The Smiley Smile Message Board

What are albums that you prefer listening to with headphones on? So you can really get into the music(hear every sound) and let it drift you away to the world that it takes you to..

for me it would have to be...

The Who - Tommy
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Genesis - A Trick of the Tails
David Bowie - Heathen
The Kinks - Something Else
Rolling Stones - Exile in Main St.

Two albums that are amazing on headphones while 'Green' (heh) listening are The Hollies' Butterfly and The SMiLE Sessions. Specifically the latter, the mono mix sounds three demensional in that situation.

Here's a few more great headphone albums.

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Radiohead - OK Computer and Kid A
Beach Boys - Sunflower
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

Kid A :)  now that's an album I listen to a lot when I'm laying down to go to sleep lol

Close To The Edge by Yes on a pair of good headphones is sublime. There is NOTHING like it.

Electric Ladyland.

I would actually disagree on Pet Sounds. I recently bought me a decent pair of AKG headphones, and proceeded to dig through Beach Boys catalog. Smile Sessions blew me away, and Sunflower's unbelievably rich sonic details opened for the first time. But Pet Sounds wasn't quite the headphone mindblower I was expecting. In fact, it sounded a lot harsher and colder than I thought it would (I listened to stereo mix). The music was of course still glorious, but the echo/reverb-soaked soundscape works better through good pair of speakers, with the whole room vibrating along.

   The 1999 reissue , REMIXED and  remastered "Yellow Submarine"  It's a good collection of songs and a joy to hear because there is such a good balance and separation of instruments and it gives a glimpse at what those God awful stereo mixes George Martin created could sound like.  "Its All Too Much" and "All you Need is Love" really come alive.  I always found it frustrating listening to a lot ( but not all ) of the Beatles stuff on headphones (this doesn't include Abbey Road )

Since I Left You by The Avalanches.

I prefer listening to every album on headphones. This can be frustrating with the hard left or right panning of some 60s stereo mixes, but it's the only way I can really get "into" the music and block everything else out.

Like Roger said, I listen to all my music through head phones. There's no way I'd get away with listening to music out loud in my house. So I don't really have any "headphone albums". They all are.

Sufjan Stevens - Michigan / Illinoise
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House (although I have to say this is an amazing night time driving album)
anything by Vetiver

Absolutly! Kid A is such a brilliant album.  :-D

It's my favorite Radiohead album :) ..it's so spacey and atmospheric..

Sinead Oconnor - Universal Mother is great with headphones.

POB/Bambu, Sunflower, Surf's Up, and all of the Guns N' Roses albums.

The Moody Blues - To Our Children's Children's Children
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
George Winston - December

The only time sans headphones is when I throw bashes. The wall speakers are hung around my house, music coming out loud thru them and... all of us in danger of complete deafening. O.K., half.  ;D 

There we go... perfect.

ELP - Tarkus
Glass Harp - Glass Harp
Wings - Venus and Mars

Get all of these for maximum headphone experience. (Use studio headphones.)