One of these days I'll write a post in which I will, song by song, describe why Exile on Main St. is the greatest album in the history of the world. Until that time you'll just have to accept my very un-humble opinion on the subject (and really, if you'd just listen, you'd hear it anyway...). Dissenting views are welcome, of course, but will be treated with the scorn they deserve.
There's a new album by Richard Thompson, Sweet Warrior. that's really good. No, it's really fucking good.
I'm listening to Pearl Jam's first album, Ten. It's really fucking good, too.
So is the album In the Absence of Truth by Isis, if you like heavy stuff...
I also feel obliged to mention one of the greatest albums ever, Entertainment! by Gang of Four. If you don't know it, um, well, perhaps you should...
I've always been a "Dirty Work" man myself.
ReplyDeleteNot really.... EOMS is a great album, a worthy candidate for best of all time. Do you differentiate between a "for public consumption" greatest-ever (for which the candidates are always Pet Sounds / Sgt Pepper / Blood on the Tracks / Exile etc etc) and a personal favourite?
Heh, Dirty Work, right down to the cover art, was probably the lowest the Stones have ever sunk (clearly too much of Mick's influence).
ReplyDeleteExile actually is my favorite of all time, but there are other (generally newer) albums I listen to more often these days.
For years I was dead against the concept of a "best album ever" - I got fed up of magazines doing endless "100 Best Albums" features simply for cheap copy. In the UK at least, they tended to be dominated by whichever bunch of casual chaps in this year's slacks happen to be riding high at the top of the charts - hence in the '90s, everyone in the UK press swore blind that "Nevermind", then "Automatic for the People", and later "OK Computer", were the greatest of all time. But recently, having given it some more thought, I'm happy to endorse "Sgt Pepper", on the basis that it's the originating template for so much that went afterwards. "Exile" is part of a long (and fantastic) tradition of blues / rock 'n' roll / rock; "Sgt Pepper" really stands alone, above all for the production values. One album that ISN'T the best of all time despite similarly innovative production is "Pet Sounds" - the lyrical content lets it down. Brian Wilson really should shut up whining.
ReplyDeleteMy personal fave is "Incantations" by Mike Oldfield, which most people would hate - to be fair, it does go on a bit.
Personally, I've never been a big fan of the Beach Boys, so they wouldn't make any 'all-time" list of mine (a lot of people whose opinions I respect disagree with me, so I'm willing to concede I might be wrong about them).
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with that particular Oldfield album (I know "Tubular Bells", though!). I'll have to roust one of my prog buddies to let me check it out.
I agree completely that it's a bit foolish to see an album named to an "all-time" list a few weeks after its release. Of course I make an exception for Paris Hilton's album...
If there is, in fact, a "greatest of all-time", I'm not going to lose any sleep if most people believe it to be "Sgt. Pepper". I've heard plenty worse...