Remove one song from an almost perfect album to make it a perfect album

Oh god, so OTM.

Herein lies the power of iTunes - one swift delete and these songs are erased from history (or my iPod, at least).

Of course there are loads of famous Beach Boys ones - Student Demonstration Time and Transcendental Meditation being two. Controversially, I'd have left Good Vibrations off of Smiley Smile as it totally ruins the mood of that album.

i'm new here. what's OTM mean?

Take the tracks from the EP you've got left and include them as bonus tracks on the end of Love.

I know that's two.

So, so right.

Also:

Take "Don't Stop" off The Stone Roses
Take "Someone Like The Moon" off His'n'Hers

Oh well, whatever...I'd purge "Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be" from Let There Be Rock, "Tea For One" from Zep's Presence, "3-Minute Rule" from Paul's Boutique and the title cut from Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy.

Oh, and "Dreams" from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Nothing wrong, I just don't like it.

Maybe "The Murder Mystery" from The Velvet Underground.

I don't like "Good Vibrations" tacked onto the CD and tape versions of Endless Summer.

I've never much liked "She's Out Of My Life" on Off The Wall.

"O My Soul" is a good song, but a rather sluggish (and lengthy) opening for Radio City.

More:

"Thorn Tree In The Garden" from Layla.

"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)" from Discography (Pet Shop Boys)

"Snappin' & Trappin'" from Stankonia

"In Love With You (ft. Stephen Marley)" from Mama's Gun (Erykah Badu)

Comments?

I totally agree with you. However, I'm looking at Aquemini and Stankonia, and I don't know what I'd take off. I picked on "Snappin' & Trappin'" because it follows "Gasoline Dreams," "So Fresh, So Clean" and "Ms. Jackson," and just kills the momentum.

On a side note, "Kim and Cookie" is the best thing ever.

wack???!!

Take "Stand" off of Green. It wouldn't end up a perfect album, but for me it'd make it the last early REM album instead of the first late REM album.

Shouldn't it be "Songbird"? That's the dud one for me.

BTW, yknow what another good homogenous album is that ive never seen mentioned here? cass mccombs's A. a friend of mine pointed out that listening to the whole thing makes him feel totally drunk, and i agree.

I would submit "Within You Without You" from Sgt. Pepper to this unglorious list.

Why do we need a John Cale wank piece in the middle of a rockin' album?

I went into greater depth about that here...

In Praise of....It'll End in Tears by This Mortal Coil

This isn't a bad song at all but it's the only song on this stupendous double album that smacks, just ever so faintly, of filler. It was perfect already but removing this song would push it over the top into transcendence, probably.

White Music - All Along The Watchtower
Go2 - My Weapon
Drums & Wires - That Is The Way
Black Sea - Sgt Rock
English Settlement - Melt The Guns
Mummer - Wonderland
Big Express - Shake You Donkey Up (replace it with Red Brick Dream)
Skylarking - Dear God/Mermaid Smiled
Oranges & Lemons - Pink Thing
Nonsuch - Wardance
Apple Venus - Fruit Nut
Wasp Star - Standing In For Joe

Gah! Blasphemy! I love "My Weapon"!

Don't know if these deletions would make the record perfect, but I generally hit the skip button when they come up.

... and i still cant decide which one is better

I'm pleased that no one has wanted to axe Girlfriend In A Coma yet.

Heresy! And it's called "We Will Fall." This song is pure evil. Play it at -8 sometime and get back to me.

Also, delete "Old Man" from Love's Forever Changes and make me a happy camper.

Moz slagging other people off = rubbish, Moz slagging himself off = grebt.

Perhaps to the hundred million folks in India, but I've got my problems with it.

Yes, it's nice thoughts and all
Yes, it's quaisi-authentic musically
But what, just what, does it represent in the Sgt. Pepper context?

Let's just say that when I get to hell that'll be the appropriate log-in music.

I really can't stand "Rio". I mean, REALLYREALLYREALLY can't stand "Rio". But the damn album's NAMED Rio and doesn't really work with any other title, so... crap. Maybe if they substituted "Rio Pt. 2", featuring a lengthy keyboard-centric instrumental, the album would be a LOT better than it already is.

More recently, I think The Wedding Album would've been #2 in my list of favorite albums of all time had "Shotgun" and "UMF" been replaced by "Fallen Angel" and "Time for Temptation", two b-sides from that era. No, wait -- had that happened, it would've been my FAVORITE album overall. Hm. I think I sense a CD burning project. ;)

-- Wooden (josephgoode...), August 11th, 2004.

