#CurrentSpins @Great_Albums

New Releases on rotation:

#DierksBentley – Gravel & Gold (country)
#Gorillaz – Cracker Island (rock)
#IngridStPierre – Reines (francophone)
#TheStruts – Unplugged at EastWest (rock EP)
#Orbital – Optical Delusions (electronic)

Classic Albums reappreciated:

#CurtisMayfield – Curtis (1970) – reviewed in #GreatAlbums1970s
#War – The World is a Ghetto (1972) – reviewed in #AlbumForToday

#GreatAlbums, #Rock, #PopMusic, #Albums, #NewReleases

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 1: #DavidBowie – #ZiggyStardust (1972). Ziggy’s Rise and Fall marked the transition between the art rock of the early ‘70s and the punk / new wave explosion a few years later. Bowie adopted Ziggy as both a narrative voice and alter ego to push the boundaries of social/ sexual taboos. The “Spiders from Mars” (chief spider: Mick Ronson) geared the music equally to traditional rock fans and aliens from other spheres.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #ClassicRock, #Rock

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 2: #MarvinGaye – #WhatsGoingOn (1971). Gaye felt a need to deepen his music with more overtly political content and declare his commitment to humanity through his music. Berry Gordy was initially dismissive, but after the single shifted 200,000 units of a gonzo release by Motown staffers, the album got the go-ahead. The result codified the links between ‘70s soul music and social activism. A genuine work of art.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #ClassicRock, #Soul

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 3: #RollingStones – #ExileOnMainStreet (1972). If Sticky Fingers was the ultimate rock and roll extravaganza, Exile on Main Street felt more like the after party – when the drunks get sadder and angrier, and the night’s energy withers. The album defied conventional notions of rock commercialism, which from a big band like the Stones mattered as rock was beginning to succumb to consumerist pressures and corporate flim flam. #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 4: #PinkFloyd – #DarkSideOfTheMoon (1973). If Waters doesn’t screw it up, this LP will remain an innovative space romp/ found sound/ proto-techno/ alienated/ chill out masterpiece – which regardless of having sold in ridiculous numbers, stands up beautifully despite decades of attempts by classic rock radio and the band members themselves to embalm it for the ages. If you’re bored with it, try Obscured by Clouds.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Prog, #Rock

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 5: #LedZeppelin – #PhysicalGraffiti (1975). Zep’s most sprawling LP is also their most fascinating – the product of a band determined to do more than fill stadiums. Recorded mainly at Headley Grange manor with some decent outtakes added, tracks like “Custard Pie,” “In My Time of Dying,” “The Wanton Song,” and “Sick Again” captured Zeppelin’s renewed (last?) energy amid the Grange’s reverberant halls and stairwells.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #ClassicRock, #Rock

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 6: #TheClash – #LondonCalling (1979). On their third LP the Clash dared to explode any limits on what punk was “supposed” to be, in a form popular enough to bring the masses. Strummer’s boots-on-gravel vocals kept the punk spirit, and Mick Jones’s stutter gun guitar was as visceral as ever. But with Topper and Simonon pounding the boards, the Clash also swayed soulfully and cut a rug with rockabilly, ska, and reggae. #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #PunkRock, #Rock

Great Albums - 1970s, No. 6: #TheClash – #LondonCalling (1979). On their third LP the Clash dared to explode any limits on what punk was “supposed” to be, in a form popular enough to bring the masses. Strummer’s boots-on-gravel vocals kept the punk spirit, and Mick Jones’s stutter gun guitar was as visceral as ever. But with Topper and Simonon pounding the boards, the Clash also swayed soulfully and cut a rug with rockabilly, ska, and reggae. #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #PunkRock, #Rock

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 7: #JoniMitchell – #Blue (1971). Some days, Blue’s heavy confessions, starkly presented on an ice-cold piano, are too much to take. I mean, when even the Xmas tune has lines like, “I’m selfish and sad,” things are pretty dark in Joniland. For those days, Court & Spark, with its funnier takes on theft and misery, is the one. That being said, Blue is so incisive that on the days you need it, it’s about ALL you need.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #PopMusic, #FolkMusic

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 7: #JoniMitchell – #Blue (1971). Some days, Blue’s heavy confessions, starkly presented on an ice-cold piano, are too much to take. I mean, when even the Xmas tune has lines like, “I’m selfish and sad,” things are pretty dark in Joniland. For those days, Court & Spark, with its funnier takes on theft and misery, is the one. That being said, Blue is so incisive that on the days you need it, it’s about ALL you need.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #PopMusic, #FolkMusic

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 8: #TheWho – #WhosNext (1971). Abandoning the lifeless Lifehouse concept, The Who instead opted for a single LP showcasing Townshend’s peak songwriting and Daltrey’s newfound vocal confidence – plus a solid John Entwistle banger, “My Wife.” Coming off the previous year’s Live at Leeds, The Who enlisted Glyn Johns to capture the energy of their live sound in the studio, with synth loops for a touch ‘o the old cosmic.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #ClassicRock

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 8: #TheWho – #WhosNext (1971). Abandoning the lifeless Lifehouse concept, The Who instead opted for a single LP showcasing Townshend’s peak songwriting and Daltrey’s newfound vocal confidence – plus a solid John Entwistle banger, “My Wife.” Coming off the previous year’s Live at Leeds, The Who enlisted Glyn Johns to capture the energy of their live sound in the studio, with synth loops for a touch ‘o the old cosmic.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #ClassicRock

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 9: #WillieNelson – #RedHeadedStranger (1975). Willie defied the country establishment with this low-key concept album about the search for meaning and the wages of violence. Willie conceived a loose song cycle around “Red Headed Stranger,” a minor standard from 1954, writing and selecting other pieces to fill out the narrative. Sparsely produced, the album defied the slickness of 70s Nashville to become a major hit.
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Country, #Americana

Great Albums, 1970s, No.10: #Queen – #ANightAtTheOpera (1975). A brash compendium of shifting genres, this LP has Queen pulling all the stops as they switch from the thudding rock of “Death on Two Legs” to the vaudevillian pastiche of “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.” Later, the album progs out on “The Prophet’s Song” and gets teary-eyed on “Love of My Life,” before “Bohemian Rhapsody” turns the camp up to eleven.

#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #PopMusic

Great Albums, 1970s, No.11: #FleetwoodMac – #Rumours (1977). The creation process was acrimonious as romantic relationships disintegrated and cocaine-driven sessions turned sour, but the results were gloriously accessible pop music with brains. The songs match radio hooks with Buckingham-Nicks-McVie’s lived-in emotions. Leaving the blues behind, Mick and John still know how to strike a groove on “Dreams” and the bristling coda of “The Chain.” #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #PopMusic

Great Albums 1970s, No.12: #BruceSpringsteen – #DarknessOnTheEdgeOfTown (1978). This LP mined bleaker territory after the triumph of Born to Run. Songs about lonely drifters, factory workers and disillusioned hotrodders allegorized America’s working class in the wake of industrial decline and economic disparity. The E-Street Band shifts moods, from the highway pulse of “The Promised Land” to the turnpike gothic of “Racing in the Streets.”
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #Americana

Great Albums, 1970s, No.13: #MichaelJackson – #OffTheWall (1979). MJ matures as a solo artist after a decade on the child star pop treadmill. “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” heats up the disco as Rod Temperton’s “Rock with You” and “Off the Wall” lay bricks for the 80s pop explosion. Michael’s voice rings with dancefloor fervour and emotional sincerity, and even the cloying sentiment of “She’s Out of My Life” works in his and Quincy Jones’s hands. #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #R&B, #Pop

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 14: #BlackSabbath – #Paranoid (1970). Driven by Tony Iommi’s power chord grind, “Geezer” Butler’s nagging bass, and Bill Ward’s colossal drumming, Sabbath transformed blues-laden riffs into mind-bending fugues defining seventies metal. Ozzy Osbourne’s haunted wail was the perfect vehicle for lyrics fretting over warfare, drug addiction, and nuclear war – plus one mean sci-fi warrior going full terminator on your ass. #GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #HeavyMetal

Great Albums, 1970s, No. 15: #NeilYoung – #Harvest (1972). Neil was always a country boy at heart, and on this LP he turns homespun lyricism into singalong anthems of loss and longing. Recorded variously in Nashville, concert halls, and Neil’s barn, tracks like “Out on the Weekend” and “Old Man” lilt along before “The Needle and the Damage Done” brings the darkness. The “safe” choice among Neil’s seventies LPs, before he “headed for the ditch.”
#GreatAlbums1970s, #Album, #Vinyl, #Rock, #Folk

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