Six Perfect Albums

2009.01.03 in music and thoughts

I don't write about music much (nor make lists of things, here, much), but I figured I'd share the six most obviously perfect albums, in case any of the few of you here hadn't listened to one of them...

This started as Robb and others poking fun at me for calling Boston's Boston a perfect album... so I set out to find a small set of albums that I was OK with calling perfect, instead, so they wouldn't make quite so much fun of me...

"Perfect" means... every song is one you wouldn't mind running into at any point, but also the album as a whole works together... and makes sense. And stuff. I don't have words for music, really...

All but one of the albums are from before I was born, and the remaining one is still 14 years old... this is mostly because of my musical taste, of course, but I think (unfortunately) that the production of "epic" music is probably declining... you can blame it on the studios, artists, society, whatever... I don't know what it is, for sure, but I'd certainly love it if someone repaired the situation!

	Boston — Boston (1976) This album was the soundtrack for most of my high school career; it remains the most consistently complete and perfect album I've ever heard. Some (Robb/Gino) call it overproduced, among other things...
Radiohead — The Bends (1995) I was only recently introduced to this album (and Radiohead in general) by Robb/DJ/Savannah last year. The first half makes for great music the first time through; the second half takes a few plays, but eventually it's hard to hear just one song and stop without completing the album...
	The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) For a long time before I knew any music, I had a single CD of Beatles songs. It turned out most of them were from Sgt. Pepper; hearing them in context made them all the better!
Pink Floyd — The Wall (1979) The longest album on the list, at 80 minutes, The Wall is one that's been with me for quite a while now. You also can't claim to have listened to it until you've listened to it through nice headphones... there's a whole additional... album, if you listen right.
	The Beatles — Rubber Soul (1965) A significant part of Rubber Soul was the soundtrack for freshman year at RPI; it's also my favorite Beatles album, now, despite the fact that it's comprised of some of their more ignored-but-still-approachable songs.
Genesis — Invisible Touch (1986) I was introduced to Genesis by Dad, who has a bunch of albums on CD, including this one. Besides Domino, this album feels short and to the point, which probably contributes a bit to its "perfection". Not complaining about Domino, either, because it's definitely the best song!