Albums You Can/Can't Listen to The Whole Way Through

Cosmic Harmony

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As it stands right now, it would seem the day of the album has come and gone in favor of singles importance over their parent LP. I think some of this has to do with the ease of skipping songs on CDs and how simple it is to just download a single song (or maybe even two!) instead of a dozen that you've never heard of. (That all could be it's own thread though).

ANYWAY, when I actually get to talk about full albums with people it seems like so many people have such a short list of albums that they can put on enjoy from front to back as a complete and wonderful listening experience. So what some of the rare gems that you can savor front to back and what are the songs that keep you being able to do this with albums that otherwise would make that list? For the sake of interest try to avoid compilations, live albums, and concept albums/rock operas there were written as a singular piece of music anyway.
 

Jet

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Flaming Pie~Paul McCartney
Band On The Run~Paul McCartney
Flowers In The Dirt~Paul McCartney
With The Beatles
From The Cradle~Eric Clapton
Behind The Sun~Eric Clapton
Pilgrim~Eric Clapton

:D
 

Jonny Come Lately

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Funnily enough I wrote a blog about this relatively recently, although I covered concept albums to some extent which is beyond the scope of this thread.

I think when it comes to albums you can't listen to the whole way through it's best to stick to those by artists you like or at least tolerate - I could think of many albums I couldn't listen to the whole way through by bands or singers I dislike.

Some albums I really like listening to through*:
Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan) - Consistently great songwriting throughout but also manages to balance the highly emotional songs (Idiot Wind, If You See Her Say Hello) with the elaborate storytelling of Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts and the bluesy Meet Me In The Morning.
Love Over Gold (Dire Straits) - I find this a pleasure to listen to this from start to finish, it has their best song - Telegraph Road - but the other four are also very strong, with some great arrangements (the power chords on Private Investigations!) and excellent writing (the clever and funny Industrial Disease).
On The Border (Eagles) - Has a nice range of different musical styles with rock songs like Already Gone and James Dean and some country songs My Man and The Best Of My Love, and a consistently excellent set of songs.
Rumours (Fleetwood Mac) - It's difficult to beat as a collection of individual songs but put them together and they are even better, especially if you're aware of the breakups between the band members at the time.
Houses of the Holy (Led Zeppelin) - Every track is almost completely different, with much of it covering new ground for the band (reggae on D'yer Mak'er, prog on No Quarter etc.) and it's all good, most of it is more than good in fact.
Meddle (Pink Floyd) - Great album, and unlike its successors it's not a concept album, the fact that Echoes makes up half the album helps but add the first three songs and you've got an album which is brilliant for the vast majority of its running time. I like San Tropez and don't mind Seamus, which I suspect might prevent some from listening to this album through.
After The Gold Rush (Neil Young) - Another collection of songs that work brilliantly together, has great songs but it's more than the sum of its parts. Also manages to fit Southern Man in amongst largely acoustic compositions.
Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young & Crazy Horse) - With great acoustic and electric sides, this of Neil Young at the top of his game at both and starting with My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) and closing with Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) was a great idea.

*There are others I enjoy listening to through, I'm someone who likes to listen to whole albums, but from the non-conceptual albums these ones stood out.

Albums I don't like listening to through:
X&Y (Coldplay) - Not down to any one track - although I've never been too keen on Twisted Logic - but it's too long and a bit too samey with a couple of exceptions and with so many anthems it gets exhausting to listen to. One half of this at a time is enough I find.
Brothers In Arms (Dire Straits) - I'm rarely in the mood to listen to the tracks on side one and those on (the IMO superior) side two at the same time, and I sometimes lose interest during Your Latest Trick and Why Worry?.
Tusk (Fleetwood Mac) - Side 3 has three weak songs in quick succession - That's Enough For Me, Brown Eyes and Never Make Me Cry (the worst of the three, which I find very boring and hardly ever play), I can listen to the rest of the album, which is generally very good, just fine but I find that section to be a bit of a road block.
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (Pink Floyd) - I find Dogs Of War to be awful, I don't like the music, vocals or lyrics (I don't have a problem with Pink Floyd minus Waters, but I consider this to be a bad pastiche of Roger's songwriting). I'm not a big fan of the rest of the album but it's decent enough by the standards of most.
The Joshua Tree (U2) - This is the best album I've put in this section, I certainly prefer to the others I've included but I really have to be in a certain mood to get through Bullet The Blue Sky (don't like the spoken word section), which more often than not I skip. It's odd because I really like everything else on here.
 

LG

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@Jonny Come Lately

I remember David Gilmour saying he regretted putting Dogs Of War on AMLOR, that if he could go back and do it over he would have picked a different song. Personally I love that song, the version on Delicate Sound of Thunder (My VHS tape) is fantastic both visually and the performance as well.

I grew up old school, a song would have to be pretty bad for me to skip over it, usually I would play an album many times to let it 'settle' before making any long lasting conclusions.

