Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

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

So good! Arthur… is an all timer.

[Happy Trees]

Don't get me started on how much I love Arthur and Lola Vs. Powerman.

[liebzz]

Ten Years After - Ssssh

This album from Ten Years after leans harder on the blues rock aspect and a bit less on the sort of boogie rock that would beget 70s mainstays like ZZ Top all the way through the present iteration of the Black Keys. When they do boogie, it’s quite good, with The Stomp being exhibit A. The jams here though with Alvin Lee are pretty killer - Bad Scene and their version of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl being examples of the band’s chops, really the purpose of entry for this band.

The Essential Track: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Up Next: Traffic - Mr. Fantasy

[tragabigzanda]

[McParadigm]

I only know them from I’d Love to Change the World.

[McParadigm]

rocks as hard as The Who

Every single time I read somebody else’s take on the kinks, I become a bit more convinced that my kinks records were compiled from mislabeled songs I downloaded on Kazaa.

[liebzz]

Ten Years After - Ssssh

This album from Ten Years after leans harder on the blues rock aspect and a bit less on the sort of boogie rock that would beget 70s mainstays like ZZ Top all the way through the present iteration of the Black Keys. When they do boogie, it’s quite good, with The Stomp being exhibit A. The jams here though with Alvin Lee are pretty killer - Bad Scene and their version of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl being examples of the band’s chops, really the purpose of entry for this band.

The Essential Track: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Up Next: Traffic - Mr. Fantasy

I've never ever heard of this band

They did have their moment in the late 60’s and into the early 70’s by virtue of their performance at Woodstock. If you took what you would expect to hear from a John Mayall but ZZ Topped it up, that’s maybe a reasonable facsimile of what they sound like.

[liebzz]

Traffic - Mr. Fantasy

This is one of the bands I meant to include here, if for nothing else, curiosity especially after diving into Blind Faith. So we’re gonna spend the morning in Traffic (I couldn’t help myself). This album is decent enough, largely good songs that get elevated by a couple huge highlights in Dear Mr. Fantasy and Giving To You, and a bunch of stuff that’s clearly styled through the Beatles and other psychedelic sounds of the time. Utterly Simple and Berkshire Poppies are good examples of that here. Solid debut though not something I am reaching for regularly to be fair.

The Essential Track: Dear Mr. Fantasy

Up Next: Traffic

[VinylGuy]

My dad loves Traffic and Blind Faith. Also Cream. He really loves those jam oriented bands from the 60s and 70s.

[liebzz]

Does that make it grand dad rock?

[VinylGuy]

haha probably, dont tell him tough.

but no, i mean at the time those bands were the real thing, specially in Argentina were rock was also happening and the scene was pretty big. Its bonkers to think you might get a LP of a foreign band once in a while back then, when today everything is a click away.

[liebzz]

Traffic

This second album is a bit of an upgrade from the last, mostly because they abandoned the weakest parts of Mr. Fantasy (the sort of mediocre attempts at psychedelia) and this one is more focused on the clear dichotomy of Dave Mason’s folk rock leanings against the rest of the band’s jazzier instincts. The listen is pretty strong nonetheless and really flies when the two come together on Feelin’ Alright and Cryin’ to Be Heard. Another solid outing.

The Essential Track: Feelin’ Alright

Up Next: Joe Cocker - With a Little Help From My Friends

[VinylGuy]

Are we getting some Grand Funk Railroad?

[wease]

So you’re getting Feelin’ Alright back to back. Nice.

[liebzz]

Funny how I did that. I actually added Cocker at the last minute for that reason…

[liebzz]

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends

Feelin’ Alright back to back indeed. As a little preview of what’s to come, this is also the first of two album covers with scary as shit looking facial expressions as artwork…but that’s a couple albums away.

So we have the return (since the Essential Live Albums thread) of the drunk uncle himself. While I do enjoy Cocker’s own writing contributions to his own album, Uncle Joe is best suited to play karaoke with his contemporaries, albeit through drastic reinventions of these songs. Feelin’ Alright feels like his (I believe Winwood is playing on this so maybe it’s a pseudo cover where he replaces Dave Mason?), but he brings that extra punch that makes this version actually slightly superior. Just Like a Woman is almost off putting because I am so used to Dylan’s. The electric Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood is very cool. Notwithstanding Wonder Years flashbacks, With a Little Help From My Friends is an epic soul/gospel take, and I Shall Be Released is a wonderful way to end this.

The Essential Track: With a Little Help From My Friends

Up Next: Joe Cocker!

[wease]

Winwood played on the album but not on that track. Jimmy Page is also all over the album, including the title track.

[liebzz]

Whoops!

[liebzz]

Joe Cocker!

Cocker’s second album, much like the first, feature largely contemporary covers, and again it’s Joe Cocker’s rock/soul/gospel vocal takes along with his Grease band featuring many of the folks we were just discussing again leading the charge. I come away from both of these albums trusting in his taste in rock music and his willingness to play the songs in arrangements that reinterpret the originals. The covers here seem a bit more faithful to the source material than the last album, and rhetorically speaking, how in the hell is he covering Beatles songs released just 3 months prior to this release…not to mention his cover of Let It Be. Dude heard a copy of Abbey Road and ran, not walked, to the studio…and I presume Let It Be came later since it wasn’t even out yet?

The Essential Track: hard choice…Bird on a Wire

Up Next: King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

[liebzz]

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

This is another of those classic albums I just never heard before today. This really has no loyalties to any specific musical genre, though much of it is a fusion of rock and classical, particularly in the precision of the arrangements combined with some epic grandeur, particularly on Epitaph that has a huge build, and In the Court of the Crimson King that has these movements that go back to the song’s core. 21st Century Schizoid Man has a bunch of wild freak outs. I Talk to the Wind is quite a unique sound. It’s a great great album that surprises at every turn and is filled with a ton of range in its sound. Limitless. It’s also quite a great drum record to boot.

The Essential Track: In the Court of the Crimson King

Up Next: The Stooges