Funny how many bands are household names in England yet when you mention them over here in the US, you often get a "you shot who in the what now?". Marillion's third release Misplaced Childhood topped the charts in their native UK and two of its singles "Lavender" and "Kayleigh" likewise did most excellent. Prog was hardly a top selling commodity by the 1980s, but Marillion's shtick to blend the keyboard heavy and pretentiously themed aspects of their music with often slick pop melodies was a winning combo. Childhood is a concept album that mainman Fish conjured up during a ten-hour acid trip and occasionally you can tell, which is a good thing.
Speaking of a band's most successful album, Toto IV was, (you guessed it), Toto's fourth and the one that sold all the records and won all the awards. Two of the best rock singles bookend it with "Rosanna", (which features one of the finest drum grooves of all time courtesy of the late Jeff Porcaro), and the world music tinged "Africa". No one alive since 1982 has missed either of these, and the other single "I Won't Hold You Back" could be one of the decades finest textbook ballads. Toto basically pulled out all the stops with IV, a band made up of overly skilled session musicians that up and decided now was the time to deliver the most commercial album possible.
Recorded and re-recorded numerous times, Noel Gallagher finally gave up, (accompanied by many a Cockney profanity I am sure), and the record was handed over to engineer Owen Morris to make something out of. The result Definitely Maybe yielded the "Supersonic", "Shakermaker", and "Live Forever" singles and almost instantaneously made Oasis the biggest band in England. "Columbia" and "Up In the Sky" are two of my favorite Noel compositions, and clearly the bloke's hilariously arrogant insistence that his brother's band whom he was the last to join dump all of their songs and only play his seemed to pay-off. It is hard to argue with an asshole when he is right.
When it comes to straight saxophone shredding, most jazz enthusiasts can separate the music's history into two groups; before Giant Steps and after Giant Steps. This was John Coltrane's fifth album as leader and his first for Atlantic, all made up of original material, and all ushering in his "sheets of sound" and "Coltrane changes" into a solo-prioritized form of jazz music. Never before were the leads the main attraction to this extent, and Coltrane straight up blazes through arguably the most dazzling saxophone improvisation ever heard before. Every song sits on top of the "must learn" pile for any aspiring sax-man or woman, and sans the Kind of Blue personelled chill-out "Naima", all of them cruise.
Easily the band's most evil sounding, Morbid Angel's Gateways to Annihilation brought Eric Ruttan back, (who was absent on Formulas Fatal to the Flesh), and features Steve Tucker's first lyrical contributions. Trey Azagthoth's leads were still some of the most distinct in all of extreme metal, and Pete Sandoval's feet were faster than ever, ( see "Opening the Gates"). Though sadly, the drum sound was distractingly and cheaply triggered, but the unholy ooze of "At One with Nothing", "Ageless, Still I Am", and the band's best song "Summoning Redemption" more than makes up for that minor blunder.
George Michael's first post-Wham! album Faith was probably guaranteed to be as successful as it was. "Careless Whisper" had been released as a solo Michael jam even though being made when still a Wham! member. This ended up being the biggest crossover pop album of the decade next to Thriller. It entered the R&B charts at number one which a white boy had never done before, then proceeded to sell over twenty-five million copies. Ah, the days when people bought records. It is a solid effort that matched Michael's fantastic voice with his hit-making prowess in the title track, "Father Figure", "Monkey", and "I Want Your Sex", all of which were written, produced, and mostly performed by the man himself.
Led Zeppelin's debut album was a defiant statement of intent, but I personally feel that they only got better from here. Both "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "You're Time Is Gonna Come" never suit my fancy, "Dazed and Confused" was always a more impressive whirlwind live, and "Black Mountain Side" is more interesting than stellar. Still, there is obviously nothing "bad" here, as the greatest rock band of all time were that great right straight-away. Finished in roughly thirty-six hours, this was mostly their set list during their infancy, with several borrowed blues tunes, Joni Mitchell lyrics, and Yardbird's staples getting put to stellar use.
Skip past the three and a half minute intro which takes too long to set the tone, and everything else except Puff Daddy trying to ruin "Big Poppa" and "Juicy" on the Notorious B.I.G.'s debut is gangsta rap perfected. I came late to the game with anything on the Bad Boy label since I do what 2 Pac tells me, but once I finally spun Ready to Die, I was immediately sold. Die is one of those albums that you are always hoping to hear; something that instantaneously becomes a classic on listen one. Biggie truly was in a league of his own as an MC; both energetic and smooth as a bitch's ass, with barely dramatized, multi-rhymed lyrics detailing many an aspect of his real drug dealing past.
Tom Jones wisely decided to work with Ray LaMontagne producer Ethan Johns on a set of stripped down blues and gospel numbers for his thirty-ninth studio album Praise and Blame. This immediately proved that at the age of seventy, Jones was actually better than he had ever been, with his outstanding baritone losing zero of its power. Two more Jones/Johns joints followed with Spirit in the Room and Long Lost Suitcase, (neither of which is any less excellent), but I stuck with just the first experiment here. The Dylan cover "What Good Am I?" quietly opens things up, but the following "Lord Help" tears the roof off, as does his John Lee Hooker reworking of "Burning Hell".
The definitive and most triumphant stoner rock/desert metal album there is belongs to Kyuss in Blues for the Red Sun. Mixed with mighty fine, de-tuned-through-a-bass-amp riffage over both a number of instrumental sections and John Garcia's excellent raspy wail, Blues kicks off with its two best songs "Thumb" and "Green Machine", the later as headbangy as it gets. "50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up)" and the humorous "Thong Song" also rock and/or roll, plus "Freedom Run" and "Mondo Generator" kick up the wacked-out, psychedelic influences. Kyuss followed this with Welcome to Sky Valley which utilized three epic "movements" in place of individual tracks, but everything blazes together best on Red Sun.
Our Purple Lord and Savoir was most likely pretentious, (and brilliant), at birth, and his fourteenth studio album in about fifteen years had its title be a made-up thing that combined the female and male gender symbols, at which point Prince promptly change his name to it. Just another day in Minneapolis. Credited to the New Power Generation, the new jack soul influence of the day is present in some of his overall strongest material, with "My Name Is Prince", "Sexy MF", and "7" the most popular. Then there are other sexed-out tracks like "I Wanna Melt with U", "Blue Light", "The Max", and "Love 2 the 9's". Prince was rarely this consistently great and horny over these many minutes.
Every track on Mingus Ah Um is styled after something specific, with songs like "Open Letter to Duke" clearly referencing Duke Ellington, "Jelly Roll" Jelly Roll Morton, and "Bird Calls", well, was supposed to sound like birds calling. Scorching opener "Better Git It In Your Soul" sounds like a gospel sing-song session with hootin' and holla-in' clearly audible in the background, and "Boogie Stop Shuffle" sounds like exactly what it is, a twelve-bar, toe-tapping shuffle. Few jazz albums of any kind are this immediately inviting, and the performances are as tight as you are likely to find in the post-bop era. Charles Mingus has almost as many essential recordings as Mile Davis does, so start but do not finish here.
The Beastie Boys were continuing to stay restless with their third full-length Check Your Head. Taking three years since Paul's Boutique to plan their next move, they decided to ditch the samples-only approach which in all honestly could not be bettered, instead picking back up their instruments from their old punk days and jamming through many instrumentals of funk, lounge, punk, and scratching. The Beastie's would explore this direction further on the similar Ill Communication, but their first jab at it boasted a consistent album with no shortage of standouts like "Pass the Mic", "Gratitude", "So What'cha Want", "Finger Lickin' Good", "Somethings Got to Give", and "In 3's".
Rock radio is still puke-inducingly a thing, ergo I shall probably never again own or listen to Back In Black. Take a step back a year though to Bon Scott's swan song Highway to Hell and we have ourselves a winner. Most of the Bon-era is quality, with Let There Be Rock and the live If You Want Blood You've Got It probably the most essential. Yet bringing Mutt Lang in to helm the dials on Highway chunked up their sound enough to make it stand out. That along with arguably the all time greatest AC/DC song "Beating Around the Bush". Especially there and elsewhere, the band is as sleazy and pun-armed as ever, Bon Scott proving in his final moments that he was one of the best singers with a lousy voice ever.
