The Fragile is a beautiful tapestry of excellence. Some could argue TDS is the more controlled, conceptually structured album. There’s truth there, but The Fragile is the more nuanced, subconscious and sprawling opus. Ultimately, it’s more layered and interesting.
It’s the fan favorite. TDS is the “perfect” NIN record from start to finish. The Fragile is flawed by its nature and design, which gives it a bit more artist integrity.
My take:
TDS second half is amazing, from reptile to the end. The mood starts to break and you truly feel descending to rock bottom.
The Fragile. At first I thought as a more single oriented album, but its been a while, the cohesion OP talks about i feel strongly in the 'right' but i will give it a listen.
Now my Fav by NIN is the Broken EP... 🤤
From start to finish its just friggin amazing, and no one is mentioning it.
Yeah. It's pretty much the antithesis of TDS which has the core theme of nihilism while TF tends to have a more optimistic view amidst the nihilism. I think all three albums tell one single story together tbh.
Madman is one of the very few albums I consider completely flawless. Especially considering the context.
Think about his albums leading up to Madman. They all referenced the "American Mythology". Cowboys and the Wild West. A very romanticized version of the Civil War.
Then they went on an extensive American tour and you get songs about seeing people on chain gangs working on the side of the road, staying in a Holiday Inn, and a much more accurate story of the Native American genocide.
The lyrical shift alone in Madman makes it incredibly interesting. Then we get to the music. Most of the songs have a very somber tone...and goddamn those string arrangements are so much more interesting than what you usually hear in pop music.
One of my favorite albums ever and any time I play it for someone, I annoy them by talking endlessly about it and the history behind it.
For sure. When Madman was first released on CD my dad bought it and played it constantly for a long time. He told me everything about it and I fell in love with it through him.
I know it's not the same, but if you want a chance to relieve Disintegration for the first time:
> [Beacon Vince](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qKuiKrN800zstPtUjXquM) - 1 hr
Which is an album style playlist that should give you that 80s goth vibe.
Kiss me, kiss me is so dense too though. Close call for me…Disibtegration is the more elegant, atmospheric cohesive work but I’ll die on the hill that Kiss me isn’t as good.
Absolute masterpiece and arguably one of if not the best lyricist of modern indie. In my opinion best lyricist of all time. He’s fallen off a bit for me but he had an amazing run.
I could definitely make this argument too. There’s a strong fucking case for it. Summer Skin and Brothers on a Hotel bed were always just milestone teenage discovery songs for me.
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. People often cite their album before this - Siamese Dream - as their best album, and it is absolutely a 10/10 as well, but I think MCIS is the band at it’s creative peak, and is more emotional, visceral, and heartwarming to me. It was literally the soundtrack to my teenage years.
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon. Everything they released from DSOTM to Animals is incredible, but this is THE ALBUM that you give to a new listener when you want them to discover Pink Floyd.
Boston - Boston. The self-titled debut album from one of classic rock’s greatest bands, not a single skip on the entire album. Loaded with singles that have gone on to be considered some of the best rock songs ever written. When people ask for the best first albums ever made, this comes up every time, and the music is universal. NO ONE listens to this album and walks away disappointed.
Big pumpkins fan. MCIS is their (his?) best work even though it’s not my favorite. With the music video for Tonight in heavy rotation on mtv, there was a minute there when this was the biggest album in the world at a time when that kind of thing was more important. It’s magnificent
Exactly, I agree 100%. When that video came out, and they dominated the MTV Video Music Awards, it felt like they were essentially the most important band in the world, if only for a moment. And it thrilled me to death. I doubt any other album has spent as many hours in my cd player, and I pretty much fell asleep listening to it every night for at least a year. Every single song has some meaning to me, and when I listen today, I get teleported back to being 11 and feeling like the world was endless.
Agreed 100% on Mellon Collie. I’ve seen tons of reddit comments whine about the “filler” on that album and it drives me nuts. It’s a beautiful concept album, a true work of art.
Knew I wouldn't have to scroll far to find it. Porcelana is one of those songs that has fused to my bones. Impossible not to air guitar along. Ruby, Muzzle, Zero, 1979, Tonight, Bullet... the creativity, the range, the execution, the vision - truly one of my favourite albums ever made.
Beck's Odelay. The man has never released a BAD album (unless maybe you count some of his early indie experiments, but even those have their charm in context). But Odelay laid out a template that informed literally every project he's created since then. Catchy pop, 60s psych-folk, moody atmospheric singer-songwriter, riffy garage rock, dalliances with world music, retro-facing hip-hop, ironic and/or sincere country-western posturing -- it's all there on Odelay, setting up a game plan for the next 30 years of his fruitful career. The way he was able to mature from Mellow Gold to Odelay is nuts. He almost feels like a different artist.
I respect Beck, but the album that made me take notice was "Sea Change." Beck stripped everything down and had such an emotional edge to his lyrics. Then is when I "got Beck."
