At the time, I’m sure that collecting the sounds of a hoe down mixing it with blues guitar noodling and an over reliance on southern stereotypes was magic to a select group of young people who were inundated with the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s. There is no doubt that Sweet Home Alabama is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Stairway to heaven and there are some remarkable similarities in the way both songs start pastoral and build to an anthem. The similarities stop there. This album is a rather boring and dreary affair and best left to those folks who thought the 8:33 of Sweet Home was the whole album.

Revisiting this record after more than 50 years finds that I have moved on way past this classic sound. Immigrant Song is still vibrant, and Celebration Day remains interesting but the rest of this largely folk rock record is, frankly, dull.

Still an amazing live show - basically a live greatest hits album from beginning to end. At this point the band were a touring monster and super tight. Album has a breakneck pace and the original version is the perfect length leaving you satisfied excited and perhaps wanting 1 or 2 more songs.

When this came out in 1977I bought it because it was on Stiff Records and that label had already developed a reputation for music that was different. Releases by former Rockpile member Nick Lowe, the Damned!, Elvis Costello, Motorhead, Pink Fairies, made this an easy buy. Then you put the needle down on the first track and go WTF? “I come awake …” And then Side 1 Track 2 Sweet Gene Vincent as the two openers to a very diverse musically inspired album all sung by a man who gives hope to all of us who cannot sing or carry a tune. And yet it all works. Chaz Jankel’s piano work is inspired and the tunes with lyrics that are funny, off-color at times, but all designed to highlight his love for the characters that inhabit his world. Is the album perfect? No, unfortunately. The 3 stand alone singles that followed - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Inbetweenies and Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt. 3 - would have made this complete. It’s all catchy and a mix of pub rock, punk rock and dance hall. And there really was nothing that sounded like this at that time. And there still isn’t.

While I’m not surprised that this is still on the list given the hype and myth surrounding Hendrix and his unique and very accomplished playing, I find it hard to justify its continued presence in these sorts of lists. Is it a perfect record? No. Who starts a record with a 2min drone with warped unintelligible vocals? It’s all over the map both lyrically and genre - pop, funk, blues and psychedelic rock but the true gems stand out. And maybe that was the point. Some of the best tracks come after some rather bland songs. A great example is the amazing “Crosstown Traffic” which follows the rather dull, lyrically uninspired and derivative “Have you ever been to Electric Lady Land”. It’s truly a mixed bag until the last two tracks which are genius in both sound and spirit: All Along the Watchtower and Voodoo Chile (Return). In my mind Hendrix took an hour of basically noodling to achieve the sound that we recognize as deserving of fame. With Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Chile and perhaps, Come On (Let the Good Times Roll) this would have been a tight record that you could play all the way through without the snooze in the middle.

I'm sure for some listener's Van Morrison is great. His unique voice and tremendous playing are likely the reason he was popular for a while. Time has moved on and yet Van's 1973 show was probably magnificent for its time, it no longer represents a high water mark as either a live album or frankly, music. There are better live recordings and many of them are more compelling. I say this not to diminish Van's artistry. It's just in 1973, the rock underground was still underground. The seeds of punk were being planted and not until 1976 would be there an explosion of sound and vision that would shake the foundations of rock, and as a consequence diminishing the importance and relevance of numerous rock/folk acts - Van being one of them. This is a snooze-fest after 53 years of more exciting music being unleashed. I have no idea why it is still on the list unless the selection was made by someone who is now in their mid 70's.

Interesting choice as I remember hearing Zuton Fever, which was not a single, and thinking this was like a less frenzied cramps either it’s swampy blues riff and tremendous vocals. It was this intro that lead to the discovery of the rich musically diverse record. Pressure Drop and Long Time Comin are unmistakably catchy standouts in a record full of them. The Ian Broudie (Lighting Seeds) production is crisp and textured with the vocals up in the mix making this one of those debut records timeless. At the time the comparisons to the Coral who were on the same label overshadowed the genius of the genre experiments on this record. Hints of the 80’s - the Specials and English Beat come to mind, with throwback’s to do wop and the Beatles (The Liverpool influence is there but not cloying) Check out Not A Lot To Do and Remember Me where this is truly evident. For so many different musical style experiments this album is remarkable for its cohesive.

Beguiling. When this came out in 1982, post punk was reaching a fervor. This record has always reminded me of a combination of early Sparks (before the disco shift) and Siouxsie & The Banshees. Kate’s remarkable voice with the use of piano and Fairlight and left field lyrics were difficult to absorb as it seemed this was designed to bewilder the listener. For me, it was Suspended in Gaffa that unlocked the record for me. I did not revisit the record often because the post-punk explosion and the morphing of punk into new sub-genres held a fascination that continues to this day. Revisiting this record in 2025 is rewarding perhaps because some of the sounds seems more familiar having been incorporated into several artists sounds (Bjork comes instantly to mind) and perhaps my experience with music has built a knowledge base where I appreciate experimental records much more so than as a 24 year old. Here, Night of the Swallow is compelling and The Dreaming is more comprehensible than the original record. The shifting time signatures and multitude of sounds create both sensory overload and tension - making this record sound much darker than probably intended. It could also be All the Love with its opening Lyric - “The first time I died…” and the eerie sounds creating an allusion of fog. All that said, even if this record is not in your wheelhouse, it is an interesting experience worthy of some time exploring the multi-faceted sounds highlighted by Kate’s incredible (as that word actually means) vocals.

It’s the harmonies. Crowded House formed from the Ashes of Split Enz when Tim left the band he had formed with Phil Judd to go solo. Neil who had joined Split Enz later started Crowded House. Tim and Neil singing together is what makes this record of melodic acoustic pop exceptionally well recorded and produced resonate with the listener. The Songwriting is solid and it sounds like a band having fun. Many records lose their energy by the midpoint - not so here. Whispers and Moans, Four Seasons in One Day, and There Goes God are a savory middle point following the singles It’s Only Natural and Fall at your Feet. Not a duff track on the record. As I listen to the record now, what is striking is the guitar tones on this record. Clean with a warm glow the guitar highlights the vocal harmonies with the rhythm section always in the pocket. The only outlier on the record is the crooner throwback All I Ask. Still enjoyable, it changes the sound to a more orchestral/chamber pop vibe. I might have finished the album with this song as it might be a better placement especially if it came after the wonderful How Will You Go/I’m Still Here. Anyway, that’s just nitpicking. Terrific pop record. Better for Sunday morning than Saturday night.

Undeniably good songwriting but I can’t help but wonder what this album would have been like if they had actually kept the punk influences from the Los Angeles scene they had sprung forth from. I saw them a couple of months after this record was released opening for the Fleshtones in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom and the show was wild. Payolas opened the fiesta. They were energetic and fun and these songs played live struck differently than on the record. The record is meticulously crafted in its production. After listening to this album for the first time since the 80s, I’m struck by how good the non-singles are on this record. For me, This Town and Skidmarks on My Heart are the two best songs on the LP. And that’s why this record is enduring- the hit singles We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed are indelibly etched in the pop pantheon but the rest of the record might be better.

At the time, I’m sure that collecting the sounds of a hoe down mixing it with blues guitar noodling and an over reliance on southern stereotypes was magic to a select group of young people who were inundated with the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s. There is no doubt that Sweet Home Alabama is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Stairway to heaven and there are some remarkable similarities in the way both songs start pastoral and build to an anthem. The similarities stop there. This album is a rather boring and dreary affair and best left to those folks who thought the 8:33 of Sweet Home was the whole album.

At the time, I’m sure that collecting the sounds of a hoe down mixing it with blues guitar noodling and an over reliance on southern stereotypes was magic to a select group of young people who were inundated with the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s. There is no doubt that Sweet Home Alabama is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Stairway to heaven and there are some remarkable similarities in the way both songs start pastoral and build to an anthem. The similarities stop there. This album is a rather boring and dreary affair and best left to those folks who thought the 8:33 of Sweet Home was the whole album.

For a guy who was (and at the time of this writing) still may be a complete fuck up, there is no denying his ability to write a great fucking tune. I’m not sure where he is in his scandal ridden life, but having learned that even a thorough and complete piece of shit like Donald Trump can be elected President twice, Ryan probably get’s a pass. Whiskeytown was my first introduction to Ryan’s exceptional talent. This is a good time to mention Caitlin Cary, his talented partner in the that revolving door band. She was the only other constant in that band which really was the perfect mix of alternative rock and country. Her later work with North Carolina royalty, former dBs, Chris Stamey and Don Dixon are also compelling listening. So, what about Gold? This 2nd solo record took ideas that first surfaced in Whiskeytown and repurposed them into a collection of songs that hold up remarkably well in 2025. Putting aside the two singles - New York New York and Answering Bell for a moment, the true gold in this record lies in the solidly consistent and varied songs that make this a complete record. It’s not just the amazing musicianship by the assembled studio band (check out the Wiki for that info), it’s just that Ryan’s vocals are perfectly recorded and mixed lending a sweetness and sincerity to what is essentially a breakup record. Is it sprawling? Yes, certainly. Is it a little juvenile lyrically at times? Yes, certainly. But I don’t see either of those as flaws on this record. At the time I recall reading reviews of this record mentioning the length and writing as negatives. They are not. This is a complete window into where Ryan was at the time and it’s perceived flaws reveal a remarkable honesty in both approach and delivery. Ryan was immature. Heartbreak is hard. This is an intensely personal record by an experienced and talented musician who certainly should have been a star. Like Paul Westerberg (the Replacements influences are all over this record), Ryan, at 26 years old, was expanding the palate beyond his influences and creating an experience for the listener that was more than the romantic leanings of his charming debut solo Heartbreaker from the previous year. This record was made to be a classic- timeless and I think listening to it again all the way through, he has achieved that standard. Picking standouts on a classic record seems pointless but in the hope someone wants to experience the record in a slightly different way than what was sequenced on the vinyl here is my take: start with the run of New York New York, Firecracker (track sounds like it came off the Replacements Hootenanny record) and Answering Bell. As good a 3 song start to any record. Then Somehow Someway, Nobody Girl and then Gonna Make You Love Me. Nobody Girl is as fine as dusty barroom ballad as as ever been constructed. Then next with Touch Feel & Lose, Enemy Fire, La Cienega Smiled and The Rescue Blues. These blues songs are a compelling quartet - examining the heartache from all angles but with an amazing tenderness Then you can bring it all home with Sylvia Plath ( dark fucking lyrics), Wild Flowers, It’s Harder Now That Its Over, The Toledo’s Street Walking Blues and finally Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd. An awesome finish to a very fine record. I know that it’s probably sacrilegious to reorder the tracks but this is how it all plays out in my mind. And that’s what makes this record special- it touches you emotionally even though it’s not your relationship that just crashed and fucking burned. Great music makes you feel emotion and this record will touch your heart.

Never loved Traffic. These guys were huge in Canada but by the time I heard this record in full the mid-70s, the ship had sailed. Psychedelic folk rock was an anachronism. Feelin Alright was already on an oldies station. The band was so popular in Canada I actually thought Jim Capaldi was Canadian. Steve Winwood was not the new wave Steve at this point but it wasn’t the vocals that are the problem on this Traffic’s second LP. It’s just that it’s remarkably uninteresting both lyrically and musically. See Vagabond Virgin. Medicated Goo and all the other so called songs on the record. I will say that in order to end up with this pile of crap a massive amount of drugs had to have been consumed. No one gets laid. Seriously, this was a difficult listen. My dog enjoyed the record though. Licked his nuts for 57 minutes. He is old and slightly deaf. My take: This record was included in the list to show that when enough people do drugs they will create a work so intensely boring and unpleasant that some people will think it’s genius. … and in all likelihood vote Republican.

Interesting. I was 15 when I picked this record up in Winnipeg Manitoba during my sole year in boarding school. This record moved the needle. As I listen to the record now - almost 50 years from that first purchase, I’m amazed how this record full of what would be in a year called pub rock, is kind of precursor to the Feelgoods (Wilco Johnson) and Stiff Records. Along with Alice Cooper, The Sweet and Blue Oyster Cult, this record fits neatly alongside. Catchy party rock with some good riffage, Noddy’s vocals and flamboyant front man energy fit neatly in the Glam Rock era with T-Rex and Roxy Music. Like those bands they could craft a catchy tune. My favorites on this record are not the singles - The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazee, Gudbuy T’Jame and Mama Weer All Crazee Now - not because there is anything wrong with them. They are terrific. However, what draws me in now with a whole life experience are tracks like I Won’t Let It ‘Appen Agen and the bluesy I Don’t Mind both of which which capture Noddy’s distinctive and expressive vocals perfectly. The record is a quick one and still holds up fairly well in 2025.

After the Pale Fountains broke up I kind of lost track of where the band members went. The lead singer, Michael Head’s drug problems were in the music papers. Imagine my surprise to find that this record, HMS Fable, features Michael (apparently recording this LP in numerous sessions broken up by during multiple detox stays) and his brother performing some truly inspired pop songs. This is a hidden gem. More or less straightforward quiet pop reminiscent of the 2nd Pale Fountains record and very similar to the Bluebells, the record is laced with some solid songs. The standout is Comedy which is catchy emotional and would be a terrific live singalong. Michael’s voice is very similar to Loyd Cole so at least in my mind the smooth vocals with the hint of an accent are thoroughly enjoyable. Try Comedy, Cornish Town and Streets of Kenny.

Not as interesting as I remember. I recall that one of the things that made this album popular at the time was the clever samples throughout the record. Perhaps, time and experience have dulled the impression that this album made, because now it comes off as kind of dull and as much as I try to figure out what was appealing about this record, I can't find it. Sure, Perfect Way sounds like the Michael Jackson track you remember, with Green Garside's vocals up front and clear in the mix. But the other hit from this record, Wood Beez is just uninteresting. Perhaps it's the fact that the songs all suffer from the period sheen of slightly disco pop leaning with the ubiquitous 80s drum sound that make this anachronistic. I just can't imagine vcoming back to this record and finding joy in the listening experience. Absolute is just a slog of a song with it's robotic 80's drum sound - sterile and uninteresting, it renders an otherwise okay tune - lifeless. Nothing against Garside whose vocals are serviceable. It's just this sort of disco pop was meant to die. As I try to find positive things to say about the record, there was only one song that I thought - Hey, this has possibilities today. I think if Lover To Fall was remixed and played live - it might be a hit today. Overall, I get why this might appear on this list of records - there is nothing quite like it in terms of sound, and in that way it is creative. It just doesn't resonate any more.

Okay. You got me. I recognize the name having seen it over the years. In my mind I had associated this band with a more progressive rock sound. Not sure why that happened. Perhaps when I first heard someone mention them in connection with Brazilian rock. Whatever the reason, this debut record from 1968 is certainly not prog rock. Rather, it is best described as a mix of psychedelic pop, garage rock, and what I’ve come to learn are Topicali influences. For my taste, A Minha Menina is a pretty catch garage influenced track worth repeated listening. There are a couple of ballads, and in particular the songs O Relogio and Adeus Maria Fulo that capture the sounds of the forest and give the record its distinctive character. Does it all work? No. There are a couple of missteps along the way. The showtune Senhor F is a skip. Just corny and terrible. Ave Genghis Kahn with its Peanuts intro also comes off rather clunky. In soaking in the album a little bit and playing it several times, Bat Macumba, Baby and Panis Et Circenses are the other standouts. Overall, not a standout but would have been a solid record at the time. Interesting mix of influences but there were better rock records from this time period.

