Great albums and skippers.
 

This is inspired by the other best albums thread, but I think it's enough of a new topic to warrant a seperate thread.

Generally a great album is great all the way through, but that's not always the case. There are a number of examples of great albums that have 'skippers', tracks so inferior to the rest of the album that the effort required to find the fast forward button is worth it compared with polluting your listening experience with a sour song.

I'll choose OK Computer as my example. (This is also the reason why OK Computer is inferior to the Bends and Kid A.)

OK Computer is a 9.9 album, but it has 3 skippers:
- Let Down - a very aptly named track. Schlobby and boring. SKIP.
- Fitter Happier - so what if it's basically just a skit. it's on the album and it's unlistenable. SKIP.
- Climbing up the Walls - Bleh. BRMC basically lifted this song note-for-note with 'Rifles', but actually made it good. SKIP.

I'll put one more out there: 'Rattled by the Rush' by Pavement on Wowee Zowee.

I'm sure I'll hear a bunch of [censored] over the OK Computer choices, but that's ok, cuz I'm right.....unless you're female, in which case you're allowed to like 'Let Down'.

So other examples?

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

"Fear of a Black Planet" is such a great album that it can stand as one of the best albums of all time without its entire second side. Of the thousands of times I have listened to that album I may have listened to the last six or seven tracks only a handful of times.

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

I really like Letdown. Also, climbing up the walls starts off slow but builds very nicely. I guess I can see how some may think that it drags a bit. I like the creepy mood that climbing up the walls has.

As for fitter happier, it's not really much of a song but it's a nice "90s checklist" interlude to separate the two halves of the album.

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'll choose OK Computer as my example. (This is also the reason why OK Computer is inferior to the Bends and Kid A.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Dude, this is total BS. OK Computer is the greatest Radiohead album *ever*. If you can't understand this, then you're obviously a philistine.
[ QUOTE ]
- Let Down - a very aptly named track. Schlobby and boring. SKIP.

[/ QUOTE ] This is just wrong. Let down is one of the best songs Radiohead has ever done, perhaps my favorite. Obviously taste is a very subjective thing, but in a thread on Radiohead in OOT a while back Let Down was consistently mentioned as one of their top 10 songs, so you're obviously in the wrong here.
[ QUOTE ]
Fitter Happier - so what if it's basically just a skit. it's on the album and it's unlistenable. SKIP.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is like a 40 second track. But you're basically correct.
[ QUOTE ]
- Climbing up the Walls - Bleh. BRMC basically lifted this song note-for-note with 'Rifles', but actually made it good. SKIP.

[/ QUOTE ] Meh. It's not the finest on the album, I'll give you that.

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

Thom Yorke is basically unwilling to perform Let Down because it is the strongest song they have ever recorded (singing that song makes him so sad it is difficult to continue the concert). I am surprised Radiohead fans exist who don't like it.

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

I think this says more about Thom than it does the song.

I'm actually surprised at the reaction to 'Let Down' and not 'Climbing up the Walls'. In my group of friends and friends-of-friends (all musicians and huge radiohead fans), 'Let Down' is split exactly down gender lines. We all pretty much disregard 'Climbing up the Walls', but I see a lot of people defend that song in other places. Also notable about this group is that I'm definitely in the minority there in my view that Kid A and The Bends are better. Most of them adamantly argue for OK Computer, although they are all wise enough to at least realize that Dark Side of the Moon is a better album overall [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

Do you like How to Disappear Completely?

FWIW, I rank them 1. Kid A, 2. OK Computer, 3. The Bends.

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

I feel the same way about The Chronic. Don't make it past "Little Ghetto Boy" very often.

This is almost a whole new question regarding 'front-loaded' albums, of which there are plenty to choose from.....

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

Yes, I love it. That walking bassline is candy to my ears (as a bassist).

It took me years to not hate Kid A. Then finally one night, I got blazed out of my mind, listened to it on headphones in a dark room, and now it's one of my favorite albums from anyone, not just radiohead.

I'd say Kid A and the Bends can share #1; which I prefer depends on my mood. OK Computer and Hail to the Thief are a distant 3rd and 4th (although both are high 9 albums).

Re: Great albums and skippers.
 

This is a pretty good post that will be a good thread if it doesn't degenerate into which Radiohead song/album is the coolest/sucks the most.

The Beatles: White Album -- Wild Honey Pie, Don't Pass Me By, Julia

Talking Heads: Remain in Light --Listening Wind and The Overload

I'll probably post again with more once I think of some.