358. Jorge Ben - Africa/Brasil (1976)













Track Listing

1. Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)
2. Hermes Trimegisto Escreveu
3. O Filósofo
4. Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro
5. O Plebeu
6. Taj Mahal
7. Xica da Silva
8. História de Jorge
9. Camisa 10 da Gávea
10. Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado
11. África Brasil (Zumbi)

Review

Finally the spate of awful albums is over. Praise the lord! Or as they would say in Brasil, Saravá! Speaking of Brasil here is a pretty good what would one call it... "samba-funk-rock" album. Only from Brasil could you have some Samba-Funk-Rock dealing with Hermetic Philosophy, spewing some pretty uninformed statements about the Emerald Tablet and Hermes Trismegistus. It's a great track and it probably won't annoy any of you because it's not a subject that you study for your PhD and you probably never had big confrontations with Brasilian "mystics" on Portuguese language online forums. Lucky you.

That said this is a really fun album, and the lyrics are worth learning Portuguese for, you'll laugh at some of them but other are actually quite good. Ben has a particular talent to stick sentences where only a couple of words would fit, and a particular case of this is Xica da Silva.

You can always count on Brasil to give you a fresh take on whatever music trend is going on and this is no exception. So if you are ever looking for something new in the world of funk you could do no better than this. Do get it.

Track Highlights

1. África Brasil (Zumbi)
2. Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro
3. Xica Da Silva
4. História De Jorge

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Jorge Ben filed a plagiarism lawsuit against British rock singer Rod Stewart for his use of the melody of "Taj Mahal" in the hit song "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" As a result of the lawsuit, Stewart agreed to donate all his royalties from the song to UNICEF.

Taj Mahal... it sounds better on the album:

357. Rush - 2112 (1976)
















Track Listing

1. '2112': I: Overture/II: The Temples Of Syrinx/III: Discovery/IV: Presentation/V: Oracle: The Dream/VI. Soliloquy/VII. Grand Finale
2. A Passage To Bangkok
3. The Twilight Zone
4. Lessons
5. Tears
6. Something For Nothing

Review

So now after so many shit albums, surely we have a great one! Or not... We finish the trudge through some of the shittiest albums on the list with Rush. One of the biggest cult band that for some reason that escapes me never got big critical recognition... hell it doesn't escape me it is obvious!

This is pompous crap music, which is made crappier due of its sheer pretentiousness a and pomposity. It is the missing link between Zeppelin and Guns & Roses but does not have the fun factor of Guns or the quality of Led. It's sheer crap.

Please god release me form crappy prog/hard-rock albums! Oh and a question do you think that a musical theme can be racist? The beginning of Passage to Bangkok starts with that "dinga linga linga linga lin" representing the far east, it is also used in Turning Japanese by The Vapors and is more often used to mean "Chinese". Just a thought.

Track Highlights

1. 2112

Final Grade

4/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In the year 2062, a galaxy-wide war results in the union of all planets under the rule of the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The world is controlled by the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx, who determine the content of all reading matter, songs, pictures - every facet of life during the year 2112 ("The Temples of Syrinx"). A man finds a guitar and learns to play new, different music from what he has ever heard. When he goes to present this to the priests of the Temples, they destroy the guitar. He goes into hiding and dreams of music; upon awakening he becomes severely depressed and commits suicide after a few more days in hiding. As he dies, another planetary battle begins ("Grand Finale") resulting in the (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous ending "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation: We have assumed control." (this spoken section was created by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reportedly "messing around with a tape recorder")

yeah..

The beginning of 2112:

356. Kiss - Destroyer (1976)
















Track Listing

1. Detroit Rock City
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. God Of Thunder
4. Great Expectations
5. Flaming Youth
6. Sweet Pain
7. Shout It Out Loud
8. Beth
9. Do You Love Me
10. Untitled

Review

Wow, this has been an amazing run of albums. Now we are graced with Kiss, and it ain't over yet. Oh well. Need to take the good times with the bad, and this is probably one of the worst runs in the whole list.

So Kiss, it's part of the American take on Glam rock, like Alice Cooper for example, but extraordinarily bad. This doesn't stop them from being mildly amusing and it is for this only reason that I don't absolutely hate this album.

The music is uninteresting, the lyrics are terrible and pretentious. The music itself is slightly pretentious with its sound effects used to no great purpose throughout the album, this makes the album funny but ultimately not memorable. So it is a good album for a laugh but not much more... oh well.

