I love all the songs on this album.

[Biggirl]

Very rarely do I like every song on an album. Close to never, if you don't include Greatest Hits-- and I don't. Nowadays there's no need to buy whole albums to get to the songs you like. Does anyone still buy whole CDs? Here are my precious few I Love Every Song On This CD list:

Tapestry-- Carole King
Songs About Jane-- Maroon 5

Jagged Little Pill almost makes the list since I love all the songs very much. All except Mary Jane.






P.S. I feel like I'm starting far too many threads here in CS and this one is a repeat of one from years back. But I got a lot of good music suggestions from it and I'm still curious about other people's opinions.

[Sateryn76]

Do the Beatles even count for this thread? Sgt. Peppers, The White Album, Revolver - all of them do it for me.

Steely Dan's Aja
Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin Simon

[BubbaDog]

I very rarely buy individual songs. I usually buy the whole CD or pay for the whole album download.

Usually there are one or two songs that I don't particularly like but the price break in downloading the entire album is better than individual selection. I listen to a lot of blues artists who don't get heavy rotation on the air or other free access areas like Pandora. So I have to buy a lot of music "unheard".

It's rare that I'm disappointing. That sometimes happens when I download a new artist but its not enough to change my spending habits.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

I think all of the Peter Gabriel solo albums up to "So" were without a dud. It took "Us" and the songs "Only Us" and "Blood Of Eden" to break that streak.

[RealityChuck]

There are dozens of albums where I love every song. Some include:

Spirit -- The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
It's a Beautiful Day -- It's a Beautiful Day
Bonzo Dog Band -- Urban Spaceman
Led Zeppelin -- Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin IV
Procul Harum -- Procul Harum
Rick Wakeman -- The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Beatles -- Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road
Rolling Stones -- Let it Bleed
The Who -- Who's Next and Who Are You?
Soft Machine -- Third
Emitt Rhodes -- Emitt Rhodes
The Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band -- The Whole Fam Damily
The Clash -- London Calling
Traffic -- John Barleycorn Must Die
The Band -- The Band
Allman Brothers Band -- Live at Fillmore East
Elton John -- 11/17/70
Flash and the Pan -- Lights in the Night (ignoring the CD Bonus tracks)
Jethro Tull -- Aqualung and Thick as a Brick

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

Jethro Tull -- Aqualung and Thick as a Brick

Thick As A Brick? Isn't that cheating?

I almost mentioned The Way Up by the Pat Metheny Group, but figured that was cheating for the same reason as Thick As A Brick. (There's only one song on each of these albums).

[Wheelz]

Van Morrison's Moondance is the only one I can think of that fits the bill. Pure gold from start to finish.

A few of my favorite albums fall one or two tracks short:

John Mellencamp, Scarecrow
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run and Born in the USA
The Blasters, eponymous release
John Fogerty, Centerfield
Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.

[StusBlues]

Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet
Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting
Miles Davis, anything between 1958 and 1964

[Cisco]

I'm the opposite. Rarely do I dislike more than 1 or 2 songs on an album I like, and quite often I like every song.

Pop music is notorious for just trying to get a couple of radio hits and filling the rest of the album with garbage, so if that's the kind of music you're into, you will find it harder to find albums that you enjoy from start to finish. I was really into Poison when I was real young, and even as an 7 year old kid I would listen to some of the deeper cuts on their albums and think, "ok, this is fuckin' corny."

[shy guy]

I'll second "London Calling." And for me...

"Tronic," Black Milk
"The Cold Vein," Cannibal Ox
"Davy," Coconut Records
"The Bake Sale," Cool Kids
"One of the Boys," Katy Perry
"Illmatic," NaS
"Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix," Phoenix
"All Your Summer Songs," Saturday Looks Good to Me

I primarily buy albums; I buy singles from artists who I don't expect to enjoy entire albums from. I won't be buying Black Eyed Peas' latest, for instance, but I'll download the singles.

[well he's back]

The two that come immediately to mind are "Blood on the Tracks" (Dylan) and "Graceland" (Paul Simon). There might be a couple more.

[LateComer]

Originally Posted by It's Not Rocket Surgery!

Thick As A Brick? Isn't that cheating?

Then I shouldn't include "A Passion Play"?

About Aqualung, Tull played at my university back in 2005 and they played, though not in order, every song on Aqualung, every one of which I do love. It turns out that 2 days later they recorded "Aqualung Live" a live version of the album so I guess they were practicing.

I would also add:
AC/DC:
Back in Black
Highway to Hell

Van Halen:
5150

And just about any Who album 1979 and earlier.

[Enright3]

I'll jump on the Graceland bandwagon so to speak.

[pepperlandgirl]

Wilco: A Ghost is Born
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco: Summer Teeth
Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Vol 1
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles: Abbey Road
The Beatles: Beatles For Sale
The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night
Paul Simon: Graceland
The Band: The Band
Paul McCartney: Band On the Run
Paul McCartney: Flaming Pie
Horsefeathers: House with No Home
Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around
Shearwater: Winged Life
The Frames: The Cost
The Frames: Burn the Maps
Fireman: Electric Arguments
Bon Iver: For Emma, Long Ago
Elliot Smith: From a Basement on a Hill
The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs Vol 1
Jeff Buckley: Grace
Atherton: Skyline Motel
Gary Jules: Trading Snake Oil for Wolf Tickets

[carlb]

Dire Staits - Making Movies

Now, some people will tell you that this is almost a perfect album, except for the final track, Les Boys. I don't know where these people come up with their crazy ideas, because no such song was ever recorded. I think these are the same people who believe they saw movies called Highlander 2 or Star Trek V, or a TV show called The Star Wars Christmas Special.

Seriously, one of the things I love about mp3 players is that I can rip Making Movies and just leave off the final track.

[Oakminster]

Led Zeppelin IV, side 1 of which is rumored to be highly desirable for making out.

[ErinPuff]

From a quick scroll through my iTunes library:

Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha
Anna Ternheim, Separation Road
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out of This Country
Dar Williams, The Green World
Eisley, Room Noises
Emiliana Torrini, Fisherman's Woman
The Hush Sound, Goodbye Blues
Jeff Hanson, Jeff Hanson
Joanna Newsom, Ys
Kate Bush, The Kick Inside
Laura Marling, Alas I Cannot Swim
Mariee Sioux, Faces in the Rocks
Piñataland, Songs for the Forgotten Future, vol. 1
Universal Hall Pass, Mercury
Venus Hum, Big Beautiful Sky

I almost always buy full albums (usually from Amazon MP3).

[Sitnam]

The Crow Soundtrack

Pearl Jam, Ten

[Joe Frickin Friday]

U2, The Joshua Tree

[ToeJam]

Offspring- Americana is one that always surprises me. When I start listening I always feel like I'm going to skip a few clunker songs. But the album together is one of the most cohesive albums as a whole. The songs individually are okay but together they make something greater than the sum of its parts.

[FlyingRat]

Originally Posted by Joe Frickin Friday

U2, The Joshua Tree

A-frickin'-men.

I also agree with the Peter Gabriel suggestions posted above, except I really enjoyed "Blood of Eden" on Us.

[kenobi 65]

Electric Light Orchestra, "Face The Music" and "A New World Record"
Yes, "The Yes Album" and "90125"
Dire Straits, "Brothers In Arms"
The Traveling Wilburys, "Volume 1"

Movie Soundtracks: "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl"

[Thudlow Boink]

Originally Posted by Biggirl

Nowadays there's no need to buy whole albums to get to the songs you like. Does anyone still buy whole CDs?

Hell yes. To me, what you've said makes about as much sense as "nowadays there's no need to buy whole movies to get the scenes you like" or "there's no need to buy whole books to get the chapters you like." I tend toward Cisco's point of view.

Originally Posted by Cisco

I'm the opposite. Rarely do I dislike more than 1 or 2 songs on an album I like, and quite often I like every song.

