The anatomy of a classic album

[The Curmudgeon]

If you stop to think of what makes a great album, your first obvious answer would be "great songs". And that, of course, is true. But is it enough?

This is something I've been pondering over for a while now, and yes, good albums have a number of great songs on them, but the great albums, the classic albums, have a lot more than just that.

I'm going to use a particular album as a template for this breakdown today, and it's a record that always gets a top ten nod when it comes to Greatest Albums Ever. It's Hunky Dory by David Bowie.

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And here's that breakdown:

1. Crowd pleasers

You've got to have the hits, first of all, the reasons for maybe buying the album in the first place. In this case it's Changes and Life on Mars. Lead singles, great singles, and obvious favourites.

2. Quirky, odd, eccentric moments

Play a Beatles record, a great Beatles record, and it's not non-stop pop songs. There's moments of weirdness, of really showing off the bands personality, that would never make it into a Best Of record but still become true fan favourites and as much a part of the album as the number one single from it. Prince's "Purple Rain", his most obviously commercial (and successful) album still had a three minute segment full of hidden backwards messages.

On "Hunky Dory" it's Bowie's poem, placed as the third track before Life on Mars, or his conversation with the producer on how to pronounce "Warhol" correctly.

3. The stand out non-single track.

The crowd favourite. Never a single but often the best damn song on the record that SHOULD have been a single. A few to choose from on this album, but the heart breaking "Quicksand" gets my vote.

4. Slow last song.

Don't know who started this trend, but it's on 99% of every album you'll ever hear. A final, grand statement, a slow, thoughtful reflection before the album ends. You name the album, chances are it ends with a slow song.


That's four rules I've discovered. What do you think makes the classic album?

[trashcanman]

Great fucking songs, of course. But beyond that a lot of my favorite albums make those songs flow together and make the album a conceptual work of art. Husker Du's Zen Arcade comes to mind. It's a collection of thrashing/screaming hardcore punk with a fast acoustic song, a 14 minute insane instrumental track, a backmasked segment of that instrumental, some unique ballads, a solo piano interlude, general psychedelia, and even a straight arena rock track complete with epic guitar solo filling up the disc. Oh, and almost every track was recorded in one take. And somehow it all fits together perfectly like an epic classical piece with different movements that tells you a story. It's as perfect as it is insane. If you ever wondered why I wasn't that impressed with Nirvana, shit like Zen Arcade coming out a decade prior is why.

[Ben]

A great album has to have flow, diversity, and continuity all at the same time. It doesn't have to be a concept album, but that generally helps a record's case. Like you mentioned, Curmudgeon, it's gotta have character in addition to the famous material- it can't just be a collection of singles.

I'm strange in that I put a lot of emphasis on song length. For me, an album has to have diversity in this department. Song length itself doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it generally signifies how a song is structured. There's nothing I despise more than a rock album where every song clocks in between 3:00-4:30. That alone tells me the whole thing has been written with the classic, overdone, radio-friendly song-structure: verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, maybe with a short solo before or after the bridge. A whole album of that is almost guaranteed to get boring at some point.

In contrast, song-length variations indicate that there are a lot of different things going on. Almost every single one of my favorite albums has oddball stuff that only goes for a minute or two and at least one epic track that exceeds the 6-7 minute mark.

Overall, though, I think you hit the mark, Curmudgeon. I'm a sucker for that slow track at the end too.