Quincy Jones. Walking in Space
Share albums where EVERY SINGLE song is good
It rarely happens to me, but in a pile of records I bought over the summer I
found one with no cover. Shocking Blue’s 2nd album. 'At Home' (I’m your Venus is on it).
Even most Beatles albums have at least one song I could pass on, but not this one. Horrible fidelity, scratched to hell, but damn...
So I’d love to hear of other records that you all could suggest.
280 responses Add your response
I’m 41 and feel compelled to drop a short, non-exhaustive list (of music made in my lifetime😅) to add to all of the excellent suggestions made previous. 1) OK Computer - Radiohead 2) B52s yellow record 3) My Finest Work Yet - Andrew Bird 4) Rain Dogs - Tom Waits 5) Summerteeth - Wilco 6) Pinkerton - Weezer 7) High Violet - The National 8) Elephant - The White Stripes 9) Howl - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 10) Texas Sun - Khruangbin and Leon Bridges Bonus - I learned the hard way - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings -and a cheat, because I don’t think this is in the spirit of the OP) Lovely Creatures - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds May your new year be filled with records you want to listen all the way through. Dir Gordon Cole |
My two cents: I would have included Cafe Blue as well except there is one cut on it that I always skip over. Many people suggested Joni Mitchell's Blue and that is a good choice although I personally prefer Hejira. Kind Of Blue deservedly made many lists including my own although I get the feeling the OP was thinking about rock and pop. You can certainly tell a lot about a poster by the music he/she listens to. |
New adds: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Jefferson Airplane "30 Seconds Over Winterland" Big Brother & The Holding Co. "Cheap Thrills" Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time" Paul McCartney "Ram" David Bowie "ChangesOne" Creedence Clearwater Revival "Greatest Hits" Santana self-titled first album and "Abraxas" The Who "Quadrophenia", "Live at Leeds" Little Feat "Sailn Shoes", "Dixie Chicken" Nirvana "Nevermind" Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Black Sabbath "Paranoid" U2 "Achtung Baby" The Eagles "Hotel California"
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For openers.... Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon S&G. Bookends EBTG- Eden Vivaldi-4 Seasons Everything by Mozart, Beethoven, Getz, Brahms-Violin Concerto Joni Mitchell-Blue, Court & Spark, For the Roses Kate Bush-Hounds of Love Dylan- ’62, ’63,’64,’65,’66 J. Airplane-Surrealistic Pillow, Volunteers J. Starship-Blows Against the Empire Neil Young-Neil Young’69, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush Leonard Cohen-Songs of Leonard Cohen’67 Tim Buckley-Happy Sad Dream Academy-The Dream Academy ’85 Blue Nile-Hats Most of Miles, Coltrane Van Morrison-Moondance, Astral Weeks Marvin Gaye-What’s Goin On Who- Tommy, Who's Next
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Motörhead. Most albums! Boston. S/T dark angel. Darkness descends. venom. First 3 albums onslaught. The force. bathory. First 4 albums. slayer. Hell awaits death Angel. Ultra violence. Y&T. several albums!
Sodom. Many albums. thin lizzy. Not much filler throughout. ! rory Gallagher. Couple filler songs, most albums are great throughout. Riot. Everything!