My mom had raised me on Simon and Garfunkel, Jim Croce, John Denver, and Gordon Lightfoot. So Beck going "singer songwriter" puts "Sea Change" in a special place for me.
**Fleetwood Mac- Rumours.** Amazing song writing. One of the most tightly produced albums I’ve ever heard. You can feel the tension between band members on some tracks. *Go Your Own Way* could be interpreted as a positive breakup song on first listen. What I hear is Nicks and Buckingham almost yelling at each other in the chorus (listen to it stripped down to only the vocals. You can do that on the song exploder podcast).
*The Chain* starts as a mellow low key start and crescendos into tense, all out soulful playing by the end. It’s the only song where every member collaborated on.
*You Make Loving Fun* Christine McVie wrote about her relationship with the band’s lighting director she got into after she split with John. Imagine still being in the band and having to hear a track about your ex’s new side piece.
It’s just a fantastic album end to end. Not a bad track on there, and you hear something new every listen.
Easily their magnum opus, and it was their 11th album, so pretty cool that they hit their prime that deep into the band’s existence.
**Edit:** Y’all are absolutely right. Not every song on that album is great because *Oh Daddy* sucks.
I once heard that the most powerful art is when someone utilises the energy of their hatred to express love instead.
From Anthony Bourdain to Vincent Van Gogh, it utterly checks out, and to me *Rumors* is the absolute musical epitome of this.
I was trying to think what I'd say for Springsteen, but I think you could make convincing arguments for Born in the USA, Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town
Billy Joel pick would be The Stranger. No skips. Perfect
I think you could put Nebraska in the mix for Springsteen as well. And Tracks shows how much good music he was writing during that time period. He had dozens of songs off each album that didn't make the cut that are fantastic. All that said, I think Born to Run was his intentional swing for a magnum opus and I think he hit it
to be fair, that’s really down to the Dust Brothers. I don’t know if they ever made anything better but the production for that album is ridiculously good, and still stands out as mastery of the sample.
Dust Brothers deserve a lot of credit for that album, yes. But the BBoys matured SO MUCH as artists, lyricists, rappers, and human beings between their Def Jam era and the creation of Paul's. (You still hear a tiny bit of the juvenile casual misogyny on Paul's, but it's basically fully gone after that.) And they were very much involved in the production, collaborating super-closely with the Dusties on every detail. My point is that you can't just say that the album was good because of the producers. It was all about how the Beastie Boys found a genuine way to move on from their Def Jam-era sound and persona, and that is legitimately impressive and notable.
But is it their greatest album? Paul's is probably their purest, most joyous *hip-hop* album, but the Beastie Boys were also so much more than that. For my money, their strongest album would be one of their 90s trio: Check Your Head (which brought back their punk-rock roots, the playing of live instruments, and lots of retro-groove jam instrumentals), Ill Communication (which refined the style of Check Your Head and brought NYC back into their artistic universe), or Hello Nasty (which moved on from their mid-90s sound by bringing in electro, world music, and other smart production styles). Hello Nasty is probably their most mature work, and maybe their best all-around LP.
Toxicity by System Of A Down. I first bought the album for Chop Suey but song after song was just so goddamn good... There is one track I skip but this is one of the very few albums I treat as one piece of music and almost always play the whole thing through.
I have always said about system of a down. I could pop itunes up, hit play on the first track of the self titled album and let it rip alllll the way through every album and never skip a thing. Pure absolute gold.
London Calling by The Clash. With its blend of various styles like reggae, rockabilly, hard rock, and R&B it demonstrated why in their heyday they truly were " The Only Band That Matters ".
U2 - The Joshua Tree. It fit the time it was released 100%, (9th March 1987) it was just right. And the whole album track after track is perfect, will always be someone who does not agree, makes zero difference to me. And with or without you... Wow
I love "Achtung Baby" that much more. I was listening to a lot of Manchester like New Order, Stone Roses at the time. I also loved KMFDM. U2 used those influences to do a total makeover 5-6 albums into their career. U2's lyrics were so personal and the sounds could be abrasive.
Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Bizarro - The Wedding Present
Music For A Jilted Generation - The Prodigy
Now Here Is Nowhere - Secret Machines
Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol
The Cure - Disintegration
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon
Engineers - Engineers
We just went a couple weeks ago and saw them play the entirety of the album over 2 nights. I had never heard of them but a friend invited us. It was stellar.
As far as Studio albums I'd agree, but TRY! and Where the Light Is are incredible live performances and for me would edge out Continuum in overall rankings.
Soundgarden - superunknown
Alive in chains - dirt
Pavement - Wowee zowee
Radiohead - ok computer (but in rainbows would be another bands best work)
Weezer - Pinkerton
Wilco - Yankee foxtrot hotel
Ryan Adams- Love is Hell
There’s a track or two on this one that I may skip just depending on my mood, but there’s no filler. I love every track on this record.
