Three albums in and Emperor was continuing to grow more and more ambitious and technical in their compositions. Ihsahn was ever improving as a guitarist, and after the flawed production of the band's first two, (though still excellent), albums In the Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dust, IX Eqilibrium offered up the most massive and brutal sound that they had had. The leading "Curse You All Men!" is the best Emperor song period, yet "Sworn" and "An Elegy of Icaros" do not trail that far behind. IX was the first Emperor record to be done as a trio, (Ihsahn, Samoth, and "the feet never stop" Trym), and out of the four full-lengths that we have, this be the strongest.
449. Whats Going On (1971) - Marvin GayeBlasphemy I know for not considering this one of the top ten albums in the history of humankind, but though overrated through no fault of its own, Marvin Gaye's magnum opus What's Going On is still mighty fine. Gaye famously produced it himself and stepped up to take control of his career with Motown at the time, and the resulting song-cycle boasts two of soul music's most iconic jams in the title track and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)". Yet I would easily say that the closing "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" is as perfect a song as there is, giving the album's track-to-track, consistent musical and lyrical theme its just finale.
The first album to put Seattle's finest kinda-metal band Soundgarden on the map was Badmotorfinger, which hit the shelves a month after Nevermind did in 1991. Though Soundgarden would justly continue to get even bigger with the following Superunknown, their third album here found them tightening up their songwriting from their more noisy and early efforts, bringing the memorable song quota up tenfold. "Rusty Cage", "Outshined", and "Jesus Christ Pose" are better than it gets, the later possibly featuring Chris Cornell's most outstanding vocal, which is certainly saying something.
Along with Brotha Lynch Hung's Season of Da Siccness which came out the following year, 1994's Gravediggaz debut 6 Feet Deep remains the ultimate horrorcore album. Prince Paul and RZA offer up a slew of dirty and ominously produced beats that find the four MCs doing their best to scare the drug money out of anyone listening. RZA in particular is nearly foaming at the mic, easily delivering his finest performance as an MC on record. "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide" and especially "Bang Your Head" are outstanding, plus the album as a whole is equally hilarious and menacing. Not as over the top as Lynch Hung if we were to compare, but 6 Feet ranks mighty high on the list of records under the massive Wu-Tang umbrella.
Speaking of horror themed gangsta rap, Billy Joe's seventh full-length Glass Houses continued his excellent streak of albums which began with 1977's The Stranger. More new wave themed musically, Houses acts as Joel's answer to Elvis Costello and some of the punk rock of the day that was getting much attention critically. Joel's version of being hard still produced lush ballads like "C'était Toi (You Were the One)" and "Through the Long Night", but it also wielded the hits "You May Be Right", "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", and probably the best "All for Leyna". More than one listen to Houses front to back and it already sounds like a greatest hits album, and I would call it Joel's finest work.
I am new to the party when it comes to the presumably best brown-eyed soul/blues/rock and roll/country/roots rock/R&B/traditional Mexican outfit Los Lobos, but their major label debut How Will the Wolf Survive? is enough to prove to me that I have been missing out for far too long. I was sold once the oompa, accordion fueled "Corrido # 1" and "Serenata Norteña" hit my speakers as I could be on my deathbed with AIDS and such songs would still make me get up and start hollering and dancing around. Nearly every other genre that the band would make their own are thrown into the mix here, and there is not anything close to a filler track to be found, "I Got Loaded" hookier than them all.
In album form at least, Elvis Presley's genre defining debut could be where you trace back all of rock n' roll. Featuring Sun Records recordings made in 1954 and newer RCA material done in 1956, Elvis Presley originally featured twelve tracks that for all intents and purposes spelled out in plain English what rock n roll was all about. "Blue Moon", "Blue Suede Shoes", "I Got A Woman", and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)" just tip the iceberg as to the classics to be found here. More songs, including "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Was the One", were added to the album in 1999 and pretty much are considered a part of it like a new pair of underwear now. At eight-teen tracks long currently, there is just that much more to appreciate.
