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.