Best album opening songs

It's just ace.

Brown Sugar...it'sssss air guitar time again!

"Urban Clearway" - Saint Etienne (Tiger Bay)

"Koeeoaddi There" - the Incredible String Band (The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter)

'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen.

I don't think Kind of Blue could open with anything other than 'So What' either.

The brittle stillness of "A Reflection" and the languid roll of "Out Of This World" make a good #2 and #3. Perhaps the most overrated of the songs which have opened their albums is "One Hundred Years". It's the weakest song on _Pornography_, fer crissakes.

Er, Back In The USSR?

I keep thinking of songs that are fantastic songs but then dwarf the rest of the album, such as Tom Traubert's Blues from Small Change by Tom Waits. Does this count or are we really talking about tracks that set up or represent the album?

Thanks for mentioning Here Come The Warm Jets - I had 'ambient' Eno in my head when I bought that album and it took about three listens to come to terms with it. It's probably my favourite Eno album now.

Lloyd Cole, 'Don't Look Back'.

Also, "Sweet Water Pools" off Screaming Blue Messiahs' Bikini Red.

Oh and Debaser.

I prefer Weezer's "Tired of Sex" to "My Name is...", probably because it's my favorite Weezer song. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking "Weezer has keyboards. Weezer sings about sex. Dear god! What happened to Weezer?" It grew on me, I guess.

Pop albums have an advantage in that they tend to put their best track - i.e. lead single - first. So the two pop CDs I bought this week - Britney's Baby One More Time and The Byrds' Mister Tambourine Man - both lead off with killer title tracks. It was a sign that something had gone awry with the Destiny's Child album that it kicked off with the old-news Independent Women Part I.

...Upon reflection, that would be kind of cool, though, so forget what I said.

joy division - "disorder" "warsaw"

led zeppelin - "immigrant song"

the jesus and mary chain - "just like honey"

"gloria," yes.

"schizophrenia," yes. "intro/brave men run" is great too.

"holidays in the sun," yes.

public enemy - "bring the noise"

goodie mob - "the experience"

rush - "overture/temples of syrinx"

'Black Dog' - Led Zep 4/Symbols album thingummy 'Astronomy Domine' - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn 'Holes' - Mercury Rev Deserters Songs 'Airbag' - OK Computer

All superb songs that serve as a gateway into the respective albums. For what it's worth.

>>> Pop albums have an advantage in that they tend to put their best track - i.e. lead single - first.

I know what he means this time - but I think he's wrong. A 'good first track' is not the same as a 'good track'. In fact, leading off an LP with a very *familiar* track that's always played on the radio etc is - strangely enough - a way of being anti-climactic and dull; the track is liable not to have much impact. Better to programme the hit 45 second, or first on side 2, or whatever. (I just remembered: they don't have 'sides' anymore.)

B : Indeed.

Also:

"Go" - Discovery of a World Inside the Moone

"Debaser" - doolitle

"Trash" - coming up (suede)

"rocks off" - exile

"Stop!" - Ritual de lo Habitual

"Some of Shelly's Blues" - Uncle Charlie and his Dog Teddy

"Grand Ole Opry Song" - Will the Circle Be Unbroken

"Sorry You Asked...?" - Gone (dwight)

"Venus" - Saturnalia (wedding present)

And, at the risk of getting beaten up, I'd like to add "Rock n'Roll Star" from Definitely Maybe.

"Hand it Down" from Jay-Z's 'Hard knock Life' - even though Jigga don't rap on it.

"This is" from Fushitsusha's 'Withdrawe...'

"Space is the Place" from Sun Ra's album of the same name

"Farmer in the City" from Scott Walker's 'Tilt'

"Bring da Ruckus" from the Wu's 36 Chambers

the opening track from Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin is a pretty fine song

Juvenile's "Ha" from '400 Degreez'

Suicide's "Ghost Rider"

Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman"

My favourite opening moment is from John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme', in which he sketches the prettiest sunrise.

"Airbag" from Radiohead's "OK Computer"

"Superscud" from Raging Speedhorn's eponymous Debut.

Hells Bells (Back in Black) by AC DC Second Hand News (Rumours) by Fleetwood Mac Poets (Phantom Power) by The Tragically Hip Ramble Tamble (Cosmo's Factory) by Credence Clearwater Revival

Setting the tone for the album, being great tunes, helping you get into the music as soon as you put the CD in...

Feeling Gravity's Pull - REM Fables of the Reconstruction

i don't know if i agree with this but its definately got weight: La Vie En Rose by Grace Jones. My boss always insists that that's the best opening track to an album ever. it was definately brave of Grace to open with a track which is sans vocals for the first 2 minutes. i don't think the mood of that song gets matched again over the course of the album.

i can't come up with any suggestions of my own without feeling like i'm forgetting someone else, but Let's Go Crazy by Prince always gets me pretty excited.

Of

A

Rockette's

Kick

Yes! I Am Trying To Follow Up The First Track On This Album, But Can't, So Kamera Will Never Receive The Acclaim It Deserves And Like Herod Just Doesn't Really Do It For Me.

COLD BRAINS

and, more recently, both Secret Machines openers.

I also have to second "Station To Station" - Bowie. Once the song kicks into it's final jam, you can't resist.

The Cure "Plainsong" [from Disintegration]

Galaxie 500 "Blue Thunder" [from On Fire]

New Order "Age of Consent" [from Power, Corruption and Lies]

Yo La Tengo "Big Day Coming" [from Painful]

Anyway, the opening tracks to my 'three favourite albums' on that other thread are, on reflection, fantastic, and really set each record on its way. Namely, 'Six', 'Close To The Edge' and 'Leave Them All Behind'.

'Close To The Edge' is cheating, yes, but frankly, my dear,

and incidentally as far as isis goes, i've been spinning panopticon a lot more than oceanic these days, could be slightly better on the whole :)

Any 'if you like this, try out...' reccys for a Panopticon fan such as myself?

well definitely pick up oceanic and marvel over a track called 'weight'
you might also be interested in a record called 'the eye of every storm' by neurosis. uglier and more frantic than isis to be sure, but still in a similar sort of gene pool

you could also check out 'hymns' by godflesh, 'we are the romans' by botch, and if you have time the side project of jacob bannon and kurt ballou from converge called supermachiner, which is excellent

i'm sure you know about sunn 0))) as well.

teh Sunn 0))) I am pretty well-acquainted with. They're jolly mighty, but Isis is probably more my thang.

Sturm - Tacheles (mia)
Alsatian Cousin - Viva Hate (Morrissey)

halah - mazzy star

in the running for best song period.

polvo - fast canoe
autechre - xylin room

Aphex Twin - Xtal

Lucky Like Saint Sebastian - Momus (Circus Maximus)

JSBX, "Skunk"

The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds

haha, "skunk" for real. so raw

"Abandoned Hospital Ship" - Flaming Lips (Clouds Taste Metallic)

"This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both of Us"