Support NeoGAF

[Kifimbo]

Highly subjective, and probably not "perfect", but:

 

[Az987]

2Pac - Me Against the World

 

[Conciliator]

I really don't see how anyone could get 'perfect' out of those great Modest Mouse albums. They're both sloppy, unedited and indulgent. I mean that in the most loving way.

EDIT: Shit ton of shout outs to Illmatic; it's definitely a heck of an album.

 

[Apath]

How Strange, Innocence by Explosions in the Sky

"How Strange, Innocence" was our first attempt at an album. We recorded it in January 2000 in Austin: recording took two days, mixing one day, mastering one day. Altogether we pressed 300 CD-R copies of this album...We had been a band about seven months when we recorded these songs. A lot of feelings (excitement/confusion/glimpses of visions/waking dreams/inability to play instruments) went into this record, but we didn't quite know what to do with those feelings, none of us had even really been in a studio before, and it shows in the recording, the songs show it, too--it's a young record. There are no tricks in it. There's a lightness in a few of the songs that we probably won't reach again. It sounds strange to say that instrumental songs are about something, but to us these songs were/are about such things as a couple walking through the park on a winter day, a child playing on 70's shag carpet, the story of a boy hero leading a revolution against the tyranny of the coal mines. We've had a bit of a love/embarrassment relationship with the record. At certain points along the way several of us wanted to buy back all the copies and burn them. Listening now to this album, it almost seems like a different band composed of four different people. We finally feel okay in re-releasing it, probably because we've now made a couple of records that are recorded better and that are closer to our visions for them. Anyway, we truly appreciate anyone who is interested and listening. Thank you.

I love a lot of albums, and quite a few a bit more than this one. But this is the only one I can really say is "Perfect".

 

[Conciliator]

Highly subjective, and probably not "perfect", but:

I think RATM's s/t is really consistent too. I think maybe we're not supposed to like RATM anymore, but I can't remember.

 

[User 85168]

Endtroducing - DJ Shadow

 

[ShinAmano]

Highly subjective, and probably not "perfect", but:

Just quoting as I posted it earlier.

 

[daemonic]

THIS. Flavors of Entanglement comes in close second. If it weren't for that damn On the Tequila song.

 

[MorisUkunRasik]

IMO of course:

Neutral Milk Hotel - In Aeroplane Over The Sea

Bad Religion - No Control (I also consider Suffer and Against The Grain, to be perfect albums)

Bear Vs. Shark - Terrorhawk

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty.

Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside of Me

Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

The Fullblast - Short Controlled Bursts

Ghost Face Killah - Supreme Clientele

Kanye West - The College Dropout

The Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica

Outkast - ATLiens

Propagandhi - Potemkin City Limits

Radiohead - Kid A

Raekwon - Only Built For Cuban Linx

Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come

The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

The Wrens - The Meadowlands

 

[SuperBonk]

LCW > TMAA

LCW is the only Modest Mouse album I would say is close to being perfect, along with the EP Building Nothing Out of Something (and I love MM). TMAA has way to many tracks that I don't even bother with.

 

[Jaxter09]

 

[SolKane]

I really don't see how anyone could get 'perfect' out of those great Modest Mouse albums. They're both sloppy, unedited and indulgent. I mean that in the most loving way.

EDIT: Shit ton of shout outs to Illmatic; it's definitely a heck of an album.

You could cut at most 1 song from Lonesome Crowded West without affect the record fundamentally. However Moon and Antarctica approaches levels of perfection that haven't been attained in modern music since Unknown Pleasures. Your criticism is completely toothless, since not only are both albums very tightly choreographed (M&A makes Dark Side of the Moon look like a Kids Bop album), but "indulgent" is about the most insipid criticism you can make of anything. Got anything substantive?

LCW > TMAA

LCW is the only Modest Mouse album I would say is close to being perfect, along with the EP Building Nothing Out of Something (and I love MM). TMAA has way to many tracks that I don't even bother with.

