Starting a Music Collection From Scratch

LazarusLong

Hey,

So, recently a computer death caused me to lose all of my music. Hey, shit happens. But it leads to some interesting questions. When rebuilding a music library from scratch, what are the essentials?

It's hard, because I have to think of the music that has consistently mattered the most to me. The list I've come up with is actually rather different from my old music list. It's an interesting experiment, because it has helped me see trends in what songs are really important to me. Modest Mouse, easily one of my favorite artists, was easily trimmed down to one album, and yet I couldn't get by with less than three Talking Heads or Pixies albums. If anyone asked, I always love the rougher sounds of blue artists like Howlin' Wolf, but instead I realized I was really missing was soul, albums like Otis Blue.

What follows is what I have already started putting back together, and also a list of things I plan to add to it soon, alphabetized because any other ordering system would make me upset. The "Need to Get" list is still way too small, with a million albums clambering to get on. It will grow and grow, I'm sure. (And, of course, I'll gradually be moving things over to the "HAVE" list.)

So, Smogon - what albums can't you live without? If you were rebuilding a music library from scratch, what are the first albums you would reach for?

LazarusLong's List said:
HAVE

David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Scary Monsters
RZA/Bobby Digital - Rza as Bobby Digital in Stereo
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Janis Joplin - Pearl
Otis Redding - Otis Blue
Patti Smith - Horses
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Smoke Robinson and the Miracles - Going to a Go-Go
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

NEED TO GET

Arcade Fire - Funeral
David Bowie - Stationtostation
David Bowie - Low
GZA - Liquid Swords
Leonard Cohen - Recent Songs
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Nas - Illmatic
Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue
Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Pixies - Doolittle
Prince - 1999
Prince - Purple Rain
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
Talking Heads - 77
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang
Click to expand...
 
Ok, well, of course the first thing you have to do is consider the contexts in which you listen to music. For me, its when doing boring tasks, I like to listen to music to help me continue them longer, I sometimes like to listen to music for relaxation, and I put on music when people are around for various reasons..

The boring tasks music is usually when I listen to something new, or sometimes something specifically upbeat, relaxation music just has to be good, I can definitely relax by listening to parliament.. And party music is usually best when it is something cool other people dont know.

Anyway, I figure I would want to get these albums pretty quickly:
Radiohead - OK Computer & Amnesiac & In Rainbows
Nomo - New Tones (I like introducing people to Nomo, as an afrobeat band, they are all but guaranteed to be unheard of while also being loved by everyone who listens to it.)
Parliament - Mothership Connection & Up for the Downstroke & Funkentelechy vs the Placebo Syndrome
Funkadelic - Motor City Madness & One Nation under a Groove
James Brown - Star Time (the problem here is this would really screw up shuffling quite badly.. But there is no reason to get anything else from James Brown)
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Stevie Wonder - Some kind of best of compilation & Songs in the Key of Life
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks & Bringing it All Back Home & Highway 61 Revisited
Van Morisson - Astral Weeks
Tool -Aenima (For when I want to listen to angry music.. This one album should be enough..)
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow & Wincing the Night Away
The National - Boxer
The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Simon & Garfunkel - The Essential
Paul Simon - Shining Like a National Guitar (I like best ofs)
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Yeah, after that I'd try and pick up some new music I expect. There'd be a few things I'd want to get again eventually, but for the short term I'd be pretty happy with those.. I guess I need to make sure I have legit copies of all of those albums..

Not much of this is really very obscure.. Oh well..

Have a nice day.
 
everybody is into different music.
me, i personnally like alterernative/metal/rock

so i'd say...
-anberlin
-lostprohets
-older linken park music
-rise against
-older greenday

i'll post again when i think of more.
 
wb lazarus sad to hear of your loss.
modest mouse - moon and Antarctica and good news for people who love bad news are musts
the kooks - inside in inside out complements an earlier suggestion of the national but you might not be into that
cursive - the ugly organ is widely accepted to be excellent and you'll want that immediately

I have a list of musthave rock albums somewhere if I find it I'll post it
 
Picking up Best Ofs for your favorite artists probably isn't a bad way to start. If it were me I'd start with The Beatles "1" and a couple other decent compilations (Beach Boys, The Who, Queen) and work my way from there.

Edit: A couple more specific ones to add:

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
The Fratellis - Costello Music
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Fake Problems - How Far Our Bodies Go
Andrew Jackson Jihad - People That Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World
Bomb the Music Industry! - Scrambles / Goodbye Cool World
 
Yo that SUCKS :-(

1. Tago Mago (Can)
2. Slip In and Out of Phenomenon (Liquid Liquid)
3. All Balls Don't Bounce (Aceyalone)
4. Let's Het (Het)
5. Neu! (Neu!)
6. Pop Tatari (Boredoms)
7. Double Live (Fushitsusha)
8. Maestro's Choice (Vishwa Mohan Bhatt)
9. Flightless Bird (Les Rallizes Denudes)
10. The Best of the Capitol Masters (Les Paul & Mary Ford)

off the top of my head...

oh and maybe the Akira soundtrack too that's a good crucial album

it is kind of nice though, restarting a collection. opens up your tastes a bit, which is always good.
 