However I can name one song off what is considered a Landmark album by the most famous band ever to record a song, "Revolution #9" off the White Album...I will not listen to it I get up and pick up the stylus and move it to the next track. I always consider it a real shame (and a testament to John's massive ego) that George and Ringo didn't get that space to each put another of their songs on the record.

In fact I would argue that for a band of such amazing accomplishments which have relevance even 5 decades later that none of their peers recorded such a piece of crap as Revolution #9, not to my mind anyway.

/end rant.:D
 

Johnny-Too-Good

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Albums, to me, have always been a whole piece of work to listen to. So it's a bit strange that the only one I reach for the 'off' button for is by my favourite band (don't want to bore you as I have posted this elsewhere, but it fits here). The Wall - I really can't take any of the stuff after 'Run Like Hell' - Roger at his Operatic/West End Musical worst.
 

Aktivator

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Huh I've got hundreds of albums I can listen too without skipping a song. People are too picky these days and can't handle so many great songs
 

architect

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Most of the time when I listen to an album straight through, it's on vinyl. Probably because I'm too lazy to get up and physically move the stylus off the record to a different song. That's not a bad thing though. I can't tell you how many songs I've discovered simply by letting the record play through.

It's not like a cd where I've got the remote control in my hand or Spotify on the computer where it's right in front of me.(Which I love btw!) It's so easy to be fickle then.

These are the ones I let play through.

Pink Floyd-- DSOTM, WYWH, Animals, Atom Heart Mother
Santana- Abraxas
Eagles-- Hotel California
Joe Walsh- Barnstorm, The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get
Rush- Caress of Steel, 2112
Dire Straits- First album
Steely Dan-- Katy Lied
Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz
Supertramp-- Crime of The Century
Blind Faith
Secret Oyster-- Sea Son


These albums would be perfect except for one or two songs I could do without...


Pink Floyd- Meddle Seamus
Neil Young-- Self Titled-- Last Trip To Tulsa, The Old Laughing Lady
Neil Young-- After The Gold Rush-- Oh Lonesome Me, Tell Me Why
Alan Parsons Project-- The Turn of a Friendly Card-- The Gold Bug
Ozzy Osbourne-- Diary of a Madman-- Little Dolls
Joe Satriani-- Surfing With The Alien Hill of The Skull
 

Khor1255

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It's funny, when I first started playing drums the band I was with played Little Dolls over and over again because it was about the only song we could play at all.
 

Jonny Come Lately

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These are the ones I let play through.

Pink Floyd-- DSOTM, WYWH, Animals, Atom Heart Mother
Santana- Abraxas
Eagles-- Hotel California
Joe Walsh- Barnstorm, The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get
Rush- Caress of Steel, 2112
Dire Straits- First album
Steely Dan-- Katy Lied
Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz
Supertramp-- Crime of The Century
Blind Faith
Secret Oyster-- Sea Son

Not too surprisingly I do the same with the first three Floyd albums (except for if I just want to hear one song in particular, say Time or Have A Cigar, or if I've included a separate song in a playlist), I would definitely have included them in my list had they not been concept albums. I have played AHM through sometimes and enjoyed it although I think it gains less from being played in this way compared to some of their other releases.

I do play the Dire Straits debut through a lot myself, it has a nice feel throughout and all the tracks are good, although I probably do this with Love Over Gold more often. Hotel California is another excellent choice - starting with Hotel California itself and ending with The Last Resort would still make for a good album even if the rest was dross (which it certainly isn't, the eight main tracks are all great IMO), although I must admit there are songs I do play outside the album quite a bit - I did this with Victim Of Love yesterday for instance - and it has a conceptual elements without actually being a concept album per se.

These albums would be perfect except for one or two songs I could do without...

Pink Floyd- Meddle Seamus
Neil Young-- Self Titled-- Last Trip To Tulsa, The Old Laughing Lady
Neil Young-- After The Gold Rush-- Oh Lonesome Me, Tell Me Why
Alan Parsons Project-- The Turn of a Friendly Card-- The Gold Bug
Ozzy Osbourne-- Diary of a Madman-- Little Dolls
Joe Satriani-- Surfing With The Alien Hill of The Skull

Tell Me Why is one of my absolute favourites by Neil Young, not only do I never skip it but in fact I sometimes repeat it! I do like Oh Lonesome Me but I can understand why you might prefer the album without it. Same with Seamus really, I've never had a problem with it but totally get why many people reach for the skip button.

This has reminded me of how I feel about Making Movies by Dire Straits, I love playing the album through up until the penultimate track Solid Rock, but never play Les Boys (which I don't actually have on my iPod). I guess it didn't immediately spring to my mind because the song I ignore is the closer and thus I'm used to the album ending with Solid Rock, which works just fine IMO even if it makes the album a little short.
 

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