Living in the 80s! So it's Easter, the rebirth, and also April 1st by the time this gets posted where I am (glad it's still set to West Coast time for once). This year is one of the best, perhaps because it's kinda still the 70s. I used to think the 80s was the best, but upon making these lists that's false, though there was a lot of great music and really the last time the mainstream was at all acceptable. This year, though, is so great so it gets the hopefully unique privilege of me breaking the rules and doing 11 albums. This was mostly due to a late error, though, iycbt.
11. DEVO - Freedom of Choice
DEVO's "mainstream" album thanks to "Whip It." Like the Ramones, they had written most of the songs for the first two together and this third is something new. That is apparent in the increasing electronic presence, much more than any more "accessibility." I suppose it is more pop than punk (or prog), but it is still a weird and very heavy set of prophet rock. After all, isn't "Girl U Want," more than just another obsessive tale of unrequited love? Considering its date and the band's message it should make sense it does have more in common with Kraftwerk than the MTV-friendly synth-pop of Duran Duran or even they equally-frightening Gary Numan. Still fun and light in their own sick, Midwenstern way on "Mr. B's Ballroom" and "That's Pep!" the group is as dark and apocalyptic as ever with "Gates of Steel," maybe the best thing they ever created. Devo's perfect medium.
10. Wipers - Is This Real?
Another one often dismissed in preference of "less poppy" work, the Wipers' debut is a great set of concise and original post-punk. Greg Sage gives the Northwest its first big voice since the Sonics (and arguably Hendrix) and is thereby credited with creating grunge, whatever that is. Still, future Nirvana material "D-7" and "Return of the Rat" do have that dirty punk feel with a deeper distortion that would become the staple of 90s rock radio. The songwriting is better though, and early on Sage is unafraid to write catchy material over heavy statements. It is those songs like "Mystery" and "Wait A Minute" that make this debut a competitor with their darker, more epic subsequent material. Sage is also an top notch guitarist and the chugging up-tempo rhythm accompanying him could not be any more perfect for this shadowy set of post-punk pop tunes.
9. New Musik - From A to B (Straight Lines)
Fifteen years before Bob Dylan took acoustic folk songs and put them to rock and roll to great effect. Here Tony Mansfield does that with the even more cutting edge synth-pop arrangement. His lyrics are even weirder, though. New Musik combined the spacey synths of Kraftwerk and Eno with punk simplicity and a pop beat with some of the cleanest, tightest songwriting of its time, to little modern recognition, at least stateside. Plus they had songs with names like "Dead Fish (Don't Swim Home)" and "A Map of You." It is hard to say exactly what they are saying with songs like "Straight Lines," but "World of Water" and "Sad Films" convey their nervous depth, proving this quartet to have a common goal of creating truly otherworldly music. Their simple, krautrock-inspired name further shows their futuristic vision and this album is more than just one of the best of its kind. It is still new to most.
8. Bobb Trimble - Iron Curtain Innocence
This one looks to the past for inspiration... maybe. Bobb Trimble's debut is a personal take on psychedelia, beginning this decade's much-appreciated, often overlooked return to that truth. The Worcester, MA native took his high voice and unusual guitar sound into the darkest, most insecure corners of the mind. "Your Little Pawn" may integrate modern technology into its arrangement, but its approach is right out of the sixties, though its self-loathing lyrics foreshadowed a distant future. Trimble's gentle soul shines through with no reservation on "One Mile From Heaven," which would also begin his trademark of book-ending sides in addition to setting his standard of human fragility he would only go on to raise. His horrifically self-aware songs "Killed by the Hands of an Unknown Rock Starr" and "Through My Eyes (Hopeless as Hell: D.O.A.)" kept this private press release legendary for the following 27 years with the apocalyptic "When The Raven Calls" suggesting its creator to be an otherworldly prophet or angel. It is a question that would asked much more in his future work.
7. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabliel (3, Melt)
Gabriel's third self-titled album is probably his best. He has matured far beyond the role of prog singer and is still far from pop and this Stve Lillywhite-produced album has all and more of the collaborators you would want including Kate Bush, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Phil Collins, and even Paul Weller. As expected, it's quite dark, particularly on the opening "Intruder" and "Games Without Frontiers." He takes on violent political topics on "Biko" and the dramatic "Family Snapshot" with the former also signaling the beginnings of his foray into African music heard all over the album. This solid set proves Gabriel to be one of the best and most relevant artists in the public view, much more than the former singer from a dinosaur band, this record is in better company with the post-punk found elsewhere on this list than what his former "peers" had been doing. After all, this is the work of a very young man with many odd and successful musical adventures under his belt.
6. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
Maybe this isn't a "real" album, but I think it's real enough. The Cure's best early work is on this set, much more solid than the similar Three Imaginary Boys. It's mostly pop like in the title track and the catchy little ride "Jumping Someone Else's Train." "Killing and Arab" is always discussed, and while it's a smarter choice than reading the Camus snore that inspired it, the other Middle Eastern themed track "Fire In Cairo" is quite a bit better. There's a whole lot more existentialist tension in "Accuracy" and "10.15 Saturday Night" too. There is certainly no shortage of drama and the band begins to show their "goth" future on slow numbers like "Three Imaginary Boys" and "Another Day," but the brighter stuff still works best even on the totally ridiculous "So What." Perhaps the Cure's best, even if least characteristic work. Tight and simple, it is far more than a vehicle for Smith. Its fantastic rhythms are a credit to the songwriter's willingness to let his sidemen contribute and express their always-talented selves.
5. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
This Cambridge group picks up where Uncle Syd left off. They play jangly Byrds-inspired pop for the punk crowd with a fantastical sense of humor that would make leader Robyn Hitchcock a legend to the current day. "I Wanna Destroy You" is the most punk they would get, but the speed and aggression never wavers, such as on the dizzying instrumental "You'll Have To Go Sideways" and "Positive Vibrations." Hitchcock begins his distant fascination with psychotics on tracks like "Old Pervert," "I Got The Hots," and the stalker tale "Tonight." The whole band is on fire, with singer-who-plays-drums Morris Windsor joining him later in the Egyptians and (Katrina and the) Waves member Kimberly Rew providing the best guitar partner for Hitchcock until Peter Buck came his way. "Kingdom of Love" is the best of the many songs he would write about insects or something, and "Queen of Eyes" is jangle pop perfection Lewis Carroll-style. The whole album ends perfectly with the transcendent title track making the next 22 years extra hard despite many great albums from Hitchcock.
4. The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
More new British psychedelia with a great sense of humor. Bassist Julian Cope leads this Liverpool quartet through this set of funky, yet eerie tunes with titles like "Ha Ha I'm Drowning" and "Bouncing Babies." Moody keyboards combined with bright horns and droning, hypnotic rhythms define the sound as much as Cope's snarky intellectual lyrics. With the band's sound so well defined in conjunction with dramatic changes the songs can run together, but they all make excellent singles on their own with even the slower ones having a catchy bounce to them with "Poppies in the Field" perhaps capturing it in "the poppies are in the field, but don't ask me what that means." Moving on. The surprisingly cheap and easy to find American version changes a lot around, often to negative effect, but includes the excellent "Suffocate" making it as great as the original British version. Drugged-out (at this point in sound only) British dance music with smart-ass lyrics begins here, no matter how few youngsters know it.
3. Talking Heads - Remain In Light
The Heads/Eno collaboration hits its peak at the end of this trilogy of masterpieces. It is another one full of exotic rhythms and influences full of studio wizardry. It is impossible to see Eno as anything but a fifth member here with his synths and call-and response vocals on almost every track. This is psychological funk as only David Bryne could create (though Julian Cope comes close and without the nervousness). The other members contributions are often overlooked, even by themselves, but only such a tight band could bring such life to "Houses in Motion" and "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)". "The Great Curve" is also the product of this whole band with Tina Weymouth's typically silent voice giving a relate-able Alison Statton quality you just can't get from your typical studio singer. The five are immersed in a world of positive influences, so many they didn't even get to hear them (as heard in the imagined Joy Division track "The Overload") from all over the planet which makes this album still timeless and inspiring many imitators who clearly just don't really get it.
2. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
The unbelievable New Jersey group names their album after the feature of many of this year's best albums. The originators of the nerd image create the ultimate eccentric suburban introvert record, appropriately beginning with "The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness," a title that could only be deserved by a New Jersey group. As it would imply, the tension is relentless, with many songs essential being one big, tight crescendo like "Forces at Work," their wild cover of "Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except for Me And My Monkey)," and "Moscow Nights" - one of the many songs that shows just how much can be done with a bunch of "oh"s. The tension hits its climax towards the end on near-instrumental "Raised Eyebrows" with its explosion that could leave nothing to follow but the title track. Yet apart from the tension, lyrics, and songwriting it is the guitar-playing that might shine the most. The Feelies found a fantastic lead sound that to this day still has not been beat and its debut makes this album their most respected. It just wails. For everyone who grew up in a house stewing and stewing and stewing and stewing and stewing...
1. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
No other band has so clearly been made up of self-aware immortals than this Welsh trio. Brothers Stuart and Philip Moxham and the latter's girlfriend Alison Statton appear shrouded on the cover of this spiritual record like Organians with wisdom millions of years ahead of what we mere mortals can fathom. The guitar and bass function as one machine carrying these radical arrangements behind Statton's earthy and flimsy voice. Then there's that drum machine with its simple tones echoing every little beep and bump in everyday life, giving these songs the true voice of God. Though maybe not as much as the lyrics with their understated, yet explicit wisdom. This is transcendental simplicity far beyond any neo-classical composer as it captures not just the sublime, but the real and tactile, best heard on instrumentals "The Taxi" and the cinematic closer "Wind in the Rigging." Beginning with "Searching for Mr. Right" and going through the mundane take on tragedy "Eating Noddemix" and professing "nature intended the abstract for you and me," the album will change the life of anyone really listening. Then there is "The Man Amplifier," my current favorite with its circular sound and mysterious lyrics that point to some revelation we may never know. Get ready for a "Brand - New - Life" because this group said it themselves "Colossal Youth will show you the way to go."
Well, there you have it. 1980. I can't believe it either. Better have been good for some of these albums to rank so low! I had something else to say, but I forget what it is...
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
1979
The seventies reach their conclusion and they do it very well. Easter will be a perfect day to begin the eighties, that most fascinating decade. Since this year was so insanely strong I feel compelled to mention a few that I really wanted to include, but as I have told you, Miles, ten is a very small number. Sorry to Entertainment!, The Pleasure Principle, London Calling and The Specials. Lots others that were great too, but four honorable mentions is too many anyway. This is the year of post-punk, even if it's nothing new anymore. Major dominance.
10. Swell Maps - A Trip to Marineville
Swell Maps, based around brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks (with no small contribution from mostly-bassist Jowe Head) had been making home-made recordings for years before the punk explosion. This is their debut LP, which at the time was the first of its home-made kind to get any recognition. Their influences are more glam, krautrock, avante-garde, and their own child-like imaginations than "punk." They make a whole lot of noise and with titles like "Gunboats" and of course, "BLAM!!" they had better. At last the sounds of playfully violent young boys has been captures in all its uninhibited glory. With that, songs range from both short blasts to long, slow drones worthy of lyrics like "I tried to poison you, but you poisoned me! Why did you do it, you said you loved me?" "Midget Submarine" has always been my favorite, but the high energy opener "H.S. Art" is of course, the best place to start with the influential DIY all-stars.
9. The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Forget London Calling (in this respect), this is the album that actually redefined the boundaries of "punk rock," or at least should have. Reuniting without Brian James the band is actually at their collaborative and wild peak. This a very free and fun album, far removed from what many of their peers were doing. The songs get longer and more complex, but with all the camp and aggression of their earliest phase still intact. The prominent keyboards on almost every track put them in closer comparison to Magazine than the Clash or the Buzzcocks, heard to best effect on the epic "Plan Nine, Channel Zero." The punk is still there but with an intelligence and self-awareness the kids in their wake would not even dare to attempt such as "Noise Noise Noise" and the always-relevant "Anti-Pope." Captain Sensible's move to guitar pays off and his style is as wild and unpredictable as his fashion sense, veering into flashy territory often reserved for the mainstream. Vanian is at his best with his persona lightyears ahead of any guy trying out the Dracula look. Scabies and new bassist Algy Ward provide the perfect foundation for the debauchery, and the whole thing wraps up with the classic "Smash It Up," which is the real sound of UK punk.
8. Flamin' Groovies - Jumpin' in the Night
This one concludes the Groovies' trio of unbeatable late 70s work that defined power-pop and pure vintage rock. Time has pushed this one closer and closer to the status of Shake Some Action, though many still have a problem with its perceived reliance on cover material. There are three Byrds covers as well as new sources James Brown, Warren Zevon, and Bob Dylan in addition to the Beatles. However one feels about covers, their selection is inspired with them breathing new life into deep cuts like "5D" and David Crosby's B-side "Lady Friend" along with the (for the time) un-hip "Please Please Me." Their originals, unsurprisingly are even better, after all who but the Groovies could pull off that opening title track? Then there is "Tell Me Again," one of the finest songs Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson would write. "Yes I Am" and "First Plane Home" come close too, then there is the mere fact that any album with George Alexander's bass tone is one for the ages.
7. David Bowie - Lodger
No other Bowie album (well, other than Diamond Dogs and Pin-Ups) gets as many mixed reactions as the final installment of his Berlin trilogy. For me, it did nothing on first listen, but on my second attempt over four years later I was sold like Doug Martsch. With the darkness heard on Station to Station out of his system he begins with a happier take on "Word on A Wing" with "Fantastic Voyage" before experimenting with Eastern sounds on "African Night Flight" and "Yassassin (Long Live." The sounds on this album are wild and diverse partially thanks to Adrian Belew and Carlos Alomar joining the usual Bowie crew of Tony Visconti and Brian Eno on this one. The German influence is also more apparent than ever on the motorik classic "Red Sails," and Bowie shows he is ready to really move on with "D.J." and "Boys Keep Swinging" hinting at what would come on the next few albums. If it doesn't stick, just wait and try again.
6. The B-52's - The B-52's
Before his death, this was one of John Lennon's favorite albums. Adds another level of tragedy, doesn't it? Anyway, that's the only way you could take fun out of this album. It is the most fun one ever made, at least the best one at this level of fun. The cover says it all, doesn't it? No, it doesn't, it doesn't convey all the energy found on the vinyl. Kitschy sci-fi, 50s nostalgia, and trash culture made this party album the first sign of the decades of great music that would come out of Athens, GA. "Planet Claire" and "Dance This Mess Around" show the band to be masters of tension on par with Wire and the Feelies despite their silly lyrics. Makes sense considering how close the group's members were with the only brother-sister combo I know of. Basically the whole band is the rhythm section with the vocals leading most of the tunes along with the bizarre playing of indisputable guitar god Ricky Wilson. It does hit its climax with "Rock Lobster" but side-two opener "Lava" is one of the sexiest recordings of all time. No matter what your preference, Fred Schneider is no small part of that.
5. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Here comes Factory records. They put their best foot forward with this dark, atmospheric group that would define them and the City of Manchester until the Ecstacy kicked in, and even then kinda still... This is a frightening and high-energy album even on its slower moments. "Interzone" and "Shadowplay" capturing the speeding motion of the urban dystopia that beget the band. "Glass" does too, though that one's hand claps and squealing synths capture more an impending invasion like the heavy "New Dawn Fades." "She's Lost Control," is the best-known and for good reason with it's mysterious rhythm being one of the few successful instances of two bass parts. That's Peter Hook for you, the one guy allowed to use a 6-string. The band's cohesion is the real star though, and the album functions best as a single piece despite the strength of its ten songs on their own. It sounds like the end of the world, presumably, though nothing had really come this close before and hardly anything after. Either way, it never would have without the Mancunian quartet.
4. Sparks - No. 1 in Heaven
The seventies end and we finally get to see some disco on here! The Pallisades Mael brothers collaborate with Italian whiz Giorgio Moroder on this, and the following Terminal Jive. Synthesizers and sequencers take over the glam rock sound, but Russell's falsetto and Ron's comedic lyrics still dominate. The opening scientific view of a sexual encounter "Tryouts for the Human Race" makes this an energetic dance album on most tracks, though "Beat the Clock" is pure sparks with a jerkier rhythm and absurd lyrics. Ron's deep view into the truth of disco and its power make "La Dolce Vita" and "Academy Award Performance" even better to move mind to, than the hips and ass. However, it is almost all a moot point compared to the transcendent final track. "The Number One Song In Heaven" has an arrangement that is so beautiful it makes you beg for the light of death, perhaps the only way to top the disco bliss that concludes this album and Sparks' seventies output.
3. Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Eno collaboration only gets better on this dark and futuristic album. With "I Zimbra" beginning it, any hope for safety is thrown out, though Byrne and company do have plenty of accessible material on this disc. For one there is the jangling pop of "Paper" and the somewhat corny, yet still lovable "Heaven." Even the bleak "Life During Wartime" is catchy enough to make it a staple of classic rock radio, at least where I come from. Despite that song's misinterpreted lyrics, there is much disco influence here, especially on "Air" (possibly thanks to Arthur Russell). My favorite though, is the heavy and chugging "Memories Can't Wait." Despite their certain degree of resistance, the whole band benefits from Eno with Tina Weymouth's bass sounding not unlike the unearthly warble of Another Green World, particularly on "Electric Guitar." Eno and Byrne signal what is to come next and beyond on the closing "Drugs," one of the collaboration's finest efforts."
2. Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box (Second Edition)
The first group of punks finally get what they want on this set of three dub-style 12-inch singles. With John Lydon now able to fully embrace his love of krautrock, Van Der Graaf Generator, free jazz, Captain Beedheart, and yes, all that great music he actually liked his voice makes this unsettling record a classic. But not entirely. Many of this album's best songs are instrumentals like "Graveyard" and "Socialist." At their great period, PiL was just as much former Clash guitarist and all-around musical genius Keith Leven's baby as Lydon's. His talent on guitar and synth in all its layers it will take a lifetime to discover is the second best part of this album. The best is of course bassist Jah Wobble whose grooves are what keeps the whole thing together and make it as "un-rock" as the band wanted. Sadly, this would end his collaboration, putting the "band" on a steady decline that only worked in theory. It's all great at this point here. "Swan Lake" was the hit and "Poptones" is pretty well beloved for it's actually-not-ironic title, but "No Birds," the free-form "Chant," and particularly frightening "Careering" are the greatest. One of the best realized post-punk albums, simply by definition.
1. Wire - 154
But this is the best one. Wire continues to grow to the point that by the time this was done they had to stop. And it's worth it, the following eight years would not be enough to really absorb this challenging record. "The 15th" takes the beauty of "Outdoor Miner" even further making it maybe their greatest song. The unforgettable (idea, that is) title "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" might be even better, especially as an American always glad to hear a Brit admit we're better, yet that would be to belittle that "chorus." By now fully embracing synthesizers, Wire distinguish their highly unusual music with other additions, such as the noises on "Once is Enough" and the hellish vocals of "Indirect Enquiries." While the song lengths have gotten much longer since Pink Flag the energy is just as high on the glow-in-the-dark "On Returning" and the super heavy "Single K.O." The dynamics are the greatest strength along with the production which highlights it all on this alien album, as in the big change on "The Other Window," an unsettling train ride to insanity. Declining mental health is a huge theme here, and its sound shows that anyone creating such music would undoubtedly suffer as such. It concludes with the schizophrenic "40 Versions," which wile leaving any listener begging for more of this tense post-punk, it does warrant its creators a good vacation.
Sorry if that was long.
10. Swell Maps - A Trip to Marineville
Swell Maps, based around brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks (with no small contribution from mostly-bassist Jowe Head) had been making home-made recordings for years before the punk explosion. This is their debut LP, which at the time was the first of its home-made kind to get any recognition. Their influences are more glam, krautrock, avante-garde, and their own child-like imaginations than "punk." They make a whole lot of noise and with titles like "Gunboats" and of course, "BLAM!!" they had better. At last the sounds of playfully violent young boys has been captures in all its uninhibited glory. With that, songs range from both short blasts to long, slow drones worthy of lyrics like "I tried to poison you, but you poisoned me! Why did you do it, you said you loved me?" "Midget Submarine" has always been my favorite, but the high energy opener "H.S. Art" is of course, the best place to start with the influential DIY all-stars.
9. The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Forget London Calling (in this respect), this is the album that actually redefined the boundaries of "punk rock," or at least should have. Reuniting without Brian James the band is actually at their collaborative and wild peak. This a very free and fun album, far removed from what many of their peers were doing. The songs get longer and more complex, but with all the camp and aggression of their earliest phase still intact. The prominent keyboards on almost every track put them in closer comparison to Magazine than the Clash or the Buzzcocks, heard to best effect on the epic "Plan Nine, Channel Zero." The punk is still there but with an intelligence and self-awareness the kids in their wake would not even dare to attempt such as "Noise Noise Noise" and the always-relevant "Anti-Pope." Captain Sensible's move to guitar pays off and his style is as wild and unpredictable as his fashion sense, veering into flashy territory often reserved for the mainstream. Vanian is at his best with his persona lightyears ahead of any guy trying out the Dracula look. Scabies and new bassist Algy Ward provide the perfect foundation for the debauchery, and the whole thing wraps up with the classic "Smash It Up," which is the real sound of UK punk.
8. Flamin' Groovies - Jumpin' in the Night
This one concludes the Groovies' trio of unbeatable late 70s work that defined power-pop and pure vintage rock. Time has pushed this one closer and closer to the status of Shake Some Action, though many still have a problem with its perceived reliance on cover material. There are three Byrds covers as well as new sources James Brown, Warren Zevon, and Bob Dylan in addition to the Beatles. However one feels about covers, their selection is inspired with them breathing new life into deep cuts like "5D" and David Crosby's B-side "Lady Friend" along with the (for the time) un-hip "Please Please Me." Their originals, unsurprisingly are even better, after all who but the Groovies could pull off that opening title track? Then there is "Tell Me Again," one of the finest songs Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson would write. "Yes I Am" and "First Plane Home" come close too, then there is the mere fact that any album with George Alexander's bass tone is one for the ages.
7. David Bowie - Lodger
No other Bowie album (well, other than Diamond Dogs and Pin-Ups) gets as many mixed reactions as the final installment of his Berlin trilogy. For me, it did nothing on first listen, but on my second attempt over four years later I was sold like Doug Martsch. With the darkness heard on Station to Station out of his system he begins with a happier take on "Word on A Wing" with "Fantastic Voyage" before experimenting with Eastern sounds on "African Night Flight" and "Yassassin (Long Live." The sounds on this album are wild and diverse partially thanks to Adrian Belew and Carlos Alomar joining the usual Bowie crew of Tony Visconti and Brian Eno on this one. The German influence is also more apparent than ever on the motorik classic "Red Sails," and Bowie shows he is ready to really move on with "D.J." and "Boys Keep Swinging" hinting at what would come on the next few albums. If it doesn't stick, just wait and try again.
6. The B-52's - The B-52's
Before his death, this was one of John Lennon's favorite albums. Adds another level of tragedy, doesn't it? Anyway, that's the only way you could take fun out of this album. It is the most fun one ever made, at least the best one at this level of fun. The cover says it all, doesn't it? No, it doesn't, it doesn't convey all the energy found on the vinyl. Kitschy sci-fi, 50s nostalgia, and trash culture made this party album the first sign of the decades of great music that would come out of Athens, GA. "Planet Claire" and "Dance This Mess Around" show the band to be masters of tension on par with Wire and the Feelies despite their silly lyrics. Makes sense considering how close the group's members were with the only brother-sister combo I know of. Basically the whole band is the rhythm section with the vocals leading most of the tunes along with the bizarre playing of indisputable guitar god Ricky Wilson. It does hit its climax with "Rock Lobster" but side-two opener "Lava" is one of the sexiest recordings of all time. No matter what your preference, Fred Schneider is no small part of that.
5. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Here comes Factory records. They put their best foot forward with this dark, atmospheric group that would define them and the City of Manchester until the Ecstacy kicked in, and even then kinda still... This is a frightening and high-energy album even on its slower moments. "Interzone" and "Shadowplay" capturing the speeding motion of the urban dystopia that beget the band. "Glass" does too, though that one's hand claps and squealing synths capture more an impending invasion like the heavy "New Dawn Fades." "She's Lost Control," is the best-known and for good reason with it's mysterious rhythm being one of the few successful instances of two bass parts. That's Peter Hook for you, the one guy allowed to use a 6-string. The band's cohesion is the real star though, and the album functions best as a single piece despite the strength of its ten songs on their own. It sounds like the end of the world, presumably, though nothing had really come this close before and hardly anything after. Either way, it never would have without the Mancunian quartet.
4. Sparks - No. 1 in Heaven
The seventies end and we finally get to see some disco on here! The Pallisades Mael brothers collaborate with Italian whiz Giorgio Moroder on this, and the following Terminal Jive. Synthesizers and sequencers take over the glam rock sound, but Russell's falsetto and Ron's comedic lyrics still dominate. The opening scientific view of a sexual encounter "Tryouts for the Human Race" makes this an energetic dance album on most tracks, though "Beat the Clock" is pure sparks with a jerkier rhythm and absurd lyrics. Ron's deep view into the truth of disco and its power make "La Dolce Vita" and "Academy Award Performance" even better to move mind to, than the hips and ass. However, it is almost all a moot point compared to the transcendent final track. "The Number One Song In Heaven" has an arrangement that is so beautiful it makes you beg for the light of death, perhaps the only way to top the disco bliss that concludes this album and Sparks' seventies output.
3. Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Eno collaboration only gets better on this dark and futuristic album. With "I Zimbra" beginning it, any hope for safety is thrown out, though Byrne and company do have plenty of accessible material on this disc. For one there is the jangling pop of "Paper" and the somewhat corny, yet still lovable "Heaven." Even the bleak "Life During Wartime" is catchy enough to make it a staple of classic rock radio, at least where I come from. Despite that song's misinterpreted lyrics, there is much disco influence here, especially on "Air" (possibly thanks to Arthur Russell). My favorite though, is the heavy and chugging "Memories Can't Wait." Despite their certain degree of resistance, the whole band benefits from Eno with Tina Weymouth's bass sounding not unlike the unearthly warble of Another Green World, particularly on "Electric Guitar." Eno and Byrne signal what is to come next and beyond on the closing "Drugs," one of the collaboration's finest efforts."
2. Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box (Second Edition)
The first group of punks finally get what they want on this set of three dub-style 12-inch singles. With John Lydon now able to fully embrace his love of krautrock, Van Der Graaf Generator, free jazz, Captain Beedheart, and yes, all that great music he actually liked his voice makes this unsettling record a classic. But not entirely. Many of this album's best songs are instrumentals like "Graveyard" and "Socialist." At their great period, PiL was just as much former Clash guitarist and all-around musical genius Keith Leven's baby as Lydon's. His talent on guitar and synth in all its layers it will take a lifetime to discover is the second best part of this album. The best is of course bassist Jah Wobble whose grooves are what keeps the whole thing together and make it as "un-rock" as the band wanted. Sadly, this would end his collaboration, putting the "band" on a steady decline that only worked in theory. It's all great at this point here. "Swan Lake" was the hit and "Poptones" is pretty well beloved for it's actually-not-ironic title, but "No Birds," the free-form "Chant," and particularly frightening "Careering" are the greatest. One of the best realized post-punk albums, simply by definition.
1. Wire - 154
But this is the best one. Wire continues to grow to the point that by the time this was done they had to stop. And it's worth it, the following eight years would not be enough to really absorb this challenging record. "The 15th" takes the beauty of "Outdoor Miner" even further making it maybe their greatest song. The unforgettable (idea, that is) title "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" might be even better, especially as an American always glad to hear a Brit admit we're better, yet that would be to belittle that "chorus." By now fully embracing synthesizers, Wire distinguish their highly unusual music with other additions, such as the noises on "Once is Enough" and the hellish vocals of "Indirect Enquiries." While the song lengths have gotten much longer since Pink Flag the energy is just as high on the glow-in-the-dark "On Returning" and the super heavy "Single K.O." The dynamics are the greatest strength along with the production which highlights it all on this alien album, as in the big change on "The Other Window," an unsettling train ride to insanity. Declining mental health is a huge theme here, and its sound shows that anyone creating such music would undoubtedly suffer as such. It concludes with the schizophrenic "40 Versions," which wile leaving any listener begging for more of this tense post-punk, it does warrant its creators a good vacation.
Sorry if that was long.
Friday, March 29, 2013
1978
So here is when people really start moving beyond punk. Anyone with any intelligence would want to get away from all those self-identifying clowns that ruin loud, fast rock and roll even today. Innovation and disregard for rules attract members of many of the greats resulting in timeless music that sounds different. How un-punk. Needless to say this year kicks ass. VERY hard to place these in any order.
10. The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
And it wasn't just the kids. The so-called dinosaurs relocate to Manhattan and embrace change on this later-period (in a perfect world) masterpiece. With their best album cover in years the band experiments with as many styles as there are vintage wigs. Country of course, but how about something new... Of course there is punk, easy enough considering their roots, but they manage more towards the "new wave" side of it with the closing tribute to their temporary home "Shattered." Disco lovers such as myself also embrace "Miss You," justifiably so with its funky bass and harmonica that keeps their London blues roots intact. "Beast and Burden" is the best-remembered for some reason, but "When the Whip Comes Down," is the best showing that the Stones were back and able to do anything, including being the same band that ruled the harder side of the 60s (to most).
9. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
After years finely tuning her craft the David Gilmour-discovered Anglo-Irish prodigy (19 at the time of release) makes her debut. Led by the single "Wuthering Heights," her otherworldly talents and extraordinary vocal range are startlingly apparent upon first listen. This album is much more accessible and down to Earth than her later work, but must have been hard to find any point of reference at the time. Perhaps only in future collaborator Peter Gabriel. The songs are piano and vocal dominated with a standard rock/pop backing far removed from her later work, but there is still an obvious air of fantasy and beyond-human perspective. The eerie drama of opener "Moving" and "The Saxaphone Song," hint at what is to come, but still this is more "eccentric" than "frightening" or "just plain weird." It is a relatively safe set of great songs from one of the greatest musical talents of the last forty years, a perfect place to begin a career and a love of her music.
8. DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!
Ohio's theatrical prophet-rockers had been together for six years already. Forming in the wake of the Kent State Massacre, the brothers evolved from from Van Der Graaf-esque prog into post-punk before they had a word for it. Along that time they earned such fans as Neil Young, David Bowie, Robert Pollard, and Brian Eno, who produced this debut. While thought of as a synthy group, they have plenty of punk fury, particularly on "Gut Feeling," and "Uncontrollable Urge." The group does hint at the electronics of the future on "Shrivel Up" and of course, "Space Junk," but they are first and foremost a cohesive rock band capable of the character sketch of the common man "Mongoloid." The first side is anchored by their statement of purpose "Jocko Homo," a shortened version of their score to self-made film The Truth About De-Evolution. It is the future, and it's bleak. ...but also fun.
7. The Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
After 77 the New York quarted begins to prove themselves one of history's greatest groups with the addition of producer/collaborator/pretty much fifth member Brian Eno. He had expressed this wish on Before and After Science's "King's Lead Hat" and his influence begins here, a string of three masterpieces. The band goes far beyond the growth hinted at on their debut with their genre-bending going in every direction possible, best known on their cover of "Take Me To The River." They would be even more adventurous with sparse and funky arrangements as Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Weymouth, and Harrison discovered more music around them and in themselves. Even present is the still dirty word "psychedelia" on the swirling "Warning Sign." The nervous energy may still dominate over the adventurous approach on "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls," and "The Big Country" is a little pretentious, but it may not be Byrne's fault. Regardless, it is clear this collaboration is a good one.
6. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
The band most set on never sounding the same moves into far different territory from their fantastic debut The Modern Dance. Though opening track "Navvy" might not show much divergence, the title track takes their expressionism into, obviously, reggae-influenced territory. The group's five members put together an angular disjointed sound with imagery as high-contrast black and white as their album art, most evident on the concise "I Will Wait." Still with urban decay a major theme the darkness of "Thriller!" conveys its title much better than Michael Jackson's dance classic. Ubu offer their own bizarre dance classic on "Ubu Dance Party," a humorous, and non-ironic little jam. The chilling and obsessive "Codex" finishes off with only the memory of Alan Ravenstine's abrasive synthesizer and Dave Thomas' yowling voice to remind you why some considered Ohio the collest place in the world at the time.
5. Magazine - Real Life
Howard Devoto departs the Buzzcocks with the riff that would give his old band the chorus for "Lipstick" and this band's breakthrough hit "Shot by Both Sides" its hook. With a band comprised of some of the best musicians in post-punk this LP was released shortly afterward. Opening with the funky sci-fi rocker "Definitive Gaze," it contains a set of dramatic rock and roll with all the spacey weirdness the cover would imply. The first side follows with the homoerotic "My Tulpa" and a remake of the single, but the second side is where it really gets going. Here the band excels in making a synth-heavy brand of dark post punk that is too light and sincerely fun to be goth. "The Light Pours Out Of Me," thuds and builds its way into the perfect-slow paced post-punk raver and "Great Beautician in the Sky" has as much camp as anything the Kinks made in their less-respected era. With "Parade" the record concludes on a softer, darker note so deliberately that it proves Magazine one of the most intelligent bands on the post-punk scene.
4. The Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea wit the Adverts
For some reason, maybe their brief career, maybe their interest in other stuff, maybe just because they're too good the Adverts are not remembered as well as other UK punk acts. Too bad since they're one of the best. With titles like "One Chord Wonders" and "Bored Teenagers" TV Smith and company show that they really get it. So it is no surprise that their LP is one of the most consistent punk albums of all, surely thanks to producer John Leckie. Without any pretense, the band cuts to the political core of punk rage on "No Time to be 21" and the monumental closer "The Great British Mistake." Smith's songwriting is some of the best in the field and his delivery outdoes all but Rotten's. With the intro to "Bombsite Boy" they keep in line with Stooges roots, with the look backward coupled with all the forward-thinking proving them one of the most relevant bands of the punk movement.
3. Wire - Chairs Missing
Wire take a massive jump forward from their debut on this one. There are quite a few less songs, but that is a result of a lot more space. Longer songs like "Mercy" allow the band to drone even more and really go beyond the simple punk format which had proven to be clearly too conforming for the creative band. While the style is a lot less predictable the shorter songs are still some of the best. "Outdoor Miner," one of the finest songs they would make with its explicit goal of traditional beauty and refreshing atmosphere in contrast to their usual and still present tension. "Another the Letter" shows them unafraid to incorporate electronics, as well as the amazing effect they can add to the tense and explosive drone that defines Wire. "I Am The Fly" and "French Film Blurred" are bizarre exercises in space, though Chuck Berry's comments on the former further prove that Wire is merely innovating upon an already tried and true formula. The record ends with the droning fury of "Too Late," one of longer tracks that begins to prepare the listener in anticipation for what would come only one year later.
