5 Essential Indie albums
 

I was reading the Hip Hop thread, 5 essential albums for a hip hop noob and I was curious as to what people felt were essential Indie albums.

Let's say someone whose extent of Indie is The Kooks and The Pigeon detectives or someone who has never heard the genre. You have a chance to dazzel them with 5 albums, what 5 albums would you choose?

I'll do mine later. :thumb:

ys-joanna newsom
the lonesome crowded west- modest mouse
either/or- elliott smith
f#a#∞- godspeed you black emperor
i can hear the heart beating as one- yo la tengo

not exactly sure what you mean by indie but that should do

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Sebadoh - Bubble & Scrape
Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Elliott Smith - Either/Or

This actually brings up a point I was going to come in here and post. I feel like Hip Hop is working with a shorter period than Indie would be. Not that its bad, just expect no 2 lists to be the same. I'd say -

NMH - Aeroplane over the sea
YYY's - Is Is EP
TVotR - Return to Cookie Mountain
White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!

Some obvious ones from me, I couldn't work in a MM album and I didn't know if Paullelujah counted since its "rap" but whatever, its me.

Radiator-Super Furry Animals
Crazy Rhythms-The Feelies
Summerteeth-Wilco
Heartworm-Whipping Boy
Alligator-The National

Yeah, hip hop does have a pretty long 30 years or so but I feel you'd see a lot of the same albums; the sounds considered "indie" vary a lot more than what hip hop is... there's so many types of music grouped under the term.

Anyway, here's my 5:

Neutral Milk Hotel In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When You're Gone?
Defiance, Ohio - The Great Depression
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Sebadoh - Harmacy

I opted out of putting Dinosaur Jr. because I guess it's more noise rock than it is indie like all the other albums in here so far.

Hmm...

Various Artists - CD86
The Wedding Present - George Best
Gomez - Bring It On
Rainy Day - Rainy Day
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On On Your Own

^ Or something along those lines.

Some good shouts in this thread :thumb:

NMH - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Titus Andronicus - Airing of Grievances
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots (If TFL can be counted as Indie.. I think they can.)

Off the top of my head, to give these albums to someone who doesn't really know what Indie is about would work wonders.

I tried to avoid some obvious ones (NMH, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, etc.)

Pixies-Surfer Rosa
Thom Yorke-The Eraser
The National-Boxer
Sigur Ros-( )
Mew-No More Stories... (might be a bit of a stretch but it's staying)

Hmm...


The Hold Steady- Boys and Girls in America
Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The National- Alligator
The Mountain Goats- All Hail West Texas
Okkervil River- Black Sheep Boy

As has been pointed out...all these lists are different.

There is no way to accurately make a top 5...indie encompasses so many different types of bands you may as well ask "give me a top 5 albums to start out of nowhere". Noble effort, but I doubt this thread would be much use to a newbie.

Unless you guys start giving descriptions of each one. I'm sure someone coming in here would already know the style they are partial to, and that way the lists might be a bit more help.

Or they could see which ones come up most often and listen to those.

A reply.
 

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Leaving out obvious ones isn't really the point of the thread.
If you think
In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
Funeral and
For Emma, Forever Ago
are essential Indie albums, then so be it..

I.E NMH - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea

Even though they could just see what albums come up most and give them a listen. I did actually think people would tag a description along with each album.. Even a line would've been good.

Sure, but those albums have already been posted and will more than likely be posted multiple times. I'd consider the 5 I posted just as essential as those, plus then I'm not just reposting something that's already been listed 3-4 times.

Fair enough, I kind of made the thread because I thought people would post why the album they chose is more essential than an 'obvious album'

Say, I want to know why your 5 albums are more essential than NMH (even though they're an obvious one, I don't think you can get more essential than that)

Nah, too much like hard work :p:

...I'll probably edit one or two in out of sheer boredom later though.

