[Music] The Most Complete Album

[Icy Gull]

Have we had Led Zeppelin, the first album ?

Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Took me a while to really like this album but it is quality.

 

[METALMICKY]

The Black album by Metallica. And officially the biggest selling album of the last 25 years!

https://consequenceofsound.net/2014/05/this-is-the-best-selling-album-of-the-last-25-years/

By contrast St Anger by Metallica the biggest pile of pooh you will ever hear and the worst snare drum sound ever recorded.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Led zep 1
Crowded house - together alone
Elliott smith - xo
Embrace - good will out
supergrass - I should coco
U2 - achtung baby
Guns n roses - appetite for destruction
Coldplay - rush of blood to the head

 

[CliveWalkerWingWizard]

Love forever changes
Blind faith
Bon over for emma
Pixies Doolittle
Cure disintegration
Elvis Costello blood and chocolate
Jeff Buckley Grace
Nick drake five leaves left
Smashing pumpkins Siamese dreams
Robert Johnson king of delta blues
Cream Disraeli gears
Doors strange days
Stone roses
Sunday's reading writing and arithmetic
Cocteau twins treasure

I will stop there...

 

[Hyperion]

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
Filthy Boy - Smile that won’t go down

 

[Razzoo]

Bark Psychosis Hex

 

[rocker959]

Toto IV

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This seems to be more a list of favourite albums or albums which do not have any "filler". This is not what a complete album is imho, a complete album should be much more.

 

[BadFish]

It's got Don't Stop on it.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

 

[colinz]

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Wishbone Ash - Argus

Bob Dylan- Desire

Dire Straits -Making Movies

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

Graham Parker - Heat Treatment

Jeff Buckley- Grace

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

Rodriguez - Coming from Reality

 

[Icy Gull]

This seems to be more a list of favourite albums or albums which do not have any "filler". This is not what a complete album is imho, a complete album should be much more.

An album without a duff track will do for me as a complete album. Are you suggesting they should have a theme or that the tracks should be seemless or maybe something else?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Great thread idea. I have often spoken about "complete" albums with my music chums. I personally think a complete album is a lot more than just an all-killer-no-filler long player. Aside from the songs, complete to me means the art work, the narrative and/or theme of the record, the vision, the circumstances of the record, the mood of the band at that time, and the build up to the record etc etc. Obviously a lot of these elements are not in the band's control so a band cannot fully engineer a complete album by themselves (in my humble opinion.)

So, albums which come to mind immediately and satisfy all this are The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, Metallica's Master of Puppets, and U2's Joshua Tree is without a shadow of a doubt arguably one of the most complete records there is.

An album without a duff track will do for me as a complete album. Are you suggesting they should have a theme or that the tracks should be seemless or maybe something else?

See my post above. I don't think you can say an album is complete without, at the very least, considering all elements of the art. And all the elements I state above affect how I receive and perceive an artistic statement....so they all play a part in my opinion.

And if it's just about the songs then greatest hits compilations have legitimacy which doesn't make sense to me.

 

[DFL JCL]

pearl jam - ten
longpigs - the sun is often out
pulp - different class
joni mitchell - blue
meatloaf - bat out of hell
guns and roses - appetite for destruction
michael jackson - thriller
the smiths - the queen is dead
prodigy - music for a jilted generation
nas - illmatic
jurassic 5 - jurassic 5
cypress hill - black sunday
nirvana - nevermind
stone roses - stone roses
system of a down - toxicity
the national - trouble will find me
prince - purple rain
david bowie - heathen

 

[Icy Gull]

See my post above. I don't think you can say an album is complete without, at the very least, considering all elements of the art. And all the elements I state above affect how I receive and perceive an artistic statement....so they all play a part in my opinion.

And if it's just about the songs then greatest hits compilations have legitimacy which doesn't make sense to me.

So by that logic a brilliant album with shit artwork made by a band with internal conflict cannot be a complete album? That discounts Rumours by Fleetwood Mac as the strife in the band made that album. (Not suggesting the artwork was shit btw). For me Rumours is 100% the complete album though.

Then you have other complete (IMO) albums like Damn the Torpedoes by Tom Petty where the band were real mates in sync and completely behind what they were doing.

In both cases no duff tracks either.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So by that logic a brilliant album with shit artwork made by a band with internal conflict cannot be a complete album?

Not necessarily. The backstory and the peripheral artistic statements, such as the artwork, do not necessarily need to be positive for a complete album. Plenty of bands have put out blank sleeves and if it fits then fine. But to me art is a hollistic experience. And to me many elements provide the framework in which I received, perceive, understand and appreciate art. A bunch of good songs is just a bunch of good songs. For me, to be a complete artistic statement it takes more. Obviously we all have different frameworks so I'm not expecting you to agree....just as we won't always agree on what a good song is.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

If this thread were retitled 'Most Complete Album Made Since 1997' it'd have about four posts on it, which is more than likely indicative of the average age of NScers and their reluctance to embrace newer music, combined with a possible dearth of album quality in recent times...hmm...

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

An album without a duff track will do for me as a complete album. Are you suggesting they should have a theme or that the tracks should be seemless or maybe something else?

I've tried to explain in the replies above. Hope it makes some sense.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

As predictable as it is I can listen to Sgt Pepper ad infinitum

I also like Propaganda by Sparks from start to finish

 

[Icy Gull]

I've tried to explain in the replies above. Hope it makes some sense.

It does, I am happy to embrace an album purely for the music in the digital age, I would have been more in agreement with you in the days of vinyl though.

 

[studio150]

See my post above. I don't think you can say an album is complete without, at the very least, considering all elements of the art. And all the elements I state above affect how I receive and perceive an artistic statement....so they all play a part in my opinion.

And if it's just about the songs then greatest hits compilations have legitimacy which doesn't make sense to me.

Erm.

I would not include greatest hits or live albums for the points you make. Also the songs will have been culled from earlier studio albums.

I am a little lost on art work though.

As an example Armed Forces by Elvis Costello was intially issued in a limited run with a fold over back cover.
Later vinyl copies only had a standard single sleeve.
Obviously all the art work is much reduced on CD copies and non existent for digital copies.

So as an album which version do you use when considering whether it is a complete album or not.
How does this work if you weren't around for the first release are you now barred from considering purely on the music.

Perhaps we should have another thread for best artwork for an album