Essential Studio Albums

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[liebzz]

A couple of notes:

- on The Beach Boys, I just screwed up the order. They are both (all three mentioned) on the list. I really enjoyed Wild Honey, and in The Beach Boys pantheon thus far put it just under Pet Sounds and it was much closer a call than I expected.

- The Who - I admit I love Who’s Next and Quadrophenia best, at least historically listening to their albums. Part of the shakeup in listening in this manner is experiencing these albums in different than usual contexts and seeing whether they evoke different responded. Of the first three, The Who Sell Out is my favorite, though A Quick One is probably the Who album I have heard the most times out of any of their albums, so I don’t hate at all on early Who.

- The Beatles, I guess I always thought Magical Mystery Tour was basically the same concept in terms of being a soundtrack of sorts as A Hard Day’s Night. Maybe not an album in the same sense or intention as Revolver, but a de facto album nonetheless.

[liebzz]

Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant

For decades, my father talked about listening to this album on Thanksgiving, and in long car rides to family on that day, I heard the radio tease they were going to play it, and yet, before today, I never heard this thing. It just sort of existed in some fictional lore about being the thing to listen to on that particular holiday. Obviously, the focus is on the 18-minute song/narrative that is Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, a a humorous tale of the litter bug who gets out of compulsory military service by virtue of his crimes, but the rest of the album is there, and it’s quite good. Now and Then, I’m Going Home, and the Motorcycle Song stuck with me pretty nicely. A nice listen I wasn’t really expecting.

The Essential Track: Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

Up Next: Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign

[liebzz]

Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign

This album is a return to the electric blues we discussed a while back. Albert King’s got an old school feel to him, but the guitar work is pretty great in its spots. The highlights here are the title track, Oh, Pretty Woman, Personal Manager, and As the Years Go Passing By, all quick shots for the most part, but Albert King makes the most of a 3 minute song.

The Essential Track: Born Under a Bad Sign

Up Next: B.B. King - Lucille

[Happy Trees]

- The Beatles, I guess I always thought Magical Mystery Tour was basically the same concept in terms of being a soundtrack of sorts as A Hard Day’s Night. Maybe not an album in the same sense or intention as Revolver, but a de facto album nonetheless.

None of the songs on Side 2 were in the movie.

So side 1 is the soundtrack (in a different, better order than the UK EP's) and side 2 high-quality "filler" from recent singles as per all of the unique US albums.

It only became an "official" album later by pure circumstance. (EP's bit the dust and people wanted it.)

"Yellow Submarine" was going to be the same story, but they were wise enough at that point to say, "fuck it, change of plan - let's just make it an album".

[Kevin Davis]

- The Who - I admit I love Who’s Next and Quadrophenia best, at least historically listening to their albums. Part of the shakeup in listening in this manner is experiencing these albums in different than usual contexts and seeing whether they evoke different responded. Of the first three, The Who Sell Out is my favorite, though A Quick One is probably the Who album I have heard the most times out of any of their albums, so I don’t hate at all on early Who

I have a lot of memories of the ‘70’s Who albums (really starting with Tommy) which are very closely connected to a friend of mine who passed away in 2005, so those albums are bittersweet to revisit, even though I really like them all — even The Who By Numbers and most of Who Are You.

The 60’s stuff was less on our radar during those years (except for the hits of course), so their first three albums (plus concurrent non-album material) hit different. Plus I just love that 60’s pop/rock sound more and more as I get older.

[liebzz]

- The Beatles, I guess I always thought Magical Mystery Tour was basically the same concept in terms of being a soundtrack of sorts as A Hard Day’s Night. Maybe not an album in the same sense or intention as Revolver, but a de facto album nonetheless.

None of the songs on Side 2 were in the movie.

So side 1 is the soundtrack (in a different, better order than the UK EP's) and side 2 high-quality "filler" from recent singles as per all of the unique US albums.

It only became an "official" album later by pure circumstance. (EP's bit the dust and people wanted it.)

"Yellow Submarine" was going to be the same story, but they were wise enough at that point to say, "fuck it, change of plan - let's just make it an album".

Fascinating.

[liebzz]

B.B. King - Lucille

In the course of this journey, B.B. King looms as a blues caricature, mostly because he’s so ingrained in the fabric of the genre he always seems to play it straight. Here, he centers the album around a 10 minute song that’s at once about his guitar and about a woman at least referred to with the same name. It’s part spoken word part signature King howl. It’s also the best thing on this album. There’s a few songs that will give it a run for its money - Country Girl and Watch Yourself chief among them - and everything hits mostly right here, even the horn section plays complimentary to King’s guitar rather than competing with it as in prior albums. Probably the best of the bunch so far from him.

The Essential Track: Lucille

Up Next: Aretha Franklin - I’ve Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

[liebzz]

- The Who - I admit I love Who’s Next and Quadrophenia best, at least historically listening to their albums. Part of the shakeup in listening in this manner is experiencing these albums in different than usual contexts and seeing whether they evoke different responded. Of the first three, The Who Sell Out is my favorite, though A Quick One is probably the Who album I have heard the most times out of any of their albums, so I don’t hate at all on early Who

I have a lot of memories of the ‘70’s Who albums (really starting with Tommy) which are very closely connected to a friend of mine who passed away in 2005, so those albums are bittersweet to revisit, even though I really like them all — even The Who By Numbers and most of Who Are You.

The 60’s stuff was less on our radar during those years (except for the hits of course), so their first three albums (plus concurrent non-album material) hit different. Plus I just love that 60’s pop/rock sound more and more as I get older.

