What's The Last Historic Album?

[Aero]

Someone in another thread brought up the topic of the last historic album to be recorded. I thought about this topic but had a hard time coming up with something that wasn't recorded in the 70s. Some of those mentioned were: Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds, and Dark Side of the Moon.

Has anything this good been produced since those albums were made?

I thought about Nirvana's classic "Nevermind" put out in 1991 but even that wasn't as strong as the others I've listed above. So nevermind...

What about something from the 80s? The first one that comes to mind is Springsteen's "Born In The USA."



Side one
"Born in the U.S.A." – 4:39
"Cover Me" – 3:27
"Darlington County" – 4:48
"Working on the Highway" – 3:11
"Downbound Train" – 3:35
"I'm on Fire" – 2:37

Side two
"No Surrender" – 4:00
"Bobby Jean" – 3:46
"I'm Goin' Down" – 3:29
"Glory Days" – 4:15
"Dancing in the Dark" – 4:00
"My Hometown" – 4:34

I count 5 hit singles alone. Even Michael Jackson's "Thriller" or "Syncronicity" by The Police didn't have that many hits.

But of course, radio hits aren't the only way to judge an album. What do you think stands up to the best classic records of all time and how far back do you have to go to find this historic record?

 

[LG]

That's a tough one Aero...I'd have to think about it.

Personally I love that Springsteen album, finally got a nice vinyl copy a while back. Being popular and having hit singles shouldn't eliminate it from consideration, it doesn't in my book anyway.

 

[Sox]

I think "Nevermind" was a landmark album and it helped inspire a new generation.

 

[TheSound]

Haven't slept much, so been mulling this one over inbetween hockey highlights and cups of tea...

There’s a few albums which, even though in some cases I don’t care for them at all personally, but to some extent they changed music, or anyway unleashed something new which wasn’t really a factor beforehand, and which you can still hear in music today, and which therefore in my view would, by definition, make it an ‘historic’ album ….

‘London Calling’ by the Clash sort of legitimised punk as a serious musical genre. Except for maybe the Ramones, who to me were a total blast and always looked and sounded like they were having fun, basically everything before ‘London Calling’ in punk was (imo) just snot-nosed petulant talentless brats with three or four chords, acne, and a bad attitude, it was just 99% fashion and rebellion, and 1% actual musical substance, and I hated it all, but ‘London Calling’ to me is a true masterpiece by any standards and in any genre of music, and for every one post-punk era rocker who says that he was influenced by Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, you will find a hundred who say they were heavily influenced by Joe Strummer.

How about the first Spice Girls album, which really introduced the concept of ‘girl power’ into pop, and 15 years later the pop charts is still dominated by 75% female artists, or so it seems to be … OK they were packaged like breakfast cereal, but the impact they instantly had on the record industry was huge, probably no Idol or X Factor or Got Talent shows without that cultural change to contrived talent-show type boy/girl bands that the Spices were a huge part of.

Also the first Run DMC album might even be the most influential of them all in the long term, I wonder how many current rap/hip hop acts (of which there must by now be thousands, all apparently making a nice living from it) trace their roots back to this record?..and it was also I think probably the first worldwide #1 rap album….

And maybe Metallica also broke the mould to some extent, they are one of the small handful of metal bands that I like and listen to, so I’m about the last person on here to try and sound as if he knows what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to heavy metal, because quite plainly I don’t, but pretty much every hard rock/metal album that I heard before Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ came along, to me was basically just a re-interpretation of early Sabbath/Iron Maiden/Judas Priest etc, and I heard nothing really raw and hard-nosed in your face and different until this whole thrash metal/speed metal thing came along, I know that their earlier albums bombed on release, so 'MoP' was I suppose the first really huge album of that genre that got world-wide acceptance and sold millions.

 

[Riff Raff]

Metallica did more with The Black Album than they did with Master of Puppets as far as an overall massive impact on music goes. Ride The Lightning far from bombed on release it was received very well among critics.
While Master of Puppets was probably their proper 'breakthrough' album in metal, it did not get the same mainstream reception as what The Black Album did regardless of the diehard fans feelings towards it.

 

[LG]

I was thinking of "London Calling" myself TS...for my money it's one of the top 10-20 albums ever released and represents the pinnacle of the punk rock movement as The Clash helped change the musical landscape. Watching them grow from their early days to a world class band was amazing.

London Calling would be on my list for last historic album easily.

 

[Soot and Stars]

In some ways I think stylistically Adore was way ahead of the curve and may have influenced modern bands more sound wise but it's still a sleeper album as far as albums people talk about. I think this truly was the last epic of an album and it's success on top of the band being a major influence listed from modern bands can't be overlooked.

 

[Aero]

How about the first Spice Girls album, which really introduced the concept of ‘girl power’ into pop, and 15 years later the pop charts is still dominated by 75% female artists, or so it seems to be … OK they were packaged like breakfast cereal, but the impact they instantly had on the record industry was huge, probably no Idol or X Factor or Got Talent shows without that cultural change to contrived talent-show type boy/girl bands that the Spices were a huge part of.

Did you just nominate the Spice Girls in this thread??

Let me be clear by what I mean when I say "historic." I don't mean "groundbreaking" and I certainly don't mean "music that brought the music industry to a new low."

I'm looking for best album since the likes of what The Beatles or The Beach Boys, or Zeppelin put out in their heyday.

Ok, then. Now that I've made myself clear, we shall continue.

 

[Kickstart]

London Calling, for me it just perfectly fulfills the "best album since the likes of what The Beatles or The Beach Boys, or Zeppelin put out in their heyday. " quality you've been looking for

 

[LG]

London Calling, for me it just perfectly fulfills the "best album since the likes of what The Beatles or The Beach Boys, or Zeppelin put out in their heyday. " quality you've been looking for

I agree with you Kickstart, one of the best albums ever done, it if was released in the 80's instead of '79 I'm pretty sure it would win best album of the decade easily in that case.