2. Krafterwerk - The Man Machine
Jesse describes Kraftwerk as "so German they're Russian," and this album, even without its artwork is the best example of this. With the four members taking on the life of robots and announcing it quite explicitly, the are programmed to be Cosmonauts on the stunning instrumental "Spacelab." The song perfectly conveys the image of rigorous science experiments being performed as the stars quickly pass by. The members may look like Data at this point, but the music is much less human than TNG's sex symbol. Even their tribute to perceived human beauty "The Model" is a cold factual tale barely approaching romance. The German roots are intact on "Metropolis," the closest thing to a continuation of their last record. Despite all the dark mechanism the title indicates, this album is very pretty in a highly original way, rather than borrowing from their classical training and influences. The nine-minute "Neon Lights" is the best example of them capturing the beauty of the machine with human honesty and amazement. Percussionist Karl Bartos may be responsible for this achievement, having joined Ralf and Florian int he songwriting, and most likely conceptual process.
1. Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
An unusual clever and diverse pop record. Also, absolute perfection. Lowe and occasional collaborator Dave Edmunds were well-established in the pub rock circuit and the bassist puts all his talents forward on his solo debut. The hilarious album art captures what this album is all about with all the different personas the singer-songwriter takes on. At times it is purposefully derivative, with each example a loving tribute more than a "Music For Money" rip-off. He expresses his affection for Low "I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass" (which actually sounds more like "Sound and Vision") and beats Phil Lynott at his own game on "So It Goes" - a song that moves its subject with great fluidity from rock and roll excess to international diplomacy. Classic pop is all over the place, but always with a snide sense of humor on the likes of "Little Hitler" and the gorgeous romance "Tonight." It rocks hard throughout the album with the live recording "Heart of the City" and the heavy record industry criticism "Shake and Pop." In the US it was called Pure Pop For Now People which is an accurate layman's description, but it changes the track order, wisely including "Rollers Show," but sadly replacing "Shake and Pop" with its sped-up rockabilly version "They Called It Rock." Still in that form it would make this list.
I changed around the order here a lot! This was a hard list to make!
10. The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
And it wasn't just the kids. The so-called dinosaurs relocate to Manhattan and embrace change on this later-period (in a perfect world) masterpiece. With their best album cover in years the band experiments with as many styles as there are vintage wigs. Country of course, but how about something new... Of course there is punk, easy enough considering their roots, but they manage more towards the "new wave" side of it with the closing tribute to their temporary home "Shattered." Disco lovers such as myself also embrace "Miss You," justifiably so with its funky bass and harmonica that keeps their London blues roots intact. "Beast and Burden" is the best-remembered for some reason, but "When the Whip Comes Down," is the best showing that the Stones were back and able to do anything, including being the same band that ruled the harder side of the 60s (to most).
9. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
After years finely tuning her craft the David Gilmour-discovered Anglo-Irish prodigy (19 at the time of release) makes her debut. Led by the single "Wuthering Heights," her otherworldly talents and extraordinary vocal range are startlingly apparent upon first listen. This album is much more accessible and down to Earth than her later work, but must have been hard to find any point of reference at the time. Perhaps only in future collaborator Peter Gabriel. The songs are piano and vocal dominated with a standard rock/pop backing far removed from her later work, but there is still an obvious air of fantasy and beyond-human perspective. The eerie drama of opener "Moving" and "The Saxaphone Song," hint at what is to come, but still this is more "eccentric" than "frightening" or "just plain weird." It is a relatively safe set of great songs from one of the greatest musical talents of the last forty years, a perfect place to begin a career and a love of her music.
8. DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!
Ohio's theatrical prophet-rockers had been together for six years already. Forming in the wake of the Kent State Massacre, the brothers evolved from from Van Der Graaf-esque prog into post-punk before they had a word for it. Along that time they earned such fans as Neil Young, David Bowie, Robert Pollard, and Brian Eno, who produced this debut. While thought of as a synthy group, they have plenty of punk fury, particularly on "Gut Feeling," and "Uncontrollable Urge." The group does hint at the electronics of the future on "Shrivel Up" and of course, "Space Junk," but they are first and foremost a cohesive rock band capable of the character sketch of the common man "Mongoloid." The first side is anchored by their statement of purpose "Jocko Homo," a shortened version of their score to self-made film The Truth About De-Evolution. It is the future, and it's bleak. ...but also fun.
7. The Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
After 77 the New York quarted begins to prove themselves one of history's greatest groups with the addition of producer/collaborator/pretty much fifth member Brian Eno. He had expressed this wish on Before and After Science's "King's Lead Hat" and his influence begins here, a string of three masterpieces. The band goes far beyond the growth hinted at on their debut with their genre-bending going in every direction possible, best known on their cover of "Take Me To The River." They would be even more adventurous with sparse and funky arrangements as Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Weymouth, and Harrison discovered more music around them and in themselves. Even present is the still dirty word "psychedelia" on the swirling "Warning Sign." The nervous energy may still dominate over the adventurous approach on "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls," and "The Big Country" is a little pretentious, but it may not be Byrne's fault. Regardless, it is clear this collaboration is a good one.
6. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
The band most set on never sounding the same moves into far different territory from their fantastic debut The Modern Dance. Though opening track "Navvy" might not show much divergence, the title track takes their expressionism into, obviously, reggae-influenced territory. The group's five members put together an angular disjointed sound with imagery as high-contrast black and white as their album art, most evident on the concise "I Will Wait." Still with urban decay a major theme the darkness of "Thriller!" conveys its title much better than Michael Jackson's dance classic. Ubu offer their own bizarre dance classic on "Ubu Dance Party," a humorous, and non-ironic little jam. The chilling and obsessive "Codex" finishes off with only the memory of Alan Ravenstine's abrasive synthesizer and Dave Thomas' yowling voice to remind you why some considered Ohio the collest place in the world at the time.
5. Magazine - Real Life
Howard Devoto departs the Buzzcocks with the riff that would give his old band the chorus for "Lipstick" and this band's breakthrough hit "Shot by Both Sides" its hook. With a band comprised of some of the best musicians in post-punk this LP was released shortly afterward. Opening with the funky sci-fi rocker "Definitive Gaze," it contains a set of dramatic rock and roll with all the spacey weirdness the cover would imply. The first side follows with the homoerotic "My Tulpa" and a remake of the single, but the second side is where it really gets going. Here the band excels in making a synth-heavy brand of dark post punk that is too light and sincerely fun to be goth. "The Light Pours Out Of Me," thuds and builds its way into the perfect-slow paced post-punk raver and "Great Beautician in the Sky" has as much camp as anything the Kinks made in their less-respected era. With "Parade" the record concludes on a softer, darker note so deliberately that it proves Magazine one of the most intelligent bands on the post-punk scene.
4. The Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea wit the Adverts
For some reason, maybe their brief career, maybe their interest in other stuff, maybe just because they're too good the Adverts are not remembered as well as other UK punk acts. Too bad since they're one of the best. With titles like "One Chord Wonders" and "Bored Teenagers" TV Smith and company show that they really get it. So it is no surprise that their LP is one of the most consistent punk albums of all, surely thanks to producer John Leckie. Without any pretense, the band cuts to the political core of punk rage on "No Time to be 21" and the monumental closer "The Great British Mistake." Smith's songwriting is some of the best in the field and his delivery outdoes all but Rotten's. With the intro to "Bombsite Boy" they keep in line with Stooges roots, with the look backward coupled with all the forward-thinking proving them one of the most relevant bands of the punk movement.
3. Wire - Chairs Missing
Wire take a massive jump forward from their debut on this one. There are quite a few less songs, but that is a result of a lot more space. Longer songs like "Mercy" allow the band to drone even more and really go beyond the simple punk format which had proven to be clearly too conforming for the creative band. While the style is a lot less predictable the shorter songs are still some of the best. "Outdoor Miner," one of the finest songs they would make with its explicit goal of traditional beauty and refreshing atmosphere in contrast to their usual and still present tension. "Another the Letter" shows them unafraid to incorporate electronics, as well as the amazing effect they can add to the tense and explosive drone that defines Wire. "I Am The Fly" and "French Film Blurred" are bizarre exercises in space, though Chuck Berry's comments on the former further prove that Wire is merely innovating upon an already tried and true formula. The record ends with the droning fury of "Too Late," one of longer tracks that begins to prepare the listener in anticipation for what would come only one year later.
2. Krafterwerk - The Man Machine
Jesse describes Kraftwerk as "so German they're Russian," and this album, even without its artwork is the best example of this. With the four members taking on the life of robots and announcing it quite explicitly, the are programmed to be Cosmonauts on the stunning instrumental "Spacelab." The song perfectly conveys the image of rigorous science experiments being performed as the stars quickly pass by. The members may look like Data at this point, but the music is much less human than TNG's sex symbol. Even their tribute to perceived human beauty "The Model" is a cold factual tale barely approaching romance. The German roots are intact on "Metropolis," the closest thing to a continuation of their last record. Despite all the dark mechanism the title indicates, this album is very pretty in a highly original way, rather than borrowing from their classical training and influences. The nine-minute "Neon Lights" is the best example of them capturing the beauty of the machine with human honesty and amazement. Percussionist Karl Bartos may be responsible for this achievement, having joined Ralf and Florian int he songwriting, and most likely conceptual process.
1. Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
An unusual clever and diverse pop record. Also, absolute perfection. Lowe and occasional collaborator Dave Edmunds were well-established in the pub rock circuit and the bassist puts all his talents forward on his solo debut. The hilarious album art captures what this album is all about with all the different personas the singer-songwriter takes on. At times it is purposefully derivative, with each example a loving tribute more than a "Music For Money" rip-off. He expresses his affection for Low "I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass" (which actually sounds more like "Sound and Vision") and beats Phil Lynott at his own game on "So It Goes" - a song that moves its subject with great fluidity from rock and roll excess to international diplomacy. Classic pop is all over the place, but always with a snide sense of humor on the likes of "Little Hitler" and the gorgeous romance "Tonight." It rocks hard throughout the album with the live recording "Heart of the City" and the heavy record industry criticism "Shake and Pop." In the US it was called Pure Pop For Now People which is an accurate layman's description, but it changes the track order, wisely including "Rollers Show," but sadly replacing "Shake and Pop" with its sped-up rockabilly version "They Called It Rock." Still in that form it would make this list.
I changed around the order here a lot! This was a hard list to make!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
1977
A decade after the greatest year for music comes a series of serious contenders. Punk is in full swing by now and with no surprise it dominates this list. A lot of the artists that dominated these past lists were busy embarrassing themselves here, though Animals really almost made it. Also just missing the cut was Bat Out of Hell, so you get the idea.
10. Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk are the best known creators of early electronic music and arguably krautrock. At this point they had already established that, including some surprising US success. Here they are in top form with their four-piece lineup. Often respected as their best work the percussive classical work centered around such heady themes as the space age future and the railroad is their most German work too. The well-dressed group on the cover perfectly captures its "Europe Endless" theme and the title track's reference to meeting Iggy Pop and David Bowie places them in the reality as one of the world's most respected rock groups. The album centers around a hopeful future, but with a shroud of darkness that never completely disappears. "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies" are strongest examples with the latter hinting at the robotic themes the band would further explore. Human music from a robotic future it is, with plenty of room for musicianship.
9. Wire - Pink Flag
One of the greatest band's of all time makes its legendary debut. Seen by many as just another punk album, this record sows the seeds of all that the quartet would do in its brief initial career. Number-based lyrics like "Three Girl Rhumba" and "1 2 X U" signal the likes of what would come on 154 and beyond. The short songs and titles like "Field Day for the Sundays," "106 Beats That," and "Surgeon's Girl" make them an obvious influence on bands like Guided by Voices, plus the whole song begins with "Reuters." While the music is far simpler, faster, and more aggressive than later it is far more than "just a punk album" with it's endless layers of brainy weirdness. The band has stated that every song is a rip off of some classic rock tune, but I hardly ever hear it. If they do they truly are one of the most advanced bands out there. Great things would come soon making their importance even harder to ignore.
8. Popol Vuh - Herz Aus Glas
In the early part of the decade Florian Fricke and company had distinguished themselves as one of the great pioneers of the Moog, but this is foremost a guitar album. Soundtrack to Fricke's best friend Werner Herzog's masterpiece, it follows similar themes throughout, evoking the surreal and mysterious power of the film, even while very little of it is included. The longest track, the opening "Engel der Gegenwart," is one of krautrock's greatest pieces, with a transcended done that sounds like a looser NEU! at their prettiest. The guitars have that kind of sea mammal quality heard at Yes' best moments all throughout and the drumming (also played by guitarist Daniel Fichelscher) fits with equal dynamic prowess. Fricke's keyboards carry these soaring compositions even without bass, allowing this spiritual heaven to achieve unfathomable heights. It sounds like like the film looks, gray skies gutting through deep green hills. The most beautiful electric guitar playing ever recorded.
7. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
The Pistols get written off far too often. Called imitators, pawns of evil genius Malcom Maclaren, or sometimes "not as good as PiL." Well, that's all bullocks, and you know what to do with those... This album kicks ass. It's the best UK punk album, and guess what, it's also the first. So there's lots of guitar overdubs and that's not punk? Who sold you that? Joe Strummer? Steve Jones playing is definitive punk, even without the range. He made the much older Johnny Ramone intimidated, for god's sake! The songwriting is some of the best, relying neither upon simple rage and stupidity nor pop for the punk sound. Lyrically it's as harsh as anything put out since with Jones and Rotten making "Bodies" more unsettling than any dumb kid with spikes and a mohawk. And about Johnny... Here we find one of rock's most unique vocalists, on re-inspection his voice here is even greater than on his work with PiL, instantly making him the equal of idols Damo Suzuki and Peter Hammill. The word on UK punk.
6. Ramones - Leave Home
The Ramones get even louder and faster on their second album. The band sticks to their formula and still manages to grow. With what Jesse Johnstone described as "the sound of freedom," it kicks into action with "Glad to See You Go," easily the group's best song. Dee Dee's self-destruction hits rock bottom on "Carbona Not Glue," as songs move to "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy." The military themes get better too on Johnny's theme "Commando." Likewise, "Pinhead" keeps the horror movie stupidity up to the band's image, with it's "gabba gabba hey" the rally-cry for their whole legacy. The only cover on this one is "California Sun," and it manages to outdo the Dictators', no surprise since Johnny himself did end up there eventually. Leave Home is the Ramones on the rise, showing that while the band might be a one-trick pony, it is a good trick, and one that approaches transcendent perfection.
5. Suicide - Suicide
The duo of Martin Rev and Alan Vega had been around for years before this album was finally released. Vega was one of the oldest guys on the scene even then, but that doesn't stop him from playing the part of a teenage idol on this masterpiece. His croon on "Cheree," plays the perfect counterpoint to Rev's dark presence and musical accompaniment. The Bruce Springsteen favorite begins with the driving super hero tribute "Ghost Rider" and features the violent, sexual epic "Frankie Teardrop," with its seething blue collar rage explaining its famous fan's love. No other album, not even the Boss's Nebraska so well captures the dark American underbelly with all its building violence, comic book fantasy, and plastic veneer of coolness. This album is peerless and defies all category other than "the best."
4. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
...As does this one. Dennis died six miserable years later looking even more haggard than on this album's cover. he had lived the life of a reckless rock star even before his unusually young debut as one. By this point though, he had become even more talented than his older brother (whose burnt-out mind was exploited on this year's garbage heap Love You) and this gigantic and soul-crushing album is all the proof one needs. Water and nature are as big on this album as destruction and hopelessness. Opener "River Song" and the majestic "Rainbows" (both written with Carl) are the big uppers with their gospel choirs, colossal arrangements, and Wilson's phenomenal piano playing are pleas for redemption, never leaving behind Wilson's dark past. The tenderness in his heart comes as clear as his admitted flaws on "You & I" and "Time," but get into the darkest depths on the major downer "Thoughts of You." The darkest moment though, is on the cinematic "Friday Night," which turns its party-friendly title into a David Lynch rock opera that should keep everyone who hears it out of Hollywood for good. Tragically beautiful.
3. Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Continuing their growth, the four New York bruddahs make their finest work before the surprising departure of Tommy. Their first set of all-new songs, as usual it begins off strong with theme song "Cretin Hop" with the first side containing such beloved classics as "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and "Rockaway Beach." Then there's their greatest love song "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," a simple ballad with sweetness coated in the sadness that never escapes the Ramones, even at their most fun. The second side likewise begins with "Teenage Lobotomy" showing the decline of insanity both Dee Dee and Tommy at the time. Dee Dee's torture concludes the album on the band's darkest final note on "Why Is It Always This Way?" in between there is also his most sincere plea, the simple and relate-able "I Wanna Be Well." Yet, there is also the group's best cover "Do You Wanna Dance?" one of the brighter spots on the Rames' conclusion of their trio of masterpieces.
2. Television - Marquee Moon
Yet another one of the many great bands in New York at the time debuts with an incomparable masterpiece. The dynamic group with its soaring dual (or is it duel) guitars made this spacious rock album that oozes with urban romance that put the other "intelligent" New Yorkers to shame. Tom Verlaine has a unique style of songwriting that maintains a structure throughout, yet allows the four exceptional and compatible musicians plenty of room for expression and extension. Rockers like the opening "See No Evil" and "Friction" stand side by side with the softer drama of "Guiding Light" and "Torn Curtain." The title track is the most pleasurable way to make ten minutes disappear and its organic arrangement earns its recording in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey!) studio. "Venus" is fun enough to keep the album out of pretentious territory, but contributes to its place alongside Is This It?, Daydream Nation and The Velvet Underground and Nico as one of the most Manhattan albums ever. The complex guitar on "Prove It" in fact proves that punk need not run from musicianship. Too bad all the "punx" out there don't remember.
