There's a moment when I listen to U2's classic album, Joshua Tree, as soon as those first sweet, sweet notes of Where the Streets Have No Name come on, that I can't help but think of something a friend of mine once said: Joshua Tree's first three tracks comprise the best introductory one, two, three punch of any album ever. Quite the statement, no? But looking at the three tracks in question, it's not exactly an outlandish one. Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and With or Without You are without a doubt, classics in the U2 catalog and music in general. But best ever? As much as I was inclined to agree with my friend, I still needed, nay, demanded a more scientific study be done. And so, today's post was born for you, my three readers, to enjoy.
In order to reach a more proper answer to the question at hand, I started with 50 acclaimed albums from different genres of music. To keep this list manageable and because of an age bias on my part, I only included albums released in and after 1987, the year that Joshua Tree was released. I also only included albums I've listened to more than a few times, since I have no way of judging anything I have not listened to. I tried to keep genres balanced as best as I could, but it turns out I listen to hip hop way more than anything else. As for my criteria, I looked at what made Joshua Trees first three tracks so special and came up with this.
1. WTSHNN, ISHFWILF and WOWY (I'm gonna use acronyms for these tracks from now on because goddamn, these names are long) are full songs and not intro skits or instrumental free thought. No GOAT one, two, three punch can include a track that's not actually a song.
2. All three tracks are critically and popularly acclaimed/adored. If you ask an average fan of the artist in question, he or she should not only recognize the three tracks but enjoy them as well.
3. To take number 2 a bit further, if one was to make a U2 top ten list, all three tracks can fit in that list, easily. Here's the first list I pulled up off a Google search for best U2 songs and you can see WTSHNN at #2, ISHFWILF at #5 and WOWY at #6. One could probably even make the argument that these three tracks could comprise a top 3 list on their own. One would be mistaken though, because Pride is the GOAT U2 track. (Side note: I LOVE this cover of the track by The Roots.)
4. All three tracks are iconic in the grand scheme of music and not just its genre, although this may be more due to U2 than anything
Alright, now that that's all cleared up, let's get on with the main event. We start with 50 albums: 1. Arcade Fire - Funeral, 2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, 3. The Avalanches - Since I Left You, 4. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique, 5. Blink 182 - Enema of the State, 6. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein, 7. Common - Like Water For Chocolate, 8. Daft Punk - Discovery, 9. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead, 10. Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030, 11. Dr. Dre - The Chronic, 12. Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose, 13. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange, 14. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele, 15. Gorillaz - Demon Days, 16. GZA - Liquid Swords, 17. Kanye West - College Dropout, 18. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 19. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid MAAD City, 20. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly, 21. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt, 22. Jay-Z - The Blueprint, 23. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver, 24. Madvillain - Madvillainy, 25. Mobb Deep - The Infamous, 26. Mos Def - Black On Both Sides, 27. The National - Alligator, 28. Nas - Illmatic, 29. Nirvana - Nevermind, 30. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema, 31. Notorious BIG - Ready To Die, 32. Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory, 33. Outkast - Atliens, 34. Pixies - Doolitle, 35. The Postal Service - Give Up, 36. Portishead - Dummy, 37. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 38. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, 39. Rakim - Paid In Full, 40. Radiohead - OK Computer, 41. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine, 42. The Roots - Things Fall Apart, 43. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, 44. A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory, 45. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders, 46. Tupac - Me Against The World, 47. U2 - Achtung Baby, 48. Usher - 8701, 49. Weezer - Blue Album, 50. Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Criterion 1. All three tracks must be actual songs
Albums Lost: Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique, De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead, Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030, Dr. Dre - The Chronic, Frank Ocean - Channel Orange, Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele, Gorillaz - Demon Days, Kanye West - College Dropout, Madvillain - Madvillainy, Mobb Deep - The Infamous, Nas - Illmatic, Notorious BIG - Ready to Die, Outkast - ATLiens, Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, The Roots - Things Fall Apart, A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders, Tupac - Me Against The World, Usher - 8701