BNOS is a great album too, but I feel like it lacks in thematic resonance since it's a compilation record. For me at least every MM album before Good News is perfect, but the two I posted are especially deserving of that, if not for the content then the highly structured architecture of both. What don't you like on the Moon and Antarctica?

 

[Chuck (Old)]

 

[Witchfinder General]

Septic Flesh - Communion

There may be Death Metal albums out there that may contain a song or two better than what's on here, but none offer such a complete package as Communion does. The only criticism I really have that it's a tad short.

Killing - Joke Night Time

How can you argue with an album that gave as songs such as Love Like Blood, Eighties, Darkness Before Dawn, Kings & Queens, etc?

Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy

Awful covert art aside, this stands as the greatest melding of Thrash and Power Metal.

 

[FrenchToastDisciple]

There's more, but those are the first that came to mind.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I think Tyler has pretty much said all that needs to be said about Bruno...

Link?

Someone posted Ladyhawke and (What's The Story?) Morning Glory. I'd agree on the first, but not the second, because I usually skip the opening song for its awful, awful intro.

 

[acheron_xl]

Good one.

Not sure how the thread got this far without someone posting Jeff Buckley's Grace, but fits OP's topic like a glove.

Another good one.

 

[Flavius]

Not sure how the thread got this far without someone posting Jeff Buckley's Grace, but fits OP's topic like a glove.

 

[SuperBonk]

BNOS is a great album too, but I feel like it lacks in thematic resonance since it's a compilation record. For me at least every MM album before Good News is perfect, but the two I posted are especially deserving of that, if not for the content then the highly structured architecture of both. What don't you like on the Moon and Antarctica?

I agree that TMAA is the best structured album but I usually skip over The Cold Part, Lives, Life Like Weeds, Alone Down There, and most of Stars are Projectors. This is all IMO of course.

 

[DeSo]

Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come

Fuck yeah.

 

[Morris]

 

[legend166]

Far out squirrel.

First you hate The Beach Boys, and now you put Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars in your 'perfect albums' category.

I don't think we can be friends any more.

 

[Leucrota]

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep

 

[Witchfinder General]

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2331/gravediggaz6feetdeepfro.jpg/IMG][/QUOTE]

Honestly, the only song on that album that's worth a damn is 1-800 Suicide which is absolutely excellent. Maybe I'm just not a Rap fan.

 

[sharkmuncher]

The Who - Quadrophenia

The Clash - London Calling

2 examples of a 2 disc albums that actually work perfectly as albums.

 

[Crunchy20XX]

There are maybe two dozen perfect albums. This was the last one.

 

[Verdre]

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
Garbage - Version 2.0
Haujobb - Solutions for a Small Planet
Kylie Minogue - Fever
Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
The Plasticines - About Love
Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
Switchblade Symphony - The Three Calamities
The The - Dusk

Of course by perfect albums I mean albums that I think form a coherent whole and that I don't skip a single song on.

 

[PolarBearsClub]

IMO of course:

Neutral Milk Hotel - In Aeroplane Over The Sea

Bad Religion - No Control (I also consider Suffer and Against The Grain, to be perfect albums)

Bear Vs. Shark - Terrorhawk

I literally went:

Yep.

Yes!

YES.

 

[goldlion054]

Mother Mother- O my Heart

I could listen to this CD forever. Not one song deserves to be skipped by in favor of another

 

[PigSpeakers]

Brand New - Deja Entendu

Devil and God>>>>> Deja Entendu

Then again, I guess it really depends on what kind of music you're into. I loved Devil and God, but couldn't really get into their other albums.

I think that's probably my vote for this. The lead singer never holds back on his singing. It goes from this sort of quiet whisper to a full on shout. And it's more of an angry shout, but not in a metal way, and not a whiny screamo way either. It just works. Composition was top notch, too.

