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    Cherished Albums

    Writers on their most cherished albums

    I would have put Astral Weeks, but I see Will Self put that. . Blood on the Tracks maybe. Or A Love Supreme. I'll come back to it

    #2
    Pet Sounds, but I respect the fact that not everyone gets it. I used to try to promote it among friends but that never works.

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      #3


      There are different reasons to cherish an album. The musical content, of course, but also other contextual factors, such as who and where you were when it appeared in your life. I was fourteen when I bought Two Lovers. I only owned a couple of albums, cheap comps. However I was early into Motown, had a few singles by that time, and this purchase staked some sort of claim to maturity on my behalf. I adored Mary Wells's voice, still do, with its edge of huskiness to counter the smoothness. And god, but didn't she look great? I mean no one in Stevenage could get away with that. Two Lovers doesn't demolish any musical walls but its mix of singles 'B'-sides and standards still holds up. In it's modest way it has an agelessness that cleverer, more original albums I bought later lack.
      Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 22-12-2017, 00:34.

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        #4
        I am going to say "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith" by Motörhead but it occurs to me that, perhaps, a most cherished album is different from a favourite album?

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          #5
          In the Jungle Groove, James Brown. Not a real album so much as a hasty ‘80’s compilation of classic hip hop sampled 60s-70s stuff, but it’s just fantastic. It’s helped me psychically bond with three groups of friends in three different countries over these past 20-odd years.

          It’s a good rule that anyone who can’t get enough of Talking Loud and Saying Nothing can’t be all bad.
          Last edited by Lang Spoon; 22-12-2017, 01:33.

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            #6
            Though Mr JB did seem a total bastard himself but.

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              #7
              This is a bit like choosing a favourite child isn’t it? Bored has a point about the distinction between Cherished and Favourite. There are some I’ve cone to love like both Northern Britain and Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub, and Rumours.

              But in the end it’s the ones which have meant a lot for a long time. Whilst Blood on the Tracks probably the better album and maybe even “favourite”, the one which holds the fondest place on my heart will probably always be Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.

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                #8
                It's changed a lot over the years. When I was a kid, I had cassettes, so listening to the whole thing in order was really the only way to do it, so much so that to this day when I listen to one of those songs on Spotify (I have a playlist of about 3,500 songs that I just listen to while working to keep my spirits up) my brain is always subconsciously surprised that the next song is not the one that came after it on the album.

                I'd say right now my most cherished album is Fugazi's Repeater. I came to Fugazi late. I heard them a bit during college when they were still together, but didn't really make the effort to get into them until my Marblehead year of 2006. So I don't have any cool gig stories. I can't think of too any bands or albums or songs that I instantly loved upon the first hearing. There's usually something that says "Oh, that was alright, let's listen to that again." But for real love to emerge takes a while. They were never on the college station I'd listened to growing up, certainly not the commercial stations, and my friends weren't into punk or post-punk, but they were well known among friends in college because most of them were from near DC. So I heard a bit of them - don't even remember what - and thought it sounded really different from anything I'd heard before I didn't have the time, money, or brain-space to investigate further, so I filed them away as a "check out later."

                But then I forgot about their existence for 11 years, even during my Boston years when I was getting into punk - way late, I was 25!!! - I was reminded of their existence when I read Left of the Dial - recommended on this board, as I recall - and now I just think it's the best rock album I've ever heard, followed close behind by their 13 Songs. Aside from their non-compromising DIY left-wing ethic and anti-materialism/anti-capitalism lyrics, they just speak to a furnace of energy I have deep inside me but struggle to access most of the time.

                Now it's the CD I keep in my car's CD player for times when I can't get my phone to work (I usually listen to podcasts or Audible books in the car via my phone blue-toothed to the car stereo).
                Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 22-12-2017, 02:11.

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                  #9
                  So, making and posting my choice coincided with my final sign-off on the work PC for the year. So I listened to Born to Run on my drive home, and it just happened to be almost the right length. However Jungleland had only just started as I entered our suburb, and such was my mood by now (having croaked and screeched along all the way home) that I had to add some streets to the drive until it was complete. Goosebumps all through the song, possibly even something in my eye during Clarence's big solo, and pretty euphoric by the time I pulled into the drive.

                  And you see, that's why OTF is so wonderful. If it hadn't been for reading Nefertiti's post, I wouldn't have thought about this, and would probably have listened to a perfectly fine podcast on my way home. Instead I'm all set up, sipping chilled Pilsener Urquell, about to wrap Mrs. S' presents before she gets home, well mellow.

                  Thanks Nef, thanks OTF.

