Albums that preceeded the Magnum Opus...

And "Thriller" has some meh to worse songs, too. No album with "The Girl Is Mine" can be a total winner.

So we don't "all know" that "Thriller" was MJ's artistic peak...

 

Not sure I agree that "Exile" gets more acclaim than "Sticky Fingers" or that "Sgt. Pepper's" gets more acclaim than "Revolver". Especially unsure about the latter, as that tide really seems to have turned in recent years...

 

??? This one comes AFTER Led Zep's acclaimed "landmark album"...

 

That's my favorite song on that album. An incredible collaboration between MJ and Sir Paul Mccartney. Definitely one of the highlights of that album.

 

How does it feel to live alone on that island?

I love Macca and I like MJ but "Girl Is Mine" is as duddy a dud that ever dudded. I still can't figure out how two talents could produce such a relentlessly bland song...

 

What do you think of their collaboration from Off The Wall?

 

I don't view "Girlfriend" as a collaboration - it was MJ covering Macca. I've heard that Macca wrote it with the idea MJ might record it but the two didn't actually work together on it.

"Girlfriend" is... okay. I prefer the Wings version to the MJ take, but neither does a lot for me.

Prefer either/both to "Girl Is Mine"!

 

How about "Say Say Say" or "The Man"?

 

What's curious is that 25 years ago, Sgt. Peppers would have been the near unanimous pick as the top Beatles album (and best ever pop/rock album), Somewhere between then and now its been supplanted by Revolver as the greatest album ever. Which is fine with me.

My choice as best predecessor to a magnum opus is:

 

Definitely Nebraska.

 

That's assuming Born in the USA is Springsteen's high water mark rather than Born to Run.

 

Vampire on Titus>
Bee Thousand

 

The Cure "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me"

 

So do I, but .......................Revelations is the entire second side so ................. (not disagreeing, just a special case.
Many like the first side of second Blondie album as much or more than Parallel Lines, but the side two gives it all away.
side one of Rave Up is stupendous but then side two ..............................etc

 

Excellent post. I've long felt the same way about certain albums in relation to their better-known, more acclaimed follow-ups, and I would only add that it's the groundbreaking , uniform excellence of albums such as Revolver and Sticky Fingers, that whet the appetite for what followed, leading to the overpraising. In other words, they are praising the previous album as well. I'm in the minority, but I've long felt that The Bends is far superior to OK Computer. Yes, it's experimental and hints at what's to come, but it is more focused and song-oriented. After all, we're talking about pop music here--the songs are the most important thing...

 

I`ll play Milestones more often than Kind Of Blue.

.....And Justice For All more than Metallica`s Black album.

 

I've come to believe that the Springsteen albums that bookend Born to Run--The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle and Darkness on the Edge of Town are his finest works. Born to Run is good, and probably contains his best song in "Thunder Road", but the production is seriously dated. And it spawned the Bat Out of Hell.....

 

Great record all the way through, especially for its moody vignette numbers (reminiscent of "Ode To Billy Joe"), the classic covers, the classic drinking songs and the rousing opener "Nice 'n' Easy" and closer "I Do My Swingin' At Home." You can really hear producer Billy Sherrill and Charlie locking down what would become his signature countrypolitan sound.

After a comp, Epic's next Charlie Rich release (three years later, he was cold after Boss Man) was Behind Closed Doors.

 

One that comes to mind is Fear of Music by Talking Heads.

 

Tom Petty - You're Gonna Get It!
R.E.M. - the EP and first four LPs
The Bangles - All Over The Place
Replacements - Let it Be

 

I too love Macca, but he did it with Stevie Wonder as well. Ebony And Ivory matches Girl Is Mine in the duddiness stakes. And I love Stevie too!

 

Fleetwood Mac s/t much better than Rumours for me.

 

Why didn't I think of Axis? Agreed 110%

 

Beach Boys Today. Drop Big Daddy for The Little Girl I Once Knew or Guess I'm Dumb and, even more so.

 

I think "E&I" is a step up above "Girl". The latter is just so lazy and lame. At least "E&I" has a decent melody - tone down the production and I think it'd be a better song...