Best acoustic albums?

Can someone please recommend me some good acoustic albums.

Acoustic in what way?

If you mean acoustic as in acoustic guitar, the new Cat Power album; "The Greatest" is pretty nice. Female singer/songwriter, accompanied by a minimal band on some of the tracks. For something a bit more "mainstream", the José Gonzalez cd is good.

But a few of my best acoustic albums:

Elliott Smith - Either/Or
Gomez - Bring It On
Bob Dylan - Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Joni Mitchell - Blue

Rob.

Ulver - Kveldssanger (perfect for a walk in wintery woods)

One album I love at the moment is "City and colour - Sometimes" He has an amazing voice! Here are some other suggestions:
Damien Rice - O
Jack Johnson - In between dream and brushfire fairytales
Simon and Garfunkel - Tales frm new york
Lifehouse - Stanley Climbfall, No Name Face
Joseph Arthur
Incubus - Morning View (some songs)
Googoo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl
Foo Fighters - In yourt honour (acoustic disc)
The Early November - Acousitc EP
Counting Crows - Films about Ghosts, Recovering the satelites, This Desert Life, August and Everything after.
The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever (not really acoustic, but really chillled and happy)
Maroon 5 - Acoustic

Edit: Also I have Acoustic Love and Acoustic 04, both great compilations!
Hope that helps x

Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance

my favourite acoustic CD ever

Van Morrision - Astral Weeks

Turin Brakes - The Optimist LP
Aimee Mann - Lost In Space (not purely acoustic, but depends what you mean by that!)
The Cure - Acoustic Hits

Doohickey said:

Turin Brakes - The Optimist LP

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I'd forgotten how great that album was, thanks.

[Goes away and listens...]

Kings Of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud

kinda Simon and Garfunkel and a little Postal Servicey

retribution said:

If you mean acoustic as in acoustic guitar, the new Cat Power album; "The Greatest" is pretty nice.

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As awesome an album as that is, it features no acoustic guitar - it's all-electric Memphis soul in a Cat Power frame . Her earlier stuff is much more appropriate for the tag acoustic, with just her solo and a guitar or piano. Let's hope she gets her health back soon.

On that tip, for an acoustic album that doesn't feature an acoustic guitar [shock-horror!], I recommend the utterly fantastic sounds of Joanna Newsom (The Milk-Eyed Mender) - one who posesses a voice capable of completely polarising audiences. I think it's a case of you either 'get it' or you don't. Not in any intellectual capacity, mind, just that it either tickles you sonically or it doesn't. In Newsom's case, it takes it to an extreme, and I don't think there's a middle-ground. I can fully understand people who hate the sound of her voice. But take a chance on it.

She sits somewhere in between indie, folk and avant-garde playing a mean harp, harpsichord, and words. Yes, words. If you like words, then you'll love her music. I imagine there's plenty of literary reference and nods; but personally I just like the way she juggles and plays with language. Shifting the rhythm of a phrase or word to fit in an unexpected way, rhyming words within lines alongside line-by-line rhyming. I guess a little like old school hip-hop, but better...

Inflammatory Writ said:

And as for my inflammatory writ?
Well, I wrote it and I was not inflamed one bit.
Advice from the master derailed that disaster;
he said "Hand that pen over to ME, poetaster!"

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And I'll have to add one of her oft-quoted verses:

Bridges and Balloons said:

The sight of bridges and balloons
makes calm canaries irritable;
They caw and claw all afternoon:
"Catenaries and dirigibles,
brace and buoy the living-room --
a loom of metal, warp - woof - wimble."
And a thimblesworth of milky moon
can touch hearts larger than a thimble

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It's not until she sings it that it really takes on a life of its own. Who'd have thought you could get 'irritable' and 'dirigibles' to rhyme, let alone exist in the same verse of popular music . Anyway, there's some Stuff to maybe tempt newcomers.

The essential acoustic-folk artist Nick Drake's not been mentioned yet; so either Pink Moon or Five Leaves Left are must-haves.

And if you're after some fast and technical acoustic playing, look into McLaughlin's work in indo-jazz fusion group Shakti, and the Friday Night in San Francisco album.

Mark Kozelek - Whats next to the Moon
Mark Kozelek - Tiny Cities


ben jd, if you check any of the recommendations out, make sure you let us know what you think

Eric Clapton - Unplugged

there is a Muse album. not an official album but its recording of them on the radio doing a few songs from there album "showbiz"

MUSE - acoustic (8-3-99)

Neil young - Unplugged

John Butler - John Butler
The John Butler Trio - Sunrise over Sea
Jose Gonzalez - Veneer.

I highly recomend John Butler

Nirvana.

Alice in Chains - MTV Unplugged

Fantastic album, if your looking for a good acoustic set this is a must!

punky_munky said:

Kings Of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud

kinda Simon and Garfunkel and a little Postal Servicey

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^ As above. Also, see Iron & Wine, perhaps the album "Our Endless Numbered Days". Very nice indeed, extremely soothing voice and playing.

the new Jose Gonzalez album is pretty good.
There was a band from the 90's called 'Wheat' and they did an album called 'Hope & Adams' which is on that vibe...