I find it interesting that my view of this album has shifted a bit over time. The Bryan Ferry/Brian Eno axis that made this album so interesting when I first encountered it in 1978 is surprisingly still there but my thinking on certain songs has evolved with time. The standout track has always been Editions of You and the WTF??? track is The Bogus Man. Those have not changed in all this time. It’s my appreciation for other tracks and hearing them with a lifetime of experience that makes this record I more interesting. This is particularly true with In Every Dream Home a Heartache. I didn’t connect with that skronky track but now it works.

I’m pretty sure I was not the target audience for this record. I was sophisticated enough to get the sly reference the name implies, but for me a pop dance record is not that interesting. Gay disco has been around for decades and frankly done better. None of these tracks are catchy enough to be memorable and time has not been kind to this record. I recall the faux outrage of the cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, but the track is really a like it or leave it proposition. Listening to the album all the way through for the first time and then going back to see if I missed something, the record is rather kitschy but mostly lifeless. It’s bad when a dance pop record doesn’t catch your attention. And for that, Track 8 Music Is The Victim encapsulates how I feel about this record.

I’m pretty sure I was not the target audience for this record. I was sophisticated enough to get the sly reference the name implies, but for me a pop dance record is not that interesting. Gay disco has been around for decades and frankly done better. None of these tracks are catchy enough to be memorable and time has not been kind to this record. I recall the faux outrage of the cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, but the track is really a like it or leave it proposition. Listening to the album all the way through for the first time and then going back to see if I missed something, the record is rather kitschy but mostly lifeless. It’s bad when a dance pop record doesn’t catch your attention. And for that, Track 8 Music Is The Victim encapsulates how I feel about this record.

I certainly would not have selected this record to represent The The and it’s certainly not a record that should be included in a list of 1001 albums you should listen to before you die. Don’t get me wrong- I was a huge The The and Matt Johnson fan. Uncertain Smile and This is the Day are easily among the best pop songs from this period. Matt’s vocals are distinctive with a pleasant and comfortable tone that was captivating when I first discovered Burning Blue Soul in 1981. But enough about things other than Infected. It must have been difficult to follow up Soul Mining (which should be on the list). Infected is an uneven record I think as a consequence. There are moments that come close to matching those earlier hits. Heartland is as close as it gets. A piano forward catchy track with silky backing vocals of the Croquets who make this lyrically savage takedown of the middle class who somehow thought that Britain was economically on par with the rest of the EU, foreshadowing the Brexit movement by 30 years. It is equal to those earlier mentioned hits. Angels of Deception and Sweet Bird of Truth come close- impassioned vocal performances with sharp insightful lyrics. Unfortunately the rest of the album after this stretch is rather unmemorable and quickly becomes background music. Unfortunate really. It’s difficult to make a classic song let alone a classic record. Heartland is a classic song. Infected is not a classic album.

Immersive. There really is no point trying to single out songs. This record is an experience. I remember this album coming out and sliding the CD (unfortunately there was no U.S vinyl until 2003!) and going WTF? An entire album of relentless distortion all played by one guy without a pedal. No discernible vocals with the drums and base buried in the mix. Unintelligible lyrics making Michael Stipe seem clear and distinct. This was a huge leap from Isn’t Anything. Where that LP was experimental and had what was becoming “shoegaze” elements, Shields had obliterated the rough edges on Loveless making the other instruments and the vocals merely a texture blended into the wall of sound. At high levels this is disorienting and the sound bathes you as you are penetrated by the wall of sound. There was nothing like this in existence although it does have recognizable touchstones to those early industrial/noise rock pioneers with Sonic Youth being the clearest influence but also Wire/Public Image Limited, Faust and Can. Genius really. Not everyone is going to get this record. For me, I think having enjoyed Isn’t Anything and in particular the tracks Cupid Come and “You’re Still A Dream” and already being a Sonic Youth fan, the leap was easy. My advice is start with Isn’t Anything and then make the leap into the sun. Loveless still holds up as one of the best records ever made.

I have mixed feelings and emotions about this record. I discovered Sisters of Mercy through the Gun Club. When Patricia Morrison left the Gun Club and ended up with Sisters of Mercy I had already read about the split that had left Andrew Eldritch on an Island with his drum machine. Control freak and dumb ass, Morrison was reduced to a backup vocalist and Goth icon for the video shoot. NB: she later joined the Damned and married Dave Vanian. So, on to the album. This is the only record where the drum machine captures the feel necessary to sustain these Damned inspired dance goth songs. There is no denying that This Corrosion, Dominion/Mother Russia (Medley) and Never Land (A Fragment) are complete representations of goth inspired indie dance tracks highlighted by Eldritch’s baritone. 1959 could have been a Meatloaf track. The record is uneven. For ever highlight, for example Lucretia My Reflection, there are Flood I and Flood II which are weak by comparison. Again, my personal bias probably influences my listening experience. There is no denying there are catchy tracks on this record making this album essentially an irony burger - dark lyrics sung to a catch goth beat. Where is all the Cure moroseness? All that said, the hits still stand up today in 2025. And yes, you could probably still dance to them. Does this belong in the Top 1001? Nope but is it a marker on the Goth highway.

Up front, I am not a folk rock fan. I get that the harmonies and the meticulously played songs highlight why this album made the list. However, the meticulous perfection of the album is really its biggest flaw. In life as in music it is the imperfections, the rough edges, that make us and music interesting. This is a perfectly dull record. The most interesting tracks turn out to be those where the vocals are not perfect and the lyrics not so sunny. Almost Cut My Hair - a hippie anti-anthem with its, in my mind the best track on the record. Overtly political, a little paranoid, and definitely anachronistic, it captures a moment. Similarly, Neil Young’s version of Helpless evokes a sense of loss and is an album highlight. I ask myself with every one of the albums if I would listen to the record again. The answer in this case is no. This LP fits the era it was released perfectly. I first encountered this record in 1974, while I was still a teen, and instantly rejected it for more interesting and exciting records and songs. Sure, it was played. Woodstock, Teach Your Chikden and Our House were all over Canadian radio and you could not escape those songs. But for me it was soulless and dull. A life of experience has not changed that opinion. The people who enjoyed this record are likely in their late 70s or early 80s. This record will die with them.

Ah…pump. I get that this had Aerosmith’s most popular songs for strippers to dance to, and an effort to strip the pop sheen off their last record, but in the context of their classic records, many of these songs are retreads of earlier better songs. Young Lust is a watered down Toys In The Attic. F.I.N.E. Is just dumb with its honky tonk rhythm and horrifically stupid dad jokes passing for entendre. Similarly , Going Down/Love In An Elevator with its repetitive Love In An Elevator repetitive line becomes nauseating and is 2 minutes too long. I do note that the guitar on this track is excellent and Joe Perry’s playing is technically precise but more importantly interesting. Weird trivia- the video for this song shows Aerosmith walking through the then Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles where Angela Lansbury once worked as a teen. 5 years after the video was released it became Southwestern University School of Law, where I went to law school. The highlight of this record is Janie’s Got a Gun. I do note that the weird intros to each of these songs is a little distracting but for Water Song/Janie’s Got a Gun it actually works. Hands down this is the one track that comes close to Aerosmith’s classic hits. It’s not Dream On or Rats in the Cellar but at least it’s interesting and the guitar solo has an interesting tone - a little ragged contrasting nicely with Tyler’s more restrained vocal with fewer whiney moments. After this, the record is a cliff. This is a tough record to listen all the way through. The Dulcimer Stomp with it’s woops and dulcimer are just dumb. The Other Side signals the decline for this, the other side of the record. And I shit you not this song won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 1991. For context, Nirvana’s Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991. Aerosmith’s style of rock died this year. They were old and uninteresting and the second half of Pump demonstrates that Aerosmith was largely out of ideas. The power ballad, What It Takes emphasizes how insipid the once great Aerosmith had begun. Maybe it was the accordion. This is a brutal way to end a record. Tyler’s vocals are painful to listen to and this is 6:28 of misery. I immediately thought - did Michael Bolton write this turd? Anyway, other than Janie’s got a Gun and perhaps Young Lust, this is album is a dud.

