Top 10 Albums

This post was inspired by one of my friends; he posted a list of his top 10 albums of all time and asked others to respond with theirs. It looks like he was also inspired to create his list by one of his friends so please, let me have a look at your lists as well and let’s see if we can keep this going. So, here is my top 10. This is in no particular order, just 10 of my favourite albums.

1 – Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes. I have always been a sucker for the sound of the piano, add this to the mesmerising vocals and the incredible lyrics and there was no way I’d be able to listen to this album without being hooked instantly. The whole album seems to be tackling this girls inner demons and she genuinely sounds like the very act of singing some of these songs is causing her real torment. You can hear the emotion coming through in the vocal and I think it is this vulnerability that earns the album a slot in this top 10.

2 – Metallica – Master of Puppets. This has always been my favourite Metallica album, it has the polished sound of the later albums yet still seems to maintain the raw power that the band have always been able to deliver. On the previous album “Ride the Lightning” the band had developed their song writing, with this release they had taken this even further and were adding more complex riffs and tempo changes, this is best demonstrated with the track “Disposable heroes” and the title track itself.

3 – The Beatles – Revolver. It would have been so easy to fill the top 10 with Beatles albums but I managed to restrict myself to just one. Revolver was one of the first albums I became hooked on. I love Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road but Revolver was my first love and there is always a special place in my heart for this album. To me it shows the first glipses of the direction that the band is taking and has a couple of experimental tracks mixed in with the Ballads. “For No One” is an amazingly underestimated song but would be in my top 10 Beatles track every day of the week.

4 – Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon. Again, I could have added a few Floyd albums to the list but the one I have chosen is Dark Side of the Moon. This is the most listened to of all my Floyd albums, maybe this is because I always tend to find the darker side of the human emotions more fascinating and this album is all about madness. My favourite song on the Album has to be “The Great Gig in the Sky” which isn’t really as song, just a piano and a lot of freestyle vocals but I could listen to it over and over again.

5 – Stereophonics – Word gets around. This was a tough choice, I almost had to flip a coin between this one and Performance and Cocktails, then I realised that this should be the winner as it has my all-time favourite Stereophonics track, “Local boy in the Photograph”. It also has the first track that I ever heard of theirs. I was in a nightclub in Swansea and the dance floor was rammed with people all singing “More life in a tramps vest”. I shouted out “Who sings this” and received a chorus of “Stereophonics” in reply. After that I needed to go and buy the album.

6 – Pantera – Vulgar display of power. The title of the album says it all. I think this was taken from the movie “The Exorcist” but it does fit the description of Pantera and this album very well. It is not just the music that is powerful; if you manage to follow the lyrics you will find some very expressive words. It seems that Mr Anselmo and co certainly had an axe to grind when they were making this album. I was lucky enough to see them live twice in the promotion of this album. The second show at Wolverhampton Civic was the liveliest show I have ever been to.
7 – U2 – All that you can’t leave behind. I know most people would choose “The Joshua Tree” as their favourite U2 album and they have a good point but I just loved this CD when it came out and it still has some of my favourite U2 tracks on it. “Kite” is my stand out track as the vocal is both powerful and haunting at the same time.

8 – Guns and Roses – Appetite for destruction. Listening to this album now you could be forgiven for thinking you are listening to a “Best of” compilation album, there are just so many great songs on the album, the opening few bars of “Welcome to the jungle” still sound as fresh today as they did when the album was recorded. “Sweet Child o’ mine” and “Paradise City” have firmly established themselves as iconic tracks that make people reach for the volume control every time they get played on the radio.

9 – The Wonderstuff – 8 legged groove machine. I first became aware of “The Wonderstuff” when they supported “All About Eve” at a gig in Birmingham. They bounced onto the stage, played the opening track then announced “we’re called the Wonderstuff and its yer money we’re after”. It took me a few months to actually get my hands on the album and what I heard on my first listen has stayed with me ever since. It sounds a little dated nowadays but I still love it. The Jangly guitars and bouncy bass lines just never fail to bring a smile to my face and the album has some lyrics that still make me giggle.

10 – Del Amitri –Twisted. I have always loved Del Amiti. They seem to write the kind of songs that just talk to me. This album has more than its fair share of songs that deal with the emotional rough spots. “It might as well be you”, “Driving with the Brakes on” and “One thing left to do” are just pure outpourings of emotion and yet somehow manage to remain reassuring to the listener that no matter what you are going through, you are not alone. Someone else has been there too.