1. David Bowie - Low
Following collaborator Eno, Bowie begins his Berlin Trilogy with a album of half pop, half ambient. he separates them by side though, which although many love, I see as its one flaw. Also, one is a lot better than the other. Sorry, but it's true. But what a side it is! Bowie is clearly in a better place than Los Angeles with songs like "What In the World" and "Sound and Vision" returning in addition to ones like "Breaking Glass" and "Always Crashing the Same Car." Bowie's unusual knack for staying relevant puts him ahead of the post-punk boom that he partially inspired and this album fits alongside any of the finer goth records that would follow with its moody synths and, as usual, dramatic vocals. The pop side closing instrumental "A New Career in a New Town" is his most beautiful composition and his most tasteful, yet effective tear-jerker. The ambient side is great though. While not as cohesive as the other half, each piece is one of the best of its kind, perhaps outdoing Eno himself. "Warszawa" is the most esteemed, but my favorites are "Weeping Wall" and "Art Decade." Bowie's best?
Well, that's that. While writing this I have battled to keep my sanity (for other reasons) so I hope that didn't ruin this unbelievable list.
10. Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk are the best known creators of early electronic music and arguably krautrock. At this point they had already established that, including some surprising US success. Here they are in top form with their four-piece lineup. Often respected as their best work the percussive classical work centered around such heady themes as the space age future and the railroad is their most German work too. The well-dressed group on the cover perfectly captures its "Europe Endless" theme and the title track's reference to meeting Iggy Pop and David Bowie places them in the reality as one of the world's most respected rock groups. The album centers around a hopeful future, but with a shroud of darkness that never completely disappears. "Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies" are strongest examples with the latter hinting at the robotic themes the band would further explore. Human music from a robotic future it is, with plenty of room for musicianship.
9. Wire - Pink Flag
One of the greatest band's of all time makes its legendary debut. Seen by many as just another punk album, this record sows the seeds of all that the quartet would do in its brief initial career. Number-based lyrics like "Three Girl Rhumba" and "1 2 X U" signal the likes of what would come on 154 and beyond. The short songs and titles like "Field Day for the Sundays," "106 Beats That," and "Surgeon's Girl" make them an obvious influence on bands like Guided by Voices, plus the whole song begins with "Reuters." While the music is far simpler, faster, and more aggressive than later it is far more than "just a punk album" with it's endless layers of brainy weirdness. The band has stated that every song is a rip off of some classic rock tune, but I hardly ever hear it. If they do they truly are one of the most advanced bands out there. Great things would come soon making their importance even harder to ignore.
8. Popol Vuh - Herz Aus Glas
In the early part of the decade Florian Fricke and company had distinguished themselves as one of the great pioneers of the Moog, but this is foremost a guitar album. Soundtrack to Fricke's best friend Werner Herzog's masterpiece, it follows similar themes throughout, evoking the surreal and mysterious power of the film, even while very little of it is included. The longest track, the opening "Engel der Gegenwart," is one of krautrock's greatest pieces, with a transcended done that sounds like a looser NEU! at their prettiest. The guitars have that kind of sea mammal quality heard at Yes' best moments all throughout and the drumming (also played by guitarist Daniel Fichelscher) fits with equal dynamic prowess. Fricke's keyboards carry these soaring compositions even without bass, allowing this spiritual heaven to achieve unfathomable heights. It sounds like like the film looks, gray skies gutting through deep green hills. The most beautiful electric guitar playing ever recorded.
7. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
The Pistols get written off far too often. Called imitators, pawns of evil genius Malcom Maclaren, or sometimes "not as good as PiL." Well, that's all bullocks, and you know what to do with those... This album kicks ass. It's the best UK punk album, and guess what, it's also the first. So there's lots of guitar overdubs and that's not punk? Who sold you that? Joe Strummer? Steve Jones playing is definitive punk, even without the range. He made the much older Johnny Ramone intimidated, for god's sake! The songwriting is some of the best, relying neither upon simple rage and stupidity nor pop for the punk sound. Lyrically it's as harsh as anything put out since with Jones and Rotten making "Bodies" more unsettling than any dumb kid with spikes and a mohawk. And about Johnny... Here we find one of rock's most unique vocalists, on re-inspection his voice here is even greater than on his work with PiL, instantly making him the equal of idols Damo Suzuki and Peter Hammill. The word on UK punk.
6. Ramones - Leave Home
The Ramones get even louder and faster on their second album. The band sticks to their formula and still manages to grow. With what Jesse Johnstone described as "the sound of freedom," it kicks into action with "Glad to See You Go," easily the group's best song. Dee Dee's self-destruction hits rock bottom on "Carbona Not Glue," as songs move to "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy." The military themes get better too on Johnny's theme "Commando." Likewise, "Pinhead" keeps the horror movie stupidity up to the band's image, with it's "gabba gabba hey" the rally-cry for their whole legacy. The only cover on this one is "California Sun," and it manages to outdo the Dictators', no surprise since Johnny himself did end up there eventually. Leave Home is the Ramones on the rise, showing that while the band might be a one-trick pony, it is a good trick, and one that approaches transcendent perfection.
5. Suicide - Suicide
The duo of Martin Rev and Alan Vega had been around for years before this album was finally released. Vega was one of the oldest guys on the scene even then, but that doesn't stop him from playing the part of a teenage idol on this masterpiece. His croon on "Cheree," plays the perfect counterpoint to Rev's dark presence and musical accompaniment. The Bruce Springsteen favorite begins with the driving super hero tribute "Ghost Rider" and features the violent, sexual epic "Frankie Teardrop," with its seething blue collar rage explaining its famous fan's love. No other album, not even the Boss's Nebraska so well captures the dark American underbelly with all its building violence, comic book fantasy, and plastic veneer of coolness. This album is peerless and defies all category other than "the best."
4. Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
...As does this one. Dennis died six miserable years later looking even more haggard than on this album's cover. he had lived the life of a reckless rock star even before his unusually young debut as one. By this point though, he had become even more talented than his older brother (whose burnt-out mind was exploited on this year's garbage heap Love You) and this gigantic and soul-crushing album is all the proof one needs. Water and nature are as big on this album as destruction and hopelessness. Opener "River Song" and the majestic "Rainbows" (both written with Carl) are the big uppers with their gospel choirs, colossal arrangements, and Wilson's phenomenal piano playing are pleas for redemption, never leaving behind Wilson's dark past. The tenderness in his heart comes as clear as his admitted flaws on "You & I" and "Time," but get into the darkest depths on the major downer "Thoughts of You." The darkest moment though, is on the cinematic "Friday Night," which turns its party-friendly title into a David Lynch rock opera that should keep everyone who hears it out of Hollywood for good. Tragically beautiful.
3. Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Continuing their growth, the four New York bruddahs make their finest work before the surprising departure of Tommy. Their first set of all-new songs, as usual it begins off strong with theme song "Cretin Hop" with the first side containing such beloved classics as "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and "Rockaway Beach." Then there's their greatest love song "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," a simple ballad with sweetness coated in the sadness that never escapes the Ramones, even at their most fun. The second side likewise begins with "Teenage Lobotomy" showing the decline of insanity both Dee Dee and Tommy at the time. Dee Dee's torture concludes the album on the band's darkest final note on "Why Is It Always This Way?" in between there is also his most sincere plea, the simple and relate-able "I Wanna Be Well." Yet, there is also the group's best cover "Do You Wanna Dance?" one of the brighter spots on the Rames' conclusion of their trio of masterpieces.
2. Television - Marquee Moon
Yet another one of the many great bands in New York at the time debuts with an incomparable masterpiece. The dynamic group with its soaring dual (or is it duel) guitars made this spacious rock album that oozes with urban romance that put the other "intelligent" New Yorkers to shame. Tom Verlaine has a unique style of songwriting that maintains a structure throughout, yet allows the four exceptional and compatible musicians plenty of room for expression and extension. Rockers like the opening "See No Evil" and "Friction" stand side by side with the softer drama of "Guiding Light" and "Torn Curtain." The title track is the most pleasurable way to make ten minutes disappear and its organic arrangement earns its recording in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey!) studio. "Venus" is fun enough to keep the album out of pretentious territory, but contributes to its place alongside Is This It?, Daydream Nation and The Velvet Underground and Nico as one of the most Manhattan albums ever. The complex guitar on "Prove It" in fact proves that punk need not run from musicianship. Too bad all the "punx" out there don't remember.
1. David Bowie - Low
Following collaborator Eno, Bowie begins his Berlin Trilogy with a album of half pop, half ambient. he separates them by side though, which although many love, I see as its one flaw. Also, one is a lot better than the other. Sorry, but it's true. But what a side it is! Bowie is clearly in a better place than Los Angeles with songs like "What In the World" and "Sound and Vision" returning in addition to ones like "Breaking Glass" and "Always Crashing the Same Car." Bowie's unusual knack for staying relevant puts him ahead of the post-punk boom that he partially inspired and this album fits alongside any of the finer goth records that would follow with its moody synths and, as usual, dramatic vocals. The pop side closing instrumental "A New Career in a New Town" is his most beautiful composition and his most tasteful, yet effective tear-jerker. The ambient side is great though. While not as cohesive as the other half, each piece is one of the best of its kind, perhaps outdoing Eno himself. "Warszawa" is the most esteemed, but my favorites are "Weeping Wall" and "Art Decade." Bowie's best?
Well, that's that. While writing this I have battled to keep my sanity (for other reasons) so I hope that didn't ruin this unbelievable list.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
1976
This was the hardest year of them all! I think so, 2008 was very difficult as well, but like that year, as you have over a month to find out, managed to get a very good list, just like this one. I stand by all ten of these records without any hesitation, but if you asked me for another great album for this year I don't know if I could give you one. It's a real transition! Some styles make their last appearance ever in this year (guess...) and others might make their first, depending on how you look at it. Also this begins the gradual and near-complete phase out of the previously-dominant English.
10. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
70s hard rock is a controversial style and I admit I am not the biggest fan. There are some exceptions, as one could tell from all the Zeppelin seen so far. Also nearly included was the supergroup Captain Beyond. Thin Lizzy is another. Most of that is owed to Phil Lynott. Lynott is a real one of a kind frontman who wrote songs that rocked very hard without much of the pomposity, stupidity, or macho tendencies of his peers. It's that distinctly Irish storytelling voice of his perhaps. His approach to vocal rhythm and lyrics is what makes his music so timeless. Then there is the twin-lead guitars, a technique that has always been underused. This album is the only one that made it mostly because I have heard it the most. Best-known for "The Boys Are Back In Town" and the title track, the softer stuff is actually best such as "Fight or Fall" and "Running Back." Also it's got some kind of sci-fi concept, but I prefer not to think about it.
9. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
Another highly controversial choice, who deserves more exposure on my lists. ELO is known for their mission of picking up where the Beatles left off, super-clean production, and of course the strings - all of which give them the reputation of being pretentious. However, they are a talented band that has made a lot of great music and this album is one of the best. Almost anything with Bev Bevan is worth listening to if you ask me, and Jeff Lynne keeps the reputation of their old band alive with the re-make of their original "Do Ya," which sadly foreshadowed the embarrassing decisions he makes today. Strings and wise chord choices, along with cutting-edge synthesizers give this album a heavenly texture heard on every track with harmonies and melodies that keep with their tradition of 60s pop. Worth it for "Livin' Thing" alone.
8. Bob Dylan - Desire
Dylan picks up right where he left off on Blood on the Tracks stylistically and maybe even outdoes that album's merits. While the bitterness is still there, most evidently on the usual album-ending classic "Sara," Mr. Zimmerman moves away from the divorce topic a bit. The opener "Hurricane" with its setting of New Jersey perhaps owing to following Bruce Springsteen is a return to the protesting drama of his best 60s work, justifying its place as one of his most beloved songs. As the cover may imply, he is feeling a little bit happier too, and while his "Romance in Durango" may be a little trite, it does seem to put the troubador in a better mood. The loose, jammy story of "Isis" is another one of his best, proving that this seventies comeback was no fluke.
7. Serge Gainsbourg - L'Homme À Tête De Chou
The always-changing Gainsbourg tries out progressive rock on this concept album about a murderer with a cabbage for a head, inspiring some of the greatest Canadian comedy of all time. The sounds still change through his classic seductive sound to reggae and back to the catchy baroque pop of "Marilou Sous La Neige." Vannier's influence remains on Serge as he achieves some of his best synthesizer work, practically giving birth to AIR's 10,000 Hz Legend on the narration-heavy "Flash Forward." Most of the album is talk-spoken, which can irritate some, but all the elements one would want in a great 70s rock album are there, especially on the dramatic opening title track. This is one of Serge's most under-appreciated albums, deserving its place alongside Initials B.B., Melody Nelson, and Couleur Café. If you consider yourself an AIR fan and have not heard this record, change that immediately.
6. David Bowie - Station to Station
"I know it was recorded in Los Angeles because it says so on the record," reflects Bowie. He has also reflected that he hated that city and what cocaine was doing to him while there. For proof, consult The Man Who Fell to Earth, the Nicholas Roeg he was shooting at the time and gave the album its cover (it also stars Rip Torn!!!!). The drug threw him into the same hell as John Cale and also yielded amazing results. The ten minute title track dubbed him "The Thin White Duke," his best-fitting, yet least developed persona. "Word on a Wing" is another highlight as is "TVC-15," but its single "Golden Years," may be the album's best song. It's deranged qualities managed to pass as accessible enough for the public, and managed to mask its creator's dark reality. Afterward he returned to Europe, began cleaning up and made his best work of all. This album is the beginning of that phase in which the genius pushes himself up from rock bottom. The ideas are here, but they are lost in the chaos which makes this one of Bowie's best.
5. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
Some may say this doesn't count, but this was a tough year and regardless this album rules! The Modern lovers were the ultimate proto-supergroup. Jonathan Richman would never be this great again, plus you've got Gerry Harrison from the Talking Heads, David Robinson from the Cars, and Ernie Brooks whose work with discovery Arthur Russell would reveal him to be the greatest bass player of all time many years later. Oh, and John Cale produced it. All the songs are great and with the added tracks on some version coming from the Kim Fowley sessions it's even better, such as on "Government Center," a song which only he could have produced. The lyrics are about such lovely topics as teenage lust and jealousy and love for the USA and Boston, making it essential for anyone living there. It is a fun, aggressive and simple record that really set the precedent for all rock that followed, though sadly not enough really has.
4. R. Stevie Moore - Phonography
The young Nashville outsider makes his debut on this set, giving the world its first second-generation rock musician and one of the few amazing one-man bands. Cultivated from the endless material Moore was already amassing this flawless collection of dense-psychotic pop influenced by Todd Rundgren and the Beach Boys. Moore's distinct guitar sound makes its debut on the dramatic instrumental opener "Melbourne," and his home-made humor makes "Goodbye Piano" the greatest song about attachment to an instrument. Going from dark and weird ("Moons," "Showing Shadows") to sweet ("I Want You In My Life," "I Wish I Could Sing") the album is padded by his skits, a new idea done long before it became common. These are at their best on the thoughtful "The Lariat Wressed Posing Hour" and the anglophobic "The Spot." Moore plays up his alienating Southern and musical roots on "Theme from A.G." showing his place was actually in the ultra-hip New Jersey underground he would make home soon after. Perhaps the greatest "outsider" album of all time.
3. Camel - Moonmadness
It's hard to say why Camel is not heralded as one of the greatest bands of progressive rock. It may have been their surely profitable, yet unplanned tie-in with the cigarette brand, it might have been the unfortunate US album art, or it might have been that people said they were "too much like Floyd." That should be a good thing! However, they are their own distinct band, though as cohesive and single-minded as their more famous peers. The members also expand their musical vocabulary with the integration of other instruments such as the flute on the gorgeous "Air Born." Every member of the classic lineup is one of the finest musicians of their day, but former Them keyboardist Peter Bardens is in a category of his own. The opening "Aristillus" and his solo on the album's greatest piece "Song Within A Song" is enough to place him above the likes Richard Wright and Rick Wakeman. From beginning to end Moonmadness captures everything great about progressive rock and nothing that makes it so maligned.
2. Ramones - Ramones
With that sneering album cover and its whole aesthetic from cohort Arturo Vega the Queens foursome beat up the world with punk rock. "Blitzkrieg Bop" begins it with one of the most perfect pieces of pop ever written. The band's simple force is relentless with each element its own pummeling limb. The band takes on some of the darkest topics in music so far such as Nazis, beating children with baseball bats, the Bay of Pigs, male prostitution and murder, and of course the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a sense of humor that let them get away with it for almost forty years now. Yeah, it's just four chords, but that's all you need in the twisted world of Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy. All the fury of the heaviest rock with the catchy fun of Phil Spector and the Beach Boys comes together as only these urbane brats could do inspiring generations and generations beyond. However, none could even hope to match the likes of "Chain Saw," "Judy Is a Punk," and "Beat on the Brat." The first sign of what was to come.
1. The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
San Francisco's most definitive band had been around since the Haight-Ashbury days making many great records that either just missed or did not qualify for these lists. After moving to the more-appreciative France and teaming up with Dave Edmunds in South Wales the Beatle-booted quintet make their finest work of all. At this point the group was double amping their three guitars, matched with a bass tone, drum fury, and vocal harmonies that gave them the biggest sound on Earth without any distortion or complex solos. Edmunds captures all of this and the band lends this sound to their favorite songs by the likes of the Stones, Beatles, and Chuck Berry, who with the Byrds would be mainstays of their set for the rest of the career. The originals are even better though, particularly the title track, which should be on anyone's list of best ever. Though others like "Yes It's True," and the majestic apology of "You Tore Me Down" give it some real competition. Then there's the closing track, "I Can't Hide," with its heavy bass drone that leaves the record ending as powerfully as it began. This album and the band that made it is rock's best kept secret still waiting to be opened.
10. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
70s hard rock is a controversial style and I admit I am not the biggest fan. There are some exceptions, as one could tell from all the Zeppelin seen so far. Also nearly included was the supergroup Captain Beyond. Thin Lizzy is another. Most of that is owed to Phil Lynott. Lynott is a real one of a kind frontman who wrote songs that rocked very hard without much of the pomposity, stupidity, or macho tendencies of his peers. It's that distinctly Irish storytelling voice of his perhaps. His approach to vocal rhythm and lyrics is what makes his music so timeless. Then there is the twin-lead guitars, a technique that has always been underused. This album is the only one that made it mostly because I have heard it the most. Best-known for "The Boys Are Back In Town" and the title track, the softer stuff is actually best such as "Fight or Fall" and "Running Back." Also it's got some kind of sci-fi concept, but I prefer not to think about it.
9. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
Another highly controversial choice, who deserves more exposure on my lists. ELO is known for their mission of picking up where the Beatles left off, super-clean production, and of course the strings - all of which give them the reputation of being pretentious. However, they are a talented band that has made a lot of great music and this album is one of the best. Almost anything with Bev Bevan is worth listening to if you ask me, and Jeff Lynne keeps the reputation of their old band alive with the re-make of their original "Do Ya," which sadly foreshadowed the embarrassing decisions he makes today. Strings and wise chord choices, along with cutting-edge synthesizers give this album a heavenly texture heard on every track with harmonies and melodies that keep with their tradition of 60s pop. Worth it for "Livin' Thing" alone.
8. Bob Dylan - Desire
Dylan picks up right where he left off on Blood on the Tracks stylistically and maybe even outdoes that album's merits. While the bitterness is still there, most evidently on the usual album-ending classic "Sara," Mr. Zimmerman moves away from the divorce topic a bit. The opener "Hurricane" with its setting of New Jersey perhaps owing to following Bruce Springsteen is a return to the protesting drama of his best 60s work, justifying its place as one of his most beloved songs. As the cover may imply, he is feeling a little bit happier too, and while his "Romance in Durango" may be a little trite, it does seem to put the troubador in a better mood. The loose, jammy story of "Isis" is another one of his best, proving that this seventies comeback was no fluke.
7. Serge Gainsbourg - L'Homme À Tête De Chou
The always-changing Gainsbourg tries out progressive rock on this concept album about a murderer with a cabbage for a head, inspiring some of the greatest Canadian comedy of all time. The sounds still change through his classic seductive sound to reggae and back to the catchy baroque pop of "Marilou Sous La Neige." Vannier's influence remains on Serge as he achieves some of his best synthesizer work, practically giving birth to AIR's 10,000 Hz Legend on the narration-heavy "Flash Forward." Most of the album is talk-spoken, which can irritate some, but all the elements one would want in a great 70s rock album are there, especially on the dramatic opening title track. This is one of Serge's most under-appreciated albums, deserving its place alongside Initials B.B., Melody Nelson, and Couleur Café. If you consider yourself an AIR fan and have not heard this record, change that immediately.
6. David Bowie - Station to Station
"I know it was recorded in Los Angeles because it says so on the record," reflects Bowie. He has also reflected that he hated that city and what cocaine was doing to him while there. For proof, consult The Man Who Fell to Earth, the Nicholas Roeg he was shooting at the time and gave the album its cover (it also stars Rip Torn!!!!). The drug threw him into the same hell as John Cale and also yielded amazing results. The ten minute title track dubbed him "The Thin White Duke," his best-fitting, yet least developed persona. "Word on a Wing" is another highlight as is "TVC-15," but its single "Golden Years," may be the album's best song. It's deranged qualities managed to pass as accessible enough for the public, and managed to mask its creator's dark reality. Afterward he returned to Europe, began cleaning up and made his best work of all. This album is the beginning of that phase in which the genius pushes himself up from rock bottom. The ideas are here, but they are lost in the chaos which makes this one of Bowie's best.
5. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
Some may say this doesn't count, but this was a tough year and regardless this album rules! The Modern lovers were the ultimate proto-supergroup. Jonathan Richman would never be this great again, plus you've got Gerry Harrison from the Talking Heads, David Robinson from the Cars, and Ernie Brooks whose work with discovery Arthur Russell would reveal him to be the greatest bass player of all time many years later. Oh, and John Cale produced it. All the songs are great and with the added tracks on some version coming from the Kim Fowley sessions it's even better, such as on "Government Center," a song which only he could have produced. The lyrics are about such lovely topics as teenage lust and jealousy and love for the USA and Boston, making it essential for anyone living there. It is a fun, aggressive and simple record that really set the precedent for all rock that followed, though sadly not enough really has.
4. R. Stevie Moore - Phonography
The young Nashville outsider makes his debut on this set, giving the world its first second-generation rock musician and one of the few amazing one-man bands. Cultivated from the endless material Moore was already amassing this flawless collection of dense-psychotic pop influenced by Todd Rundgren and the Beach Boys. Moore's distinct guitar sound makes its debut on the dramatic instrumental opener "Melbourne," and his home-made humor makes "Goodbye Piano" the greatest song about attachment to an instrument. Going from dark and weird ("Moons," "Showing Shadows") to sweet ("I Want You In My Life," "I Wish I Could Sing") the album is padded by his skits, a new idea done long before it became common. These are at their best on the thoughtful "The Lariat Wressed Posing Hour" and the anglophobic "The Spot." Moore plays up his alienating Southern and musical roots on "Theme from A.G." showing his place was actually in the ultra-hip New Jersey underground he would make home soon after. Perhaps the greatest "outsider" album of all time.
3. Camel - Moonmadness
It's hard to say why Camel is not heralded as one of the greatest bands of progressive rock. It may have been their surely profitable, yet unplanned tie-in with the cigarette brand, it might have been the unfortunate US album art, or it might have been that people said they were "too much like Floyd." That should be a good thing! However, they are their own distinct band, though as cohesive and single-minded as their more famous peers. The members also expand their musical vocabulary with the integration of other instruments such as the flute on the gorgeous "Air Born." Every member of the classic lineup is one of the finest musicians of their day, but former Them keyboardist Peter Bardens is in a category of his own. The opening "Aristillus" and his solo on the album's greatest piece "Song Within A Song" is enough to place him above the likes Richard Wright and Rick Wakeman. From beginning to end Moonmadness captures everything great about progressive rock and nothing that makes it so maligned.
2. Ramones - Ramones
With that sneering album cover and its whole aesthetic from cohort Arturo Vega the Queens foursome beat up the world with punk rock. "Blitzkrieg Bop" begins it with one of the most perfect pieces of pop ever written. The band's simple force is relentless with each element its own pummeling limb. The band takes on some of the darkest topics in music so far such as Nazis, beating children with baseball bats, the Bay of Pigs, male prostitution and murder, and of course the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a sense of humor that let them get away with it for almost forty years now. Yeah, it's just four chords, but that's all you need in the twisted world of Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy. All the fury of the heaviest rock with the catchy fun of Phil Spector and the Beach Boys comes together as only these urbane brats could do inspiring generations and generations beyond. However, none could even hope to match the likes of "Chain Saw," "Judy Is a Punk," and "Beat on the Brat." The first sign of what was to come.
1. The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
San Francisco's most definitive band had been around since the Haight-Ashbury days making many great records that either just missed or did not qualify for these lists. After moving to the more-appreciative France and teaming up with Dave Edmunds in South Wales the Beatle-booted quintet make their finest work of all. At this point the group was double amping their three guitars, matched with a bass tone, drum fury, and vocal harmonies that gave them the biggest sound on Earth without any distortion or complex solos. Edmunds captures all of this and the band lends this sound to their favorite songs by the likes of the Stones, Beatles, and Chuck Berry, who with the Byrds would be mainstays of their set for the rest of the career. The originals are even better though, particularly the title track, which should be on anyone's list of best ever. Though others like "Yes It's True," and the majestic apology of "You Tore Me Down" give it some real competition. Then there's the closing track, "I Can't Hide," with its heavy bass drone that leaves the record ending as powerfully as it began. This album and the band that made it is rock's best kept secret still waiting to be opened.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
1975
Here's where things really start to get... different. The new generation takes over and some bring it back, some take it somewhere else new. Mostly they do both. A lot of the older guys come back with something very new and unexpected. Either way, this year is maybe the biggest turning point in rock and here are ten of the best examples.
10. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Dylan's first "comeback" album of many (and probably most-deserved after some of the inexplicable dreck he had mad earlier in the decade) is the birth of divorce rock. It became something of a fad as the hippie generations beliefs on love prove faulty. It still happens today and does produce some great records, check out the Apples in Stereo's 2010 Travelers in Space and Time (I don't feel like waiting another 35 or more days to recommend it). It is a return not only to form but to his folk roots and a high point in terms of songwriting. The talk-singing is at its best here with some of the songwriter's best lyrics that can't stop, making for some of his longest and most energetic work. "Idiot Wind" and of course "Tangled Up In Blue," are some of his most cherished songs and their wild style continues throughout. "A Simple Twist of Fate," is a personal favorite.
9. The Dictators - The Dictators Go Girl Crazy
More proudly Jewish rock here from the Bronx. The Dictators, still often placed in the metal category, inexplicably may be the definitive New York punk band. For one there's the accents, for another Punk magazine was formed with the sole intention of meeting the makers of this record, and yet another, they're hilarious. The album art revolving around the band and "secret weapon" Handsome Dick Manitoba says all that, as do brilliant songs like "Teengenerate" with it's opening lyrics "who's that boy with the sandwich in his hand?" and "(I Live For) Cars and Girls." It's the sound of a teenage sausage fest complete with plenty of beer-soaked pro-wrestling theatricality. It's even got great musicianship all around on top of all that. Where were Americas teenage boys in 1975? Clearly not interested in any fun or eating eggs all day, otherwise this band would have been as big as the Stones. Ideal music for eating at McDonald's for lunch or doing your homework at the bar.
8. Sparks - Propoganda
Sparks albums often come in pairs and this one is at least the equal of Kimono My House. Musicianship increases to an even higher level and lyrics move into stranger territory, found immediately on the vocal workout that is the title track. After that the album kicks in hard with the stalker theme "At Home At Work At Play." The humor is as high as ever, as seen on titles like "Don't Leave Me Alone With Her," but there is more drama on the story of a family devastated by divorce "BC." That plus the cinematic adventure of "Bon Voyage" which sets a standard in closing tracks that only Sparks themselves could outdo a few years later. Even with all the growth, the brothers keep their feet on the ground with the glam of "Achoo" and Russell's flamboyant falsetto stretches on "Who Don't Like Kids?" This is as essential as any other Sparks record.
7. John Cale - Slow Dazzle
Cale's days at the top were beginning to end (after the follow-up Helen of Troy I sadly still have yet to hear) thanks to his coke addiction at this point. This album certainly sounds like it. It's all over the place, gets dark, gets innocent, gets funny, and is always very weird. It is best known for its heavy proto-goth cover of "Heartbreak Hotel," but this is just a minor detail. The Western piano of the Springsteen-esque "Ski Patrol," and the Kevin Ayers revenge slam of "Guts," are even better tunes. Even in the search for classic sounds "Dirtyass Rock 'n' Roll excels best at that, completely living up to its title. Then there's "I'm Not the Loving Kind," and his most successful attempt at the mainstream "Taking It All Away." Ending with "The Jeweller" hearkens back to some of his work on White Light/White Heat making this perhaps Cale's most well-rounded work... plus Manzanera and Eno.
6. Be Bop Deluxe - Futurama
Glam, prog, and power-pop all come together on this huge album produced by Roy Thomas Baker. His over-the top style is in full effect, but only enhances the brilliant songwriting and guitar virtuosity of the young Bill Nelson. Nelson's rhythm section of New Zealand bassist Charles Tumahai and drummer Simon Fox. Fox's playing sticks out in particular on the transcendent centerpiece of the album "Sound Track," on which the many elements behind this record's strength come out into one of rock's hugest songs of all time. Immediately after is the one that says it all, "Music In Dreamland," with its unfathomable lead that keeps the progressive complexity in melodic territory. Pop is at is peak on the concise romance of "Maid in Heaven," a catchy little rocker that belongs on any and every 70s mix. The prog is most evident on "Between the Worlds" and "Sister Seagull," but every track emits the kind of youthful attitude that keeps Nelson and company firmly in the world of punk.
5. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Finally my home state makes it's debut (well, there was already Funkadelic, but their originas are a little more transient) on this list! Of course, there will be plenty more where that came from. Well, what else can I say? It's not how much you like the Boss, it's how big the part of you that LOVES the boss is. This will always be his definitive work. Its sound is as big as the last album on this list yet its themes and creator are as down to Earth as a rotting boardwalk post in the man's home town (if there are any left now). "Thunder Road," will forever be the theme of escape and the title track will always be one of the greatest songs ever created. Springsteen takes a cue from hero Dylan ending the album with the nine and a half-minute "Jungleland" and his working class romantic poetry covers all his words on this album. The E Street Band is no joke either. Album cover co-star Clarence Clemens' sax may really be what broke this one through, but one can never give enough credit to all-star stick man Max Weinberg either. This is New Jersey.
4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Going even further into the theme of their lost mate, Floyd make their third masterpiece in a row. Now one of the most successful bands in the world, their music reflects on the darker sides of the rock star life, most famously on "Have a Cigar," but their take is still sincere and yet to fall into the well of pretension. While the concept is Waters' four members still function as a single unit, with Mason and Gilmour just as much a part of the songwriting process. The nine-part "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," would not have been such a success otherwise. Barrett's appearance at the sessions may have had a lot to do with the album's achievement, but the full-circle effect may have been the band's undoing. The fortuitous, "Welcome to the Machine," may have signaled the beginning of the end as Waters' control on the band increases, eventually to ill effect. Regardless of what happened next (or more accurately, after next) this is one of rock's greatest bands at its peak.
3. Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff
Even darker is the return of Van Der Graaf Generator. After four years, Peter Hammill formally reunites with keyboardist/studio bassist Hugh Banton, drummer Guy Evans, and sax man David Jackson to create their finest work. Julian Cope has said that Hammill came close to "THE TRUTH" on this album and with all its hellish arrangements and more direct lyrics, he may be right. Either way, his statement says a lot about the four epics that make up this album. "Scorched Earth" opening the album should confirm that. The guitar-less group uses their instrumental prowess and unusual approach to maximum effect on this album with Evans keeping the beat simple enough at times to let the music speak for itself. On the other end, "Arrow" begins with a free-jazz introduction that signals the second side will be no easier than the first. Then it concludes with "The Sleepwalkers," probably the group's best piece of music. It's apocalyptic beat and organ build and build until Jackson's blaring saxophone and Hammill's howling vocals lead the listener beyond Armageddon into the new world with its new world of post-punk followers.
2. NEU! - NEU! 75
The krautrock professionals finish up their run on a high note with this album. The year in its title functions as to show that two years have past since the last album, and the evolution heard on it clearly has doubled. This one is their best-realized with the range of styles growing even more than on the last. "Isi," with it's gentle piano and joyful synthesizers achieves a relaxed beauty beyond that of even Faust's most tender moments. The following "Seeland" continues the beauty with its symphonic build. The album has much more of a synthesizer presence which is played with such careful delicacy it gives NEU! a feminine quality rare in krautrock (and probably all German music). "Leb' Wohl" continues with this soft side, but the second side does get more aggressive, although not without the added charm of vocals. Those are heard quite differently than on the previous track on "Hero," a song with an echo heard in many of the post-punk groups that followed, particularly Devo's "Beautiful World." The band returns to their classic tried and true form on the ten-minute "E-Musik," before more punk fury on "After Eight." Forget what else you hear, this is their best album.
1. Brian Eno - Another Green World
Another one of those impossibly-perfectly-titled albums. Eno's greatest and most-cherished work evokes that image of a fresh, untouched class-M planet after the trying journey though, dark, unfriendly space. The sounds heard here are without peer, before or after, perhaps as this is Eno's most personal work, with only minimal contributions from frequent collaborators Robert Fripp, John Cale, and Phil Collins. While still a pop record, its many instrumental tracks foreshadow his move into purely ambient music. They have a lot more life to them than that, best seen in the lift to the heavens that is "The Big Ship," a minimalist masterpiece that transmits right to the heart. In fact, Eno's heart is bared as much as his chest on the back cover contrasting from his image as a robot/alien, with songs like "Everything Merges with the Night," and the adorable "I'll Come Running." The self-proclaimed "non-musician" pays extra-close attention to every note and every sound, making this album as much a work of modern classical music as rock, avant-garde, or the burgeoning electronica form. It is all the finest music ever made, but no review would be complete without mention of "St. Elmo's Fire," with some of Robert Fripp's finest playing, and Eno's most ethereal synthesizer work.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that I do like Steely Dan and to not apologize for any Star Trek references. I think they are helpful, even without much familiarity with the show.
10. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Dylan's first "comeback" album of many (and probably most-deserved after some of the inexplicable dreck he had mad earlier in the decade) is the birth of divorce rock. It became something of a fad as the hippie generations beliefs on love prove faulty. It still happens today and does produce some great records, check out the Apples in Stereo's 2010 Travelers in Space and Time (I don't feel like waiting another 35 or more days to recommend it). It is a return not only to form but to his folk roots and a high point in terms of songwriting. The talk-singing is at its best here with some of the songwriter's best lyrics that can't stop, making for some of his longest and most energetic work. "Idiot Wind" and of course "Tangled Up In Blue," are some of his most cherished songs and their wild style continues throughout. "A Simple Twist of Fate," is a personal favorite.