Embracing shorter new wave-styled arrangements, Permanent Waves marked a turning point for Rush. This ended up being a good thing as the band wisely predicted their brand of bombastic prog-rock not making it through the decade they were entering and always up for a challenge, decided to see what they could do in a more commercial framework. Success was had as Waves remains one of their most well regarded, with both "Free Will" and "The Spirit of Radio" proving to stand the test of time. Rush was not done with the multi-part epic yet as the closing "Natural Science" proves, but it was more apparent in the sound of Waves itself that they were both mastering and embracing a new era.
The Clash's debut was botched in America as five songs were omitted from the UK version and replaced with six, including the re-recorded "White Riot". It was also put out AFTER their sophomore effort Give 'Em Enough Rope, thus confusingly things further. Done for four thousand pounds over three weekends in Feb of 1977, The Clash runs the gamut of politically charged, British punk rock. Their cover of Junior Murvin's "Police & Thieves" showcases their reggae influence which they would lean into later on, but so much other good is here with things such as "London's Burning", "Career Opportunities", "Jail Guitar Doors", and "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.".
Even though South of Heaven is comparatively considered Slayer's more groove-oriented Reign In Blood follow up, thrashy thrash is still the name of the beast, with closer "Spill the Blood" and the title track the only ones that really kick the tempo down some notches. This boasts as many stellar songs as the "we can't play this album fast enough" Reign, with "Silent Scream", "Behind the Crooked Cross", "Live Dead", and "Cleanse the Soul" all considered Slayer classics. Thankfully Kerry King was not allowed to write any of them by himself, Jeff Hanneman running the show as he naturally should.
Let's Face It pretty much acts as a greatest hits for all of us who went to Jr. High or High School in the late 90's. Being the album that broke the Bosstones to the mainstream, there were certainly expectations to meet for the follow up Pay Attention, which came three years later. The single "So Sad to Say" certainly made good on these expectations, but more surprising was just how much better of an album this was. "All Things Considered", "The Skeleton Song", and "She Just Happened" show up early and are all fantastic, but it is the final moment "The Day He Didn't Die" that anyone could say even dwarfs their timely singles as their best song.
Billion Dollar Babies was the Alice Cooper band's most successful release to date, going number uno on both sides of the Atlantic and prompting their most gargantuan tour; a live masterpiece that kicked up the theatrics more than ever. It also ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back, as everyone but Mr. Furnier wanted to scale back the live show and friction was introduced into their chemistry along with enough alcohol to kill half of Keith Richards. Yet before it all tumbled, "Elected", "Sick Things", "I Love the Dead", the title track, "Generation Landslide", and "Hello Hooray" gloriously clutter up Babies.
Minstrel-prog of the highest quality, Gentle Giant had switched drummers on their forth album Octopus and their sound was overall less funky then the following In a Glass House, as well as less heavy than Acquiring the Taste or Three Friends which proceeded it. The emphasis on shorter songs and especially the multi-layered and uniquely start-stopped harmonized vocals took center stage here, impossible to miss on "Knots" which opens a capella. This is followed by the instrumental "The Boys in the Band" in which all six Giants, (each of whom plays a multitude of instruments), gets to bust out their chops. It is a glorious piece and one that any progressive rock fan can appreciate, as is the entirety of Octopus.
Ditching their early fusiony sound and bringing in Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker was certainly a good move, but the other more important one in hiring Alien Project vocalist Steve Perry proved to be the most successful thing that Journey could have done. Few rock vocalist are on Perry's level and with his input plus a deliberate shift in songwriting to accommodate it, Infinity blew up all over everyone's faces. "Lights" remains arguably their best song, "Wheel In the Sky" and "Anytime" still get spun daily on the radio, and like Boston's self-titled debut, you can play this album on random and always hit a beyond solid arena rock excursion.
As one of the leading acts in the late 80s Manchester scene that also bore us The Smiths, The Stone Roses did not get their first and relatively ignored at the time, self-titled debut released until the end of the decade. Yet a direct link can be made from virtually every British guitar-pop and/or shoegazing band since from here. The jangle pop of The Stone Roses has endured, with layered guitars, a strong melodic sense, psychedelic flourishes, occasional dance beats, and tongue-in-cheek arrogance in the song titles, (like the brilliant "I Wanna Be Adored" and "I Am the Resurrection") all thrown into a British post-punk stew.
