One of my favorite things to do while stoned is listen to albums that are really unique, artful, and/or jam packed with soul and energy, as in that head space music just hits completely differently and it just lends to me finding a deep love and appreciation for the art of music. What’re some of your favorites?
Delton 3030 is a rap opera set in the dystopian future. Amazing album start to finish.
Interstellar 55555 is an animated story for daft punks Discovery album which is a banger on its own. Once you watch the movie you never hear the album differently.
Green Day’s American Idiot is a concept album that was good enough to turn into a real musical.
Yeah, very much the first deltron album, it rocks. Second one has some good inter-track bits and a few good songs, but the first one, phew.
Love me some Del.
Now you got me listening to Mistadobalina
Also for anyone interested check out Hieroglyphics they’re amazing.
Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.
I once got really stoned and fell asleep while listening to it on a loop. I had all these insane dreams where I was walking through a pitch black jungle. I could feel all this stuff, the different textures of plants, the ground under foot, animals brushing by in the night, but I couldn’t see anything: a totally non-visual dream. It wasn’t scary, just super weird. Never experienced anything like it before or since.
Did this one Halloween night in college. It was terrifying.
Oh, man, so many. There’s the obvious like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon or Rush’s 2112, but Rust in Peace by Megadeth is superb, In Step by Stevie Ray Vaughan as well. Muse, however, has a few albums that are incredible, especially when you’re in the headspace to pick out little details. Their Black Holes and Revelations album is a banger from front to back, Simulation Theory is Velvety and interesting, Drones is jarring in a very good way, and The Resistance is harmony-rich and beautiful.
Also, I’m not familiar with the whole album, but the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane has one of the best vocal performances ever.
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King.
It’s just exploding with creativity and craftsmanship throughout the album. The opening tune (21st Century Schizoid Man) was unlike anything anyone had ever heard at the time it was released, and there’s honestly still not much like it out there. And the transition to Moonchild after it is equally mind-blowing just for the contrast alone. The title track remains one of the most incredible things I’ve heard.
Zappa also has a lot of good candidates for this list. I’m soft for Freak Out, where the madness started, but some might argue something like Joe’s Garage is a better example.
Mr Bungle - California and Disco Volante are unique and quite a trip.
Fantomas - The Director’s Cut is another good one to add on to these.
Egg!
Egg, oh an egg comes out of a chicken
Egg, oh a chick comes out of an egg
Egg, oh an egg comes out of a chicken
Egg, oh a chick comes out of an egg
Egg, oh an egg comes out of a chicken
Egg, oh a chick comes out of an egg
Egg, oh an egg comes out of a chicken
Egg, oh a chick comes out of an egg
Did not expect disco volante in this thread.
Oh man. California is a masterpiece. Musicianship is top notch, with so many different moods and styles, it’s like they had enough ideas to make 3 albums but somehow managed to cram everything into one.
I love Röyksopp Profound Mysteries. There are several albums. The songs with Susanne Sundfør are amazing.
Deltron 3030
卄乇ㄥㄥ ㄚ乇卂卄 乃尺ㄖㄒ卄乇尺
no one’s mentioned Tool - Lateralus
pretty much anything by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters, or Thrust
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
I am not familiar with Sunn O))) but given your other tastes I want to check them out
I saw Sunn and Godspeed You Black Emperor at different times in the same venue (Brooklyn Masonic Temple) and they were both the best show and the worst show I’ve ever seen in my life, respectively. Walked out halfway through Godspeed, it was so bad. Anyway, Sunn O))) rocks
Can you elaborate on why godspeed was best and worst at the same time? I’m intrigued …
Sorry, I didn’t phrase that clearly. Sunn O))) was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. GY!BE was terrible.
Sunn built up such an intensity and anticipation, and during the show they put a hell of a show. Fog covered the venue… they had vocalist Attila with them who was wearing a robe covered in mirror fragments and he had lasers on the end of each finger that he would bounce off the mirrors and into the crowd/fog. I’ve been to a few hundred shows and this light show alone would rank it up there, but the performance was something else too. It was the most intense and loud show ever (don’t forget your hearos, lol), you could feel your skin and clothing vibrate. Supposedly the Brooklyn Masonic Temple has no noise ordinance to follow because they’re grandfathered out of it, or something like that. It was loud.
With Godspeed You! Black Emperor I would have been better off if I stayed home and listened to low quality mp3. No stage presence, no engaging the crowd, nothing notable to say really. They sounded off and bored, like they were doing this because their family was held hostage. I don’t know what I expected, but it was at least decent sound quality. This was not long after they got back together, so maybe that played into it.
Not really a specific album but check out Lorn in general.
Easy Star All Stars - Dub Side of the Moon
Most of these fit into the inventive, otherworldly or both kind of vibe.
As a studio, Ninja Tune is very interesting.
Here’s one of my favorite Lorn tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEBIsUsvheA
Weigh me down is awesome! I really like 555-5555
Days of Future’s Past by the Moody Blues, the one with the London Symphony.
I haven’t done it in a long time, but I used to turn out all the lights and lay on the floor and listen to this album from start to finish, it’s so good.
I haven’t used Lemmy to promote myself until now, but check me out: www.thassodar.com
All my songs have no words, vary from chill to drum and bass, and I’ve been making them for about 4 years. My most recent EP is primarily chill, and my SoundCloud has the latest 4 tracks I put out last month.
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of the Moon
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - K.G.
Pendulum - Immersion
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane, Kind of Blue - Miles Davis, Doolittle - Pixies, Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips, Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead - OK Computer
Savage sinusoid - Igorrr
Cheval is a whole assortment of vibes
Not Spirituality & Distortion?
The concept album Hospice by The Antlers is excellent.
Set in New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which the second track is named after, Hospice tells the story of a relationship between a hospice worker and a female patient suffering from terminal bone cancer, their ensuing romance, and their slow downward spiral as a result of the woman’s traumas, fears, and disease. The story of her deterioration also serves as a metaphor for an abusive relationship. Frontman Peter Silberman has been reluctant to divulge explicit details regarding the meaning of the record, and the extent to which it is autobiographical.
I’m not a very emotional person, but I feel the highs and lows quite profoundly. I think it’s the music pairing perfectly with Pete’s voice—which is almost acted/in-character at times—and the lyrics. Always appreicate a good concept album and this is a favourite.
The part in Atrophy with the sounds of glass breaking evoke broken bones and searing pain, just as the patient would be feeling, is so amazing.
“I’d happily take all those bullets inside you and put them inside of myself.”
And then:
"Someone, oh anyone. Tell me how to stop this
She’s screaming, expiring, and I’m her only witness."
That song is so sad.
So many good lyrics though:
“And told me something that I didn’t know that I wanted
To hear that there was nothing that I could do to save you
The choir’s gonna sing and then this thing is gonna kill you”I love lyrics in Wake, the realisation of what he went through and now it’s over. And without noticing, the music builds into unleashing so much by this point…
Don’t be scared to speak
Don’t speak with someone’s tooth
Don’t bargain when you’re weak
Don’t take that sharp abuse
Some patients can’t be saved, but that burden’s not on youDon’t ever let anyone tell you you deserve that
This is sooo sad and so good. I love this album, it’s really incredible.
I discovered this album while working for a hospice equipment rental company. It helped me understand the emotions of people going through such intense loss. It’s beautiful and ugly at the same time. It somehow manages to capture the full spectrum of emotions of that experience. This is one of the great albums of this millennium. I don’t know how the artist captured it so well, but I hope he found some relief from his hospice experience by creating that album. 10/10.