Subjectivity Perfected

This isn't very creative, but what are some of your favorite albums that you think are completely perfect and you could listen to them on repeat (every song, no exceptions) and not get tired of it (you know, not literally but practically)? Every single song! Be totally honest with yourself! I dare you! You love every single moment and you can't help but feel totally elated the whole damn time. There are no highlights of the record, because the whole thing is equal. Totally subjective too, don't put something because "it is so important that you can't not include it."

Sorry if this thread has basically been done a thousand times before...

Mine:

Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas
The Appleseed Cast - Low Level Owl Vol. 1 & 2 (pretending they weren't released separately)
12 Rods - Split Personalities
...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Graves
The Swirlies - Blonder Tongue Audio Baton

(Order is irrelevant, putting records against each other is missing the point)

The Monks "Black Monk Time"

The Rolling Stones "Their Satanic Majesties request"

miles davis : in a silent way/bitches brew
david axelrod : song of innocence/songs of experience/earth rot
maceo : us

I have no albums like this. Hell, very few songs like this; everything has peaks & troughs. Which is a good thing.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

that's probably it

Yeah I actually don't know if any of my own choices were completely true to my rules, I mean, I love every moment and I never get sick of it, but there are still favorite songs among the others on every album. New rules: every track doesn't have to be equally loved but it has to be as close as you get to that feeling.

i can think of plenty of records that meet this criteria for me. off the top of my head

everything but the girl - amplified heart
fleetwood mac - rumours
rainer maria - long knives drawn
outrageous cherry - supernatural equinox
kubichek - not enough night
for against - coalesced

Portishead - Dummy

On the last thread like this I said Sly and the Family Stone There's a Riot Going on and the Sir Douglas Quintet Mendocino. Those still stand. You can add R.E.M. Murmur. Hell, Trout Mask Replica, too.

Bowie - Low

Pretend the top says this actually:

What albums are almost perfect to you based almost on subjectivity alone? Not necessarily "important" or "influential," I'm only interested in the albums do all the right things for you personally, and you practically never get tired of them. You feel as if the artist decoded your secret formula, that something that makes some songs hit you immediately and never get old. It does all of the right things you feel a song should do, even if you don't really know what all of those ingredients are (despite it being completely your own recipe). So they wrote a whole album with that formula and you could listen to it on repeat and it will always sound fresh.

What are yours?

Another Green World is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

Funny, I had that one, and that one that was the theme tune to "Arena" was the only one I liked. The rest was meh.

For some reason Bedhead and The Swirlies are two bands that everything they do seems taylor-made to my "formula," something I've been trying to self-analyze but without much luck in breaking it down. Tallest Man On Earth too, but he doesn't have a lot recorded yet as far as I know.

I'll also add the third Velvets album and especially the Live With Lou Reed double lp, both of which I've been listening to non-stop lately.

Does anyone know why albums they chose sound so good to them? Its usually based in nostalgia but can be way more complicated. Something about bittersweet guitar chords, subtle builds, open airy chords, loosely defined climactic moments, repetitious 2-4 note melodies on top of those bittersweet chord progressions, east coast suburban imagery, a "simple pleasures" laid back atmosphere associated with driving on a nice day or sitting out in the backyard- but still applied to the rest of the elements listed above... Thats what does it for me.

Double Nickels on the Dime
Pauline Oliveros - Crone Music and Deep Listening
Uncle Meat and Lumpy Gravy
In a Silent Way

I should come up with a more specific title next time. Nobody knows what the hell this thread is about until you click on it...

Hope more people weigh in! I always found the unexplainable-personal-taste-nailed-on-whole-album very interesting

mr bungle - california / disco volante
john coltrane - a love supreme (tbh, virtually any of john's records fit the bill here)
scott walker - scott 3
dead kennedys - plastic surgery disasters
sleepytime gorilla museum - of natural history
ruins - tzomborgha
eyvind kang – virginal co-ordinates

for me, key to an album's placing on the list is that the opening seconds must be hugely thrilling every time you hear them - not necessarily in their own right, but simply because they foreshadow what's to come. delight in anticipation and all that.

the list of albums that would be perfect if it wasn't for that one song is much, much longer.

Same for me in regards to the "that one song" problem.

