RedCafe's Top 50 Albums

Well I'm ready with my fifty...seeing as I'm the token Hammer on the panel and regularly get ripped to shreds because of it, I'm happy to submit.

Have included albums which might not necessarily be among my favourites, but have had a massive influence (Floyd, Beach Boys, Public Enemy). Also avoided live albums, otherwise Live and Dangerous (Thin Lizzy) and Get Your Ya Ya's Out (Stones) would be in there as well. Its a pretty mainstream (and probably obvious list), but would happily have just these 50 in my collection if needs be.

1. Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
2. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
3. Revolver – The Beatles
4. Beggars Banquet – Rolling Stones
5. John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band – John Lennon
6. The Clash – The Clash
7. Low – David Bowie
8. Elvis ’56 – Elvis Presley
9. Never Loved a Man…- Aretha Franklin
10. Innervisions – Stevie Wonder

11. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
12. Blue Lines – Massive Attack
13. Exile on Main Street – Rolling Stones
14. Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan
15. Velvet Underground and Nico – Velvet Underground
16. Sgt Pepper – The Beatles
17. All Mod Cons – The Jam
18. Never Mind the Bollocks – Sex Pistols
19. Another Green World – Brian Eno

20. Psychocandy – Jesus and Mary Chain
21. Autobahn – Kraftwerk
22. Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder
23. The Joshua Tree – U2
24. It Takes a Nation of Millions – Public Enemy
25. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie
26. London Calling – The Clash
27. Lexicon of Love – ABC
28. The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
29. Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen

30. A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles
31. Thriller – Michael Jackson
32. Dummy – Portishead
33. Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
34. There’s a Riot Going On – Sly and the Family Stone
35. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
36. Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan
37. Infected – The The
38. The Doors – The Doors
39. Gilded Palace of Sin – The Flying Burrito Brothers

40. Definatley Maybe – Oasis
41. Exodus – Bob Marley
42. Achtung Baby – U2
43. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts – Brian Eno and David Byrne
44. Lust for Life – Iggy Pop
45. The Stone Roses – Stone Roses
46. Sign O' The Times - Prince
47. Roger the Engineer – The Yardbirds
48. The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
49. Pet Sounds - Beach Boys
50. Rum, Sodomy and the Lash – The Pogues

May change once others submit and I see that I've missed out a gem or two, but I'm happy with this so far. Loads of near misses, though.
 
I'm going to predict that every list has Definitely Maybe on it somewhere.

What's Going On is definitely in my top 3.
 
Spammy said:
Did you just copy that list from The Guardian?
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Took the words right out of my mouth.

I was hoping for more personnal lists, not a regurgitated broadsheet list, the point being to get a Definitive RedCafe list.

Do you own all these albums Hammer or listen to these regularly?
 
Gazza said:
I'm going to predict that every list has Definitely Maybe on it somewhere.

What's Going On is definitely in my top 3.
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Rightly so I think, it was a great album and still is (although it's been years since I listened to it). It kick started the indie scene again and put some bollocks back into it, this album along with Soundgargens Superunknown got me through college.

It deserves it's place, and it's a shame they went shit after it.
 
That's bit out of order isn't it? If that's his list then fair enough, surely? I mean it's your thread, but which albums shouldn't be there?

Edit: that's re. Hammer's list
 
RedNome said:
Rightly so I think, it was a great album and still is (although it's been years since I listened to it). It kick started the indie scene again and put some bollocks back into it, this album along with Soundgargens Superunknown got me through college.

It deserves it's place, and it's a shame they went shit after it.
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Yeah I wasn't criticizing the choice, just interesting that's it's been a pretty consistent choice so far.
 
Gazza said:
That's bit out of order isn't it? If that's his list then fair enough, surely? I mean it's your thread, but which albums shouldn't be there?
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No don't get me wrong, I'm just asking the question, if that is his honest list and not a copy and paste job then fine, maybe I did come across a bit harsh, but it just looks like every top 50 list that I have seen printed in various broadsheet publications over the years.

No offence intended Hammer.
 
RedNome said:
Took the words right out of my mouth.

