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

I probably should mention at this point that the Adam Scott/Scott Aukerman podcast is what prompted me to check out the early REM albums after not really listening or thinking about them for ~15 years. If you don't like their jokes and bits, only listen to the second half of the episodes where they just go through that episode's album track by track. Their enthusiasm is infectious.

unfortunately it's awful. it's co-hosted with scott aukerman. i actually really like adam scott aukerman, and i really wanted to like the podcast

REM are boring and U2 are terrible but I have learnt an awful lot about both bands from the excellent podcast over the last four years

like, the names of the members, and what instruments they play

also, The Godfather is a film

jailbreak by thin lizzy

Adam Scott has an REM podcast now

unfortunately it's awful. it's co-hosted with scott aukerman. i actually really like adam scott aukerman, and i really wanted to like the podcast (R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME?). but good lord do they like to stray from the subject. each episode is 2 hours long and spends maybe 4 and a half minutes talking about anything relevant to REM

― Karl Malone, Thursday, August 23, 2018 1:45 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just discovered this post and Karl, man, you are so wrong. They often take a half hour to an hour to get to the album itself, but there's usually at least 30 minutes worth of on-topic and substantive musical/critical/cultural commentary, and each episode also gives you a sense of where two fans were in their lives as listeners when each album came out. Plus once you get used to the looong digressions before they get on topic, all the tangents never stop getting funnier (helps to keep in mind that it's an absurdist comedy podcast first and a music podcast second). I probably found it easier to enjoy because I discovered it through their previous podcast, RU Talkin U2 to Me; I'm much more of an REM fan than I am a U2 fan so I got used to their meandering on the earlier podcast without the frustration of waiting for them to get to a subject I really cared about. And once you know their rhythm you can just estimate when they'll actually get down to business and skip ahead of the long warm-up. Smoke a bowl and give it another chance.

Monster is completely underrated but I can't imagine a critical reappraisal by people younger than me (36) soon.

THe Olivers beeker St
60s band that have a biographical article in the latest Ugly Things.
This si an unreleased heavy rock lp from 1969 plus singles from various incarnations of the band and its predecessors the Serfmen and later incarnation as triad.
Has some great stuff on it. Lp itself has some fantastic guitar.

The New Age All Around
Pat kilroy lead trio play mostly acoustic material. This was a compilation from about 10 years ago put together around an unreleased lp from 1967 that was shelved when Pat Kilroy died very young. trancey atmospheric material.
I've had this for a while but play it too infrequently. So getting refamiliarised with it.
There wasa great pat Kilroy piece in an old issue of Ugly Things written by David biassotti which turned me onto this material and Kilroy's own lp.

Taking in Keith Jarrett's Survivor's Suite this evening. Not sure if this counts as an across the board "classic album" or no?

Anyway, wow, pretty amazing record. And, I swear, if this were released on any label other than ECM, it would've been taken a lot more seriously as a jazz funk opera. ECM doesn't exactly standout in the world of cratediggers and MPC heads, which I definitely was at one point. If you had played Survivor's Suite for me in a blindfold test and told me it was some Strata East or Black Jazz group, I would 100% have believed you. The extended section on side one of bass and celeste is just the right mood and the ruckus that opens side two is easily the sound of a fully acoustic small group led by Sun Ra. Except it was Keith Jarrett all along. Haha. Also, for a guy that was so anti-electric instruments, he plays a celeste (or is it "celesta"?) on some key parts of side one and it resembles a damn good imitation of a Fender Rhodes electric piano. Whatever, it sounds rad. Seriously good record.

And, dammit, those squalling sax runs at the end! Close your eyes and it's John McLaughlin.

I listened to London Calling (in toto) for the first time today, and I gotta admit it’s an excellent record.

heard XTRMNTR for the first time yesterday and was completely blown away, certainly seems like the peak of the wave of bands in the late 90s/early 00s incorporating electronica influences. don't know how i'd never gotten around to it before

(its not pre-1990 but this thread was closer to 1990 when it was created than now is to 2000)

Again, not sure if this counts as a "classic album" per se, but I took in the Pink Floyd Live at Empire Pool performance of Dark Side of the Moon this afternoon and it's pretty great. I only bring it up here because it got officially released some years back in one the various "deluxe" editions of Dark Side as a bonus disc. Anyway, fantastic performance of the album.

1973s 'Solar Fire' by Mannfred Mann's Earth Band is a pretty good late psych/prog listen. It is one I have on my list to try to find a cheap LP to have a copy.

There is a later released 'Live in Oldenburg 1973' live recording by Spooky Tooth that I also really like that I came across earlier this year. It's well recorded and the raw live show sound works with their tunes.

"Lonesome LA Cowboy" by the New Riders of the Purple Sage is a tune that sounds like a big classic but never was. That's a cool song.

Propinquity
https://asteriskimprint.bandcamp.com/album/propinquity-propinquity
early 70s folk-rock release that Numero Group put out. I heard a few days ago that several numero titles were up on Spotify.
So just played through the 2 volumes of Warfaring strangers. Not sure why I don't physically own those already.
Will have to remedy that and maybe get this too.

niteflyte's s/t, really nice late '70s soft rock/synth funk/disco

also Viaceslavas Ganelinas - Velnio nuotaka, the lithuanian equivalent of jesus christ superstar, i didn't know there was a lithuanian equivalent of jesus christ superstar

I hate to do it but classic albums?

