Albums that you know are going to be brilliant within the opening 20 seconds of the first track

Inspired by Mark Prindle's review of Kid A where he makes a similar 5-second claim, and brought to life by hearing Wire's 154 for the first time. As soon as I heard the opening chord-cycle of "I Should Have Known Better" it hit me just what level the band were operating at.

I don't want "stunning intros" that could be flashes in the pan, I want albums that demonstrate within their opening few seconds a stunning and arresting musical agenda that promise amazing things to come.

Presence

Keep It Like a Secret did this for me.

Hex Enduction Hr.

Monster Movie.

Stars of the Lid - And the Refinement of their Decline (honestly, 10 seconds in I knew what I was in for).

Ekkehard Ehlers - Plays

Galaxie 500 - This is Our Music.

Trout Mask Replica, of course.

The Cure - Disintegration

Metal Box

i can totally hang with trip maker's and curtis' choices

Nevermind

The Millennium - Begin

on the mouth

"Appetite for Destruction"

Moon Safari

Three Feet High and Rising

Bee Thousand
Born to Run

i feel in love with Technique immediately. later came to hate Fine Time and more recently fell in love with it again. so, uh, Technique!

Slanted and Enchanted

Dragnet

Nation of Millions
Stands for Decibels

Sung Tongs

Kill Em All
Enter the Wu Tang

Avalon

Watery, Domestic

Las Vegas
From Here We Go Sublime
Untrue
No Way Down

sung tongs!

The Queen Is Dead, give or take a few seconds

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/N.W.A.StraightOuttaComptonalbumcover.jpg

"you are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge."

I wonder what the quickest one is, subjectivity granting.

That would surely be Nevermind

nah it takes almost 10 seconds for the drum entry! sure we can do better than that

I knew I was going to love Vitruvian Pan by Thee Majesty ~0.2 seconds into the first track

Sticky Fingers

Exile On Main Street

I wonder what the quickest one is, subjectivity granting.

― restraint and blindness (Just got offed), Monday, November 10, 2008 1:28 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Opening snare crack and on Highway 61 Revisited

Led Zeppelin III: well under a second

october rust

OK maybe longer than 20 sec but: Paul's Boutique

oh shit there's a rly obvious one that nobody's said yet probably because it is too obvious

Out of the Blue?

nono it is mbvious than that

hang on where did i put my oreo

Vanilla Ice? No wait, that's reverse oreo...

no wait, he's a reverse oreo with white cream on the inside too

a custard cream

I'd actually argue that In Utero is a better choice for this than Nevermind.

I was going to say that the obvious one is Kick Out The Jams - but that's track two

2112

SIAMESE DREAM?

http://www.metrolyrics.com/images/albums/8900thesundays_reading.jpg

Reign In Blood

that Sundays album is faceless except for one track though

and that track is not the opener!

Whoever said Dragnet upthread is totally OTM.

Is there anybody there???? Yeeeeeesssssssss!!!!!!

Absolutely joyful.

I'd say Definitely Maybe fits the bill.

http://www.merryswankster.com/images/Blur_Parklife_large.jpg

of albums that you know will be awful without having to listen to them, sure. xp.

richard d. james
silent alarm

Definitely Maybe is a good album! But, alas, Oasis is a band whose legacy has been sullied by every subsequent album they put out. If everyone had died in a fiery plane crash right after that album, it would be held up as the classic that it is. It doesn't even sound like the same band that put out that "Wonderwall" crap.

No.

joy division - closer

I started listening from side 2, but 20 seconds into Haert & Soul I knew it was everything I was searching for.

wtf at the oreo shit

fastest I ever figured this out was with Loveless

No.

how familiar are you with this album. Be honest.

The oreo shit was a bit of stupid wordplay on my part, basically referring to Matos' suggestion.

Yeah, corny indie fuxor whatever, but Arcade Fire's Funeral did this to me, immediately. Also, Pulp's Different Class and The Smiths' Hatful Of Hollow.

Disintegration was the first thing that came to mind. Also, AMC's "mercury"

i think my first 20 seconds with loveless was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with my headphones

Wasn't talking about you, LJ, more res and his unnecessary Vanilla Ice comment.

Sorry Black Seinfeld. My bad.

