Top 5 Pop Albums

loveissucide · 03-06-2010, 07:26 AM

Righto, I think this is a term that's become undeservedly derogatory. What are MB Readers Top 5 Pop albums, so as to prove there's gold among the Top 40 dross.(No compilations). Mine would have to be
1.Lexicon Of Love-ABC. Possibly the most purely enjoyable record ever made, and there's so much wit and genuine emotion under all the glorious Trevor Horn production.
2.Something Else By The Kinks-a perfect disc of 60's pop, with every track a joy and Ray Davies' finest set of lyrics. Plus it has Waterloo Sunset on it.
3.Actually-Pet Shop Boys. Proof the genre can have work of genuine substance within it, with many of these songs bearing grim subject manner and harsh judgements on the 80's.
4.Steve McQueen-Prefab Sprout. It's the way it uses the most insincere music imaginable to dissect emotional chaos. Chris Martin should be forced to hear this if he thinks mewling "I WILL TRY TO FFFFFIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXX YYYYOOUUUUU" is articulating despair.
5.Armed Forces-Elvis Costello. All the good aspects of late 70's pop, but with actual substance there, as the man is in the lyrical form of his life here. It's the way it all sounds perfect on radio, even though all the songs are essentially about people either physically or emotionally destroying each other or themselves.

Nykeisha Alexandria · 03-06-2010, 03:25 PM

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson
2. The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga
3. Jade - Sweetbox
4. Britney Spears - Blackout
5. Ke$ha - Animal

[My personal top 5 pop albums]

Urban Hat€monger ? · 03-06-2010, 04:16 PM

David Bowie - Low
Practically the template for all 80s synth pop.
Yes he wasn't the first to do this kind of thing, but for someone who was basically a pop star coming out with something so left field must have come as quite a shock at the time.
Could you imagine someone like Lady Gaga coming out with a krautrock album now? I don't think so.
I doubt any record company these days would let a major star make something so experimental today.

XTC - English Settlement
A double album of finely crafted pop songs from a great band at their peak. I love XTC dearly but I don't think any of their other albums come even close to touching this one.

Pulp - His n Hers
I grew up with this one and must have played it to death over the years.Some of the themes on the album are pretty dark & disturbing in a kind of suburbanite way with Jarvis Cocker's low hushed Scott Walkerish delivery but it's layered on some really bouncy catchy pop hooks to make it more palatable.

Orange Juice - You Can't Hide Your Love Forever
I've always found it a shame this band don't get much more credit than they do. They basically invented 80s jangly indie pop years before The Smiths even showed up. Edwin Collins has an amazing ear for a melody and this album is chock full of them.

The Human League - Dare
You have to admire Phil Oakey. He replaced two musos like Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh with a couple of teenage girls he met in a nightclub.
Let me repeat that...
HE REPLACED TWO MUSOS LIKE MARTYN WARE AND IAN CRAIG MARSH WITH A COUPLE OF TEENAGE GIRLS HE MET IN A NIGHTCLUB. and ended up making their best ever album turning his back on experimental electronica designed to impress art students and made one of the greatest pop albums ever written.
Well done that man.

Rickenbacker · 03-06-2010, 05:48 PM

1. Brian Wilson - SMiLE
The child of a life of hardship and toil, SMiLE, which was finally released in 2004 is an absolute masterpiece of pop, and arguably the best of the genre.

2. XTC - English Settlement
Sprawling and masterfully crafted, English Settlement is the only time XTC's signature formula ever truly worked. Not to mention the top songwriting present with Senses Working Overtime and Jason and the Argonauts. Suffice to say that XTC was doing most of what is present on Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" decades earlier.

3. Scott Walker - Scott 4
Forget his later work of the avante-gard and consider that the mysterious musical mastermind crafted perhaps the best pop record of the 60s. One can praise Scott's eclecticism to no end, but also note the gorgeous production and vocal deliveries here.

4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective's pop record has been called the future of pop music. That may be a far-fetched claim, but that is not to negate how great this album is. MPP is a perfectly crafted mix of XTC complexity, Beach Boys vocal arrangements, and more than a touch of originality (of which the Maryland group has much). Brothersport is the jam of the decade.

5. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
1999 was a hopeful year. On the edge of a millenium, everybody wanted to know what the next thousand years would hold. The Flaming Lips' masterpiece "The Soft Bulletin", released that year, should have been the future of music. Shame it won't be.

