Essential Studio Albums

[liebzz]

Brian Eno - Music For Films

It seems this and the next album, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, are essential for the development of ambient music. While I would say it’s not as much my cup of tea for the most part, this one I actually quite liked. I think in large part because it is more of a display of the potential for range in the genre rather than sitting with one atmospheric space over a longer period, it feels like a good sampler platter. The essential track here comes in three parts that get a little more lush at each pass.

The Essential Track: Sparrowfall

Up Next: Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports

[liebzz]

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports

While my very rudimentary reading on this is that this serves as an arrival of sorts of ambient as a genre, and surely an important album in the history of music, this didn’t capture me in the same way Music For Films did. It could really be Eno is in the same space for too long for me, but the draw of the piano lines (which are quite nice) wears out. Not sure how this calmed folks from airplane crashes.

The Essential Track: 1/2

Up Nexr: Sun Ra - Lanquidity

[Higgs]

When my kids were little I used to play this for them as bedtime sleepy music.

[liebzz]

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Big props to whomever recommended this one. It’s probably been a bit since I really revisited jazz, and this was the perfect album to jump into for a bit. The band here is great and produces a funky but straightforward groove for the horns to improv off of. Weirdly this is listed as avant garde, but for the most part, I found it followed a form and built into a more chaotic finish in these songs, but it seemed to have more in common with the jazz fusion of Miles Davis’ fusion period than say Ornette Coleman.

The Essential Track: Lanquidity

Up Next: CHIC - C’est Chic

[liebzz]

CHIC - C’est Chic

From jazz to funk/dance. There’s a few songs here that are very familiar, Le Freak and I Want Your Love, and this is a fun and easy album to have in the background. Nothing really blew me away here but also nothing’s here that’s difficult. I wish there was more to say here but that about sums it up.

The Essential Track: Le Freak

Up Next: Christopher Cross

[liebzz]

Christopher Cross

Look, this ain’t no Electric Ladyland, but this is one helluva little gem of a yacht rock album. With the assistance of yacht rock legend and backup vocalist, Michael McDonald, there’s hardly a weak track on this album. Is it one of my favorites? No. It is, however, consistently enjoyable, and frankly Ride Like the Wind finds its moments to soar. Sailing is one of those ultimate soft rock tracks that never goes away, and Minstrel Gigolo is a pretty solid tune.

The Essential Track: Ride Like the Wind

Up Next: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album

[Birds in Hell]

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Big props to whomever recommended this one.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[VinylGuy]

Christopher Cross

Look, this ain’t no Electric Ladyland, but this is one helluva little gem of a yacht rock album. With the assistance of yacht rock legend and backup vocalist, Michael McDonald, there’s hardly a weak track on this album. Is it one of my favorites? No. It is, however, consistently enjoyable, and frankly Ride Like the Wind finds its moments to soar. Sailing is one of those ultimate soft rock tracks that never goes away, and Minstrel Gigolo is a pretty solid tune.

The Essential Track: Ride Like the Wind

Up Next: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album

He is actually performing in Buenos Aires in december with Toto. I could get free tickets so i might see him.

[liebzz]

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Big props to whomever recommended this one.

Glad you enjoyed it.

That was definitely a good one.

[liebzz]

Christopher Cross

Look, this ain’t no Electric Ladyland, but this is one helluva little gem of a yacht rock album. With the assistance of yacht rock legend and backup vocalist, Michael McDonald, there’s hardly a weak track on this album. Is it one of my favorites? No. It is, however, consistently enjoyable, and frankly Ride Like the Wind finds its moments to soar. Sailing is one of those ultimate soft rock tracks that never goes away, and Minstrel Gigolo is a pretty solid tune.

The Essential Track: Ride Like the Wind

Up Next: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album

He is actually performing in Buenos Aires in december with Toto. I could get free tickets so i might see him.

I had never heard any of his albums before today, but that was easy to listen to. I don’t know whether I would kill to see him live, or Toto for that matter, but for free that might be a fun time!

[liebzz]

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album

This would be the ‘98 re-release of the 1978 album Skynyrd’s First…and Last. The benefit of this one is it contains both the material shelved and the original versions of basically the massive hits that would make it into Pronounced… I will say Simple Man and Gimme Three Steps do sound better here in the raw. One More Time is also a huge highlight. You Run Around, from the ‘98 release, is so so great. What’s fascinating is how much range they had compared to what they ultimately released in Pronounced…, and a piece of me still prefers the all out assault of that album (sorry!), but this is absolutely essential listening.

The Essential Track: Gimme Three Steps

Up Next: Rolling Stones - Some Girls

[liebzz]

Rolling Stones - Some Girls

As misguided as it may be, the sense that this album came with baggage that the Stones had been through a dry period is still sensed in the listening to this album, which is basically a grab bag of everything that makes the Stones one of the greatest bands of all time. There’s a good chunk of this album sleazy enough that it likely wouldn’t fly today, from the title track to Shattered, Respectable, and Far Away Eyes - but even so I am not sure how it even flew then. There’s the great token Keith song, Before They Make Me Run, the forays into modernizing their sound on the danceable Miss You, the faux country goofiness, and of course the sort of propulsive rock songs with so much energy Charlie Watts’ beat is the only thing from these songs jumping out the speaker and derailing, as in Lies, When the Whip Comes Down and again Respectable. And that last piece is what makes the Stones impossibly great.

The Essential Track: Lies

Up Next: Elvis Costello & The Attractions - This Year’s Model

[VinylGuy]

Some Girls is a top three for me. I always loved it, and Beast Of Burden might be my favorite Stones song from all time.

[liebzz]

Some Girls is a top three for me. I always loved it, and Beast Of Burden might be my favorite Stones song from all time.

From the Stones, currently at #5 for me behind Exile, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, and Beggars Banquet, but subject to change with a relisten to Tattoo You forthcoming on here at some point. I have a real love for Tattoo You so could go either way with this one. They’re consistently that next tier for me, which would really be Goats Head Soup, Some Girls, and Tattoo You. The third tier is probably some of the early albums with the mid-70s albums, Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge, Blue and Lonesome, and Hackney Diamonds. They have a lot of great albums.

[VinylGuy]

yeah, they do.

Im on a very 70s phase. Black and Blue and Emotional Rescue gained a lot for me these last couple of years. They are jamming very tight and groovy.

[liebzz]

Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year’s Model

Really maybe since Big Star’s two albums can I say on this journey that I felt like I got so sucked into power pop rock as I did here. Granted, this one’s not new to me, but the infectious energy Costello and his band brought to this one really makes you believe in what they’re doing. The opening 4 tracks here, No Action, This Year’s Girl, The Beat, and Pump It Up are all so good that you feel almost swept away in an easy rock that you still know there’s more to it than tapping your foot, but you can’t help it anyway. (I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea and Lipstick Vogue really bring this thing home into essential listening, and Radio Radio finishes this off on the same level of infectiousness that the album starts with. This is everyone firing on all cylinders. I forgot how much I enjoyed this era of Elvis Costello.

The Essential Track: Pump It Up

Up Next: Tom Waits - Blue Valentine

[liebzz]

Tom Waits - Blue Valentine

The atmosphere of a vulnerable yet possibly inebriated lounge singer remains ever present throughout this album, and Tom Waits has a gift for storytelling here that is really unique to him. Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis is a great example, with a tall tale of redemption and progress taking a confessional left turn in a broken hearted plea for some cash. This album is full of these sorts of narratives, with $29.00, Wrong Side of the Road, Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard, the title track, A Sweet Little Bullet From a Pretty Blue Gun, and Romeo is Bleeding all making immediate impact, but also begging you to go back and chew on these stories some more.

The Essential Track: Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard

Up Next: Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

[liebzz]

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy

This is a very effective pop rock record, particularly in the first half. Johnny Strikes Up the Band, the title track, Werewolves of London, the slower Accidentally Like A Martyr, and Nighttime in the Switching Yard are all fabulous and even if the album never quite hit those heights with most of the remaining songs, this would make for a pretty great album. But the final sales pitch to bring this over the top for me is Lawyers, Guns, and Money - a real gem of a pop rock song that steals the record for me. Lots of great stuff here.

The Essential Track: Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Up Next: Van Morrison - Wavelength

[liebzz]

Van Morrison - Wavelength

However this got on this list, it’s here, and a demonstration of Van Morrison’s sound evolving ever so slowly. The arrangements are tighter, maybe too tight, as compared to his heyday, at least on the first half, even where the songs are good…and where he stretches out on the latter tracks, they largely fall flat in comparison because they don’t become as interesting as the slight turns are on say an Astral Weeks. Perhaps it is even unfair to even compare it against his earlier works as great as they were. In a vacuum, this really is a good album, with Kingdom Hall, Checkin’ It Out, Natalia, Wavelength, and Santa Fe/Beautiful Obsession all strong highlights. It only sinks, if at all, from the weight of its predecessors and the synthesizers not quite matching what he could do with a full flush arrangement.

The Essential Track: Natalia

Up Next: Big Star - Third/ Sister Lovers

[liebzz]

Big Star - Third / Sister Lovers

Big Star may not have been around too long, but they sure made some pretty unforgettable albums. The breeze and pop rock genius of their first two albums is only here in traces, as this is more of the feel of a compilation of different sounds to experiment with. Songs like Kizza Me, O Dana, You Can’t Have Me, and Til the End of the Day bring some of that pop majesty, but this is dominated by experiments like Dream Lover, whose soundscape creates exactly what the title suggests. I don’t think I would return here as fast as the other two, but it’s an interesting digression from what they had been doing before.

The Essential Track: Til the End of the Day

Up Next: X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents