Perfect Albums

[gfish]

I'm not the biggest music person in the world. I got into it rather late, due to my sheltered, nerdly childhood -- and when I did, the first several albums I bought were Genesis and Moody Blues. I still explore new groups and genres quite slowly, though I'm maybe somewhat pointlessly proud that I've continued at more or less the same rate at least into my mid-30s. (Oh, yeah, Feb 4 marked my official entry into the middle-third of this decade. Weird.) But while there is a lot of new music I'm quite into, like everyone else I keep coming back to the music I was listening to in high school. I've come to accept that no matter how much I like new music, the chances are that I'll get tired of it sooner or later and move on, leaving just another laying of songs on my ipod that I may or may not skip when they come up. It's kind of sad that the window for finding Perfect Albums has closed. It makes me wish I had listened to more music back then! That hallowed honor only goes to a handful of albums: Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine, Depeche Mode's Violator, and The Violent Femmes' Why Do Birds Sing. With maybe Nirvana's Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magic also placing. That's it. Those are the few and the proud which I just can't fault. I can listen to them in their entirety regularly and not get bored, and probably will for the rest of my life.

At the risk of being transparently comment-trolling, what are your Perfect Albums?

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Boston (eponymous).

Eagles, Hell Freezes Over. Yeah, this is a post-1990 album, but the problem was, if you wanted all the good stuff before this one, you had to get Volume I and Volume II, and then weed out the crap and make your own custom mix tape. (dating myself!) There's only a few skippers on "Hell Freezes Over", and while I prefer the original studio version of "Take It Easy" (banjo solo!), the live one with the twelve-string doesn't suck egregiously, and the version of "Hotel California" with the classical guitar intro is perhaps the finest piece the group has ever recorded.

Billy Joel, Nylon Curtain. I don't listen much to Billy Joel anymore, but that was a damn fine album....

Enya, Watermark. Enya was good on The Celts, and this, her second album, definitely did NOT suffer from the sophomore jinx; I got hooked from the vid to "Orinoco Flow" and reeled in by "Storms of Africa"... from "Watermark" to "Miss Claire Remembers", this was Enya's finest work. She went totally pop after that, and alas hasn't recovered.

Gaia Consort, Gaia Circles and Secret Voices. I miss the old stuff. Further deponent sayeth not.

Vixy and Tony, Thirteen. I don't think I gotta 'splain this one. :)

Talis Kimberley, The Hearth and the Hive. Ditto.

Show of Hands, Arrogance, Ignorance, and Greed I don't know how much you (or anyone else reading this) has listened to them other than "The Napoli" and "Keys to Canterbury", but the title cut is hammered awesome, hits the bankers and the politicians right on the head, and there are several other tracks that really hit home, too, not all of them sad. I'd love to see these guys (and Miranda!) live someday.

Great Big Sea, Fortune's Favour and Great Big DVD. Favour is the right mix of pop and trad, and Great Big DVD is the B'ys analog to Hell Freezes Over, it gives you the full concert experience...

OK. Enough. I like FAR too many things... (The Nutcracker, the one with the Sendak artwork on the cover? :)