1001 Albums Summary

Not a big rap/hip hop fan, but this album isn't afraid to try different things in terms of sampling and backing music. Kind of a psychedelic vibe throughout. The album unfortunately suffers the same fate as many other rap records in that it has a few too many songs on it and feels a bit overloaded.

I'm personally not a fan of the whole big beat/house genre of music. I get that the point of it is to be repetitive and danceable, but for someone like me who is not big into the whole dance club scene, I don't really understand music like this and it becomes more along the lines of background music for me. I did recognize a few of the samples though. Thought it was cool that they sampled a James Gang song on "Right Here, Right Now".

Man, how does a band even do this? 'Physical Graffiti' is Led Zeppelin's 6th masterpiece in a row, and it's a double album no less. So, not only did they give us twice as much material as they have on past albums, but it's literally all killer and no filler. Okay, in all fairness, about half the songs on here were leftovers from previous recording sessions. But still, what does that tell you about a band when songs that they initially considered to be throwaway tracks on previous albums got included on an album that some fans view to be the best in their catalog. 'Physical Graffiti' is similar to 'Houses of the Holy' in that every song leaves you wondering what you're going to hear next. The first disc overall seems to contain most of the harder rocking tracks. Every one of them is electrified and full of that signature Zeppelin swagger, from the grooving opener "Custard Pie" to the iconic plodding "Kashmir". This disc also contains arguably my favorite of Zeppelin's all out blues rockers "In My Time of Dying". The second disc is the more eclectic of the two, and whereas the first one had most of this album's classics, this disc features the bulk of the album's deep cuts. Admittedly, for a while I didn't really enjoy this disc as much, but just like 'Led Zeppelin III', I've found myself really appreciating it nowadays. In fact, some of my favorite songs from the album are on this disc such as the hard rocking "Wanton Song" and "Sick Again", the eerie and progressive "In the Light", and the classic "Ten Years Gone", which might be one of Zeppelin's best moody melodic rockers. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but 'Physicall Graffiti' is yet another fantastic album from beginning to end, and is one of the all time classics of 70's hard rock.

This might be one of the ultimate underrated gems of the 60's. The 13th Floor Elevators are considered by many to be the first true psychedelic rock band, or at least, they're the first to use the term "psychedelic". And this album really is psychedelic rock defined too, right down to the trippy hippe cover art. The music largely is what you would expect from the mid-60's, having a definite pop rock vibe to it with some blues elements added in for good measure. But at the same time, there's a bit of an in your face proto-punk attitude to it, the production being somewhat raw and garagey and Roky Erickson's vocals being delivered in a rather raw fashion for the time. What really gives this album a trippy vibe though is its use of what's known as an "electric jug", which creates this weird echoing sound that kind of fades in and out on each song and just adds to the overall psychedelic vibe of the album. ...And yes, it is pretty much what you might think, it's a literal jug that someone's blowing into that has been amplified, and as far as I know, these guys are one of the only bands to have utilized this as an actual instrument. Definitely more of an underground type album for sure, although it did spawn a minor hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me". While I am a metalhead at heart, I love a lot of old 60's albums, and this is definitely one of them. 'The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators' is a great psychedelic trip of an album that deserves way more credit than it's given.

Does this album even need a review? With the possible exception of Sabbath's 'Paranoid', this album probably inspired more heavy metal bands than any other. Led Zeppelin were at the top of their game at this point. They had already released three albums that are generally considered to be among the best that rock music has to offer, so it was no surprise that this one was an absolute smash. What their fourth release did was take the heavy blues of their first two and mix it with the folk influences of their third, creating one of their most unique and diverse outputs yet. You've got your hard rockers like the classic "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll", the thundering heavy blues of "When the Levee Breaks", and the softer folk music of "The Battle of Evermore" and "Going to California". Of course this album is probably best known for the epic "Stairway to Heaven", which has become one of the most revered and overplayed rock songs ever created (look at any "best rock songs" list and it'll usually be at or near the top). "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Four Sticks" fill out the rest of the album, and they might actually be two of my favorites as they're not brought up quite as much as the others, particularly the latter with its somewhat raga rock inspired sound. Some albums out there that get this much reverence come off as a bit overrated, but this one deserves all the love that it gets. Led Zeppelin truly were one of the most diverse and original sounding bands out there, and 'IV' is an absolute masterpiece.