I was hoping for more personnal lists, not a regurgitated broadsheet list, the point being to get a Definitive RedCafe list.

Do you own all these albums Hammer or listen to these regularly?
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Well I was going on the importance angle, like I said, otherwise I would have choked it with Springsteen, Bowie, Costello and Dylan.

If you want a personal list I'm quite happy to that, but in all honesty it wouldn't change much from this one. Yes I have all these and listen to them on a pretty regular basis. Is it my fault that Napalm Death are not in there?:D

Music, like films, is so subjective...I happen to rate all of these.

And no, I don't read The Guardian....I just have impeccable fecking taste!;)
 
Hammer Michael said:
Well I was going on the importance angle, like I said, otherwise I would have choked it with Springsteen, Bowie, Costello and Dylan.

If you want a personal list I'm quite happy to that, but in all honesty it wouldn't change much from this one. Yes I have all these and listen to them on a pretty regular basis. Is it my fault that Napalm Death are not in there?:D

Music, like films, is so subjective...I happen to rate all of these.

And no, I don't read The Guardian....I just have impeccable fecking taste!;)
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Sound mate, if you want to make it more personal by all means do it, I think it will make for a better and more acurate definitve list for us users, that was the idea of the thread anyway.
 
It's gonna be fecking btch collating these into one list, not looking forward to that bit.
 
RedNome said:
No don't get me wrong, I'm just asking the question, if that is his honest list and not a copy and paste job then fine, maybe I did come across a bit harsh, but it just looks like every top 50 list that I have seen printed in various broadsheet publications over the years.

No offence intended Hammer.
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I purposely stayed away from looking at lists like those for inspiration, knowing that some of these do regularly appear. Perhaps in the past I have been influenced into listening to one or two which I might not have taken much notice of before, but I'm 45 now (46 at the end of the month) so my life has been pretty much dominated by music.

I used to co-own an independent record shop in Essex during the 1980s so got to listen to all sorts of stuff. Maybe a few blues and jazz albums could have gone in there, but that might have smacked of trying to put something 'different' in just for the sake of it. Miles Davis regularly pops up in thse Guardian-type lists, but I'd be faking it if I put Sketches of Spain or Witches Brew on the list.

No offence taken at all...some interesting choices by others, which will make me dig some of those out and have another listen.
 
We'll have to look out for bias. If OK Computer is at #1 even though no one else voted for it, we'll know something's up. ;)

Maybe you should take the albums that were all on a certain percentage of everyone's list, and narrow them down into a top 10. As in, if Definitely Maybe is on 8 out of 10 lists, it goes in the top 10. Actually, I haven't thought that through...
 
Gazza said:
Have you worked out how you're gonna calculate the final list, Nome?
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Gonna try a keep it as simple as possible I think and just reverse number it 1-50 or 10-500 or something along those lines and what comes out comes out.

Fairest way I think unless anyone has any better ideas?
 
Gazza said:
We'll have to look out for bias. If OK Computer is at #1 even though no one else voted for it, we'll know something's up. ;)

Maybe you should take the albums that were all on a certain percentage of everyone's list, and narrow them down into a top 10. As in, if Definitely Maybe is on 8 out of 10 lists, it goes in the top 10. Actually, I haven't thought that through...
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Don't worry it will be an honest collation :angel:
 
Hammer Michael said:
I purposely stayed away from looking at lists like those for inspiration, knowing that some of these do regularly appear. Perhaps in the past I have been influenced into listening to one or two which I might not have taken much notice of before, but I'm 45 now (46 at the end of the month) so my life has been pretty much dominated by music.

I used to co-own an independent record shop in Essex during the 1980s so got to listen to all sorts of stuff. Maybe a few blues and jazz albums could have gone in there, but that might have smacked of trying to put something 'different' in just for the sake of it. Miles Davis regularly pops up in thse Guardian-type lists, but I'd be faking it if I put Sketches of Spain or Witches Brew on the list.

No offence taken at all...some interesting choices by others, which will make me dig some of those out and have another listen.
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I'd love to own a record shop, I think it would be an enjoyable living, I'd love nothing more than to listen to music all day, I mean I love movies hence why I took part in the movie thread but music is really my passion.
 
RedNome said:
I'd love to own a record shop, I think it would be an enjoyable living, I'd love nothing more than to listen to music all day, I mean I love movies hence why I took part in the movie thread but music is really my passion.
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It was fun for a few years - freebies, got to meet a few bands who came down to sign some stuff, a certain 'coolness' about working there (biggest and most well-known in the area - always went down well with the laydeez!), but then my 'partner' did a deal with HMV and sold out his majority share, leaving me with no alternative, but to sell mine for a pittance. Went from being the only independent for twenty odd miles to being a faceless corporate soul-less shell.

Not that I'm bitter or anything....
 
Hammer Michael said:
It was fun for a few years - freebies, got to meet a few bands who came down to sign some stuff, a certain 'coolness' about working there (biggest and most well-known in the area - always went down well with the laydeez!), but then my 'partner' did a deal with HMV and sold out his majority share, leaving me with no alternative, but to sell mine for a pittance. Went from being the only independent for twenty odd miles to being a faceless corporate soul-less shell.

Not that I'm bitter or anything....
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Like that everywhere mate, hard for these places to stay in business what with the likes of HMV and Virgin, not to mention the internet. I guess that's what they call progress though, fecking shame if you ask me.
 
Well my shop went in 1989, so the writing was pretty much on the wall for the indies even back then. Just find it a bit depressing going into HMV's and Virgin's these days as they are identical...no character.

I did get some kind of revenge by 'nicking' a substantial amount of stock before I left (which I partially owned anyway), which would have transferred over to HMV. Took it up to The Tape and Record Exchange in Notting Hill and got a hefty wodge for it all. Helped pay the mortgage for a few months until I got a 'proper' job.
 
To start a new point of discussion, I think the age of posters will have a big say in how varied these lists come, because when I think back to say when I was 18 I was very closed off in what I would and wouldn't listen to. Before this period I was a rock/metal fan because that is what I had available to me through my older sister and would turn my nose up at anything else. Then when I went to college and Uni it was the big Brit Pop age and I started listening to that. Then came my dance phase starting with the Chemical brothers and Leftfield again previous to this point I would totally disregard it as music. Then Hip Hop came along and from this point it was just a case of finding good music irrelevant of genre.

Now I seem to be going backwards and finding stuff from 60's 70's and 80's that I would never of considered listening to back in the day. The missus just put Ultravox on (pre Mig Ure! when Thomas Dolby was with them) really enjoyed it too.

I think the point to this is to be as open as you can and give things a try that you wouldn't normally listen to, hopefully this thread might do that for some of the younger posters on here. There is so much great music out there, why close it all off?
 
Fair point Red Nome...I'm probably guilty of going the other way and not really taking seriously anything recent. Not saying I'm stuck in a 60s/70s/80s time-warp, but I've not heard anything 'modern' which can challenge the majority of my own top 50. I'm sure there must be some undiscovered stuff for me to find.
 
RedNome said:
Rightly so I think, it was a great album and still is (although it's been years since I listened to it). It kick started the indie scene again and put some bollocks back into it, this album along with Soundgargens Superunknown got me through college.

It deserves it's place, and it's a shame they went shit after it.
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Did you not hear (Whats The Story) Morning Glory?
 
Hammer Michael said:
Fair point Red Nome...I'm probably guilty of going the other way and not really taking seriously anything recent. Not saying I'm stuck in a 60s/70s/80s time-warp, but I've not heard anything 'modern' which can challenge the majority of my own top 50. I'm sure there must be some undiscovered stuff for me to find.
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There's some fantastic stuff that has come out in the last few years, it's just finding it, and saying that, this is one of my personal bug bears in the way that I know that there are albums I am missing out on and haven't heard that I would probably love, if only I had access to them and the knowledge that they existed, maybe I should pay more attention to the music press. It's just that I find a lot of the publications unnecessarily pretentious and am too lazy to go trawling through the internet to find them.
 
esmufc07 said:
Did you not hear (Whats The Story) Morning Glory?
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Yeah I did and I loved it at the time, but looking back it was not a patch on DM and was the start of a downward spiral for them and many a Beatles rip off.
 
