Thread: Favorite albums ever

I saw a question on Reddit:

What are your 1st and your 2nd favorite albums of all time and what makes the 1st better than the 2nd?

Originally Posted by aberdien

I saw a question on Reddit:

What are your 1st and your 2nd favorite albums of all time and what makes the 1st better than the 2nd?

First favorite as always been Dark Side, and I can't think of a reason to change that now.

2nd favorite album is less clear. I'll pick what seems right from my most recent collage above. [scrolls up, ponders a minute]

It's gotta be a Beatles album, but I'm stuck between White Album and Abbey Road. I'll go with White Album.

Aside: I need to put OK Computer on my top albums list, and probably also The Bends. I realized that these albums are shortlist candidates.

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Mood is better than The Beatles White Album because Dark Side does psychedelic stuff that hits me hard when I'm stone sober.

The question really asks us how is it possible to rank, how can we call one album a "10" and the other a "9". Or any such arbitrary and conclusive comparison that says X > Y.

What a weird idea, that we could say X > Y when it comes to two albums.

I suppose we could ask "how do you want to spend your next hour?" Most of us would prefer receiving oral sex over having our fingernails peeled off.

Perhaps the Album X > Album Y comes down to some measurement of mood, of the serotonin and dopamine that might arise from each album. Of the mood and pleasure and joy and contentedness that has arisen in the past from each album.

The Pink Floyd album isn't as creative or infinitely listenable as White Album. White Album kinda curbstomps Dark Side in terms of how many amazing, unique, unreal songs.

But Dark Side has done super weird neurotransmitter things to me that White Album never has.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

First favorite as always been Dark Side, and I can't think of a reason to change that now.

2nd favorite album is less clear. I'll pick what seems right from my most recent collage above. [scrolls up, ponders a minute]

It's gotta be a Beatles album, but I'm stuck between White Album and Abbey Road. I'll go with White Album.

Aside: I need to put OK Computer on my top albums list, and probably also The Bends. I realized that these albums are shortlist candidates.

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Mood is better than The Beatles White Album because Dark Side does psychedelic stuff that hits me hard when I'm stone sober.

The question really asks us how is it possible to rank, how can we call one album a "10" and the other a "9". Or any such arbitrary and conclusive comparison that says X > Y.

What a weird idea, that we could say X > Y when it comes to two albums.

I suppose we could ask "how do you want to spend your next hour?" Most of us would prefer receiving oral sex over having our fingernails peeled off.

Perhaps the Album X > Album Y comes down to some measurement of mood, of the serotonin and dopamine that might arise from each album. Of the mood and pleasure and joy and contentedness that has arisen in the past from each album.

The Pink Floyd album isn't as creative or infinitely listenable as White Album. White Album kinda curbstomps Dark Side in terms of how many amazing, unique, unreal songs.

But Dark Side has done super weird neurotransmitter things to me that White Album never has.

You're on your deathbed and have time to listen to your favorite album ever. Which one are you giving your last listening experience on this earth?

Originally Posted by aberdien

You're on your deathbed and have time to listen to your favorite album ever. Which one are you giving your last listening experience on this earth?

This emphasizes the importance of time!!

I'd go with some kind of extended deluxe remaster with several days of outtakes and bootleg things. Whatever is longest lol.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

This emphasizes the importance of time!!

I'd go with some kind of extended deluxe remaster with several days of outtakes and bootleg things. Whatever is longest lol.

Originally Posted by aberdien

You're on your deathbed and have time to listen to your favorite album ever. Which one are you giving your last listening experience on this earth?

No album, just my ipod full of greatest hits.

I have made a google doc of all of my favorite albums from memory/assistance of the internet in order to help myself distinguish between good and great albums which I love vs albums that are like my favorites.

There's only 2 pages of albums, and many artists have more than 1 album. I have learned that I have fewer favorites than I thought.

I have also learned that my preferred Bob Marley album, which I own on CD, is nearly impossible to find. You could buy a used CD I believe, but not a new one, and it's nowhere to be found on streaming or youtube.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4508...Gold-1967-1972

Originally Posted by Northman

No album, just my ipod full of greatest hits.

You all are a bunch of cheaters!

Originally Posted by aberdien

I have also learned that my preferred Bob Marley album, which I own on CD, is nearly impossible to find. [/url]

This artifact of music consumption/distribution of the pre-streaming era pops up every now and then.

It's mildly infuriating how labels and magnates would repackage and manipulate albums to suit their schemes. E.g., Beatles having different UK and US releases. Some albums being lost because they were a limited release based on rights to songs and the desire to monetize a concise collection.

It's mildy infuriating, but also a curious nuance of the physical media music consumption era.

I'm happy I didn't get rid of all of my CDs last summer.

The CD Revival Is Real
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a...vival-is-real/

“When I first started working here, two years ago, it was 80-20 [per cent] vinyl-CDs,” he says. “Now it’s 50-50. I’ve been surprised.”

Winyard cites a few reasons. Chiefly, price. Vinyl might have spun its way back from the grave — more than 41 million EPs and LPs were sold in America last year, a 45-fold increase since 2006, the year given for vinyl’s comeback — but it came at a cost. To the customer. It didn’t take long for record companies to get back to their old premium-charging ways. Arctic Monkeys’ recent album The Car costs £28 on vinyl on Amazon. The “Lavender Edition” of Taylor Swift’s Midnights will set you back £35. And that’s before you get into the silly money charged for “heavyweight” vinyl repressings of classic rock — The Beatles’ The Singles Collection, for example, at £158. It’s not just the good stuff. Today there apparently exists a market for an 180-gram, coloured-vinyl edition of Ace of Base’s 1993 best-of, All That She Wants, to someone willing to pay £84.95 for it.

“Streaming music is a whole different thing for me than the ritual of picking one CD from my 1,500-disc library and listening it through the end [sic],” writes Muted_Land’782, in answer to the post “Does It At Times Feel Pointless To Buy Used CDs in 2023?”: “Nowadays I use streaming to discover new bands or to check out new releases before committing to buying it. I always loved owning stuff instead of ‘borrowing’ it.”

“Browsing shops for cheap and interesting CDs is more fun than browsing Spotify,” writes Incredible_Mr_R.

“I’m too cheap to pay a subscription [to a streaming service]. I also like to listen and not feel like there is some bot algorithm Big Brother guy listening in, judging, and trying to monetise the fact that I’m in a nostalgic mood and listened to an obscure song from 1987 15 times in a row yesterday,” says mylocker15.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Attachment 9997

Was looking through these and was reminded you omitted The Beatles on your first try. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Was looking through these and was reminded you omitted The Beatles on your first try. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Why?

Originally Posted by Canmore

Why?

Cuz The Beatles rule!

Actually, it's interesting to me because now The White Album is in his top 2, but back then there wasn't even a Beatles album on his list.

It's interesting to see how peoples' tastes change and what not.

I was bored watching the Broncos lose, so I made a 100 favorite albums list, alphabetical. I know there's like 20 that are a cut above the rest, so I'm gonna pick those out and put them in order now.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Was looking through these and was reminded you omitted The Beatles on your first try. You should be ashamed of yourself.

We all have fits of pique.

It's interesting though. I wonder why. White album or Pepper or Abbey (or all) should have been on there.