can list so many more, I’m double visioned and ….gnight |
dvddesigner, So right you are. Rio is to me the perfect album. Every song is part of the whole, and each is perfectly realized. When it came out in '83 (?), i Iistened to it every day for 3 years. I still listen to it frequently. I will add Candy O by The Cars to the list. All great songs that hold together as a single work of art, perfectly produced by Roy Thomes Baker, and inspired guitar playing by the great Elliott Easton. |
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon; The Wall; Is Anybody Out There; A Momentary Laps of Reason; Division Bell Jennifer Warnes: The Hunter Van Morrison: Avalon Sunset; Moon Dance Neil Diamond: Hot August Night; Stones Beth Neilson Chapman: You Hold The Key; Sand and Water Billy Squire: Don't Say No Eva Cassidy: Song Bird Leonard Cohan: Ten New Songs Amy Winehouse: Back to Black Fleetwood Mac: Rumours Eagles: Hotel California Jennifer Rush: The Power of Love Herb Alpert: Whipped Cream and Other Delights Jack Johnson: Brushfire Ferry Tales Jackson Brown: The Pretender Ray La Montagne: Gossip In The Grain Amos Lee: Mission Bell WOW, so many more and haven't even started on Classical, Jazz or Country Jim |
A great question. Soooo many to choose from but my go to albums are: Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon Pink Floyd - Meddle Dire Straits - Dire Straits Gary Wright - Dream Weaver Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Santana - Supernatural Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat Uriah Heap - Solisbury David Bowie - Lets Dance Deep Purple - In Rock Led Zeppelin - II Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm Deodato - Prelude Eagles - Hell Freezes Over Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue REM - Automatic for the People Wings - Band on the Run Robert Plant - Fate of Nations Supertramp - Crime of the Century Big Pig - Bonk
Not necessarily in that order as it depends on the MOOD. |
While music is subjective, I agree, that happened pretty quickly. I don't know of any artist that has a discography that doesn't have filler. And albums devoid of songs I merely tolerate, zone out of, use as snack break material, or skip altogether is rare. I'd say somewhere on the order of 1-2% of my collection. Heck, I even left Black Sabbath's Master of Reality off my list because it has the 28-second filler Embryo. |
I also agree that many of the lists contain very good or excellent albums, but not necessarily with every track being great. I guess it depends if you interpret the original poster literally, that every track is at least "good", versus every track is excellent. And of course, you have to account for individual taste! |
Great thread with lots of good choices. Guess I'll have to go obscure, or at least semi - obscure, to try and not repeat anything: JJ Cale - Naturally Rosanne Cash - Interiors Lloyd Cole & Commotions - Rattlesnakes Crack The Sky - Animal Notes Mark Eitzel - Sixty Watt Silver Lining Everything But The Girl - Amplified Heart Grapes of Wrath - Treehouse It's Immaterial - Life Is Hard and then You Die Ivy - Apartment Life Grant McLennan - Horsebreaker Star Pousette - Dart Band - S/T debut Wishbone Ash - Argus Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene |
Lot's a great ones... a few more
Buena Vista Social Club In a Silent Way- Davis A tribute to Jack Johnston - Davis At Fillmore East _Allman Bros. Band Fear of Music- Taking Heads Half in the City- St Paul and the Broken Bones Breath - Dr. Lonnie Smith Rodrigo y Gabriela-Mettavolution A Go Go - Scofield The in Sounds from Way Out - Beastie Boys (They could play!) Witcues Stew -Lettuce Out of the blues - Boz Scaggs
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Van Halen I Fleetwood Mac - Rumors SD - Aja Pretenders I & II The Both (Aimee Mann & Ted Leo) Cheap Trick Live at Budokan Creedence - Bayou Country Foo Fighters - Nothing Left to Lose CSNY - Deja Vu Rush - Moving Pictures Green Day - American Idiot King Crimson - Lark's' Tongue in Aspic Zeppelin III & IV The Pentangle The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers |
Sketches of Spain Itzy Perlman’s Encores 1988 version Muddy Waters. Folk Singer (as someone else mentioned) John Prine. John Prine (1st album) Kronos Quartet Pieces of Africa Joe Venuti and Ray Romano Never Before Never Again Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Drinkin' TNT, Smokin' Dynamite S&G Sounds of Silence or Greatest Hits; maybe Bookends |
