As of Today, the Best Record in the World Is... (a thread with rules)

Chris Perez Band, Resurrection
So beautiful, so powerful, great 1990s Latin glam-rock (killer cover of "Alone Again Or" en espanol) and heartbreaking ballads about missing his murdered wife Selena.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
A thoroughly singular masterpiece. The Guernica of pop music.

Pol Pot - Back In Black (In Mass Graves)
Jello Biafra only wished he could be as good as dis.

I did this on CoM, years back, except I had no rules and I wasn't arsey about it.

Prince - Purple Rain
Purple rain, purple rain. Purple rain, purple rain. Purple rain, purple rain. Only want to see you bathing in the purple rain.

Pineapples ft. Douglas Roop - Come on Closer
Because it is the gayest thing of all time.

wow this thread sucks already, sorry ILM

Disc 2 of the Led Zeppelin box set put out in 1990. I don't think I need to explain why Zeppelin is incredible.

0 to suck in 60 seconds.

The best record in the world today is Ornette Coleman - Science fiction. What reason could I give? Well a shitload, but I'm not feeling particularly verbose, so something about singularity and how it's like a 9/11 for the mind.

Actually, I wouldn't disagree with that! All My Life finishes the mind off, so to speak. I want to hear Kylie covering it on her next album.

Kitchen Cynics, Dumbfoundlings -- Alan Davidson creates a series of ambient psych/folk instrumentals that is just perfect to zone out on a late lazy summer evening to.

Comets On Fire, Avatar
Because they've tempered their psych maelstrom with beauty and grace. Ambitious prog/psych rock that waves the freak flag higher than Everest.

Various Artists: RapMasters 5: The Best of the Word (Priority 1989), because I just listened to it and the Fat Boys rock plus it's got "Strictly Business" and my Strictly Business is harder to find, though looking at the track listing some of the other volumes may be better, but I don't have them

What is systems thinking? Is that like Thomas Pynchon?

Sam Prekop - s/t: Starts with blunted jazz-rock, ends with strung out, strings out Motown bliss. Everything in between is good too.

Yesterday it was 'Bluebeard' by yer Cocteaus. I'm not sure what it is today yet.

"A Tom Moulton Mix"
Expertly chosen, immaculately sequenced disco comp featuring one of the greatest one-two punches ever (Eddie Kendricks --> Al Downing). Great art, too (liners suck, though).

Today it's Elvis Costello's This Year's Model because many years ago I thought I should try some Costello because he had those cool glasses and so I got his latest at the time, Mighty Like a Rose, through one of those Columbia House deals and it was kinda boring, and then I got Spike and it was also not my thing and I didn't really like his voice, so I figured Costello wasn't for me, but then much later I thought I'll give him another try and why not the one most people say is his best, and so I did and it was tough and raw and mean and brilliant and I thought so this is Elvis Costello. (That's more than 25 words altogether, but only a few of them are actually about the record.)

Del Shannon, "Runaway". Still breaking my heart like no other after all these years, thank you 60's poll.

On this cloudy summer day, and i quit smoking as of yesterday so i've got a headache and i just took a pill which supposed to be tylenol 3 but i'm not sure what exactly was it, on this lazy day what can be best than:

Global Communication Fabric 26 (oh that Artec 'Sweet Music' -> Balil 'Flux' transition, it humbles you and brings out a human in you at the same time)
followed by Don't Save Us From The Flames Superpitcher remix -

pure bliss.
bless you all.

Yes - Close to the Edge

Lush sound, flowing grooves; some biting guitar; brain-bending interplay. Pretty tunes, vocal harmonies. Fantastic lows, highs on remaster: use studio headphones.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd300/d368/d3682910951.jpg
The O'Jays - Back Stabbers

Opening track to closer, solid throughout. Funky, powerful, aware, smooth, beautiful. Fist pumpin, soul strokin

"Highlights" by Beef is bittersweet, glorious, too short, a pop sung by Spaniards with a Sonic Youth fetish, and sung in half-broken English

most def steely dan's "pretzel logic" and has been for the last two or so years for me. jazz structures that rock and confusingly closed harmonies that unveil things you never heard before even on the 100th listen

Sun Kil Moon - Never Ending Math Equation

It's one of my favorite Modest Mouse songs, and this Sun Kil Moon group really made it their own. Sort of like Cat Power doing (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

I got the This Heat box today, so of course the best song in the world is "Health And Efficiency". Great sound, great lyrics, great vocals, great musicianship, and the instrumental breakdown at the end sounds immense on the remaster.

XTC - "Oranges and Lemons"

'Cuz XTC is one of the best bands going and this album is one of their most diverse and inventive discs.

Vex'd - Degeneration

Because this incendiary dubstep shit got me out of bed this morning.

Cuizinier, "Goonies Track"

1980s electropop track with uptempo falsetto rapping in French, old-school scratching, and a shoutout to Corey Feldman. Because it's Friday and life is short.

Talking Heads, Fear of Music

Brilliantly written, viscerally produced, funny as hell. About as perfect a fusion between rock and dance music as there's ever been.

Signals, Calls and Marches- Mission of Burma

Because it's passionate, energetic, and contains That's When I Reach For My Revolver, which is perfect.

Kaada, Music for Moviebikers

Exactly the kind of thing I'd usually snooze on (indie-ish chamber pop, he's affiliated with Mike Patton), but it's so swoonbeautiful and Scandinavianally restrained!

Mihaly Dresch Quartet & Archie Shepp, Hungarian Bebop

The title sums it up nicely in only two words. Gypsy jazz at its finest - infectious and fierce.

Monteverdi - 1610 Vespers - c. John Taverner

500 years of religious choral music crunched down to one lightspeed song cycle written 400 years ago most beautiful thing imaginable

correction, taverner consort conducted by andrew parrott

Joan Jett The Hit List

For finding the Glitterbeat heart in AC/DC and other lumpenpunkmetal, I salute you.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

\,,/
or I guess it then was

,,\/     \/,,

whatever

red house painters - songs for a blue guitar
===
red house painters is one of those rare bands where, search high
or low, i cant find a bad review for them. nevertheless, thats
not the source of my admiration for this album. my wellspring of
joy comes from the song writing/interpreting genius of mark
kozelek, a sublime mixture of erudition and pure glandeal rock
muscle. kozeek is one of those expert souls that knows how to
take a good song and cover it exponentially, revealing certain
profound and beautiful textures that were certainly never intended.

ever thought of "silly love songs" as a primer on the wistful,
doomed, and beautifully futile realm of unrequited love? be
prepared to. ever thought of progband yes as purveyors of raging,
crazy horse-esque songs full of righteous stoned indignation?
be prepared to. because "long distance runaround" absolutely burns
here, and every song is totally unforgettable.

welcome to the apocalypse. "songs for a blue guitar" proves that
rock n roll is still an art form above reproach.

The Comsat Angels - Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

Because it has their cover of "Citadel."

I just checked and it's still In the Aeroplane.

Richard Davies - telegraph.
cause its the best melodic singer/songwriter album ever, and its underrated as hell.

I really like the new Walkmen album!

"bitch" on sticky fingers (uh, the stones).

Depeche Mode, Violator.

Brilliantly written, viscerally produced, funky as hell. About as perfect a fusion between rock and dance music as there's ever been.

(Sorry O'Connor, this is where your description needed to go, with a crucial letter difference. ;-) )

Science Fiction is probably the right answer, though I haven't heard Avatar yet.

Psapp - The Only Thing I Ever Wanted

Dreamy like Feist, and as AMG says "Live instruments such as piano, brushed percussion, and xylophone comprise most of the musical samples, creating a powerful hybrid of earthy folk and sophisticated electronica"

"U Ain't Runnin Shit," George Clinton f/ Que Bo Gold, Kool Ace, Jazze Pha, Little Blunt

Big minor-key bouncy beat, everyone gets called a bitch including Betty Crocker, George namedrops Paul Revere like a true OG, making my Wednesday