Oct 202007
Townsman mrclean suggested this fine thread idea, which I don’t think has ever been hashed out in the Halls of Rock before: Is there a complete album you love with no dud to skp?
Townsman mrclean suggested this fine thread idea, which I don’t think has ever been hashed out in the Halls of Rock before: Is there a complete album you love with no dud to skp?
This is a tougher question to answer than I’d imagined. I’ve been going through my favorite albums of all time, and even on those there’s a track I’ve been known to lift the needle over. Obviously, something like Terry Riley’s album-length composition In C, which I love, doesn’t count:)
I know I have others, but I’ll toss out the first that came to mind:
The dBs Repercussion
LONDON CALLING came quickly to mind. Even less concise tunes like “Revolution Rock” fulfill their purpose as well-timed change-ups within their context. Perfectly sequenced, in my book.
First that comes to mind: LOVELY by the Primitives. Sets out its aesthetic principles, then goes on to fulfill them.
Repercussions comes real close. Nowadays I rarely lift the needle when I throw that one on, but I used to lift the needle over that Latin-tinged number.
I’m surprised at how many fans of Clash albums don’t love “Revolution Rock”. I love that track. I love that album, but I usually skip “Wrong ’em Boyo”, “The Card Cheat”, “Guns of Brixton”, and “Spanish Bombs”, although less so over the years regarding the latter. For years I really disliked “Spanish Bombs” until the day I started to focus on the points when Strummer sings along with Jones.
I’ll have to think about The Undertones’ Hypnotised. I don’t recall skipping anything on that album on a regular basis.
“The Band” by The Band. Not a weak moment (and they could have kept going because the outtake “Get Up Jake” is great too).
Townsman loophole, now there’s an all-time great – one of my faves since childhood – but even here I have often found myself lifting the needle over “Unfaithful Servant”. This is not to dispute your own feelings about the album. Welcome to the fray.
great question, mrclean!!!
i pride myself on being a discriminating listener, cranky, crotchetty, and critical. so i’m pleased to report that i can thinkg of *many* albums i love enough to keep the needle in the grooves from beginning to end….in no particular order…
-Hendrix: axis bold as love.
-Rubber Soul, American.
-The Who Sell Out (yes, i know this is flying in the face of conventional wisdom, which holds that side 2 is an “abortion”).
-Never Mind the Bollocks
-John Wesley Harding
-Nevermind
-Sticky Fingers
-Tonight’s the Night
-Big Lizard in My Backyard!
-Ted Leo: Tyranny of Distance.
-Stephen Malkmus: Pig Lib.
– Hunky Dory: Bowie/Ziggy
-#1 Record: Big Star
– Rubber Soul, Revolver, Let It Be: Beatles
– Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: Black Sabbath
– Curtis: Curtis Mayfield
– Hi, How Are You: Daniel Johnston
– Green Mind: Dino Jr.
– For Everyman: Jackson Brown
– Village Green – Kinks
– Parachute – Pretty Things
– Exile – Stones
– Loaded – VU
– Odyssey Oracle – Zombies
Randy Newman, 12 Songs, Sail Away
Neil Young, Time Fades Away
Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin
Wire, Pink Flag
Brian Eno, Another Green World
Skipping tracks is very different with different listening media. These used to be called ‘needle-lifters,’ which meant the song had to be bad enough to get up and move the tone arm on a turntable, which requires some effort, depending on how many bong hits you’ve had.
If you’re listening on a CD player with remote control, the bar for skipping a track is ridiculously low. I do most of my listening from a computer, but I’m usually not sitting at the keyboard, so the right arrow key is a few steps away.
Ipod listeners have different levels of interaction with their playback device. For me, if I’m at the gym, getting the thing off the belt clip, switching the hold key off, pressing the forward arrow, turning the hold key back on, reattaching the device to the belt clip. That’s a lot to go through, unless the song really sucks.
