Perfect Records

It's another one of those classic music questions:

What's an album you listen to from beginning to end?

Now, some will say that they never skip a song but, let's be honest, I'm guessing most of us do.

Thus, it's the question of a "perfect" album, if you will.

For me, it's easy to say The Beatles and, well, are there any songs I skip?

If you know, you know.

I do think Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a fairly perfect album, but I'll admit that I've often been guilty of skipping George Harrison's "Within You Without You." But, with age and wisdom comes a deeper appreciation of George and, by extension, the song. Thus I'm not so quick to bypass it anymore.

But let's head over to the album officially called The Beatles, shall we? There it sits -- all eight minutes and 22 seconds of sonic stuff.

"Revolution 9."

You know it.

"Number nine. Number nine. Number nine."

As one might say, "Rubbish."

So, yeah, basically everything else but that can be played from beginning to end. Specifically, A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, and Let It Be are all effortless.

And, yes, basically every step of the Huey Lewis and the News catalog falls into this world as well for me, but I'll especially note Picture This, Sports, and Fore!

Billy Joel chimes in as well, with high marks for The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass House, and The Nylon Curtain. As much as love Turnstiles, the song "James" is just too much of a 70s curio for me.

In the jazz world, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is perhaps the most magical trip one can take. The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out is as smooth as butter.

I should mention that this list is not meant to be perfect. I'm sort of cherry-picking the albums that I can listen to from beginning to end and know I'll forget many.

I'm hoping it will get you to consider the same.

I'll also add, as always, that this is all subjective. I've grown over time. Some albums are here that wouldn't have been here at one time while others have fallen. Tastes change.

The world has lost the art of the album to a large extent and I suppose that makes the question -- asked by Eric Alper on X (Twitter) so pertinent to me.

The album still matters in its own way, much as batting average does to a segment of sports fans. It matters in its own place, I suppose.

Is Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys in this category? To some, yes. Where others might pick a different Rolling Stones album, such as Exile on Main Street, I'd pick Let it Bleed, which finds the Stones in an interesting time before the insane excess of the 70s.

The Globe Sessions by Sheryl Crow remains a deeply important album to me and I spun it from beginning to end just recently, inspired by the documentary of her that I watched. Radiohead's The Bends and OK Computer take me back to the turn of the millennium.

Then there are what one might find as difficult choices. Making Movies by Dire Straits is a fantastic album but ends with a bit of a clunker in the song "Les Boys." It's a song that I don't automatically bypass given it's the last song. But if lyrics rattle you then you're best to skip it. "Run For Your Life" at the end of Rubber Soul is another song that can produce eye rolls.

I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't also include two Pink Floyd entries: The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Both just go places and, at least for me, are an excuse to check out (and no, that doesn't involve any herbal assistance to do so). But Floyd can also be polarizing between often being overplayed and Roger Waters' sheer narcissism.

Duke by Genesis, almost inarguably the best and the peak of their post-Peter Gabriel era work, is an excellent listen. While I overall prefer the art rock of the Gabriel days, Duke is solid from end to end.

I must also throw in Tapestry by Carole King. An album that came out in 1971, I feel like my sister raised me on The Beatles and this record, and fifty-two years later, it stands up as great as ever.

So if it's Rumours by Fleetwood Mac or something else, an album is meant to be a journey. The concept album mostly began with Frank Sinatra's work on Capitol Records in the 1950s, with In the Wee Small Hours being a masterpiece. For the record, one wants to check on a friend who is playing his Only the Lonely record for what I think are obvious reasons. 

In the live album department, Sinatra at the Sands is basically perfection. One might groan at the spoken  "Tea Break" segment but I find it to be a comedy act from a museum. Also basically perfect is Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison.

So I'm quite certain I'll press "publish" on this and regret not mentioning some album that I enjoy every piece of.

I hope -- even if you don't say what it is -- you'll consider some options of your own as we give the art form of the album some well-earned respect.