The Beatles: Get Back

THE BEATLES: GET BACK

(2021)

Dir - Peter Jackson

Overall: GREAT

Since at least 1964, The Beatles have perpetually remained the most lauded and famous rock group in the world.  Now more than fifty-two years after it was shot, footage has been presented that largely changes several of the most widely held notions concerning their eventual breakup.  The resulting The Beatles: Get Back is therefor a monumental document in the history of pop music in general, let alone in The Beatles' cherished legacy.

While this may be an accurate assessment of the film, it is also a broad one.  For Beatles fans both casual and obsessive, Get Back is essential.  This is partly due to its extensive running time of nearly eight hours which represents the only footage of the band writing, rehearsing, and ultimately performing and recording their material, mostly from conception to finish.  This is the most penetrating firsthand look that has ever existed into both their work ethic and personalities.  Such a deep dive is insightful by nature and since it is from a group with no rivals in cultural importance and influence, only those with little to no interest in music at all would fail to find merit in what is presented here.

John Lennon's face for the (wrong) people who do not like The Beatles.

Similar to everything in The Beatles' history, the Get Back project has a fascinating backdrop.  The footage was of course initially shot for what became director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 1970 documentary Let It Be.  Said movie came to pass only after an initial television special conceived of by Paul McCartney fell through, partly because the writing sessions for the album were not ideally productive.  The Beatles shacked up in Twickenham Studios just after the new year in 1969 with a deadline looming for the end of the month to get roughly fourteen new songs in the can before Ringo Starr began shooting The Magic Christian in the same film studio.  The location proved uncomfortably cold and foreign, with previous tensions intensifying that had began to surface during the making of The Beatles, (The White Album), several months earlier.  These came to the forefront with George Harrison temporarily leaving the group mid-session.  A few days then went by with a failed band meeting between the four taking place, as well as further discussions as to how to proceed with the project, which even included a, (perhaps?), jestful idea by John Lennon to bring Eric Clapton in as a replacement.  Things eventually came back together once it was agreed to abandon the television special idea and relocate to their newly set-up studio in the basement of their Apple headquarters at Savile Row.  Here, a more positive vibe took over, Billy Preston joined the band as a session keyboard player, and they eventually settled on a rooftop concert to end what was now being planned as their third theatrically released movie.

This is all common knowledge for Beatles and rock music aficionados, and much of it was divulged in the Let It Be film.  Said movie did not see that theatrical release until after the band's break-up though, at which point both the members and the public were various levels bitter and frustrated with certain aspects of their demise.  There is a reason then that it is the only Beatles movie to still be out of print, surviving solely on the bootleg front since the 1980s.  With such a massive amount of footage condensed then to a mere eighty-minute running time and emerging when it did, critics and fans alike largely saw it as a quasi-depressing document showcasing the breakup of the biggest band to ever exist.  Both surviving and passed-on members never thought too highly of the Let It Be movie considering the bad vibes that it unfortunately represented.  This all makes Peter Jackson's reworking of the material all the more uplifting in comparison.

The infamous "I'll play whatever you want me to play" argument was left in to fill the aforementioned "bad vibes" quota.

Jackson plus his creative/editing team behind the 2018 World Word War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old gained access to the sixty hours of video and one-hundred and fifty hours of audio materiel initially produced by Lindsay-Hogg, which had been sitting in the Beatles Apple Corps vaults ever since.  Painstakingly restoring, reconstructing, and editing the project took the better part of four years.  The end game of such an endeavor was initially planned to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the sessions, which was green-lit by McCartney, Starr, Olivia Harrison, and Yoko Ono.  "Thankfully" this little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic happened though, and Jackson and co took the opportunity to elaborate on the final two-hour theatrical cut, ultimately resulting in the three part mini-series that Disney picked up for distribution.

There are more details surrounding the massive undertaking of the project if one wants to investigate further, but the main takeaway is how The Beatles: Get Back rewrites the long-believed narrative of such an era.  Most prominent is the overall amount of merriment on display.  While the group was certainly faced with a number of conundrums to work through at the time, and they seem burnt out at regular intervals, they conduct themselves with the utmost level of professionalism and joy.  Whether this is a coping mechanism in some respects is a mute point since at the end of the day, each member's willingness to get the job done and make the best of their chemistry together ultimately shines through and is also ultimately what matters most.

Pictured: professionalism.

Many of the group's problems at the time are the result of their manager and ringleader Brian Epstein having died at the end of 1967's summer.  This footnote left the band aimless, which allowed them to indulge in costly creative and business ventures.  Meanwhile, McCartney's naturally enthusiastic, well-meaning though ego-driven demeanor put him in the de facto-leader position as Lennon let his power slip due to his elevated drug use that led to what he described as the "death" of his ego.  At the same time, Harrison's increasing creative confidence, newfound spirituality, and practical financial sense began to jive poorly with the comparative dominance and flippant tenancies shared by Lennon and McCartney.  Ringo of course stayed the consummate professional, showing up on time and before anyone, remaining largely quiet, and patiently sitting behind his drum kit ready to do his job at each and every instance that such a thing was required.

