Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist

[Jonny Come Lately]

I was thinking about my favourite and least favourite albums by each of my top bands/artists recently and thought it would be quite interesting to do a thread on the subject.

Hopefully this should be relatively straightforward, I'll post my favourites list below as a guide which should help. All artists/bands are welcome, and you can do as many or as few as you like. I suspect more people will want to do their favourite albums, but I thought including least favourites as well would add an extra dimension - it might seem 'negative' but I think it's interesting to read why an album by an artist a person likes or loves doesn't click with them, or why it ranks last.

I'll start with my favourites list. For an artist to be included on my list I feel I have to own at least two albums by the artist, and have included longer descriptions for those who I have more than three albums from, although this is a personal preference and there are no fixed rules as to who you can choose to do. So without further ado:

Favourite Albums by Artist
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Just edges out The Dark Side of the Moon as my favourite. I think the flow of the latter album is unparalleled, but I absolutely love every note of this album and it contains Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which is probably my favourite song of all time.

Eagles – Hotel California
Absolutely love every song on this album! I wrote loads more about it in the Eagles albums thread so here I’ll just say I love the rockers and the ballads every bit as much. Great though the hits are, I feel The Last Resort is the jewel in the crown and it was an absolute privilege to see Don perform it live. Desperado is my second favourite record though, and sometimes comes close to toppling HC!

Don Henley – The End of the Innocence
I feel this is the most consistent of Don’s albums – I could live without Shangri-La and to a lesser extent How Bad Do You Want It, but I really like everything else and the opening and closing tracks are two of his absolute highlights of his solo career. Right now Cass County is probably my second favourite, although I’ve yet to listen to Inside Job and am new to most of I Can’t Stand Still.

Led Zeppelin – IV
A tour de force of everything Led Zeppelin were great at! Four Sticks is a cool track and I could say the same thing about Physical Graffiti too, but there’s a couple of tracks I’m not so crazy about on there whereas I love this whole record.

Dire Straits – Love Over Gold
Not a popular opinion, but to me this is their best and most consistent album. Telegraph Road is in my opinion Mark Knopfler’s finest hour (okay – quarter of an hour!) and the other tracks are all very strong. The songs are lengthy, but each one has its own unique character.

Mark Knopfler – Sailing To Philadelphia
The best and most consistent solo Knopfler record, many great songs and I think he is at his best here as both a songwriter and a guitarist. Along with Long Road Out Of Eden, it’s probably my favourite record from 2000 onwards.

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
My favourite, hands down! Have loved this as long as I can remember (I reckon it’s probably the album I’ve listened to most times in my life) and I cannot imagine any of their other records toppling it. The self-titled ‘White Album’ is my second favourite.

Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps
Half of this album is solo Neil and half of it is with Crazy Horse. This is no accident – the combination of superb acoustic and electric material is one reason this album is my favourite! My favourite solo album is After The Gold Rush; my favourite Crazy Horse record is Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
This is my favourite Dylan album, there is very little in it between this and the equally superlative Highway 61 Revisited but it was the first one I heard and therefore it’s that little bit more special to me. It also helps that it is perhaps the greatest breakup album ever penned.

A few others:
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd
Wishbone Ash – Argus
Genesis – Selling England By The Pound
Joe Walsh – But Seriously, Folks
Rush – Moving Pictures (could be Permanent Waves on another day though)

I have my least favourites already written up and will post those soon as well.

[Freypower]

I can do a few, some of which I share with JCL, who is more eloquent than I am. There are some artists I love but I don't have that many albums by them (Queen) or the number of albums I have may not represent their entire career (Neil Young). Regarding least favourites, in most cases if I didn't like an album I didn't buy the CD. I will say which albums these are, but I will have to choose from albums I actually own at the moment. I will do this in the order of artists who are currently most important to me. At the moment I think I will just list the albums & if people want reasons I will attempt to give some.

