The Perfect Album

Avalon - Roxy Music
Aja - Steely Dan
Brilliant Trees - David Sylvian

 

I would say Who's Next is perfect.

It's all killer and no filler, right from the opening of Baba O'Riley.

 

That's a tough one for me so I'll list some that I feel are perfect right now to me.:

1 By The Time I Get To Phoenix-Glan Campbell
2 Heavenly-Johnny Mathis
3 Year Of The Cat-Al Stewart
4 Back To Front-Gilbert O'Sullivan
5 Poems, Prayers & Promises-John Denver
6 Time-Electric Light Orchestra
7 Bad Girls-Donna Summer
8 If You Love Me, Let Me Know-Olivia Newton-John
9 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road-Elton John
10 Leftoverture-Kansas

 

I'm gonna go ahead and add Sunrise On The Sufferbus by Masters Of Reality and ZZ Top's Tejas LP.

 

The Who - Who's Next
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny
John Cougar Mellencamp - Scarecrow
Led Zeppelin - IV
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
The Cars - S/T

No mistake that the first 7 listed are in my top 10 all-time favorite albums. (only DSOTM and The Cars aren't in my top 10 all-time favorites.) If I think longer and harder, I could probably come up with a few more albums I consider perfect.

That being said, the other 3 albums in my top 10, I do not consider perfect albums: Michael Jackson - Thriller, AC/DC - Back In Black, and Rush - Hemispheres.

 

Porcupine tree : metanoia
Who's next
Ashra tempel : friendship ( with KS)
Traffic on the road
Tangerine Dream : pergamon
Stanley Clarke : live at the greek
Doors : morrison hotel

 

Frampton Comes Alive.

 

nope, "my wife" just doesn't fit. take that one out and add "pure and easy" and you have the perfect album.

 

here are few i can listen to again again all the way through and never tire of and never want to skip a tune (no best of's or greatest hits):

steely dan - gaucho
steely dan - aja
CSN - couch
CSN - boat
CSNY - deja vu
crosby - if i could only remember my name
nash - songs for beginners
Young - harvest
young - on the beach
young - after the goldrush
bowie - ziggy
david and david - boomtown
yes - fragile
yes - close to the edge
glass harp - s/t
sting - nothing but the sun
hendrix - are you experienced
led zeppelin - IV
warren zevon - excitable boy
santana - caravansari
10CC - dreadlock holiday
stones - sticky fingers
beatles - revovler
shawn colvin - a few small repairs
joni mitchell - dog eat dog
joni mitchell - chalk mark in a rainstrom
dan fogelberg - captured angel
jackson browne - i'm alive
jackson browne - the pretender
jackson browne - late for the sky
jackson browne - the naked ride home
boz scaggs - dig
miles davis - kind of blue
dave brubeck - time out


probably a lisst not for everyone, but all a re very listenable albums all the way through.

 

I agree that "My Wife" stands out like a sore thumb, on such a perfect album, but I'm so used to it being there now, it would seem weird if it were gone. I guess that they felt that The Ox had to contribute a song and this was the best that he had?

 

Cardiacs, Sing to God
XTC, Drums & Wires

 

The Allman Brothers Band -Brothers & Sisters is the one for me.

 

Perfection is overrated. Often the most brilliant albums have at least a few glaring flaws.

 

Who Dunnit???

 

I'd agree with some already mentioned...

Different Class - Pulp
Notorious Byrd Brothers - The Byrds

I'd also say there is not a bad moment on...

Murmur / Reckoning / Fables Of The Reconstruction - R.E.M
The Bends - Radiohead
Nevermind - Nirvana
Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings Of Leon
Room On Fire - The Strokes
I Should Coco - Supergrass
Computer World - Kraftwerk
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Rubber Soul - The Beatles
Super Extra Gravity / Long Gone Before Daylight - The Cardigans

 

I think the award criteria would be an album that has stayed in your brain for 20-30 years, meaning one you revisit quite frequently no matter how much time passes. Here's a couple I thought of:

Moving Pictures - Rush

Bellybutton - Jellyfish

A New World Record - ELO

The Original Soundtrack - 10cc - although it does have a couple of quirky tracks, that's part of it's overall charm (Un Nuit In Paris, The Film of My Love)

 

For me:

Boston S/T
Kansas "Leftoverture"
Jethro Tull "Aqualung"
Jethro Tull "Minstrel In The Gallery"
Pink Floyd "Meddle"
Cheap Trick "Live At Budokan"
Styx "Crystal Ball"

(I'm a child of the 70's)

 

A number of Depeche Mode albums, as well as Behaviour by the Pet Shop Boys.

 

I know a few friends who feel that is the best track on the LP! I happen to love it too!

 

Time - Michael Smith
Forces of Victory, Making History - Linton Kwesi Johnson
Oil & Gold, Life In The Loading Bay - Shriekback
Lightning & Thunder - Golden Eagles
Have Moicy! - VA
Walk The Plank - Johnny Hoy
Swimming In Turpentine - Woodbrain
Dirt Road Joyride - Joe Fournier
Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk
Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
Little Feat - Little Feat
Bad Ingredients, Graveyard Shift - Scott H. Biram
From A Sympathetical Hurricane - Bobby Sichran

 

Rush - Moving Pictures

 

Deep Purple - "In Rock"

 

I'll second The Stone Roses self-titled debut (though I think "Fool's Gold" should be included)

I'll also add Prince - Purple Rain: great flow and not a weak or mediocre track on it IMO

 

This is always the first one that springs to mind for me. But as others have noted, it's a pretty subjective thing. I agree with many that have been mentioned already For me, there's lots of them, and here's a few that I haven't seen in the thread:

Kind of Blue -- Miles Davis
A Love Supreme -- John Coltrane
Abbey Road -- The Beatles
Goldberg Variations -- Glenn Gould (the first one)
Red -- King Crimson
Out to Lunch -- Eric Dolphy
Skylarking -- XTC

 

The Perfect Album, would need to be an LP album, to be "perfect".