Maxwell's silver hammer is one of my top 5 favorite songs about a man bludgeoned with a hammer, easily!

BEAUTY, NOT UGLINESS, BEAUTY.

Agreed. Lots of the needless "Hey ----HEY"s could've easily been jettisoned.

Murder Mystery? Are you insane? That's like one of the best Velvet Underground songs, especially during the Yule-era.

I'm close to saying Hit the Plane Down from Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, but I don't have the guts. It's the only Spiral Stairs-song on the album, but far from his best work I'm afraid.

What on earth!? This is one of my favorite tracks! What would be yr complaint against it?!

Hon, I think we'll just have to agree to disagree then. Because I was never really incredibly enamored of the song to begin with, and that combined with the fact that I got so burned out on that particular track made me joyous when I finally upgraded from cassette to CD and thus could actually skip it.

And if you're going to take anything at all whatsoever off of Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, take out "Cut Your Hair". It really doesn't go well with anything on Side 1 in the first place. But overall, that album isn't almost perfect. It's near perfect.

There are a lot of albums I habitually skip songs on, it's odd.

it's supposed to be a musical variety show, no? so they could perform pretty much anything and it would fit.

@#&%@$*&#$*@$&*$%^@$&@$#*&!@*($^!*#($^!*#($^@#$*^@*#$&*#Q$&!(*#$!#*($#!$

I am appalled.

I think I'm just at odds with the Nick Drake canon; 'Way To Blue' is easily my least favoruite track off 'Five Leaves left'

Inspired by a very long road trip and some catching up with old favorites:

Key Lime Pie: perfect if you remove the Status Quo cover (which I can't stand)

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret: "Frustration" bums me out. I confess I skip "Tainted Love" these days and start the album at track 3, but I recognize "Tainted Love" as a superb song, I just don't ever need to hear it again.

"I Made a Lover's Prayer" off G.Welch's Soul Journey. Not awful, but it's the one dirge that album doesn't need; esp. where it lands in the running order.

"I Believe in You," After the Gold Rush.

Downtown from the first B-52's album.

No one mentioned "Escape" off Ride The Lightning?

I don't hate the song personally and I think Ride is Metallica's finest moment (it showed that them pandering to rock radio in 1984 was way better than them pandering to rock radio a decade-plus later) - but it is low-hanging fruit.

I Got The News

Which is fine, but not as perfect as the rest of the songs on Aja

i would rate _ege bamyasi_ so much more highly without "soup" - and i love "aumgn".

Kitchen Person this is so otm

Alan Parson's Eye in the Sky would be perfect sans "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned"

There is a Beach Boys best of compiled by Brian Wilson himself that is fantastic save for the re-recorded B-side they tacked onto the end for no good reason

I'd take Pride off Unforgettable Fire, let it just be a single.

Take Maggot Brain off of Maggot Brain!!!

― sexyDancer, Wednesday, August 11, 2004 8:05 AM (12 years ago)

this hurts me

Take the token Gilbert & Sullivan songs off the Todd Rundgren albums that have them.

"I Believe in You," After the Gold Rush.

― clemenza, Monday, August 15, 2016 7:32 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://mrwgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Get-Out-Simon-Pegg-In-Hot-Fuzz-Gif.gif

take Super 8 off Jason Isbell's Southeastern

I'd take "London Calling" off that Clash album.

My first thought was to take "Jazz Police" off I'm Your Man, but that was covered upthread.

I'd also take "Meet Me In The Morning" off Blood on the Tracks and "Not Now John" off The Final Cut.

the label pushed CVB to do "Pictures of Matchstick Man" didn't they?

I didn't know that! It makes sense, though.

I Got The News

Which is fine, but not as perfect as the rest of the songs on Aja

― you think Lou Bega gave up after Mambo Number One??? (voodoo chili), Monday, August 15, 2016 9:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ 100% otm

Take Streets of Fire off Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Take "Young Lovers Do" off Astral Weeks.

WHAT THE

I thought the same, I had a similar reaction to appeals to take Revelation off of Da Capo and Across the Universe off of Young Americans.

Surprised the removal of "Nothing Like You" from Miles' Sorcerer hasn't come up yet.

Take "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound.