Weird. Still weird. I listened to this album quite a bit in high school. For some reason in the small town I grew up in the far north, where T.Rex ruled the local airwaves, it didn’t seem a far stretch for Sparks, the weirdo sibling duo, to fit in with the glam rock of the day. I honestly thought they were English. I was a mere lad of 14 when this came out and I recall Thank God It’s Not Christmas coming out right around Christmas as an irony burger with the line Thank God it’s not Christmas where there is only you and nothing else to do … at that time I was ready for weird. The guitar playing on this record was also pretty spectacular. Adrian Fraser has a pretty great tone on this record. The first 7 songs on this record are gold. It’s when you hit Complaints that it’s a little rough sledding to the end. What is amazing to me is that this record holds up pretty well 52 years later. I admit that I was a Sparks fan up until the disco years when they shifted to disco inflected synth pop. But, the Halfnelson record, A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing, Kimono My House, Propaganda and Indiscreet were a pretty good run of records. Punk rock and 1976 had a huge influence on my listening tastes and Big Beat was the last Sparks record I bought coming out in October 1976. Now that I’ve taken a detour, In My Family is the best of the end of the record. I never quite enjoyed the last three tracks. It was a case of playing all of side 1 and then the first two tracks of Side 2 (Hasta Mañana, Monsieur and Talent is an Asset) and then picking up the needle and pkaying something else. It’s not that Complaints and Equator are terrible. They are not. They were just not as interesting or catchy. So, were do we stand - not perfect as an album, but very few records are. Is it undoubtedly a great album still. Is it also still weird, which is perfect.

It’s a vibe. Just not my vibe. In 1977 I was 17 years old. This was music for people who were almost or already dead. It still is. The hype surrounding this album was spectacular and silly. This album first made me realize that there was a hype machine around music. Punk was just hitting the far north of Canada and although a complete manufactured movement (Sex Pistols are just a boy band really) but whomever orchestrated this record into a hit record was the best in the business. I get that there are people who love Steely Dan. They have no taste. Smooth jazz rock is boring AF. Deacon Blues, like the rest of the album, is meticulously played with complex jazz notes, highlights the hooks present in Becker and Fagen’s songs hiding awkward and weird lyrics that somehow people convinced themselves this was genius. Honestly, singing the lyrics : I’ll learn to work the saxophone I play just what I feel Drink whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel. That’s fucking bleak. The other hit, Peg has 5 identical verses:. The line “Peg it will come back to you” is sung 10 times. Brutal. There is a reason they did not tour this record. Can you imagine theaters full of people sleeping and snoring as they pretend this moves them. I listen to these records all the way through. By the time I got to Home At Last, I thought I was in a hospital. Critical acclaim for inventing boredom. Ok. It’s a dud. Save your soul. This is music for funerals.

Holy crap. 2 records in a row that are difficult to appreciate. Yesterday Steeley Dan - Aja, and this 1966 rager. 4 of the songs are covers. At least the record represents change. It’s not all folk rock and there is an interesting shift into folk-rock-neopsychedelia with some Ravi Shankar noodling references. The Ravi Shankar passages are distracting. See What’s Happening for a prime example. Beautiful vocal by David Crosby and a bit of a jaunty tune with the Shankar Noodles. Then there is a WTF moment. Who decided that I Come and Stand at Every Door should be released? Morose doesn’t quite describe the impact on the listener. a song about a seven year old child killed by the A-Bomb on Hiroshima whose spirit walks the earth in search of peace. This is a song to overdose too. Eight Miles High and Hey Joe are easily the best tracks on the record. The psychedelic Eight Miles High and the rather excellent cover of Hey Joe are the best if a rather uneven batch of songs. The instrumental Captain Soul is also rather interesting as it captures some of the Jim McGuinn precise leads with a piercing jangle guitar tone that is the Byrds sonic trademark. John Riley has a monotone vocal matching the folk origins of the original. I’m sure if I liked folk music and was dropping acid this would be mildly interesting but as I am neither interested in folk or on acid this song is just blah. It could be Steeley Dan. The final track starts with a vacuum cleaner emulation of apparently a Lear jet. The 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) is the least interesting track on the record and signals the end of a rather uninteresting album. Once all the way through was more than enough. When I look back on this journey I’ll know this is an album never to revisit.

Not the record I would have picked to represent Elton. I bought this when I was 14 - only a couple of years after it came out and about the same year as I started discovering Black Sabbath, T.Rex and things that were not on my mom’s radio station as she drove us to school. My mom loved a.m. radio in the 70’s. Tony Orlando and Dawn, ABBA, Captain and Tennille- my mom loved it all. I remember buying Crocodile Rock when it came out and then bought Don’t Shoot Me I’m only The Piano Player. Madman soon followed. Tiny Dancer is an undeniably great song and a great start to this record. As the third record released in 1971 (King Gizzard like work) this album I think suffers from a lack of focus. Tiny Dancer, Levon and Madman Across the Water are the most focused and best songs on this record. The prog rock touches are awful. What dooms this record are songs like Razor Face. It’s a song about a drunk drifter with a razor face who is back in town and meeting by a travel inn to get drinks. WTF was Elton thinking? And that’s the song stuck between Levon and Madman Across the Water. Madman Across the Water has a Stairway to Heaven vibe. At least it’s interesting. A little too prog inspired but at least Elton gives it a puncher’s chance with an inspired vocal. Indian Sunset is also a head scratcher. The guy is from England. Why is he spending 6:00 minutes singing about the Iroquois. Really, I’m starting to think the author who assembled this list of 1001 albums was doing it to fuck with people like me. Absolutely no self respecting critic is going to go wow- this is a stunning work unless they are absolutely fucking stunned that this record is a platinum selling record because it’s mostly shit. I remember seeing literally hundreds of copies of this record in the used bins right beside the Billy Hoel records. The rest of the record is merely a turd circling the drain. Even Elton fans are not going to be shouting out “play Holiday Inn!” I couldn’t wait until Goodbye finished. 3 songs and ditch the rest. It’s a rotten peach. See how I did that?

Not the record I would have picked to represent Elton. I bought this when I was 14 - only a couple of years after it came out and about the same year as I started discovering Black Sabbath, T.Rex and things that were not on my mom’s radio station as she drove us to school. My mom loved a.m. radio in the 70’s. Tony Orlando and Dawn, ABBA, Captain and Tennille- my mom loved it all. I remember buying Crocodile Rock when it came out and then bought Don’t Shoot Me I’m only The Piano Player. Madman soon followed. Tiny Dancer is an undeniably great song and a great start to this record. As the third record released in 1971 (King Gizzard like work) this album I think suffers from a lack of focus. Tiny Dancer, Levon and Madman Across the Water are the most focused and best songs on this record. The prog rock touches are awful. What dooms this record are songs like Razor Face. It’s a song about a drunk drifter with a razor face who is back in town and meeting by a travel inn to get drinks. WTF was Elton thinking? And that’s the song stuck between Levon and Madman Across the Water. Madman Across the Water has a Stairway to Heaven vibe. At least it’s interesting. A little too prog inspired but at least Elton gives it a puncher’s chance with an inspired vocal. Indian Sunset is also a head scratcher. The guy is from England. Why is he spending 6:00 minutes singing about the Iroquois. Really, I’m starting to think the author who assembled this list of 1001 albums was doing it to fuck with people like me. Absolutely no self respecting critic is going to go wow- this is a stunning work unless they are absolutely fucking stunned that this record is a platinum selling record because it’s mostly shit. I remember seeing literally hundreds of copies of this record in the used bins right beside the Billy Hoel records. The rest of the record is merely a turd circling the drain. Even Elton fans are not going to be shouting out “play Holiday Inn!” I couldn’t wait until Goodbye finished. 3 songs and ditch the rest. It’s a rotten peach. See how I did that?