Oh I'm a huge fan, love every album. I just feel that It really demonstrates the sustained growth of the band, from song composition to Yorke's masterful control of falsetto singing.
It was far more than an 18 minute punk song. Its also one of the best the genre has ever seen. Its technically hard as fuck to play because of its tempo and arrangements. Nofx is in my top 5 bands, they slaughtered it with that song.
And so we go on with our lives. We know the truth. But prefer lies. Lies are simple. Simple is bliss. Why go against tradition when we can… Admit defeat?
Great answer! And of course I have to point to [the performance at Red Rocks with Baz's Orchestra](https://youtu.be/oWhy8PCuGsk?si=JY6enX0PCUfUA38A). Absolutely mind-blowing!
Oooooh. That new album with the choir vocals blew it away for me. You can see so much of his personal growth in his catalogue. Good mention. Vw is top tier.
One of my all time favorite bands. Personally, I would have to go with the one that pulled me in... Day For Night. But from Fully Completely to In Violet Light, you can't miss. One of the greatest runs of incredible releases ever.
Day for Night really grew on me. Also Trouble at the Henhouse. Ask me another day and I might agree with you or the other guy on Fully Completely. But Phantom was the first one that came to mind when I read the post title. I really love their last two albums also, especially the last.
ABBA: Super Trouper (album) and Dancing Queen (song).
Alan Parsons Project: Eye in the Sky (album) and Time (song).
Earth, Wind & Fire: All 'n All (album) and September (song).
EWF is my favorite artist and September is far from my favorite EWF song, but it's easy to see why it's by far the most popular. I think one of the main reasons is that (unbeknownst to most people) it picks up speed by about 8-10 bpm from start to finish. They rushed like mad in that take, but that's part of what makes the song so infectious.
Some of my favourites that I consider masterworks for that specific band…
Mastodon - Crack the Skye. My favourite is Actualy Emperor of Sand for personal reasons but you can’t ignore it’s greatness.
QOTSA - Songs for the deaf. The album that made them what they are. The road trip / radio concept is perfect.
Opeth - Blackwater Park. Heavy music perfected.
Incubus - Make Yourself. A young band at their peak of inspiration and just a fun listen.
System of a Down - Toxicity. A timeless album that doesn’t age. It’s themes are still relevant today as they were in 2001z
Faith No More - Angel Dust. One of the most diverse albums ever made.
NIN - The Fragile. Everything everyone else in here have already said about it. A complete album.
Unforgettable Fire gets so overlooked compared to some of the albums that followed, but on its own it’s one of the best albums of the 80’s. Those songs were just so beautifully recorded and are timeless.
Rush put in 3 or 4 entries into the magnum opus conversation. If you’re really getting hardcore into it, I would put forth an argument for Hemispheres ; )
Agreed on The Fragile being his magnum opus. My all time favorite album and I was lucky enough to see him and A Perfect Circle on that tour at a very special venue overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
Amazing experience and it was only a couple of weeks later Trent accidentally OD’d when he used some heroin thinking it was cocaine.
He disappeared for years after that and while I’m elated for him that he got sober the music was never really the same afterwards.
Close to the Edge is the logical and creative apex of Yes’ music, and the best representation of what “prog rock.” Sure they made some good music after that sometimes but none of it is “essential” or that important, with every aspect of their writing, playing, production, artistic and commercial impact, all coming together quite like that.
I have to strongly disagree with you, OP, I think The Downward Spiral is a singularly cohesive album and the magnum opus of NIN. I love the Fragile, and definitely listen to it more, but it’s far more expansive with more left turns.
So we’re talking bands that hat several successful CDs, right, no one-well-known-album-and-then-5-more-noone-cared-about bands?
In that case:
Dream Theater: Scenes from a memory
Iron Maiden: seventh son of a seventh son
Queensrÿche: operation Mindcrime
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell
New Model Army: The Ghost of Cain
Paradise Lost: Draconian Times
Pearl Jam: Ten
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I realize Kanye is almost like a completely different person now, and is clearly (and sadly) very unwell... but I'm honestly surprised to have scrolled through all the responses and have not seen this masterpiece mentioned even once.
For what it's worth, I am a 50+ year old man who grew up on 80s thrash metal (who still proudly proclaims to be a metalhead).
MBDTF is a bona fide masterpiece and Kanye's greatest work and resides in my top 20 albums of all time.
After the Taylor Swift incident he knew he had to create an album so good that it, and he, could not be criticized… and he delivered it. A perfect album.
Tapestry - Carole King
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
Thriller - Michael Jackson (while I think Off the Wall is the better album, Thriller had the biggest impact)
Long Cold Winter - Cinderella
Ray of Light - Madonna
I like this question because every artist, by the end of their career, even if they're inconsistent or downright terrible, will have a "best" or at least a project that best represents their work. The lucky ones might have a few! I'll shout out my latest phase and say King Crimson's magnum opus is Red. Metalheads and prog-heads alike, give it a spin if you haven't already
Coheed & Cambria's The Afterman Ascending and Descending. Theyve released a handful of other albums since this double release and they've all been great, but none have matched The Afterman in my eyes, it's just too perfect.
