Tool still had one foot in the alt-metal world on their LP debut Undertow, but with Ænima, no genre could contain them any longer. All of the future elements of heavy riffs, King Crimson patterns, odd timings, dark humor, (particularly in some of the interlude tracks like "Message to Harry Manback", "Die Eier von Satan", and "intermission"), long songs, and the band's outstanding musicianship take the floor here. Tool wins extra points for me by dedicating the album and title track to Bill Hicks, even though I had been bumping this record several years before catching wind of the comedian. The Hicks-inspired/ode to Los Angeles' demise-via Mother Nature title track is on the long list of Tool's finest accomplishments, but "Stinkfist", "Forty-Six & 2", "Eulogy", "Hooker with a Penis", and "Third Eye", crush as much as they dazzle.
The Depeche Mode album that incorporated live instrumentation and whose tour ending up forcing long time member Alan Wilder to bow-out, Songs of Faith and Devotion is also the band's pinnacle. Coming off a career of electronic music, the sexed-out and bluesy "I Feel You" sets the course straight away with its bluesy guitar hook. The band plus producer Flood set up shop in a homemade studio in Madrid with two drum kits recording grooves that where then looped and fucked with through various trickery. "In This Room" and "Judas" are probably my two favorite Depeche jams, but "Walking in My Shoes", "Mercy in You", and the record's most gospel-tinged moment "Condemnation" trail only shortly behind. These and the entire record emphasize their increasingly dark, gorgeous, and even heavy at times sound that was never emphasized more.
Producer Flood shows up again here along with John Parish, both of whom would continue to work with PJ Harvey more after her masterpiece To Bring You My Love. My introduction to Harvey was via her appearance on Beavis and Butthead with the creepy video/single "Down by the Water", found here amongst a consistent stream of highlights. Her first two offerings Dry and Rid of Me featured her ex-band and a similar, dirty, alt-rock sound, yet Harvey's third record was done as a proper solo artist after she moved to the country side, writing most of To Bring in quiet isolation. The songs seem to get better and better, saying something when the opening title track is arguably the best thing that she has. This is Harvey at her most eclectic as well, with the primitive "Working for the Man", sexy blues "Meet Ze Monsta", Spanish romp "C'Mon Billy", haunting "The Dancer", all heavy as shit "Long Snake Moan" all changing gears from each other.
Thankfully, modern technology exists and I assume that random blokes with Pro Tools are the ones that have taken it upon themselves to add bass to ...And Justice for All, and they are clearly doing the god's work. Listening to circulated versions of this album without the original, daft, and bass-less mix, (whatever that was about), only further proves that Metallica were never better than here. Four releases in and their first album without the tragically no more Cliff Burton, Metallica's music reached both its peak in quality and complexity here. This also provides the best proof that their arrangements were better than any other metal band, coming in and out of every riff in different and inventive ways from each other. Their two best songs "One" and "Blackened", their best instrumental "To Live Is to Die", their last thrash song "Dyers Eve", and their sickest riff in the middle of "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" can all make a solid argument that the rest of their career, in hindsight, was not such a good idea.
Led Zeppelin's second album in ten months was recorded on the road at almost more studios than there are songs on it, showing that there was zero stopping this band. Along with The Beatles, there likely is not anyone whose entire recording output has not been heard by everyone who has ever turned on rock radio, and Led Zeppelin II is the most rotated still out of all their albums. Even so, the orgasmic "Whole Lotta Love", power ballad "Thank You", one-two punch of "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", Willie Dixon ode "Bring It On Home", and ridiculously amazing bass playing in "The Lemon Song" and "Ramble On" I never tire of. "Moby Dick" is also here, but this song above any others has to be heard in its live form to fully appreciate. So much was getting better already from their debut, and this is the height of Zeppelin doing their version of bombastic blues.
The first real stab that Michael Jackson made at taking over the pop market place, (along with Quincey Jones for the first time producing him front to back), Off the Wall hit the mark best of all. Thriller and Bad would sell more and further solidify Jackson's place as the King of Pop, but I would be lying if I said that Wall was not the most perfect. Technically a disco record, the hooks on display here and quality of every nuance make this a likely candidate for the most pristine dance album in existence. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney lend some songs, plus Michael gets his Eddie Murphy-mocked emotional side out in "She's Out of My Life". Louis Johnson's bass groove in "Get On the Floor" is ridiculous, and Jackson's own "Working Day and Night" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" have everything on any other disco song from any period.
Featuring half the songs recorded in New York and half re-recorded in Minneapolis, Blood on the Tracks was Bob Dylan's mid-70s triumphant return to Columbia Records. It was also a break-up album, he and first wife Sara having been recently separated after Dylan and Columbia employee Ellen Bernstein started having a thing, making sense why he was back to the label. Fifteen studio records in, Dylan was much doing what he does best here, only better than he does best. "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is one of two epics; a twisted and humorous tale that would have fit fine on Blonde on Blonde, and the other "Idiot Wind" is as bitter as he ever was. "Tangled Up In Blue", "Simple Twist of Fate", "Shelter from the Storm", "Buckets of Rain", and especially "If You See Her Say Hello" though are some of the best melancholy love songs from anyone, let alone Mr. Zimmerman.
At long last The Rolling Stones were done copying The Beatles, (according to John Lennon and with the previous Their Satanic Majesties Request, you can see his point), and because of this, they delivered their most unique and astonishing hybrid of roots rock, country, and blues, all with their more confident swagger propelling things. Beggars Banquet is bookended by "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Salt of the Earth", both of which are easily superior to all previous Mick Jagger/Keith Richards compositions. Brian Jones was still on board in an official sense, but his creative involvement was zero, only occasionally supplying the odd instrument while usually wasting time in a recording booth with a sitar while everyone else got work done with STONE cold, (Get it?), gems like "Prodigal Son", "Factory Girl", and "Dear Doctor".
When three/fourths of Carnivore turned into Type O Negative and delivered their debut Slow, Deep, and Hard, it was hardly an earth-shattering revelation. Their studio follow up Bloody Kisses on the other hand sure as shit was. This was the first Type O album that defined their format. Already a funny lot and already fancying long songs with cheap distortion and church organs, the borderline parody goth-metal sound was more in place, plus Pete Steele brought his melodic sense to the forefront. "Christian Woman" and the title track showcase this beautifully, "Kill All the White People" and "We Hate Everyone" still have some hardcore left in them, and the Seals and Crofts cover "Summer Breeze" melding into "Set Me On Fire" and the gorgeous "Can't Lose You" show off some psychedelia. Also, Bloody Kisses has one of the most eye-catching album covers known to man. Sexy goth babes in rapture only hints at the fantastic jams within.
Megadeth wins. Playing catch-up to Metallica for their first decade, Rust in Peace marks the turning point where Dave Mustaine not only beat his ex-band but every other metal band on earth. This was the first Megadeth record to feature the coveted line-up of original members Mustaine and David Ellefson along with new guys Nick Menza and Marty Friedman, setting the bar just so damn high in the process. As the other half of the shred project Cacophony, Friedman brought a skill level to the band that forced Mustaine to keep up with it. Not only does "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" have the best lead guitar solo in metal history, "Hangar 18" has enough dual lead masturbation in five minutes and fourteen seconds to wipe the floor with anybody. Then "Tornado of Souls", the title track, the Dungeons & Dragons inspired "Five Magics", and sing-along "Take No Prisoners" equally destroy.
Mr. Bungle axe-man Trey Spruance briefly joined Faith No More for King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime, replacing Jim Martin before quitting himself as soon as the record was in the can. Then keyboardist Roddy Bottum also was not around for most of the writing sessions, as both his dad's and Kurt Cobain's deaths proved to be horrible timing, (he and Courtney Love were close friends). Besides such turmoil, this inexplicably remains Faith No More's best. I liken it to how Queen and The Beatles would tackle any genre that they damn well pleased and throw them all on to a single LP to keep it from being boring. So here we have horn-metal in "Star A.D.", smooth R&B in "Evidence", bosa nova in "Caralho Voador", screaming punk in "Cuckoo for Caca" and "Ugly in the Morning", blue-eyed soul in "Just a Man", and even a country ballad in the beautiful "Take This Bottle".
In not even a year and a half, Jimi Hendrix and his Experience had dropped three albums of increasing quality, wrapping it up with the double Electric Ladyland. It is fascinating to think of how much more innovation could have come from Hendrix had he not died less than two years later, as the three Experience records alone contain more brilliance than most bands could ever hope to achieve in decades on the job. Producing himself, (with good ole Eddie Kramer still engineering his phased, backwards guitar magic), Hendrix conducted long jam sessions with many hangers-on in the studio audience, (see the blues beast "Voodoo Chile"), and also composed an astonishing medley for the entire third, "1983" side. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" closes Ladyland off and is the guitar god's most perfect song and solo, but the scope of the entire record is what separated him from everyone else both then and now.
One of the most unique pop records that has ever existed, the Talking Heads surpassed themselves here with a collage of random, sampled, and looped polyrhythms, (some organic, some not), that at once intentionally channel African music, sound like the birth of most electronica, and are as inventive if not more so than art pop has ever been. Though they utilized a number of outside musicians in studio and on the following tour, the Heads were never more collaborative than here. Lyrics came after they and Brian Eno had begun experimenting with the music in both the Bahamas and in New York, all inspired by a desire for the band not to rely on David Byrne to simply come in with a bunch of songs to work with. Though their signature "Once in a Lifetime" and equally as impressive "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" are here, Remain in Light is best served front-to-back.