The Minutemen and Gang of Four have a child and the result is Fugazi. Ian MacKaye experience in Minor Threat had to overlap with both these bands and the econo jam is present all over this record. Brendan #1 could have fit on Double Nickels on a dime. This record, along with the compilation 13 Songs released before this LP compiling the first two EPs including the magical track Waiting Room, were a welcome addition to the end of the 80s and a great start to the 90s. In a period where Nirvana is going to get all the flowers, Fugazi got the love from a punk rock community in desperate need of something new but connected to the now lengthy history of punk rock. Repeater fit the bill and Fugazi was that band. The call/response vocals of MacKaye and Picciotto added a Beastie Boys flavor to this jammy punk rock the media called Alternative Rock in order to fit it nicely into the corporate sales program. Fugazi resisted and on this record the DIY punk rock ethos oozes from every song. From the first track Turnover through Shut The Door the album never lets up and traverses a smorgasbord of American sins that would make Jello Biafra proud. For me, favorites are Merchandise, Turnover, Blueprint and Styrofoam. No weak songs, this LP still resonates 35 years later.

Ah…the difficult second album. I’m a bit conflicted because of all of the Hendrix discography, this record is a bit of an outlier. Sure there are only four records, 3 with as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and 1 as the Band of Gypsys. There is probably little argument that Electric Ladyland is the sonic achievement of Hendrix’s far too short career. So what about Axis? I think it’s a gem with tremendous diversity and sonically perfect. The opener EXP signals that this was not going to be a rehash of Are You Experienced?, but also that the experience was going to live up to the name. The jazzy Up From the Skies is followed by the stellar Spanish Castle Magic. For me, this is where the album starts. Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Ain’t No Tellin, Little Wing and If 6 was 9 are a pretty spectacular run of tracks showing off Hendrix increasingly better lyric proficiency with his guitar prowess evident but played in service of the song. This is where you notice the equally perfect playing of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. The album finishes pretty strong with You Got Me Floatin’ and the Noel Redding sung She’s So Fine being the standouts. Super efficient album with 13 tracks in 39 minutes. For me the only kind of misses come at the end - One Rainy Wish is kinda dull, Little Miss Lover feels unfinished with some repetitive noodling and Bold As Love is lyrically excellent but this song too feels unfinished. Maybe cut off the last minute which I think is a bit unnecessary. Perhaps the box set coming out next month will include the mono version which I’ve heard is the definitive version. We’ll see. Still a pretty awesome record by a guy with a unique vision at the height of his powers. Rock n Roll was not the same after this. How do I know. Because I was there :)

I truly enjoyed The Police until it became clear that Sting was a pompous ass wad. While there will be others who will say that Synchronicity is a better record. It is not. I’m going to try to lay out the reasons why that is so, but it relates back to the moment I realized Sting was a douche bag and an arrogant twat. But that was after this record. This record was good because it was at a moment in time where the arrogance had not colored my opinion of the Police as a band. Message In A Bottle was a terrific start to this record taking their now familiar power pop approach and incorporating ska elements with a catchy chorus. As the follow up to Outlandos d’Amour the album is a looser affair with the instrumental Regatta De Blanc almost a jam before the new wavey It’s Alright For You. Not memorable but a fun 3 minutes before hitting another good stretch of songs with Bring On The Night, Deathwish and Walking On the Moon. I think people might sleep on Deathwish but the instrumental break in this song highlights some of where The Police will end up on Zenyatta Mondatta a year later. Walking On The Moon with it’s dub influences bringing white reggae to the masses. (Regatta de Blanc literally translates into White Reggae). At 5:00 in length it was a little long but the chorus was an undeniable sing—a-long. I saw them play the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver BC (and a short set at the Kitsalano Community Center the day before) in May 1979. They signed a couple of records for me at A&A Records on Granville near the Vogue Theater the same day. On Any Other Day is an under appreciated track with it’s 50’s throwback sound and funny lyrics which for a band that was often rather dour is an outlier in the Police discography. Then comes the track I don’t like - the Bed’s To Big Without You is just dull. This one is a skip. In my mind it’s like putting up white wallpaper on a vibrantly colored wall. It’s a mopey Sting on this dirge. Contact and Does Everyone Star are largely forgettable and No Time This Time was the B-Side to So Lonely a single that came out in November 78. This is a throughly enjoyable record but time has not been kind. Most of this album does not hold up after 45 years. I’ve moved on. So, my 1979 rating would have been 4 out of 5. My figuring out Sting is insufferable and after…until today is 2/5. -1 for Sting and -1 for time.

If Damon Albarn had not made it clear enough in transitioning out of Blur into Gorillaz, the Good, The Bad & The Queen is basically a combination of Blur and Gorillaz, with a Babyshambles vibe filtering throughout the record. This supergroup apparently was able to filter out Damon’s worst impulses and this is a remarkably great record with only a few minor missteps. Herculean is a great introduction and could be a Gorillaz outtake. What is striking about this very English record is how exceptional it is recorded and played. Paul Simonon demonstrates a proficiency only hinted at in the Clash where bass played a distinct role in that band’s sound. The Verve’s guitarist Simon Tong does a stellar job with guitar that serves each song and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti) is a rhythm machine on drums. It’s not what you would expect from this foursome and the record opens up and reveals some special songs with repeated listens. Nature Springs is a magnificent song and I think the heart of the record. The first 4 tracks lay the foundation for the rest of the record. History Song, 80s Life, the beautiful Northern Whale and Kingdom of Doom are as good a run of four songs to open a record as anything Blur put out. The record does tail off in parts, particularly A Soldier’s Tale which is a little dull even though the instrumentation is excellent, it just doesn’t work for me. Same with Three Changes which is a hodgepodge of lyrical nonsense. The repetitive “Not going to be a victim” becomes a bit tiresome. Closer, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is an excellent finish and the lengthiest track in the record. What makes it interesting is that it hints at something next. It’s bold and energetic with everyone involved and at least for this track seemingly connected. I enjoy this far more than Gorillaz and it was this record that, for me, redeemed Damon Albarn as an interesting songsmith after some uneven prior outings. This record too has some lyric bloat but overall a pretty well thought out and developed record. Not perfect but pretty damned good.

