1001 Albums Summary

#1 The Libertines ~ The Libertines On the start of this 1001 album journey is the sophomore album by the Libertines, a band who's music eventually got overshadowed by the infamously constant feuding between songwriters Carl Barat and Pete Doherty, eventually leading to the premature cut to the band's fame in the early 2000s before they reached their idea of 'Arcadia': a musical land of no rules. Well how's the music. Well the album is naturally unpolished as one would expect with garage rock and their 'Arcadia' concept. In fact you might believe that the album was done in one take with how some songs immediately lead into another with no warning, much more strikingly done than on other garage albums. Indeed, many of the songs have barely any mixing, many that overall this album might as well be a really wild live concert, especially when from nowhere Doherty starts playing harmonicas, trumpets and keyboards. What is noticeable though is how the climaxes come and go so quickly, as if the band deliberately holds itself back JUST as its about to reach an anticipated explosion of sound. This quirk therefore makes every song sound very fragile and fleeting, and suddenly the concept of 'drug highs' comes to mind about what this album sounds like. And why drug-highs? Because the lyrics are heavily centred around the unstable tension between Barat and Doherty, and this is made extremely clear by the first track and is hammered throughout the rest of the album. Doherty, coked and screwed up in the mind, being a mess in public. Barat, trying to stay sane throughout the entire ordeal (he actually tried to kill himself by smashing his head to a pulp on a bathroom sink, this is how stressful being in the band was). Perhaps an underrated aspect of the Libertines is particularly Doherty and Barat's lyricism, filled with caustic wit, lucid imagery and a lot of self-hatred. It follows the British tradition of kitchen-sink realism popularised by the Kinks, the Smiths, Blur and, eventually, Arctic Monkeys. It is the back and forth competitiveness within the lyrics that primarily give the Libertines its unique sound, and it is potentially its turnoff to some people, cause those lyrics easily rise into uncomfortable excess. As the British product of garage rock to coincide with the American Strokes, the Libertines hold a very interesting position in music history. A band that self-sabotaged their fame but gave the public taste-tests for UK rock music to come in the following decade. Frankly there are definitely worse British garage-rock albums done by other bands (*cough* Kaiser Chiefs *cough*) and there are CERTAINLY better garage-rock albums done by other bands, but if you are a fan of garage rock, I don't see why you shouldn't give this album, and the Libertines, a chance. Verdict: Like watching a very entertaining divorce

#2 Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea ~ PJ Harvey After channelling all that Nirvana, Patti Smith and Muddy Waters in a miserablist discography of post-punk, grunge and ultraviolent blues, Dorset poet Polly Jean Harvey sat down and decided 'man I should write something vaguely resembling pop'. This is Harvey's most accessible album, not the classics 'Rid of Me' and 'To Bring You My Love', which may be insanely caustic to those unfamiliar to Harvey. Sure it might not be crushing-your-balls angsty as those two albums but what it is is strikingly mature and candid. After reaching what she might have thought was the zenith of her creative powers by making up wicked stories of drowning babies and sex gone wrong, Harvey decides to write about something direct: the city of New York, with its history in punk music canon and its influence on her. And she dresses more personal poetry with a more polished, calmer post-punk blues sound. And never has she sounded more alive. No longer a narrator of death ballads but an actor consumed by the magic of an idealised New York and love. She grapples with her love of fame (We Float) and romantic love (Good Fortune, The Mess We Are In, This Is Love) in a vulnerable but steadfast position. Other times she explores both the beauties of NYC (You Said Something) and the hidden ugliness (Big Exit, The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore). But the main moral that Harvey sums up with these personal songs is to live your life to the fullest. Every song, no matter how many vulnerabilities she mentions, is sung as if she's undefeatable, as if whatever demons that plagues her is purged by her poetry. This is a relatively light-heartened album (for Harvey at least) about life-affirmation, freedom and beauty. It may stand in the shadow of its more bad-tempered elder sisters, but it shines with its own unique charm. Verdict: An oddball turn for happiness yields very pleasant results

#3 Cosmo's Factory ~ Creedence Clearwater Revival Well despite respecting their influence, I've actually never dipped my toes into John Fogerty and CCR as I'm not American, nor intelligent in country rock, except for a few songs. Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising, Have You Ever Seen The Rain and Proud Mary is perhaps the extent of my knowledge of this band. So I was pretty excited for this album. My goodness, that first track. Well whatever that first track was, it basically put me in a good feeling trance and a dance. And that's really the beauty of this album for me. No pretensions, it's just infectious jams and rock and roll to keep the album feeling surprisingly fresh. And it just goes to show how unintelligent I am when it comes to classic country cause this is not necessarily a country rock album. It is, for lack of a better term, 'Americana'. It is all things vogue in American music in 1970. Classic rhythm and blues, soul (I wasn't expecting an 11 minute rendition of Grapevine to show up, and how pleased I was when it did), and the Beatlesesque psychedelia of that album opener, Ramble Tamble, really shows how versatile a band CCR was at this time. Fogerty the guitarist I see his sound as a prelude to the louder blues-rock bands of the Who and Led Zeppelin, no doubt. Fogerty the songwriter I see foreshadowing the sentimentality of Michael Stipe of REM, although I noted it could be slightly hit-or-miss. But for all the slight awkward moments in the lyrics, Fogerty the vocalist pulls through, because he sings with just enough passion and just enough technique, from howls and yells of anguish to twangy tenor singing, to elevate each song to hit home. And the rest of CCR are tightly screwed together, like a well oiled engine, propelling each song along with a never-ending energy. Cosmo's Factory shines in the fact that everything seems so natural. CCR came to deliver solid music, and they just did. No need to overthink too much, just play with soul. It is extraordinary in being ordinary in the best way possible, through sheer consistency, playing the best-of-America genres with their own flavour of sound. And really, if you are as rocksteady a band as CCR and as passionate of a guitarist and singer as Fogerty is here, you really can't go so wrong. Verdict: And so the pearly gates of the 70s open up.

