Apple Music top 100

[cal sharpie]

69 Love Songs - Magnetic Fields.

[Edgy MD]

Nice. Is there an abstract to your endorsement?

Why should I run out NOW!!! and buy this?

[Bob Alpacadaca]

45 Dire Straits, Making Movies

I go back and forth over whether this is better than Brothers in Arms. Movies finds Knopfler storytelling powers at their peak with Tunnel of Love and Romeo and Juliet. Skateaway is the best Dire Straits song that doesn't sound like a Dire Straits song. Expresso Love and Solid Rock are straight-up rockers. Hand in Hand is the kind of melancholy ballad he'd perfect on So Far Away. Les Boys seems like a throw away and hasn't aged well. But the rest of the album is exceptional. Looking back you see transition from the first two albums to the 14-minute songs to come. This one is still strong.

[TransMonk]

He's got two on the Apple list, but I first introduced to Prince through his 1999 album when I was about 8. Even as a second grader, I knew that this guy was legitimately different and amazing.

I remember listening to the title track and realizing for the first time in my life what mutually assured destruction was all about. That was some deep shit when I was trying to figure out who the lead singer of the song was. I wore out the first side of that cassette on my Fisher Price boombox.

Mommy
Why does everybody have a bomb?
Mommy
Why does everybody have a bomb?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

45 Dire Straits, Making Movies

I go back and forth over whether this is better than Brothers in Arms. Movies finds Knopfler storytelling powers at their peak with Tunnel of Love and Romeo and Juliet. Skateaway is the best Dire Straits song that doesn't sound like a Dire Straits song. Expresso Love and Solid Rock are straight-up rockers. Hand in Hand is the kind of melancholy ballad he'd perfect on So Far Away. Les Boys seems like a throw away and hasn't aged well. But the rest of the album is exceptional. Looking back you see transition from the first two albums to the 14-minute songs to come. This one is still strong.

I play Movies much more often than BIA. I feel like the latter was played into banality for me.

[MFS62]

Instead of starting with A, first give me a great, off-the-list-of-ususal-suspects album that starts with a number.

Any period, any genre, as along as you are a true believer.

Two for the Road
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_for_t ... sin_album)

And Old Mole might agree

Later

[cal sharpie]

69 Love Songs is a triple album (23 songs each). All 69 songs were written by frontman Stephin Merritt, although several are sung by others. The album was released in 1999 and came in second place in the long lamented Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. It is a masterful collection of songwriting in many different styles. You’ll rarely listen to the whole collection in one go but pick any 23 and you’re good for the night.

I’d also considered 1999, a better album than Purple Rain, but 69 Love Songs is an incredible achievement,

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

UFO, Strangers in the Night.

Has anyone else heard of these guys?

I don't remember how I discovered UFO. Probably a story in Hit Parader or something. But my first stereo had a eight-track player and this was one of my only eight-tracks. I also had an LP of Obsession that I found in a cut-out bin. I liked that the band rocked hard but still had more melody than some of the other metal bands I listened to. I don't think they ever got airplay on WBAB or WPLJ. I had exactly one chance to see UFO. The bad was opening for Ozzy on his Diary of a Madman tour and there was a near riot at the Coliseum when the tickets went on sale and my parents didn't want me going. "Only You Can Rock Me," "Too Hot to Handle," and first two songs - "Natural Thing" and "Out on the Street" -- are highlights. I played the heck out of this thing.

There has been a reissue that ads a couple cuts and follows the set list at the time, and then another reissue with something like eight discs with various shows.

I played this recently and it still sounds good.

I'm not familiar with Sharpie's pick but will check it out. I played the heck out of 1999 when I was at Mizzou. It was a good tape to run to.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

See these top 100 threads are worth the discussion.

So far I have listened to BACK TO BLACK and BROTHERS IN ARMS today because of this thread

[metirish]

Brothers in Arms is not only a great album, but a great song

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Got in 43 of 69 Magnetic Fields love songs. ❤️

[smg58]

I used to joke that Dire Straits made the two best rock albums of the 80s and then they made Brothers in Arms. I think Love Over Gold gets overlooked a lot because of the song lengths, but it's my favorite of the three.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

UFO, Strangers in the Night.

Has anyone else heard of these guys?

Featuring the unrelenting "Let it Roll", the towering "Love to Love", the infectious "Natural Thing", the lavishly arranged "Out in the Street", the arena shakin' "Only You Can Rock Me", the hard edged "Doctor Doctor", the captivating "I'm a Loser", the blistering onslaught of "Lights Out", the ravaging "Rock Bottom", the anthemic "Too Hot to Handle", and the pistol packin' closing action of "Shoot Shoot", Strangers in the Night is a synergistic hard rock assault of epic proportions.

hilarious review from my favorite rate Your Music reviewer, Jon "Knock it Back!" Fox

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

UFO, Strangers in the Night.

Has anyone else heard of these guys?