Mind Gardens should never have made it's way onto Younger Than Yesterday. Same with Space Odyssey on NBB.

Golden Birdies could go from Clear Spot, although it's short enough to not cause too much bother.

Court and Spark would be better (perfect?) without Twisted.

"It Ain't Easy" off Ziggy Stardust... almost too obvious

'Love's In Need of Love Today' from Songs In the Key of Life

during the 1970s, free jazz drummer tony oxley moonlighted as a visual effects designer for the bbc, contributing effects to shows such as the doomwatch episode "tomorrow, the rat" and the doctor who episode "the ark in space".

wrong fucking thread! sorry

well I learned something interesting, so I'm glad you posted it here

Ditto. I knew Oxley was a painter (and his orchestra works off his graphic scores), but had no idea about his visual effects past.

'Love's In Need of Love Today' from Songs In the Key of Life

― H.R. Giggles (Old Lunch), Tuesday, August 16, 2016 4:10 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:-(

yeah, no way. NOTM

also, if you get rid of "I Got the News", you lose that all of a sudden "Michael McDonald takes the wheel" bridge into the guitar solo

well I learned something interesting, so I'm glad you posted it here

― heaven parker (anagram)

the thread it was intended for the false pop trivia thread!

SITKOL is one of my favorite albums of all time but that first track is such a dirgey speed bump, ugh. I'm sooooo OTM.

This will cause outrage, but I've never had much time for "Lowdown" on "Pink Flag".

'Love's In Need of Love Today' from Songs In the Key of Life
― H.R. Giggles (Old Lunch), Tuesday, August 16, 2016 4:10 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Crazy talk (but I know it's a common idea) : such a fabulous track. As spiritual and soulful as it gets. One of my favourite feel good tracks ever !

I don't hate it but it's like, well, listening to Woman In Red before listening to Songs In the Key of Life.

also, if you get rid of "I Got the News", you lose that all of a sudden "Michael McDonald takes the wheel" bridge into the guitar solo

― it's sort of a layered stunt (sheesh), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 16:17 (50 minutes ago) Permalink

Yeah, I mean I like "I Got The News"--I used to skip it, but now I embrace its herky-jerk weirdness.

it's just a little too arch, even for Steely Dan, and is just not on the level of the rest of the tracks (a high bar but still).

It is super fun to play, though.

I'd take Ain't That Peculiar off Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan. It just doesn't fit at all.

I'd take It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night off Sign 'O' The Times or at least chop off half of it. I'd say the same about Bogus Man on For Your Pleasure.

I'm tempted to say the title track on Parklife but there's probably a couple of other songs that could go too.

This will cause outrage, but I've never had much time for "Lowdown" on "Pink Flag".

― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.)

i think it should be replaced with "lowdown" by boz scaggs

I'd say the same about Bogus Man on For Your Pleasure.

No way, that's the centerpiece/focal point/eye of the hurricane/some other cliche of the record. And it's the "hoo boy, how'd they get there? And how are they gonna dig their way out?" which then makes "Grey Lagoons" that much more thrilling.

I really dig the meandering on some of those early Roxy songs.

remove "no hands" from flockaveli

"left & right" on voodoo

"Make Me Proud" from Take Care (sorry not sorry)

"Bugs" from "Vitalogy"
"Fitter, Happier" from "O.K. Computer"
"Since I've Been Loving You" from "Led Zeppelin III"

No way, that's the centerpiece/focal point/eye of the hurricane/some other cliche of the record. And it's the "hoo boy, how'd they get there? And how are they gonna dig their way out?" which then makes "Grey Lagoons" that much more thrilling.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat),

I do like the groove and how it leads into Grey Lagoons but I just find myself wishing it was a little bit shorter every single time I play it.

I think it's brilliant, it reminds me of later post-punk music like associates or PiL

remove no hands from flockaveli

More accurately, remove Wale's verse from no hands

Kanye West - Drunk & Hot Girls from Graduation
Nick Drake - Poor Boy from Bryter Layter
Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At? from Rooty
Bjork - It's oh so Quiet from Post
The Go-Betweens - River of Money from Spring Hill Fair
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver from Sound of Silver
Prefab Sprout - Horsin' Around from Steve McQueen
Soft Cell - Seedy Films from Non Stop Erotic Cabaret
Joni Mitchell - Twisted from Court & Spark
Miguel - The Pussy is Mine from Kaleidoscope Dream

Electrelane, "Business Or Otherwise" from Axes.
Boris, "Blackout" from Pink.