This is a record of my youth. I was 14 when this came out and in 9th grade. I am unabashedly a fan of this record. Not because it’s special in the context of a number of records I can think of, but rather because I associate it with so many good times and formative experiences- school dances, being a school DJ in the Yukon, making out with L.R. (and later D.J.B) in the back seat of my buddy’s Chevy Camero and my Chevy Nova. Drinking Beers with my friends at the Yukon Inn where the drinking age was 12. School, Bloody Well Right, Dreamer, Rudy and Crime if the Century were played endlessly on the local radio station. I would not be surprised if they are all still are in the Top 10 in Whitehorse. This was a massive record in Canada. Hide In Your Shell with it’s Queen like harmonies should also have been a hit. I had an 8-Track of this which played on repeat in my car. At home I played both sides about equally because the first two tracks on each side are indisputably hits. Side 1 with School and Bloody Well Right. Side 2 with Dreamer and Rudy. Asylum is in my mind an Elton John song with Rick Davies giving a strong vocal performance. Davies and Roger Hodgsen were a formidable vocal duo on this record with Hodgsen the lead on the hits, but Davies a powerful vocalist in his own right. In my opinion, this record is near perfect for what it is - a record that soundtracked my high school experience. It is with that fondness that makes this a perfect record. It is everything that a great record has - its impact on the listener is such that you can hear a song and are instantly transported. In my case to the back seat of a Chevy Camero parked at the edge of the Yukon River making out with …

KROQ killed all love anyone could have for this record. In Los Angeles for a period this disco record was all you could hear every fucking day for several years. I stopped listening to radio. The direct blame for my switching off radio is in large part to my absolute loathing of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are without a doubt the worst fucking band in the history of rock music joining the Eagles and the Journey/Styx/Nickleback tie for 3rd. Depeche Mode sits comfortably 4th. This is just a loathsome record. If you tried you couldn’t come up with a more bland album that sold millions. This is dance music for dead people. The dead don’t move and neither does this record. Really, take The Sweetest Perfection with its repetive nonsense. It is easy to see why the suckers fell for the disco beat of Enjoy The Silence and Personal Jesus. Policy of Truth is passable it not enough to redeem a fairly dull affair. Clean, apparently about getting “clean” is 5:00 minutes of whining. The biggest problem with the record, as I try to reflect how anyone could have chosen to include this record on the list, is that Depeche Mode was mining the same territory as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, without the humor. This is dour music for wannabe goths who thought the Cure weren’t poppy enough. What the fuck is Blue Dress. I guess it’s an effort to be less self—involved, or maybe not. It turns out that Depeche Mode is a group of plastic people singing about nothing, really. Someone described Depeche Mode as synth-pop with emotional depth. My ass it is. I felt violated by having to listen to this record.

It is difficult interacting with genius when you are not and you encounter it in a genre where you admittedly have no interest. Such is the case here. I have no interest in the Canterbury scene, British Folk, or in this case a somber folk jazz which has several interesting passages but those are significantly outnumbered by many minutes of just slow weird shit. I’m good with weird - just not slow weird. I have encountered Wyatt in other contexts - a cover of The Elvis Costello track “Shipbuilding” and Tears for Fears cover of Sea Witch” from this record. Both are enjoyable, but not enough for me to take the dive to find out more. Sea Witch and the first version of Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road are the best of the lot. It took great fortitude on my part to commit to the experience. Imagine driving in Los Angeles in a convertible on Sunset and rocking this album as you sit beside a Swiftie in the next vehicle. This would truly be a WTF?? moment. What is this alien sound? That’s not singing it’s a gruff spoken word piece with some pretty dark lyrics. Apparently, this record was written before Robert fell off a building becoming a paraplegic. It was recorded after the accident. Rock Bottom should give you some hint as to what is in store. However, despite the darkness, there are ethers moments that fleetingly hopeful. There is one passage that I thought was going to lead into Rattlesnake by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, but that could just be fucking my mind fucking with me as Robert whisper talks sings to a vibey prog jazz. I do believe there is genius in these passages. I just don’t connect with genius.

I’d written a bunch of stuff about this record but somehow that draft was lost to the ether. So, here is a shorter albeit accurate account of this record. It is not R.E.M.’s best record. It is not. Murmer is. And it is not close. Next is Fables. R.E.M. probably does not exist without Big Star, the Replacements, the dBs (Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey), Don Dixon and the whole Athens and North Carolina scene. The guitar work on Document is excellent, Peter Buck demonstrates how to expand what would become alternative rock - jangling guitar with a pop sensibility best displayed on the gems from this record: Exhuming McCarthy, Welcome to the Occupation and the Wire cover, Strange. Stipe is singing clearly, the vocals are crisp and the lyrics interesting and wide ranging. The anti-love The One I Love is a solid track as is Finest Worksong, but these become tiresome as the sugar in them is a bit sweet. So with It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). The last couple of tracks are just not interesting, save for the closer Oddfellows Local 151 which saves the album from falling of the cliff. This really was a transitional record for R.E.M. as evidenced by the dull title: Document. They were documenting the time when they were moving from college rock heroes to commercial rock stars. Really - go listen to Murmur and discover a band crafting a beautiful record that still holds up today.

You have your whole lifetime to write your first record. As debut records go it is hard to argue with just how catchy the first 6 songs in this record are they were hits for a reason. The vocal effects are pitch perfect in a key that just encourages the listener enough to believe that they can sing along. The lyrics are actually really well crafted and when an attempt is made to have rhyming lines they actually do rhyme. Later albums dispose of intelligent lyrics and words that actually rhyme. This is a good time to remind everyone that on the song Human, this was the worst possible choice to try to rhyme with the word answer: Looking for the answer/Are we human/ Or are we dancer? Honestly, this is terrible as a lyric goes and it was still a huge fucking hit. But back to Hot Fuss. The first 6 are the show here: 1. "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" 2. "Mr. Brightside"3."Smile Like You Mean It" 4."Somebody Told Me" 5."All These Things That I've Done" and 6."Andy, You're a Star" are gems. Then there is the cliff. The rest of the album is serviceable but none of the rest rise to the quality of the first six. “Change Your Mind” is the best of the rest and “Everything Will Be Alright” easily the worst as it is both incredibly repetitive and boring. This is not to knock the Killers. It’s a terrific pop record with incredible lasting appeal. Not perfect no. But pretty darn good.

New Order received a pass following the death of Ian Curtis as New Order formed out of the ashes of Joy Division. This record ended that pass. Who would have thought that they would end up being essentially a disco act. What music listener in 1889 wanted a Donna Summer record with a male vocal? Exactly. A true travesty as Peter Hook lost the synthesizer battle and instead of a rock record we get a synth pop record with Balearic beat club influences I.e. a mellow house record with expansive and hypnotic musical interludes. I’m not the target audience at this point. I enjoyed parts of earlier records such as Power Corruption and Lies which still had threads of Joy Division embedded in its DNA. Gillian Gilbert’s addition after Ian’s death gave me hope of a potentially powerful new direction for the band, but Bernard, as the lyricist and vocalist apparently was the dominant force. Peter Hook ended up the winner after the split but was clearly the loser on Technique. The long expansive passages in several of the songs are boring and largely uninteresting. Sings like Vanishing Point come off as whining to a disco beat. So how do you give a grade to a record where you are unlikely to listen to ever again? The record also comes off a bit dated as this definitely has that 80’s production and the drums are mixed too low to give the songs any punch. Thus is music for a dance floor filled with drug addicts zombified and floating with the music. Nothing sticks out on this record musically. It’s all vibe and no substance. (See what I did there? If you know you know.) someone wrote that Technique was one of the best records of the eighties. Hahaha. I actually replayed this record throughout the day several times interested in seeing if a song would jump out. Unfortunately, the answer in no. It really has become elevator music 35 years later. If you are really fucking high this is probably a 4/5. If you are not, it’s a solid 2 especially with the dated production. I split the difference.

I remember this record fondly as a young teen. It had been out a couple of years before I discovered it in around 1974. As a freshman in high school the older kids had already discovered this and Black Sabbath. As a freshman it was like being offered entry into a cult. The seniors had discovered pot and acid and this record and Vol. 4 were part of the soundtrack to my high school years. Dazed and Confused, Communication Breakdown and Good Times Bad Times were in an endless loop as most of us, myself included, had these tracks on endless loop as we spent summers drinking, smoking and dropping at parties by the lake about 20 miles south of Whitehorse. I bought the album and played this songs skipping over the more traditional Blues numbers. Not that they were not good songs - they certainly were but the guitar noodling particularly on tracks like I Can’t Quit You Baby and You Shook Me were too traditional for my taste. Over time I came to appreciate other tracks on this record, in particular the last track on side 2, the wonderful How Many More Times, which I discovered while higher than a kite during a show at the Planetarium in Vancouver BC while I was in college. It was crazy good watching stars with a plant and Page grooving on this marching song. As I think about how this period was so fertile for new sounds, this album is at the start of that journey and certainly influenced rock going forward. I discovered punk in 1977 and that altered the journey again. This record would never be played again by me until now. I recall it fondly and time (and a great remix) have treated this gem well.

