Controversial Music Opinions...

[allegate]

Define what constitutes a perfect album.

My mom had this record and it's one of my earliest musical memories. Not The Beatles, not The Rolling Stones, not John Denver, Paul Simon. Weird, yeah?

[allegro]

In Rainbows is hard to slight at all.

In Rainbows is a perfect album.

[Jinsai]

if we're going to pick up on a perfect album as an added note to "Jazz is great and you're wrong if you disagree,"

[BRoswell]

My mom had this record and it's one of my earliest musical memories. Not The Beatles, not The Rolling Stones, not John Denver, Paul Simon. Weird, yeah?

That's good, but what makes it perfect? You might love it, but objectively, what makes it perfect?

My point is that we all have albums and bands we hold up as perfect, but what is the criteria for that? Album sales? Critical admiration? Or is it just that we love those albums and artists so much that we are able to look past perceived faults that others may bring up?

[Lerxto]

Define what constitutes a perfect album.

No tracks that ruin the flow of the album, no filler tracks, mixing/mastering quality, replay value, lyrics, artwork and packaging.

That's good, but what makes it perfect? You might love it, but objectively, what makes it perfect?

My point is that we all have albums and bands we hold up as perfect, but what is the criteria for that? Album sales? Critical admiration? Or is it just that we love those albums and artists so much that we are able to look past perceived faults that others may bring up?

Can't give two shits about album sales or what critics think about it.

Of course music is subjective. I didn't say "in my opinion" because we're already in the controversial music opinions thread.
I think what they did with Kid A was brave, and while I appreciate it, it's not "the greatest album of the 2000s" good.

[BRoswell]

No tracks that ruin the flow of the album, no filler tracks, mixing/mastering quality, replay value, lyrics, artwork and packaging.

How many albums do you listen to on a regular basis that meet all those criteria? If you say all of them, you're a liar.

Point being, calling them out for not making a "perfect album" is kind of unfair, because we all listen to imperfect albums that we love anyway. Why do they have to make a "perfect album" to be considered really good?

[Lerxto]

How many albums do you listen to on a regular basis that meet all those criteria? If you say all of them, you're a liar.

Of course not all of them. I think there are about a hundred albums that I consider perfect, and I roughly have 19k albums in my library.

[Magnetic]

And their fans are among the most pretentious I've ever met, second only to Tool.

The rabid Radiohead fans....absolutely. Somehow I've been able to gauge people I get along with well whether or not they're 100% worshipping radiohead fans without question. If anyone is such a devotee and ass-kisser that you don't have opinions... I don't want to engage.

I should add that NIN follows in this category. They're so diverse that if you can't find one fault....you're ass-kissing/worshipping and not listening for your enjoyment.

[Jinsai]

it's all subjective
Radiohead is a pretty obviously great band. If you catch them on a good day, you'll see one of the best concerts you will ever see. I don't know though, how can you hear a song like "Climbing up the Walls" or "Lucky" and not think "this is pretty damn good?" How can anyone hear "Life in a Glass House" and not get choked up. And Thom's solo stuff on that last album was just heartbreaking. I don't get how you can listen to "Dawn Chorus" and be indifferent.

It's just good. Out of ALL the mainstream pop shit out there, come on, we're slagging on Radiohead? I agree, their fans can be insufferable, but that's not their fault.

[Lerxto]

it's all subjective
Radiohead is a pretty obviously great band. If you catch them on a good day, you'll see one of the best concerts you will ever see. I don't know though, how can you hear a song like "Climbing up the Walls" or "Lucky" and not think "this is pretty damn good?" How can anyone hear "Life in a Glass House" and not get choked up. And Thom's solo stuff on that last album was just heartbreaking. I don't get how you can listen to "Dawn Chorus" and be indifferent.

It's just good. Out of ALL the mainstream pop shit out there, come on, we're slagging on Radiohead? I agree, their fans can be insufferable, but that's not their fault.

I dislike all three Radiohead tunes you mentioned. I honestly prefer TKOL B-sides to those 3 songs.
But I do like Thom's solo albums, especially Atoms For Peace and Anima. I went to see him perform live last year.
I left the venue feeling rather underwhelmed by the show, but I still play the album quite often.

[Jinsai]

You dislike Lucky?! Well, to each their own.

[dlb]

This might be a bit unfair but I suppose we will get a lot of half-assed records next year with the pandemic forcing many artists into the confines of their studio. While it certainly will make for some masterpieces and great art, I fear a lot of mediocre "isolation tapes" kind of records will hit the shelf... in fact, they already have begun.

