So groovy! The stank face was plastered on! This album will be played when I want to grooooove.
Highlights:
P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)
Unfunky UFO
Handcuffs
Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)
I have listened to this album before as I was going through Rush's discography. I really liked it the first time but the second time, I loved it! If this album was not the album that brought progressive rock to the masses, I don't know what is! 2112, the title track and song that takes up the whole first side on vinyl, is flat-out amazing! I would argue their second best epic (Xanadu is my favourite Rush epic). The story, the instrumentation, everything! Does the second side hold up? It does have the disadvantage of being just individual songs but even then, some bands would kill to have some of these songs. It's hard to think that 3 guys from Canada did all this. Amazing album!
Highlights:
2112
A Passage To Bangkok
The Twilight Zone
Something For Nothing
This album surprised me. Now, I am not much of a jazz guy. I don't listen to much jazz because it never appealed to me. I have listened to a couple of jazz albums like Bitches Brew by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. Bitches Brew is an outstanding album and A Love Supreme was decent IMHO. However, I found this album to be very good. It's not meant to quicken the pulse or wow you. It's meant to be relaxing and serve as some great jazz. Hugh Masekela shows exactly why he is so talented on the flugelhorn and the other band members do a great job as well. Will I go back to this album a lot? No. Am I happy I listened to it? Yes!
Highlights:
Part Of A Whole
The Big Apple
Unhome
Inner Crisis
I know of the reputation of this album. It's this groundbreaking, outstanding 60s album made by The Beach Boys. I went into this with high expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations were not met. What I expected to be something amazing was just great. To be fair, it's Pet Sounds we're talking about here. This album's reputation precedes it but there are some fantastic songs here. Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows (Side 1 opener and Side 2 opener) are simply outstanding. Brian Wilson's genius shines here. Sloop John B, Here Today and I Know There's An Answer are also fantastic. The rest I can do without. The album aspires to be this big and massive pop album, attempting to emulate Phil Spector's Wall of Sound but rather, it fails to meet its goal. Nevertheless, this album would influence the Beatles to make Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band so, we can thank it for that. But we also must realise, even if I didn't like this album as much as other people do, it was groundbreaking when it was released. With this album and Michael Jackson's Thriller, the pop landscape was torn apart and put back together. Without this album, pop may never be as we know it today.
Highlights:
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Sloop John B
God Only Knows
I Know There's An Answer
Here Today
This is punk at its greatest. Sloppy singing, sloppy lyrics, sloppy everything. This album is a towering achievement in punk.
Highlights:
Blitzkrieg Bop
Beat on the Brat
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Wow. This is a really good live album. It takes these otherwise grungy, heavy and distorted songs and transforms them into introspective and melancholy songs. The lyrics really take centre stage on this album. This was Kurt Cobain's last album with Nirvana before he died and his whole soul is bared on this album. This is a fantastic album through and through. The cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World is particularly a standout.
Highlights:
Come As You Are
The Man Who Sold The World
Dumb
Polly
On A Plain
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
The production on this album is top-notch and the lyrics unfortunately are timely. This is one of my first exposures to reggae and who better than with Bob Marley to introduce me to the world of reggae. With this album, I am encouraged to go forward into reggae! RIP Bob Marley
Highlights:
No Woman No Cry
Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)
So Jah S'eh
Simply an amazing album. This album was revolutionary for its time and it still sounds timeless today. After the experimentation on Revolver, they went ham on the experimentation on this album. Every song is bursting with orchestras, vivid lyrics and of course, that production. A Day In The Life is one of the greatest songs ever made. The ending with the chaotic orchestral build-up to 1 second of silence and that glorious piano chord that is stretched for who knows how long. Simply exquisite.
Highlights
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
She's Leaving Home
Within You Without You
When I'm Sixty-Four
A Day In The Life
I wasn't expecting to like this album but I was pleasantly surprised. It sounds "of the future". It sounds like something that would be heard in a spaceship lounge while drinking cocktails. The songs are spacious and they create this unsettling atmosphere. A great album.
Highlights:
La femme d'argent
Sexy Boy
All I Need
You Make It Easy
I have to be honest. I though this album was just okay. I would've loved to hear Missy have her own work. Just her and no one else. But sadly, most of the features do the heavy lifting on this album. Will I go back and listen to this in the future? Maybe. But for now, it's just okay.
Highlights:
Sock It 2 Me
The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Friendly Skies
I liked this album. It had the right mix of country and storytelling. While this would be Gram Parsons's farewell, it would the take-off needed for Emmylou Harris. She shines on this album. $1000 Wedding is simply exceptional.
Highlights:
Hearts on Fire
Brass Buttons
$1000 Wedding
Love Hurts
In My Hour of Darkness
What an album. This album is a classic for a reason. It blends Springsteen's signature Americana biographical writing with production that takes inspiration from Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and it creates an album that is truly excellent. This is the album that would be Springsteen's critical and commercial breakthrough in the United States and what better album then to bring it with. Simply outstanding.
Highlights:
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Born To Run
Jungleland (that sax solo is stellar)
Pure rebellious energy. I love it.