Dallas Petersen

Much has been written/said of late about the demise of the album. The typical suspects are the aural wonder twins, iTunes and the iPod. Since the early days of rock in the 50’s, singles have a been a part of the record biz. The mass purchasing via iTunes of the best songs from an album does not a death knell sound for the full album. Certainly, singles are popular, but full albums, that are best purchased and listened to as a contiguous whole, will continue to be made and enjoyed. Here are a few of my favorite beginning-to-end albums (not all are conceptual albums, but have few, if any, weak singles):

1. U2’s Joshua Tree
2. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon
3. Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here
4. Neil Young’s Harvest
5. The Decemberist’s The Crane Wife
6. Radiohead’s OK Computer
7. The Beatles’ Revolver
8. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
9. The Beatles’ Abbey Road
10. Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
11. World Party’s Goodbye Jumbo
12. R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People
13. Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend
14. Traveling Wilbury’s Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1
15. Tom Petty’s Highway Companion
16. The Black Crowes’ Shake Your Money Maker
17. The Shins’ Oh, Inverted World
18. Jeff Buckley’s Grace
19. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
20. Jellyfish’s Bellybutton
21. Los Lobos’ Kiko
22. Peter Gabriel’s So
23. John Mayer’s Continuum
24. Soundtrack from Amadeus
25. R.E.M.’s Document
26. Sinead O’Connor’s The Lion and The Cobra
27. The Smithereens’ Especially for You
28. The Smithereens’ Green Thoughts
29. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
30. Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions