The perfect album
Everyone likely has their list of greatest albums. But what I’ve always been obsessed with is the perfect album. We’re all probably familiar with buying the new album from our favourite band and being thrilled. Except for that one song. Or two songs.
I define a perfect album as:
An album you can listen to from beginning to end, at a medium to high volume, and you never feel like skipping a song.
To make it clear, a perfect album doesn’t have to be among the greatest. It just has to be consistently high quality. And conversely, a great album frequently isn’t perfect.
So I’ve been in search of the perfect album but never did an extensive analysis of my own large music library. So I did! And I came up with 10 albums that qualify and here’s that list.
| Artist | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The Prodigy | Fat of the Land | 1997 |
| The Naked and Famous | A Still Heart (compilation) | 2018 |
| Ludovico Einaudi | In a Time Lapse | 2013 |
| R.E.M. | Document | 1987 |
| VAST | Visual Audio Sensory Theater | 1998 |
| Lucy Wainwright Roche | 8 Songs (EP) | 2007 |
| Linkin Park | Hybrid Theory | 2000 |
| Enya | 2 albums: Watermark Shepherd Moons | 1988 1991 |
| The Connells | Fun and Games | 1989 |
| Brett Dennen | Smoke and Mirrors | 2013 |
I wish I’d kept my list of almost perfect albums as there were many. Of my Top 10 favourite artists, half of them have never made a perfect album.