OK, this may have been done before, but I'm a newbie here and can't be arsed to trawl through and look.

What's the creepiest album sleeve ever?

I'm sure there must be hundreds (if not thousands!) of contenders, but I'm starting off with this one:

Eeeww...makes my flesh crawl...

If you were to list your most played albums, would this differ greatly from what you would declare as your all time favourites. This is my "Top Played" list and of course it is skewed towards albums of the last century as I have had much more time to play them!
There are certain albums that I would not have thought of listing as my favourites! OVER TO THE MASSIVE.....

PINK FLOYD Dark Side Of The Moon 1973
PINK FLOYD The Wall 1979
Jeff BECK There And Back 1980
The BEATLES Beatles "White Album" 1968
SUPERTRAMP Even In The Quietest M. 1977
PINK FLOYD Animals 1977
Steve HARLEY Love's A Prima Donna 1976
David GILMOUR David Gilmour 1978
PINK FLOYD Wish You Were Here 1975
SUPERTRAMP Crisis ? What Crisis ? 1975
Steve HARLEY Timeless Flight 1976
John MARTYN Grace And Danger 1980
GOLDFRAPP Felt Mountain 2000
ROLLING STONES Goat's Head Soup 1973
Judie TZUKE Welcome To The Cruise 1979
Joni MITCHELL Wild Things Run Fast 1982
STEELY DAN Two Against Nature 2000
John MARTYN On The Cobbles 2004
PINK FLOYD Atom Heart Mother 1970
Robert FRIPP Exposure 1979

Here's a question that threw me today, having moved away from old smokey some 6 years ago. Where do you go to buy Black Metal albums in London these days? Didn't there used to be some basement in Camden somewhere that did that? I don't actually know what black metal is to be honest, but thought I'd try to be helpful.

Anyone else have nostalgic memories of the comedy album? A genre made near obsolete by the time VHS reared its cleanable head.

They were often to be found in the one slim shelf in the corner of the record shop. Often mixed in with Learn To Speak French, Acker Bilk and Moira Anderson records. The only chance in the pre-video age for you to keep a permanent record of the likes of Hancock's Half Hour, Monty Python and Steptoe and Son. Or a rare chance to hear comedians swear like actual human beings (I still remember the classroom thrill of secret C90 Derek and Clive trading by whoever was old enough to get hold of a copy). I've still no idea who Blaster Bates was though.

In recent years I have bought three seemingly 'lost' albums (or in one case, 'a collection of recorded material', rather than an album). All of them, in my opinion, range from at least very good to excellent, so surely the artists deserved more recognition in their own time. Have record companies/music-industry types always been so blind?

Remarkable stories envelop each album and their eventual release. I'll not go into great detail as these tales are told elsewhere far more eloquently than I could ever tell them. Let's just say fires, lost masters and lost artists are involved somewhere and somehow.

The three albums are The Dragons - 'BFI', Rodriguez - 'Cold Fact', and Pisces - 'A Lovely Sight'.

My question is simply, does anyone know of other 'lost' albums that were eventually released years after being recorded? Or maybe even some that still haven't seen the light of day?

An interesting question surfaced in Facebook some time ago. Basically, can anyone think of any solo album recorded by a member of a band, while that band remained in existence, that was superior to the band's own album output. I cant myself. A friend suggested Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart, recorded when he was still with The Faces. Remember, its got to be a record put out while the band was still ongoing. So artists who went completely solo after a band broke up are not (NOT) included. Let the discussion begin.

Saw the http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/boring-album-titles
thread and it reminded me of the best album title ever.
"Trouble over Bridgewater" by Half Man Half Biscuit.

It's clearly the best ever, because it contains pretty much the pure essence of HMHB - it's a twist on something recogniseable and widely known, it references somewhere off the beaten track (of mainstream music), it's quintissentially English and it's funny.

Is there a better title out there anywhere?

These are rather clever, non?

The full set can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlepixel/sets/72157594269138651/

How talented people are really.

Hello everyone apologies if this is old news for you but this rang a few bells for me.

http://www.cracked.com/article_17075_every-album-ever.html

What it says on the tin, really.
A Flickr group dedicated to recreating album sleeves in Lego.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/lego_album_covers/pool/

I guess we all need a hobby...

One of my end-of-year rituals is to compile a chart based on the Top 50 albums of the year lists put out by Mojo, Uncut, Q and NME, mostly to help me see what I've missed, what the overall consensus is, and help me put together my Christmas list!

Anyway, I thought the Word massive might find the Top 10 interesting (with total points scores out of 200, and the number 1 albums per magazine as stated - strangely, each magazine had a different top album this year):

1) FLEET FOXES - Fleet Foxes (186) [Mojo No. 1]
2) TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science (172)
3) GLASVEGAS - Glasvegas (165)
4) NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (152)
5) ELBOW - The Seldom Seen Kid (150)
6) VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Vampire Weekend (140)
7) BON IVER - For Emma, Forever Ago (138)
8) PORTISHEAD - Third (137) [Uncut No. 1]
9) KINGS OF LEON - Only By The Night (134) [Q No. 1]
10) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (127) [NME No. 1]

I also like to look at the highest placed album for each magazine that none of the others rated, and the highest-placed albums conspicuous by their absence from each mag's lists, as it gives another indication of how they perceive their readership, so:

Mojo - like THE BUG, don't like VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Uncut - like JAMES BLACKSHAW (who?), don't like LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
Q - like KEANE, don't like NEON NEON
NME - like FOALS, don't like PAUL WELLER

This has been a public service message.