Track Highlights

1. King Of The Night Time World
2. Shout It Out Loud
3. God Of Thunder
4. Detroit Rock City


Final Grade

5/10


Trivia


From Wikipedia:

The cover art for Destroyer was painted by fantasy artist Ken Kelly. Prior to the album's release Kelly's work was brought to the attention of Gene Simmons, who met with Kelly to discuss ideas for Destroyer. Kelly agreed but asked to see Kiss perform live first to gain inspiration. He was invited to a show and given a backstage pass. He later said of the performance, "it blew me away." Kelly was later commissioned by the band to draw the cover for 1977's Love Gun.

The front cover shows the group striding on top of a pile of rubble, and a desolate background spotted with destroyed buildings, some of which are engulfed in flames. The back cover shows a similar scene, but with more buildings on fire. The front of the record sleeve features a large Kiss logo and the lyrics to "Detroit Rock City." The other side displays the lyric "Shout it out loud" in capital letters, as well as an advertisement for the Kiss Army fan club.
Detroit Rock City:

355. Abba - Arrival (1976)
















Track Listing

1. When I Kissed The Teacher
2. Dancing Queen
3. My Love My Life
4. Dum Dum Diddle
5. Knowing Me Knowing You
6. Money Money Money
7. That's Me
8. Why Did It Have To Be Me
9. Tiger
10. Arrival

Review

Here is another album showing us what was wrong with the world of music in the late 70's and why Punk was necessary to tip the scales. This is the most horrid kind of crap to see the light of day.

America has many crimes to defend itself for, from the massacre of Native Americans through to the lovely external politics they chose to grace the world with. But nothing, ever is comparable to what Europeans have inflicted on themselves with the Eurovision song contest. Thankfully there have been some attempts by voters and participants to subvert it (see Finland's win a couple of years ago with Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah).

Abba is a product of that most despicable of crimes and their whole music is a continuation of the infliction of pain and misery to educated ears. Sure they are Swedish so they don't write lyrics very well, it is lost in translation. But do Swedes have a different tonal system as well? The Hives are a great band, I don't mind the Cardigans as well, but Abba? Ace Of Base? Roxette? EUROPE?! Yngwie Malmsteen? Therion? Eric Fucking Prydz?

Although I quite like a Swedish band called Hedningarna, check them out. Oh and my wife's stepfather is Swedish and he's a good guy.

Track Highlights

Highlights?!!! Dancing Queen is good if you are flamboyantly gay and on a dance floor.

Final Grade

2/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

"Fernando" did not appear on Arrival, but it was included on the Australian and New Zealand versions. "Fernando" remained unreleased on Arrival until the first remastered issue in 1997.

Thank fuck for small mercies.


Some Hedningarna for you:

354. Eagles - Hotel California (1976)

















Track Listing

1. Hotel California
2. New Kid In Town
3. Life In The Fast Lane
4. Wasted Time
5. Wasted Time (reprise)
6. Victim Of Love
7. Pretty Maids All In A Row
8. Try And Love Again
9. Last Resort

Review

Ok there are some good things that can be said of this album, it is produced to perfection, some of the songs are supremely catchy, he reprise of Wasted Life is actually quite pretty. And then there are so many bad things you can say about it.

The album is lowest common denominator crap coming out of one of the best music scenes ever to grace our planet. The whole West Coast folk revival thing with Joni Mitchell, all of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and respective projects are pretty great, they were however distilled into absolute twaddle in the Eagles.

You can turn to me and say "Why did they sell so much then", and I can give you the list of the 20 most bought albums and show you how they are mostly shit. There is no challenge to this music, there is not intellect, there is not much other than good production and people who can play their instruments in a quite competent way. It feels tacky, it sounds tacky but a not a good kind. Heck I'd rather listen to the openly tacky Boston than this. The Eagles are one of the most overrated bands of all time, period. It is the murder of the West Coast music scene covered in a thin veil of being its culmination. It's a bit like saying that 9/11 was the culmination of the Twin Towers. 1976 is in desperate need of Punk.

Track Highlights

1. Wasted Life (Reprise)
2. New Kid In Town
3. Hotel California
4. Life In The Fast Lane

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

"Hotel California Effect" is sometimes used in reference to any inescapable place, inspired by the lyrics "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." For instance, in mathematics of Random walks, a perfect sink node can be called Hotel California. In finance, barriers to de-listing from a stock exchange make a listing "Hotel California"

I can never escape having listened to this.

New Kid In Town:

353. Boston - Boston (1976)

















Track Listing

1. More Than A Feeling
2. Peace Of Mind
3. Foreplay (Long Time)
4. Rock 'n' Roll Band
5. Smokin'
6. Hitch A Ride
7. Something About You
8. Let Me Take You Home Tonight

Review

Firstly let me state for the record that I fucking love More Than A Feeling. Now I have a very particular reason for that and that reason is called Guitar Hero, it is one of the funnest songs to play in that game. Now that that is out of the way this album is a bit shit really.