Albums Remaining: Arcade Fire - Funeral, Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, The Avalanches - Since I Left You, Blink182 - Enema of the State, Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein, Common - Like Water For Chocolate, Daft Punk - Discovery, Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose, GZA - Liquid Swords, Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid Maad City, Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly, Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt, LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver, Mos Def - Black On Both Sides, The National - Alligator, Nirvana - Nevermind, The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema, Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory, Pixies - Doolitle, The Postal Service - Give Up, Portishead - Dummy, Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full, Radiohead - OK Computer, Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine, Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory, U2 - Achtung Baby, Weezer - Blue Album, Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
And just like that, we've lost 19 of our candidates. Not so surprisingly, over half of the hip hop albums on our list were eliminated due to rappers' inexplicable fascination with skits and intros. I would have been legitimately shocked if De La Soul Is Dead, the album that popularized skits in hip hop culture, made it past this round. Likewise for Demon Days, as it is the most hip hop influenced of all the Gorillaz' albums. Without the intro, we would've been left with tracks 2-4: Last Living Souls, Kids With Guns and O Green World, which are all awesome, although they probably wouldn't have made it past criterion 2. It seems that R&B artists weren't immune to the intro/skit bug either, as we've lost our only two representatives from that genre. If it weren't for intros and skits, Frank Ocean's Channel Orange's first three tracks would have been Thinkin Bout You, Sierra Leone and Sweet Life. What a lineup, what a waste.
Some other painful losses from this round include The Infamous, Illmatic and Midnight Marauders. Three of the greatest hip hop albums ever done in by intro-skititis. The Infamous, without its second track, the confusingly titled Prelude, would have boasted a line up of The Start of Your Ending, Survival of the Fittest, and Eye for an Eye. Midnight Marauders, without the Tour Guide, manages to top that with Steve Biko, Award Tour, and 8 Million Stories. And Illmatic, without the Genesis, rolls out NY State of Mind, Life's a Bitch, and The World Is Yours. Holy crap. All three of those tracks could slide into a top ten Nas list and belong on all time hip hop songs lists. If this were about the best three track sequence, regardless of placement in the album, Illmatic's 2-4 would have been in HEAVY contention. (Side note: Midnight Marauders' 8-10 tracks of Electric Relaxation, Clap Your Hands, and Oh My God would've also been serious contenders, along with The Infamous' 14-16 tracks of Drink Away the Pain, Shook Ones Pt 2, and Party Over. I mean, Electric Relaxation and Shook Ones Pt 2 are among the top ten hip hop tracks of all time). Blame sequencing.
Criterion 2: All three tracks must be recognizable by fans and generally well received
Albums Lost: The Avalanches - Since I Left You, Blink 182 - Enema of the State, Common - Like Water For Chocolate, Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid Maad City, Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly, LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver, Mos Def- Black on Both Sides, The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema, Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory, Pixies - Doolitle, Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full, Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, Weezer - Blue Album
Albums Remaining: Arcade Fire - Funeral, Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein, Daft Punk - Discovery, Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose, GZA - Liquid Swords, Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt, The National - Alligator, Nirvana - Nevermind, The Postal Service - Give Up, Portishead - Dummy, Radiohead - OK Computer, Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine, A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory, U2 - Achtung Baby, Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
The most subjective part of this process axed 14 albums from contention. I realize that "recognizable by fans and generally well received" is more or less up for debate, but some albums did make it easy to decide one way or another. Some, such as Nirvana's Nevermind, had three songs that were all released as popular singles, pushing that album easily past this round. Postal Service's Give Up had two songs that were released as beloved singles, with a third track that I'm honestly surprised never was a single, given its popularity. Others, such as Like Water For Chocolate, Good Kid Maad City, To Pimp A Butterfly and Black on Both Sides were brought down and eliminated due to tracks that basically amounted to glorified interludes. Not necessarily bad tracks, but nobody's checking these albums for those songs.