So anyway, if I’m in an armchair with a remote control device, I might even skip a song I like on a given day for some reason, just because it’s so easy.
I hear Big Steve’s point, at least to the extent of what we mean by a needle-lifter.
Also, some albums are more of a piece, rather than simply a collection of songs. Thus, while every moment is not as purely great as every other moment, it simply makes no sense to play part of Exile. It’s like driving part of a car.
A few albums of individual songs which have no noticeably weaker track for me:
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Radio City
Revolver
By the way, I would take it that the issue is not “all-time great,” but a fine album which has no blatantly weak links.
Those of you who listed ten or more albums need to think again. I’m not listing any more just yet.
I kinda feel this way too. I always liked John Lennon’s quote that there were only two albums — one by Elvis, one by Carl Perkins — that he thought were 100% solid.
The two albums that came immediately to mind were The Kinks’ Village Green and Wilco’s Summerteeth. There are other albums that I think are equally good, maybe even better overall, but maybe have one or two tracks I like considerably less than all the others. So I don’t count those.
Mwall, I got your back on the notion that “Exile…” is more than just a collection of songs. But I’m tempted to nominate you for the RTH Golden Lemming Award for suggesting that it should never be listened to *except* as an album. What kind of absurd extrapolation of conventional Rock Wisdom is that!? “Tumbling Dice” was issued as a single (the first single I ever bought, actually), and it kicks major ass *as* a single. There are a whole bunch of other songs on that LP I thoroughly enjoy dropping the needle on, individually: “Happy,” “Rocks Off,” “Loving Cup,” “All Down the Line,” and a few others. Please reconsider, or rephrase, or something — I can’t believe you really mean what you’re saying!
No, hrunndi, you’re right, I need to clarify the way I’m speaking here. The question had to do with listening to albums all the way through. I have no objection to listening to a single from Exile in a bar or at home or wherever, and I don’t think I quite said otherwise in my previous post; I just think it makes no sense to listen to that album, as an album, by picking and choosing cuts, and lifting the needle here and there. Thanks for helping me clarify.
The individual tracks on Exile draw strength and context from each other, so that even lesser tracks make an essential contribution to the whole. That’s what we’re really talking about, I think. Putting the CD on to play straight through may be the default experience now, but on vinyl there were 4 sides, and I’m sure I never listened to them straight through. But taking away one track would detract from the whole.
Skipping tracks, or making playlists, is very rare for me.
Absolutely, Steve. By the way, where’s the baseball thread right now for this list? This is a seriously enjoyable game 7. But if the Red Sox win, they better beat the Rockies, or else their 2004 World Series win might be revoked. Seriously, ask the Atlanta Braves how quickly just one series win begins to pale.
This is indeed a sweet game.
Wow, Boston has broken the Indians’ spirit, which to me, is a great achievement than progressing to the World Series! Now I’ve got to score some WS tickets for one of my baseball-loving clients when we’re up there this week.
I’m highly amused by some of the phrases I’m reading in the whole Exile… lovefest, but surely that doesn’t surprise you. What I really liked reading were the cautionary words of Mwall and Oats regarding the choice of too many needle-lifter-free albums. I’m seeing so many tremendous suggestions that have just one song I frequently skip: “Picture Book” sometimes grates on me when I listen to The Village Green…. For years I often lifted the needle for “Big Sky” because I bugged me that the only thing I loved about the song was the middle eighth. It was like thinking a movie was mediocre but redeemed by a hot actress lifting her shirt at the 52-minute mark.
I LOVE John Wesley Harding as an album, the way some of you feel about Exile…, but I often skip “All Along the Watchtower”. Dylan’s version pales so badly next to Hendrix’ version that I’m sometimes embarrassed to listen to the original.
Revolver comes close, but honestly, I almost always skip “Good Day Sunshine” – and I much prefer the version of “Yellow Submarine” on that album by that name to the one that appears here.
