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Perfect end to end Albums/CD's

bearhart74

bearhart74

Supporting Member
Feb 26, 2009
3,591
6,661
#1
Diving back into The Frames... today i just finished Fitzcarraldo and its perfect from end to end. I would never dream of not listening to it from start to finish.
Todd Rundgrens Almost Human, Pink Floyd's Animals & Wish You Were Here, Steely Dan's Aja, and Bowie's Station to Station is in the same boat for me.

What recordings do you consider "perfect" and have to listen to them in there entirety?
 
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#2
I get your point that some albums cry out to be played beginning-to-end more than others, but personally I listen to everything that way. Maybe it's because I grew up in an age of album-oriented rock, but I think in terms of whole albums rather than songs. I buy physical CDs (or burn them from downloaded albums), and start at Track 1 every time. The idea of putting an iPod or other device in "shuffle" mode is just a completely foreign concept to me.
 
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#3
I mostly do complete albums (<--- geezer), but I use shuffle, too.

Going through my list, these are ones I really like to hear complete:

[EDIT] - This list ended up being a LOT longer than I thought it would....

AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Alice Cooper - Schools Out / Billion Dollar Babies / Welcome to my Nightmare
ABWH - ABWH
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Boston - Boston
Brand X - Moroccan Roll
Chris Squire - Fish out of Water
David Bowie - All
Deep Purple - Machine Head
ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Extreme - III Sides to every story
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe / Joes Garage I, II & III
Genesis - Nursery Crime / Foxtrot / Selling England by the Pound / Trick of the Tail
Gong - You / Gazeuse!
Kate Bush - First 4 albums
King Crimson - All
Klaatu - 3.47 E.S.T. / Hope
Little Feat - Let it Roll
Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell
Michael Brook - Live at the Aquarium
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
Mike Oldfield - 5 Miles Out
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
Pink Floyd - Meddle / Dark Side of the Moon / Wish You were Here
Queen - Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera
REM - Lifes Rich Pageant / Green / Automatic for the People
Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior
Rheostatics - Whale Music
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Savoy Brown - Street Corner Talking
Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland
Simple Minds - Real Life
Sparks - Kimono My House
Styx - The Grand Illusion
Supertramp - Crime of the Century / Even in the Quietest Moments
Talk Talk - the Color of Spring
Tears for Fears - Sowing the Seed of Love
Todd Rundgren - Initiation / Healing
Tony Levin - Waters of Eden
Transatlantic - All
The Who - Tommy
World Party - All
XTC - Skylarking / Nonsvch
Yes - All
801 - 801 Live
 
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#4
Like @Lobster11, I was very into the concept album where each song was a piece of a whole. I seldom listen to individual tracks unless it is a song I need to learn to play.
Played individually, they don't sound quite the same. It seems the context is gone. I think one of the best examples of that would be pick any song from The Wall and play it stand alone.
 
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#6
That's why I never got in to "Best of..." albums. They just felt disjointed or something. Also wasn't a fan of "Bonus Tracks!". Using Ziggy Stardust, for example, the album starts wit the song "Five Years" which sets the everything in the future. Then you go thru the rise of Ziggy, etc. then the last song was "Rock and Roll Suicide." End of album, story over. Don't stick on songs that don't fit the storyline or rough cut demos. It's like adding extra chapters to book after the story is finished. Stupid.
 
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#7
I don't usually listen to a great deal of prog or stuff with a story, so most of the time I'm happy to listen to bits of albums. Crack The Skye though, really has to be listened to in its entirety. It's such a staggeringly brilliant album start-to-finish, every section of every song. It has the most preposterous plot too, involving astral projection, space and Rasputin. Awesome.
 
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#8
When I was in middle school our clique had this rule about Led Zeppelin albums - it was a cardinal sin to not listen to the whole thing at once, and unforgivable blasphemy to turn off an individual song before it ended.

I will second the Beatles Abbey Road and add Revolver.

the Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Jeff Beck - Wired
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Natty Dread

Most Funkadelic and Parliament albums fit in this category, but my top ones are:
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain, Cosmic Slop, Standing on the Verge of Getting it on, Let's take it to the Stage, and Hardcore Jollies
Parliament - Mothership Connection

I'm sure this list could go on all night...
 
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#10
thenazz said:
That's why I never got in to "Best of..." albums. They just felt disjointed or something. Also wasn't a fan of "Bonus Tracks!". Using Ziggy Stardust, for example, the album starts wit the song "Five Years" which sets the everything in the future. Then you go thru the rise of Ziggy, etc. then the last song was "Rock and Roll Suicide." End of album, story over. Don't stick on songs that don't fit the storyline or rough cut demos. It's like adding extra chapters to book after the story is finished. Stupid.
Click to expand...

ianuaditis said:
Most Funkadelic and Parliament albums fit in this category, but my top ones are:
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain, Cosmic Slop, Standing on the Verge of Getting it on, Let's take it to the Stage, and Hardcore Jollies
Parliament - Mothership Connection

I'm sure this list could go on all night...
Click to expand...
Funny. I didn't list my copy of Parliaments Tear the Roof Off 1974-1980, as it's a compilation. The thing is, I got to know it as a complete - end to end album. So to me it still works, even though it's a greatest hits. It contains most of the Mothership Connection album, anyway. It's the same with my Waterboys Greatest Hits. If that's the only album you've heard, it can become a complete, end to end listen (if it's done right). A good Greatest Hits album can also tell a complete story, IMHO. I have to agree on the Bonus tracks on the Bowie albums. As soon as I ripped the Bowie CDs onto my hard drive, I deleted those 'Bonus' tracks. I really didn't like them being there. They seemed so out of place.
 
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#12
k31bassman said:
Close to the Edge - Yes
Going For the One - Yes
Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan
Countdown to Ecstacy - Steely Dan
Machine Head - Deep Purple
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Still Alive and Well - Johnny Winter
Click to expand...

Very cool list. My copy of Still Alive and Well had a skip (yes kids, vinyl albums sometimes would skip a groove and the song would jump). So, not only do I like to listen to that album complete, but I actually miss the skip that's not on my CD copy. The song (the title track) sounds so wrong without it. It's a fantastic album, btw. Machine Head was the first album I bought with my own money in '72 (I was 10), Fragile by Yes was my second purchase. No surprise I ended up a Rickenbacker fanboy. I think I wore them both out (yes kids, vinyl albums also used to wear out....) Man, am I old, or what?!?
 
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#15
portpc said:
"TIME OUT" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, to me the most listenable album ever.

Funny but I has always thought RUSH subliminally channeled " Blue Rondo A' La Turk" when they wrote YYZ.. ??
Click to expand...

Blue Rondo and YYZ have different feels, and YYZ is based on an airport transponder code, so probably not.

But I agree that Time Out is a fantastic album, and its the album that made me into a jazz fan.

All the famous classic rock albums will get mentioned a dozen times over here, most of which I agree with, so I'll throw one out that isn't so famous: Feathers by Dead Meadow. This album is a dreamy psych masterpiece from end to end in my opinion, just one great song after another.

 
#17
Daft Punks' Random Access Memories is pretty well structured, and most of the songs are great(using Nile Rodgers was genius).
Also Sly and the Family Stones' Stand! is a great one, I don't know if the order really matters on that one though, all of the songs work together no matter what.
 

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