I come not to praise the iTunes era, but to bury it.
Seriously, the album as a work of art is fast approaching extinction in this age of the mp3 file. And that’s kind of sad, since I’ve always kinda loved the album, concept or otherwise, as a thing to get lost in for a half hour or 45 minutes (less so, since the CD expanded the standard album length to nearly an hour and twenty minutes, but there are exceptions even there). That said, though, there’s certainly always been a plethora of dross, with bands putting sometimes appalling amounts of filler onto their albums just so the customer won’t feel cheated. This goes double for the CD era.
Still and all, though, there have always been certain albums that I can put in and have the sheer pleasure of listening to from beginning to end, as every single song on them is a gem. Some examples:
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - David Bowie
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got - Sinéad O’Connor
Cosmic Thing - The B-52’s
Abbey Road - The Beatles
Diesel and Dust - Midnight Oil
God Save the Queen - The Smiths
Dark Side of the Moon and Animals and The Wall - Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin through Presence - Led Zeppelin
Murmur, Reckoning, Document, and Automatic For the People - R.E.M.
Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and …And Justice For All - Metallica
If I Should Fall From Grace With God - The Pogues
How about you? What are the albums that you can listen to from beginning to end without getting the least bit antsy or bored?
The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists.
Is it that easy to tune out Colin Meloy’s awful, awful voice?
Any album by the Counting Crows.
I’ve never had a need to skip forward to the next song.
Nitpick: there’s a difference between “Albums/CDs you can listen to all the way through, from beginning to end, without skipping any songs” and “every single song on them is a gem”.
But just a short sampling of albums that have not been mentioned yet that I can usually listen to without wanting to skip tracks:
Pretty. Odd. - Panic at the Disco
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out - Panic! at the Disco
All American Rejects - All American Rejects
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most - Dashboard Confessional
Of these four, only Fever and Places are albums in which I would consider every song “great”.
I’m sure there are others, and there are some albums that I used to feel this way about but no longer do. Plus some albums that I sometimes can listen to all the way through without wanting to skip, but not consistently (for instance, the first two albums by Coheed and Cambria, but more often I just feel like listening to a particular track.)
Face the Music, A New World Record, and Out of the Blue - Electric Light Orchestra
The Yes Album, Fragile, and 90125 - Yes
Asia - Asia
A Night at the Opera, The Game, The Works - Queen
Boston - Boston
Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road - The Beatles
Volume 1 - Traveling Wilburys
Mystery Girl - Roy Orbison
Beatles albums** Rubber Soul through “The White Album”**
Belle & Sebastian albums, Tigermilk through The Boy With the Arab Strap
Ten, Vs. & Vitalogy - Pearl Jam
The Downward Spiral - NIN
Ben Folds Five & …Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Flaming Lips
OK Computer - Radiohead
Rock Spectacle - Barenaked Ladies
Golly, that’s an awful lot of emo. Careful you don’t OD on mascara and floppy hair.
I plum forgot two: Nevermind and In Utero - Nirvana.
Hey, MTCicero - first you invite lists, and then you mock them!?
For me, it’s the opposite - I can’t think of any artists where I’ve bought the album and would want to skip any songs.
Yes. As you’re certainly free to do with any an all of my entries.
The majority of albums I’ve bought from the 2000s were classified as emo by someone or another, altho I’ve never tried mascara and too much hair gives me a headache. The ones from the 70s that I can listen to all the way though have already been mentioned.
Forgot a couple from that era, though:
Dreamboat Annie by Heart.
Moving Pictures by Rush.
I listened to them all the way through time and again back in the day, and every song on them was superb.
RE: the hair - I’m probably just jealous, as I haven’t been able to grow a full head of hair for a very looong time.
I can’t think of any album I have that I’m willing to skip songs on.
Oh, wait. Beatles 1. I skip “The Long and Winding Road.”
I also won’t bother listening to the CD extras, since they’re usually things that weren’t good enough for the album in the first place.
Live, Throwing Copper. I feel that album is flawless. Each song has a different mood, a different rhythm, a different sensibility, but I dig them all.
The first three that came to mind:
Laura Veirs, July Flame
Emiliana Torrini, Fisherman’s Woman
Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out Of This Country
The Beatles, Abbey Road and Sergeant Pepper’s.
Electric Light Orchestra, A New World Record, Discovery and Xanadu
Alan Parsons Project, Turn of a Friendly Card, Eve and Eye in the Sky
Asia, Asia and Astra
Tchaikovsky, Nutcracker Suite and Symphony No. 5
Yes, I have weird musical tastes.