Essential Studio Albums

[zeb]

Can’t Find My Way Home is one of my all-time favorite songs.

[Higgs]

I didn't recognise the cover there - it was very different in my brothers vinyl collection!

There were two covers made at the time. The one above was the less common, non-pedo version.

Its funny, I first saw the original cover in my brothers collection when I was about 11 or 12, and even then it gave me the creeps. What a strange choice that was.

[Ello Sailor]

I remember seeing it on a "worst album covers of all time" list many years ago. Bloody dreadful.

[Matters]

Can’t Find My Way Home is one of my all-time favorite songs.

[Matters]

The section about the album cover on the Blind Faith Wikipedia page is disgusting for multiple reasons.

[liebzz]

Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

How much can 2 songs actually carry a record? I mean there’s 3 good songs here out of a total of 4, but the opening two are game changers. Walk On By is 12 minutes of epic soul with a long instrumental break that just adds depth and personality to the song that is pure Hayes, while Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic is a funk breakdown on a studio album that’s rare in its quality. By the Time I Get to Phoenix is a dramatic story of love and loss, and it takes a long time to deliver a monologue with nothing but a drum beat before it gets kicking and ends in epic fashion. This surprises at every turn, and is one of the strongest soul albums we have covered thus far.

The Essential Track: Walk On By

Up Next: Kool and the Gang

[liebzz]

Kool & the Gang

This was a really fun listen. Primarily an instrumental album that barely breaks the 30 minute mark, this incorporates elements of funk and soul, and has a distinctly jazz flavor to it, as if a more modernized form of the New Orleans sound funneled through late 60s funk akin to a Sly and the Family Stone. Let the Music Take Your Mind is the easiest to digest, perhaps because it has words, but Kools Back Again/The Gangs Back Again back to back was the most rewarding for me. Since I Lost My Baby is crazy because you can make out lyrics on what the horns are playing. Really cool stuff here.

The Essential Track: The Gangs Back Again

Up Next: John Coltrane - Transition

[liebzz]

John Coltrane - Transition

A true post-humous album, apparently already set for release or at least fully ready before his untimely death. There’s two different versions of the album, one with Welcome and the bonus track Vigil, and another with neither of the tracks and Dear Lord there instead. Dear Lord and Welcome are both slower more melodic and soulful compositions, while Transition is that sheet of sound approach, and Suite takes the full band on a long ride. While this doesn’t quite approach the top of the Coltrane pantheon for me, it’s still a wonderful album that showcases what Coltrane can do.

The Essential Track: Transition

Up Next: Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

[doug rr]

so good...ready for words about silent way..

[liebzz]

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

I probably missed a few essential Davis albums along the way, but perhaps I’ve made up for it with this album. This album is most certainly jazz, but almost feels like a rock record in its use of bass and guitar. It creates a proper fusion of jazz utilizing rock elements versus some albums we’ve covered where it’s the other way around. No one’s hands seem as well equipped to do this in an expressive and tasteful manner than Miles Davis. The more laid back nature of the recording suits the material, and he doesn’t need his instrument to dominate so it’s all in composition. And it sounds so nice when Miles comes in so clearly you can hear the crackle in his instrument and feel what he’s putting in. Really loved this one.

The Essential Track: Shhh/Peaceful

Up Next: The Doors - The Soft Parade

[Kevin Davis]

One of the best ever

[liebzz]

One of the best ever

It’s fascinating that before I started this journey, I would have put Miles ahead of Coltrane preference wise, and through the first part of Coltrane solo stuff it reversed and now it’s back to where I started. It’s apples and oranges since they play different instruments, but it’s funny how flavors play off each other.

[liebzz]

The Doors - The Soft Parade

I went through the full Doors catalogue a while back and thinking I had been really critical of the middle albums. Going back now here, I am finding I am enjoying them much more not banging through them all in a row. The Soft Parade is a weird little album, but it hits all the high points you want. Touch Me is the classic here, but I found myself really enjoying Easy Ride, Runnin’ Blue, Wishful Sinful, and Shaman’s Blues for all its eccentricities working in the confines of their sound. The title track is sort of out there, but when they break into the jammier stuff in the song it’s pretty damn good. I guess here’s to second chances.

The Essential Track: Touch Me

Up Next: The Velvet Underground

[Happy Trees]

The Soft Parade is a stink-fest (IMO).

They didn't even play any of it live (regularly) after Morrison Hotel came out, though the poor reaction it received might have played into that.

[liebzz]

The Soft Parade is a stink-fest (IMO).

They didn't even play any of it live (regularly) after Morrison Hotel came out, though the poor reaction it received might have played into that.

That was how I felt the last time I heard it, yet I enjoyed it maybe way above my expectations this time.

[liebzz]

The Velvet Underground

If White Light/White Heat is so out there it can be hard to listen to, this self titled third album is very much listenable. Less big riffs, this is a guitar album in its rhythms, endlessly catchy even in its more hungover state. This is also the album that really drew me into these guys a few decades ago, and I’ve always been able to appreciate their song structures through this more bare approach. What Goes On, Some Kinda Love, Beginning to See the Light (the song I first sought out after hearing Eddie tag it on Daughter in the 90s - thank you Eddie), I’m Set Free, and After Hours are all highlights here but the song that really makes hay here is Murder Mystery, with a really addictive rhythm pulling you in while four different narratives are talking over each other. The kind of thing that would be a complete mess if anyone else tried to do it, but works like magic here.

The Essential Track: The Murder Mystery

Up Next: Sly and the Family Stone - Stand

[liebzz]

Sly and the Family Stone - Stand

This is one of those bands I had the greatest hits but never got around to listen to an album. What a way to start!? Sylvester Stewart’s vocals are direct and precise, which stands to find focus in an elastic band that is pretty fantastic. The approach here ranges from the confrontational to the universal, and largely brings a big anthemic atmosphere akin to a James Brown but with even more range. This is funk, rock and soul at its finest. Despite never listening to this album I have heard most of it in other places. Stand!, I Want To Take You Higher, Sing a Simple Song, Everyday People, and You Can Make It If You Try are all essential staples, while the jammier stuff really digs into more of a groove. It’s amazing how good this can be when put together in one place like this.

The Essential Track: Everyday People

Up Next: The Kinks - Arthur or the Fall of the British Empire

[Kevin Davis]

The Soft Parade is a stink-fest (IMO).

Their worst studio album by some distance, I agree. Not without its redeeming qualities, though.

The riff to "Wild Child" always reminded me of this:

[liebzz]

The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire

And folks, we have our next revelation. A concept built around Post-WWII England, the album is the next logical rock step from their prior album, and it’s the perfect amalgam of 60s Brit-rock - it rocks as hard as The Who, compiles sonic textures to rival The Beatles, and delivers one track after the next of amazing songs. Victoria is great, but it’s near perfection from Some Mother’s Son until the end. The rock in Brainwashed is epic, the jams in Australia phenomenal, Shanghai-La and Mr. Churchill Says are statements, Young and Innocent Days brings a change of pace, Arthur is the big finish this album deserves. How have I never heard this album before today!?

The Essential Track: Brainwashed, but it could have been and all songs on this one

Up Next: Ten Years After - Shhh

[oasisfan35]

I am very happy you are enjoying all the Kinks records. They don't get talked about much but