POX: Awesome Album Opening Tracks

..loads more

"Lust For Life" from Lust For Life

"Double Dare" from In The Flat Field

I agree w/ Alex in NYC about "Plainsong" and "Ace of Spades."

xpost Beastie Boys w/ Begs2Differ

don't know if anybody'd be with me on that but I think it kicks for J-pop.

oh, and fucking DEBASER to thread. c'mon here guys. easily as good as cecilia ann.

back in the saddle - aerosmith - rocks
winning - the sound - from the lions mouth
for seeking heat - swervedriver - mezcal head
international feel - todd rundgren - a wizard, a true star
gimme shelter - rolling stones - let it bleed
i wanna be adored - stone roses - the stone roses
i will dare - replacements - let it be
you don't understand - the house of love - babe rainbow
whole lotta love - led zeppelin - II
teenage fbi - guided by voices - do the collapse

Do the second tracks on hiphop albums after the opening intro skit count? If so, New York State of Mind from Illmatic wins this thread, hiphop division.

Silverchair, 'Across the Night', from Diorama

1) One of These Days - Pink Floyd
2) Movin' In - Chicago
3) Ebony Queen - McCoy Tyner
4) Dog Eat Dog - Adam and the Ants
5) The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin
6) Born Under Punches - The Talking Heads
7) Mind Ecology - Shakti
8) Up from the Deep - The Tubes
9) Songs from the Wood - Jethro Tull
10) Sleep Is Wrong - Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

hope I don't lose points for the last one...ready for the backlash

slint - "breadcrumb trail" - spiderland
shellac - "my black ass" - at action park
jesus lizard - "boilermaker" - liar

ending on a Touch & Go trifecta!

albini honorable mention

1) Leave a Light On - Belinda Carlisle
2) Hocus Pocus - Focus
3) Don't Look Back - Boston
4) Jimmie Jones - The Vapors
5) Subdivisions - Rush
6) Marie Virginie C - Heldon
7) Pinch - Can
8) P Control - Prince
9) Don't Cry - Asia
10) Freefall - Camel

1. The Cure -- Plainsong (it was the first one that came to mind when I saw the thread title -- I've been listening to Disintegration a lot this week)

2. Low -- Words (from "I Could Live in Hope"). The rest of the album, save "Lullaby", doesn't compare.

3. Bardo Pond -- Tommy Gun Angel (from "Lapsed"). Bardo Pond have a
serious sequencing problem with putting the best song first on a lot of their albums.

4. Orbital -- Belfast (from "Untitled" (green album)). The US version of the album has this song last, on the UK version it is first. I think it works FAR better as a closer (the swooning synth strings, the slowed-down tempo, the opera samples that lend it a "grand finale" feel) but if it's the opener on the proper album, then it belongs here.

5. Death in Vegas -- Dirge (from "The Contino Sessions). I must have been sitting there with my jaw clumsily drooped open the first time I heard this (it was during a road trip en route to Chicago). This album has both an awesome opener AND closer, but a lackluster middle (in comparison).

6. Godspeed You Black Emperor! -- Gathering Storm, etc. (side 1 of "Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven").

7. LFO -- Advance (from "Advance"). The huge build seems to never let up. The bass rattles the speakers to near rupture. It never fails to get me headbanging along -- yes, to techno.

8. Third Eye Foundation -- remix of Yann Tiersen's "La Dispute" (from "I Poo Poo on Your JuJu"). Ignore the crappy album title. Pay attention to the wistful piano ballad that's been given the creepy treatment.

9. Pulp -- Joyriders (from "His N Hers"). It's Pulp : The Musical.
Opening number : meet the Jets -- they are misbehaving teenage brats.

10. Sensational -- Sewing Up Avenues (from "Corner the Market"). The catchprase choruses are spilling all over this album (and this song is a great example of that). The record is at least 20 minutes too long but the opener is perfect.

Yeah, what's "POX" anyway?