FAVOURITE ALBUMS

Beatles - Revolver
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Led Zeppelin - IV
Dire Straits - Making Movies
Mark Knopfler - Sailing To Philadelphia
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden
Glenn Frey - Strange Weather
Genesis - We Can't Dance
Phil Collins - Face Value
Peter Gabriel - So
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Paul McCartney - Band On The Run
Van Morrison - Moondance
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps

LEAST FAVOURITE

Beatles - Beatles For Sale
Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup*
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Dire Straits - On Every Street
Mark Knopfler - Golden Heart
Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding*
Eagles - One Of These Nights
Glenn Frey - The Allnighter
Genesis - Nursery Cryme
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required
Peter Gabriel - 3
Elton John - Peachtree Road*
Paul McCartney - London Town*
Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night*

* Stones - Dirty Work
Dylan - Empire Burlesque
Elton John - Ice On Fire
McCartney - McCartney II
Young - Trans

Those five were albums that were so bad I never bought the CDs.

Of those, the biggest surprise would be Tonight's The Night. OOH, it's about people dying of drug overdoses. Heavy, man, REAL. No it isn't. It's the most overrated album ever made, apart from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds & Springssteen's Born To Run.

[travlnman2]

Favorite Albums
George Harrison-All things must pass
Guns N Roses-Chinese Democracy
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Street Survivors
Beatles-Abbey Road
Eagles-Hotel California
Least Favorite
George Harrison-Extra Texture Read All About It
Guns N Roses-GNR LIES(I think it was a good filler album to stem the wait sorta speak to the Illusions but it should have been split into to EPS
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Nothing
Beatles-Please Please Me
Eagles-Long Road Out Of Eden(Need to listen to this more)

[Jonny Come Lately]

Here's my least favourites list - I've actually written more about most of these than for my favourites. This is because I felt I needed to emphasise the difference between the albums that I do like and are a bit unlucky to be here and the ones that I find genuinely disappointing.

Least Favourites
Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
There are two main problems with this album IMO – the first is the awkward combination of 1980s production styles with sounds that nod towards classic Floyd songs, which unfortunately highlights that the newer songs aren’t as good. The other is that it is barely even a Pink Floyd record. Roger Waters was gone, but Rick Wright and Nick Mason hardly played on this record, meaning that it is virtually a David Gilmour solo album which tries too hard to sound like a ‘Pink Floyd’ album, so unfortunately it doesn’t really work as either. It although it starts and ends reasonably well (Learning To Fly and Sorrow), most of side two in particular is not very good IMO. I’m not against the post-Waters era at all – I love The Division Bell, an album which I think has aged much better.
I think I should also pick a ‘true’ Pink Floyd album and of the albums by the classic quartet, I’d go for the More Soundtrack. It has some good, interesting songs on side one (Cymbaline, Cirrus Minor) but I find most of the instrumentals on side two to be mediocre and so I tend to switch off after Ibiza Bar. I find most of it to be pleasant, but far from essential.

Eagles – One Of These Nights
When I posted my Eagles album rankings I placed this last – I feel out of their albums this is the one that holds together least well as a complete record. The four main Henley/Frey-penned tracks are great and amongst their best, but the songs by the others don’t quite reach the same level. I guess I find it somewhat inconsistent, and although the wide variety of music is commendable, Bernie’s tracks didn’t fit the direction the rest of the band was moving in. Having said this, I honestly enjoy most of the album, and as I enjoy all the Eagles albums something had to come last!

Led Zeppelin – Coda
Admittedly the ‘easy’ choice, given that it is a mix of unreleased material (some from many years earlier) rather than a fully new release. These songs weren’t meant to be released together and it shows. This would be okay if they were great, but although there are a couple of good songs, several of the outtakes aren’t brilliant, especially on side two, and a couple are IMO blatant filler (Bonzo’s Montreux and the live I Can’t Quit You Baby). The 2015 re-release is an improvement, as it includes Hey Hey What Can I Do, which blows most of these songs away.
If I had to pick one of their ‘proper’ albums, I’d go for In Through The Out Door – it’s much better than Coda of course, but although I like it and it contains several good tracks, none are among my big favourites. Presence is perhaps less consistent, but I feel it has more high points, which are higher than those on Out Door, and I prefer the ‘back to basics’ sound of that album to the keyboards on ITTOD.

