“Music Question: Who Remembers Albums???” by Richard F. Yates

In our modern era of digital streaming, it seems like folks would rather pay for a service (like Pandora or Spotify or Apple Music) that gives them access to thousands of tunes (as long as they continue to pay the bill every month,) but they no longer OWN music (or movies or t.v. shows) themselves anymore---and they certainly don't buy ALBUMS!

I suppose I should be specific here---by the term “album,” I don’t necessarily mean a vinyl record. I mean a “long play” recording: a collection of songs produced by a band or performer that is meant to be listened to as a WHOLE.

Now I’m as much a fan of a GREAT SONG as anyone---also known as a "single"---and I’ve suffered the heartbreak of buying an album on the strength of ONE awesome tune, hoping the other songs would also be good, only to discover that the popular single was the only good song to be found. (Always a tragedy.) However!!! I have also been gleefully surprised when I bought a tape or CD on a whim, and then discovered that I loved every track!

Back in the pre-digital days, you even had to get up, walk to the stereo, and flip the record or tape over just to hear the second half of the album, but for a GREAT L.P., it was worth the extra effort!

So here’s my question: If you remember the days of “albums,” and there were specific L.P.s (whether on tapes or records or CDs or digital downloads or what-have-you) that you particularly enjoyed, WHAT WERE THEY??? Which albums did you listen to, from beginning to end, over and over again?? (You don’t have to have loved every song, but the album as a WHOLE had to mean something to you…) Put your list in the comments below (and maybe someone will be able to discover a new batch of tunes that they end up really enjoying! We can only hope!!!)

Here’s my list---in no particular order. These are just a bunch of albums, off the top of my skull, that I loved and listened to, time and again, that I still enjoy to this day!!!:

---Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle, Telekon, Replicas (with Tubeway Army)
---The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me; The Head on the Door; Boys Don’t Cry
---Pink Floyd – The Wall, The Dark Side of the Moon
---Material Issue – International Pop Overthrow
---Pixies – Doolittle
---Modern English – After the Snow
---Alien Sex Fiend – Acid Bath, Another Planet
---Love and Rockets – Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, Express
---Front 242 – Official Version
---Green Day – Kerplunk!
---Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – God Fodder
---Misfits – Walk Among Us
---Depeche Mode – Black Celebration, Music for the Masses
---“Weird Al” Yankovic – In 3-D, Dare To Be Stupid
---Queen – The Game
---Devo – Freedom of Choice
---Blondie – Plastic Letters
---The Jesus & Mary Chain – Darklands
---Siouxsie and The Banshees – Peepshow
---David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory
---The Podigy – The Prodigy Experience
---Coil – Love’s Secret Domain
---The Tear Garden – Tired Eyes Slowly Burning
---The Legendary Pink Dots – Any Day Now, The Golden Age, The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse, Hallway of the Gods
---Skinny Puppy – Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, Cleanse Fold and Manipulate
---Yaz – Upstairs at Eric’s, You and Me Both
---The Beatles – Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, The Beatles (aka The White Album), Revolver
---Nitzer Ebb – That Total Age, Showtime, Belief
---Madness – Madness
---New Order – Brotherhood; Technique; Power, Corruption & Lies
---Joy Division – Closer
---Bauhaus – Mask, Swing the Heartache
---The Fall – I am Kurious, Oranj
---Adam and The Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox, Prince Charming, Kings of the Wild Frontier
---My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – Confessions of a Knife
---Lords of Acid – Lust, Voodoo-U
---X-Ray Spex – Germfree Adolescents
---The Smiths – The Queen is Dead; Louder Than Bombs; Strangeways, Here We Come
---Erasure – The Innocents, The Two Ring Circus
---Close Lobsters – Headache Rhetoric
---The Damned – Phantasmagoria
---They Might Be Giants – Lincoln, They Might Be Giants, Flood
---Eon – Void Dweller
---The Clash – Combat Rock
---Big Audio Dynamite II – The Globe
---Gang of Four – Entertainment
---Hammerbox – Hammerbox
---Alphaville – Forever Young
---Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine

There are, of course, more---but these are the first few that came to my mind. Each of these albums really meant something to me. I admit, freely, that some of these are “RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE” L.P.s. The type of thing that was perfect for my situation when I first encountered it. Still, if there is a band or performer on this list that you’ve never heard of or listened to, maybe you could slip over to YooToob and type in the band’s name and give it a taste! I intentionally avoided soundtrack albums and various-artist compilations, even though there are a great many of THOSE that I also enjoyed. The point here was to share some of my favorite FULL ALBUMS, which I think are great from beginning to end. Albums that I listened to over and over again (mostly in the days BEFORE “repeat” was a common feature on a stereo.)

So there you go. Do with this as you will!!! (If you have any questions about these bands or albums, or if want to share your own “favorites” list, feel free to communicate these thoughts below!) Later!!!

---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)

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