We all know that Andy Partridge is the one true genius in British music, a cross between Zappa/Lennon/McCartney/Ray Davies as if to prove the point he released Fuzzy Warbles Vols 1-8 below is my best of Fuzzy Warbles.

Dame Fortune
Born Out Of Your Mouth
Don't Let Us Bug Ya
That Wag
Everything
Goosey Goosey
I Don't Want To Be Here (Aids Benefit Version)
Young Marrieds
Obscene Procession
Ra Ra For Red Rocking Horse
Everything'll Be Alright
It's Snowing Angels
Ship Trapped In The Ice
My Train Is Coming
You Like Me?
Work
When We Get To England
Autumn Comes Around
This Is The End
Put It On Again
Tunes
Bumpercars
The Art Song (Something Good With Your Life)
Zonked Right Out On Life
All I Dream Of Is A Friend
Where Is Your Heart?
Young Cleopatra
I Defy You Gravity
Ice Jet Kiss
Don't You Ever Dare Call Me Chickenhead
My Land Is Burning
Laugh Track
Stinking Rich
I Can'T Tell What Truth Is Anymore
Candle Dance
Tiny Circus Of Life
In My Hand
Difficult Age
Shaking Skin House
Moonlit Drive
Prince Of Orange
End Of The Pier
Through Electric Gardens
Skate Dreams Wet Car
The Bland Leading The Bland
Sonic Boom
I'm Unbecome
Silverstar
I Gave My Suitcase Away
Candymine
Visit To The Doctor
Cherry In Your Tree
Shalloween
Was A Yes
Genie In A Bottle
Disque Bleu
I Don't Want To Be Here
Open A Can Of Human Beans

isn't it precisely the avoidance of this sort of "list culture" that sets Word apart from its contemporaries in the magazine rack? This sort of excercise is far better suited... well, to precisely this sort of blog-forum-board - or indeed to the pub snug - as it is all about debate and discussion, not about a magazine laying down canonical lists.

that after you've devoured the classic bits of an album, what often keeps you coming back are the songs that initially slipped under the radar, but which on repeated listening reveal themselves as delicate gems?

I certainly do.

I don't mean to imply that the good bits become bad (though one may become jaded) and sometimes the simple fact is that one doesn't engage with songs because they're not very good songs, but oftentimes there's some real quality that initially passes you by and which merits your attention.

This gets repeated so many times it is in danger of actually coming true.
Maybe there's some statistics from iTunes that prove me wrong but from where I'm standing the album is alive and well. Go into Fopp or HMV and they're lined up, look in magazines and half their pages are taken up with album reviews, half the bus shelters in the land seem to be advertising the new album release from some flavour of the month band. More albums seemed to be released each week now than ever before. When I download music I download albums, when I listen to music I listen to albums.
Yes some bands rely mainly on singles but wasn't it ever thus? And yes I sometimes make playlists but that's no different from the mixtapes I used to make to listen to on my walkman.
If they album really was dead bands would stop making them and just release tracks, but they don't do they.

I love the album format and concept albums, problem is that how many albums these days are worth listening to all the way through ? most albums have filler on them, maybe it's the length of cd format or maybe it's lack of talent for example on Oasis's new album there are about 4 or 5 tracks worth listening to, people will get sick of buying albums with filler when they don't have to, the album is the conventional format at the moment who's to say it will be in the future ?

I bloody love Goat's Head Soup. Without the constant tiresome comparison with the three albums that preceded it, it's got some cracking tunes (Angie, Doo Doo Doo, Winter, Coming Down Again), some excellent rockers (Dancing with Mr D, 100 Years Ago, Star Star) and the usual bluesy numbers (Silver Train, Hide your Love). What more do you want?

And while I'm ranting ...on the Nashville front, any album with Lay Lady Lay and I Threw it All Away plus Johnny Cash thrown in can't be half bad.

That version of North Country Girl *may* have worked had both Johnny and Bob decided to sing in tune and in accompanying the instruments. As neither did, it smacked of "will this do?"...Lay, Lady, Lay - good song but illustrative of the overall point - you'd take that one song (or a non Bobcat would) and stick it on a Dylan playlist with nothing else from the parent album. Same with Goats Head for the passing Stones fan. Angie, nothing else...With Let It Bleed, you'd take, well, all of it really...(maybe cutting out You Can't Always Get What You Want)

I'd wager that if any group nowadays produced GHS they would be the critical darlings of the year even if by the Stones standards some of it is derivative of previous triumphs.

I must admit I have a soft spot for Nashville as it was the first Dylan album I ever heard (not the best starting point I agree) and I think he succeeded in the limited country & western orientated aims he had for the album.

This is precisely what the Word Massive is here for surely. Simply ask the Massive to nominate one under-rated track from each of say five albums by a particular artist whose work you're keen to explore? Select the ten most commonly occurring nominations and off you go, remembering to report back in a week or so.

Now, moving on to the Middle East question .....

"Watermelons In Easter Hay" from Joe's Garage (Acts 2 & 3). Definitive Zappa and probably the greatest guitar solo of all time.

Finding great new music is surely the holy grail for music lovers I just got a great new book the Rough Guide to The Best Music You've Never Heard it is packed full of great new musical avenues to explore and I would recommend anyone to buy it for themselves as a christmas present.

I think the Word should employ a team of experts to be our guide to each significant artist.

Obviously some artists have a more extensive back catalogue than others but I would be interested especially if they employed for example a famous Dylanologist.

I think that's probably Lucas Hare you're after there.

Q magazine did just such a thing in those long ago, near forgotten, days when I used to read the blessed thing. They would pick a band with a sizeable back catalogue (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, some other bands) and split their albums into:

'Essential'(Sgt Peppers on a Beatles month),
'Recommended'(Masters of Reality on a Sabbath month),
'Tread Carefully'(Lets Dance on a Bowie month),
'Best Avoided'(A Bigger Bang on a Stones month) and
'Great Shower of Shite' (Queen albums)

or something of that manner. They also helped to recommend a good live album and/or greatest hits compilation. Not that I'm suggesting buying Q back issues, just saying that it has been done.

It was actually in The Word and there was a series of them but they didn't go as far as I wanted and name great tracks from duff Neil Young albums for example.

there are so many artists this can apply to, I noticed that Uncut have started to give stars to each track on certain reviews and in The Independent reviews it states,download this, and mentions about 3 or 4 tracks from each album reviewed.

Is this the way we are going where people will just download 3 or 4 recommended tracks from an album ? or will the album format survive ?

It's hard work being a proper music fan isn't it? I'm sure there are people that listen to music all day long but never even change the radio station.

I think an important point is to consider why we feel the need to seek out everything good. It's inevitable that what one person thinks is magnificent, you'll think is pants. I too went down the "I must get into Zappa" road a couple of years back and downloaded a "recommended" beginners set of tracks and failed to be moved.

I think one of the pleasures of music is to see artists live in small venues. As a result, I've concentrated my efforts this year in trying to listen to new up and coming artists so that I can catch them on the way up. This year I set myself a task to listen to at least one album a week by an artist that I'd never heard an album by before. As a result, I may have to listen to a lot of mush (step forward Fleet Foxes) and I don't necessarily hear the very best songs (which is subjective anyway) but I do get to hear excellent music played in intimate settings by artists that still care (step forward Ingrid Michaelson & Chatham Co Line).