Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

Deep Purple - In Rock

Everything about this album is completely over the top. Hell, even the album cover is completely ridiculous. Speed King kicks this off letting the listener know from the opening notes this is going to be a high-octane album. Child in Time is 10 minutes of pure excess, with the high pitched wail of a vocal scream being the zenith of that insanity. Flight of the Rat is also a pretty killer track. As long as you’re properly prepared for this, which I was, this is good fun somewhere between Black Sabbath and Spinal Tap. Enjoy.

The Essential Track: Child in Time

Up Next: Deep Purple - Fireball

[liebzz]

Deep Purple - Fireball

The second of a trio of Deep Purple albums to make up for lost time finds the band a bit more focused, and even more hard rockin’ than In Rock. These songs are baked with huge riffs, and bigger solos. The opening of Fireball really does suggest hard rock more focused, while No No No takes its time but is no less intense. Strange Kind of Woman is text book classic rock pushed to a hard rock/early metal. Anyone’s Daughter is a fun little side journey but things get back to pure rock immediately on The Mule. No One Came is a great long closer to an album that may not have a household name song but rocks to its core from front to back. I’m buying right now what Deep Purple is selling.

The Essential Track: Strange Kind of Woman

Up Next: Deep Purple - Machine Head

[liebzz]

Deep Purple - Machine Head

Yet again, another big step up for Deep Purple. Between Highway Star, Maybe I’m A Leo, Smoke on the Water, Lazy, and Space Truckin’, this seems like their zenith as a band. All the deep grooves and big guitars come together on this one, an album that finally does really rival Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath albums in heaviness and real solid material. Smoke on the Water is one of those songs that is pure 70s so it gets the win here, but Highway Star and Space Truckin’ really give a run for its money here.

The Essential Track: Smoke On the Water

Up Next: Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

[wease]

I didn’t realize Smoke was so far into their catalogue.

[liebzz]

Yeah and I skipped a bunch of early albums. This was like their 7th album.

[liebzz]

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

This 5th Led Zeppelin album may not be their best, but it is nevertheless the continuation of a streak of great albums stretching all the way back to their first. The highs here are real high, from the chugging The Song Remains the Same to the ballad-like The rain Song to the epic Over the Hills and Far Away, the psychedelic No Quarter, the rip roaring rock of The Ocean (what a riff!?). They also look to stretch their sound here with varying levels of success (D’yer Mak’er is still hard to decipher whether it’s a success or flop, The Crunge is off putting and almost Dance-y). Some of their best stuff does live on this album, even if as a whole it may be my least favorite so far (it won’t sit at the bottom of my Led Zeppelin list at the end of this journey).

The Essential Track: Over the Hills and Far Away

Up Next: The Who - Quadrophenia

[liebzz]

To give you an idea how much I love Zeppelin, even with that sounding lukewarm, it’s still well into my top 100 so far from this whole journey.

[Kalevi]

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

This 5th Led Zeppelin album may not be their best, but it is nevertheless the continuation of a streak of great albums stretching all the way back to their first. The highs here are real high, from the chugging The Song Remains the Same to the ballad-like The rain Song to the epic Over the Hills and Far Away, the psychedelic No Quarter, the rip roaring rock of The Ocean (what a riff!?). They also look to stretch their sound here with varying levels of success (D’yer Mak’er is still hard to decipher whether it’s a success or flop, The Crunge is off putting and almost Dance-y). Some of their best stuff does live on this album, even if as a whole it may be my least favorite so far (it won’t sit at the bottom of my Led Zeppelin list at the end of this journey).

