This is part 35 of an ongoing series where the kind folk of the music business reveal their favourite album of all time.
Ask people in the music industry the seemingly simple and straightforward question, “What is your favourite album of all time?” and you’ll find that it’s not always easy. After all, my industry peers listen to hundreds of albums a month – thousands of songs during that time. Because the question isn’t the best album of all time – the one that’s made them the most money in sales – but the one release they personally can’t live without, that one title they have two copies of in several formats, in case one breaks. It’s also about that album that for them has the best back stories and the one that has the most meaning in their lives.
Claudie Saulnier, Editor in chief, HollywoodPQ.com
Nine Lives, Aerosmith
My personal life-changing album was (and still is) Nine Lives from Aerosmith. I was 11 years old when they released Hole in my Soul and its fantastic video, and it literally pushed me through my little girl / boys band phase. This record introduced me to the colorful world of rock. Aerosmith taught me what loving music really means.
Karen Graham, Music Writer, Turn It Up To Twelve
The Fine Art of Surfacing, The Boomtown Rats
I was 6 or 7 when it was released. I Don’t Like Mondays was ALWAYS on the radio and the sound was very provocative. I still play the entire record at least once a week.
Nate Ra, Music Writer, The Tennessean
Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective
I loved the band before it came out, but I’d never heard anything quite like it, and I still find the songs as fun and gripping as when I first heard them.
Lee Dale, I Need Sugar
Rubber Soul, The Beatles
There are certainly some 60s guitar pop here, but so much of this is ahead of its time, and already a significant evolution from 1965’s earlier release, Help! While they’re not yet pushing the boundaries as far as the White album, I find this album to be a much more cohesive whole. Individually, there are remarkable acoustic tracks, like Norwegian Wood and Michelle. There’s the wonderful In My Life. Plus it includes a surprisingly great country track, What Goes On, along with the vicious Run For Your Life. Then there’s Girl. An incomparable track now, made even more remarkable when compared to other great songs from 1965. I also hear a lot of my era’s Sloan and C.A. Smith here, which is a lot of fun for a guy who missed the Beatles and didn’t start digging into music on his own until 1990.
Trent Clark, Hip Hop Wired
Life After Death, The Notorious B.I.G.
The album still reigns supreme for me. Rappers and record labels alike always try to cater to a multitude of audiences in one sitting at with two discs to boot, Biggie managed to do just that on his unintentional swan opus. There was soul reflection (“Sky’s the Limit”), surreal gangsterisms (“Somebody’s Gotta Die”), and pure hitmaking material that still gets played to this day as heard on “Hypnotize” and “Mo Mo, Mo Problems.” In my opinion, it remains the only album that evidences a jack of all trades and master of them all.