I tried to do this with music because I didn't get into it until much later from when people usually start building a collection. My tactic was to say screw it and just listen to streaming music on last.fm on my computer and phone by typing in the "rock" or "alternative rock" tags and/or using "Recommended" x.x
 
Ah Modest Mouse! You have taste! :D


Mine:

Album/artist
Moseley Shoals - Ocean Colour Scene
Urban Hymns - The Verve
The Masterplan - Oasis
Definatly Maybe - Oasis
The Bends - Radiohead
Room For Squares - John Mayer
Marchin' Already - Ocean Colour Scene
B-sides - Ocean Colour Scene
Heavier Things - John Mayer
Inbetween Dreams - Jack Johnson
The Back Room - The Back Room
Down In Albion - Babyshambles
Up The Bracket - Libertines
One From The Modern - Ocean Colour Scene
Mechanical Wonder - Ocean Colour Scene

And of course the Chrono Trigger OST.

Those are the albums I would have to go out and buy instantly, that I need in order to function as a human being (along with food, oxygen etc).
 
Anything Beatles
Anything Queen
Led Zeppelin 4
Pink floyd- Dark Side of the Moon
Bruce Springsteen- Born to Run
Cream- Disraeli Gears
Heart- Dreamboat Annie
Heart- Barracuda
Elton John- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Billy Joel- The Stranger
Blind Faith- Blind Faith
Eric Clapton- Slowhand

And those are pretty much the albams I would need to survive.
 
I've been on a sort of 80s late 70s punk, post-punk, new wave kick lately so i'm a little skewed right now, but I definitely wouldn't be able to get by without these albums:

The Dismemberment Plan- Emergency & I
The Dismemberment Plan- ...Is Terrified
Elliott Smith- Either/Or
Elliott Smith- X/O
The Microphones-The Glow Pt. 2
Interpol- Turn on the Bright Lights
Joy Division- Closer
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures
Buzzcocks- Singles Going Steady
The Clash- London Calling
The Clash- The Clash
New Order- Substance
Dinosaur Jr- You're Living All Over Me
Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
Talking Heads- Remain in Light
Talking Heads- More Songs About Buildings and Food
Talking heads- Stop Making Sense (DVD)
Beat Happening- Jamboree
Beat Happening- You Turn Me On
Yo La Tengo- I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

I'm starting to lose focus now but of course classics like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie where their discographies are too large and good to really list. But really if I see these albums in someone's library, I know we can be friends.
 
Why? - Elephant Eyelash
Why? - Alopecia
Talib Kweli - Eardrum
Pacewon and Mr. Green - The Only Color That Matters Is Green
Plushgun - Pins and Panzers
Marina and the Diamonds - The Crown Jewels EP
Crystal Castles -S/T

idk..
 
The Mars Volta discography
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
Boards of Canada discography
Björk discography
Swans - Children Of God
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden/Laughing Stock
Suicide - S/T (1st album)
Smashing Pumpkins - First three albums
Weezer - The Blue Album/Pinkerton
Mogwai discography
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Jamiroquai - Emergency On Planet Earth
Faith No More - The Real Thing/Angel Dust
Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die/TNT
Melvins - Houdini/Nude With Boots/Lysol
Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun/Welcome To Sky Valley
Dan Deacon - Bromst
Daft Punk - Homework/Discovery
Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica (just as good, better even than Lonesome Crowded West)

...I've gone a bit overboard with that. But they're all somewhat essential.

Only skim-read the thread, so a few of those might have already been mentioned, and I apologise. But I hope it helps.
 
well, thanks to the internet, i wouldn't have to think very hard about it.

i would immediately reacquire my 4 1/2 and 5 star albums.

the very first thing i would do however, is get these:

Virgin Black
Sombre Romantic
Elegant...and Dying
Requiem - Mezzo Forte
Requiem - Fortissimo

 Bright Eyes
Fevers & Mirrors
Lifted...or the Story is in the Soil so Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
I'm Wide Awake it's Morning

 mewithoutYou
A-->B Life
Catch For Us the Foxes
Brother, Sister
It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright

 Opeth
My Arms, Your Hearse
Still Life
Blackwater Park
Ghost Reveries

 Sigur Ros
( )
Takk

of course, because i own all of them on cd, it wouldn't be that hard to do. ;)

i own physical copies of MOST of my 4-5 star albums...
 
the essentials:

Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
The Clash - London Calling
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Modest Mouse - entire discography o.o
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
New Order - Substance
of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pixies - Doolittle
Radiohead - whole discography o.o
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

im sure ive missed a few!
 
I think it just depends on what you want to listen to.

Anathema - Judgement
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Kamelot - The Black Halo
Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down

are my desert island picks but there are so many ugh
 
Well here is my list of must have albums.


Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
The Bravery - The Sun and The Moon Complete.
Built To Spill- Keep it Like a Secret, Perfect From Now On, You In Reverse
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood To The Head
Cursive - Domestica, Ugly Organ
Modest Mouse - Good News, lonesome Crowded west, Moon & Antarctica
Pavement - Brighten The Corners
Radiohead - OK computer
Why? - Elephant Eyelash, Alopecia.


Those are my must haves as of now.
 
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