I find the most important thing when you buy a new album has always been the first track. If the first song doesn't grab you, it colours your enjoyment of the rest of the album, even if it turns out to be a great one. First impressions last, as they say, and you only get the one chance, so your first track, like the opening paragraph of a book, should hook in the listener and make them want to hear more. If it's not a good song their expectations are immediately lowered and their disappointment will hang around like a dark cloud as they go on to track two.
If the track is good, or great, then the euphoric feeling of vindication and relief may even carry the listener past one or two bad tracks. It really is that simple: if the first track doesn't hook you, there's a small chance that you may not listen to the rest of the album, or may listen to it in a biased way. If it is good, you're going to enjoy the album much better. (Of course, if ONLY that track is good then you end up in my “Nice song --- shame about the album!” section!)
So here I'm presenting tracks which open albums which I feel have right away helped me enjoy those albums, and have set the standard for what follows. It's like they say in advertising: get them in the first few seconds or you may lose them. These tracks certainly do the job.
First up is the opening track from Thin Lizzy's 1981 album “Renegade”. Written by Phil Lynott and Darren Wharton (hence the excellent keyboard solo that helps to make the track so impressive), “Angel of Death” sets the bar for what is to follow, with its powerful guitars and swirling synths, and its narrator being the Devil himself for most of the track. Classic.
This is completely different song, from a totally different artist, but it still grabs you from the off. As the opening track to Suzanne Vega's “Solitude standing”, it's completely acapella and for that reason it makes you sit up and take notice. The rest of the album is great too, by the way.
Kicking off a true classic album, you know exactly what to expect when that piano and harmonica introduce “Thunder Road”, and there's no argument that Bruce Springsteen's “Born to run” lives up to the promise of its opening track.
Yes, it was the single that preceded the album, but even so this is a great way to open Don Henley's second solo album, “Building the perfect Beast”, with the excellent “The boys of summer”.
And to close this first edition of “Head start”, what better way to get a rock album going than this powerful slice of hard rock, with great keyboard intro and slamming guitars, this is “Let it rock” from Bon Jovi's phenomenally successful “Slippery when wet”.
Of course, it's almost as important how an album ends, and soon I'll be introducing a section covering the best album closers I've heard. Watch out for it!