1000 Greatest Albums of all Time

 709 Alt-J - An Awesome Wave (2012) Studio Album - Alt-Pop About the Act: Alt-J is the Mac keyboard shortcut for the Greek letter Delta, a triangle. They have a thing about triangles. They are a band from Leeds, formed in 2007 and still going, with four albums released thus far. About the Album: This was their first album, it sold quite well and some critics were very complimentary. The cover is a composite of satellite images of the Ganges Delta - another triangle reference. My History with this Album: None Review: They remind me of somebody, but I cannot put my finger on who. It may be a band from an earlier review, or I am starting to think they remind me of something that got Radio 2 airplay around the time this was released. It's possible it was actually them, so maybe they remind me of themselves. The singer's voice is really distinctive, but voices have fashions, and the style of his voice may have had several others with similar sounds around the same time. It's n...

 710 Audioslave - Audioslave (2002) Studio Album - Hard Rock About the Act: Audioslave were a rock supergroup from California, formed in 2001 from the singer and rhythm guitarist of Soundgarden (Chris Cornell) and three members of Rage Against The Machine. They existed for seven years, produced three albums, and have had a reunion or two later on. About the Album: This was their first album. Some critics loved it, some were very scathing. My History with this Album: None Review: I've read some stuff about the criticism some critics levelled at this album. In a nutshell, they complained it was too "over-produced". So I'll say right now, I don't feel that this is a weakness. Let's try to do some description. There are two electric guitars, a bass and drums, and singing. They are very proud of the fact that everything you hear comes from that. They symptoms of hard rock are all over this. The voice, the overdriven guitars, the drum sounds used, the harmonic struc...

 711 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC (2001) Studio Album- Psychedelic Rock About the Act: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are an Indie Rock band from San Francisco. There is not much about them on Wikipedia, so I can't tell you much about them. This I know: They were formed in 1998, they have had 8 studio albums, and a mostly stable line-up. About the Album: This was their first album and was well-received, but again there is very little about it on Wikipedia, one of the scantiest entries for an album in this list. My History with this Album: I have heard the album as a whole about once before, and the song "Spread Your Love" several times. When it came out, I and my then flatmate were quite into watching alternative MTV and Spread Your Love got into rotation. I really liked it and so sought out the other tracks on the album and had a listen. They were quite different to Spread Your Love and I lost interest and got distracted by other things. Review: This album feels like ...

 712 The Yardbirds - Roger the Engineer (a.k.a. Over Under Sideways Down) (1966) Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock About the Act: The Yardbirds were a British Blues-Rock band that turned into a Psychedelic band, and then turned into Led Zeppelin. They were formed in 1963, and were active until 1968, initially, and were famous for having four lead guitarists, three of whom were Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. They were initially part of the British invention of Blues Rock, covering songs by people like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley, and adding a rock sensibility. In this period they became well known for their lengthy instrumental sessions called "rave ups" which involved doubling the rythmn tempo and building to a crescendo. In 1965 Eric Clapton lest the band abruptly when they started to go in a less blues-oriented direction, and was replaced by Jeff Beck, with whom they became part of the emerging Psychedelic sound. This continued, and there was a confusing period of mu...

 713 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration (1976) Studio album - Reggae About the Act: How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts? Wi' Jam in. Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican singer, musician and rastaman, who is considered one of the pioneers of reggae, and possibly its most famous proponent. He did a lot to bring a ghetto Jamaican style to the public of the world. His career spanned from 1962-1981, when he found that carrying on was difficult due to a case of death. He was also a convert to Rastafarianism, and brought attention to it to a wide audience. He lived in England for a while, and released 13 studio albums.  About the Album: This was his eighth album and contains his biggest US hit, Roots, Rock, Reggae My History with this Album: None Review: Yah mon! I do like a bit of Reggae occasionally, and specifically a bit of Bob Marley, as his Reggae is pretty accessible. Some is just too cheesy, or to weird, or too club-oriented, or... well I like Bob Marley....

 714 Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas (2002) Studio album - Noise rock. About the Act: McLusky were a band from Cardiff, Wales, although their frontman and singer Falco is from Newcastle upon Tyne. They were active from blah blah who cares to who cares with a hiatus around the time of a while ago and are back together. What difference does any of that make? If you really wanted to know you could look up their Wikipedia entry like I am doing now. About the Album: This was their second album, some critics loved it a lot. My History with this Album: None Review: With a cavalier disregard for the rules of harmony, mclusky assault their audience with shouting, vitriol and noisy noise. They sound like they jump around the stage with their guitars down by their knees, antagonising grannies by swearing and encouraging fights in the audience. Possibly between the grannies. They sound like raucus crunchy things, but they are not pure noise. There are notes, wailing, grunge notes in the main. They...

 715 Billy Joel - 52nd Street (1978) Studio Album - Singer-Songwriter About the Act: So Billy Joel, is like, this guy who plays the piano, writes songs and sings them. He's one of the best selling singer/songwriters of all time. He was in a couple of bands before going solo in 1970, since which he has released 13 albums, some of which sold well, and some of which sold phenomenally well. There's a lot of stuff that could be said about his private life, but I tend to avoid doing that. I think the music should speak for itself. In this case the music, resoundingly, says "per-Ching!" About the Album: This was Billy's 6th album, his first to get to No 1 in the USA, and one of the first to be released on CD. My History with this Album: I have had a copy for a long time. I have played it sometimes, but have tended to play his greatest hits more. As a result, I know the first three songs well, which were hit singles. Review: So, cards on the table here, I like Billy Joel....

 716 Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (1969) Studio Album - Soul About the Act: Isaac Hayes was a Soul Singer from Tennessee. He was a songwriter, session musician and producer for Stax records, and together with a guy called David Porter, wrote some really impressive soul songs, including Soul Man. He composed the theme music for the film "Shaft" and played "Chef" in the TV show South Park. He is the honorary king of a region of Ghana. He has had an acting career also, and has released 21 studio albums. He died in 2008 About the Album:  This was his second album. He didn't want to make the album, because his first album had tanked. His label (for whom he was working as a songwriter and session musician), persuaded him because, for complicated corporate and contractual reasons they had a severe shortage of album. He agreed on the proviso that he had full artistic control. They were fine with that, as they had tried to persuade him to do so for the first album. In...

 717 PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (1993) Studio album - Alternative Rock About the Act: In 1991 Polly Jean Harvey left her band Automatic Dlanini, with two of her bandmates and founded a 3-piece band called P.J. Harvey. The name worked out well for her, as when the band split up she continued as a solo artist with the same name. She has had 9 albums under that name, the first two with the band. She is regarded as being a pioneer of edgy alternative rock. She's from the British West Country. About the Album: This was the second album for the trio. My History with this Album: None Review: Hmm, once again this is hard to do without comparisons. Let's throw them out: Nirvana, Jeff Buckley, Skunk Ananse, Garbage. So there are only three of them, and this is obviously a vehicle for Ms Harvey, singing and playing electric guitar and writing most of the songs. The drums and bass are excellent, but they are obviously supporting roles here. The guitar is gutsy, heavy, and heady, lots of overdri...

 718 The Yardbirds - Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds (1965) Hybrid studio/live album - Blues Rock About the Act: The Yardbirds were a British Blues-Rock band that turned into a Psychedelic band, and then turned into Led Zeppelin. They were formed in 1963, and were active until 1968, initially, and were famous for having four lead guitarists, three of whom were Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. They were initially part of the British invention of Blues Rock, covering songs by people like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley, and adding a rock sensibility. In this period they became well known for their lengthy instrumental sessions called "rave ups" which involved doubling the rhythm tempo and building to a crescendo. In 1965 Eric Clapton lest the band abruptly when they started to go in a less blues-oriented direction, and was replaced by Jeff Beck, with whom they became part of the emerging Psychedelic sound. This continued, and there was a confusing period of musical chair...

 719 Pixies - Bossanova (1990) Studio Album - Alternative Rock About the Act: Origin: Boston Massachusetts Style: Alternative Rock Existence: 1986-1993, 2004-present Membership changes: only two Studio albums: 7 About the Album: This was their third album My History with this Album: None Review: I can hear three things in here: post-punk, Talking Heads and Nirvana.  Post-Punk is a term used for punkish bands that came along after the heyday of punk. This has a kind of punk feel to it in some ways, it is fairly simple (or seems it) and energetic, and the production makes it sound like it has been recorded in a barn - there is strong but close reverb on it, and the guitar is quite dominant, mostly crunchy, and quite choppy or thrashy at times. In terms of talking heads, well it kind of has that sort of attitude, but also there are spoken sections that remind me of Talking Heads a lot, and the production is tending in that direction too. Also, the subject matter has at times the ...

 720 Randy Newman - 12 Songs (1970) Studio album - Blues/Roots About the Act: Even if you don't know who he is, you would probably recognise his voice and his piano playing. He has been inescapable after writing "You've Got A Friend In Me" - that song from Toy Story. He has done many more songs and soundtracks for many more films, including "I Love To See You Smile" - the opening song from Parenthood. From the 80s onwards, he has mostly been doing film music, but in the 70s he had a moderately successful career as a singer/songwriter creating albums of his own songs, and back in the 60s he was writing songs for other people. Before that he did normal things like going to school. He grew up between LA and New Orleans, and maybe considers himself to be from New Orleans more. His style is certainly reminiscent of that. He plays piano in a kind of jelly-roll honky-tonk way that smells like the bayou, with hints of soul and even gospel in it. His voice sounds lik...

