Kevin's Watch

I'm finally getting around to importing all my CDs into iTunes (now that we're firmly in the mp3 age ). I mentioned my project on Facebook, and while chatting with a couple of people about it last night, we came up with a short list of albums on which there isn't a single bad song. My nominees were Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Gerry Rafferty's "City to City". The guys came up with Paul Simon's "Graceland" and the Beatles' "Abbey Road."

Granted, these are pretty darned old. Any nominees of your own?

I'll have to give that some thought. It's pretty rare - can't tell you how many albums I bought to get one or two tracks.

'Ten New Songs' by Leonard Cohen
'Taak' by Sigur Ros
'Fleet Foxes' by Fleet Foxes
'Time Out of Mind' by Bob Dylan
'OK Computer' by Radiohead
'Manana in Manhatten' by Pierce Turner
'Songbird' by Eva Cassidy
'Emigres' by Youssou N'Dour
'Hats' by The Blue Nile
'Bon Iver, Bon Iver' by Bon Iver

Or at least in my less than humble opinion, since I love all of these albums.

u.

Olias of Sunhillow - Jon Anderson
The Yes Album - Yes
Going for the One - Yes
The Plan - The Osmonds
In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite/Borodin: Polovtsian Dances - Berliner Philharmoniker/Herbert von Karajan (I can no longer find this album anywhere. It was in my first husband's collection and I absolutely loved it)

I would love to list albums by The Moody Blues and Genesis, but there are none where I love every track on them...

Menolly wrote:
I would love to list albums by The Moody Blues and Genesis, but there are none where I love every track on them...

From Genesis to Revelation comes close for me. I can't think of any tracks I would describe as filler.

Sorus wrote:I'll have to give that some thought. It's pretty rare - can't tell you how many albums I bought to get one or two tracks.

I'm in the same boat in many cases. I ran across Big Brother & the Holding Co.'s "Cheap Thrills" in the CD drawer, which I had forgotten I owned. I'm sure I bought it only to hear Janis Joplin on "Piece of My Heart." Although their cover of "Summertime" is pretty spectacular, too.

I'd say for my tastes
Beatles: Sgt. Pepper
Legendary Pink Dots: Maria dimension
Coil: Astral Disaster
VNV Nation: Tie between Matter and Form / Judgement

High 'n Dry: Def Leppard
DSotM and WYWH: Pink Floyd
Pretty Hate Machine: NIN


All I can come up with at the moment. There are a lot of, "well except for one song...." albums though.

Some of these may be questionable on the "every song" bar; it depends on mood and how exacting you want to be.

• Frank Sinatra & Count Basie It Might As Well Be Swing
  Steely Dan Aja
  Grateful Dead Workingman's Dead
  Carole King Tapestry
  Who Who's Next
  Wings Band on the Run
  Michael Franks The Art of Tea

A couple by Elton, the Eagles and others also occur to me...but this will be contentious enough.

Cail wrote:There are a lot of, "well except for one song...." albums though.

Same. Though I will have to give that NIN album a try. I've tried to get into them before, but never found the right place to start. I trust your judgement.

Strange to say it, but I think Vancouver (2009) by Matthew Good is a perfect Album. The Album sticks to the theme of the artists Hometown and memories, and it's really quite diverse. With Rockers, Spacey, acoustic, Sad, and pumped up songs, I have yet to find an album I find as engaging and diverse as this one. Plus, to me, the Album opener is a very crucial point. The song "Last Parade" blew me away on my first listen. It may not be a Classic, but it is one of Canada's hidden gems.

Other honorable mentions, The Wall, Dark side of the moon, and Abbey Road. Others I would put just for the sake of me liking them, but I don;t think they would really fit here.

Sorus wrote:

Cail wrote:There are a lot of, "well except for one song...." albums though.

Same. Though I will have to give that NIN album a try. I've tried to get into them before, but never found the right place to start. I trust your judgement.

Pretty Hate Machine is more of a "dance music with industrial undercurrents" than NIN's later stuff. It might be that it was just so different when it came out in 1989 that it left such an impression on me.

Dunno, it's just a really listenable album that (for me, at least) has stood the test of time really well.

SD, I bought Tapestry for the first time not long ago, and have been listening to it off and on. I'm not sure that it's aged all that well, but maybe that's me -- I seem to prefer Carly Simon's voice. In any case, I don't think anyone could argue Carole King's contribution to pop as a song writer.

Cail wrote:Pretty Hate Machine: NIN

You probably heard it before, but in case you haven't, Johnny Cash does a cover of Hurt that is waaaaay better than the nin version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

He also covers depeche mode's personal jesus. Not as good as Hurt, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcNiD0Z3MU

Ananda wrote:

Cail wrote:Pretty Hate Machine: NIN

You probably heard it before, but in case you haven't, Johnny Cash does a cover of Hurt that is waaaaay better than the nin version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

He also covers depeche mode's personal jesus. Not as good as Hurt, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcNiD0Z3MU

Heard both, like both.

Hurt isn't on PHM; it's one of the better tracks on TDS though.

Breakfast In America - Supertramp
So - Peter Gabriel
Moving Pictures - Rush

Wish You Were Here- Pink Floyd

rem - chronic town (ep)

husker du - new day rising

pm dawn - Jesus Wept

throwing muses - the real Ramona

grant hart - the last days of Pompeii

Iron Maiden...Piece of Mind
Anthrax...Among the Living

Sonic Youth - Goo
Faith No More - Angel Dust
King Diamond - The Eye (though I know d@mn well that his singing style will not be to everyone's taste)
Deep Purple - Machine Head