1000 Greatest Albums of all Time

 676 Portishead - Third (2008) Studio Album - Experimental Rock About the Act: Portishead are a band from Bristol who were one of the first proponents of  trip hop. There first album came out in 1994, and they have released two others since. About the Album: This was their third (and most recent) album that was released after a haitus of 11 years. My History with this Album: I have a copy of this album but have rarely listened to it. Review: I have enjoyed Portishead's other two albums in the past, and around the time they were "current". If I remember rightly, this album was somewhat controversial at the time amongst Portishead fans, because it didn't sound like the old ones. That may be why I've not listened to it much. It's not an easy listen. It's harsh and uncompromising. Not in a heavy metal kind of way, but in an industrial electronica kind of way. Interestingly, there are a couple of tracks that are not like that, but are acoustic (for example ukul...

 677 Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation (1968) Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock About the Act: In 1985 the band Starship released the single "We Built This City". 31 years later, GQ magazine declared it to be "the most detested song in human history". This was, of course, before Baby Shark appeared. Starship, had quite a high turnover of members, but they formed in 1984, kind of from the ashes of the band Jefferson Starship. They have had four studio albums, and significantly retained the main singer from Jefferson Starship, Grace Slick, for the first two of those albums. It was she who sang "We Built This City".  She was also the main singer for the previous band, Jefferson Starship. Winding backwards, Jefferson Starship were formed in 1974, and existed for 11 year, releasing 7 studio albums in that time. Confusingly, they reformed in 1992, and so there are currently two bands, one called "Starship" and one called "Jefferson Starship...

 678 Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights (1982) Studio Album - Folk Rock About the Act: Richard Thompson is a folk rock singer/songwriter from London. Linda Peters (or Pettifer) is another English folk rock singer. Richard played with Fairport Convention in the late 60s. Shortly after leaving in 1971 he married Linda and they started being Richard and Linda Thompson. They released 6 studio albums together. They both went on to do more albums as themselves after they split up. About the Album: This was their sixth album as a duo, and was considerably aided in its creation by Gerry Rafferty. My History with this Album: None Review: Imagine a musical triangle. Oh, hang on, I don't mean the one that goes "ding", imagine a metaphoric and theoretical triangle in the realm of musical genres. At one corner you have Blues Rock, in particular the kind produced by Eric Clapton. At another corner is Folk Rock, kind of Fairport Convention and so on. At the third corner y...

 679 Shack - HMS Fable (1999) Studio Album - Britpop About the Act: Shack, a Britpop band from Liverpool have a slightly unusual history. A couple of the members started their musical life in a band called The Pale Fountains, but in 1987 they "emerged" as Shack. Apart from these two, the Head brothers, there has been some turnover in members. Their first album didn't do very well, and their second was beset with disaster. The studio that it was recorded in burned down, and the only remaining copy was a mastered DAT tape, which was in the possession of the producer, who left it in his hire car while we was in LA. By the time it had been found, the publishers had gone bust, so four years after it had been recorded it was released by a German Indie label. By now the band had effectively given up and the Head brothers had formed Michael Head and the Strands. But that fated album (Waterpistol) was released and got critical acclaim. So the Heads re-formed Shack. They have had t...

 680 The Beach Boys - Surfin' USA (1963) Studio Album - Surf Pop About the Act: So, I was really tempted to pull out some cliché about living under a rock if you hadn't heard of the Beach Boys, you probably have, but given that I have just done a quick research on them and found out lots of stuff I didn't know, I'll attempt to give you a really potted overview. They were formed in California in 1961, by brothers Carl, Brian and Dennis Wilson, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. They pioneered, and are most famous for their surf sound in the early 60s, happy, shiny songs about surfing with complex vocal harmonies, in a style related to doo-wop. Then The Beatles happened, and the so-called British Invasion. At this point the popularity of surf music waned, and although it's simplistic, the Beach Boys attempted to keep pace with the increasing complexity and maturity of pop that was emerging. Out of all of the American bands, they probably did the best job of this....

 681 X - Wild Gift (1981) Studio album - Punk About the Act: X are a band from LA, formed in 1977. They have not been commercially successful but are regarded as influential in several genres, the main one being Punk. They have had 8 studio albums. About the Album: This was their second album, and the most Punk, apparently. My History with this Album: None Review: I am not knowledgeable enough to understand the influence this album had, so let's just do a description and an opinion then. After all, that's what I'm really after. This is a short album of short songs. Some sound like Punk in that they are fast, somewhat chaotic, with deliberately out-of-tune singing (there is a guy and a gal singing). They sound like punk singers. These songs tend to be abrupt and short, and I quite like them. Some of the songs have a rockabilly edge to them, which is mostly in the guitar sound and riffs used. Again, quite likeable. Some of the songs are more "rock" in that they are ...

 682 Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) Studio Album - New Wave About the Act: Graham Parker is a rock/New Wave singer-songwriter and Frontman from Hackney, London. Before he had a professional music career he had various jobs including picking tomatoes, emptying money from pinball machines, breeding animals for research and working in a rubber glove factory.  Since becoming a musician in 1976 he has had 23 albums, some of which are credited to "Graham Parker and the Rumour" - they being his backing band. About the Album: This was his fourth album, and a switch to New Wave from a previous pub group sound. My History with this Album: None Review: One of the problems I have with doing these reviews (and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this undertaking, it's my own fault, and if I have to dig a bit sometimes, that's not a bad thing) is that it is pretty easy to listen to most of these albums, but for some of them I struggle a bit to have mu...