It is Friday again, and I have just posted a cocktails list – so I thought what better way to pass our time whilst drinking our cocktails than discussing music with other listversers! So, here we have our third installment of “Your View”. This time we have a slightly more controversial topic! I am sure that we can all thrash this one out and come up with some great choices!
What is the best Rock Album in History?
I must confess to being much more of a light pop music type of person (second to Classical) so this is a very tough one for me. However, having given it some thought, I give my vote to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Remember to give your reasons for your selection – we are looking for the BEST.
Metallica- “Metallica” (The Black Album)
depends on your def of rock. i dont call the beatle rock. i would say styx/reo speedwagon “arch allies”.
Pink Floyd, The Wall. without question the all time best. Metallica’s black album would be second. Bat out of Hell would rank up in my top ten as well, along with a couple of the Beatles albums, just can’t think of the names off the top of my head.
Theres waaaaay too many rock albums to choose one single best one. I could list so many.
One I’ve listened to recently that’s amazing (not the best, but it’s one of those ones where every song is a cracker): Bullet For My Valentine’s ‘The Poison’. Amazing riffs, incredible vocal & guitar harmonies, tight as hell, great drumming, plus the intro with Apocalyptica! Last listened to that a few days ago…
Not the best, but the most recent ‘wow’ album I’ve listened to, though I have listened to quite a few of them.
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon
The most recent? The Blackening by Machine Head. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!
Even though I have heard it 50 billion times. It is difficult to say anything other than Dark Side of the Moon. akKris agrees.
Cream “Disreali Gears”
Led Zeppelin IV… It contained the sounds of several genres, including heavy metal, folk, and blues, to define the sound of 70′s hard rock.
Opening up with Black Dog, and closing with When the Levee Breaks, this album has more playtime than anything in my entire collection.
Rolling Stones Any of them
Mike: That album is absolutely incredible.
Ahem….the best rock album of all time is a toss-up between Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV, if you happen to take the songs individually. The best cohesive rock album, IMO, is a toss-up between Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and the White Album.
Skid Row, by Skid Row…absoultley the best album ever created!
Toss up between three:
The Beatles – Sergeant Pepper
Love – Forever Changes
The ***** Pistols – Never Mind the Bullocks, Here’s the ***** Pistols
I agree with khen913. Metallica (the black album)
my vote has to go to bob dylan…blood on the tracks…its seems to always be on any list of top albums . sgt pepper as well is also always there, but if i were to vote for a beatles album it would have to be revolver. just because it has…taxman… on it and it is that time of year.
I will have to put my vote in for Pink Floyd and Dark side of the Moon also.
Sgt. Peppers is a good album to though I have to agree on that!!!
dangorironhide: you have impeccable taste!
My top 5(in no particular order)
1 The Blackening – Machine Head
2 Master of Puppets – Metallica
3 Live After Death – Iron Maiden
4 Appetite for Destruction – Guns n Roses
5 Rust in Peace – Megadeth
I can’t pick one so here is my top 10:
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely hearts Club Band – The Beatles
Appetite for Destruction – Guns N Roses
The Joshua Tree – U2
London Calling – The Clash
Led Zepplin IV – Led Zepplin
Back in Black – AC/DC
Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
Nevermind – Nirvana
Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
And just because I love him so much (even though it might not qualify) Graceland by Paul Simon.
Tool’s Undertow album is one of my alltime favorites. Other than Tool I mostly just listen to electronica stuff like Daft Punk, but that doesn’t count, so – TOOL.
and maybe inhuman rampage by dragonforce.
What about RUSH 2112 ?
The defining album for the defining prog rock band!
rock probably has more great albums than any other genre. stones, zep, floyd, who, fleetwood, u2, g’n'r, nirvana…
it seems rock holds up better than other music.
my vote: nevermind-nirvana
The problem with this is everyone has their own classifications of rock. For me for instance I dont consider Bob Dylan anything close to being rock… hes a folk man, thus not a choice in this competition (THATS MY OPINION). Although for me I would go with either Led Zeppelin III or IV.
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
metallica – master of puppets by a wide margin for me
gloriously put together in every conceivable way
Sgt. Pepper, Achtung Baby, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Rumours.
Woah! Too many definitions of rock here!
For me personally,
Classic rock: Dark Side of the Moon- Pink Floyd
Modern: Permission to Land- The Darkness
Pop rock: Hot Fuss- The Killers
Zeppelin IV, Sergeant Pepper’s, Dark Side of the Moon
more recently,
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (Modest Mouse)
Any Metallica Album from the Black Album on backwards; Led Zeppelin IV; AC/DC Back in Black; RATM-RATM.