:laughing:

I've seen people on this site go out of their way to write a 5 paragraph rant about certain topics, and when I say 'people' I mean booboo. :p:

Don't get wrong, I do that sometimes myself. Just wasn't really feeling the vibes when I posted my list :D

And you call yourself a mod. You should go the extra mile! Letting the MB team down. ;)

Well, in all fairness, I didn't say mine were more essential than NMH, I said just as essential:p: Obviously NMH is an indie rock cornerstone, but for me personally, discoveries like Boxer, Sigur Ros, etc. shaped my musical vision and development just as much as NMH did. They're all so original and still unmatched. So to me, they're all essential. Hence why they made my list:)

It's gonna be America-heavy because I prefer their brand of indie rock:

Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
Surfer Rosa - Pixies
Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
You're Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr.
13 Songs - Fugazi

I want this poor noob to get a solid base and hear the influences before they move on to modern indie... :D

In no order

1. Interpol - Antics
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral
3. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What Im Not.
4. The Strokes - Is This It
5. Modest Mouse - Good News... Or. We Were Dead...

A very generic list I know but 5 that everyone should have and as good a place to start as any.

Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West Face-melting


Pixies - Doolittle - Can't leave this off.


The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? - Gorgeous playful soundscape. A bit proggy too.


Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary



Slint - Spiderland - On first listen, this didn't do much for me. After giving it a proper review, it blew me away.

Might as well throw in my 5:

1. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
2. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
3. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
4. Pixies - Doolittle
5. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Those 5 are a great starting point.

^

Very solid.

I left out Doolittle because I felt it was more Alternative than Indie.. but meh, I should've really put it in. It's an essential.

Pixies can fall into both really. The alternative rock scene in the 80's was pretty much the american indie movement. There was no real difference between the two at the time.

Aye, Indie rock is a very loose term I feel. Even bands on major labels, I'd say yeah they're an Indie band.. just because they make music that sounds Indie. But I wanted these lists to be as Indie as possible, so I left out stuff like Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

Good list though, I think if you gave them to someone who had only ever heard mainstream music their life would change.

i left off radiohead but really wanted to include them.

4AD was about the indiest of indie labels there was.

Didn't know The Pixies were on 4AD, I might have to revisit my list and get Doolittle on there.

It's funny, if I had to think of the 5 albums that first turned me on to music beyond the realm hardcore punk, it would probably be these 5. Excellent list!

Here's 5 of my favourite albums that I could call 'indie':

beat happening you turn me on
the clean anthology
guided by voices bee thousand
yo la tengo painful
ride nowhere

Thanks, fella. I've downloaded Bee Thousand but haven't given it a thorough listen yet. Plus, I will prolly get myself a Beat Happening album once I get to that chapter in Our Band Could Be Your Life...

I know you're Mr Hip Hop but surely you can think of 4 more?!

Alright, can someone explain NMH to me? A while ago, I read an interview with Jesse Lacey (singer/songwriter of Brand New) who cited that In the Aeroplane was one of his central influences in making music. So I acquired the album and gave it a listen, and wrote it off as simply not that good.

Recently, I've start browsing these forums on a daily basis and I see this specific album being mentioned quite frequently. Apparently, it's one of the best indie albums ever. I couldn't believe it, so I gave it another listen.

Still not good.

Another listen.

Still not good. Do I just lack the proper appreciation for music? Is something wrong with me? I find NMH to be poorly composed and produced, boring, and worst of all, the singer is quite terrible. Some lyrics are profound and interesting, but then I hear "Semen stains the mountaintops" repeated over and over...

bleh

There's something wrong with you.

Well, I suppose that's the easiest explanation.

Maybe I'm just destined to be one of those people who only enjoys the popular stuff and who has no true appreciation for the more influential and important artists/albums in music.

yeah. pretty much this. it is one of my all time favourite albums though.

so many good shouts in this thread. here's my two cents, although it's probably just going to be a reiterated list:

elliott smith - either/or
arcade fire - funeral
les savy fav - let's stay friends (this one is probably going to cause some debate as to whether they're indie or not, i guess they're not predominantly indie and they have some math rock influence but let me have it anyway! it's a flucking good album)
interpol - turn on the bright lights
yeah yeah yeahs - show your bones

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...nd-thread.html :D

Math Rock falls under the indie rock umbrella, as does a lot of post hardcore which is part of LSV's sound and influence too.

That's the problem with indie as a genre is that everyone thinks it only includes bands with a specific sound now. Bands that were originally indie before it became a sound (including LSV) are now being questioned.