Last Album you listened through

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Which albums have you recently listened to every song of, front-to-back.

I've recently gone through:

• Mötley Crüe's "Dr. Feelgood"
• Pantera's "Cowboys from Hell"
• Kiss' "Destroyer"
• Rob Zombie's "Hellbilly Deluxe"
• Iron Maiden's "The Final Frontier" and nearly all of "Dance of Death"
• Alice in Chains' "Dirt"
• Judas Priest's "British Steel," "The Killing Machine", "Jugulator" and the first disc of "Nostradamus"
• Disturbed's "The Lost Children" and "The Sickness"

Personally I don't like going in order, but these last few I did.

Yay, a Now Listening To thread with a twist.

Unless you're in front of a computer with an internet connection constantly, this thread has plenty of value (how often do people go to that thread to recount every song they listened to in the last several hours?). A few of these albums I've listened through over the course of two or three days (from the Final Frontier onward is yesterday and today).

I think this thread would work a lot better if you also had to post your opinion of the album along with a basic description of what it sounds like; might provide this thread with a bit more content, as well as more potential for discussion, and other people might end up checking the album out if the description sounds cool to them.

Just to make sure I actually contribute, here's the last album I listened to:

Cough — Ritual Abuse: Some pretty decent Electric Wizard / Burning Witch worship, not remotely original in any way but if you're a sucker for doom metal like I am then it's worth listening to.

Well OK.

Slayer - Reign in Blood.

Been through this one a zillion times, as it's an acknowledged classic in one of my favorite genres. This time it seemed to sag a little in the second half, but the finale is so great that it always makes it worth it.

You're back. Haven't seen you around here in a while. Well anyway, the review idea seems like a good one

• Cowboys from Hell: I've recently started liking the non-hits from this one. It's a pretty valid album all-round.
• Destroyer: I bought this recently and decided to see how it stands on its own besides the singles. I had no idea Detroit Rock City would have that long intro, which is disappointing. Overall my favorites were God of Thunder and Shout It Out Loud.
• Rob Zombie's "Hellbilly Deluxe": I bought this on the same day as destroyer. Can't say I liked it much outside of the obvious songs.
• Dance of Death and The Final Frontier: This is likely my favorite Maiden album from the new millennium. It was listened to on random while I was out walking. The Final Frontier seemed lacking somehow outside the singles. I'll need to look into it further.
• Dirt: I was busy working on a project and was looking for something familiar to keep my mind going. As usual, Them Bones is a great intro-track and Would? is a great end-track. Other highlights include Dam That River, Rain When I Die, Rooster, Junkhead, God Smack, Angry Chair and Down in a Hole.
• British Steel, The Killing Machine, Jugulator and the first disc of "Nostradamus": I was on a Priest mood is all I can say. Jugulator seems like a pretty valid album on its own merits, despite the lack of Halford. I might look into finishing Nostradamus later.
• The Lost Children and The Sickness: I've listened to pieces from this band's discography thousands of times, so it's nothing new to me. I needed background noise at the time.
• Anthrax's "Worship Music": I've been addicted to this album since it came out. The whole thing could be called a highlight, but if I had to name some slightly weaker tracks, it'd be the intro and Earth On Hell together, The Giant and The Constant.

edited 21st Jan '12 9:30:05 AM by Alucard

I pretty much only listen to complete albums. Or sometimes mixtapes / compilations, which are almost the same thing. The only notable times I listen to individual tracks is when I'm on mumu player.

Last album I listened to: A mixtape of Cave Story remixes. I arranged it myself, so of course I like it.

Currently listening to: A Livingroom Hush by Jaga Jazzist. I'm ten years late, and only acquired this last December. The album's so great that the only downside is how it makes me like their more recent albums less than I used to. Now I have to wonder how they transitioned from the jazz/drum'n'bass of this album to the jazzy post-rock of What We Must.

edited 21st Jan '12 11:51:14 AM by MetaFour

Today:

• Mellow Bravo - Strut. A local band who play very seventies-ish hard rock. There's some ballad-ish tracks in there, but for the most part it's the kind of album I put on when I want some fun, loud music.
• The Runaways - The Runaways. I put itunes on shuffle for albums at this point actually, but it complements the mood of the Mellow Bravo record pretty well. I'm not huge on this album as an album though - the individual songs sound good, but if you listen to them all in a row they can start to feel a bit samey.
• Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Syd Barrett Pink Floyd is the only Pink Floyd I find myself interested in listening to now, for whatever reason. This album can get awfully silly and dated, but that's part of why I like it.
• Sonic Youth - Goo. Yeah, one of my favorite Sonic Youth albums is the "sellout" one, deal with it.
• X - Under The Big Black Sun. I've heard this, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, and Los Angeles is still my favorite, but I do like this one too - a lot of what I like about X is Exene and John harmonizing and there's tons of that.
• Coma Cinema - Blue Suicide. Supposedly "chillwave", but aside from using some deliberately cheesy synths and clearly being a one man operation, I'd place it more in the more general category of "introspective bedroom indie". Imagine what The Shins might have sounded like earlier on if James Mercer tried to play everything himself.
• Bad Rabbits - Stick Up Kids. They call themselves "New Crack Swing" - basically think of late 80's / early 90's r & b played with live instrumentation and a bit more of a "rock" feel.
• Bad Brains - Bad Brains. I'm not really an expert on Hardcore Punk, but I find I like it best when there's memorable riffs and a distinctive vocalist, and Bad Brains definitely have both of those. I'm a little iffy on the reggae tracks, but they work as an occasional break from the sonic onslaught. Also, this has "The Big Takeover" on it, which The Beastie Boys sampled about three notes of in "Pass The Mic".

Yesterday:

• Elliott Smith - XO. This is kind of my "too crappy to go outside" album.
• Beck - Midnite Vultures. I think this was shuffle again - some definite Mood Whiplash there, but I went with it. Kind of an underrated album; I find it to be his most fun album, and there's a lot of creative, groovy pop songs; I particularly like "Nicotine & Gravy".
• Daft Punk - Homework. I've always appreciated how well this album flows together.
• The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope. A little average compared to the two albums it came between (self-titled and London Calling), but there's undeniably some good material here.
• Cracker - Forever. Tried this out on Spotify - I think I'll hold off on buying it and get a few other albums of theirs first. It's not bad, it has it's share of good songs, it just strikes me as being a bit too "over-produced" for what's supposed to be one of their more roots-rock-ish albums. And the Pisstake Rap "What You're Missing" is a bit too self-consciously silly.

edited 21st Jan '12 4:51:34 PM by MikeK

Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished. Nice album, excellent song-writing. The high frequencies are a bit much at points, but otherwise I have very few objections.

I'll Sleep When You're Dead, by El-P.

I liked it, it's definitely not as 'out-there' as his earlier efforts, but it's still 13 tracks of solid and sometimes-great hip-hop.

T.I.'s No Mercy & Paper Trail. Former is meh, latter is very solid.

All three of Lupe Fiasco's albums, with Food & Liquor being my favorite.

Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon I. Got halfway bored midway through MOTM II, but some of the material is dope in it though.

Drake's Take Care. Only because I bought it for my sister for Christmas. After going through it, I remembered why I don't like him.

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Twice in a row.

Cosmogramma is boss

40 odd minutes of pure win.

Return to Forever: Hymn to the Seventh Galaxy was the last one.

John G. Perry: Sunset Wading is the one I’m currently listening to.

• AC/DC's "Back in Black", "Dirty Deeds" and "Highway to Hell": I was in the mood to binge. I think I've grown to like certain songs I didn't pay much attention to before (Let Me Put My Love Into You, Beating Around The Bush)
• "Black Bird" by Alter Bridge: I've listened to this about a hundred times. It's still quite good except its flaws are slowly starting to show themselves. I still think it's a classic.
• Tool's Ænima: Can't say that I'm into this band yet. This album didn't really convince me outside of Third Eye and the title track.
• "Stay Hungry" by Twisted Sister: I probably won't be listening through this again. A few songs stood out a bit, but overall is seems like one of the albums you'd buy for the singles.
• Whitesnake's Self-titled. At first I bought for a few of its songs. Children of the Night on the other hand sounds like a hidden gem. That being said, a hard rock album with three ballads comes off as a bit awkward.
• "Badmotorfinger" and "Superunknown" by Soundgarden: Ultimately I liked quite a few more gems off of Badmotorfinger. Superunknown had the hits of course, but other tracks tend to look much weaker by comparison.
• Rush's "Moving Picutres": Haven't listened to this one in a while. It's still golden all the way through.
• Blizzard of Ozz" and "Down to Earth" by Ozzy Osbourne: I noticed Dreamer seemed pretty similar to Goodbye to Romance. Not just because they're both soft either; their melodies remind me of the other.
• Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy": I don't care what anyone else says, this is a great album. I think people just want to find bad things to say about Axl Rose and anything he does.
• Eric Clapton Unplugged: I wanted to hear some quiet blues at the time. Got to like a few more songs than I thought I would.

edited 6th Jan '14 7:09:48 AM by Alucard

Yesterday:

• My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade is Dead!: A pretty good live album which ended the Black Parade era.

• Swagberg - Super Excellent Mixtape: A really good mixtape. He showed he wasn't a one-trick pony with Pony Swag. Maverick is the standout, having the beat from Massive Attack and a chorus which is just samples of Sarah Palin talking.

Today:

• Currently listening to Metro Station - Metro Station: An average pop album. Nothing that really stands out to me. The songs are catchy, but no earworms that get stuck in my head.

edited 22nd Jan '12 7:19:41 AM by CosmicBushell

SO OFTEN.

