1001 Albums Summary

The first real question with this album is how as a man fast approaching fifty, have I only heard Freebird from this album. The bands of the late sixties and early seventies were this rich fountainhead from which the bands of my youth seemingly drew from. Yet Lynyrd Skynyrd was a pop culture reference on American TV shows aimed at its target home audience. I knew 'Freebird' from the often repeated 'Old Grey Whistle Test' clip, so it wasn't like the band hadn't completely passed the British public by. On the showing of this debut at least, I think I get why. Thanks to the length of some of the tracks the album is a lean eight tracks. Yet for me it was only until the flipside of the album did they sound like what I expected. The first half sounds like a band pooling from the bands that helped get them noticed. The opener I Ain't the One, was no doubt considered their 'Led Zeppelin' song when being penned, Tuesday's Gone 'the Stones-esque ballad', Gimme Three Steps 'the one that sounds like CCR', Simple Man 'the Ten Years After one'. Yet there's enough about them to be their own thing but still not quite enough to live beyond the album. The three tracks that aren't Freebird on side two have a sense of place. This is a band from the south 'doin' what they do' not some bunch of 'cultural appropriating' middle class limeys. And then this momentum just stops for the star turn final piece. Weirdly regardless of it's length its obvious why Freebird was the hit, it's the album distilled down into one song. I can definitely hear where some of the bands of my youth were influenced by them, especially on the ballads. (Looking at you Bon Jovi and Guns n' Roses oh and you middle aged Steve Tyler). Though despite having 104 million views on YouTube (and knowing that's website's algorithm), how Simple Man passed me by, I'm genuinely not sure. Overall (Pronounced Len-nard Skin-nard) is a fairly good album with a very good song on it. Is it worth being on this list, maybe. 73%

In seeing the description on Wikipedia of hard bop soul jazz, I kind of knew what I was letting myself in for here, namely a fairly accessible side of the genre but ultimately still jazz. I have heard of Jimmy Smith before this. Sometime around the turn of the millennium, The Organ Grinder's Swing was used in an advert for a French hatchback. It featured it careening around the narrow streets of somewhere on the Cote d'Azur interspersed with shots of la 'Mod' femme in Kennedy era clothing. Actually it is notable the three years between recording and release tie neatly with the Kennedy presidency .While not for me, I can see why it is on the list. Booker T and the MG's would tailor the sound to suit for another market. This does ask the question why was this shelved for three years if it is now so retrospectively revered Did the success of 'Green Onions' the year before prompt Back at the Chicken Shack to be finally released?

When this album was released in the summer of 1993 I was about to start my final year at High School. As someone that listened to the charts on a Sunday evening I was aware of how different the singles 'Human Behaviour' and 'Venus as a Boy' sounded to pretty much everything else at the time. The dance-pop sensibilties of 'Big Time Sensuality' even without its now iconic video was her deserved breakthrough. 'Play Dead' (included on later editions of the album) in collaboration with David Arnold was something else entirely. It feels like the successful audition tape that saw him land the Bond gig. The same track no doubt showed Bjork how expansive her sound could be going forward. In some circles Bjork is credited in helping making electronic music mainstream but it's hardly the only aspect of this album. If anything the house influences are the thing that now date the album slightly. Especially following the cinematic nature of Play Dead, and the now more known remixed forms of Big Time Sensuality. Two tracks feature just her voice and one instrument, namely a harp in jazz standard cover 'Like Someone in Love' and saxophone in the folksy 'The Anchor Song'. Yes she has an idiosyncratic vocal style that might be just a bit too much for one sitting, but it works in helping pin this mish-mash of styles together.

At a little after half six on a late October Monday morning this website presents me with this album. A resounding sigh gushes over the mug of tea that I had originally planned to wake me up for the working week. One of my friends at high school was a metalhead and it's from him I'm probably unknowingly heard this album. So after the vocal stylings of Bjork on Friday I'm now dealing with the human air raid siren that is Bruce Dickinson. Wish me luck. Lead single Run to the Hills is the most well known song on the album and for good reason, it sounds like it could be a metal cover of a glam pop-rock song by The Sweet. There's a clear structure and a hook which manages to keeps Dickinson's vocal in check. By which I mean that he uses defined roles for the distinctive parts rather than the somewhat scattergun approach on some other tracks. Hallowed Be Thy Name is another track of note partly for at least waiting for the end of the song to mention the song title rather than barking it as an indicator of a chorus. The Prisoner sampling the opening from the TV show of the same name just made me think of Patrick McGoohan being chased by a large balloon, which isn't the tone the track was aiming for. (Also granted its a niche fact but the spoken word part at the start of the title track is by voice actor Barry Clayton, who would later be the narrator for Count Duckula.) Do I like this album, not really, did I expect to like this album, not really. Is this worthy of making the list? Maybe. Perhaps as representation of a early 80s British metal and the reason why some that were just that bit too late for punk, refused the synth and picked up the guitar. Also side note, is their mascot Eddie the only monster that wears jeans by choice?