Leon Mika

The guys on Hemispheric Views have got me blogging once again. The latest episode bought up the topic of the perfect album: an album that you can “just start from beginning, let it run all the way through without skipping songs, without moving around, just front to back, and just sit there and do nothing else and just listen to that whole album”.

Well, having crashed Hemispheric Views once, I’d thought it’s time once again to give my unsolicited opinion on the matter. But first, some comments on some of the suggestions made on the show.

I’ll start with Martin’s suggestion of the Cat Empire. I feel like I should like Cat Empire more than I currently do. I used to know something who was fanatic about them. He shared a few of their songs when we were jamming out — we were in a band together — and on the whole I thought they were pretty good. They’re certainly a talented bunch of individuals. But it’s not a style of music that gels with me. I’m just not a huge fan of scar, which is funny considering the band we were both in was a scar band.

I feel like I haven’t given Radiohead a fair shake. There were many people that approached me and said something of the lines of “you really should try Radiohead; it’s a style of music you may enjoy,” and I never got around to following their advice. I probably should though, I think they may be right. Similarly for Daft Punk, of which I have heard a few tracks of and thought them to be pretty good. I really should give Random Access Memory a listen.

I would certainly agree with Jason’s suggestion of the Dark Side of the Moon. I count myself a Pink Floyd fan, and although I wouldn’t call this my favourite album by them, it’s certainly a good album (if you were to ask, my favourite would probably be either The Wall or Wish You Were Here, plus side B of Metal).

As to what my idea of a perfect album would be, my suggestion is pretty simple: it’s anything by Mike Oldfield.

LOL, just kidding!¹ 😄

No, I’d say a great example of a perfect album is Jeff Wayne’s musical adaptation of The War Of The Worlds.

I used to listen to this quite often during my commute, before the pandemic arrived and bought that listen count down to zero. But I’ve picked it back up a few weeks ago and it’s been a constant ear-worm since. I think it ticks most of the boxes for a perfect album. It’s a narrative set to music, which makes it quite coherent and naturally discourages skipping tracks. The theming around the various elements of the story are really well done: hearing one introduced near the start of the album come back later is always quite a thrill, and you find yourself picking up more of these as you listen to the album multiple times. It’s very much not a recent album but, much like Pink Floyd, there’s a certain timelessness that makes it still a great piece of music even now.

Just don’t listen to the recent remakes.