Are Your Favourite Albums By [Bands/artists X] Never The "Right" Ones?

And the oft-discussed Southpaw Grammar, of course, applies.

favorite Led Zeppelin is in through the out door (i even started a thread about it). and i get funny looks from other Zappa fans when i tell them (in all seriousness) that Sheikh Yerbouti is one of my favorites, almost as good as We're Only in It for the Money or Uncle Meat.

Yeah, I know, but it's been interesting lurking here nonetheless, and gauging where I might "fit" were I to raise my head above the battlements, etc. -- especially considering recent discussions about elitism and island-dwelling ILM cliques (this ain't not troll, by the way).

roger: Is Horses really her canon record? I didn't know that, but I do know that album damn near saved my life when I was 14 years old.

And Bruce: Urge Overkill? I still have a few Eyeless In Gaza... and what's more, I still listen to it...

Elastica, The Menace, as opposed to Elastica, which is great pop-punk but isn't as riveting as Menace's eclecticism.

Beck, Mellow Gold, as opposed to Odelay by a very slight margin, because Odelay does not have anything that sounds as completely fucking hell-bound gangsta as "Soul Suckin' Jerk".

The Replacements, Sorry Ma..., as opposed to everything else they did between 1980 and 1985, for one reason and one reason only: "Johnny's Gonna Die", the song that proved that punk rock and guitar solos should not be mutually exclusive and had one of Westerberg's greatest vocal moments ("JOHNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!.... bye-bye... bye-bye... bye-bye...")

Fatboy Slim, Better Living Through Chemistry, as opposed to You've Come a Long Way, Baby mostly because I heard and fell for it first, but also because "Santa Cruz" is the offspring of Fu Manchu and Jean-Jacques Perrey the world didn't know it needed.

Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt, as opposed to The Blueprint, mostly because almost everything about "Girls, Girls, Girls" makes me want to hit somebody and almost everything about "Regrets" makes me want to start falling to the floor and salaaming.

"Their Satanic Majesties' Request" is my favourite Rolling Stones album

"Protection" is my favourite Massive Attack album.

"Bluejeans And Moonbeams" is, well, I am not saying it is a good album, but it is the only decent thing Don Van Vliet did ever do. :-)

"Bobby Brown" topped the Norwegian singles hitlist for several weeks in 1979. I think it was the only place where it was a hit at all. :-)

REM - _Fables of the Reconstruction_. Certainly the most Southern-sounding of their albums, and completely my favorite (though i can't listen to "Can't Get There From Here" anymore).

Radiohead - _Amnesiac_ just beats out _Kid A_, but those are far far ahead of the rest of their catalog by such a distance as to be laughable.

Beatles - _Revolver_. To blazes with _Pepper's_, though as Justyn points out above, i might have the right answer after all.

Pink Floyd - _Saucerful of Secrets_ (or _More_, it changes from time to time). It's not that i dislike arena rock or anything.

Kate Bush - _Hounds of Love_ might be held in higher esteem due to circumstances of sentiment, but _The Dreaming_ is a better album.

Galaxie 500 - _This is Our Music_ is better than _On Fire_. Discuss.

Pr*m*l Scr**m - _XTRMNTR_ stomps all the hell over _Screamedelica_. Well, the four really good tracks do, anyways.

Spiritualized - _Laser Guided Melodies_ is far more sublimely beautiful than anything else that Mr. Pierce has been arsed to do since then.

And _Isn't Anything_ pisses all over _Loveless_

*Ducks the bricks being hurled by Ned even at this very moment, before he's read this thread. Somehow he just KNOWS.*

I like Cosmic Thing more than any other B-52's album.

Trompe Le Monde may be my fave Pixies album, but I like 'em all so much that it's by a small matter of degrees.

The next question is should you avoid the canon album and go for the lesser rated one first?

I often have this issue, in fact to list all the cases in which my choice of best record runs against the canonical answer wd be to bore the bejesus out of everyone needlessly. My theory is that I'm being honest and upfront about what I like and don't like and that everyone else is being a poseur sheep. Always.