Pop music is notorious for just trying to get a couple of radio hits and filling the rest of the album with garbage, so if that's the kind of music you're into, you will find it harder to find albums that you enjoy from start to finish.

I tend to listen to albums start-to-finish, without skipping. This is partly because some albums are designed to be listened to this way, are more than the sum of their parts, and provide a satisfying begining-to-end listening experience, where, even if there are tracks I don't like as much, having them there somehow enhances my enjoyment of the tracks I do love or of the album as a whole. And it's partly because I've very often had the experience of having a song grow on me, where it didn't do much for me the first couple of times I heard it but later, with many more listens, I came to really appreciate it.

[jsc1953]

Originally Posted by Enright3

I'll jump on the Graceland bandwagon so to speak.

I'm almost with you; it's an incredible album. Except for Gumboots...and Crazy Love...which are less-than-incredible.

ETA: just so I'm not accused of thread-shitting, I'll add: Soundtrack to The Mambo Kings.. Perfect in every way.

[Biggirl]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

Hell yes. To me, what you've said makes about as much sense as "nowadays there's no need to buy whole movies to get the scenes you like" or "there's no need to buy whole books to get the chapters you like."

Someone in the previous thread said almost the same thing about the book. I like the analogy but only if the movie is Grindhouse or it's a book of short stories. Yes, the song may (or may not) make a whole, but I don't have to like all of the movie shorts or short stories to like the whole movie/book.

[Stauderhorse]

Abbey Road - The Beatles

More - Pink Floyd (just listened to this one the other day and was astounded at how good it was)

The soundtrack for Rent, as well as Sweeney Todd

It's pretty rare that I find an album with nothing but great songs; but when I do find one, I run right out and buy it.

[Ludovic]

Funny, More is one of the least-solid Floyd albums IMO. Although I do like every one of the songs on the first "side" of the album -- the Mediterranean jazz noodling isn't too intrusive at that point.

Funny, it's rare to find a Floyd album I do like every song on, even though they're probably the solidest band in existence! For instance Obscured by Clouds has the muddling Mudmen, and Interstellar Overdrive and Pow R Toc H mar an otherwise perfect PatGoD (that said, I like IO, but I don't love it per the OP.)

That said, I do love every track on their Big Four albums, as well as Meddle (even Seamus and San Tropez )

[Cisco]

My favorite band has 11 major-label studio albums, and I only dislike about 3 of their songs - and 2 of them are on the new album so they might grow on me.

I've never skipped a track on a Sufjan Stevens album.

Primus' Sailing the Seas of Cheese is a very cohesive album. I can't imagine liking one of the songs on it and not all the rest as well.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Originally Posted by FlyingRat

A-frickin'-men.

I also agree with the Peter Gabriel suggestions posted above, except I really enjoyed "Blood of Eden" on Us.

I guess "Blood Of Eden" is not that bad, but the lyric "I cannot get insurance anymoooooooore" is very un-Gabrielish and takes me right out of the listening experience.

[Khadaji]

Boston's first album.
Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell
And I have to check, but I think Supertramp's Breakfast In America

[Busy Scissors]

There's a quote from Penn Gillette (I think) on first hearing the Ramones, something like 'I couldn't believe a band had made an album and decided to miss out the crap songs' It is surprising to hear an album with no weak spots.

Spiderland by Slint and I see a Darkness by BPB are both complete albums - epic from start to finish. They don't have that many songs on them, though.

Nevermind is also exceptionally strong IMO. Not listened to it in beards but I'd never skip a track. Toxicity by SOAD is a more recent hard rock album that is quality front to back.

[Ceejaytee]

Originally Posted by Biggirl

P.S. I feel like I'm starting far too many threads here in CS and this one is a repeat of one from years back. But I got a lot of good music suggestions from it and I'm still curious about other people's opinions.

Yeah, I thought this was a zombie at first but there weren't enough responses. I kept thinking, didn't she already do this with Tapestry before?

