Name a record without a single dud song on it.

I just came back from a road trip with 3 friends and we couldn't find any clear winners Closest albums we could all agree on were:

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys: we agreed the instrumental title track is kind of a dud and Sloop John B is our least favorite but it's pretty much perfect.
All Things Must Pass by Harrison: excluding 'I dig love' and the apple jams which we all think are duds, it doesn't have a clear dud on it, does it?
Murmur by REM: disqualified for 'we walk' which we all agreed was a dud.
I also vouched for Bjork's Homogenic because I can't hear a single dud in there. The others couldn't agree if Pluto and Alarm Call were duds and one of them hated Bjork, there was no consensus.

Paul's Boutique

kind of blue

szell conducting mozart's 39, 40

the nightfly

johnny mathis - merry christmas

james brown - funky christmas
vince guaraldi - a chalie brown christmas

the smiths - the singles

sarah vaughan live at mister kelleys

Portishead - dummy

sarah vaughan live at mister kelleys

mod request - remove the smiths - the singles

xp yes, that album rocks so hard! a straight american genius just throwing down

Secrets of the Beehive

The smiths singles wouldn't qualify since it's a comp.... vaugh live at mister kelleys is a masterpiece but I don't know if it being live and filled with covers counts.

Maybe also:

lush life by coltrane/hartman

would be a good choice

First time hearing Fagen the Nightfly. Liking this one!

Four more that I can't find a dud song in them (but surely someone somewhere will):

Mingus - Black Saint and Sinner Lady
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Arthur Russell - World of Echo
Talking Heads - Remain in Light

i approve

Joni Mitchell - both Blue and Court & Spark
Steely Dan - Aja
Eno - Another Green World

"i'll come running to tie your shoe" is horrible

on land is really really close to flawless

can't believe some people don't like some songs

everybody's got a hungry heart

The first five Ramones albums as originally issued (without the extras).

We Walk is the best song on Murmur.
Pet Sounds (the instrumental) isn't a dud at all.
but those albums aren't without their duds

Primordial - To the Nameless Dead

^^^^^^^^ otm

Loveless, there I said it.

Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden

"Not a weak track to be found"

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

Depeche Mode - Violator
Metallica - Master of Puppets

Name an album that is great from start to finish..
Albums where every song rules
Top 5 Perfect Albums.
Albums with no fillers whatsoever (or at least that what you think)

12 years ago
10 years ago
9 years ago
4 years ago

The Clientele - Strange Geometry

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

B-52's - Wild Planet.

Debut almost made it too, but I'm not always in the mood for Downtown.

Randy Newman - Sail Away

Simon Bookish - Everything/Everything

computer world

Since it's been on my mind lately — Led Zeppelin, Presence
Obv there are deluded souls who think it's all duds, but

I think looking at the original question there are two ways to answer: 1. every track on the record on it's own is great or 2. every track fits together to make a cohesive album where you couldn't imagine anything changing about the order and how it flows together.

I'd thing for version 1, I'd put up Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited as every one of those songs is really amazing.

There are a lot of albums I could put under version 2 as I couldn't imagine anything changing in say Music Has the Rights to Children, Dark Side of the Moon, A Love Supreme or say In A Silent Way but perhaps pieces of those records if heard just on their own and not in the context of the entire album might not hold up as well.

last time i thought this was listening to the first cheap trick album. also the reason why i don't feel the need to own any paul mccartney records. probably feel this way about the first three cheap trick records actually.

transilvanian hunger

dirty mind

actually the cheap trick was more of an all great kinda thing. though there is one song on that album that i think is just good. not great. no duds is easy. i own a zillion records without any duds. i'm listening to one right now. you've never heard it, but trust me, it's all good. all great is harder.

Name an album that is great from start to finish..
Albums where every song rules
Top 5 Perfect Albums.
Albums with no fillers whatsoever (or at least that what you think)

― scarlett bohansson (unregistered), Monday, September 21, 2015 7:11 AM (12 hours ago)

12 years ago
10 years ago
9 years ago
4 years ago

― koogs, Monday, September 21, 2015 7:22 AM (12 hours ago)

eh, if I can prevent one person from starting a new thread on ilm...

first album that always comes to mind is Nick Lowe's Pure Pop For Now People

(I'm actually serious I'm listening to it right now and it sounds perfect but it's 3am)

Oh I got another one:

The Books - Lost and Safe

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

(Should I keep ducking?)

I guess Fiery Furnaces qualifies, in that all the songs are duds.