Like Mr. Joel, another fantastic, late 70s/early 80s three album streak of pop awesome was had by Philly duo Hall & Oats, and the middle offering Private Eyes is my pick. Voices is damn near superior and H20 does feature "Maneater", but Eyes packs a more satisfying and consistent punch for its eleven track running length. It also benefits from a non-dated production job and drumming on most of the tracks from Jerry Marotta, always good news. The title track is easily one of their many finest, (and most popular), moments and "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Looking for a Good Sign", "Did It In A Minute", and "Head Above Water" are slightly hard-edged, blue-eyed pop jams of the highest caliber. Also, that is just the first half of the album.
Peter Gabriel's second album with Daniel Lanois at the helm was the full length follow up to So, an album so good that hardly anything else in the 1980s topped it. Following Gabriel's Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack which ended up being his first full on emergence into world music, Us styles itself as a proper sequel to So, featuring many of the same personnel in addition to a multitude more, including but not limited to John Paul Jones and Sinéad O’Connor. The singles "Steam", "Digging in the Dirt", and "Kiss the Frog" are all memorable, but the world music influence is most splendidly felt on "Come Talk To Me" and "Blood of Eden", both gorgeous, yet more spacious than most of what So was ever on about.
In the two years in between Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka and Black Seeds of Vengeance, the world's premier Egyptian themed death metal band Nile almost seemed to reinvent themselves. Whereas Catacombs featured a slew of moderately tempoed, still heavily atmospheric assaults, none of them stretched far from the four-minute mark, and the entire offering was over in thirty-three of those minutes. Vengeance on the other hand was the first to boast an epic in the form of "To Dream of Ur" and a way faster pace throughout, courtesy of Derek Roddy who came in short notice as a fill in for the recently departed Pete Hammoura to beat his drum kit into submission. In such an event, Nile made one of the most pummeling death metal exertions in history.
Featuring the same line-up as the greatest quintet in jazz history plus Cannonball Adderley to boot, Milestones is noteworthy for having one of Miles Davis' first and best introductions to modal jazz on the title track. Besides the slow and lengthy "Sid's Ahead", the rest of Milestones blazes through a mostly blues based set, with Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser" and Dizzy Gillespie's "Two Bass Hit" standing out most of all. Opener "Dr. Jackie" is likewise dazzling and smacks one in the face as to these musician's insane abilities at their respected instruments. Davis has more essential jazz recordings in his discography than any other musician by miles, (har, har), and you could debate whats better than what until the end of days. Meaning of course that I have more on the way.
Along with One Nation Under a Groove and Maggot Brain, the most pristine Funkadelic/Parliament album that most people and certainly Dr. Dre would agree is Mothership Connection. Any G-Funk purist can essentially consider it the prequel to the genre as nearly every bassline, hook, and groove is instantly recognizable from hip-hop samples. More streamlined and tightly woven under its spaced-out funk premise than others of George Clinton's "drugs taste delicious" recordings, Mothership never stops the heads from bobbing without any moment of filler. "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" alone need no further words to explain their greatness.
The falling asleep, despair oozing indie rock of The National have yet to concoct a brew as overall satisfying as their third record Alligator. Many a critic and publication sang its just praises upon its release, and even for a newcomer like me to this band, out of the three of their albums that I heard, this one does in fact seem the victor. The follow up Boxer is nearly as excellent and virtually the same thing, as The National seem to be sticking to their guns as to their chosen sound. Even at their most up-tempo and musically charged, Matt Berninger's cannot-miss-em vocals keep everything grounded in an almost Nick Cave level of loneliness, none of which suffers Alligator or any of their other releases in the least.