#4 Hail To The Thief ~ Radiohead After Radiohead tricked everyone and revealed their true colours as classical music students with Kid A and Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief more or less seemed to be a return of decency: something that sounds like rock. Instead it attempted a highly ambitious blend of their electronic work with their Bends-ian guitar work in a project more daring than OK Computer.... in theory. Instead, like Amnesiac beforehand, something just falls flat with this album. But first, the positives. Sonically this album remains infectiously ear-catching and interesting. The guitarwork is a lot more tighter, a lot less bombastic, allowing for the electronica elements to soak in more easily, to actually have an effect. OK Computer was constantly praised for 'blending rock and electronica,' a pretty rubbish assertation in hindsight when Nine Inch Nails was in vogue a good few years before Radiohead. But Hail To The Thief sounds more worthy of this distinction than OK ever did, if you are following the train of thought of a classical musician and considering 'electronica' as 'Penderecki and Stockhausen'. On that front I can say yeah, the music is quite revolutionary. Yorke's voice, whether one likes it or not, is quite remarkable. It's operatic, not in a heroic sense like Buckley's, but innately filled with unbearable fragility, like the tragic figure betrayed by his own weakness. Frankly, this voice as it flutters through its register with each song, from low baritone to wailing falsetto, it adds another layer of magic to the already solid instrumental work of the rest of the band. And I would certainly rate this album higher if Yorke just said absolutely nothing and vocalised. Because the main problem dragging this album down like a lead weight is the PERSONALITY of this project. I listen to this and ask myself 'doesn't this all sound really rushed'. OK Computer had passion. Kid A had passion. Amnesiac (although not that great) had passion. Did Radiohead think that flashing something political equals passion? There are some true fillers of songs plaguing this album. Sure a lot of people diss on Kid A's lyrics, but Yorke's voice was ornamentation, not the forefront. Here he forces you to listen to every word he says like it's more profound because the subject matter is political, and he will make you sit down and stand up to listen to him say 'the raindrops' 47 times. Sure, such 'surrealist' lyrics can and has been used for political commentary (Court Of The Crimson King), but you need a bit more flesh and depth into the lyrics. You need more than just shades of bleak grey, which what Hail To the Thief really feels like, despite the musical heights it tries to climb. Rock critics would prefer in a long revolving-door list of bands if Wilco, Modest Mouse, Animal Collective, or Black Country, New Road were more popular with the common people. The common people may wish for Muse and Coldplay to return to their earlier formats. They'll have to stick with Radiohead if they want to be a fan of a popular band with 'artistic faith'. Hail To The Thief is a solid-sounding album that borders so dangerously close in being a disingenuous parody, and it's a shame cause there are some really great gems here (There There, Where I End and You Begin, Sail to the Moon, Wolf At The Door). But as a political album, does it really inspire anything? If only they'd just have another flavour that's not 'DOOMSDAY' for their next album... Verdict: A Wolf At The Door and nobody's listening

#5 Led Zeppelin ~ Led Zeppelin Alongside the gradual implosion of the Yardbirds towards the end of the 60s, guitar rock music in Britain had its slow evolution out of blues into more ambitious territories. Eric Clapton continued his tradition of psychedelic rock by going for more dreamy, laidback and trippy solos with his band Cream. Jeff Beck took his seminal distortion techniques and dressed his sound with a jazz fusion flavouring. Jimmy Page decided to stick to the basics: a blaze of technical riffs and solos, just louder than what he had done with the Yardbirds. And so the New Yardbirds, later dubbed Led Zeppelin after a suggestion from the Who's Keith Moon, was founded. Its destination was mostly the same as with the Yardbirds: rock and roll. Page and his new bandmates, singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, all have the chops to do something dazzling. Good Times Bad Times is an amazing starter for the album to showcase the technical strengths of the band: an appetiser for the next 8 songs. And throughout this album, Led Zeppelin perform, almost as if a live concert, blues song covers and originals in a heavy, bombastic heart-pumping rock. And man does it sound quite fucking amazing for a debut. The sound of this album is much more subtler than future releases as the band scouring through multiple variations of their sound from psychedelia to the rock akin to CCR. It's quite obvious that although the band works as if one, they aren't sure about their vision for their sound as of this record, and this is may be because Page is still hesitant about Led Zeppelin as a working project. Take into context, the death of the Yardbirds marked a turning point for rock, and critics were very critical of the thought of reviving such a band, even under a new name. And because of this already hostile backlashing, some of the songs here may seem overcompensatory. Page can drag on a bit without any substance, and Plant's voice can also feel a bit held back. I'm not being totally critical of what happened in this album, I commend the great ranges that Led Zeppelin have tried out here, but there's definitely still moments where the band needs to be a bit more tighter and less meandering with their sound. Cause I must say, Side 2 can feel like a chore to listen through. Not many bands can hit quite this hard for a debut, and not many bands can enter the scene with great ambition. Led Zeppelin's debut is a record that represents the great strengths of a band that is quickly ironing out their clinks, and feel determined to take the world by storm through sheer power-riffing and solos.

