Fleetwood Mac- Rumours
Meatloaf- Bat Out of Hell
Steve Miller Band- Book of Dreams
I don’t disagree with gex gex and chorizo so much as I just don’t care. I bought the album, so I’ll play it how I like it best. I use the “program” feature on my CD player all the time to skip tracks I don’t like without having to get up. I’ve even burned a few CDRs of albums where I’ve rearranged the running order and track listing to be more to my liking.
To take a very popular example, Enya keeps wedging awful singles into otherwise pretty and cohesive albums. So I remove the out-of-place singles and enjoy the albums. “A Day Without Rain” is classic if you snip out “Wild Child” and “Only Time” and replace them with “Isobella” and “The First of Autumn.”
I know, they’re artists. But I’m an artist too, and sometimes I can arrange the track order better than they can. There’s also things like “Sometime Anywhere” by the Church where the record company screwed up the running order against the band’s wishes. I made a copy of the CD with the running order the band originally planned. And they’re right… it’s better.
Given my habits, I obviously could list hundreds of perfect albums. I’ll spare you and pick ten:
Even As We Speak “Feral Pop Frenzy”
Dead Can Dance “Towards the Within”
Moose “Honeybee”
Roy Montgomery “Temple IV” or “Scenes from the South Island”
U2 “Unforgettable Fire” (I replace “Pride” with “Love Comes Tumbling” to make it the perfect album)
Opal “Early Recordings”
Brian Eno “Another Green World”
Talk Talk “Spirit of Eden”
etc. etc.
Skip Spence - Oar
Love - Forever Changes
Mr. Henry - Jackhammer
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
Supergrass - Supergrass
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer soundtrack
The Who - Live At Leeds (14 track version)
Lots of Miles Davis, especially the fusion period, but most of those discs only have two to four tracks anyway. But I’ll throw out Miles Smiles as an example of a great whole CD.
Kinky Friedman’s self-titled album would make the list but sometimes I have to skip his version of “Lover Please”.
I’ve been wanting to rearrange the song order and burn copies of a few CDs I have like hazel-rah does. I’m convinced Byrdmaniax could be a minor masterpiece if the song order weren’t so damn dumb. Apparently the recording was rushed in between stretches of touring, and was worked over and finished by Terry Melcher. Some great songs, just sequenced very badly.
Nas - Illmatic
Lagwagon - Lets talk about feelings - 25 minutes of punk rock perfection.
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 chambers
Weezer - Pinkerton
Any Sublime
I took it as the former from the OP saying “At work I have 40 or so CDs. Out of all of these CDs, here is a list of those that I do not skip over any songs…” A list of 5 is then mentioned, suggesting there are a further 35 where the OP does skip over tracks.
Not usually. Sometimes I will have heard or even downloaded the whole album, but usually when I buy an album it is because it’s by an artist that I already like or I’ve heard two or three songs by the artist and am confident that I will like that artist. Artists tend to have a certain uniformity in their sound that usually means that if i like two or three of their songs, I will like every song on the album.
Of course, this doesn’t mean I like each song equally. Of course I have favourites, but I just tend to find that if I like what an artist does, I’ll like pretty much all of what they do.
Really? I’d never pay that much money for three songs. If I’m not confident enough that an artist will be able to last the distance, I won’t buy the album.
Like I said, I don’t usually come across this situation. Saying I don’t like a song on an album is like saying I don’t like a chapter in a book.
Besides, often songs that don’t immediately grab me will endear themself to me over a couple of months. Usually I will be indifferent to these at first, so it’s not actually painful to listen to them, just not a high point.
On the rare occasion that I do get a patchy album, for instance Pearl Jam’s latest (I hate to say it, but it’s true), I will listen to the songs that aren’t as good, but it does tend to lessen the experience of an album as a whole. Hence, I find myself liking the album less and don’t listen to it as much.
Of course, I could just skip the weaker tracks, but I find that to be just as bad. It disrupts the flow, it takes any enjoyment away from listening and I just can’t get comfortable. Putting on a CD and finishing it 5 tracks later isn’t an enjoyable experience. I’d rather skip it altogether.