Turn of the century U2 seemed to further prove that they relied on a pattern of sorts. Which went by one phenomenal album followed by several years of wearing that album's formula into the ground, and then gloriously re-inventing themselves with a successful NEW album that made them an even bigger band. So it went on The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and then 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. To date most of us are probably waiting for U2 to once again bounce back with something unique again, but that would honestly be unfair to expect. Behind offers up easily the most consistent and straight-forward batch of songs that U2 had done in near a decade, front loaded with the usual crop of hits, but also hiding within it "Wild Honey", which is one of the happiest bits of pure pop in their catalog.
Perhaps the text-book example of glam rock is found in Electric Warrior, T. Rex's sixth overall yet second album to be released without the full Tyrannosaurus name in place of the simpler letter T. The folk musings of Marc Bolan's earlier writing was scarcely found here, the "Electric" in the title more than just a clever name. "Jeepster", "Mambo Sun", "Rip Off", and the larger than life "Get It On" all rocked accordingly, but perhaps ironically, it is the acoustic "Cosmic Dancer" that shines brightest of all here. Silly, fun, and memorable through each and every song, Warrior is a logical place to start with both T. Rex, glam rock, and shit, probably 70s rock music in general, you could say.
Despite their cover of "Higher Ground" off Mother's Milk gaining much radio play, it was the next album Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik that broke the Red Hot Chilli Peppers into the mainstream, and in a gargantuan way. The hits on here are impressive in number and you could not go anywhere in the early 90s without hearing them. "Under the Bridge" has unfortunately been overplayed to the point of ruining and "Give It Away" was always kinda dopey despite Flea's glorious bass playing in it, but "Breaking the Girl" has stood up marvelously, as has album tracks "I Could Have Lied" and "Funky Monks". Besides a few random songs here or there and One Hot Minute being mostly solid, I cannot say that I have been on board with most of what these shirtless beasts have been up to since, but there is plenty here to make their point.
Yet another massively selling 90s album that everyone and their grandmother has heard a plethora of singles from, (and one that Flea shows up on again, coincidentally enough), is Canadian former pop star Alanis Morrissete's Jagged Little Pill. Teaming up with pop maestro Glen Ballard, the results were one of the biggest selling, most personally biting singer-songwriter albums in some time. Alanis' vocals are wonderfully all over the place as she stubbornly steps out of her range often, but that mixed with her bare naked lyrics and the somewhat pristine, modern production offers a charming contrast. Most of all, the hooks never let up, and not just on Pill's six singles, but also on the ballad "Perfect" and bitter "Right Through You", to name just two other standouts.
Before Queen briefly embraced prog on their sophomore effort or got the knack for penning an unbeatable stream of crossover, genre bouncing album tracks and singles, they were an early heavy metal band. An early heavy metal band that just so happened to feature Brian May's outstanding guitar tone and acrobatics, as well as Freddie Mercury's equally enthralling vocal acrobatics. Standing apart immediately, Queen boasts some of the band's heaviest material, such as "Great King Rat", "Son and Daughter", and particularly "Liar". The funkiness of the lead off single "Keep Yourself Alive", the California folk inspired "Doing All Right", and the typically orchestral "My Fairy King" help flesh out the first but by no stretch the last brilliant studio offering from arguably the world's greatest rock band.
There are many a rap album that can lay claim to being hugely influential, but few trump Public Enemy's second and undoubted masterpiece It Take a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Militant hip-hop backed with the Bomb Squad's massively layered and dizzying production all with a side of Flavor Flav bringing the noisy goofiness, Nation hit everything that this band was incredible at in a legendary fashion. Sampling Slayer on "She Watch Channel Zero?!" is all the brilliant, plus "Bring the Noise", "Don't Believe the Hype", and the DJ showcase "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic" pull no punches as to bombarding you with Chuck D's political attack, Flav's hilarious punch-ups, and X's breakneck beats.