 

[computers putin']

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty.

Underrated album

 

[legend166]

London Calling is a really good choice.

 

[Leucrota]

Honestly, the only song on that album that's worth a damn is 1-800 Suicide which is absolutely excellent. Maybe I'm just not a Rap fan.

Thought I had posted the wrong thing, looked at the track list again, anddddd, you just might not like rap, like at all.

 

[Morris]

This is not an album, but it's what I would call THE perfect cd compilation.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Far out squirrel.

First you hate The Beach Boys, and now you put Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars in your 'perfect albums' category.

I don't think we can be friends any more.

Ever listened to Songs About Jane beginning to end? If not, kindly refrain from talking about that which you know not.

Also, that’s not what the thread is about. I hate all of Bob Dylan’s recordings. Every last nasal, off-key second of hearing his voice makes me want to kill someone, but I am perfectly willing to accept that he may, at one point, have released a perfect album. Provided that said album was consistent and if the sort of person who’d listen to it never felt a compulsion to skip any songs.

 

[RDreamer]

There are way too many perfect albums for me...

Porcupine Tree - Signify, In Absentia, Deadwing, and The Incident

No-Man - Flowermouth, Returning Jesus, and Together We're Stranger

Steven Wilson - Insurgentes, and Grace for Drowning

Agalloch - The Mantle, and Ashes Against the Grain

Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse, Blackwater Park, Damnation, and Ghost Reveries

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Remedy Lane, and Be

Oceansize - Effloresce, Everyone into Position, and Frames

Devin Townsend - Terria

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals

Yes - Close to the Edge

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King, Islands, and Red

Radiohead - The Bends, Ok Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows

Jonsi - Go

Sigur Ros - Takk

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

Rammstein - Mutter, and Reise Reise

In Flames - The Jester Race, Clayman, and Reroute to Remain

Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait, Natural Born Chaos, and Figure Number Five

Ulver - Blood Inside

Katatonia - Viva Emptiness

Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory, and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The Beatles - Revolver, Sgt. Peppers, and Abbey Road

Chroma Key - Dead Air for Radios

Anathema - A Fine Day to Exit, A Natural Disaster, and We're Here Because We're Here

 

[StuBurns]

Nice to see a couple of Frances the Mute mentions, so incredible. Not perfect, because of horrid whispering, but hella good.

 

[Cindres]

I agree with the OP, but also definitely gotta add:

Blue Album: Weezer.
(From the 2nd post)

Also will say Is This It and Room On Fire by The Strokes.
And most Radiohead.

 

[Snaku]

Most everything I would say has been covered, but I have one to add.

 

[Typographenia]

In alphabetical order-

Acetone - Cindy

The Beatles - Revolver

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Led Zeppelin - IV (ZOSO)

Oasis - Definitely Maybe

The Verve - A Storm in Heaven


I consider all of these "perfect," because I never once wanted to skip a single song on any of them. Every time I listen to the album I listen the entire way through without flinching. The music is superb, and there is not a single thing I would consider changing.

 

[marrec]

Devil and God>>>>> Deja Entendu

Then again, I guess it really depends on what kind of music you're into. I loved Devil and God, but couldn't really get into their other albums.

I think that's probably my vote for this. The lead singer never holds back on his singing. It goes from this sort of quiet whisper to a full on shout. And it's more of an angry shout, but not in a metal way, and not a whiny screamo way either. It just works. Composition was top notch, too.

I think that Sowing Season and Jesus Christ are both better than anything on Deja Entendu, but over all Deja is better. I can listen to both albums front to back and enjoy every second though, so I can't really complain.

Also, in the context of their careers, Deja Entendu was a wild departure from what they'd done in the past... might be part of why I feel it's perfect.

 

[Witchfinder General]

There are way too many perfect albums for me...

