"Perfect" albums (1 Viewer)

[tomwaits]

Met a girl from Chicago when I was in Florida on vacation. 13 years old drinking mad dog 20/20 screwing around in the sand. Girl had one of those mini boom box type radios with D size batteries with a mix tape playing. Rhinoceros came on and I was introduced to Smashing Pumpkins. What a great night during such an amazing time to be alive.

We stayed in touch some after that. When I was 15, she called me out the blue and had tickets to SP concert in Chicago. Told my parents I was going camping for the weekend with friends and drove to Chicago.

Got to love the memories made with music. If the music isn't good you don't remember that part in the memories. If the music is good it's intertwined.

I never got to see SP. I had tickets for a Dallas show that got cancelled when the keyboard player had a drug OD and I could not make the make-up show.

I remember the first concert I listened to streaming on the internet was SP in Ireland. The concert was stopped because the crowd was getting too violent. The next day we heard a girl was trampled to death.

EDIT: Also on this, I think Billy Corgan said the girl's death affected where they went musically and they were going to get away from the harder songs like Bullet With Butterfly Wings. I think this is why Adore was a much softer album.

 

[Absolutely Free]

I cant believe we made it this far without a dinosaur jr album.

I loved green mind when it came out then where you been took over.

So I would say where you been is on the list for me. Great album.

And heck J Mascis Is why I own a jazzmaster! They were not cool before him well unless you played surf music.

 

[Complex Kid]

Tom Petty - Wildflowers

Honeybee is one that always seems so out of place on this album. I know WHY it was put there (he thought the album was too serious and heavy and needed something to "lightin" it up) and I've become more accepting of it over time but it just bugs me that it would have been completely perfect album if he included "Hope You Never", "California", "Hung Up and Overdue" or even "Leave Virginia Alone" instead.

 

[sfidc3]

I haven't been to many concerts but I would assume you're not supposed to hear someone next to you while they're playing. But probably the loudest was the first time I saw Dream Theater which was last year. They weren't too loud for me but I could feel it in my chest. The second time I saw them was the same tour last year for my birthday. Both times was an anniversary for Scenes so they played the whole album. I audio recorded the whole thing that time. It was awesome.

I clearly did not clearly communicate how loud it was that night. I've been to many loud concerts, this was by far the loudest. Either the band (likely) or the sound guys should have understood that. The instruments were so loud you could barely here the singer, maybe they fixed it later but we had to leave after a few songs. When I saw them 10 years later the sound was great...

Elton John - Madman Across the Water

Bob Marley - Exodus

Dire Straits - Making Movies

Rush - 2112, Moving Pictures

I should have added Sir Elton but mine would be Tumbleweed Connection....Madman is firmly entrenched in 2nd place though....

 

[COsaintsfan]

Lots of stuff listed I need to check out. Thanks all for that.

Probably the only entire album I've listened to start to finish in the past 20 years is Whiskey Myers - Road of Life because I could only find what I wanted in that format, the download was the whole album in one mp3.

But the best overall record has to be Whitney by Whitney Houston

 

[antipop]

it's for the children

 

[tenordas]

I should have added Sir Elton but mine would be Tumbleweed Connection....Madman is firmly entrenched in 2nd place though....

+100. Tumbleweed Connection is my favourite Elton John album, and while Madman and a couple of others are very good albums, none of them are even a close second for me.

 

[superchuck500]

EDIT: Also on this, I think Billy Corgan said the girl's death affected where they went musically and they were going to get away from the harder songs like Bullet With Butterfly Wings. I think this is why Adore was a much softer album.

Sonically, I think it was probably due more to the departure of the band's drummer - also for drug problems. Adore was their attempt at moving forward and it's a very different sound.

 

[sfidc3]

+100. Tumbleweed Connection is my favourite Elton John album, and while Madman and a couple of others are very good albums, none of them are even a close second for me.

Yep, it has such a unique sound to it. Probably the closest to a "fusion" album EJ has ever made...country, folk, rock, jazz can be heard in the songs....it really was a departure for him, not that I don't like some of his other early works but this one just stands out for me....

 

[Bronson]

STP - Purple

12 gracious melodies worth listening

 

[sfidc3]

12 gracious melodies worth listening

Ha!!! I love that part, very Zappa like.

I know I'm in the vast minority but I think STP was the best band to come out of that time period, musically they were much more technical and dynamic and their sound changed constantly....the brothers (guitar and bass player) wrote most of the music parts and SW (RIP) wrote the lyrics....it is sad that he couldn't break his drug addiction....

 

[Lurkquacious]

(Trying to avoid redundancy, so not listing any I recall being mentioned.)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Bob Marley - Kaya
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Pretenders - Pretenders
Rush - Hemispheres

Just missing the cut:

Pixies - Doolittle

(I really, really wish I could add it to the list; one of my personal top 5 all-time favorite albums. I can't because of the song "Silver". Do not like it at all, and I've tried. Undoubtedly amplifying my dislike is its position - wedged between Hey! and Gouge Away - 2 of my top Pixies tracks. )

Such an interesting excersise this! So many of my favorite/desert island albums have that one 'meh' or 'nah' song that, for me, disqualifies them from the OP's "perfect" parameters.

 

[Complex Kid]

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes

Two Tom Petty solo records just barely miss the cut, Wildflowers because of the song "Honey Bee" and Full Moon Fever because of "Zombie Zoo" (which Tom even admit's doesn't belong on there)

" It’s funny. Sometimes, 10 years later, I like something that I [didn’t like before], or vice versa. But I hate “Zombie Zoo.” I do not understand how that got on the record [1989’s Full Moon Fever], when I had better stuff that didn’t get on the record. What frame of mind produced that, I don’t understand. ‘Cause normally, I would have thrown that away. God knows we’ve thrown away far better. That was nearly a perfect album until the very end [laughs]. "

Everclear - Sparkle and Fade

So Much For the Afterglow was on there when I was younger but lately I've been hitting skip on "Father of Mine" I've just heard it way to many times.

Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music...

Fiona Apple - Tidal

Ben Folds Five - S/T, Whatever and Ever Amen, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Yep their first three albums. The fourth one could be on here but I don't know because I just haven't had time to properly listen to it over and over like the others.

Alkaline Trio - gosh darnedit, Maybe I'll catch Fire
Smoking Popes - Destination Failure
Lawerence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told (what's weird about this one is all these other bands I like most of their other albums, with Lawerence Arms this is the only one I listen to, I've tried the other ones but always give up half way through and just put this one back on).

Murder by Death - Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?
Cursive - The Ugly Organ

Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All things, Take Offs and Landings

Billy Bragg - Workers Playtime

When I first started listing these I didn't think it would be that long of a list but others kept reminding me of other albums that I have no problem just putting on hitting play and not having to worry about.

 

[Tater]

I am also reminded of two nearly perfect albums that are nearly perfect back to back, Chicago II & III:

I would throw Chicago VII in with these. Many hits off this double album.

 

[Grumpy Old Manatee]

Living Coloür - Vivid

Unnecessary umlaut aside, every track is excellent.