what does an album need to be good?

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one good track?

some good tracks?

all good tracks?

mostly good tracks?

more good tracks than bad tracks?

how fussy are you about the quantity of quality on a long-player?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I can put up with a maximum of two crappy tracks (Strangeways being the best example of this).

No matter how great the highs of an album are, if it's mostly meh then there's no way I'll call it a good album (This Is Hardcore being the best example of this).

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

About 75% of tracks on a "really good album" (as opposed to a "good album") should be excellent, the rest should be at least decent. It should be well sequenced, and it helps if there's some kind of conceptual thread running through it. Otherwise I'll rarely listen to the whole thing through. Recent examples: "A Grand Don't Come For Free", "The Love Below".

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

SOLOS

― dean? (deangulberry), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

the singer yelling the name of the instrument before it SOLOS

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

YES

― dean? (deangulberry), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

As long as the best songs are strong enough to eclipse the shitty ones, I think an album can still qualify as good. Like, for every awful song, there should be at least one song that's twice as good as a normal song or two songs that are one and a half times as good as a normal song, etc.

Now that I typed this, I realize I am totally full of shit.

― Talent Explosion (Talent Explosion), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Pop Albums : It needs effort from the artist and no effort from the listener.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Dave Chappelle guest appearances.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

christgau, from his '70s record guide:

An A+ record is an organically conceived masterpiece that repays prolonged listening with new excitement and insight. It is unlikely to be marred by more than one merely ordinary cut.

An A is a great record both of whose sides offer enduring pleasure and surprise. You should own it.

An A- is a very good record. If one of its sides doesn't provide intense and consistent satisfaction, then both include several cuts that do.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

an album is good if you can listen to the whole thing straight through twice in a row

― artiste (artiste), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I hear christgau's key being read by Comic Book Guy.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

wooden OTM. a really good album should show some composition on the level of the album as a whole. You can have a group of good songs, but there needs to be something holding them together in order for them to form a good album.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 23 August 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Reverb!

― Muppet Boy, Monday, 23 August 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It should be Funhouse

― sexyDancer, Monday, 23 August 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Alba's "two crappy tracks" metric.
A "great" album generally can't have any crap, although there are exceptions (there's a whole thread about this).

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 23 August 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

A really good album should be intensely difficult to write about.

(I don't think I believe that, actually.)

A really good album should provide excellent value for money.

(I do believe that one.)

A really good album should inspire an indefinable fondness such that just seeing the sleeve makes you feel good.

(Test it for yourself with the ILM poll.)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 23 August 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

value for money...definitely true! tom, do you think one's fondness for a record can be heightened/lessened depending on the amount of cash wot woz spent?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i read this as "why does an album need to be good?" which struck me as the archetypal only-on-ilm question.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ha! i once pontificated that bad albums were not actually a waste of money (because forming opinions is fun regardelss of whether they're positive!) but i understand that *good* music is *needed* - otherwise i would have nothing enjoyable to listen to!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It needs to say its prayers before bed.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:11 (twenty-one years ago)

A really good album should inspire an indefinable fondness such that just seeing the sleeve makes you feel good.

-- Tico Tico (ticoticoil...), August 23rd, 2004 8:01 PM.

Yes! Totally.

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

My fondness for an album rarely attaches itself to the sleeve. I think there are albums with good art/sleeve design, and there are albums with good music, but the two don't always overlap. Some albums that have brilliant sleeves only have mediocre music and vice versa. Maybe I'm taking this all to literally though.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that a great album should have at most one bad track. Two bad tracks is grounds for demotion from true greatness.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

(I guess that means I agree with Christgau's "A+" rule.)

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Can "an organically conceived masterpiece" be marred by a honky tonky Far West-inspired song?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Or a cheesy rock & roll closing number?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

As long as there's only one, it can still retain its greatness.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"the singer yelling the name of the instrument before it SOLOS"

You know, if a singer yelled out the name of an instrument, and then a DIFFERENT instrument soloed, I think that would automatically make it an A+ album right then and there.

― Jesse Fuchs (Jesse Fuchs), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a likeable thought.

One thing that can kill a great album is overplay. Like you see everybody else creaming all over it. You hear it everywhere, get sick, and look for something else - fast.

― jim wentworth (wench), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand all this formulating ratios of good to bad songs. all I really want out of an album is for it to hang together well enough that I can comfortably sit through the whole thing without skipping, and that the parts I really really like are distributed evenly enough that I don't tune out for long patches at a time. I can deal with 'bad' songs or ones I'm not particularly interested in if they're positioned well enough.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i read this as "why does an album need to be good?" which struck me as the archetypal only-on-ilm question.

Yes! That's totally how I read it. Why does an album need to be good?

For the original question, I think the last track needs to be pretty good, or the majority of the last few tracks need to be good. If I always stop when I no there are no good tracks left, I'll never really think the whole album is a good album.

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 04:49 (twenty-one years ago)

when I know... wtf

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

To be merely "goof" (which is what you asked for, right?), an album must have 60% good songs.

Also, I like albums that have an overall gestalt, like, say, Exile On Main Street (altho I really don't like Exile all that much.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

...merely "goof"

Silliest typo ever! (Should be "GOOD", obv.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

O.Nate in these days of CD-Rs I should probably just have said "reading its name" for "seeing the sleeve".

A really good album will make you think more kindly of a list it appears on.

I read it as "why" initially too.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

one good track is enough. it can be a 75 min track

― kruftwark, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

In addition to a flow, a thread, a narrative - wouldn't a good album need approx two great singles and eight (or however many) really good songs?

Maybe that would be a great rather than good album.

― piers (piers), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

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