Two albums of the best/heaviest English blues interpretations on earth, Led Zeppelin were ready to show what else they had up their sleeves with Led Zeppelin III. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took a holiday to write in Wales at the cottage Bron-Yr-Aur, and the resulting material emphasized English folk music first and foremost. Three songs on III feature no traditional drum kit which as daft as it might sound to tell John Bonham "your services won't be needed here", they are still all the better for it. The traditional "Gallows Pole", floor-stomping/rare Bonham background sung "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", and final Jimmy Page lyric in "Tangerine" are also all acoustic numbers. Yet at the same time, the defining metal-precursor "Immigrant Song", "Celebration Day" with one of Page's top five solos, and the outstanding slow-fuck blues "Since I've Been Loving You" show that they were still the greatest hard rock band on earth.
At the Gates' fourth album was not followed up for a good long while as the band admitted that trying to top it would be futile. They could have all retired after this and their work would have been done. The previous semi-EP Terminal Spirit Disease still had violin and a slightly romantic sound at times, but it pointed the direction which was crystallized here. Slaughter of the Soul was purposely constructed as a no-filler metal album; just thirty-four minutes of flawless track after flawless track with equally perfect production, (engineer Fredrik Nordström does the job of his career here). Twenty years old now, nothing in metal sounds any better, and "Blinded By Fear", "Nausea", "Under a Serpent Sun", the title track, "Suicide Nation", and the lot represent the benchmark for all of extreme metal.
The title once again a Marx Brothers film and the cover almost the inverted image of A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races can understandably be considered a companion piece to its predecessor. That said, this was their first release to be self-produced, with Roy Thomas Backer taking a break. Diversity was everywhere again as Freddie Mercury's Aretha Franklin-styled "Somebody to Love" and painfully catchy "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" becoming the record's hits. Both also show off the piano pop and R&B influences which only proved that the excessive "Bohemian Rhapsody" was but one of all the things that this band could do. Brian May as usual delivers the more guitar heavy tracks "Tie Your Mother Down" and "White Man", as well as the singular-from-each-other ballads "Long Away" and "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)", while John Deacon has a lone gem as usual in "You and I".
Yeah, I still have no idea how to pronounce this album title either. U2's first but not last comeback Acthung Baby threw out their American blues hybrid sound which they had became the world's hugest band with, instead going for dark, European alternative pop territory. If anyone said that they would sound like this four years after The Joshua Tree came out, you would probably be institutionalized. The gamble paid off though, the over-the-top Zoo TV Tour certainly helping. It is fitting that as the band was frustratingly trying to figure out what their next direction would be to the point of almost giving up entirely, the low-key and now legendary ballad "One" was the moment that got everything on track. With trusty collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois still on board, (as well as Flood in the engineering seat), the rest of the material then flowed, with "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and "So Cruel" also standing out.
Perhaps it is the fact that radio stations have always comparatively ignored Animals as opposed to the surrounding 1970s Pink Floyd albums that makes it one impervious to burn-out. It may also be that literally every musician friend of mine fancies this one the most, giving us all something to see eye to eye on even if we all cannot always be on the same page as to the single best track here. In any event, yes Animals is the best Pink Floyd record. This sounds as good if not better than even Dark Side of the Moon, proving along with Steely Dan's Aja that 1977 was the year that analog recording was perfected. The cynical concept of comparing every citizen in the word to the class system of Orwell's Animal Farm, (inspired by Roger Water's growing and open annoyance with much of his band's fan base), melds splendidly with three sonically exceptional and exploratory songs over ten minutes and the acoustic one-in-the-same book-ending tracks that are under two.
The second in The Rolling Stones essential four album run from the late 60s-early 70s, Let It Bleed marks the transition between Brian Jones, (who is barely here), and soon-to-be-official new guy Mick Taylor. The band continues and improves where Beggar's Banquet's blues/country stank melding left off. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is something that I am sick of against my will, (rock radio complaint number four-thousand on this list), but I still cherish every other nuance of the record. "Midnight Rambler", the love-as-drugs-attachment title track, and possibly the best Vietnam War inspired song ever "Gimme Shelter" are right at home with the album track "Monkey Man" and Keith Richard's first full vocal on the slide-blues "You Got the Silver". The "Honky Tonk Women" single was done during these sessions as well, which gets a slower and only slightly inferior re-working as "Country Honk".
