Your Personal Favourite Album Openers...
 

Whether it be a simple, minute long intro, or a full song. The first track on an album can set the mood for what you're in store for on the rest of the album. It can even throw you off, not knowing what you'll hear next. Some album openings are more significant than others, but there is no denying that, more than likely, it will be your first initial impression of what the album will be like. There has been a whole heap of great album openers. What are some of your favourites?

Here is one of mine:
Cog - 'No Other Way' (ALBUM: Sharing Space)
*a lot of raw emotion here, right from the start you know that you're in for something special. Most of the themes presented on the album are laid out in an epic that soars.

Intro/The Philosopher - Death - Live in L.A.

Too lazy too find the vid, just go check it out.

Oh god... So many great openers...

In terms of being more of an opener then a song, though... I have to say this is pretty sick.

This song is just amazing

This one springs to mind...

This is easily my all time favorite opener. That really dark, crescendo-like repetition gets me every time. The rest of the song is some terrific mathcore, and I love the lyrics.

With that opening guitar riff and the visually stimulating lyrics "It's a Man Ray kind of sky", Feeling Gravity's pull perfectly sets the tone for the rest of this eerie album. The closer Wendell Gee is also one of my favorite closers of all time.

2nded

Feel-Big Star
No arguing with that as a track one side one.

Meh. I love Screamadelica, but I really don't think Movin' On Up fits with the rest of it musically. Maybe it's just me. As a standalone track though it's pretty good.

The whole point of Screamadelica as an album is that it supposed to start off on a high & gradually start to go on a comedown during the 2nd half of it.

There isn't a single track on the album that could have opened it better.

I understand that but it certainly isn't what I meant. I also understand the concept and while it's a great idea I just don't think that Movin' On Up works musically. Lyrically it totally fits... "I was blind, now I can see/ you made a believer out of me"

That's in tune with the album's concept but something about the "rocking" nature of the song and the lack of electronic elements leaves me wanting. To each his own, anyway. Again, I really do love the record.

I think this is a great opener for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars:



And this as the opener for Animals, which I haven't played in some time:

London Calling-The Clash
Teen Age Riot-Sonic Youth

Speaking of David Bowie...



^ I love this one. A really loud, abrasive and experimental way to kick-start a hell of an album.

One more from moi...



^ Might be my favourite Pogues tune as well. Great lyrics, wonderful melody, fun as fuck and sets up the rest of Red Roses For Me so well.

The mood for Skinny Puppy's Rabies is set very well by the first track 'Rodent'. In fact many of their opening tracks are very well selected or created as such. This album makes my brain melt, probably because it actually did many times while listening to it on LSD. :p: Quality is pretty shite unfortunately.



Here is 'Love in Vein' from Last Rights (fan video):

The Clash - London Calling (London Calling)
The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual (Meat Is Murder)
The Kinks - Victoria (Arthur Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
New Order - Dreams Never End (Movement)
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)
Blur - Stereotypes (The Great Escape)
Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie (Physical Graffiti)

'A Thousand Motors Pressed Upon the Heart' opens up Juno's A Future Lived in Past Tense. The studio version is actually instrumental, and a great post-rockish build-up to the album. I wish it was up on the 'tube. Juno was a sadly overlooked Seattle band that created a mix of very atmospheric almost post-rock, grunge, and post-hardcore. Glad to have seen them when they did two reunion shows just after I moved here.



The Mars Volta's 'Son et lumière' from De-Loused in the Comatorium:



Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs' from Paranoid:



Jane's Addiction's 'Up the Beach' from Nothing's Shocking (and this video is amazing with it!):

Good call! :beer:

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's 'Richter Scale Madness' (s/t album) and ' It Was There That I Saw You' (Source Tags & Codes) are great openers. Unfortunately all the clips on YouTube are live. Some are great but since we're talking about openers in relation to their respective albums...it's not quite the same feel, and I wouldn't know which to pick without watching them all.

I actually love how Demon Days opens with the music from Dawn of the Dead.

Also, The Arrogant Sons of Bitches's album Three Cheers For Disappointment has the most exciting, energy-packed opening I have ever heard.

AFI - Miseria Cantare from Sing the Sorrow

This was my first album of AFI's, and though their latest stuff isn't too impressive I was inspired to check out their earlier stuff after listening to this album. Maybe since I started here that is why I like the album so much while so many fans bash it.

I thought this opener was really cool...dark and ominous. Yet it still didn't give me any hints about what to expect from the rest of their music (and that ended up being a good thing). It kept me intrigued and as it ended I had high expectations for what was in store. Needless to say, with the Leaving Song Part 2 following it, I was hooked on this album from the first time I listened to it.

Some of my favorites:

:thumb:
Lurve it.

I remember vividly the first time I heard this. I was already a big Pantera fan, and anxiously awaiting this album. That BRUTAL scream right off the bat let me know straight away that this album was gonna be balls-to-the-wall heavy!

I agree, good opener and it was also my first AFI album. I loved it at the time, but my taste for it has faded a bit since, unfortunately.

Love the song to bits but it's always sounded like it would be more appropriate on their earlier "we're going to be a Stones lookalike band" albums, not the dub symphony Screamadelica turned out to be.

In a similar vein:


Ignore the non-Roky Erickson poser in the beginning. :)

This is very much what I was trying to say, thanks.

Yeah but virtually every song on Screamadelica has a Stones influence in it.

Well, rarely have I run across a good album with a bad kickoff track, but here are a few personal openers of mine-

Toy Matinee - Last Plane Out



Battles - Race In



Mew - Am I Wry? No

One of my faves. From Wild Mood Swings by The Cure :

Yes all the way. Amazing opener to an album that gets more amazing with each track.

^ indeed, great one. I think And the Glass Handed Kites' opener 'Circuitry of the Wolf' is also great.

I'm not the biggest fan of this album, but this song puts me in the mood for the whole thing no matter what.

...love all of those, The Mars Volta one and The Cure the most.

How about this one, good 'ol Porcupine Tree, it's short and simple and carries into Synesthesia so well:
Porcupine Tree - 'What You Are Listening To / Synesthesia' (ALBUM: Up The Downstair)


(Unfortunately I couldn't find a vid where they've been combined so you can't really get the feel of how it flows straight after the spoken intro. Plus Youtubes quality is crap)

Can't find a vid for it, but the 2 minute intro to Dieselboy's Project Human mix-cd is probably my favorite. It's got the dude that does movie preview voice-overs talking about how you've entered the future, robots are taking over, rogue-scientists are trying to save us from annihilation, etc. Sick intro, and totally gets you in the mood for the dark/techy DnB that is to follow. :)


If it has to be an actual song then I would have to pick Zao - The Buzzing on their Parade of Chaos album. Back in '02, this shocked me when I first heard it, and I loved how this disc just tore your face off from the very get go. Still can get pretty hyper when this is on.

"White America" by EMINEM.
Very explosive opening, imo.

A couple that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread:

Good call, I really like that one. If only other Silver Jews albums could be as good as American Water.