I really like, in the more recent stuff:

Sara Bareilles--Little Voice
Duffy--Rockferry
Rafael Saadiq--The Way I See It (technically, this has a song by Jay Z that I hate, but it's another version of a song Rafael sings on the album, so I contend it doesn't count)

Older suff:
Delbert McClinton--One of the Fortunate Few
Lyle Lovett--Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
The Bee Gees--Main Course
Stevie Wonder--Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Derek and the Dominoes--Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Aretha Franklin--I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
The Beatles--Rubber Soul, Revolver

and, of course, Tapestry.

[in hiding]

Pearl Jam - Yield.

[Ludovic]

Too many to count in classic rock, but in the non-classic rock arena:*

Agree on Nevermind
Panic (!) at the Disco's two albums.
Modest Mouse - We were dead before the ship even sank. Although it has my least favorite best song, it also has no duds. Their other albums have bigger highs and lows.
Elvis Costello: This Years Model. Other albums have a couple duds on them (but generally only one or two.)
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Hearts of Oak
Echo and the Bunnymen's eponymous album, as well as What Are You Going to do With Your Life.

*I was going to say "era", but Costello is not in the classic rock genre despite that album being in that era.

Oh, okay, I lied. One entry from the Classic Rock genre that might not get mentioned otherwise: Heart's Dreamboat Annie. It's so good that for awhile I thought it had to be a compilation album because the songs are so solid (and I didn't even know at the time that it was Crazy on You that was their big hit from that album, since the local rock station mainly played Magic Man. I might stop going to Heart shows since the only stuff from that album they ever play are MM, CoY and sometimes an acoustic version of Dreamboat Annie, but never any deeper cuts in the 5 times I've seen them. But they make up for it in their varied Led Zeppelin covers -- the only stuff from LZIV that I have not seen them cover in concert is When the Levee Breaks, Four Sticks, and Stairway, and the last two have obvious reasons not to cover them (i.e. being only sort of good for a LZ song and risking seeming cheesy, respectively. I think they'd do a good job with Levee, though. I know their version of Battle of Evermore is probably better than the Zep could do in concert without resurrecting Sandy Denny.))

[Johnny Q]

Cure for Pain-- Morphine

[Hal Briston]

Originally Posted by Cisco

Pop music is notorious for just trying to get a couple of radio hits and filling the rest of the album with garbage, so if that's the kind of music you're into, you will find it harder to find albums that you enjoy from start to finish. I was really into Poison when I was real young, and even as an 7 year old kid I would listen to some of the deeper cuts on their albums and think, "ok, this is fuckin' corny."

How perfect that you single out Poison -- they were the first ones to pop into mind when I read the thread title. I've always said that Look What The Cat Dragged In was the most complete album ever made. It aimed to be a perfect compilation of cock-rock party pop, and that's what it was.

Was it corny? Yeah, it was -- but listening to it as a seven-year-old would give a very different impression than it did as as a 19-year-old longhair rockstar-wannabe crusing the Seaside strip looking to get laid. For that, it was was a perfect soundtrack*.

And for the record, the band that put out the least amount of filler was Hanoi Rocks. Oriental Beat, Back to Mystery City and Two Steps from the Move don't have a bad song among them, while Self Destruction Blues and Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks each have only one lame track apeice.


*Although we usually skipped past I Won't Forget You while cruising the strip.

[Baby Driver]

In Rainbows by Radiohead

Sounds of Silver by LCD Soundsystem

The Crane Wife by The Decembrists

Both The Boxier and Alligator by The National

Almost A Night at the Opera by Queen, but with the big exception of "Sweet Lady"

[Krokodil]

Lyle Lovett--Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
Mary Chapin Carpenter--Come On, Come On
Sheryl Crow--Tuesday Night Music Club
Mona Lisa Smile Original Soundtrack

[BACI]

Crime of the Century - Supertramp.

