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

Bought the complete Zep catalogue the other day off iTunes. That's pretty impressive stuff.

Also this. One of the best purchases you'll ever make, my friend.

My most recent was probably Dusty...Definitely!. I'm girding my loins for Dusty In Memphis.

Tyler have you heard this? A 1989 Peel session version of My Finest Hour that flattens the album version IMO. even the You Tube comments seem to agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwm0p0Ziw04

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic was my fave album of 1990 and i'm not ashamed to say i burst into tears after hearing this version for the first time on Stuart Maconie's old BBC6 show in 2004.

The Special AKA - In The Studio

Maybe not a classic album, but definitely a classic band. Had never bothered with it before, but it's great!

That's an amazing version of My Finest Hour.

Bowie's Lodger is a bit good. Been a ChangesOne kinda guy, so this and station to station are big revelations for me.

Groundhogs - Split (Thanks to the ILM '70s rawk poll!)

rumours

blue lines

Stayed away from Elton John forever, but jeesh, Madman Across the Water is awfully impressive. Obv knew Tiny Dancer, but the whole album has the same triumphant/melancholic/epic feel. Is all his early 70s stuff this good?

have been debating getting the recent elton john boxset of his early albums myself actually.
something i would never have imagined a few years back.

Aja

Yeah, early Elton is the shit.

My answer is Suicide - Suicide (77)

Two pretty different records, but:

L' Enfant Assassin des Mouches - Jean Claude Vannier
Yank Crime - Drive Like Jehu

L' Enfant Assassin des Mouches - Jean Claude Vannier

given my love of axelrod i had been told many times to pick this one up ..
eventually i saw a copy and got it.
not what i expected at all, and to be honest, its rarely dropped in the playlist due to all the random noise excerpts that spoil the flow for me.
however, when its good, its very good.

it's pretty "experimental" I guess. He arranged a lot of Histoire Du Melodie Nelson, and you can certainly hear that in Les Enfants... Some friends of mine went to a concert he did at the Royal Festival Hall a few years ago, said it was both far out and groovy.

bruce springsteen - the river
max romeo - war ina babylon
stevie wonder - songs in the key of life

bowie -- hunky dory

Can - Tago Mago.

http://www.peacefrog.com/thumb.php?src=_graphics/press/260.jpg&w=550&zc=0

I just "got" syd barrett its p great to "get" something

Isn't it, though?! Man, I live in hope that different stuff clicks for me, it's what makes me periodically revisit certain artists and albums. I just spun "Psychocandy" and while it sounded better than ever, the vocals still don't work for me.

I tried and failed with Syd long ago. What helped you get him?

Also Suicide and Tago Mago. And Neu! as well

Tago Mago clicked in with me a few months ago after leaving them for ages, I guess I learned to ignore the bad bits. Yes to german funk, no to screetchy noise shit.

Notorious BIG - Ready To Die
EPMD - Strictly Business / Unfinished Business
Robert Palmer - Sneaking Sally Through The Alley
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood

These all have the added sweetness of being by artists I'd never have imagined would become favourites of mine. Love it when that happens.

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

i should have already know this album but didn't. knew it was going to be great but wasn't prepared for this. i think "Kooks" might be my favorite song on this album. it comes so natural to David Bowie that it almost scary. how is it possible to be this good?

known

Kooks is amazing. I like Bowie's advice to young Zowie that he should stay out of trouble with bullies because he's "not too good at punching other peoples' dads" or something. i also like the bold (i think it's bold) decision to put this easy, casual, personal song right after the transcendent Life on Mars?

in that song i always heard the lyric in the chorus as "sailors fighting in the dancehall/ oh man, look at those gay men go" and was upset to learn that the real lyric is "cavemen." it's one of my favorites ever. the only shitty song is Quicksand which is tedious and also sort of fascist, i think.

David Bowie - Heroes

My mate was so disappointed when he found out that on 'Sufragette City', Bowie wasn't singing 'the smell of my dick has put my spine out of place'

there's an excellent version of Kooks on Bowie at the Beeb which doesn't unfortunately seem to be online anywhere.

I've been catching up on later Love albums Four Sail, Out Here, False Start and Black Beauty. I guess not classic, but I like some of the heavier tracks.

the only shitty song is Quicksand which is tedious and also sort of fascist, i think.

Crazy talk, it's awesome and sort of fascist

Not quite the same thing, but I had totally forgotten that Jungle Brothers "Done By the Forces of Nature" used to be one of my favorite records - how do you forget something like that? - until I read a recent interview with Talib Kweli extolling its virtues. The soggy cardboard underwater mix still does it no favors, but it's an awesome record, with some neat samples and diverse tunes.

I like the alt version of Quicksand that's a bonus track on the Ryko Hunky Dory CD even better. What happened to all those bonus tracks, on the later round of reissues they stuck to the original album tracks? Was there ever a comp of box set of them?

Those Ryko reissues were awesome.

Pre-Ryko Bowie and Ryko Costello, were there any other high-profile reissue roll-outs?

When were the Beach Boys twofers?

I want to say later. But I also want to say the Beach Boys two-fers were also reissued.

Reissue of a reissue.

Ah

Rollout began 1990. "Sound and Vision" box was 1989. Costello rollout began 1993.

So Bowie (and hits tour), then Beach Boys began, the Costello (and reunion tour).

Wishbone Ash - Argus

aerosmith - draw the line.

i actually got it around the time it was released, lent it away, and now decades later it's come back to me. it's an album unencumbered by "classic-ness". it just smokes. perry's guitar sounds incredible here - filthy and loud.

don't that sunnn look good going dowwwwn

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

That's a really good one.

"coney island baby", oddly enough. and wire "chairs missing" too.