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

[lunar--angel.livejournal.com]

Such an inspiring band of comments!

My off-hand deeply beloved:

Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
Chicago - Greatest Hits 1982–1989

And because I am a nerd, there are any number of Broadway or London musical cast recordings that I have listened to hundreds of times, and will listen to in perpetuity. (Particularly, from childhood LPs: Godspell, West Side Story. I got tired of Grease a long long time ago.)

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Gah, how could I have forgotten Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms? (which I think is the one you meant- it's the full length album that contains Money for Nothing, but the truly good bits are the title track and the ending of Why Worry)

[lunar--angel.livejournal.com]

No - I love the Brothers in Arms album, but I grew up with the Money for Nothing compilation album.

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Ah! Gotcha.