[Labdad]

Bookends Simon & Garfunkel

[Ataraxy]

Ten by Pearl Jam
Decoration Day by the Drive By Truckers
Music For All Occasions by the Mavericks (how appropriate)
Mock Tudor by Richard Thompson
Black Holes and Revelations by Muse

[Cardinal]

U2 - Actung Baby, Joshua Tree
Crucified - Pillars of Humanity (obscure, I know)
77s - 77s (obscure)
Boston - Boston
The Who - Live at Leeds (even the double disc version. This is kind of cheating, as it's not a studio album, but I feel the live performance cancels out the ability to pick the songs)
Daniel Amos - Horrendous Disc, Doppleganger (obscure)
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Extreme - III Sides
King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
LSU - Waking Up the Dead (obscure)
Larry Norman - Only Visiting This Planet (a bit obscure)
Sass O' Frass Tunic - As Blue as the State Allows (very obscure)
Weezer - Blue, Green, Maladroit
10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged

[flickster]

I have many, many that would fit this specification, but one that is perhaps on top of the list:

Soul Vaccination: Tower of Power Live

in addition:

Throw in all of the early Tom Waits collection
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
Ry Cooder - Into the Purple Valley
Johnny Winter - Live

as already mentioned:

Lyle Lovett & His Large Band

[koeeoaddi]

Surrealistic Pillow - The Jefferson Airplane
Benefit - Jethro Tull
Living with Ghosts - Patty Griffin
Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, For the Roses and Court & Spark - Joni (in her can-do-no-wrong period) Mitchell
Liege & Lief - Fairport Convention
Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens
Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - The Incredible String Band

[Lobot]

Is one requirement that it has to be possible to enjoy each track in isolation? Because I have many albums of the "three good tracks and no bad tracks" variety that function as a whole, but few where I could pull them apart and consider track-by-track.

I mean, "Speak to Me" from Dark Side of the Moon isn't exactly A-side worthy, but it doesn't need to be in its proper context.

I think the book/novel analogy is incredibly apt, but it only works if you're a fan of the album format (which I am). If you view albums less as collections of tracks than as complete works, you'll be drawn to artists with a similar POV who deliver albums rather than songs (such as Steven Wilson, as a modern example). OTOH, the artists who work track by track almost invariably get stuck in that singles+filler trap.

[Peanuthead]

Wheelz and Ludovic have mentioned 2 of my artists but different albums. I respect their choices and compliment them on their taste in music. Here are my selections:


Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True (his first album)

Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey (and really, almost everything by Van Morrison)

Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind (his first album)

Herbie Mann - Anything and everything by the late great jazz flutist/flautist

Mink DeVille - Cabretta (?) It was the first album. c.1978 Containes the coolest song ever.....Cadillac Walk.

Guess I'm going back quite a way, but these stand out as timeless albums.

[Maggie the Ocelot]

Pretty Hate Machine. Has nobody mentioned this yet? Why?

Seconding Liege & Lief and Tea for the Tillerman (though I could do without the long instrumental bit in Matty Groves)

I also buy whole-albums almost exclusively (and in CD format, too! Gasp!). Most of the time I find the secondary tracks growing on me with repeated listening of the entire album.

[woodstockbirdybird]

Gang of Four - Entertainment!
The Clash - The Clash (Amazingly, either the U.S. or UK version)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - This Year's Model and Get Happy!!
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Prince - Sign O The Times


Revolver is close, but "Love You To" and "I Want To Tell You" bring it down for me; similarly with Abbey Road and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Octopus' Garden".

[Tengu]

The Beatles - Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road
The Who - Tommy, ...By The Numbers, ...Sings My Generation
the brilliant green - All of them. >_> (My Tomoko Kawase obsession should be well known by now. >_> So just assume that all of her Tommy <X>⁶ albums are on the list, too.)
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare, Lace and Whisky, From The Inside, Brutal Planet
Brian Setzer Orchestra - Dirty Boogie

[tr0psn4j]

The Who Sell Out
Beatles - Too many to mention
Dropkick Murphys - Do or Die
Dead Kennedy's - Fresh Fruit from Rotting Vegetables
The Clash - London Calling
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust, Alladin Sane, Honky Dory
I'll post again when I can think of a few.