The Flying Lizards first album.
It’s a bit odd, but by the time you get to the end it is worth the effort 
Also most Steve Reich but especially the original double CD of Drumming/6Pianos/Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ.
Hey kcleveland123, I posted this last night, but don’t think I replied directly to you, sorry.
Might be my favorite song of all time - “Invitation to the Blues”. I have analyzed the ever-living heck out of that piece - even used it in a therapy session one time. The ending where the strings come in under his singing “There’s a Continental Trailways leaving…” tears me apart just thinking about it.
Hey pikpen, From your suggestion, I listened to Talk Talk Color of Spring this weekend. That was very much my college era - New Wave - but I find this album to be quite a surprise - some of the same musical notions of that era but a lot of creativity, including in the studio art. I just loved how present and sudden and unexpected many of the effects were, but also made sense musically - not just “special effects” for effects sake. Thanks for listing the suggestion.
Indeed, I’d put Color of Spring in my top 5 albums of the entire 80s. Naturally some of your favorite albums become that way largely influenced by the circumstances in you life when you were listening to them. But it is still a favorite. Hollis was a brilliant talent. His growth went from post punk new wave to pop acceptable sophistication to to genreless mixture of several jazz rock crossover prog pop rock and to artistic ethereal masterpiece in 4 albums. Mind you Tim Friese-Greene must take credit for much of it. Mind you it did take me many years to fully appreciate Spirit Of Eden. But of course an artistic departure loved by critics is always certain commercial success suicide. But that didn’t seem to matter to Mark who quit music after the 5th album claiming he had achieved all he wanted to musically and just wanted to be a family man. Another album I played along with Color was Icehouse’s Measure For Measure. Not prog but I liked it. I like pretty much all of Icehouses’ stuff.
1986 was a great year for albums.
OK, maybe it was because I was 24, a DJ in a club FULL of hot gals and co-workers, drove a convertible sports car, and… well I better just stop there…
Alan Parsons - Pyramid
Dire Straits 1st
Rickie Lee Jones’ 1st
Jim Morrison - American Prayer
Shelby Lynne - Shelby Lynne (2020)
The Members - 1980 The Choice Is Yours
just a start really…
I’ll have to listen to more Talk Talk. And I’ve never heard of Icehouse. Even though I did college radio in the early 80s and we had alternative music programs, I was doing jazz and classical for the most part. I did like alt and new wave, but missed out on a lot of groups. Looks like I’m 3 years older than you, but in those days, 3 years meant we were almost from different eras musically.
I’ll throw out another shout-out for Roger Waters album “Ashamed to Death.” I’ve seen it mentioned in several threads in this forum, but last night was my first deep-listen to it. OK, I don’t know how the heck they did it, but some of the “chatter” - background conversations, radio & TV clips, etc. did something I have never experienced: I am now getting lots of “beyond the speakers” soundstage in my 2-channel system, where if I close my eyes and point to where the trumpet is coming from, I open my eyes to see that I’m pointing a full 18 inches to the right or left of the speaker, as well as the “phantom center channel” where I truly hear a speaker in the middle in front of me. But some of those “chatter” clips in Ashamed were coming to me FROM the wall to the right or left. And it couldn’t be some kind of reflection because I have acoustic panels there - it was as though the sound was coming OUT of the panels! How in the heck did they achieve that? Sure, they were panned 100% to the right or left, but I’ve heard plenty of that and it was coming from the general direction of the speakers - not this. Oh, and to stay on thread - what a magnificent work of musical and audio and cultural art that album is - from beginning to end.
I don’t listen to Roger Waters but he has been known to use QSound in the past and this may be another example of its use in mastering the album.
PF’s The Final Cut was also pretty cool sounding having been recorded with ‘holophonics’. I remember when it came out I found it almost too much as you could hear all the vocals’ clicks tics and actual inner mouth sounds. Holophonics was also used on The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking album. And right on topic, The Final Cut is pretty much a front to back play. Although it is pretty much the first Waters solo album.
I find Waters’ solo stuff to be like movies - great stuff but good for a watch once or twice and that’s about it. I rarely revisit them. The post Waters Pink Floyd stuff is quite repeatable.
http://www.acousticintegrity.com/acousticintegrity/Hugo_Zuccarelli.html
I think you mean Roger Waters “Amused to Death” and that is really great stuff. His newest “Is This the Life We Really Want?” is also highly recommended. And, @JLawry I happened to play my vinyl copy of Talk Talk “Color of Spring” this past weekend. Weird coincidences indeed.
Oh damn, I was talking at length to someone this morning about “shame” and shoot… guess there is a big difference between being ashamed vs. being amused… I need to remember to wait until after coffee to post these things.
Thanks for the info - that must be what he used because I’ve never been that fooled by two speakers. Fascinating.
No worries. I think I misspelled the Talk Talk album title…should be “Colour of Spring”. English spelling of color.
Have you checked out any of Mark Hollis’ solo stuff like “Spirit of Eden”? Very interesting jazz influenced music that’s tough to define.
Brave soul you are… 
The Butthole Surfers named their pit bull Mark Farner.
Quite a bit actually, played in the last 7 days (per Qobuz and Amazon):
All Floyd except for Animals and Atom Heart Mother
The Who Quadrophenia
Wakeman Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime
RPWL Live
Peter Gabriel Secret World Live
Triumvirat Spartacus
Focus Hamburger Concerto
Ghost of the Machine Scissorgames
Rush 2112
Waters Amused to Death
Marillion An Hour Before its Dark
Genesis The Lamb
Timothy Pure Island of Misfit Toys
When I was all digital I predominantly played playlists or skipped through tracks. Found I lost a lot of zest and passion for music, especially new music.
Since moving to vinyl, I only play the full album, and am totally reinvigorated in all music, it’s been such a great experience.
I find when I listen to the digital side of my system, I mostly listen to singles thru a playlist as opposed to whole albums. I believe this is why I am enjoying the Vinyl side of my system so much. It sort of forces you to listen to complete albums since there is no skip button. I think this helps you to appreciate more of the artists music and hear songs that you would normally gloss over on the digital side. I find it a rarity to get a great complete album. Here are some of my favorites off the top of my head in no particular order.
The Waifs - A Brief History…
Nanci Griffith - One Fair Summer Evening
Emmit Fenn - Prologue
Dominique Fils-Aimé - Stay Tuned!
Joe Bonamassa - Live at Royal Albert Hall
Damien Rice - Live from Union Chapel , My Favourite Faded Fantasy
Dixie Chicks - Home
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Sarah Mclachlan - Mirrorball
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Tina Turner - Private Dancer
The Cars - The Cars