Simply Great CD's

[Adam's Apple]

Rod Steward: Great American Songbook, Vol. III
Dean Martin: The Essential Dean Martin
George Strait: 50 Number Ones (all these great songs in one place!)
Shania Twain: Greatest Hits

If you like any of the above artists, be sure to get these CD's. You won't be sorry.

 

[5stringJeff]

Bob Marley - Legend

It's so good that it's almost a cliche to say that it's the one reggae album you should own. But you should own it!

 

[Adam's Apple]

100 Sax Greats (4 CD set). If great songs played on the sax is your cup of tea, you will love this CD set.

 

[Dan]

The Beatles - Revolver
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (or 40 Licks)
Led Zeppelin - IV

All great, classic albums, probably the best efforts from these bands (though I like the White Album better than Revolver).

 

[Zhukov]

TOOL - Lateralus

Pink Floyd - Animals, Wish You Were Here

Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family

 

[Dan]

Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but my favorite MM album is Mechanical Animals. PoaAF and Antichrist Superstar were just too... shocking for the sake of being shocking, I guess? Mechanical Animals told a good story, had something to say, and had a variety of styles.

This is off-topic, but have you ever listened to H.I.M.? They don't really sound anything like Marilyn Manson, but they're really good.

 

[Zhukov]

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but my favorite MM album is Mechanical Animals. PoaAF and Antichrist Superstar were just too... shocking for the sake of being shocking, I guess? Mechanical Animals told a good story, had something to say, and had a variety of styles.

I really like Anti-Christ Superstar and I have to agree that his whole point was to be as shocking and offensive as possible, but I don't really think the same about PoaAF. PoaAF was rawer, before they were superstars, less contrived, with the clips of cartoons and movies and all manner of childhood bric-a-brac tossed in. At that point I think it was about more than just 'shocking'.

There was a real point to that album that I think he's since moved away from. Originally it was, "look what kind of society you've created", now it's more "look at how messed up I am."

Don't get me wrong, I like them all, I just think the album that introduced me to them, their first major release, was the best one.

This is off-topic, but have you ever listened to H.I.M.? They don't really sound anything like Marilyn Manson, but they're really good.

Is that what they go by, H.I.M., or does that stand for something?

 

[Zhukov]

Faith No More - Angeldust



their masterpiece


My favorite Beatles album is probably Abbey Road, though I really like Sgt. Pepper's.

 

[Dan]

Don't get me wrong, I like them all, I just think the album that introduced me to them, their first major release, was the best one.

Fair enough. I'm at a point musically where I don't really react well to really hard music anymore, so I guess it makes sense that I would like M.A. best.

Is that what they go by, H.I.M., or does that stand for something?

Well, it depends what you mean. If you look for them in the record store, they'll be under H.I.M. or HIM, yeah. When they first came out in America (they're from Finland), they used the name H.E.R. because there was some other band named HIM already, but they got the name from them, so they're HIM once more.

They originally got the name from some old-school horror movie. It stood for His Infernal Majesty, but they didn't think something like that would fit their image too well, so they just shortened it to HIM. It's kind of goth metal, I guess, I don't really know how to describe them.

 

[Shattered]

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but my favorite MM album is Mechanical Animals. PoaAF and Antichrist Superstar were just too... shocking for the sake of being shocking, I guess? Mechanical Animals told a good story, had something to say, and had a variety of styles.

]

They're not very shocking...they're more the same story line; those two were based more around his childhood, and family life.

Mechanical Animals is more about "the now" (well, when it was written)...The fame, the fortune, how people treated him/the band before vs. how they treat him/them now, etc.. Portrait, Antichrist, and Mechical are actually a trilogy, of sorts.

Should read the book, too.. It's pretty graphic, but it's really good.

 

[Dan]

Mechanical Animals is more about "the now" (well, when it was written)...The fame, the fortune, how people treated him/the band before vs. how they treat him/them now, etc.. Portrait, Antichrist, and Mechical are actually a trilogy, of sorts.

I'd heard that Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holy Wood are a trilogy, of sorts, and that if you listen to them in different orders, you get a different story out of them. For example...

Antichrist, Mechanical, Holy Wood: In Antichrist, Manson (or the character, if you want to make a distinction there) rises up and destroys religion, but is ultimately banished from the world he helped destroy/create (Antichrist leaves it open whether he was kicked out or whether he left on his own). In Mechanical, he drifts down into a new, white world that he doesn't understand at all, a world controlled by drugs (maybe a reference to his being accepted into the sex, drugs, rock n roll Hollywood world). He falls in love with Coma, who eventually kills herself. Most people think Coma is actually Rose McGowan, who he broke up with during the making of this album. In Holy Wood, he strikes back against this world, turning everything white to black and ultimately ending up with nothing.

If you listen to them in a different order, the story is different, but I don't feel like posting all that. Anyway, M.A. as a standalone album is basically a love story, or at least I like to interpret it as such, and that appeals to me a lot because I'm basically a big romantic at heart.

Should read the book, too.. It's pretty graphic, but it's really good.

Are you talking about his autobiography? I read a little bit of it, never got around to finishing it. I heard he had a novel that was never published that was supposedly really good.