Since I Left You was eliminated because in all honesty, I don't think most people who know the Avalanches can name a track besides Since I Left You and that one track with the freaky video. Ditto for modern day Pixies fans with Here Comes Your Man and the song from Fight Club. Enema of the State, Sound of Silver, Twin Cinema, (What's the Story) Morning Glory, and Blue Album were brought down by one or two relatively forgettable tracks each. Sufjan Stevens didn't make the cut because nobody can tell one Sufjan track apart from another. As for Paid In Full, Eric B is on the Cut is a decent song/example of DJ-ing but is definitely not in anyone's playlist. Kanye's MBDTF (the objective choice for best Kanye album, slightly beating out Late Registration. That's a discussion best saved for another day) was the hardest cut because Dark Fantasy, Gorgeous, and Power are all actually really good songs. However, I just didn't think the average Kanye fan would have been able to pick Gorgeous out of a line up.
Criterion 3: All three tracks should be arguably top ten tracks in the artist's catalog
Albums Lost: Arcade Fire - Funeral, Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein, Daft Punk - Discovery, Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing to Lose, Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt, The National - Alligator, Portishead - Dummy, The Postal Service - Give Up, Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine, A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory, U2 - Achtung Baby, Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Albums Remaining: GZA - Liquid Swords, Nirvana - Nevermind
Even if I overlooked the first two criteria and brought all 50 albums to this point, there wouldn't have been much difference in the results, except for the inclusion of Illmatic. The likelihood of three of the ten best tracks in your career coming one after the other as the first three tracks of any album are very slim, especially for artists who have an extremely vast back catalog. This is why Funeral, The Suburbs, Discovery, There Is Nothing To Lose, The Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt, Alligator, Dummy, Rage Against the Mahine, Low End Theory, Achtung Baby and Enter the 36 Chambers didn't make the cut. The Postal Service and Cannibal Ox, on the other hand, were cut for exactly the opposite reason: they didn't have enough of a discography to bother making a top ten list for. I mean, Give Up is the only full length Postal Service album out there and it's ten tracks long, essentially making every track on the album a top ten Postal Service song. That's just silly.
Before we discuss criterion 4, some quick notes:
1. If this list were made when Blueprint was first released, it may have made it past this checkpoint. The Ruler's Back and Izzo are tremendous tracks that I could potentially see top ten - twenty arguments for but Takeover has not aged well at all. It was huge when it came out though.
2. Reasonable Doubt and Dummy were really hard omissions but in the end, I just couldn't see Brooklyn's Finest being an undeniable top level Jay-Z track and Strangers being the same for Portishead. Mysterons is the shit though.
3. Iron Galaxy is one of the greatest rap album openers ever. Some others that deserve to be on that list are Common's Be Intro, Jay-Z's A Million and One Questions/Rhyme No More, and Big L's Put It On.
4. Liquid Swords lucked out here because while GZA has a pretty large back catalog, most, if not all of it is fairly forgettable compared to the masterpiece that is Liquid Swords. Seriously, any top ten GZA list can be Shadowboxin, Liquid Swords, any 7 more tracks from Liquid Swords plus the Breaker Breaker remix. Duel of the Iron Mic and Living in the World Today, definitely fall into that category.
5. Nevermind's first three tracks are actually pretty insane in this context. They pass the top ten part fairly easily but more than that, Come As You Are, In Bloom and Smells Like Teen Spirit ARE Nirvana. To a casual Nirvana fan, these three tracks are very likely the first three tracks that come to mind right away when someone mentions the band. To have these three songs in a row like this kicking things off is amazing and I'm kicking myself for never having seen this before.
Criterion 4: Relevance Outside Genre
Albums Lost: GZA - Liquid Swords
Albums Remaining: Nirvana - Nevermind
Liquid Swords is safely one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone outside of rap fans and music critics who has ever heard of it, let alone has ever listened to it. Nevermind though, has permeated itself through the mainstream music culture. To many people, Nirvana defined an entire subgenre of music and its influence can still be found throughout the musical world today. At the end of the day, Nevermind is the only album out of our original 50 that can fit all four criteria we set for ourselves. As for how it stacks up against Joshua Tree, that may be a matter of personal taste. Personally, I'm still rolling with Joshua Tree. Where The Streets Have No Name cannot and will not be denied.
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