"5 Perfect Albums"

I don't know how I could just limit it to five. The first five that come to mind, only because I've listened to them recently are:

Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds


Others that should be included:
Beatles - Abbey Road
Led Zeppelin - 1st LP
Roman Candle - The Wee Hours Revue
Grateful Dead - Skull and Roses
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

These come real close:
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Neil Young - Everybody Knows this is Nowhere
Neil Young - After the Goldrush
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead (just drop Casey Jones and you are there)
Grateful Dead - American Beauty
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love (just drop She's so Fine and you are there)
Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge

These are just off the top of my head. If I took a few days to go through the collection I know these lists would be much larger.

 

Two interesting choices here.

Station to Station would make my list, and Hearts and Bones might, except for "Allergies"

 

Way too hard to pick just 5...

Stevie Nicks-Bella Donna
Heart-Dreamboat Annie
Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
Bonnie Raitt-Streelights
Beatles-Rubber Soul

 

I hope someone will collate and make a best of the best list

Tim

 

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues
Rush - 2112
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 - Kertesz/VPO
Górecki: Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

 

There are many I could list

But here is what I list.

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon

Beatles Abbey Road

Paul Simon Graceland

Peter Gabriel So

10,000 Maniacs In My Tribe


but tomorrow this list most likely would be different.

 

Circus Lupus - Solid Brass
Fushitsusha - Double Live (PSF 15-16)
William Parker - Oneal's Porch
The Dead C - DR503
The Stooges - Funhouse

 

Led Zeppelin - IV
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The Who - Who's Next
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Rush - Moving Pictures
Slayer - Reign In Blood

 

Evanescence - Fallen
Blue Öyster Cult - Imaginos
Aldo Nova - Subject
ELO - Time
Def Leppard - Hysteria

 

Springsteen - Born To Run
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

 

Mothers of Invention/Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Miles Davis/In A Silent Way
P.J. Harvey/To Bring You My Love
Talking Heads/Fear of Music
John Coltrane/A Love Supreme

I thought I would mention a few that I couldn't find in other lists. We've done this exercise many times, and I can think of a few hundred albums that I consider perfect in that I usually listen to them straight through without a thought of getting up. Some kind of conceptual unity, I suppose, without it being a concept album or rock opera. Then again, Tommy is pretty perfect, isn't it?

 

david and david - boomtown

CSN - couch album

CSNY - deja vu

beatles - sgt pepper

bruce hornsby - the way it is

 

Perfection - The 60s

THE BEATLES - A Hard Day's Night
THE KINKS - Are The Village Green Preservation Society
THE BYRDS - Mr. Tambourine Man
BOB DYLAN - John Wesley Harding
THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR ELEVATORS - Easter Everywhere

 

Perfection - The 70s

BIG STAR - Radio City
THE HEARTBREAKERS - L.A.M.F.
CREME SODA - Tricky Zingers
HACKAMORE BRICK - One Kiss Leads To Another
THE PRETTY THINGS - Parachute

 

This is a tough one. Here are my suggestions but I certainly agree with many others who have already listed theirs.

Elton John - "Captain Fantastic"
Steely Dan - "Aja"
Todd Rundgrean - "Something/Anything"
King Crimson - "Red"
Led Zeppelin - "Houses of the Holy"

 

The Boneshakers - Book Of Spells
Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' At Midnight
John Klemmer - Touch
Bob Marley - Catch A Fire
Robert Ward - Hot Stuff

 

Springsteen - Born to Run
Pear Jam - Ten
Pink Floyd - Dark Side OTM
Jackson Browne - For Everyman
The Who - Quadrophenia

five records I just couldn't edit . . .

 

five perfect classical CDs:

Mahler 7 – Bernstein/DG http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Sympho...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1254063132&sr=1-2

Mahler 6 – Bernstein/CBS-Sony http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Sympho...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1254063132&sr=1-2

Schubert - Piano Sonata D.960, Wanderer Fantasy D.760 – Alfred Brendel http://www.amazon.com/Franz-Schuber...=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1254063218&sr=1-5

Schubert – Death & the Maiden/Trout Quintet – Amadeus Quartet http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Quin...r_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1254062956&sr=8-19

Mozart – Great Piano Concertos v.1. Alfred Brendel, Neville Mariner/ASMF http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Great-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1254063038&sr=1-1

 

Yes! Unreal.

 

Five more perfect pop/rock albums:

Face to Face – the Kinks
Bridge over Troubled Water – S&G
Greatest Hits v.2 – Bob Dylan (my favorite compilation album of all time)
Every Picture Tells a Story – Rod Stewart
Abbey Road – The Beatles

Except for Face to Face, none of these albums is in my top ten of all time, but I like each album a lot, and none of them has one wrong moment. They're perfect from beginning to end. I may have listened to each of these albums a thousand times.

 

Has this not made the list yet?

Dead Can Dance - Spiritchaser

I can't believe I left this off my original post.

 

Really? Not a weak cut through the entire double album?

 

Of course not. Don't you know everyone loves Revolution 9?

 

The Beatles - Revolver
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
No-Man - Returning Jesus
Cat Stevens - Catch Bull at Four
Supertramp - Crime of the Century