It is hard to argue that alongside GZA's Liquid Swords, the best Wu-Tang Clan solo joint is the Chef Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Boasting an appearance by Nas on "Verbal Intercourse" as well as every other Wu member elsewhere, the words "son" and "god" are tossed around like adjectives on the Clan-featured "Criminology", "Guillotine", and "Ice Cream", as well as the Rae-solo spots "Knowledge God" and "Incarcerated Scarfaces". A hip-hop release that defined the mafiaso sub-genre, (which cinematically exaggerated and glorified the drug-dealing, Scarface-styled gangster lifestyle), Linx was and remains untoppable
The Pretenders' eponymous debut proves infections right from the get-go, with Chrissie Hynde's confident and sexy vocal on "Precious" almost intimidating you into welcoming it. "Space Invaders", "The Wait", and "Tattooed Love Boys" are three more of the heftier highlights, while the Kinks cover "Stop Your Sobbing", mega-hit "Brass In Pocket", and the old-school Beatlesy "Kid" show off the pop-chops. Hynde wrote nearly everything here on her lonesome and understandably became the face of the band, but the late James Honeyman-Scott's excellent guitar playing is also lurking underneath. Chris Thompson's production is classy and caters mostly to the band's pop-hooks without letting anything get close too messy.
The Monkees were the first concert that I ever saw when I was seven years old and that along with re-runs of the ridiculous TV show have always made me a fan. Originally having their music supervised by Don Kirshner, The Monkees themselves hardly had a thing creatively to do with their first album besides singing on it and Mike Nesmith writing two songs. Yet the songwriting duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, plus a few others, (including Carol King), brought some of the best pop music of the decade, with "Last Train to Clarksville", "Saturdays Child", "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day", "Take A Giant Step", and the hilarious "Gonna Buy Me a Dog".
Steely Dan's more funky and guitar-driven fifth album The Royal Scam came to be a year before their highwater mark Aja. By now, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were into their comfort zone with utilizing studio musicians to perform their music under the Steely Dan banner, with soon-to-be-Eagles member Timothy B. Schmit and Michael McDonald being two of the many background vocalists, and Bernard Purdie and Rick Marotta handling the drums. The lead guitars were shared by five different players including Becker who was still on bass as well. "Kid Charlemagne" and Scam's best track "The Fez" are the most funky in the Steely Dan catalog and the most chilling mood belongs to the closing title track.
There might not be a better non-Physical Graffiti album full of outtakes besides The Rolling Stones' Tattoo You. Looking to have a new release to back for an upcoming tour, they went the easy route and dusted off some unused stuff from the previous decade to work on. Amazingly, two enormous hits were sitting in the vaults in the form of "Waiting on a Friend" which dated all the way back to 1972's Goat's Head Soup and "Start Me Up" which was originally a reggae tune that was worked on during the Some Girls sessions. My pic for both Tattoo's best song and probably Charlie Watt's finest drum performance is "Slave" which was birthed during the making of Black and Blue.
Utilizing outside writers on all but two songs and transmuting a bit of the disco flavor of Dynasty for a glossy pop one, Vini Poncia once again produced Kiss in their continuing quest to sell more records and stay kid friendly. Many Kiss and rock fans in general write off this period in Kisstory as a mishandled embarrassment since Kiss barely if at all resembled their original hard-rocking form, but the point missing here is that good music doe not have to fit anyone's idea of what a band is SUPPOSED to sound like. New wave power pop Kiss is still awesome Kiss, says me. One of Gene Simmon's best in the form of "Naked City" and one of Paul's with "Shandi" are here, as well as three Ace Frehley cuts that prove superior to his same amount on Dynasty.
A good lot of Ray LaMontagne's debut Trouble has been exposed in films and TV shows, but I do not watch TV so naturally I was ignorant to this ridiculously gifted vocalist for quite some time. The title track, "Hold You in My Arms","Burn", "All the Wild Horses", "How Come", and especially "Jolene" showcase LaMontage's grit-fuled and soulful voice under Ethan Johns' stripped-down production. Ray borrows more than just song-titles from his influences as his overall sound evokes common comparisons to Van Morrison and Joe Cocker, only even surprisingly better vocally.