Hey I'll admit even More Than A Feeling is shit, but I still love it. It's the kind of mindless AOR that you can actually enjoy until you start thinking about it. If you think about it you are ashamed. The whole album is a bit like More Than A Feeling only none of the other tracks are as catchy.

In the end it boils down to nothing more than pompous over played crap-rock. It is a bit like Queen with no sense of humour, like Spinal Tap for over 40's, and still you can enjoy it in a very kitsch way. Unlike the next few albums on the list. It's fun, but it is funny unintentionally, and therefore crap. Still, enjoyable crap.

Track Highlights

1. More Than A Feeling
2. Peace Of Mind
3. Let Me Take You Home Tonight
4. Foreplay (A Long Time)

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Scholz was satisfied with the demos to the point that he wanted to use them as a final album, but Epic said no. "The material had to be recorded in a 'professional' studio in exactly the same way!" Scholz later wrote. Scholz insisted on doing the rerecording in his basement. Epic producer John Boylan (produced Little River Band among many others) made a deal with Scholz. Boylan would have the rest of the makeshift band record some studio arrangements in Los Angeles, Delp and Sib Hashian (with Barry Goudreau joining toward the end) to "create a diversion" while Scholz made his multitrack recordings at home.

Most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards were performed by Scholz and recorded at his basement studio. Most of Delp's vocals were recorded in Los Angeles with Boylan. Only two tracks include all the musicians who ultimately toured under the name of Boston, "Foreplay/Long Time" and "Let Me Take You Home Tonight."

More Than A Feeling:

352. Joni Mitchell - Hejira (1976)
















Track Listing

1. Coyote
2. Amelia
3. Furry Sings The Blues
4. Strange Boy
5. Hejira
6. Song For Sharon
7. Black Crow
8. Blue Motel Room
9. Refuge Of The Roads

Review

Yet another Joni Mitchell album, and this is no bad thing, just wait and see the next few albums coming up and you'll understand what I mean. Still, Joni never surpassed herself in Blue and this is unfortunate. I actually like this a little more than Hissing Of Summer Lawns but I am still not blown away from it.

The lyrics are great as always but the music seems a bit samey, near Court and Spark really, and even tough Hissing was a departure it doesn't seem to have been that formative because she is going back to her old self here.

So if you are a great big fan of Joni this is another perfectly competent album, it is not Blue or Court and Spark but it's slightly better than Hissing. So get it if you are a fan, if not there are other places you should start with. It is still Joni so it will always be a very good album, just not excellent.

Track Highlights

1. Coyote
2. Hejira
3. Song For Sharon
4. Amelia

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

* Neil Young plays harmonica on "Furry Sings the Blues." The song is inspired by a meeting that occurred between Mitchell and the blues guitarist and singer Furry Lewis in New Orleans in 1975. After the release of the song, Lewis complained that Mitchell had exploited the circumstances of the meeting; but the song has contributed to awareness of Lewis.

* David Sedaris named one of his stories in his collection "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" after this record. In the story, Mr. Sedaris is thrown out of the house for supposedly subversive behaviour, including over-indulgence in listening to Joni Mitchell.

Sorry about the not very good sound quality on this video of Coyote:

351. David Bowie - Station To Station (1976)
















Track Listing

1. Station To Station
2. Golden Years
3. Word On A Wing
4. TVC 15
5. Stay
6. Wild Is The Wind

Review

If you've been following this list from the beginning of the 70's at least you will already know how big a fan of Bowie I am. And again he doesn't disappoint here. There was a certain shift to R&B with Young Americans, but that was really a transition album to the much superior work that is Station To Station. Young Americans wasn't big on innovation, but here everything changes.

This is the soul and R&B album that you would expect Bowie to do, it is weird and wonderful and it is prefiguring the whole New Wave movement, his "thin white duke" character was a part of what he was doing here, a "soulless soul album". And it sounds strangely mechanical with song titles like TVC 15 while trying to stay in some kind of soul music genre.

Of course the soul music label is very loosely applied here, this is something new, it sounds like a very good album from the 80's yet it is form 1976. This is again an example of Bowie inventing a genre all his own. He had done the same in Hunky Dory and Ziggy and will again do it with Heroes and Low. This album much likeHunky Dory, Ziggy and Aladdin Sane should always be seen as a part of a trypthic in my opinion, with the other Berlin albums, I am taking Lodger out of the equation because I don't think it is nearly as good. Essential.

Track Highlights

1. Wild is The Wind
2. Golden Years
3. TVC 15
4. Station To Station

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

According to biographer David Buckley, Bowie, based in Los Angeles, fuelled by an "astronomic" cocaine habit and subsisting on a diet of peppers and milk, spent much of 1975-76 "in a state of psychic terror".Stories – mostly from one interview, pieces of which found their way into Playboy and Rolling Stone – circulated of the singer living in a house full of Egyptian artefacts, burning black candles, seeing bodies fall past his window, having his semen stolen by witches, receiving secret messages from The Rolling Stones, and living in morbid fear of fellow Aleister Crowley aficionado Jimmy Page. Bowie would later say of LA, "The fucking place should be wiped off the face of the earth".

Despite the noise of a train in the opening moments, Bowie claims that the title refers not so much to railway stations as to the Stations of the Cross, while the line "From Kether to Malkuth" namechecks mystical places in the Kabbalah, mixing Christian and Jewish allusions. Fixation with the occult was further evident in such phrases as "white stains", the name of a book of poetry by Aleister Crowley. The lyrics also gave notice of Bowie's recent drug use ("It's not the side effects of the cocaine / I'm thinking that it must be love"). With its Krautrock influence, it was the album's clearest foretaste of Bowie's subsequent 'Berlin Trilogy'.

YAY Crowley!

Golden Years:

350. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers (1976)
















Track Listing

1. Roadrunner
2. Astral Plane
3. Old World
4. Pablo Picasso
5. I'm Straight
6. Dignified and Old
7. She Cracked
8. Hospital
9. Someone I Care About
10. Girl Friend
11. Modern World
12. Government Center

Review

This is a particularly great album, not only because the music is pretty amazing but also because it is actually not an album from 1976 at all, it is actually a compilation of recording from 1973. And if you think of this as being from 1973 it sounds even more ahead of its time than otherwise. Thing was no one wanted to put their album out until 76.

This is some pretty amazing music, the inspiration of the Velvet Underground is very obvious here, but so is the particular slant put on it by Jonathan Richman. Imagine if the Velvets were writing short rock songs with a snarl and a great sense of humour. That is what you get here. The tracks are all great and pretty funny and curiously it sounds more like much more recent music, like The Strokes or The Coral for example than anything else going around in the 70's. There is an element of proto-punk here but it goes beyond that.

The influence of The Modern Lovers can hardly be over-emphasised, and you will probably know versions of tracks of this album which are covers by other bands. Pablo Picasso is a particular example of a very covered song, and you don't really need to have listened to other people covering them to realise just how influential they were and how modern they sound. I am really loving this album and it is going straight into my Mp3 player so you people get it too!

Track Highlights

1. Pablo Picasso
2. I'm Straight
3. Hospital
4. Roadrunner

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 2003, the album was ranked number 381 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Roadrunner:

349. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (1976)

















Track Listing

1. Rockin' Around With You
2. Breakdown
3. Hometown
4. The Wild One
5. Forever
6. Anything That's Rock 'N' Roll
7. Strangered In The Night
8. Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)
9. Mystery Man
10. Luna
11. American Girl

Review

If you only know Tom Petty for his later days antics like Free Falling or Learning To Fly or Into The Great Wide Open, you are actually missing a pretty good musician. A pattern that I have noticed is that very few artists go untouched by the 80's virus, if they started doing music before the 80's they often get some kind of pervading illness. Most good 80's acts are contained in the 80's or go on to the 90's, rarely are good acts of the 60's or 70's still good in the 80's. Tom Petty is an example.

This album is actually pretty great. There is a self-conscious attempt to mix the Byrds with the Stones, and that is clearly present here, but the time is different, it is now 1976 and there is a little tiny bit of punk creeping into here, the first track for example has about 5 second snippets of punk in the chorus and the music goes on with a certain attitude which was hard to find before the mid-70's bringing a fresh perspective to the Stones and Byrds as well as creating something quite different and fun.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised with this album, I really didn't rate Tom Petty that highly and now I do. The standout track here is the last one, and it is the most famous track in the album for a good reason, American Girl is a perfect 3 minute track of pop-rock whose guitar riff was the direct inspiration to the Strokes' Last Nite. Get this album.

Track Highlights

1. American Girl
2. Rockin' Around With You
3. Anything That's Rock 'N' Roll
4. Breakdown

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Initially following its release, it received little attention in the United States. Following a British tour, it climbed to the UK's top 30. After a full year and many positive UK reviews, the album reached the American charts, where it climbed to No. 55 and eventually went gold. The song "Anything That's Rock & Roll" became a hit single in the UK, "Breakdown" achieved top 40 success, and "American Girl" became a radio staple which can still be heard today.

