Favorite albums

Yeah. So I'm just curious what everyone's favorite albums, by any artist, are? Name as many or as few as you want, why you like it, favorite tracks, whatever. I have a few, and I consider an album a 'favorite' when it achieves the status of 'entire thing permanently synced to my phone'.

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing. So many good tracks, and a nice mix of rock. Deadwing (the song), the progressive rock masterpiece Arriving Somewhere but not Here, one of the most lovely ballads I've ever heard Lazarus, and then the haunting beauty of The Start of Something Beautiful. So much good stuff. Porcupine Tree, and really, Steven Wilson's, best work, IMO.

Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild. This is a 10-track album and 7 of those tracks are on my favorites playlist. A masterpiece of power metal, with some progressive elements. Starts off good and energetic with Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited and ends withDraw Me, a stunningly solemn and beautiful acoustic-ish ballad. And the tracks in between hit everything from straight power such as in The Cage to other ballads like The Misery. Still Sonata's best album.

Sabaton - The Art of War. The masters of straight power metal nailed it with this one. Straight power metal from beginning to end, giving you a wake up shock with Ghost Division. But they show their meaningful, philosophical side with this as well, with one of their best in The Price of a Mile, which still has one of the best lyrical lines I've heard (6 miles of ground have been won, half a million men are gone).

Shadow Gallery - Tyranny. This band is woefully underrated, yet crafted this incredible 80 minutes of straight progressive metal. Mike Baker (RIP) is still one of my favorite singers, his voice is powerful when it needs to be, yet also soft and soothing for ballads like Ghost of a Chance, which is the first song that comes to my mind when someone asks me to name a ballad.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries. Showcases everything Opeth is good at. From heavy hitting death metal, down to soft acoustic with jazz and blues influences, this album has everything you'd expect from Opeth. Mikael Akerfeldt gets to showcase both his death vocals and his amazing clean voice, and you can go from heavy death metal down to acoustic passages in one song. Ghost of Perdition and The Baying of the Hounds are the kind of songs albums should be opened with.

And of course...

Gojira - L'enfant Sauvage. Yeah, wasn't about to go post in the music forum without mentioning this work of musical perfection. 13 track album (that's the special edition). 6 of those tracks are on my favorites playlists, and a few more might get added. Gojira is one of the few bands that successfully pulls off semi-clean vocals, and they blend it well with their music. Their style is unique. I've got The Gift of Guilt on close to perpetual repeat, with Liquid Fire, Explosia, and the title track pretty close to the same. Plus, the lyrics for this entire album are 100% brilliant. My custom title is a line from Liquid Fire. Some of the best lyrics in metal, and this album showcases that well.

So, your favorite album(s)?

Since I am a known Dream Theater fan I will point out my top five Dream Theater Albums. (Random order).

Images and Words- This one still stands the test of time. It is a pure enjoyment to listen to.

Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory- An epic album. Telling the stories of the past and present.

Score (three disk live set). -This has both Octivarium and 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence done live.

Systematic Chaos- Constant Motion and Forsaken are two of my favorite songs off this album.

A Dramatic Turn of Events- Some of the best stuff from Dream Theater to date.

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My favorite for a long while now has been King Crimson's Discipline. The title track has the most amazing use of polymeter and interlocking guitars I've ever heard put to record, and is just an awesome, beautiful song in its own right. Then Tony Levin of course busts out the amazing Chapman Stick lines on Elephant Talk and Frame by Frame. The Sheltering Sky is another great instrumental, evoking a very smooth but desolate musical landscape.

Type O Negative's October Rust is a longtime favorite, and I know there are some people who can't stand the more pop-oriented offerings from their favorite bands, but I love this one. My Girlfriend's Girlfriend is hilarious, Haunted is haunting, and Peter Steele's voice is amazing throughout. Green Man and Cinnamon Girl are other favorites from this album.

Hmm...I would say Magma's Udu Wudu is another fave. First album of theirs I picked up, and Zombies is my favorite song of theirs. And Magma is just awesome.

Some of my other favorites are Metallica's Load, King Crimson's ConstruKction of Light, and Type O Negative's World Coming Down.

I have to say that I, too, like Winterheart's Guild and Images and Words.

I have to agree on Scenes from a Memory. Dream Theater's best. My only real problem with it is that it was so good that everything they released afterwards, IMO, utterly paled next to it. I started losing interest in DT following that album. I've listened to some of the post-Scenes work, and it just doesn't have the same flair to it to me. Dunno why.

I think in some ways DT is getting better. This up coming album will be the second one released after Mike Portnoy left. Which in some ways was a good thing for the band. A Dramatic Turn of Events, really is one of their better albums. Plus.. not many drummers have a fortress for a drum set.

Interesting music thread topic. However, I am not much into this new music and am not familiar with all the new albums out there. I much prefer the music of the older classic rock, etc. from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and some 80's. I like country music from all years. Although, I do like the music of Sabaton very well, so I guess I would say whatever their latest album is.

Well... not that I've ever been accused of having great taste in music...

The Church - Starfish- In case you're wondering, this is the album with "Under the Milky Way" on it. This is on here because that song was one of the main catalysts that got me to start writing for Stargazer, the sci-fi setting that "No Experience Necessary" took place in. That and they have a really unique sound.

The Art of Noise - Art Works: The Best of The Art of Noise 12" - Some background on The Best of The Art of Noise first. Art Works was released as a 12" record in 1988 with a famous blue background, then as a CD version (also with a blue background) with different songs, and then a CD version in the 90s (with not just different songs and remixed songs, but a pink version of the cover.) The album listed here is the Blue Background version. Hard to find, but nice if you like electronic music. (The song "Moments in Love" on this version also helped catalyze Stargazer.)

ZZ Top - Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top - Yes, it's a greatest hits album. No, I'm not going to list every album each song on this collection debuted on. This has my all-time favorite song on here, Cheap Sunglasses, so it gets an appearance on this list.

The Beatles - 1 - It's the Beatles! What more do you need?!

The Beach Boys - Sounds of Summer: The Best of the Beach Boys - See above, except replace "the Beatles" with "the Beach Boys."

Michael Jackson - Thriller - Oh, boy, this one sold like diamonds. It gave Michael a problem when he did Bad in 1987 because, well... how exactly are you supposed to follow up on the best selling album of ALL TIME? (True story. Google it.)

Lou Bega - A Little Bit of Mambo - The first CD I ever owned, so it's got a sentimental spot in my heart. Besides, "Mambo No. 5," "Tricky Tricky," "The Trumpet (Part II)" and the mambo/salsa blend "Mambo Mambo" are cool. (The follow-up album, Ladies and Gentlemen, had a great song called "Club Elitaire," but I think Ladies and Gentlemen had a very limited US release, if at all.)

I STILL cannot stop listening to L'Enfant Sauvage on a regular basis, especially the four songs mentioned in my previous post. It's just too good. I need to remove this album from my iTunes library so I'll listen to other music more, but I know I will never do it.