                  Jungleland

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                    #10
                    I presume that by "most cherished", Nef is suggesting something along the lines of "Desert Island Disc" rather than favourite or most admired. If that is the idea, it might be a fun challenge to identufy the

                    1. Most Cherished
                    2. Most Admired
                    3. Most Favourite

                    album (though I presume thgere'd be some overlap).

                    In that spirit, my answers would be, for today:

                    1. Most Cherished: Carole King - Tapestry
                    2. Most Admired: Prince - Sign 'O' The Times
                    3. Most Favourite: Van Morrison - Moondance (and that really is changing moment to moment. It's my go-to album at the moment)

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                      #11
                      There are a lot of good suggestions on this thread (and in the NS article that Nef attached), but i think my most cherished, the one that I keep going back to, the one I'd most miss after the apocalypse, would be The Blue Nile's "A Walk Across the Rooftops"

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                        #12
                        Not my favourite, and I appreciate it's a bit of an obvious one, but as a 14-year-old my most cherished memory is buying and listening to Never Mind The Bollocks for the first time and my musical world til then, being turned upside down.

                        As a footnote, it was pretty depressing to be in Meadowhall (which in itself is depressing enough) and hearing Anarchy in the UK being pumped out from Five Guys.

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                          #13
                          I think if I was using G-Man's definitions, the first two are incredibly obvious: Most Favourite is probably Blonde on Blonde; Most Admired is probably Kind of Blue; my most cherished, though, is Summerteeth by Wilco, which I keep going back to, and feel comfortable in its embrace.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                            There are a lot of good suggestions on this thread (and in the NS article that Nef attached), but i think my most cherished, the one that I keep going back to, the one I'd most miss after the apocalypse, would be The Blue Nile's "A Walk Across the Rooftops"
                            Mine would be Hats. Every time I go to Glasgow, I take the sleeves of the four band albums and Buchanan's solo album that I bought especially, and a Sharpie, and I get the underground round to Hillhead, and I walk up Byres Road and I walk back down it to the station. One day I'll bump into him, and I'll get the sleeves signed, and I'll put them in a frame.

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                              #15
                              Haha, that's brilliant Giggler. What a lovely mental image that description paints. I sincerely hope you do bump into Paul Buchanan there someday, preferably soon.

                              I've long meant to dip a toe or three in the cool still waters that are the Blue Nile, and finally got myself A Walk Across The Rooftops about a year ago. I've resolved not to dive too hastily into getting Hats – er, I mean, in the context of not having owned its predecessor that long, not in the sense that it's 'only' 28 years old presently – since I want to continue letting AWATR give up its secrets gradually and not overload myself. Given that we're talking about a band who only have four albums to discover, which took them 20 years to make, I feel there's nothing to be said for rushing...!

                              How good is Mr Buchanan's solo Mid Air album, out of interest – is it fair to say it could be considered a fifth Blue Nile album in all but name, for instance?

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                                #16
                                It's much more piano-led which makes it feel sparser. It's good, but doesn't hit the heights of AWATR or H or aspects of PAL.

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                                  #17
                                  I'm bringing "the undertones " and "the lexicon of love " to the bunker , both treasured and important imho

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by nmrfox View Post
                                    Not my favourite, and I appreciate it's a bit of an obvious one, but as a 14-year-old my most cherished memory is buying and listening to Never Mind The Bollocks for the first time and my musical world til then, being turned upside down.

                                    As a footnote, it was pretty depressing to be in Meadowhall (which in itself is depressing enough) and hearing Anarchy in the UK being pumped out from Five Guys.
                                    Yes, I was thinking NMTB

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                                      #19
                                      Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges is an album I can’t ever imagine not wanting to hear.

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                                        #20
                                        Giant Steps is the most admired, which I would define as the one that most takes my breath away with its skill and ability to improvise complex changes at very high speed. Charlie Parker's Dial Masters does the same but that is a compilation of work over a few years (Miles is on there, though, unlike Giant Steps).

                                        Favourite is going to be Sgt Pepper because of context, being bored shitless and alienated at high school and wanting something that would take me to a special place, which it still does.

                                        But cherish is a deep emotional attachment to every track, even the out-takes, as sounds that speak to my most innermost being, and that will always be Pet Sounds.

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                                          #21
                                          I took "cherish" to include the album as an object/artifact too. If it was only the music itself I'd could think of at least half dozen others I'd put ahead of Two Lovers.

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                                            #22
                                            Probably not many have heard them but "After Awhile" by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and "Still Caught Up" by Millie Jackson mean a lot to me.

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