Featuring the unrelenting "Let it Roll", the towering "Love to Love", the infectious "Natural Thing", the lavishly arranged "Out in the Street", the arena shakin' "Only You Can Rock Me", the hard edged "Doctor Doctor", the captivating "I'm a Loser", the blistering onslaught of "Lights Out", the ravaging "Rock Bottom", the anthemic "Too Hot to Handle", and the pistol packin' closing action of "Shoot Shoot", Strangers in the Night is a synergistic hard rock assault of epic proportions.

hilarious review from my favorite rate Your Music reviewer, Jon "Knock it Back!" Fox

"Pistol packin' closing action of 'Shoot Shoot'" is some fine writing!

Here's "Only You Can Rock Me":



They were still touring and putting out solid albums until just recently. The two-cd reunion with Michael Schenker in 1995 and 2000 had some great songs, too!

[Edgy MD]

I've enjoyed what I've listened to from 69 Love Songs as well. My only critique so far is that the stark changes in style from one song to the next can be jarring.

For A, I want to endorse Acadie by Daniel Lanois. Rising producer Lanois was in the midst of such a winning streak at the time, co-producing U2's The Unforgettable Fire (1984), Peter Gabriel's So (1986, Grammy Album of the Year nominee), U2's The Joshua Tree (1987, Grammy Album of the Year winner), and Robbie Robertson's Robbie Robertson (1987, Juno Album of the Year winner), Gabriel's Us (1992) and solo producing Bob Dylan's Oh Mercy (1989) and Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball (1995, Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album), among many others.

All this production success encouraged someone to back him to produce a solo debut at age 39, and when a hot producer gets to make an album with his own name on it, it's usually bloated and overbearing. But Lanois went the other way, wringing his own I-IV-V folk English and French folk ballads through a textured processed landscape and out the other side, giving the great players an output that comes across as deeply organic but is anything but. It's like Brian was the mind and he was the heart in his partnership with Eno, and now his heart comes pouring through, but honestly and not stickly, alternating through confessional, meditative, urgent, and celebrative bursts. Bringing his Quebeçois background down to New Orleans and finding a new self in a pan-Franco-American sound he builds with a bunch of Louisiana (and other) musicians, including all the Neville Brothers and half of U2. It's like he's inventing a new kind of music on the go that's instantly familiar as authentically American.

Only occasional imperfections come when he occasionally speaks a lyric in an otherwise very melodic piece, which instead of sounding deep, just sounds like he couldn't finish the song on time. Kind of like with the instrumentals on Pet Sounds, you can take such diversions as a palate cleanser or an imposition.


Speaking of U2, one thing staying together, staying alive, staying in the public eye, and continuing to record and tour has done is diminish the legacy of that band's early career. They used to be far forward on these lists, placing perhaps three albums in the top 50, and one in the top 10 or 20, but their catalog has slipped down precipitously, I think.

What's your neglected classic B, anybody? Dead Milkmen's Beelzebubba? Dokken's Back for the Attack? Childish Gambino's Because the Internet?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Wow, I totally misunderstood the order you wanted us to do this! Embarrassed.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

I will take blame for the initial misreading of the rules and leading astray all who followed.

But my B would be Bad Company's debut, called Bad Company with the classic song, "Bad Company." It's tough to imagine a stronger debut. Even the songs not named Bad Company are really good. "Can't Get Enough," "Rock Steady," "Ready for Love," and "Movin' On" were all FM staples. There's a fairly recent live version of the title cut that is used as the opener and is fantastic. They never matched the debut, but was that would have been nearly impossible.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

As far as I can tell nobody paid any attention to the alphabet with their noms.

I'm digging Strangers in the Night, which I know I've streamed before. I'm on the anthemic "Too Hot to Handle."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I will take blame for the initial misreading of the rules and leading astray all who followed.

But my B would be Bad Company's debut, called Bad Company with the classic song, "Bad Company." It's tough to imagine a stronger debut. Even the songs not named Bad Company are really good. "Can't Get Enough," "Rock Steady," "Ready for Love," and "Movin' On" were all FM staples. There's a fairly recent live version of the title cut that is used as the opener and is fantastic. They never matched the debut, but was that would have been nearly impossible.

Bad Company got trounced in a CPF Desert Island Mix Tape challenge, with less participation than usual, which is next to none.

[Edgy MD]

Wow, I totally misunderstood the order you wanted us to do this! Embarrassed.

That's OK! You're not an evil person!

[batmagadanleadoff]

But my B would be Bad Company's debut, called Bad Company with the classic song, "Bad Company." It's tough to imagine a stronger debut.... They never matched the debut, but was that would have been nearly impossible.

Yeah. I can't imagine a better debut album either. Nobody can. I don't know why musicians even bother coming out with debut albums anymore after Bad Company. The bar has been set so impossibly high. They should just go straight to their second albums. Bad Company rules!

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

For the letter C I pick, Crash, by Dave Matthews Band.

With "Crash into Me," "Two Step," and "Tripping Billies," Crash has some of the band's best songs and several others that are really good. Had a bad experience at one of his concerts once, but that didn't have much to do with the band. He's a new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!