OT: Albums On Which Every Song Is Good
- Thread starter RutgersRaRa
- Start date
This is really good thread topic. I love music and have lots of albums where I think many songs are good. Even some albums where I think most of the songs are good. But I'm struggling to name any albums where I think *every* song is good.
Part of the problem is the chronological perspective I'm choosing to use in my evaluation of what's good. I am working from my current perspective such that good is defined as how I feel about the song today. Some songs that I once considered good got far too much air time causing me to wind up hating them.
Nowadays, I most often listen to my Tidal or Spotify collections on shuffle (Tidal at home for audio quality, Spotify in the car). So I wound up considering songs on many of my favorite albums to see if I would ever skip a particular song if it came up while shuffling through my collection. My thinking was, do I have or know of any albums for which I'd never skip any of the songs when they started playing.
And I couldn't find any albums for which I wouldn't skip at least one song in that context.
I suppose it's possible I've been overthinking this a little. 😀
Quick tangent ..what do you use to play Tidal?
Started shooping around streamer options and was meaning to ask you.
I use Spotify almost exclusively now. But songs on my playlists are all favorites leaving plenty of room for good songs. For instance, there was talk about Born to Run earlier. There are so many great songs from that album that “Night” wouldn’t make a playlist, but still a good, not great, song.
@mildone RaRa's my name, and overthinking's my game--I can totally relate! I'd rather overthink than underthink in most cases, but your assessment was really good about the difference between how we currently feel and formally felt about songs. And too much air time definitely turned me off to some songs, which is why "greatest hits" albums were acceptable to me for inclusion in someone's choice of albums on which they like every song. I cited U2's "Joshua Tree" earlier ITT since I like every song on it, but some of their other albums and big hits bored me.
Overthinkers of the world, unite!!
I use either my phone (Android) or iPad to stream to a BlueSound Node 2i (https://www.bluesound.com/products/node/). The BlueSound device supports a ton of formats and sources, not just Tidal or Spotify or whatever.
My Denon AVR (4500H) doesn't know how to unfold Tidal MQA. So I use an analog connection from the Node 2i to the AVR (there are several connection options). That uses the DAC in the Node 2i to do the full MQA unfold and render and just passes along the signal to the AVR.
I'm using WiFi from the phone/tablet and then wired connection from the router to the Node 2i. I tried using WiFi for the whole roundtrip and that worked fine. But I figured I had the wired connection so I might as well use it and avoid potential wireless interference issues. I checked out the network transfer loads (measured at the router) when listening to MQA songs and it's pretty high.
The result is perceptibly better (for good recordings) audio quality than what I was using (Spotify's highest audio quality). The biggest quality difference shows up when using the AVR's Pure Direct (basically signal passthrough) audio mode for 2.1 channel sound. In more processed modes, or with the center channel or surround/ATMOS speakers, the quality difference is less perceptible (to my ears, at least). I have a fair amount of hearing loss from years of abuse. So I was surprised by the difference I can hear.
The downside is that bad MQA recordings sound a lot worse than they do with lower quality audio rendering. Garbage in, garbage out I guess.
I'm considering getting a Roon subscription next, but am still not convinced of the value proposition.
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That's the thing. Streaming services kind of spoil us. I no longer think in terms of albums anymore. I just pick and choose tracks. And a big part of the value is that I'm adding new music constantly.
I can't remember the last time I just listened to a full album from start to finish. Maybe if Jethro Tull's "Thick As a Brick" comes up while shuffling. LOL
One big advantage of Spotify over Tidal is that Spotify seems a lot better at presenting different ways to discover new music they think I'd like. Tidal is catching up, but still not there yet.
An ex-GF often accused me of overthinking everything (and she's right to a point). But I mean, overthinking is fun. I suppose it would be nice to be able to switch it off more reliably. 🙂
Albums that come really close for me include Peter Gabriel's "So" and "Us". I don't dislike any of the songs, nor do I think any of them are "bad". I just know I'd skip a song or two from both albums (e.g. "Kiss That Frog") if they came up in a shuffle. And if I'm gonna skip it, how good is it, really?