#6 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ~ Elton John I mean, what can I say? Deliciously opulent. Proudly self-indulgent. Over-extravagant and Wagnerian in scope. This is an album that defines the term 'pop-opera'. Elton's piano and guitar instrumentation is a powerful wall of sound that is both catchy and complex, a sign of a well tuned ear for music. Bernie Taupin's light-heartened, imaginative lyrics, although wavering on outdated, really do help move the sound of the album forward. And Elton's voice sounds really REALLY good here, brimming with a controlled confidence. Frankly, this is an album that can easily leave you at a loss for words, it really is just that epic. Verdict: Pop for La Scala

#7 Loveless ~ My Bloody Valentine Kevin Shields has often been described as an auteur by critics, in a similar veins as Phil Spector was before. And in this 'Twin Peaks' of an album, Shields felt so determined to make his guitar sound like nothing before and break every rule of rock, that he gave his entire band hearing damage and bankrupted his record label. All in the name of art, he would say, and he will continue to pleasantly commit to this art until he's completely deaf. (or until everyone in the world is deaf, as notoriously seen in MBV concerts where he subjugates his audiences with 120dB noise for 15 minutes until they become zombies) Indeed, Loveless is intended to be a brain-melter. Shields overlays layer upon layer of distorted guitars of different levels of deafening to basically produce a haze of ambient noise that hovers around the harmony. From there, he builds the sound of a melody or a light-toned riff within the thick fog, and occasionally the voice of himself or rhythm guitarist, Belinda Butcher comes in like a lighthouse in the darkness, or out-of-the-blue like a searing explosion. The contrast between different songs is jarring for effect ('to here knows when' into 'when you sleep') and it all plays into MBV's goal to numb your mind through trance-like songs of noise. Essentially, the music is an aural depiction of a high. No song seems to end cleanly, to mark to end of one song and the start of another, but rather they either blend or kickstart one after another, in the sense of how one builds the story of a lucid dream. Nothing seems to make sense, but it just happens to work in an absolutely pleasant manner. And this high is sustained by the aforementioned mixture of loops and layers of distorted guitars, cooing low-pitched voices (a bit like echoes, in where you don't remember what people say in dreams), and a pounding rhythm section to prevent you from lingering to long in one place. In the mid 1800s, the composer Franz Liszt produced a set of piano works which he dubbed 'Transcendental Studies,' where in an opium-induced frenzy, he wrote a highly dense set of compositions that assailed the audience with the grand scale of the piano to the point that women were recorded to have fallen into hysteria upon listening. This album is more or less the same thing for guitar-rock. Like Liszt and Phil Spector, MBV redefined with Loveless what sounds an instrument, or a band can achieve, and the serious power that overwhelming sound can have on people. You may shudder in horror to the immense distortion, or grimace at the uncomfortably pitched voices, but this is a what-the-fuck album that is a euphoric experience like no other (seriously, what the hell were only shallow, when you sleep, i only said and sometimes). I will say though, like sunbathing, Franz Liszt and heroin, one shouldn't keep this album in constant rotation. Else the ringing hangover in your ears and mind will mess you up. Verdict: Brainwashing, The Album

#8 Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby ~ Girls Against Boys So Girls Against Boys is an interesting underground band that fell under the tag of 'post-hardcore' (whatever that means) and like most underground bands, the members came and go every now and then to join other bands, in particular fellow post-hardcore band Fugazi and emo band Rites of Spring. It was with Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby that a solid lineup was founded. Music-wise, it's incredibly sludgy and muddy and average, more or less what you expect from post-hardcore production. Quite interesting though is the use of two bass guitars, and I commend such unusual ideas. The vocals are pretty average, a very whispery, hazy voice that can grow up into a growl when required, more or less what you expect from an underground ground. Lyrics its all very faux-sexy like a cheesy 90s B-film. And this is where I'm stumped, because this sounds like a very competent band that has style, but barely any of the songs feel quite memorable for 2/3 of the album until you reach Bulletproof Cupid, and then I felt some semblance of a jump. Maybe a good cookup and more thought for the first half can make this album more worthwhile, but like the lyrical tone, I just feel a general sense of apathy for the album in general. Nothing very offensive about this album, just very meh. Bulletproof Cupid and 7 Seas really help this album reach the conclusion. Verdict ~ Stuck in the underground.

#9 Birth Of The Cool ~ Miles Davis It's some good jazz that has started to evolve out of the era of bebop to prioritise feeling over technique. Miles Davis started out his fame by taking over the rapid fire fingers of Dizzy Gillespie in the Charlie Parker Quintet and became well respected as a virtuoso of the trumpet equal to Gillespie almost immediately. But as years past, Miles was looking to expand and redefine his sound, no longer interested in being another Gillespie, but like him a pioneer of his own sound. Birth Of The Cool represents this attempt to deliver this new sound. Distinguishing features? The sound of this album is incredibly smooth and laidback compared to prior bebop albums. Solos are less flashy and feel more like breathes of fresh air through the haze of the jazz orchestra. And emphasise of 'jazz orchestra' because the arrangements of these songs are well thought out so that the sound of every trumpet, trombone, French horn (yes there's one in there), tuba (yes, also that), alto sax and baritone sax is taken into consideration and paired in different ways to elicit sounds of different timbres throughout each standard, or arranged in a fugue-like manner to propel the music forward like an oiled machine. If you are thinking this is sounding a lot like classical music, you would be correct, because this is basically the concept of classical orchestration, particular the impressionist or spectralist era of classical music: the creation of 'new sounds' via the blending of old. This is what gives Birth Of The Cool that very velvet sound: how each instrument interacts with one another in difference of pitch, volume and timbre. The relative slowness of each song helps drastically to highlight this 'new' sound of bebop jazz, as it basically puts Miles innovations forefront rather than the technique of the trumpeter. This is just a very solid album, and another good selection of songs for any jazz lover, or perhaps someone new to jazz to lay back and soak in the sound. If there was only one criticism, there's no big catcher song, it's all very neat and pretty but no earcatcher. It's just a well-done jazz session, which may be inconsequential for someone in tune to jazz, but might be a hard pill to swallow for a newcomer. Verdict: Birth Of The Cool, Birth of a Sound

