What makes an album good in your opinion?

Al B. Sure! · November 12, 2003, 01:39

what seperates an album that you find amazing from one that is mediocre?

to me, its quite simple... can i listen to it multiple times through? many cds i listen to one time and often I get bored half way through or I can't bring myself to listen to it a second time through. Even months later, i can not listen to the cd again. other cds, i can listen to through but not constantly. maybe once every few weeks.

a few albums, however, as soon as i'm done listening to it the first time (with me conflicted between rewinding songs or continuing through the tracklist), i'm eager to listen to it again. its all about playability.

what about you?

Drake Tungsten · November 12, 2003, 01:40

I want my albums to have street cred. I don't want no punks from the suburbs trying to act like they from the ghetto and ****. ****ing posers...

Dis · November 12, 2003, 01:41

If I'm still listening to it, then it must be good. We'll give it a time frame. If I'm still listening to it after a year, then it is a good album.

Urban Ranger · November 12, 2003, 02:14

Good songs on the album.

monolith94 · November 12, 2003, 02:45

I only listen to Wiggles albums.

Ted Striker · November 12, 2003, 02:47

if it has more than 2 songs that don't suck

Berzerker · November 12, 2003, 02:57

If I buy a CD with only 2 or 3 good songs I make a compilation and won't see the original CD any more as it joins the dust heap with all the others.

That's why I like Rush and Pink Floyd, some of their albums are good all the way thru.

Hueij · November 12, 2003, 03:26

An album is good when it has Paul McCartney playing base on several John Lennon songs.

Drake Tungsten · November 12, 2003, 03:40

I prefer John Lennon singing backing vocals on several Paul McCartney songs.

Nubclear · November 12, 2003, 03:42

It has to be free for me to buy it.

self biased · November 12, 2003, 04:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Ted Striker
if it has more than 2 songs that don't suck

by that qualification, disturbed's 'believe' would be a good album. and it isn't. as much as i like them, mudvayne's second offering 'the end of all things to come,' is borderline at best.

for me, an album has to speak to me as a cohesive whole. every song a part, but when taken together, more than that.

examples of good albums:
nine inch nails: the downward spiral, the fragile.
sepultura: roots.
johnny cash: american IV.
david bowie: space oddity, the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars.
fear factory: obsolete.
audioslave: audioslave.

examples of poor albums:
fear factory: digimortal. good in concept, poor in execution. next time, let's not bury the cymbals.
disturbed: beleive. this is more regurgitated crap from them. the first album was okay, this one could have been good, or even great. i'm rather disappointed.
tin machine: any album. just goes to show, that they all can't be winners, eh, mister bowie?
korn: issues, untouchables. lacks both energy and motivation. sounds simply uninspired.
marilyn manson: holy wood. i'm a big fan, but again, uninspired.

Dis · November 12, 2003, 04:40

most of my metal albums I like every single song.

I've never been one of those people who like only 1 or 2 songs. I love all music. Every song has some redeeming feature to it.

Let's discuss:

Metallica's new album- panned by many as horrible. But I do love every song. Even the weaker songs like purify and my world. Those are the worst songs on the album, but they do have some redeemable features to them, and I won't change them on my cd player when they come on.

Every Tool song on every Tool album. I love them all. Though lateralus has a couple of slow songs sometimes I'm not in the mood for. But they are pretty cool as well.

Every Iron Maiden song on the first 7 albums.

Every Sepultura song on most of their albums I love.

I just can't get enough. I love it all.

self biased · November 12, 2003, 04:46

diss- i really liked frantic, but i get the impression that metallica's forcing the vibe, and trying to be something they're not. to be honest, i think i'd rather listen to something off of load or reload.

i agree with you on tool, though. god, they're fantastic, gifted musicians. my current favorites at the moment are 'stinkfist' and... i think it's 'disposition' off of lateralus. the one that goes: "watch the weather change..."

