"Perfect" records?

[runmikeyrun]

Metallica- And Justice For All
any Keelhaul album
Mastodon- Remission
Cave In- Jupiter
Converge- Axe To Fall

and I second Eddie Cochran.

EDIT: How did I forget Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out? Incredible!!!

 

[Ostrobothnian]

Not in any order:

Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Yes - Drama
Rush -Signals, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, Moving Pictures and Fly by Night
Dream Theater - Awake
The Beatles - Abbey Road, Rubber Soul
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Pink Floyd - Animals, Dark side of the moon
Kingston Wall - III
Jamiroquai - The Return of the Space Cowboy

All I can think for now

 

[Darth Handsome]

I'll go with "A Day in the Life".

 

[renobassman]

I posted a couple of specific songs earlier, but since a lot of people are posting full albums, I decided to add some of my favorites.

Pink Floyd - Animals (as many have already mentioned)
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
R.E.M. - Document
Paul Simon - Graceland
Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
Elton John - Honkey Chateau
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Beck - Mutations
Steely Dan - Katy Lied

 

[BassyBill]

I'll go with "A Day in the Life".

Nice shout out - that one gets a +1 from me.

 

[jnevi9nr]

I posted a couple of specific songs earlier, but since a lot of people are posting full albums, I decided to add some of my favorites.

Pink Floyd - Animals (as many have already mentioned)
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
R.E.M. - Document
Paul Simon - Graceland
Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
Elton John - Honkey Chateau
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Beck - Mutations
Steely Dan - Katy Lied

Especially the back end of btcs.

 

[BucardoBass]

Two perfect records for my taste:

Camel - Mirage
Focus - Focus III

 

[SoCal1]

Wynton Marsalas referred to Louis Armstrongs "West End Blues" (circa 1930's) the most "perfect" 3 minutes of recorded music EVER.

 

[chuck norriss]

Mingus Ah Um
Kind of Blue
Sgt Peppers
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Sonny Sharrock - Ask The Ages
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me

 

[spindoc]

The Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone", produced by Norman Whitfield. Great use of s-p-a-c-e. Gritty and ethereal at the same time, psychedelic soul at its finest.

 

[Dehaviland731]

Marvin's "What's Goin On?"
Harrison's "All Things Must Pass"
MJ's "Off The Wall"
Wayne Shorter's "JuJu"
Petty & The Heartbreaker's "Damn The Torpedos"
Bruce's "Darkness"

 

[Phil Mastro]

I posted a couple of specific songs earlier, but since a lot of people are posting full albums, I decided to add some of my favorites.

Pink Floyd - Animals (as many have already mentioned)
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
R.E.M. - Document
Paul Simon - Graceland
Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
Elton John - Honkey Chateau
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Beck - Mutations
Steely Dan - Katy Lied

Great list! Lots of albums I agree on.

I may have missed it, but is seems the White Album hasn't been mentionned. Now it has.

Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Stones - Let it Bleed, Beggar's Banquet
Steely Dan - Aja, The Royal Scam
Pat Metheny - Still Life (Talking)
The Police - Synchronicity
Sly - Fresh
Bruce Cockburn - The Charity of Night
The Dead - American Beauty
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Beck - Midnight Vultures
Charlie Hunter - Right Now Move
Dave Holland Quintet - Prime Directive, Not for Nothin'
The Doors - LA Woman
Zappa - The Grand Wazoo
Genesis - The Lamb Lies down on Broadway
Harmonium - Harmonium
Johnny Winter - Second Winter
Nojo - Highwire
Nguyên Lê -- Maghreb and Friends

That's enough for now.

 

[Phil Mastro]

Marvin's "What's Goin On?"
Harrison's "All Things Must Pass"
MJ's "Off The Wall"
Wayne Shorter's "JuJu"
Petty & The Heartbreaker's "Damn The Torpedos"
Bruce's "Darkness"

Nice!

 

[BassyBill]

Just listening now and realised some of the early records by The Police would come into this category. "Can't Stand Losing You", "So Lonely" for examples. Perfect in their simplicity and musical exuberance. It's impossible, to me, to conceive of any way at all that they could have been any better at the time when they were released. The writing, performance and technical presentation are all - well, just perfect.

 

[onosson]

I'll try to add some that haven't been mentioned, I agree with a lot of the choices already posted above...


Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Donny Hathaway - Live
Antonio Carlos Jobim - Stone Flower
Santana - Caravanserai
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
Bic Runga - Birds
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Burnin', Natty Dread, and Exodus

 

[BassyBill]

"Presence" is not perhaps Zep's best album overall (I think IV would be that one), but Presence does have Zep's best ever track - Achilles Last Stand. Imo, of course.

Good shout on the Jobim stuff.

 

[Marty Forrer]

Anything by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Norman Watt-Roy is a monster, as were the whole band.

 

[onosson]

"Presence" is not perhaps Zep's best album overall (I think IV would be that one), but Presence does have Zep's best ever track - Achilles Last Stand. Imo, of course.

Good shout on the Jobim stuff.

I know it doesn't get a lot of love, but for me it's their best work!

 

[BassPenguin22]

Both of those are great albums - but perhaps I mistitled this thread. I should have called it "perfect tracks" as expecting the standard I'm talking about from a whole album is probably unrealistic except in a tiny number of examples (Steely Dan's "Aja" springs to mind here).

I'm talking about individual tracks that you think could NOT be made better - they almost transcend the process that produced them and become something other than a mere recording of a song. This isn't really a "great albums" thread as I can think of lots and lots of great albums that would not come into the category I'm talking about. I might try and clarify with a few more examples in a bit.

Haha my bad, should have read the post

 

[BassyBill]

Anything by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Norman Watt-Roy is a monster, as were the whole band.

I'm not going to argue against that.