The best start (3 songs or so) to an album

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Copied across my latest batch of CDs to my computer and then onto my Android to listen to while wandering around.

Today I was listening to Ocean Colour Scene's "Moseley Shoals" album for the first time in....in well forever.

The first three tracks are all stone cold classics and flow perfectly into each other.

[Colly]

It's weird how much I loved that album at school, but I really struggle to listen to it now. I can happily listen to loads of stuff I listened to at the time (Suede, Bluetones, Menswe@r ) but I just really can't enjoy OCS at all. Apart from Hundred Mile High City, which remains superb.

Keeping it same time period (and because I only got to A on my iTunes...), the start of 1977 by Ash goes Lose Control (with cool TIE fighter intro), Goldfinger, Girl From Mars. Woo!

[New Damage]

Because generally they follow the same sort of pattern, The Gaslight Anthem have great starts to their albums. I thin The '59 Sound is the weakest of the starts, and Handwritten being the strongest (45, Handwritten, Here Comes My Man and Mulholland Drive).

Similar to Gaslight Anthem, Metallica's albums follow a pattern too, with the first 4 of Ride the Lightening and Master of Puppets standing out.

Reuben's In Nothing We Trust is great because of the slow build up and crash of Cities on Fire, then the way We're Going Home In An Ambulance leads into Suffocation of the Soul.

The Killers' Hot Fuss is essentially an album that is the first 5 songs (and the final bonus track Under the Gun) for me with Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, Mr. Brightside, Smile Like You Mean It, Somebody Told Me and that song who's title I've forgotten but it's lyrics are "I've got soul but I'm not a solider".

[KONGO]

Fire on Fire's The Orchard. Whole album is brilliant, but "Heavy D" is one of my favorite songs ever and the first three are just evidence of what's to come.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It's weird how much I loved that album at school, but I really struggle to listen to it now. I can happily listen to loads of stuff I listened to at the time (Suede, Bluetones, Menswe@r ) but I just really can't enjoy OCS at all. Apart from Hundred Mile High City, which remains superb.

Keeping it same time period (and because I only got to A on my iTunes...), the start of 1977 by Ash goes Lose Control (with cool TIE fighter intro), Goldfinger, Girl From Mars. Woo!

Yeah 1977 has a great start!

Another from the period is Elastica's self-titled with Line Up, Annie and Connection which is a great start.

Fatboy Slim's "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" also has a great start - Right Here Right Now, The Rockafeller Skank, (F***ing) In Heaven and then Gangster Tripping.

In Heaven isn't amazing but does a good job of linking those other three songs together.

[thatshortguy]

The opening song always has to set the tone for the rest of the album, while the second and third have to keep up that mentality. It always throws me when an album goes from uptempo opener to moody second/third track. Save it for later. While it also helps if one of the first three songs isn't the first single, it doesn't kill things for me like it used to.

Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger contains by far my favorite opening trio. While "Let Me Drown" (from Superunknown) still reigns as my favorite opening song of all time, the first three from BMF just kick things off and run with it. "Rusty Cage" is a hugely energetic opener, while "Outshined" & "Slaves & Bulldozers" slow down the tempo while introducing the sheer heaviness that awaited in the remaining songs.

[deli]

Straight away Interpol's debut Turn on the Bright Lights comes to mind. With the mellow opener "Untitled" The Punkesque "Obstacle 1" and the emotional "NYC". It sets up the rest of the Album perfectly.

[Jimmy]

Arctic Monkeys' first album has a pretty stellar start, from 'The View From The Afternoon' to "I bet that you look good on the danceflor' to 'Fake Tales of San Francisco'. I'm sure some of the songs have suffered from over exposure, but on first listen it's a cracking way to start an album.

I'll echo Hot Fuss and Handwritten having extremely strong starts. I'd throw in Black Keys 'El Camino', Courteeners' 'St Jude'.

I'd also say two of The Cribs albums -- 'Ignore The Ignorant' having We Were Aborted, Cheat On Me, We Share The Same Skies and the incredible City of Bugs. Mans Needs also has a really great first three tracks.

I know none of these are classic albums as such, but they're albums I love especially with their storng starts.

[KONGO]

That's a good shout, deli.

[Matt]

The Vaccines Come of Age has a pretty awesome start: No Hope, I Always Knew, Teenage Icon and All In Vain.

[New Damage]

Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger contains by far my favorite opening trio. While "Let Me Drown" (from Superunknown) still reigns as my favorite opening song of all time, the first three from BMF just kick things off and run with it. "Rusty Cage" is a hugely energetic opener, while "Outshined" & "Slaves & Bulldozers" slow down the tempo while introducing the sheer heaviness that awaited in the remaining songs.

I always include Jesus Christ Pose with the opening too, because those first 4 songs are like a sledgehammer.

Similarly, Faith No More's The Real Thing and the trio of From Out of Nowhere, Epic and Falling to Pieces.

[GoGo Yubari]

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue:

I mean, I dunno. Maybe I'll take the time to think of others, but absolutely nothing ever is touching this. Very likely the best run of three tracks on any album ever. The first-two are straight up iconic and the third is maybe my favorite song of all time.

[Mick]

AC/DC's Back in Black:

1. Hell's Bells

2. Shoot To Thrill

3. What Do You Do For Money, Honey?

The first two are staples of all their shows, and the third one is occasionally as well. On that matter, The Razor's Edge:

1. Thunderstruck

2. Fire Your Guns

3. Moneytalks

[Damian WayLNKe]

White Stripes: White Blood Cells

[ADG]

I always thought The Remote Part by Idlewild had a really good opening with "You Held the World in Your Arms", "A Modern Way of Letting Go", "American English" and "I Never Wanted".

[reyrey619]

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a classic all the way through, and Dark Fantasy-Gorgeous-Power grips you right from the start.

[Cheeky Hughes]

Radiohead's "The Bends" has a great start. Kicks off with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXyrCRd1ikw, and it keeps up the pace with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_QqX5ioWM, before mellowing a little with

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUJP0BwWB5Q. Could even stretch to "Bones" as well, but by then you're reaching the half way point of the album.

[Steeb]

Weird, I was going to make this exact (almost) topic the other day, after re-falling in love with Modest Mouse's 'We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank'. It has a cracking opening seven tracks - which is probably too many for this, but even if you just take the first two/three/four, from March Into The Sea, to Dashboard, to Fire It Up, to Florida, is as good as an album has ever gotten, and throwing the next few tracks up to We've Got Everything is just a killer combo.

[GA!]

I always thought The Remote Part by Idlewild had a really good opening with "You Held the World in Your Arms", "A Modern Way of Letting Go", "American English" and "I Never Wanted".

Great one!

I'd say Everything Must Go by Manic Street Preachers. 'Elvis Impersonator' then 'A Design For Life' then 'Kevin Carter'.

Biffy Clyro's The Vertigo of Bliss also starts amazingly. 'Bodies in Flight', 'The Ideal Height', 'With Aplomb'.

[Nick Adams]

Fall Out Boy's Infinity on High

It's just a series of three songs that are catchy and fun. EDIT: Look for the Seth Green cameo in the third video. So random.