9. The Dictators - The Dictators Go Girl Crazy
More proudly Jewish rock here from the Bronx. The Dictators, still often placed in the metal category, inexplicably may be the definitive New York punk band. For one there's the accents, for another Punk magazine was formed with the sole intention of meeting the makers of this record, and yet another, they're hilarious. The album art revolving around the band and "secret weapon" Handsome Dick Manitoba says all that, as do brilliant songs like "Teengenerate" with it's opening lyrics "who's that boy with the sandwich in his hand?" and "(I Live For) Cars and Girls." It's the sound of a teenage sausage fest complete with plenty of beer-soaked pro-wrestling theatricality. It's even got great musicianship all around on top of all that. Where were Americas teenage boys in 1975? Clearly not interested in any fun or eating eggs all day, otherwise this band would have been as big as the Stones. Ideal music for eating at McDonald's for lunch or doing your homework at the bar.
8. Sparks - Propoganda
Sparks albums often come in pairs and this one is at least the equal of Kimono My House. Musicianship increases to an even higher level and lyrics move into stranger territory, found immediately on the vocal workout that is the title track. After that the album kicks in hard with the stalker theme "At Home At Work At Play." The humor is as high as ever, as seen on titles like "Don't Leave Me Alone With Her," but there is more drama on the story of a family devastated by divorce "BC." That plus the cinematic adventure of "Bon Voyage" which sets a standard in closing tracks that only Sparks themselves could outdo a few years later. Even with all the growth, the brothers keep their feet on the ground with the glam of "Achoo" and Russell's flamboyant falsetto stretches on "Who Don't Like Kids?" This is as essential as any other Sparks record.
7. John Cale - Slow Dazzle
Cale's days at the top were beginning to end (after the follow-up Helen of Troy I sadly still have yet to hear) thanks to his coke addiction at this point. This album certainly sounds like it. It's all over the place, gets dark, gets innocent, gets funny, and is always very weird. It is best known for its heavy proto-goth cover of "Heartbreak Hotel," but this is just a minor detail. The Western piano of the Springsteen-esque "Ski Patrol," and the Kevin Ayers revenge slam of "Guts," are even better tunes. Even in the search for classic sounds "Dirtyass Rock 'n' Roll excels best at that, completely living up to its title. Then there's "I'm Not the Loving Kind," and his most successful attempt at the mainstream "Taking It All Away." Ending with "The Jeweller" hearkens back to some of his work on White Light/White Heat making this perhaps Cale's most well-rounded work... plus Manzanera and Eno.
6. Be Bop Deluxe - Futurama
Glam, prog, and power-pop all come together on this huge album produced by Roy Thomas Baker. His over-the top style is in full effect, but only enhances the brilliant songwriting and guitar virtuosity of the young Bill Nelson. Nelson's rhythm section of New Zealand bassist Charles Tumahai and drummer Simon Fox. Fox's playing sticks out in particular on the transcendent centerpiece of the album "Sound Track," on which the many elements behind this record's strength come out into one of rock's hugest songs of all time. Immediately after is the one that says it all, "Music In Dreamland," with its unfathomable lead that keeps the progressive complexity in melodic territory. Pop is at is peak on the concise romance of "Maid in Heaven," a catchy little rocker that belongs on any and every 70s mix. The prog is most evident on "Between the Worlds" and "Sister Seagull," but every track emits the kind of youthful attitude that keeps Nelson and company firmly in the world of punk.
5. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Finally my home state makes it's debut (well, there was already Funkadelic, but their originas are a little more transient) on this list! Of course, there will be plenty more where that came from. Well, what else can I say? It's not how much you like the Boss, it's how big the part of you that LOVES the boss is. This will always be his definitive work. Its sound is as big as the last album on this list yet its themes and creator are as down to Earth as a rotting boardwalk post in the man's home town (if there are any left now). "Thunder Road," will forever be the theme of escape and the title track will always be one of the greatest songs ever created. Springsteen takes a cue from hero Dylan ending the album with the nine and a half-minute "Jungleland" and his working class romantic poetry covers all his words on this album. The E Street Band is no joke either. Album cover co-star Clarence Clemens' sax may really be what broke this one through, but one can never give enough credit to all-star stick man Max Weinberg either. This is New Jersey.
4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Going even further into the theme of their lost mate, Floyd make their third masterpiece in a row. Now one of the most successful bands in the world, their music reflects on the darker sides of the rock star life, most famously on "Have a Cigar," but their take is still sincere and yet to fall into the well of pretension. While the concept is Waters' four members still function as a single unit, with Mason and Gilmour just as much a part of the songwriting process. The nine-part "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," would not have been such a success otherwise. Barrett's appearance at the sessions may have had a lot to do with the album's achievement, but the full-circle effect may have been the band's undoing. The fortuitous, "Welcome to the Machine," may have signaled the beginning of the end as Waters' control on the band increases, eventually to ill effect. Regardless of what happened next (or more accurately, after next) this is one of rock's greatest bands at its peak.
3. Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff
Even darker is the return of Van Der Graaf Generator. After four years, Peter Hammill formally reunites with keyboardist/studio bassist Hugh Banton, drummer Guy Evans, and sax man David Jackson to create their finest work. Julian Cope has said that Hammill came close to "THE TRUTH" on this album and with all its hellish arrangements and more direct lyrics, he may be right. Either way, his statement says a lot about the four epics that make up this album. "Scorched Earth" opening the album should confirm that. The guitar-less group uses their instrumental prowess and unusual approach to maximum effect on this album with Evans keeping the beat simple enough at times to let the music speak for itself. On the other end, "Arrow" begins with a free-jazz introduction that signals the second side will be no easier than the first. Then it concludes with "The Sleepwalkers," probably the group's best piece of music. It's apocalyptic beat and organ build and build until Jackson's blaring saxophone and Hammill's howling vocals lead the listener beyond Armageddon into the new world with its new world of post-punk followers.
2. NEU! - NEU! 75
The krautrock professionals finish up their run on a high note with this album. The year in its title functions as to show that two years have past since the last album, and the evolution heard on it clearly has doubled. This one is their best-realized with the range of styles growing even more than on the last. "Isi," with it's gentle piano and joyful synthesizers achieves a relaxed beauty beyond that of even Faust's most tender moments. The following "Seeland" continues the beauty with its symphonic build. The album has much more of a synthesizer presence which is played with such careful delicacy it gives NEU! a feminine quality rare in krautrock (and probably all German music). "Leb' Wohl" continues with this soft side, but the second side does get more aggressive, although not without the added charm of vocals. Those are heard quite differently than on the previous track on "Hero," a song with an echo heard in many of the post-punk groups that followed, particularly Devo's "Beautiful World." The band returns to their classic tried and true form on the ten-minute "E-Musik," before more punk fury on "After Eight." Forget what else you hear, this is their best album.
1. Brian Eno - Another Green World
Another one of those impossibly-perfectly-titled albums. Eno's greatest and most-cherished work evokes that image of a fresh, untouched class-M planet after the trying journey though, dark, unfriendly space. The sounds heard here are without peer, before or after, perhaps as this is Eno's most personal work, with only minimal contributions from frequent collaborators Robert Fripp, John Cale, and Phil Collins. While still a pop record, its many instrumental tracks foreshadow his move into purely ambient music. They have a lot more life to them than that, best seen in the lift to the heavens that is "The Big Ship," a minimalist masterpiece that transmits right to the heart. In fact, Eno's heart is bared as much as his chest on the back cover contrasting from his image as a robot/alien, with songs like "Everything Merges with the Night," and the adorable "I'll Come Running." The self-proclaimed "non-musician" pays extra-close attention to every note and every sound, making this album as much a work of modern classical music as rock, avant-garde, or the burgeoning electronica form. It is all the finest music ever made, but no review would be complete without mention of "St. Elmo's Fire," with some of Robert Fripp's finest playing, and Eno's most ethereal synthesizer work.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that I do like Steely Dan and to not apologize for any Star Trek references. I think they are helpful, even without much familiarity with the show.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
1974
Here is another great year. Considering I took an extra day here I am really confident in saying that. If there is one flaw, and there really is just one, it's that there's a lot of artist repetition here.
10. Faust - The Faust Tapes
Richard Branson's somewhat successful marketing experiment to make this album chart is unfortunately more famous than the music. Here Faust actually show off their personality as an artists' collective much more than a recorded singing group with all their live snippets of tracks. Most are originally untitled and consist of a few members jamming on different instruments. Most of them are really interesting, ranging from funk to punk, to classical beauty. The same can be said for the "real" songs here. Jean-Hevrvé Peron brings his native French into the language mix typically revolving around English on the angular punk of "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" and the gorgeous closer "Chere Chambre." Faust classics like "Flashback Caruso" and "Stretch Out Time" inhabit the ends of the album, but the whole middle functions as one of the best pieces of avant-garde rock, paving the way for the likes of "Green Typewriters."
9. Sparks - Kimono My House
The creepy former child models from Pacific Palisades known as the Mael Brothers cross the pond to great success with this album. Beginning with the words, "Zoo time is she and you time. The mammals are your favorite type and you want her tonight," the comedic rockers create a hard rocking set that crosses Zappa with Queen. Punk as T. Rex on the likes of "Amateur Hour," and as pretentiously 70s on the Romeo and Juliet-gone-wrong saga of "Here in Heaven" Sparks set themselves apart from anyone else in the game - usually the case for Americans in the UK like Jimi before and Chrissie Hynde and Holly Beth Vincent later. Sparks' blend of Ron Mael's wit and musical brilliance combined with Russell's flamboyance and SoCal pretty boy charm and both brothers' finely-tuned theatrics hits its stride on this landmark release.
8. Roxy Music - Country Life
With it's similar, yet humorless album cover Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay, Thompson, and recent addition string/keys man Eddie Jobson (plus another excellent yet almsot anonymous bassist) prove that Roxy and Eno are better going their separate ways. Beginning with their finest moment, "The Thrill Of It All" the band shows off its talent for exciting yet sophisticated and complex glam rock. Ferry's honey-dripping romance is at its best on songs like "All I Want Is You," "A Really Good Time," and tribute to then-girlfriend Jerry Hall "Prairie Rose," perhaps the most loving croon to Texas ever made by a non-native. The Mackay-led "Three and Nine," and 50s-style croon of "If It Takes All Night" are some of the band's best work as well making this album their definitive work. No need for any extra electronic tweaking.
7. Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
...And if you need any more proof, here it is. Eno's second album remains unlike anything else he has done. More melodic than the rest and carrying its predecessor's dadaist humor this one is less of artistic statement than any other Eno works, and more of a true pop record. The lyrics may not have any more meaning than on other albums, but they can trick you into thinking otherwise, with the mind being sucked into a false plot on the military farce of "Back in Judy's Jungle" and the unsettling, maybe even disturbing "The Fat Lady of Limbourg." "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More," is more a romantic comedy of espionage than airline jingle and "The True Wheel" is the theme song for the oncoming post-punk generation. Similarly, "Third Uncle" proved to be such an influence on goth that Bauhaus opened their definitive album with their interpretation. The whole thing ends nicely with the gentle title track, making it Eno's most underrated work to date.
6. The Residents - Meet the Residents
This eyeball-headed quartet(?) from Shreveport, Louisiana by way of San Francisco make their debut with this distinctly American equivalent of The Fuast Tapes. Snippets of songs like "Guylum Bardot" and "Breath and Width," prove this as well as hint at what would come with the likes of The Commercial Album. Like Faust they take the time for pure beauty as heard on the classical piano of "Rest Aria." The opening "cover" "Boots," and "Smelly Tongues" foreshadow the many Bay Area followers in their shadow such as Chrome, Primus, and Tuxedomoon who would even be signed to the Cryptic Corporation's Ralph Records. The carefully-staged mystery around the band only slightly adds to the record's eeriness which is the first album of many post-punk followers to have the feeling of a walk through a pitch-black haunted house. A Victorian one, most likely.
5. Big Star - Radio City
Without the massive success the members were expecting or co-leader Chris Bell the Memphis now-trio makes a darker, bitter album that stands as their best work. Well known for the song "September Gurls," which should have extended their notoriety beyond Bomp! and Creem devotees, it is, even more than the debut the birth of the subsequent underground power-pop movement. Gone is the youthful romance of "Thirteen" and "The India Song." Taking it's place is the anger of "You Get What You Deserve" and "Life Is White," much darker than the still fun energy of "Don't Lie To Me." Even "I'm in Love With a Girl," is inexplicably coated in tragedy. At least this darkness brought out the best in the young musicians before it destroyed them.
4. Yes - Relayer
After the blunder of the four-sided, four-tracked Tales from Topographic Oceans, yes returns to literary adaptation. This time they take on War and Peace. Alan White is no longer the new guy and while he may not be Bill Bruford, he certainly is a perfect cog in the Yes machine, as is tasteful Swiss keyboard god Patrick Moraz. If not for "Sound Chaster," the misstep that led the future of prog into permanent disrepair this would be the group's finest album. The 22-minute "The Gates of Delirium" kicks off immediately, with no need for as dramatic a buildup as "Close to the Edge." With Jon Anderson's kit of sheet metal and other scraps the band invents industrial music before they were written out of history by the artists who are considered its originators. The song's complexity allows it for both the mind-bending torture of war and the transcendence of the peace that will hopefully come "Soon." Where their last masterpiece closes with a cool-down "To Be Over" achieves the band's height of heavenly beauty with Steve Howe's steel guitar achieving the kind of beauty normally only reserved for nature. Don't underestimate the power of switching guitars.
3. Can - Soon Over Babaluma
Can joins Yes, Big Star, and Roxy in the loss of a key member in vocalist Damo Suzuki, leading many to skip over this classic follow-up. While the remaining members may not excel at vocals the way the Japanese drifter-turned-Jehovah's Witness did, they remind you that they never really needed them. As "Splash" would imply, this album is as much, if not more effervescent as the last. The violin-dominated "Dizzy Dizzy" is one of their smoothest songs, with the psychedelia being matched with a sexuality heard on several tracks. Most notably, that is heard on the space funk of "Chain Reaction" with its drastic alternation between loungy groove and wild shake. The scientific element plays out until the end with "Quantum Physics," which if not for his playing of a lyre-like instrument is the kind of music one would imagine Spock creating. Can proves once and for all that they are a single-minded musical machine, one that Suzuki was lucky to be a part of.
2. Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Eno's debut solidified his place in rock's history long before his work with the Talking Heads and faux-influential chumps like U2 and Coldplay. He embraces electric noise with a sense of humor and adventure that makes it stick more than the gritty darkness of the Velvets could have and takes glam from the teenage TV party to the modern art museum. I guess that's what "Cindy Tells Me" is all about. Both Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera play on this album, with their loyalty growing to the unusual man who gets the best work of their careers out of both. Also featured is the rest of his past Roxy mates (barring Ferry), Chris Spedding, and John Wetton. The album has a wide range of sounds from the silliness of "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" and "Dead Finks Don't Talk" to the nauseating weirdness of "Driving Me Backwards" and "Baby's On Fire." Then there's the heart-breaking moments of staggering beauty "On Some Faraway Beach," and the title track which in addition to inventing shoegaze is easily the greatest recording of all time. Period.
1. Faust - Faust IV
Actually the greatest krautrock album of them all. Actually, don't quote me on that, but it is that exceptional. Perhaps in response to Zeppelin's boldly-deserving title they open with the almost 12-minute "Krautrock," ending their initial run as the definitive band of the style. They quickly change the pace with the ode to thuggish violence "The Sad Skinhead," which may have been responsible for the next generation's evolution from punk to post-punk so drastic. The band focuses on its drone, making its large group of minds meld together as well as Can's, yet with each individual's talents still distinguishable. The high aspirations of this album are even more evident on their wise choice to remake "Picnic on a Frozen River" with this "Deuxieme Tableau" being one of their best recordings. In addition to the brutality and drone, the band allows for more sensitive material on such beauties as "Jennifer," their most identifiable love song(?) and "Giggy Smile," which may be the finest marriage of nylon-string guitar and punchy drums ever caught on tape. With the quiet blues of "It's a Bit of Pain" concluding the album, Faust makes their final statement the final word on the great music the Germans gave us in the 1970s.
Normally, I don't do this and will continue not to (though 1985 is tempting) but I have to give an honorable mention to John Cale's Fear which would have given an additional appearance for many already on this list, and to King Crimson's Red - one of the heaviest albums ever recorded.
10. Faust - The Faust Tapes
Richard Branson's somewhat successful marketing experiment to make this album chart is unfortunately more famous than the music. Here Faust actually show off their personality as an artists' collective much more than a recorded singing group with all their live snippets of tracks. Most are originally untitled and consist of a few members jamming on different instruments. Most of them are really interesting, ranging from funk to punk, to classical beauty. The same can be said for the "real" songs here. Jean-Hevrvé Peron brings his native French into the language mix typically revolving around English on the angular punk of "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" and the gorgeous closer "Chere Chambre." Faust classics like "Flashback Caruso" and "Stretch Out Time" inhabit the ends of the album, but the whole middle functions as one of the best pieces of avant-garde rock, paving the way for the likes of "Green Typewriters."
9. Sparks - Kimono My House
The creepy former child models from Pacific Palisades known as the Mael Brothers cross the pond to great success with this album. Beginning with the words, "Zoo time is she and you time. The mammals are your favorite type and you want her tonight," the comedic rockers create a hard rocking set that crosses Zappa with Queen. Punk as T. Rex on the likes of "Amateur Hour," and as pretentiously 70s on the Romeo and Juliet-gone-wrong saga of "Here in Heaven" Sparks set themselves apart from anyone else in the game - usually the case for Americans in the UK like Jimi before and Chrissie Hynde and Holly Beth Vincent later. Sparks' blend of Ron Mael's wit and musical brilliance combined with Russell's flamboyance and SoCal pretty boy charm and both brothers' finely-tuned theatrics hits its stride on this landmark release.
8. Roxy Music - Country Life
With it's similar, yet humorless album cover Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay, Thompson, and recent addition string/keys man Eddie Jobson (plus another excellent yet almsot anonymous bassist) prove that Roxy and Eno are better going their separate ways. Beginning with their finest moment, "The Thrill Of It All" the band shows off its talent for exciting yet sophisticated and complex glam rock. Ferry's honey-dripping romance is at its best on songs like "All I Want Is You," "A Really Good Time," and tribute to then-girlfriend Jerry Hall "Prairie Rose," perhaps the most loving croon to Texas ever made by a non-native. The Mackay-led "Three and Nine," and 50s-style croon of "If It Takes All Night" are some of the band's best work as well making this album their definitive work. No need for any extra electronic tweaking.
7. Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
...And if you need any more proof, here it is. Eno's second album remains unlike anything else he has done. More melodic than the rest and carrying its predecessor's dadaist humor this one is less of artistic statement than any other Eno works, and more of a true pop record. The lyrics may not have any more meaning than on other albums, but they can trick you into thinking otherwise, with the mind being sucked into a false plot on the military farce of "Back in Judy's Jungle" and the unsettling, maybe even disturbing "The Fat Lady of Limbourg." "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More," is more a romantic comedy of espionage than airline jingle and "The True Wheel" is the theme song for the oncoming post-punk generation. Similarly, "Third Uncle" proved to be such an influence on goth that Bauhaus opened their definitive album with their interpretation. The whole thing ends nicely with the gentle title track, making it Eno's most underrated work to date.
6. The Residents - Meet the Residents
This eyeball-headed quartet(?) from Shreveport, Louisiana by way of San Francisco make their debut with this distinctly American equivalent of The Fuast Tapes. Snippets of songs like "Guylum Bardot" and "Breath and Width," prove this as well as hint at what would come with the likes of The Commercial Album. Like Faust they take the time for pure beauty as heard on the classical piano of "Rest Aria." The opening "cover" "Boots," and "Smelly Tongues" foreshadow the many Bay Area followers in their shadow such as Chrome, Primus, and Tuxedomoon who would even be signed to the Cryptic Corporation's Ralph Records. The carefully-staged mystery around the band only slightly adds to the record's eeriness which is the first album of many post-punk followers to have the feeling of a walk through a pitch-black haunted house. A Victorian one, most likely.
5. Big Star - Radio City
Without the massive success the members were expecting or co-leader Chris Bell the Memphis now-trio makes a darker, bitter album that stands as their best work. Well known for the song "September Gurls," which should have extended their notoriety beyond Bomp! and Creem devotees, it is, even more than the debut the birth of the subsequent underground power-pop movement. Gone is the youthful romance of "Thirteen" and "The India Song." Taking it's place is the anger of "You Get What You Deserve" and "Life Is White," much darker than the still fun energy of "Don't Lie To Me." Even "I'm in Love With a Girl," is inexplicably coated in tragedy. At least this darkness brought out the best in the young musicians before it destroyed them.
4. Yes - Relayer
After the blunder of the four-sided, four-tracked Tales from Topographic Oceans, yes returns to literary adaptation. This time they take on War and Peace. Alan White is no longer the new guy and while he may not be Bill Bruford, he certainly is a perfect cog in the Yes machine, as is tasteful Swiss keyboard god Patrick Moraz. If not for "Sound Chaster," the misstep that led the future of prog into permanent disrepair this would be the group's finest album. The 22-minute "The Gates of Delirium" kicks off immediately, with no need for as dramatic a buildup as "Close to the Edge." With Jon Anderson's kit of sheet metal and other scraps the band invents industrial music before they were written out of history by the artists who are considered its originators. The song's complexity allows it for both the mind-bending torture of war and the transcendence of the peace that will hopefully come "Soon." Where their last masterpiece closes with a cool-down "To Be Over" achieves the band's height of heavenly beauty with Steve Howe's steel guitar achieving the kind of beauty normally only reserved for nature. Don't underestimate the power of switching guitars.
3. Can - Soon Over Babaluma
Can joins Yes, Big Star, and Roxy in the loss of a key member in vocalist Damo Suzuki, leading many to skip over this classic follow-up. While the remaining members may not excel at vocals the way the Japanese drifter-turned-Jehovah's Witness did, they remind you that they never really needed them. As "Splash" would imply, this album is as much, if not more effervescent as the last. The violin-dominated "Dizzy Dizzy" is one of their smoothest songs, with the psychedelia being matched with a sexuality heard on several tracks. Most notably, that is heard on the space funk of "Chain Reaction" with its drastic alternation between loungy groove and wild shake. The scientific element plays out until the end with "Quantum Physics," which if not for his playing of a lyre-like instrument is the kind of music one would imagine Spock creating. Can proves once and for all that they are a single-minded musical machine, one that Suzuki was lucky to be a part of.
2. Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Eno's debut solidified his place in rock's history long before his work with the Talking Heads and faux-influential chumps like U2 and Coldplay. He embraces electric noise with a sense of humor and adventure that makes it stick more than the gritty darkness of the Velvets could have and takes glam from the teenage TV party to the modern art museum. I guess that's what "Cindy Tells Me" is all about. Both Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera play on this album, with their loyalty growing to the unusual man who gets the best work of their careers out of both. Also featured is the rest of his past Roxy mates (barring Ferry), Chris Spedding, and John Wetton. The album has a wide range of sounds from the silliness of "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" and "Dead Finks Don't Talk" to the nauseating weirdness of "Driving Me Backwards" and "Baby's On Fire." Then there's the heart-breaking moments of staggering beauty "On Some Faraway Beach," and the title track which in addition to inventing shoegaze is easily the greatest recording of all time. Period.
1. Faust - Faust IV
Actually the greatest krautrock album of them all. Actually, don't quote me on that, but it is that exceptional. Perhaps in response to Zeppelin's boldly-deserving title they open with the almost 12-minute "Krautrock," ending their initial run as the definitive band of the style. They quickly change the pace with the ode to thuggish violence "The Sad Skinhead," which may have been responsible for the next generation's evolution from punk to post-punk so drastic. The band focuses on its drone, making its large group of minds meld together as well as Can's, yet with each individual's talents still distinguishable. The high aspirations of this album are even more evident on their wise choice to remake "Picnic on a Frozen River" with this "Deuxieme Tableau" being one of their best recordings. In addition to the brutality and drone, the band allows for more sensitive material on such beauties as "Jennifer," their most identifiable love song(?) and "Giggy Smile," which may be the finest marriage of nylon-string guitar and punchy drums ever caught on tape. With the quiet blues of "It's a Bit of Pain" concluding the album, Faust makes their final statement the final word on the great music the Germans gave us in the 1970s.
Normally, I don't do this and will continue not to (though 1985 is tempting) but I have to give an honorable mention to John Cale's Fear which would have given an additional appearance for many already on this list, and to King Crimson's Red - one of the heaviest albums ever recorded.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
1973
This year was really hard. While there was no shortage of great music released it was harder than usual to rank it. Things get very weird here. The different sides of music break apart and re-converge in different ways. Eras are ending while other begin and it had yet to truly be figured out. But I guess that's the 70s... up to a point that has not been reached at this point.
10. Fripp & Eno - (No Pussyfooting)
Following his somewhat acrimonious departure from Roxy Music Brian Eno begins his long-standing collaboration with Robert Fripp on this experimental record. Where Eno may have been some kind of mad scientist sideshow in his previous band he begins his long career as a direction-changing collaborator. Fripp testifies that these sessions forever changed his style of playing as seen on all King Crimson albums following the beginning (more on that later). Likewise, Eno begins his work with the studio as an instrument and his creation of ambient music that would dominate the majority of his career. With two side long pieces, the album is created completely through Fripp's playing manipulated by Eno, mostly through tapes, but though other effects as well. It the beginning of a collaboration that would forever change music, and in a way be the climax and conclusion of the idea of "progressive" rock.
9. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
After Ziggy's fall Bowie creates a new space glam supercharacter with an even more vague and mysterious with a lad insane. The album takes points from the last effort and takes them in different directions that make it easier or more difficult to seriously respect depending on the listener. It is a bit less song and theme oriented, which makes its songs less memorable, but no less excellent. Tony Visconti's influence may be the biggest part, as it is the most similar to Bowie rival and Visconti cohort Marc Bolan's work at the same time. It is more complex and less predictable musically than Ziggy, but also deeper, not relying on pressing the same emotional and science fiction buttons. This challenging record is Bowie's final masterpiece and, sometimes considered his peak of the glam era, as after a few records of confusion he would emerge a changed man and even greater artist.
8. Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Hawkwind, despite their reliance on woodwinds, electronics, sci-fi fantasy lyrics and extended song leengths, always leaned more toward the punk end of space rock than the progressive. This double live album catches them at their peak with Lemmy on bass and collects many of their best songs of their early career with all the extended live fury. While these songs are not always sounding the best as their studio efforts they are all here and the spoken word passages manage to preserve the band at what they did best. It rocks very hard, sowing the seeds of punk rock and the very unfortunate future of metal. "Born to Go" is a perfect beginning and "Master of the Universe" says it all about this unique group. "Space Is Deep," and so is the album's penetration of the mind.
7. King Crimson - Lark's Tongue in Aspic
The debut of the greatest Crimson lineup (Robert Fripp, ex-Yes Bill Bruford, and future Asia John Wetton joined by David Cross not-that-one on violin, and percussionist Jamie Muir) is also the band's finest work. Opening with part 1 of the title track, Bruford's reasons for departing Yes are justified with the perplexing interplay between him and Muir which drastically changed and improved the already top drummer's style. Wetton's vocals fit the band perhaps the most of any of their front men with his deep detached tone and the musicians function more organically than any other lineup, placing them apart from the rest of the prog camp. Fripp's playing, in the beginning of it's post-Eno phase is at its best and he creates guitar sounds never heard before that would influence all in its wake - the best example being part 2 of the title track. Crimson at their best.
6. Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
With the addition of Funhouse hanger-on James Williamson and the demotion of the Asheton brothers the newly dubbed Iggy and the Stooges get back into the studio thanks to David Bowie resulting in this ear-bleeder. Luckily Williamson is a great guitarist who can really wail as opposed to Ron Asheton's wall of crunch. Which a person prefers says a lot about one's personality. There is a lot to like about both and Williamson does shine, particularly on the opener and greatest song "Search and Destroy" which defines Iggy's glam era just as "1969" and "Loose" did for their albums. In full-blown rock star psychotic mode the band oozes with more sexuality than ever before with the tension of "Penetration," being much more titillating than the simple statement of "I'll stick it deep inside." "Gimme Danger." Duh.
5. New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Following the tragic death of original drummer Billy Murcia, the most-appropriately named band of all time finally makes their recorded debut with the aide of Todd Rundgren. This production actually lives a little to be desired, but the songs and the performances do not. "Personality Crisis," is actually the first thing I would play for an alien (hopefully not Earthling) who had never heard rock music before. Johnny Thunders guitar slices with the fury of a sadistic street tough's switch blade, particularly on "Lonely Planet Boy" and the US's greatest glam rocker "Jet Boy." New York trash has its day here in all it's abrasive and comedic charm, best heard on "Frankenstein" and the frighteningly honest "Looking for a Kiss." It's hard to tell if the stupidity is real or not, but it does beg the question of how much intelligence is required for a sense of irony. It's a tight rock record anyhow and a definitive sound of New York City.
4. NEU! - NEU! 2
Another one full of tape experimentation. Following the success of their debut the legendary krautrock duo rush together this album full of shorter songs often manipulated in speeds, to sometimes nauseating effect as on "Hallo Excentrico!" and their most proto-punk song of all "Super" sets the record straight on the pronunciation of their name... at least the regular speed version does. The band incorporates vocals much more than on their debut to excellent, yet no more pop-oriented effect. Are they even lyrics? No one cares. NEU! experiments with the studio as and instrument like Eno the same year, but in a much more simple and rock and roll fashion further solidifying their legend. If that intimidates anyone comfortable in the sounds of their debut, it does start off with the beautiful "Fur Immer (Forever)," the best and longest example of their definitive style.
3. Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star
Working on his own (and really completely on his own) Rundgren attempts to create a musical acid trip to some kind of success. Like the Pretty Things' Parachute, the first side is a collection of short, eclectic songs that flow together opening with the classic "International Feel," and The Wizard of Oz's "Never Never Land," plus the heady instrumental "Tic Tic Tic (It Wears Off)" and the wild "Rock 'n' Roll Pussy," which gained the album a parental advisory warning years later. Things get into more normal territory with "Zen Archer" and continue as such with highlights like the seventies excess tribute "When the Shit Hits The Fan - Sunset Boulevard," and the gorgeous love song "I Don't Want to Tie You Down." Todd exemplifies is unbelievable self-awareness on "Is It My Name?" addressing his continued problem with people ignoring him due to the name (or perhaps how his voices goes so high you would think he was gay). It ends with the inspirational motivation of "Just One Victory" making it his most concise, yet expansive album.
2. Can - Future Days
The most loved lineup of krautrock's heroes is at their best here right before Damo Suzuki's departure. Every moment of this album captures their cohesive group talent in both long form like "Bel Air" and the unusually short funky lounge number "Moonshake." As a title like "Spray" would imply this is one of the most effervescent albums ever made. A title that only Can could earn and outdo. One of the best bands of all time at their best and probably a great place to start.
1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Of course. For any explanation consult local library.
10. Fripp & Eno - (No Pussyfooting)
Following his somewhat acrimonious departure from Roxy Music Brian Eno begins his long-standing collaboration with Robert Fripp on this experimental record. Where Eno may have been some kind of mad scientist sideshow in his previous band he begins his long career as a direction-changing collaborator. Fripp testifies that these sessions forever changed his style of playing as seen on all King Crimson albums following the beginning (more on that later). Likewise, Eno begins his work with the studio as an instrument and his creation of ambient music that would dominate the majority of his career. With two side long pieces, the album is created completely through Fripp's playing manipulated by Eno, mostly through tapes, but though other effects as well. It the beginning of a collaboration that would forever change music, and in a way be the climax and conclusion of the idea of "progressive" rock.
9. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
After Ziggy's fall Bowie creates a new space glam supercharacter with an even more vague and mysterious with a lad insane. The album takes points from the last effort and takes them in different directions that make it easier or more difficult to seriously respect depending on the listener. It is a bit less song and theme oriented, which makes its songs less memorable, but no less excellent. Tony Visconti's influence may be the biggest part, as it is the most similar to Bowie rival and Visconti cohort Marc Bolan's work at the same time. It is more complex and less predictable musically than Ziggy, but also deeper, not relying on pressing the same emotional and science fiction buttons. This challenging record is Bowie's final masterpiece and, sometimes considered his peak of the glam era, as after a few records of confusion he would emerge a changed man and even greater artist.
8. Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Hawkwind, despite their reliance on woodwinds, electronics, sci-fi fantasy lyrics and extended song leengths, always leaned more toward the punk end of space rock than the progressive. This double live album catches them at their peak with Lemmy on bass and collects many of their best songs of their early career with all the extended live fury. While these songs are not always sounding the best as their studio efforts they are all here and the spoken word passages manage to preserve the band at what they did best. It rocks very hard, sowing the seeds of punk rock and the very unfortunate future of metal. "Born to Go" is a perfect beginning and "Master of the Universe" says it all about this unique group. "Space Is Deep," and so is the album's penetration of the mind.
7. King Crimson - Lark's Tongue in Aspic
The debut of the greatest Crimson lineup (Robert Fripp, ex-Yes Bill Bruford, and future Asia John Wetton joined by David Cross not-that-one on violin, and percussionist Jamie Muir) is also the band's finest work. Opening with part 1 of the title track, Bruford's reasons for departing Yes are justified with the perplexing interplay between him and Muir which drastically changed and improved the already top drummer's style. Wetton's vocals fit the band perhaps the most of any of their front men with his deep detached tone and the musicians function more organically than any other lineup, placing them apart from the rest of the prog camp. Fripp's playing, in the beginning of it's post-Eno phase is at its best and he creates guitar sounds never heard before that would influence all in its wake - the best example being part 2 of the title track. Crimson at their best.
6. Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
With the addition of Funhouse hanger-on James Williamson and the demotion of the Asheton brothers the newly dubbed Iggy and the Stooges get back into the studio thanks to David Bowie resulting in this ear-bleeder. Luckily Williamson is a great guitarist who can really wail as opposed to Ron Asheton's wall of crunch. Which a person prefers says a lot about one's personality. There is a lot to like about both and Williamson does shine, particularly on the opener and greatest song "Search and Destroy" which defines Iggy's glam era just as "1969" and "Loose" did for their albums. In full-blown rock star psychotic mode the band oozes with more sexuality than ever before with the tension of "Penetration," being much more titillating than the simple statement of "I'll stick it deep inside." "Gimme Danger." Duh.