Bulldog · 03-07-2010, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger

The Human League - Dare
You have to admire Phil Oakey. He replaced two musos like Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh with a couple of teenage girls he met in a nightclub.
Let me repeat that...
HE REPLACED TWO MUSOS LIKE MARTYN WARE AND IAN CRAIG MARSH WITH A COUPLE OF TEENAGE GIRLS HE MET IN A NIGHTCLUB. and ended up making their best ever album turning his back on experimental electronica designed to impress art students and made one of the greatest pop albums ever written.
Well done that man.

^ Is basically what I was going to say.

So then, the other four...

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

The soundtrack to a great movie here makes for probably my favourite out-and-out pop album of all time. For me, songs like When I Get Home, I Should Have Known Better, You Can't Do That, Can't Buy Me Love, Tell Me Why, and maybe the rest of the album are just totally unforgettable for all the vocal harmonies, infectious hooks and terrific melodies. So, yeah, good stuff then.
YouTube - The Beatles - I Should Have Known Better

Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85

Take the Human League's experiments on Dare of recording everything on synth, add Green Gartside sacking his entire band and replacing with funky session men from New York, and this masterpiece is what you get. It's one of the examples of how synth-heavy the pop production methods of the 80s can actually enhance music if placed in the right hands. While this album didn't quite write the book for the 'new pop' of the 80s, it definitely took the whole thing that little bit further forward, which is just fine really.

YouTube - Scritti Politti - Absolute (Original Extended Vers. - Bigar Edit)

The Desert Rose Band - The Desert Rose Band

The first and by far best album from Chris Hillman (a founding member of the Byrds for those who don't know) and Herb Pedersen's 80s C&W outfit, which melds that laid back vibe that only a top-drawer country album seems to be able to pull off with some sublime pop hooks and melodies with fantastic results. That and the fact that the chorus for One That Got Away is one of the best I've heard make this a real winner for me.

YouTube - One Step Forward - Desert Rose Band

Prince - The Gold Experience

It has the Most Beautiful Girl In the World on it. Nuff said.

khfreek · 03-07-2010, 07:49 AM

Wow, this English Settlement album is really good, thanks for including it in lists!

In no order (except for number 1):

1. Lost and Gone Forever - Guster
perfect perfect perfect. I grew up with them and still am not bored with this album. Bongos, dude!

Aim and Ignite - fun.
What you get when you have a fantastic vocalist and songwriter pair up with an indie multi-instrumentalist god. Undeniably catchy.

Origin of Symmetry - Muse
Best album by one of my favorite pop bands? To quote one of their song titles, Yes Please

Parklife - Blur
I am getting tired of writing these things. Damon Albarn is really good?

Le Sac Des Filles - Camille
I really like almost every track she does, but this album has the least over-the-top-ness of her albums.

jackhammer · 03-10-2010, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loveissucide

Righto, I think this is a term that's become undeservedly derogatory. What are MB Readers Top 5 Pop albums, so as to prove there's gold among the Top 40 dross.(No compilations). Mine would have to be
1.Lexicon Of Love-ABC. Possibly the most purely enjoyable record ever made, and there's so much wit and genuine emotion under all the glorious Trevor Horn production.
2.Something Else By The Kinks-a perfect disc of 60's pop, with every track a joy and Ray Davies' finest set of lyrics. Plus it has Waterloo Sunset on it.
3.Actually-Pet Shop Boys. Proof the genre can have work of genuine substance within it, with many of these songs bearing grim subject manner and harsh judgements on the 80's.
4.Steve McQueen-Prefab Sprout. It's the way it uses the most insincere music imaginable to dissect emotional chaos. Chris Martin should be forced to hear this if he thinks mewling "I WILL TRY TO FFFFFIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXX YYYYOOUUUUU" is articulating despair.
5.Armed Forces-Elvis Costello. All the good aspects of late 70's pop, but with actual substance there, as the man is in the lyrical form of his life here. It's the way it all sounds perfect on radio, even though all the songs are essentially about people either physically or emotionally destroying each other or themselves.

Good call on Prefab Sprout. I think this is one of the most perfect Pop songs I have ever heard:

I will add my 5 after a bit of thought soon.

Anteater · 03-10-2010, 10:04 PM

Hmn, hard to pick favorites considering how much I like, but these five do the job I think-

5. Queensryche - Empire (1990)

About as close to a reconciliation between a strong pop sensibility and metal aesthetic as you'll ever find in popular music, a trend which has only been stomped on and watered down in subsequent years by countless other bands. 'Silent Lucidity' and 'Jet City Woman' were both staple tracks to my childhood, but this whole album is a fine, fine affair throughout.