Stone cold fucking classic. I’d discovered “Little Johnny Jewel” on 7” by way of the dBs. I had picked up Chris Stamey and the dBs 7” “The Summer Sun” on Ork Records, which was Terry Ork’s record label. At the time, punk rock was all 7”. The Ramones were already huge in my world in 1977 and 1978 and Television was already getting hyped by Trouser Press and Punk Magazine. When the record came out I was already ready for the sonic approach which was more art rock and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers than Ramones and Sex Pistols. And it was good. This was a different beast. Compelling. Completely different than anything else in that scene. Verlaine’s vocals were unusual as were the lyrics. But the guitars - a tone so good you could not help but smile. Little Johnny Jewel was the entree into this unique vision. See No Evil seems like a logical continuation of the 7” and a door opener to an album that must be heard first on vinyl. Why? Because you need to flip the record - that break in the music is necessary to prepare you for side 2 after the nearly 10:00 minute Marquee Moon at the end of side 1. Marquee Moon encapsulates on a single song everything that Television was about. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were tremendously talented guitarists who played intertwined passages where they would alternate lead and Rhythm parts with each other in the same song. There are two solos on the song and there is literally no one who can copy them. Everyone who plays guitar learns how to play riffs and learns the solo parts. With Television the guitar parts often do not make sense but they sound amazing wrapped around Verlaine’s straight forward singing voice. Billy Ficca and Fred Smith form a rhythmic counterpoint to the two guitars with Ficca’s jazz skills as a drummer accentuating and enhancing each song. The bass is solid and allows Verlaine and Lloyd space to create. Marquee Moon pulls it altogether in a single track. For a record with only 8 songs, each is composed with a goal for the listener to experience each song as a feeling rather than a mere observer. Sure, I have favorites. They have changed over the years just as I have changed. Originally, Venus was my earliest favorite, followed by See No Evil and Torn Curtain. Now it is Elevation and Guiding Light. I’m sure that you will discover your own path into this record. And that’s what makes this record a classic. Even when you think you know every note and nuance in a record, and I have played this record hundreds of times, when I leave it for a little while and come back to it, I discover something new and intriguing that I didn’t experience before. If this is a new record for you, definitely flip the record to side 2 which I find equally fascinating as Side 1. This side solidifies Television’s genius explored on the first side. The guitar passages and the ringing tones suck you in to the heart of the song. I was lucky enough to see Television when they were touring after the release of Adventure in 1978 and the live show was better than the record. Mesmerizing and hypnotic foreshadowing shoegaze by a decade. And that’s is the genius of this record. It’s a passionate record in the most oblique sense of the word passion. Almost 50 years after the record’s release it is still vital and alive and still a remarkable listen.

When this came out in 2004 it fit within the other guitar bands who were starting to make some noise as the ebb and flow of indie rock was suddenly on the uptick again. The Strokes arguably started the post-punk revival along with The White Stripes, Interpol, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, Modest Mouse etc and the Glaswegian Franz Ferdinand fit nicely along side those bands with a funky approach to post punk with razor sharp hooks and solid bass lines. Ignoring the monster hits, This Fire and perhaps Michael, this debut is interesting from beginning to End. Jacqueline with its lengthy intro and frenetic second half gets the party started and introduces the cutting clean guitar tone that is the hallmark of the album and repeated on several songs. Tell Her Tonight keeps up the interest with a catchy, albeit repetitive hook throughout. For me, the most interesting song on the LP is 40’ which is interesting lyrically, vocally and musically with a hook which sounds like an inversion of the hook in Take Me Out. The closest Franz Ferdinand gets to traditional post punk is Auf Asche with its synthesizer intro before breaking into a more traditional electronic post-punk track. It’s still kind of upbeat for a song about desire for a woman you can’t touch. There are no duds on this record and it captures a particular post-punk sound remarkably well. Alex Kapranos is a good vocalist and keeps the album from descending into just average. 4/5

The record that for me defines the post punk era. Copied by many in the post-punk revival era of the early 2000s ( I see you Franz Ferdinand!) it is Gang of Four that invented the sharp angular guitars slashing through funk rhythms to produce this instantly recognizable sound. Damaged Goods, At Home He Is A Tourist and Love Like Anthrax are unmistakable hits that still resonate today. Catchy, with sing-a-long lyrics they define the sound. But the rest of the record resonates with the punk roots. This is particularly true on a track like I Found That Essence Rare which is more 77 punk rock than 79 post punk. You would think Wilco Johnson of Dr. Feelgood was playing guitars on the track. Ether and Glass similarly are vehicles for teen angst. This was a huge hit and I was lucky enough to see them on this tour and later when they were touring with Sara Lee on bass. Andy Gill’s guitar is the glue that holds this all together but Jon Kings lyrics and vocals put the pieces together to produce what was, then, a very unique sound. Repeated listens are worth the journey as they produce new insights and new favorites. For me, the only track I had difficulty appreciating early on was Return The Gift, but now, it forms an important role in keeping the album moving forward as it leads to the excellent Guns Before Butter that closes side 1. Side 2 is similar with 5.45 the track that leads into the closer Love Like Anthrax. This is a don’t miss record. Buy a copy or five.

As debut records go, this one is certainly hard to beat as this amalgam of Blues, Hard Rock and psychedelia is the touchstone of pretty much every guitar exploration since this was released. Don’t believe me? Check out the guitar solo on Manic Depression, the second track on Side 1. While Purple Haze, Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary deservedly get the attention, it is the sonic experiments found on Love or Confusion or Stone Free that make this a masterpiece. Almost every rock fan of a certain age will recognize most of the songs on this record but more importantly, most of those fans would recognize these tunes without Jimi’s vocal. The use of fuzz, a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox Crybaby Wah pedal took these pedals and their modifications in new directions with Jimi’s intricate and inventive playing. Fire, Foxey Lady and Are You Experienced are showcases for the diversity of Hendrix’s playing. All of this would not be possible without the contributions of Noel Redding (b) and Mitch Mitchell (d) who play in service to the song leaving space for Hendrix’s vision. Of the 3 records by the Experience- this is the gem and the only one of the three that is complete. Jimi was a rocket that burned brightly for a short period but what an incredible period it was.

Start with side 2. The title track filling all of side 2 is where the genius in this record has always rested. 17 minutes of progressive rock and psychedelia with drug influenced babbling that defines for a generation what it means to “trip”. This is not to say that the track is perfect - there are easily several minutes beginning around the 4:00 minute mark and ending around the 12:50 mark that is just a drum beat. No wonder the single cuts out about 14:00 minutes. Unfortunately, side 1 is not nearly as inspiring and is rather insipid particularly the absolutely hideous piece entitled Flowers and Beads. The rest of side 1 is equally uninspiring. Generic riffing with underwhelming vocals that compel the listener to shut off the album and find something with a pulse. This is a huge miss. Only nostalgia is responsible for this record appearing on these lists. This album is a precursor to the bloat that would lead to the punk rock explosion several years later. So I guess it was good for something.