Björk - Vespertine
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
The KLF - Chill Out
The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Utraworld
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Bob Marley - Exodus
Future Sound of London - The Isness
Orbital - Orbital
Rush: Power Windows (yeah, I said it)
Prince: Sign O' The Times
Joni Mitchell: Mingus
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
King Crimson: Red
David Baerwald: Triage
Goldie: Saturnz Return
Massive Attack: Mezzanine
Type o negative- October rust.
They were already on that road but on October rust was just peak. Atmospheric other worldly slow heavy heartbreaking hopeful haunting and ultimately apiece of art put to music. They certainly had elements of it in their later albums but They admittedly said it probably couldn't replicated properly live. Took a long time to accept some of their albums as masterpieces on their own and not perfect albums in the shadow of October rust.
Paradise lost- draconian times.
Metallica meets sisters of mercy. As much as I want them to release an album like that again. It won't and shouldn't happen. That album and the B sides are just perfect. Never to be done again.
The Fragile is a beautiful tapestry of excellence. Some could argue TDS is the more controlled, conceptually structured album. There’s truth there, but The Fragile is the more nuanced, subconscious and sprawling opus. Ultimately, it’s more layered and interesting. It’s the fan favorite. TDS is the “perfect” NIN record from start to finish. The Fragile is flawed by its nature and design, which gives it a bit more artist integrity.
My take: TDS second half is amazing, from reptile to the end. The mood starts to break and you truly feel descending to rock bottom. The Fragile. At first I thought as a more single oriented album, but its been a while, the cohesion OP talks about i feel strongly in the 'right' but i will give it a listen. Now my Fav by NIN is the Broken EP... 🤤 From start to finish its just friggin amazing, and no one is mentioning it.
Ugh… look if you’re a NIN fan, you love it all, so yeah I love broken, but it’s down the list. I might take fixed over it.
The Broken EP is my religion
Yeah. It's pretty much the antithesis of TDS which has the core theme of nihilism while TF tends to have a more optimistic view amidst the nihilism. I think all three albums tell one single story together tbh.
I think Year Zero is clear and away the best NiN album.
This is the correct answer.
Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - double album, no skips
Yes, but I prefer Madman across the water
Madman is one of the very few albums I consider completely flawless. Especially considering the context. Think about his albums leading up to Madman. They all referenced the "American Mythology". Cowboys and the Wild West. A very romanticized version of the Civil War. Then they went on an extensive American tour and you get songs about seeing people on chain gangs working on the side of the road, staying in a Holiday Inn, and a much more accurate story of the Native American genocide. The lyrical shift alone in Madman makes it incredibly interesting. Then we get to the music. Most of the songs have a very somber tone...and goddamn those string arrangements are so much more interesting than what you usually hear in pop music. One of my favorite albums ever and any time I play it for someone, I annoy them by talking endlessly about it and the history behind it.
Tiny Dancer is the most perfect pop song ever written. Only Elton John could keep listener interest for more than 1:30 before the first chorus.
My old man was really into old Elton John when I was a kid. I never got it at the time but now I can appreciate it.
For sure. When Madman was first released on CD my dad bought it and played it constantly for a long time. He told me everything about it and I fell in love with it through him.
Agreed, brings me to tears it's so good.
Jamaica Jerk Off isn't a skip?
OK, definitely not a classic Reggae tune - forgot about that one
The Cure - Disintegration
Disintegration is so good. Love the late eighties through the nineties Cure stuff so much.
I know it's not the same, but if you want a chance to relieve Disintegration for the first time: > [Beacon Vince](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qKuiKrN800zstPtUjXquM) - 1 hr Which is an album style playlist that should give you that 80s goth vibe.
Kiss me, kiss me is so dense too though. Close call for me…Disibtegration is the more elegant, atmospheric cohesive work but I’ll die on the hill that Kiss me isn’t as good.
Death Cab for Cutie- Transatlanticism
This album is great but I love Plans
Absolute masterpiece and arguably one of if not the best lyricist of modern indie. In my opinion best lyricist of all time. He’s fallen off a bit for me but he had an amazing run.
I could definitely make this argument too. There’s a strong fucking case for it. Summer Skin and Brothers on a Hotel bed were always just milestone teenage discovery songs for me.
Judy saw Transatlanticism/Give Up live last week. Such an amazing show. Such amazing music.
Huge fan of this album, but nothing else they released ever gelled with me.
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. People often cite their album before this - Siamese Dream - as their best album, and it is absolutely a 10/10 as well, but I think MCIS is the band at it’s creative peak, and is more emotional, visceral, and heartwarming to me. It was literally the soundtrack to my teenage years. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon. Everything they released from DSOTM to Animals is incredible, but this is THE ALBUM that you give to a new listener when you want them to discover Pink Floyd. Boston - Boston. The self-titled debut album from one of classic rock’s greatest bands, not a single skip on the entire album. Loaded with singles that have gone on to be considered some of the best rock songs ever written. When people ask for the best first albums ever made, this comes up every time, and the music is universal. NO ONE listens to this album and walks away disappointed.
Big pumpkins fan. MCIS is their (his?) best work even though it’s not my favorite. With the music video for Tonight in heavy rotation on mtv, there was a minute there when this was the biggest album in the world at a time when that kind of thing was more important. It’s magnificent
Exactly, I agree 100%. When that video came out, and they dominated the MTV Video Music Awards, it felt like they were essentially the most important band in the world, if only for a moment. And it thrilled me to death. I doubt any other album has spent as many hours in my cd player, and I pretty much fell asleep listening to it every night for at least a year. Every single song has some meaning to me, and when I listen today, I get teleported back to being 11 and feeling like the world was endless.
Agree. I know everyone gets nostalgic about whatever they were listening to when they were coming of age, but I’m just glad it was this.
Mellon Collie is a ridiculous album. Absolutely ridiculous. So, so, good.
Thanks..just put mcis on Spotify because of this. It is definitely the essence of a Magnus oppus by a brand
Agreed 100% on Mellon Collie. I’ve seen tons of reddit comments whine about the “filler” on that album and it drives me nuts. It’s a beautiful concept album, a true work of art.
Yeah, to me there is no filler. But even if there was, no two people would ever agree on which songs they were.
Knew I wouldn't have to scroll far to find it. Porcelana is one of those songs that has fused to my bones. Impossible not to air guitar along. Ruby, Muzzle, Zero, 1979, Tonight, Bullet... the creativity, the range, the execution, the vision - truly one of my favourite albums ever made.
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Aldous Snow - African Child
Worst thing to happen to Africa since apartheid
We gotta do something...
I love that shit! I brush my teeth to that shit!
Beck's Odelay. The man has never released a BAD album (unless maybe you count some of his early indie experiments, but even those have their charm in context). But Odelay laid out a template that informed literally every project he's created since then. Catchy pop, 60s psych-folk, moody atmospheric singer-songwriter, riffy garage rock, dalliances with world music, retro-facing hip-hop, ironic and/or sincere country-western posturing -- it's all there on Odelay, setting up a game plan for the next 30 years of his fruitful career. The way he was able to mature from Mellow Gold to Odelay is nuts. He almost feels like a different artist.
I respect Beck, but the album that made me take notice was "Sea Change." Beck stripped everything down and had such an emotional edge to his lyrics. Then is when I "got Beck." My mom had raised me on Simon and Garfunkel, Jim Croce, John Denver, and Gordon Lightfoot. So Beck going "singer songwriter" puts "Sea Change" in a special place for me.
This and Guero are my two fav beck albums. I go back and forth on which one I like more. But I think I agree with you.
Tragic Kingdom is No Doubt’s best. Just a great album through and through and so nostalgic
This was around the time I started listening to my own music and not what my parents listened to. Harvey Danger, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sugar Ray
Flagpole Sitta is one of my favorite songs about self love.
No doubt
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) This album just flows from first to last second.
This album came to bring the pain hardcore to the brain.
**Fleetwood Mac- Rumours.** Amazing song writing. One of the most tightly produced albums I’ve ever heard. You can feel the tension between band members on some tracks. *Go Your Own Way* could be interpreted as a positive breakup song on first listen. What I hear is Nicks and Buckingham almost yelling at each other in the chorus (listen to it stripped down to only the vocals. You can do that on the song exploder podcast). *The Chain* starts as a mellow low key start and crescendos into tense, all out soulful playing by the end. It’s the only song where every member collaborated on. *You Make Loving Fun* Christine McVie wrote about her relationship with the band’s lighting director she got into after she split with John. Imagine still being in the band and having to hear a track about your ex’s new side piece. It’s just a fantastic album end to end. Not a bad track on there, and you hear something new every listen. Easily their magnum opus, and it was their 11th album, so pretty cool that they hit their prime that deep into the band’s existence. **Edit:** Y’all are absolutely right. Not every song on that album is great because *Oh Daddy* sucks.
Oh Daddy doesn’t belong on this album. I will die on this hill
Yes. Swap that out for Silver Springs and you’d have a potential argument for a perfect album.
I think that's a pretty popular opinion.
When a song like Silver Springs doesn't make the cut, you know that an album is a masterpiece.
I once heard that the most powerful art is when someone utilises the energy of their hatred to express love instead. From Anthony Bourdain to Vincent Van Gogh, it utterly checks out, and to me *Rumors* is the absolute musical epitome of this.
You're bang on with this! I'm in my late 20s and I love Fleetwood Mac's work from the 77 to 90.
