Perfect Tens

[alan nagsworth]

Let's have a thread for albums which you think are unequivocally perfect. Start to finish. Not a single duff moment on the entire thing. Everything about it is amazing to you. You sometimes think you would like to climb inside the album and live there forever because even though your life would be limited to just this sound, at least nothing would be wrong with the world. Perfect albums then let's go.

My most obvious choice I think would have to be Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. I have a weird relationship with it now, though, in that I don't ever feel any real desire to listen to it because I've absolutely rinsed it to death. I never really listened to any individual songs on their own, because it only truly works for me when I play it in its entirety, so now the thought of it feels like kind of a slog. Although when I force myself to give it another go to convince myself I don't hate it, I'm always instantly reminded of everything that I absolutely adore about it. I still remember the time I discovered it, listening to Oh Comely on my headphones during a night shift at about four in the morning and feeling like my head and my heart were being pulled out of my body by some strange force.

One which I came to realise recently was Reuben's Racecar is Racecar Backwards, which for me is the epitome of British post-hardcore and was never really bested in its field. Great performances all round, particularly Jamie Lenman's voice switching up at the drop of a hat from warm and tender to a fearsome roar, and Guy Davis' impeccable drumming, which is some of my all-time favourite drumming on a hard rock record. I've loved this album ever since it first came out over a decade ago, when I bought it as a Christmas present for my friend, burned it onto my computer and became obsessed with it, and I daresay I'll go on loving it for a damn sight longer.

I'll post one more for now, which would be The Knife's Silent Shout. Oh boy, what a fucking brilliant piece of work this is. Nothing else The Knife has ever done has touched a nerve with me even close to what Silent Shout does to me with every listen. Deep Cuts just doesn't cut it. At least half of that album is boring to me. Silent Shout is a beautiful album, vulnerable and fragile, and also commanding and powerful. For some reason, (because I tend to remember tiny insignificant details of my life as opposed to big important ones) I can always recall this forum's Cack Hen saying how this album was great for jogging to. I've never jogged in my fucking life but that's always been a meaningful sentiment that attached itself to this album. Weird.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Nothing, music enjoyment changes with familiarity as you suggest. No record makes me feel identical or even similar every time I listen to it. No perfect tens, this is just proxy music journalism trying to make a frame for an interesting discussion - how fucking dare you do that!

[Bazooka]

I'd have to agree on Silent Shout by The Knife funnily enough, just otherworldly.

Aesop Rock - Labour Days, just an onslaught of wonderful vocabulary and stunning production.

Low - I Could Live In Hope, not a fun album but just dark and moody.

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

[Dr Syntax Head]

Most predictable post coming up.

OK Computer.

I'll add Loveless and for me (you lot will absolutely disagree but I don't care) Pearl Jam. Vs. For me there is not one duff sound or idea on each of those.

[Head Gardener]

Queen : Sheer Heart Attack
Bowie : Low
Pavement : Wowie Zowie
Led Zep : II

[Dr Syntax Head]

Led Zep : II

Nice choice. I'd have gone for IV though.

[Viero_Berlotti]

This is a safe Mojo magazine type suggestion, but I'd say Television - Marquee Moon is as flawless a rock album as was ever made.

[Golden E. Pump]

Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Prince - Sign "O" The Times
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
David Bowie - Station to Station
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Beatles - Revolver
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
George Michael - Faith
Paul Simon - Graceland
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
Prince & The Revolution - Parade
Radiohead - Ok, Computer
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Parliament - Mothership Connection
Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Nirvana - In Utero
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
Maxwell - Urban Hang Suite
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon

Those are albums I could quite happily listen to, without skipping a track, over and over again.

[jobotic]

My Talking Heads one would be Fear of Music

[Dr Syntax Head]

My Talking Heads one (As Pump knows I'm sure) is Speaking in Tongues.

[Golden E. Pump]

Neither of you are wrong with those choices.

[phantom_power]

Lots of amazing albums are let down by one or two less than perfect tracks, so my list would be along the lines of:

Bowie - Station to Station, Heroes, Hunky Dory
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
Pink Floyd - Animals
Black Dog - Bytes
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions
De La Soul - Bulhoone Mindstate (3 Feet High loses out because of the skits)
Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
REM - Murmur, Green
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

[Absorb the anus burn]

Battiato: Fetus.
XTC: Black Sea.
Can: Future Days.
Sparks: Propaganda.
Zamla Mammaz Manna: Family Cracks.
Talking Heads: Remain In Light.
The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms.
Fred Frith: Gravity.
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces.
This Heat: Deceit.
Amon Duul II: Wolf City.
NEU: Neu 75.