4. Fleet Foxes - S/T

What happens when you get My Morning Jacket a better vocalist and strip away the Indie mehness that has infested so much from the year 2000 and up? Fleet Foxes of course! Hyped as it is, this debut is hellishly gorgeous and doesn't futz around with the whining that teenagers consider "emotional" delivery. Basically, a fine jangly folkish pop antidote to the blandness of a lot of contemporary music.

3. Kevin Gilbert - Thud (1995)

Amidst all the Brit. pop yawnfests and seemingly endless lines of Jeff Buckley worship, there was an underrated American musician back in the 90's who, along with his love of groups such as The Smiths and The Pixies, was also a proghead with a real talent for songwriting. That man was Kevin Gilbert, who died at the ripe old age of 29 from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1996. This is his one and only solo album from a year prior.

2. Tears For Fears - The Seeds of Love (1989)

An odd turn indeed for a band no stranger to abnormality, trading in the compelling industrial-like sterility of their last few albums for a gorgeous psychedelic canvas to paint their sunsets on for a little over 3 million dollars in production costs. This, my friends, is the sound of pop brilliance at play.

1. Mew - Frengers (2003)

Hook after hook after hook after hook after...

ameebamee · 04-16-2010, 05:31 PM

I definitely have 4 personal favorites...choosing a 5th will be hard.

1. Hanson- This Time Around

They were my favorite band before this album came out, and they've had amazing albums after this one, but this album just resonates with me. Especially thinking about their ages back then (when the album came out, they were 19, 17, and 14), it's quite profound.

2. The Beatles- A Hard's Day's Night

I love The Beatles, always have, but even as a little girl, this is the album that I'd always want to play. Every song is amazing. I mean, it's The Beatles, and it's not like they have many filler songs at all, but just every song on this album is stellar.

3. Backstreet Boys- Never Gone

This album is just really personal for me. I just can relate to a lot of the songs.

4. Backstreet Boys- Unbreakable

Ditto above.

Albums floating around in my head for the #5 spot: Hanson: Middle of Nowhere, Underneath, The Walk; The Beatles: Help!, Revolver, Mandy Moore- Mandy Moore, Coverage, Wild Hope; Backstreet Boys- Millennium, and anything by Britney Spears.

The Bullet · 04-16-2010, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khfreek

Origin of Symmetry - Muse
Best album by one of my favorite pop bands? To quote one of their song titles, Yes Please

Muse is NOT pop. Sorry.

03-06-2010, 07:26 AM	#1 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	Top 5 Pop Albums Righto, I think this is a term that's become undeservedly derogatory. What are MB Readers Top 5 Pop albums, so as to prove there's gold among the Top 40 dross.(No compilations). Mine would have to be 1.Lexicon Of Love-ABC. Possibly the most purely enjoyable record ever made, and there's so much wit and genuine emotion under all the glorious Trevor Horn production. 2.Something Else By The Kinks-a perfect disc of 60's pop, with every track a joy and Ray Davies' finest set of lyrics. Plus it has Waterloo Sunset on it. 3.Actually-Pet Shop Boys. Proof the genre can have work of genuine substance within it, with many of these songs bearing grim subject manner and harsh judgements on the 80's. 4.Steve McQueen-Prefab Sprout. It's the way it uses the most insincere music imaginable to dissect emotional chaos. Chris Martin should be forced to hear this if he thinks mewling "I WILL TRY TO FFFFFIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXX YYYYOOUUUUU" is articulating despair. 5.Armed Forces-Elvis Costello. All the good aspects of late 70's pop, but with actual substance there, as the man is in the lyrical form of his life here. It's the way it all sounds perfect on radio, even though all the songs are essentially about people either physically or emotionally destroying each other or themselves. __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

03-06-2010, 03:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
Nykeisha Alexandria Groupie Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: The Universe Posts: 12	1. Thriller - Michael Jackson 2. The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga 3. Jade - Sweetbox 4. Britney Spears - Blackout 5. Ke$ha - Animal [My personal top 5 pop albums] __________________

