Desert Island Discs

[erik]

I was discussing all time favourite/special albums and artists with a friend of mine, which lead me to compile a list of desert island discs. The BBC programme permits only 8, but that is a tad difficult, so no limit on the total but I did set myself the harsh limit of 1 album per artist. This does pose an unsurmountable problem with Marillion for me, Brave, AOS, Marbles, Happiness Vol 1 and Seasons End all wanna come.. Leaving that problem aside, the list of albums/artists that are special to me that goes into a big cabin trunk would currently be as follows:

1. Alan Parsons Project – The Dutch Collection (choosing compilations is cheating a bit, an escape for the 1 album per artist limit, allowing myself just this one)
2. Anathema – A Natural Disaster
3. Aragon – Mouse
4. Arena – Contagion
5. Asia – Aura
6. The Beatles – Abbey Road
7. Kate Bush - Aerial
8. Cristina Branco – Post-Scriptum
9. Collage – Moonshine
10. Phil Collins – Both Sides
11. Miles Davis – In A Silent Way
12. Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left
13. Dream Theater – Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
14. Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado
15. Gloria Estefan – Mi Tierra
16. Peter Gabriel – I
17. The Gathering – Home
18. Gazpacho – Night
19. Genesis – A Trick Of The Tail (or Wind And Wuthering?!). This would have been Selling England By The Pound if it weren't for the track The Battle Of Epping Forest on there, which disrupts the flow of the album for me..
20. David Gilmour – On An Island
21. Godspeed You Black Emperor – Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
22. H – Live Body/Spirit
23. Steve Hackett – Wild Orchids (or To Watch The Storms?!)
24. IQ – Subterranea
25. Jethro Tull – Songs From The Wood
26. Keane – Hopes And Fears
27. King Crimson – The Power To Believe
28. Manu Chao – Clandestino
29. Marillion - ...
30. Nolan/Wakeman – Jabberwocky
31. Heather Nova – Storm (or Oyster?!)
32. Ojos De Brujo – Bari
33. Pendragon – The Window Of Life
34. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (or Dark Side Of The Moon?? Or Animals?!)
35. Porcupine Tree – In Absentia
36. Portishead – Dummy
37. Queensrÿche – Promised Land
38. Quidam – Quidam
39. Radiohead – In Rainbows
40. Rush – Grace Under Pressure (or Signals?!)
41. Saga – Generation 13
42. Satellite – A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset
43. Shakira – MTV Unplugged
44. Sigur Rós – (  )
45. Spinvis – Spinvis
46. Spock's Beard – Beware Of Darkness (or V?)
47. Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
48. Van Der Graaf Generator – Godbluff
49. Within Temptation – Mother Earth
50. Yes – Going For The One

I'd like to invite the other Roomies to share their lists!

[PH]

Good idea!
But I need a bit more time to think about this one.
Will get back on it!

[maddox]

Good idea!
But I need a bit more time to think about this one.
Will get back on it!

What the man said. 

[Manatee]

Good idea!
But I need a bit more time to think about this one.
Will get back on it!

What the man said. 

+2

[Nicky007]

+3, but luckily Cap lets us modify, so I'l give this topic a first shot.

Floyd are the group that have formed me most, but I don't really need to listen to them much more. There's so much exciting new stuff these days.

And altho I like making apologias for Ten    I don't either need to hear them much for a while.

If bin Laden and Co. were on their way to Cop, and I had to grab a handful of cd's and make a run for it, I'd take all Nevermore, DT, Tool, Queensrÿche, and Down albums. If the Qaedas would let me play music in-between their refined torture (incl. readings of the Quran), this music could install in me some raison d'etre.

Interesting to see your list, Erik 

Nicky.

[PH]

If bin Laden and Co. were on their way to Cop, and I had to grab a handful of cd's and make a run for it, I'd take all Nevermore, DT, and Down albums. If the Qaedas would let me play music in-between their refined torture (incl. readings of the Quran), this music could install in me some raison d'etre.

Very subtle Nicky.


Well, here's my list.
I'll be hard for myself: I only allow 20 albums in my backpack.

A.C.T:
- Last Epic
- Silence
Arena:
- Immortal?
- Contagion
Dream Theater:
- Octavarium
Frost*:
- Milliontown
Gazpacho:
- Night
Genesis:
- Selling England By The Pound
- Wind & Wuthering
Kino:
- Picture
Magic Pie:
- Circus Of Life
Marillion:
- Marbles
Neal Morse:
- Testimony
- Sola Scriptura
Porcupine Tree:
- In Absentia
- Deadwing
Spock's Beard:
- Snow
- Spock's Beard
Threshold:
- Dead Reckoning
TransAtlantic:
- Bridge Across Forever


...

So many good albums where left out...
I'll just grab another backpack, throw out a few clothes and put these five in:

- Dream Theater's Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
- Marillion's Misplaced Childhood
- Neal Morse's ?
- Sylvan's Posthumous Silence
- Threshold's Subsurface

[Teunis]

Difficult to choose when there are no rules. Erik has a limit of 1 cd per artist and PH has a limit of 20 cd's. So we're allowed to make our own rules? Total anarchy, yes  . Okay, I'll give it a try:

Arena - Contagion
Asia - Aria
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy Revisited (hope there's a dolby surround system on the island, because it's a 5.1 version) 
Blind Ego - Numb
ELO - Out Of The Blue
Fischer Z - Going Red For A Salad
Frost* - Experiments In Mass Appeal
Gazpacho - Tick Tock
GPS - Window To The Soul
IQ - The Seventh House
Knight Area - Under A New Sign
Steve Lukather - Ever Changing Times
Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
Nolan & Wakeman - The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Martin Orford - The Old Road
Pallas - The Dreams Of Men
Pendragon - Pure
Queen - Made In Heaven
Rocket Scientists - Oblivion Days
Satellite - Nostalgia
Shadow Gallery - Carved In Stone
Sylvan - Presets
Steve Thorne - Part Two: Emotional Creatures
Toto - Kingdom Of Desire
Ultravox - The Collection

That makes 25 cd's, but in the end I decided, hard for myself, to take only 1 album per artist with me.

[Nicky007]

... throw out a few clothes ...

After all, it's a desert island 

Nice, Paxi, I'd come over and visit your desert island; leave out Milliontown, and they're all albums that I too could listen to on end 

Total anarchy, yes 

Teunis

I'd call the Room "congenial anarchy" 

Nicky.

[maddox]

Nice that you can make your own rules about it.
Each has a different opinion about this matter and that's okay.

I'll stick with the 50 albums and one per artist though. 

[erik]

I'd call the Room "congenial anarchy" 

Systematic chaos really

Teunis and Paco, thanks for sharing your lists!
Teunis, I notice there are quite a few recent albums in your list (Gazpacho, Orford, Pendragon, Blind Ego, Satellite), from the fact that they are on this list I gather these albums all made quite an impact in a relatively short time. BTW, had expected Aura by Asia in your list instead of Aria because of your avatar. Aria and Arena [the Asia album] were also strong contenders for my list, but Aura wins.

[Nicky007]

I guess I'm a bit different there. I listen to a wide range of music, but if it came to repeated listening, I find that there are few groups that engage me on a deeper level, and the five above-mentioned would be close to completing that list. Thus, at this point, my DID list would be the catalogs of those groups.

Nicky.

[Steve Jones]

I've given this some serious thought over the last two days, but can't really tie things down to this abstract format.  I like too much stuff and if I try to pick a Marillion or Flower Kings album* from the respective catalogues, for example, my brain locks into an endless loop until smoke dry-ice comes out of my ears

Some good came out of this thinking, however, in that I've started putting together a 'misc favourites' playlist in iTunes.  Whilst staple bands (Marillion, Rush, Arena, etc) are covered by assorted playlists and listening habits, there are all those non-pantheon bands who've produced the odd gem that I often overlook and find I've not played it for a year.  I'm thinking of things like Lone Star's 'Firing on All Six' or John Fogerty's 'Blue Moon Swamp' to name but two.  Definite Desert-Islanders, and easy to pick when they're not shoulder to shoulder with another two dozen comparable offerings.

* I'm reminded of Cat in Red Dwarf: "Two suits is dead!"

[Nicky007]

* I'm reminded of Cat in Red Dwarf: "Two suits is dead!"

Jonesy, I wikied Red Dwarf (totally unknown in DK), so I know a bit about it now, but maybe you could explain the Cat quote 

Nicky.

[Steve Jones]

Jonesy, I wikied Red Dwarf (totally unknown in DK), so I know a bit about it now, but maybe you could explain the Cat quote 

He's a snappy dresser with a huge wardrobe, in much the same way that many music fans have huge libraries.  When fleeing the ship in the face of some impending disaster (the exact details elude me) he was 'travelling light' with just one rack of his favourite suits.  When pressed to further reduce his selection to just two suits, he came up with the aforementioned quote.

I guess you need to know the series and the characters in context to fully appreciate it, but to me it's one of the classic lines from a classic series

[Bupie]

Very eclectic list, Erik, which is fine with me 

I tried to stick to the BBC "8" number but I can't make it for less than 10 ... So here we go (saving live albums for another thread ?) :

The obvious :

Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Kansas - Leftoverture
AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Arena - Contagion

The "hard to pick from the band's discography" :

Toto - IV
Dream Theater - Images & Words
Joe Jackson - I'm The Man

The "odd" :

IQ - Are You Sitting Comfortably
Dire Straits - Communiqué

The "French" :

Telephone - Anna

And hundreds that will be deeply missed : Rush Hold Your Fire, Magenta Seven, Transatlantic SMTP, Kino Picture, Megadeth Rust In Peace and Youthanasia, Trust Marche ou crève, Nightwish Century Child, Porcupine Tree FOABP, Kansas Audio-Visions and Point Of Know Return, AC/DC Powerage and Back In Black, Toto The Seventh One, XX and Tambu, Dream Theater SDOIT and FII, The Police Outlandos d'Amour, Marillion CAS and HIE, Dire Straits Making Movies, UFO Phenomenon and Lights Out, Shakin' Street Solid As a Rock, Angel City Face To Face, Thin Lizzy Renegade, Pendragon Pure, etc.

I hope I will never have to choose, though     

[Teunis]

Teunis, I notice there are quite a few recent albums in your list (Gazpacho, Orford, Pendragon, Blind Ego, Satellite), from the fact that they are on this list I gather these albums all made quite an impact in a relatively short time. BTW, had expected Aura by Asia in your list instead of Aria because of your avatar. Aria and Arena [the Asia album] were also strong contenders for my list, but Aura wins.

Indeed, I find the five albums you mention very impressive and I'm playing them very often! As far as I know 'Aura' was never my avatar. Deenfan has it as an avatar. My current avatar is from a band called 'Arena': the album 'Contagion'  . And 'Aria' is my favorite Asia album.

[Manatee]

I'm following Erik's example of allowing as many albums as you want but limiting it to one per group, solo and side projects not counted against that one. I may add some more later, but here's a preliminary list (I suspect a King Crimson album will find its way onto the list eventually).  For several of these, it was, of course, a tough choice as to which album to pick, but that's part of the fun.  The order of the picks doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Genesis – Foxtrot

R.E.M. – Automatic for the People

Sugar – Copper Blue

Peter Gabriel – Security (aka Peter Gabriel (4) --  won the coin flip vs. Peter Gabriel (3) )

IQ – Songs From the Lush Attic

Arena – Pepper's Ghost (beat The Visitor by a nose due to being more varied, and if I'm alone on a desert island, Opera Fanatica is probably going to make a lot of sense inside my head).  If I say The Tinder Box, will it guarantee that someone will come to the island to deliver it, thereby rescuing me?

Gazpacho – Night (I first heard this only a month or so ago, but I already think it's near the top of my heap)

The Band – The Last Waltz (sounds like they have a whole family up on stage, which would be comforting on the island)

Belly – King (<3 Tanya)

Porcupine Tree – Deadwing

Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick

Kate Bush – The Dreaming

Lacuna Coil – In a Reverie

Neil Young – Mirrorball

Pearl Jam – Ten

Pixies – Doolittle

Soul Asylum – Grave Dancers Union

Talking Heads – Fear of Music

Van Halen – Van Halen

Weezer – Weezer (The Green Album)   (actually has a song about being on an island, and it's my favorite song of theirs!)

The Who – Quadrophenia

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (I)   (especially bluesy, and although IV is tempting, I'm really really sick of Stairway to Heaven)

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

Rolling Stones – Some Girls

Bob Mould – Black Sheets of Rain

Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True

Yes – Going for the One

Devin Townsend – Terria

Kansas – Leftoverture

Twelfth Night – Live and Let Live

801 – 801 Live

Buffalo Tom  - Big Red Letter Day

Cowboy Junkies – Black Eyed Man

Warren Zevon – Stand in the Fire

Frank Zappa – Apostrophe'

The Grateful Dead – American Beauty

Muddy Waters – Hard Again (gotta have a real blues album)

Soundgarden – Down on the Upside

Jim Carroll Band – Catholic Boy

Golden Palominos – Visions of Excess

Joe Jackson - I'm the Man

Gentle Giant - Freehand

[Teunis]

24. IQ – Subterranea

IQ - The Seventh House

IQ - Are You Sitting Comfortably

IQ – Songs From the Lush Attic

Versatile IQ list . Nice to see so many different favorite albums  .

[The Butterfly Man]

I'm gonna limit myself to ten albums here, because I haven't got that much time to pack my bags...

- Arena - Contagion
- Demians - Building An Empire
- Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
- Dredg - El Cielo
- Marillion - Afraid Of Sunlight
- Opeth - Ghost Reveries
- Pendragon - Not Of This World
- Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
- Riverside - Second Life Syndrome
- The Urbane - Glitter

That was so difficult...But at least I managed to include an album from every genre I love: alternative, pop/rock, prog, and progmetal!

Tom

[bellanova]

This is virtually impossible for me and i couldnt possiblt choose just one Arena album so here goes in no particular order. Theres probably more but this is off the top of my head....

ARENA- The Visitor and Contagion
FROST*- Milliontown
KINO- Picture
THE URBANE-Neon
PORCUPINE TREE- In Absentia
ASIA- Aria
BEETHOVEN-The Emperor Oiano Concerto
DREAM THEATER- Octavarium
MARILLION- Script For a Jesters Tear
MARK 3- Midcellaneous
JOHN WETTON- Battlelines
It BITES- The Tall Ships
GENESIS- Selling Englnd By The Pound
PENDRAGON- Not Of This World
U2- The Joshua Tree

Hmmmm!!! There seems to be a load of John Mitchell stuff there.
I think alot of us have similar choices so maybe we could all end up on the same desert island or at least neighbouring ones

[Nicky007]

- Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet

Good ya aint goin to a Mexican desert island after all, cause this one wouldnt survive the swine-flu 

- Opeth - Ghost Reveries

Hm, Tom, last you claimed that Watershed was your fave Opeth-album, so 

It's probably my fave, cause of the greater range, and the even more terrific solos, but OK, GR is a sob of an album too 


Have you at all delved properly into Nevermore, Queensrÿche, Tool, and Down ?  Admittedly, these are difficult groups, but sharing so much else with you, I'm sure you could connect to these groups too     (iow, ya got the b*s) 

I think alot of us have similar choices so maybe we could all end up on the same desert island or at least neighbouring ones

Mine would probably be the most cragged 

Btw, Bella, I like Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto best of the five; it's less sparkling, but more reflecting/brooding than the Emperor Concerto. Give it another try 

Nicky.

[The Butterfly Man]

Good ya aint goin to a Mexican desert island after all, cause this one wouldnt survive the swine-flu 

Hm, Tom, last you claimed that Watershed was your fave Opeth-album, so 

It would prob be mine, cause of the greater range, and the even more terrific solos, but OK, GR is a sob of an album too 

The thing is...I can't really make up my mind about my favourite Opeth-album. It's just so close between Ghost Reveries and Watershed. I guess yesterday I just liked Ghost Reveries more! The first track from that album, Ghost Of Perdition is my very favourite Opeth-track so maybe that's why I went with GR. But if I really had to choose one of these two albums, it would be very tough - if not impossible -, so maybe I'll just take 'em both!

Have you at all delved properly into Nevermore, Queensrÿche, Tool, and Down ?  Admittedly, these are difficult groups, but sharing so much else with you, I'm sure you could connect to these groups too     (iow, ya got the b*s) 

I actually have Nevermore's 'This Godless Endeavor' and although I like the music, I can't seem to get used to the vocals...I don't know what it is, since I do enjoy the growling stuff in Opeth, Scar Symmetry, Riverside, Meshuggah and various other bands nowadays. Maybe I need to try again with a bottle of rum next to me when I'm in Cuba next week!

Queensrÿche is just another matter of 'didn't delve deeper into yet' I'm afraid. There's just too much good music around and maybe I'm missing out, but I'm sure one day I'll take the time to really listen to their music.

Now Tool is already one of my favourite bands. Especially their latest two albums, Laterlus and 10.000 Days are masterpieces in my book.

Down...Hmm, I saw you mentioning them but I haven't heard any of their music...At first, I thought you were talking about System Of A Down but I soon realised that this was wrong of me! I'll check out their MySpace soon!

Tom

[Steve Jones]

Of course, clearer thinkers will be taking a 120gb iPod

[PH]

Of course, clearer thinkers will be taking a 120gb iPod

With bitrates of at least 320!

[Nicky007]

... so maybe I'll just take 'em both!

If Paxi can turn his shorts inside out and use'm again, then you can too, Tom. So replace a pair of shorts with Watershed  

I actually have Nevermore's 'This Godless Endeavor' and although I like the music, I can't seem to get used to the vocals...

I seem to have heard that one before ... hm, some sorta mad guy  

Maybe I need to try again with a bottle of rum next to me when I'm in Cuba next week!

Good solution  

You might even then start singing like Warrel yourself  

Another solution is to adapt to his singing, just like one adapts to married life. Look at Jonesy, he can do both  

Queensrÿche is just another matter of 'didn't delve deeper into yet' I'm afraid. There's just too much good music around and maybe I'm missing out, but I'm sure one day I'll take the time to really listen to their music.

If you can select from their catalog, then you could pick up with the Q-songs on my stuck-on list. They're particularly wonderful, so that would be a good portal into Q-music  

Now Tool is already one of my favourite bands. Especially their latest two albums, Lateralus and 10.000 Days are masterpieces in my book.

Great, Tom. These are albums one can hear endlessly  

At first, I thought you were talking about System Of A Down but I soon realised that this was wrong of me!

SOAD and Down are very different groups. SOAD have never clicked with me.

Close groups to Down would be Pantera, AIC, Pearl Jam (mainly the vocals), and the slow parts of Nevermore.


From Wiki (my boldface, nb):

"Down formed in 1991 with vocalist/songwriter Phil Anselmo of Pantera, guitarist Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity, second guitarist Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, bassist Todd Strange of Crowbar, and drummer Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod. All of the band members were long-time friends and were known from their respective bands, making them a supergroup. The band made a three track demo for underground trading. The band members would ask heavy metal fans if they have 'heard of this band Down' and give them a copy of the tape without telling the person that they were in the band. Eventually, the tape was distributed throughout the United States and Down played a small concert in its hometown. A record executive from Elektra Records was attending the show to find out who the members of Down were. When he found out the members of the band, he signed Down to a recording contract.

Down released its debut album, NOLA, on September 19, 1995. Debuting at number 55 on the Billboard 200, the album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Allmusic reviewer David Reamer gave the album a nearly perfect 4.5 out of 5 stars, praising the songs Temptations Wings, Stone The Crow, and Bury Me In Smoke. Reamer stated 'This is a landmark album that combines the talents of dedicated rock musicians, and should be included in any collection of heavy metal music.'"

Of course, clearer thinkers will be taking a 120gb iPod

Spoil-sport you  

It's a thought experiment, like saying "If God were a woman, what then ?" Obviously the rational thing would be first thing to change herself into a man, but it's interesting to explore the possibilities within the scenario, like would She have snuffed all progmetal ?  

Nicky.