EPMD - You Had Too Much To Drink from Unfinished Business
Brand Nubian - Try To Do Me from All For One
Eric B. & Rakim - Eric B. Made My Day from Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em
Pavement - Hit The Plane Down from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Prefab Sprout - Horsin' Around from Steve McQueen

No no no.

Steve McQueen is still one of my favourite albums ever but I really don't think that song fits with the rest of the album.

Soft Cell - Seedy Films from Non Stop Erotic Cabaret

this is madness

xp Horsin' Around would maybe sound more at home on Swoon? but I couldn't countenance removing it from Steve McQueen, I love it too much.

probably an obvious suggestion, but I think REM's Out Of Time would be much improved by the elimination of 'Radio Song'.

(the other obvious REM suggestion would be to remove 'Ignoreland' from Automatic For The People, however in this case the obvious suggestion is WRONG as 'Ignoreland' is great and I LIKE the fact that it doesn't really fit with the rest of the album, so there)

and I generally like REM in goofy, poppy mode! love 'Can't Get There From Here', 'Stand', 'Shiny Happy People' etc - but they seemed to fumble it with 'Radio Song'.

Soft Cell - Seedy Films from Non Stop Erotic Cabaret

this is madness

― Wimmels, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 1:16 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Indeed! One of my favourite tracks on there.

somebody's gonna kill me but... "towers of dub" off of uf orb

man ilm crazy i love "It Ain't Easy" from Ziggy

Lily, Rosemary from Blood on the Tracks

I'd remove "4 Ever 2 Gether" from Lexicon of Love. Never liked it and it seems totally out of step with the rest of the record.

somebody's gonna kill me but... "towers of dub" off of uf orb

at least you didn't say 'sticky end'

I'd like to remove 'Mother' from the Police's Synchronicity.

I'd remove "Archer on the Beach" from Destroyer's Poison Season

I'd like to remove 'Mother' from the Police's Synchronicity.

― Austin, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 11:21 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Fla

I know, it's like, "Who brought the Freud to this Jung party!"

Nah, disagree. 'Mother' is great, IMO.

Remove Meat Is Murder from Meat is Murder ....

― svend (svend), Wednesday, August 11, 2004 9:53 AM

I wasn't going to say anything, Austin, but I'm with ya.

Worst songs on each of a favourite artist's albums

I think "Mother" on Synchronicity ownz this thread.
― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, August 11, 2003 2:09 PM

Albums you can't listen to because you hate one song on it so much

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Synchronicity. You can't even enjoy Side 1 because you know that "Mother" is just around the corner, waiting to pounce on ya.
― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, October 28, 2003 12:21 AM

C/D: Songs Not Sung By the Lead Singer a.k.a. Take 5, D., Mick, Michael, Stephen, J., et. al.

Don't even get me started on "Mother" from Synchronicity.
― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, September 20, 2004 12:34 PM

should I add any songs by the Police to my iPod?

"Miss Gradenko" is damn cool. However, any song following "Mother" would sound pretty cool.
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, June 7, 2005 2:03 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, my favourite by theirs is Shame on a nigga.

I'm still a little fond of Synchronicity, so embarrassing

been waiting for mother to come up itt so i can firmly oppose its suggestion, sry if synchronicity listeners object to being briefly awoken

lily rosemary and the jack of hearts is a painful but good one tho -- i love the lyrics and many moments of delivery but nine minutes of bum-BUM-bum-BUM-bum-BUM-bum-BUM was an error

almost feel like knocking "Red Eye" off Duty Now For the Future and having it end with "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA" would be nice

Synchronicity is such a great album that I can enjoy it, even with 'Mother.' But, jeez, they tried damn hard to screw it up.

'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' is quintessential Blood on the Tracks. I can't only not imagine the album without it, I'd venture to say it would be worse off with its absence.

I'm cool with this version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penVzLsOuyg

Frontier Psychiatrist

lily is definitely one of the best on that album. though as with most of blood on the tracks I prefer the ny session except for maybe idiot wind

Meet me in the morning is the dud on that album imo

"Home Tonight" from Aerosmith-Rocks. a conventional ballad closing the band's most aggressive, focused effort to date kinda takes the wind out of the sails at the end.

for some reason the Big Star thread made me want to listen to Murmur, and I can't help but think that record would be perfect without the hokey 'We Walk'.
of course, that was the tip of the iceberg I suppose with REM and hokey, but try going from Shaking Through-West of the Fields and tell me it isn't better.

