So, what are some must own albums? This is all encompassing.

GNR- Appetite for Destruction- An album that brought Metal out of the "Hair" era.

Joy Divison- Closer- Call it proto-goth or Post-punk or whatever you like, it's fucking awesome. It's a shame they died before they could achive superstardom like the Clash. It's sad more people don't know how incredible this band was.

The Clash- London Calling- The album that took Punk to another level.

Sex Pistols- Nevermind the Bollocks- May not have been the most musically talented band, but this record is the epitome of the early UK Punk movement.

Minor Threat- Complete Discography- Every song by the greatest hardcore band ever.

I'll add more as they occour to me, but this shoud drum up some discussion.

Led Zeppelin 1-4, plus Houses of the Holy.

Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall

Metallica- Kill Em All through the Black Album

That goes without sayign tho.

Black album isn't really must own to me, I'd go Kill 'Em All through ...And Justice For All.

Also, Tool's Aenema and Lateralus

and Rage's first two albums

Bob Marley - LEGEND

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown

Nas - Illmatic

Suicidal Tendencies - Lights.......Camera.......Revolution!

Beastie Boys - Pauls Boutique

At the drive in - Relationship of Command

Terry Reid - Seed of Memory

Marvin Gaye - What's goin on

Al Green - Lets stay together

KMD - Black Bastards

I could go on and on........I'll keep adding to these.

Honestly, as much as I dig RATM, I wouldn't say they're must own. And I haven't heard Lateralus, but I don't think Aenimia is Must Own either.

I'll add in The Cure's Pornography. Great great Early Goth record.

Perhaps Publice Enemy's "Takes a Nation" CD?

I might be the only person in the world that prefers this record to any of this Mars Volta crap.

Something very VH-1ish about this thread! First person to type Nirvana gets a groin-kick!

I agree that Metallica's Smell the Glove/Black Album/Self-titled disc should be counted out. They were shattered by the Jethro Tull incident and it affected their career. Everything post-88 is written for mainstream AOR. "Justice" has a different sound, but I wouldn't score it as essential, either.

Here's my list. My reasoning was determined by the following fictional situation: my collection has been destroyed and I have to re-build it from scratch. I skip "best of" collections, since that'd be cheating. Obviously alot of metal crap. No order of priority, but here's the stuff I must have:

-Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast
"NWOBHM", but pioneered the galloping/staccato sound, as seen in
Run to the Hills". Only one shitty song on the entire album ("Gangland"). Bruce's screech on the title track proves that selling his soul to the devil was a great move. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is probably the band's best tune and the song's story is somewhat ironic. Cnsidering that this album was widely knocked for being "Satanic", but the last track is about a guy repenting before he dies.

-Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz
C'mon, now..it has "Crazy Train"! One of THE greatest hard rock guitar tracks in history.

-KISS: Alive!
Heh. May have been re-worked in production, but one of the best concert albums ever. Shows how their simple songs about fucking can ignite a good time.

-Tool: Aenima
Yeah, yeah...count me in. If I had the Power of the Beyonder, I would make this album have one extra track: their awesome cover of "No Quarter".

-Anthrax: Among the Living
Often overlooked, but part of the sound that defined the mid-to-late 80's "speed/thrash metal" sound.

-Soundgarden: BadMotorFinger
More Sabbath than "Grunge". In that vein, it updated some old sounds with a modern slant.

-Living Colour: Time's Up
Underrated band and the diversity (no pun intended) on this album is amazing.

-Black Sabbath: Master of Reality
Some of the heaviest, dirtiest, nastier metal ever recorded. "Lord of this World", "Into the Void", "Snowblind". Still sounds good as it approaches 40

-Van Halen: Women and Children First
IMO, pioneered the "West Coast" sound of the 80's.

-Garbage: S/T
Sure, it's overproduced, but a good range of sound. Alot of it has held up well, I think.

-ZZ Top: Tres Hombres
C'mon now...it has "La Grange", THE strip club theme song. What's more rock n' roll than that?!

This is somewhat of a cheat, but:
-The Crow soundtrack (all the 90's alternative in a handy carrying case).

Nirvana.... just kidding. The only album anyone's listed that I have is GNR's AfD.

Sure it's mainstream, but that's not a bad word to me. It's still an awesome album.

Nope, I'm with you. I could listen to this album for days on end, and I don't care for the Mars Volta at all...

As for Nirvana, I really like Unplugged in New York, but it's definately not required...

How the fuck did I forget the Ramones' Self Titled first album?

Those are also two I'd throw on my list as well as.......

The Police - Synchronicity

2pac - All Eyez on Me - A masterpeice. I can listen to any 2pac song, just his flow and the usually great beats from the usual suspects makes it great.

Dr. Dre - The Chronic - This thing just changed the landscape, and again, is listenable all the way through, and has skits that are actually humorous, and very short.

Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View. THE pop album. This thing is so solid from start to finish, it is unreal.

Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor. A personal choice, as I know its not for everyone. I can, and have listened to this album hundreds of times. Great to put on and just chill too, or have a lady friend over, or just to reflect.

Send me your address. Some goons will be over soon to break your kneecaps.

Nah, I'm with him on that. Hootie owned.

Hootie Blows and should sleep with the Fish.

Give me a call in five minutes. We'll go out and get them both then.

2pac- Me Against the World- Really the definitive 2pac album, as far as I'm concerned.

Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon- Just a classic.

Immortal Technique- Revolutionary Vol. 2- Not for everyone, but in my opinion he's one of the greatest rappers of all time, and this is the definitive album. Vol. 1 gets a nod just for "Dance with the Devil", my favorite song.

Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back- Pretty self-explanatory, I feel.

Cormega- The Realness- Just a fantastic example of how to put together a hip hop album the right way, especially when you're dealing with the usual street fare in a new way.

I couldn't agree more, the only Pac album that comes close is the Makaveli album.

Wow - Kido breaking out some taste! That's the post of this thread so far.

I'll add a few myself:

U2 - Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby - Two revolutionary discs for their time. The first building a particular sound, and the second tearing it sown.

Otis Redding - Dock of the Bay - Otis IS soul. Period. If you haven't heard Otis, you haven't heard soul.

Rolling Stones - 40 Licks - I realize it's a geatest hits package, but I was never a fan of the Stones until someone gave me this. 40 straight songs that are ALL great.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, Seven Steps to Heaven, Bitches Brew, Amandala - You think you know what jazz is? Listen to Birth of the Cool and Bitches Brew back to back. Now try to explain to me what Jazz is.

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vols. 1 & 2 - One of the most underrated instrumentalists that I can think of. Ray was a fabulous pianist. Plus, the songs on both of these albums are great. And no, they don't sound like country.

Elvis Pressley - The Alternate Aloha, 68 Comeback Special - Skip the early bullcrap, and listen to anything Elvis did after 68. One, the fatter he got, the more powerful and emotional his voice got. Two, his band in the early 70's is probably the best unit ever assembled. Talk about power...Wow! Listen to "You gave me a Mountain" off of Alternate Aloha. If that doesn't move you, you're proably a sociopath.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic - This one may be scoffed a bit, but the instrumental tracks on this are second to none in the 90's. As far as "radio" music goes, this may be the finest guitar work on ANY album. I don't know what got into Frusciante (mmh...cough,cough...heroin..cough) because he never came close to this before or since. Flea was a terribly overrated bassist before this album. On this album, he showed restraint and artistry, as well as laying down some of the thickest grooves you'll ever hear. Rick Rubin's production is also a plus. For those of you who don't know, if you see the name "Rick Rubin" beside "Producer" on the back of a CD, go ahead and buy it. 9 times out of ten it will be wonderful. The one set back on this disc is Anthony Keidis' stupid porno raps. But the rest is good enough to overshadow it.

There's a bunch more in my head, but I'm kinda tired of typing. If this goes on, I'll add more later.

I have two of the discs WMD reccomends. I feel slightly cool.

How about NWA's Straight Outta Compton and Snoop's Doggystyle?

I'll second the love for BSSM. I like it way better than the good but slightly overrated Californication disc.

I've liked everything since BSSM except One Hot Minute. That was just a mess. BSSM is the only one I'd called "Must-own".

Which two?

And for the other two discs - I'd say No, and no. To me Chronic was the apex of the whole west coast gangsta sound. Both of those discs are good, but if you've got Chronic, you're not missing a lot else.

Thanks for the props WMD. I would have added BSSM by the Chili Peppers and I'd even add Mother's Milk in there.

I would also add Doggystyle and NWA's Straight Outta Compton. Although I agree with WMD about The Chronic being apex of the WC sound, Doggystyle showed that a rapper from the West could have his own style and substance. There was NOBODY that sounded like Snoop when he first came out, and hey sue me.............I like most thinks Parlament Funkadelic related. I would also add Ice Cube's Amerikka's Most Wanted as a MUST OWN.

The Two U2 discs.


I'd say add in "The Best of Bauhaus: Volume One". The originators of the Goth sound's best.

I would definitely include Straight Outta Compton, but not Doggystyle. While I realize how revolutionary Snoop's sound was, I've never been a big fan of his.

Johnny Cash-Live From Folsom Prison: If just to hear him interact so well with the prisoners.

And no scrooge, not that way

I've got to agree with you there...and I hate Cash's music for the most part. There is just this historical vibe to that album. It becomes obvious that the reason his music doesn't connect to me, is that I'm not a convict.

Was that really neccessary to say?

Don't forget Death Certificate and The Predator. Both two great albums by Ice Cube, Lethal Injection wasn't so much as Cube tried to incorporate the g-funk element a bit too much, but that was a solid effort too. Ice Cube imo, is one of the most underrated rappers ever, he carried NWA when he was in the group and then released three albums on his own, and a solid one before he formed the Westside Connection and they had that great LP Bow Down in 96. His only bad lp was really The Peace Disc from 98. Anyways here's some more must-own albums...

Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
Mobb Deep - The Infamous
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
Dr. Dre - Chronic 2001
Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP
Jay-Z - The Blueprint
Nas - Stillmatic
Nas - God's Son
Jay-Z - The Black Album
Kanye West - College Dropout
Game - Documentary
Common - Be
Kanye West - Late Registration

THREE Jay-Z albums and only 1 of Eminem? Wasamata you?!?

Em had only 1 great album. Slim Shady LP and Eminem Show were both solid and Encore was shit.

I disagree with a few of those (*cough* Game *cough), but that's generally a good list. I'd like to know why you put "Be" above some of Common's earlier efforts, just as a matter of interest.

Encore wasn't shit... it was a huge disappointment. :D But Slim Shady LP/The Eminem Show were much better than anything Jay Z does. [/blind hatred]

Game's LP was the best of this year behind Kanye's. A lot of really good stuff on that album and it's much, much better than whole bunch shit released this year, most notably 50's album which was shit.

As for Common, I haven't heard too much of his stuff before Be. Except some of Ressurection and Electric Circus which I haven't heard for awhile.

And Scrooge, you sure do got a lot of hate inside you man :unsure: .

I'm looking to win the Hater of the Year Award, along with "Biggest Loser", "Post Whore", "and Worst Poster" at next years ceremony.

I'm just kidding though. I don't hate Jay Z, but way to go in giving him 3 votes, and Eminem 1. My bias wanted me to say almost every GNR CD, but the only one I could really nominate was Appetite for Destruction.


Edit: I'll throw in GnR - Live Era 1987-92 on the pile. Probably the CD I listen to the most, other than Use Your Illusion (a collection of both I and II's best songs)

That's fair. I'm really generally more of an underground head, so I don't really enjoy the Game as a whole.


As far as Common goes, you really should check out Like Water for Chocolate and One Day It'll All Make Sense.

I'll vouch for "Like Water For Chocolate."

And WMD, when you say you don't care for Cash, is it early Cash or later Cash that you don't care for? I find that many people that don't like one do like the other. A skinny Elvis vs. Fat Elvis type of thing

We can close the thread now.