I do enjoy the following and final Sammy Hagar-fronted Balance, but it is hard to deny that Van Halen's dirty word album is the best of their second era, as well as being more solid than 5150 and their other juvenile titled OU812. "Right Now" became a beast of a song and made the band as much if not more relevant than ever, and indeed, it is a fantastic bit of piano-riffed shred-rock. Elsewhere though on F.U.C.K., two more singles "Poundcake" and "Top of the World" are here, as well as arguably Eddie's greatest riff in "Man on a Mission", the band's best instrumental with "316", and my favorite Michael Anthony-backed Van Halen chorus in "The Dream Is Over".
Lou Reed's final non-collaboration record Ecstasy was his first of the new millennium and acts as the then fifty-eight year old's musings on marriage and the routine of settling down. The only thing keeping it from being my choice as the best solo outing he ever made is the eighteen minute "Like a Possum" which falls into the sometimes common Reed category of "Uh...I don't get it" over-indulgence. every other song is fantastic though, ("Paranoia Key of E", the title track, "Mad", "Tatters", "White Prism", and possibly my favorite non-Velvets Reed composition "Modern Dance"), and they all boast the best musicianship and production of the songwriter's career.
"War Pigs" is the ultimate metal karaoke jam, (for better or worse), "Hand of Doom" and "Electric Funeral" single-handedly invented doom metal, "Ferries Wear Boots" pokes fun at skinheads, "Rat Salad" features a brief and surprisingly competent drum solo from Bill Ward, and "Iron Man" and the title track we are all terribly sick of. Most other Black Sabbath albums in the original Ozzy-led era were bogged down by sub-par production and so-so drumming, and in the case of the band's debut, too much pointless wanking from Tony Iommi. Their sophomore effort Paranoid on the other hand offers up a near-stellar example of everything coming up Millhouse for the band.
Certified genius Tom Scholz was working at Polaroid with a masters degree when he began making demos with soaringly-voiced singer Brad Delp in the early 70s, trying to score a record deal the whole time. After Epic finally took the bait, the resulting self-titled debut instantaneously became one of the greatest, most polished and sophisticated stadium-rock albums ever made. Listening to it now, everyone in the world knows every song on it. This could make for one of the most overly-played albums alive, but these songs are so goddamn good that getting burnt out on "More Than a Feeling", "Smokin'", and "Foreplay/Long Time" is virtually impossible.
Diverse and otherworldly right out of her tenure with her previous, good-luck-pronouncing-band Björk Guðmundsdóttir & tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, the world's most eccentric Icelandic songbird Björk struck gold with her debut Debut. The arrangement to "There's More to Life than This" immediately impresses with its "sneak off to this island" part, and amazingly it sits right at home with the harpsichord ballad "Like Someone In Love", the odd hit "Human Behavior", the horn/vocal duet "The Anchor Song", and the other club-fueled moments like "Big Time Sensuality", "Crying", and "Violently Happy". Björk's incredible voice remains the star here, but the consistently interesting and great songs themselves certainly assist.
"Chop Suey" made me a System of a Down fan at a time in my life when I had previously and wrongly written them off as nu-metal crappola. A band made up of four coincidentally Armenian musicians who had a songwriter in Daron Malakian who liked to essentially write pop songs with both drop-tuned, heavy as balls guitars and occasionally obnoxious screaming, System was a politically-minded and eccentric lot with a sharp and absurd sense of humor. How else can you explain "Bounce" and "Prison Song" both on the same album and both equally as funny/headbangy? Mezmerize/Hypnotize succeeds too, but all of this band's unique ingredients meshed best on Toxicity.