#10 The Idiot ~ Iggy Pop Iggy is definitely a bit of an acquired taste with his rough, unrefined vocals and general personality, and The Idiot is not necessarily in his style, being produced by Bowie under mostly his writing, but this is an album that sounds very very good. In it, Iggy swaps out an untamed drug-induced wildness with a more wistful irony, whilst maintaining a growling bite to his vocal delivery, more noted in that excellent rendition of China Girl, which I like more than Bowie's version. And speaking of Bowie, he does an excellent job at crafting the songs of this album. Each song feels like a truly creative process unfurling, and they add real kick to Iggy's vocals, or portray one of his many moods that he reveals throughout the album, from perverted lust in 'Sister Midnight' and 'Funtime' to sardonic mockery in 'Dum Dum Boys' to cold paranoia in 'Mass Production'. The Idiot is a strange album in the Iggy discography, rather it's a blend of Iggy's rawness with Bowie's more reflective eclecticism. And some people will say this is not a Iggy album because of all the Bowie prints on it. That's bullshit. Without Iggy the music would have none of the things that make this album have personality. And this is what this album is. A more personal moment in Iggy's evolution. Verdict: Dostoevsky goes night-clubbing

#11 Triangle ~ The Beau Brummels The Beau Brummels were a band in the 60s that rode the wave of psychedelic rock. It's a real shame about the lyrics, cause everything about this record is as dry as white toast. It was a bit of a snorefest to get through this album, with the somewhat outdated instrumentals and lazy vocals. Is there really anything to say about this album, about from the lyrics, that I found worthy to talk about? Verdict: ...

#12 The Dark Side Of The Moon ~ Pink Floyd So let's get this straight. Is this the best Pink Floyd album? No. Is this album kitsch and cliched as hell? Definitely. Does this make it a bad album? Hell no. Is this album an incredible masterpiece? Yeah, yeah it pretty much is. My honest feelings is that I think some people take this album a little bit too seriously, and that Pink Floyd's immediate later album is a bit better. However this doesn't take away from the fact Dark Side Of The Moon still sounds incredibly insane as the day it first released, bathed in a multitude of studio effects, tape recordings, ambiguous lyrics and warped, distorted guitar solos to provoke as much auditory stimulation as possible. It is magnificently bloated, excessive epic in sound, and it's just incredibly enjoyable to listen to. Even if some of the lyrics are a bit self-indulgent, it's just really damn nice to listen to. It's just so pretty.

#13 Innervisions ~ Stevie Wonder I think the one big thing we all like to point at Stevie Wonder and say 'Wow, what a genius' is the technicality and structure of the songs of Innervisions. And yes, songs from the funky opener 'Too High' to soul classic 'Living In The City' to 'Higher Ground' all the way to the end of 'He's Misstra Know-It-All' are all built like classical paintings, where Stevie bares his hand and reveals the full extent of his musical prodigy. It sort of makes sense, a man who cannot see to describe a world must have a phenomenal sense of hearing to build such an orchestra of synth keyboards, gospel choirs and drums that provoke a feeling that you can 'see' the mental world of Stevie Wonder in 1973. Frankly, Stevie's lyrics are a bit of a conundrum. Sometimes he sounds like a prophet, preaching about the harsh realities of the city, systematic racism and his abuse of drugs. And sometimes it really feels he's just running off his mouth, spouting really anything he believes conceptually rather than physically see for himself. But then again that's a prophet to you. Regardless of what he sings and spouts, his vocals have just enough conviction and control to sell you the story. What the fuck is 'Golden Lady' about? Does he think white ladies are 'golden'? Or is about the sun? Who knows, all these pseudo-nonsense lyrics sound incredibly touching to me. Perhaps the real real best thing about Innervisions: its accessibility. His dense, orchestral instrumentation and production, and his preachy, sometimes pretentious lyrics never feel over-the-top, overwhelming or annoying. Sure there are many incredible albums out there which you could say sound more impressive than Innervisions, let's take Loveless by My Bloody Valentine as an example. That album sounds crazy good but you wouldn't be blamed if the desire to make deafening blended guitar distortions sounds obnoxious as all hell. Innervisions sounds deceptively simple, more Mozartian than Wagnerian. It's highly catchy and light on melody despite being so technically dense. With combination of his freakishly powerful instrumental arrangements, Innervisions ends up being a powerful voice that speaks to you the listener: the definition of soul. Verdict: Music that makes you believe in Stevie's faith

#14 Crocodiles ~ Echo And The Bunnymen A fairly underrated rock band that emerged in the 80s, the debut of Echo And The Bunnymen borrows sounds somewhat similar to the works of other bands around the time, such as The Cure, Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The issues is that those bands have much more distinct styles: the echoey reverbs of Siouxse's later 'Juju' and the Cure's contemporary 'Seventeen Seconds', and the manic Eno-infused whirlwind of Talking Heads' 'Remain in Light'. Crocodiles sounds just very average. This is by no means a big at the band's competence. The music at its barest is tight and well-controlled. The lyrics are average, but the vocals are pretty great. No doubt this is a great band in the making, but they need a bit more edge out of their debut to might be worth considering listening to. But if you are already in love with bands under 'post-punk', I don't see why you should really dismiss this album. Verdict: pretty inoffensive

#15 Basket of Light ~ Pentangle A very underrated record from a very underrated band I must say. Very pretty sounding and intricate, with an incredibly lush arrangement of sitar, banjos, guitars and percussion. It produces an air of fantasy and comfort that makes you feel very homely. I don't see how you can hate such an album that does that. Something that would be incredibly striking is the changing time signatures. I had to do a double take when the rhythm shifts so often you think this album was written by Stravinsky or a very seasoned jazz bebopist, particularly the use of some very very unusual time signatures of 5/8, 7/8 and 11/8. It's basically the primer of this album. This shift of rhythm to flow with the beautiful vocal phrases of Jansch, McShee and Renbourn make each song feel organic, as if you are right with them by a bonfire as they craft a sing-along for everyone. This is an album that defies labelling. The best label for such an album is just a pure-folk band. But there are a huge amount of things happening that lends your ears to other influences: psychedalia, jazz, blues, perhaps the pop rock of the Beatles even. And it's all the best bits from each world. Verdict: Prog folk?