I could say the same about certain albums from numerous artists across several genres and across the decades. Very challenging task, for me. Just very hard to come up with an album where I would never skip a song.
I haven't posted much in the thread so far, but I've been slightly obsessed with the question since you started the thread. Way, way, WAY more fun than arguing about masks and vaccines and political issues.
Bob Marley and the Wailers live album Babylon By Bus.
slightly off topic...but i do believe that the future of music will see the end of releasing whole albums at once. with streaming services being the primary means of consuming music, there's no point in releasing 10-12 songs at once. you'll see more EP's and singles...keeps content fresh and artists on the forefront of people's minds in the long run
Maybe as an exception to the rule... but generally speaking... no. Especially for pop music. Why release 12 tracks at once... where only a handful are worthy of release as a single, when you can meter it out and focus on putting out good ones maybe once a month or once every other month? That way you always stay on the front page of new music on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon. Only thing that would slow this down is the structure of record contracts... labels would have to change the terms to be on the number of songs vs the number of albums that the artists are contractually obligated to release.
I don’t dislike it or think it’s an awful song. It’s just my least favorite song from the two albums I mentioned and the one I’m most likely to skip past when it comes up in a shuffle.
My favorite songs from most artists/albums seem to often be among the least popular of their songs in general.
I am not familiar with them. I looked them up on iTunes and listened to a few of their popular selections. Yes this is a band I would have had on the playlist.
One thing I've noticed about Spotify, which I personally don't like, is an apparent reliance on live versions of songs in a random playlist or just playing an artist's work, randomly. In other words... lol, it seems to rely on Live versions quite a bit. Anyone else notice this and is there a way to prevent it?
And to answer the OP's question: "Moving Pictures" - RUSH.
depends on their agreement with the record labels on how albums from particular artists can be hosted on their platform. some songs are marked as for premium only, some artists won't allow their catalogue to be posted on spotify...so spotify goes and gets the live versions that aren't specifically on that album and recommends those. it's a workaround.
As an older guy, I'm hoping folks more tuned in will respond: Do many contemporary artists think of an album any longer, either in terms of coherence or even as a collection of songs. Or is everything about singles, even in terms of the creative process?
That's interesting. I've never noticed any preference for live versions of songs in song recommendations when I use Spotify. They either aren't doing that for me, or my pattern of use in Spotify differs from yours in ways that matter w/regards to live vs. studio tracks. Maybe they identified (mistakenly) you as someone who prefers live versions to studio tracks due to you adding live tracks to your collection at some point?
That brings up a potentially useful feature I wish they (and Tidal, and others) would add to their apps, which is the ability for us customers to influence the suggestion algorithms in less subtle, more direct ways. For example, they could expose some choices to customers, such as a preference for live vs. studio tracks. Or a preference for music in 6/8 vs. 4/4 or with varying time-signatures. Or a preference for a certain tempo. Etc.
Spotify has been eerily accurate and predicting stuff I might like. But my music listening desires shift around in phases. So it would be nice to be able to say, stop recommending tracks with haunting female vocals over layered rhythmic electronic sound that emphasizes keyboards and complex percussive elements and start filling my recommendations with stuff that is just like TOOL's music for awhile. Of course, one can always do that by telling Spotify to create a "radio station" of songs based on a particular song (like TOOLs "The Pot", which, incidentally, somehow inexplicably ranks only 26th out of 50 in the top TOOL songs on Loudwire when even the most casual music listener knows the undeniable truth that "The Pot" should be #1, #2, and #3 on the list of all-time great TOOL songs). Although in reality, nobody else really makes music quite like TOOL does.
Anyway (sorry for the tangential rant)...
As mentioned above, some of that behavior (in particular, live vs. studio tracks) might be artist-driven and adhering to an artists wishes might be more important to Spotify than customer preferences, for business reasons.
