Is There Just One Single Album That Does It For You, Completely? Just One.


If you somehow got stuck in a situation (lol) and had to spend the rest of your life completely by yourself, all alone, on a desert island ... and, as part of your situation you only got to choose one album to spend the entire rest of your life with.

Let’s say, some weird circumstance, and you also had at your complete disposal the system of your dreams, that you had assembled thru the years. And thank goodness you were a prepper and you thought ahead to install a solar power system, so power would never be a problem either.

Kind of like Tom Hanks on that island, except instead of a just a soccer ball, you had your dream stereo setup and one album only.

One album and that’s it. Got to pick one. Not necesssarily your all time favorite album, just one you could live with for the rest of your life.

Is there any album that just completely does it for ya, on that level?

I’ll kick things off by sharing mine: Steely Dan, Aja

 

128x128tunefuldude

@asmithkash I couldn’t agree more. I’m always thrilled by these kinds of discussions, for the opportunity they provide to learn about music I know not yet. I drew from this one a list of 8-10 LPs with which I am unfamiliar. They will guide my next Tidal session.

@unreceivedogma enthusiasm drives all hobbies. And, it is in the nature of enthusiasm to celebrate that enthusiasm with discussions of what we love most about our hobbies and pastimes. This is not unique to audiophiles; it is common to all communities built around common interests. If you don’t share the enthusiasm, it may be hard to understand. But, it hardly seems useful to stand on the outside and sling mud on the joy of others. As my son’s soccer coach once said to his team on the first day of practice, “if you are here because you want to be here, come back tomorrow. If you’re here because your parents brought you and you don’t love soccer, ask them to take you tomorrow to an activity that you think you will enjoy.” This seems good advice to me. 
 

@tunefuldude Thanks for the thread! Tough, perhaps ultimately unanswerable, question. I agree with those who said previously that no single album is likely to meet alone the musical needs of an enthusiast. That said, several suggestions above are tempting, eg Beethoven quartets, Tom Waits. Here are two I never seem to tire of, even after decades of frequent listening.

Van Morrison, Astral Weeks

Mingus, Nostalgia in Time Square: The Immortal 1959 Sessions 

Together, they would carry me a good while, anyway.

Older Me:  Brothers in Arms, which sounds awesome on higher end equipment.

Younger Me:  Siamese Dream

@hce1

And why the need to virtue posture?

I think these sorts of questions are unanswerable clickbait

You are new here. You will learn soon enough. 

@unreceivedogma i’m hardly new here. I’ve been around for nearly 15 years, but don’t feel a need to comment on every thread; I try to reserve comments for discussions in which I have something appropriate or useful to say. It’s a shame you see that attitude as virtue signaling. Dismissing someone’s comments on the grounds that they are newbies is an unfortunate and counterproductive conversational tactic. Perhaps a slightly less caustic and cynical point of view would improve the value of your comments. Breath deeply before you speak.

The question of the OP has a meaning ...

Because this question has a meaning it is possible to ask it without being accused to be an alleged victim of a "clickbait" ... We are grown men able to decide to be victims of cigarette, drinking or audio and discuss it without being patronized as irresponsible idiot ....

I already explained how i understand this interesting question , which is not a questions about our taste and favorite album but about what music can be listened as the only music on the hand in an island exiled for life ...

It is a question about  a musical depth content, some inexaustible content which for sure we already know and love ...

For example i think that Mozart Requiem by Hogwood is an absolute masterpiece... I will never pick it as my only musical album for life ...

As i explained i prefer to pick a music with a deep inexaustible content even if it less moving emotionnally than the Mozart requiem ...As Bach art of the fugue  music can be ... Or perhaps all Beethoven quartets  as a compromise between form and emotion ...