10 Songs That Ruined Otherwise Perfect Albums
So close, and yet so far.
It’s difficult enough to make an album full stop, let alone a perfect one. Without impeccable attention to detail, let alone the ability to write great songs, the vast majority of records are going to wind up with at least a handful of duff tracks. A perfect album, hit after hit from start to finish, is a rare thing indeed. Most albums don’t get anywhere near perfection.
Some, though, come achingly close. Everything’s going swimmingly, until one track - just one regrettable track - comes along and ruins the streak. They can come early or late, they can be misguided comedy tracks or overly sincere mood killers. Whatever the problem, there are some great records that fall just short of spotlessness due to one dud.
Is it better, then, to fall far short of brilliance, or to come so close only for hopes of perfection to be dashed by one mere mistake? Well, it’s the second one, obviously.
These albums are still great works of art, even with one flaw. But when you’re so close to the gold standard, it’s the hope that kills you.
10. OK Computer - "Fitter Happier"
Radiohead’s 1997 magnum opus is a quasi-concept album about the perils of a technology driven culture. Operatic epics like “Paranoid Android” are paired with beautiful pieces like “The Tourist” to create one of the most cohesive statements of the band’s career, worthy of its place in the rock canon.
And then there's “Fitter Happier”. Coming right in the middle of the record, it’s essentially a two minute treatise on the themes of the album. Over a bed of bleeps and bloops, a vocoder voice details the pressures we pile upon ourselves in modern society.
From a conceptual perspective, “Fitter Happier” is entirely appropriate. It’s disarmingly creepy and lyrically worthy. It’s perhaps the least oblique example of what Radiohead are trying to say on the album. But it’s not at all fun to listen to.
It’s aural cod liver oil, basically - it’s an important track, and definitely adds to the ambitious concept of the album, but once you’ve heard it once, there’s no need to listen to it again, probably ever. Props to the lads for putting something so decidedly uncommercial on their breakthrough album, but have your finger poised over the skip button all the same.