Essential Studio Albums

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Robert Plant - Pictures at Eleven

Plant’s debut solo album after the demise of Led Zeppelin can best be described as Led Lite, or Zeppelin Zero. Basically, it’s a further exploration of Led Zeppelin’s sound, though the songs don’t quite add up to that level of quality. Not that this album is bad, there’s just not that much to remember it by, save for Slow Dancer - a massive track that pulls much of this out of decent enough territory and makes it worth the investment. It’s sort of humorous to start here with Plant post-Zeppelin based on his present day attitude towards playing with the surviving members, as if he’s moved on. As if 1982, not quite.

The Essential Track: Slow Dancer

Up Next: Neil Young - Trans

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Did you catch Phil Collins on drums on most of the album?

[liebzz]

Did you catch Phil Collins on drums on most of the album?

Yes, and he’s not the drummer on Slow Dancer. But it does make the Live Aid debacle make more sense.

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Neil Young - Trans

Poor David Geffen.

Actually, this album while heavily synthesized and largely featuring Neil through vocoder, is a rather heartfelt set of songs inspired by his efforts to connect with his son, who had cerebral palsy. And for what it is, it is much better than you would expect coming from the ever organic Neil Young. This plays at the heart of this record, and it makes me feel sorry that I really enjoy Like An Inca the most here, but it’s such a glorious 9 minutes!

The Essential Track: Like An Inca

Up Next: Jerry Garcia - Run For the Roses

[wease]

Did you catch Phil Collins on drums on most of the album?

Yes, and he’s not the drummer on Slow Dancer. But it does make the Live Aid debacle make more sense.

He also played on the tour to support the album and the next album as well. (Which has the best Plant solo song)

[liebzz]

Did you catch Phil Collins on drums on most of the album?

Yes, and he’s not the drummer on Slow Dancer. But it does make the Live Aid debacle make more sense.

He also played on the tour to support the album and the next album as well. (Which has the best Plant solo song)

Are you in the mood for a melody?

[wease]

Did you catch Phil Collins on drums on most of the album?

Yes, and he’s not the drummer on Slow Dancer. But it does make the Live Aid debacle make more sense.

He also played on the tour to support the album and the next album as well. (Which has the best Plant solo song)

Are you in the mood for a melody?

Ok. We’re friends again

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Jerry Garcia - Run For the Roses

Jerry Garcia kept busy even when he was not touring and recording with the Dead. This was his final studio album as a solo artist, and it tracks with his work away from the Dead. Even less bound by the 4 minutes or less trappings of the pop world, Jerry let the songs breathe, and his rearrangements of the covers here exemplify that, particularly a funky I Saw Her Standinf There and a reggae inflected Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. The title track is his, and that follows suit of swaying a little further away from Grateful Dead land, but in the end there’s no mistaking Jerry Garcia in his playing and singing. It’s a decent enough album from a guy struggling with his health at this point, and won’t scratch the greatness he showed in his earlier albums, but it’s still worth a listen.

The Essential Track: Run For the Roses

Up Next: Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombone

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Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

Tom Waits this far had made a career for himself as a sort of smoke filled lounge storyteller. Sometimes he made himself the character, or found creative ways to spin tales that seem to toe the line between jazz, blues, and other flavors. It is here where his experiments start to jump around a bit, engaging with each of his known flavors, but never settling down. Most of the descriptions I hear of this album is that it’s almost avant garde level weird, but I don’t get that sense at all. It feels and sounds just like Tom Waits, maybe an amalgam of where he’s been, and then a burst of moving forward. He doesn’t change his sound here as much as enhance it, give it less and less boundaries, and point to a future where anything goes with him (by this point it already did really). This doesn’t feel particularly bound to a single vision such that picking an essential song is impossible, but nevertheless this is the case because to hear this album is to hear him reach in so many different directions that picking one seems foolish.

