My 25 "significant" albums

revsorg

Day 1

I sourced my album artwork from Google images, using the 600px x 600px images where possible.  Copied them into Paintshop Pro where I made them perfectly square and resized them to 200px x 200px. Then I pasted them into Adobe Fireworks where I had created my grid using the Slice Tool.  This enabled me to quickly snap them in place.  I exported the whole thing from Fireworks as a PNG.

Day 2

I wanted my grid to be entirely random so each album would get the attention it deserved.  So I copied each album back into Paintshop Pro and used Gaussian Blur at 100% to establish the average colour of each album as RGB and copied the results into Excel.  I tried various permutations of sorting the list by red, green and blue but couldn't figure out a way of arraying information that has three parameters as a two dimensional grid.  So I ended up working out the luminance value for each image by adding red green and blue together and then sorted the albums from dark to light.  Then I repositioned each album on my grid in accordance with the list and shuffled around the occasional album so that the colours didn't jar so much.

I'd be keen to hear anyones ideas of how to array red green and blue in a two dimensional grid.  I was hoping to achieve something like this:

TTony

revsorg said:

I'd be keen to hear anyones ideas of how to array red green and blue in a two dimensional grid.  I was hoping to achieve something like this:

Don't wait to derail this thread @revsorg, so PM'd you.

MagicPigDetective

 revsorg said:

@MagicPigDetective how did you select Erpland? I've always thought the Ozrics play a slight variant on one song. I put one of their albums in my list because it brings me such joy when one of their songs comes up on a random playlist.

It's the first album of theirs I heard and one that I and my university mates used to listen to a lot whilst, errr, 'chilling'   Not as well produced as later albums, but it has more of a live feeling and character that stands out, the songs are imprinted into my consciousness. Strangetide is from the same era and has a similar vibe. Curious Corn and Become the Other are also great.

A lot of songs sound they same, but to be fair, they do play variants not just of one, but of a few types of song. There's the long proggy epic. The ambienty one. The Arabic one with acoustic guitar. The dubby one. The eastern/gypsy type one etc.

tone1

quarky said:

Jonathangus said:

High n Dry was just so good. Practically the entire album is awesome to (try to) play on guitar too. Definitely one of my all time favourite albums, but I didn't have it on mine because it didn't wasn't as important, even if it is a favourite.

I’d have 25 of ACDC If you want Blood

Philly_Q

TTony said:
But if you've got 50 or 60 @Philly_Q ; you've either had a very long life, or lots of significant events in your life that had a strong musical soundtrack

Pretty long, @TTony, but certainly not full of significant events!

I guess those 50 or 60 would just be "favourites".  I could narrow them down to 25, hopefully, but they wouldn't relate to significant life events.  They'd just be albums that were particularly "big" to me at different points over the years, maybe times where my musical tastes went in different directions or tangents, although I don't feel like my tastes have really changed all that much.

And thanks very much for the tech tips, guys, I don't understand most of it but I'll have a look into it later (@revsorg that picture of coloured stones is pretty).

Deadman

richardhomer said:

Deadman said:

Remind me never to come round your house Rich.

*runs away*

Would you really expect ‘cool’ or ‘edgy’ from me?

I'm just being naughty. Love The Beatles in particular but they don't fit the criteria requirement.

Deadman

UnclePsychosis said:

It's really interesting looking at other people's lists and seeing where their tastes do and don't intersect with mine.

For example the vast majority of @Deadman 's picks are absolutely great. And then there's parklife in the middle which I utterly detest.

Similarly @MagicPigDetective who ruined his by adding Floyd :-D

Sorry fellas, only joshing. Weird how taste works though. 

It was a toss up between that and an Oasis offering. What's the story most likely. But then I'd be lying to myself. I hate Parklife single as it goes. Trouble in the message centre, however is massive.

MagicPigDetective

Deadman said:

UnclePsychosis said:

It's really interesting looking at other people's lists and seeing where their tastes do and don't intersect with mine.

For example the vast majority of @Deadman 's picks are absolutely great. And then there's parklife in the middle which I utterly detest.

Similarly @MagicPigDetective who ruined his by adding Floyd :-D

Sorry fellas, only joshing. Weird how taste works though. 

It was a toss up between that and an Oasis offering. What's the story most likely. But then I'd be lying to myself. I hate Parklife single as it goes. Trouble in the message centre, however is massive.

Modern Life is Rubbish could have been on my list, I love it. But I can’t stand Parklife and the whole Britpop hooha that came with it. 

Pink Floyd, their 70’s stuff is just so awesome it trancends any concept of what is cool or not. Where’s your list @UnclePsychosis ? Lets have it!  

Jonathangus

mudslide73 said:

I very much respect your inclusion of Smell The Glove @Jonathangus ;

Er - you do realise that's Metallica's black album? 

But you're right, in terms of significance, Smell the Glove should be on there!

UnclePsychosis

MagicPigDetective said:

Deadman said:

UnclePsychosis said:

It's really interesting looking at other people's lists and seeing where their tastes do and don't intersect with mine.

For example the vast majority of @Deadman 's picks are absolutely great. And then there's parklife in the middle which I utterly detest.

Similarly @MagicPigDetective who ruined his by adding Floyd :-D

Sorry fellas, only joshing. Weird how taste works though. 

It was a toss up between that and an Oasis offering. What's the story most likely. But then I'd be lying to myself. I hate Parklife single as it goes. Trouble in the message centre, however is massive.

Modern Life is Rubbish could have been on my list, I love it. But I can’t stand Parklife and the whole Britpop hooha that came with it. 

Pink Floyd, their 70’s stuff is just so awesome it trancends any concept of what is cool or not. Where’s your list @UnclePsychosis ? Lets have it!

--working on it! 

Lodious

What a great idea for a thread :-)
Here's mine...

Paul_C

UnclePsychosis

I am totally reserving the right to re do this at somepoint.

https://i.imgur.com/BoxCEwP.jpg

FatPete

UnclePsychosis said:

I am totally reserving the right to re do this at somepoint.

Likewise. 25 is nowhere near enough.

Sesh

I respect that the lists mostly avoid 25 "cool" choices. It would be easy to produce a list of classics and obscurities.

I did attempt something similar but the idea was I was going to paint the about covers myself, all about cd case size. I got halfway through the first one and then forgot about it. I only recall it now because I found the half done Weasels Ripped My Flesh the other day when having a sort out. My god, I can't paint.

RobDavies

https://i.imgur.com/pw6RbPW.jpg

RobDavies

https://i.imgur.com/SySC5vG.jpg

TTony

RobDavies said:

https://i.imgur.com/SySC5vG.jpg

I keep looking at that, thinking that there's probably a subtle theme in there somewhere.

But I just can't see it!

Rocker

@TTony, I think it is a Halloween inspired theme....

Rocker

My ‘25’ significant albums:

Moon Safari, Air

Live and Dangerous, Thin Lizzy

Photo Finish, Rory Gallagher

Frampton Comes Alive, Peter Frampton

Back in Black, AC/DC

Joan Armatrading, Joan Armatrading

Gold – Greatest Hits, The Carpenters

At Folsum Prison, Johnny Cash

Old No. 1 & Texas Cookin, Guy Clark

Communique, Dire Straits

Hotel California, The Eagles

Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

Appetite for Destruction, Guns ‘N’ Roses

Hot August Night, Neil Diamond

Ride On, Christy Moore

Trompe Le Monde, Pixies

Greatest Hits, Queen

The definitive SIMON & GARFUNKEL,  Simon & Garfunkel

Slayed?, Slade

12 Gold Bars, Status Quo

The Best of Rod Stewart, Rod Stewart

The Joshua Tree, U2

Famous Blue Raincoat, Jennifer Warnes

It Must Be Love; The Collection, Don Williams

The Wall, Pink Floyd

 

Some of the albums listed above are also favourites of mine but all have some ‘significance’.  From listening to a cassette deck playing Simon & Garfunkel in the car as we went to college in the early 1970s to discovering Moon Safari at a hi-fi system demo way back......