The Essential Track: Over the Hills and Far Away

Up Next: The Who - Quadrophenia

I think this is my fav from LZ

[liebzz]

The Who - Quadrophenia

Following Who’s Next, which in my head amounts to a collection of songs that just go impossibly big, The Who nearly match the scale and surpass the material as a whole. This concept album follows one character with 4 faces (reflecting the 4 members of The Who), and while that’s a bit heady, the way the set plays out flows from one massive track to the next, with the I Am the Sea intro blazing into The Real Me, and then into the overture title track. It’s in that overture we get the music threads of this journey: the synths that define Love Reign O’er Me, the windmill riffs, the horns that define 5:15. There’s an incredible run on the first half of the album from The Punk and the Godfather, I’m One, and The Dirty Jobs. The entire second half is pretty amazing, though there’s a sense that The Rock is the real closer here though it does blend straight into Love Reign O’er Me, an all-timer featuring one of Daltrey’s greatest huge howls to close the album. While that makes for the album’s essential track, the reality is this is one of those albums I prefer in order in context. It’s also one of the few albums in my life that has spent significant time as my favorite, though I guess those things have always been subject to change.

The Essential Track: Love Reign O’er Me

Up Next: Neil Young - Time Fades Away

[VinylGuy]

yeah, Houses of the Holy is one of my favs too....The Ocean is fucking awesome...wish PJ would cover it.

[lvc]

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

This is one of their most classic albums, with La Grange as the big hit here. On this one, they’ve found their full sound, with that southern blues rock at the center with a killer groove. Granted the album is largely slight variations of that sound, but much like an AC/DC when it comes to their songs, when you do it well, maybe you don’t need to do much more. Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers was one that really stuck out as the true epitome of ZZ Top. Proof it doesn’t always need to be complicated.

The Essential Track: La Grange

Up Next: Free - Fire and Water

1) It;s hilarious that the lens flare on the cover makes it look like that guy is climbing a light pole in daisy dukes.

2) The opening riff on Waiting On the Bus rivals La Grange.

3) In the wider ZZ Top catalogue, I find it mildly disappointing that so much good guitar playing is window dressing for soft core porn lyrics. The same quibble I have with a lot of Led Zepplin. I get that it was the 70s, but it's pretty shallow writing.

[wease]

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

This is one of their most classic albums, with La Grange as the big hit here. On this one, they’ve found their full sound, with that southern blues rock at the center with a killer groove. Granted the album is largely slight variations of that sound, but much like an AC/DC when it comes to their songs, when you do it well, maybe you don’t need to do much more. Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers was one that really stuck out as the true epitome of ZZ Top. Proof it doesn’t always need to be complicated.

The Essential Track: La Grange

Up Next: Free - Fire and Water

1) It;s hilarious that the lens flare on the cover makes it look like that guy is climbing a light pole in daisy dukes.

2) The opening riff on Waiting On the Bus rivals La Grange.

3) In the wider ZZ Top catalogue, I find it mildly disappointing that so much good guitar playing is window dressing for soft core porn lyrics. The same quibble I have with a lot of Led Zepplin. I get that it was the 70s, but it's pretty shallow writing.

See: Fandango

[liebzz]

Yeah, I kind of need to not look for deeper meaning when listening to ZZ Top.

[liebzz]

Neil Young - Time Fades Away

Neil Young’s bravery, or at least his penchant for pissing off his audience, whatever you call it, is pretty singular. Coming off Harvest, a masterpiece of a record, comes a collection of live songs of all new material, received pretty lukewarm, delivered in their rawest form. From the again limited research here, it seems Neil didn’t even like the band he was playing with on this tour with a Frankensteined Stray Gators, but released this, a moment of vulnerability coming off the loss of Danny Whitten. The songs at times seem completely made up on the spot even they weren’t. It really took me a bunch of listens to warm up to this. To see the flaws not as problems but as moments where Neil really digs in. The title track, Journey Through the Past, the raw Yonder Stands the Sinner, the reflective Don’t Be Denied, and the lengthy Last Dance are all highlights of this moment in time. And I have definitely come around on this album, possibly fully on this listen, to contextualize and understand where this particular album is coming from. Glad that Neil Young ultimately pulled it out of exile.

