[DavidMahler]

List ten albums as the title says, that you feel is a complete work from beginning to end......where the message of the music is truly fulfilled by the greatness of the development of the album itself.

For instance: Dark Side Of The Moon has individual songs that are stunning, but as a complete album it is so much more of an experience.....whereas I love jeff buckley's Grace (every song on it is great) but I don't feel it needs to be listened to in complete context to be fully appreciated.....so the goal of this thread is to mention albums that seem to provide a message, be it musically or even in concept, that is just not the same if you pick out songs from the album

Please don't make a list of Pink Floyd........keep it to 1 album per artist

My list would read in no order:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
The Rolling Stones - Exile On Mainstreet
The Clash - London Calling
The Beatles - The White Album
Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

Those 10 albums for me are like a world to themselves......When I start on the first track I listen all the way through.......because the experience is the album itself

I can't wait to read other top 10s.......

 

[demoNMaCHiN3]

Global Underground: Oslo
Global Underground: San Francisco
Global Underground: Ibiza
Tranceport
Daft Punk - Homework
Goldie - Timeless
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
LTJ Bukem - Journey Inwards
Chemical Brothers - Come With Us and Exit Planet Dust
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Dieselboy - The Dungeonmaster's Guide


edit: changed some of the albums

 

[Uncle Erik]

In no particular order:

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
Savane, Ali Farka Toure
SMiLE, Brian Wilson
Dusk at Cubist Castle, The Olivia Tremor Control
Trace, Son Volt
Red Headed Stranger, Willie Nelson
Kerosene Hat, Cracker
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips
In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
The Commercial Album, The Residents

 

[Enverxis]

Green Carnation - The Acoustic Verses - probably my favorite album at the moment. Green Carnation the Progressive Metal band goes completely acoustic and heart-felt, and no, I'm not talking "Opeth - Damnation" half-arsed style either. Acoustic guitar plucking, emotional vocals and the bass, drums and strings come in when they need to. All of the compositions are just awesome and it is really emotional music, just listen to "The Burden is Mine" or "9-29-045" to see what I mean.

Anathema - Hindsight - Re-envisioned Anathema classics into their newer and much more suited style. Drop the Rock crap, and hello dreamy mellow sound that completely matches their style and lyrics. Semi-Acoustic album and absolutely blissful to listen to

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies/Sap - Wonderful 2 disk collection of really painful and sorrowful songs. Jar of Flies was written mostly by Layne Staley while he was snowed in, trapped in his garage, death hovering over him. Really dirty guitar sound but absolutely beautiful melodies and songs.

Madder Mortem - Deadlands - after a while, chicks singing metal can get very boring. Soprano vocalists who don't care about what they're singing, random pieces of music pasted together to fit very bland philosophical concepts for lyrics and gothic fairy dresses. Yuck.
Enter Madder Mortem, fronted by Agnete M. Kirkevaag (to me that is the name for a Dragon, haha) and she is a beast, aggressive and powerful singer (not like the 80s girls either) that you will either really enjoy or really dislike as her voice is an acquired taste. I would have to say she's one of the most emotional singers I've come across and she displays negative emotions through her singing perfectly. She doesn't have the best octave range but she can sing in many different styles and mixes it up fantastically. The music is mid-paced to slow chunky metal with an ever terrific rhythm section. The album sends tingles down my spine and while it took me a while to get into it, I know I will never tire of it.

The Gathering - How to Measure a Planet? - Try as I might, I cannot find any album that remotely sounds like this. Some might say that The Gathering take their influences from Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Massive Attack etc etc but they certainly have a very unique sound on this album in particular. Slow Dreamy rock with female vocals, this post basically sums it up
Quote:

Originally Posted by sbulack /img/forum/go_quote.gif I found this post because I was searching for some recos of CD's by The Gathering from a passionate and knowledgeable fan. Mandylion gets a lot of recos among fans of this band. On your recommendation, I picked up these two albums. I have to say that I'm stunned by how completely I get drawn into the tracks on these albums. From concept through to production, these are top notch musical expressions.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Yeah pretty self-explanatory, I'm only a newbie to these guys compared to most people here so I'm sure someone else can reflect their feelings towards this album better than me. I like it better than Dark Side of the Moon though

Antimatter - Leaving Eden - I love the direction Mick Moss and Danny Cavanagh have taken with Antimatter with the departure of Duncan Patterson after their last release. I also prefer Mick Moss' vocals to Duncan's. The last album was mainly acoustic rock, this is a mix of acoustic rock with amplified/distorted acoustic guitar. Great vocals and lyrics with lovely arrangements, very sombre for it's style.

Elend - Winds Devouring Men - The title may scare some people away, as may the lyrical concept. However, these frenchies have performed a work of art here which is also well recorded ;D. If you like Classical Music and also Ambient Music/Electronic Soundscapes or Dark Music, this is for you. A great emotional album here, very sad indeed.

Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain - This one tops my list on atmospheric creation with a wall of sound. Some call Agalloch "Music about trees". That works for me

. This album blends various styles of distorted music with some neo-folkish acoustic work. This is a fantastic album even for those who aren't into extreme vocals, the vocals here are kind of a light rasp that fits the music perfectly. Just have a listen to "Falling Snow" before you make your decision on whether you like this band or not.

Nest - Trail of the Unwary - Masterpiece neo-folk album of 2007, one man project of the finnish pastel artist A. Tolonen. Here we are taken deep into the frosty forests of Finland into the eyes of a great wolf, which is described wonderfully by the instruments, the Kantele (finnish harp), bass guitar, various percussion, the didgeridoo, synths and the odd whispered passage. Might be a bit hard to find, but highly recommended

 

[Redcarmoose]

In order played just as you wake, though till the end just in time for lunch.



Rod Stewart Atlantic Crossing
UFO Force It
Led Zepplin Led Zepplin 1
Led Zepplin Led Zepplin 4
Golden Earring Moonshine ( Has to be original cover art.)
Metallica Metallica ( The Black Album )
Black Sabbath Vol 4
Korn Korn ( Last one they put out )
Black Sabbath Paranoid
Judas Priest Unleahed IN The East

 

[progo]

Uhmm, see if I can make it a list of ten entries.

Mike Oldfield - Amarok
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way Baby
Jean Michel Jarre - Teo & Tea
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

any Tangerine Dream album.

Quite many soundtrack albums have to be listened completely from beginnning to end so I list one good example:
Vangelis - Blade Runner

 

[plonter]

dream theatre-images and words
rush-any album...but especially hemispheres
pink floyd-animals
pink floyd-the wall(sorry..i just had to put 2 albums of pink floyd)
sigur ros-takk
oasis-morning glory
metallica-black album
bjork-homogenic
radiohead-ok computer
david bowie-ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars

 

[nvkid909]

the orb, u.f.orb
FSOL dead cities
shpongle, nothing lasts but nothing is lost
fear & loathing 2, luke slater
LSG, into deep
biosphere, substrata
system 7, power of seven
james holden, at the controls
nathan fake, drowning in a sea of love
venetian snares, rossz csillag alatt szueletett

+1 more v.snares (as above), detrimentalist

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

The Who - Who Are You
Steely Dan - Aja
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.
Dire Straits - (self titled)

 

[TestSpecimen]

I only really have three albums that I would say fall into this category:

Radiohead - Kid A
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
The Beatles - Sgt Peppers

 

[tru blu]

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way (Miles Davis albums could fill up an entire list)

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (so could Van)

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (so could Dylan)

Al Green - Call Me

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Jon Hassell and Brian Eno - Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics

Iris DeMent - My Life

Gil Evans Orchestra - Out Of The Cool

Bebo y Cigala - Lágrimas Negras

 

[Luminette]

I love a lot of the stuff already mentioned but it seems like most are just albums people thoroughly enjoy, rather than albums that rely on full-album cohesion.. for any story, concept or otherwise. Like what the OP was asking for

Here's my list, after a few minutes of moving through my stuff and trying to keep it tight (DSOTM absent since it is already mentioned and if you don't know it, ...!)

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Ayreon - The Human Equation
Pain of Salvation - BE
Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - Sol Niger Within
The Books - The Lemon of Pink
Bogus Blimp - RDTR
Shpongle - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost
Meshuggah - Catch 33
Dredg - El Cielo
Subterranean Masquerade - Suspended Animation Dreams

Some of these are concept albums, some are just like one song that progresses throughout the full album, some are just obviously connected by overall feel/purpose that you move through

Mixture of Prog Rock, Prog Metal, Indie, Ambient, Psybient, Technical, Death, Folk, Avantgarde

and a nice basket of other genres that make smaller contributions to these works

Enjoy

 

[RogerB]

In no particular order:

Exile On Main Street - Rolling Stones
Abbey Road - Beatles
Willy & The Poorboys - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd
John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan
Horses - Patti Smith
Harvest - Neil Young
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane
Joshua Tree - U2

 

[Redcarmoose]

Yes, the question was, What albums do you think are complete stand alone works of art that have no extra songs and exist alone as a whole greater than the sum of there parts (songs}. Even the cover art work could be used as a part. Maybe there may be one song that is not a favorite. Does it help the whole exist as perfect?

 

[immtbiker]

Patricia Barber - A Fortnight in France
Nectar - Remembering the Future.
Al DiMeola - Land of of the Midnight Sun
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
Michael Hedges - Watching My Life Go By
David Sanborn - Inside
Roxy Music - Avalon
Yes - Yessongs
ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Jacintha - Here's To Ben