2. Nine Inch Nails, Broken
3. Blur, Modern Life is Rubbish
4. Aphex Twin, SAW 85-92
5. Fatboy Slim, ...Long Way Baby
6. Yello, Solid Pleasure ['whiiiiite... bimbo, bimbo bimbo man... bim-bim-bim-bim-bim-bim-bim-bimbo... white bimbo man']
7. Beatles, Rubber Soul [but I can't stand 'Drive My Car' in any other context]
8. Art of Noise, Seduction of Claude Debussy
9. Gustav Holst, The Planets
10. FSOL, Dead Cities

1. Mission of Burma - 'Secrets' off Vs. The reversed drum track which ends with a scream thrills me every time. Special mention should go to 'That's When I Reach for My Revolver' too.

2. Faust - 'Krautrock' off Faust IV. I once had this album on single track repeat and inadvertantly listened to it four-and-a-half times without realising.

3. Tortoise - 'Djed' off Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Best Tortoise track?

4. Wire - 'Silk Skin Paws' off A Bell Is A Cup... Until It Is Struck. Lots of Wire albums have srong openers, but this is my favourite. A really powerful song with a great sounding chorus.

5. The Fall - 'Frightened' off Live At The Witch Trials. Tough choice, but it beats out 'The Classical, 'Pay Your Rates' and 'Ten Houses of Eve'. I imagine many would disagree with me here.

6. Mouse On Mars - 'Actionist Respoke' off Idiology. Crazy dancability!

7. Neu! - 'Fur Immer' off Neu! 2. My favourite motorik track from Neu!

8. Ramones - 'Blitzkrieg Bop' off Ramones. You can't deny the impact this had. Same goes for '(I'm) Stranded' by The Saints.

9. Beta Band - 'Assessment' off Heroes to Zeros. Blows my mind.

10. Pixies - 'Bone Machine' off Surfer Rosa. The drums, man! Also the production.

1. frank zappa, "peaches en regalia" (hot rats) and "hungry freaks, daddy" ((freak out!)
2. gary numan, "this wreckage" (telekon)
3. david bowie, "speed of life" ((low)
4. elvis costello, "welcome to the working week" ((my aim is true)
5. echo and the bunnymen, "the cutter" ((porcupine)
6. nwa, "straight outta compton" ((straight outta compton)
7. kraftwerk, "europe endless" (trans-europe express) and "we are the robots" ((the man-machine)
8. prince, "1999" ((1999)

joy division, "disorder" (unknown pleasures)
new order, "age of consent" (power, lies, and corruption)

- The Clash, "Janie Jones"
- Cowboy Junkies, "Mining For Gold"
- Descendents, "Myage"
- Elliott Smith, "Needle In The Hay"
- Jean Grae, "Hater's Anthem"
- JAMC, "Just Like Honey"
- Kristin Hersh, "Your Dirty Answer"
- Massive Attack v. Mad Professor, "Radiation Ruling The Nation"
- Mazzy Star, "Halah"
- Mission of Burma, "That's When I Reach For My Revolver"
- NWA, "Straight Outta Compton"
- Old 97's, "Victoria"

and the greatest song in the history of the world

10. Blondie "Dreaming" from Eat To The Beat

simply because it never fails in doing what it sets out to do.

"Bring The Noise" (and Ice Cube's pulverizing "When Will They Shoot?") deserve to be here, but were both unfairly robbed of the prestigious leadoff-track identity and bumped to second by those annoying little filler-bits that always clutter up even the finest of hiphop albums.

And there's lotsa canonical cliched classics that also deserve to be here, but are too predictable to list.

Incidentally, I've always considered the "worst" opening track (i.e. great album, great song but TOTALLY wrong for an opener) to be "Maggot Brain" (Funkadelic). Just feels out of place to me - I woulda chosen "Hit It And Quit It."

Here it goes, off the top of my head. It's pretty rock-centric, for whatever reason.