Now, Get Happy!! is my favorite album of all time, but I sometimes skip “New Amsterdam”. It becomes much too much, you know what I mean?
Let me join Steve in being against needle-lifting as a concept in general. I still do a fair amount of listening on vinyl so the idea of going over and squinting to see the track break isn’t very appealing. The CD remote probably spends as much time lost as found and I often find artists weak points to be as revealing and interesting as their strengths. “Be My Girl/Sally”? Bring it on.
Also, I may be one of the least “quantitative” guy I know. Not that I don’t make make quality judgments but I don’t think I spend much time doing the hard calculus that is much of the conversation on RTH. Listening to M. Mod dogging Dylan beautiful version of “All Along The Watchtower” because it isn’t Hendrix’s version goes against all my instincts. I came see where Hendrix’s (maybe the greatest rock “performer” ever) version has a boldness absent in Dylan’s I appreciate both completely separate from each other. They both are inspiring in different ways.
I may have used this analogy before, but it seems like grading love making sessions. “Geez, honey that was amazing. Not as great as April 13th of 1999 but definitely in the Top Three of the last five years. Keep up the good work”. I’m just glad to be in the musical moment.
db
np Material – TEMPORARY MUSIC 1
By the time of Youk’s two-run homer, Charity was genuinely feeling a little bad for the Indians. That one *was* rubbing it in a bit.
On the other hand, fuck ’em.
Those of you who listed ten or more albums need to think again. I’m not listing any more just yet.
The question was whats albums can we listen to without breaking tracks. I wasn’t aware their were other qualifiers to the answer.
I do very solitary work – so I listen to the whole album a lot. Most people are restricted by time so the lists are shorter – again also a subjective question open for interpretation.
db, I thought 4/13/99 was between us. Come on, man.
Please note, what I aim to do in working through the question at hand is not “grade” my favorite albums but be honest with myself and with you. I still love these albums. The fact that I find strength in my love for these albums through acknowledging their shortcomings – and my own – is neither right nor wrong; it’s just my way of loving.
Rubber Soul – though the UK one, for me – and Axis sound like good ones. In the spirit of the question, even though I generally listen to it all the way, I’ll leave off Revolver for Doctor Robert, which would make a short list of Beatles songs I could live with losing.
Album length and relative length of the songs on the albums seem to be big factors here. Something else I’d consider is song placement. An album like Electric Warrior has the good sense to be short and the potential dealbreaker, Cosmic Dancer, comes early on to avoid restlessness. If you switched spots with that and The Motivator, I don’t think it would work.
satyricon wrote:
“Those of you who listed ten or more albums need to think again.”
Why?
I am one of those.
You don’t now how I think.
I’m telling the truth. I don’t skip through the albums i listed.
I also don’t skip through the first Modern Lovers album.
mod, i really like dylan’s version of “watchtower”. The sparse arrangement works so well with the lyrics. the only part of the song where hendrix’s grandiose arrangement works as well, or better with the lyrics is the part where he sings “the WIND…began to howl”. i love the playing on the hendrix version, but i think dylan’s presentation, with its prarie harmonica and its dark sparseness is magical. i would never skip it.
saturnismine I’m with you – I was defending multiple selects. Quote was from earlier post.
The discussion about Wes Anderson’s ‘flow’ made me think that I’m much more likely to fast forward through some part of a movie than to skip a song on an album.
My turntable is an Audio Technica, but not one that nice, unfortunately. With that said, here’s one that hasn’t been discussed yet:
Gang of Four Entertainment!
With that said, I tend to listen to most of my favorite albums from start to finish, even including some of the weaker tracks, so it’s really hard for me to answer this question. Entertainment! just sprung to mind as a “perfect” album, which is what I think we’re going for here.
Oh and I like Dylan’s version of “All Along the Watchtower”, too. I just listened to it yesterday, in fact.
