I came across an interesting forgotten concept the other day:  One of the myriad radio stations from foreign lands I listen to – and I wish I could remember which one so I could give them props – still does the infamous “album party.” For the uninitiated (or senile who don’t remember when radio was cool) this is where the station chooses and plays an entire album, start to finish, without interruption, or possibly with a short break in between “Side 1” and “Side 2.”  Okay, let me back up here for you kids, a “Side” is how old albums … wait … okay … and “album” is a collection of … oh, go look it up or ask your grandpa … suffice to say, these things used to be VERY important and meticulously planned out.  The “album party” format itself doesn’t exist any more, probably because the RIAA is afraid we’ll *gasp* make an inferior analog copy of the album off the radio and not pay for it … which we did … though we almost always went back and purchased it later … multiple times.  Oh yeah, see kids, back in the day when you bought music, you couldn’t make backups … and the vinyl, tape, wax cylinders, and papyrus scrolls would eventually wear out … you know what … screw it … you guys can just skip the rest of this post since you’re probably just going to get even more lost from here.

So my point:  You know them. You own them. You probably think you’re sick of them, but, when was the last time you pulled out a classic album and listened to it, start-to-finish, in it’s entirety, as nature and the artists originally intended, and yes, including the two throwaway time-filler tracks you used to skip.  I’m willing to bet for the last decade at least it’s all been shuffled background noise in your earbuds that gets blended in with a couple hundred other tracks from different eras and genres (guilty).  So, give the old-fashioned way it a try.  Absorb yourself without distraction in a classic from your youth.  No fiddling with computer, driving, thumbing around on a phone game, doing dishes, checking email, whatever. Just turn the lights down, grab a glass of the beverage of your choice, and spend 45 minutes or so listening.  I guarantee you, it’s a completely different experience, and a great way to rediscover music you’ve thrown in the cut out bin of your brain (see kids, back in the day when a record store ordered too many … okay … wait … a “record store” is a place where … meh, screw it.)

Here are 10 picks of mine, ironically digital copies I downloaded but never bothered to listen to.  These are not my favorite albums by any means, but ones that probably should have been, at ones I deemed at least important enough to be in the collection even if I never listened to them.  I’m going with just the mainstream stuff here, so I’m certain everyone over the age of 30 owns at least one of these.  I’d be interested in hearing everyone else’s picks for “Classic Albums Best Listened to as Albums.”

  1. Meat Loaf: Bat out of Hell — Sure, possibly one of the most over-played albums ever, but there really is something unique and timeless about Jim Steinman’s theatrically-influenced music and storytelling lyrics … oh … and Meat Loaf’s inimitable voice.  I sat down and started to learn the opening number (thanks to an instructional YouTube video), and got most of the way through it after an hour or so, but then realized there is absolutely no point, since I don’t know anybody who could sing it and do it justice.  Let’s face it, there’s a reason “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” is restricted to only being done by karaoke amateurs and is never covered by live bands.
  2. Rush: 2112 – Yes, side one is a bit pompous, probably kitch, and a lot cheesy when you think about it.  In context though, this is a band that, at the time it was recorded, had very few fans, no commercial success to speak of, and a record company that basically said, “If you do another long-winded concept album, we’re going to fire you.”  So in every sense, it’s three hungry guys saying, “Screw you, this what we want to do.”  The often neglected side two, however, has some real magic on it.
  3. The Police: Synchronicity – Remember when Sting was a cutting-edge, just a bit off-mainstream, post-punk visionary, hanging out with mega musical talents, instead of an adult-contemporary crooner?   I remember I got this album because my mother loved the song “Every Breath You Take” (mistaking it for a love song) and figured the whole album would be just like that.
  4. Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – I will include one double album here because this one actually is an incredible accomplishment by today’s standards.  In era when bands put out one, sometimes two, albums a year, Elton took a madcap trip to Jamaica (long story, grab Wikipedia if you don’t know it) and essentially co-wrote and recorded this entire double length album (plus a few other tracks that didn’t make it) in a little over a month.  What’s even more amazing: every song is different, and there isn’t a weak one in the bunch … which has to be unique for a double studio album, since even “Lamb Lies Down” and “The Wall” had some real crap in the third act.  In fact, this album was so successful, they had to stop releasing singles off of it because it was still charting when the next album came out and they didn’t want sales competing.  Now, there’s a problem nobody has any more.
  5. Journey: Escape – Forget for a minute about this being the definitive 80’s album.  Try your best not to think of the Atari video game, the bed sheets, the lunch boxes, the toys, and all of the other hype around Journey at this point in their career.  Just concentrate on how incredibly talented these guys were as musicians, especially as you live in an age when songs are programmed and anybody attempting to sing “Still they Ride” would no doubt require a metric buttload of pitch correction.
  6. Fleetwood Mac:  Rumors – I suppose the upside of having a relationship with band members is, when it all goes sour you’ve got some great material for songwriting, and when you’re drunk, stoned, and barely speaking, you’ve got some great musical tensions and subtle interplays between duelling instruments.  Even the accidents and buried flubs only heard in the crisp light of a digital remaster are completely ingrained in the psyche of the songs.  See, kids, back in the days when musicians recorded to stone tablets, editing was hard, so they sometimes kept mistakes … oh, nevermind.
  7. Billy Joel:  The Stranger – Before Billy became … well … whatever it is Billy became, aside from a tabloid press hog and a really expensive opening act for Elton John, he was a crooner.  The think I like about his pre-pop star days is, whether the song was upbeat, a ballad, or a rocker, there was a certain “mood” or “style” common to all of his music, and this album exemplifies that, I think.
  8. Supertramp: Breakfast in America – Supertramp is one of those really solid, yet often overlooked bands. Sure they had tons of hits, and even kids today generally have heard of them (or at least the music), but they never seem to wind up on anybody’s “Top 10” lists, or even “Top 50” lists for that matter.  It probably doesn’t help that you can’t really classify the music as a whole either.  Is it pop?  Rock?  Progressive pop?  There’s nothing really controversial or edgy about any of their music, but it’s very distinct, somewhat quirky, terribly intricate, and just plain enjoyable when you sit and listen to it. I myself key in on how Roger Hogson is able to get so many different sounds and moods out of the same 70’s era electric piano.  Genius.
  9. Creedence Clearwater Revivial: Cosmo’s Factory – Probably one of the first albums I remember listening to (along with Magical Mystery Tour and Between the Buttons).  It’s easy to write off CCR as some swampy southern rock band, which they are, but I still get a charge out of listening to the little fiddly bits in “Run Through the Jungle,” and holy hell, what is Fogerty playing on their cover of “Heard it Through the Grapevine!?”  My brain says it must be a guitar of some kind, but I have never heard one with a tone like that before or since.
  10. Led Zeppelin:  Zeppelin IV (Zoso, symbols, whatever…):  Maybe it’s just because I gave up listening to our local sterilized pre-programmed corporate crap radio station, but it seems to me this album, and Zeppelin in general, has been falling out of our collective consciousness lately.  My fondest memory of this album is when it was “issued” to my by my Father when I was young and impressionable ten-year-old along with a dire warning, “If we never agree on anything else, we will agree that this is one of the finest albums ever made.”  I think it was almost a year of wearing the grooves out of side one before I finally got around to giving side two a serious listen.  Obviously, it is another case of “Everybody knows this album inside and out,” but, pop it in, pay attention, and for once don’t gloss over “Four Sticks” as just another deep album cut, and accept that “When the Levee Breaks” is the finest album closer ever.