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

[runnerwolf.livejournal.com]

Bon Jovi's early stuff (Slippery When Wet and Blaze of Glory).

Cecilia Eng's Of Shoes and Ships (Yes I have been listening to Filk my whole life)

TMBG's Appollo 18 Just has too many good memories with it.

Pat Benetar's Greatest Hits Album

Some other Filk Tapes I would have to look up, since they aren't on my playlist as they aren't digital.

[runnerwolf.livejournal.com]

And Poison's Flesh and Blood

[ivy]

I basically never listen to anything in that format, so I don't have anything on-topic to say... but I did want to add that I don't think transparently comment-trolling is a bad thing. I tend to view LJ as a multiway conversation, so asking for other viewpoints besides your own is certainly an acceptable and polite thing to do. [grin] It'd be much weirder for me to consider it as me declaiming my opinions to the world.

[keystricken.livejournal.com]

Wow, I almost never listen to albums anymore -- I moved into mp3s at such an early stage in my musical development, I never spent the time needed to appreciate how songs are curated into an album. With that said, there are still some physical CDs I schlep around when I move, and I remember them fondly as a single unit of music. The ones I can remember off the top of my head:

- Picaresque, by the Decemberists [1]
- Nightmare Before Christmas, by Danny Elfman [2]
- Fashion Nugget, by Cake [3]

[1] My first taste of that band. Each song is a perfect introduction to the Decemberists in its own way.
[2] Don't ask, I can't explain, there's just something about this soundtrack.
[3] The funny thing is, I almost never listen to these songs individually anymore. I tend to skip 'em when they come up on my ipod. But as a unit, they move so smoothly into each other.

I also have Apollo 18 and a couple other TMBG albums. John Linell could pretty much have both my kidneys and my left lung if he just asked for them.

[hollyqueen.livejournal.com]

Don Henley, End of the Innocence.

For the most part, I have always been a Top 40, Greatest Hits collection kinda girl, so very few albums made into my collection.

[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? :)

[slantiness.livejournal.com]

Apollo 18 YEAH

Space suit!

[slantiness.livejournal.com]

Picaresque and NBC YES!

John Linell OF COURSE HE CAN HAVE DAS ORGANS

[slantiness.livejournal.com]

The albums you listed were pretty much entirely unexpected.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I hate to be totally boring and predictable, but: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.

Thing is, I didn't discover that until recently. I mean, I grew up hearing the music, but not hearing it played as a cohesive album, and since it was my sister's music, I grew up mostly hearing some of the songs and not knowing who they were or what the titles were.

It was only when Tony and I were talking music on a road trip a few years ago and he put it on and we listened to it from start to finish that I really fell in love. And then that documentary cemented it.

(We've really got to have that viewing party.)

[solarbird]

No album is perfect. That said, these are awfully, awfully good, that are often not part of the usual lists (c.f. Bowie/Ziggy Stardust, Beatles/Sgt. Pepper, etc.):

She - Days Hon. mention: She - Coloris, less one (1) song.
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Blur - Parklife
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Great Big Sea - Road Rage
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
光宗 信吉, J.A. Seazer, and Rika ARAI - 少女革命ウテナ 絶対進化革命前夜
riddim saunter - Current (more because of the associations than anything else, but it's a solid, solid album)
Steely Dan - Aja
Ringo Shiina - Memorandum (椎名林檎 - 無罪モラトリアム)
Zebra - Zebra

It's kind of funny how many of my favourite songs are not on these albums. (C.f. Lush - "For Love". I can listen to that song on repeat for hours. And there are other good songs on that album. But..)

[hollyking.livejournal.com]

Tinyfish - The Big Red Spark
Kansas - Kansas
Coheed and Cambria - The Year of the Black Rainbow
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Ayreon - 01011001
The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination

There are many more, but those are the ones that easily bubble to the top of my mind.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

Moxy Früvous - Bargainville
Paul Simon - Graceland
Paul Simon - Paul Simon
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
Tank Girl soundtrack
Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen
The Smugglers - Selling the Sizzle
Notre Dame de Paris, recorded by I don't know who, some Québecois production of it.

Man I had kind of a Paul Simon phase at a formative age.

I also get intensely nostalgic about the Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Hole albums my sister played over and over in highschool, but I have no idea what any of the song or album names are, having experienced them exclusively through the thin walls between our bedrooms. Except the ones on the Tank Girl soundtrack, which I flat-out stole from her and still have.

[keystricken.livejournal.com]

You like Bargainville? Can we be friends?

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

Hah! I was about to reply to your comment with a <3 for the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. My husband used to sing Sally's Song to me when we were first dating.

Bargainville was the very first CD I ever owned. I think I have the words to every song memorized.

[ionan.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with mentioning this album. It's fantastic, and really works well as a complete unit instead of individual tracks. Also, a lot of engineers think it's one of the best recordings ever made.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen the documentary about the making of it, I highly recommend it. It's fascinating (and rewatchable). And has tons of DVD extras.

[tommusic.livejournal.com]

Self - The Half-Baked Serenade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Half-Baked_Serenade) is one that has stuck with me for a long time.

It's not all that old, but We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Thrust_Mastery) has solidly stood the test of time so far. Not a bad track on there.

Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Tomato_Ketchup_(album)) will always hold a place in my heart.

[ionan.livejournal.com]

Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album); I don't even really like alternative anymore, but every. single. track. on this one is solid. EVERY SONG! Nothing is out of place. No Weezer album since has been as overall good, although Pinkerton is excellent in it's own right.

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours; Excellent, excellent electro-pop from Australia. Catchier and more song-oriented than their breakout album "Bright Like Neon Love", but without losing the synth-based dance edge.

Prodigy - Experience; Back when the Prodigy were a bunch of peace-and-love hippies, they made happy hardcore when happy hardcore hadn't even been named. Never gets old.

KMFDM - XTORT; Their overall best album, IMHO. Crunchy, aggressive, makes you wanna stomp around in some heavy boots. "Son of a Gun" is 4:24 of pure ass-kicking.

Honorable mention -
Propellerheads - Deckanddrumandrockandroll; The soundtrack to every single action movie from the mid-nineties to about 2003. He's got a nice body. He's wearing velvet pants.

[ionan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and-
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; Hard to describe why this one is great. The first half is the titular story of robot-fighting Yoshimi, and is immensely charming. The second half is what really does it for me, serving as an emotional come-down from the intensity of the first. The sheer genuineness of feeling in "Do You Realize" manages to overcome all the product tie-ins and shameless plugs the song's been used in to make me start tearing up every time.

The Protomen - The Protomen; A concept album about the video game "Megaman". But it's not just that. It's a howling, crashing metal opera about freedom, death, regret, revenge, duty, and betrayal. Every word, every screaming phrase is soaked with meaning and emotion. The production is pitch-perfect. Epic.

[ionan.livejournal.com]

And not epic in the internet sense. Not epic like lewt, or epic like a youtube video of a kitten in a bowl, or epic like a skillful headshot in Halo. Epic like a steam-powered locomotive. Epic like a battering ram splintering the gates to a fortified castle. Epic like a full broadside to a marauding ironclad being shrugged off like so many spitwads.
Epic.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

I have been totally ruined by digital music. I used to listen to CDs in track repeat mode, and that's basically how I listen to music today. My iTunes 'Recently Added' smart folder thingo, which is where I go to listen to stuff I've just eagerly acquired, defaults to 'repeat item' mode. I have 75 listens for a 3m19s song I added about a week ago, and songs with 10, 11, 10, 15, 18 and 10 listens that were ripped at around the same time.

Actually, even in my childhood some of my fondest memories are of singles, there's something ineffably cool about them, or at least there was in the late '80s and early '90s.

I think the last time I listened to an album repeatedly on vinyl was Pet Shop Boys' "Actually" — on tape was Pet Shop Boys' "Introspective" (or perhaps the Twin Peaks soundtrack.) It's harder to remember for CDs since there have been road trips and times when CDs got left in a car stereo for months, but perhaps that's not the same thing.

I do sometimes listen to just a single album on random repeat, which is perhaps closer, but not quite the same.

There are albums that generally come together and which I don't get sick of, though.

The Church's "Destination" has very listenable lows and fantastic highs. Likewise for a-Ha's "Scoundrel Days" and And One's "Bodypop". Hm. And: Anything Box's "Peace"; Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 85-92"; Concrete Blonde's "Mexican Moon"; The Cranberries' "No Need to Argue"; Dar Williams' "End of the Summer"; Deacon Blue's "Raintown"; ilyAIMY's "Myxomatosis Failed"; IRIS' "Wrath"; the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's "Shag Times"; Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love"; Machines of Loving Grace's self-titled album; Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor"; Ministry's "With Sympathy"; Nelly Furtado's "Loose"; New Order's "Republic"; Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"; Ozzy Osbourne's "Ozzmosis"; Peter Murphy's "Deep"; Propaganda's "A Secret Wish"; Tears for Fears' "Elemental"; Thomas Dolby's "Astronauts & Heretics"; Tori Amos' "Little Earthquakes"; The Tribe's "Abort"; Wolfsheim's "Casting Shadows" and Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Technodelic".


Some things are basically all highs, though, and I suppose are more what you're asking about: Cocteau Twins' "Heaven or Las Vegas"; Depeche Mode's "Violator"; Electronic's "Electronic"; The KLF's "The White Room Original Motion Picture Soundtrack"; Peter Gabriel's "So"; Talk Talk's "It's My Life"; Thomas Dolby's "The Sole Inhabitant"; many Toad the Wet Sprocket albums; Toy Matinee's self-titled album; Underworld's "Underneath the Radar" and Xymox's "Twist of Shadows".

I've even surprised myself with a very-late-to-the-party addition of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds".

And there are things I much more appreciate as albums than as collections of songs, like most albums by the Smiths, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, VNV Nation, the Razor Skyline, Prefab Sprout, Japan and The The; The KLF's "Chill Out", of course.

I won't enumerate all of the Pet Shop Boys albums, but most of them fall into some category like that.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

Hell yes. Actually, a lot of Pink Floyd stuff is really best in album form, in my opinion. ♥

[caladri.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes, Parklife and especially The Lexicon of Love! ♥ ABC so much.

Aja is definitely a masterpiece, too, but I am incredibly tickled that you mentioned ABC.

[solarbird]

I love the Protomen concept. I do very much.