I'm always amazed how much good music is out there that I've never heard of. I have saved many of these to Qobuz or Spotify to listen to later. I'm going to stick with the OP's original intent (I eagerly anticipate every song on these albums) but I'll add one more filter. The following albums have above average recording quality. I don't think any of these have been mentioned thus far. Anita Baker: Rapture Simply Red: Picture Book Animal Logic: II (polar bears in desert on cover) Janis Siegel: At Home Ivy: Long Distance Morcheeba: Charango Josh Rouse: 1972 Shawn Colvin: A Few Small Repairs 'Til Tuesday: Welcome Home Rick Derringer: All American Boy Lee Ritenour: On the Line (LP Version) Valerie Carter: Wild Child China Crisis: Flaunt the Imperfection Stewart Copeland: The Rhythmatist kd Lang: All You Can Eat Col. Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit (live) Nada Surf: Let Go Todd Rundgren: Nearly Human David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name Joe Walsh: The Smoker You Drink... Dee Dee Bridgewater: Live in Paris Weather Report: Mysterious Traveler Stanley Turrentine: Pieces of a Dream |
@edcyn Yes, I've seen this thread running for a couple days, I have a hard time thinking of an LP/cd release without a lesser tune or two. Maybe I'm being too critical? |
Thanks for all the suggestions---those of us into analog love any album where every song is good since we can't FF or skip. Many above i agree and own (Waiting for Colombus, Clapton Unplugged, Brothers in Arms and Aja in particular) but i see a total lack of "Country" or "Country Rock" so i have a couple in that category as well as some others i have not seen: Asleep at the Wheel—Wheelin’ & Dealin Jimmy Buffett—A1A Joe Bonamassa—Live From Royal Albert Hall SRV—Texas Flood (kinda surprised i didn't see this above) Willis Alan Ramsey—his only album, although you have to forgive "Muskrat Love" which is the worst song on the album but many like it Zac Brown Band—The Foundation |
Byrds--Mister Tamborine Man Beatles-- Help soundtrack Jethro Tull--Stand Up Kinks--Muswell Hillbillies Warren Zevon--Excitable Boy Dylan-- Blood on the Tracks Janis Ian-- Breaking Silence Sharon Shannon--The Diamond Mountain Sessions (Irish) Sarah Jarosz--World on the Ground Mountain Goats--Beat the Champ |
Some of mine already listed, but not The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell (which really needs to be issued on LP). Did I miss any of Randy Newman’s early albums, Good Old Boys in particular? IMO very, very few bands have produced perfect albums, as that demands and requires superior songwriting, which almost all bands lack. Imo, of course. One exception is The Kinks, whose Ray Davies’ songwriting is sublime. Their Face To Face, Something Else By, and Are The Village Green Preservation Society are perfect albums, imo better than ANY of their contemporaries. He on his own wrote better songs than the combined talents of Lennon & McCartney. Jagger and Richards? Surely you jest! ;-) |
Steely Dan-Gaucho or Aja Beatles Sgt Peppers and others Pink Floyd DS and WYWH Kraftwerk Man Machine Does a 20 minute Grateful Dead live song count? Fleetwood Mac Rumours Bryan Ferry Boys and Girls Peter Gabriel 3(melt) Talking Heads Remain in Light Brian Eno Another Green World and Before and After Science
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Tracker -- Mark Knopfler Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell The Concert in Central Park - Simon and Garfunkel American Beauty - Grateful Dead Bach Brandenburg Concertos - 2 CDs Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields / Neville Mariner Mozart Piano Concertos - Geza Anda Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Emil Gilels Wallflower - Diana Krall Good Vibrations - the Kings Singers Faure’s Requiem - Kings College Choir (David Wilcox, conductor. Robert Chilcott, soloist) Appalachan Journey - YoYo Ma, Mark O'Conner et. al featuring James Taylor FYI based on all the responses so far: either almost no one on this board is under 45, or all modern recordings are a disappointment :) |
Boston: Boston CCR: Cosmos Factory Head East: Flat as a Pancake Bryan Adams: Reckless Coleman Hawkins discovers Ben Webster Led Zepplin I The Carpenters Christmas Album Boz Skaggs I Stevie Wonder: Talking Book Christopher Cross Jackson Browne: For Everyman Carol King : Tapestry Beatles: Rubber Soul, Sgt Peppers, Abbey Road Beach Boys: Pet Sounds Tim Buckley: Greetings from L.A. The Who: Live at Leeds Santana: Abraxas Alman Brothers: Eat a Peach Moody Blues:( any) |
As a guitar player myself, SRV is my second favorite guitarist and I own all his albums, but Tell Me is the same monotonous type of song I’ve heard in every corner blues bar and has no special flavor that he usually adds to a song, even his covers. I always skip it. Dirty Pool is another song that’s monotonous. Maybe it sounds interesting to non-players, but it’s just a bunch of tremolo picking with an easy standard blues solo and isn’t that catchy. And I think he has at least one or two of those type of songs on every album, which is why I didn’t include any of his albums. Neither did I include my favorite guitarist - Buckethead - even though he has over 300 albums and I have 280 of them. But I did include some other guitarists who have a solid album all the way through. For instance, I think Nick Johnston’s Remarkably Human is the best guitar album I’ve heard in 30 years and doesn’t have any weak songs. |