Hunky Dory minus "Kooks"

i'm with you on that one

home tonight is a good call. has anyone said hippie boy yet?

Remove Meat Is Murder from Meat is Murder ....

― svend (svend), Wednesday, August 11, 2004 9:53 AM

― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, August 17, 2016 5:31 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would have agreed with you if I hadn't gone back and reevaluated this album recently, but my post-high school findings are that MIM is mostly a dog. Easily the worst Smiths album, and if you don't think so, listen to them all back to back and tell me it isn't glaringly obvious. Tedious, joyless record.

Motorhead - Overkill: Capricorn
Unconvincing spacey thing smack dab in the middle of a bunch of perfect locomotive self-combusting hardrock/early metal/whatever

I mean it's still perfect with that song, but without it, it would be perfecter

cut "sex machine" from _stand!_

Good one. There's absolutely no need for Sex Machine to be 13 minutes long. It totally kills the momentum.

Remove "Make You Feel My Love" from Time out of Mind.

You are SO RIGHT THERE. I've never understood why so many people cover it. Terrible song.

cuz it's so generic that anyone from Garth Brooks to Bryan Ferry can imprint a personality?

My pick:

remove "Come Around" from Kala

otm. "Paper Planes" would be the perfect closer.

"Wendell Gee" from Fables

Good-bye, Wendell Gee

Oh hai, can I not has "Leave Me Alone" off Power Corruption and Lies? Oh thanks, ta,

Nooooooo

can we not has Mark G on this thread?

move "We all stand" so that it ends the album and we're good.

Yep, like that one.

It's mainly because I got the cassette box thing in Oxfam, and I played it in the car.

The original cassette I bought back in the day had "Blue Monday" and "The Beach" ending each side, and that's also good.

Lady Grinning Soul from Aladdin Sane

Youd have to leave out a lot more to make that a perfect record imo

nope

(to both posts)

has no one else here thought the same about "we all stand"? i have nothing against it, it just feels awkwardly shoved in there between the faster tempo jams. and "leave me alone" really sounds like a penultimate song to me for some reason.. don't know why or how. swap "ultraviolence" with "your silent face" also, the latter is so powerful as a side-opener and the resulting first side becomes all uptempo etc.

Michael Jackson's Thriller - take out the ghastly "The Girl is Mine"

has no one else here thought the same about "we all stand"? i have nothing against it, it just feels awkwardly shoved in there between the faster tempo jams. and "leave me alone" really sounds like a penultimate song to me for some reason.. don't know why or how. swap "ultraviolence" with "your silent face" also, the latter is so powerful as a side-opener and the resulting first side becomes all uptempo etc.

When I discovered the album in high school, it was the most mysterious track -- it's a koan or poem set to music. That eerie synth flute playing along with the "Life goes on" eventually hooked me. I hear it as an experiment to which they never returned but is most welcome.

Pixies - Silver from Doolittle
Erasure - Sixty-five Thousand from The Innocents
My Morning Jacket - Into The Woods from Z
Haim - My Song 5 from Days Are Gone
Elastica - Indian Song from Elastica
Goldfrapp - Oompa Radar from Felt Mountain
The Divine Comedy - Freedom Road from Absent Friends
Charli XCX - Hanging Around from Sucker

love Oompa Radar and can't imagine Felt Mountain without it, best ever 60s film soundtrack pastiche

I always thought it was just a bit too silly and kind of ruined the mood of the album.

I guess I can see that - but the whole album is walking on a knife-edge of overly-mannered silliness, I think the fact that it just embraces it on Oompa Radar adds to the overall effect, also keeps things from getting boringly tasteful.

To make Aladdin Sane perfect
- Remove Let's Spend...
- Remove or go back in time and re-write/re-record "Panic in Detroit" (better vocals, and make the main riff not sound like some babyish preschool nursery)
- KEEP IN Lady Grinning Soul (seriously wtf?)

nursery rhyme*

You can make it an almost perfect 7" EP by putting Drive-In Saturday and Aladdin Sane on the A-side, The Jean Genie and Lady Grinning Soul on the B-side

it's got a great cover, but it's not a great album

Remove "Cat Food" from In The Wake of Poseidon.

"Time" and "Cracked Actor" (that guitar sound!) are actually my favorites off the album. I think maybe the mark of a great album is that everybody disagrees about what the best stuff is on it.
Anyway, it's maybe the first time glam really entered creep-out territory where the decadence is mean-spirited rather than kitschy (proto-Marilyn Manson, except not shitty), which is something "significant" in my book

Feel "Time" is kinda overwritten and never liked the chorus of "Cracked Actor" much, sorta clumsy lyrics? But yeah, nothing wrong with a divisive album

xxp I like Cat Food, but it is a bit of an outlier. Remove it and you'd basically be listening to In The Court part II

remove "Lyrical Gangbang"

almost wanna say remove "She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina" from Arthur but the album really doesn't work as well without it! Who'da thunk it

... also it's great.

See, what looks like filler is actually "light relief"

Remove "Hippy Boy" from The Gilded Palace of Sin. I've listened to that album around a hundred times; I've heard "Hippy Boy" maybe twice.

OTM removing "Lady with the Grinning Soul" would be criminal !
The only song I hate on Aladdin Sane is "let's spend the night". Awful.

Feel "Time" is kinda overwritten

What do you mean ? lyrically ?

Yeah, lyrics don't do much for me - a bit pretentious, lack humor, that wanking line always annoyed me - but mostly the composition and scope of the song always seemed to me - wrongly, perhaps - a failed attempt at repeating or outdoing what was so effortlessly achieved w Life on Mars

hum. OK. Well, his lyrics were often kinda pretentious and humorless in these days, weren't they ? (the whole Burroughs, cut-up approach...).
I like "Time" a lot although it's not a favourite. To me it's more a 20s cabaret/Kurt Weill hommage than a remake of Life on Mars.
It's darker and more decadent so the lyrics fit pretty well.

Yeah, I like the Brecht/Weill mood opening - but where's the storytelling?

Is Time meant to be a personification if so what's up with "Time – he flexes like a whore / Falls wanking to the floor" apart from empty provocation?

"We should be on by now" is a good line, also nice melodically, but the "La la" melody is Bowie trying to be awful clever as I hear it

But no more hating from me

While it does groove, i could do without...

"Hyperactive" from Thomas Dolby's The Flat Earth

This idea for the Flat Earth is really intriguing.

the recording or the theory? ;)

I wonder what of ppl listening to Paul McCartney's Tug of War bother with "Ebony and Ivory", and what % just turn it off at the end of "Dress Me Up As A Robber"? I'm not sure that Tug of War would quite make a *perfect* album even without "Ebony and Ivory", but I'd certainly put it in the category of "albums that are really good the whole way through and then have an incredibly bathetic final track"

Remove "Goin' Home" from Aftermath.

the theory. I re-listened to 'The Flat Earth' though and concluded that removing 'Hyperactive' would make it more internally consistent.

regarding "Ebony and Ivory" I've never hated that song (the melody is nice) but totally understand why people would hate it (the production, arrangements..., among other things !).
the demo version is pretty sweet. very simple. a kind of lullaby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dioouGXLiRg

Tug Of War is a remarkably strong and overlooked album, but I'd be tempted to take off 'Ballroom Dancing' too. The other Wonder collab on that album is a slammer!

There are no perfect albums. They're all flawed in some way.

you're flawed in some way

As is everyone, including you. Well observed, by the way. Gold star.

But, y'know, to be fair, I've never once thought that XTC were an "'80s synthpop band", so clearly the ability to listen and comprehend what I'm hearing isn't one of those flaws.

I like the "Ebony and Ivory" demo as well, that version would have fitted nicely on McCartney II. I think the song would be a lot more tolerable as one of McCartney's non-specific "why can't we all get along" neurotically-anxious-under-the-surface lullabies, rather than awkwardly trying to make it "about" racism.

I always stop Help! before "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". Feels tacked on.

I always skip "Something Big" on Jim O'Rourke's Eureka. Those fucking singers and that chorus... I mean, I know there's gotta be some intertextual reason for having the Hawaiian chorus in there, just like the over the top SNL sax on "Through the Night Softly," but when that "THERE'LL BE JOY AND THERE'LL BE PLEASURE" warble comes on I abandon ship.

