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 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 certainly wins points for me for dedicating the album and title track to Bill Hicks, even though I've been bumping this record several years before catching wind of the comedian at all. And in fact "Ænima" the song is probably the best single thing they've yet done, the Hicks-inspired lyrics of which couldn't be more perfect. But "Stinkfist", "Forty-Six & 2", "Eulogy", "Hooker with a Penis", and "Third Eye", have equally good everything.
This be the album that incorporated live instrumentation and who's tour ending up forcing long time member Alan Wilder to bow-out. It's also Depeche Mode at their very best. Coming off of a career of electronic music, "I Feel You" introduces live guitar straight away, making Songs of Faith and Devotion a noticeably different Depeche beast. 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, ("Walking in My Shoes", "Mercy in You", and the record's very most gospel sounding "Condemnation" come plenty close though), and these and the entire record emphasize their increasingly dark and even heavy at times sound.
Producer Flood shows up again here along with John Parish, both of whom would continue to work with PJ Harvey more after To Bring You My Love. This features probably the first thing I ever caught wind of from her, being Harvey's appearance on Beavis and Butthead with the creepy video/single "Down by the Water". Her first two offerings Dry and Rid of Me featured her ex-band and a similar, dirty, alt-rock sound, but Harvey's third here was recorded as a proper solo artist after she moved to the country side, writing most of To Bring in quiet isolation. Every song here almost gets better and better, saying something when the opening title track is arguably the best thing she done did. You can't loose with the primitive "Working for the Man", sexy blues "Meet Ze Monsta", Spanish sounding "C'Mon Billy", haunting "The Dancer", or heavy as shit "Long Snake Moan".
Thankfully modern technology exists and I assume random blokes with Pro Tools are the ones that have taken it upon themselves to add bass to ...And Justice for All and they're clearly doing the gods' work. Listening to circulated versions of this album without the original, daft, 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 it's peak in quality and complexity here. And when looking for certifiable proof that their arrangements were better than any other metal band, Justice is what ya need. 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" all prove that from an artistic standpoint, the rest of their career wasn't such a good idea.
Led Zeppelin's second album in ten months was recorded on the road at almost more studios than there is songs on it, showing there was zero stopping this band. Along with the Beatles, there probably isn't anyone who's entire recording output hasn't been heard by everyone who's ever turned on rock radio and Led Zeppelin II is the most rotated still of all their albums. But 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 simply cannot get sick of. "Moby Dick" is also here, but this song above any others really has to be heard in it's live form to truly appreciate. So much was getting better already from their debut and this is the height of Zeppelin's bombastic blues.
The first real stab 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 I'd say hit the mark best of all. Thriller and Bad would sell more and solidify Jackson's place as the King of Pop, but I'd be lying if I said that Wall wasn't the most perfect. Technically a disco record, the hooks on display here and quality of every nuance make this a very likely candidate for the most pristine dance album in existence. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney lend some songs and Michael gets his Eddie Murphy-mocked, emotional side out in "She's Out of My Life", but Louis Johnson's bass groove in "Get On the Floor", (my favorite MJ song period), 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 of 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 pretty much doing what he does best with Blood, only better than he does best. "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is the kinda long, twisted, humorous tale that would've fit fine on Blonde on Blonde and the other epic "Idiot Wind" sounds 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 ever recorded.
At long last the Rolling Stones were done copying the Beatles, (according to John Lennon and with the previous Their Satanic Majesties Request, kinda understandably), and because of this, they delivered their first truly original and astounding work Beggars Banquet. The bookending "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Salt of the Earth" at least are easily superior to all previous Mick Jagger/Keith Richards compositions. Brian Jones was still on board kinda, 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. Still, the Stones were ready to deliver with a melding of roots rock influences, particularly country and blues. After all, "Prodigal Son", "Factory Girl", and "Dear Doctor" are all here.
Slow, Deep, and Hard didn't quite deliver a successful new sound from three/fourth's of Type O Negative's previous Carnivore days, but their breakthrough Bloody Kisses absolutely did. 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 and 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 em, 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. And you might have noticed that indeed yes, Bloody Kisses has the greatest album cover of all time. Who's eye wouldn't that catch at a record store?
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. Rust was the first to feature the Megadeth line-up that made all their best records and the production, songs, and performances here set the bar just too damn high. The other half of Cacophony, Marty Friedman brought a skill level that only Mustaine himself seemed to match at this point. Not only does "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" have the best lead guitar solo in metal history, (oh and it's my favorite metal song there is), "Hangar 18" has enough dual guitar masturbation in five minutes and fourteen seconds to wipe the floor with anybody and "Tornado of Souls", the title track, the Dungeons & Dragons "Five Magics", and sing-along "Take No Prisoners" equally destroy.
Mr. Bungle axe-man Trey Spruance briefly came in for one album to replace Jim Martin for King for a Day...Fool for a Lieftime, quitting as soon as it was in the can. Then keyboardist Roddy Bottum also wasn't 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 all this, inexplicably King remains Faith No More's best. I liken it to how Queen and the Beatles would tackle any genre they damn well pleased and throw em all on to a single LP to keep it from being boring. So there's 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 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's fascinating to think of how much more innovation could've came 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.
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 still seem timeless. 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 way after they and Brian Eno had begun experimenting with the music in both the Bahamas and New York and it was basically 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 surely 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 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're 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. But at the same time, the defining metal-precursor "Immigrant Song", "Celebration Day" with one of Page's top five solos, and outstanding slow-fuck blues "Since I've Been Loving You" are all very much electric.
At the Gates' fourth album wasn't followed up for a good long while as the band admitted that trying to top it would be futile. Kinda like inventing something brilliant when you're in your early twenties and then just sitting back and retiring afterwards 'cause your work here is done. The previous semi-EP Terminal Spirit Disease still had violin and a slightly romantic sound at times, but it pointed the direction that 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, (Fredrik Nordström does the job of his career here). Twenty years old now, the record still sounds modern and "Blinded By Fear", "Nausea", "Under a Serpent Sun", the title track, "Suicide Nation", and the lot represent all of extreme metal as amazing as it will ever be.
The title once again a Marx Brothers film and cover almost the inverted image of A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races understandably can be considered a direct sequel to it's predecessor. That said, this was their first release to be self-produced, Roy Thomas Backer taking a break. Diversity was everywhere again with Freddie Mercury's Aretha Franklin-styled "Somebody to Love" and almost painfully catchy "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" becoming A Day's hits and both showing off piano pop and R&B influences that seem quite removed from the previous year's success of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Brian May as usual delivers the more guitar heavy tracks "Tie Your Mother Down" and "White Man", as well as the very different from each other ballads "Long Away" and "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)", while John Deacon has a glorious album gem in "You and I".
Yeah I still have no idea how to pronounce that either. U2's first but not last comeback Acthung Baby virtually threw out their American blues hybrid sound that they became the world's hugest band with and went into dark, European alternative dance territory. If anyone said that they'd sound like this four years after The Joshua Tree came out, you'd probably be concerned for said person's mental stability. But the gamble paid off, the over-the-top Zoo TV Tour certainly helping. It's 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, "One" was the moment that got everything on track. To say this is the best U2 song I may not exactly agree with, but I won't argue it either. The material then flowed with "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and "So Cruel" also highly standing out.
Perhaps it's the fact that radio stations have always ignored this Pink Floyd album in a way that they very much haven't the two before and one after it that at least play some part in me ranking it where it belongs at the top. It may also be that literally every musician friend of mine fancies it the most, giving us all something to totally see eye to eye on, (even if we all can't be on the exact same page as to the single best track here). In any event, yes Animals is the best Pink Floyd album. This sounds as good if not better than Dark Side of the Moon, particularly Nick Mason's drums. But 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 hatred for much of his band's fan base), melds splendidly with three songs over ten minutes and the one-in-the-same bookending tracks that are under two.
The second in the Rolling Stones essential, four album run from the late 60's-early 70's, Let It Bleed is the transition one between Brian Jones, (who's barely here), and soon-to-be-official new guy Mick Taylor, continued and improved where Beggar's Banquet's blues/country stank melding left off. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" I'm sick of against my will, (rock radio complaint number four-thousand on this list), but I still cherish Let It Bleed very fondly I do. "Midnight Rambler", the love-as-drugs-attachment title track, and possibly best ever Vietnam War inspired song "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 get's a slower and only slightly inferior re-working in "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 '71. 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 and got 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 wasn't a detriment that they gave up listening to playbacks and just tracked live until they were confident they nailed it. Which "Lazy", "Maybe I'm a Leo", "Highway Star", and "Space Truckin'" clearly show that they did.
There's hardly a just comparison to be made from Daft Punk's debut Homework to Discovery. "Da Funk" and "Around the World" aside, it's like comparing amateurs in their basement to what is in fact that greatest house album ever made. Though I shant 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 album 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. Some samples, a steady, disco feel, and pitch-tweaked singing and guitar leads permeate Discovery but it's the quality of the hooks that are undeniable. This is highly adventurous, yet simple all at once and I consider it the peak of electronic music.
