Good albums with no good songs

No idea how this works, but here goes: are there any albums you love that have no good songs on them?

Maybe there’s a hip hop album that you listen to just for the skits or something, I don’t know.

3 Likes

I suppose you could treat this as an “all killer no filler” roundup, whereby “no good songs” means “no songs that are merely ‘good’; they’re all excellent”.

But it feels like we’ve done that before.

I bought an album by Most Precious Blood once, because it’s got a load of dumb prank phone-calls at the end of it that are fairly amusing. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to any of the songs on it.

2 Likes

No, that feels like a bit of a cheat. Plus it’s been done before, like you say.

Surely anything instrumental counts? As songs, by definition, are sung.

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

4 Likes

Yes, I reckon that’s one!

No, I don’t think so, I think a song doesn’t have to have words. You can have instrumental songs. Ask Mogwai.

I suppose ‘Sees the Light’ by La Sera might be one of those. I sometimes put it on just because it has such a good atmosphere.

1 Like

Bitches Brew? Does that count?

Maybe The King Of Limbs. Wouldn’t put any of that on a best of Radiohead, but it’s a nice listen.

3 Likes

Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. Meandring jazzyness, zero choons/anthems/bangers but I love the atmosphere of the whole.

Yeah but @lurker is essentially correct that it’s pretty easy to pick an instrumental album where the power of the piece is in listening to the whole thing and its mood.

Like I wouldn’t whack out a track from Loscil’s Sea Island to try to convince you it’s a great album. It wouldn’t really work on that level, I don’t think.

That said, I feel naggingly like I do have exactly the sort of thing you’re talking about in my collection. The closest thing (for me) I can come to is Kid A, but even on that I’d say National Anthem or Optimistic are tracks I’d listen to happily on their own.

i love some of tim hecker’s stuff, but while i’ll happily listen to the whole of, say, An Imaginary Country in one go, i couldn’t even tell you where one track ends and another begins, let alone which were better than others

4 Likes

has anyone said instrumental music yet?

Gonna go with Autechre’s Confield. Not a single track I would ever seek out, but it’s a fascinating listen.

1 Like

The more I think about this, the happier I am with my answer.

The King Of Limbs by Radiohead. The answer to this quandary.

What about something with no vocalist?

2 Likes

do (non-musical) comedy CDs count? would you call this an ‘album’?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/CDs-Vinyl/Stewart-Lee-41st-Best-Stand-Up-Ever/B001VGANHM

1 Like

no that is not an album.