#16 Let's Get It On ~ Marvin Gaye Fuck me, what an album. Marvin Gaye sounds crazy good here. And who can really blame him, cause he's really getting down and sexy with these 8 songs. But in them is also a touch of deep sentimentality and personal vulnerability in his voice, as if the thought of romance elicits painful memories (Please Don’t Stay (Once You Go Away), If I Should Die Tonight). And yes, love can be ugly and painful but these sort of unpredictable affairs should be taken with a reasonable degree of optimism, which Marvin breathes into the album. This is the key that makes this album sound truly ALIVE. Outside Marvin's layered vocals, the instrumentals are incredibly lush and easy going to listen to. Nevertheless the introduction of saxophone in the background lines help duet with Marvin's vocals and adds an soaring feeling to the music (Come Get To This). This is a short album, which aims to do one thing well: to make you feel alive. And it pretty much does it perfectly with each song. If one could nitpick something about this album, it probably be the fact it inspired a very lacklustre Charlie Puth song, and that's probably it. Verdict: The Joy and Pains of Life

#17 Pump ~ Aerosmith I mean, it's an Aerosmith record that does what it's meant to do: produce hard rock. This time though, with Aerosmith in it's mainstream period that they will continue to carry until the mid 90s, this is probably the album which feels the most cohesive and enjoyable, as Aerosmith indulge in their love of classic rock. Tyler sings pretty good on this one. The drums have kick. The guitar riffs are pretty catchy. And they more or less do this for every song, which you can't really complain about, but it makes writing something about this album a bit difficult. It's just nice hard pop rock, and probably their apex mainstream-wise. Verdict: Decent stuff to pump onto the player.

#18 At Budokan ~ Cheap Trick The story of Cheap Trick's early success might seem a bit strange today. The American rock band did not find much immediate success at home, but in JAPAN, they found themselves gods by the time of their second album. And after a legendary performance at the Nippon Budokan, their live recording album was their first significantly mainstream album, spread via word of mouth. From there, there popularity was cemented. The sound of At Budokan is quite catchy and neat, loud rolling, tight guitar work underpinned by a steady rhythm section. This is the sauce of Cheap Trick. Solos are kept fairly short and conservative, melodies are very simple and catchy. And harmonies are lavishing stripped down to the essentials and filled out by the sound of the guitar. And the lyrics might not mean much, just sing about something empowering. Nowadays this is pigeonholed by critics as power pop or pop punk, but in the late 70s this genre was practically dead, placed by disco and soft folk rock. Cheap Trick revived this genre, and the raw sound of this band can point to how. The nature of this album being a live album serves well to show the power of Cheap Trick, but its muddied mixing might hide the fact that this is a incredibly tight and urgent band, and that tightness is what brings some of the flair of Cheap Trick. And by today's standards, the songs may seem very uninspired and kitsch in comparisons by their direct descendants in the 80s and 90s: Guns and Roses, Green Day and their ilk. Preferably you check out Cheap Trick's early catalogue as they sound much more interesting there than on the live album. But if you are starting to get into Cheap Trick (it's never too late), you can't go wrong with Cheap Trick At Budokan.

#19 Stephen Stills ~ Stephen Stills It need not be understated that Stills is a very talented technical musician. His skills for composing each keyboard, rhythm guitar, bass and organ for each song is nothing short of impressive. It's for this reason why some consider him the best part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Without those skills of composition and guitar work, that supergroup wouldn't have the sound it has. Plus the cameos of Hendrix and Clapton are very, very pleasant. Overall, each song is filled with a very endless and effortless groove. And that's about it. Stills is not Crosby, Nash and definitely not Young in terms of songwriting. And I have major gripes with the songwriting. His lyricism is just so painfully dull and unpolished. It's just a bunch of empty climaxes and cheesy runnings of the mouth in some songs, at its worst its arrogant and pretentious. Now I'm all for pretension, but you got to sell me on your inflated mental world, and Stills doesn't really do that. In fact, the more I paid close attention to the lyrics, the more frustrated I found. So good advice to people, just groove to this album. Don't take it so seriously. The music does the job well, and just imagine Stills is speaking in tongues. Then suddenly this album feels quite pleasing. Verdict: That really good guitarist in CSNY

# 20 The Isley Brothers ~ 3 + 3 I love me some Motown, and this is a very good Motown record on our hands here. 3+3 is probably what can be considered the Isley Brothers breakthrough, written around the time of Wonder's Innervisions, but the reality is they had a bunch of early hits that were eventually covered and made into staples. Stuff like 'It's Your Thing' and 'Twist and Shout'. They are quite nice songs, but perhaps they didn't have a wow factor that covers captured later on. I don't think you can say that about this album. Some incredibly charming songs, with a very smooth danceable feel helped by some very nice vocal harmonies and instrumental work on the piano, guitar and synths. Not necessarily as punchy as the contemporary funk of Stevie, but definitely it can stand side by side in its own way. Nice calming pop tunes. Stand out track is the first track, That Lady, before it slides out into some chill pretty songs before it kicks off in the final with Summer Breeze and The Highways of My Life.