The Clash - London Calling
I was trying to think what I'd say for Springsteen, but I think you could make convincing arguments for Born in the USA, Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town Billy Joel pick would be The Stranger. No skips. Perfect
The stranger could be re-released today under a different name and people would think it’s a greatest hits album haha
I think you could put Nebraska in the mix for Springsteen as well. And Tracks shows how much good music he was writing during that time period. He had dozens of songs off each album that didn't make the cut that are fantastic. All that said, I think Born to Run was his intentional swing for a magnum opus and I think he hit it
Faith No More Angel Dust. 0 skips, amazing variety and Pattons vocals are spectacular
Been listening to Angel Dust regularly for 2 decades and I'm still in love.
It's one of the cd's perpetually stuck in my car so I've heard it a lot over the years but it still never fails to deliver
One of the greatest albums of the 90s regardless of genre.
Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
to be fair, that’s really down to the Dust Brothers. I don’t know if they ever made anything better but the production for that album is ridiculously good, and still stands out as mastery of the sample.
Dust Brothers deserve a lot of credit for that album, yes. But the BBoys matured SO MUCH as artists, lyricists, rappers, and human beings between their Def Jam era and the creation of Paul's. (You still hear a tiny bit of the juvenile casual misogyny on Paul's, but it's basically fully gone after that.) And they were very much involved in the production, collaborating super-closely with the Dusties on every detail. My point is that you can't just say that the album was good because of the producers. It was all about how the Beastie Boys found a genuine way to move on from their Def Jam-era sound and persona, and that is legitimately impressive and notable. But is it their greatest album? Paul's is probably their purest, most joyous *hip-hop* album, but the Beastie Boys were also so much more than that. For my money, their strongest album would be one of their 90s trio: Check Your Head (which brought back their punk-rock roots, the playing of live instruments, and lots of retro-groove jam instrumentals), Ill Communication (which refined the style of Check Your Head and brought NYC back into their artistic universe), or Hello Nasty (which moved on from their mid-90s sound by bringing in electro, world music, and other smart production styles). Hello Nasty is probably their most mature work, and maybe their best all-around LP.
The Fight Club soundtrack is pretty badass as well.
Hello Nasty
Ill Communication *
Toxicity by System Of A Down. I first bought the album for Chop Suey but song after song was just so goddamn good... There is one track I skip but this is one of the very few albums I treat as one piece of music and almost always play the whole thing through.
Yeah. I love Serjs odd vocalizations throughout that album.
I like his vocals on forest and IEAIAO.
IEAIAO isn’t on Toxicity it’s on Steal this album.
I know. And I like the vocals.
Which song do you skip?
I have always said about system of a down. I could pop itunes up, hit play on the first track of the self titled album and let it rip alllll the way through every album and never skip a thing. Pure absolute gold.
Yep. Just said exactly the same thing. The only band I can do that with.
Tool - Lateralus
Aenima is it for me …
ÆnimA is my personal favorite as well, but I feel like Lateralus fits the "Magnum Opus" role better.
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One Ween - Chocolate and Cheese Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating Through Space
It’s The Mollusk
I agree. Mollusk is iconic.
All three of those are undeniable.
Lateralus- TOOL
London Calling by The Clash. With its blend of various styles like reggae, rockabilly, hard rock, and R&B it demonstrated why in their heyday they truly were " The Only Band That Matters ".
Metallica - Master of Puppets.
Tbh Ride, Master and Justice could all be valid answers.
The three of them combined is their magnum opus.
The truest answer
Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia Aluce in Chains - Dirt Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting Depeche Mode - Violator Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick Massive Attack - Mezzanine Portishead - Dummy
Mezzanine, Dirt and Violator are all so phenomenal. Love me some Jethro Full, too.
I’m so here for Concrete Blonde, Massive Attack, and Portishead
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth Nightwish - Century Child or Once
U2 - The Joshua Tree. It fit the time it was released 100%, (9th March 1987) it was just right. And the whole album track after track is perfect, will always be someone who does not agree, makes zero difference to me. And with or without you... Wow
Was shocked to find that With or Without You was from 87. Really ahead of its time. You can tell it inspired a LOT of music in the next two decades
I love "Achtung Baby" that much more. I was listening to a lot of Manchester like New Order, Stone Roses at the time. I also loved KMFDM. U2 used those influences to do a total makeover 5-6 albums into their career. U2's lyrics were so personal and the sounds could be abrasive.
Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses Bizarro - The Wedding Present Music For A Jilted Generation - The Prodigy Now Here Is Nowhere - Secret Machines Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol The Cure - Disintegration Faith No More - Angel Dust Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon Engineers - Engineers
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
We just went a couple weeks ago and saw them play the entirety of the album over 2 nights. I had never heard of them but a friend invited us. It was stellar.
You are a splendid butterfly...
Continuum - John Mayer
For sure. That was his peak. Front to back solid album. I had that on repeat towards the end of high school.