Improving upon their self titled debut, James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem offered up an overall better everything with Sound of Silver. "Get Innocuous!" opens things up at a slow boil and by the time that the album hits the third song and first single "North American Scum", the verdict is pretty much out that this is a glorious and daceable masterpiece. That said, everything closes down to a somber and beautiful note for the closer "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down". The Eno/Krautrock flavored "Someone Great" may be Murphy's best jam, all blips, bleeps, and seemingly painful lyrics combined. Each Soundsytem album has much to offer, but Silver shines the most bright.
If the '68 Comeback Special put Elvis Presley back on the map after a near decade of phoning-it in soundtracks to crappy at best films, From Elvis in Memphis was the album that truly solidified the King's return. Backed by the Memphis Boys and produced by Chips Moman, Presley ventured into American Sound Studios at the very beginning of 1969 and cut his ultimate long player, an album so good that even people who do not dig Elvis, (shame on you), can rally behind it. This period also wielded "Kentucky Rain" and "Suspicious Minds" which are probably the two best songs Elvis ever cut. Yet the twelve official ones on From Elvis are blue-eyed soul of the highest order, "Wearin' that Loved On Look", "Any Day Now", and "In the Ghetto" each and all without fault.
In hindsight, it is actually surprising that the Wu-Tang Clan simply did not debut with a double album as a group with nine beyond competent MCs could have easily filled one right out of the gate. Instead, they waited until most of the Clan got at least one solo joint out of their systems before regrouping to cut their logical next step, the nearly two-hour Wu-Tang Forever. The only negatives one can find with these twenty-seven tracks is that the two that bookend it are rather a waste of time. Also, Ol' Dirty Bastard is used comparatively sparingly as he was already neck deep in legal troubles at the time. Yet what is solid on Forever is incredibly so, "For Heavens Sake", "Triumph", and Bastard's solo performance "Dog Shit" all as good or in the latter case as confounding and hilarious as hip-hop gets.
Certainly not the hippest group to seemingly crap out brilliance in the 1960s, but brilliant Simon & Garfunkel nevertheless were. Their third Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme offers up the singles "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" and "Homeward Bound", as well as the almost painfully soft "Cloudy" and "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)". The blatant Bob Dylan parody/homage "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)" is the funniest song that S&G ever put down, plus "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" could be the most 60s song of all time. Not even hitting the half-hour mark, Parsley, Sage is still overflowing with ideas and perfectly executed folk-pop songs, only one more album in the band's catalog surpassing it.
After being burned out on "Wake Me Up When September Ends", I spent a few years sadly away from Green Day's finest hour American Idiot. The best moments on this sprawling concept opus are the two nine-minute medleys "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming", both perfectly placed as to almost open and close the album. Nods and winks to various bands and songs can be found on Idiot, but similar to how Oasis used that trick to help craft their own voice out of the masses, Green Day deliver pound for pound their strongest batch of songs, regardless of the album's concept. Dookie is fine, but it never had the advantage of nostalgia for me, as I was too cool for school at the time as to not even own it until well into my twenties. American Idiot though brings me back to that moment where I realized how great this band truly is and could be.
Every Police LP sans one, (spoilers!), is showing up in here, and it makes sense that the world's introduction to this band Outlandos d'Amour is up first. Immediately upon being unleashed by A&M records, the Police were on to something. Sting's unique bass playing and unmistakable voice coupled with his already masterful songwriting, Andy Summers stretchy limbed, jazz inspired chords, and Stewart Copeland's way left of center skin-bashing seemed all at once to clash like a mother fucker with each other, but instead made this one of the best bands that ever happened. Faster and more influenced by the punk scene than future releases, d'Amour offers up plenty of hits, as well with "Hole In My Life" and the hilarious, ode to a blow-up doll "Be My Girl - Sally".
Nile seemed to both hit a wall and deliver their masterpiece all at once with In Their Darkend Shrines. Switching drummers for the third but not last time, Tony Laureano does as admirable of a job as any extreme metal skinsman has ever done, all tom-heavy and fast as shit. "Sarcaphagus" and the final part of the title track medley "Ruins" slow things down to an oozing crawl, but Dallas Toler-Wade's "Winds of Horus" is damn near the ultimate Nile song. Well it would be if not for "Unas Slayer of the Gods" which is over eleven minutes of everything that this band could do brutally well. Whereas Black Seeds of Vengeance separated a lot of the more atmospheric, Egyptian tracks, Shrines incorporates these moments better than ever into the actual crushing riffage and blast beats.
It took years to finally train my ears to be able to not only tolerate yet ultimately love King Diamond's ridiculous vocal prowess, and this was the album that did it for me. You can really only go so long as a metalhead without finally succumbing to Abigail's power as King's most lauded release does everything right. Neo-classical, harmonized riffs, Mikkey Dee's slamming, reverberated drumming, and memorable songs one and all, thrown together with a Hammer horror worthy concept about a haunted mansion and a demonic, unborn baby. King himself wails away endlessly and shoots his voice wherever the wind sinisterly blows, laying on the melodrama by playing his usual multitude of characters all on his own.
After bashing it out with the dangerous bonkers-ness of Ginger Baker for two bands in a row, Eric Clapton was fit to chill out a bit. Being most impressed with The Band, he assembled the short-lived Derek and the Dominos to cut his ode to George Harrison's wife Patti, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton did in fact successfully steal Patti away for some time, and it is romantic to think that it may have been due to the signature title song and album being the gargantuan hits that they remain. Either that or maybe she was just sick of eating George's vegetarian food. In any event, Layla stands as Clapton's finest vocal performance on record, his soulful wail and frequent falsetto selling the blues for nearly eighty minutes, with Duane Allman sliding away on top of it.
Thelonious Monk's finest album overall and first for the Riverside label where the exquisite piano player and composer offered up almost all of his own material is Brilliant Corners, a title that is much accurate. The all over the place title track is legendary as being one of the most complex hard bop numbers ever laid down. Elsewhere, "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are" delves into the blues, "Pannonica" is a smooth as shit ballad, and the recognizable "Bemsha Swing" wouldn't ya know it, swings marvelously. Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, and Paul Chambers all help out here and of course me being a drummer, it is Roach's performance sans Monk's own that I get the most excited about.
Finally checking out the Sisters of Mercy, I was immediately sold upon hearing "Dominion/Mother Russia", the opening track from their amazing Floodland album. "Lucretia My Reflection" and the album's epic center "This Corrosion" are just as fantastic, and Andrew Eldritch's borderline funny baritone gets a fine work out in the the ballads "1959" and "Torch". The closer "Colours" is the creepiest of the bunch, fittingly so to slam home the Gothic gloom that is primarily this band's shtick. Eldritch went for a comparatively more abrasive sound on the also top notch Sisters debut First and Last and Always and then cranked up the guitars on their final Vision Thing before abandoning committing the time and energy to put out a full length ever again.
The far reaching and forward thinking second album by A Tribe Called Quest The Low end Theory was instantly hailed as a milestone for effortlessly fusing jazz and hip-hop together in one coherent form. Double bass legend Ron Carter recorded on one of the tracks to save the group the trouble of sampling him and everywhere else on Theory, with drums, bass, the occasional horn sample, and rhymes making up the lot of it with little else filtering in. Q-Tip's opening jam "Excursions" lays the blueprint for all that is to follow, and he and Phife continue for fourteen tracks to devastate some of the smartest, cleanest, and smoothest rhymes in all of alternative rap.
The band that you would play to aliens who wondered what hipsters need to live more than organic food, Arcade Fire dropped their debut Funeral to a pile of critics who have not stopped singing its praises since. I got into the Fire later than most, but they are easily one of the most lauded bands of the last ten-ish years. Win Butler sounds like he is constantly in tears, and Fire's six to twenty members at a time make nearly every song the art-pop equivalent to an orchestra wrapping up their concerto in the most grandiose way possible. Funeral really picks up steam by the third and forth "Neighborhood" tracks, and by the time that "Rebellion (Lies)" hits, it is clear that yes, the cool kids may actually be onto something here.