LOL

hahaha okay, apology accepted

I never knew the words "Sorry Black Seinfeld" could bring so much joy into my life

:D

^ slightly compressed

Most of my favorite albums are like this...

Priest = Aura
A Storm In Heaven
The Perfect Prescription
etc...

Priest = Aura is always like 20 quid when I find it in record shops ;_;

The Low End Theory

Brian Eno - "Here Come The Warm Jets"
Kraftwerk - "Trans Europe Express"

David Bowie - "Ziggy Stardust"

Can's "Ege Bamyasi" was like this for me. I first heard it when I was about sixteen, ten seconds into Pinch I had already decided that this was my favourite album ever. (Which it isn't, but I still love it.)

Marquee Moon fits the bill too.

Nation of Millions

I would argue against that, at least from the perspective of a US listener. "Huh? Hammersmith Odeon? What the fuck? What is this, a live album? What the hell's going on?"

The Who Sell Out (horn blasts alternating with computer-voiced days of the week)

And while we're at it, Live At Leeds.

And The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, McCoy Tyner's forbodingly dissonant voicings of the "Chim Chim Cheree" chords.

And any and all Dumitrescu.

Priest = Aura is always like 20 quid when I find it in record shops ;_;

good lord, there were dozens of these laying around for .99 cents last year in the bay area

"The Hoople" - Mott The Hoople

In fact, there are four tracks on that album that would make cracking openers, apart from the actually opening number.

how familiar are you with this album. Be honest.

I need not be familiar with the album to know that it is not great, however, I say No not to your album in particular but the conceit of the thread in general.

I think it works with Mott, too. I love that piano riff on "All the Way from Memphis." And its just so nice when the rest of the band kicks in.

Pretenders
In Color

Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"

AC/DC-If You Want Blood You Got It

Amps buzzing leading into Riff Raff, crowd out of control

Pretty sure I could easier think of albums that couldn't (and didn't) follow through after an initially exhilarating opening. Most of my long-term favourites required at least 3-5 playings to announce themselves as stunners. And as for albums that I rightly recognized as stunners on first playing, the realization generally takes 2 1/2 songs to kick in. I'm sure there's some kind of semi-conscious "rule-of-three"-awareness instinct involved.

The Low End Theory

― a hoy hoy, Monday, November 10, 2008 8:17 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

oh fuck how did i not think of this

i have been known to just rewind to hear the bass and opening lines multiple times

http://www.student.uib.no/~ane041/1%20-%20Fotoprosjekt/homegrown-dodgy.jpg

"Have mercy on me, sir/ allow me to impose on you"

among others

Tears for Fears, The Seeds of Love, is in this category for me, though I know I'm very much in the minority on that.

Stretchheads, Five Fingers, Four Thingers, A Thumb, A Facelift and a New Identity
Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance

Other stuff

Curtis Mayfield, Curtis (the bass groove, the double-tracked vocals)
Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come and Science Fiction (Charlie Haden bass / launching right into discordant theme)
Fuck the Facts, Disgorge Mexico (wow wow wow)
Gilberto Gil, Expresso 2222 (flute insanity with afro-brazilian percussion)
Nina Simone, Forbidden Fruit (proto-industrial cymbal clank in 3/4 time, then she howls out "Rags! Old iron!")
Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music Vol. 1 ("Humph"!)
Funkadelic, Maggot Brain (wins this category outright)

dazzle ships
so

A Love Supreme

^ yes, for sure

Along the lines of Maggot Brain, Locust Abortion Technician, though it might take a little more than 20 seconds to get to "yes son"

A Frames S/T: so jagged and precise and atonal, then it breaks into that big chorus with the amazing hostage crisis metaphor.

The US Version of the Clash debut was like this for me too: Clash City Rockers was everything I was looking for at 14, having just worn out the early Who.

*funky acoustic bass line*

Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the Abstract listening to hiphop
My pops used to say it reminded him of bebop

Raw Power (especially the remixed version)

*eerie synthesizer noises*

When I was young, my father was famous.....He was the greatest samurai in the empire....and he was the shogun's decapitator........He cut off the heads of a hundred and thirty-one lords......It was a bad time for the empire....

