Last Classic Album that will stand the test of time?

Although I'd recommend one of Elvis Costello's early 80s albums (probably Imperial Bedroom for popularity with thepublic and musicians), I suspect Echo and the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain would be a more obvious choice. And better than Phil Collins' album ( he's an excelllent drummer, however).

There are classic albums that are made into tv programmes and there are classic albums that do not sell by the bucketload but acquire a reputation and cult status. That is the category that Grace for Drowning could one day fall into. It stands a good chance IMHO. It is well recognized in the specialist press gaining top end of year honors in many publications.

Other albums that have gained  a reputation over time would include Jeff Buckley Grace - went to number 149 on release in the US and Nick Drake. Loads of other examples.

 I don't think you have think you have to sell by the truckload to be classic in fact I think it is more likely the opposite. Mass market is not always classic.

This might actually be the case...

A couple of suggesitions from me:

1. Kid A (2000) Radiohead
2. American Idiot (2004) Green Day
3. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) Arctic Monkeys

These are all from quite recent years so we'll have to wait until 2020-2025 to find out what will be the outcome.

I hate to say it but 'Come Away With Me' has to be a contender surely.  G

The original question cannot be answered except by people who proffer their personal taste?

If you cannot firstly define "classic", in a way that the majority of people here (who are a miniscule sample of the worldwide listening public) agree and, secondly, unless you can forecast what will be the taste of whoever might be alive and, if they are do listen to music, some time in the future, it all seems a bit of "well I think this should be a classic" argument.

I could list a dozen albums which no one here would have even heard of....so?

Difficult one to answer. Certainly Imperial Bedroom by costello is a classic but whether a program would be made about it not so sure.

More likely candidates Oasis Definitely Maybe, Stone Roses. I like both of these but not sure I would say they were classics though. Same goes for Lambchop Nixon.

Later records from 2000 onwards and I am really struggling. Not that there haven't been some great albums IMO but would they be regarded as classic by the wider public, not sure.

I do wish that when people put photos of albums up that they please tell us the details if they're not on the stupid album cover! So annoying!

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

I looked at the Wikipedia page, and have a question to ask. Has anyone seen either of the two programmes made about the Rush albums '2112' and 'Moving Pictures'?

I certainly have never seen them broadcast here in the UK.

Neither would not be my choice for a classic Rush album. I don't get the huge fuss about 'Moving Pictures', I like it, I like it a lot, but don't think it is a patch on 'Permanent Waves', nor as good as 'Hemispheres', although it could be said the latter of the two is more of an album looking backward to the early 70's, where as 'Permanent Waves' is a band evolving into the feel of a new decade.

I would also say looking at the list, have the producers ever heard of an instrument called the synthesizer? Kraftwerk have certainly made an album or two deserving inclusion. I would argue Tangerine Dream, but they are not of the staure of Ralf and Florian.

Actually after a second look at the list, I would also add, have the producers ever heard of women? Joni Mitchell, Carol King, Sandy Denny, many Motown girl bands, even The Spice Girls. Even ABBA were half female, although I know the USA never bought their music.

I think the list, as lists always do, says more about those who make the list (or commission the programmes) than it does about the state of music.

I don't think any of the albums on the list are undeserving, but they are from a specific point of view. That said, within that circle, where is, or indeed are, the Led Zeppelin entries. Perhaps Jimmy and Robert won't give any interviews.

This is a subject that fascinates me. With the established classics (Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds et al.), there seems to be little criticism of choice (more often criticism of positioning of rank), but when people talk about Modern Classics it's true that people tend just to nominate their favourites and as such there is massive diversity and very little agreement. Which is fair enough, I guess. I suspect the difference betweem ancient and modern is time, and therefore perspective.

I started a thread here on this subject about 10 years ago, but as the mods have relegated my old name to "Guest" status, even though I never registered it with the last incarnation of this forum let alone this one, I cannot search for it and compare the nominations then and now and I'd dearly love to do that. Which is a shame. Kudos for anyone who can dig it out.

But I did start a thread on the subject recently on another forum - not a music or hi-fi forum I might add - and got almost no agreement amongst the many correspondents :-)

So, here are my nominations for modern classics –and here are the restrictions I placed on myself:

.

