I agree. And in fact I agree so much that I’m going to do an Old Guy’s Rant.
The idea of “why buy whole CDs?” makes me kind of sad. Back in the Old Days, people typically had a certain limited amount of money to spend on a limited amount of albums. So you picked your albums carefully and listened to them repeatedly from start to finish. And when you found one you really liked, you developed a relationship with that album and the songs on it. There were the tracks that grabbed you right away, that you couldn’t get enough of. And the ones that you didn’t “get” at first, but that gradually revealed themselves to you over a number of listenings. Each one would show off a different facet of the musicians’ abilities and personalities, allowing you to get to know them more fully. And some cuts might introduce you to entire new areas of music that you would never have investigated on your own, had those musicians not decided to include them. If you approach an album as a kind of Chinese menu, picking one from Column A and one from Column B, you lose all that.
Tapestry almost makes it (with the exception of I feel the Earth Move, which for some reason reminds me of a “lounge lizard” scene from a 1970s B movie).
**Revolver **definitely. Aja definitely.
I’m gonna throw down for Dark Side of the Moon, too.
My son asked me - 'Is there a better album of songs than XTC’s ‘Oranges and Lemons?’ and all I could say was, they may not be better, but try ‘Want 1’ by Rufus Wainwright and ‘Blue’ by Joni Mitchell.
He came back to me and said ‘In Rainbows’ by Radiohead. I disagreed.
Well, just about everything by Alice Cooper of course but particularly * Hey Stoopid* and * Raise Your Fist And Yell* as whole albums. There are a number that come very close to making the “whole CD” cut but one or two songs just don’t quite make it,
Actually, the “I don’t like it” list is WAAAAAAY shorter!!
This is a surprisingly tough one for me - even on albums I love, like Exodus, there’s usually one track that doesn’t measure up. I don’t necessarily hate that track but I won’t love it. Making Movies is a perfect example; I don’t know why the hell they tacked Les Boys on there.
But Graceland is a great choice, and I’d second the Allmans’ Fillmore album and add Eat a Peach. And OK Computer, by Radiohead.
3 Supertramp Albums: Crime of the Century, Breakfast in America, …Famous Last Words.
Donnie Iris and the Cruisers: King Cool
and a couple by Bob Welch: French Kiss, 3 Hearts
Small Faces - Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead Beach Boys - Sunflower (the old UK release that opens with Cottonfields; the first lp I owned… ) Mercury Rev - The Secret Migration Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper Bunny Wailer - Rock ‘n’ Groove
Blood Sugar Sex Magick by The Red Hot Chili Peppers The Wall by Pink Floyd not only qualifies as an eminently listenable album, it’s also a concept album, so it’s a double whammy.
Greg Kihn’s Mutiny is a CD that I always listen to all the way through. Quite different from his more famous (?) power-pop stuff, this album is acoustic folk and blues, complete with Dylan and Lou Reed covers and even a sea shanty.
Supertramp, Breakfast in America
Paul Simon, Graceland
Two that first came to mind:
Squeeze, Babylon and On
David + David, Welcome to the Boomtown
Mr. S’s picks:
Neil Young, Harvest
Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed
Wings, Band on the Run
America, Homecoming
Traveling Wilburys, Vols. 1 and 3 (I’ll second these)