I definitely grew up with and wore out 70s Who as well. A Quick One is the only album from the 60s I really had on repeat in my 20s and early 30s. I probably sat on too much of the greatest hits as a teenager. But probably about 10-15 years ago, I went back more and appreciated the 60s material more, though it just never rose past those 70s albums for me, in part because the whole band I think reaches incredible heights. And Daltrey in the 70s is a beast.

[liebzz]

Aretha Franklin - I’ve Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You

First entry here from the Queen of Soul, though this one immediately proves she’s much more than just that. Rarely do you get a talent so transcendent that they defy the gravity of their genre and create just music. Aretha’s voice is just that thing, something so universally great that you don’t need to be a fan of soul to know you are listening to an otherworldly talent. The covers are often better in her hands than the original or famous artists that performed them. Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business), Good Times, Do Right Woman Do Right Man, and Save Me is a special run, and A Change Is Gonna Come is even more proof of her ability to take these songs new places. Of course, nothing compares on this to Respect, which she blows the roof off of, and is her most iconic performance. This album is quite special.

The Essential Track: Respect

Up Next: Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

[liebzz]

Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

This was a big shift from a vocalist who tore the house down to a more understated but no less impactful approach. The focus of the vocal delivery here has much to do with maximizing the impact of the words and lyrics and poetry itself, and the musical accompaniment is focused on acoustic guitar, but the touches brought here all serve these songs greatly. The songs ask you to focus in rather than provide a backdrop, and I might not be a lyrics person in my approach to listening, but this is exceptional.

The Essential Track: So Long, Marianne

Up Next: Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

[liebzz]

Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

Dylan’s tectonic shift to rock was a massive flex. His shift into blending country, folk, and rock maybe a little less so. And yet, the quality of album that Dylan maintains is a high really few if any artists can claim. John Wesley Harding might be more understated, but it’s no less phenomenal than what came before it. His leaps into country on The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, and I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight are in line with the quality of his other work and take the genre in new and exciting places rather than simply emulate the existing form. The same can of course be said for the folk rock hybrids of All Along the Watchtower and The Wicked Messenger, and then with other highlights like the title track, As I Went Out One Morning, and Down Along the Cove, you have yourself yet another classic and essential Dylan album. It’s almost not fair to realize this guy could take all the standards forms of his day and make them better.

The Essential Track: All Along the Watchtower

Up Next: Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield Again

[wease]

Aretha Franklin - I’ve Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You

First entry here from the Queen of Soul, though this one immediately proves she’s much more than just that. Rarely do you get a talent so transcendent that they defy the gravity of their genre and create just music. Aretha’s voice is just that thing, something so universally great that you don’t need to be a fan of soul to know you are listening to an otherworldly talent. The covers are often better in her hands than the original or famous artists that performed them. Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business), Good Times, Do Right Woman Do Right Man, and Save Me is a special run, and A Change Is Gonna Come is even more proof of her ability to take these songs new places. Of course, nothing compares on this to Respect, which she blows the roof off of, and is her most iconic performance. This album is quite special.

The Essential Track: Respect

Up Next: Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

One of my favorite albums. Columbia just didn’t know what to do with her. Thank Odin for Jerry Wexler.

[liebzz]

Buffalo Springfield - Again

This album is a bit strange in that it feels like a collection of solo artists bringing in their stuff for the band to play without any sense of a sonic or thematic arc. Up and down and around. And frankly this would probably be a decent but by no means a great album without Neil Young’s songs on here. Mr. Soul, Expecting to Fly, and Broken Arrow in its own chaotic way, are the best three songs on here, and it’s not particularly close. This was surely a group heading for the exits at this point, and would spawn some excellent careers into the future, Neil Young in particular. And the album is fine, but maybe doesn’t hold up to its own weight like the last one mostly did.

The Essential Track: Expecting to Fly

Up Next: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road

[liebzz]

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road

This one features Peter Green on guitar instead of Eric Clapton, and I think Green is likely a much better fit. There’s just a slight bit more of tinkering around on this than the other two Bluesbreakers albums and it pays dividends, especially on the blues groove Another Kinda Love. You Don’t Love Me, also classically covered soon hereafter by the Allman Brothers Band, is exceptional. The Stumble, Dust My Blues, and Its Over are also highlights. Quite a solid album.

The Essential Track: Another Kinda Love

Up Next: Cream - Disraeli Gears

[tragabigzanda]

[liebzz]

I've actually never listened to that one, nor any Bluesbreakers really.

Conceptually they are really the band that most straight tried to take the electric Chicago style blues and run it through the filter of the British hard rock of the mid-60s. Cream would take this sound in a different and more creative direction, though in some ways I like the Bluesbreakers stuff maybe a little more. I think in nearly 60 years of age to this music, it’s maybe not as exciting as the time it was coming out, but it is foundational stuff for what follows, which is arguably a lot of variations on rock, blues and such, though you can argue it’s BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson that begot John Mayall and early British blues rock that begot Cream, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc. in very fast order. Or, more likely, I am just talking out my ass in circles.

[wease]

That Mayall album also featuring John McVie on bass and Aynsley Dunbar on drums, shortly replaced by Mick Fleetwood.

You mentioned the Allman Brothers doing You Don’t Love Me and I think this is the version that influenced theirs the most. The arrangement is practically identical and they certainly were listening to the mid-to-late-60s British blues bands.

Incidentally, that’s Peter Green singing it on this version.

[tragabigzanda]

[wease]

Just this one album. Almost everybody went thru a Bluesbreakers stint, I guess.