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"Perfect" records?

#28
When it comes to a "perfect" album, three albums immediately come to mind. These are albums that epitomize the artist, with perfectly crafted songs, top-notch production values, and generally accepted by their fans as being the finest examples of these artists. my candidates are:

Rush - Moving Pictures
The Who - Who's Next
Derek and the Dominos - Layla (and other love songs)
 
#30
Albums: Dark Side of the Moon
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Who Sell Out
Superunknown
Graceland
All Things Must Pass
Love (The Beatles/George Martin remix/mashups)
Kind of Blue
Telluride Sessions (Strength in Numbers)
Tracks: I Was Made to Love Her, Uptight
The Shape I'm In, Stage Fright, It Makes No Difference
Our Love Was, I Can See For Miles, Won't Get Fooled Again, Love Reign O'er Me
Big Country (Bela & the Flecktones)
Duane Allman sessions: Hey Jude (Wilson Pickett), Loan Me a Dime (Boz Scaggs), Games People Play (King Curtis), Layla, Going Down Slow, BB King Medley
Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
Echoes, Fearless, Us & Them, Sheep
ETA: Only Living Boy in New York, Boy in the Bubble, Graceland
 
#31
There's some great stuff in this thread, in several genres. I have to +1 some of the stuff on the Boston album, parts of Hysteria and most of Moving Pictures. Definitely Maybe is a perhaps a controversial choice, but it seems to me that several of the songs on there achieved just the effect that the band seemed to be after, so in that sense it worked "perfectly" for them.

The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" sprang to mind when I saw that band mentioned. And of course some Beatles stuff, especially Penny Lane - not necessarily my favourite ever track by them, but perhaps the one that would be hardest to imagine being improved in any way, if you follow me. Everything about it seems just right, somehow.

Anybody love the Toto IV album much?

I should add that there's tons of Motown tracks in the category I described in the OP, mainly down to Jamerson (perhaps I'm being biased there), plus a lot of Chic's disco stuff and a good few tunes by Quincy Jones. I also think that in the album category, it's pretty much impossible to imagine what could have made "Headhunters" by Herbie Hancock any better than it turned out.

More later maybe, and some more from you please.
 
#32
Ok, I'll carry on...

Chris Isaak 'Wicked Game'
Nick Cave 'Murder Ballads'
Slayer 'Reign In Blood'
Testament 'The Legacy'
Coroner 'Punishment For Decadence'
Voivod 'Dimension Hatross'
Rush first album
Bjork 'Debut'
Dylan 'Desire'
Ministry 'The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste'
Alice In Chains 'Dirt'
Fishbone 'Truth and Soul'
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy album
Dead Kennedys 'Fresh Fruit...'
Bad Religion 'Stranger Than Fiction'
Fun Lovin Criminals 'Come Find Yoursel'
Danzig 3


These are all albums I always listen to start to finish and they never sound tired or dated.
 
#33
You know, just had the itch to listen to some Phil Spector produced stuff, and I have to add Be My Baby, Da Do Ron Ron, Spanish Harlem, and Pretty Little Angel Eyes to my list, as well as say the only Christmas songs I can stand are off his Christmas Gift to You album. Also Creedence's take on Heard it Through the Grapevine, and Johnny Cash's take on Hurt. Also, I'll single out my favorite Beatles song: A Day in the Life, and my second favorite: Rain.
 
#34
For me it's Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz, and especially, Diary of a Madman. The song, Diary of a Madman is a compositional, performance, and production masterpiece!

Believe it or not, as well as the other superb song choices, I'm going to add Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind. The way the music and production perfectly support and illustrate tue lyrics is astounding.

Love this thread! I could post on and on, but I won't. :)
 
#35
Gotta throw out the albums as time went on from (of the 82 and earlier) Steely Dan, such as The Royal Scam, Katy Lied, Aja, and Gaucho...pick one (or all.) It's hard to say if one is "perfect" over the others, because they each had a bit of different sound/feel, but still came off as outstanding if not close to perfect, to my ears at least.

There is just something about the mid/late 70s recordings into the early 80s (pop/rock/R&B and funk) that just had that great sound, which has been lost. Hence my preference for those old Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers, Steve Wonder, Brothers Johnson, Fleetwood Mac, on and on (as quoted above.) I will probably think of some more as I go down the line, but I think the purpose was to mention "perfect" recordings...

By the way, there are some really great recordings already mentioned of many genres...very cool thread.
 
#38
Nice thread! I'll surely listen to some of the albums listed.

I have some albums that I consider "perfect", meaning that I've listened to them dozens of times, and that I wouldn't change a single note if I could.

Three are from Rush (not surprisingly, they are my favourite band...)

Hemispheres - best album I ever heard, simply beautiful. The title track is an absolute masterpiece imho. And there's La villa strangiato too? Oh boy...

Power Windows - this one took a few listens to enter into my heart, but now it's firmly there. I was put a bit off in the beginning by the genre (when things like that still mattered to me somehow), which I would define now as prog-pop. Amazing prog-pop.

Moving pictures - a bit less cohesive than the other two maybe, but still, not a weak second here too.

The fourth, is Colors by Between the buried and me. Everytime I listen to it I wonder how the hell a bunch od twenty-something-years old guys could put together such a beautiful and complex album, mixing effortlessly so many genres and influence.
 

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