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

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.