Jethro Tull’s *Aqualung *
Good one!
1984 by The Eurythmics
There are quite a few albums that have bridges between nearly every song. Two of my favorites, A Taste of Complete Perspective by Elevator and In Reverse by Matthew Sweet were released almost at the same time.
But my favorite album that has to be listened to in track order is probably Ashtray Rock by Joel Plaskett, if only because if you listened to the last song first you probably won’t understand why you’re supposed to sympathize with the protagonist who sings “Yeah, I stole your girl…”
How could I forget?
2112, by Rush (at least most of it).
Doesn’t Coheed and Cambria do this for all of their albums? I don’t like their music much so I haven’t listened to it, but I’ve heard this…
Prince, Lovesexy. I was once warned not to put it in a friend’s cd changer on shuffle as the whole album was one track. According to wiki that changed though.
Born To Run - Springsteen
If you listen to it in order, it is much more than just a collection of songs. The sides run day to night, uplifting to defeated. “Meeting Across the River” flows directly into “Jungleland” story-wise as well.
Operation Mindcrime – Queensryche
In Tubular Bells 2 by Mike Oldfield the tracks merge into one another, so listening to them out of order is jarring. (TB 1 has only 2 tracks, one per side, and Amarok only has 1 60 minute track, so not an issue.) “The Songs of Distant Earth” tells the story of the Clarke novel, and so should be listened to in order also.
Even worse/better than that: the albums tell a complete story across the albums, so in theory you could start with the last one (it’s a prequel), then the second one, third one, etc.
However, the story, while fleshed out in other media such as graphic novels and books, does not present itself very “up front” in their albums: it’s more about the music. So, while I like to listen to their albums as a whole, for me it’s more for the feel that each individual album gives than for the specific order of the tracks.
Interestingly, Imaginos by Blue Oyster Cult claims in the liner notes to be a “random access myth” or something like that–the songs all do tell a story, but they were intentionally put out of order in the album.
I keep popping in here 'cuz I keep remembering more:
The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet, and Dragontown by Alice Cooper - both individually and as a trilogy of albums.
Brutal Planet, especially, is amazing. I think it’s his best album ever.
Unquestionably, the first side of King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King and the second side of It’s a Beautiful Day qualify. Also Side B of Modern Music by Be-Bop Deluxe. I would also include David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
I don’t think starting with The Last Temptation really adds anything to the Brutal Planet/Dragontown diptych (yes, thematically, they’re a trilogy, but really only the latter two tie together enough to require the combined playing).
And Brutal Planet is, indeed awesome. I don’t know if I’d call it his best, but it’s up there. Dragontown was somewhat if a disappointment in relation (…also on its own, since Alice seems to have slipped from ‘clearly Christian’ to ‘the scary kind of Christian’ in between the two).
Some clarification of the OP - are we just talking about albums that can’t have tracks pulled out and retain any coherency, or albums that can be treated as collections of tracks, but if taken together, in the intended order, are improved for whatever reason (ie: they tell a story, the tracks flow into each other, there’s a musical progression in there, etc)?
I just want to say that I had given up any hope of ever finding another person who has heard of Savatage. Not that I have been looking very hard.
I love Savatage–at least their concept albums. Didn’t really get in to their earlier stuff. Which brings up yet another pair I just remembered: Trans Siberian Orchestra’s* *Christmas Eve and Other Stories *and Beethoven’s Last Night, both of which have been staged as rock operas (the Christmas show is annual and performed with two full touring casts, one East Coast and one West).
*for anyone who isn’t familiar with Savatage and thus is confused at my segue, TSO was formed by former members of Savatage and has a very similar sound to their later stuff.
American Idiot by Green Day
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Flaming Lips
OK Computer - Radiohead
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five
Speakerboxx/The Love Below - Outkast
Came in to say this. I feel like I’m listening to a classical opus. That album was meant to be listened to from start to finish. It tells a story.
Pedro the Lion has two albums like this: Winners Never Quit and Control.
Winners Never Quit takes you on the journey of two brothers who grow up very competitively (first song), one becomes a politician (second song), the other becomes a drunk (third song), the politician fights with his wife (fourth song) and then kills her (fifth song) and decides to kill himself (sixth song), and the family reflects on all this at the politician’s funeral (seventh song).
Control is the story of an adulterous affair, from the time the husband gets bored with his wife (first song), cheats on her (second song), is a shallow consumerist businessman (third, fourth, and fifth songs), gets a little more self-aware about his shittiness and how hypocritical our society is (sixth song), and then his wife finds out about the affair (seventh song), confronts him about it (eighth song), the husband is being carried away by the paramedics after having been stabbed by his wife (ninth song), and the priest gives a bitter eulogy at the guy’s funeral (tenth song).
So, while each song is good on its own, listening to the albums in order gives you a narrative.