I nominate ‘Debut’ by Bjork. It is very much part-experimental, but there is nothing I would ever skip, nothing that outstays it’s welcome, nothing that isn’t integral. The only track that doesn’t quite fit perfectly is ‘Play Dead’ which is independently magnificent and wasn’t part of the original record anyway. It is a repulsively good album and having it be your first is, frankly, indecent.
Totally agree! Debut is, and always has been, on my list as a definite. There are also some personal touchstones that connect it to me as a moment in time, as well as it being a complete musical masterpiece. I would even venture that the use of voice as instrument, with tone, phrasing, and tempo, is at a previously unattained height, if not unique (nod to kate bush).
I am limiting the discussion to original albums as issued on vinyl. Although I am allowing contemporaneous variants (the export version with more tracks, was my personal copy of KotWF).
Off the top of my head, and almost certainly not exhaustive:
Tapestry - Carole King Rumours - Fleetwood Mac Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen Purple Rain - Prince Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel Silent Alarm - Bloc Party Master Of Puppets - Metallica The Works - Queen Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty
Transformer is a great choice but definitely personal, there is some filler in there. I'm not a huge fan of Simon's solo stuff but objectively speaking Graceland might appear on quite a few people's lists, I think. I tried to stick to "every song on this album is a legit classic" rather than "I love every song on this album", but I don't think many people would have The Works as Queen's best album, never mind one of the greatest albums ever made, so I wasn't immune to the purely personal choices.
But that isn't really the category we're discussing, which is "albums without a single weak song". I would argue that in order to satisfy that you need to be able to take any song in isolation and it be a banger, if it only works in the context of the album then it's probably a weak song. And while I do love Transformer and think it's a magnificent album, I put it to you that New York Telephone Conversation is not in any way, shape or form good.
As a result of this conversation I am now listening to Pop Said by The Darling Buds for the first time in many years. A legit contender for the "personal choice" section.