Essential Studio Albums

[Jorge]

Good observations about the Ramones. Just one correction: Johnny didn't play power chords. He played full barre chords. Common misconception.

[liebzz]

Wire - Pink Flag

Well, this album was quite jarring. Part of it is the lack of pure structure - songs begin and end wherever the band feels like it - so the pop structures that a band like the Ramones provide a loud exclamation mark are twisted and thrown into the dust bin for a more art rock oriented punk. And where I am used to taking time to acclimate through a song’s arc, these songs are often done before you can settle in, which I am sure is the point, especially when delivering 21 songs in 35 minutes. And for all the shock value that brings, I think their best moments are the most traditional - Lowdown, Mannequin, Champs, and Feeling Called Love were really my favorites here, and not all these songs break two minutes but they do seem to have a beginning, middle and end.

The Essential Track: Mannequin

Up Next: Television - Marquee Moon

[liebzz]

Television - Marquee Moon

This is one of those albums you are sort of instructed to listen to by all those greatest albums lists, and I feel like I spent years avoiding this album, for no other reason than I just didn’t listen to it for one reason or another. Finally taking this moment to sit down with this is really full of a built in tension of that process of avoidance that really make no considerable sense, but puts added pressure on the listen.

Marquee Moon at first glance is a fascinating listen and idea. In a moment where punk rock has fully arrived, Marquee Moon has the foresight to immediately imagine a sound that takes these elements as an influence on a greater sound. This album is meant for a moment when punk rock would have run its course, which it most definitely hadn’t to that point - so it’s freakishly ahead of its time.

With that context, or even without that context, this album blows everything into the stratosphere of what can be done in the rock formula. The extended instrumental jams here are all phenomenal, some with and some without detailed precision, giving the dual right brained formula soul without revisiting blues - a more traditional approach to bringing feel to the equation. That makes this incredibly original even as it channels an amalgam of rock influences in its approach. The title track itself is a synthesis of all these random thoughts, but every song on here has plenty of exceptional moments.

There are plenty of moments, from the Sex Pistols to Nirvana and the Beatles, where a match of inspiration struck, and you can envision legions of young folks ready to throw out their record collections and start over with those albums or bands at the center of it. Marquee Moon may not have had that cultural moment, but it very well should have. It’s that good.

The Essential Track: Marquee Moon

Up Next: Talking Heads - Talking Heads ‘77

[liebzz]

Talking Heads - Talking Heads ‘77

I had intended to do a deep dive into the Talking Heads a few years ago, really after being blown out of the water by watching Stop Making Sense - that’s one hell of a concert video. I listened to a few of their albums right after and really liked it (including this one), but never caught the appropriate bug to go all in. In some ways, this album is unfairly juxtaposed in its placement just after Marquee Moon, but that aside, it still holds for me that this is an album that gains momentum as it unfolds - it’s I think something about the driving rhythm structure that becomes more addicting the longer you are existing in that atmosphere. To that end, the back half of this album is preferred for me because the first half feels like the appetizer for some real genius stuff in the second half, no example more evident than Psycho Killer, which is really an all time track fixed at the end with Pulled Up that end this album on a very high note.

The Essential Track: Paycho Killer

Up Next: Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus

[liebzz]

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus

This is Marley’s most accessible album, and one that plays more like a greatest hits album than any other. Guiltiness may be the only song here that isn’t part of the cultural lexicon of Marley tracks. Natural Mystic is a phenomenal opener here, the kind of opaque preview for the album that then dives into social justice and interpersonal relationships, but with a more generalized and global call to action than he had previously written about. Perhaps it was his exodus to London after an assassination attempt that brought him to more universal themes of love and justice, but that’s what ultimately makes this a classic. Exodus, Jamming, Waiting in Vain, Turn Your Lights Down Low, Three Little Birds, and One Love/People Get Ready all appear in a row - and this sounds like an imagined encore medley of hits any other artist would die to have.

The Essential Track: Exodus

Up Next: The Clash - Give ‘Em Enough Rope

[Ello Sailor]

The title track is immense but "Three Little Birds" clears with ease. What an incredible tune.

[coptheriotact]

i was really enjoying talking heads a few years ago after discovering remain in light, 77 and stop making sense movie, but it kinda fizzled out for me after that.

[liebzz]

The Clash - Give ‘Em Enough Rope

Album number 550 of this journey. Anyways, insofar as Clash albums go into the early 80s, this might be the least favorite even if it’s the cleanest and most consistent sounding. It’s a more straight ahead rock focus with much less delving into reggae hints and any other asides. It nearly exclusively thematically addresses guns, gangs, drugs, and punks. You know, the stuff you put in the stereo for your parents (though now that wouldn’t be a big deal). Nevertheless, it’s still a wonderful album with sneakily good guitar leads and strong compositions. It’s all very qualitatively consistent too, making a choice for an essential track basically a random guess.

The Essential Track: English Civil War, I think

Up Next: Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

[liebzz]

An updated top 50 with 50 more albums in:

50. Jerry Garcia - Garcia
49. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
48. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
47. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
46. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
45. Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
44. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
43. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
42. The Who - Who’s Next
41. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
40. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
39. The Allman Brothers Band
38. The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
37. The Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
36. Credence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
35. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
34. The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
33. Tom Waits - Closing Time
32. Neil Young - After the Goldrush
31. Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
30. Television - Marquee Moon
29. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
28. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
27. Neil Young - Harvest
26. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
25. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
24. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
23. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
22. Led Zeppelin IV
21. The Who - Quadrophenia
20. Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
19. Bruce Springsteen - The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
18. Thelonious Monk - The Genius of Modern Music Vol. 2
17. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
16. John Coltrane - Blue Train
15. The Beatles - Abbey Road
14. Pink Floyd - Animals
13. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
12. The Beatles - Revolver
11. The Beatles
10. Neil Young - On the Beach
9. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
8. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
5. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
4. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
2. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
1. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

[wease]

Disappointed. No Dan in the top 50.

[liebzz]

I do like those albums, but they ain’t crackin’ through these beasts haha.

[liebzz]

Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

Back is some of the grit of Iggy’s prior life with the Stooges, though not necessarily all of it. This is almost a finding of the difference between his last album and what came before, and it’s just the right touch. The title track is probably his best known solo track, and The Passenger, Tonight, Success, and Fall in Love With Me particularly highlight a really strong second 2/3 of this album that has very few weak moments. It’s just a killer album here, and feels more authentically in his wheelhouse than the last one.

The Essential Track: Lust for Life

Up Next: KISS - Love Gun

[liebzz]

KISS - Love Gun

I will say this is definitely a step up from Rock ‘n’ Roll All Over, though it’s also possible, post Destroyer, it’s a band, save for a few highlights like the title track, I Stole Your Love, and Shock Me, that has largely run its course. They were still huge at this point and were not at that point where they are changing lineups, taking off their makeup and all that stuff - but we are getting close to that point. Certainly fun while it lasted though.

The Essential Track: Love Gun

Up Next: Foreigner

[liebzz]

Foreigner

What seems to be emerging around this point is more precise threads of rock music. There’s the punk rock coming out of England and New York City, generating a new generation of harder edged rock music. There’s the old guard bands, like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan still making excellent albums. There’s heavier rock making it own mark from the foundations of Black Sabbath…and then there’s soft rock and it’s close cousin, arena rock, pumping out albums with big hits. Foreigner seems to fall in that latter category, and this debut sits as sort of that weird blend that doesn’t really end up being much save for a couple of big hits, Feels Like the First Time, and the admittedly essential Cold As Ice. There’s a legit place for soft rock and arena rock, but this album isn’t the apex we’re looking for. Cold As Ice is a helluva single though!

The Essential Track: Cold As Ice

Up Next: Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

[wease]

To my knowledge, I’ve only heard those two singles from the album. Feels Like The First Time, I’ve always liked. Could possibly be my favorite track of theirs. Cold As Ice is pretty good too.

[LoathedVermin72]

I've never gone deep on Foreigner but I've been repeatedly struck how beautiful the synth work (and often the melody) is in some of their hits (like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You").

[liebzz]

I've never gone deep on Foreigner but I've been repeatedly struck how beautiful the synth work (and often the melody) is in some of their hits (like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You").

Neither of those were on this album. I think that’s “4”, which is on the list sometime in the 1980s.

[LoathedVermin72]

I've never gone deep on Foreigner but I've been repeatedly struck how beautiful the synth work (and often the melody) is in some of their hits (like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You").

Neither of those were on this album. I think that’s “4”, which is on the list sometime in the 1980s.

I know, I was just making a general observation

[Ello Sailor]

No observations allowed.

[LoathedVermin72]