Dis · November 12, 2003, 04:51

well I won't disagree that they are trying to force something. Especially evident on St. Anger with that rap-metal singing bit (bust out, bust out). I'm curious what will happen in the future. How long can such a heavy band go? They aren't exactly the style of the rolling stones. You would think there is a limit to how old they can go and still maintain a certain style.

self biased · November 12, 2003, 04:57

dare i say it, i think metallica's always been a little on the soft side. imean, take a look at max cavalera. that man will be spewing bile until he's eighty, and has to have his orderly help him headbang.

i'm curious: what do you think of the three latest sepultura albums, Against, Nation, and Roorback? i've got to give derek green credit. he's not doing a bad job from what i've heard on Nation. it's just the rest of the band that's gotten sloppy.

Dis · November 12, 2003, 05:20

Roorback? Damn, and I call myself a Sepultura fan. I was unaware a new album came out.

Nation took a little while to adjust to. But I like it. In fact I like it better than Against. Against had a few good songs, and many good riffs. But none of the songs really stand out. I'll have to check out Roorback.

self biased · November 12, 2003, 05:28

heh.. i splurged and bought the import of nation, complete with a cover of 'bela lugosi's dead' when it was released a couple of years ago.

Mister Green's got some mighty big shoes to fill, and he doesn't do a wholly lackluster job of it, either. i'm more dissappointed in Andreas. sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. igor to some extent, too.

i'm still kinda in the dark about what exactly happened to drive max from sepultura. i've been mostly too embarrassed to ask.

Sikander · November 12, 2003, 07:55

I'd say that a good album has at least a majority of good songs. Secondly, those songs should work well together so that you'd almost hate to listen to one alone without the others.

molly bloom · November 12, 2003, 09:56

Oh this is a hard one....

Songs and music help, so do words, and covers...

But seriously. Some albums possess a sound, a particular all encompassing atmosphere, that lasts over both sides- I'm thinking Roxy Music's first two albums, 'The Velvet Underground and Nico', Patti Smith's 'Horses', Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', David Bowie's 'Station to Station' and 'Low', Sly and the Family Stone's 'There's a Riot Going On', Brian Eno's 'Music For Films', Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn', Magazine's 'Real Life', Siouxsie and the Banshees 'The Scream', Emmylou Harris 'Wrecking Ball', 10 000 Maniacs' 'In My Tribe', P.J. Harvey 'To Bring You My Love', Aretha Franklin 'Live at the Fillmore West', the soundtracks to 'Koyaanisqaatsi', 'The Wicker Man' and the original 'Get Carter' and 'Assault on Precinct 13'....

Other albums, although good enough in some ways, seem more like a random assemblage of songs, that just don't gel. I'm thinking of things like Siouxsie and the Banshees 'Join Hands', the Stone Roses 2nd album, Talking Heads' 'Speaking in Tongues', St Etienne's 'Good Humour'...

All I know is that the first selections were albums that when first purchased on vinyl were played repeatedly, without losing their fascination. The kind of thing where I sat with a paper tablet in hand, crouched in front of the speaker, trying to get all the lyrics down (when lyric sheets didn't automatcially come with the album), where I'd get up an hour earlier before school just to run through the album before breakfast, where seemingly trivial details on the album covers could loom large in the imagining...

Of course that's in the days when album covers were real objets d'art- not glorified postage stamps in jewel cases that crease and tear flimsy paper sheets.

Tripledoc · November 12, 2003, 10:02

Complexity. The devil is in the detail, as the saying goes.

Theben · November 12, 2003, 11:51

If you can listen to an album all the wat thru then it's a good one.

monolith94 · November 12, 2003, 12:21

Basically, this sums up everything a good album should be:

http://members.aol.com/bocad/lb_one.jpg

Brundlefly · November 12, 2003, 12:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Albert Speer
what seperates an album that you find amazing from one that is mediocre?

long as they go real deep on that thug sh*t, it's all wood...

