Perfect albums

[tkern]

What do you think are perfect albums from beginning to end? Not necessarily your favorite bands, just great albums that flow from one song to the next.
Mine:

Pink Floyd: Dark side of the moon.
Tool: Aenima
Neutral Milk Hotel: Aeroplane over the sea
Radiohead: OK Computer

 

[tkern]

Beach Boys: Pet Sounds

 

[Eamon Burke]

Dream Theater: Train of Thought
Killswitch Engage: Alive or Just Breathing
Maroon 5: Songs about Jane(album is *ahem* paced spot on)
Every album ever by MeWithoutYou.

 

[tkern]

Dream theater: Metropolis

 

[Hattorichop]

Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarticia

 

[Kyle]

The Weakerthans- Reconstruction Site

 

[macmiddlebrooks]

swervedriver "mezcal head"

 

[geezr]

What do you think are perfect albums from beginning to end? Not necessarily your favorite bands, just great albums that flow from one song to the next.

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle) / Sir Georg Solti and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Original Decca LP set :thumbsup:

 

[mc2442]

Love the Tool reference, that title track is my favorite from them. Surprised by the two dream theatre references, guess I have to go back and listen to them again. Liked them back in the day, but remember them as kind of the peak of synthesized music.

 

[cnochef]

In no particular order, here are my favorites for listening beginning to end:

Pink Floyd-The Wall
Led Zeppelin-I, II and IV
The Who-Who's Next
AC/DC-Back in Black
Metallica-And Justice for All
Meatloaf-Bat out of Hell
Rush-Moving Pictures
Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run
Willie Nelson-Stardust
The Rolling Stones-Let it Bleed
Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast
The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Second Helping
Boston-Boston
The Band-The Band
The Clash-London Calling
Muddy Waters-Hard Again
Ozzy Osbourne-Blizzard of Ozz

I did not include any "greatest hits" albums, that would be too easy.

 

[JohnnyChance]

About 4 Beatles albums, Paul's Boutique (Beastie Boys), Low End Theory (Tribe Called Quest), Blue Album (Weezer), Back in Black (AC/DC), Illinois (Sufjan Stevens), Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Pack Up The Cats (Local H), Peace Love Death Metal (Eagles of Death Metal), (What's The Story) Morning Glory (Oasis), Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (Parliament), Funeral (Arcade Fire), 3:16 (Murs & 9th Wonder), Disraeli Gears (Cream), Black on Both Sides (Mos Def), Antics (Interpol), The Bake Sale (The Cool Kids), Rage Against the Machine (RATM, obviously), Rubber Factory (The Black Keys), Supreme Clientele (Ghostface), You're a Woman, I'm a Machine (Death From Above 1979), Donuts (J Dilla), Graduation (Kanye West), Black Holes and Revelations (Muse), Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (The Pharcyde), Presidents of the United States of America I (Presidents of the USA), Radical (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), Songs for the Deaf (Queens of the Stoneage), Heavy Weather (Weather Report).

I love albums, I hardly ever listen to mixes or shuffled lists. I will listen to the same album over and over, sometimes for weeks, and then switch to another.

 

[DwarvenChef]

Operation Mind Crime, Queensriche
The Wall, Pink Floyd
Goes to Hell, Alice Cooper

 

[ecchef]

Lots of votes for Floyd...mine is 'Wish You Were Here'.
Joshua Tree - U2
Everywhere At Once - Plimsouls
Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (again)
Invitation - California Guitar Trio

 

[Vertigo]

Operation Mind Crime, Queensriche

She's Sister Mary now, eyes as cold as iiiiIIIIICE!
He takes her once a week,
On the alter like a
Sac-Ri-FIIiiIIIIIIIIIice!!!!!!

 

[mr drinky]

I would agree with many listed here:

* Neutral Milk Hotel, Aeroplane over the sea
* Pink Floyd, The Wall
* AC/DC, Back in Black
* U2, Joshua Tree
* Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
* Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell

I would add
* Billy Joel, Glass Houses (first album as a kid for me)
* Nina Simone, Finest Hour
* Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Drum Hat Buddha
* Violent Femmes, self-titled debut
* O Brother Where Art Thou, soundtrack
* Son Volt, Trace
* White Stripes, Elephant
* (and for geezer) Brahms Double Concerto with yo-yo ma, isaac stern, and claudio abbado
* Bob Marley, Legend
* The Avett Brothers (x3), Emotionalism, Mignonette, and Gleam

 

[stevenStefano]

Chimaira: Chimaira
Machine Head: The Blackening
and best of all
Steel Panther: Feel The Steet

 

[Kyle]

Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (again)

Great choice! My favorite Tom Waits record is a toss up between Rain Dogs and Mule Variations.

 

[heirkb]

I love albums, I hardly ever listen to mixes or shuffled lists. I will listen to the same album over and over, sometimes for weeks, and then switch to another.

I really agree with this, but I gave in at some point. Once I realized that gigs were piling on gigs on my computer, it was either always have an external drive around for music or give up on the 20 album soul/R&B/funk/jazz discographies and download some anthologies instead. It still bugs me to miss out on the album experience, though, because great albums are usually composed in a certain way that you miss with mixes.

With that said...let me add Down to Earth by Stevie Wonder as one album that I think is just about perfect. There are others, but I can't think of them now. It's overload.

 

[ajhuff]

Golden Earring - Moontan

-AJ

 

[ajhuff]

Golden Earring - Moontan, Fully Naked Veronica Edition*, Last Blast of the Century*

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Agent Orange - When You Least Expect It
Bo Deans - Joe Dirt Car*
Drivin' N' Cryin' - Scarred But Smarter, Whisper Tames the Lion, Mystery Road
Exploding White Mice - Collateral Damage
Gun N Roses - Appetite for Destruction
The Gits - Evil Stig*
Kevn Kinney - MacDougal Blues, Flower and The Knife, Broken Hearts and Auto Parts
Cyndi Lauper - At Last
Local H -As Good As Dead
Lords of Acid - just about all of theirs
MC5 - Kick Out the Jams*
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
The Navigators - Dance and Sing
Pink Floyd - Animals
Psychotic Aztecs - Santa Sangre
Rammstein - Rosenrot
Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
Social Distortion - Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
The Commitments Soundtrack
Spiderbait - Tonight Tonight
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Susan Tedeschi - Just Won't Burn
Tito & Tarantula - After Dark
The Tragically Hip - Up to Here
Roger Waters - Radio KAOS
Watershed - Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust*
Widespread Panic - Widespread Panic
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction - Tattooed Beat Messiah, Hoodlum Thunder, My Life Story

-AJ

*Not sure if live albums count?

 

[cnochef]

I really agree with this, but I gave in at some point. Once I realized that gigs were piling on gigs on my computer, it was either always have an external drive around for music or give up on the 20 album soul/R&B/funk/jazz discographies and download some anthologies instead. It still bugs me to miss out on the album experience, though, because great albums are usually composed in a certain way that you miss with mixes.

With that said...let me add Down to Earth by Stevie Wonder as one album that I think is just about perfect. There are others, but I can't think of them now. It's overload.

So true! Have you seen the documentary on the making of Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town? You see how much the engineer and band agonized over just the order of songs on the album.

 

[euphorbioid]

The Who: Tommy
Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
The Doors: First Album

 

[JMJones]

Pearl Jam - Ten
Guns and Roses- Appetite
Metallica- Black Album

 

[Johnny.B.Good]

I agree with many of the albums noted already (Pearl Jam, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen), but would add Paul Simon's Graceland. I have listened to that album all the way through countless times since I was young.

 

[RRLOVER]

Adrian Belew - Twang bar King
Zappa - overnight sensation & '
Violent Femmes- self title
Zepplin -4

 

[tkern]

Peter Gabriel-So
Zappa- Strictly Genteel
+1 on NMH-in the aeroplane over the sea

 

[SpikeC]

Hot Tuna, by Hot Tuna

 

[SpikeC]

OK, sometimes a significant period in your life has a "soundtrack" that has a very heavy impact on ones psyche. Given that, I still think that this is a very special album:
"Looking In", by the Savoy Brown Blues Band.

 

[tkern]

In Liu of the holidays: Trans Siberian Orchestra-Christmas eve and other stories.

 

[jmforge]

You guys have already mentioned a few of mine, so I will only list the ones that you missed:lol2:
Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street and Get Your Ya Ya's Out
Beatles, Revolver (Revolution 9 prevents the listing of the white album as "perfect" LOL)
Jimi Hendrix, Axis; Bold as Love
Rush, All The World's A Stage.
Allman Brothers Band, At The Fillmore
Manassas, Manassas (arguably Stephen Stills at the height of his powers)
Fleetwood Mac, Then Play On (at least the Peter Green penned parts of it)
Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Aerosmith, Rocks (a candidate for the best American hard rock guitar album of all time)
ZZ Top, Tres Hombres. (that Little Old Band from Texas was ALWAYS at their best when they were singing about their misspent youth and much of that record was just that)
Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive.
Van Halen, Van Halen. Boston's debut record may still be one of the best selling of all time, but this one kicked your front door in and took over your house for a year long kegger.
Richard Thompson, Rumour and Sigh, Shoot OUt the Lights (with ex-wife Linda on the second one)
Johnny Winter, Captured Live
John Hiatt, Slow Turning
Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
and some odds choices considering the rest of my list
Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations ( the 1982 version)
John Coltrane, My Favorite Things
Hank Williams, Luke the Drifter (a compilation, I know, but they didn't do albums when he was alive. A record that challenges even Closer by Joy Division for the title of "music to slash your wrists by" LOL)
Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison.