking at? A rainbow-dragon-terrier?

BARF

(I fucking love this album)

Apparently the cover is a drawing Hendrix made when he was five.

That looks like a limited edition bag of coffee. our new bold as love dark roast, in tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

IDGI, the original cover is iconic and awesome

Analogue Productions put out an SACD back in 2018 that had both the mono and stereo mixes on one single disc. I think it's still in-print and awaiting a re-press, but it's great and pretty definitive if anyone's looking for a cheaper, digital (but high-resolution) alternative that also uses the original artwork. List price is $35.

Analogue Productions also released a 33 1/3 rpm vinyl edition a few months later, again with the original mono and stereo mixes, but that's been OOP for a while and goes for a ton of money. They have a 45 rpm edition that's coming out soon for those who swear by that format - still pricey at $150 list.

I don’t know why they historically have done this to Hendrix reissues

https://www.discogs.com/release/523677-The-Jimi-Hendrix-Experience-Axis-Bold-As-Love

I really love the original cover too but wasn't it based off a misunderstanding that Jimi was part "Indian" which really meant Native American? and that Jimi himself wasn't a fan?

Yeah, those 1993 reissues were very 1993...

https://i.discogs.com/gtcX413ztXeIgqFWL7fCI4r0uQqwUpqwEc5xtYX_0WY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:594/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ5ODgx/MS0xNjYyNzM1ODEz/LTUwMTIuanBlZw.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/jDFw4QqKiPlVQveencPWiNcG1nYmUbL1xXjfc_-Mmk8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:594/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUyMzY3/Ny0xMzE2OTExOTcy/LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/bYDoWKmDYHy69jqDFT9YJkankyqUJJJd3wVJWgpQw_A/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:592/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUyMzY4/MC0xNjUxNTg2MTcw/LTI0MTEuanBlZw.jpeg

Whatever cover they put on Electric Ladyland will be better than the original so no complaint there.

i don't care for the original w/ boobs but the orange/red halo pic cover is iconic

interesting japanese and french "axis" variations:

https://i.discogs.com/4Iu-ZYwzOlB1wkAPH8g8u8SLLM3HK3iOTW1vLuYL3wE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI3MjAx/NzQxLTE2ODc5Njg5/OTMtMTAyNC5qcGVn.jpeg
https://i.discogs.com/-HVsgU-IQCBn703RB5OA1Pn7695RST_GqS5Ymq3BNRE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:590/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzMDA4/NjM5LTE1NDYzNzA1/NzktNzI2My5qcGVn.jpeg

I find the boobs cover very unpleasant

It's not a recent acquisition - it was one of the first Judas Priest albums I heard, so I've been listening to it for about 40 years - but fuck, Unleashed In The East just destroys. One of the greatest live albums (and yes, I know Halford re-recorded his vocals) ever.

https://i.discogs.com/K66CLSIkC2sE_RDZlGbYO7eGcT9FqRDk45bG6NK8QwY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:500/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTkxNDQy/MC0xMjY3NjQ5NTA1/LmpwZWc.jpeg

I had this compilation, from the early 90s reissues. Would have been happier in the long run if I had bought the actual albums.

Wikipedia suggests Jimi didn't really like much about any of the album covers his labels came up with, but the alternatives have all been so pedestrian. This French jacket for Electric Ladyland is well designed, and feels of its time in a good way.

https://recordmecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_5376.jpg

wow Clube Da Esquina really is THAT good

https://www.discogs.com/master/167258-Milton-Nascimento-L%C3%B4-Borges-Clube-Da-Esquina

Thick as a Brick.

I'm in a huge prog phase and that album is stunning. Way better than everything else by Tull.

ha I listened to that twice in the last week! it rules.

The first Joan Baez LP sounds amazing for 1960, if I didn't know I would assume it was from the other end of the decade.

Way better than everything else by Tull.

Strangely this is exactly how I feel about Stand Up. Nothing else has ever clicked.

When I was 14, every Tull album clicked. Stand Up is the only one I maintain unqualified affection for, but it's more a Pentangle record than a prog artifact.

I found a used LP copy of Rhythm of the Saints the other week and, not having heard it since around the time it was initially released, I was pretty blown away. Really beautiful music, occasionally tipping over into some cousin of fourth world sounds.

Stand Up is the only one I maintain unqualified affection for, but it's more a Pentangle record than a prog artifact.

I've never been able to develop a taste for prog, so that checks out. I can dig prog bands when they go pop or metal bands that dabble in prog, but straight prog is not my jam.

I’m more into the idea of being into prog than I am actually into prog, if that makes sense.