is better than "Grace", even though it blatantly isn't and I know it isn't. It still is.

OK, here are some unfashionable opinions:

Wings: Wild Life is underrated, but Back to the Egg is probably the best Wings album

Floyd: The Final Cut is a meisterwerk

Brooce: The Only album I like is Magic

I find that albums where acts supposedly "got it wrong" are a better insight then the more traditional, cannonical pieces, so In Through The Outdoor is more interesting in some ways than LZ4...

best album of all time this week.

Sweet Thing better than Van

Mary Star of the Sea by Zwan to any Smashing Pumpkins album

Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band is my equivalent to your In Thru Out Door, Mickey. It's their completely crap swansong but even a few bars (about all any reasonable person can stand) takes me back to being 12 and coveting it and its immensely rubbish cover. I had the same historical accident with Bowie's David Live, the first LP I ever bought. The Dame is snowed out of his tree and the band utterly indifferent - although the epic Sweet Thing* is good. I held it close for years and it still holds a place in a spooky way.

*in the light of Simon's post above: maybe we've hit a seam here about tracks called 'Sweet Thing' on otherwise awful albums being quite good?

'One Trick Pony' is the best ever Paul Simon album (also better than anything by S&G for that matter);

'Back To The Egg' is, as noted above, definitively the best Wings / Paul McCartney album and

I'd frankly far rather listen to 'Street Legal' than 'Blonde On Blonde'.

The fact that all of these came out around 1978-79 when I was 15 may have some bearing.

Zep-wise 'Physical Graffiti' is ahead by a Black Country mile.

Otherwise, as you were.

EDIT: This just in ... 'Kid A' better than 'OK Computer'

it was the first one I heard but I love Led Zep 1. It is a fabulous, confident sounding record. I cant stand Led Zep 2 or 3 or Physical Graffiti!! I also love David Bowie's "Space Oddity" album much more than any of the other classics.

The Floyd only got going when they stopped recording nursery rhymes and got Gilmour in to replace the other one.

And Tom Waits has been rubbish since the missus started putting her oar in.

Pipers is still the one..Gilmour is a one trick pony!

is better than their first. And even that's not very good.

"Surfer Rosa" - far superior to the more critically lauded "Doolittle".

Radiohead's only good album is "The Bends".

Buzzcocks "Trade Test Transmissions" when they reformed, much better album than any of their previous ones (as an album on the whole I mean).

Beatles "Revolver" much, much better than Sgt. Peppers.

...particularly the 'Erasure' album which didn't sell too well. And they're better than the Pet Shop Boys!

Do It Yourself has long been my favourite Dury, far superior to the much acclaimed New Boots and Panties. The Blockhead's at their funkiest!

The Smiths never made a totally good album. (It's all about the opportunistic rip-off compilations.)

Easy target these days, perhaps, but I don't think Prince is that good, apart from a few nifty singles.

AC/DC records actually vary quite a bit. Listen to 'The Razor's Edge', people!

And following on from earlier posts...the best REM album is 'Up', and the best Led Zep album is 'Houses of the Holy'.

Springsteen's first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle are two of the finest albums ever made, and are far more interesting than anything that he came up with subsequently. The exuberance of a man new to manhood has never been expressed so eloquently.

The only Sensational Alex Harvey Band I can listen to regularly from start to finish is SAHB Stories. I love every moment of it.

too mealy mouthed. "Bummer in the Summer etc etc" still love both those albums though just for the sheer exuberance!

my favourite Led Zep lp is actually the sometimes derided Presence

The only other example I can think of my being unorthodox is I have always thought the "classic" Rolling Stones era was their early days when they were basically a covers band.

It's probably because the only Stones lp we had in our house for a very long time was an elcheapo, advertised on TV, compilation called "Stoned" which consisted entirely of songs like Route 66, Down the Road Apiece, Fortune Teller, Walking The Dog, Little Red Rooster etc. It was a bloody good album obviously.

Whilst he's admittedly been a little less consistent, I'm more sold on Morrissey solo than I am on The Smiths. That's not to say I don't rate both periods very highly.

Lifes Rich Pageant is their best for me.

Steely Dan - Aja is my least favourite album yet I believe is their biggest seller.
Radiohead went down the nick with OK Computer.

I just find "Electro-Shock Blues" to be an over-long, mumbly dirge of an album, way inferior to "Daisies Of The Galaxy", which never fails to fill me with joy. And "Shootenanny!" is mostly great.

but I really like Queen.

Not quite enough to want to see We Will Rock You, but albums are Live Killers and Queen are pretty bloody great.

And there haven't been many better frontmen in music than Mr Bulsara.