5. New York Dolls - New York Dolls
Following the tragic death of original drummer Billy Murcia, the most-appropriately named band of all time finally makes their recorded debut with the aide of Todd Rundgren. This production actually lives a little to be desired, but the songs and the performances do not. "Personality Crisis," is actually the first thing I would play for an alien (hopefully not Earthling) who had never heard rock music before. Johnny Thunders guitar slices with the fury of a sadistic street tough's switch blade, particularly on "Lonely Planet Boy" and the US's greatest glam rocker "Jet Boy." New York trash has its day here in all it's abrasive and comedic charm, best heard on "Frankenstein" and the frighteningly honest "Looking for a Kiss." It's hard to tell if the stupidity is real or not, but it does beg the question of how much intelligence is required for a sense of irony. It's a tight rock record anyhow and a definitive sound of New York City.
4. NEU! - NEU! 2
Another one full of tape experimentation. Following the success of their debut the legendary krautrock duo rush together this album full of shorter songs often manipulated in speeds, to sometimes nauseating effect as on "Hallo Excentrico!" and their most proto-punk song of all "Super" sets the record straight on the pronunciation of their name... at least the regular speed version does. The band incorporates vocals much more than on their debut to excellent, yet no more pop-oriented effect. Are they even lyrics? No one cares. NEU! experiments with the studio as and instrument like Eno the same year, but in a much more simple and rock and roll fashion further solidifying their legend. If that intimidates anyone comfortable in the sounds of their debut, it does start off with the beautiful "Fur Immer (Forever)," the best and longest example of their definitive style.
3. Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star
Working on his own (and really completely on his own) Rundgren attempts to create a musical acid trip to some kind of success. Like the Pretty Things' Parachute, the first side is a collection of short, eclectic songs that flow together opening with the classic "International Feel," and The Wizard of Oz's "Never Never Land," plus the heady instrumental "Tic Tic Tic (It Wears Off)" and the wild "Rock 'n' Roll Pussy," which gained the album a parental advisory warning years later. Things get into more normal territory with "Zen Archer" and continue as such with highlights like the seventies excess tribute "When the Shit Hits The Fan - Sunset Boulevard," and the gorgeous love song "I Don't Want to Tie You Down." Todd exemplifies is unbelievable self-awareness on "Is It My Name?" addressing his continued problem with people ignoring him due to the name (or perhaps how his voices goes so high you would think he was gay). It ends with the inspirational motivation of "Just One Victory" making it his most concise, yet expansive album.
2. Can - Future Days
The most loved lineup of krautrock's heroes is at their best here right before Damo Suzuki's departure. Every moment of this album captures their cohesive group talent in both long form like "Bel Air" and the unusually short funky lounge number "Moonshake." As a title like "Spray" would imply this is one of the most effervescent albums ever made. A title that only Can could earn and outdo. One of the best bands of all time at their best and probably a great place to start.
1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Of course. For any explanation consult local library.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
1972
There's an album out there named after this years, but I don't know much about it. I do know this year rules pretty hard, but maybe not as much as most of the 70s. This year you will finally see the presence of a certain subgenre very close to my, and probably any readers' here's heart. You know what I'm talking about...
10. Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Most of the greatness of this album is that is it's the band's debut. This is the first time the world gets to here ENO, and in my opinion it's his best work with this band. Plus there's Phil Manzanera - one for the upper echelon of guitarists, caveman drummer Paul Thompson, rock's first oboist Andy Mackay, and that fucked up piece of pop culture Bryan Ferry. As usual songs can be pretty meandering, but it's easy to forgive with rockers like the opening punch of "Remake/Remodel" and "Virginia Plain." Roxy's unusual aesthetic is in full form beginning with the album cover with it's tacky sensuality highlighted on Ferry's tribute to his idol "2 H.B." and the style-defining "Ladytron." Here is the band of the 80s for the seventies. One look at a publicity photo and you know it's true.
9. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Sadly Nick Drake's final album would be his best. Another one I don't need to talk about much. It's just stunningly beautiful and of course as his revival came at the peak of music's almost fifteen year descent into the emotional, that is discussed most. I would rather talk about his guitar playing. Drake's playing is on par with other symphonic acoustic players like John Fahey, Leo Kotke, and naturally, Richard Thompson. What sets him apart is his ability to match that with his lyrics and vocals. This album exemplifies his best talents with little else to detract from it. Dig that picking on "Road."
8. T. Rex - The Slider
Often considered Bolan's masterpiece, this album is bigger and brighter than its predecessors. This actually highlights Tony Visconti's genius more than Bolan's. Still there is a lot to love here. The anti-technology tribute (?) "Metal Guru" is one of his greatest compositions and his long-heard knack for creating vague yet intriguing characters is at its best on "Telegram Sam." It's a boisterous glam album made at the artist's peak, around the same time as non-album single and greatest achievement "20th Century Boy." Of course the Americans didn't get it, it was too good. They wanted their hard rock complex and showy, nothing like "Buick Mackane," seemingly tailored for the US audience. Even the softer stuff is heavy and fierce like "Rabbit Fighter."
7. Big Star - #1 Record
Maybe not the first, but probably the most important under-appreciated power-pop record. Rock star kid Alex Chilton puts together a few other talented young musicians from Memphis and births a generation of imitators, most notably (or just noticeably) The Replacements and Wilco. The only album featuring the tragic Chris Bell, his presence is one that defined the band for the rest of history with songs like the now-famous "In the Street," and the opening "Feel." Unfortunately, Beatles-esque music was the last thing the mainstream wanted at the time, and critics' words were meant to be disregarded while the press slams bands like Led Zeppelin. The upper-middle class kids became noticeably cynical in its lack of success. It made subsequent work even better but drove nearly all the band to an early grave. At least we still have this document of their hopeful early youth with its beauty like "My Life Is Right," and "The Ballad of El Goodo."
6. Faust - So Far
I was talking about Krautrock. Following a strong debut, this German collective moves away from musique concrète and into slightly more traditional territory. Starting off with one of their most famous compositions "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl," the band's diverse talents meld together to form something that sets them apart from both their more avant-garde and accessible peers. Odd pop like "...In The Spirit" and the original, instrumental "Picnic on a Frozen River," fit in place just as well as the nylon-string beauty of "On The Way To Abamäe." The group of unusually talented instrumentalists appears more focused here, set on making great music rather than something weird. Still it is the perfect "weird German album," to initiate the curious, it's just much more than that too. Faust, like most krautrock bands, possessed a rare sense of humor. It is less evident here, but keepss this challenging listen fun.
5. Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything?
An eclectic, unpredictable artist like Rundgren should not be able to make such a definitive album, but his ability to do so confirms his place as one of rock's greatest geniuses. The double album, with each side having a completely different personality stands as one of the greatest albums (of very, very few) created by a single musician. That is not even the case for the fourth side, recorded live in the studio with a full band and featuring his remake of old band Nazz' "Hello It's Me," and the hilarious multi-generational tribute to high school filth "Piss Aaron." Rundgren's nerdy humor is present throughout the album, even on the first side with his continuing debt to Laura Nyro with the hard rocking Motown of of "Wolfman Jac" and perfect opening track "I Saw The Light." The second side is the weird one starting with his spoken audio nerd intro and the Zappa-esque "Breathless," and the heartbreaking "The Night The Carousel Brunt Down." Third is the hard rock side with the auto life masterpiece "Little Red Lights" and the stacked acoustic guitars of "Couldn't I Just Tell You?" Todd may be funny, but he's no joke. This is something.
4. Can - Ege Bamyasi
Sure most people who keep up with this were shocked to see Tago Mago missing last night. Well, that's because despite it having much of their best work a lot of it is a waste of time. The follow-up highlights Can's ability to play unanimes music on just one disc. The funk and spiritual beauty are even higher than before on songs like "One More Night," and the band's improvised drama is at its peak on the likes of "Vitamin C." "Sing Swan Song," is one of their prettiest and most songs revealing what the quintet really does best more more than most of what can be found on their proper releases. From beginning to end it is Can's most immediate work, with songs keeping shorter length without losing any of their loose, free-form quality that distinguished them from the more mechanical groups in krautrock, proto-punk, and progressive rock.
3. NEU! - NEU!
The Düsseldorf duo of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger creates a minimalist form of rock that is as loose and improvisational as it is mechanical. Ideal for driving it was called "motorik" and proved to be very popular in their native land. It proved even more popular with the next generation of musicians that understood that it captures everything great about music. The two needed only a few notes and a lot of time to create infinite grooves out of the bare essence of music. Songs like "Hallogallo" and "Negativland" make a lot out of very little and the group's influence has been the true sign of an exceptional ever since this album's release. In their brief career they would take this formula, expand it and contract it to great effect. Simply transcendent.
2. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
With cohorts Mick Ronson and, as always, Tony Visconti, Bowie brings glam rock to new heights on this space opera. It can get a little cheesy and emotional and even just unnecessarily weird, but that's David Bowie, and despite their drama "Five Years" and "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" will always get you and it was David Bowie's duty to have one album with both titles "Starman" and "Star." "Moonage Daydream" has always been my favorite but they are all that strong particularly the perfect glam of "Hang Onto Yourself" with its hand claps and the soul of "It Ain't Easy." This is the peak of Bowie's collaboration with Mick Ronson and his guitar begs for the more that never really came, even after Bowie's work with other greats like Carlos Alomar and Adrien Belew. Based on the fall of British born, new Jersey-raised legend Vince Taylor it's the greatest work documenting rock and roll destruction, and who better than self-torturer David Bowie to have made it?
1. Yes - Close to the Edge
Prog's biggest band making an album/song based on Siddhartha should not have turned out as well as it did. However, this album is a religious experience. Yes has its most famous and legendary lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Bill Bruford, and Rick Wakeman here and their playing here, especially Wakeman's is some of the best of their careers. Discovering an album format they would do again on 1974's Relayer, the title track takes over the whole first side and builds in sound until it kicks you in the head. Then it does it again when the vocals come in. Simply, it fries your brain as you see the whole history of the universe and one's own spirit as it is beaten and dragged through the real world until it finally reaches the river of enlightenment. Or something like that seasons will pass you by, at least for a little while. After leaving you in shock, the second side gradually builds you up again on "And You And I" with Howe's guitar lulling the mind back to full attention for the sea mammal-like guitars at the end. It's another mind-blowing song despite some weird lyrics. Clearly the weakest track, "Siberian Khartu" serves a very noble purpose of winding down the listener after the previous 29 minutes, and is the only thing that could readjust a person after all that. Bruford quit to join King Crimson afterward feeling that Yes could go no further. He may have been right. One of the few albums I would describe as a religious experience.
10. Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Most of the greatness of this album is that is it's the band's debut. This is the first time the world gets to here ENO, and in my opinion it's his best work with this band. Plus there's Phil Manzanera - one for the upper echelon of guitarists, caveman drummer Paul Thompson, rock's first oboist Andy Mackay, and that fucked up piece of pop culture Bryan Ferry. As usual songs can be pretty meandering, but it's easy to forgive with rockers like the opening punch of "Remake/Remodel" and "Virginia Plain." Roxy's unusual aesthetic is in full form beginning with the album cover with it's tacky sensuality highlighted on Ferry's tribute to his idol "2 H.B." and the style-defining "Ladytron." Here is the band of the 80s for the seventies. One look at a publicity photo and you know it's true.
9. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Sadly Nick Drake's final album would be his best. Another one I don't need to talk about much. It's just stunningly beautiful and of course as his revival came at the peak of music's almost fifteen year descent into the emotional, that is discussed most. I would rather talk about his guitar playing. Drake's playing is on par with other symphonic acoustic players like John Fahey, Leo Kotke, and naturally, Richard Thompson. What sets him apart is his ability to match that with his lyrics and vocals. This album exemplifies his best talents with little else to detract from it. Dig that picking on "Road."
8. T. Rex - The Slider
Often considered Bolan's masterpiece, this album is bigger and brighter than its predecessors. This actually highlights Tony Visconti's genius more than Bolan's. Still there is a lot to love here. The anti-technology tribute (?) "Metal Guru" is one of his greatest compositions and his long-heard knack for creating vague yet intriguing characters is at its best on "Telegram Sam." It's a boisterous glam album made at the artist's peak, around the same time as non-album single and greatest achievement "20th Century Boy." Of course the Americans didn't get it, it was too good. They wanted their hard rock complex and showy, nothing like "Buick Mackane," seemingly tailored for the US audience. Even the softer stuff is heavy and fierce like "Rabbit Fighter."
7. Big Star - #1 Record
Maybe not the first, but probably the most important under-appreciated power-pop record. Rock star kid Alex Chilton puts together a few other talented young musicians from Memphis and births a generation of imitators, most notably (or just noticeably) The Replacements and Wilco. The only album featuring the tragic Chris Bell, his presence is one that defined the band for the rest of history with songs like the now-famous "In the Street," and the opening "Feel." Unfortunately, Beatles-esque music was the last thing the mainstream wanted at the time, and critics' words were meant to be disregarded while the press slams bands like Led Zeppelin. The upper-middle class kids became noticeably cynical in its lack of success. It made subsequent work even better but drove nearly all the band to an early grave. At least we still have this document of their hopeful early youth with its beauty like "My Life Is Right," and "The Ballad of El Goodo."
6. Faust - So Far
I was talking about Krautrock. Following a strong debut, this German collective moves away from musique concrète and into slightly more traditional territory. Starting off with one of their most famous compositions "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl," the band's diverse talents meld together to form something that sets them apart from both their more avant-garde and accessible peers. Odd pop like "...In The Spirit" and the original, instrumental "Picnic on a Frozen River," fit in place just as well as the nylon-string beauty of "On The Way To Abamäe." The group of unusually talented instrumentalists appears more focused here, set on making great music rather than something weird. Still it is the perfect "weird German album," to initiate the curious, it's just much more than that too. Faust, like most krautrock bands, possessed a rare sense of humor. It is less evident here, but keepss this challenging listen fun.
5. Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything?
An eclectic, unpredictable artist like Rundgren should not be able to make such a definitive album, but his ability to do so confirms his place as one of rock's greatest geniuses. The double album, with each side having a completely different personality stands as one of the greatest albums (of very, very few) created by a single musician. That is not even the case for the fourth side, recorded live in the studio with a full band and featuring his remake of old band Nazz' "Hello It's Me," and the hilarious multi-generational tribute to high school filth "Piss Aaron." Rundgren's nerdy humor is present throughout the album, even on the first side with his continuing debt to Laura Nyro with the hard rocking Motown of of "Wolfman Jac" and perfect opening track "I Saw The Light." The second side is the weird one starting with his spoken audio nerd intro and the Zappa-esque "Breathless," and the heartbreaking "The Night The Carousel Brunt Down." Third is the hard rock side with the auto life masterpiece "Little Red Lights" and the stacked acoustic guitars of "Couldn't I Just Tell You?" Todd may be funny, but he's no joke. This is something.
4. Can - Ege Bamyasi
Sure most people who keep up with this were shocked to see Tago Mago missing last night. Well, that's because despite it having much of their best work a lot of it is a waste of time. The follow-up highlights Can's ability to play unanimes music on just one disc. The funk and spiritual beauty are even higher than before on songs like "One More Night," and the band's improvised drama is at its peak on the likes of "Vitamin C." "Sing Swan Song," is one of their prettiest and most songs revealing what the quintet really does best more more than most of what can be found on their proper releases. From beginning to end it is Can's most immediate work, with songs keeping shorter length without losing any of their loose, free-form quality that distinguished them from the more mechanical groups in krautrock, proto-punk, and progressive rock.
3. NEU! - NEU!
The Düsseldorf duo of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger creates a minimalist form of rock that is as loose and improvisational as it is mechanical. Ideal for driving it was called "motorik" and proved to be very popular in their native land. It proved even more popular with the next generation of musicians that understood that it captures everything great about music. The two needed only a few notes and a lot of time to create infinite grooves out of the bare essence of music. Songs like "Hallogallo" and "Negativland" make a lot out of very little and the group's influence has been the true sign of an exceptional ever since this album's release. In their brief career they would take this formula, expand it and contract it to great effect. Simply transcendent.
2. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
With cohorts Mick Ronson and, as always, Tony Visconti, Bowie brings glam rock to new heights on this space opera. It can get a little cheesy and emotional and even just unnecessarily weird, but that's David Bowie, and despite their drama "Five Years" and "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" will always get you and it was David Bowie's duty to have one album with both titles "Starman" and "Star." "Moonage Daydream" has always been my favorite but they are all that strong particularly the perfect glam of "Hang Onto Yourself" with its hand claps and the soul of "It Ain't Easy." This is the peak of Bowie's collaboration with Mick Ronson and his guitar begs for the more that never really came, even after Bowie's work with other greats like Carlos Alomar and Adrien Belew. Based on the fall of British born, new Jersey-raised legend Vince Taylor it's the greatest work documenting rock and roll destruction, and who better than self-torturer David Bowie to have made it?
1. Yes - Close to the Edge
Prog's biggest band making an album/song based on Siddhartha should not have turned out as well as it did. However, this album is a religious experience. Yes has its most famous and legendary lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Bill Bruford, and Rick Wakeman here and their playing here, especially Wakeman's is some of the best of their careers. Discovering an album format they would do again on 1974's Relayer, the title track takes over the whole first side and builds in sound until it kicks you in the head. Then it does it again when the vocals come in. Simply, it fries your brain as you see the whole history of the universe and one's own spirit as it is beaten and dragged through the real world until it finally reaches the river of enlightenment. Or something like that seasons will pass you by, at least for a little while. After leaving you in shock, the second side gradually builds you up again on "And You And I" with Howe's guitar lulling the mind back to full attention for the sea mammal-like guitars at the end. It's another mind-blowing song despite some weird lyrics. Clearly the weakest track, "Siberian Khartu" serves a very noble purpose of winding down the listener after the previous 29 minutes, and is the only thing that could readjust a person after all that. Bruford quit to join King Crimson afterward feeling that Yes could go no further. He may have been right. One of the few albums I would describe as a religious experience.
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