- First of all, for this I’ve defined “modern times” anything released as new since 1990 (as an old codger 1990 seems like yesterday but also gives us some historical perspective).

- I’m using the term “classic” in the sense of being various combinations of: timeless/genre defining/just bloody fantastic (and has stayed bloody fantastic from the moment you bought it).

- I’ve also, somewhat arbitrarily again, limited myself to one album per artist so, for example, Beautiful Freak just misses out because I don’t think it’s as good as Daisies Of The Galaxy and is therefore not as much of a classic.

These are, of course, highly subjective with nothing really very recent in there only because I don’t believe that enough time has elapsed for the initial buzz to have worn off so, for example, Shearwater’s Rook (2008) was on the list but I took it off for that very reason. Though I'd recommend it to anyone (especially you Bruce).

Probably the biggest hole in my list are the indie and hip-hop/rap bands, so pelters expected (and maybe rightly so, but I simply don’t enjoy this sort of music any more so can’t see them as classics),

And finally, what a cracking decade the 90s was.

Air – Moon Safari (1998) Started the melodic, analogue-sounding chill scene. Still sounds good today

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1993) Though built on the shoulders of 60s and 70s electronic pioneers, this brought it into the modern day.

Beck - Sea Change (2002) Just a beautifully written and highly consistent album.

Biosphere – Cirque (2000) Though not his first, this album set the mark for all glitch style semi-ambient albums that are still being turned out.

Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children (1998) The record that put wibbly electronica on the map, and without which none of the Ghostbox-style scene would exist.

The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole (1997) Put phat beats on the map. Great tunes too.

Crowded House – Woodface (1991) It may have been mainstream music that appealed to mums and dads, but the songs are excellent and the lustre here is only somewhat diminished through over-playing.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.... (1996) Trip-hop instrumental music that again set the mark for a genre.

Dreadzone - Second Light (1995) One of Peel’s favourite albums ever. Dub, sampling from Vaughan Williams, evocative speech sampling that just creates a magical and for the time unique blend.

Eels - Daisies Of The Galaxy (2000) Just one beautiful song after another, the melancholy that steeped Electro-Shock Blues just subsumed.

Global Communication - 76:14 (1997) Drift away on a timeless sea of chilled electronica.

Jellyfish - Spilt Milk (1993) A joyous blend of Beatles, ELO and even Queen. One of the best pop albums ever, never mind modern times.

Jóhann Jóhannsson - IBM 1401 - A Users Manual (2006) Modern classical perhaps? Wonderful tunes inspired by his Dad’s recording of the aforementioned IBM mainframe when programmed a certain way and the radio-frequency emissions in unintentionally emitted. Interpreted for an orchestra.

Lambchop - Is A Woman (2002) A great collection of songs, often barely sung, recorded sparsely and close to the mike giving an amazingly intimate feel to it all.

Leftfield – Leftism (1995) This lot alongside the Chemical Brothers and Underworld helped define progressive house. Sadly the next one was relatively poor.

Massive Attack – Mezzanine (1998) Hard to pick this over Blue Lines or Protection, but even though this is a bit of a down album, is is so consistently well-written.

Moby – Play (1999) Yes it’s all very hackneyed now, and yes it was used in every advert going at the time, but I reckon this hit all the right spots and used sampling wonderfully well.

Joanna Newsom – Ys (2006) Not everyone’s cup of tea, whether it be her little girl yelps or the hugely long songlines that mean that many listens are usually required to work out what the feck is going on, but once grabbed the tunes are wonderful, the orchestrations (by Van Dyke Parks) astonishing and the delivery somewhere between the Incredible String Band and Beefheart.

Nirvana – Nevermind (1991) It’s sort of become fashionable to rubbish Nirvana as being purely media hype. But this album, though overtly commercial does boast a pile of great tracks and without doubt put grunge on the map (despite not being the first grunge album).

The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (1991) Utterly amazing, unique, timeless. No arguments, surely?

Porcupine Tree - Coma Divine (1997) This is probably the hardest sell. If you like mid-period Pink Floyd, before Waters’ 6th Form philosophising tool over then there’s a good chance you’ll love this. Good songs, great instrumental breaks (without the fret-wank) and one of the best live albums ever.

Portishead – Dummy (1994) Again, created a style of their own, much copied, never equalled.

Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin (1999) Though not the first or edgiest Asian Underground album but this put the genre on the map and it was his best album too. Paved the way for Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale and Midival Punditz who pushed it further.

Shpongle - Are You Shpongled (1998) A mix of progressive house and Goa. Young dance person alongside grizzled old hippie (Raja Ram was in Quintessence). Twisting vortexes of music that can never quite make up its mind what it is. Gloriously.

Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun (2000) Another hard to categorise album. Sort of post-rock, sung in an invented language, sometimes ethereal, sometimes anthemic. Don’t think they were ever this good again.

Sounds From The Ground – Kin (1996) They took the Orb’s ambient house music and nudged it over into ambient dub. Quite a few copyists, never as good as this though.

Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise! (2005) Sometimes you think that Stevens ought to concentrate his energies a bit better but being all over the place stylistically is what makes him so likeable (for me). Here he hits everything square on – beatuful tunes and consistent style and quality throughout the album.

Sugar - Copper Blue (1992) Bob Mould has had many great moments and naff-all recognition in the wider world. This should have been massive – he’s rarely put together such an overwhelmingly power set of songs. Hoover Dam should have been on Top Of The Pops!

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) I’m probably one of the few people who love Mark Hollis’s work al the way from the punky Reaction, the poppy early Talk Talk and the musical revolution he pulled on his fans with Spirit Of Eden (where I believe post-rock grew from). This took it an extra, even more mysterious step further taking the music away from a traditional structure. I also think you can hear the seeds of Sigur Rós here.

Tool – Lateralus (2001) Rock, not Metal. Metal, not Rock. Jumped genres like any great album should.

Underworld - Second Toughest In The Infants (1996) More progressive house, but at this point Underworld were on the fringes, making their own way. This album and Born Slippy were doing the sorts of things to house as Can did to krautrock in the early 70s – being a part of it, but pulling it all over the place, Tough picking this over dubnobasswithmyheadman, but those were my rules.

Gary

Great post, and nice to read why you think each justifies the title of 'classic'. I was also going to go for a   Sufjan Stevens album and Nitin Sawhney 'Beyond Skin' is a great call.

Classic albums I think either define or perfectly encapsulate a genre and many of those you select did that.

Bruce

PS I do have Shearwater 'Rook'!

Good stuff Gary especially about that Eels album. 

Gary,

Why the 1992 Coma Divine and not Signify?

Coma is just Sig done live and i think Signify stands the test of time better as a studio album.

Talking here about the originals without all the added tracks,even though those are very good.

Stu.

JamieL,

I haven't seen the Rush Classic Albums programme either , nor do I remember seeing the Grateful Dead/Zappa ones. North America only maybe?

I'm sure there are a couple more that haven't been shown in the UK at least.

I think it was touched on,  maybe the artists, engineers and even the master tapes are not always available to the makers of these  programmes.

Classics in the last few years? I would have thought this would mean last 3-5 years but many suggestions here are 10-20 years old. My initial list of possible candidates also tended to be of this age; My Bloody Valentine- Isn't Anything, Sonic Youth-A Thousand Leaves, Tricky's first, Lambchop-Is a Woman etc. I guess it shows our age. When I started listening to music with dedication in 1976, when I was fifteen, I considered ten year old albums hopelessly out of date and belonging to another generation. Things have changed.

Hans

What Zappa album did they class as a classic?

Stu.

Good choice.

They would have to show that on tv well after the water shed in the UK though.

Stu.

This:

And before that, maybe this:

A couple of suggestions:

e.s.t.: Live in Hamburg

Dream Theater: Scenes from a memory PT2

Pain of Salvation: The perfect element PT1

Sylvan: Posthumous Silence

Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden: Jasmine

Christian Scott: aTunde Adjuah

......

Stu, because Coma Divine isn't simply Signify - it has great chunks of The Sky Moves Sideways and bits of Up The Downstair, and I think the energy and electricity of the live versions work better than the studio ones.

If I hadn't saddled myself with only one album per artist then I've have given Signify the nod too.

I thought those chunks were only on the re-releases not the original.

Stu.

Guido, can you tell me what album this is ? Cheers !

Its Basia's first album OH My Darling.

This is her second also very good.

On vinyl and CD unlike her first.

I like HOMO more though.

Stu.