tragabigzanda wrote:i prefer USA by a fair margin. I find the moodier songs to really lend an edge to the thing that is mostly missing from Born to Run's more bombastic approach.
Born to Run is cohesive from top to bottom and has a perfect arc.
Born in the USA has Dancing in the Dark, which was admittedly stuck in there at the last possible moment so they could have a hit song. I rather enjoy that song, especially love, but it is a major outlier on the album. I mean every song is great there but I don’t find the tracks moody- they are all stadium ready rave ups (with the exception of I’m On Fire) that have moody lyrics.
Born to Run is almost orchestral in its delivery and is about as damn near perfect as it gets.
I hesitate to call this mainstream because the genre of "outlaw country" has outsider status right there in the name. Nevertheless, this thing stayed on the country charts for weeks and is the first country album to go platinum, so it's not exactly obscure. Anyway, it's perfect.
dimejinky99 wrote:I could destroy any ai chatbot you put in front of me. Easily.
But at what point do we go from “Perfect Mainstream Album” to just milestone albums by artists? The most popular albums ever made are pretty much mainstream otherwise they wouldn’t have sold as many as they did. And in probably each case, they’d have to be pretty damn near perfect to have such a broad appeal in the first place.
Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
- C. Montgomery Burns
But at what point do we go from “Perfect Mainstream Album” to just milestone albums by artists? The most popular albums ever made are pretty much mainstream otherwise they wouldn’t have sold as many as they did. And in probably each case, they’d have to be pretty damn near perfect to have such a broad appeal in the first place.
Yep. You could throw Tapestry, She’s So Unusual or even Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in this conversation and you wouldn’t be wrong. Even Norah Jones first album could slip through here.
tragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb
I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Mon January 12, 2026 5:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