Unbeknownst at the time, Led Zeppelin made their final album in Sweden in late '78. John Bonham was dead just over a year after In Through the Out Door was released, but I for one couldn't 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 haven't stopped listening to it 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. John Paul Jones though 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.
I can't imagine what this must've sounded like at the time. 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), and make as many short songs as possible and play them tight, fast, and with no embellishing, (guitar, bass, and drums almost entirely in unison), was something that just seemed to happen naturally for the Ramones. This was anti-prog rock in every technical fashion, but was just as profound a musical statement, the band stripping rock music down while making it more exciting that it ever was before. And 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 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 I shall continue to skip "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". But 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 "My Melancholy Blues", and John Deacon's Spanish "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's still utterly fantastic. 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", as I do side two's "Any Time At All" and the rather somber "I'll Be Back".
Hardly anyone noticed Bob Dylan when he dropped his eponymous debut in '62. But after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, no one could ignore him. Recorded sporadically over a year, it's funny to think that Columbia Records was considering dropping Dylan altogether. Only two songs on here aren't 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 few 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 Robert Plant's voice sounds abnormally higher than usual on here, that's because it is. Tape speeds and guitar effects were morphed around 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 just slightly disagreed. Two covers are here, (the last of such till the Get Back sessions), but both the country-western "Act Naturally" and rollicking "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" are as great as any non-Beatles originals. But 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", 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, better-than-everything-ever releases and this album nearly belongs right with 'em.
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 Queen's definitive song's brilliance. But when most people think of the over-the-top excess of not only this band but the entire decade of the 70s, 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 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 and ignored in the States so nothing particularly different inspired their crowning achievement in Queen. But the excellence was simply pouring out of Johnny Marr and Morrissey nevertheless. "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "I Know It's Over" are the two best non-singles Smiths songs and "Cemetry Gates" and "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" 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's sent on a ferry to partake of the afterlife. My brother often dubbed this "80s prom music" and can anyone say that's a bad thing? Bryan Ferry's writing was 100% removed from the band's Brian Eno-featured days but this likewise is nothing but good when the songs are and sound this wonderful. "More than This" might be the only Roxy Music jam that peoples this side of the Atlantic may 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 haven't bothered following Avalon up as it's far more appropriate to leave it sailing away on top.
Dream Theater virtually made every other prog-metal band obsolete with their breakthrough Images and Words and for those anxiously awaiting, it was gonna be a hellova record to top. They didn't quite top Images with Awake, but damn this comes mighty close. Recorded at One on One Studios in Hollywood, (same place Metallica spent a fortune making "The Black Album"), Kevin Moore's interest waned throughout, yet he still managed to pen some superior lyrics to his bandmates and 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. The whole band goes bonkers on the instrumental "Erotomania" and the short, acoustic "The Silent Man" acts as it's pole opposite.
After so many albums by this band and ones that came out in possibly the best year in music 1977, we now arrive at the finest of both, Steely Dan's Aja. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen hadn't 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 possibly any record. Any argument made that digital recording can never quite 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 lays down as tasty a groove as history allows in "Peg", (likewise the Dan's best and catchiest ever song), and just try and find a drum magazine that doesn't rank Steve Gadd's solo in the title track above all others, which is right where it belongs.
Good ole Stones and their "leave nothing to the imagination" album titles and covers. Sticky Fingers was the first Rolling Stones record they put out on their own label and their last before partaking of the tax exile lifestyle that spawned one very amazing album after this. By now the Brian Jones-less line-up was a well oiled machine and it's no stretch to say that "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is the best Rolling Stones song and 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" and the band's best country/western interpretation "Dead Flowers" is thankfully present along with some more drugged out folk in "Sister Morphine".
Another '71 joint giving '77 a run for it's 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 pretty mystical themed of the band's LPs, one can hardly be surprised that this is their biggest selling record since rock music's defining epic "Stairway to Heaven" is on it and since this band does zero wrong for me, I very much do agree with the praise. It is indeed a song that is more perfect and iconic than one just about any other band could possibly deliver. But the two best things Zeppelin ever did with acoustic guitars "Going to California" and the insanely sung "Battle of Evermore" and textbook John Bonham awesome in "Rock and Roll" and "When the Levee Breaks" bring the flawlessness full circle.
I had no intention of this leaving my top ten, but well, here we are. I won't waste words saying why it doesn't belong there, only why it DOES belong here. No punk band in history was able to step outside their noisy roots and offer up anything as ridiculously good as London Calling. They 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" does in fact win against sliced bread, see the title track, "Lost In the Supermarket", "I'm Not Down", "The Guns of Brixton", and "Train in Vain" as well.
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 would seem like record timing. 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" video is etched into kid me's brain). That and the "Big Time" single are funky, R&B jams that sound out of nowhere coming from Gabriel's back catalog, the supreme love song "In Your Eyes", "Mercy Street", and Kate Bush duet "Don't Give Up" are oodles beautiful, and "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.
My favorite Queen song is on my favorite Queen album Sheer Heart Attack and it's Brian May's 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 in the circus metal of "Brighton Rock" and maybe the first ever thrash song "Stone Cold Crazy" and some of the medley aspects of Queen II were present in "Tenement Funster"/"Flick of the Wrist"/"Lilly of the Valley". "Killer Queen" was the band's first big 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 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 come far from easy, the finished product put the Boss on the cover of Times and Newsweek and anywhere 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 he has a better record than this, the open and closing "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" alone are Springsteen's most dazzling compositions and he has hundreds of them.
Obviously. 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 musicians work on. 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, ("A Day in the Life" naturally notwithstanding), there's no debate that this isn't their most unified front to back. Sgt. Pepper's is the soundtrack for everything great about everything great every great artist in the 60's was able to produce.
Switching to a superior singer wasn't the only thing that Dream Theater did most good on Images and Words. Canadian James LaBrie is at the top of his range and makes a ridiculously swell first impression, 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 kinda-hit "Pull Me Under" is by far the least impressive song here, showing how ballsdiculously good the ballads "Another Day" and "Surrounded", freakishly played "Take the Time" and "Under a Glass Moon", and epically satisfying "Learning to Live" are.
Prince was kinda forced to trim the fat on Sign o' the Times, as his label voiced concern that the proposed triple LP the Artist originally wanted to put out wouldn't sell all so well. Regardless of whether this could've been worse or better with an extra disc, it's still Prince's masterpiece. Comprised of three separate projects, (including a abandoned album with the Revolution and an androgynous side-project Camille), Sign essentially took all the best shit Lord Purple was working on at the time and threw it together in a perfect showcase for most styles he was proficient at, being smooth R&B in "Starfish and Coffee", "Slow Love", and the ultimate panty moistener "Adore", 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's several albums that have moments on them I recall from my childhood that I still find myself always wanting to hear and 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 "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. But 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", greatest horn part ever "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", and Los Lobos jam "All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints".
There isn't an album anywhere that opens with three 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 excellently still the remaining eight tracks keep it solid. Though political issues are addressed in England, ("Red Hill Mining Town"), and Chile, ("Mothers of the Disappeared"), and addiction in "Running to Stand Still", Joshua Tree is primarily the band's semi-love letter to America. Musically there's a blues undercurrent, the desert is references here and there, and Bono channels gospel in "Still Haven't Found" and rather barks 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 and every single person here never did better.
The more time that goes by, the more I wanna hear Exile on Main St like all the time. The 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", and the romping Keith vocal in "Happy" are thoroughly perfect.
The double album to virtually rival all others, 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 Led Zeppelin'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 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. I do rather prefer this Zeppelin outing to the rest of their catalog simply because it has the most Zeppelin songs on it, but that's as good a reason as any says I.
And so it begins. The Beatles got to serious bidness on their sixth album Rubber Soul. Still very 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's 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 and my very favorite of his in "If I Needed Someone", which was directly inspired by the Byrds' Roger McGuinn's 12-string guitar sound. Ringo even get's 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's 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 as 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 he had written at this point are "Here, There, and Everywhere" and "For No One", 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 get's his ultimate children's song thrown his way in "Yellow Submarine".
The 20th of August, '69 marked the last time 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 much more so. But by the Spring, Paul McCartney had convinced the gang along with George Martin to give it one final go, thankfully everyone behaved themselves for the most part, 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 gem "Octopus's Garden", and John Lennon helps invent metal in "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".
That whole thing I said about Physical Graffiti being my go-to, desert island Zeppelin pick because it's a double album and Zeppelin rules is likewise totally the case here. There are zero complaints to be made with the Beatles' decision to throw together twenty-nine songs and one "whatever that was" track, ("Revolution 9"), and release them at once. The group wrote most of "(The White Album)" while vacationing and being bored in India 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 dysfunction, 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 like another is exactly why it's 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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