I’ve always been a huge music fan. When I was a kid, I used to sit in front of my parent’s stereo and listen to their albums. The Doors, T-Rex, and the Rolling Stones were always my favorites. I had particular favorite tracks on each album I listened to, but there were a few that I would listen to front to back without skipping a single track.
Listening to an album from front to back has been lost to time. It’s too easy to download a single track and not even give the rest of the album a chance. There are some significant deep cuts to be discovered. When you listen to an album from front to back, you’re experiencing it just as the artist envisioned you hearing it. Some albums tell a story and some flow from song to song in perfect harmony.
Have the younger generations lost the attention span to listen to a whole album? Is this the part where I tell the younger generation to get off my lawn?
Studies have proven that listening to an album from front to back is good for you! According to an article from Iowa State Daily published in 2021, any music lover can benefit from listening to an album from front to back.
Incubus and Green Day have both announced they will be playing full albums front to back during their Detroit tour stops this year. This October, the Sick New World festival in Vegas will feature several bands performing albums from front to back. I started wondering if everyone had an entire album they listened to.
I have my favorite albums that I will always listen to front to back. I knew I couldn’t be the only one who had their favorites. Naturally, I asked my fellow Riff jocks what albums they always listen to front to back. Here are the answers, starting with mine. (of course)
Aimee Brooks
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- The Cult Love
- Rolling Stones Let it Bleed
- David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
- Electric Six Fire
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Wrong Creatures
- The Cult Electric
- The Cult Electric Peace (2013 reissue worth a full listen)
- Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet
- Black Angels Wildnerness of Mirrors
- Nirvana In Utero
- Dandy Warhols 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia
- Stooges Funhouse
- Our Lady Peace Spiritual Machines
- Chevelle Hats off to the Bull
- Chevelle The North Corridor
- Chevelle La Gárgola
Jade Springart
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- Incubus Make Yourself
- Blink 182 Enema of the State
- Blink 182 Take off Your Pants and Jacket
- Blink 182 Blink 182
- Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP
- Ludacris Back for the Very First Time
- Beartooth Disease
- Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II
Meltdown
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Meltdown says “OMG, you name it….that’s how I listen to records!”
- Metallica Master of Puppets
- Ozzy Osbourne Diary of a Madman
- Elton John Madman Across the Water
- Avenged Sevenfold ….Life is But a Dream
- Queensryche Empire
- Queensryche Operation Mindcrime
- Steely Dan Aja
- Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell
Meltdown adds, “I don’t know, tons of them!”
Anne Erickson
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella
Anne Erickson weekend host and front woman of Upon Wings says, “The album I listen to from front to back is A Perfect Circle Thirteeth Step“.
Anne adds, “Every track on here is unique and dynamic. It also has some of the first songs I ever played on the radio, so it holds a special place in my heart.”
Al Beck
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Al Beck, Dave and Chuck producer and Midnight Metal host says, “It has been well documented on WRIF over the years that Slayer is my favorite band! They have a trio of albums between 1986-1990 that are metal perfection; Reign in Blood, South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss.”
Al continues, “Seasons is probably my favorite album by them! The album opens with War Ensemble, which features my favorite Kerry King guitar solo and closes out with the epic title track Seasons in the Abyss! Great songs in between, like Spirit in Black, Dead Skin Mask and Skeletons of Society, I can never skip a track!”
Steve Black
Photo by
Keystone/Getty ImagesSteve says, “Two of my go to full albums (I have 20 or so that I still keep in that category) are Alice Cooper Goes to Hell from 1976 and the 2006 Tool album 10.000 Days.”
Steve continues, “The Alice Cooper record features lots of non-traditional arrangements, percussion, instrumentation (French Horn anyone?) and perhaps the finest vocal performances of Alice’s career. It’s a bit of a weird album with numbers that stretch from rock Guilty and Go to Hell to cinematic Wake Me Gently and Going Home to You Gotta Dance to the deeply sincere I Never Cry to a jazz leaning ballad sung from the Devil’s point of view proclaiming I’m the Coolest.”
Steve finishes, “As for Tool, it was worth waiting the full decade between albums as 10.000 Days includes 4 of my 6 favorite Tool songs giving us several peeks but no real valleys. Moderate Tool fans will know Vicarious and The Pot, but check out the rest of the album, especially Rosetta Stoned and Jambi. Both albums are also brilliantly produced and mixed!”
