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

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."