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A Perfect Album?

The start of something.

John David Park

09 Sep 2022 — 3 min read

What makes an album perfect? It’s hard to say and there is a small list of albums that I would consider perfect. I think when I look at an album as a complete work of art, I try to take many things into consideration, but I don’t really have a set-in stone criterion. Most of it really boils down to a feeling and how long that feeling can be sustained.

If I can listen to an album from to start to finish with no skips, it’s a good start. If I like all the tracks but some are just better than others, its close but not there yet. If I put the album on and every track hits at the same level and can sustain that feeling of excitement every time I listen to it, it’s perfect. An album can a classic but still fall short of perfection. In fact, some albums become classics because they fall short of perfection but that’s an article for another time!

I know that’s a really vague way to determine if an album is perfect or not, but I feel like (and this is all feeling based really) each album has to be met at its own level and if I can meet it there long enough to where it becomes a part of me, there’s no way I can deny it’s perfection. Of course, one person’s perfection is another person’s ‘that’s fine’ so everything I just said may only apply to my particular brand of ‘perfection.’

Below are a few albums that I consider to be perfect. I thought I’d write a sentence or two of each album, but I just couldn’t rationalize giving any of these albums less than a full write up to fully deconstruct what they mean to me and why, so consider this as a severely early declaration to keep your eyes open in the coming months if you wanna hear about one of these albums. I’d love to hear other people’s ‘perfect albums’ so please comment below with yours!

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions