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

Listening to The Folk Singer, it's great of course, but I also think a big part of the appeal is the beauty of plate reverb in a very spare environment.

another 1920s bluesman still going strong in 1961:

Furry Lewis, Shake 'Em On Down

R.E.M. - Murmur
Saccharine Trust - PaganIcons
The dB's - Stands For Decibels
The Dream Syndicate - The Days Of Wine And Roses
ZZ Top - Tejas (already knew Tres Hombres)

(and definite co-sign on Eno's On Land xp
first heard yrs ago but didn't sit with it enough for it to sink in at the time
gave a recent re-listen and yeah, great spooky sound design)

T Rex - Electric Wizard
The Ethiopians - Woman Capture Man

the gun club - fire of love
duke ellington (with charles mingus and max roach) - money jungle

I'd never heard Straight, No Chaser until today and I am loving it

Been listening to a bunch of Haroumi Hosono for the first time and have been absolutely floored by Cochin Moon, Philharmony, and S-F-X

yessir

cochin moon and philharmony are definitely in my top 3 hosono atm. i'm not sure what the third is but it keeps rotating. S-F-X rules, though

the middle stretches of cochin moon are contemporary. i refuse to believe it was made 40+ years ago

Been truly loving Francis Monkman's soundtrack to The Long Good Friday. I'm baffled as to why he didn't have a long career afterwards, but he seemed to disappear from soundtrack work afterwards.

I was digging into an interview I conducted in 2019 with South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and he mentioned an album by saxophonist Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi, and I realized I'd never heard it, so I pulled it up on Spotify. It's called Yakhal' Inkomo, from 1968, and it's short — four tracks, 32 minutes — but a really great bridge between South African jazz and what was going on in America (one track is called "Dedication (to Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)"). The most recent CD edition is out of print and hard to find, but it's on streaming services. Highly recommended.

I hate to be that guy but this is just a thread for good albums you've heard recently isn't it?

Here, I'll set things aright.

For reasons I couldn't possibly understand or explain, I've been exceedingly familiar with all the classic Sly albums except for Stand!, which I somehow failed to hear to until a couple weeks ago. I guess I just wanted to save myself a treat for a rainy day.

washing machine!

I'm trying to imagine hearing Murmur and Days of Wine and Roses for the first time ever within a short span of time. That must have been great!

discovered DOWAR about ten years ago, and it was special

One good thing about WFH is that I can listen to more music like hearing Swell Maps fucking incredible 2nd album, "Jane from Occupied Europe"

I picked that up on vinyl very recently, it is indeed great. The other one I got not so long ago was Fear & Whiskey by The Mekons, also amazing

There's a Secretly Canadian remaster of a couple of the Swell Maps lps that I have meant to get for years but seems a bit hard to find. I wound up picking up the Rough Trade version of Trip To Marineville a couple of years ago since it was cheap.
Not sure why nobody's done an upgrade on that stuff since it seems to be done to most other bands from the era. Rights remaining with Mute instead of Cherry Red or something?

Secretly Canadian thing being 10 or 15 years old by now.

Mingus Ah Um. no idea why I'd missed it before despite loving other Mingus and this always being in top 10 lists. but it's great obviously.

Yeah, heard that and thought I was hearing echoes in some of the better English Beat/Mod scene stuff Pretty Things, Who etc etc.
Great, great lp and one of several he put out at roughly that time.

From Elvis in Memphis

jessie ware's "what's your pleasure?"

Just got The Idiot remaster and remember how much I love the tracks on it after not listening for ages.
Love the atmosphere. Droning menace.
Haven't heard the Luat For Life yet

How does the remaster sound?

OK, not sure if I've heard any secret depths yet. mainly been listening to it when I'm going to bed or waking up.
May need to live with it for a while to hear its depths.
THink I would have liked some more liner notes tahn just reminiscences aboutits import from ex mebers of Duran Duran. It does have the lyrics and stuff though.

not really the right thread but "homegrown" is probably neil young's 4th best album after atg otb and "harvest". i cant imagine anybody else having left such a masterpiece for 45 years in the cellar. well done, neil.

"gold coast" by distance, light and sky. grand cru. i prefer it to the walkabouts albums.

[https://img.discogs.com/80qPallK4hYKmXpvZeUaXPKAw0Y=/fit-in/600x603/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1099443-1568802327-6801.jpeg.jpg]

been spotifying things i've wanted forever, but that are pretty rare / expensive in physical format, and finally got to this early record by one of my absolute favorites — and let me just say, this album is even better than i could have imagined. i thought the plateau of mirror and the pearl were awesomely and nearly unfathomably gorgeous, but pavilion of dreams completely blows them away within the first ten minutes. really hoping that it sees another reissue soon, because this is totally essential.

Is Night Train by Oscar Peterson considered a classic? it has been ruling me lately, weird phased cymbals and all. really puts me in a good place.

yep, peterson's 60s verve run is alltime. if you haven't heard it, definitely check the record with ben webster. also, it's usually not mentioned among his best, but i've always had a soft spot for soul español.

i remember seeing this live bill evans and stan getz album about a hundred times in the used bins at amoeba, usually for like $2.99, and i'm regretting not ever once purchasing one of those copies.

i mean, it's 70s bill evans. absolutely nothing else like it. gorgeous.

That record is one of the few that has stayed for more than a few years on the 30gb iPod I keep in the car, alongside Evans' final record

listening to But Beautiful now, thanks for that recommendation. i've never listened to mid-70s bill evans!

"the peacocks", in particular. you can hear getz pressing the keys in and out, such a good recording

I recommend You Must Believe in Spring too - similar era, it flirts with easy listening but Bill was beginning to reach for something again.

If YMBIS is easy listening, then I am a heavy Stan for the genre. Unbelievably good record

i think the piano trio format that bill preferred can be a little deceptive because a cursory listen to a lot of his recordings in that regard sounds like loungey cocktail hour music.

(although i agree: if that's considered easy listening, count me in)

i know this is not generally a recommendations topic, but for anyone who wants to hear peak 70s bill evans, but who maybe struggles with the lack of dynamics in the piano trio style, i cannot recommend quintessence enough. it's an absolutely killer lineup: the goat harold land, kenny burrell, philly joe jones, ray freakin brown, and bill of course. just brilliant stuff.

haha, i was reading the most recent review on discogs and i was like "wait a second, someone ELSE is referring to harold land as the GOAT....wait a second!"

ahh, whoops. . .yeah lol. i guess i am technically the author of both of those statements.

but, to be fair: harold land is amazing.

oh don't get me wrong, i am ready to support the goat claim! and i love the idea of a solo whisper campaign to spark the fire, haha. although you can't say it's a solo campaign now...

green

yoshimura's green? my copy came in the other day :D

i will probably be getting every album in the WATER COPY series, as long as i don't fall into financial ruin

GREEN

man you just made me laugh real hard.

nice.

<3 I’ve been loving all the bill evans recommendations, which are quickly becoming my last classic albums I was knocked out by!

HI-5 KM

haha, i was reading the most recent review on discogs and i was like "wait a second, someone ELSE is referring to harold land as the GOAT....wait a second!"

― Karl Malone

so fucking weird that yes wrote a song named after "harold land" on their first album. and it doesn't really have anything to do with harold land! bill bruford just said the name randomly and they called it that. file next to "the ballad of dorothy parker"

you heard "hey harold", a bonus track on bobby hutcherson's "head on"?

"undercurrent" and "we will meet again" are also go-to evans records for me.

you heard "hey harold", a bonus track on bobby hutcherson's "head on"?

yeah that jams pretty hard, but hutcherson's 2014 revival somehow jams even harder.