My Take
In my case, the albums that have become my favorites are the ones I feel I absolutely have to listen to from start to finish. Of course, there are standout tracks, and some, though good, might pale in comparison to others. But it’s the experience of listening to the entire album that captivates me.
Examples:
- “Flowerboy” by Tyler, The Creator.
- “Affinity” by Haken
- “Brat” by Charli XCX
- The debut album by Gentle Giant
What are your favorite albums and why?
Personal favourites:
‘Endless, Nameless’ / The Wildhearts - from the fake-out beginning (don’t turn the volume right up or you’ll get a surprise) to the fade at the end, it’s perfect to me. Joyously and gloriously noisy.
‘Dreamweaver’ / Sabbat - complex and clever thrash that gave young me a lot to think about; it’s loosely based on a book about a mediaeval Christian missionary and the lyrics are incredibly dense, yet so skilfully done that you don’t realise until you look at the lyric sheet and it’s huge.
‘Dopethrone’ / Electric Wizard - for those bad mood days
‘Mclusky Do Dallas’ / mclusky - inventive and slightly surrealist lyrics, noisy guitars and a great drummer.
‘Nothingface’ / Voivod - still sounds like it was recorded five years from now despite being around 30 years old. Best description I can give is ‘prog thrash’ and that’s not really very accurate.
‘The Big Roar’ / The Joy Formidable - noisy indie rock. Not going to win any awaawards for innovation but it’s so well done.
Like most people’s favourites, these were mostly released when I was starting to develop my own taste in music, and the release dates of most of them will tell you that means I’m getting old!
Voivod were such a delightful live act when I saw them tour that album. They made the sound effects vocally, like just stepped up to the mike and said woooooooo or whoooosh or beep or whatever. And had almost no English because they were from some little town in the French part of Canada. We saw them open for Soundgarden, but liked them better, they were amazing performers and really nice people.
Dopethrone is such a great album. I should have included it in my list. Mclusky Do Dallas was one of my favorite albums from my time co-DJing on college radio. Also had A.R.E. Weapons on heavy rotation those days.