Those rare albums that are great on first listen.


You know the ones. They blow your mind and make you glad you're an audiophile.

Share your favorites.

For me it’s usually some style or vibe I haven’t heard before. My list so far is around 20, but I’ll keep it to my top 5. Feel free to share as many as you like.

!. Poe ‘Haunted’
2. Spirit “Twelve dreams of Dr. Sardonicus’
3. Midlake ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’
4.Tori Amos ‘Little Earthquakes’
5. Skindive  ‘Skindive’

 

1111art

 

Off the top of my head:

 

- The Band: s/t (the brown album).

- Dave Edmunds: Get It.

- The Dwight Twilley Band: Sincerely.

- Moon Martin: Shots From A Cold Nightmare.

- T Bone Burnett: Truth Decay.

- Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Harvest.

- The Flamin’ Groovies: Shake Some Action.

- Weezer: s/t (the blue album).

- AC/DC: Back In Black.

- Iris DeMent: Infamous Angel, My Life, and all her others.

- Lucinda Williams: s/t (on Rough Trade).

- Lou Ann Barton: Old Enough.

- Carlene Carter: Musical Shapes.

- Nick Lowe: Labour Of Lust.

- Buddy Miller: Your Love And Other Lies. Hell, ALL of his!

- Rodney Crowell: The Houston Kid.

- The Johnny Staats Project: Wires & Wood.

- Van Morrison: Moondance.

- Maria Muldaur: s/t.

- Randy Newman: s/t, Good Old Boys.

- Elvis Costello: King Of America.

- Moby Grape: s/t.

- The Yardbirds: For Your Love.

- The Kinks: You Really Got Me, Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else By, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Muswell Hillbillies.

- Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop.

- David Lindley: El Rayo-X.

- Richard & Linda Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights.

- Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind.

- Bob Dylan: New Morning, Planet Waves, Before The Flood, "Love And Theft".

- Jackson Browne: s/t (aka Saturate Before Using).

 

Many more, but that’s enough outta me.

 

Jazz at the Pawnshop

Moanin'  Art Blakely

Grace Jeff Buckley

Darkness on the Edge of Town Bruce

Wagner: Das Rheingold  Wiener Philharmonic 

David Gilmour’s debut solo album from 1978. Incredible album. A "gilmourish nerd tidbit" -- a song that he wrote too late to be mixed for his debut album was included on "The Wall"...just a little tune called "Comfortably Numb". Had that song also been on his debut, it would have been a mind-blowing slab of vinyl.

Some of my favorites have already been listed.  I would add

Dire Straits - Dire Straits

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Guy Clark - Dublin Blues

John Prine - John Prine

Peter Tosh - Equal Rights

Run The Jewels - RTJ4

Santana   Abraxas

Stevie Ray Vaughn   Can’t Stand the Weather 

Yosi Horakawa    Vapor 

Muddy Waters   Folk Singer 

Tony Joe White   One Hot July 

Leonard Cohen   You Want It Darker 

Willie Nelson   Spirit

Mark Knopfler   Ragpicker’s Dream

Jimmy Burns   It Ain’t Right 

Jerry Lee Lewis   Last Man Standing 

John Prine  Tree of Forgiveness