Top 5 (in no particular order) and why:
Sgt. Peppers – The album that redefined the Beatles
The Wall – Great Rock Opera by Pink Floyd (find and read the storyline)
Cheap Thrills – Big Brother & Holding Co. (Janis Joplin’s breakout put Psychedelic music on the national map)
Disraeli Gears – Cream (Where Eric Clapton starts to shine)
Workingman’s Dead – Grateful Dead (their first Platinum, and possibly most influential album)
(it seems that one can guess the age of the writer by the selections)
Abbey Road (duh)
And speaking of rock operas-Tommy.
Metallica-Black Album, Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightining
Pink Floyd- The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon
Type-O-Negitive- October Rust, The Origin of the Feces
Aerosmith- Get a Grip, Toys in the Attic
Ravyn: I completely forgot about Type-O-Negative
This is basically impossible, so maybe I’ll set this up by saying these are my favorites; i.e. the ones I can throw in at anytime and love from start to finish.
Stavesacre, “Absolutes”
Project 86, “Songs to Burn Your Bridges By”
Metallica, the black album
The Beatles, “Rubber Soul”
Led Zeppelin, “Houses of the Holy”
I would add a Dylan album, but there’s too many to narrow it down to even 4 or 5.
riledupone: I didn’t forget Tommy – It’s the complexity of Pink’s story (the anti-hero of The Wall) that gives this album more depth.
Too many to list, but I really like Aerosmith Rocks.
Mystern- I love Typu-O-Negitive. I made a tough desision one time and passed up going to a Type-O concert (back stage passes) to shovel an elderly neighbors driveway after a blizzard.
Beatles – White Album
The Beatles, “Revolver”.
Minor Threat, “Minor Threat”.
Nirvana, “Nevermind”.
In my humble opinion.
i didnt think anyone was gonna say minor threat
good call
Ravyn: Bah! You could’ve shoveled it after the concert.
At least you had a chance to go to a concert. I’ve never been to a single concert, ever. I’m woefully inept, inexperienced and uneducated when it comes to music.
Nevermind – Nirvana
“The White Album”
“Led Zeppelin IV”
“Pet Sounds”
The Velvet Underground-White Light/White Heat
Slint-Spiderland
Nothing else even comes close.
Judas Priest – Sin after Sin
Megadeth – Peace Sells…who’s buying
Any Metallica stuff before the black album
Aerosmith – Toys in the attic (if you haven’t heard this one…check it out asap)
Nirvana – Nevermind
Def Leppard – Hysteria
Iron Maiden – Quite a few..never remember the album names
Black Sabbath – Early Ozzy years..
Pink Floyd – Live at Pompeii
Beatles – Abbey Road (c’mon people!!)
Blind Faith – Blind Faith
Deep Purple – Machine Head
AC/DC – Highway to Hell
Allman brothers band – At Fillmore East
Neil Young – Harvest
The Doors – Any and all
Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous
(Some of the above fall may fall into the metal category but i consider metal as a subset of rock)
and btw #JF: Nice one eh? Light and fire n sit back n watch!!
I am pleased to see that U2 has only been mentioned twice out of 45 comments – I despise that band!
heavybison: hahaha – isn’t that what the site is all about? It happens on virtually every list – we might as well make it happen on these topics too
Just wait until “What is the best religion” 
This is wayyy to difficult for me to answer with a single album. But some of the best of the best include:
Can – Tago Mago
Can were always a step ahead every other rock band in the 70s, their weird kraut rock and yelping vocals and their everending groove are incredibly compelling. When it comes to experimental rock music, Tago Mago is the godfather of them all.
The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour
An often overlooked album in the Beatles catalog. Perhaps because it’s not a real album per se. The first six songs were written for the Beatles’ psychedelic flop film, Magical Mystery Tour and they were released as en EP in the UK. But the A&R’s in the USA knew that an Beatles LP would sell alot better than en EP (plus LP’s cost more) so the put the original EP on the A-side and compiled recent singles and their accompanying b-sides on side B on the LP. But anyway, the fact that one album includes the songs Strawberry Fields Forever AND I Am the Walrus, two of the greatest songs ever written in the world ever, is enough to be considered one of the greatest albums released. But the other nine songs are also fantastic, Hello Goodbye, Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love are songs that every child on earth knows by heart. Than there are other gems like Harrison’s Blue Jay Way, Baby Your a Rich Man and the very awesome title song. I could have easily mention the other three songs (ok, maybe not Flying) but to put it simply. Every song on the album is great. That is something I can’t say about the more praised Sgt. Pepper’s (although it is by no means a bad album, it’s great, but song 2… possibly the worst Beatles song, it’s at least in the bottom 10 for me). So yeah, I’ve really rambled, but this album deserves rambling about.
