Comments on: Top Five: Double Your Pleasure

By: Scraps

Scraps — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:27:12 +0000

David Bowie, 1977: Low and Heroes.

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:49:34 +0000

If one allowed Parliament and Funkadelic albums to be considered together, there are probably a few good combinations.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:41:15 +0000

Excellent suggestions, thanks.
I wonder why 1975 was such a good year for this phenomenon? Elton John, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Parliament, Miles Davis….

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:05:21 +0000

I’m not a fan, but:

Yes, 1971: The Yes Album and Fragile.

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:03:37 +0000

Husker Du, 1985: New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig. Strict adherence to the calendar keeps Husker Du from having a better combination: 1984's great Zen Arcade was actually released closer to New Day Rising than Flip Your Wig was.

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:58:33 +0000

Oh, Fairport Convention have the Dead beat: Fairport Convention, 1969: What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and Liege & Lief. Most fans would agree that's their three best albums, although some would argue for Full House (1970) being in the mix. Liege & Lief and Unhalfbricking are by consensus the two best.

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:52:55 +0000

Neil Young, 1975: Tonight's the Night and Zuma. The Grateful Dead, 1970: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. (May be the only combination of this sort that is not only two excellent albums but by consensus opinion the band's two best albums.) Parliament, 1975: Chocolate City and Mothership Connection. (Allmusic says 1976 for Mothership Connection, but Allmusic is wrong.)

By: Scraps

Scraps — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:16:33 +0000

There are tons of jazz albums that qualify; too many to begin listing. Charles Mingus 1959 would be a good place to start.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:08:31 +0000

I corrected the Prince year; thanks for the catch. And good suggestions on the class of '77. I agree that Black Album/Lovesexy (which I think of as the twins, partially because of "When 2 R in Love," partially because I didn't see any boots leak until 1988; I don't think I was alone, since that's the year it placed in Pazz and Jop) are a much stronger pair of albums--I thought of them first, actually. But he didn't actually release The Black Album, you know? (And if he had, I'm not sure he would have made Lovesexy, but now we're getting into "what if Adolf Hitler's grandmother had become an aviatrix" territory.) You could certainly argue that if I insist on The Black Album being a 1994 release then Bob Dylan's 1975 kicks everyone's ass.

By: Chris M.

Chris M. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:50:56 +0000

Two Prince notes: 1. Those two albums did indeed come out the same year, but it was ’96, not ’98. 2. For my money, the twofer by Prince is 1987's Sign 'O' the Times and The Black Album (or, if you prefer, Black Album and Lovesexy in ’88, depending on when you believed Black would have hit stores -- Wikipedia claims Nov. ’87). Yes, I know Black didn't come out officially till ’94, but it was easily available on bootleg by ’88, even in the pre-Internet era. Honestly, neither Chaos nor Emancipation have ever done much for me (especially the latter -- oy, was that set bloated). And, since you wanted other post-1970 suggestions, how ’bout two sets of punk-era albums from 1977: The Ramones' Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, and... Iggy Pop's The Idiot and Lust for Life.