Flawed genius

"What makes an inconsistent album a classic? How much of it needs to be brilliant?" The answer, suggests the Guardian's Dorian Lynsky, is not necessarily that much, picking out five examples - The Who's Sell Out, Patti Smith's Horses, The Clash's self-titled debut, NWA's Straight Outta Compton and Radiohead's Kid A - to illustrate his point. I'm not sure I agree with him about Kid A, but would certainly point towards Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and its inclusion of 'When I'm Sixty-Four' as an example of an album that is a cast-iron masterpiece that isn't derailed by a duff track.