Though these are well-known details within The Beatles' dynamics, they are also still important in understanding the group's inevitable split.  The individual eccentricities and personalities of the band members undoubtedly contributed to their exceptional material.  Yet for many, many decades now it has been falsely surmised that such clashing of opinions and characteristics made for mostly miserable working conditions during the making of Get Back.  Wonderfully, this has proven to be false.  It is simply an exhilarating experience seeing John and Paul run through versions of "Two of Us" while either singing in foreign accents or jokingly clenching their teeth, watching George lovingly show enthusiasm and give assistance to Ringo's brand new song in progress "Octopus's Garden", seeing John take out a joint and then put it back in his pocket while making a silly face after remembering that the cameras are on him, and watching Ring notify Paul that he farted halfway through a serious business conversation and thought that it would be better to tell him than to say nothing.

A (gassy) class act that Ringo.

The Beatles are consistently in a goofy mood yes, but since we also know that this was one of their more uncomfortable periods as a group, the fact that they spend such large chunks of time blowing off steam in a silly manor showcases their overall positive character that much more.  There are many times where they seem politely annoyed that they cannot agree on certain things or come up with any universally acceptable solutions to their problems.  Yet they believe in the music, believe in their ability to deliver when their backs are up against the wall, and generally seem to enjoy being together.  All elements of tension surrounding a cacophony of wives and girlfriends, technicians, friends, associates, engineers, filmmakers, and crew members being present while everyone is asking them where they are going to play live or what they want for lunch are bypassed by such jovial attitudes that win out each and every time.

At one point early on, Paul jokes that in fifty years everyone is going to say that The Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp.  While this results in unanimous laughter from both those around him and probably anyone viewing the film, it is also cryptically telling of how self aware he and the group was even then about their own impending legend.  A paramount goal of Jackson's approach here was to unearth any revelatory information that he could find, and numerous conversations are heard that exemplify this.  Paul and John have a chat with hidden microphones in a flower pot where they both honestly admit their own perceptions of each other's egos and how it has effected their current situation as well as George's unhappiness.  Yoko and Linda McCartney are seen having cordial conversations with each other, and Linda's daughter Heather appears one day where everyone in the band seems to enjoy her childish tomfoolery.  George Martin, Glyn Johns, Billy Preston, and Mal Evans are show smiling and in lovely spirits throughout almost the entire production.  George Harrison explains to John and Yoko for the first time that he has enough songs ready to fit his quota for the next ten years of Beatles albums and that he would love to just record them all on his own so that he can focus more productively on the group, a proclamation that both John and Yoko agree is a wonderful idea.

George of course would soon unleash all of those songs under the working title of Attack of the Garden Gnomes.

 

These are but a handful of moments and details that accomplish two paramount things.  As discussed previously, they certainly debunk the fable of the band being overrun by egos and negativity, resulting in an uncomfortably strained relationship between them.  Perhaps even more importantly though is that it presents them as logical and compassionate human beings.  The Beatles: Get Back is extraordinary in that it showcases extraordinary people achieving extraordinary things, but it does so while grounding John, Paul, George, and Ringo to a mortal plane of existence.  For artists that have easily been perceived as mythical figures for more than half a century now, spending over eight uninterrupted hours with them as they work out the kinks of their situation with unwavering respect and love for each other is something to cherish.

Along with the similarly expansive and sprawling Anthology series which presents a more complete picture of the band's entire existence together as opposed to just a twenty-one day period, (all in their own words no less), Get Back easily stands as the greatest documentary on the Beatles that presumably will ever be made.  It is an overwhelmingly viewing experience and as ideal of a footnote to the band's most misunderstood era as could have been hoped for.  So, so many aspects of the group's history have been painstakingly documented and explored that for something this conclusive and outstanding to emerge after we have all assumed that there was nothing more to tell and nothing more to learn, well, here we are folks and indeed the story has only gotten more inspiring.

The audition has most certainly been passed.

100 Favorite Bands/Artists - Part Five

20. COLLECTIVE SOUL

Outlasting many of their grunge-era, alternative pop peers and consistently delivering more hits as well, Stockbridge, Georgia's Collective Soul have stayed the course and remained remarkably excellent for years.  Frontman/songwriter Ed Roland has never tried to be fancy or pretentious with his writing and this has been a saving grace for them.  Utilizing simple chords, superb melodies, and sticking to a conventional pop formula that has always suited them, the uncomplicated ingredients have brought us so far nine solid albums and basically at this point, I am convinced that they are never going to make a bad one.  As I am sure is the case with most of you, I heard "Shine" way back when it came out and liked it a lot, but further gems such as "The World I Know", "Gel", "Precious Declaration", "Forgiveness", "Heavy", "Needs", "She Said", and "Satellite" just graze the surface of how truly great this band always has been.

