Great albums with no great songs?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by NettleBed, Dec 2, 2018.

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  1. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient Thread Starter

    Location:
    new york city
    It may seem counter-intuitive but I've seen the words "great album" thrown around here enough to at least wonder. Are there any albums you consider to be great, but which don't have any individual songs that you consider to be great? Can the sum of a bunch of very good songs equal a great album?

    Am interested in albums primarily comprised of songs with vocals, to keep everything apples to apples in terms of what a "song" is.
     
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  2. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Eskimo - The Residents (quite a few of theirs, actually)
     
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  3. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Frank Zappa's 1967 avant-garde masterpiece Lumpy Gravy.

    It has fantastic sound montages and song/orchestral pieces, but no great songs per se. (Although "Take Your Clothes Off" was a great song in its vocal incarnation as "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" on We're Only In It For The Money, the surf instrumental version on LG is not great.)

    Update: I might also include some other Zappa albums in this category, like Waka Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, and Jazz From Hell.
     
  4. katieinthecoconut

    katieinthecoconut Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Siekiera's Nowa Aleskandria
     
  5. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    Van Morrison’s Into the Music, maybe? Not even the singles stand apart from the rest—a collection of strong tunes with an evenness of tone that is extremely satisfying. And yet Christgau and Dave Marsh agree it all adds up to one of Morrison’s greatest albums. (OK, I’m cheating a bit because it does include a cover of a great song, “It’s All in the Game.”)
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2018
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  6. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    An album with no songs at all would be fantastic. Imagine the peace and tranquillity. Take note, The Beatles.
     
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  7. Horse Majeure

    Horse Majeure Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uleaborg
    Family ‎– Music In A Doll's House
     
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  8. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I don't think so but I know a few that are great albums that only have maybe 2 or 3 great songs.
     
  9. HE1NZ

    HE1NZ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Russia
    UK version of Between the Buttons
     
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  10. Malinky

    Malinky Almost a Gentleman.

    Location:
    U.K.
    Have you heard of.....`THE CURE`!
     
  11. jeffmackwood

    jeffmackwood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ottawa
    Dudes We're No Angels (1975).
     
  12. Andrew J

    Andrew J Forum Resident

    Location:
    South East England
    Most of the Blue Note, Verve and Impulse jazz back catalog, as well as Deutsche Grammophon label classical recordings. No songs on most of those.
     
  13. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    You have a point. It’s the vibe, sounds and experiments that counts on that one. Satanic is
    more in the ‘extreme’ with great and bad songs even though the vibe and sound also means a lot to that release.
     
  14. Jackson

    Jackson Senior Member

    Location:
    MA, USA
    An album full of good songs is just a GOOD album, a great album is one that is full, or near full of great songs.
     
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  15. thematinggame

    thematinggame Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    To be honest Into the music for me is the opposite - an album full of great songs , I could tell you the first three if you woke me up in the middle of the night as for Side two I agree to some extent , more about the flow than the actual songs
    For me it is mainly Moody Blues albums from the classic period , I find it hard to distinguish between individual songs when listening to them , another lesser known example is Rain Parade , can't remember a single song after listening to this album but know exactly what it sounds like
    don't think jazz or classical music ( or instrumentals) should really be included here

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  16. Dylancat

    Dylancat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    Confusing thread.
     
  17. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    So we already have a Beatles stink post and a Springsteen stinks post. :rolleyes:
     
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  18. onionmaster

    onionmaster Tropical new waver from the future

    The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World. The songs are uniformly terrible, but incredibly entertaining at the same time.
     
  19. rocknsoul74

    rocknsoul74 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    I originally thought was a stupid thread, then I thought a minute...
    Miles Davis Agharta and Pangea
     
  20. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Bowie - All Saints
     
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  21. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I'd go for On The Corner
     
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  22. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Bowie's "Low" is a great album but I'm not sure I'd claim any of the individual songs are great.

    They're consistently very good but great? The follow-up had some great songs, but "Low" is more of a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" album...
     
  23. lightbulb

    lightbulb Not the Brightest of the Bunch

    Location:
    Smogville CA USA
    Interestingly, those two slams tried to post their “stink” stealthily...

    As if they were hoping to sneak it in, because the thread title is “Great albums with no great songs”.

    So, those comments do not apply here.
     
  24. DPK

    DPK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeastern U.S.
    Public Image Limited- Metal Box/Second Edition
     
  25. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    Why?
     
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