U2: "All That You Can't Leave Behinds" remains my definite fave album by them

R.E.M.: "Reveal" was better than anything before it.

...not to mention both producer Bob Ezrin and the band themselves. That is a bold choice, Geir, and I salute you for it!

Their Satanic Majesties' Request is my favourite Rolling Stones album

I'd day "mine too," if not for Let it Bleed, although I'm also wildly partial to the otherwise unjustly maligned Emotional Rescue.

"Protection" is my favourite Massive Attack album.

I love them all, but I certainly play Protection more often that Mezzanine.

Rubber Soul was their peak, definitley, but Sgt.Pepper's... and Revolver are still better than, say, A Hard Day's Night or Please Please Me (not Beatles For Sale, though, which is very underrated)

Radiohead - Still prefer Kid A over Amnesiac, but I prefer them way over any of their other albums.

U2 - October Sometimes rushing things is better. I waver between this and Zooropa on occasion, but "Gloria" is easily my fave song.

Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies The greatest album of the 1990s. Pierce hasn't gotten nearly close since then.

Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat I guess I should post that "VU personality test" again.

Roxy Music - Country Life I'm not an Eno worshipper.

Pink Floyd - More Again, sometimes rushing things is OK.

The Who - My Generation The first and still the best

I like just about any other Divine Comedy album better than Cassanova. Blue Lines is easily my least favorite Massive Attack album (with Protection narrowly beating out Mezzanine for the top spot -- I'm in no rush to hear 100th Window or whatever the new one is called). I think early Aztec Camera hasn't held up well at all, but I like some of the later stuff, especially Dreamland. Avalon (yes, Avalon) is my favorite Roxy Music album. I like Wire's The A List compilation even more than On Returning. And instead of SFA's Radiator, I prefer both RATW and Mwng (oddly, one of those is an abbreviation, the other a Welsh word).

i like satanic majesties' request a lot, too, but that would be too much a Scooby Doo pick (or would that be goat head's soup?)

"Mellow Gold" for Beck.

Fuckin' A, I liked the '79 album more.

It might be some subjective aversion to aforementioned avant-psych (damn my impatience -- "you mean there's TWO 17-minute plus songs on this monstrosity?") or a tendency to gravitate towards post-punk robofunk proto-Liquid Liquid groove merchandise. I haven't decided yet. All I know is that it's probably the best album to involve at least two ex-members of Traffic and it's probably my favorite unloved album of the month (though the also just-downloaded Trans came pretty close to taking that honor). Sadly, I had to delete the folder when I found that all the MP3s had sound glitches, but I'll try to download it again -- or hell, maybe just BUY the damn thing. Then I can go around saying "I paid $18 for Can '79" and REALLY alienate people.

Beach Boys - Smiley Smile > Surf's Up > Love You > Today > Sunflower > Pet Sounds

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication > Hello Nasty > Paul's Boutique > Check Your Head > Licensed to Ill

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish > Mellon Collie > Adore > Siamese Dream

NIN: "Pretty Hate Machine" over "The Downward Spiral"

i agree with kate about her three 'unpopular' choices at the top of the thread

i also agree with Superchunk's Here's Where The Strings Come In - that's by far my favorite by them

Something Else my favorite Kinks album

And, oh, yeah - I like Goats Head Soup but I'd be lying if I said it was my favorite Stones record.

speaking of the Stones....does anyone like DIRTY WORK?? I mean..at ALL? How about Steel Wheels?

Punch the Clock has become my favorite Elvis Costello record;
Music of My Mind is my fave Stevie Wonder album;
Autoamerican is the best Blondie LP;
I'd vote for Sandinista! over any other record by the Clash;
I think James Brown's Live at the Apollo Vol. 2 is better than Vol. 1;
and I favor C'mon Kids over any other Boo Radleys work.

I love this thread.

Not neccessarily an unusual choice if you want to be extremely purist. After all, this was the album where he "invented" his style so to say.