Re: Are there any albums where you think...
Pink Floyd hit this consistency quite often.
Dark Side of the Moon - every song is great, and the album just fits together.
Wish You Were Here - similar, there is nothing on there that I would skip.
Animals - the same.
Other albums by PF don't fit into the category so well.
The Beatles: Abbey Road fits the pattern.
Hotel California too. Every track a gem, so no standouts. Not even HC itself, in my opinion. Note: I really like Victim of Love.
Re: Are there any albums where you think...
3) You much prefer the first half of the album to the second half
This one is easy. Guns'n'Roses: Appetite for destruction
Perhaps also Mötley Crüe's Doctor Feelgood.
Re: Are there any albums where you think...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Annoying Twit
Pink Floyd hit this consistency quite often.
Dark Side of the Moon - every song is great, and the album just fits together.
Wish You Were Here - similar, there is nothing on there that I would skip.
Animals - the same.
Other albums by PF don't fit into the category so well.
The Beatles: Abbey Road fits the pattern.
Hotel California too. Every track a gem, so no standouts. Not even HC itself, in my opinion. Note: I really like Victim of Love.
I'd definitely agree with you about HC, and also about the Pink Floyd albums - they are my personal top three. Your comment has also made me realise that maybe other people read #1 in a different way to me. There's nothing wrong with that, just a different way of looking at it. When I think of standout tracks, I don't just mean as part of the album, but in that artist's entire catalogue. With HC, for example, although I'd agree that the album is very consistently strong, it has several of my favourite songs of all time, so I can't really say that none of the songs stand out. By contrast, Comes A Time doesn't really contain any of my true favourite Neil Young songs, even though I do like the album quite a lot. Hopefully that's clear.
Now that it's been mentioned, I might as well say that there are about a dozen or so albums where I can say I LOVE every single track:
Eagles - Desperado, Hotel California
Pink Floyd - The three albums AT mentioned
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited, Blood On The Tracks
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Led Zeppelin - IV
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
There's a few other albums where there's only one or two songs that keep them out of this group:
Dire Straits - Making Movies (already discussed)
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (Night Flight and Boogie With Stu aren't 'great' to me) and II (Moby Dick is probably my favourite long drum solo, but it's still a long drum solo!)
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (Mississippi Kid is a good track, but it's never been a favourite)
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (This one should probably go on my first list, as it's only the rather short Till The Morning Comes that keeps it off that)
If I extended this to 'albums where I like every track a lot', there would be too many albums to list (On The Border would be one of them).
Yesterday I listened to Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door and it occurred to me that it's close to being an example of #1 for me - I like every song on it except for Hot Dog, but even my favourites (In The Evening and Night Flight) wouldn't be in my top 20 Led Zep songs.
When I started this thread I had a funny feeling that I'd forgotten something - and I had! The situation that I forgot to put on my list is basically the opposite to #5:
7) You think the album is weak in the middle, but starts and ends strongly
My candidate for this would be R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People. The album starts well, but the middle section isn't quite as strong, and having the two weakest tracks (IMO) in Ignoreland and Star Me Kitten back to back threatens to derail the album. However, the final three songs more than make up for this - Man On The Moon is my favourite R.E.M. song, and the last two tracks are just gorgeous.
Re: Are there any albums where you think...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jonny Come Lately
(I don't dislike You Can't Make Love, it just isn't really a favourite - I must listen more closely to see if I can pick out Lindsey's vocals though, I knew he was on that song but haven't).
Maybe I was hearing things one day while listening to the song and was just projecting my assumptions.
I'll just list sections where there may be more than Don H's voice.
1:00-1:14 sounds like there's another voice, but it could be Don just harmonizing with himself.
2:07-2:15 - another voice but I'm unsure.
2:23 - 2:26 - another voice. Heck, I thought it was Timothy but it wasn't.
2:28 - to the end of the song - just harmonizing (might not be the right term) oohs, kind of synth-like, I guess?
Yeah, maybe I just thought those parts were Lindsey, but now, I can't tell. However, after listening to some of his backing vocals on Mirage for Gypsy and dueting for Hold Me, it seems like the 2:07 and 2:23 sound more like him. The 1:00 sounds more like Don harmonizing with himself, but at the same time, it sounds like a different voice.
It's not a very distinctive Lindsey backup vocal in this song (you honestly could miss it w/o batting an eye), but mainly, it's the guitar that makes me like this song for a bit.
Also, I've listened to Harvest from Neil Young just because Old Man and Heart of Gold were on it.
Re: Are there any albums where you think...
The 2 albums I consider to be flawless are :
Hotel California - Eagles
Master Of Puppets - Metallica
Every song is excellent, and worth listening over and over again.
Re: Are there any albums where you think...
Album which doesn't have a standout track:
Kill To Get Crimson - Mark Knopfler (although In The Sky comes close)
One song you don't like:
Yes, it's Making Movies, although given that it's my second favourite album I don't mind Les Boys that much. Another example is Abba's Arrival. This album contains not only the magnificent Knowing Me, Knowing You, Money Money Money & the title track but the hideous Dum Dum Diddle. The title tells you all you need to know.
First half better than second half:
Genesis, which starts with Mama That's All & Home By The Sea, and tapers off. Hotel California. Band On The Run. But Seriously.
Second half better than first half:
Peter Gabriel 3
Strong in the middle:
Long Road Out Of Eden, Thriller
Half & half:
Ewww. Off the top of my head, perhaps Jump Up! by Elton John.
I knew if I was coming back I wanted to post here. I am sure I can add more later.