My Take
In my case, the albums that have become my favorites are the ones I feel I absolutely have to listen to from start to finish. Of course, there are standout tracks, and some, though good, might pale in comparison to others. But it’s the experience of listening to the entire album that captivates me.
Examples:
- “Flowerboy” by Tyler, The Creator.
- “Affinity” by Haken
- “Brat” by Charli XCX
- The debut album by Gentle Giant
What are your favorite albums and why?
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step is my perfect album.
They aren’t even my favorite band, but there isn’t a bad moment on it.
A bunch of “classics”…
- Rumours
- Tapestry
- An Evening with John Denver
- …and then there were three…
- Boston
- Double Vision
- Out of the Blue
Yes… I am an oldster.
I’d put Trick of the Tail on there too!
Absolutely. Maybe Aja?
Pretty much. I wouldn’t presume to say "masterpieces " but easily the most important quality of my favorite albums is that they’re strong from start to finish.
A few that come to me right off:
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Rattlesnakes
Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne
The Presidents of the United States of America - The Presidents of the United States of America
XTC - Black Sea
They Might Be Giants - Flood
The Rainmakers - Flirting with the Universe
Was (Not Was) - What Up Dog?
Morphine - Cure for Pain
I second Flood.
I’ll admit, I’ve not listened to much of Fountains of Wayne’s first album, more the others. They’ve been one of my favorites about as long as I can remember though. I tend to resonate with a new song of theirs every year or two. Do you have any favorites off their first album?
It’s hard to pick a favorite - that’s the point. Every one of them is good.
That said, the first one that popped into my head was Leave the Biker, and Survival Car, Joe Rey, Radiation Vibe, Sick Day and Sink to the Bottom come to mind quickly and easily.
The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill
C2C - Tetra
Fuel Fandango - Aurora
Sepultura - Chaos AD
Hard Funk Trio - Mustang
These are all albums I can listen to and genuinely enjoy every track … I can’t give a particular reason. Most albums have tracks that I prefer to skip over, just not these ones.
Looking at it, that’s a pretty international lineup … purely by accident, lol … artists from the UK, Canada, France, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina :-)
Always good to see someone pick …Jilted Generation over Fat of the Land. I do like the latter, but MFTJG is perfection.
Yes.
I loved Fat of the Land, had the available singles before the whole album dropped. But not every song is that good.
Experience is close for me (plus it’s a nostalgia trip), and I also enjoy all of Invaders Must Die.
But Jilted is wall to wall Goldielocks perfect porridge :-)
Yeah, love Experience too, except for I think it maybe lacks the best mixes IMO of Charly (Alley Cat) and Everybody in the Place (Fairground). Can’t remember 100% off the top of my head, but I think it’s those two.
The live recording of death of the dancers isn’t the best either … I’m not a fan of live tracks for most bands, though
Fully agreed.
When I think of my favorite albums, they tend to have come to me at a time to hit me emotionally. There may be one or two songs that aren’t my favorite, but don’t detract from the whole. Oddly enough if I listen to an entire album I prefer it be a concept album, but my favorites tend to not have one cohesive theme. My favorites ordered by time include:
The Red Album by Weezer- My dad gave me the CD when I was in middle school, we’d jam to it in the car on the way to school, and when I got an mp3 player I’d listen to just about every song often.
Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd- Yes, this is a cliche. The one time I experienced ego death was on a heroic dose of LSD in college while laying in bed with an eye mask on listening to this album for the first time. I felt that I was in on a joke, that life was so vast and yet so short. I laughed, I cried, it moved me. I gave serious consideration to what I wanted out of life for the first time instead of only wanting some direction given to me. I listened to the album many more times after that when I needed a reminder of that experience.
The New Abnormal by The Strokes- This album came out at the start of the pandemic when I was stressing out of my mind at the state of the world. I loved the album name, I love every song off the album, they all felt relatable in some way, Spotify said I was in the top .5% of Strokes listeners that year. When one song comes on from my library I’m always tempted to play the whole thing. It’s great.
The Sonic Age by The Symposium- I think this is one of my favorites. I couldn’t name half the songs, but I found the artist and the album came out shortly after my dad passed away. I really like how rushed yet smooth and relaxed the album feels, it mirrored how I felt processing his death and I could just put it on and feel fine with not being fine for a bit.
