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Top Ten Albums |
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Phaedra, Tangerine Dream. |
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Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin |
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Exile on Main Street, Rolling Stones. |
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Exile on Coldharbour Lane, Alabama 3. |
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All the stuff and more, Vol II. Ramones.. |
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Confessions of Dr Dream, Kevin Ayers. |
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Apollo Atmospheres, Brian Eno |
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The Clash / The Clash. |
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Space Ritual, Hawkwind. |
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Microgravity, Biosphere. |
A classic music CD has several characteristics - it must be durable and have very few, (if any) dud tracks.
The definitive synthesiser album - I got through 4 copies of this on vinyl, just worn through. Unlike later Tangerine Dream which went all tuneful and bleepy, and even added guitars and drums, this one is end to end wonderfully floaty. The title track always gives me a great sense of falling, other parts shift around in a suitably mysterious and doom laden manner. Apparently the track came about largely unplanned, as a result of the synthesisers drifting in and out of tune, and the musicians trying to cope with it - but the tapes were rolling.
If you like this one, then try Rubicon and Ricochet from roughly the same period.
Dedicated T Dream fans should also check the Tangerine Tree project, where bootleg material is made freely available for download. Don't even think about it unless you have broadband!
The greatest ever album, by the greatest ever hard rockers. A double of astonishing range and power, covering everything from elegant acoustics of 'Bron-y-aur', to the full blown assault of 'Trampled Underfoot' by way of exotic 'Kashmir'.
Page's guitar work is at its absolute peak, and Plant manages to restrain his vocal obsession with 'rambling'. (What is this unhealthy fixation with country walks?!?! Not very rock-and-roll!).
If you like this, try Zeppelin 4.
I used to wonder why anyone made a fuss about the Stones, while groundbreaking when they started, they hardly seemed to have gone anywhere since.
Then I heard this. Physical Graffiti and Exile are often compared, and its not hard to see why. Originally a double LP, Exile also has great range and power, with good country style songs, (Sweet Virginia), frantic rockers, (Rip this joint), a great single in 'Tumbling Dice', and the hypnotic 'Stop breaking down'.
End-to-end consistency. If you like this try 'Sticky Fingers' or '40 Licks'.
Well, they deserve some kind of award for the name alone - the Alabama 3 are based in South East London, which features strongly in their music.
A very odd mix of pro Christian and parental advisory lyrics, soaked in local atmosphere, (and if you know Coldharbour Lane, you would NOT expect that to be a good thing!).
The Ramones were American punk.
Every single one of their first four albums is essential, with hardly a dud track on any them - but as this collection is their third and forth albums combined, plus a few extras, it's great value.
The core is clearly bubblegum and surf music, but when played with this speed, passion, and aggression, and simplicity, it becomes something completely new. The relentless cries of 'Wuh too free faw!' at the start of each song is irresistible, the lyrics raise dumb to an art form.
If you like this get 'All the stuff and more, Vol 1'.
A concept album about madness and dreams, and its not 'Dark Side of the Moon'.
Ayers always had a gift for strong melody and lyrical inventiveness, though sometimes the whimsical bits could get in the way. But here the darker tone works beautifully, and the album has a coherence missing from his other work. Who could resist a love song called 'Irreversible neural damage'?
A much underrated album, by a much underrated artist.
He never really did anything that came close on the scale of an album, but watch out for killer tracks such as 'Stranger in blue suede shoes' or 'Flying Start, (with Mike Oldfield).
Well, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to be precise. Done as a soundtrack for a NASA film about the Apollo program, the mood suits perfectly, though not in an obvious way.
Echoey guitars abound, melodic lines drift in and out of themes. Very gentle, very floaty, supremely tuneful in an unconventional way. Some parts lean towards his more ambient style, but never at the expense of listenability.
An excellent starting point for getting to know the supremely creative and varied work of Eno. If you like this try 'Another Green World' by Eno. Less consistent, but containing some of the most beautiful minimalist music ever written is 'Music for airports'.
The two bands at the heart of the UK punk scene were the Clash and the Sex Pistols.
But where the pistols rejoiced in nihilism, and John Lydon famously said he hated music, The Clash delivered great songs, and they cared a lot. Their first album is, for me, the only consistent album to come out of the UK punk scene. Though the Clash got steadily more sophisticated as they went on, the never really matched the sheer power, energy, consistency and anger of their first album.
With songs like 'White Riot' and 'Janie Jones', and 'Police and Thieves' they arrived with a huge bang.
A live album, one of the great live albums.
The blends between songs are great, the energy is palpable, and the result is the ultimate space rock album ever.
Powerhouse guitar work, bleepy burbly effects, Lemmy's bass driving along underneath, the whole works. If there is a problem it is that this album is probably responsible for the absolute flood of third rate live recordings that have plagued the band ever since. Michael Moorcock rants his weird 'poetry', but it doesn't sound out of place here, helpfully providing some variation in pace.
I love Hawkwind's stuff, but they really have a consistency problem, so approach with caution. Recommended albums include "Quark, Strangeness and Charm", "Warriors on the edge of Time", "Doremi Fasolatido", and "Hall of the mountain grill". The triple best of "Epoch Eclipse" is great, most other best of sets are badly flawed.
OK, probably the most obscure thing on here!
Biosphere / Keir Jensen started out all bleepy bloopy techno, and gradually removed all the music from his sound. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but certainly some of his more recent work is at the frontier of ambient.
This is more mid period, where there are still tunes. It's very hard to describe why this works so well, individual tracks are often nothing that special, but the accumulated mood is unique. And some of his commissioned work is available for download, free, from his official website at: http://www.notam02.no/~geirje/mp3.html
Patashnik is also very good, as is Substrata 2.
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