#21 Lou Reed ~ Berlin Lou Reed is a bit of a funny figure. He's a seminal figure of the New York music scene of the 70s, but unlike Iggy Pop, who has somewhat of a populist appeal, Lou Reed was more the opulent pretentious critic baiter with seeming delusions of grandeur. And sometimes these delusions are pretty valid, but they definitely come with a lot of words. Let's start off with the tone of Berlin. It's pretty depressing, and although I like a lot of good depressing albums, something about Lou Reed's apathetic loathing is a bit aggravating. It's mostly due to those acid lyrics, bordering on histrionics. They are written almost sarcastically, as if Lou is cursing perceived notions of himself as the songwriter rock star the music canon will praise him to be. To this effect, it perpetuates this story he's trying to tell in this album, that of a drugged up musician trying to perform every vice available in New York. It's very deliberate in creating this alienating world that is the persona's delusional mind state and his thoughts on the family drama that unfurls. Now the instrumentals, which is a lot more straightforward than the lyrics, and also very very pleasing. Lou paints an almost orchestral rock sound, with a trademark mix of a jazz big band and punk guitar band, which he had with the glam rock of 'Transformer,' his previous album. And with this band, he can definitely string out a multitude of emotions, from quiet introspection to radiant nostalgia to self-destructive freakout. In fact, I'd say the music is where you feel the motivation that drives the miserabilism of Berlin, egging Reed's persona to continue on and find some happiness, whereever it is. That happiness of course never comes, and so the instrumentals serve as a vehicle to add more drama to the apathatic delivery of Lou, to translate his morbid, depressing lyrics into audible turmoil. This album is definitely like an opera. This is definitely not the easy listening experience of Lou's contemps in Bowie and Iggy, but rather the sound of a 1920s German expressionist drama about broken families, childhood trauma, drug overdoses and suicide in the form of a punk band. Fortunately, I like Wozzeck, a German expressionist opera that basically follows a story similar as the one told by Reed, so I can stomach this sort of sound, but definitely others might not. The highlight of Berlin is definitely the second half, but I guess people might have to slog through the impressive combination of sounds and emotions Lou manages to draw to make you feel that this is the most miserable listening experience on Earth.

#22 Fifth Dimension ~ The Byrds The Byrds stake their claim as one of the first psychedelic folk acts, which is nice. They have David Crosby, which is nice. I can definitely hear a bunch of acts they've influenced, like Tom Petty and REM, which is nice. But I guess the issue is I don't necessarily hear anything of substance for the first few albums. I guess it's a bit too easy-listening for my taste. Like sugar water. The album feels very inconsistent. Some songs are pretty good. 8 Miles High is the biggest stand out, but after that song, my god I nearly fell asleep, and that's not necessarily a good sign, because I get excited or piqued by the lowest of tricks. Still it's not as bad as Beau Brummels, in the sense that there's something redeemable and charming I find about this album, but certainly an album I can't really see revisiting.

#23 Synchronicity ~ The Police Easily their most popular, ambitious and best album from the punk band that seemed posed to take the world, but vaporised at the height of their fame. After 1980, members Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland did not like each other, having proved their mettle by themselves in other side projects, and feeling snuffed out by one another. Synchronicity was thus a desperate attempt to reel these 3 differing egos into one album: Sting's funky, pining sex-addicted lyrics, Summer's more new-wave/prog rock indebted guitar work and the conservative jazz drumming of Copeland. As expected from such an idea, each song stands out in its own way, from the whirling polyrhythm of Synchronicity I and the gamelan soundscape of Walking in Your Footsteps to the howling, demented Captain Beefheart-esque vocals in Mother, the balladry of Every Breath You Take, and the more traditional pop rock of King Of Pain and faux-reggae of Wrapped Around Your Finger. This is a more accessible Talking Heads, a hippier Peter Gabriel, or even 1980s King Crimson gone pop The main concern for having such eclectic influences, as with a lot of albums is consistency. Sure you don't want an album sounding the same throughout, else the whole thing is a slog, but each song is distinctly different that to listen to the album as a whole can feel jarring. It's particularly why people have mixed feelings with Side 1 of this album, where it feels like you are whiplashed between songs, made most obvious with Mother. This makes Side 1 feel forgettable, even though the songs as individual pieces cannot be considered faultable. It's also why Side 2 is so memorable, at least you can easily follow each song one by one without a whiplash. The Police are a band that have fallen into 'popular = bad' to music hippies and nerds. Perhaps this is partially valid for their early faux-reggae work, but Synchronicity is a damn good record, foreshadowing an element of the sounds of the 80s, balancing a freedom of experimentation and expression with a populist sheen. Verdict: A swan song for sex-driven ego.

#24 The Rolling Stones ~ The Rolling Stones It's their debut album. Not much to say. A bit samey samey. I guess a bit outdated, but nevertheless foreshadowing a lot of what's to come. Mona is really great. In fact the first half of the album is pretty good in general, and then you kinda start to fall off by the second half. It's not amazing nor horrendously bad. It's just some decent blues rock. Verdict: Rolling Stones debut.

#25 Teen Dream ~ Beach House Well it's very pretty music I must say. The tunings and recording of guitars done in this album is very impressive. The piano, organ and synths are charming. I just find myself wanting more. Something is just lacking in the sound of the album. It bothers me a bit; I feel as if I'm longing for something from this album. But I'm getting withheld climaxes. Maybe this is just me. I must say though, Victoria Legrand has a very pretty voice whose sombre, melancholic tone fits very well to the layers of crystalline guitars and synths in the background. They catch onto her bittersweet lyrics, as if captured memories and on songs like 10 Mile Stereo, she can really belt to something resembling a climax: a catharsis. Actually this voice reminds me of Adele, and I like Adele. Perhaps that's why I'm drawn leftfield by the songs of Teen Dream, as instead of a usual Adele belt, I'm left with an echo of harmonies before the climax. It's pretty. Maybe I'll get it. But not now.

