h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Inspired by a comment by Mr Dreadful in the "buying music" thread, I'd like to pose a new question. Which albums, in your opinion, should be or are meant to be listened to in their entirety, rather than a single track (or single) at a time?

If there's a particular reason you think so, I'd be interested to hear that, too.

For example, from my own collection, Hüsker Dü's "Zen Arcade" and Roger Waters's "Radio KAOS" are arranged so as to be linear story lines.

And some are just too enjoyable to take off until they've been played through.

Please share your suggestions here!

Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds'. (I know, I know, but I like it ) Now and again a track is plucked out of it and played on the radio, and it just doesn't work. You need to submerge yourself in it, preferably on a long drive in the dark in the middle of nowhere.

Christy Moore's "Traveller". It's an album he put together after coming back from some kind of breakdown, I think, and not quite his usual thing. There's some powerful material on it - but it's a bit other. It just wouldn't fit if you cut bits out of it and put it on a 'best of' compilation. It needs its own context to come together as a whole.

'The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld'. I've heard several mixes of 'A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain...' but the one on here is fabulous.

Another one is The Hoodoo Gurus 'Mars Needs Guitars' - there's not a single duff one on there. Once 'Bittersweet' starts, just two strummy things of the guitar, you're hooked until the last note of 'She'. I listen to it loads when I'm playing Forza (beats listening to the some the crepe that the game itself plays )

Most Floyd, natch.

'2112' - Rush, or at very least the whole of what used to be side one. (They're re-releasing it with a few added extras - I won't be buying it. I already have it on 2 formats - 3 if you count the fact that I've ripped it to me hard drive)

I'd also add Simon Hinkler and Mark Gouldthorpe's 'Flight Commander Solitude and The Snake' It's a bit loopy, but again, you can't really stop once you start.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I'd say no albums should be listened to in their entirety, if you don't fancy the endurance.

Way back, I can remember feeling I 'ought' to like certain unlikeable bits of albums, and when I came to tape the album I'd feel I ought to include those bits. These days, I don't care, and will even cut a track short if I don't like the ending of it.

I'll second War of the Worlds. People get really snobby about it but I think it works really well. And you have to listen to all of it because Richard Burton's voice is so lovely. The songs don't really work at all on their own, I recently heard the Gary Barlow version of Forever Autumn which is a nice enough song - but without that bit of Burton's narrative in it, it is just a fairly nice song. As part of the whole it is quite beautiful.

Dark Side of the Moon, I suppose, and the Rick Wakeman King Arthur thing spring immediately to mind.

And John Mellencamp's The Lonesome Jubilee if you're going for an album that is just stuffed full of great songs. Every one of those is totally fabulous.

I knew we'd had this conversation before...

F19585?thread=3643606

"I recently heard the Gary Barlow version of Forever Autumn which is a nice enough song - but without that bit of Burton's narrative in it, it is just a fairly nice song."

Don't listen to the "New Generation" album then. Gary Barlow's insipid Forever Autumn is a high point.

Low points include Joss Stone, some goon with a massive forehead trying to sing Spirit of Man in a fake Jamaican accent, and a horrendous narration by a sleepwalking Liam Neeson.

It's all on Spotify. Avoid.

glad to see we're broadly consistent

Surprised nobody's mentioned Tubular Bells.

Amarok was written specifically and deliberately to be a single long unsplittable track.

It's quite a hard question, I think, because although I can think of many albums that are all-killer-no-filler (including "Killers" by Iron Maiden), I can think of relatively few that actually only work heard in their entirety and which lose something if you hit "skip".

"Wish You Were Here" would be one, though.

Also, and this may simply be a personal one, "Abbey Road" - the whole thing, both sides, not just the medley. It's just so well constructed. Other Beatles albums are available...

"Misplaced Childhood" and "Clutching At Straws".

the convo Icy linked to up there ^^ was interesting to read 6 years later... although the question is slightly different this time.

Another album for me is Songs to Remember by Scritti Politti - but that may have more to do with the time I bought it and who used to listen to it with me.

" I'd say no albums should be listened to in their entirety, if you don't fancy the endurance."

If listening to a whole album is a feat of endurance you're doing music wrong.

While there are many albums where I like all the tracks but can happily listen to any of them in isolation, there are those I find far more fulfilling if I listen to the whole thing:

In the Court of the Crimson King: an Observation by King Crimson
Dark Side of the Moon - Floyd (in case there was somebody unaware of this)
Altar - Sunn O))) & Boris
Black Masses - Electric Wizard

There are probably more too, but I cannae think of them right now.

Anything by Roger Waters. Plus The Wall and Wish You Were Here. Dark Side of the Moon is better as an album too.

Also anything by Polyphonic Spree, there's one or two tracks that could be singles, but they're far better as albums.

I'm really looking forward to playing any of my albums which you all have mentioned here all the way through sometime soon (as soon as I have all the CDs unpacked). And there are some I don't have which have me intrigued enough, I may have to borrow them.

>Polyphonic Spree<



Seconded. They're aboslutely superb live as well, Pastey, if you ever get the chance.

Only found out recently that Polyphonic Spree have done a lot with David Bowie, which really explains a lot of their sound.

Jean Michel Jarre - "Equinox"

The Sisters of Mercy - "First and Last and Always"

Enya - "And Winter Came"

Y.

Well, I would have done if I had got here before you did. I'd go further.

If you have the time and inclination, I would recommend listening to his first three albums one after the other at one sitting.

Tubular Bells
Hergest Ridge.
Ommadawn.

I'd stop there (and there is a train of thought that Olders should have as well).

PP.

Pretty much anything by OM... I recommend OM to everybody.

The point of buying a "greatest hits" or "best of" album is that you won't have to listen to any second rate material. I have about 150 of such CDs, and they seem to be working okay. I was listejing to Tony Bennett's greatest hits last night, and I heard Leonard Cohen's greatest hits this morning.

As for the albums that those hits originally came from, there are web sites that compile lists of greatest albums, such as:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/alexvankamp/the_top_100_albums_of_the_20th_century

Is your favorite album on that list? If not, should it be? Does the list contain some names that you had forgotten about?