Dire Straits – On Every Street
This comes across as a tired follow up to Brothers In Arms. I feel the whole album too often tries to recreate the songs from its predecessor with far weaker material. Heavy Fuel, for instance, is fun but ultimately a poor man’s Money For Nothing – without a killer guitar riff and with clumsy, less incisive lyrics. Some of the other tracks are unmemorable to the point where I struggle to actually remember how they go, and even Knopfler’s guitar work doesn’t seem as inspired as usual. The only real saving grace is the magnificent title track, there are a few other decent songs but they wouldn’t stand out on the earlier albums IMO. I was very disappointed when I first listened to it and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t already own the five earlier albums, all of which are far better.

Mark Knopfler – Golden Heart
I am mostly familiar with his first four solo albums so I can only really compare the 1996-2004 releases. I prefer this album to On Every Street as I feel that it is less overproduced and homogeneous in its overall sound, but the songwriting is (with a few exceptions) not quite there and thus the album is overly dependent on Knopfler’s guitar playing. Fortunately, most of his electric solos here are great, but for the most part I enjoy the songs with prominent guitar solos, whereas the lower key tracks are not very memorable and don’t do it for me. I like about half the songs from this album, but I can take or leave the rest.

Fleetwood Mac – Tango In The Night
Too much 1980s pop for my taste as I feel there is too much use of synthesisers, and nowhere near enough of Lindsey’s guitar. The absence of Stevie for most part is another blow, although I actually only like one of her songs on here, and I think most of the album tracks haven’t aged well. On the plus side, I think the singles are undoubtedly very good pop songs, and there was another very good song hidden under the production of Big Love (I love the stripped back live version).

Neil Young – Re.Ac.Tor
This is more difficult for me as for the most part I own Neil Young’s ‘better’ albums (mainly 1968-79 and 1989-94). I have not explored his work outside this era to any great extent, but I have heard this one so I feel this has to go down as my least favourite. Neil has made several other guitar jam-based records with Crazy Horse and this isn’t one of the better ones. It’s not all bad – I must admit I do actually enjoy T-Bone, extremely repetitive though it is, and Southern Pacific is a good song. He has far, far better albums in his catalogue though!

EDIT: I hadn’t remembered about Trans. The ‘computer voice’ album – ugh! I’d actually managed to forget about it, but give me Re.Ac.Tor over that one! I think Tonight’s The Night is a good album, but I agree it is overrated. From that era I much prefer On The Beach, generally considered by critics to be ‘good but flawed’ compared to the ‘perfect’ Tonight’s The Night. To me it’s probably the other way around.

Wishbone Ash – Wishbone Four
This album is reasonably enjoyable, and has some decent songs, but is definitely the weakest of their first four albums and disappointing after Argus. I get the sense they tried to make a ‘Led Zeppelin III’ type album with more acoustic songs, but I think they tried a bit too hard to get mainstream success and I think they lost much of what made them great in the first place – the extended guitar duels and the English folk influences. They lost a bit of their musical identity, and most of the songs are unfortunately too slight to make up for this.

I didn’t include Bob Dylan – I own six of his albums (Freewheelin’, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, Blood On The Tracks and Desire) and this is only scratching the surface of his career. These are all generally regarded as classic releases so I feel there is little point in picking one of them when I’m almost certain he has worse albums that I haven’t heard. I’ve also left out Lynyrd Skynyrd – I have three of the five Ronnie-era albums and I really like all of them. I really need to get around to listening to Nuthin’ Fancy and Bullets before I can name one for them.

With the others listed I haven’t listened to enough of their albums to pick a least favourite – for example, with Rush I’ve only listened to Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, both of which I really like so there seems no point in picking a least favourite.

In summary, One Of These Nights is probably the 'unluckiest' album to here (I genuinely like and enjoy it), while On Every Street is the one I am most sure of (I much prefer their other five albums).