Example:

The Lilys - Evel Knievel

Otherwise "A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns" is completely perfect.

for me, key to an album's placing on the list is that the opening seconds must be hugely thrilling every time you hear them

otm. i find it's rare that an album starts out thrilling but doesn't start to tire me at some point, though. something i tend to associate with the solidness (solidity?) of an album is a kind of progression where the songs in the first half are mainly the ones that at first catch your attention, but as it grows on you you realize that the second half is stronger.

the smiths - s/t
gza - liquid swords
michael jackson - off the wall
j dilla - donuts
destroyer - destroyer's rubies
boris & michio kurihara - rainbow
the gories - i know you fine, but how you doin

Yeah Destroyer's Rubies is one that when I got it, my friend and I just left in the player to constantly repeat for almost the entirety of our little road-trip.

Every song I have is rated. I noticed now that, except for the intro, every track on Midnight Marauders is 4 stars and above. Not sure if that's the only album for which that is true, but there's definitely not very many (Illmatic: "NY State of Mind" is the downfall)

Its easy to pick a few, but really hard to omit many others...

Illmatic is pretty damn close to perfect, I'd say. It doesn't drag at all, perfect length, and there isn't a clunker at all. Remain in Light, Murmur, Reckoning...

Also, Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations. I'm no scholar of classical music or whatever, but that CD was what led me to fall in love with classical music, so it is, to me anyway, perfect.

And there are probably innumerable singles collections/best ofs that could work here. Some Phil Spector collections, for example, would be impossible to get sick of.

kind of blue

listened to that shit basically every night str8 thru for about two years, 10th-11th grade

putting it on now, actually, thanks to this thread

I agree with that. I would also add In a Silent Way, but it would be hard to skip a track there ;).

Illmatic: "NY State of Mind" is the downfall

what the fuck is this?

Oh man. Looks like you hit a sensitive spot.

3 stars that's what the fuck it is

Dreamboat Gorilla - Your Face Or Mine?

tago mago
close to the edge
fun house
vision creation newsun

Those^^^

Manu Chao - Clandestino
Illmatic
Fever Ray
Daft Punk Alive 2007
Replacements - Let it Be
OutKast - ATLiens
OutKast - Aquemini
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Paul's Boutique
Sebastien Tellier - Sexuality

Coward may do this for me!

Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart.

Hoy, Jesus, did this hit me at exactly the right time. Key Lime Pie is almost as good, but OBRS feels like it's utterly mine.

Others, but these are generally regarded as classics and so feel less "subjective" than the above:

Velvet Underground S/T
Astral Weeks
Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

I fell this way about Wanda Jackson's Rockin' With Wanda right about now.

I've had a lot of these in my life (a lot are already listed in this thread), but lately this list has been dwindling for me. I think that constantly listening to an iPod on shuffle is killing my ability to listen to any album from beginning to end.

Have to say that in a silent way, Close To The Edge, and Dummy are all great choices.

Some others I might consider:
Rush - Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure
Frank Zappa - Absolutely Free! (probably lots of other FZ too)
Urge Overkill - Saturation (non-plussed about the obligatory 90s end of CD silence and hidden track though)
REM - Life's Rich Pageant
American Music Club - Everclear, Mercury
Belle & Sebastian - If you're feeling sinister
Steely Dan - Aja, Gaucho
Stereolab - Sound-Dust
Jawbox - Jawbox

i don't have any :-)

My choices seem kind of quaint/boring now that I've laid them out but these are mine...I'm a big 'put the album on repeat' person, and it's a big deal to find albums where I don't have to skip, that keep my attention for the whole cycle.

Pearl Jam: No Code
Drive By Truckers: Dirty South
Jane's Addiction: Nothing's Shocking
Cat Stevens: Tea For The Tillerman
Jeff Buckley: Grace
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors
The Clash: London Calling
Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels: Live 1973
Sgt Pepper: The Beatles
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast

also: Evan, you have some really cool thread topics. Just sayin', I like it!

Hey, thanks! These are the things that interest me about music, and this is a great place to come talk about them. Thanks for responding!

If this is a personal question of personal taste, then I have very questionable personal tastes. I know these albums aren't perfect, but I think they are when I'm listening to them:

Gene Clark - White Light
John Phillips - Pay Pack & Follow
Belle & Seb - If You're Feeling Sinister
Arthur Russell - Calling Out of Context
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Heiroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

byzantum - all
politiet - zenyatta mondatta
darkthrone - transilvanian hunger
bathory - first album (good for swedish band)