quote:

Originally posted by rainman64:
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Judas Priest - British Steel
P.F - Wish You were Here

I'm with you on 2-4 but I'm unfamiliar with 1. I'll go check it out.

Every Metallica album up to, but not including, Load. Later albums are acceptable, but not amazing like the work of their prime.

Also Aenima and Undertow. Tool became shitty when Maynard got healthy and happy, although I don't hold that against him.

Many great ones already mentioned. If I could only pick one per band I would include these. I'm cheating on some by picking Greatest hits albums, but they were very popular:

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
American Beauty - Grateful Dead
Temple of the Dog
The Sky is Crying - Stevie Ray Vaughn
Foreigner (the first album)
Somethin' Else - Cannonball Adderley
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Another Green World - Brian Eno
The Nightfly - Donald Fagen
Dire Straits (the first album) or maybe Making Movies
Deja Vu - CSNY
Sundown - Gorgon Lightfoot
Running on Empty - Jackson Brown
Alive - Kiss
Changes One Bowie
In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits
A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio
The Best of ZZ Top

quote:

Tool became shitty when Maynard got healthy and happy, although I don't hold that against him.

Whoa whoa whoa. I leverage that criticism against Trent Reznor and NIN, but not TOOL. Maynard is not the driving force of TOOL, like Trent is the driving force of NIN. TOOL has much to offer, regardless of Maynard's lyrical and vocal contribution.

Sorry for the drift. I hesitate to make a contribution to the thread, for fear of posting a mere "favorite", rather than a proper "masterpiece".

I just listened to Fear Inoculum a couple days ago, and it's friggen rad (though not 100% rad), so I took issue with Solo's comment.

Though I don't wholly disagree with it. Fear Inoculum is not a masterpiece album, when compared to TOOL's other albums. However, the quartet of Fear Inoculum, Pneuma, Invincible, and Descending is not to be slept-on. They could have made the album out of only those four songs, and it would have been better, IMO.

You raise a good point.

Danny is carrying all of the Low-T victims on his shoulders these days. I guess being a drummer keeps you younger.

And I would change could have to should have.

Peter Gabriel: So

I agree with many of these mentioned. While I've seen Elton John & XTC listed, I'd offer these two as masterpiece albums in their own right:

Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection. My favorite of his with Bernie Taupin, and in my top-ten of all-time favorites.

XTC - Oranges and Lemons. I'm a big fan of their stuff, so I'll cop to having a bias. I stand by my opinion of masterpiece status for this one, even though there are a couple others of theirs I'd rank higher.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I agree, Tumbleweed Connection is his very best, his singing and composing at its best, same with Taupin's lyrics, amazing a Brit can write one of the best albums about Americana.

Skylarking is my overall favorite XTC album, but recently, I have grown to appreciate Nonsuch, having ignored it for years after buying it in the 90s. I now love the album.

@ oddball...

Agreed about TC. The rural American/antebellum feel of it all is amazing.

I also love Nonsuch. I could have listed everything from Drums and Wires forward, but that would have cluttered & potentially diminished the Masterpiece concept of the thread. I dug White Music and Go2 as well but the punk flavor of these two exclude them from Masterpiece status, IMO.

Apple Venus and Wasp Star came along too much later for me, & my tastes had changed somewhat. I was waiting for another album after Nonsuch & the time just dragged on. I liked them for what they were, but they seemed more like Andy Partridge solo albums, and he'd gotten pretty bitter (again) in his personal life. I felt it showed through in a way that didn't benefit the material on the albums.

Here endeth the drift.

I'd add Van Morrison's Hard Nose the Highway.

Not really my thing, bur Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs.

Queen - A Night at the Opera
U2 - The Joshua Tree