#26 Femi Kuti ~ Femi Kuti Femi Kuti has big shoes to fill. His father Fela Kuti is a venerated saint in the genre of Afrobeat. Many acts, both past and present, are inspired by his work, particularly in making infectious beats, grooves and harmonies. These are very big shoes to fill for the offspring of Fela Kuti. At the same time, you don't want to be a carbon copy of your father, else you won't stand out as a creative artist. So Femi takes a more populist approach to his music. A lot less free-jazz influence, a bit more solid rock influence. Instead of improvisatory free verse, he sings in melodic contours. All the sharp kicks and edges of Fela's style is smoothened into a slick sheen. It's nice and certainly more accessible than his father's style. However, I feel like this smoothening that Femi has incorporated might have sabotaged the potential power of the grooves he makes. This is clearly personal taste, but this soul-like RnB approach he has in this album draws away from his very politically charged lyrics, which I really like. Nevertheless, this is an alright record. I can't be too mad about it, but I don't feel crazy about it either.

#27 Purple Rain ~ Prince Prince is influential... in the sense that he is a very model example of a mad genius that one can only dread to aspire. Let's face it, Prince has a few screws loose because what do you mean with Warner Bros' to get himself into a movie starring him, with music by him. Maybe this was genius advertising, or unchecked egomania. A sort of charming rebellion that a younger generation of artists would look towards. Anyway this album builds a bit on the funky dance of 1999 and supplements it with more pop-soul attitude. The production is much MUCH denser: heavy synthesiser usage and a much grander sounding backing band accompaniment from the Revolution. Prince becomes a lot more unrestrained with his vocal performances, his lyrics a lot more self-indulgent, pining and sexually charged. His guitar solos are also a lot more glamourous and frankly more memorable. Purple Rain is an exercise in opulence, attempting to accommodate for the rock, dance and pop-leaning audiences. It is utterly arrogant and vain. And it is very fucking good. Purple Rain is an incredibly consistent record. Surprisingly, no song feels significantly weaker than the other, although the famous tracks tend to have the memorable riffs and melodies. But overall each song is pretty, appealing to a variety of moods as our fictional Prince character from the cheesy film flaunts his charisma and ego. But it never comes off as annoying, rather rapturous. By the way, part of this album was being written mid tour for 1999, something unheard off nowadays actually. Prince was not only an obsessed perfectionist, he was a massive workaholic. Seriously how does he do it?

#28 Butterfly ~ Mariah Carey A much more laidback project for Mariah, and definitely a lot more consistent. I may prefer something like Daydream, but Mariah's famous vocal power is more tightly controlled and but to great effect in each of Butterfly's songs. Instead of whistle notes and stratospheric belts, Mariah leans more into effortless melisma to really capture the attention of the listener, and it is done very well. The songs of Butterfly sound very polished as well: a slick finish of RnB pop with very caramel sampling and instrumentation choices. These sounds do well to catch the ear every now and then. The song as SONGS though is plainly a bit flat. It lacks a bit of spark that I find with Daydream and earlier records. A bit of energy. It's a noted direction where she's taking her sound, although I might not necessarily agree with it

#29 Roxy Music ~ Roxy Music There is something truly mind blowing about the majority of the debut of Roxy Music. A truly instrumental freakout, but not too freakish to be placed into alienating prog rock music. Just enough freak to be an exciting pop record. No doubt the musicians here are pretty talented, and the songs are very catchy to boot to get you. Remake/Remodel and Ladytron are some seriously exciting stuff. How somebody conceived 2HB and The Bob is beyond me, and Virginia Plain needs no introduction. Unfortunately, Roxy Music has a very-hard-to-not-notice weak ending where you kinda get used to the freakishness and they do the worst thing every which is strip away to freaky minimalism. It's not necessarily a great look and it does sour the listening experience a little bit. But I mean, the first half is just too legendary to pass on.

#31 Street Life ~ The Crusaders The Crusaders made their name through crafting a taste of pop, jazz and disco without being really offensive to any one of those genres. So in the end, what you just have is something that sounds pretty nice but without anything really punchy or flashy in any way. In other words, background music that didn't aim to be background music in the first place. The highlight and only track worth really listening to is the title track, which I do recommend. The rest is pretty ersatz watered down chicken stuffing.

#38 A Short Album About Love ~ The Divine Comedy The Divine Comedy is such a funny fucking band. The reason is that Neil Hannon is really good at writing awfully cheesy showtunes with lyrics that long for the 50s and 60s and instrumentals from the 70s. Today he's more known for writing TV show themes and songs for musicals. In fact he wrote the songs for Wonka recently. And now I need to tell you this sappy kitsch music got him famous in 90s Britain, in between the dance music of Fatboy Slim, 808 State, Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy, the boy and girl bands of Take That and Spice Girls, and the Britpop movement. So this pretentious middle-class fop with a love for parody and pastiche was always going to be a underdog in the music scene. But taking a deep listen, you can see the guy had talent. There is some seriously bold production evident and the sound of the album is very strong. The instruments, which involves a chamber orchestra, go through some incredibly beautiful moments to contrast some incredibly goofy sarcastic lyrics. 'Everybody Knows (Except You)' the second track has some incredible cartharsis for absolutely no reason except it sounds cool when Hannon sings about basically sinking a cock into someone. And most of these songs are just incredibly cheesy in a really funny way. You will hear lyrics never uttered before (If you were a horse, I'd clean the crap out of your stable, and never once complain if you were a horse). But Neil Hannon didn't necessarily mind too much, he wanted to get people sappy and happy, and this is definitely a sappy, happy funny album with some truly incredible orchestral sounds to boot. It must be said, that his later albums are definitely better than this because they were a lot more serious than this, but A Short Album About Love is most certainly Hannon's most consistent and capturing of a vision: to create the soundtrack of a melodramatic sitcom. And I can't be too mad about that. This is simply just one of the funniest albums out there, an album that has insane over-the-top instrumentals for incredibly corny over-the-top lyrics.

#39 Paranoid ~ Black Sabbath Let it be known today Ozzy Osbourne passed and now I receive Paranoid by Black Sabbath as my generated album. There are many things you can point to as to why this album just sounds so good. Is it Ozzy's distinct vocals, his campy but fantastical lyricism? Or is it Iommi's guitarwork, not over-saturated in solos as Jimmy Page, but built upon very heavy, low-pitched and catchy riffs? Or is it Butler's bass and Ward's drumming that propel every single song like a warhorse, a form of exercise to keep the blood pumping through each listen? Or is it the underappreciated exploration of many different styles in the 'Sabbath' sound: psychedelia, blues, a bit of prog and even a bit of jazz; the combination of such sounds becoming the basis of the heavy metal genre that will emerge in the later decades? The real hooker to Paranoid is how simple everything sounds. It's an album that's easy to get on first listen, and because of this you get to appreciate how tight Black Sabbath is as a band, and how intricate each song is built to produce its iconic sound. There are no over-elaborations, no pretensions, it simply fills out an agenda of rock and delivers to a high quality that will keep you moving without resorting to an overuse of tricks and solos to jangle keys in front of the listener. You get the whole deal of Black Sabbath, and they do a pretty great job at selling the project. Frankly, this album is one of those albums where you don't need to be a wizard at your instrument to produce a 'good-sounding album'. Page's, Hendrix's and Blackmore's technique is certainly a bit more impressive than Iommi's, and you may prefer the acrobatics of Plant's vocals to Ozzy's. But Paranoid is an album of unusual vision, sold on its shocking imagination and its desire to hook you in with atmosphere over display. And in this regard, it passes with flying colours.

#44 Tidal ~ Fiona Apple There is a world of pop music outside the orthodox definitions of 'pop music' that manifested in the 80s-90s. This microcosm of many sounds mostly developed out of a variety of influences where one would not expect from pop, such as jazz, classical, rock, nascent hip hop or punk: bits and pieces of not-so-commercial sounds or forgotten antiqued genres meshed together by however a musician sees fit. Although slow to get going, out-of-leftfield pop projects only really got a shine outside artist and critic circles and into the public limelight deep into the internet era, where you had a variety of firebrand personalities emerging with their own takes on pop: Lana Del Rey, Marina and the Diamonds, Crystal Castles, Grimes, The 1975, Sky Ferraria, Lorde, etc. Another big result of these sort of artists getting the spotlight is their earlier influences getting more attention. Fiona Apple's Tidal is one such example. Tidal, like most Fiona Apple stuff, is slow burn stuff. It's not instantly gratifying like other albums, but instead smoulders over time, catching by the middle of the album before pulling its most slow burners all the way to the end. As a result, it may take a bit of an open and forgiving ear to get used to Tidal's Broadwayesque numbers and sweeps, but once you catch on, you will find some incredibly luxurious sounding and sweetly enjoyable songs. Much of Tidal's songs are drawn back in instrumentation, mimicking the sound of chamber jazz standards, a love of Apple's. This minimalism serves to highlight Apple's piano playing and her smoky, nearly husky vocals which propel her introspective lyrics of vulnerability concerning past experiences of love. Interestingly enough, much of these lyrics were written long before Apple reached her late teens, which makes her use of metaphors incredibly impressive but also explains a dangerous lean into indulging into sentimentality and angst. In fact, how much she leans into her brutal mix of honesty and drama is the one defining characteristic that characterises the different songs of Tidal, since the instrumentation of each song remains more or les the same, especially towards the second half of the album. Although it comes as a strength in showing the glimpses of her range, from the pounding jazzy stomps of Sleep to Dream and Criminal through honeyed bittersweetness of Never Is a Promise to the misery of Carrion. Tidal is probably the easiest way to approach Fiona Apple's repertoire of not-so-safe pop albums, a showcase of her talent in verbalising complicated emotions of love and pain, and a unique ear for hearty showtunes. Despite not being the most-out-there album to indulge in its variety, nor the most quick-paced to catch on easily, nor the most mature album to tackle broken love, what it is is incredibly solid and sweet tasting honey. And the best way to enjoy this album is how it sounds: sitting by yourself in a comfy spot near something warm and simply relax into the album. Also Kanye West really loves this album, funny that.

#51 In The Court Of The Crimson King ~ King Crimson There's a reason why this album can be so beloved to people. It's opulent, bombastic and over-the-top. Its solos are meandering and never-ending ecstasy-fests. Its arrangements are dense and rough around the edges. Its lyrics by Peter Sinfield are pretentiously abstract and delivered from lullaby whispers to howling shrieks. This is a hipster album. THE hipster album of the late 60s maybe. And there might be certain debate about whether this is the best KC album, its certainly the most fun. Cause really this album is designed to smash you with walls of sounds and you will be made to take it. 21st Century Schizoid Man is a showcase really of the band's ability to delve into excessive technicalities, especially the underrated ear of Robert Fripp's guitarwork. I Talk to the Wind a showcase of McDonald's multi-instrumentalism but also after the first track, the more mellow and sensual side of KC. Epitaph is probably the best track of this album, KC at its most dramatic: an orchestral march for mellotron and drums decorated with guitar and wind harmonics. This middle track is its most beautiful in the album. Moonchild is an interlude to the final titular track, which is basically a sum-up of the first three tracks' virtuosity, sentimentality and need for drama. The best way to approach this album is frankly just to be entirely relaxed because these tracks are all long, as expected from prog rock. Let your imagination go wild when you listen to these tracks; the fantastical titles of these tracks are not for show.

#52 Casanova ~ The Divine Comedy Everything I said about A Short Album About Love can be applied to Hannon's earlier album, Casanova, except with far less consistency. He's still doing a cheesy schtick, and still someone getting popular with this album, and still I will tell you just to listen to A Short Album About Love or his later albums over this, unless you want more weird dog and horse metaphors. The highlight is the opening track, very beautiful that one. But again, just listen to A Short Album About Love and you get the idea pretty quickly.