Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Top 5 discs of your favorite genre?

I had always thought that I had fairly wide tastes in music; It certainly seemed that way when I could listen to NIN and then follow it with some Diana Krall. I've come to the realization in the last few months however, that's not the case. The musicians I listen to within the various genres are mostly the more-popular within that group. I've always been very passionate about music and proud of my wide-ranging tastes and to think that they're really not very wide-ranging at all is a little depressing. It's probably a hold over from my high school and college days when all my friends would only listen to one type of music and I would be listening to all kinds of stuff.

I think the realization has come because of several factors of late: Primarily, the disc exchange here has been exposing me to much music that I had never even heard of, yet like very much. (As a quick aside, thank you to those who have sent discs in the last month or so. I haven't been around at home as much so it seems I've listened to them in clumps and many of you didn't list your Avatar names so I don't know who to send a PM "Thank You" to! Rest assured that I have saved the envelopes and I'll return a mix of my own as soon as I can!).

Another factor in discovering new music is that I've been listening to a lot of XM lately. Finally, the "What are you listening to tonight" thread here has listed many musicians/groups that I'm not familiar with.

Am I the only one who is amazed at the wide-ranging tastes of members here?

So… I'd like to expand my musical horizons a bit and thought this would make a fun thread.

What are five discs that you consider essential to the genre of music you primarily listen to? This is not a "favorites" thread; that's been done here before. Rather, I'm looking for recommendations of the five discs that would best exemplify that genre of music even if some of the recommendations may not be personal favorites. Discs that would serve as the "five most important" discs if someone wanted to expand their tastes into that genre of music.

I suspect that I'm not the only one here impressed with the variety of tastes here, and this thread might serve as a good starting point for those who wish to expand their horizons a bit.

5 discs only??? It will be tough for me... anyway, I'll try. This may not be good for the tastes of everybody.

- Iron Maiden (Albums: Number of the beast, Piece of Mind, Seventh Son of the Seventh Son - I am counting those 3 albums as one ;-) - Best of classic Metal, called New Wave of British Heavy Metal at that time.
- Nightwish - "Wishmaster" Excellent operatic vocals, female fronted Power Metal from Finland.
- Helloween "Keeper of the Seventh Keys" both Part I and II, "Walls of Jericho" I count those 3 albums as one as well ;-) this is where Euro Power Metal started, though some Speed Metal influences on the "Walls..." mostly.
- Sonata Arctica "Ecliptica" Euro Power Metal. Great catchy melodies. Another great Finish band.
- Cryonic Temple "Chapter One" - True/Power/Speed Metal.
- In Flames "Whoracle" One of the best albums in Melodic Death Metal aka Gothenburg Death Metal.
- Nocturnal Rites "Sacred Talisman" Another swedish band, Euro Power Metal.
- Metallica "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" - You all know them!

Note:Not writen in order of quality!!

Hard to keep them 5 though. I can add more now, but I have to stop it. I have 327 factory original metal CD and more than 100 albums on my Ipod.

Oooops- I shoulda mentioned that it wouldn't hurt to name the genre in case there's some overlap!

Would you say that those others sound more like Iron Maiden, or Metallica? I like both groups, but I like James's vocals better.

Hey, thread hijack at 4 posts! Whee!

Mark: These are all Metal, you can call them all Heavy Metal, but they are to be distinguished from Hair Metal of 80s, known also as Glam Metal (i think), mostly associated with Heavy Metal here in the States. I think I did a good job mentioning the sub-genre for each album there.

Ken; Metallica and Iron Maiden are very different from each-other, but I like them both, early Metallica though, not the crap they produced late, after the Black Album. Iron Maiden is my favorite band of all time, this is where all started, though I have to admit, I used to listen a lot of Bon Jovi and Scorpions when I was a teenager, before jumping to "real" metal. And yes, some of them are influenced by Maiden, but of course they have their own sound.

Ron Sexsmith - Whereabouts (or any other CD)
Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La
Blue Rodeo - Five Days in July (or any other CD)
Klaatu - Hope
Fresh Air - volumes 1 to 5

My personal Top 5 of Progressive Rock

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element Part 1
Spock's Beard - V

I have to also mention Porcupine Tree's In Absentia and Rush's Moving PIctures.

My current top 5 (or 6) in the Americana/Alt Country genre: It's what I listen to a lot a work, but picking a favorite genre is impossible. There's way too much good music out there.

John Hiatt "Slow Turning" (Stolen Moments is a close 2nd)
Ryan Adams "Gold"
Steve Earle "Jerusalem"
Lucinda Williams "World Without Tears" (Car Wheels On a Gravel Road is also great)
The Jayhawks "Hollywood Town Hall"

My favorite genre is be-bop and post bop jazz. Try some of these to wet you appetite.
Miles Daivis "Kind of Blue"
John Coltrane "Blue Trane"
Art Pepper Any of the live at the Village Vangard series, these are sold as a set and also available individually. At least they were at the time I got mine
Bill Evans "A Night at the Village Vangard"
Dexter Gordon " Another Side of Midnight"
Thelonius Monk Just about anything by him. Solo or small group. He has a couple of live series Like Live in New York
Wes Montgomery (jazz guitar) "The Incredible Jazz Guitar" of "Going Out Wes"
oops I'm over my limit. I could go on and on, but you already know that.

One of my favorite genre's is singer/songwriter.


Richard Thompson most anything by him
Lucinda Williams Just pick one
John Hiatt eenie meenie miney mo
Bob Dylan All the old classic stuff
Neil Young "Unplugged" or "Rust Never Sleeps" or any other one
Bonnie Raitt "Road Tested" but you guessed it... any other one will do as well