XTC, ‘Skylarking’, with or without ‘Mermaid Smiled’ and ‘Dear God’.
Homefront, nevermind the songs you cite – you can listen to “Sacrificial Bonfire”? I’d walk through flames in a gas-soaked suit to get to the tone arm in time to skip that song.
I’m really late, but hands down for me, all the way through heartbreakingly beautiful, song to song:
– Badfinger’s Straight Up
and inspiring to me from side A to the end of side B:
– The Go-Go’s, Beauty & The Beat
– Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime and also Talking With The Taxman About Poetry
– The Kinks, Village Green, Flying Burrito Bros. Gilded Palace, Byrds Sweetheart & #1 Record, Big Star (definitely)
Chicago-an Devin Davies album “Lonely People of the World Unite” just isn’t *as* amazing unless you listen to the tracks in succession because each one tends to lead into the other and sometimes on their own they just don’t have the punch they do after the lead-in… through and through I would recommend that whole album to anyone for a great pop record.
Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme falls under the “I’d walk through flames in a gas-soaked suit to get to the tone arm in time to skip that song.” category (thanks mr. mod for your hilarious and very apt description;) because of “7 o’clock news/silent night” otherwise I completely dig the atmosphere of that album.
Good one. I always skip that one and “Dying” on Skylarking. Otherwise, that album is pretty much perfect, but I always thought it was weighed down a bit by its last two songs.
The only unequivocal no needle-lifting rock record that I can think of off the top of me head is “Are You Experienced” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. I have some ambient discs that are great all the way through, but those probably don’t count here in the Hall.
Trolleyvox wrote:
Don’t get high and mighty on us:) If they have individual tracks that could be skipped, they count.
Yeah, I honestly do love every track on ‘Skylarking’. ‘Dying’ evokes a small, personal memory in razor-sharp detail, so it makes sense that it is a haunted miniature – the chamberlain clarinet is a class touch.
I can see why people might loathe ‘Sacrificial Bonfire’, but the repetitive, primitive nature of the simple melody suits the circular theme of season and renewal continually stated throughout the majority of the album, (except for ‘Supergirl’, which stands out from the rest like a sore thumb). It’s already a strange song to begin with, but then the strings come out of nowhere – their classical fussiness is at odds with the starkness of the beginning of the song.
Most rock string arrangements are fairly predictable – it’s just a matter of creating open inversions of the underlying chords. (Cellos play the root, violas play the 5th etc…). More often than not, they’re employed as ‘pads’, or simply play the melody line, (as in a few cases on the new Jens Lekman record). So to hear strings playing countermelodies as inventive and complex as what closes out ‘Bonfire’ is a rare thrill, especially when there’s already a pretty damn incredible string arrangement earlier on the record, (‘1000 Umbrellas’), in a very different style.
That being said – I understand it’s all a matter of personal taste, and it might simply be too lush – less ‘rock’, more ‘supermarket’ – for some listeners.
I rarely skip songs on albums, and I don’t make playlists or very many mix cds. Maybe I’m the wrong one to ask, but I guess I read it so I’m asked! Exile for sure. Actually, I don’t have any problems with any of the songs starting from Beggars Banquet through Exile, and I actually have sat down and just played them all back to back. But if I had to really say there’s any I’d never skip songs on, provided I didn’t get interrupted it would be Exile, Pleased To Meet me and Ziggy Stardust.
I can remember back when I played albums all the time having albums I never played one side of. like Tom Petty’s You’re Gonna Get It. That first side was awful.
Actually that’s my favorite song on Skylarking aside from “Earn Enough for Us”, which is one of my favorite songs of all-time by anyone (I listed it in my personal Top 10 a few months back here). Regardless, I never understood why Andy Partridge hated it to the point where he didn’t want it on the album and Todd had to convince him to leave it on.
Oh and BTW, the new Jens Lekman record is incredible! I can’t wait to see him here on Friday.