Harry Nilsson at the peak of his powers could easily be one of the most brilliant pop minds there was. His third album and second phenomenal one Aerial Ballet skips through thirteen tracks of dance hall pop like a boss. Nilsson scats and soars his gorgeous voice everywhere here, truly a gifted instrument to have at his disposal on top of all the incredible material, like the autobiographical "Daddy's Song", the accidental ode to god "Good Old Desk", the iconic "One", the subtly sleazy "Bath", and one of the top pics for Nilsson's all time best composition "Mr. Richland's Favorite Song". It is all over in twenty-five minutes, but there is so much to take in that one could easily listen to this album on repeat several times straight and never get bored with it.
Five years seemed to do a wondrous thing for Incubus. Taking an extended hiatus after 2006's Light Grenades, DJ Chris Kilmore took piano lessons and ultimately prepped himself for the chill, adult contemporary style of If Not Now When?. This is one of those albums that is so good that it makes what the band was doing before it, (which they did quite well mind you), not only sound almost like a different band, but also a band that pales in comparison. The single "Promises, Promises", "The Original", and "Isadore" are all gorgeous, but the title track is their very best five minutes and five seconds on record. Brandon Boyd, long a fantastic singer, has grown even better with age as his performance is positively great the whole If Not Now through.
Few metal bands of any sub-genre seem to be so consistently heading in the right direction as Behemoth. 2009's Evengelion was Nergal and company's previous masterpiece, but the five year wait until we got The Satanist seemed to pick off where the former's closing track "Lucifer" left us. No longer dominated by mid-Eastern-tinged riffs at 220 plus BPMs, here they have slowed everything down considerably which only emphasizes the brooding evil. "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel", "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer", the title track, and "O Father O Satan O Sun!" are avant-metal blasphemy of the highest order. Nothing here seems calculated to shock or offend, even if it was. Instead it seems like a proud vision of what can happen when extreme metal morphs into unholy art.
Steve Hogarth's debut with Marillion was a moment that most fans were nervously waiting for. Fish seemingly WAS Marillion and with their outrageous frontman no longer in the ranks, what on earth were they going to sound like now? My introduction to them oddly came not from their classic, Fish-fronted era but actually from the song "Easter", which I still consider to be the best thing that they ever did. Steve Rothery's guitar solo on it is one for the books, and said jam as well as thankfully the rest of Seasons End is nearly as wonderful. "The Space", title track, and "The King of Sunset Town" are all epic, melodically driven prog rock that are as good if not far superior to most of what the band ever accomplished, proving that Marillion was going to be more than fine Fish-less.
Lord Ronnie James first and best solo joint Holy Diver remains an essential bit of classic heavy metal that is classic for a reason. Both Ronnie and Vinny Appice were fresh out of their short tenures with Black Sabbath, and after Elf and Rainbow before that, Dio saw that it was finally time to start his own band with his tailor made last name ready to go. Superb shredder and future Def Leapard axeman Vivian Campbell was also on board, as was past Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain, all making this as fine of a line-up as could be. The title track is all the perfect and "Rainbow In the Dark" and "Caught In the Middle" show that Dio and company were capable of crafting pop worthy metal outings with ease.
This mainstay in any Blue Note collection was Wayne Shorter's fifth for the label, and along with Speak No Evil, it is generally considered his finest. I give Juju the nod perhaps if only because it was one of the first jazz albums that I ever attained and have listened to more than most. I would like to think though that it is because these songs, (all of which are Shorter originals), are just mesmerizing. The one-two punch of the title track and "Deluge" are two of my favorite things and each contain superb melodies. Of course they and the entire album also contain Elvin Jones' kit dancing which is almost distractinlgy good. Comparisons can be made to John Coltrane here, (whose influence and band Shorter was both utilizing), but along with many of the Trane's finest recordings, Juju should never be missed as well.