Pretty awesome to reference "Velnio nuotaka" by Viaceslavas Ganelinas is a thread about classic albums though tbf.

it's pre-1990! i guess the most recent "classic" classic records i was listening to were a couple by joe henderson, "our thing", "in 'n out", "multiple"

all the famous musicians probably already have their own threads by this point

i bet velnio nuotaka is considered classic in lithuania! (note: i am not lithuanian)

"waiting for columbus" by little feat

been obsessed with Younger Than Yesterday by the Byrds lately

"Velnio nuotaka" by Viaceslavas Ganelinas is a thread about classic albums

#justilmthings

most days "younger than yesterday" is my favorite byrds album

i skip "mind gardens" though

everything else is cool, even "cta 102"

I still think it's hilarious that the CD reissue of Younger Than Yesterday includes 3 versions of "Mind Gardens"

Each one worse than the last. (Actually I haven't heard them tbh)

I continue to be floored by London Calling. I know I'm not breaking any news to anyone here... but what an album! So many incredible, *tuneful* songs (I already knew a number of them -- the ones you tend to hear on the radio, etc. -- but had never heard many others).

One of the album's (many) virtues is how it's a little slow ramping up, to positive effect... after the (strong) title track, "Brand New Cadillac" and "Jimmy Jazz" are almost like "false starts"... a 12-bar blues rocker, then a loose & sloppy number... before then the cascade of hits really starts coming. This strategy reminds me of Blonde on Blonde, or an album like that -- sort of "easing into" a double LP, with some misdirection up top.

(It's also funny to me to realize how a group like Rancid basically took their entire aesthetic from this one album/band; but that's another story...)

Btw - Exile on Main St. may be another example of the double-album sequencing strategy I was talking about above...

which is the cd reissue that has that twelve minute long sequence of everyone dunking on michael clarke, is that "notorious byrd brothers"?

yeah, that's the one. it was a bit of a dick move to release it just three years after Clarke death (though Croz and Hillman come across as the biggest assholes in the exchange). I have no idea whose idea it was to include it and whether any of the surviving band members approved

It's a pale shadow of the bonus track on "Forever Changes" of Arthur Lee trying to get Johnny Echols to play the solo on "Your Mind and We Belong Together".

I don’t know to what extent Low I Could Live In Hope is considered a classic, but I’m impressed.

Morrisp, one of the things you've reminded me about London Calling: it's interesting for all the eclecticism that over the four sides they don't really revisit the basic punk sound of "White Riot", "Capital Radio" or "Tommy Gun". And they don't really revisit buzzsaw guitars and outright animosity after that, either. Like if they'd ended their career with Black Market Clash, they'd be apiece of The Ruts and Sham 69 and Stiff Little Fingers.

On The Corner - Miles Davis : It hardly comes across as Jazz at all and instead sounds like a great, lost Can album. And it kicks my ass every time. Also just got a beautiful repro of a concert poster from OTC tour and it's beautiful. Sort of a more colorful variant on the cover art. Still available on Ebay for those interested.

On the Corner >>>>>>>>>>> any Can album

flappy, I think you meant to post that here: Post a controversial music opinion

flappy otm!

It’s true

Eh, i won't go that far with it. There's nothing resembling a song on it, for one thing. Whereas Can have many examples. It's (OTC) more like a great, unreleased in it's time jam session and/or bootleg by Can. And I do love it, but if I could only have one or the other I'd go with The Can. Any of the Damo era lps would suffice. But to each his own. Also have much love for Jack Johnson and really all the lps by Miles from that era. Contemporary critics be damned.

> On The Corner - Miles Davis : It hardly comes across as Jazz at all and instead sounds like a great, lost Can album

HELL and YES

I only discovered this a few years ago and it was the perfect amalgamation of my explorations in jazz, krautrock and funk. Top drawer, every time. Earlier this year I went through the "Complete On The Corner" box and boiled down the 'new' tracks to a perfect bonus disc.

I went through the "Complete On The Corner" box and boiled down the 'new' tracks

thought Miles already did this and called it "Big Fun"

There was a good chunk of Big Fun that came from the Bitches Brew sessions. The rest was from the On the Corner sessions and the remainder of that stuff ended up on Get Up With It!

Thank you, Gerald. Started to think i wuz alone here in that opinion.

I can say this album is new to me and I'm knocked out (I don't remember bitches brew melting my brain into a puddle like this).

(Back at work, back to London Calling...)

"Clampdown" is one of those songs I've half-heard a dozen times, but have never really paid attention to. That Amon Düül 2–style intro... damn! And great bridge, too... it's one of those bridges that *increases* the tension; which is then released it when the chorus hits again. Just a perfect rock song!

It warms my heart that people are still melting their brains to On The Corner. I wish the complete sessions CD set were somehow obtainable for a non-insane price.

Yeah, seemed to be the one set that wasn't reissued in a book form and heavily reduced in price,. Think I was looking at way too high a price in like 2003, though maybe it was another similar point for me.
£70 odd.

Soundfiles can be found online though.

& there are some great live sets circulating from like 73-75 and the couple of years earlier. can't think how many bands he went through in the electric era.
I guess the live set closest to this at least officially is the iN Concert set with similar artwork. & less of that typewriter sound.

Yeah, seemed to be the one set that wasn't reissued in a book form and heavily reduced in price

What really bums me out is the live boxes - The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 and The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 - which went out of print and never came back at all.

The On The Corner set was not very easy to find even when it was new

yeah we had one copy at our record store i think