A note before I begin: for me In The Flat Field was a magnificent album and after listening to Mask, Bauhaus’ second LP after having heard In The Flat Field, Mask will never hold up as equal because the first album colors your opinion of what comes after. Mask was more experimental in its expansive use of keyboards but also attempting to be more popular. Do I think they achieved that successful balance? The answer is clearly yes. Whereas In The Flat Field has darker classics, namely Bela Lugosi’s Dead and the definitive cover of T.Rex’s Telegram Sam, Mask lightens the darkness just enough to accommodate dancing. Kick in the Eye, Dancing and Passion of Lovers add some goth dance moves to the previously colder palate and the atmosphere on this record evokes the mix of The Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees and lead to a scene in London of bands that would come out of The Bat Cave Club in London in early 1982 including Specimen, Sex Gang Children and Alien Sex Fiend. There are some interesting tracks on this record in particular Of Lilies and Renains with its almost spoken world vocals and the motorik drums of Kevin Haskins. Sonically this was Bauhaus at their best with David J (Kevin’s brother) playing bass, forming a perfect rhythm section to complement Peter Murphy’s vocals and Daniel Ash’s inventive guitar. Interesting to me at the time was the interplay between Peter Murphy and David J as vocalists- they had a weird harmony that created tension and made already dark lyrics seem darker. The screams added to the tension. The album does have some hits. For me the standout tracks are Kick In The Eye, Mask and The Passion of Lovers. Mask is a solid album but Bauhaus had better songs e.g. Terror Couple Killed Colonel, Dark Entries, Third Uncle and Telegram Sam. Mask is a fully realized record and certainly worthy of inclusion on this list as it showcases the possibilities when a band attempts successfully to broaden their sound while still remaining credible and interesting. This record still sounds fresh today. Time is always a goth’s friend.

Early Kinks was some weird ass hippy shit. Victoria, which starts the album cops a Beatles riff and the album proceeds at a Beatlesque pace. I’m sure at the time this came out the Sgt. Pepper influence would have been obvious but apparently not because America was starved for more British rock n roll. Among the approximately 2000 concerts I’ve attended only Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were more dull than this lot. Live they apparently called it you were hoping for a fight to break out on stage to add a little energy to proceeding. Ray and Dave Davies famously embattled brothers, at this point in their career have not quite discovered the Kink’s sound of You Really Got Me and are experimenting with musicianship. 7 albums into a career and stuck in this muck of a concept record. Some Mother’s Son is just whiny. The single “Drivin” is middlin’ and rather dull. Brainwashed fares better and might actually be the best song in the record. The Kinks guitar sound and three chord rock with a Hendrix like chorus keep the album from being a rather miserable rock opera. Apparently the Who’s Tommy was released in the same period and American reviewers of the time liked this record better than Tommy. Time has relegated this album to the ash heap of history as it is rather a tedious experience 55 years after it was released. Australia has a pretty decent vocal and had they kept it tight might have been a great sing. Bunch iof noodling that is distracting and somewhat overindulgent.

What happens when a myth becomes a reality 40 years later? Are you disappointed when what you believed to be true is somehow not what you encounter it? The much beloved and bootlegged abandoned Beach Boys album - Smile - appears in a completed form by Brian Wilson and while your are somewhat familiar with several of the songs, you are stunned by how cohesive this version appears to be. But, you are also fully aware that this 2004 version is likely no where near what this record would have sounded like as a Beach Boys album in 1966. And this is no disrespect to Brian, Van Dyke Parks and the Wonderments who have produced an iteration of the album full of wonderful arrangements and magical harmonies. The album should be considered a part from its history but it cannot. If you had never heard of The Beach Boys, would this symphonic version produce the level of endearment without the mythos of its antecedent version? I can’t answer that question. Undoubtedly this is a gorgeous version of songs but having also heard the Smile Sessions released in 2011, I can say that this record is nice but also rather lifeless. The bass is buried and the digital nature of the tracks means the warmth of the original recordings is lost. Similarly, Nrian’s vocals are thicker and less energetic as befitting a man who was then in his 60s. See e.g. In Blue Hawaii. As an artifact it is interesting but I think supplanted by the Smile Sessions. P.S. Good Vibrations is still an exceptional fucking track no matter the version.

This is the Day is a near perfect slice of pop music. I’d actually purchased the first record, Burning Blue Soul by Matt Johnson after having discovered it as a DJ for a junior college in Vancouver in 1981. I discovered today that Matt had requested reissues to beat The The as the artist so they would be filed together. When Soul Mining came out in 1983, I was unprepared for how good this record sounded. When it blew up and became a Canadian hit record I was not surprised. The difference between Burning Blue Soul and Soul Mining is tremendous in terms of sound. The best elements of the first record are carried over with the mix of synth pop and post punk influences, but gone are the heavily filtered vocals. The songs on Soul Mining resonate with Matt’s distinctive voice and the lyrics are sharp and inciteful. Uncertain Smile gets my vote for the best track on the LP as of today. I have played this record numerous times over the past 43 years and my favorite changes between several songs. This Is The Day, Soul Mining and Perfect all make the list. Soul Mining’s lyrics are fascinating and the organ pattern predates Tears For Fears shout by 4 years. If you close your eyes you can hear the gentle lift by Tears For Fears from The The. Giant is further evidence of the cloning a few years later by TFF. All that said, what made The The so interesting was Matt’s sense of melody and vocals. A thoroughly enjoyable record from start to finish. Was it earth shattering? No. Did it alter the trajectory of music? No. Did it make you sing? Certainly. Can you imagine yourself in a dark nightclub dancing to This Is The Day? Yup. I did that. You just have to know that this is the day your life will surely change when things fall into place…

3 piece. No bass. 2 vocalists. Big fucking guitars. Passion. Heartbreak. Complicated relationships. Carrie and Corin. More Carrie than Corin. Corin balancing Carrie. Anger. Hurt. Love. More rock than punk rock but punk enough. Tucker drum like a madwoman. Big bottom for a no bass band. One More Hour and Turn It On back to back emotional ride. Words and Guitar standout.

A steaming turd of an album. Starting with Rikki Don’t Lose That Number this may be the album that tipped the balance and inspired punk rock. This is a snooze fest from beginning to end. There are no edges or angularity in this lifeless anti-music designed to torture people in elevators. Night By Night is the them from a 70s television with a sound oft associated with cheesy detective shows it adds nothing lyrically. An’s that may be the real issue with the record. It is lifeless music by anonymous white people with no soul. This is music for ghouls. If this is the music that starts your day then you are already dead. Any Major Dude Will Tell You takes it down a notch if that is possible. Slow, with insipid lyrics it is representative of the record. I’m sure it is a sign of genius to try to make a record this terrible and lifeless with such precise playing a stellar production. It’s a nice sounding record- full, sonically balanced with each instrument mixed carefully but then you have to pay attention to the whole of the presented music and realize at that point that there is a jazz inflected “Minnie The Moocher” soundalike playing called East St.Louis Toodle-Oo and it’s bewildering coming about halfway through the record. The Temptation to turn it off at that point is strong. Somehow I made it through the record. Parker’s Band has an Elton John Philadelphia Freedom vibe to it. Just an observation. I have no idea what the song is about. Come and take a piece of Mr. Parker’s band? WTF? Through The Buzz. Nope. Getting high? Perhaps that might help but I’m not sure what drug would make it better. Thankfully that song is short. I sincerely tried to like Pretzel Logic when it came out in the 70’s. Some older kids said this was happening. I said “Have you fucking heard of Black Sabbath?” This is shit. It is just as boring as anything from that era. To think they would have a record Aja that would be much more popular than thus blew my mind. I then understood that the majority of Americans and most of Europe have really shitty taste in music. The last couple of songs on the record With A Gun, Charlie Frank and Monkey In Your Soul add nothing to the rest of the record - unremarkable and bland. Nothing could save this record. I guess really old people would have liked this record. Dangerously safe. It’s a 0 star record but the lowest option is 1. This is just not good.