19. STEELY DAN

Who could have predicted that a band named after a bunch of dildos in William S. Burrough's batshit bonkers Naked Lunch novel would end up being the word's quintessential soft jazz rock outfit?  Donald Fagan and the late Walter Becker met at Bard College in New York during 1967 and struck up a songwriting partnership that did not initially get them much success on account of their songs being too unorthodox for other recording artists to grasp.  Once they put their own proper group together and got the hits "Reelin' in the Years", "Do It Again", and "Dirty Work" out of the way on their debut Can't Buy a Thrill though, a sturdy discography without a dud came in its wake.  The band's biggest record Aja is their peak of excellence, and at that point Becker and Fagan had been expertly utilizing the industry's best session musicians.  By primarily being a studio only duo, (since you could afford to do that in the 1970s), they likewise perfected the art of then modern, pre-digital recording techniques.  All of the Dan's records still sound absolutely amazing because the patience was taken to make them sound that way.

18. PANTERA

The only guitarist that ever truly gave Tony Iommi a run for his money in the riff-writing department was Dimebag Darrell and good lord, what riffs these guys had.  The first four Pantera albums for anyone who has actually heard them are far more silly than interesting, as they ultimately sounded like a poor man's Mötley Crüe before Phil Anselmo came aboard and the extreme southern groove metal elements starting finding their way in, even if Anselmo was only doing a Rob Halford impression at first.  Once they were finally signed to Atco records in late 1989 and unleashed Cowboys from Hell on the masses, they had come into their own and never put out another bad record going forward.  Even their swansong Reinventing the Steel, (though at the time comparatively disappointing), does get better with age, perhaps in part because it is the last Pantera we are ever going to get.  At this writing, both Dimebag and Vinnie Paul are sadly no more, but Pantera's legacy continues to grow as it should and they are practically the tightest, sickest-riffed metal band in history.

17.  RADIOHEAD

Radiohead formed in 1985, consisting of a bunch of school mates that have stayed together for over thirty years now and for almost twenty of them, they have been exploring every avenue possible in making their instruments sound like anything but their instruments.  Essentially a progressive pop band and the very best one at that, Radiohead's music has been as persistently excellent as it is boldly challenging.  Before Kid A and everything wonderful that followed, they briefly were one of England's most exciting alternative groups, and even when playing more conventionally sounding guitars, bass, and drums on The Bends and OK Computer, the songwriting was greatly above average and the art rock leanings were readily apparent.  Thom York's ability to not enunciate his words is matched by his effortlessly gorgeous voice, and even if it appears that Radiohead has found their electronic, experimental niche, their records continue to be anything but elementary.

16.  ALICE COOPER

Before Detroit-born, son of a pastor Vincent Furnier actually became Alice Cooper, there was a band named such that he and a few high school friends put together before they could even play any instruments.  Said group was so out of control musically at first that Frank Zappa signed them to his Straight label, and when they got Bob Ezrin to come in to help fine-tune their songwriting and presentation, they joyously became the shock rock band that most parents hated.  The records they made were of course fucking outstanding as well.  I got into Alice Cooper hard at the same time that I got into Kiss, (unsurprisingly), but it was only in small part due to the horror-themed, villainous image.  Love It to Death, Killers, and Billion Dollar Babies are as classic as any classic rock gets, and later solo Alice Cooper joints found him further collaborating with Ezrin, as well as Bernie Taupin, Desmond Child, and excellent musicians overall.  Surviving both a horrendous bout with alcoholism and then later far worse, Cooper came out clean over thirty years ago and has remained a genuinely caring, funny, and golfing old rock dude who is still cranking out records, endlessly touring, and cutting his own head off on stage.

15.  RAMMSTEIN

Germany's pyro-fueld Rammstein became a favorite of mine way back in high school, and because none of their to-date six records have anything close to a bad song on them, I have not held them in any lower regard since.  It is always splendid when a band knowingly goes for laughs as much as anything else, and Rammstein have never stopped giggling all the way to the bank, whether it is while they chase each other around on stage with dildos, dress up in fat suites, or make a porno music videos staring themselves.  Musically, though these guys have always been incredibly heavy.  Their first two albums featured a higher emphasis on industrial elements, but the third Mutter was when things began to shift to their current more organic, groove metal sound.  As nothing they have done throughout their evolution has suffered in quality and though they have often hinted at packing it in at some point, (possibly even after their still to be announced new album), I will soak up all of the Rammstein that I can in the meantime thank you very much.

