10 PERFECT Classic Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
Rock's tightest track lists.
Albums are still one of the greatest ways of listening to music. While any band can just pump out a few singles and pad out the rest of their album with filler, writing a collection of songs that play off of one another is something that is insanely difficult to pull off.
As opposed to just writing the same type of party song over and over again, these acts have taken some of their best work and crammed it into lean sonic packages. Not only do each of these songs speak to each other, but it's even more awe-inspiring when any track from your album could constitute being released as a single.
These didn't come without a fight though. Throughout most of these records' production cycle, these bands often had to move the moon and the stars in order to come up with the results they were finally satisfied with. Since these records have gone on to become staples in the rock genre and templates for up and coming musicians, suffice to say we're glad that they put in the hours.
Whether you listen to these tracks on their own or as part of the album experience, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single dud on any of these records.
10. Who's Next - The Who
The Who had become the newest titans of the rock scene by the end of the 60's. Even though "My Generation" put them one notch above their Mod contemporaries, the band split open the entire rock genre thanks to the success of the rock opera Tommy. Pete Townshend eventually had an idea for an even more daring concept album, but instead opted for a standard album of the greatest tunes the band would ever release.
Who's Next, originally entitled Lifehouse, was supposed to follow the theme of Tommy, with the plot being about the invention of utopia through rock music. As time went on though, the story continued to get more and more complex to the point where the band just ended up releasing the best tunes on their own. Once the rock world got the record, some of the band's greatest musical cuts like "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" quickly made their way up the ranks of the greatest rock songs ever made.
Even lowlights on the record like the John Entiwistle-fronted "My Wife" and the Lifehouse-exposition track "Getting in Tune" still stand as some of the most beautiful melodies Townshend would ever write. The more lofty ambitions didn't pan out, but it's rare when you're supposed "failure" for greatness results in something better than you intended.