While employed by Chess Records in the 1950s, many of the most continuously covered blues standards came from Willie Dixon's pen and were made famous by Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters as well as probably literally every white, English rock band in the 60s. With I Am the Blues, Dixon needed not wrack his brain for any new material and simply cut his own versions of his own songs. What came out is probably the finest track listing that a blues record could possibly have. "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "You Shook Me", "I Ain't Superstitions", "I Can't Quit You, Baby", "Little Red Rooster", and "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man", they are all here and done by the towering legend himself. Nuff said.
Even if you have never heard this album, trust me, you have heard this album. Every song on Moby's Play was famously licensed to commercials, TV, and film soundtracks and nine of them were singles. Not before or since has Moby come close to duplicating the success that he had here, but listening to Play over a decade later, not only does a sense of familiarity permeate it, but it is also readily apparent how good it is. Moby's use of public domain field recordings for the basis of many of these hooks proved a master stroke, "Run On", "Find My Baby", and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" making us all wonder why no one thought of doing this before. My favorite Play moments are not so much these or the hits, but instead the last two softer ones, "The Sky Is Broken" and "My Weakness", which have a lush, ambient quality I can always go for.
After hearing the name around once or thrice, I fell for The Black Keys on their breakthrough Brothers when a bandmate of mine played it for us during a night of nerdy board gaming. Feeling that they had taken their two-man, indie-blues sound to its farthest point, the previous Attack & Release found them using more instruments, a professional studio, and an outside producer for the first time. Yet whereas that record did not yet have the songs to match their newfound ambition, Brothers was a near-flawless effort where pretty much every track hits its mark. "Everlasting Light" opens things with Dan Auerbach's best falsetto vocal, and "Next Girl", "Ten Cent Pistol", and "Sinister Kid" I would wager are all even better than the singles "Howlin' for You" and "Tighten Up".
Tech-metal generally does not get me all too excited, not to write off any particular styles mind you. That said, Necrophagist's Epitaph is brain explodingly awesome. Muhammed Suiçmez has been promising a sequel ever since this came out which warrants many a laugh from us metalheads who need to see things to believe them in this case. Following the also stellar Onset of Putrefaction five years before, Epitaph delivers far more than any other album of its kind. The leads would be the most impressive things on here if the riffs themselves were not even more technically dazzling, yet we also have bass solos and flashy, inhuman drumming as ingredients. Most of all though, songs such as "Seven", "Only Ash Remains", the title track, "Stabwound", and "The Stillborn One" here are all remarkably memorable.
Finally free from the endless bitching and literal fist fights between former Cream mates Jack Bruce and of course Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton was ready to get his next project going with Steve Winwood most excellently on vocals and keys. Unfortunately for Clapton though wonderfully for us, Baker invited himself over anyway, and this outstanding supergroup rounded out by Family bassist Ric Grech was born, if only to record one album before Clapton fled Baker for good with Derek and the Dominos. Baker's "Do What You Like" pounds away with the drummer's usual, tastefully wacky fury, but with the three Winwood originals, (particularly "Had to Cry Today"), and Clapton's "Presence of the Lord", Faith had a more than stellar crop of material at their disposal.
Round two in the Berlin Trilogy, "Heroes" was David Bowie and Brian Eno's nearly as solid sequel to Low. Recorded entirely in Berlin this time, (instead of just mixed there), Bowie, Eno, and producer Toni Visconti, (whose hanky-panky with a backup singer inspired the lyrics to the song that the album is named after), also enlisted the help of Robert Fripp who laid down his off-the-ceiling guitar parts in a single day. "Heroes" the song remains Bowie's all tine finest work; a sonically gorgeous, amazingly sung and produced classic. Overall I feel that the instrumental second side bogs down the album a tad, as the same approach worked much better on Low, yet the album closer "The Secret Life of Arabia" is nearly as much of a favorite of mine as the iconic title track.
The post-punk of "But I'm Different Now", Brit-pop of "Man In the Corner Shop", dance fever funk of "Pretty Green" and "Start", the Kinks-esque "Monday" and "That's Entertainment", and hard rock of "Set the House Ablaze" just tap the surface of how much ground The Jam cover and splendidly own on their fifth outing Sound Effects. None of these musical styles are simply dabbled with anywhere on the record though, as The Jam sound tighter than ever and uniquely themselves regardless of the song that they are ripping through. Following Setting Sons which boasted a more polished and ambitious sound and production though by no means non-stellar batch of songs, Sound Effects more closely resembles All the Mod Cons, be it more toe-tapping and harder.
Arthur Brown seemed hell bent on two things; appearing to have all of the drugs in his body at once and bursting a nightmarish bubble all over the face of the love generation. Musically, he seemed to have achieved both with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the debut album from his band of the same name. Featuring no guitar player, just organ, drums, bass, and of course Brown's utterly powerful pipes, the first side to Crazy World is the bad, bad hellfire trip that boasted his only recognizable single "Fire", which is still probably the album's highlight. The second side brings in the blues for the covers "I Got A Spell On You" and "I've Got Money", which prove the band fully capable of turning up the volume on tripped out soul jams. One of the 1960s most bonkers and memorable rock albums indeed.
Still under the independent nurturing of the Epitaph label, Rancid nevertheless dropped their biggest album and mainstream crossover in 1995 with ...And Out Come the Wolves. Anyone with a radio station or MTV on back in the day would surely recognize the hits "Top Hat", "Ruby Soho", and "Roots Radicals", but bass players need look no further than the minute and a half opener "Maxwell Murder" for some of the most jaw dropping four-string work that you are likely to find on a punk record. I am equally a fan of 2003's Indestructible as "Arrested in Shanghai" woos me ever so much, but I am still going with the more predictable Rancid pick here as any flaws with Wolves are nigh impossible to find.
Without any warning, Denver's Cephalic Carnage delivered an album light-years beyond anything that they had done before in 2005's Anomalies. Their previous efforts were all sorts of random notes, noise, 808s, and abrasive hogwash that rarely warranted further investigation. For this one though, they brought in no less than six ringers to throw down some guest vocals, Barney Greenway and marvelously Corporate Death included. The record itself is flawlessly executed, with metalcore parodies that come out ridiculously awesome, bluesy stoner riffs, melody, furious grind, and random song arrangements that coupled with the first decent production that they had yet had, makes it a classic. "Ontogeny of Behavior" in particular speaks for itself.
The mere existence of The Traveling Wilburys sounds like the beginning of a joke. "So, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and a Beatle all walk into a studio with Tom Petty and that guy from E.L.O....". Coming together at first only for a bit of fun with the intended George Harrison would-be b-side "Handle with Care", all parties involved said "fuck that noise" and instead decided to cut an entire album. Each song on Vol. 1 feature the same drum groove by Buster Sidebury (Jim Kelter), and all ten of them sound like they belong on a greatest hits album. Dylan's "Dirty World" would be the funniest and along with the album spawning single, Orbison's "Not Alone Any More" the best. The later is primarily due to his voice, which is made even more incredible sounding with his rather, "yeah, I guess they can sing too" bandmates.
For their forth and last to feature the original line-up of John Christ, Eerie Von, and Chuck Biscuits, along with good ole Glenn, Danzig tweaked-up their much evil blues sound more than ever. Perhaps fueled by the experimental instrumental Black Aria album that Glenn did solo two years previously, Danzig IV takes some chances with instruments besides guitar, bass, and drums, as well as a more industrial vibe hither and tither. More studio trickery was also used, the brilliant "Can't Speak" coming about by playing the guitars for "Let It Be Captured" backwards. "Dominion" and "Stalker Song" are two of their spookiest, plus the final, 66th track "Invocation" is literally a demon invocation. IV ushers in more darkness in place of just the blues, and the results represent the last classic Danzig album.
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