[Annoying Twit]

Favourite Albums

The Beatles - Abbey Road
Ringo Starr - Goodnight Vienna
Paul McCartney (Wings) - Wings at the Speed of Sound
John Lennon - Imagine
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Depeche Mode - Ultra
Eagles - Hotel California
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Peter Gabriel - Up
Annie Lennox - Diva
Depeche Mode - 3 Feet High and Rising
Crowded House - Together Alone
Split Enz - Waiata

Least Favourite Albums

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
Ringo Starr - Sentimental Journey
Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peach
John Lennon - Mind Games (some great songs, too few)
George Harrison - Living in the Material World
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (though some song titles are useful for song games)
Depeche Mode - Exciter
Eagles - Hell Freezes Over (or Desperado if HFO doesn't count as an album)
De La Soul - Art Official Intelligence
Peter Gabriel - PG2
Fleetwood Mac - Time
Annie Lennox - Nostalgia
Crowded House - Woodface
Split Enz - Conflicting Emotions

[WS82Classics]

10 Favourites

Revolver--The Beatles: The ultimate musical journey. Makes you wonder why 'Sgt. Pepper' is considered the best. While the weakest spot is "Eleanor Rigby," all the other songs more than make up for one less-than-stellar track. Amazing album.

Animals--Pink Floyd: A journey through life's darkest corners. Some amazing jams, though you would probably need to be of a certain mind-set to truly appreciate this one.

The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys--Traffic: Spacey, jazz rock with afro-beats. The title-track is one of the great songs. A real mind-bender of an album.

One of These Nights--The Eagles: Those dissonant musical sounds of their past and future, melded together at that present time, makes this a true gem of an album. Not one bad song, and representative of easily their best work over their 45 years.

Nilsson Schmilsson--Harry Nilsson: This one is a recent discovery for me. Pop Rock at its best. "Without You" is an epic song, though "Gotta Get Up" and "Down" are also noteworthily fun.

The Soft Parade--The Doors: People slag this one for its experimentation with horns and brass. I think that is exactly what makes this album the triumph that it is. The only weak point comes in the title track, when the song goes all weird and wired after Jim Morrison's entreaties for sanctuary and soft asylum. "Tell All the People," "Wild Child," and "Wishful Sinful" are pure classics.

A Space in Time--Ten Years After: This album paints a great bluesadelic panoramic view of the early 70's British music scene. Not a single bad song on here.

Wheels of Fire--Cream: Bluesadelic surrealism at its absolute finest. "Those werrre thhhheee daaaayyyyyyyysss..."

Aja--Steely Dan: Smooooooth jazz...

Tommy--The Who: Concept albums are a difficult art form to pull off. Bands like the Who, the Pretty Things, and Pink Floyd were probably the only ones who were ever able to make anything of it. "Tommy" is really a book in album-form, telling the tale of 'that deaf, dumb, and blind kid,' with each song serving as book chapters. Literature as music.


6 Least Favourites

Let Me Up(I've Had Enough)--Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Only three really amazing songs("Jamming Me," "The Damage You've Done," and "Self Made Man") appear on this 1987 mishmash. The rest are quickly forgettable.

Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory--Traffic: The 1973 follow-up to the 'Low Spark' album is a pretty flaccid affair. The nearly 14-minute epic "Roll Right Stones" is the only truly essential cut from the album. The title track is a very funk-influenced track, and is catchy in places. 'Evening Blue" is merely pleasant listening. "Tragic Magic" and "(Sometimes I Feel So)Uninspired" are as bottom of the barrel as that band gets, and unfortunately signified the predominant musical direction in which they went on their next and final outing, 1974's "When the Eagle Flies."

Yellow Submarine--The Beatles: Over half of the album is an assortment of Classical scores composed by producer George Martin for the animated film of the same name, which is nice if you're one who's into that sort of music. To the studio half, two of the songs("All You Need is Love" and the album's title track) have both already seen released on far superior albums. This leaves four original songs--"All Together Now," "Hey Bulldog," "It's All Too Much," and "Only a Northern Song." The first one is a total throw-away. 'Northern Song' is only remarkable for the swirling keyboards. 'Bulldog' and "It's All Too Much" are classics in their own right, but can't ultimately same the album from a harsh review.

33 1/3--George Harrison: Three outstanding tracks in "Beautiful Girl," "Crackerbox Palace," and "This Song." The rest are varyingly mediocre.

Mind Games--John Lennon: The title track is one of the great songs. "Tight A$" is a fun, but quite pointless song. The rest is unremarkable.

Third Stage--Boston: The last of the 'true' Boston albums("Walk on," "Corporate America," and their most recent outing don't count IMO) succumbs to the excesses of the 80's music scene. "We're Ready" is about the only memorable song from this one.

[Freypower]

Eleanor Rigby is the 'weakest' song on Revolver? Wow. I regard the song as a work of art. Utterly timeless & moving in its depiction of loneliness & death.

I also don't consider Yellow Submarine to be a 'true' Beatles album because of the George Martin soundtrack instrumentals.

I take issue with your belief that OOTN doesn't have a bad track. In my view it has at least two (Visions & I Wish You Peace) & most of the rest is mediocre at best. Amazing how opinions vary.

[L101]

These are just some of my all time favourite albums - I didn't include any of the Eagles albums as I love them all anyway....:-)

In no particular order:
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still / End Of The Innocence
Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns / Fallen Empires
Athlete - Tourist
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Newton Faulkner - Hand Built By Robots
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A
David Grey - White Ladder
Moby - Play

[AlreadyGone95]

Favorites:

Bad Company - Bad Company or Company of Strangers (the latter is definitely the best of the albums without Paul Rodgers.)
Eagles- Hotel California
Glenn Frey - Strange Weather
Don Henley - Cass County
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Free-Heartbreaker or Tons of Sobs
Def Leppard -Pyromania
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast, though Power slave is a close second
Van Halen- Van Halen or 5150
Styx- The Grand Illusion
Lynyrd Skynyrd- Street Survivors
Genesis - Genesis ( Selling England by the Pound for the Gabriel era)
CSNY- Crosby Stills and Nash
Stephen Stills- Stephen Stills
Allman Brothers Vand- Allman Brothers Band
AC/DC- Back in Black
Black Sabbath- Paranoid or Mob Rules
Led Zeppelin - II
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here
Bob Seger- Night Moves
Elton John- Madman Across the Water
Metallica- Ride the Lightning
Rush- A Farewell to Kings or Permanent Waves
Yes - Going for the One or The Yes Album
Judas Priest- Screaming for Vengeance
Tom Petty- Full Moon Fever

[AlreadyGone95]

Least favorite albums:

For most of the artists, I haven't heard all of their albums, so I'm only judging the ones I've heard.

Bad Company - Fame and Fortune (The first album without Paul Rodgers. Bad Co Mk. II hadn't found their sound yet.)
Eagles- Eagles ( The non hit songs aren't that good.)
Glenn Frey- After Hours (I do like the album, but the music isn't my type.)
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still ( I just like this one the least.)
Fleetwood Mac-Time ( This would make my list of overall worst albums. It's horrible compared to all of their other albums.)
Free Free (Same as Don's, it's the one I like the least. Plus, I dislike the album cover.)
Def Leppard-X ( too poppy)
Iron Maiden - The 2 albums with Blaze Bailey ( Paul Di'Anno and Bruce Dickinson are much better suited for this band.)
Van Halen - Van Halen III( Gary Chorone & Van Halen=not a good combo)
Styx- Kilroy Was Here ( Dennis Deyoung got his way too much album.)
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Gimme Back My Bullets( it's just not as good as the other 70s albums )
Genesis - Wind and Wuthering ( Meh, Phil sounds too much like Peter. It's not as strong of an album compared to their others.)
CSNY-CSN( has the least number of sings I like.)
Stephen Stills- Right by You (uninspired and Meh. His best songs went to CSN's Daylight Again album.)
Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters(not quite as good as their first 3 studio albums)
AC/DC- Black Ice ( It doesn't hold up at all compared to their 70s and 80s albums.)
Black Sabbath-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ( I just can't into this one.)
Led Zeppelin-Coda( Zep without Bonzo? No, Thank you.)
Pink Floyd- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (It's good, but I prefer the albums with David Gilmour.)
Bob Seger- Like a Rock (boring and bland)
Elton John - The Diving Board (I love the first 4 songs, but the others I don't like much.)
Metallica- Does Lulu count? ( That collaboration album is horrible.) If not, I'll go with the other universally loathed album, St. Anger.
Rush- Signals (Subdivisions is my favorite Rush song, but the rest of the album isn't of the quality of Subdivisions.)
Yes- any album without Jon Anderson. (He's Yes for me.) Of the albums with him, Relayer.
Judas Priest- Turbo (Turbo Lover? :yuck: )
Tom Petty - Hard Promises ( I don't like Petty's early 80s work much.)

[Funk 50]

I found this quite challenging.
Firstly I've named a number of artists that I have big gaps in my familiarity with their entire album catalog.
Secondly, I no longer listen to albums, so I found it difficult to bundle tracks into album groups, unless it was something, like the latest Henley or Elbow album, that I listened to incessantly for a couple of weeks. Then there are many groups, such as Crowded House, that I've discovered through Greatest Hits Albums.

Lastly, these are my favorite artists because I like the vast majority of their music. It's tough to call absolute favourites and even the albums I'm not so keen on will have a redeeming feature or two that I enjoy.

Anyway, here's my shot. Sorry for the alternate format and lack of comment::shy:


Artist
Fav
Least Fav

Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
The Confessor

Eagles
Hotel California
Eagles

The James Gang (with Joe Walsh)
Rides Again
Thirds (I don't know the post Walsh albums)

Abba
Super Trouper
The Visitors

ACDC
They all sound the same don't they

Andrew Gold
All This And Heaven Too! (Halloween Howls is fun)
Whirlwind (I'm not well up with his flood of later albums)

CSN
Daylight Again
4 Way Street (I took it back to the shop!)

Dan Fogelberg
Netherlands
Exiles

David Lindley (Early)
El-Rayo X
Mr. Dave

David Lindley (Late)
Twango Bango II
Live In Europe!

Dire Straits
Brothers In Arms
On Every Street

Timothy B Schmit
Playin' It Cool
Tell Me The Truth

Randy Meisner
One More Song
Randy Meisner I

Glenn Frey
Strange Weather
Solo Collection (the new songs were a real let down)

Don Henley
Cass County
Inside Job

Elbow
Seldom Seen Kid
The Take Off And Landing Of Everything

ELO
Out Of The Blue
The further back you go the weaker they are

Fleetwood Mac
I like the hits and You And I Pt II
I'm really only familiar with the Buckingham Nicks era

First Aid Kit
Stay Gold
The Lion's Roar

Genesis (Gabriel)
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Tresspass

Genesis (Collins)
Invisible touch
And Then There Were Three

Jackson Browne
Late For The Sky
Lawyers In Love
I haven't heard his later stuff
but Standing In The breach is pretty good.

Jay Ferguson
All Alone in the end Zone
Real Life Aint That Way

Phil Collins
Face value
Testify

Peter Gabriel
So
Peter Gabriel II

Queen
The Works
Hot Space

Richard Marx
My Own best Enemy
Rush Street

Rod Stewart
Every Picture Tells A Story
Body Wishes (Ignoring the American Songbook stuff)

REM
Automatic for The People
Reveal

Spirit
Spirit
The 70s albums

Stevie Nicks
The Wild Heart
Street Angel

Status Quo
Heavy Traffic
The entire eighties

Tom Kimmel
Short Stories
Shallow Water (it's got god songs on it)

Tom Waits (Early)
Small Change
Nighthawks At A Diner

Tom Waits (Later)
Rain Dogs
Frank's Wild Years

Van Morrison (Early)
Moondance
Period Of Transition

Van Morrison (Later)
Enlightenment
Pay The Devil

Warren Zevon (Early)
Warren Zevon
The Envoy

Warren Zevon (Later)
Mr Bad Example
Life Will Kill Ya

I'm gonna work on a top three tracks for all my favourite artists. I hope it'll be easier... and I may be able to include a slightly wider range of artists, including some black guys and gals:shock:

[NightMistBlue]

Least favorite albums:

Yes- any album without Jon Anderson. (He's Yes for me.) Of the albums with him, Relayer.

I adore Jon Anderson but have you heard Drama? Even Jon Anderson said it's "bloody brilliant."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzxZzIiO84Y

[Jonny Come Lately]

Least favorite albums:

For most of the artists, I haven't heard all of their albums, so I'm only judging the ones I've heard.

Bad Company - Fame and Fortune (The first album without Paul Rodgers. Bad Co Mk. II hadn't found their sound yet.)
Eagles- Eagles ( The non hit songs aren't that good.)
Glenn Frey- After Hours (I do like the album, but the music isn't my type.)
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still ( I just like this one the least.)
Fleetwood Mac-Time ( This would make my list of overall worst albums. It's horrible compared to all of their other albums.)
Free Free (Same as Don's, it's the one I like the least. Plus, I dislike the album cover.)
Def Leppard-X ( too poppy)
Iron Maiden - The 2 albums with Blaze Bailey ( Paul Di'Anno and Bruce Dickinson are much better suited for this band.)
Van Halen - Van Halen III( Gary Chorone & Van Halen=not a good combo)
Styx- Kilroy Was Here ( Dennis Deyoung got his way too much album.)
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Gimme Back My Bullets( it's just not as good as the other 70s albums )
Genesis - Wind and Wuthering ( Meh, Phil sounds too much like Peter. It's not as strong of an album compared to their others.)
CSNY-CSN( has the least number of sings I like.)
Stephen Stills- Right by You (uninspired and Meh. His best songs went to CSN's Daylight Again album.)
Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters(not quite as good as their first 3 studio albums)
AC/DC- Black Ice ( It doesn't hold up at all compared to their 70s and 80s albums.)
Black Sabbath-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ( I just can't into this one.)
Led Zeppelin-Coda( Zep without Bonzo? No, Thank you.)
Pink Floyd- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (It's good, but I prefer the albums with David Gilmour.)
Bob Seger- Like a Rock (boring and bland)
Elton John - The Diving Board (I love the first 4 songs, but the others I don't like much.)
Metallica- Does Lulu count? ( That collaboration album is horrible.) If not, I'll go with the other universally loathed album, St. Anger.
Rush- Signals (Subdivisions is my favorite Rush song, but the rest of the album isn't of the quality of Subdivisions.)
Yes- any album without Jon Anderson. (He's Yes for me.) Of the albums with him, Relayer.
Judas Priest- Turbo (Turbo Lover? :yuck: )
Tom Petty - Hard Promises ( I don't like Petty's early 80s work much.)

Thanks for posting your lists AG95 – I was really interested to read your comments on your least favourites because there are a few albums in there that I’ve listened to over the last couple of weeks or so which are not especially high up my own favourites list either.

Brothers & Sisters is the only Allman Brothers record I own – it’s partly because I already knew and liked Jessica thanks to its use as the Top Gear theme so it seemed the obvious starting point to me (at the time I didn't really know about the tragedies that preceded its release). I don’t think it’s a bad record by any means, and I like the rock tunes – Ramblin’ Man, Jessica and Come and Go Blues – but I’m not really into the country-blues tracks like Jelly Jelly and Southbound.

I definitely agree with you on Coda. To me the most unfortunate thing is that the record starts with We’re Gonna Groove, which is not just IMO the best song on the album but also a reminder of how awesome the band was at their peak. The three proper tracks on side two aren’t terrible, but I think having them on the same record as the songs from 1970 emphasises in particular how Robert’s voice had suffered over the decade (he was still a good singer and still had a distinctive voice, but had lost some of his power and range compared to the 1969-71 era when he was simply brilliant).

I like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, although I concur in preferring the records with David Gilmour. From that era I prefer A Saucerful of Secrets, which is also psychedelic in sound but somehow appeals to me more. The other weird thing is that there is one Roger Waters composition on the album (Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk), but I think it’s one of the weakest songs – he was probably attempting to write like Syd. On the plus side, Piper contains Astronomy Domine, which I think is their best pre-Meddle song, and there are two Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason studio albums that I prefer Piper to, these being the More soundtrack and the studio half of Ummagumma.

WS82, I’m totally with you on Animals. It is a superb album from start to finish, and both Waters and Gilmour were at the top of their game – Dogs alone is testament to this. It’s my third favourite Pink Floyd album, behind only Wish You Were Here and Dark Side. I also found your comments about Yellow Submarine especially interesting, as they reminded me of my own thoughts about the More Soundtrack and to a lesser extent Coda.

[thelastresort]

Judas Priest- Turbo (Turbo Lover? :yuck: )


Priest are my second favourite band (after some Californian country rock outfit I forget the name of :lol:), but I have to disagree with that last bit; Turbo Lover is one of the highlights of their live shows and one of the very few redeeming features of the album itself. I completely understand why Turbo would be your least favourite album since it's astronomically inferior to every album that preceeded it (bar perhaps Rocka Rolla) and has wayyyyyyy too much synth and general 1980s in it, but I think deep down everybody who listens to Priest has that little piece of them that loves Turbo Lover.

Out of interest, how much of their work have you listened to?

[AlreadyGone95]

Priest are my second favourite band (after some Californian country rock outfit I forget the name of :lol:), but I have to disagree with that last bit; Turbo Lover is one of the highlights of their live shows and one of the very few redeeming features of the album itself. I completely understand why Turbo would be your least favourite album since it's astronomically inferior to every album that preceeded it (bar perhaps Rocka Rolla) and has wayyyyyyy too much synth and general 1980s in it, but I think deep down everybody who listens to Priest has that little piece of them that loves Turbo Lover.

Out of interest, how much of their work have you listened to?

Believe it or not. I actually like Rocka Rolla. Turbo Lover is one of those WTF? songs. I used to not mind it much until VH1 Classic played the video of it to death. Now, I can't stand it. The rest of the album is just so un- Priest- like.
I've listened to all of to everything from Rocka Rolla to Painkiller and Redeemer of Souls.

NMB, I haven't heard Drama. I'm a Yes purist, but I'll try to remember to listen to it over my school break.

Jonny, I'll respond to your post when I have more free time.

[NightMistBlue]

Favorite Doors album: Waiting for the Sun
Least favorite: The Soft Parade (but it has Shaman's Blues, which is worth the price of admission)

Favorite Yes album: Going for the One
Least favorite: Relayer

Favorite Zep album: this is too hard. I can't choose.

[WS82Classics]

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Best: "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Echo"--On a track-to-track basis, 'Great Wide Open' is as even a mix as you'll get with Petty. Several of the non-hit tracks are instant classics("King's Highway," "Dark of the Sun," "All or Nothin'," "Too Good to Be True," and "You and I Will Meet Again") in their own right.

"Echo" often gets panned, but is also a shining moment in itself, containing some of my favourite songs of his("Room at the Top," "Lonesome Sundown," "Accused of Love," and the title track). Admittedly, you would have to be of a certain mind frame to appreciate this one.

Worst: The aforementioned "Let Me Up(I've Had Enough)" and "Wildflowers"--LMUIHE has been discussed already, but "Wildflowers" is a bit of an unimpressive and uneven album. The hits, title track, and songs like "Time to Move on," "Hard on Me," and "To Find a Friend" are quite good. The rest of the songs are varying degrees of meh.


Def Leppard

Best: "Pyromania"-- Joe Elliott's raw vocal energy is really in top form on this one. Even the lesser tracks are worth a few listens.

Worst: "Hysteria"--A lot of the songs sound like a lame attempt to cash in on the band's building momentum over the previous 5 years. Watered-down vocals and uninspired guitar and musical work co-conspire to make this one snoozer of an album. Only the title track is worth anything.

[Jonny Come Lately]

No new additions to my list, but a couple more thoughts:

Eagles: The more I look at this list, the more I think One Of These Nights looks out of place - it is more my 'seventh favourite' album than 'least favourite' as I enjoy the majority of the music and it has several very strong songs.

Neil Young: If I had to pick one from my favourite Neil era - 1969-79 (from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere through to Rust Never Sleeps) the album that I feel is least consistently strong is American Stars 'n Bars. I have to be in the right state of mind to really enjoy the country songs on side one, and Homegrown is a bit of a throwaway. However, there is the small matter of Like A Hurricane, an incredible song and a clear career highlight, so I can't dismiss it. It doesn't fit in with any of the other songs, but it stands out so much that it isn't an issue.

Pink Floyd: Having listened to both Ummagumma and the More Soundtrack album in full - the two weakest Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason records IMO - in the last couple of weeks (the first time I'd listened to either in a good while) I would say that the Ummagumma studio album is the weakest recorded by this quartet. The instrumentals on More are rather unmemorable, but they are better than the frankly boring Grand Vizier's Garden Party and the novelty song Several Species of Small Furry Animals..., and all of the 'vocal' songs on there are pretty good. However, the live disc of Ummagumma is excellent and therefore as a whole record I think it comes out on top.