They've been overshadowed by their 'greatest hits', such as BoHum, WWRY and We are the Champions.

I know they're mocked but it's tough not to enjoy tracks like Fat Bottomed Girls, Sheer Heart Attack or Seven Seas of Rhye

outstanding.

That doc is the reason i got into him after it was repeated in 1993.

Talk about a film that's crying out for a DVD release. What could be the hold up?

Must give that another listen.

"Look, Sir ...I ...I think I prefer Rod Stewart's version of 'This Old Heart of Mine' to the Isley Brothers"

The Major said nothing for several moments, before reaching into the cabinet and producing a revolver and a bottle of malt whiskey, placing them on the desk in front of me

"I think you know what to do" he said.

He placed a hand on my shoulder, began as if to say something but thinking better of it, he simply turned and left the room. I heard the door click behind him

Easy to say in 2009, but I mean in 1980-1985. Pre-split HL, incl. "both" groups were a shocking din, however.

was, of course, "The Laughing Gnome". But then again, I love REM's "Shiny Happy People", however vehemently the scowling Stipe may disown it.

Am I the only one who thinks Goat's Head Soup is better than any Beggars Bleedin Fingers malarkey?
Taxi already outside.

Hardened Zappa/Mothers fans always maintain that FZ's golden period was the early years - Freak Out, Uncle Meat, We're Only In It For The Money, Chunga's Revenge etc. Much though I like that early stuff (particularly the atypical Hot Rats), too much of it sounds - to my ears - as though they were having more fun than the listener. For me, the golden period was the Hot Rats / Overnite Sensation / Apostrophe(') / One Size Fits All sequence (plus the fabulous live Roxy and Elsewhere album). These were Frank's early forays into "comedy music", but a sillier humour than the later, more bitter and scatological variety (Dinah-Moe Humm notwithstanding), which struck a chord with this teenage Python fan. Likewise, the playing was virtuosic (lots of terrific xylophone and marimba from Ruth Underwood), but without the flashy showoff wankery that would mar much of FZ's later albums (again, excellent though many of them were).

I quite liked Godfather III, I think Keira Knightley is a fine actress and the last two Christoher Nolan Batman films were utter nonsense, so there !

Not a group that gets much credit/attention but the quality of their output over a long period outstrips all of their contemporaries, including big hitters like Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Happy Mondays, The La's, Stone Roses, Supergrass, Primal Scream, Verve etc

I quite like this oddball Moroder-ish version of 'Mr. Soul'.

Amazing live at their peak (Glastonbury 2002 on the main stage - fantastic) and A Man Needs To Be Told is a flat out classic that never gets enough hype.

I think they began to lose their mojo after Berry left.

I prefer Moondance to Astral Weeks. That said, I hope VM doesn't decide to make "a new version".

They only really got going with Bleed American. Everything before that was kinda rough. Good, but not AS good as the later stuff.

Having said that, I turned on 'Clarity' as I started typing this, and it's actually pretty good. I dunno...

It's all good actually.

Never been a fan, but had a wonderful drunken epiphany at a late night party (thrown by much older people) while listening to Avalon when I was a teenager. Thought it was flippin marvellous, went back to Du Noyer-editorship era Q for some tips (back issues under the upside down 6ft snooker table stored under my bed), and bought the lauded albums. Hated them, still do, apart from the usual singles. Still love Avalon though.

I was born in 1973 - set on a course that would bring me into perfect alignment with 1980s pop. With the exception of a couple of Nick Kershaw tapes I didn’t buy an album until I was 17 or 18. Instead I consumed music through the radio and Top of the Pops. The latter I would watch religiously while unsuccessfully attempting to scribble down the week’s top ten. I did this for the benefit of my mother, who with hindsight wasn’t remotely interested in the chart position of the latest Madness single. Our next door neighbours would occasionally send round boxes containing second-hand copies of Smash Hits and it’s oikish rival Number One. I used these magazines like hymnbooks, piling them up next to my bed and singing the printed lyrics to my favourite songs before going to sleep.

I had no concept of release dates, or where the promotion for one album ended and the next began. All I knew was that, every few months, a new song by an artist I liked would appear on the radio. It was amazing hearing those early Prince and Madonna singles on Laser 558. However the two artists that dominated the 1980s for me were David Bowie and Paul McCartney.

The first David Bowie song I ever heard was Let’s Dance. Right from the outset, there was something about the man and his music that fascinated me. I liked the way that he put himself into heart of that song – really performing it, as opposed to just singing the words. China Girl, Modern Love, This Is Not America and Loving The Alien followed. There was something a bit mysterious about Bowie’s lyrics; they offered glimpse into an adult world which at the time was unknown to me and still very much cloaked in mystery.