Not trying to enforce a uniform listening policy on the board 
I was just saying that I didn’t understand people who didn’t listen to albums all the way through.
I buy albums based on a variety of reasons - recommendations from friends, the reputation of a band, (legal) sample mp3’s that I’ve downloaded (I don’t hear much of what I like on the radio and don’t have cable), references to albums by other bands or articles, etc. I read about music a lot, and have a pretty good idea if an album is going to be good or not. Lots of times I’ll have a couple of references to a band or album pop up over the course of a couple days, and I’ll consider that an omen - I have to check it out.
Plus, the bands that I’m into are more likely to release a cohesive album as opposed to one catchy tune and a bunch of filler.
I’m not saying that there aren’t songs that I don’t like, but I never, ever, ever skip over them when I sit down to listen to an album. And I do sit down and LISTEN to music - I don’t usually have it on as background noise. I take it pretty seriously.
I don’t watch movies on TV, where they’re edited, converted to fullscreen, time-compressed, censored, etc. I don’t fast forward over chapters while watching DVDs. I won’t watch a DVD unless I can get the widescreen version, unedited. I want to see what the director had in mind for his/her film.
I treat music the same way - the bands I’m into are putting out an album that is supposed to be one self-contained thing, and I’m going to listen to what they wanted to put out.
the first that come to mind are:
Pete Townsend, Empty Glass
Oscar Peterson, Nigerian Marketplace
bolding mine
This is ironic since Cake is about the spottiest band out there 
…several top-2000 ever songs and several unlistenables. I wouldnt buy a Cake album, for the exact reason you mention.
On the other hand, I would feel pretty confident in buying a Smoking Popes or Sugar album, sound unheard. They’re pretty darn consistent.
You know, we could make a whole other thread for albums we bought on the strength of a popular single, and it turned out that the rest of the album was crap. Some examples from my own collection:
Brenda Kahn, Epiphany in Brooklyn (“I Don’t Sleep, I Drink Coffee Instead”)
US3, *hand on the torch (“Cantaloop [Flip Fantasia]”)
Beck, Mellow Gold (“Loser”; he got better later)
Pearl Jam, Ten (“Daughter,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” Second and last Pearl Jam album I ever bought.)
So yeah, an album where every single track hits paydirt is worth a little bit of celebration.
Anything from Bolt Thrower or Napalm Death. 
Every song???
Pink. Missundaztood. Perfect.
Pete Yorn. Even the last cut, Biggirl (He’s got a new release, due out next week).
For me:
Boston’s first album
Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell
There are a few others, but I can’t call them up right now.
Third Eye Blind - Blue
Ben Folds - Rockin’ the Suburbs
Del Amitri - Some Other Sucker’s Parade (I think that’s what it’s called)
Athenaeum - Radiance
Every single song on those albums… I don’t know how they do it.
LilShieste
Khadaji beat me to it. Boston’s “Boston.” So good.
Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill
Music from “A Clockwork Orange”
Fugees- The Score
Styx- Greatest Hits
A Wagner double CD whose liner I have lost
The Beatles- Abby Road
Blood, Sweat, and Tears- BS&T 3
I can’t believe I forgot the relevant quote from BOC: “Time everlasting, time to play B-sides.”
That’s my take. Life’s too short to play crappy music.
John Martyn: London Conversation and Stormbringer. (Sorry jjimm, I thought Solid Air was crap ).
John Renbourne: The Hermit
Stefan Grossman and Duck Baker: Northern Skies, Southern Blues
David Bromberg: How Late D’ya Play 'Til?
Skyhooks: Living in the 70’s.
Jethro Tull: Stand Up
And of course I have to include Tapestry and also James Taylor’s Greatest Hits.
Natalie Imbruglia: White lilies island.
Savage Garden: Affirmation
Tori Amos- Under the Pink
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Boston’s first
Alanis Morrisette- Jagged Little Pill
Berlin- Love Life :rolleyes:
Nickelback- Silver Side Up
Well, that was actually me. “A Girl Like You” isn’t bad, it’s just… kind of banal. Thanks for the heads-up on the new release though. I MUST have it!
Only two come to mind for me:
Green Day, “Dookie” and
Beatles, “Abbey Road.”