14.  MORRISSEY

The perpetually self-loathing, A-sexual, vegetarian activist crooner Stephen Patrick Morrissey has had a solo career that is only slightly less impressive than the one from that really great band that he briefly fronted.  Striking out on his own as soon as The Smiths packed it in, Morrissey has put out eleven studio albums and also like his former band, a whole lot of singles and B-sides that continue to marvelously showcase his hilarious, overly-dramatic, miserable persona.  Mostly working with long time collaborators and guitarists Alain Whyte and still Boz Boorer, Morrissey has played with rockabilly, straight-up Britpop, and even prog here or there, (check out Southpaw Grammar for evidence of that).  His lyrics though have only grown more honest while remaining just as biting and funny.  Many people find Morrissey's smug, anti-social persona too much for them, yet being a fan for most of my life and also reading his autobiography, I am convinced that he is in on the joke.  Which just makes make me love the guy even more.

13.  PRINCE

In one respect, Prince may have simply recorded too much damn music for his own good.  Going through all of it, (meaning all of it that has actually been released), is a chore that few of us truly have the time for.  Taking into account thirty-nine studio albums, (a handful of them double or triple ones), plus compilations, collaborations with lots of other groups that he put together, and all of the hit songs that he gave away, there sure is a whole lot of stuff out there.  Thankfully, most of it is wonderful, and at the time of his sudden death from a painkiller overdose, he was still a guitar playing beast and one of the most ridiculously dynamic singers in all of popular music.  Many people will probably have a different answer as to their favorite Prince song and record, (Sign o' the Times and "Adore" off of it for me), and that is part of the beauty of his work.  Singing about sex, god, and then sex again, performing virtually every instrument throughout his career himself, and playing rock, funk, psychedelia, new wave, R&B, and pop occasionally all at the same time, a convincing argument can be made that Prince was the most talented musician who ever lived.

12.  FAITH NO MORE

Only knowing of "Epic" and their cover of The Commodores "Easy" for quite some time, when I finally got curious enough to check out all of Faith No More's Mike Patton-fronted records, I gradually became all but obsessed with how fantastic this band was.  Throw any title that you want at them, but theirs is a sound that cannot be pinned to the ground.  This is partly due to the fact that like many of the best bands out there, FNM were able to successfully pull off various styles whenever they felt like it.  They have the occasional country song, bossa nova song, R&B jam, punk song, and noise fest, but no matter what they are playing, the thunderous rhythm section of Mike Bordin and Billy Gould as well as Roddy Bottum's keyboards always make them sound just like Faith No More.  Of course you also have to mention Mike Patton's superhuman vocal acrobatics as an integral piece to the puzzle.  This guy can make his voice do absolutely ANYTHING, whether it is rapping, crooning, extreme metal screaming, soulful screaming, or throwing it into any register that he pleases with any modulation or cadence adjustments always remaining his willing bitch.

11. TOOL

"So, when's that new Tool album coming out?" has become the new Chinese Democracy joke, but at least the guys in Tool have the good sense to be honest about their molasses-leaking creative process and do not themselves promise us new material each and every year.  The amount of time between Tool releases went from three, to five, to at this writing over twelve fucking years, but if there is a pattern to acknowledge here, it will be well worth the wait once some new music is finally here.  Tool formed in LA in 1990 and they seemed to have an agenda to get their audience to think for themselves and see through the world's bullshit right off the bat, while musically they have grown into one of the most complex, atmospheric, and unique progressive rock bands of all time.  They rarely indulge in 4/4 time signatures, with Adam Jones' highly distinct drop D riffs, Justin Chancellor's effects-laded bass, Danny Carey's barbarian heavy and occult-based drumming, and Maynard James Keenan's often funny, intellectually stimulating lyrics sung with a voice that is eerily sweet amongst the darkness of everything surrounding it.

10.  DEPECHE MODE

The greatest of all electronic bands, Depeche Mode is one of the handful on this list that has a flawless recording career.  Fourteen studio albums since 1981 and perpetually maturing with age, it is almost easy to take their excellence for granted at this point.  When another DM album drops, it is a given that it will be solid.  Mere kids when they began, the group's early output was primitive and dated to the new wave, synth-laden dance sound of the day.  By the late 1980s though, albums like Black Celebration and Music for the Masses were going in a darker direction before Violator broke them in a huge way.  Songs of Faith and Devotion, (which like Violator was co-produced by Flood), is the one that has grown to represent their peak for me, as gospel elements and live instrumentation were first brought into the fold.  After putting out his debut solo album, the Playing the Angel record established a new ere for the band as vocalist David Gahan began contributing material along with longtime songwriter Martin Gore, and Depeche Mode where all the better for it.

9.  U2

Is it unfair to expect yet another creative resurgence from the overall biggest band to come out of the 80s?  So far U2 have had two artistic slumps that eventually flourished two comebacks with the Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind records respectfully, and at this writing, they seem perfectly content to basically continue to remake various versions of the latter until they cease being a band.  I cannot demand anything more from them at this point though.  The Joshua Tree is the single best album put out in the 1980s and saw a sophistication in their writing and experimenting, (fueled by Brian Eno and Daniel Lenois, the absolute dream team of record producers).  Its opening three tracks "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "With or Without You" are still the best three opening tracks that any record has got.  The band's music has always been unapologetically simple at its core, but the layers of sounds to it, (mostly stemming from the Edge's distinctive guitar effects), as well as Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.'s hefty rhythm section can do no wrong behind Bono's extremely emotional voice.

8.  THE POLICE

Having wrapped it up when they did, (meaning after their best album Synchronicity), The Police quitting while they were not only ahead but actually at their peak commercially as a band has sealed their fate as the best of all rock trios.  Much like The Doors, taking any member out of The Police would completely change everything about them.  Andy Summers mostly studied classical guitar, yet his approach to playing was highly dexterous and always tasteful, without ever succumbing to anything resembling shredding.  Enough cannot be said about Stewart Copeland who is easily one of the most one-of-a-kind drummers; an absolute master of hi-hat flavoring as well as African rhythms applied to a contemporary drum set.  Besides having still an ageless singing voice that sounds like absolutely no one else, Sting was a fusion musician who ended up being insanely gifted as a pop songwriter.  I am still kicking myself for missing their 2007 reunion, but maybe if we are all lucky, they will forget that they did that and go do it again.

7.  THE SMITHS

While most bands especially out of England in the early 1980s were balls-deep in the synth/dance sound of the era, out of gloomy ole, working class Manchester came The Smiths; a guitar pop group that wound up being the most influential and beloved since The Beatles.  There is a pattern here of phenomenal bands who only stuck around for a small handful of years, and the five that The Smiths gave us were enough to drop four albums and nearly a couple thousand singles, so one cannot really complain that they short-changed us.  With Morrissey practically coming out of nowhere, (having never been in a group before and only ending up on Johnny Marr's radar because he was the founder of the New York Dolls fanclub), it is remarkable how organic their sound immediately was.  Marr's jangly, multi-layered guitar and the Moz' unmistakable croon, (which started out with traces of a far more flamboyant yelp), plus his sardonic and humorous lyrics found a massive audience in their home country while still today in the States, usually only us cool kids are hip to them.

6.  BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

I had a feeling before numbering this list that The Boss was going to end up my highest solo artist and sure enough, here he is.  New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen has been showered with so much praise since nearly the beginning of his career that I cannot add much more worthwhile acclaim of my own.  Though I grew up with him in the MTV era along with many of you, I did not actually dig into his catalog until my early twenties after hearing about how great he was throughout my life.  Which as it turns out, yeah, everybody is right about that.  I can list all of his incredible albums, but you should know them by now.  From The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle through Tunnel of Love, Springsteen consistently matured as a writer, bringing his working class characters along for the ride with him and further exploring the love and longing of human interactions.  When he put the E Street Band back together in 2001, his later body of work became mighty again and has continued to shine.  Few if any songwriters are both as direct and deep as Springsteen has always been, and the man can still get more out of just a couple of chords and a guitar if he needs to than anybody else.

5.  THE ROLLING STONES

I cannot claim to be a Rolling Stones expert the way that I can with the rest of my top five, but I have well-familiarized myself with their magical golden era around the late 1960s and early 70s when they were truly firing on all cylinders.  Still often compared to The Beatles because they both became the biggest British Invasion bands within months of each other, that has never been an accurate correlation since the Stones were always very much their own beast.  They were humbly no more than a blues cover band on their first couple of records, but due to the encouraging of their then manager Andrew Oldman, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started getting in on that sweet song-publishing money, quickly becoming a songwriting duo that was not to be messed with.  I enjoy the Stones' early years as much as the next person, but Beggar's Banquet saw a refinement of their entire craft where all of a sudden, they truly arrived.  Blues, rock and roll, and country music became a singular entity under their abilities, and the elastic, coarse way that they interact with each other as musicians has always made everything splendidly come together.  Try as countless people have, no one sounds like the Stones, and all of them now pushing eighty, they are most likely going to drop dead on stage proving it.

4.  KISS

I have gone a few years now not bringing up Kiss on this blog and welp, lets change that shall we?  Having discussed my love for this band ad nauseum, if anyone was unaware, yes I am as big of a Kiss fan as you are likely to meet.  The horny superhero image aside, what is truly great about them is how varied their discography is.  Multiple eras that underwent lineup changes and musical shifts a plenty, Kiss were never dull for a solitary second, and even their weakest records still have plenty of redeemable qualities.  Their original lineup has become so cherished by Kiss fans that a good handful of them nearly come to blows with other fans who like the non-make up years or the current, half-original members version just fine.  I personally find much to love about all of them yet if I had to pick, I mostly fancy their early to mid 90's run right before the reunion which saw their best studio album Revenge, their best live album Unplugged, and the then shelved and excellent "Kiss does grunge" record Carnival of Souls.  That wound up being the last point in Kiss' career where they were still moving forward before they would spend the last twenty plus basically throwing back to their 1970s heyday, though understandably so.

3.  QUEEN

I "discovered" Queen when I was in 5th grade and my younger brother decided they were the greatest thing since sliced bread.  This was after Freddie Mercury died, Wayne's World came out, "Bohemian Rhapsody" once again topped the charts, and the Freddie tribute concert aired on Easter Sunday.  There has not been a day gone by since where I have not thought about how unbelievable this band was.  Each member of Queen was a superb songwriter, none of them without a monster hit or a couple dozen under their belts.  Vocally, Freddie, Roger Taylor, and Brian May all harmonized better than anyone, plus May's custom guitar tone was as unique and recognizable as Taylor's drumming.  John Deacon was the quiet ace up Queen's sleeve, penning "Another One Bites the Dust", "You're My Best Friend", "Spread Your Wings", and "I Want to Break Free" to name just the most popular ones.  Freddie of course besides ultimately being the band's most proficient song craftsman, had the world's finest singing voice, easily soaring through any song at any volume way up until he was literally dying from AIDS and still laying down blistering, gorgeous vocals on his final recordings.

2.  LED ZEPPELIN

John Henry Bonham was the one drummer who actually changed my life by making me want to hit things with sticks, ideally a drum set.  Because of this, Led Zeppelin became the most important band for my wanting to be a musician, and my obsession with them has simply become a part of life.  There are a lot of groups on this list that you can say this about, but every member of Led Zeppelin truly was equally on par with each other.  Robert Plant in his prime, (meaning his Zeppelin-fronting years), had a ferociously mighty voice, full of unheard of vibrato and ceaseless range.  John Paul Jones was a seasoned session musician and multi-instrumentalist who could easily rank as the best bass player in rock history.  John Bonham of course has rightfully long been renowned as many people's all time favorite drummer, (mine included), and his almost insultingly dominant groove remains unmatched even by the most skilled skinsmen out there.  Then Jimmy Page had a loose, uncontrollably lead style where the notes often seemed to be exploding from his fingers against his will, filtering blues and folk music through his antenna which created half of hard rock's best ever songwriting partnership.

1.  THE BEATLES

Now is the time where I am really going to start sounding like a broken record.  All of these bands and all these solo artist have led to the absolute apex of popular recorded music, the single greatest band of any time, The Beatles.  A year or so before Led Zeppelin made me want to actually play music, The Beatles made me really want to love music.  Since then, I have never been able to convince myself that anyone has ever been superior.  Though I have heard every song that they ever recorded countless times, any listen to any of them just reassures how utterly perfect they were.  The Beatles were not only endlessly innovative as a studio band, but they broke new ground and set the template for the self-contained, writing their own material rock group where each member had their unique, essential voice.  John Lennon and Paul McCarenty in particular, (whether together or on their own), wrote the best pop music, period.  Working with each other and George Harrison and Ringo Star, (as well as producer George Martin vigorously assisting them), their songs and ideas vividly came to life, and The Beatles never stop progressing throughout the eight years that they recorded together.  In only that amount of time, they changed the world and influenced practically everybody.  Still for me, nothing can touch Rubber Soul, Revolver, (The White Album), or Abbey Road, the four absolute best records in any genre ever.

100 FAVORITE NON-HORROR FILMS 60 - 51

60.  Rocky IV (1985)
Dir - Sylvester Stallone

When watching me watch the forth installment to the Rocky franchise, you would think both A) I suffer from severe Alzheimer's and do not know that it is not 1985 anymore, B) think movies are real, and C) really like boxing when in fact none of these things are true.  That is because I get into this movie and particularly the glorious, final Rocky Balboa/Ivan Drago showdown to the point of jumping up and down and hollering like I have actual money on the event.  The first three Rocky films are great, but Sylvester Stallone's montage-a-thon masterpiece in IV is one of the most entertaining of all movies, regardless of genre. Often parodied and laughed at, Stallone actually builds up the tension perfectly to the epic title bout, which is as unrealistic and ridiculous as it is fist-pumpingly awesome to watch.

59.  12 Angry Men (1957)
Dir - Sidney Lumet

I first knew what 12 Angry Men was when we were forced to read and study it aloud in one of my high school English classes.  We then watched William Friedkin's 1997 remake instead of the much admired original from forty years prior, (I assume because my teacher thought a room full of fifteen year olds would be bored with a black and white movie).  Well aware of the story by now, I have since seen the 1957, Henry Fonda stared/produced vehicle several times and it continually amazes me.  Sidney Lumet was a veteran of television direction when he was tasked with adapting Men as his first feature and his work here is exceptional.  Changing the camera angle and lenses gradually throughout, a feeling of intense claustrophobia and tension is raised as the twelve jurors sweat out their logic, prejudices, and emotions on the hottest day of the year in their battle to reckon with the concept of reasonable doubt.

58.  Duck Soup (1933)
Dir - Leo McCarey

Ah the world of the Brothers Marx.  Duck Soup is the Vaudeville-to-Hollywood, Jewish brothers family act's best film, but one could just as easily pick A Night at the Opera and my personal favorite moment from any of their movies takes place in A Night In Casablanca and of course involves Harpo fucking with somebody.  Story-wise there is nothing particularly stronger about Duck Soup, though it is amusing in hindsight how the film bombed when released because it hit too close to home in its absurd send-up of dictatorships and how silly of a reason a war can get started.  Really though, the gags are just flawless here as every last Groucho insult kills, Chico delivers more solid puns than anyone could, and Harpo cuts everything hanging off of everyone's clothes for just over an hour.

57.  Schindler's List (1993)
Dir - Steven Spielberg

On Steven Spielberg's mind for ten full years before he was ready to actually make it, Schindler's List showcases all of the technical film language skill that the man had in spades, which in turn eclipses Thomas Keneally's novel Schindler's Ark into something far more than an elementary Holocaust movie, let a lone any kind of popcorn fare.  Spielberg's knack for over-dramatizing his films for emotional manipulation does not get a justifiable complaint here, due in part to how Liam Neeson's title character is as multi-layered as Ralph Fiennes' Nazi commander Amon Göth is impossibly unsympathetic and diabolical.  Meaning that what war does to men is always different across the board, just as men are different themselves to begin with.  The dent that Oskar Schindler made to the Jewish people's legacy may seem small to him in his emotional breakdown, but the generations that survived because of his gradual selflessness cannot be undermined and the film itself is a beautiful and harrowing milestone of human good overcoming evil.

56.  Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Dir - John Carpenter

John Carpenter, (easily one of the finest horror filmmakers of all time), was on a role by 1986, delivering nearly a film a year since Halloween.  After 1984's Starman and Escape from New York three years earlier, Carpenter's further willingness to step outside of the horror genre was rewarded tenfold with the utterly amazing Big Trouble in Little China.  If this is not the king of all supernatural ninja epics, (with a side of guns and a John Wayne impression), then seriously what is?  The tones of snappy, Golden Era Hollywood comedy, ridiculous kung fu movies, and big dumb 80s action are masterfully handled by Carpenter, plus the arrogant ridiculousness of Kurt Russel's Jack Burton easily turns the character into one of the best, unintentional cinematic heroes of all time.  Few of my childhood favorites hold up this well and all these years later, the fight scenes are still all the awesome and Thunder blowing himself up is still one of the funniest things in any movie.

55.  Unforgiven (1992)
Dir - Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood wisely sat on David Peoples script for Unforgiven for over a decade until he was old enough in real life to play the worn-down, now tamed, women and children murdering, no good son of a bitch Will Munny.  Time indeed is a heavy theme in probably Eastwood's finest directorial effort, but so is the fact that most men cannot really run and stay gone from themselves if the circumstances will not allow it.  Gene Hackman's Little Bill is as grey a character as Munny is.  One of them sobered up for the love of a woman years ago and quit their evil ways while the other took a cushy Sheriff position in a small Wyoming town and revels in his tough guy legend, but only when the situation calls for it as he is just as much at home when building a house for himself to retire in.

54.  Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Dir - Stanley Kubrick

Many view Stanley Kubrick's final opus Eyes Wide Shut as a slightly unfinished work as the director only got to screen it once before his death, at which point his collaborators and Warner Bros. finished some technical details, (and more infamously added CGI bodies to cover up the hardcore thrusting for an R rating).  Even with that all being the case though, it is another masterpiece made by a man who seemed only capable of delivering such things.  Most of the cast speaks very slowly and precisely, as if to heighten the tension as Kubrick styles the Austrian novella from Arthur Schnitzler as a creepy thriller, even if that is not what it is.  The equally unnerving and fascinating orgy scene is the centerpiece and sums up Eyes Wide Shut to a tee; where sexual jealousy, curiosity, fantasy, and reality flirt with each other to a dangerous point, leaving us with way more questions than answers by film's end.

53.  Help! (1965)
Dir - Richard Lester

Hardly anyone thinks that The Beatles' second movie Help! is superior to A Hard Day's Night, but that is where I come in.  Since always, I have fancied their and Richard Lester's second film collaboration over the first and still remarkable one, if for any other reason than because it is noticeably more ridiculous.  With the influence of The Goon Show reigning heavy, (a radio program that The Beatles were all fans of), there is a direct link to be made between the numerous bonkers and random silliness in Help! to the work of Monty Python just a few years later.  Look no further than the tiger that can only be tamed by singing "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th or the out of nowhere, seconds long "intermission", which doubles as my favorite moment in any Beatles movie.  Technically being a musical, you cannot possibly do better than one made up of Beatles songs so in the soundtrack department, this is naturally as good as it gets.

52.  Being John Malkovich (1999)
Dir - Spike Jonze

As arguably the most ingenious screenwriter to emerge in recent memory, Charlie Kaufman's first produced work, (also marking Spike Jonze's directorial debut), Being John Malkovich set the bar ludicrously high as far as how good and how on drugs his films were going to be.  Adaptation and certainly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are close in quality to Malkovich, but this one just ups the insanity to such a gleeful level that it gives it a bonkers edge like nothing else.  Kaufman randomly wrote it for fun, with the simple premise of telling a story of a man in love with someone that he was not married to.   How that turned into the finished product involving puppets, a 7th and 1/2 floor, a slew of odd-ball characters, Charlie Sheen randomly, and of course John Malkovich going into his own head is what separates Kaufman from everyone else.

51.  No Country for Old Men (2007)
Dir - Joel and Ethan Coen

As the Coen brothers dankest and most hopelessly dire movie, many rank No Country for Old Men alongside Fargo as the filmmakers dramatic finest hour.  I have always preferred the aforementioned Fargo less than others, but where No Country is concerned, I wholeheartedly concur with the praise.  Surface similarities abound here with much of the brother's other work, (the desert landscape, a sheriff as protagonist, brutal violence), but the humor is minimal, the music even more so, and the film stays grounded to reality much more than the Coen's usually allow.  Javier Bardem's villain is one for the books, his Anton Chigurh embodying the impending doom of fate, not only for nearly everyone he comes across, but the "country" as a whole; where time moves on and what once was comprehensible becomes more and more uncertain and distressing.

500 Favorite Albums: 50 - 1

50.  Ænima (1996) - Tool

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.

49.  Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) - Depeche Mode

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 "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.

48.  To Bring You My Love (1995) - PJ Harvey

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 Butth-Head 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 it 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.

47. ...And Justice For All (1988) - Metallica

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.  This also provides the best proof that their arrangements were better than any other metal band's, coming in and out of every riff in different and inventive ways.  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.

46. Led Zeppelin II (1969) - Led Zeppelin

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.

45.  Off the Wall (1979) - Michael Jackson

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. 

44.  Blood on the Tracks (1975) - Bob Dylan

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.

43.  Beggars Banquet (1968) - The Rolling Stones

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".

42.  Bloody Kisses (1993) - Type O Negative

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.

41.  Rust in Peace (1990) - Megadeth

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.

40.  King for A Day...Fool for a Lifetime (1995) - Faith No More

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".

39.  Electric Ladyland (1968) - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

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.

38.  Remain in Light (1980) - Talking Heads

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.

37.  Led Zeppelin III (1970) - Led Zeppelin

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.

36.  Slaughter of the Soul (1995) - At the Gates

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.

35.  A Day at the Races (1976) - Queen

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".

34.  Achtung Baby (1991) - U2

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.

33.  Animals (1977) - Pink Floyd

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.

32.  Let It Bleed (1969) - The Rolling Stones 

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".

31.  Machine Head (1972) - Deep Purple

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.

30.  Discovery (2001) - Daft Punk

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.

29.  In Through the Out Door (1979) - Led Zeppelin

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 get 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 they had soldiered on through the 80s.

28.  Ramones (1976) - The Ramones

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 than it had been in years.  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.

27.  News of the World (1977) - Queen

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, this 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.

26.  A Hard Day's Night (1964) - The Beatles

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.

25.  The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) - Bob Dylan

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.

24.  Houses of the Holy (1973) - Led Zeppelin

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 utilized 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.

23.  Help! (1965) - The Beatles

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.

22.  A Night at the Opera (1975) - Queen

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 possible.

21.  The Queen Is Dead (1986) - The Smiths

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 here.  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.

20.  Avalon (1982) - Roxy Music

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.

19.  Awake (1994) - Dream Theater

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.

18.  Aja (1977) - Steely Dan

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.  For any arguments that digital recording can never match tape once it was perfected, here is your 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.

17.  Sticky Fingers (1971) - The Rolling Stones

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".

16.  (untitled) (1971) - Led Zeppelin

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.

15.  London Calling (1979) - The Clash

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.

14.  So (1986) - Peter Gabriel

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.

13.  Sheer Heart Attack (1974) - Queen

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".

12.  Born to Run (1975) - Bruce Springsteen

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.

11.  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) - The Beatles

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.

10.  Images and Words (1992) - Dream Theater

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.

9.  Sign o' the Times (1987) - Prince

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".

8.  Graceland (1986) - Paul Simon

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".

7.  The Joshua Tree (1987) - U2

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.

6.  Exile on Main St (1972) - The Rolling Stones

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.

5.  Physical Graffiti (1975) - Led Zeppelin

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.

4.   Rubber Soul (1965) - The Beatles

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...

3.   Revolver (1966) - The Beatles

...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".

2.  Abbey Road (1969) - The Beatles

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)".

1.  The Beatles (1968) - The Beatles

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!