Essential Studio Albums

[Kevin Davis]

Katy Lied is one of my favorite things in the world. The best work Dan ever did.

And I love you for it.

Best track on there?

Bad Sneakers

You made me a Steely Dan mix some years back, and this was instantly my favorite song on it, and is quite possibly still my favorite Dan song. So, so great.

[liebzz]

Warren Zevon

Listening to this album, it was not a surprise at all to look at the credits and see members of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles credited. This album has its hooks in that mid to late 70s California pop, but has something a little bit more sinister in mind, like a Neil Young was taking the music and making something a bit different out of it. The songs here are pretty strong, with Poor Poor Pitiful Me and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead as a more uptempo rock (despite the subject matter), and liked Frank and Jesse James, Hasten Down the Wind, Mohammed’s Radio, Carmelita, and Join Me in LA in particular. I nearly plays breezy but it isn’t at all, a certain intensity is sitting there that an Eagles lack, and it’s much better for that. This is one of those artists I had meant to check out for the longest time in albums, go I’m glad to be here.

The Essential Track: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

Up Next: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

[liebzz]

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Quite glad that for album 500 of this journey, it’s as much a new beginning with one of my all time favorite artists. Rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t always need to be complicated or profound. Sometimes it can be easy, sometimes, you can live by the Petty/Campbell mantra of don’t bore us get to the chorus. The debut album isn’t necessarily Petty’s finest or even that close to it, but it’s got power pop rock with just a hint of the south in spades. Rockin’ Around (With You) opens this gem delivering on that easy promise, and then Breakdown follows with just the right bluesy groove to prove Petty might be easy but he’s no one trick pony. The album is further highlighted by Hometown Blues, The Wild One Forever, Steangered in the Night, and Luna before the finale of American Girl, the poster child of successful pop rock - and maybe one of the finest examples you’ll find of that approach. Great debut.

The Essential Track: American Girl

Up Next: Jerry Garcia - Reflections

[liebzz]

500 albums in so a new and revised top 50 to celebrate:

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

[LoathedVermin72]

Katy Lied is one of my favorite things in the world. The best work Dan ever did.

And I love you for it.

Best track on there?

Bad Sneakers

You made me a Steely Dan mix some years back, and this was instantly my favorite song on it, and is quite possibly still my favorite Dan song. So, so great.

hell yeah

[wease]

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Quite glad that for album 500 of this journey, it’s as much a new beginning with one of my all time favorite artists. Rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t always need to be complicated or profound. Sometimes it can be easy, sometimes, you can live by the Petty/Campbell mantra of don’t bore us get to the chorus. The debut album isn’t necessarily Petty’s finest or even that close to it, but it’s got power pop rock with just a hint of the south in spades. Rockin’ Around (With You) opens this gem delivering on that easy promise, and then Breakdown follows with just the right bluesy groove to prove Petty might be easy but he’s no one trick pony. The album is further highlighted by Hometown Blues, The Wild One Forever, Steangered in the Night, and Luna before the finale of American Girl, the poster child of successful pop rock - and maybe one of the finest examples you’ll find of that approach. Great debut.

The Essential Track: American Girl

Up Next: Jerry Garcia - Reflections

Can’t really fault you on American Girl, but The Wild One, Forever nudges it out for me.

[liebzz]

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Quite glad that for album 500 of this journey, it’s as much a new beginning with one of my all time favorite artists. Rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t always need to be complicated or profound. Sometimes it can be easy, sometimes, you can live by the Petty/Campbell mantra of don’t bore us get to the chorus. The debut album isn’t necessarily Petty’s finest or even that close to it, but it’s got power pop rock with just a hint of the south in spades. Rockin’ Around (With You) opens this gem delivering on that easy promise, and then Breakdown follows with just the right bluesy groove to prove Petty might be easy but he’s no one trick pony. The album is further highlighted by Hometown Blues, The Wild One Forever, Steangered in the Night, and Luna before the finale of American Girl, the poster child of successful pop rock - and maybe one of the finest examples you’ll find of that approach. Great debut.

The Essential Track: American Girl

Up Next: Jerry Garcia - Reflections

Can’t really fault you on American Girl, but The Wild One, Forever nudges it out for me.

I do love that one, but also Breakdown. There’s some serious gems on this.

[Jorge]

To me Nighthawks is the very worst TW album, the absolute nadir of the extremely contrived jazz-cat persona he had going on early on. There's still some of that in Small Change, but the songs are better, and it's a step in the right direction. The next few albums are interesting

Funny how we can all read things differently. I like the jazz lounge character he embodied, and see Nighthawks not only as his best so far (there’s a long way to go) but among my favorites of all the albums I have heard in here.

I like the ambience of it and some of the stage banter is amusing but I just don't think the songs are very good, with the possible exception of "Warm Beer and Cold Women." It's very much a shtick first, songs second kinda album IMO

[liebzz]

To me Nighthawks is the very worst TW album, the absolute nadir of the extremely contrived jazz-cat persona he had going on early on. There's still some of that in Small Change, but the songs are better, and it's a step in the right direction. The next few albums are interesting

Funny how we can all read things differently. I like the jazz lounge character he embodied, and see Nighthawks not only as his best so far (there’s a long way to go) but among my favorites of all the albums I have heard in here.

I like the ambience of it and some of the stage banter is amusing but I just don't think the songs are very good, with the possible exception of "Warm Beer and Cold Women." It's very much a shtick first, songs second kinda album IMO

Yeah, I don’t think that is necessarily wrong. The genius is not in the individual songs but the way the whole builds a complete character around this sort of fictional jazz show. It is, in effect, the aural equivalent of a movie, and Tom Waits the lead actor. This is highly atypical really and listening to any one song on the album alone is like trying to get the entirety of a novel by reading a random chapter. And that is where the genius lies and really a big part of my appreciation for the album.

[oasisfan35]

Warren Zevon

Listening to this album, it was not a surprise at all to look at the credits and see members of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles credited. This album has its hooks in that mid to late 70s California pop, but has something a little bit more sinister in mind, like a Neil Young was taking the music and making something a bit different out of it. The songs here are pretty strong, with Poor Poor Pitiful Me and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead as a more uptempo rock (despite the subject matter), and liked Frank and Jesse James, Hasten Down the Wind, Mohammed’s Radio, Carmelita, and Join Me in LA in particular. I nearly plays breezy but it isn’t at all, a certain intensity is sitting there that an Eagles lack, and it’s much better for that. This is one of those artists I had meant to check out for the longest time in albums, go I’m glad to be here.

The Essential Track: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

Up Next: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

[liebzz]

Jerry Garcia - Reflections

For whatever reason, this isn’t a Grateful Dead album, yet it sure sounds like one, and the members are here in some capacity. There’s a few songs here that are definitely worthy and exceed some of the Dead’s canon, like Might As Well, Tore Up Over You, and Catfish John. Comes A Time is a live Dead staple, while They Love Each Other a JGB constant. I’ll Take a Melody is JGB perfection - that unrushed sound that just gets better as the song extends. No complaints here other than the usual refrain that these songs took on better lives over time in concert.

The Essential Track: Might As Well

Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue

[liebzz]

The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue

There seems to be this common understanding that the Stones were in a relatively lost period between Exile and Some Girls. As I have covered already, Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, and now Black and Blue are all excellent albums - each with different personalities. This one finds them sort of kicking around every sound they can think of - dance, reggae, ballads, and a few signature Stones songs in Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama. Hot Stuff is a sort of sleazy dance song. Memory Motel is a good ballad with Keith finishing off Mick’s choruses, and then Melody is their jazz lounge effort. It’s all over the place and messy but charming in only the way the Stones are.

The Essential Track: Hand of Fate

Up Next: Aerosmith - Rocks

[VinylGuy]

I love Black and Blue so much.

[liebzz]

Aerosmith - Rocks

On this fourth album, Aerosmith is coming out straight rockin’. No messing around. Back in the Saddle is a classic that starts this, and jumps right out the speakers. The album never slows from there, and this is their moment where all the songs are properly jammed out without a moment of wasted space. I don’t know that they ever had quite this magic of a touch before or after, and I would say at least between the first four, this one edges out the rest. Last Child, Rats in the Cellar, Combination, Sick As a Dog, and Nobody’s Fault a perfect display of hard rock in the 70s. The album starts to hit earth after that, but every track here is solid if not essential.

The Essential Track: Back in the Saddle

Up Next: Rush - 2112

[liebzz]

Rush - 2112

This is one of those albums hailed by Rush fans as a classic. The title track, which moves in 6 parts and takes over half the album, seems to move in and out of tremendous instrumental displays and has decent coherence for sure, though like the rest of the album, it rocks but doesn’t stick to the ribs because the playing far outweighs the song craft. It makes for a very good album whose legend might be a bit bloated, but it’s still a more than solid album.

The Essential Track: 2112

Up Next: Genesis - Wind and Wuthering

[wease]

Is that the first Rush you’ve done?

[liebzz]

Yes, this is the first Rush and there’s a bunch following this on the list moving forward. I am aware of what you would likely refer to as their most known hits, and I actually enjoy those hits well enough, so I am expecting that I will have plenty of positive things to say along the way…and their musicianship is pretty sparkling on 2112, so I don’t want to leave the impression I hated it.

[LoathedVermin72]

I think the only Rush album I've heard that works for me as a full album is Grace Under Pressure.

[wease]

You may have enjoyed it more if you’d done their first three before it. Especially the first. I’m not the biggest Rush fan, but when I did my deep dive there was a progression from the start and I appreciated each one for what it built over what came before.

[liebzz]

You may have enjoyed it more if you’d done their first three before it. Especially the first. I’m not the biggest Rush fan, but when I did my deep dive there was a progression from the start and I appreciated each one for what it built over what came before.

Fair to note, and I don’t doubt that, and I can take that for what it’s worth, and it’s a good album. Let’s hope it progresses more which is what I’d expect.