Pavement "Silent Kid"
Sonic Youth "Teenage Riot"
Sonic Youth "Schizophrenia"
Beyonce "Crazy In Love"
Stereolab "Metronomic Underground"
Michael Jackson "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough"
U2 "Where The Streets Have No Name"
Radiohead "Airbag"
Guided By Voices "A Salty Salute"
Wu-Tang Clan "Bring The Ruckus"

Very very OTM - like I've felt this about the album since I bought it, and it's truly one of my top tens. The song is magnificent, but it's gotta be played independent of the other tunes - I either listen to it by itself, then put the album away, or I start with Can You Get to That and play the rest all the way through. I feel they should have put the five short songs on side A, and the two long ones on side B.

...and about a kajillion others.

Luv n Haight- There's a Riot Goin On, Sly and the Family Stone
Needle in the Camel's Eye- Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno
(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go- Curtis, Curtis Mayfield
Wouldn't It Be Nice- Pet Sounds, Beach Boys
Baba O'Riley- Who's Next, the Who
Being Boring- Behavior, Pet Shop Boys
Road Runner- Modern Lovers, Modern Loves
For Tommorrow- Modern Life is Rubbish, Blur
Remake/Remodel- Roxy Music, Roxy Music
Stereo- Brighten the Corners, Pavement
Bombast- This Nation's Saving Grace, the Fall (The Classical was already mentioned)
Fear is a Man's Best Friend- Fear, John Cale

John Coltrane -- "Giant Steps" (Giant Steps)
Slowdive -- "Rutti" (Pygmalion)
Cocteau Twins -- "When Mama Was Moth" (Head Over Heels)
Basement Jaxx -- "Rendez-Vu" (Remedy)
Def Leppard -- "Women" (Hysteria)
Yes -- "Roundabout" (Fragile)
Steely Dan -- "Kid Charlemagne" (The Royal Scam)
Mogwai -- "Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home" (Young Team)
Funkadelic -- "Maggot Brain" (Maggot Brain) (sorry Myonga, the rest of the album fails to live up to this track!!)
Kate Bush -- "Running Up That Hill" (Hounds of Love)

Ride -- "Vapour Trail" (Nowhere) !!!

Mos Def, "Fear Not of Man" (Black on Both Sides)
Spoon, "Utilitarian" (A Series of Sneaks)
Q And Not U, "A Line in the Sand" (No Kill No Beep Beep)
The American Analog Set, "The Weather Report" (The Golden Band)
Breeders, "New Year" (Last Splash)
Deerhoof, "Sound The Alarm" (Reveille)
Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun" (S/T)
Lilys, "Ginger" (A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns)
Television, "See No Evil" (Marquee Moon)
They Might Be Giants, "Theme From Flood" (Flood)

Huh? On mine this is the closing track! Anyway, kudos for mentionning SLowdive's "Rutti", which is definitely up there.

New Day Rising - Husker Du.

Wu-Tang Clan - 'Bring The Ruckus'; Enter The Wu
Sugababes - 'Overload'; One Touch
The Beastie Boys - 'Jimmy James'; Check Your Head
Dots And Borders - '7 Juillet'; Tokyo Tapes
Prince - 'Let's Go Crazy'; Purple Rain
The Human League - 'The Things That Dreams Are Made Of'; Dare
Cornelius - 'Mic Check', Fantasma
Michael Jackson - 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin''; Thriller
Rae and Christian - 'Divine Sounds', Northern Sulphuric Soul
The Ratpure - 'Olio'; Echoes

Hi!. My own list.

I forgot “Rockin’ in the Free World” was an opening (as well as closing) track...

Ambitionz az a ridah
Hole in the sky
Technopolis
My Jamaican guy
I'm ready
Untitled reversion
Introducing the band
Barrow boot boys
187 big tymers
Overkill

My Bloody Valentine – “Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)” (Isn’t Anything)

YES! I've seen that dismissed as odd, unrepresentative and unworthy of the position by many a wrong person...