Left with few ideas after several experimental outings, Pink Floyd's Meddle was recorded throughout the better part of a year, with real results not showing up until almost the end of the process. The defining side-long track "Echoes" itself took six months to complete and begat life simply because the band enjoyed the way that one note on Richard Wright's piano sounded like a submarine through a Leslie speaker. Twas the days of near limitless studio experimentation being paid for by record labels, and this afforded Floyd the time to give Meddle more coherent ideas in song-form than ever before, with soft, acoustic numbers, some chamber music jazz, dog-vocalled blues, and the usual spaced-out instrumental jams all joining forces.
In rock and roll lore, there are few odder tales than the increasingly disturbing behavior and literal disappearance off the face of the earth of the Manic Street Preachers former lyricist/guitarist Richy Edwards. Never heard or seen from again once his car was found abandoned in Feb of 1995, Everything Must Go is the first album that his former mates made without him. Utilizing some of Edwards' leftover lyrics, the Preachers crafted a more lush, heavy, and focused batch of songs, with James Dean Bradfield's terribly enunciated vocals as impossible to understand as ever. It all wonderfully concludes with their finest moment "No Surface All Feeling".
After taking control of their own recording output and proving that they were a real band on their third album Headquarters, (which featured all four Monkees' instrumentation on every track), it was back to session musicians on the follow-up Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd. Mike Nesmith is the most featured vocalist, with "The Door into Summer", "Love Is Only Sleeping", and "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" ranking as three of the best songs that he ever performed. Harry Nilsson's "Cuddly Toy" and "Star Collector" are highlights for Davey Jones, plus the hit "Pleasant Valley Sunday" ranks as Dolenz's best moment here.
The first Queen album to be made after they had decided to stop touring due to Freddie Mercury's still un-publicized AIDS diagnosis, The Miracle was also the first to credit every track to the band as a whole and not to the individual songwriter. At times, this sounds like a superior version of Hot Space, with "Party", "The Invisible Man", "Rain Must Fall", "My Baby Does Me", and "Breakthru" still showing off the dance element that had dominated that album. Yet "I Want It All" and "Was It All Worth It" are as heavy if not more so than the band ever was, Roger Taylor still succeeding in having one of the most enormous drum sounds in all of rock music.
Bettering the production, vocals, and songwriting from Spreading the Disease, Among the Living ended up being the album that put Anthrax in the conversation as one of the best thrash bands ever. The opening title track, "I Am the Law", and "Caught In A Mosh" are undisputed classics, the later probably their signature song still. "Indians" had the biggest circle pit that I ever saw live, nothing like the unlawful treatment of Native Americans to get the metalhead blood flowing. The legend Eddie Kramer was on hand to produce, and the sound that he got surpassed anything Metallica or Megadeth to name but two others in the Big Four were churning out during the same period.
Elvis Costello's last record of the 1970s and his third straight masterpiece Armed Forces was also the first to credit the Attractions on the cover. Nick Lowe was still producing, and his own "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" became an official add-on after it succeeded as a b-side when originally released. With lyrics more confrontational than ever, ("Three Little Hitlers", "Oliver's Army"), there are fewer individual stand-outs here than on either My Aim Is True or This Years Model, but arguably more of a consistent feel, as none of the material here goes into filler territory in the least.
Domination has some of David Vincent's most daft lyrics, ("Cesar's Palace" and "Where the Slime Live" are often head-scratching), but "Dominate", the aforementioned "Slime", and "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear" are hard to top as far as death metal goes. The instrumental tracks are still largely a waste of time, but "Hatework" is a splendidly evil moment with bells, keyboards, and marching drums used most disturbingly. Morbid Angel's previous Covenant was nearly as solid, and the following studio album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh would be more bizarrely satisfying than anything else, but a peak was made with Domination, which if their letter I record is any indication, the band is fathoms away from every coming close to again.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill notwithstanding, little else followed-through from the astonishing promise heard on The Fugees The Score. Granted the most enduring and best moments on the album are either straight up covers ("Killing Me Softly", "No Woman No Cry"), or take their melodies and choruses directly from earlier soul hits, ("Ready or Not", "Fu-Gee-La"), but the alternative hip-hop template, Wyclef Jean's Rastafarian flow, (yes, I know that he is actually Haitian), and of course Hill's incredible voice form a very cohesive unit. All three Fugees are gifted MCs as well, even if it is obvious then and now that Hill would become the breakout star.
Kicking-off this album and doubling as the first Mastodon anything that I ever heard is "Blood and Thunder" which even though I did not understand on first listen, still remains their best song. Of course Neil Fallon on guest vocals never hurts anyone. Through the duration of the band's loosely-themed Moby Dick opus Leviathan, no fumbles are made with blazing riffs, classic rock solos, noisy vocals, and some the busiest drumming ever heard on a metal record all battling it out splendidly. The epic "Hearts Alive" closes this set with their most glorious riff which is hammered home for over three and half minutes straight.
Kicked-off by probably the most definitive Bob Dylan cover of all time in the title track, three more Robert Zimmerman authored tracks are on The Byrds' debut Mr. Tambourine Man as well, "All I Really Want to Do", "Chimes of Freedom", and "Spanish Harlem Incident". The fact that they make these their own on their very first album is impressive, and it is mostly due to Roger/Jim McGuinn's unmistakable 12-string and he, Gene Clarke, and David Crosby's joyous three-part harmonies. As far as the few originals go, "It's No Use" and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" could even be Tambourine Man's best tracks, showcasing Clarke's own more than up-to-par songwriting.
The Glenn Danzig Quartet's best work is their third full-length which saw the dark blues melding with more sinister melodies and beauty, all maintaining a sound that was heavier than ever. "How the Gods Kill" is difficult to debate as the best song that Glenn Danzig ever wrote. Even when my mother would obnoxiously tell me and my brother "this sucks" after most of the metal that we played her, SHE even said this song was excellent. The self-production was still ever improving as well. "Sistinas"is the other ballad-esque moment, "Godless" opens III on the slowest, most ominous note, plus "Dirty Black Summer" and the vocal of Glenn's career "Heart of the Devil" are more typical and great Danzig.
Queen's swan song Innuendo came out nine months before Freddie Mercury's death and proved to be a triumphant record to go out on. More heavy, rock driven, and consistent than The Miracle, vocally, you would never know that Freddie was on the brink of dying as his four octave range here is as incredible as ever. The power that he displays in "The Show Must Go On" alone is extraordinary. One of the absolute best Queen ballads of all time is here with "These Are the Days of Our Lives", a simple Roger Taylor penned lyric about growing old that is given even more somber depth by Mercury's vocal. Also, Steve Howe guests with some flamenco shredding on the title track, something that more songs need.
In the late 90s, the UK briefly seemed to be a focal point for electronica; a genre seemingly making a genuine stab as the most popular there was. It ended up being just a fad more or less, yet plenty of stellar recordings came out of the period, this and the Chemical Brother's Exit Planet Dust near chief among them. Faster and more intense in comparison to the duo's said debut, Noel Gallagher guests and supplies his own lyrics and melody to "Setting Sun", plus Beth Orton once again lends her pipes with Hole's ultimate highlight "Where Do I Begin". "Block Rockin' Beats" is the definitive big beat song and also may be the most perfect opening track on any electronica album.
Stepping further away from the blues-with-a-flute rock of their debut This Was, by their third Benefit, Jethro Tull was pushing closer to the prog territory that they would enter officially with their masterpiece and follow up Aqualung. Benefit, well, benefits from "For Michael Collins, Jeffery, and Me", which is Tull at their mellow best, "Play In Time" which has some blues still left in it, the minstrel folk of "With You there to Help Me" and "Sossity You're A Woman", and the complex "To Cry You a Song". "Inside" is the song that you most likely recognize, and "Nothing to Say" and "Son" are the hardest hitting. Plenty of great stuff to go around, and Jethro Tull was actually just warming up.
With John Forgerty proving to be a song-writing colossus and Creedence Clearwater Revival eliminating the long jam sessions of their first two releases, they instead delivered nine single-ready classics on Green River. "Commotion", "Lodi", "Bad Moon Rising", and the title track would be those actual singles, the later of which I would put at the top. As far as the others, "Tombstone Shadow" plays the swamped out blues that CCR were getting known for, "Wrote a Song for Everyone" could be the best non-hit single ballad that Fogerty ever wrote, and the Nappy Brown cover "The Night Time Is the Right Time" is not only the catchiest jam here but also has the finest vocal to boot.
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