[newbridge]

The KLF - Chill Out

[manticore]

There are none.

[studpuppet]

Nope - you're all wrong.

[Bhazor]

Talking Heads -Remain in Light
Possibly one of the best funk albums ever made.

Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Their best pop album.

If live albums count then I'd include The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads.
The absolute definitive versions of some of their best songs. In particular Born under Punches and Houses in Motion are just reborn as live songs. Topped off with Adrian Belew just going insane on the solos. Also one of my favourite album talky bits on the first track "The name of this song is called New Feeling and that's what it's about".

Moby - 18 and Play.
Lumped together because they're basically the same. Not truly great albums but perfect for what they are. Irresistable little bits electronic bubblegum that I just keep coming back to.

Bowie - Station to Station
I wasted Bowie. Binged all his albums in like a week and lost so much of the nuance. But this one still managed to stand out and shine and is the album that captures him at his peak but avoids his played to death capital gold classic era. My favourite being the title track which is like a non shite version of Paranoid Android.

I'll post one more for now, which would be The Knife's Silent Shout. Oh boy, what a fucking brilliant piece of work this is. Nothing else The Knife has ever done has touched a nerve with me even close to what Silent Shout does to me with every listen.

Absolutely. Spectacular album and they've consistently disappointed me since. But y'know there is still Fever Ray which is a definite 9 for me.

[alan nagsworth]

The Beatles - Revolver

I would agree, and it is my favourite Beatles album, but Yellow Submarine is just terrible. The only thing letting down an otherwise perfect album for me.

[Brundle-Fly]

Of course!

Nothing is perfect.  Everybody knows this.

'owever...

10/10

Ian Dury And The Blockheads: New Boots And Panties

This Big Hair sample seems to evoke the feeling of CaB these days?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndzHrqKLkis

[Brundle-Fly]

Battiato: Fetus.
XTC: Black Sea.
Can: Future Days.
Sparks: Propaganda.
Zamla Mammaz Manna: Family Cracks.
Talking Heads: Remain In Light.
The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms.
Fred Frith: Gravity.
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces.
This Heat: Deceit.
Amon Duul II: Wolf City.
NEU: Neu 75.

Marry me!

[Twit 2]

DEVIN TOWNSEND - OCEAN MACHINE

[phantom_power]

The KLF - Chill Out

Yes! And I would probably add Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld to that as well.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Yes! And I would probably add Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld to that as well.

There's also nothing I'd skip on U.F.Orb, even if it included the full 40 min Blue Room. I actually prefer this album.

[phantom_power]

There's also nothing I'd skip on U.F.Orb, even if it included the full 40 min Blue Room. I actually prefer this album.

I thought about this and it is a close call but I haven't heard it in a while so couldn't remember if it was a perfect 10 or just a 9.5

[studpuppet]

I would agree, and it is my favourite Beatles album, but Yellow Submarine is just terrible. The only thing letting down an otherwise perfect album for me.

I'd argue that Yellow Submarine is precisely why it IS the perfect album - if that and Here There & Everywhere hadn't been on it, my Sinatra/Hoagy Carmichael loving dad, wouldn't have bought it, and I wouldn't have heard it at age eight and enjoyed it. It's yer gateway drug is that song.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Battiato: Fetus.
XTC: Black Sea.
Can: Future Days.
Sparks: Propaganda.
Zamla Mammaz Manna: Family Cracks.
Talking Heads: Remain In Light.
The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms.
Fred Frith: Gravity.
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces.
This Heat: Deceit.
Amon Duul II: Wolf City.
NEU: Neu 75.

No, marry me!

[Rev Arthur Belling]

The High Llamas - Hawaii

[jobotic]

I wouldn't skip a track (well I would but that's because I'm a busy important man, needs must) on the first three Eno albums. Some aren't amazing on their own but fit the albums they're on perfectly.

[Norton Canes]

Not sure if any album is worth perfect tens straight through, I suppose Autechre's LP5 comes pretty close. My favourite album is Depeche Mode's Black Celebration where every track is pretty much worth a ten until they fumble the ball right at end end with New Dress.

[Dr Syntax Head]

For me the first 2 Interpol albums are absolutely perfect tens.