I've written about some of the greatest albums of all time and my favorite remakes and favorite soundtracks but it's difficult for me to pick my very most favorite CD. And by the way, what's the proper term nowadays? Do you call it an album? A CD? A record? I know it's not 8-track, but that's about all I'm sure of.Though I was raised on the Beatles and still love each of their albums, in high school my favorite cassette (and in high school it was still a cassette) was Def Leppard's Hysteria. Loved that tape. When Def Leppard came to Anchorage my junior year I went to the concert and it was fabulous. Everything you'd want in a head banger's fest. I was also partial to INXS's Kick ("Need You Tonight" is one of the best songs ever), U2's The Joshua Tree and Scorpion's Love at First Sting.
Once I left for college and discovered that the rest of the world wasn't still wearing mullets and too-tight shrink-to-fit Levis I discovered more pop and alternative stuff like New Order, Erasure, Modern English, and Oingo Boingo. My favorite albums eventually were stuff like 10,000 Maniacs' In My Tribe, Sting's The Soul Cages and OMD's Sugartax.
My tastes have mellowed somewhat and though I still appreciate each of the former albums, my favorites are Norah Jones' Come Away with Me and Dido's Life for Rent. But ironically I still love the Joshua Tree and have to say it's probably my favorite CD/album/cassette/8-track of all time. And I can say that because I've owned it in each form, I just keep upgrading. Though now that I think about it, I don't actually own a copy anymore--once I downloaded it onto my ipod I threw out the disc. So what about you? Do you have an album you keep rebuying? One that still does it for you or is your favorite from a new artist? Does your favorite have sentimental reasons behind its special status or are you a sucker for a particular style of music? Come on now, spill the beans--it can't be worse than admitting in front of the world that you once danced all night to Oingo Boingo.
Technorati tags: favorites, music, U2, Sting, Dido, Norah Jones
I still listen mainly to classic rock, the Dead and folk. I find that for comfort listening I keep gravitating back to some of those great 70's bands - Chicago, America, the Eagles...
ReplyDeleteMy all-time blows everyone else out of the water favorite though is Meat Loaf's Bat Outta Hell. That album was the anthem of my teenage years. I don't think I even knew anyone growing up that didn't have every word on it memorized.
There are so many great ones but I'd have to say my all time fave is Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" I like it because it's awesome but it also reminds me of my first serious boyfriend oh...about a zillion years ago when I was a 16. Good times :)
ReplyDeleteRobbie William's "The Ego has Landed" was a seminal purchase for me.
ReplyDeleteI also love Madonnas' "The Immaculate Collection" but thats not technically an 'album' is it? Just a 'greatest hits'
Sarah McLachlan's Mirrorball reminds me of the early days with my husband as does The Ego Has Landed by Robbie Williams (featuring our wedding song)
ReplyDeleteSo many ...
ReplyDeleteI have I think close to thousands of CD's...Music has always been so ingrained in my life...
I love pop, just as I love jazz, just as I love broadway tunes just as I love opera, just as I love punk, just as I love classical...
I have thousands of CD'sand could never give them up... or just pick one...
The Monkees' Headquarters is my all-time favorite. The music is beautiful and the story behind the album is great. They had just wrested creative control of their music away from Don Kirshner and recorded the whole thing themselves, playing almost everything on the album, bringing in a studio musician only when the track had to have another person.
ReplyDeleteThe result was a golden moment that never came again. I listen to it almost every time I fly across country and it's a staple at our house when we can't agree on what to play. Peter Tork's For Pete's Sake, a great flower-child song off this album, is my blog's theme song.
Now was that TMI or what? :-)
Since Mr. techy revamped our stereo system, networked everything into the computers etc., now I can't access anything and I'm stuck with the ipod [not that I'm complaining that much. As for favourites they keep changing, but a pal of mine directed me towards thishttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6989780587571054207&q=bigblackhorse [don't know if it will link] but it certainly helped me buff my hardwood floors to a gleam.
ReplyDeleteCheers
I like INXS "Kick", too- and wore that tape out in my first car.
ReplyDeleteGrateful Dead, "American Beauty" or "Workingman's Dead" are fantastic albums all they way through.
Ditto Pink Floyd- "Animals"
Blues Traveller- "Four" is a favorite as well as Natalie Merchant- "Tigerlilly".
CCR's greatest hits double disc ... I had the tapes in my first car (impressed my husband when we had first started to date!) then had to get the CD's too .....
ReplyDeleteI love U2's Joshua Tree - that's an amazing colletion of songs. i listen to them a lot. A real pick me up - Dido and Norah Jones are lovely. True classics. Great songs.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a story. I was reaching for my classroom CD player to turn on the mellow background music for math class, and instead it burst out in Piano Man. Oops! I had left my old Billy Joel collection in from working at my desk on the weekend. My tastes are pretty mellow -- Billy Joel, Chicago, other jazzy classics from the 70s.
ReplyDeleteErasure "Pop"
ReplyDeleteit used to be any deeeeelite.
ReplyDeletei love ray charles + i listen to luxuriamusic.com free internet radio for a mix of mod space age surfy kitschy fun sounds.
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It's hard to narrow it down. I love Ryan Adam's "Gold" album and Bon Jovi's "Crush" is at the top of my list, too. I've got a soft spot for John Denver - I have a greatest hits album of his that dominates my CD player now and then. I go through phases. I'm always in the mood for Jimmy Buffett's "Songs You Know By Heart," though.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone in college goes through that alternative phase.