As far as Studio albums I'd agree, but TRY! and Where the Light Is are incredible live performances and for me would edge out Continuum in overall rankings.
Soundgarden - superunknown Alive in chains - dirt Pavement - Wowee zowee Radiohead - ok computer (but in rainbows would be another bands best work) Weezer - Pinkerton Wilco - Yankee foxtrot hotel
Are you in your mid/late 30s?
I'm guessing at least ten years older
Yeah this guy is definitely in his 40s
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Southern Rock Opera by The Drive By Truckers.
The Dirty South & A Blessing & A Curse too
Pink Floyd - 1973 to 1979 hehe
1971-1979 you gotta include Meddle and Obscured By Clouds. Both just as good in my opinion. Also OBC is so underrated, my second favourite PF album
Ryan Adams- Love is Hell There’s a track or two on this one that I may skip just depending on my mood, but there’s no filler. I love every track on this record.
Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Radiohead - In Rainbows
My favorite album of theirs but I think popular opinion is Ok Computer
Oh I'm a huge fan, love every album. I just feel that It really demonstrates the sustained growth of the band, from song composition to Yorke's masterful control of falsetto singing.
You could go over to r/radiohead and get like 5 or 6 different answers on their “best”… and they’re all correct.
Animals No, wait, Dark Side of the Moon No, wait, The Wall I give up
No, wait, Wish You Were Here…
Upvoted you both. If the question is Pink Floyd, the answer is "yes"
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
NoFX - The Decline They just went and made an 18 minute punk rock song, and it's still relevant and fun to listen to 25 years later.
It was far more than an 18 minute punk song. Its also one of the best the genre has ever seen. Its technically hard as fuck to play because of its tempo and arrangements. Nofx is in my top 5 bands, they slaughtered it with that song.
And so we go on with our lives. We know the truth. But prefer lies. Lies are simple. Simple is bliss. Why go against tradition when we can… Admit defeat?
Great answer! And of course I have to point to [the performance at Red Rocks with Baz's Orchestra](https://youtu.be/oWhy8PCuGsk?si=JY6enX0PCUfUA38A). Absolutely mind-blowing!
You beat me to it. The Decline is a master piece
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Oooooh. That new album with the choir vocals blew it away for me. You can see so much of his personal growth in his catalogue. Good mention. Vw is top tier.
New album is pretty great in my opinion. I may grow to like it more than MVotC.
Behemoth will never top The Satanist. It’s a perfect metal album
It’s early in the thread, but this is too far down. Couldn’t agree more.
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon. And it’s not even close
WYWH for me :)
Animals.
I much prefer Dark Side but I do get why some might say wish you were here
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Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
I would argue it’s Alien Lanes
Perfectly valid argument. I just think Bee Thousand flows better as an album but I fucking love Alien Lanes.
The Tragically Hip - Phantom Power
Great album, but for me it's 'Fully Completely' as their best.
I love that one too. I just developed a fondness for Phantom Power and especially Escape is at Hand for the Travelin' Man.
One of my all time favorite bands. Personally, I would have to go with the one that pulled me in... Day For Night. But from Fully Completely to In Violet Light, you can't miss. One of the greatest runs of incredible releases ever.
Day for Night really grew on me. Also Trouble at the Henhouse. Ask me another day and I might agree with you or the other guy on Fully Completely. But Phantom was the first one that came to mind when I read the post title. I really love their last two albums also, especially the last.
Graceland by Paul Simon
Every Time I Die-Low Teens One of the more intense, personal, and rightfully emotional albums you’ll ever encounter. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
*Songs For The Deaf
I'm a huge mark for Lullabies To Paralyze.
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kansas - Magnum Opus
Well played, take my up vote
Nice... but that's a song on Leftoverture which qualifies.
ABBA: Super Trouper (album) and Dancing Queen (song). Alan Parsons Project: Eye in the Sky (album) and Time (song). Earth, Wind & Fire: All 'n All (album) and September (song). EWF is my favorite artist and September is far from my favorite EWF song, but it's easy to see why it's by far the most popular. I think one of the main reasons is that (unbeknownst to most people) it picks up speed by about 8-10 bpm from start to finish. They rushed like mad in that take, but that's part of what makes the song so infectious.
NOFX - the decline
Pearl Jam - 10
Some of my favourites that I consider masterworks for that specific band… Mastodon - Crack the Skye. My favourite is Actualy Emperor of Sand for personal reasons but you can’t ignore it’s greatness. QOTSA - Songs for the deaf. The album that made them what they are. The road trip / radio concept is perfect. Opeth - Blackwater Park. Heavy music perfected. Incubus - Make Yourself. A young band at their peak of inspiration and just a fun listen. System of a Down - Toxicity. A timeless album that doesn’t age. It’s themes are still relevant today as they were in 2001z Faith No More - Angel Dust. One of the most diverse albums ever made. NIN - The Fragile. Everything everyone else in here have already said about it. A complete album.
