track number ones that sum up the vibe of the entire album

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I'll start easy. Black Dog on Led Zeppelin IV.

― elgin again (golf and games), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:31 (twenty years ago)

Even easier: We are the Village Green Preservation Society

Also, the Clash's debut succeeds twice. Once as a new band in Britain in love with Rock n' Roll woah, and getting stoned, woah. And once as a band that Epic Records felt had to be rearranged a so that Americans could shut thier mouths and pretend to enjoy it, given all the money they got.

― bendy (bendy), Friday, 4 August 2006 17:46 (twenty years ago)

All the way from Memphis.

― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Friday, 4 August 2006 17:51 (twenty years ago)

new year, off the breeders' last splash

― RedFizz (RedFizz), Friday, 4 August 2006 18:29 (twenty years ago)

Erm, this is a song I use to answer many questions, including 'Best Song Title', 'Best Use Of Woodwind Instrument In Rock Song', 'Happiest Song Ever' and 'Loudest Climax To A Ten-Minute Song':

Meth of A Rockette's Kick.

More recent examples include Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home and Alone, Jealous And Stoned. All tracks mentioned are by far the best on their respective albums and neatly encapsulate all that that album is trying to achieve, i.e. demented, delirious, noisy confusion from Mercury Rev, calm, tense beauty followed suddenly by deafening, feedback-laced majesty in Mogwai's case, and elegiac, grand, 'widescreen' space-jam break-up song escapism from The Secret Machines.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 18:58 (twenty years ago)

David Bowie, Station to Station, title track.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 4 August 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

Forgot: The Cure, One Hundred Years

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Also, if you wanna be funny about it, Fantomas: Delirivm Cordia

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 19:14 (twenty years ago)

pretty much every Radiohead record?

― sovietpanda (sovietpanda), Friday, 4 August 2006 19:14 (twenty years ago)

"You" is an underrated song, granted. "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" is, however, not and 2+2=5 merely introduces HTTT, it doesn't at all define it (had There There opened the album, perhaps the rule would continue to apply).

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Tales From Topographic Oceans
Thick As a Brick
Tubular Bells

OK, I am cheating, I know... :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 4 August 2006 21:06 (twenty years ago)

"magical mystery tour"

― chadbeck (squirrel boy), Friday, 4 August 2006 21:35 (twenty years ago)

"neat neat neat"

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Friday, 4 August 2006 22:16 (twenty years ago)

"Only Shallow"? Like does that count? I'm not sure i completely understand.

― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Friday, 4 August 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

*buzzers sound, special forces enter room*

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Both Raveonettes albums.
Every JAMC album.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 4 August 2006 22:57 (twenty years ago)

The intro to Common's "Be" sums up the album really well, and is one of the best tracks on that great album.

― graf cycliz (graf cycliz), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:06 (twenty years ago)

grotesquely cliched i know: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart", even if "Poor Places" is the best track

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

or if cliche isn't your thing, Portishead's masterpiece of disillusionment 'Cowboys'.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:14 (twenty years ago)

Black Grape - "Reverend Black Grape" on It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Stone Roses: I Wanna Be Adored

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:57 (twenty years ago)

The Beatles, "It Won't Be Long", specifically the repeated yeahs

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 5 August 2006 00:19 (twenty years ago)

isnt this the job of any good opening song?

Slayer - Angel of Death

― de latebloomer's 2015 youth crew revival (latebloomer), Saturday, 5 August 2006 00:27 (twenty years ago)

"Baba O'Riley"

You would think that any good album with a recognizable "vibe" would have a Track #1 that would establish that vibe, but I suppose it's not necessarily the case. (To turn this thread on its head, what are some good records whose first track seems out of place from the vibe of the rest of it?)

haha, xpost

― Whitman Mayonnaise (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 5 August 2006 00:28 (twenty years ago)

Well, there were albums where the opening track actually exceeded and belittled all the following songs, the band responsible unable to quite follow up the opener. I'd say that Second Coming, Now Here Is Nowhere (I have a thing about SM opening tracks), The Sophtware Slump (although the last two tracks if taken as one are just as good), In The Court Of The Crimson King and Relayer are a little like this.

A couple more for the original category: Ride's Leave Them All Behind and Spiritualized's Medication, two 8-minute statements of quite irrepressible intent.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 5 August 2006 00:35 (twenty years ago)

"Babylon Sisters"

― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Saturday, 5 August 2006 00:49 (twenty years ago)

Louis Jagger OTM re the Sophtware Slump - "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot" is so far and away the best track that the rest of the record, while great in patches, always feels sort of aimless. Can't help but wonder how it would play as the last track with that in mind - maybe throw "Protected From The Rain" in as an opener, with a non-fade-out ending?

In an interesting twist, though, it certainly does sum up the vibe of the entire album. "Adrift again, 2000 man..." What a great song.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 5 August 2006 01:29 (twenty years ago)

"teenage riot".

― Emily B (Emily B), Saturday, 5 August 2006 04:05 (twenty years ago)

'Underground' on swordfishtrombones. It gives you like a vulgarized, cliff notes version of the 'spirit' of the rest of the album, if that makes sense.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 5 August 2006 04:14 (twenty years ago)

"Memphis, Egypt"
"Alone Again Or"
"Rocks Off"

― clotpoll (Clotpoll), Saturday, 5 August 2006 06:12 (twenty years ago)

um, "formed a band"?

― travis randy (travis randy), Saturday, 5 August 2006 08:25 (twenty years ago)

BORN UNDER PUNCHES

but then that's just about my answer
to everything so maybe not i dunno.

― pisces (piscesx), Saturday, 5 August 2006 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Stooges, "1969"
Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Sly & The Family Stone, "Luv 'n' Haight" (and maybe "Stand" too)

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Saturday, 5 August 2006 15:19 (twenty years ago)

pretty much every Radiohead record?

The first one I thought of was "Airbag."

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Sunday, 6 August 2006 03:45 (twenty years ago)

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