Haha I can't explain why I love them so much nowadays, whenI used to hate them with passion. You can blame Matthew Perpetua. I remember giving them a chance because he was always raving about them. I think the first song that hooked me was "Waiting to know you" reminded me strongly of another song from the 60's I love: Irma Thomas "anyone who knows what love is.

I love her voice but I know the quirkyness in the lyrics and the music is too much to handle most of the time. If it helps, they keep bouncing between endearing and embarassing for me.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:00 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed. also Feels by the ac

Fugazi - 13 Songs
Fugazi - Repeater
Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Fugazi - In on the Kill Taker
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Fugazi - End Hits
Fugazi - The Argument
― JRN, Monday, September 21, 2015 10:07 PM (Yesterday)

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
ha
hahahaha
hahahahahaahahahahaha
hahhhahah

ha

No duds on the 3 Songs EP, Furniture EP, or the demo, either.

hahahahaha

Now for my big closer: no duds on Instrument Soundtrack!

i will agree with that since guy p doesnt say anything on it.

ABC - The Lexicon Of Love
Associates - Sulk
New Order - Technique
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Minnie Riperton - Adventures In Paradise
Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
Television - Marquee Moon
Prince - Dirty Mind
Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
Cameo - Word Up
David Bowie - Station To Station
The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too
The Blue Nile - Hats
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One
John Foxx - Metamatic
Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth
Britney Spears - Blackout
Insides - Euphoria
Aaliyah - Aaliyah
Duran Duran - Rio
Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas
Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
Supergrass - In It For The Money
Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4
Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs
Suede - Dog Man Star

Sleep - Dopesmoker
William Basinski — El Camino Real

us maple - talker

in the aeroplane over the sea

kanye west - graduation

Van Morrison - Moondance

Hounds of Love

Depeche Mode - Violator
Metallica - Master of Puppets

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, September 21, 2015 10:53 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM (x2)

Van Morrison - Moondance

No way, but Astral Weeks fits.

No way, but Astral Weeks fits

nah, Beside You fucks the vibe up track two. Moondance is perfect all the way through. Forget how many times you heard the song Moondance on the radio, that thing was magic once upon a time. It still is. The album is as good as it gets.

close to the edge

Stone Roses s/t

The Very Best Of Des O'Connor

The Beatles - Abbey Road

Abbey Road features a dud medley instead.

Abbey Road features a dud medley instead.

― Vic Perry, Tuesday, September 22, 2015 5:59 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Beatles - Revolver and Stevie Wonder - Innervisions are my go-tos for this. checked out all these threads and agreed with many of the selections. I realized The Spinners - Mighty Love fits the bill for me too. also just remembered The Meters - Rejuvenation is another love 'em all.

revolver and hard day's night are the only beatles albums that fit this category for me. maybe past masters vol. 1, but the german-language songs are a bit distracting.

same for me though "When I Get Home" seems a more negligible cut (than tuthers) on A Hard Day's Night. I still like it though!

reading the two currently active threads on this topic I realized that ~ peaks and troughs be damned ~ the perfect albums (as opposed to but certainly overlapping with personal faves) are ones where there's not a cut you love a fair bit less than the others.

this thread allows for a lot more leeway, since lots of albums have no outright duds, but the other open thread great from start to finish
requires that all cuts be better than adequate.

for me this excludes Wire - 154 cos I like "Once Is Enough" a lot less than the other cuts (though it's fun to see the live video of it) and to be honest there are a handful of tracks I like a lot more than the others.

also, Talking Heads - Remain In Light, absolutely LOVE all of side one plus "Once In A Lifetime" and "Seen And Not Seen", but merely like or slightly meh about the other 3 side B cuts, which I understand are some people's faves...

I agree, plenty of albums have no duds, which doesn't even necessarily make them great albums.

"Once is Enough" is insane! wwwoooooooooaaaahhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHH and all that metallic clatter. "My advice is simple." That last song though, whatever it's called, I find it as boring as most of those kinds of experiments to actually listen to regularly.

I enshrine More Songs About Buildings & Food, not a single wasted second, completely satisfying unified start to finish sonic experience.

x-post bit:
still, I like the bassline/rhythm of "Houses In Motion" and the music of "Listening Wind". but "The Great Curve" and "Once In A Lifetime" really jump out from that record for me.

post-Vic:
so as you say I find the previous (all 3?) albums more steadily strong start to finish.

