Great shout upthread for What’s Going On, a perfect album for sure. I’d add Billy Paul’s War Of The Gods and Gil Scott Heron’s Pieces Of A Man in that pile. Probably Isaac Hayes Hot Buttered Soul too, if we allow covers.
Some very consistent Shoegaze e.g. I’d be hard put to pick a weak track on MBV Loveless, Cocteau Twins Heaven Or Las Vegas, pretty much anything from Beach House, or more recently Nabihah Iqbal’s Dreamer.
Hardcore too, e.g. if you like anything on Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade or Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime chances are you like the whole album (which is the correct answer). Same logic applies to say Durutti Column’s wonderful LC. I could make a case for The Residents Commercial Album, which is 40 one minute tracks/sketches that somehow make a whole too.
I think the hard thing here is finding albums that flit-about wildly stylistically but remain consistent as a whole. There needs to be some Sufjan Stevens here too, I’d cite Illinois and Ascension as the high-watermarks here. There are a lot of different things across a lengthy playing time there, yet he holds it all together. More recently Yeule’s Glitch Princess and Softscars both meander all over some very odd places, but both work wonderfully as a whole.
Lots of rap/hip-hop too, e.g. Kendrick Lamar turns out 70 minute concept albums such as To Pimp A Butterfly that demand attention as a whole, as do things like Little Simz No Thank You in their own way.
I think the takeaway is the album as a form is far from dead. There is a lot of fresh stuff that is clearly intended as a whole.
