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

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