The Essential Track: Time Fades Away

Up Next: Van Morrison - Hard Nose the Highway

[liebzz]

Van Morrison - Hard Nose the Highway

This Van Morrison album seems to really lean on the orchestral like arrangements, seemingly a little more laid back even, though Van Morrison’s voice is as intense as ever. There’s a mix of really top notch songs and well the other stuff, but the highs are really entertaining. Snow in Anselmo, and The Great Deception were my favorites. Kermit couldn’t agree more than it isn’t easy being green (I just kept thinking that during Bein’ Green). All in all a solid album here.

The Essential Track: The Great Deception

Up Next:Tom Waits - Closing Time

[oasisfan35]

Up Next:Tom Waits - Closing Time

[liebzz]

Tom Waits - Closing Time

There’s no single artist I wanted to explore more going into this than Tom Waits. He always seemed an enigma to me, someone just outside my musical reach - a guy I have meant to get into constantly but again just never quite did. I have an image in my mind of Waits, that gravel voice that is a singing bottle of whiskey personified. So needless to say visiting this album threw that image out the door. Waits is young and his voice not weathered as it later gets. The visual instead is of a man in a smoke filled near empty lounge bar, nursing that whiskey and bathing in that atmosphere. A Frank Sinatra gone sideways. Visuals aside, this album’s songs are at times stunning. Virginia Avenue, Rosie, and Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards) in particular. My other highlights included Ol’ 55, and creepy turned fun Ice Cream Man. I loved how Midnight Lullaby played off famous lullabies like samples. I really loved the instrumental closing title track that really wraps this thing in a nice bow. I tuned in expecting the unexpected, and got something even different than what I thought was coming. I really appreciate how this album plays both in sparse compositions and lush sounds and yet it always seem cohesive and consistent. It’s quite a masterful album, and just grows in the stature in those moments even after you walk away.

The Essential Track: Virginia Avenue

Up Next: Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park

[liebzz]

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ

Much like when I got to the Beatles, making it to Springsteen feels like getting to a new phase of this journey. That said, Greetings is one of those albums that holds so much promise, but it doesn’t rise to the level of his early works, a debut that’s fantastic on its own merits but gets buried by what we know is coming. Frankly, I think the biggest struggle is the song sequencing, where the strongest tracks seem buried and the momentum gets interrupted. My stab at a better track listing with the limitation of using only the songs he included would be Growing Up, Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street, Spirit in the Night, Lost in the Flood, Blinded By the Light, Mary Queen of Arkansas, For You, It’s Hard to Be a Saint…, The Angel.

As for my highlights here, Growing Up jumps out first because it still feels like an anthem for coming of age, Spirit in the Night, It’s Hard to Be a Saint has that energy that nearly topples over, Lost in the Flood is great storytelling and one of the better examples or Springsteen hitting the mark despite the lots of lyrics tic he had early on. So much promise that’ll be realized soon enough.

The Essential Track: Growing Up

Up Next: Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

[liebzz]

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

It took quite a few albums, but finally an album from Elton John I can pretty fully get behind. Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is a fantastic intro and is immediately followed by 3 classics: Candle in the Wind (the original of course), Benny and the Jers and the title track, so this familiarity early on helps, but even the deeper cuts are much better here - Grey Seal, The Ballad of Danny Bailey, All the Girls Love Alice, and Your Sister Can’t Twist all quality. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting is proof that he can really rock out if he wanted to. I’m all for this one.

The Essential Track: Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Up Next: Billy Joel - Piano Man

[liebzz]

Billy Joel - Piano Man

This is the first of Billy Joel’s albums we are covering here. Much like Elton John, I come in knowing really just the hits. This album has the three of particular note, the title track, the fantastic Ballad of Billy Kid that is sweeping and huge, and Captain Jack which is another epic. Worse Comes to Worst is another very good highlight here. This album is good, though the hits are really the big moments here. Everything else is solid, but he chose the right singles here which can soar.

The Essential Track: The Ballad of Billy the Kid

Up Next: George Harrison - Living in the Material World