Surprised the removal of "Nothing Like You" from Miles' Sorcerer hasn't come up yet.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, August 16, 2016 10:03 AM (three weeks ago)

Haha, just discovered this album and did a search to see if this was mentioned

I'd suggest removing "It Ain't No Use" from The Meters' Rejuvenation... It's not a bad tune per se, but a sprawling 12 minute hippie rock jam on an album full of tight incredibly funk numbers (the second longest tune is less than half the length of "It Ain't No Use") feels wrong.

Also, remove "Purple Rain" from Purple Rain. The rest of the album is filled with energetic pop-funk numbers and idiosyncratic slower jams ("The Beautiful Ones"!) exploring Prince's psychosexual tics in ways rarely heard in mainstream pop. And then it ends with a pointlessly stretched-out, run-of-the-mill hair metal power ballad with lyrics that'd make Bom Jovi proud.

I like "Purple Rain" but I agree it's the least interesting song on the album.
Also I have never liked "Let's go crazy" much...
The album would be better with "Sex Shooter" and "Jungle Love" instead !

And "Erotic City"!

"Let's Go Crazy" works better as the 12" extended mix, and "I Would Die 4 U" even moreso. In fact, the 10 minute version of the latter is clearly the best single from the album.

is there an equivalent thread where you add one song to a classic album to make it better ?

cos PR with "Erotic City" would be great indeed !

yall are INSANE

Bon Jovi's spirited use of cliches is not to be confused with Prince's simplicity, not to mention the use of a striking image (uh "purple rain").

Maybe so, but even with genius lyrics it'd be by far the most boring song on the album.

Challops

"My Rival"

thought you were talking about like flies on sherbert for a second and was ready to internet fight you. anyway back on track, i've been listening to green's s/t a lot and technology, while not awful, seems pretty unnecessary and is the only track i ever skip on this record.

"Born in a Mourning Hall" on Blind Guardian's Imaginations isn't a bad song, but it kind of lags in between two great ones....so that one.

Yes, I'll match him whim for whim now" is the key Gaucho lyric.

i don't know if there's a thread about it, but my platonic image of the first roxy music album includes "virginia plain". same goes for _nothing can stop us_ and "shipbuilding".

Hymn of the Big Wheel

"Bodysnatchers"

Remove "Across The Universe" from Young Americans.

Remove it, place it in lead lined box and dump in somewhere in the North Atlantic. Talking of shitty Beatles' covers, someone please build a time machine and go back and tell Jimmy Webb to not to bother with a finger popping version of "Ticket to Ride" and not to stick it right in the middle of the 5th Dimension's "Magic Garden", like fresh dog turd on fine Persian rug.

... lost an 'a' or two there.

this is probably not going to go down well but I don't think removing "Beside You" from Astral Weeks would harm it much

It's not my favorite song, but it's certainly one of Richard Davis' more intriguing performances on the record. And less Richard Davis would make for a worse Astral Weeks.

I think I might prefer an instrumental version

the sequencing doesn't help it any either

Blasphemers

Ornette's Town Hall 1962 is pretty much perfect (and the equal of any of his Atlantic LPs) if you lose "Dedication to Poets and Writers"

Take Shot With His Own Gun off Elvis Costello Trust.

take "single file" off the elliott smith s/t. it's not awful by any means but it doesn't live up to the rest of the album

"Wendell Gee" from Fables

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, August 22, 2016 2:37 PM (six years ago)

WTF(?!)

“Deeper Understanding” should have been omitted from The Sensual World

“Stay Away” from Nevermind (even though I really like the guitar melting with Cobain’s voice on the refrain; “Even in His Youth” should have taken its place)

Not sure I'd delete any tracks from Rumors, but I'd absolutely close it with "Silver Springs."

Yes to Stay Away. Even in His Youth would have been better.

“Stay Away” from Nevermind

illegal opinion

“My Little Problem” from All Shook Down is corny AF. It wouldn’t be a Replacements album without something self-consciously anti-earnest, but I don’t like this one.

Going the other way, I kind of love notorious perfection-interruptor “Student Demonstration Time”. Anyone else?

"Box 25/4 Lid" from The Soft Machine, (apart from the 90s CD which also has Volume Two, then it functions as an intermission between LPs)

I still skip 'The New Stone Age' from Architecture & Morality, I don't really dislike the song, it just sounds so terrible, the horrible, out-of-tune guitars mostly.

It does have a brilliant outro though, so I will skip/rewind and listen to that bit.