Favorite Whole Album

[AreBee]

Wow. @cosmicfolklore Red Headed Stranger is the album that got me into Country. It's absolutely amazing.

Start to finish, no skips, I have to say that Led Zeppelin II is my favorite. To me, it's a perfect album.

 

[sablebrush52]

No question, Joni Mitchell's album Both Sides Now, fits the description of a single album creating a compelling narrative around an important life experience, and it's one of my faves.

Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell album) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Servant King]

Not genre specific, but here goes...

3) Morrissey - Vauxhall and I (1994)
2) Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh (1973)
1) Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)

 

[warren]

"My Love Affair With Trains" Haggard
"20 Greatest Hits" MacEvoy
"The Last Wild Place" Dalton
"Rear View Mirror" Van Zandt
Too many Statler Brothers albums to list and so on. Oh, any De Danann album of course.

 

[Snook]

One of my favorite albums, and one that evokes both something of a story and a feeling of a specific time and place, is Ray Lamontagne's album 'God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise'. Great tunes, great production, and just all around a great album from start to finish.

Some other favorites are:

Ghosts of the Great Highway by Sun Kil Moon
The Innocent Age by Dan Fogelberg
You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce
Thistled Spring by Horse Feathers
The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man On Earth

 

[DeaconPiper]

Paul Simon's Graceland

 

[brian64]

Some of my favorite songs are not on my favorite albums.

Using the criteria that every song on it must still hold up for me, and making a distinction between concept albums and others, off the top of my head I guess I'd say:

Concept albums:

Pink Floyd:

The Wall
Animals
DSOTM (although it could be questioned whether this fits the concept album definition)

Eagles - Desperado

Others:

Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy, The Royal Scam, Aja
Kansas - Leftoverture, Point of Know Return, Monolith
Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky, Running on Empty
Eagles - Hotel California
Dylan - HWY 61, Blood on the Tracks, Time out of Mind, Saved
Steve Earle - El Corazon, Jerusalem

 

[cosmicfolklore]

DSOTM (although it could be questioned whether this fits the concept album definition)

For me it is a concept album, especially since when you remove and listen to one song, like Money, it just doesn't sound right by itself. Music fans have grown used to the way it sounds by now, but as a stand alone song back when Pink Floyd was in its peak of fame it's just weird,
The concept that binds the set of songs are the anxieties of everyday life, IMO.

 

[jaingorenard]

I feel the need to add Love - Forever Changes to my list (I don't think it has been mentioned yet). What a fantastic album. And Dr John - Gris-Gris. And J. J. Cale - Naturally... It's impossible to stop once you've started!

 

[JackOrion]

All time favorite album. Recorded in Bert’s Kitchen solo acoustic and voice. If you’re into the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, English Folk (rock) etc. and you do not know about Bert Jansch…… thank me later.

 

[ziv]

I rarely listen to individual songs. A couple conceptual albums come to mind though:

Haggard - Awaking the Centuries

Ulver - Nattens Madrigal

 

[cynyr]

They have already been mentioned by @carp rides again , but these two are special as a "listen to the whole thing" experience:

Wish You Were Here
and
American Beauty

 

[woodsroad]

So many great concept albums from the past. I didn't mention so many that I see here now, and others that are now occurring to me. The list would be incomplete no matter what.

 

[jpberg]

Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

 

[Singularis]

I knew Yes would come up. I used to give Harris a hard time for his passions for rock operas, but I have since grown to appreciate Yes as a group.

I recently got a pretty good quality version of the Yes album Fragile. Those guys were master musicians and instrumentalists. Amazing music on that record, but some of my favorite concept albums include (but are not limited to, and in no particular order):

- Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here
- The Beatles Revolver
- Radiohead Kid A
- Joni Mitchell Blue
- Talking Heads Remain in Light
- Paul Simon Graceland
- Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
- Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell
- Sade Love Deluxe
- Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

There are many more I could mention (Aretha Franklin, The Clash, Kate Bush, Portishead, Bjork, Arcade Fire, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, the list goes on), but let’s stick with those for now.

 

[filmguerilla]

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
The Pixies - Doolittle
Interpol (self titled first album)
Led Zeppelin III

 

[keith929]

These are my top five in no particular order.
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Max Roach - We Insist Freedom Now
Dexter Gordon Our Man in Paris

 

[huntertrw]

Tim Weisberg's "Listen to the City": a jazz concept/story album from start to finish, it's an oldie but goodie!

 

[huntertrw]

Another oldie but goodie concept (dealing with, of all things, the Thracian gladiator Spartacus) is Triumvirat;s Spartacus:

 

[Kobold]

I almost always listen to an album all the way through. I had no money growing up so I would never buy a cd when I could get two or three new lps for the price of one cd. I didn’t like to skip around an lp and risk damaging it so I would listen to both sides all the way through.
I remember a lot of times forcing myself to listen to an album over and over because I didnt like it at first and I was pissed I spent money on it. Sometimes those albums would really grow on me and now I love them. Raw Power by the Stooges is one of those albums. Hated it at first but I was wrong. That album rips.