The Music Industry’s Most-Loved Albums Of All Time Part 3

This is part three of an ongoing series where the kind folk of the music business reveal their favourite album of all time.

Ask people in the music industry the seemingly simple and straightforward question, “What is your favourite album of all time?” and you’ll find that it’s not always easy. After all, my industry peers listen to hundreds of albums a month – thousands of songs during that time. Because the question isn’t the best album of all time – the one that’s made them the most money in sales – but the one release they personally can’t live without, that one title they have two copies of in several formats, in case one breaks. It’s also about that album that for them has the best back stories and the one that has the most meaning in their lives.

Nancy Davis Kho, Midlife Mixtape

Together Alone, Crowded House

The last album the group released before they broke up in the mid-nineties, the album was also the least commercially successful in North America compared to more crowd-pleasing predecessors like Woodface and Temple of Low Men. But I think, had it been the only one that the band ever made, Together Alone would still have been enough to cement Crowded House’s status as one of the Top 10 pop bands of all time. More complex and layered than their earlier albums, Together Alone carried distinctive instrumental references to the Maori culture of lead singer Neil Finn’s New Zealand homeland in songs like “Kare Kare” and “Private Universe”, not to mention hard rocking guitar riffs on “Locked Out” and “Skin Feeling” that showed an evolving vibrancy. It was the last album made with drummer Paul Hester, whose untimely death in 2005 makes the beauty of Together Alone that much more bittersweet. 

Megan Hamilton, singer/songwriter from Toronto now based in Kingston. She has toured across Canada and has released 4 records. Her latest is “Snow Moon”, a 3 song EP produced by beloved Canadian Jim Bryson.

At Dawn, My Morning Jacket

 

Nobody will be surprised to find MMJ as my #1, but this album is full of incredible sounds and words. I hear so much hope in this album: “don’t let your silly dreams fall in between the crack of the bed and the wall”, and At Dawn alone is all about believing in yourself. If music makes you feel like a powerful vehicle of good, then I think it’s served it’s purpose.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Chris Foley, author of The Collaborative Piano Blog

The Russian symphonic tradition in one of its finest hours. The commitment from every single musician on this recording is so palpable that you can cut the electricity with a knife. You’ll want to turn up the sound on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Jason Grishkoff, Indie Shuffle

The Campfire Headphase, Boards Of Canada

 

Boards Of Canada has one of the strongest cult followings in the electronic genre, and with good reason. Albums like “Music Has The Right To Children” and “Geodaddi” cemented their status as IDM legends, but it was “The Campire Headphase” that really stands out from the lot. For me, the album is one of the most beautiful and peaceful concept albums of our time. To date, it has served as the background to multiple cross-country and international journeys for myself and for my friends. Frankly, there’s nothing better than driving across a barren landscape with “Dayvan Cowboy” blasting through the speakers.

 

 

Colby Ericson, Connoisseur Digital Media, Wichita, KS

Back In Black, AC/DC

We all now how great the album is but this album means so much more to me. It was the first album that I ever bought with money that I had earned. I spent all summer working on farms, stacking hay, de-tassling corn, and mowing yards. It’s also the first album my Mom would yell “turn it down, it sounds like cats fighting in your room!” I would hear that phrase a lot through my teen years. I’ll always have a place for “Back in Black”