Essential Studio Albums

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Bob Dylan & the Band - The Basement Tapes

Granted this was recorded many years earlier, that Robbie Robertson took control and asserted his ego to fill this with songs that didn’t include Dylan…nevertheless, this album has the feel of creativity happening in real time. I don’t much recall Dylan sounding so laid back, or at least willing to record with this much humor and lack of self-consciousness. It’s been at least since Freewheelin’. I certainly have Dylan albums I prefer and The Band albums I prefer as well, but the experiencing what largely feels like the tape rolling and the music flowing out is pretty great - even if the Band went back and overdubbed some of this. The back half of this was my preference, with You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Long Distance Operator, and This Wheels On Fire (what a version!?) as personal favorites.

The Essential Track: This Wheel’s On Fire

Up Next: Bob Dylan - Blood On the Tracks

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Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

In a lot of ways, this seems like the most Dylan sounding album. It’s got all the flavors of the angry, longing, witty, folky, rock…all rolled into one without lurching around and getting even a moment of incongruity. It’s basically the ideal Dylan album, with songs like Idiot Wind making a blunt statement while Shelter From the Storm maybe a bit more subtle, or Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts jangly, Simple Twist of Fate beauty. A stunning swirl of pure Dylan front to back.

The Essential Track: Simple Twist of Fate

Up Next: Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah

[doug rr]

my favorite album of all time...number 2 thru whatever can change but not that one

[liebzz]

my favorite album of all time...number 2 thru whatever can change but not that one

I think what’s starting to really shock me is how deep that bench is. I rate Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited slightly higher, but it’s not a big qualitative difference for me. And in the scheme of all albums here so far, being way up there is among many albums I really love.

[liebzz]

Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah

The first 2/3rds of this album could possibly be as good as the Dead gets, particularly the jazzier era Dead. Help on the Way/ Slipknot! is one of their great tracks, where dexterity and catchiness find the perfect match for each other, and the instrumental movements are spot on. This fades straight into Franklin’s Tower, a Dead classic that ended up getting a lot of time on the road with them. King Solomon’s Marbles and Crazy Fingers both have some wild moments, while The Music Never Stopped comes in as the only Dead song by the numbers on this album. Sage and Spirit and the title track close this, but these might just cross over the line of my patience ultimately. If not for them, this would be a spotless record.

The Essential Track: Help on the Way/Slipknot!

Up Next: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

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Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

If one wonders how you could possibly follow one of the most incredible sonic masterpieces of its time, Dark Side of the Moon, look no further than Wish You Were Here. What makes this album a completely different take than Dark Side is rather than this being one unit of an album where it just doesn’t make sense to listen to it other than in the album form, Wish You Were Here is 4 individual songs (one broke in half to start and end the record) that stand on their own AND fit together into a cohesive unit. And each of those songs is frankly incredible on their own. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5 and 6-9) is a pure studio accomplishment of epic proportions, Welcome to the Machine gives off cult horror movie classic vibes in all the right ways, as if it belongs to soundtrack Stranger Things, Have a Cigar’s nod and wink to the seductions of fame and fortune, and giving in to the machine adds to the loose narrative following their lost bandmate…and when the title track follows it is wonderfully heartbreaking. For this to go back to where we started with the second half of Shine On You Crazy Diamond is fantastic. I may have been mistaken in demanding Dark Side as their masterpiece as this matches if not surpasses that incredible gem. It almost annoys me how damn great they were in this period.

The Essential Track: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5

Up Next: Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

[VinylGuy]

Wish You Were Here is one of my favs yeah. I listened to it so very fucking much. I love the overall chilly winter vibe it has.

[liebzz]

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

I’ve owned this album, at the very least, on CD for more than 30 years. I am not new to this thing. But hearing it in this context opened up a lot for me that maybe I hadn’t really considered hearing this album in the past. First and foremost, it must be said that this one of the great drum albums of all time. If you walk away with nothing else, John Bonham approaches this album like he’s hitting the drum kit with f@&$in’ anvils. It makes for a cathartic rock & roll experience. And then there’s the tale of two halves. The first half from Custard Pie to Kashmir is Led Zeppelin at its most powerful, beating the listener down with vocals, guitar, bass and drums at peak intensity. The second half, from In the Light through Sick Again, is an opportunity to expand on their sound a bit, and in my youth, I would largely skip over this, but in that 15 year old me was dead wrong. Sonically I don’t know that Zep was ever more interesting without losing a single ounce of impact. They’re absolutely killing it on this half, and really both halves serve to push Zeppelin’s catalogue to new heights. Led Zeppelin IV may have the most known songs, but I am convinced without question this is their finest hour (and 22!). I could pick most of the songs here and have a legitimate argument to make for them, so I am making the lazy pick on a song that is rock royalty

The Essential Track: Kashmir

Up Next: The Who - By Numbers

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The Who - By Numbers

I have a very fond bias to this album, predominantly because of the Who albums, this seems to be the one that has no baggage attached. Just the latter years Who playing their music with no hit songs or concepts or any excess. Just them in their basic element rocking out. Slip Kid, Dreaming From the Waist, Imagine A Man, How Many Friends, and In a Hand or a Face are just songs I really enjoy for the sake of it. Squeeze Box is the closest thing to a Who Classic and even that is not a top tier hit for them. It’s almost liberating in a sense. Enjoying the album just because.

