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

Re: Albums I like to listen to straight through, part 2

[irgth.livejournal.com]

Varese

Boulez conducts Varese

Arcana, Ameriques, Ionisation

Edie Brickell

Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars

Elvis Costello

The Delivery Man

Emok

Crumbs

Shove Your Head into the Ground and Feed it to the Earth (best album title ever!)

Frank Zappa

Ensemble Modern - Greggery Peccary

Apostrophe/Overnite Sensation

Cruisin w/Ruben/Jets

Guitar

Hot Rats

Jazz From Hell

Joe's Garage

Shut up and play yer guitar

Waka/Jawaka

Zappa in New York

London Symphony Orchestra

Freak Out

Gear Daddies

Billy's Live Bait

Jimi Hendrix

Smash Hits

Jimmy Page

Live at the Greek

Coverdale/Page

John Coltrane

Impressions

System of a Down

*ALL*

T-Bone Burnett

Tooth of Crime

Criminal Under My Own Hat

True False Identity

Tom Verlain

Warm and Cool

Tom Waits

*ALL* (at least the ones I own)

Tori Amos

Boy for Pele

Under the Pink

Van Halen

Van Halen

Vanessa Carlton

Be Not Nobody

Harmonium

Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes

Warren Cuccurullo

Thanks to Frank

White Stripes

*ALL*

Whitesnake

Whitesnake

Wolfmother

Wolfmother

XTC

Skylarking

10,000 Maniacs

In My Tribe

Adam and the Ants

Antics in the Forbidden Zone

Johnny Cash

American III

American IV

American Recordings

Kate Bush

the Whole Story

Kevin Manthei

Justice League: the New Frontier

The Killers

Hot Fuss

Sam's Town

King Crimson

Red

Starless/Bible Black

KT Tunstall

Eye to the Telescope

Live Session (iTunes excl.)

Led Zeppelin

*ALL*

Lily Allen

Alright, Still

John Lee Hooker

Real Folk Blues

John Paul Jones

Zooma

Fiona Apple

Extraordinary Machine

iTunes Originals

Tidal

When the Pawn..

Flyleaf

Flyleaf