Great albums with no great songs?

To me half if them are great songs but iam using the word great in its strictly literal sense that rarely often happens when discussing music.
I love the album but feel there are many very good songs.
No Brown Sugar or Layla though.

 

And don't you think "All I Really Want To Do", "Chimes Of Freedom", "My Back Pages" and "It Ain't Me Babe" are great/classic songs by Bob Dylan?

 

Well, as I explained upthread -- my interpretation of "great song" has nothing to do with how well known it is. Plenty of great songs on that album, regardless of how well known they are.

 

Maybe, Spirit of Eden by talk talk.

 

And what’s “Angeliou”—chopped liver?

 

I don't think you can have a great album without great songs, but you can have a great album with a couple of duds.

This is all entirely subjective of course, but let's take as a case study two consecutive Todd Rundgren albums from the mid-2000s: 'Liars' and 'Arena'. 'Liars' is full of what I think of as great and good songs, but there are a couple that I really don't like at all, whereas 'Arena' while there's nothing that I don't like, there's none that I think are really first rate TR, they're all kind of a 6 or a 7 out of ten. But it's 'Liars' that I think of as the latter day Todd classic.

 

How about Piper At The Gates Of Dawn? It's probably my favorite Pink Floyd album, and I would consider it...great. Most of the songs are very, very good. The one that stands out as possibly great is "Astronomy Domine". Now if "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" were included...

 

None of these count, per my criteria.

 

None of these are eligible, per my criteria.

 

Not eligible, per my criteria.

 

Not eligible, per my criteria.

 

Not eligible, per my criteria.

 

Not at all. It's actually purely objective.

 

@NettleBed, as the thread starter, do you think there are any such albums?

 

Exile on main street fits the bill for me. Collection of good songs that make for a great album.

 

The point of the thread was to determine if YOU ("you" meaning anyone who reads the thread) consider any album/s to be great, based on your own criteria for greatness, but which YOU nevertheless think do not have any great songs; the scope of albums being considered being album primarily made up of songs with vocals. Hence - no jazz/classical/one-song albums, etc. Obviously there are great jazz/ambient/instrumental albums; that is not the focus of this thread.

The point of the thread was to confront what I think is an interesting paradox. Some people might intuitively say that they can't consider an album to be great if has no great songs, but if they probe their personal roster of great albums, they might find one. Just wondering what those are, for the people who have them.

I take exception to the guy who didn't get it who keeps calling this a silly thread. It's not. This is not about telling other people what are/are not great songs or albums. This is about whether the people reading the thread consider a particular album to be great, but do not consider that album to have a single great song. Frankly, I consider to this to be incredibly interesting and not silly whatsoever. For example, some have definitely come out and said that there can't be a great album without a great song. Great - that's the kind of thing I was hoping to see. As well as examples from people who feel differently.

Again, the idea here is not to try to find great albums that don't really have songs.

 

Entroducing DJ Shadow.
One of the great 90s records, and the whole thing flows beautifully (like an actual DJ mix).... But I never think of any particular song standing out. Truth be told, I honestly don't always know where one song ends and another begins.

 

There are people who think "Tumbling Dice" isn't a great song?

 

I'm really not sure this is possible, to be honest. I was thinking the Kinks' "Village Green" might fit the criteria - for a start, it genuinely is a great album. Then there's the fact it doesn't have any drastic peaks and troughs and is good all the way through and the songs aren't that well known, no big singles and big hits - before I'd heard the album I don't think I'd even heard of any of the songs. But.... it's full of great songs, so it's disqualified!

 

I haven't gone through my list of great albums yet, but I'm expecting that I'll find at least a few.

 

Yeah it's a good song no doubt but it fits perfect on exile. I have never chosen to hear tumbling dice on it's own outside of when I'm hearing the entire album unlike songs from sticky fingers, beggars banquet and let it bleed that I randomly just have to hear. I am obsessed with monkey man and moonlight mile for some reason.

 

Well, I know some others aren’t crazy about it, but I think this is a great idea.

 

Cowboys
All Mine

 

Or "Happy," or "All Down The Line," or "Shine A Light," or......

 

Being obsessed with Monkey Man and Moonlight Mile is entirely understandable.