The Rolling Stones coming into play again, this time with their trusty mobile recording studio that was lent out to Deep Purple in Switzerland in the winter of 1971. Two different locations and attempts were planned to record their Fireball follow-up, but some stupid with a flare gun fucked it up for them at the Montreux Casino while the locals bitched and complained about the loudest band on earth, getting them evicted from a theater for the second try. They finally settled on the vacant Grand Hotel still in Montreux, where the outside mobile unit was impossible to reach from the inside without perilously climbing over balconies. Thankfully, the band and their new material was so good that it was not a detriment that they gave up listening to playbacks and just tracked live until they were confident that they nailed it. Which "Lazy", "Maybe I'm a Leo", "Highway Star", and "Space Truckin'" clearly show that they did.
There is hardly a just comparison to be made from Daft Punk's debut Homework to Discovery. "Da Funk" and "Around the World" aside, it is like comparing amateurs in their basement to what is in fact that greatest house album ever made. Though I shall not claim to be an expert in house, I do have every Daft Punk studio album, and Discovery is on a plateau that may as well be the farthest point from the sun. The French robot-masked duo took two years to make their second record, and they deliberately aimed to upgrade their sound while at the same time channeling their inner child with music that was as instantly appealing as possible. Many samples, a steady disco feel, and robot pitch-tweaked singing and guitar leads permeate Discovery, but it is the quality of the hooks and the ceaselessly inventive way in which they are layered that is undeniable.
Unbeknownst at the time, Led Zeppelin made their final album in Sweden in late 1978. John Bonham was dead just over a year after In Through the Out Door was released, but I for one could not be more pleased with how they went out. I bought this and Led Zeppelin II on my first trip to a CD store to buy my first batch of CDs when I was twelve, and I have regularly frequented this record ever since. Both Bonham and Jimmy Page were suffering crippling addictions, (the former to booze, the latter to heroin), Robert Plant's son died the year before, and the band were tax exiles from England by now. Yet John Paul Jones stepped up more as a songwriter, (he and Plant penning "South Bound Saurez" and "All My Love" sans Page), and other might cuts like "Fool in the Rain", "In the Evening", and "I'm Gonna Crawl" help close out their legacy, pointing the way to what could have been had Bonham survived and the band soldiered on through the 80s.
I cannot imagine what this must have sounded like when it was released. Henry Rollins hilariously described being floored by The Ramones' iconic debut when it was played for him saying, "Fuck, I didn't know you could do that!". The gimmick more or less to use as few chords as possible, (usually no more than three), make as many short songs as possible, and then play them tight, fast, and with no embellishing, (guitar, bass, and drums almost entirely in unison), was a revelation for the time, as well as one that suited the band's amateur level musicianship. This was anti-prog rock in every technical fashion, but it was just as profound, the band stripping rock music down while making it more exciting that it ever was before. Also, Joey Ramone remains the best punk vocalist in history, in addition to how essential all fourteen songs and twenty-nine minutes of this record is.
Recorded at the same time and at the same studio where The Sex Pistols cut Never Mind the Bollocks, Queen's sixth straight album gem News of the World opens with two songs that I shall continue to skip, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", respectfully. Yet starting from the band's heaviest song at that point the Roger Taylor authored "Sheer Heart Attack", it seems that Queen were taking a stab at the whole punk thing that their studio neighbors were on about. Elsewhere, News continues to be the most diverse Queen album, with Brian May's piano ballad "All Dead, All Dead" and rare blues number "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", Freddie's hot sexed "Get Down, Make Love" and crooner jazz ballad "My Melancholy Blues", and John Deacon's Spanish-tinged "Who Needs You". "Spread Your Wings" and "It's Late" are almost the best Queen songs of this entire decade though.
Three albums in and at the peak of Beatlemania, A Hard Day's Night was the first from the group to feature all original material. John Lennon and Paul McCartney offered up thirteen songs that showed proof positive that The Beatles were the world's greatest band. Not only the amount, but the always increasing quality of the material that the songwriting duo, (commonly working together still at this point), were churning out has yet to be matched. You could pick the "worst" song on this album and it is still timeless. The first side of Hard Day's was featured in the film of the same name, and "I Should've Known Better" and the George Harrison vocal spot "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" I personally prefer even over the title track and "Can't Buy Me Love". Side two's "Any Time At All" and the somber "I'll Be Back" are nothing to sneeze at either.
Hardly anyone noticed Bob Dylan when he dropped his eponymous debut in 1962, but after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, no one could ignore him. Recorded sporadically over a year, it is funny to think that Columbia Records was considering dropping Dylan altogether. Only two songs on here are not his own, (the exact opposite scenario from his debut), and by the songwriter's own pretentious admittance, he was merely a vessel, believing that the songs were always there and he just happened to be the guy who wrote them down. Putting words to many traditional folk and blues melodies, "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", "Blowin' in the Wind", and "Masters of War" became three of the ultimate protest songs, while "Girl from North Country" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" remain two of Dylan's love songs with no equals.
Led Zeppelin's first release to adopt a non-numerical title, (not counting the title-less fourth album), Houses of the Holy utilized more creative production techniques than ever before. It was also loaded with more confident material, both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones now possessing home studios to flesh out complete ideas. If you think that Robert Plant's voice sounds abnormally higher than usual on here, that is because it is, being morphed after the fact. Tape speeds and guitar effects were morphed around as well, and it made things like "The Song Remains the Same", "The Rain Song", and near the band's masterpiece "No Quarter" that much more powerful. English folk music is still explored on "Over the Hills and Far Away", but two new genres being reggae and funk are toyed with in "D'yer Mak'er" and "The Crunge", respectfully.
Popular opinion goes with both the Hard Day's Night album and film being the superior compared to The Beatles second movie and part-soundtrack Help!, but I have always disagreed. Two covers are here, (the last of such until the Get Back sessions), yet both Buck Owens' country-western "Act Naturally" and the rollicking "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" are as great as any non-Beatles originals. Then you throw in Paul's mighty fine "I've Just Seen a Face" and signature "Yesterday", the Dylan inspired "You've Got to Hide You're Love Away", the singles "Ticket to Ride" and the title track, George Harrison's first outstanding composition "I Need You", and "Another Girl", "You're Going to Lose That Girl", and "The Night Before", and Help! indeed comes out on top. The stage was set for the band's next several and even better-than-everything-ever releases, and this album nearly belongs right along with them.
Might as well get the elephant out of the room and bring up "Bohemian Rhapsody" straight away. Not every insanely popular song is ruined for me by over saturation just so you know, so yes I fully acknowledge the brilliance of Queen's definitive song. When most people think of the over-the-top excess of not only this band but the entire decade of the 1970s, A Night at the Opera makes a fine poster boy. The band's vaudevillian music hall fondness is given the studio-as-instrument treatment in "Seaside Rendezvous", "Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon", and "Good Company", while the harp-featured "Love of My Life", outer space folk "39", and "The Prophet Song's" eight-minute running time and jaw-dropping delayed vocal overdubbed a cappella section showcase Queen making the most grandiose rock music humanly possible.
In 1986, every move that The Smiths were making was pure gold. Their two best songs "Ask" and "Asleep" were both released as either A or B sides to singles this year, as was their greatest full-length The Queen Is Dead. The band was still touring heavily, being all the rage in England while ignored in the States, so nothing particularly different inspired their crowning achievement in Queen. Yet the excellence was nevertheless pouring out of Johnny Marr and Morrissey. "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "I Know It's Over" are the two best non-singles Smiths songs, plus "Cemetry Gates" and "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" rank as the two catchiest. "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "Vicar in a Tutu", and the title track all have typically hilarious Morrissey lyrics as he pokes fun at himself, their management, and of course the British hierarchy.
Released three days before my first birthday, Roxy Music's swan song Avalon is the most romantic of all records. Fitting as some of it is based on the King Arthur legend of the island of Avalon, where he is sent on a ferry to partake of the afterlife. My brother often dubbed this "80s prom music" and can anyone say that is a bad thing? Bryan Ferry's writing was 100% removed from the band's Brian Eno-featured days at this point, yet this likewise is nothing but good when the songs are and sound this wonderful. Along with "Love Is the Drug", "More Than This" might be the only Roxy Music jam that peoples this side of the Atlantic could recognize, and it along with the title track, "To Turn You On", "The Main Thing", and my personal top pic "True to Life" are as gorgeous as pop music has ever been. All these decades later, Roxy Music still have not bothered following Avalon up as it is more appropriate to leave it sailing away on top.
Dream Theater made every other prog-metal band obsolete with their breakthrough Images and Words and for those who were anxiously awaiting, the follow-up was most anticipated. While they may not have technically topped Images, Awake comes awfully close. Recorded at One on One Studios in Hollywood, (the same place where Metallica spent a fortune making "The Black Album"), Kevin Moore's interest waned throughout to the point where he quit the band upon completion of the record, yet he still managed to pen some superior lyrics to those of his bandmates, as well as the somber solo piece "Space Dye-Vest". John Petrucci got himself a 7-string and shows it off on the chunk-fests "Lie" and "The Mirror", and the rare wah pedal solo in "Voices" is on the long list of his most amazing. Mike Portnoy opens the album with his most celebrated groove in "6:00", and the whole band goes bonkers on the instrumental "Erotomania", with the short acoustic "The Silent Man" acting as its pole opposite.
After so many albums by this band and ones that came out in 1977, (possibly the best year in music), we now arrive at the finest of both, Steely Dan's Aja. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had not made a wrong turn yet, and this boasts the heaviest and best use of session musicians in all of their catalog. Also, Aja just sounds better than any record. Arguments made that digital recording can never match tape once it was perfected can go here first for evidence. Being a drummer, this is easy to consider a hall of fame recording. Bernard Purdie and his eponymous shuffle are on "Home at Last", Rick Marotta makes no frills simplicity sound divine in "Peg", (likewise the Dan's best and catchiest song), and just try and find a drum magazine that does not rank Steve Gadd's solo in the title track above all others, which is right where it belongs. Besides killer drum grooves and licks, the whole record is a classy and sophisticated masterpiece that brings everything together everything that Fagen and Becker had been building towards.
Good ole Stones and their "leave nothing to the imagination" album titles and covers. Sticky Fingers was the first Rolling Stones record which they put out on their own label and their last before partaking of the tax exile lifestyle that spawned another amazing album after this. By now, the Brian Jones-less line-up was a well oiled machine, and it is no stretch to say that "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is the best Rolling Stones song and also that it has arguably the world's most fantastic guitar solo. Mick Taylor may not have been a fan of all that "weaving" that Keith Richards always goes on about, but good goddamn could the man play some fucking lead. Also, the set list standards "Brown Sugar", "Wild Horses", and "Bitch" plus the band's best country/western interpretation "Dead Flowers" is thankfully present, along with some more drugged out folk in "Sister Morphine".
Another 1971 record that gives 1977 a run for its money as the best year for albums to come out, by now Led Zeppelin had destroyed all other white, English musicians at the blues, played their folk hand, and where ready to trump everyone in general. The most mystical themed of the band's LPs, one can hardly be surprised that this is their biggest selling record. Rock music's defining epic "Stairway to Heaven" is on it after all, a song that is more perfect and iconic than any. Yet the two best things that Zeppelin ever did with acoustic guitars "Going to California" and the insanely sung "Battle of Evermore" are also here, as is the textbook John Bonham drum break in "Rock and Roll" and his most copied groove in "When the Levee Breaks". Lest we forget the sing-along-ready "Black Dog", Tolkien-via-laughing-at-hippies "Misty Mountain Hop", and "Four Sticks" where Bonham does indeed play the drum part with four sticks.
I had no intention of this leaving my top ten, but well, here we are. I will not waste words saying why it does not belong there, only why it DOES belong here. No punk band in history was able to step outside of their noisy roots and offer up anything as ridiculously good as London Calling. The Clash had been stepping away from straight-punk since their following touring cycle where they teamed up with rock and roll, rockabilly, and R&B acts on the road. All of this and oodles more came out in a double album worth of ideas that fit with nineteen glorious songs, exactly the opposite of how their next triple album Sandinista! had several hundred more ideas and zero memorable songs. The ode to Montgomery Clift "The Right Profile", see the title track, "Lost In the Supermarket", "I'm Not Down", "Rudy Can't Fail", "The Guns of Brixton", and "Train in Vain", the list just goes on and on.
Peter Gabriel's last recording made at the trusty ole barn at the Ashcombe House in England was his second work with arguably the world's best producer Daniel Lanois who was on board since day one. So took nearly a year to make which was the norm then, though now that would seem like record timing for Gabriel. Consciously going for a more commercial sound, So became a monster pop album for the decade, and my fondness for it is part nostalgia. The "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" videos are etched into my kid brain after all. Both are funky R&B jams that sound out of nowhere coming from Gabriel's back catalog, but the supreme love song "In Your Eyes", "Mercy Street", and Kate Bush duet "Don't Give Up" are oodles beautiful. "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" and "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" show that he was still trudging in experimental terrain as well.
My favorite Queen song is on my favorite Queen album Sheer Heart Attack and it is Brian May's understated piano lullaby "Dear Friends", which is just under two-minutes of Freddie Mercury nearly bringing one to tears with his voice. They were still keeping it heavy with the circus metal of "Brighton Rock" and one of the first ever proto-thrash songs "Stone Cold Crazy", plus some of the medley aspects of Queen II are present in "Tenement Funster"/"Flick of the Wrist"/"Lilly of the Valley". "Killer Queen" was the band's first big American hit and it may have more chord changes than any other three minute pop song ever written. Roger Taylor's dog-whistle vocals hit their highest octave in "In the Lap of the Gods", John Deacon gets his first song in the solid album track "Misfire", and every instrument on earth shows up for a second in one of the greatest of all things, the absurd vaudevillian romp "Bring Back That Leroy Brown".
Born to Run took over a year to make and almost half of that time was spent on just the title track. Bruce Springsteen heard something bigger and more grandiose in his head than what he was getting at first in the studio, and Clarence Clemons was still laying down some sax leads as the band was literally packing up their gear to get touring, pretty much pushing everyone involved to their limit to get it right. Though it may have been anything but easy to get to, the finished product put the Boss on the cover of Times and Newsweek, plus anywhere that you looked he was hailed as the messiah of rock music. Turn a deaf ear to such hype, and the music here is indeed extraordinary. No one in their right state of mind could say that he has a better record than this, the open and closing "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" alone are Springsteen's most dazzling compositions, and just consider that he has hundreds of them.
The Beatles' single most famous LP was so revolutionary immediately upon release that it not only changed rock music forever, but it could be solely responsible for the full length album becoming the ultimate basis to judge any musician's work on, at least for many decades. The precursor singles "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were the first of the band's post-live performance/"studio as instrument" excursions, and Sgt. Pepper's delivered a whole records worth of such innovation. Though most Beatles albums have a higher number of individual stand-outs than here, (the extraordinary "A Day in the Life" naturally notwithstanding), there is no debate that this is not their most unified from front to back. Sgt. Pepper's is the soundtrack for everything great about everything great that every great artist in the 1960's was able to produce. In other words, its fucking great.
Switching to a superior singer was not the only wise move that Dream Theater made when working on their sophomore effort Images and Words. Canadian James LaBrie is at the top of his range and makes a ridiculously swell first impression here, but Images simply is progressive music's absolute champion. "Metropolis - Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper"" does have that whole "everybody jerk off their instruments now" part, but this is eons from just a virtuoso record. Lots of great was still in the tanks, but the band's songwriting, riffs, vocal melodies, and arrangements never topped this. DT's one and only kind-of-hit "Pull Me Under" is easily the least impressive song here, showing how ridiculously good the ballads "Another Day" and "Surrounded" are, how freakishly played "Take the Time" and "Under a Glass Moon" are, and epically how satisfying the epic closer "Learning to Live" is.
Prince was kind of forced to trim the fat on Sign o' the Times, as his label voiced concern that the proposed triple LP which the Artist originally wanted to put out would not sell so well. Regardless of whether this could have been worse or better with an extra disc, it is still Prince's masterpiece. Comprised of three separate projects, (including a abandoned album with The Revolution and an androgynous side-project Camille), Sign took all of the best shit that Lord Purple was working on at the time and threw it together in a perfect showcase for most styles that he was proficient at. It is an everything but the kitchen sink showcase for the world's most talented pop artist, with smooth R&B in "Starfish and Coffee", "Slow Love", and the ultimate panty moistener "Adore", guitar rock in "The Cross", "It's Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and "Play in the Sunshine", funk in "Housequake" and "Hot Thing", and dance party pop in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" and "Strange Relationship".
There are several albums that have moments on them which I recall from my childhood, moments that I still find myself always wanting to hear, let alone liking more and more even after countless listens. Which is where Paul Simon's Graceland comes in. Certainly the biggest and best album of Mr. Simon's career, (and Westernized "world music" in general), it garnished deserving attention and praise for fusing Simon's never faulty songwriting with a barrage of pop styles that crossed eras and geographical planes. Rock and roll, folk, a cappella, worldbeat, New Orleans zydeco, and Chevy Chase are all on display here. The songs are glorious, from the catchy as balls "You Can Call Me Al", to the soft rockabilly title track, exquisite Linda Ronstadt duet "Under African Skies", the greatest horn part ever in the Ladysmith Black Mambazo collaboration "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", and the Los Lobos jam "All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints".
There is not an album anywhere that opens with three massive songs that are as stunning as the ones The Joshua Tree begins with. "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "With or Without You" make U2's defining work front-loaded, but the remaining eight tracks amazingly keep it solid. Though political issues are addressed in England, ("Red Hill Mining Town"), and Chile, ("Mothers of the Disappeared"), plus addiction in "Running to Stand Still", Joshua Tree is primarily the band's semi-love letter to America. Musically, there is a blues, roots rock, and gospel undercurrent, the desert is references here and there, and Bono channels aching hymns of deliverance in the aforementioned "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" while barking at the U.S.'s involvement in the Salvadorian Civil War in their only heavy song "Bullet the Blue Sky". Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois work their atmospheric magic as usual, and every single person involved here never did better.