The hellish aberration that was the David Bowie/Mick Jagger cover version of Dancing in the Street may well be the worst thing that ever happened to music. However it was soon brushed aside by the perfect pop of Absolute Beginners and the understated Never Let Me Down. Bowie had a good 80s, regardless of what anyone says.

I went down a very similar road with Paul McCartney. I had been aware of The Beatles from an early age, but I had no idea that he was a member of the band. McCartney appeared on my radar as a result of a duet he recorded with Stevie Wonder: Ebony and Ivory was a call for racial unity that, to jaded adult ears, comes across as a bit too right on. From a child’s perspective it was brilliant. This was the song that introduced me to the ugly concept of racism. Before then it hadn’t occurred to me that people would discriminate against one another on the basis of skin tone.

Paul McCartney recorded two great duets with Michael Jackson. The Girl is Mine was an undignified tug of war, with the pair fighting over the same woman. They are still bickering over the backing track as it fades out; Jackson appearing to have gained the upper hand, causing Paul to let out a wounded: “I don’t believe youuuuuuuuu.”

The better half of this short-lived creative partnership was Say, Say, Say, where Paul sings the verses, while Jackson attacks the chorus. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to dress up like John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever and execute a series of tight pirouettes under a disco ball, while your fellow clubbers look on in with a combination of envy and amazement. There is an hilariously bad video, which sees Paul and Michael cast as a pair of 19th century Snake Oil salesmen, and eloquently demonstrates why neither one of them has enjoyed a successful acting career.

McCartney’s solo work around this time was very good. No More Lonely Nights had an epic grandeur that was unfortunately stripped-away by a dire club mix, which also dispensed with the melody. We All Stand Together is still widely loathed for its whimsical video featuring Rupert the Bear and a chorus of frogs. It remains a lovely piece of music with a sweet unadorned sentiment. I have a dream that five minutes before the end of the world everyone will join hands and sing it in the face of whatever annihilating force is head earthwards. If The Beatles had released Pipes of Peace it would be rightly regarded as a national treasure.

The last McCartney song that I connected with was Spies Like Us – the wretched theme to a deservedly forgotten movie. My fondness for the song lies in the set of interpretive moves that I devised for it - a fusion of jerky krautrock-inspired robotics, topped-off with some wild air guitar. I used to perform this with the conviction of someone who genuinely believes that he has invented the most brilliant dance in the world.

If tomorrow I awoke in some bizarre dystopia where I was called upon to denounce these songs as part of a purge of 1980s culture, I couldn’t do it. The singles that Bowie and McCartney put out during that decade are pop masterpieces – great for the time in which they recorded and still great now.

Let me add something never before said: I love the Bowie and Jagger Dancing in the Streets. It lifted, for me, the very dull second half of Live Aid, as one of the doughty souls who sat thru' the whole World of it, from "Rockin' all over..." to "We are the...".
Whilst undoubtedly a good thing, Live Aid was often largely tosh, if one casts aside dewy eyed and pink lensed nostalgia. Especially the Philadelphia arm, with a Leaden Zeppelin and the rest of it. Duncan Goodhew's fulsome praise for Kenny Loggins I remember more clearly than many of the performances, for which I feel I should probably be grateful, so when the 2 buffoons came and clowned their way thru' a not half bad version of a very good song, it put cheer in my heart. I still smile as I recall them, camply careering about and bellowing in each others faces. I still like the song.
Conscience clear!

Hergest Ridge, Argybargy and Strangeways are much, much, MUCH better than Tubular Bells, East Side Story and The Queen Is Dead.

"Land of Make Believe" is better than "Making Your Mind Up".
"Rockin' over the Beat" is better than "Pump Up the Jam".
"Uprock" is better than "Hey You! the Rocksteady Crew".
"IOU" is better than "Southern Freeez".

Always preferred 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids' to 'TIn Drum', despite the latter being the biggie one in their career in terms of chart success etc...

Oh and I love Pink Floyds 'Final Cut', much better than feckin' 'Animals' and 'Meddle' anyday - and anything post-Waters; what with him being a very distant relative in our family how could i not be biased*

*true fact peeps allegedly!

Maybe this is particularly suitable considering this months cover star.

I always quite liked Pop by U2. I never had much time for the rest of their stuff, all a bit 'dad rock' for me, but I really like Pop.

This might have been because my own dear pa was a huge U2 fan....right up until this point. This is where they lost him, but picked me up.

My U2 appreciation didn't last long though as they soon went back to easy street when the album was completely panned and quickly rejected by the band.