1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

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PJ Harvey -- Rid of Me
Stravinsky -- Petruchka, The Rite of Spring (Boulez conducting)
Soundgarden -- Badmotorfinger
Sleater-Kinney -- The Woods
Brahms -- Symphony No 1, Tragic Overture (Abbado conducting)
JS Bach -- Well-Tempered Clavier (Schiff)
Debussy/Ravel -- String Quartets (Alban Berg Quartet)
Ralph Vaughan Williams -- The Lark Ascending, Symphony No 5
Gothic Voices -- The Service of Venus and Mars
Guillaume Du Fay -- Mass for St Anthony (Pomerium)
Guided By Voices -- Bee Thousand
The Smiths -- The Queen is Dead
Nine Inch Nails -- With Teeth (Downward Spiral already taken)
Led Zeppelin -- Any! Give the hammer of the gods their due!

The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get - Joe Walsh

(A true under-rated genius.)

Blur - Blur

My choices span many genres, and are not all necessarily stuff I listen to on a regular basis - but they changed my perceptions of what is possible in music, or are what I consider groundbreaking, pioneering, the epitome of their form, extremely powerful / compelling / inspiring, or all of the above.

In no particular order here are some that come to mind (will possibly add more)...

Nick Drake - everything
Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind, Tamlin EP, Lucifer over London EP
Comus - First Utterance
In Gowan Ring - Twin Trees, the Glinting Spade
Shirley Collins - The Power of the True Love Knot
Donovan - H.M.S. Donovan
Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day
Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
C.O.B. (Clives Original Band) - Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart
Stone Breath - A Silver Thread to Weave the Seasons
Black Sabbath - self titled, Paranoid
Bathory - Hammerheart
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans, The Angel and the Dark River
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Blind Guardian - Imaginations From the Other Side, Nightfall in Middle Earth
Demons and Wizards - self-titled
Fates Warning - The Spectre Within, Awaken the Guardian
Agalloch - The Mantle
Bal-Sagoth - Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Filosofem
Death - Sound of Perseverance
Cynic - Focus
Gorguts - Obscura
Ulver - Bergtatt, Nattens Madrigal
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Weakling - Dead as Dreams
Elend - Les Ténèbres du Dehors
Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley, Blues for the Red Sun
Sleep - Dopesmoker / Jerusalem
Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Die Verbannten Kinder Evas - In Darkness Let Me Dwell
Lycia - Ionia
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Zoviet France - Shouting at the Ground, Shadow Thief of the Sun, Mohnomishe
Can - Tago Mago
Neu! - Neu! 75, Neu! (self-titled)
Faust - Faust, So Far, Tapes, IV
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
King Crimson - anything from their debut (In the Court of the Crimson King) up through the 80s
Jimi Hendrix - Are Your Experienced?
Led Zeppelin - just about everything
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle, the Wall
Nurse With Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith, and others
Coil - almost everything
Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Perscription, Playing With Fire
Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
The Velvet Underground - self-titled first album, White Light / White Heat
The Residents - Duck Stab, 3rd Reich and Roll
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume 2
Autechre - Tri Repetae, LP5, Gantz Graf EP
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy, Music Is Rotted One Note
Miles Davis - b*****s Brew
Windy and Carl - Drawing of Sound
Tenhi - Kauan
In The Woods - Heart of the Ages
Of the Wand and the Moon - Emptiness
Backworld - Holy Fire
Sol Invictus - In a Garden Green
Dargaard - In Nomine Aeternitatis
Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg, Aion
Primus - Frizzle Fry
Mr. Bungle - self-titled
Melvins - Bullhead

Ok that's enough from me for now...

I don't know what number we are up to on this.

SpectreWithin, I think you've mentioned the albums listed before. Oh well.

Yes I know I listed some duplicates - sorry about that - but they were very important duplicates to me. I actually didn't think someone was really going to tally all these up! If so I can edit out my duplicates...

1. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
2. Kirsty MacColl - Kite
3. Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs
4. Joanna Newsom - Ys
5. Joni Mitchell - Blue
6. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
7. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
8. Kirsty MacColl - Titanic Days
9. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
10. Queen - A Night At The Opera
11. Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin
12. Jeff Buckley - Grace
13. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
14. Gene Clark - No Other
15. Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
16. Judee Sill - Heart Food
17. Led Zeppelin - IV
18. Rufus Wainwright - Want One
19. Kirsty MacColl - Tropical Brainstorm
20. The Beatles - Abbey Road
21. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
22. Elliott Smith - Figure 8
23. Kate and Anna McGarrigle - Kate and Anna McGarrigle
24. Morrissey - Viva Hate
25. Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle
26. Eva Cassidy - Songbird
27. Kate Bush - The Dreaming
28. Anthony and The Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now
29. Judee Sill - Judee Sill
30. The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street
31. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
32. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe As Milk
33. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
34. Rufus Wainwright - Poses
35. Joni Mitchell - Hejira
36. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
37. The Beach Boys - Friends
38. Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
39. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
40. Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon
41. Kate Bush - Aerial
42. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up!
42. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
43. Judy Garland - Alone
44. Freddie Mercury and Monseratt Caballe - Barcelona
45. Sir John Betjeman - Betjeman's Britain
46. Tom Waits - Rain Doga
47. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
48. Al Stewart - Bedsitter Images
49. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
50. Kirsty MacColl - From Croydon To Cuba
51. Joni Mitchell - Song To a Seagull
52. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
53. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
54. Joni Mitchell - For The Roses
55. Leonard Cohen - Songs Of
56. Tim Buckley - Happy/Sad
57. The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
58. T-rex - Electric Warrior
59. Kirsty MacColl - Electric Landlady
60. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
61. Roy Harper - Stormcock
62. Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball
63. Kenny Everett - Greatest Adventure Yet From Captain Kremin
64. Brian Wilson - Smile
65. Dillard abd Clark - Fantastic Expedition Of
66. The Lovin' Spoonful - Daydream
67. Aretha Franklin - Now!
68. Joni Mitchell - Night Ride Home
69. Billie Holiday - Lady In Autumn
70. Gram Parsons - GP
71. Johnny Cash - American III (Solitary Man)
72. Johnny Cash - Amercian IV (A Hundred Highways)
73. Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
74. Freddie Mercury - Lover of Life, Singer of Songs
75. The Beach Boys - The Best Of

No no no no. I was thinking that people would put numbers next to the albums until we get to 1001. Like the topic 1001 ways to cheer you up.

You can edit them out if you want, I was just saying.

"46. Tom Waits - Rain Doga "


*Cough* Dogs *Cough*

asside from that pedantry it certianly is a great album just listining to Toms new one I quite like it

Thought of a few more:

Love - Forever Changes
Legendary Pink Dots - The Maria Dimension
Stars of the Lid - Ballasted Orchestra
Labradford - A Stable Reference
Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra Tempel) - Inventions for Electric Guitar, E2-E4
Gong - You

OH MAN there is some good stuff on this list. Let me add more:


-Gang of Four - Entertainment
-Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
-Minor Threat - Discography
-Weezer - Blue Album
-Warsaw (the pre-Joy Division stuff, name of album escaping me!)
-Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Self Titled
-Eels - Electroshock Blues
-Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
-Tin Hat Trio - Rodeo Eroded
-Shellac - At Action Park
-Pixies - Doolittle
-They Might Be Giants - Apollo 13
-all Oasis albums

Decksanddrumsandrockandroll - Propellerheads

Cannibal Ox-The Cold Vein
El-P-Fantastic Damage
Company Flow-Funcrusher Plus
Prefuse 73-Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives + One Word Extinguisher + Extinguished: One Word Extinguisher Outakes
De La Soul -3 Feet High and Rising
The Beatles-The White Album
The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
A Chorus Line-Soundtrack
Bob Dylan-Bringing it all Back Home

Follow The Leader - Korn.

Any of Conlan Nancarrow's albums. You'd have to have an old fashioned record player, though. His work never made it to CD.

Hilltop Hoods - The Calling

Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road

Funkoars - The Greatest Hits

Funkoars - Whos your Step Daddy

Terra Firma - Walking the Past

Pegz - Axis

Train of Thought - Moving Heads

I could go on.