Porcupine Tree - Signify, In Absentia, Deadwing, and The Incident

No-Man - Flowermouth, Returning Jesus, and Together We're Stranger

Steven Wilson - Insurgentes, and Grace for Drowning

Agalloch - The Mantle, and Ashes Against the Grain

Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse, Blackwater Park, Damnation, and Ghost Reveries

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Remedy Lane, and Be

Oceansize - Effloresce, Everyone into Position, and Frames

Devin Townsend - Terria

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals

Yes - Close to the Edge

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King, Islands, and Red

Radiohead - The Bends, Ok Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows

Jonsi - Go

Sigur Ros - Takk

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

Rammstein - Mutter, and Reise Reise

In Flames - The Jester Race, Clayman, and Reroute to Remain

Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait, Natural Born Chaos, and Figure Number Five

Ulver - Blood Inside

Katatonia - Viva Emptiness

Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory, and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The Beatles - Revolver, Sgt. Peppers, and Abbey Road

Chroma Key - Dead Air for Radios

Anathema - A Fine Day to Exit, A Natural Disaster, and We're Here Because We're Here

I own nearly all of those albums and whilst some of them are amazing they definitely have a number of lower quality tracks or simply filler. Simply having a Dream Theater album on there invalidates the entire list as they have yet to produce an album that doesn't have an offensively turgid, wank-filled track.

 

[Leucrota]

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Ooh, I forgot:

Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light : It's another of these albums that's more than just a collection of songs and forms a cohesive whole. The first time I listened to it, I was amazed to find that there was no filler.

 

[scotcheggz]

I only know of one personally.

Joanna Newsom - Ys

There is one thing I would change, I'd put Bill Callahan's harmonies a little lower in the mix. Otherwise it's essentially flawless as far as I can tell. Other than Purple Chick's mix of SMiLE, I've heard no other album more.

Ys is really amazing.

I'd probably say Van Morrison - Astral weeks and Nick Drake - Five leves left are two albums that are consistently flawless on every listen and every track that I can think off the top of my head.

 

[RDreamer]

I own nearly all of those albums and whilst some of them are amazing they definitely have a number of lower quality tracks or simply filler. Simply having a Dream Theater album on there invalidates the entire list as they have yet to produce an album that doesn't have an offensively turgid, wank-filled track.

Lies. Even though there's a ton of albums on there, I really tried to get all the ones where I really don't have even a tiny bit of an iffy stance on any song. Then again, this thread is kind of a trick for me since I never skip any track on anything ever. I listen only to albums.

As for Dream Theater, yeah they usually have those, but I really believe they made 2 special albums. The rest have some iffy stuff on that I kind of love, but those 2 are just perfect for me.

 

[goldlion054]

Nice to see a couple of Frances the Mute mentions, so incredible. Not perfect, because of horrid whispering, but hella good.

Who doesn't love that CD? Its fabulous

 

[Snaku]

Oh, and this is flawless.

 

[Buddha Beam]

I would agree with the Kid A folks, but I can't stand Treefingers.
Objectively, though, it's a perfect album.

Also, this:

Not a song on here that I don't love or feel is masterfully made, nor is there any track which I'm really compelled to skip, save maybe for The Light of Day.

<3 The Divine Comedy

Edit: also Lo-Fidelity Allstars first album. almost 14 years later and it's still my favorite album of all time.

 

[MorisUkunRasik]

I think that Sowing Season and Jesus Christ are both better than anything on Deja Entendu, but over all Deja is better. I can listen to both albums front to back and enjoy every second though, so I can't really complain.

Also, in the context of their careers, Deja Entendu was a wild departure from what they'd done in the past... might be part of why I feel it's perfect.

Pre-Deja Brand New is damn near unlistenable.

Deja was an album I liked and still like quite a bit, but more than being a good album it made me believe they could one day make a truly great album. To me, that is was The Devil And God.. is.


Edit: The Devil made me believe that they could mature from a good band who made one great album into a great band. Daisy crushed that belief.