XTRMNTR, thought it has faded for me a bit over the years.

Most recently: Tha Carter III

Gang Of Four Entertainment
Slayer Reign In Blood
Neil Young Zuma
Television Marquee Moon

John Coltrane - Giant Steps.

There are way too many albums where this seems true on first listen and turns out to be false. So I question the use of the word "know."

another OTM for Low End Theory

esp because I actually had that thought the first time I listened to it.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!"

The Modern Lovers

Birthday Party The Bad Seed ep, duh

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!"

The Modern Lovers

― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:02 AM (1 hour ago)

oh man...lock thread.

There are way too many albums where this seems true on first listen and turns out to be false. So I question the use of the word "know."

― Albert Jeans (Hurting 2)

My point exactly

Technique and Compton seconded, along with a little album called How To Operate With A Blown Mind

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n19/dment3d/southernplayalistic.jpg

^^^probably more like first five seconds

"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection..."

A Wizard A True Star
Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome
The Dreaming
New York Tenderberry
Grace

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet...
http://missskind.no.sapo.pt/dbimg/NewOrder-Power,Corruption11312_f.jpg

How long is it 'til the 'YEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH' in Vision Creation Newsun?

MY FATHER WAS THE GREATEST SAMURAI IN THE EMPIRE...

Man Man - Rabbit Habits

Billy Cobham - Spectrum

Squeeze - Argybargy

the first verse and bridge all in 20 seconds...

Neu! 75
Here Come The Warm Jets
Odessey & Oracle
Master of Reality

Loveless OTM as well, of course. Really, most albums where texture/arrangement/production is in the foreground would fit.

There are way too many albums where this seems true on first listen and turns out to be false. So I question the use of the word "know."

― Albert Jeans (Hurting 2)

My point exactly

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 1:19 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah, didn't see your post.

In fact this used to happen to me all the time with record store listening stations.

All this thread really is = classic albums that also happen to have a really awesome opening 20 seconds.

MY FATHER WAS THE GREATEST SAMURAI IN THE EMPIRE...

I gotta call this one out, I'm thinking your confusing this with your current nostalgia over hearing those words when you pop in the album now. There were so, so many hip-hop albums in the latter half of the 90s that kicked off with spoken word samples from old movies that I find it hard to believe you would have felt anything special hearing that particular one for the first time.

There's also great creepy music during that part stfu.

And I'm counting the dropping of the beat as within the opening 20 seconds so keeping stfuing.

You don't know me.

that Sundays album is faceless except for one track though

Madness. I wonder what the sole non-'faceless' track could be though?

1984, borrowed Computer World from the library, only having vague idea what Kraftwerk were about. That.

Nag! otm about "faceless" claim = madness!. Opening track on Reading... probably the one that took me longest to get into though, so not that.

Yeah, second that about The Sundays.

Guess: non-'faceless' = "Here's Where the Story Ends"? In which case the madness is double, as it's "Can't Be Sure" which is the greatest thing on there.

But that was a single well before, so "You Know-oh" that one already...

"Souvlaki"

black celebration

New album from Nahvalr, a kind of mail-art BM project, opens with a segment from radio host Art Bell talking about underground recordings of the damned. His voice is wonderful, halfway between Tom Waits and Ken Nordine. The music that follows shouldn't be able to live up to it, but does . . just.

i'm gonna go with:

The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall (that actually might be 30 seconds tho...nevermind)
Y
Talk Talk Talk
the first Remy Zero album
E.V.O.L.
Blackboard Jungle Dub (not the real name I know...)

ON THE CORNER

Innervisions

sun city girls - torch of the mystics

Portishead's Third

Funkadlic's s/t

Plenty of albums I thought were going to be brilliant within the opening 20 seconds of the first track turned out to be, in fact, less than brilliant.

no one said daydream nation?

Usually when I have this reaction, there's an accompanying sugar hangover a few days or weeks later.

Plenty of albums I thought were going to be brilliant within the opening 20 seconds of the first track turned out to be, in fact, less than brilliant.

― M.V., Monday, March 23, 2009 9:33 PM (27 minutes ago)

pretty sure there's a thread 4 this

Albums that you THOUGHT were going to be brilliant within the opening 20 seconds of the first track, but actually....

