What are your most played albums?

VU&Nico
Rumours
Tusk
dEUS - Worst Case Scenario
Immaculate Collection
Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi
Ice T - OG
No New York
Fun Lovin'Criminals
Maxinquaye

and most importantly/depressingly: Blue

There's often precious little correlation between "most played" and "favourite", I find. Also between "most played" and "most listened to", if you see what I mean. It's the whole Background Music thing.

Most played this year: Ojos De Brujo Bari, Air Talkie Walkie, Phoenix Alphabetical, Best Of Cesaria Evora, Scissor Sisters.

Most played last year: Gotan Project La Revancha Del Tango - an album which I could cheerfully never hear again.

Michael Mayer Fabric mix

Do you mean played intensively for a short burst or period, or rather played the most over the span of your life? Because those aren't necessarily the same, either.

Over the past year, the CDs that have binge dominated have been The Mechanical Forces Of Love by Medicine, The Greatest Hits of The Archies and Faded Seaside Glamour by Delays. All of them have been carolanned - i.e. played over and over and over. But I don't know which of them will transcend carolanning to be albums I'm still listening to in five years.

I mean, I binged on the Busted album and listened to nothing else for a month, but I don't even have the urge to pick it up now. (true bubblegum there.) Likewise the Manitoba album from last year. But the Medicine album, which I got at around the same time, still keeps getting back in my stereo.

Do you mean played intensively for a short burst or period, or rather played the most over the span of your life?

Basically the former. Like say, back in '95 you put it on every day but that doesn't mean you don't feel disconnected from it these days.

In which case: Björk Debut, Portishead Dummy, REM Automatic For The People, Maxwell Urban Hang Suite, Radiohead OK Computer, Soul II Soul Club Classics Vol 1...

Yikes, what a mezzobrow, "The Guardian's Greatest! Albums! Evah!" list. Maybe that was part of the problem... after they became ubiquitous, I stopped playing them.

Sometimes, you can even identify the single play of an album which makes you think "OK, I've enjoyed this... but I don't need to hear it again". It happened last year with Zongamin, and I think it might have happened again this morning with Mylo.

Ever? Probably pretty close betwen Damned Damned Damned and Trout Mask Replica (the early having taken an early lead in 1977 but the latter closing fast since 1997)

This / the last year? No idea. It could well be be the most recent ones by John Cale, Clientele, Erase Errata, Faust vs Dalek, Fiery Furnaces, Lucky Bishops, Marlowe, Mission Of Burma, Morrissey, Outkast, The Sadies or Cat Power.... I can't imagine any of them would be substantially ahead of the others 'though.

Bats Daddy's Highway, except last time I put it on it started skipping something furiously and I shrieked in horror. I'm afraid to put it on again and find out its irreperably damaged.

re: your comments on your Daddy's Highway LP: my vinyl has seemed to have undergone some terrible hacking tragedy. My copy of X/O is now unplayable, as are my (relatively new) Meters LP's. I am afraid to discover what else been decimated. It's almost like my three year old son has snuck into my vinyl collection with his "toy" screwdrivers.

at the moment - according to the stats from my iPod, which i was looking at last night because i really am that sad - the top albums are:

section 25 - from the hip
trans am - futureworld
franz ferdinand (artificially inflated because my girlfriend listens to it all the time)
bowie - low (ditto, although it'd probably be up there anyway)
tv on the radio - desperate youth &c
the workouse - the end of the pier

when i was about 15, the case of my copy of OMD's greatest hits (the black one from the late eighties) fell apart because i'd been playing it so much.

simon

mansun - six
the posies - frosting on the beater
def leppard - hysteria
dogs die in hot cars - please describe yourself
deep dish - global underground: moscow
el-p - fantastic damage

it's niggling at me, this. having gone away and thought a bit, i reckon my most played of all time would have to be technique.

but i'm probably wrong.

Of all time? I guess these would be the top.

