Desert Island Albums

This is the age old question that at some point goes through the mind of every music listener.  What!? You haven’t heard of this question before?  Well you’ll get to answer it finally if you have not already.  The question is, and it’s a complicated one, if you were left on an desert island, with no communication in or out, BUT you were able to take 5 music albums (no mixes, greatest hits, or live albums, only single band releases) of your choice with you, including a CD player, iPod, what have you, with unlimited battery power, which you could not use to get off the island, what 5 albums would you want?  Okay, because that was pretty complicated here’s a summary…stuck on an island that you can’t get off of and you can bring 5 albums to keep you company, what 5 albums would they be?

This point of this question is to test who your favorite artists are and which albums did they write that you feel you could listen to beginning to end and never get sick of them.  Now this may be a hard question for you to answer if you don’t listen to music very often or you enjoy the one hit wonders.  However, maybe me and a few of my readers out there can offer their 5 album choices as suggestions.

Alright, so this can get very competitive, especially if you are favoring a band you like, but you don’t necessarily like one of their albums all the way through.  Also, you may favor a particular album because it reminds you of the time or place where you always listened to it.  Like I said, competitive.  So without further ado, I give you my 5 albums…

In no particular order
1) Alter Bridge “Blackbird”
This album was just released a little over a year ago, but after listening to it 36 times over, I knew this was an instant classic.  If you don’t know, Alter Bridge used to be the rhythm section of a band a long, long time ago, in a place not so far away called Creed.  Yes, Creed.  Do you remember that story, there was some jester who thought he could sing and ended up selling out the band?  It ended with some children dancing, with arms wide open…  But the sequel did not disappoint.  Alter Bridge came back with an awesome singer/guitarist, Myles Kennedy, and have written many great songs.  I’m proud of myself that I went to see them in concert last November, a month after the release of “Blackbird.”  Now I can say I saw these guys after their greatest release.  HOWEVER, they are not even close to being done.  I can’t wait for their next album to come out, and if it’s as good or better than Blackbird is, oh man…!!!

2) Iron Maiden “Brave New World”
I listened to this one in my first years of college.  I reminds me a lot of when I used to run around the lakes up in Winona.  All of the songs on this album can be classified as epic’s!  Although I like all of Maiden’s albums, this one is my favorite and I wouldn’t want to be left without it.

3) Lifehouse “No Name Face”
This is sort of a jump from my other albums to this one, but this is close to my all time favorite.  I bought this album, which was their first, within the week that it came out.  At that time, they only had one single released, and I remember thinking that I was taking a risk on spending my hard earned $12 on this album.  $12 was a lot to me back then.  However, this album does not disappoint from front to back.  I’ve listened to it in many changes of scenery and time frames.  I know this album all the way through, every word, every note, every dynamic.  That may be a little much, but after listening to it as much as I have, you’d know everything about it too.  Best $12 I’ve ever spent in my life.

4) Cold “A Different Kind of Pain”
Cold has grown to be one of my favorite bands in the past few years.  Although Cold is no more after their members have moved on, I still seem to find a song every now that I want to learn the words to.  They had a lot of great material when they were together, but it just seemed to get better as the years went on.  A Different Kind of Pain was the last album that Cold released, although I have heard rumors that the original band line-up is in the works of writing a new Cold album!  But A.D.K.O.P. was written under a very emotional time for singer/songwriter Scooter Ward.  It is a very touching album that was written from the heart, and you can feel that every time you listen to the album.  Like I said before, Cold has some other great albums, but this is my favorite and always will be.

5) Kamelot “The Black Halo”
I finish my top 5 with a band that I’ve referenced in the past.  Kamelot has written many albums in their years, but The Black Halo is definitely one that I will never put down.  Even at the concert that I went to in October, two albums after the release of The Black Halo, they played 4 songs from this album in their 15 song set.  They even left out some of my favorites from this album just because they had to play some new stuff, which I very much enjoy by the way.  The Black Halo is a concept album, which means that every song tells a chapter in the album’s story from start to finish.  Because of how musically deep this album is (musical talent), I want to say that this album is a masterpiece.  Well, songs by Mozart, Bach and Led Zeppelin are masterpieces too, but this is draws on the same line.  100 years from now, this album will be in that category for lock.

Here are a few other albums that challenged for my top 5…
Epidemic self-titled
Cold “Year of the Spider”
Nightwish “Dark Passion Play”
Dust For Life self-titled
Iced Earth “Horror Show”
Shinedown “Leave A Whisper”
From Zero “One Nation Under”
3 Doors Down “The Better Life”
A Perfect Circle “Mer De Noms”
Black Label Society “The Blessed Hellride”

Let me know what your 5 albums would be by commenting on this post.  I’m up for discussion.  But until next time…

Rock, BC \m/