The Sun Ra Quilt of Joy
posted by Joe Beese on Mar 7, 2009 - 28 comments

The Mellotron features prominently on the 1968 album, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, more commonly referred to as The Village Green Preservation Society. The weird, eerie quality of this electronic keyboard, which uses pre-recorded tapes of individual sounds such as strings and woodwind instruments, worked well with singer/songwriter Ray Davies' nostalgic, backwards looking sensibility. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Jan 16, 2009 - 26 comments

Everybody has one -- that album that first made you a music-lover for life. It could be the first album you ever heard or bought with your own money. It could be one you didn't hear until later in life. But everybody has one, and we want to know about yours.
posted by davebush on Jan 10, 2009 - 212 comments

50 years ago Johnny O'Keefe released "Wild One" and Australia had its first homegrown rock'n'roll star. To commemorate the 50th year of Australian rock'n'roll The Age newspaper has asked various Australian music industry figures to pick the top 50 Australian albums (scroll down for the Top 50 - or check the (more inside)). [more inside]
posted by awfurby on Jul 14, 2008 - 51 comments

Lets play the Album Cover Game! [Flash]
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Jun 17, 2008 - 27 comments

1,000 Albums to hear before you die compiled from The Guardian's assorted music reviewers (assisted by readers who then told them which ones they missed). You won't want to be planning to expire any time too soon with these to get through.
posted by rongorongo on Mar 13, 2008 - 114 comments

Half-human album covers. Also known as "sleevefaces."
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Dec 26, 2007 - 33 comments

The best music of 2007 according to Stereogum, Pitchfork, All Music, NME, PopMatters, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, TIME, MTV, the Guardian, eMusic, Amazon, Spin Magazine, Q, Largehearted Boy, and more. Among the most frequently listed are Radiohead, Spoon, Arcade Fire, Of Montreal, Feist, and The National.
posted by Soup on Dec 18, 2007 - 68 comments

Jazz '71-'89 Dave Douglas posed the challenge: “Is there a writer who can take on the project of an unbiased overview of music since the end of the Vietnam War?” The Bad Plus answered (though not unbiased). The Guardian and NY Times weighed in. Suck it, haters. And ultimately, Behearer used a wiki to answer the call.
posted by klangklangston on Feb 15, 2007 - 20 comments

50 Albums that changed music. Fifty years old this month, the album chart has tracked the history of pop. But only a select few records have actually altered the course of music.
posted by caddis on Jul 19, 2006 - 269 comments

Every Brian Jonestown Massacre album for free. Druggy, poppy, woozy, Rolling-Stonesy music. Want more free music? Butthole Surfers- Double Live Jad Fair- Sunshiney Sunshine Complete Dolly Mixture discography Animal- Sawn Creator and Deaf Ox and John Vanderslice. (some via)
posted by klangklangston on Jul 13, 2006 - 29 comments

A Collection of 'All Time' Best Albums Charts from the US, UK, Netherlands & Belgium. Guess which chart has 3 dEUS albums in the top 20?
posted by Kattullus on Jan 2, 2006 - 21 comments

WXPN listeners have picked the 885 best albums of all time. In a follow-up to last year's list of the 885 best songs of all time (commented on here), Philadelphia's WXPN has polled its listeners to come up with the top 885 albums and is playing three tracks from each. The countdown is continuing as I type this. I have no doubt the entire Metafilter community will agree on the selections. Here's my prediction for #1.
posted by Man-Thing on Oct 13, 2005 - 125 comments

Head Back to Mono in 32k at the rineke.net records archive, where a rather consistent curator has digitized a goody chunk of his record collection. It's posted in more-or-less every iteration imaginable. Observe the linked scans (1 mb page, careful!) of the covers (also in multiple resolutions up to full-size). Note the records themselves, in sleeve or out, depending. Most especially, savor the clean, low-res mono mp3s that cry out to be played through the dashboard speakers of a 1967 Dodge Dart.

Bonus Big Beat Bonanza: The site's author is also behind the similarly detailed archive of shows by ex-WFMU dj The Hound, from 1987 through 1995, heavy on the rare regional sides beloved of certain of my pals down New Orleans way.

Last, but not least, rineke.net hosts the adventures of a platoon of Tux clones, sealing my geek admiration for the overseer of the site. There's more, of course. My propeller beanie's off to you, sir, and long may you wave, or particle, as is your choice and preference.

(Permission was sought and granted to post this, as I feard for the site's bandwidth. Have at it, Mefites!
posted by mwhybark on Aug 12, 2004 - 7 comments

Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1970s (dis|cuss|discuss).
posted by LinusMines on Jul 1, 2004 - 117 comments

Outside the Inbox is a compilation of songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of spam. Brad of Brad Sucks asked artists to choose a subject line from an actual piece of spam and then write a song with it as its title. The result is a fun 14-song concept album filled with some of the great music being made by home recordists on the Internet today!
posted by KathyK on Oct 19, 2003 - 5 comments

The Knockoff Project. Album cover homages and rip-offs.
posted by jimmy on Oct 10, 2003 - 12 comments

Music label Universal to lower CD prices. Is this move a bit like raising a white flag? (via Curlio)
posted by msacheson on Sep 4, 2003 - 47 comments

Clutter: A wondrous little application, Clutter grabs album info from a currently playing MP3 track, sends it off to Amazon, and comes back with an image of the CD cover. Once done, these images can be moved about the desktop at will; a double click plays the record in its entirety. And it's free. God bless the independent developer! [OS X and iTunes compatible only, unfortunately.]
posted by aladfar on Apr 22, 2003 - 13 comments

Pazz & Jop 2002 - The Village Voice has tabulated the top albums and singles from 695 critics (and 10,2002 LPs). Some of the ballot-fillers even got a little personal. The usual essays are included. If your fav CD didn't make the cut, perhaps it made it onto the dean's list.
posted by boost ventilator on Feb 11, 2003 - 28 comments

And so it begins: while I've already seen half a dozen "best ___ of 2002" lists, the year end list I look forward to, Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums list is out for 2002. It's just the right mix between "so mainstream there are no surprises" and "so indie even your second cousin's girlfriend's brother in that band hasn't heard of them" though perhaps they're leaning towards the latter this year, seeing how I've only heard about a quarter of all the albums listed.
posted by mathowie on Dec 22, 2002 - 55 comments

Today, the music critics at pitchfork.com posted the first half of their "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s" feature.
posted by Pinwheel on Nov 18, 2002 - 51 comments

"Smile," he said. I'd asked what record the music was from, but I knew as soon as I heard it. The tapes of the Smile sessions, long considered Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece, may never be released; peer-to-peer, however, can put us in touch with the album that some call the ultimate pop record, and that Wilson called his "teenage symphony to God".
posted by bingbangbong on Oct 4, 2002 - 11 comments

Miniature cross stitched album covers.
posted by riffola on Sep 4, 2002 - 11 comments

Can't think of a name for your new album? Then don't give it one. Apparently none of the songs on the forthcoming Sigur Ros album will have names, either. Taking the "black album" concept a little too far?
posted by gottabefunky on Aug 23, 2002 - 50 comments

When all of the good vinyl albums have been bought from the cardboard box at the local church bazaar, Nick DiFonzio buys the rest and scans the jackets. The result? Bizarre Record Covers. And because beauty, or the apparent lack thereof, is not only jacket deep, check out this trippy collection of 45 rpm labels from No Relevance, and this detailed record label discography, where you can see how record companies from the 1950s thru the 1990s kept trying to update and redefine their image by redesigning their labels.
posted by iconomy on Jun 23, 2002 - 10 comments

The Tom Waits Streaming Event. Anti Records is streaming both of Waits' new albums in their entirety, each in turn for three days starting today, prior to their release. Is the home listening booth for whole cd's a common marketing tactic now?
posted by liam on Apr 30, 2002 - 24 comments

50 Best Album Covers. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the covers chosen have less to do with artistic or photographic merit than the "statement" that Rolling Stone believes they show. And it might be interesting to see how they measure up to the 100 Best Album Covers.
posted by jacobw on Feb 14, 2002 - 42 comments

are you a music loser? 25 albums that make you a dido fan. how many have YOU got?
posted by nylon on Feb 13, 2002 - 95 comments

Ok. We know which albums you liked, but what was the single best concert you saw this year, and very importantly, why?
posted by tcobretti on Dec 6, 2001 - 105 comments

My brother just purchased "Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd" and it's isn't. Neither is the best of Jethro Tull, or Add it up - "The Best of the Violent Femmes." Is there any band from the 70's or 80's that has actually put out a"best of" album that isn't at least 30% poop? What's the worst "best of" album you've bought?
posted by Samsonov14 on Dec 4, 2001 - 92 comments

I've been away for a couple of weeks and was surprised when I came back and didn't find any threads to do with the 10th anniversary for the most influencial album of the 90s. It's been just over 10 years since Nirvana realeased 'Nevermind'. I wonder what band will have the biggest influence on the next 10 years of rock 'n roll?
posted by Jase_B on Oct 2, 2001 - 71 comments

When LPs Roamed The Earth: classic album covers for records you have almost certainly never heard of.
posted by pascal on Aug 1, 2001 - 21 comments

Tower Records on the verge of bankruptcy. Is this the sign of a declining record industry or a retail marketplace that has become increasingly ruthless?
posted by ed on Jun 25, 2001 - 35 comments