The Essential Track: N/A

Up Next: Paul McCartney - Tug of War

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Paul McCartney - Tug of War

Of the solo albums and Wings, this is the one that sounds most as it McCartney is revisiting his Beatles days, at least on about 3/4ths of the album. Juxtaposed against this is a clear influence from dance and disco, with Stevie Wonder guesting on What’s That You’re Doing? and Ebony and Ivory, one of those ballads working to be as universal as a Beatles anthem (it doesn’t get there of course). But Take It Away, Somebody Who Cares, Pound is Sinking (personal favorite here), and the title track seem to show the many sides of McCartney.

The Essential Track: Pound is Sinking

Up Next: Michael Jackson - Thriller

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Michael Jackson - Thriller

It’s hard to separate the album itself from its cultural impact. Beyond being the highest selling album, breaking boundaries for black artists, and more than likely properly regarded as the greatest pop album of all time, this album also popularized and charted the way forward for dance music after disco. The run of Thriller, Beat It, and Billie Jean in the middle of the album is impossible to overstate as a touchstone of the 80s. This run is my first musical memory as a child, which makes sense since this was the highest selling album of 1983 and 1984. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, Human Nature, and Pretty Yojng Thing also highlight this album. When Paul McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, and Toto all feature prominently on this album, you know this is bringing folks together, even if some of this is a bit ham-fisted (Paul I am looking at you).

The Essential Track: Thriller

Up Next: Prince - 1999

[wease]

Yeah, Paul kept the better song for his own album.

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Prince - 1999

If Michael Jackson was the equivalent of the Beatles as a result of Thriller, then Prince is pop’s Hendrix. On 1999, Prince delivers a double album masterwork. Turning pop beats into psychedelic long form trips, sometimes topping 8 minutes of working off funk and rock beats and rhythms. Prince really gets the hits - 1999, Little Red Corvette, and Delirious - out of the way, and then he just lets it fly with one wild winding track after another. An absolute mind bending experience.

The Essential Track: damn this is hard…Lady Cab Driver

Up Next: Duran Duran - Rio

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Duran Duran - Rio

One area I think essential in understanding this era of music is this new wave pop that I feel like Duran Duran is one of the most recognizable of groups. I certainly grew up with Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf in regular rotation of my older brothers’ stereos and the always on MTV. So there’s a tinge of nostalgia playing for this album - though sadly not too much more. I can appreciate an album that doesn’t let up as this one does, but it also starts to blend together with songs no longer feeling like they have their own space. A good album for sure. Sometimes it just comes down to personal taste.

The Essential Track: Hungry Like the Wolf

Up Next: Toto IV

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Toto IV

We’ve worked our way back to a short yacht rock run, a sub-genre by this point probably at its apex by 1982. This album is at least sarcastically hailed as the lynchpin. The top of the order here, Rosanna, is actually pretty great in a not all that ironic sense, juxtaposed against Africa, the album closer and huge hit that is now loved in reverse, helped in great deal by the Weezer cover a few years ago. Unfortunately for the rest of this album, it’s largely faceless soft rock, with almost nothing of note. But they’ll always have Rosanna and Africa.

The Essential Track: Rosanna

Up Next: Michael McDonald - If That’s What It Takes

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Michael McDonald - If That’s What It Takes

After all his success in The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and with Christopher Cross, it’s time for his solo album, though I think reading the list of folks who played on it, more like a yacht rock supergroup. The album, all in all, is pretty good. I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near) is a classic and famously sampled, I Gotta Try, the title track, and No Such Luck were also highlights. Really no complaints here.

The Essential Track: I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)

Up Next: Donald Fagen - The Nightfly

[LoathedVermin72]

That album is so good. "Love Lies" is my favorite track, I think.

[liebzz]

That album is so good. "Love Lies" is my favorite track, I think.

I totally meant to include that one, but after the aforementioned, I Gotta Try I liked a lot and the title track grew on me as it went on. Love Lies is a real highlight though, you are right.

[wease]

Fuck yeah.

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Very excited to see what you think of The Nightfly