OK maybe longer than 20 sec but: Paul's Boutique

― sexyDancer, Monday, November 10, 2008 2:03 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is insane.

Kid A
White Light/White Heat

Can - Tago Mago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRur9D354W0

If you don't count the prelude track that's before it, and the the intro on the track itself, the first 20 of Andre's verse on this is just like, oh shit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruA4efaRpKg

"I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch..."

Rory Gallagher- Irish Tour

he's tuning up and you know this is going to be a fucking killer show.

cluster - zuckerzeit

The Congos- Heart of the Congos, for the exact same reason as Loveless, weirdly enough.

fuckin' FUN HOUSE!!!!

Patti Smith - Horses

Stone Roses

Live Evil

Fun House cosign

also Hounds of Love

hi mom!

This Year's Model

I've heard less than a minute of Current 93's Sleep Has His House and I know this is going to be the best album of all time

Maybe Raw Power?

pirates

i just knew

Unknown Pleasures anyone? The slightly sluggish drums, the characteristic bass lead line with the oomph and the guitar motiv are all present in the first 20 seconds. Plus some synthesizer effects. It's all there, one of the greatest albums of all-time has just begun and you know it immediately.

Richard D. James LP probably another one.

Owen Pallett's 'Heartland' comes to mind: you hear those strings rising and you're just knocked for six.

LJ you're in for a treat, Sleep Has His House is a stone cold classic.

I've heard less than a minute of Current 93's Sleep Has His House and I know this is going to be the best album of all time

I just checked this out, and uhhh.... what are you hearing, exactly(?)

Mournful perfect bassline interjected by frolic-sad-soft folk guitar shimmer. It's a mood idk

Title track BTW - now THAT is how you construct a long ambient piece that I can get with. Just needs magick

Yeezus

The Young Gods - L'eau Rouge
Swans - Holy Money

xxp I guess the bassline isn't coming thru via my computer speakers; the first minute sounds mostly silent!

Where’s the thread for albums that give you anticipatory goosebumps in the first two minutes and then turn into a total slog

HELLO LATE NINETIES TECHNO

How about albums whose opening track initially sounded limp/underwhelming -- especially given the hype around the album -- but you quickly came around after a few spins:

SLANTED & ENCHANTED

IS THIS IT

Where’s the thread for albums that give you anticipatory goosebumps in the first two minutes and then turn into a total slog

HELLO LATE NINETIES TECHNO

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 10 October 2018 21:44 (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Plaid - Double Figure being a lovely example

d'angelo - black messiah

Miles Davis - Nefertiti
(probably other Miles albums too)

Electro-Pura by Yo La Tengo was the quintessential example of this fer me.

Phil niblock - touch food

phill

State Of Grace - Taylor Swift (the Edge-style guitar comes in just under the 20 sec line)

Most recently, Hannah Peel's Awake but Always Dreaming did this to me.

The moment the beat and subsequently Hannah's glorious vocals kick in within the first 15 seconds of All That Matters I was hooked. And the record only got much much better after every track.

Second Toughest In The Infants

Dave Holland Quartet - Conference of the Birds

Oh and Alice Coltrane's Journey in Satchidananda.

More recently whilst on an ECM jag, Rainer Bruninghaus - Continuum

Genesis' Duke begins with the powerful, fanfare-like intro of 'Behind the Lines', which has such ferocious drumming from Phil Collins. I know there's people out there that prefer Collins' solo version, but the Genesis original is the one.

Also: Suede - The Blue Hour.

Alice Cooper, "Killer".

This Year's Model

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:39 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was my first instinct too

Alice Cooper, "Killer".

― Zach Same (Tom D.), Thursday, October 11, 2018 6:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I 110% agree with this. Billion Dollar Babies has 'Hello Hooray' too, which also fits the bill.

Electro-Pura by Yo La Tengo was the quintessential example of this fer me.

good call

Xp "The Blue Hour"? Really? I never understood the appeal of Suede. Brett Anderson's theatrical mannered way of singing, his lard locke, the grandiose pompous music. Brett, wake up and make some real music like a punk album!

Kimono My House feels like an obvious example

^^^ yeah, that's a great intro: the slow fade in and then Russell's bizarre voice.

Has no one said Remain in Light yet? That big "AH!" followed by the bubbling polyrhythms and the layers of noises...

Liar

Going for some more recent picks here. . .

King Krule — '6 Feet Beneath the Moon'
William Tyler — 'Impossible Truth'
Radiohead — "In Rainbows'

post

meat puppets ii

Ege Bamyasi's another one, talk about just getting down to business

I Get Wet, maybe another obvious example, but yeah you pretty much know right away what you're in store for

Nirvana - Unplugged

Eldorado/Out of the Blue/Face the Music/Third Day/Discovery by ELO.
All the classic era Moody Blues albums.
Every Girls Aloud album.
One Step Beyond/Absolutely/Seven/Rise and Fall by Madness.
1000 Years of Trouble by Age of Chance.

I just knew within seconds each album would be perfect for me.
And they have been.
There is something about a consistent production crew and a band that I love.

New Pornographers, Electric Version

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

any solex album

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

exactly my point.
within seconds you know this is an album that's going to hit the spot.

Ovalprocess
Radian - tg11
Aerial M - s/t

Pixies - Doolitle

Debaser

bob drake's arx pilosa. "Many years ago - billions actually..." - sold.

Kraftwerk - Computer World

Took this out from the library c 1986; nodding gladly along to the initial electro perc and bass, then utterly sold when THAT little synth riff came in at 0:15. Still works.

John Martyn / Solid Air

I've heard less than a minute of Current 93's Sleep Has His House and I know this is going to be the best album of all time

― imago, Wednesday, October 10, 2018 3:40 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

about halfway through this album and loving it

weezer blue album btw

Master of Reality.

Blues for the Red Sun.

In A Silent Way.

Copper Blue.

I think this factor is what sealed Source Tags and Codes as the breakthrough Trail of Dead album, honestly

Snakes for the Divine

I have a recollection of the 3 big trip hop albums (maxinquaye, dummy, mezzanine) being mindblowing for me when I played them for the first time. Mezzanine in particular but they all tell you what you need to know about what’s ahead in 20 seconds.

30 seconds: Leftism

Agreed, Moka. Hearing those albums for the first time was transfixing and transformative from the get-go.

Dinosaur jr - You're Living All Over Me

monster magnet god says no

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

I think this factor is what sealed Source Tags and Codes as the breakthrough Trail of Dead album, honestly

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, 12 October 2018 15:36 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't there a silly intro before 'it was there that i saw you' blows the house up

Straight Outta Compton

Heh, that one's a classic instance of 'Albums that you know you're never going to get within the opening 20 seconds of the first track' for me.

first one to mind is from the choirgirl hotel

Breeders' "Last Splash"

Copper Blue.

aye

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"

crikey, Hancock's Crossings rather tears out of the gate doesn't it

Low.

Ok, how about the "Hard Days Night" referencing "Serve the servants" of Nirvana's "In Utero"

Haha, never noticed that before

Faust, s/t

The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Rosalía - El Mal Querer
Bjork - Homogenic

Steely Dan - Aja

there is so much going on in just the first bar of Black Cow. first heard it in my parents' car when i was 17 - about 9 years ago - and i don't think anything has hit me as hard as that first bar

master of reality

Ritual De Lo Habitual

Bauhaus, The Sky's Gone Out

American Music Club, Mercury

T.I. - King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58IDj9a6szM

was about to answer this, when i checked, and yeah, my answer is the same as 4 years ago.

R.E.M. - Reckoning
Aphex Twin - RDJ Album (...prob others too)

Royal Trux - Sweet Sixteen

Opening 20 seconds: Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend - swirling guitar effects resolve to a confident psychedelic blues. It had my number.

Opening 2 seconds: Tom Waits, Rain Dogs - (Squawk!)

Royal Trux - Sweet Sixteen

the Pussy Galore is better :D ;)

Opening 5 seconds: Destroyer - Streethawk

Opening 90 seconds: Can - Future days

Rain Dogs yes. I can remember the moment! My friend slapping it on the turntable, me vaguely aware of Waits as a seventies singer songwriter of some kind, maybe like Randy Newman. The squawk like a closet door opening, all these strange tools stuffed inside clattering to the floor