Buck Birdseed · November 12, 2003, 14:45

Tricky. Songs are much easier, but I keep finding exceptions to any theories I posit for what makes a good album.

1. A truly great album should only have great songs on it, if it fails the "nearly every song a potential single" criterion there's no need to go futher.

...but I've got at least one album I love with only one good singular song on it (the rest are all partially-structured sketches that run into each other), but rather a mood running through the entire thing. Silverbullit's Citizen Bird is the falsifying case.

2. A mood has to run though the entire thing capturing the magic of a recording session.

...but I've got at least one album I love which consists of a series of singles released over a two-year period with only their nominal genre in common. There's still a consistent mood but it's down to the group rather than the session. The Paragons' On The Beach With The Paragons is the falsifying case.

3. A truly great album should have no lulls in the quality but should keep a consistent high level throughout.

...but I've got at least one album I love with some dull crud in the middle but great songs flanking beginning and end. Kraftwerk's Autobahn is the falsifying case.

Aaaargh!

rev · November 12, 2003, 15:24

Well, I think there are two types of 'albums':

1. A collection of songs; and
2. A musical work, start to finish.

Most CDs are examples of the former. Examples of the latter: Pink Floyd, "The Wall" ("Dark Side", yada, yada), Guster, "Lost and Gone Forever", Coldplay, "Parachutes".

For an album of the latter to be good, IMHO, it either has to run a full gamut of emotion seamlessly or it has to cover a single set of emotion or a set of closely-related emotions.

For an album of the former to be good, it merely has to have consistent production and sound, with no reason to skip or rearrange tracks.

Albums that are a musical work, start to finish, however, have greater capability of being timeless.

Al B. Sure! · November 12, 2003, 20:46

damn don't yall listen to any real music? i can understand no rap but come on... don't you like music that sounds good not this rock ****? yall need to listen to some earth, wind, and fire, stevie wonder, d'angelo, prince, brian mcknight, r.kelly, maxwell, musiq, isley brothers... come on.

Immortal Wombat · November 12, 2003, 20:57

AS: The big difference between the artists you list (or at least the one's I've heard of) and "rock ****" is the difference between songs and music. Songs as songs are fine, but they are limited by what can be expressed in terms of the human voice, and the capacity of language to express concept, emotion, etc. Music bypasses expression.

rev · November 13, 2003, 03:50

I highly recommend the album "Deltron 3030" by "Deltron 3030" (aka Del Tha Funkee Homosapien).

That is an album.

molly bloom · November 13, 2003, 05:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Albert Speer
damn don't yall listen to any real music? i can understand no rap but come on... don't you like music that sounds good not this rock ****? yall need to listen to some earth, wind, and fire, stevie wonder, d'angelo, prince, brian mcknight, r.kelly, maxwell, musiq, isley brothers... come on.

I was unaware that Aretha Franklin, Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, Kraftwerk and Brian Eno counted as rock and all that sheeit, let alone the soundtrack albums I mentioned. Of course, Albert , you realize you didn’t ask for a comprehensive list of people’s listening, or favourite albums, so don’t expect to get an enormous spectrum of music reflected in the albums mentioned.

I could have for instance, listed as some excellent albums D.J. Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, Massive Attack’s ‘Blue Lines’, Portishead’s ‘Dummy’, Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’, Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’, St Etienne’s ‘So Tough’, Billie Holiday’s ‘Songs for Distingue Lovers’, albums by Leftfield, Shara Nelson, Shirley Brown, Gil Scott Heron, Mahalia Jackson, Alberta Hunter, Memphis Slim, The Four Tops, Terry Callier, Nina Simone, Julia Lee, Solomon Burke, Mory Kante, Baaba Maal, Roni Size and Reprazent, Goldie ....well, you get the picture.

monolith94 · November 13, 2003, 05:58

Also, Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield are great too.