The Essential Track: Slip Kid

Up Next: Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night

[liebzz]

Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night

My brain can operate in strange ways. If you asked me about this album in a vacuum after I haven’t heard it for a bit, I’d give you a lukewarm response and point you to some of this other 70s albums. But listening to it, I just really love hearing this album. It’s very authentically Neil in a time where he wore some of his vulnerability on his sleeve. Tonight’s the Night, World on a String, Borrowed Tune, Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown, Mellow My Mind.. I mean all of it is quite good, and once again an album you could put on in your living room and it has the intimacy to feel like he’s playing it live out those speakers. Such an incredible artist.

The Essential Track: Tonight’s the Night

Up Next: Queen - Night at the Opera

[liebzz]

We’re just at the start but I just wanted to note some big ups to 1975. I mean, on this page alone is some of my favorite albums and some incredible music, and we’ve still got a long way to go with the albums from ‘75.

[liebzz]

Queen - A Night at the Opera

A general consensus seemed to be building at some point proclaiming Queen one of the best rock bands of all time - I am not sure exactly when it happened, maybe when that biopic came out a few years ago? I have had their greatest hits for decades and never really felt the pull to hear their albums, and so with getting to a few live ones in the live albums thread and here, I am getting the proper exposure. The problem is I still have a challenge of losing my patience with them after a couple of songs. Perhaps it’s just too over the top, or too Rocky Horror Picture Show for my tastes, or that showmanship in this band seemed to well overtake song composition, but I just have to come to grips with the fact that I am just not a fan and the greatest hits will more than do.

The Essential Track: Bohemian Rhapsody

Up Next: Foghat - Fool for the City

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Foghat - Fool for the City

This is the sort of boogie rock that to me always almost defined 70s rock. Living distinctly in that quintessential sound, Foghat do a pretty good job here on the songs here, particularly the title track, and the extended non-radio edit of Slow Ride, which transforms into an instrumental beast where the radio version cuts off. My Babe, Drive Me Home and Terraplane Blues are all serviceable boogie rock songs while Take It Or Leave It is a ballad to close the album pretty solidly. This is ultimately quite a good rock record

The Essential Track: Slow Ride

Up Next: Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey

[liebzz]

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey

This album is apparently a very influential album in the reggae world. It hits right on what is the sort of roots reggae sound, and the themes of politics and religion are also quite familiar. This is the sort of album that perhaps because of its wider impact, it seems like an album you’ve heard before even if you haven’t. The shame of course is that listening in hindsight, it feels by the numbers a bit, even if at the time it wasn’t really something approaching the mainstream. The songs in any event are strong and it seems a bit more elevated once you’ve left the album than in its midst.

The Essential Track: Old Marcus Garvey

Up Next: Trag Album Suite IV (Harmonia - Deluxe to start)

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Harmonia - Deluxe

So while I am still not a buyer into this group’s sound, I must say I enjoyed this one way more than the first. I think I was flat bored the first time, and while this held my attention pretty well, there’s still not all that much to draw listeners in. It is not just that it’s repetitive, but that in each song there’s not much in the way of deviation that pulls the listener out as in other kraut rock outfits. I can at least take the guitars in Wally Talky as something to hold on to though.

The Essential Track: Walky Talky

Up Next: Neu! - Neu! 75

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Neu! - Neu! 75

This is another one I think is vastly improved from the prior listen. This one also does a better job of including other sounds to capture the listener than Harmonia. Len’ wohl and Hero were the two tracks that stuck. I am not sure I have too much to say beyond that, but it is astonishing what a couple of albums of this will do once calibrated.

The Essential Track: Hero

Up Next: Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

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Kraftwerk - Radio-Activity

I think the first half of this album is pretty darn good. Radioactivity, Radioland, and Airwaves were all pretty strong, even if this is not my choice of music. I lost a bit of patience after that, but still found it to be among the better of these string of albums. I think they are pretty capable of layering over the basic track to keep things moving and not solely be trance-like, and that’s a big plus for me.

The Essential Track: Radioactivity

Up Next: Roxy Music - Siren

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Roxy Music - Siren

On this next Roxy Music album, I am still largely enjoying what they are putting out, even if they lost a little of the excitement I drew from all the prior albums. There’s some glam and dance almost here, and they certainly rock out in spots, but it doesn’t quite have the same feel as the prior records for whatever reason. Tuning in for Love is the Drug, End of the Line, She Sells, Could It Happen to Me?, Both Ends Burning, and the closer Just Another High is certainly worth the price of admission. It’s a very good album amongst great ones.

The Essential Track: Both Ends Burning

Up Next: Brian Eno - Another Green World

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Brian Eno - Another Green World

This album feels a bit transitional. Taking the pop music that was the more definitive sound of the last few albums, and merging it with an emerging space of soundscapes that seem to be in a different headspace than the pop songs, but they do ultimately fit together nicely, providing little breaks from each other such that neither sound ever gets stale. Little Fishies, and Sky Saw were the must hear soundscapes for me, while I’ll Come Running, Golden Hours and Everything Merges With the Night scratch the pop itch.

The Essential Track: Little Fishies

Up Next: Brian Eno - Discreet Music

[liebzz]

Brian Eno - Discreet Music

When I visualized in my brain what I expected Brian Eno to sound like, Discreet Music (the track) is what I was expecting. It is a piece that glides by on ambient notes that sort of drift through the ether. And this 31 minute first half of the album may be calming, it may also be a bit long for this sort of sound experiment, but I would walk away glad to have heard this as it surely was a groundbreaking moment for his music and for the genre in general. I did, however, find greater enjoyment on the back half of this album, which pairs the ambient atmosphere with lush strings that bring both a beauty and and enveloping sense of the moment potentially missing for me from the first half. I can’t say I reach for this style of music much, but if I were I would likely go back to this.

The Essential Track: Fullness of Wind

Up Next: Fripp & Eno - Evening Star