[Archive_Reports]

it's all subjective
Radiohead is a pretty obviously great band.

These adjoining statements don't quite line up.

I really like OK Computer but have never been into anything else the band has released.

Define what constitutes a perfect album.

In addition to some of what was already mentioned, I'd like to add some sort of variety. I prefer a bit of ebb and flow throughout an album and if it's all balls-to-the-wall metal or all super mellow, I tend to lose some interest.

[GulDukat]

Perfect albums (IMHO, obviously, and I'll list only one per artist)

The Beatles- Abbey Road
The Rolling Stones- Let it Bleed
Elvis Presley- Elvis aka 1968 comeback album
The Doors- The Doors
AC/DC- Back in Black
Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
Steve Vai- Passion & Warfare
Screaming Trees- Dust
Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited
Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon
Frank Sinatra- Songs For Only the Lonely
Pixies- Bossanova
Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin IV
The Jimi Hendrix Experience- Are You Experienced?
Aerosmith- Rocks
Queen- A Night at the Opera
Van Halen- Van Halen
The Who- Who's Next
Jane's Addiction- Ritual de lo habitual
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Chuck Berry- The Great Twenty-Eight
Kate Bush- The Sensual World
Bruce Springsteen- Tunnel of Love
Tori Amos- Under the Pink
John Lennon- Plastic Ono Band
George Harrison- All Things Must Pass
Paul McCartney/Wings- Band on the Run
David Bowie- Low
Talking Heads- Remain in Light
Velvet Underground- The Velvet Underground and Nico
Metallica- Ride the Lighting
Megadeth- Rust in Peace
Anthrax- Persistence of Time
Slayer- Reign in Blood
Pearl Jam- Ten
Soundgarden- Badmotorfinger
Alice In Chains- Dirt
Nirvana- Nevermind
Singles- OST
Guns N' Roses- Appetite For Destruction
N.W.A- Straight Outta Compton
Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Ice T- O.G. Original Gangsta
Dr. Dre- The Chronic
The Cure- Disintegration
Rush- Moving Pictures
Nine Inch Nails- The Downward Spiral
Pantera- Cowboys From Hell
Eagles- Hotel California
U2- The Joshua Tree
Stone Temple Pilots- Purple
Black Sabbath- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Deep Purple- Burn
Rainbow- Long Live Rock N' Roll
Ozzy Osbourne- The Blizzard of Ozz
Def Leppard- Pyromania
Michael Jackson- Thriller
Prince- 1999
Garbage- Garbage
The Cult- Sonic Temple
R.E.M.- Automatic For the People
The Replacements- Let it Be

[eversonpoe]

Yeah, there's plenty of jazz that doesn't use trumpets. I'm not a big jazz person myself, but there's a neat little micro-genre that I think a fair number of peeps here could jibe with: dark jazz. Sometimes it's called noir jazz or doom jazz. It started in the early to mid-90s and it's mostly inspired by David Lynch/Twin Peaks/Angelo Badalamenti.

i feel like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are the best example of that type of jazz. i listen to them like...four times a week haha. just so, so good.

[henryeatscereal]

Maybe, from a perspective of a mainstream audience.
They're a good band at best. They never released a perfect album, from start to finish.
Kid A and In Rainbows are their only good albums, and even those had fillers. Moon Shaped Pool could be the most overrated album ever.
And their fans are among the most pretentious I've ever met, second only to Tool.

I disagree, "The Bends" is perfect, actually is miles better than "Ok Computer" (i like it, but i always found it overrated)

"Moon Shaped Pool" was good, i don't think it was overrated at all. I also hated "The King of Limbs", the worst Radiohead album, for sure.

[Jinsai]

I thought King of Limbs was awesomely weird, but again, to each their own.

[allegate]

That's good, but what makes it perfect? You might love it, but objectively, what makes it perfect?

My point is that we all have albums and bands we hold up as perfect, but what is the criteria for that? Album sales? Critical admiration? Or is it just that we love those albums and artists so much that we are able to look past perceived faults that others may bring up?

Why would I hold album sales or critical admiration as a personal barometer? I don't think you're going to find anything objective in the search for a perfect album. the thing about year-end album lists is that there's rarely cohesion in the listings. For example, for the sake of argument let's say you found ten critics who put the two Swiftie albums as 1 & 2 this year. If you polled all ten critics, none of them would give you the same reasons for why they put those albums as 1 & 2 because the reasons are personal to them. So even though objectively the albums are 1 & 2, subjectively they aren't.

If that argument makes sense, at least. it started out making sense to me...lol

[jmtd]

I tried to listen to “hybrid theory” yesterday for the first time in I dunno 20 years but it was too... I dunno, fake emo. It has its moments though.