Also, the streaming companies might be reluctant to expose customer-driven song preference options out of fear that doing so might provide competitors with too much insight into how they arrive at recommendations, the algorithms for which are surely trade secrets.
Seems to depends on the genre, to some extent, and the specific artist and their level of popularity in the music industry.
A lot of electronic music artists produce a lot of "albums" with a single track. They might also produce albums with dozens of tracks. The digital age has created an environment where just about anybody can create electronic music on their home computer, with the right software, some talent, and a lot of "practice" hours. Such folks come at the music industry in a very different way than, say, a highly popular entertainer/artist that follows the more traditional route of having agents and being represented by some record label.
Those with record labels are still producing albums. But I wonder just how much longer that will happen.
also depends on the artist. i listen to some artists who take great pride in putting together a cohesively themed album. in the more pop areas, it definitely feels like more of a singles driven collection of songs...which is why i see the death of the full length album coming in the future.
When I first started to seriously get into music in the early 1970s, the musical culture had shifted and if you bought singles (45,s), you were considered a “musical lightweight” of sorts. I still kind of feel that although understanding how much technology has changed things. There is more ways then ever for legitimate musicians to get their music out there and for the public to find out about it.
Cool, figured they'd be a band you'd like based on some of your other faves...
Have been seeing the Bluesound on "best" lists...seems like a good option. Good info on the wiring, as I was trying to figure out the DAC situation ...depending on what I end up with, will either use streamer DAC or my existing AVR's ...prob the former cause my receiver is old.
Leaning toward one of Cambridge's streamers as they seem like a solid value with sleek look/interface. May end up with Denon or Marantz, though, for seamless HEOS integration. Dont think they're Roon-compatible, which would be nice to have, so hopefully they add it before I am ready to buy.
Just remember that if you’re going to be using Tidal, you need either your Streamer’s DAC, or your AVR’s DAC, to know how to do all the unfoldings required to render MQA at 24/192. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with CD quality for MQA (Masters) tracks. Which kind of defeats the purpose.
And what I found was that it was very hard to determine if the Tidal Master’s Support, advertised on several devices, was full 24/192 or not. I had to dig through QA lists and customer forums to get those answers. Some were full 24/192, some were were not.
Here's some more I offer up:
Highway 61 Revisited...Bob Dylan
On The Beach......Neil Young
Live Rust....Neil Young and Crazy Horse
The Dark Side Of The Moon....Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here....Pink Floyd
Sticky Fingers....The Rolling Stones
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out....The Rolling Stones
Darkness On The Edge Of Town...Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band
Late For The Sky....Jackson Browne
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got....Sinead O'Connor
Lost In The Dream....The War On Drugs
A Deeper Understanding....The War On Drugs
Highway 61 Revisited...Bob Dylan
On The Beach......Neil Young
Live Rust....Neil Young and Crazy Horse
The Dark Side Of The Moon....Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here....Pink Floyd
Sticky Fingers....The Rolling Stones
Get Yer Ya-Yas Out....The Rolling Stones
Darkness On The Edge Of Town...Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band
Late For The Sky....Jackson Browne
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got....Sinead O'Connor
Lost In The Dream....The War On Drugs
A Deeper Understanding....The War On Drugs
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How is it I've never heard of Band-Maid until just now? They are really something.
Japanese rock & metal don't really make it across the pacific. However, in my musical discovery journey during the past year...I've found that the Japanese scene is great. Band Maid, besides the costume gimmick, are all fantastic musicians. some of their songs just sounds like 4 skilled instrumentalists playing solos for 4 mins and they happen to all fit together in a really tight track. Bonus...they write their own music.
O.K. You asked....so
Sleep token just put me to sleep........I don't know what if anything was going on there.
Band Maid was just annoying. I'm a big lyrics person and I didn't appreciate the subtitles thing. And besides...the lyrics made no sense. As for the music, there are loads of skilled musicians whose product does nothing for me and I hope to never hear again. This was in that category. I'm more interested in the way the notes a guitarist plays makes me feel than how many she can play per second.
Sorry. But thanks for asking.
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