Shouldn't it be about songs that age well, rather than entire albums?
 

There are very few albums that I can think of without one or two stinkers, at least. Is the whole concept of a perfect album sustained enough by the sheer amount of them? I think not.

Very true. The nearest I've ever come to hearing a perfect album is Now That's What I Call Music Volume 8.

Yes. Also no. I like singles. But yes and also no.

amzing album

Having it be "about songs" is what spawned a whole culture of people paying MORE for an inferior product, and sacrificing their attention span while giving themselves a tin ear.

T he album format at least documents a creative phase in a band or artist's existence, whether it is a "concept album" or not.
True, most albums will have a song or two you don't like as much, but I can think of quite a few rock-solid albums. And I love a successfully pulled-off concept LP.

Edit:
I do like when a big "hit single" isn't on an LP, like "20th Century Boy."

I prefer perfect albums.

albums with some great songs and some obvious stinkers irritate the shit out of me.

Ritual de lo Habitual is perfect
hairway to steven is perfect
Yr Living all over me is perfect
Document is perfect


of course these are just opinions.

if a band is going to release an album of music I want an album's worth of good fucking songs.

I don't think the problem is with albums, so much as that they're getting longer. Early 'classic' albums rarely lasted longer than 40 minutes. Now, with the advent of CDs, it's not unusual for an album to stretch past the hour - the average length of what used to be called a double album. Even the likes of Led Zep, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Stones struggled to fill a double album with quality, so how can we expect lesser acts to do it on a regular basis?

I am all for making albums shorter.
45-50 minutes is fine.
Solid EPs can be pretty great too.

[quote=demonrail666]I don't think the problem is with albums, so much as that they're getting longer.quote]

They 'got' longer for a number of years now. Space as been abused for over two decades or something like that. It's not as if it's a new thing anymore.

No, but it definitely seems to be a product of CDs ability to store more making demands on artists to fill it.

it5 has been since CDs

being able to put uin 72 minute sof music makes artists lazy when they make their album cuts.
they leave in songs that they have findness for but which do not work on the whole album.
I prefer my albums in the 35-40 minute range.
and the only double album the beatles ever did was the white album and it is a masterpiece, perfect in every way, change not a thing!

Ok.

Sleep's Dopesmoker = all killer, no filler.

my bands album is 36 minutes and one second. . .
it seems like a good length. long enough to actually have some depth to it and have a good anount of songs (6 4+minute songs, some 6 and 9 minute songs too) but short enough that you can listen to in one go. even on a short ride...
thats the album length i like, in between 30-50 minutes.
54 minuts seems to be a standard rock album length...
and yeah, i prefer perfect albums.
i dont like GH usially, except for 60s bands, and blues singers, but they all released singles, so GH is the only way to hear most of em...

there are a few albums that i think are perfect from start to finish with no bad tracks.

Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Elliott Smith - Roman Candle, Elliott Smith, Either/Or, XO, Figure 8, From a basement on the hill
Breeders - Last Splash
Pixies - Doolittle

It's a shame i can't add a single sonic youth album to this list.

That sucks! I'd put almost every Sonic Youth album on this list

yeah you are nuts to think no sonic youth albums would fit th.... thats a point, nothing is fucking perfect.. but for me it cuts the bullshit when you listen to an album. This idea that people have is because there are a lot of people out there that probably shouldnt be doing it. But theres no such thing as consistance and you know nothing about artistry without listening to an album in its entirity. As for album length thats all crap too. it may spoil a particular album or something but its each unto their own... Almost every one here conclusivly loves Diamond Sea but if that rule applied that's pretty much be the whole album. It's like if monet painted a landscape but instead just decided to paint a horse in the bottom corner. Though i'm sure it'd be a very nice horse.

yeah it's a shame on every single album they've done there is one song that i don't like. Murray Street is the album that came the closest to being perfect all the way through for me, But i don't like Plastic Sun very much.

plastic sun is the most SONIC YOUTHesque song on murray street~! that album's full of naptime songs!~

hahhaha!

my list of perfect sonic youth albums is

sister
evol
bad moon rising
daydream nation
Confusion is Sex
Rather ripped


yeah, i said it.



and as far as the thread was going, I agree with sarramkrop up to a point. It really ends up being about songs that last, but that applies only to the mass consciousness, and the m,ass consciousness never delves into albums to finsd non-hit songs that rule all.

pavement's best songs were saved for their singles and EP's (non title tracks/b sides, etc)

really?, what ones???

Texas never Whispers, Gangsters & Pranksters, Haunt You Down, No Tan Lines, Give It A Day, Father to a Sister of Thought, shot the singer, frontwards, etc.

some guy made a mix CD of B sides

1. Sue Me Jack
2. So Stark (Your a Skyscraper)
3. Texas Never Whispers
4. Frontwards
5. Lions
6. Shoot the Singer
7. Kneeling Bus
8. Strings of Nashville
9. Exit Theory
10. S-4 Vocal
11. Brink of the Clouds
12. False Skorpion
13. Easily Fooled
14. father to a sister of thought
15. kris kraft
16. mussle rock (is a horse in transistion)
17. Give It a Day
18. Gangsters and Pranksters
19. Saganaw
20. Westie Can Drum
21. Winner of The
22. Slowly Typed
23. Cherry Area
24. Wanna Mess You Around
25. No Tan Lines

The only songs I can think that age perfectly are those written by The Violent Femmes.

I guess you're right.
"American Music" was unlistenably bad upon its initial release, and remains so to this day.
Theory=rock solid.

I was thinking the same thing when i read this thread.

...But you know an album is good when you don't wanna skip the shitty songs.

I agree with Porkie (David Bowie or Neil Young especially come to my mind).

From the top of my head some masterpieces I may consider having no weak tracks:

The Cure - 17 Seconds / Pornography
The Notwist - Shrink / Neon golden
Talk Talk - The spirit of Eden / Laughing stock
U2 - The Joshua tree
Björk - Homogenic
Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
Van Morrison - Astral weeks
The Rolling Stones - Sticky fingers

The only double album that might genuinely be described as perfect:

Sister hasn't got a single song on it that I don't like.

I'd say that about all SY albums to Sister.

With the exception of maybe Bubblegum on Evol. Not that I HATE it exactly.

Appetite for Destruction is a perfect album, I always think.

my top reason for preferring vinyl over CD's is that I am forced to listen to all the songs on the album, which ussually results in me appreciating and enjoying songs which at first listen did not strike me as good.

first impressions are shit

There's not such a thing as a perfect album. Full stop. Unless we're free-forming it into such, goodbye.

it is all in the eye of the beholder.

perfection can only be defined, in the instance of music, or any art, as a personal choice.

to me Daydream nation is perfect.
The Beatles white album is perfect.
Dinosaur Jr's Green Mind is perfect

you're not perfect.

I knew you were arseholes but.....

This is gonna degenerate into the whole 'define greatness' thing again. I can tell.

Another 'perfect' double:

sarramkrop is perfect

Sister is a perfect album. One of the few that exist in the rock canon.

Don't forget "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" from the No Alternative comp.