Elliot Reid is an American Girl:

348. Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Billy Jack
2. When Seasons Change
3. So In Love
4. Jesus
5. Blue Monday People
6. Hard Times
7. Love To The People

Review

I was never that impressed with Curtis Mayfield, and comparisons with Marvin Gaye seem totally disproportionate. Still people do them, and there is something of the Gaye here, just not in any way near the same lever of quality as the Gayester. Again, however this is not to say that it is a bad album.

A thing about this list is that bad albums are actually pretty rare and that is why 90% of things here get 7 or up grades. So this is actually quite good but there is stuff in the same genre which is much more impressive. So Marvin Gaye it ain't, however if you have run out of good Gaye albums this is something to check out.

Mayfield isn't a particularly talented writer and although he has interesting things to say he is not the best at putting his points forward. Then there is also a very religious slant to the album which kind of irks me. when people start singing about Jesus I kind of turn off, unless it is particularly impress and this isn't.

Track Highlights

1. Billy Jack
2. When Seasons Change
3. So In Love
4. Hard Times

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

In February, 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Mayfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999. Unfortunately, health reasons prevented him from attending the ceremony, which included fellow inductees Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Dusty Springfield, George Martin, and 1970s Curtom signee and labelmate The Staples Singers. Mayfield died on December 26, 1999 in Roswell, Georgia surrounded by his family. His last work came to be the song "Astounded", with the group Bran Van 3000, recorded just before his death and released in 2000. As a member of The Impressions, Mayfield was posthumously inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.

So In Love:

347. Earth, Wind, And Fire - That's The Way Of The World (1975)

















Track Listing

1. Shining Star
2. That's The Way Of The World
3. Happy Feelin'
4. All About Love
5. Yearnin' Learnin'
6. Reasons
7. Africano
8. See The Light

Review

Well this is an interesting soul/funk album. It isn't anything spectacular, it's not the Isley Brothers 3+3 or any of the good Stevie Wonder albums, but it is very good on its own merits. It is fun and funky and there isn't much more that you can ask from Earth, Wind, And Fire.

There is not much to be said about this album, except the fact that it is a very competent one and is peppered with intricate harmonies and instrument play. The brass section is particularly impressive here as well as some of the guitars.

For some reason I know Shining Star really well but in another version, and I can't for the life of me remember where I know it from, Wikipedia is also no help, it might be something in Portugal, I am not sure. So if you know where I might know it from in another version drop me a comment, because this shit drives me insane.

Track Highlights

1. Shining Star
2. Reasons
3. That's The Way Of The World
4. Africano

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

That's the Way of the World is a 1975 album by Earth, Wind & Fire. It was also the soundtrack for a 1975 motion picture of the same name which featured several of the band members in cameo roles. The album is best known for the lead track "Shining Star".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 493 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

What a crap video for Shining Star:

346. Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Time of the Preacher
2. I Couldn't Believe It Was True
3. Time of the Preacher (Theme)
4. Medley: Blue Rock Montana/Red Headed Stranger
5. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
6. Red Headed Stranger
7. Time of the Preacher (Theme)
8. Just as I Am
9. Denver
10. O'er the Waves
11. Down Yonder
12. Can I Sleep in Your Arms?
13. Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming)
14. Hands on the Wheel
15. Bandera

Review

The great Willie Nelson, brings us an interesting country album here. Country music is stripped of complexity here into a new kind of purity, basically drums, acoustic guitar, harmonica and little else. It is also a concept album. Which is very interesting, but it does make it a hard album to sink in.

That is the main problem with the album, it doesn't sink in very fast and its pace is quite slow. This does not make it a bad album, but it makes it an album which is a bit more demanding than your average country thing.

In the end it is a good album, with some interesting ideas and a great deal of influence, but it isn't something that you will be singing all day or that you can immediately relate to. Still it is very much listening to. So if you are at all interested in Outlaw Country get it.

Tack Highlights

1. Red Headed Stranger
2. Time Of The Preacher
3. Denver
4. Bandera

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

A concept album, Red Headed Stranger is about a fugitive preacher, on the run from the law after killing his wife. Sparse and jumbled, with brief, poetic lyrics, no one involved in the creation of the album thought it would sell well. In spite of its inaccessibility, Red Headed Stranger was a blockbuster among both country music and mainstream audiences, going multiplatinum and making Nelson one of the biggest stars in country. In 2003, the same year the album was ranked #184 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Nelson sang background vocals and added some guitar to a cover version of the album done by Carla Bozulich of the alt-country band, the Geraldine Fibbers. It was ranked #1 on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music in 2006.

The first track, "Time of the Preacher", was memorably used in the 1985 television drama Edge of Darkness.

The lyrics to "Time of the Preacher" were used to help open the graphic Novel Preacher.

Blue Eyes Crying In Te Rain:

345. Queen - A Night At The Opera (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Death On Two Legs
2. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
3. I'm In Love With My Car
4. You're My Best Friend
5. '39
6. Sweet Lady
7. Seaside Rendezvous
8. Prophet's Song
9. Love Of My Life
10. Good Company
11. Bohemian Rhapsody
12. God Save The Queen

Review

As I've said before here, Queen aren't the best band in the world but by Jove they are a lot of fun. And none of their albums is as much fun as this one. Queen thankfully have a self-conscious humour about their own pomposity. And this whole album is an exercise in that. If you compare it to bands like Aerosmith they come across as quite sophisticated, really, while still coming across as a parody of the heavy metal and prog genres.

This is a good thing because both genres are ripe for sendup. Queen are not a completely spoofy band however, and even though there is a constant tongue firmly placed in cheek through here they also make great compositions. Few pop-rock songs are as perfect as Bohemian Rhapsody really.

This is not to say that it is an amazing album, the joke does get old pretty fast, but it is still a pretty entertaining album to listen too. If you like your albums to be pompous but conscious of how ridiculous they might sound this is the thing for you.

Track Highlights

1. Bohemian Rhapsody
2. Seaside Rendezvous
3. '39
4. God Save The Queen

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album was ranked number 230 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Channel 4 named it the 13th greatest album of all time. It was also ranked #41 on Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" and #16 on Q's "50 Best British Albums Ever!". In 2006 it was voted the ninth greatest Number One album of all time by the British public. Since its release it has consistently ranked high in many lists.

One of the first video clips ever made, Bohemian Rhapsody:

344. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
2. Welcome To The Machine
3. Have A Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt.2

Review

Pink Floyd gives us a more friendly album than any that they put out before. It is not as deep as Dark Side of The Moon or as strange as Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, I can't really say that it is radio friendly except from the title track, but it is not nearly as demanding as any of their previous work.

This is all part of a slope into a certain commercialism by the part of the band, even tough Have A Cigar is ostensibly about the evils of musical success, Pink Floyd were going more and more in the direction of easily digestible music. This would culminate a some years later with The Wall. This is not me saying that it is bad, but it is certainly different.

This is a Pink Floyd album that you can actually remember all the lyrics of. It is catchy, shimmery and pretty well produced. While Pink Floyd's hallmark sound effects are not as prevalent here as in Dark Side, the shift from Have A Cigar to the title track is one of the most perfect ones ever done in music. The buzzing sound of a slightly detuned radio, changing stations until you get to Wish You Were Here, which is then built on top of the crappy radio sound with some of the clearest sounds ever put on vinyl is indeed impressive, even if the song has been ruined due to overuse and misuse.

The bookender Shine On You Crazy Diamond, ends up being the real star of the album, being both simple and beautiful and giving Pink Floyd the time they require to make themselves shine. In my opinion this is the second best Pink Floyd album, and because of that an indispensable addition to anyone's library.

Track Highlights

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt.2
3. Wish You Were Here
4. Have A Cigar

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

According to drummer Nick Mason's book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett actually turned up at the studio in the middle of a recording session on 6 June 1975, which was also the day David Gilmour married his first wife, Ginger, according to the book Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey. Barrett hadn't been seen by any of the band members in five years. He arrived unannounced, his head completely devoid of hair (including eyebrows, as alluded to in The Wall film) and had put on so much weight that most of the band did not recognise him at first. Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley (who was a guest at Gilmour's wedding reception) mistook him for a Hare Krishna devotee. Others were close to tears at the transformation: Waters later confided that he cried. While the band were listening to a song in progress (Mason says he doesn't remember which song, but mentions some 'legends' that contend it was "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"), Barrett sat motionless; he is sometimes quoted as saying, when someone asked to play it back again, that this would be pointless as they had already just heard it. In a recent televised special on Barrett, Gilmour says that it was "Shine On" that they were recording as he showed up. In the same special, Waters says that the part of "The Wall" in which Pink's cigarrette remains unsmoked and burnt down to his fingers was exactly what Barrett did during the "Have A Cigar" sessions. He asked (despite the album being nearly complete) if there was anything he could do, and that he was available if needed. Later on, one of the band's technicians, Phil Taylor, drove past Barrett, who appeared to be looking for a lift. Avoiding an awkward situation, Taylor ducked down in the car as he passed. In a July 2006 interview with a New York City radio station before Barrett's death, Gilmour indicated that they never saw him again after that point. However, Roger Waters has said later on he almost bumped into Syd in Harrods, but did not speak to him. Echoing Barrett's presence, Wright plays a subtle refrain from "See Emily Play" in the final seconds of the album.


Shine On You Crazy Diamond, pt.1:

343. Patti Smith - Horses (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Gloria
2. Redondo Beach
3. Birdland
4. Free Money
5. Kimberly
6. Break It Up
7. Land
8. Elegie

Review

What a great run of albums we have been having lately, Horses is no exception. Known as one of the closes relatives of Punk in the proto-punk era. That is actually not a fair assessment of the album. It is far too literate and unique to be put squarely in the Punk or proto-punk field. The Stooges or The Dictators are much more what I would associate with punk. Actually I see much more of a line between Patti Smith and punk influenced pop groups like Blondie.

This is an amazing album which is very much only equal to itself but you can see how influential it was, particularly with female singers. The similarities with P. J. Harvey are sometimes staggering, there weren't many female singers with the kind of attitude presented in Horses at the time. The best female lyricist was Joni Mitchell who was coming from a much more folk-rockish background. This form of literate harder rock was really unprecedented with this kind of quality.

Horses is an indispensable album for anyone interested in the mid to late 70's music and its evolution. At the moment in 1975 it was shining alone as a beacon for things to come. So you really need to get this if you haven't already.

Track Highlights

1. Gloria
2. Land
3. Free Money
4. Redondo Beach

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

While Horses's commercial success was modest – it peaked at #47 on the U.S. Pop Albums chart – its impact has been far greater.

Smith has been called an early pioneer of punk rock. Allmusic's William Ruhlman said that it "isn't hard to make the case for Patti Smith as a punk rock progenitor based on Horses", while PopMatters' David Antrobus chose Horses as his favorite album and considered it a life-changing classic. Michael Stipe bought the album as a high school student and says it "tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order." Morrissey and Johnny Marr shared an appreciation for the record, and one of their early compositions for The Smiths, "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle", is a reworking of "Kimberly".

Horses frequently appears on lists of the greatest rock albums. Mojo Magazine named the album the tenth greatest of all time in 1995. In 2001, VH1 named Horses the 28th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 44 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

An episode of Millennium, "The Time Is Now", would later use the song "Land" in a bizarre "music video" sequence depicting a character's descent into madness.

In the Toy Machine skateboard video "Good and Evil", Johnny Layton used the song "Free Money" in his part.

Scottish musician K.T. Tunstall has said that her song, "Suddenly I See" was inspired by the cover of this album.

Gloria:

342. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Tangled Up In Blue
2. Simple Twist Of Fate
3. You're A Big Girl Now
4. Idiot Wind
5. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
6. Meet Me In The Morning
7. Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts
8. If You See Her, Say Hello
9. Shelter From The Storm
10. Buckets Of Rain

Review

Oh the lovely Bob Dylan, I can understand people who are irritated by his voice, and therefore have difficulty in appreciating him. But if you have gotten used to it or even quite like it, like myself, there is very little that you can fault in this album. This is the Dylan we all know and love and this album is up there with Blonde On Blonde as one of his all time best albums.

Every single song here is as near to perfection as humanely possible. There is a marked return to Dylan's folksier days and as an album of pain and separation it feels comfortable and right to go back to his roots.

This is Dylan very much at his best and for that simple reason this is and will always be an indispensable album. It is as good as his mid-60's songs, but there is a pain and tenderness here which isn't present as much in those albums. There is actually a quest for beauty in all the pain, for some comfort and this makes it probably the best break-up album of all time. Good for Dylan, and good for all of us.

Track Highlights

1. Shelter From The Storm
2. Simple Twist Of Fate
3. Idiot wind
4. Tangled Up In Blue

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album, which followed several years of lukewarm reception for Dylan's work, was greeted respectably by fans and critics. In the years following its release, it has come to be regarded as one of his very best albums - making it quite common for subsequent records to be labeled his "best since Blood on the Tracks." It is also commonly seen as a standard for confessional singer-songwriter albums, though Dylan has denied that the songs are autobiographical, his son Jakob Dylan has stated: "The songs are my parents talking." Most of the lyrics on the album revolve around heartache, anger, and loneliness.

The tackiest video imaginable for Shelter From The Storm, how can someone have such poor taste?:

341. Neil Young - Tonight's The Night (1975)

















Track Listing

1. Tonight's The Night
2. Speakin' Out
3. World On A String
4. Borrowed Tune
5. Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
6. Mellow My Mind
7. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
8. Albuquerque
9. New Mama
10. Look Out Joe
11. Tired Eyes
12. Tonight's The Night

Review

When On The Beach came out in 74 this album had already been recorded. When you listen to On The Beach the contrast with Young's previous albums is pretty big, but Tonight's The Night is the real transitional album which was only put out in 75 for reasons better known to the fucking record companies.

Young seems to have decided to do exactly the opposite of Harvest, his most successful album. There is not ornate prettiness here, Young stripped both the music and his voice down to the essentials while keeping his lyrical talent unscathed.

Ypung gives us a pared down version of his music, he isn't that worried about being a bit out of tune but with getting back to a "purer" sense of music and melody. This ends up being a great album, even if it isn't as immediate as his previous works, it puts On The Beach in its context and gives us a rounder picture of one of the best musicians of the 20th century. Young is making a much more bluesy, and on occasion even country influenced album here, and this has very much to do with the paring down of music to its essentials, an interesting experiment which also manages to make a great album.

Track Highlights

1. Tonight's The Night
2. Lookout Joe
3. Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown
3. Borrowed Tune

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Dark, heartfelt, and raw, Tonight's the Night was recorded in 1973 but initially rejected by Young's record company (a running theme in Young's career) as the second uncommercial release in a row and an unacceptable follow-up to his popular breakthrough, Harvest, and too stark a contrast with Young's work with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Young's album was a startlingly direct expression of grief: Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and Young's friend and roadie Bruce Berry had both died of drug overdoses in the months before the songs were written. The title track mentions Bruce Berry by name, while Whitten's guitar and vocal work highlight "Come On Baby, Let's Go Downtown", recorded live in 1970. (The song would later appear, in a different take, on a live album from the same concerts, Live at the Fillmore East.)

Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant was known for frequently appearing with a black shirt on, with this album cover pictured.

Tonight's The Night:

340. Rahul Dev Burman - Shalimar (1975)






















Track Listing

1.Title Music
2.One Two Cha Cha Cha
3. Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay
4. Countess Caper (Music)
5. Naag Devta
6. Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai
7. Baby Let's Dance Together
8. Romantic Theme (Music)
9. Mrea Pyar Shalimar
10. Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay (Happy)

Review

The book listing actually has this together with College girl, a much inferior album which is only included because apparently the only version of the album you can get has College Girl stuck to it. This is a lie and so I've focused only on Shalimar. However everywhere on the internet it is said that Shalimar actually came out in 1978, if so this album is in completely the wrong place. And if you want a good example of a great Bollywood album this is actually a great example of it.

Not only is it great music for the most part but it is very representative of the genre, not only do you have Rahul Dev Burman doing all the tracks you also get the great luminaries of the interpretation like Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. This makes for a great album which although it is a pastiche of western genres is completely infused by a Bollywood sensibility which gives it its particular charm.

Even if you are not a fun of Bollywood music, just the first track will make you think twce about the artistry involved in the songs, yes much of it is Ennio Morricone inspired, but what is wrong with that, so is Goldfrapp for fuck's sake. So if you have even a mild interest in Bollywood this is an album to get.

Track Highlights

1. Title Music
2. Baby Let's Dance Together
3. One Two Cha Cha Cha
4. Romantic Theme

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Shalimar was a Hindi movie released in 1978. Its English version known as Raiders of Shalimar was released in USA. The movie starred Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Premnath, Aruna Irani and American actors Rex Harrison, John Saxon and Sylvia Miles in supporting roles. Jayamalini does a dance number in the film.



Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay:

339. Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner (1975)
















Track Listing

1. Opening Intro
2. Emotional Weather Report
3. Intro
4. On a Foggy Night
5. Intro
6. Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)
7. Intro
8. Better off Without a Wife
9. Nighthawk Postcards
10. Intro
11. Warm Beer and Cold Women
12. Intro
13. Putnam County
14. Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)
15. Nobody
16. Intro
17. Big Joe and Phantom 309
18. Spare Parts II and Closing

Review

If you ever need an album for a night in with yourself and a bottle of bourbon or a poker night, or a pretty decadent dinner party, this is definitely the perfect album. Tom Waits has a little kind of live show on this album, it is all artificial of course, it is actually recorded in a studio with an audience, but it does work surprisingly well.

Waits is very funny throughout and the ambience of a smoke filled dive works to perfection with the themes that go all the way from depression to masturbation, while always giving you a little smirk.

This is one of those rare thing called a perfect album. No matter what oyu think of the artificiality of it, it works tremendously well and few other albums are as evocative as this amazing piece of art. Tom Waits is a genius and I am looking forward to reviewing plenty of his other albums here.So get this today! Really.

Track Highlights

1. Better Off Without A Wife
2. Warm Beer And Cold Women
3. Eggs And Sausage ( In A Cadillac With Susan)
4. Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The name is inspired by a 1942 painting by American Edward Hopper that is titled Nighthawks but commonly called Nighthawks at the Diner.

The album was recorded "live" in the studio, in front of a small invited audience. This gives the record a distinct charm as Waits spends time telling stories, jokes and explaining the stories behind his songs through seven separate introductions.

Skip to 5.36 for Better Off Without A Wife: