We all have them in mind, those albums that we put on and will not skip a single song. Albums where you don’t ‘heart’ just the singles or even the B-Sides on your streaming platform of choice, you favorite the entire album and the reissue — even the live versions.
While I am wont to create Top Five lists, I seize this opportunity to demonstrate that perfection does exist and it happens rather regularly so I go well past a mere five. Sure, for every perfect album that Pink Floyd puts out there’s an Ummagumma because there must be harmony and balance in the world. And, sure, Nas did Illmatic and everything after can never hold a candle to that perfect record (which almost did not make this list) but for every Illmatic there is a Middle Finger U.
So what, then, makes an album perfect? It might be critical acclaim, sure, or it might be the handiwork that goes into an album like the Beach Boys’ opus, Pet Sounds, layering sound on sound on sound like a Smith Island cake of sonic wizardry.
Is it nothing more than the listener forgetting where the fast-forward button is, or a band that tours on that one album for decades? If Big Daddy Kane can tour on Long Live the Kane for the rest of his days, who are we to begrudge him that?
For purposes of this opinion piece, a perfect album is one that is musically brilliant, not to the exclusion of other brilliant albums, but one that is so masterful and exemplary (and maybe just ‘good’ in the umami sense — that savory flavor that is debatable and independent of criterion that could be seen as objective) that it is the embodiment of a genre or an era. This is not limited to a decade, a style, other than that it is popular music. A beloved jazz album almost made this list but got bumped for space reasons. Another time. We are focusing on “popular” music albums, which can be rock, rap, metal, and so on but will not include classical or jazz but albums that Billboard would categorize for its 200 list, typically not enjoyed by those genres.
First up is The Story by Brandi Carlile. In classic ‘perfect album’ fashion, the album charted and did so well peaking at #58 on the Billboard 200. Produced by T Bone Burnett, assistance from the Hanseroth Twins on songwriting, and a $5 price tag on vinyl at my record store on release, the album is required listening in the alt-country universe. The album runs the emotional spectrum. Listen to: “Late Morning Lullaby,” “Shadow On the Wall”.
White Pony by Deftones was released to some really interest street team effort in a time when “Enhanced CDs” were a thing. Selected fans were sent promo posters, balloons and other materials emblazoned with the now-iconic white pony image and were encouraged to hold release and listening parties for the album. Released at the height of the “nu-metal” wave, White Pony was not an easy sell. Some twenty years after its initial release (and well before, as it pulled in a Grammy for Best Metal Performance on the album track “Elite” in 2001) it was seen as a watershed release in metal for its melodic vocals and shoegaze and even Madonna-inspired material. Listen to: “Change (In the House of Flies),” “Digital Bath”
Weeknd’s Trilogy is not only perfect, it was also free before everyone got their music via streaming services and new releases came out on Fridays. An album (or three, as is this case) can be perfect if flawed — at times the album overdoes the party culture bit; but heavy sampling of Beach House made “House of Balloons” a smash during the mixtape era. And covering Michael Jackson is bold, but on this album it pays off.Listen to: “House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls” and “D.D.”.
The Boss’s Darkness on the Edge of Town eked out a ‘perfect’ against his stripped down later release Nebraska. The former was released during a tumultuous time following the band’s epic Born to Run period. Great success and the money, fame and attention that came with an opus also brought legal and financial disputes with Springsteen/E Street’s former manager; however, Darkness was a worth follow up to Born to Run and while its follow-up, The River, proves worthy of perfection consideration itself, this piece gives the edge to Darkness for the raw sound that would start to be polished out on River and, especially, Born in the USA. Listen to: “Adam Raised A Cain”, “Streets of Fire”
August and Everything After by Counting Crows is perhaps beleagured by lead singer Adam Duritz’s relationship during their popularity peak with Courteney Cox. Or maybe it was the song on the Shrek soundtrack. No matter, because this album lacks something most albums have: bad songs. There is not one. Overall, August is something of a melancholy record. It shares a producer with Brandi Carlile’s Story in T Bone Burnett. Listen to: “Raining in Baltimore” and “A Murder of One” because you have certainly heard the massive singles.
DJ Muggs is something of a household name, even if you do not know him by name alone. You certainly know Cypress Hill and you even more definitely know House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” You may not know, however, this album full of bangers. Released in 1997 as the Golden Age of Hip Hop gave way to things like Swizz Beats and the Ruff Ryders anthems, Soul Assassins has become more of a collective with production by other prolific names like The Alchemist. Chapter I, however, may be the candle to which all other work of the collective is held. Listen to: “Devil in a Blue Dress” (featuring La the Darkman, a Wu-Tang affiliate), “Decisions, Decisions” (featuring Goodie Mob) and “Move Ahead” (featuring KRS-One — before the fall off).