"40 Versions" has a great Bruce Gilbert lyrical content/concept though - presumably about the diverse potential personalities that exist in us all (well, most of us...). there's that line inspired by Castenada about reality existing in the spaces between things. probably sounds best on headphones or cranked up because of the production effects. one of 154's flaws is it tends to dazzle the head instead of stick in the heart. it still took over my life for a year or two.

I only heard 154 for the first time about six years ago, and I've been content to just slowly warm up to it. I've liked it the most when I'm traveling somewhere new.

Let's see. I think 77 has some trivial junk, but I always love to hear "New Feeling" "Book I Read" "Pulled Up" and probably some more too. But "First Week, Last Week" and "Who Is It" are so forgettable, "No Compassion" is ordinary (complete with a dumb false ending), and most of all I Always Hated that "Psycho Killer" is permanently considered a major TH song, to this damn day!! something every writing on them just has to mention. When I was a teenager I thought "Don't Worry About the Government" was a profound statement but now I think it's warmed over, bubblegummed Jonathan Richman. I don't get why they left better songs like "Clean Break" and "Love Goes to Building on Fire" off their first album, but I'm not sorry they did.

Fear of Music, Side One is unassailable. As with MSAB&F, I love every second, it's a masterpiece, it's like nothing else on earth, etc. Side Two is pretty great (and is also like nothing else) but over the years "Drugs" and "Animals" and "Air" have slipped for me as listening experiences, and of course there's "Electric Guitar" which I have a soft spot for, but it's still kinda not quite.

Um, Remain in Light. I nod sometimes during side one (songs one and three) and more often on side two (after the undeniable Once In A Lifetime). Huge downturn in ambition with the lyrics. (Once in a Lifetime excepted). Musically I prefer the less well-regarded My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

but Astral Weeks fits ...

nah, Beside You fucks the vibe up track two.

OTM.

sign O the times (changed my mind about "the cross" earlier this year)

Revolver is mostly great but it has that yellow turdmarine song that disqualifies it also that Harrison song which is perhaps his least memorable tune ever written, I cant remember its name even. Ditto for Abbey Road with Maxwell Silver Hammer. It's fine if you like them but they stand out like a sore thumb in otherwise great albums.

xp "the cross" is an amazing track!

I think I prefer Rubber Soul at least looking at the tracklist I don't see anything I would skip.

Rubber Soul > Revolver for sure

the real answer is: so many records qualify, but here are a few where legitimately every song is amazing

the blue nile: hats
sonny sharrock: ask the ages (do... most jazz albums qualify?)
scritti politti: cupid & psyche
debarge: in a special way
aerosmith: rocks
celtic frost: to mega therion

though lol most of my favorite records of all time actually incorporate at least one thing that could be considered a dud. also feel like i'm always talking about the same three records on here and on the general internet (hats, c&p, in a special way) literally all the time

Are there any duds on Voodoo? i mean, i don't think so as it's my favourite record ever but maybe other people feel differently

listening to katatonia's dance of december souls rn and i love every second of this record, add that to the list

Can - Future Days

Moka, do you mean "Love You To"? it's often referred to as the least of Harrison's Indian-style tunes. but turn it up and you'll hear this fabulous bracing drone sound, an Indian(?) instrument which sounds like reversed gated/cutoff distorted guitars (more Tago Mago or post-punk). I find the song simultaneously minimal and enveloping: a washing machine tumble of sound. speaking of bracing, that opening salvo of Taxman>Eleanor Rigby>I'm Only Sleeping>Love You To as a sequence must have sounded like terra incognita in 1966. it's not until Here, There... that we're back on more familiar ground.

"What Goes On" is a dud (or at least dull as hell) for me on Rubber Soul. understandably some people hate "Run For Your Life" too (even Lennon himself?) but I first heard it in less PC times so I never took it that seriously. certainly has nothing on "Tomorrow Never Knows" as a closer.

dunno if I could ever consider "Yellow Submarine" a dud or turd, but then again I was 3 when it was released so target age for it as children's singalong. I was later scared seeing the film in the cinema at a young age (6?) so it still has an acid-eeriness for me.

Hunky Dory.

Every Beatles album has at least one track I don't care for.

Wire's 154 is the only one of their opening salvo filled with junk

junk in the good or bad way?

do you mean "The Other Window"? Gilbert's probably my fave lyricist/vocalist of them lot. in a way it's the first taster of Dome. better lyrics than "The Gift" anyway. deliciously dark/morbid wit ~ Robert Holmes and Hinchcliffe (and Saward) woulda loved it.
Rolling Stone: Wire, Get Out Of Marienbad

"The 15th" has junk lyrics of the best kind.