03-06-2010, 04:16 PM	#3 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	David Bowie - Low Practically the template for all 80s synth pop. Yes he wasn't the first to do this kind of thing, but for someone who was basically a pop star coming out with something so left field must have come as quite a shock at the time. Could you imagine someone like Lady Gaga coming out with a krautrock album now? I don't think so. I doubt any record company these days would let a major star make something so experimental today. XTC - English Settlement A double album of finely crafted pop songs from a great band at their peak. I love XTC dearly but I don't think any of their other albums come even close to touching this one. Pulp - His n Hers I grew up with this one and must have played it to death over the years.Some of the themes on the album are pretty dark & disturbing in a kind of suburbanite way with Jarvis Cocker's low hushed Scott Walkerish delivery but it's layered on some really bouncy catchy pop hooks to make it more palatable. Orange Juice - You Can't Hide Your Love Forever I've always found it a shame this band don't get much more credit than they do. They basically invented 80s jangly indie pop years before The Smiths even showed up. Edwin Collins has an amazing ear for a melody and this album is chock full of them. The Human League - Dare You have to admire Phil Oakey. He replaced two musos like Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh with a couple of teenage girls he met in a nightclub. Let me repeat that... HE REPLACED TWO MUSOS LIKE MARTYN WARE AND IAN CRAIG MARSH WITH A COUPLE OF TEENAGE GIRLS HE MET IN A NIGHTCLUB. and ended up making their best ever album turning his back on experimental electronica designed to impress art students and made one of the greatest pop albums ever written. Well done that man. __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.

03-06-2010, 05:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
Rickenbacker / Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Conn Posts: 1,338	1. Brian Wilson - SMiLE The child of a life of hardship and toil, SMiLE, which was finally released in 2004 is an absolute masterpiece of pop, and arguably the best of the genre. 2. XTC - English Settlement Sprawling and masterfully crafted, English Settlement is the only time XTC's signature formula ever truly worked. Not to mention the top songwriting present with Senses Working Overtime and Jason and the Argonauts. Suffice to say that XTC was doing most of what is present on Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" decades earlier. 3. Scott Walker - Scott 4 Forget his later work of the avante-gard and consider that the mysterious musical mastermind crafted perhaps the best pop record of the 60s. One can praise Scott's eclecticism to no end, but also note the gorgeous production and vocal deliveries here. 4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion Animal Collective's pop record has been called the future of pop music. That may be a far-fetched claim, but that is not to negate how great this album is. MPP is a perfectly crafted mix of XTC complexity, Beach Boys vocal arrangements, and more than a touch of originality (of which the Maryland group has much). Brothersport is the jam of the decade. 5. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin 1999 was a hopeful year. On the edge of a millenium, everybody wanted to know what the next thousand years would hold. The Flaming Lips' masterpiece "The Soft Bulletin", released that year, should have been the future of music. Shame it won't be. __________________ last.fm rym Talk About the Passion - R.E.M.'s Discography Reviewed

03-07-2010, 07:49 AM	#6 (permalink)
khfreek What a guy Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Brentwood, TN Posts: 2,123	Wow, this English Settlement album is really good, thanks for including it in lists! In no order (except for number 1): 1. Lost and Gone Forever - Guster perfect perfect perfect. I grew up with them and still am not bored with this album. Bongos, dude! Aim and Ignite - fun. What you get when you have a fantastic vocalist and songwriter pair up with an indie multi-instrumentalist god. Undeniably catchy. Origin of Symmetry - Muse Best album by one of my favorite pop bands? To quote one of their song titles, Yes Please Parklife - Blur I am getting tired of writing these things. Damon Albarn is really good? Le Sac Des Filles - Camille I really like almost every track she does, but this album has the least over-the-top-ness of her albums. __________________ last.fm Last edited by khfreek; 03-07-2010 at 08:21 AM.

04-16-2010, 05:31 PM	#9 (permalink)
ameebamee Groupie Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: . Posts: 22	I definitely have 4 personal favorites...choosing a 5th will be hard. 1. Hanson- This Time Around They were my favorite band before this album came out, and they've had amazing albums after this one, but this album just resonates with me. Especially thinking about their ages back then (when the album came out, they were 19, 17, and 14), it's quite profound. 2. The Beatles- A Hard's Day's Night I love The Beatles, always have, but even as a little girl, this is the album that I'd always want to play. Every song is amazing. I mean, it's The Beatles, and it's not like they have many filler songs at all, but just every song on this album is stellar. 3. Backstreet Boys- Never Gone This album is just really personal for me. I just can relate to a lot of the songs. 4. Backstreet Boys- Unbreakable Ditto above. Albums floating around in my head for the #5 spot: Hanson: Middle of Nowhere, Underneath, The Walk; The Beatles: Help!, Revolver, Mandy Moore- Mandy Moore, Coverage, Wild Hope; Backstreet Boys- Millennium, and anything by Britney Spears.