[Dryalex12]

Im not exactly sure if "emo" is the right word. I'd say it hasn't exactly aged well, it has some corny ass moments, but Chester really meant everything he wrote down, least on the songs he wrote like on Crawling in spite of how hard that song is to take seriously.

[allegro]

That's good, but what makes it perfect? You might love it, but objectively, what makes it perfect?

My point is that we all have albums and bands we hold up as perfect, but what is the criteria for that? Album sales? Critical admiration? Or is it just that we love those albums and artists so much that we are able to look past perceived faults that others may bring up?

Typically, the criteria for a "perfect album" is that every song is memorable and no song is "filler." If even ONE song is just filler, it's not perfect. If people sit down and listen to the entire album, from start to finish, without skipping tracks, and really enjoy every song, it's "perfect."

Obviously, if you're not a fan of that particular artist, NONE of their albums will be perfect.

One example of a perfect album that is typically cited by critics is Peter Gabriel's "So."

For me, the Cure's "Disintegration" is a perfect album, start to finish, not one filler.

I also consider "The Downward Spiral" a perfect album. Every song fits perfectly within the concept. And I don't think either of these opinions are very "controversial," LOL.

/drift.

[burnmotherfucker!]

For me, the Cure's "Disintegration" is a perfect album, start to finish, not one filler.

Disintegration should be the dictionary definition of a perfect album.

The Cure also have Pornography which probably is as well. A perfect album is almost impossible to achieve in my subjective opinion. Most bands/artists I love don't even have one in my mind. There's so much that has to go into it and some of it is even luck. But artwork, mood, intention, flow, and production are all pretty high on my checklist if a perfect album is to be achieved.

[piggy]

i feel like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are the best example of that type of jazz. i listen to them like...four times a week haha. just so, so good.

Yup. I like their vibe. I'd like to eventually get a couple of their albums on CD.

[poinoup]

Pretty much agree with all the Radiohead love above. If Nude's "You'll go to Hell for what your dirty mind is thinking" line doesn't give you those tingles... Stops me every time.

Should this be over in their thread?

[Krazy]

Should this be over in their thread?

No, this is where we come to poop on bands. If I was a fan I’d find it rather annoying to have people shit on the bands that we would want to discuss (ie trolling).

[Helpmeiaminhell (is now in hell)]

Disintegration should be the dictionary definition of a perfect album.

The Cure also have Pornography which probably is as well. A perfect album is almost impossible to achieve in my subjective opinion. Most bands/artists I love don't even have one in my mind. There's so much that has to go into it and some of it is even luck. But artwork, mood, intention, flow, and production are all pretty high on my checklist if a perfect album is to be achieved.

Every Cure album from 1980-1984 is a perfect album in my opinion (Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography/The Top)

[eversonpoe]

Typically, the criteria for a "perfect album" is that every song is memorable and no song is "filler." If even ONE song is just filler, it's not perfect. If people sit down and listen to the entire album, from start to finish, without skipping tracks, and really enjoy every song, it's "perfect."

Obviously, if you're not a fan of that particular artist, NONE of their albums will be perfect.

One example of a perfect album that is typically cited by critics is Peter Gabriel's "So."

For me, the Cure's "Disintegration" is a perfect album, start to finish, not one filler.

I also consider "The Downward Spiral" a perfect album. Every song fits perfectly within the concept. And I don't think either of these opinions are very "controversial," LOL.

/drift.

100% agreed on all of those examples!

some of my perfect albums are (no surprise) ones i listen to regularly

cinematic orchestra • every day
telefon tel aviv • fahrenheit fair enough
fever ray • s/t
rachel's • selenography
coil • the ape of naples

i could go on. i feel like we had a thread about this a while back (that maybe i started? idunno. i have a LOT of posts on this board over the years)

[Jinsai]

I agree about some of this, but no, come on, if we're calling out ONE GREAT PERFECT RACHEL'S ALBUM, it's probably systems/layers

[eversonpoe]

I agree about some of this, but no, come on, if we're calling out ONE GREAT PERFECT RACHEL'S ALBUM, it's probably systems/layers

ah fuck. my brain lapsed. i've talked about that one being my favorite before. but selenography is just barely below it.

[Jazzkokehead]

Since there seems to have been a fair amount of Radiohead discussion over the past page or two, let me offer my entirely unsolicited and likely to be unpopular opinion: Amnesiac is the only album by them I enjoy from start to finish. Sure, they have a fair number of other songs I enjoy throughout their discography, but no other entire album I care to listen to from front to back.