Albums where every song is good.

[Unknown One]

I was having this discussion with a fellow forum member the other day and it got me thinking. What albums are there where every song is at least good? It doesn't matter if there are no outstanding or brilliant songs on the album, as long as every song on the album is good.

To me, for a song to get a good rating it requires a 7/10. When you come and think about it, there's not that many albums where every song is consistently good. I can think of probably 30 or 40 albums where every song on the album except for 1 is good.

These are the albums I can come up with off the top of my head. Also I do have albums from their respective band that I like more than the listed albums in some cases, but because the album does have a mediocre or worse song on it, it doesn't qualify for this discussion.

Judas Priest - Painkiller
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side
Rainbow - Rising

 

[RTC]

Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

 

[Forostar]

Good: 7/10?

Then that's a lot of Maiden albums for me. They aren't my favourite band for nothing. I could sort this out later.

 

[Mosh]

Off the top of my head:

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind, Powerslave
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Yes - Close To the Edge
Pink Floyd - Animals, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side
Rush - Permanent Waves, Hemispheres
Dream Theater - Six Degrees, Images & Words
Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose, The Colour and the Shape
Radiohead - The Bends
Devin Townsend - Addicted
Genesis - Foxtrot

 

[Unknown One]

Good: 7/10?

Then that's a lot of Maiden albums for me. They aren't my favourite band for nothing. I could sort this out later.

Then what would you have good rating to be?

 

[Forostar]

8

(but I know that ratings are interpreted differently by different people)

10 excellent
9 very good
8 good
7 very sufficient
6 sufficient
5 doubtful / weak
4 insufficient
3 very insufficient
2 bad
1 very bad

This is from the Dutch school rating system

Spoiler

10 uitstekend
9 zeer goed
8 goed
7 ruim voldoende
6 voldoende
5 twijfelachtig / zwak
4 onvoldoende
3 ruim onvoldoende
2 slecht
1 zeer slecht

 

[Unknown One]

Ah yes, ok I guess that makes sense. I wouldn't have very sufficient in there and I'd have another category above excellent. But the 7/10 is what I have my good rating at and I believe I am a slightly harsher judge than most (eg. I have about 13 Maiden songs that are 10/10 and Maiden are my favourite band). So your 8 is probably around the equivalent of my 7 anyway.

 

[RTC]

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind

???

 

[Ariana]

What's wrong with that? I'd also include the album in my list. Same as the others, off the top of my head:

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind/The X Factor/ A Matter of Life and Death
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Alter Bridge - Fortress/Blackbird
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Pearl Jam - Ten
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth
Blaze - Silicon Messiah
Sabaton - The Art of War

 

[Forostar]

Iron Maiden:

Every song a rating of 7 or higher:
Powerslave
Somewhere in Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
No Prayer for the Dying
A Matter of Life and Death

Every song a rating of 8 or higher:
Somewhere in Time

 

[RTC]

Sun And Steel and Quest For Fire aren't good to be honest, and Still Life sits on the C+/B- borderline for me personally.

 

[Ariana]

They may be for you. I find both thoroughly enjoyable.

 

[RTC]

To be honest, it's a bit of a kneejerk reaction on my behalf, mostly on the account that I find POM to be overrated, mostly for those 2 songs, the production and song order.

 

[Perun]

Piece of Mind has my favourite production of all Maiden albums...

 

[LooseCannon]

I think Piece of Mind has the clearest, best production of every Iron Maiden album. Best evident on Where Eagles Dare and Flight of Icarus. That bombastic intro to FoI would blow my ears out on almost any other Iron Maiden album.

For me, it's gonna be...
Iron Maiden - Brave New World
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Sabaton - Carolus Rex
Barenaked Ladies - Gordon
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth
Rainbow - Rising
Iced Earth - The Dark Saga, Horror Show
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Queen - Sheer Heart Attack, Jazz
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Savatage - Dead Winter Dead

 

[Mosh]

???

I love every song on POM. Even the two "filler tracks". I wouldn't have the album without them, it'd feel incomplete. Plus I think they're quite nice on their own; Sun and Steel has a good chorus and cool solos and QFF has a a fun (and unique for the album!) triplet feel. Both songs have killer twin guitar leads too. What more could you ask for?

And I'm not sure how anyone could dislike the production. It's clear, loud, and has a sound of it's own, like any Martin Birch Maiden album. Also Adrian's guitar sound..

 

[Crimson Idol]

Iron Maiden - Brave New World

That's the first one of Maidens albums that came to mind for me, but most people seem to dislike Fallen Angel (pfft).

WASP - Crimson Idol
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Dio - Holy Diver

Those are albums that I would deem to be good on every track, but I could understand others not feeling the same. Crimson isn't everyones cup of tea (very much a mood/mindset thing I think), whereas AFD/Diver have a couple of tracks that are hit and miss depending on personal tastes.

 

[Collin]

Kind of off the top of my head.
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time, The Final Frontier, Seventh Son
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Dream Theater - Train of Thought, Metropolis Pt.2
Machine Head- The Blackening
Pink Floyd - Animals and The Wall
Rush - Moving Pictures
Velvet Revolver - Contraband
AC/DC - Back in Black
Tool - Ænima
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

 

[Cornfed Hick]

I don't really know what "7/10" means, but these are albums on which I know I like every single song. Some of these (Blondie, Journey, Petty, Thompsons) surprise even me, as I probably wouldn't have them put on my list of favorite albums, but I may need to rethink that. Not an exhaustive list:

Beatles - Revolver
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules
Blondie - Parallel Lines
The Cars - The Cars
The Clash - London Calling (a double-album! zero filler)
Dio - Holy Diver
G'n'R - Appetite for Destruction
Iron Maiden - Powerslave, SiT, AMOLAD
Journey - Infinity
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Metallica - Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
Pink Floyd - Animals
Queen - News of the World, The Game
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St. (another double-album!)
Rush - Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves
Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
White Stripes - Elephant
Neil Young - Harvest

Not sure if we are limited to studio albums, but if not...

Iron Maiden - Live After Death, Maiden England 88
Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East
UFO - Strangers in the Night
Blind Guardian - Live

Obviously, I am not including "best of" compilations.

 

[Mosh]

Some of these (Blondie, Journey, Petty, Thompsons) surprise even me, as I probably wouldn't have them put on my list of favorite albums, but I may need to rethink that.

I wanted to mention this actually. I had a very similar moment when coming up with my list. A lot of these were albums that I never considered in my all time favorite. For me it begs the question of what I look for in a great album. Every song could be good but maybe it doesn't have that "magic" that puts an album so high in my ranks, even if that album has lesser moments.