ReplyDeleteMe, though -- you all know this. I'm a proud headbanger. Metallica's Master of Puppets is my ultimate album; the one I turn to again and again for soothing, inspiration, or strength.
(btw, Def Leppard was my first backstage experience, on the Pyromania tour. I have pictures!)
I love all types of music. I was a big Def Leppard fan and I sadly still have all my cassettes.
ReplyDeleteHysteria was/is great, and I am SO with you on "Need You Tonight"!!
I am entranced by Enya and by Enigma. I also love Peter Gabriel singing "In Your Eyes".
My current fave is Nickelback's All the Right Reasons. Great songs on that one!
For the most part I still have all my tapes from my younger days. But we have a program that we can use to convert them all to CDs and to remaster the sound so they don't sound too bad. Its a lot cheaper than buying them all again on CD. I think that my favorite CD currently is The Real Group's In the Middle of Life CD.
ReplyDeleteI do have Dido and Norah Jones in my collection as well, and Def Leppard was my first concert experience in high school.
Choosing an all time favorite is too hard. There are just too many that I love.
Girlfriend - the Def Leppard thing and U2 was my choice, too! Maddonna, Pink Floyd, Metallica at one time, AC/DC, and so on - but now I have kids, it's morphed into the new country stuff. Not too bad, but I have been known to flip back to my "roots"!
ReplyDeleteQUEEN!
ReplyDeleteREM: Out of Time
Paul Simon: Negotiations & Love Songs & Graceland
B-52's Cosmic Thing
The only album that I can think of that I keep listening to is Journey. I still love them! I remember when they came here in concert a long time ago, I went to all 4 nights!
ReplyDeletehi michelle: i'll keep buying the soundtrack for "city of angels." i have a cassette in my truck and a CD at work in my computer. i will also buy any media version of kenny g.
ReplyDeletejourney my all time favorite though i think. i am 38, so you probably understand :) it just made me smile to see that def leppard cover picture on your post, too. memories...
happy Sabbath to you and your family :) kathleen
ps. ha, the word verification reminds me of flem.
I love heavy metal. There, I said it. Always have. Only one problem; I love that style of music, but hate the darkness of the lyrics. What's a Christian to do?
ReplyDeleteDisciple - By God is both metal and openly Christian. One of my favorite two albums of all time. Massive guitar, Les Paul through a Marshall stack, and great, plain-spoken lyrics. Favorite song on it, Can't Breathe. (Notice I still call them albums.)
Tears For Fears - Seeds Of Love. I have listened to this literally thousands of times since 1989. I cannot get sick of it. I still hear things in the complex arrangements of this album that I never noticed before. Incredible work. Favorite song on it, Famous Last Words.
Those are my two deserted island CDs. If you try to make me choose only one, I'll beat you up and take them both with me anyway.
Ah! Memories of mall hair and spandex.
ReplyDeleteLoved all those albums/CD/etc too.
I downloaded the "best" of the Bangles and Blondie as soon as I opened my MP3 player.
Ooo. That's a good one. I still love Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit - that one brings me back to high school.
ReplyDeleteDef Leppard... me too! It's nice to hear that someone still likes that album. I never ever listen to it anymore however. My kids would hate it.
ReplyDeleteMine all time fav is Echo and the Bunnymen (never moved on after college, sad to say). I have it in every form and even every greatest hits collection. Aside from the 80's rut, I love U2 (Joshua Tree being the all time best) and listed to White Chocolate Space Eggs by Liz Phair endlessly.
ReplyDeleteMy tastes vary and can change quite a bit over time... Boy, have I gone through some phases over the years! And a lot of it was as a result of influence by either friends or boyfriends. When I was in high school, it was a definite '70s-throwback period, with old Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, along with new stuff in the mix. I always loved U2, but especially their classic stuff, like you said -- their first two albums for sure. These days I don't tend to listen to their recent stuff as much, somehow I've tired of them and I can't explain why... But I, too, have always been a big fan of old INXS! That was such a great album...
ReplyDeleteStarting in college, I started getting really defined taste and fell in love with some female artists I still love to this day, namely Tori Amos (ah, and she has a new album out!), even if I don't always understand her lyrics; but she's so mysterious and enigmatic, and I adore her voice as well as her gift with the piano. Also saw Peter Gabriel in concert in college, and it was an unforgettable experience.
I think most of my favorites actually have a piano base, to be honest... It goes all the way back to Billy Joel and my first live concert at 15!
But like so many others here I love SO many different kinds of music, it's really tough to limit myself! I would have one heck of a time choosing a favorite CD... But these days I can't get enough of Regina Spektor's latest album, as well as the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack music.
I'm always open to listen to something new!
I love Hysteria! I was a tad younger when it came out (it was basically the theme music for Girls' Camp the summer after I turned 12). It is still a guilty pleasure for me, hidden deep in the iPod. I pull it out for workouts! There's nothing better than Rocket when you're pounding away on the elliptical machine!
ReplyDeletewww.theworldaccordingtosuz.com
Tori Amos, "Little Earthquakes." Her older stuff was so amazing and that is still one of my favorite albums. I love Madonna (new & old stuff) too!
ReplyDeleteInner Surge "Signals Screaming", came up from the underground and stunned me completely. Haven't gone back since.
ReplyDeleteMostly i listening musik so my favorite cd is songs cd.
ReplyDelete