Pinback - This is a Pinback CD
Built to Spill - There's nothing wrong with Love
Beatles - Revolver
Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Currently, I'd say these:

Wrens - Medowlands
The Zombies - The Zombies, I love you
Blitzen Trapper (awesome local PDX band) - Blitzen Trapper
Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadows

Hatful of Hollow
Grace
Maxinquaye
Protection
Turn on the Bright Lights
Eskimo 1 (mix cd) - cos it was one of the few decent ones we had in the shop i worked in although i do like it.

Recently:

The Transiguration of Vincent.
Dongs of Sevotion.
Erlend Oye - DJ Kicks.

ever-probably the stone roses even if it has been a few years.
now-the brunettes 'mars loves venus' cause it's still summer even if global cooling is taking over.

smashing pumpkins - siamese dream
my bloody valentine - loveless, isn't anything
beach boys - pet sounds
any nirvana album

My favorite band for the past 15 years or so has been U2, but I don't listen to them as much as I once did. Lately, most listened to:

The Handsome Family - Milk and Scissors
Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
Aislers Set - The Last Match
Calexico - Convict Pool
Madvillain - Madvillainy

Jobim and Miucha, Echoes of Rio. The record that got me into bossa.

Radio City.

Sly's "Riot."

Jon Hasell/Eno, Fourth World Vol. 1

Beefheart, Doc at the Radar Station

Beach Boys, Love You

Gilberto Gil, Personalidade (comp of his stuff '66-'72)

Bobby Womack, Lookin' for a Love (Razor & Tie comp)

Miles Davis, Tribute to Jack Johnson

Pavement, Crooked Rain

lots more, I get obsessed easily. but those i still play a lot, except for Radio City...

Bringing it all Back Home - lately

Fables of the Reconstruction and
Dirty Mind always.

easily 100+ times for all of these:

unrest "imperial ffrr"
rainer maria "long knives drawn"
everything but the girl "amplified heart"
the best of fleetwood mac
ropers "all the time"
ida "i know about you"
joni mitchell "blue"

Over the long haul it has been either Led Zep I or Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star.
The short, compressed-outburst, overplay award goes to Sweet - Deslation Blvd.

In no special order, must be lacking some:

Tool - AEnima
Fugazi - End Hits
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Led Zeppelin IV
Yes - Relayer
Franz Ferdinand
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Behind the Music
Violent Femmes - s/t
Duran Duran - s/t

Oh, for the last 15 or so years, these keep coming back:

U2 - The Joshua Tree
Pixies - Doolittle
The Cure - Disintegration
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Van Halen - s/t, 1984
Archers of Loaf - Vee Vee
Cocteau Twins - The Pink Opaque
New Order - Substance

hmmmm, this might not be pretty, none of them will be albums I've bought in the last 5 years:

Polvo - Exploded Drawing
Apples in Stereo - Tone Soul Evolution
Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists
Poison - Flesh & Blood
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Weezer - Pinkerton
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Alice Cooper - Trash/ Beast of
Skid Row - S/T

In no particular order

Definitely Maybe - Oasis
Parklife - Blur
Bandwagonesque - Teenage Fanclub
Darklands - J&MC
Cake/I've Seen Everything - Trash Can Sinatras
Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
Reading Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
You Can't Hide Your Love Forever - Orange Juice
If You're Feeling Sinister/Tigermilk - Belle and Sebastian
Screamadelica - Primal Scream
Generation Terrorists/Gold Against the Soul/The Holy Bible - Manics
Eight Legged Groove Machine - The Wonderstuff
The Bends - Radiohead
High Land Hard Rain - Aztec Camera
Going Blank Again - Ride

Nothing too anti-canonical there...going further back it would be Hunting High and Low by A-ha which I listened to for almost a whole year solidly.

Oh, and Rum Sodomy and the Lash/Red Roses for Me/If I Should Fall From Grace with God by the Pogues, which haven been, and continue to be, the soundtrack to many a drunken evening round my house over the years.

I'd say:

Michael Jackson - Thriller
Cornelius - Fantasma, CM, 69/96
The Beta Band - Hot Shots II
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Kiley Dean - Simple Girl
Blur - Parklife
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Dust Brothers - Fight Club
Kiley Dean - Simple Girl
Justin Timberlake - Justified
Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - Fakebox
Richard X - X-Factor Vol. 1
Eric B and Rakim - Greatest Hits
GZA - Liquid Swords
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust, Dig Your Own Hole
The Prodigy - Music For The Jilted Generation
Prince - Purple Rain
Primal Scream - Exterminator
Chemical Brthers/Jon Carter - Live At The Social, vols 1+2
Mekon - Welcome To Tackletown
The Runaways - Classic Tales
Major Force - The Original Artform
DJ Food - first album
Beck - Odelay
London Funk Allstars - Flesh Eating Disco Zombies vs The Bionic Hookers From Mars

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Bob Dylan - Street Legal
Palace - Lost Blues
Velvet Underground - Live 1969

Thank you for the question. It made me realize, to my complete shock, that it might just be Tori Amos's "From the Choirgirl Hotel."

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Trojan Records - Tighten Up!
Autechre - LP5
Blur - Parklife
Stephen Malkmus - Pig Lib
Beach Boys - Smiley Smile

modern lovers - st
misfits - collection 2
ghost face - pretty tony
black flag - damaged
biggie - ready to die

Ever;

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Spiritualized - Ladies & Gents...
Embrace - Drawn From Memory
Orbital - Snivilisation
The Verve - A Northern Soul
De La Soul - 3ft High & Rising
Massive Attack - Protection
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Mega City Four - Magic Bullets

Recent Past (last two/three years);

OutKast - Stankonia
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden
Bark Psychosis - Hex
Manitoba - Up In Flames
Missy Elliott - Miss E... So Addictive
Plaid - Double Figure
Mouse On Mars - Iaora Tahiti
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Disco Inferno - EPs
Sugababes - Three

This Year;

Bark Psychosis - ///Codename; Dustsucker
Embrace - Out Of Nothing
Blur - 13
Jay-Z - The Blueprint
The Beta Band - Heroes To Zeroes
Junior Boys - Last Exit
LCD Soundsystem - singles
The Necks - Drive By
Fennesz - Venice
The Mountain Goats - Tallahasse

i guess most played ever would be fairer to records i've had for years:

elliott smith - either or and s/t
alice in chains - dirt
pavement - crooked rain
wilco - summerteeth
opeth - still life
megadeth - rust in peace
radiohead - ok computer
the cure - disintegration
converge - jane doe

easily 100+ times for all of these:

unrest "imperial ffrr"

YES!!!!!!

100+ times is a lot these days?! (that sets the bar awfully low for us old-timers)

Miles Davis "In A Silent Way" has been heard in my household more than "honey, where is the toilet paper?"

My most played CDs, after I got a CD player in late 1987, are probably the Depeche Mode albums from the 80s. Particularly "Construction Time Again". I owned fewer CDs back then, and tended to listen to the same ones a lot, something I rarely do with my current favourites. And I still play "Construction Time Again" 1-2 times a year (even though that particular copy will resign this spring when the remaster/DVD arrives)

100+ times is a lot these days?! (that sets the bar awfully low for us old-timers)

it probably isn't that much, but i have LOTS of discs plus i like to restrict myself from listening to certain things too much, as i can and do end up sick of things i once loved.

this is a tough one....
i'm gonna say:

Nirvana - Nevermind (since it was like the ONLY album i listened to from 1991 to 1993 pretty much)
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever
The Cure - Faith, Pornography
Radiohead - OK Computer

remembering of past years and not counting the past year or two, when it's mostly been dance music

Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Sonic Youth- Confusion is Sex
Peaches- The Teaches of Peaches
Belle and Sebastien- Boy with the Arab Strap
Devendra Banhart- the first two
Neil Young- After the Gold Rush
Bruce Springsteen- Born to Run
Johnny Cash- Live at San Quentin
Junior Walker & the All Stars- Shot Gun

the only one from the past year or so is Aja. otherwise, i don't really listen to many albums.