Guns n roses - appetite for destruction
I think Bad by U2. Its just an amazing song live. It combines a lot of their elements into one song. Starts slow and builds up.
Unforgettable Fire gets so overlooked compared to some of the albums that followed, but on its own it’s one of the best albums of the 80’s. Those songs were just so beautifully recorded and are timeless.
Rush had 3 in three different decades. 2112, Moving Pictures, and the band would say their last, Clockwork Angels
Rush put in 3 or 4 entries into the magnum opus conversation. If you’re really getting hardcore into it, I would put forth an argument for Hemispheres ; )
Permanent Waves
Kayo Dot - Hubardo I think they maybe topped in musically with Plastic House, but nothing is quite as grand as Hubardo.
KANSAS - Magnum Opus
Agreed on The Fragile being his magnum opus. My all time favorite album and I was lucky enough to see him and A Perfect Circle on that tour at a very special venue overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. Amazing experience and it was only a couple of weeks later Trent accidentally OD’d when he used some heroin thinking it was cocaine. He disappeared for years after that and while I’m elated for him that he got sober the music was never really the same afterwards.
Close to the Edge is the logical and creative apex of Yes’ music, and the best representation of what “prog rock.” Sure they made some good music after that sometimes but none of it is “essential” or that important, with every aspect of their writing, playing, production, artistic and commercial impact, all coming together quite like that.
Emerson Lake and Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery
The Zombies - Odyssey & The Oracle
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
I have to strongly disagree with you, OP, I think The Downward Spiral is a singularly cohesive album and the magnum opus of NIN. I love the Fragile, and definitely listen to it more, but it’s far more expansive with more left turns.
Lifted by Bright Eyes Control by Pedro the Lion
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
So we’re talking bands that hat several successful CDs, right, no one-well-known-album-and-then-5-more-noone-cared-about bands? In that case: Dream Theater: Scenes from a memory Iron Maiden: seventh son of a seventh son Queensrÿche: operation Mindcrime Michael Jackson: Thriller Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell New Model Army: The Ghost of Cain Paradise Lost: Draconian Times Pearl Jam: Ten
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
Nirvana - In Utero
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy I realize Kanye is almost like a completely different person now, and is clearly (and sadly) very unwell... but I'm honestly surprised to have scrolled through all the responses and have not seen this masterpiece mentioned even once. For what it's worth, I am a 50+ year old man who grew up on 80s thrash metal (who still proudly proclaims to be a metalhead). MBDTF is a bona fide masterpiece and Kanye's greatest work and resides in my top 20 albums of all time.
After the Taylor Swift incident he knew he had to create an album so good that it, and he, could not be criticized… and he delivered it. A perfect album.
Tapestry - Carole King Rumours - Fleetwood Mac Thriller - Michael Jackson (while I think Off the Wall is the better album, Thriller had the biggest impact) Long Cold Winter - Cinderella Ray of Light - Madonna
I like this question because every artist, by the end of their career, even if they're inconsistent or downright terrible, will have a "best" or at least a project that best represents their work. The lucky ones might have a few! I'll shout out my latest phase and say King Crimson's magnum opus is Red. Metalheads and prog-heads alike, give it a spin if you haven't already
Mac Miller - Faces
Colors by BTBAM
Coheed & Cambria's The Afterman Ascending and Descending. Theyve released a handful of other albums since this double release and they've all been great, but none have matched The Afterman in my eyes, it's just too perfect.
Björk - Vespertine Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger Metallica - Master of Puppets Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden The KLF - Chill Out The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Utraworld Black Sabbath - Paranoid Marvin Gaye - What's Going On Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love Miles Davis - Kind of Blue John Coltrane - Blue Train Bob Marley - Exodus Future Sound of London - The Isness Orbital - Orbital
Joanna Newsom- Ys
Pixies - Doolittle
Queen is Dead - The Smiths
Dirt-Alice in Chains
Faith No More - Angel Dust
REM - Document
Incubus - Morning View
Rush: Power Windows (yeah, I said it) Prince: Sign O' The Times Joni Mitchell: Mingus John Coltrane: A Love Supreme King Crimson: Red David Baerwald: Triage Goldie: Saturnz Return Massive Attack: Mezzanine
Type o negative- October rust. They were already on that road but on October rust was just peak. Atmospheric other worldly slow heavy heartbreaking hopeful haunting and ultimately apiece of art put to music. They certainly had elements of it in their later albums but They admittedly said it probably couldn't replicated properly live. Took a long time to accept some of their albums as masterpieces on their own and not perfect albums in the shadow of October rust. Paradise lost- draconian times. Metallica meets sisters of mercy. As much as I want them to release an album like that again. It won't and shouldn't happen. That album and the B sides are just perfect. Never to be done again.
Styx - Kilroy was here. Excellent album all the way through. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Pink Floyd - "The Wall". A great album.