Cat Power’s The Greatest is appropriately named. While Chaun Marshall, the brains behind the name, is somewhat of a chameleon changing her style from album to album, Greatest is a soulful piece of art containing — a break for Marshall — no cover songs. This is certainly one of the best indie rock releases of the early 21st century in no small way due to the session players that made the record what it is. Tennessee is full of amazing musicians, and Cat Power got some of the best on one album with this one. Listen to: “Love & Communication”, “Lived In Bars”.
Third Eye Blind’s Self Titled is marginally ‘perfect,’ but as debuts go it is a tour-de-force. Like a lot of bands, the success of one album can be an albatross for them, however. Stephen Jenkins does not like to sign copies of this album for fans at record store appearances, preferring to promote (i.e., sell) the newest record. Yet he will never escape the success of this album and, in time, will surely appreciate its perfection as much as he appreciates the finer things the album’s success has afforded him. He owes Prince a lot of credit for this album’s sound. Listen to: “How’s It Going to Be”, “God of Wine”.
It is not likely for a Citizen Cope album to make many ‘perfect’ album lists. Released in the tumult of his executive producer’s (LA Reid) spat with Arista Records, Cope was between two labels at the time and the Clarence Greenwood Recordingswas finally released on RCA. It may be that the album stands out so starkly against Cope’s first album and Greenwood’s follow up, but he put together a Dylanesque obfuscation of storytelling and got an assist from Carlos Santana himself on this severely underrated album. Listen to: “Pablo Picasso”, “Penitentiary”.
Say what you will about Kanye West (maybe you miss the old Kanye), but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a perfect hip hop album. Not even Kid Cudi could mess it up. Nicki Minaj puts down what might be her best verse ever if only in its cadence and trajectory. Pusha T showed that he can stand on his own without his brother Malice on Clipse records, and Ye made his finest work by far. Listen to: “Power”, “Monster”, “Runaway”.
Alanis Morissette, like Third Eye Blind, will forever be known by one album (OK, and a LTR with Ryan Reynolds). Jagged Little Pill was the commercial answer (capitalization?) on Riot Grrrl, taking the jaded youth angle to Double Diamond certification status and a Broadway show. Morissette showed range and flexibility on this album, from the angry ex- to pop singer all the while proving her skill as a songwriter and not another child television star turned musical ‘act.’ Listen to: “You Oughta Know”, “Wake Up”
Pet Sounds is the gold standard of rock and roll albums, and little did the Beach Boys know that featuring goats so heavily on the cover would be apropos given this is one of the Greatest of All Time records. Rolling Stone counts Pet Sounds as its Number Two Greatest Album of All Time, falling behind only Sergeant Pepper which causes this writer to question the great magazine’s judgment. Sonically, the album pulls much from Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” style of recording and was conceived as Brian Wilson’s way of one-upping the Beatles’ Rubber Soul. History would say that it did that and then some. Listen to: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “God Only Knows”.
The Beastie Boys’ In Sound from Way Out! is not a traditional Beastie Boys record. There is no “Fight For Your Right,” and no “Sabotage” (the songs are pulled from the Check Your Head and Ill Communication sessions, however). The release is proof positive that the Boys could actually groove and not just riff of each other with funky rhymes. In Sound is — more or less — a total rip from The Meters but skater bros in the late 1990s would not know a Meters record if it was broken over their head. Listen to: “In 3's”, “Sabrosa”.
Illmatic is Nas’ debut LP and the album that makes him one of the GOAT rappers. With so much heavy weight behind him: Large Professor, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Q-Tip…..Nas could not fail on this project (as an aside, I like The Firm a lot, AZ deserves a lot more love and Nas Escobar was a fun alter ego). This album would almost fall off the list due to “One Love” being perhaps the weakest song on the album, but it is still stronger than a lot and the album came out in 1994 and got the illustrious Five Mics rating from The Source, a rarity for a debut release. Illmatic is truly perfect in every way, from the music of the era to Nas’ poetry which is packed so tight into each verse it is like he took lyric lessons from Springsteen. Listen to: “NY State of Mind”, “Represent”.
(Honorable Mention): JT’s Justified did not quite come off as perfect as an album, but it was a flawless execution of distancing himself from boy band and Disney Channel roots and establishing himself as a bona fide entertainer. Only Alanis Morissette released a ‘better’ album but for Timberlake to successfully cast off N*Sync and prove his mettle as a ‘serious’ artist the way he did is worthy of mention. If Timbaland saw something (other than dollar signs) when he agreed to produce multiple JT albums, it is a sign that there is an artist hard at work. Listen to: “Cry Me A River” and “Senorita”.
There you have it, dear reader, some of the perfect albums (and one Honorable Metion) in popular music history. Who did I miss?