The more time that goes by, the more that I want to hear Exile on Main St. The Rolling Stones famously became tax exiles and shacked up in Keith Richards' rented mansion in the French Riviera for months on end, occasionally working on their Sticky Fingers follow up when it was convenient for Keith to stumble out of bed and his heroin high to make it to the hundred degree basement to record. Some stuff was left over from previous sessions and most of the vocal work was done back in LA, the final double album being the Stones living up to their claim as the world's greatest rock and roll band. Blues, R&B, and gospel mesh with loose, swampy guitar grooves, and everything from the drugged-out church sweat of "I Just Want to See His Face" to the cranked ballad "Loving Cup", to the romping Keith vocal in "Happy" are everything that sleazy, glorious rock music should be.
The double album to rival almost all others, (read ahead), Led Zeppelin's sprawling Physical Graffiti utilized that trusty trick of digging back to old material left off of previous albums to pad out two LPs worth, and it ends up being the band's most diverse on top of their greatest. The Houses of the Holy sessions spawned the would-be title-track, the acoustic blues number "Black Country Woman", and "The Rover", the Ian Stewart-guested "Boogie with Stu", "Night Flight", and country rock "Down by the Seaside" were all recorded for the untitled forth album, and the quick folk instrumental "Bron-Yr-Aur" goes back to Led Zeppelin III. Everything else, ("Kashmir", "In My Time of Dying", "The Wanton Song", "Custard Pie", and "Ten Years Gone" most swimmingly), was fresh at the time, showing that Zeppelin was only getting better. I do prefer this one to the rest of their catalog simply because it has the most Zeppelin songs on it, but that is hardly a reason that I nor anyone should apologize for.
So it begins. The Beatles got to serious business on their sixth straight revolutionary album Rubber Soul. Still actively touring and rush recorded in just four weeks so that fans has something to spend their money on for Christmas, the band's true innovation kicked into gear. The sitar was introduced on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", random lyrics in "Michelle" are sung in French, there is a George Martin harpsichord solo on "In My Life", and "Nowhere Man" was their first ever single not to have anything to do with love or relationships. George Harrison kept up with two songs, "Think for Yourself" and my favorite of his "If I Needed Someone", which was directly inspired by The Byrds' Roger McGuinn's 12-string guitar sound. Ringo even gets his first co-write and delivers one of his best and simplest drum performances in "What Goes On". Everything brilliantly shown off here would only logically improve...
...on Revolver. It is easy to consider this the second part to Rubber Soul. The straw that broke the camel's back was nigh as far as The Beatles ever touring again, and they subconsciously or not seemed to be gearing up for the change. Revolver has numerous moments that were never planned to be duplicated live, namely the 100% orchestral backdrop to "Eleanor Rigby", George Harrison's first complete Indian piece "Love You To", and the live tape-looped performed, tripped-out mantra "Tomorrow Never Knows". Arguably the two best and most lovely Paul McCartney songs that he had written at this point are "Here, There, and Everywhere" and "For No One", adding just more sophisticated pop song craft to the rest of the experimentation going on. John Lennon sings the praises of staying in bed in "I'm Only Sleeping", George sticks it to the man in "Tax Man", and Ringo gets the ultimate children's song thrown his way in "Yellow Submarine".
The 20th of August, 1969 marked the last time that all four Beatles were in a studio together, spending the day sequencing their swansong Abbey Road. The year began rough with the Get Back sessions making a tense band dynamic that much more so. Yet by the Spring, Paul McCartney had convinced the gang along with George Martin to give it one final go, thankfully everyone behaved themselves, and predictably at this point they made another genius recording. The only of their releases not to be mixed in mono, sonically this is as good as The Beatles ever sounded. Paul pushed for the second side to be a medley of half and full songs, culminating with the magical "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End", George Harrison nearly steals the album with "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something", Ringo is better late than never with the hit gem "Octopus's Garden", and John Lennon helps invent metal in "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".
That whole that thing I said about Physical Graffiti being my go-to desert island Led Zeppelin pick because it is a double album and Zeppelin rules is likewise the case here. There are zero complaints to be made here with The Beatles' decision to throw together twenty-nine songs and one "whatever that was" track, ("Revolution 9"). The group wrote most of "(The White Album)" while vacationing and being bored in India during the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi retreat earlier in the year, (hence the overflowing amount of material), and they primarily recorded it without the use of every member, often with a different one taking up several control rooms and studios all at once. Regardless of the lack of collaboration, I love every note on here, even the bad ones. The fact that it covers nearly the whole board of what a pop band could do and not one track sounds alike is exactly why it is better than anything. John is great on "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", "I'm So Tired", "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey", "Julia", and "Dear Prudence", Paul is great on "Rocky Racoon", "Blackbird", "Martha My Dear", "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?", and "Helter Skelter", George is great on "Savoy Truffle" and "Piggies", Eric Clapton is great on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and Ringo wrote a song. Victory!
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