(Keep in mind that this a column only for my own enjoyment. Bon Appetite)

Concept Albums are strange beasts, and I thought I'd have a look at the concept of concept albums (heh), and review some of my favorite examples.

The purpose of a concept album is often to tell a story, or something to that effect. Some genres (as you might have figured, we are talking about sub-genres of the the incredibly large and appendaged genre of rock here) are more likely to conceive these albums, and no genre creates as many concept albums as progressive rock. The telling of tales seems to be incorporated in the foundations of many prog rock bands. Songs often follow a coherent storyline, or re-tell legends or myths, or , so it only seems natural that the next step for a prog rock band would be to devote an entire album to telling a story.

However, concept albums aren't exclusive to progressive rock. The Who released "Tommy" in 1969, and that album is still one of the best examples of an entirely devoted concept album (although it's usually referenced to as a "rock opera"). Starting from the first song, the listener is submerged into Pete Townsend's story of a post-war child messiah. For this album, The Who continued to drift away from their British invasion sound, and adapted a majestic, orchestral sound. The songs were multi tracked more than ever before, with piano and brass instruments (contributed by bassist John Entwistle) joining the guitar, bass and drum sound of previous Who records. Just like in an opera, Townsend has several motifs which he spreads across the span of the album( "See me, feel me, touch me"). The storyline is consistent, and it's evident that Townsend carefully planned the story. The result is the feeling that you are watching a movie, through your headphones (as some might recall, there was a movie made sometime in the 70's, but I wouldn't recommend it, since it's horrible.)

Another classic example of a well made concept album is "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", Genesis 1974 masterpiece. Containing a complex storyline referencing the bible,centuries of British literature and and folklore, the album is story of Rael, a NYC street kid who finds himself in a Dante-esque journey into his own absurd consciousness. At this point, Genesis had become a cult band, and for this album they seem to have deliberately popped their sound up. Most of the songs are more traditionally structured and the choruses are catchier. This is not a bad thing, and the music matches Peter Gabriel's multi-layered story perfectly. Strange guitars, jazzy drums and fiddly organ riffs creates a wonderful wall of sound, and the listener finds something new every time.

Now, it might seem that I'm some old prog nut stuck in the 70's, but fret not, I love contemporary music as much as I love the music of the 70's (this makes sense, since I recently celebrated my 18th birthday). Anyway, i'm happy to report that the spirit of the concept album lives on! I'm a big fan of Coheed and Cambria, a modern prog rock act. This band has released 4 albums so far, and their output goes from smooth, RnB-ish acoustic ballads to balls to the wall metal and back. Their albums make up the basis for a story about cyborgs, inter-planetary wars and a messiah. This tale, called the Amory Wars, is continued in comic books released by the bands frontman, one Claudio Sanchez. The music of Coheed and Cambria is some of the best released this millenia (don't you love that such a lustrously naive comment is still possible to make?). Blending the sound of modern rock with the progressive influences of Rush and Yes, the result is very exciting, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like it after a few listens (except hiphop and chart pop lovers of course, but lets take them out of the equation, since their perception of good music is obviously severely flawed.) Taking ingredients from 30+ years of good music, Coheed and Cambria steers their spaceship succesfully through prog rock, metal, emo (but in a good way!), and pop punk, to arrive at four fantastic concept albums that no prog rock lover, regardless of age, should be without. I recently played this to my father, (a prog rocker who recently turned 50), and he's currently blasting it in his car, singing along to Sanchez insanely high-pithched vocals. On a side note, try to pick up Claudio Sanchez solo project, "The Prize Fighter Inferno", yet another concept album, where prog, folk and electronica live togehter in a happy, although weird, relationship.

There you have it, three (or seven) good examples of concept albums. I hope I have given you, the reader, some new recommendations, or that I have rekindled the concept album flame inside you.

But of course, where there is good there must always be bad, and there are several stinkers in the concept album family. However, we'll save that for next time, where I'll write some more incoherent reviews of concept albums. Tata!

We all know never to buy pop albums because you only get two knock out great singles and ten bits of filler. Out of curiosity does anyone know of a pop album that is all killer, no filler?

The Beatles? Maybe, but is Dr Robert a good song, or is it just enjoyable because we've listened to the album so much that we've learned to love the duds?

The best I can come up with is Garbage, but as pop as they are, they're just as much a rock band.

Has anyone suffered through a Kylie/Girls Aloud/Christina Aguleria (sic) album? Are the album tracks any good?

Well, Mystic Dave has been holding forth for a while. "The music industry is broken..." quoth he, maintaining that there needs to be a new business model if the industry is to survive, let alone flourish.

We're already seeing the internet, medium-sized touring, direct and distribution sales indie (broad terms not jangly guitars meaning) artist carving out a small scale career for themselves. "Send me a tenner and I'll send you a CD in 8 months when I've actually recorded it" etc

But Mr H's personal hankering to a return to the simpler, more song based days of the 60s seems a little closer. The says when the song, the single and the EP were the thing. The days when bands recorded two or three songs and put those out as they were recorded and albums were an afterthought rather than the be-all and end-all.

The following from the BBC website: Muse 'might ditch album format' http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7292000/7292404.stm

Picking up the artists are clinging to albums theory, I-tunes now offers a service that informs you how much it would cost to 'complete' the purchase of an album from which you have already downloaded one or two tracks. Does anyone ever take up this kind and generous offer? Does anyone under 30 still shop for albums rather than downloading individual tracks? Does any band under 30 still expect to sell an album as such?Generally how important a source of revenue are these one-off downloads set against either CD sales or downloads of complete albums?