Perfect Album
In 2005, users of the message board and group blog plastic were asked to pick their "Perfect Album." Apparently, it's gotten a bit out of hand.
posted by CatsFive @ Thursday, September 01, 2005
Owl-Stretching Time
Killing weekday productivity since... Tuesday.
Earlier...
- Help the victims of Katrina
- What's on those Platinum Records?
- Rusty rails
- How we spent our Saturday
- Artificial Intelligence
- Pervs Caught by Flickr
- Brothers Grimm well, grim
- This is so not a real post
- Bullshit Detector
- I hate to have done it
Free Hit Counters
5 Comments:
That's pretty funny... :) Even though I hang out on Plastic, I haven't been visiting the site much lately, so I missed that entire thread.
OK Computer is not a bad choice, really... at least it works as an ALBUM, and not just a collection of songs. That's a dying art in the MP3 age.
My idea of the "perfect album" would probably be The Velvet Underground & Nico.
A few others I can think of where the entire album is better than the sum of its parts:
The Orb The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
Talking Heads Fear Of Music
The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
of Montreal The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy
Lou Reed Transformer
The Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage (Animation Music Vol. 1)
Violent Femmes' first, self-titled album
Prince 1999
Neutral Milk Hotel In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
That's off the top of my head- I'll probably remember something glaringly obvious in a few hours that I'll have to come back and add. :)
I've kinda-sorta left plastic too, actually; I still check it, but usually it's just a glance over the headlines, and then to check and see if I have any Plastic Messages. I did check in that thread, though I didn't reply/post or anything. It's kind of hard to think of them, though; particularly with the criteria they put forth. There's a few albums I can think of where every track is good, but don't really hang together (like, well, most They Might Be Giants albums; Mink Car especially just sounds like a randomized collection of mp3s). Or, say, albums that are just aaalmost there (I think Who's Next was probably on the list, to which I have to ask if people forgot about "Going Mobile"?).
I'll have to think a bit more on it. I think maybe This One's for the Ladies by the Young Fresh Fellows might be one (though maybe The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest?). I'd go along with Pet Sounds, though, even though that's really safe. Probably Replicas by Tubeway Army (I've got almost all of the Numan stuff, but that's by far my favorite).
Here Come the Warm Jets is definitely one, though. Surprised it didn't get more votes, actually. But I'm not sure which Talking Heads I'd choose. My favorite is the expanded Stop Making Sense soundtrack, but I don't think that counts, really; I think I might go with 77 or More Songs About Buildings & Food, though. Fear of Music is outstanding, though.
It made me happy that someone did mention the Ditty Bops s/t album, though (even though they got the title wrong). That is a definite contender. (I think the only reason it didn't rate higher is due to people not having heard it.)
Through the Trees by the Handsome Family, too. Oh, man, that record is good all the way through. Also, Duty Now for the Future by DEVO (or Oh, No! It's DEVO -- those are my two favorites, but I like Duty Now just a bit more). Also, Souljacker by eels. (I could see someone going with Electroshock Blues, but I think the first track is a little bit too over-the-top.)
In the unfortunately-too-obscure file, Club Monkey (original mix) by Frank Chickens is outstanding, and so's The Official Secrets Act by M. And I think Amazing Adult Fantasy by Barnes & Barnes might be close enough.
There's some artists that I wish I could add, but can't. Like mainly TMBG, really -- part of the good thing is that they tend to release pretty much EVERYTHING on albums, which is awesome, and even their clunkers are still usually pretty good, but they still, youknow, have clunkers. (I find it funny that the only album where they didn't pack it to the gills with around 18-20 songs, Factory Showroom is by far their worst -- particularly when you see the songs they left off. They're... not good at choosing their own stuff, I think, heh...)
But yeah, I'm sure there's stuff I'll be remembering later and wondering how I could leave off.
And I would have sworn I had Here Come The Warm Jets on my own list! That one's a must, definitely.
Actually, Factory Showroom was a good album, I thought. I didn't mind it at all, it's just that no one song stood out as so incredibly super-strong. They were more musical musings, really. I do think FLOOD would warrant inclusion on the list, however.
I wanted to include ELO's TIME but I didn't because "Hold on Tight" just ruins the album.
I was happy to see NMH onthe list without my having to add it.
Factory Showroom is my mother's favorite TMBG record, and it's my least favorite. Part of the problem for me is that I don't really like Eric's guitar on that one -- I've heard a bit of his work with Iggy Pop, and it works pretty well for that, but TMBG? Not so much. (And, I think my appreciation for that record went down when I got a bootleg of the FS sessions -- there were some really good stuff cut for that record; luckily most of it's come out on They Got Lost, so I'm not quite so angry about, say, "Certain People I Could Name" not getting released. Because it is available now.)
I like Flood, but it's not really perfect for me; the mixing is a bit off, and there's a couple songs I'm sort of "eh" on. (I would point to "Particle Man" here, but I _used_ to like it, it was just overexposure that made me basically skip it every time. Well, that and isn't "Twisting" right after it? And "Twisting" is one of my favorite TMBG songs. Man, I love "Twisting".)
I think I might go with Lincoln, actually, even though John Henry is my favorite record (but it does have "Unrelated Thing".... and some people would mention "O Do Not Forsake Me" but I like that one!). Apollo 18 is another close one, but I can't get behind "If I Wasn't Shy" or "Mysterious Whisper". But, of course, these records have awesome, awesome songs that basically make up for them ("Narrow Your Eyes", "Statue Got Me High", "She's Actual Size"). But I can't think of ANYTHING I'd cut from Lincoln and it actually flows reasonably well and, hey, I love the shrine on the cover. Brian Dewan rocks. (Speaking of which, Dewan's got a new project! I think it's the Dewanatron?
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