 721 Sugar - Copper Blue (1992) Studio Album - Alternative Rock About the Act: Sugar were an American band, born from the ashes of other bands. There were three of them. They had a short run of 4 years from 1992-1995 and released an album per year. About the Album: This was their first album My History with this Album: None Review: When it started I thought it was going to be better than it was. It's not bad but it's basically another album that relies heavily on having a back-wall of overdriven guitar. This is admittedly rockier than some of that kind of thing, and the starts of tracks have some interest, some nice little touches between tracks, but otherwise there's this wall of guitar. The vocals sound like Michael Stipe of REM and are well down in the mix so are hard to hear over the wall, so apart from one thing I remember, something like "If I can't change your mind, no-one will". There were other bits I could hear but they made little impression on my m...

 722 The Beatles - Something New (1964) US Studio/Compilation Album - 60s Pop About the Act: Do I really need to tell you who The Beatles were? Well, I suppose it is theoretically possible that aliens from the planet Xzog will get hold of a copy of this series of reviews 245 years into the future, and won't know about Earth's most popular pop band ever, so if so, Felicitous Rgnygings to you, and here we go. Way back in 1960, in the dank, rain-kissed streets of Liverpool, four Quarrymen known as John, Paul, George and Ringo formed a band to play a kind of guitar-based pop that famously didn't get signed to some record label or other. They got signed to a different one, played perfectly-crafted pop and won the hearts of every teenage girl in the world, and popularised mop-top haircuts. They went to America, and America screamed at them, apparently not in a bad way. They claimed to be bigger than God at one point, whih made some people laugh and some other people angry. As the...

 723 Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain (1960) Studio Album - Orchestral Jazz About the Act: Miles Davis was one of the best-known and most influential jazz trumpeters the world has ever known. He is credited with being at the forefront of several types of jazz, modal jazz in the late 50s early 60s, and Jazz-Rock fusion in the late 60s early 70s are the most prominent. He was active from 1944 until his death in 1991 with a short hiatus between 1975 and 1980. I think he made 56 studio albums.  About the Album:  This album contains interpretations of some Spanish Classical music, particularly Concerto Des Aranguez by Rodrigo, but also some da Falla. My History with this Album: None Review: Well, it's a somewhat unusual album, and may have been considered more so at it's release. Miles Davis has taken Spanish Classical music and re-interpreted it in a not-quite-jazz style. This is mostly played on brass, with some backing and occasional shaky percussion. It's played in a v...

 724 Queen - A Day at the Races (1976) Studio Album - Art Rock About the Act: Queen were and kind of still are, a mega-rock band from England. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. They were formed in 1970 and took the world by storm, but especially the UK and Japan. Freddie famously died from HIV-related issues in 1991, but before he died they had been working on a last album with him, and their 15th studio album. After that, they continued after a fashion, with first Paul Rodgers, then Adam Lambert taking over vocals, I think officially as guests. John Deacon left in 1998, so Queen are now effectively Brian and Roger. About the Album: This was their fifth studio album, the first without long-term production partner Roy Thomas Baker, and the first after they had smashed the world with Bohemian Rhapsody. My History with this Album: I first heard this album aged about 13 or 14, with my schoolfriend Tim. We started a pact, savin...

 725 Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974) Studio Album - Progressive Rock About the Act: Robert Wyatt was a central figure in the "Canterbury Scene", which was a revolving-door set of bands centred around Canterbury who were prominent in the Prog Rock world. They had particular elements - the birth of Jazz-Rock, and a mellow, folk-like approach that combined Hippie naivety with musical experimentation and often quite strong South England accents in the singing. Robert Wyatt was a founding member of Soft Machine and Matching Mole, and was a drummer at that point. Matching Mole were about to record their third album when Robert fell out of a window at a birthday party for members of Gong. He was drunk. He was paralysed from the waist down. He then embarked on a solo career that spanned 40 years. About the Album: Robert Wyatt conceived this album while he was in hospital after his life-changing accident. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd produced the album. Hugh Hopper, Fred Frith, Richar...

 726 Elton John - Honky Chateau (1972) Studio Album - Light Rock About the Act: Sir Elton John was born Reg Dwight in 1947, and since 1967 has had one of the most successful musical careers in the world. He has released over 30 albums, sold over 300 million records, and recorded the best-selling UK and US single ever with "Candle in the wind 1997." He is a friend to royals and founder of the Elton John AIDS foundation. The songs he sings (mostly) are famously co-written by Bernie Taupin, who writes the lyrics. About the Album: This was his fifth studio album, and the first of a consecutive run that went to No 1 in the US. It was also the first to significantly be recorded with his touring band. My History with this Album: I acquired a collection of Elton John albums a few years ago, but doubt I have previously listened to it more than twice before. I know the hit Rocket Man really well. Review: The early 70s was a really fertile time for music, and this type of thing was huge...