Just listened to: Distinto, diferente by the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Not bad, but I don't like it as much as their first album, and I can't put my finger on why.

Currently listening to: My Keita Kiriyama playlist. I wish more electronic music was this melodic.

A friend of mine gave me some stuff he thought I'd be interested in, so I've been listening to some of that:

• Betty Wright And The Roots - Betty Wright: The Movie. I enjoy this. It's surprisingly "modern" sounding while still having enough old school soul and funk in it to suit Betty Wright's voice. My only complaint is there's a couple A Wild Rapper Appears! moments (courtesy Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne) that don't feel terribly necessary.
• The Slackers - Better Late Than Never. Mid-90's ska, but much more traditional than is typical of the third wave stuff that was going on at the time. "Sarah" is a really catchy song.
• Various Artists - Music for Dancefloors: The Cream of the KPM Music Green Label Sessions. Threw this on with no idea what it was, though I recognized the name of Les Baxter in the track-listing... It's a collection of library music produced by one company in the 70's. Eclectic, but heavy on the jazz-funk - I can imagine most of this stuff playing over the opening credits to 70's exploitation films or cop shows. This is a lot of fun to listen to, and I'm probably going to dig the other volumes in this series as well.

edited 23rd Jan '12 10:34:21 AM by MikeK

Just finished My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

• Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind, Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: Powerslave is exactly as awesome as I remember it since my last listening (which is about two weeks ago). I grew to appreciate Seventh Son a bit more, but it's still not my favorite.
• Judas Priest's Stained Class and Screaming For Vengeance. Screaming still has most of the singable hits, so I prefer it.
• Dio's Holy Diver and Last in Line: Holy Diver is still the classic I remember it being. I bought Last in Line recently for We Rock and the title track, but I've also grown to like Evil Eyes, Egypt and I Speed at Night. However, I still don't like it as much as Holy Diver.
• Anthrax's Spreading the Disease and Worship Music: I still find Spreading the Disease horridly underrated. Aside from Aftershock, I like every single song on it (of course, Armed and Dangerous, Madhouse, Medusa and Lone Justice are particular standouts). I could probably listen to Worship Music for months and not get tired of it. It seems to have an absolutely perfect structure.
• Tool's Undertow: Nope. Still not quite into this band (though at least Crawl Away and Intolerance kind of grew on me).
• Coldplay's Parachutes: I wanted something quiet. Trouble had a pretty catchy piano riff.
• Dokken's Tooth and Nail: I really love this album. I kind of miss this vocal-style; not sure why people don't attempt it more often these days. I'm a pretty sappy person, so Alone Again is my most listened-to track off this album (Just Got Lucky is second).

edited 23rd Jan '12 9:19:11 AM by Alucard

The New Dumb - If You're Hearing This, We Didn't Make It. Given to me by the same friend who gave me all of that stuff above. This reminds me a bit of early At The Drive-In - the key differences are they're more melodic (there's a lot of gang vocals and Misfits-style "Whoa-oh"'s for instance) and can get quite a bit sillier than ATDI ever were ("Do You Enjoy Vultures?" is essentially an Apocalyptic Log about the whole band being attacked by vultures, "Applejack Anthem" is an ode to their dog and features a bridge where the band members take turns pretending to call said dog). Upon looking these guys up, I learned they're a semi-local band, so I might as well keep a look out for any shows near me, because they seem like they'd be fun live.

edited 23rd Jan '12 10:27:45 AM by MikeK

• Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer

I didn't like it at first - I found it to be too mellow compared to all their other albums. After repeated listens, I'm starting to like it a lot. All of the songs are solid on the album. I'd give it a five but I feel like something's missing. 4/5.

Suggested songs: "White Gold", "Ambulances", "Melting Ice", "Mirage", "Ace of Hz"

• Buggles - Age of Plastic

Pretty decent album. It's catchy, has one of the most famous songs ever recorded, and I'll probably listen to it regularly. I've only listened through it twice so I can't really formulate a full opinion so this is merely my first impression. I think it can still hold its own without "Video Killed the Radio Star". 4/5.

Suggested songs: "Living in the Plastic Age", "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Clean Clean"

• MGMT Congratulations

Great album. It's hard to describe, really. It's good, though. Outside of the opener, there's no song that seems like it could stand on its own. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but the album has a complete lack of singles making it harder to casually listen. 4/5

Suggested song: "It's Working".

edited 23rd Jan '12 4:17:29 PM by Completion

65 Days Of Static - Fall of Math: 4.5/5.

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma: 4/5.

Led Zeppelin - ''Presnce: 3.5/5.

Can - Soundtracks and Monster Movie: 4.5/5 and 4/5 respectively.

Neu! - Neu!: 4.5/5

King Crimson - Islands: 4/5

Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun: 4/5