QOTSA “You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire”

"trap muzik" was like the second one i thought of but wasn't expecting to see it!

Disfear, "Get It Off"
Afghan Whigs, "Crime Scene Part One"
Meek Mill, "Intro (Dreams & Nightmares)"
Vektor, "Charging the Void"
The Wedding Present, "Dalliance"
Beth Gibbons, "Mysteries"
Comets on Fire, "The Bee and the Cracking Egg"
NoMeansNo, "It's Catching Up"
Propagandhi, "A Speculative Fiction"
Tindersticks, "Until the Morning Comes"

JSBX, "Skunk" (Now I Got Worry) -- love that scream so much I made it a ringtone

2. Roxy Music – “Street Life” (Stranded)

OTMFM.

48. Merle Haggard – “Wishing All These Things Were New” (If I Could Only Fly)

Best opening line ("Watching while some old friends do a line").

I keep thinking about this thread.

Karen Dalton - "Something on Your Mind"
ATCQ - "Excursions"
Soft Machine - "Rivmic Melodies" [Arguably cheating. The seven or so minutes up to "The Concise British Alphabet Pt.2" anyway.]
The Aluminum Group - "Rose Selavy's Valise"

The thing about this thread is that many albums put their most awesome song first.

Anyway, a song not yet mentioned — “Jokerman”

From the songs already mentioned:

Prince - 1999
Beasties Boys - Rhymin' and Stealin'
Rolling Stones - Gimmie Shelter
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches
Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
LL Cool J - I'm Bad

air - la femme d'argent
amon duul ii - surrounded by the stars
talking heads - born under punches
the bee gees - stayin' alive
betty davis - if i'm in luck i might get picked up
bill fay - omega day
black sabbath - sweet leaf

Sloan - The Good In Everyone

The best opening tracks might be the ones that haven't been singles ("The Things That Dreams Are Made Of", "Plainsong", "Two Divided By Zero", etc), the fresh awesomeness up-front reassuring the listener that the decision to make the greater investment in the long-playing release was sound. An increasingly antiquated distinction, I guess. A few more in that vein:

St Etienne - "Mario's Cafe"
REM - "Harborcoat"
The Church - "Destination", "Myrrh"

betty davis - if i'm in luck i might get picked up

that was a traet

Disfear, "Get It Off"

The best opening tracks might be the ones that haven't been singles (...), the fresh awesomeness up-front reassuring the listener that the decision to make the greater investment in the long-playing release was sound.

Neil Michael Hagerty & The Howling Hex, “Firebase Ripcord”

(to continue a theme)

Unrest, “Invoking the Godhead”

St Etienne - "Mario's Cafe"

YES

The best opening tracks might be the ones that haven't been singles ("The Things That Dreams Are Made Of", "Plainsong", "Two Divided By Zero", etc), the fresh awesomeness up-front reassuring the listener that the decision to make the greater investment in the long-playing release was sound. An increasingly antiquated distinction, I guess.

yeah I think this is a bit more interesting, I could easily name 100 "awesome album openers" off the top of my head but a lot of 'em were big singles or otherwise really well known tracks. so if we're going with stuff that would NOT make a greatest hits album here is my POX:

Gary Numan - "Airlane"
Underworld - "Cups"
Todd Rundgren - "International Feel"
ELP - "The Barbarian"
Elvis Costello - "Welcome To the Working Week" (EC is sort of the king of this, no?)
Orbital - "Way Out"
Ween - "Little Birdy"
The Police - "Next to You"
XTC - "Runaways"
Happy Mondays - "Country Song"

Alvvays - "In Undertow"
Fugazi - "Do You Like Me?"
The Kinks - "The Village Green Preservation Society"
A Tribe Called Quest - "The Space Program"
Fairport Convention - "Come All Ye"
The Books - "Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again"
Fucked Up - "Crusades"
Screaming Females - "Empty Head"
Sandy Denny - "Late November"
Lightning Bolt - "Assassins"