Does all the songs in your favorite music album are masterpieces?
Never did them wasn’t.
The short answer is no, not all songs on an album have to be masterpieces to elevate it for me, but obviously it helps if it is consistent. As far as determination goes, if i can keep coming back and hearing more detail, gaining a better understanding of lyrical themes, or just appreciating it a little more in some other way makes it a contender. Anyway, here is a too long list I’m taking on the mp3 player to be stranded on a tropical island with.
- ABBA - Arrival
- Anamanguchi - Endless Fantasy
- Anri - Timely!!
- Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
- Big Star - Radio City
- Blu-Swing - Flash
- Built To Spill - Live
- Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites
- Cracker - Cracker
- Crying - Get Olde/Second Wind
- Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
- David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
- Dissection - Reinkaos
- Dubmood - Machine
- Frou Frou - Details
- Jamie Paige - Constant Companions (Deluxe)
- Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
- Jurassic 5 - Power In Numbers
- Kno - Death Is Silent
- Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs - MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS (EP) + ワールドイズユアーズ (EP)
- Mariya Takeuchi - Variety
- Mutyumu - Ilya
- Oasis - Definitely Maybe
- Paramore - Brand New Eyes
- Perfume - Game
- Puffy AmiYumi - Nice (JP)
- Radiohead - The Bends
- Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
- Remi Wolf - Juno
- S.C.X - Breeze
- The Pillows - Happy Bivouac
- The Posies - Failure
- Roll-Ups - Low Dives For Highballs
- Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
- Sloan - One Chord To Another
- Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
- Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere In The Between
- Tally Hall - Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
- Tatsuro Yamashita - Ride On Time
- The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We
- The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
- Vylet Pony - Monarch of Monsters
- The Waterboys - This Is The Sea
- Tool - 10,000 Days
- Wednesday Campanella - Superman
- Will Wood - The Normal Album
I find there are very few albums that are great beginning to end, and I’m not including “greatest hits” or “Best of…” collections.
- The Crystal Method - Vegas
- Bad Mojos - Songs that Make You Wanna Die!
- GZA - Pro Tools
- Sloppy Seconds - Destroyed (guilty pleasure of mine)
- Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
Shout out to Vegas, it is consistently excellent through the entire album. As a bonus, there was a PS1 game N2O that had the entire album on disc using redbook audio (essentially, you could pop the game disc in a CD player and listen to the tracks). It really worked for that games too.
Right on! I still own N2O. Easily one of the best tube shooters ever. The N2O in a CD player was a fun party trick, alongside scanning backwards from track 1 on Less Than Jake’s “Losing Streak.” Made the hidden bonus song(s) at the end of the CD technique seem amateur.
A lot of classic albums, for me, tend to have a connection running through all the songs. The album is a work in itself rather than just being a collection of random songs by the same artist.
The album I think of when this question comes up is Consolers of the Lonely by The Raconteurs. Every song is so expertly crafted; it’s a smooth effortless listen from beginning to end. Highly recommend.
The Magnetic Fields’ Sixty-Nine Love Songs
They’re not all masterpieces, but out of 69 tracks, the supermajority are bangers, with enough variety in tone to keep from being too much of the same thing.
For full album plays some of my favourites are:
- Lou Reed’s “New York”
- David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”
- The Carpenters “Christmas Carol”
- The Bodeans “Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams”
- Bob Dylan’s “Infidels”
- Louis Prima’s “The Wildest”
- The Boomtown Rats “The Fine Art of Surfacing”
“In case I make it,” made by will wood, is my favorite album of all time, mainly because it not only has one of the best overall songs I’ve heard ever, but because it deeply resonates with me as a person. I suppose I choose my favorites by the overall quality but also on my personal taste.
“My beautiful dark twisted fantasy” by Kanye West.
To me it’s such a ride from beginning to end. It’s his magnum opus
Booker T and the M.G.'s Universal Language
The album was dedicated to M.G.'s drummer Al Jackson, Jr., who was murdered in 1975;[2] the remaining members recruited Willie Hall to replace him on this album.[3] The group would not record another album for seventeen years, returning in 1994 with That’s the Way It Should Be.
There’s something so deep and unique about this album. Last Tango in Memphis is my favorite track, but this is one of the few albums of any genre I enjoy just putting on and listening to all the way through.