RedNome said:
Yeah I did and I loved it at the time, but looking back it was not a patch on DM and was the start of a downward spiral for them and many a Beatles rip off.
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A bit harsh I'd say. WTSMG is still a brilliant album, and I've loved all the albums they've released, Definately Maybe is still the best though, but the new album they're releasing (August 08 is it?) should hopefully re-capture their earlier stuff, 'cos there's no doubting that they were the best. Can't comment on The Beatles bit, only 17 and not heard a great amount of their stuff.
 
1. Guns N` Roses - Appetite For Destruction.
2. Radiohead - OK Computer.
3. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute.
4. Slayer - Reign In Blood.
5. Metallica - Master of Puppets.
6. Tindersticks - Tindersticks II.
7. Beck - Odelay.
8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa.
9. Radiohead - The Bends.
10. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists to Heaven Like Antennas.
11. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium.
12. GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords.
13. Neil Young - Harvest.
14. Nirvana - Nevermind.
15. Stone Roses - Stone Roses.
16. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
17. Metallica - Ride the Lightning.
18. PJ Harvey - Rid of Me.
19. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead.
20. The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream.
21. AC/DC - Highway to Hell.
22. Sigur Rós - Takk...
23. Emperor - Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise.
24. At the Drive-in - In/Casino/Out.
25. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - f#a#oo.
26. The Manic Street Preachers - Holy Bible.
27. Pixies - Doolittle.
28. Led Zep - IV
29. Deftones - White Pony.
30. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.
31. Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade.
32. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal.
33. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind.
34. Voivod - Dimension Hatross.
35. The Stooges - Raw Power.
36. Soundgarden - Superunknown.
37. Faith No More - Angel Dust.
38. Led Zep - III.
39. System of a Down - Toxicity.
40. Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.
41. Queen - A Night at the Opera.
42. Rush - 2112.
43. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath.
44. The Beatles - Revolver.
45. Bob Dylan - Highway 61.
46. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion.
47. Isis - Oceanic.
48. Boris - Mabuta No Ura.
49. AC/DC - Powerage.
50. Agalloch - The Mantle.
 
esmufc07 said:
A bit harsh I'd say. WTSMG is still a brilliant album, and I've loved all the albums they've released, Definately Maybe is still the best though, but the new album they're releasing (August 08 is it?) should hopefully re-capture their earlier stuff, 'cos there's no doubting that they were the best. Can't comment on The Beatles bit, only 17 and not heard a great amount of their stuff.
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Put it this way, no Beatles, no Oasis.

You owe it to yourself to discover where Oasis began if you know what I mean.

Get yourself a copy of Revolver.
 
Nearco said:
1. Guns N` Roses - Appetite For Destruction.
2. Radiohead - OK Computer.
3. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute.
4. Slayer - Reign In Blood.
5. Metallica - Master of Puppets
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Good man :D
 
RedNome said:
Put it this way, no Beatles, no Oasis.

You owe it to yourself to discover where Oasis began if you know what I mean.

Get yourself a copy of Revolver.
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Don't get me wrong I've heard some of the Beatles' stuff, Oasis' songs though just appealed to me more. The likes of Cigarretes and Alcohol, Morning Glory, Supersonic, Live Forever are just amazing songs, and always will be.
 
esmufc07 said:
A bit harsh I'd say. WTSMG is still a brilliant album, and I've loved all the albums they've released, Definately Maybe is still the best though, but the new album they're releasing (August 08 is it?) should hopefully re-capture their earlier stuff, 'cos there's no doubting that they were the best. Can't comment on The Beatles bit, only 17 and not heard a great amount of their stuff.
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Fair enough you're young but that isn't an excuse. People who say Oasis are/were the best, although entitled to their opinion, need to branch out a bit (IMO of course). To be fair I doubt you'll say the same when you're 20 or something.
 
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