Going through various albums and various ‘tubes trying to find inspiration for an essay or a Wednesday thread, I stumble across album titles and think that those might make for a good discussion thread in their own right.
What is the best album title that you’ve come across?
I’ll start:
Pre-Millenium Tension
And here’s the song you all remember from that album:
Got a better album title?
Some favorites just looking over my iPod:
“!” – Dismemberment Plan
“These Songs Are Cursed” – North of America
“Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy” – Sicko
Not really obscure gems, but I’ve always admired these classic album titles:
Both: Songs About Buildings and Food / The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads – Talking Heads
All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes – Pete Townshend
Weasles Ripped My Flesh – Zappa
All This Useless Beauty – Elvis Costello
Pet Sounds – Beach Boys
Zappa also has “Sheik Yerbouti” which makes me giggle to this day.
Ooo, that reminded me of this, which I had spaced but is actually my favorite album title of all time:
Isle of View – The Pretenders
I had this CD for a year or so (it’s a live acoustic set with a string quartet) and it wasn’t until one day I was recommending it to someone and said the album title out loud that I even got that it was a pun at all. Discovering this, after listening to it for a year, made me strangely happy. It was like finding the gift card from grandma that mom stuck back in the branches of the Christmas tree but forgot was there as you’re taking the tree down.
I love “Who’s Next” as a caption to the album cover.
Good point. I thought about listing WN, but discarded it because I forgot the visual that went along with it. It’s in my iTunes so I never see the album cover anymore.
Which makes me wonder if my kids will ever grow up associating album covers with music the way all of us did.
I could have sworn I remembered a cover for an album called “Neil Young’s Back” with the album title painted on the back side of a jacket worn by Neil Young. But I can find no evidence of this album actually existing.
Also, R.E.M. released a “best of” album titled “Eponymous.”
That reminds me, I always thought Joy Division and New Order were on to something in calling their hit collections ‘Substance’.