Slint – Spiderland
A somewhat legendary band. Released only two albums before breaking up, Spiderland being the latter. This album is full of emotion and angst. The reason for the break-up is said to have been that the creation of the album was to emotionally difficult and straining for the band members. The lyrics are delivered with a kind of spoke/singing and can all easily stand on their own as beautiful poetry. I guess you can call this a guitar album. The two guitarist intertwine their melodies and the songs are characterized with a lot of rhythm changes. One really has to listen to know how their sound is, but be sure to get it on vinyl, the cd version has the message “this recording is meant to be listened to on vinyl” printed in its booklet.
Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden
I’m gonna be brief and say this is one of the few albums recorded that truly has it’s own soundscape.
Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
A band from my native Iceland. This album transcends what rock music can be. Incredible vocals, gorgeous melodies and this album made Tommy Lee lie on the floor in the fetal position when he first heard it. I mean, really, is there anything more to say.
The Mountain Goats – Zopilote Machine
I don’t know if this counts as a rock album but since someone mentioned Blood on the Tracks, this singer/songwriter album deserves a spot on my list. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats is the best lyricist of music today and pretty much anything he releases is of very high quality. All of these songs were recorded on a panasonic boombox so they have a very lo-fi sound which suit the songs very well. Zopilote Machine is not necessarily his best album, but it’s the first I fell for. His newest album is to be released in a few days and you can stream it here!
Ok, I’ve said enough.
jfrater- I hate U2 as well, I think they may be the most overrated band in history.
andrew-Marry me? I adore The Mountain Goats. I love “The Sunset Tree” most.
Pink Floyd – The Wall – The most artisticly vibrant and theatrical album of all time. Sooo fooking important. Sgt. Peppers ain’t sh*t
From wikipedia…
The storyline portrays the fictional life of an anti-hero named Pink, who is hammered and beaten down by society from the earliest days of his life: having lost his father (killed in Anzio during World War II, as was Roger Waters’ own), smothered by his over-protective mother, oppressed at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers who tried to mould him and the other pupils into the “right” shape for society (hence the recurring image of the meat grinder) and a cheating wife, Pink withdraws into his own fantasy world, building an imaginary wall, an allegory for being emotionally distant, to protect himself from the rest of the world. Every bad experience in his life is “Another Brick in the Wall”. After heavily contemplating how to fill in the last few empty spaces in the wall, Pink puts off its construction for a while. He becomes a rock star and gets married, only to be cheated on by his wife due to his distance and coldness, as well as the life as a rock star. After this, he resumes and eventually finishes building the wall.
Pink slowly goes insane behind his freshly completed wall. He is lost on the inside, but is forced to surface by his demanding lifestyle, and I.V. drug use distributed by his crew to “keep [him] going through the show”. Hallucinating, Pink believes that he is a fascist dictator, and his concerts are like Neo-Nazi rallies where he sets his men on fans he considers unworthy, only to have his conscience rebel at this and put himself on trial, his inner judge ordering him to tear down his wall in order to open himself to the outside world.
Anything by Good Charlotte.
Just kidding. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys, Sgt. Pepper – Beatles
mandie: I’m with you in your hate of the evil Bono. And about the proposal, I’m just gonna pull a Brady and say “thank you”. Also, I don’t want to move and you probably wouldn’t like Iceland anyway. It’s really cold.
mr. jeffy: c/p-ing a wikipedia article is kind of cheating.
Jfrater: Down with u2, so precocious, so overrated.
Celeste: I agree with Tool, I can listen to every one of their albums front to back without skipping a song, they have touched me on a level that I can’t explain. I’ve seen them twice, and both times I was completely floored. One thing I disagree on is the album.
Its gotta be Aenima, “Learn to swim”
One of my favourites that I’m not seeing mentioned is the best selling debut album of all-time:
Boston – Boston
(This may have changed since last I bothered to check the fact, so I apologize if the statement is no longer true)
Totally forgot. . . also Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon. If you haven’t listened to this album with a pair of good headphones I would strongly suggest it.
I’d expect people to say albums by like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc, and rightfully so. But the single album that I think changed how we look at music was Nevermind by Nirvana. It caused a musical revolution (grunge)..
whoa whoa whoa
hating on u2?!?
jamie and others, go back and listen to some early u2 stuff like sunday bloody sunday or new years day trying not to think about bono and his god-wannabe tendencies and his stoopid sunglasses, im sure youll like it
#JF: About U2, i beg to differ, just check out any of their albums before Joshua Tree to see how raw and incredible they were. You don’t have a Billy Joel mention them in his song everyday.
You should check out these albums at least:
The unforgettable Fire
Boy
Under a blood red sky
Wide awake in America
War
Here are some youtube links to get you started, if at all you want to break that mental block:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPyhYczii8I
Sorry – there is just something about Bono that makes me throw up a little in my mouth!