Are there any albums you consider perfect?

If what counts is just the music, and not the sonic quality of the recording, my nomination is "Projections," by the Blues Project, ca. 1967.

Disclaimer: 95% of my collection and my listening is to classical music.

Regards,
-- Al

Yes, but that doesn't make it perfect. It only makes it perfect to me.

"The Hermit of Mink Hollow" by Todd Rundgren won't make too many lists of "great" or "perfect" albums, but that record has a certain magic for me that few other records have. The "magic" I refer to goes way beyond the music itself, which I would simply categorize as "quite good". It has a "sound", and a "feel" to it that have a profound effect on me. It's like the difference between hearing an old record and thinking "That's an old song." and hearing a record and really feeling like it's 1975 again and the music is brand new.

But, you see, I had as much a part in making it perfect as Todd did. Because it isn't just the music. It is the music, and my reaction to it, that creates "perfection".

Cheers.

Live, or theme based albums seem to flow the best.

Frank Zappa, Live at the Filmore East
CSNY, 4-way Street
The Who, Tommy

Boy, my standards seem to be doing me no favors. Love many tracks on nearly all of the albums suggested, but I don't think there's a single one (save maybe Abbey Road) I'd listen to straight through. I'll just go ahead and say it: don't think I've encountered an album I'd consider perfect. Not by a very, very long shot.

Now that you've got an ipod, you may well realize that the only thing close to a "perfect" album is the playlist that suits your fancy, stringing the high points together just so from many, many albums.

Near-complete non sequiter -- reminds me of a Danish fellow named Donald I met on a train when I was but a wee lad who explained that, as swell as it was living all over the world, in the end it renders you somewhat of a permanent nomad. Comes the point where no one country is "home" save the pastiche compiled of the best parts of many places within the four walls of your house. There's a lot of truth in that. And, have to say, feel much the same way about music. The only approximation of perfect is borrowed bits from all over. The real value of the ipod is making that whole process fantastically easy. Or, maybe it's just me.

OK Computer by Radiohead is in my opinion the best album of the past 15 years.

All time? Maybe Transformer by Lou Reed.