Essential Studio Albums

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Genesis - Wind and Wuthering

The more albums in on Genesis, the more the music slips out of my preferred tastes. Stuck somewhere between what I would consider music I find nearly objectively good and music I can connect with, I have no doubt they reasonably had a huge fan base, but I don’t find I particularly feel what they are doing, which I know is a refrain on much of the prog rock genre. The difference being of course there’s prog rock I have listened to and left with a passion for. All that said, I did like Eleventh Earl of Mar and All in a Mouse’s Night. I just couldn’t find myself getting behind much else here.

The Essential Track: Eleventh Earl of Mar

Up Next: Boston

[liebzz]

Boston

What I didn’t fully realize going into this listen is I had probably heard 75% of this album before on classic rock radio. More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, Foreplay / Long Time, Rock & Roll Band, and Smokin’ - the first 5 songs of 8, have all been staples of the radio for decades. Bitch a Ride is highly familiar as well, but I don’t know if it’s because of the song or that there’s a million songs from this era just like it. The question is whether this is memorable in a good way or a contemporary like Journey that makes you recoil or somewhere in between? Ultimately, I am going for shameless enjoyment. Easy to digest, disposable, the commercial pinnacle of excessive arena rock. Call it what you will, but you can also pound your fist in the air and enjoy it for what it’s worth. And hey, the most instrumental bridges on this thing are pretty killer and it’s impressive to learn that while there was a full touring band, much of this was recorded by one guy in a basement in Massachusetts.

The Essential Track: Foreplay / Long Time

Up Next: Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune

[wease]

I didn't realize all those came off the same debut album, either. You made the right call.

[liebzz]

Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune

This one starts off real good with This Ain’t the Summer of Love and True Confessions. The third and most essential track here is (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, which to this day I can’t hear without visualizing the opening sequence to the TV adaptation of The Stand from around 1990, where the song plays over a pan of a military base where everyone is dead from the virus breakout on the base. After that, the album chugs along pretty well, but it sort of becomes clear at a point that this album ultimately becomes “the one with (Don’t Fear) the Reaper on it.”

The Essential Track: (Don’t Fear) the Reaper

Up Next: Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

[wease]

You hear DFTR and the first thing to come to mind wasn’t The Cowbell?

[Ello Sailor]

SNL sucks. The first thing that comes to mind is that song rules.

[warehouse]

SNL sucks. The first thing that comes to mind is that song rules.

literally listened to dave cover this song yesterday. it's a beast

[liebzz]

Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record

I seem to catch little glimpses of different things on every one of these ELO albums. On this one, rather than thinking about marrying classical with the early Beatles-era, it seems like this is nearly a dead ringer for a McCartney album. As if Jeff Lynne heard Jet and went haywire, which frankly is a good thing. Rockaria!, So Fine, and Do Ya were my favorites here, and there’s a real quick moment in Billy Madison where Steve Buschemi is crossing Billy’s name off a kill list and then applying lipstick where the background music is Telephone Line - and that visual is just stuck with that song.

The Essential Track: Do Ya

Up Next: Al Stewart - Year of the Cat

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Al Stewart - Year of the Cat

I can’t say I really even knew this existed, and on recommendation I am glad I took it. A sort of cross between 70s soft rock and almost a folky vibe here, this album is somewhat reminiscent of a Nick Drake or Cat Stevens but with more of a lush sound. Lord Grenville and On the Border provide a pretty strong start. If It Doesn’t Come Naturally Leave It, Sand in Your Shoes, Broadway Hotel and One Stage Before all stuck out as highlights, but the title track might be the best thing on here, mixing those lusher elements with this laid back approach quite wonderfully.

The Essential Track: Year of the Cat

Up Next: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

[liebzz]

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

Listening to that Al Stewart album reminded me that I forgot to go through those last two Nick Drake albums, so here we are. On this album at least, that comparison from Al Stewart seems pretty spot on. Drake utilizes some pretty lush arrangements like a painter filling in the background of a landscape, while his distant vocals are sort of impressionistic in their vagueness to make the listener fill in any gaps. Both the instrumental opening and closing of this album are beautiful things in themselves, though the true highlights for me were One of These Things First, Poor Boy, and personal album favorite and stunner Haley Jane I. A second great album from this guy who was really gone too soon.

The Essential Track: Haley Jane I

Up Next: Nick Drake - Pink Moon

[LoathedVermin72]

Al Stewart - Year of the Cat

I can’t say I really even knew this existed, and on recommendation I am glad I took it. A sort of cross between 70s soft rock and almost a folky vibe here, this album is somewhat reminiscent of a Nick Drake or Cat Stevens but with more of a lush sound. Lord Grenville and On the Border provide a pretty strong start. If It Doesn’t Come Naturally Leave It, Sand in Your Shoes, Broadway Hotel and One Stage Before all stuck out as highlights, but the title track might be the best thing on here, mixing those lusher elements with this laid back approach quite wonderfully.

The Essential Track: Year of the Cat

Up Next: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

hell yes, glad you dug it. one of my fav albums of the 70s

[liebzz]

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Of the three, my understanding is that most Nick Drake fans would tell me this is the one that is most essential. His final album is short, concise, and just him in a sparse but impactful set of songs. Pink Moon was in the car commercial and is his most known song (possibly for that reason). There’s a ton of great material here though. Road, Parasite, Things Behind the Sun, Free Ride, and From the Morning are all great here. I personally prefer the other two albums, but that’s not to take away from this one.

The Essential Track: Pink Moon

Up Next: George Benson - Breezin’

[liebzz]

George Benson - Breezin’

Ever heard hold music so good you were no longer in a rush and aren’t yelling REPRESENTATIVE!!!! into the phone. Well, then, let me introduce you! Okay, so this is definitely outside my wheelhouse in this smooth guitar jazz terrain, but I actually ended up enjoying this a lot. It is very smooth and easy, but there’s some exceptional playing here, especially with the aforementioned guitar. This Masquerade was apparently a hit, though I know I have heard Breezin’. It’s all pretty quality stuff though.

The Essential Track: Breezin’

Up Next: Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle

[daft twat]

Al Stewart - Year of the Cat

I can’t say I really even knew this existed, and on recommendation I am glad I took it. A sort of cross between 70s soft rock and almost a folky vibe here, this album is somewhat reminiscent of a Nick Drake or Cat Stevens but with more of a lush sound. Lord Grenville and On the Border provide a pretty strong start. If It Doesn’t Come Naturally Leave It, Sand in Your Shoes, Broadway Hotel and One Stage Before all stuck out as highlights, but the title track might be the best thing on here, mixing those lusher elements with this laid back approach quite wonderfully.

The Essential Track: Year of the Cat

Up Next: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

hell yes, glad you dug it. one of my fav albums of the 70s

My favorite Al Stewart jam is Song on the Radio.

[liebzz]

Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle

This is a group long cast off by me into greatest hits territory. I think it’s the 1974-78 one that I had and it was all I ever really thought I needed. Ultimately, this is bit more complex a group than that, and this album shows some leanings from the sort of psych pop into blues and rock spaces a shade beyond the laid back stoner stuff he’s long associated with. Fly Like an Eagle, Take the Money and Run, and Rock ‘n Me are all classics here, and the center of this universe but the forays into the other sounds are enjoyable too, most notably on the psychedelic Wild Mountain Honey. Certainly more credit is due than what I came in expecting.

The Essential Track: Take the Money and Run

Up Next: Steely Dan - The Royal Scam

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Steely Dan - The Royal Scam

This wasn’t originally on the list despite an attempt to include Steely Dan in the journey from the outset - I had just never seen anyone really discuss it - an almost under the radar release. This is really a high quality album from them, and while it doesn’t push the envelope quite the same as their other releases, the songs here are strong. Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira, Sign in Stranger, The Fez, Green Earrings, and The Royal Scam are all excellent highlights, though for some inexplicable reason, Haitian Divorce was my favorite - a very cool mix of reggae rhythms, jazz inflections, and that wild talking box guitar thing that made Peter Frampton a star in this time period. That’s the kind of weird stuff I almost always appreciate most from Steely Dan - just something a little unexpected.

The Essential Track: Haitian Divorce

Up Next: Rod Stewart - A Night on the Town (how the f@ck did so many of his albums end up on this list!?)

[wease]

Haitian Divorce, eh? Interesting. Caves was one of the earliest tunes they wrote. Love it. Don’t Take Me Alive is a favorite. My pick is probably Green Earrings. Love that groove so much. Really, another album that doesn’t have a bad track. I even dig The Fez.

[liebzz]

Haitian Divorce, eh? Interesting. Caves was one of the earliest tunes they wrote. Love it. Don’t Take Me Alive is a favorite. My pick is probably Green Earrings. Love that groove so much. Really, another album that doesn’t have a bad track. I even dig The Fez.

Yeah funny how that works sometimes, and those disparate elements shouldn’t work on paper, which is maybe why I liked it so much.

[liebzz]

Rod Stewart - A Night on the Town

Rod Stewart to this point is still trying to bridge his tame crooner present with his wild past, and he leans in more on that crooner sound with the hit song Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright). On the first crooner side, it doesn’t improve from there, but the second half shows a bit more life. The Balltrap (yes, it is wherever your mind wants to go with such a song title) is probably the most daring song on the album though a bit creepy. The ramshackle second half though is too polished to compete with Faces, but it’s at least not half bad - and The Wild Side of Life is actually pretty good! If Atlantic Crossing fell off a cliff, A Night on the Town starts at the bottom of the canyon and slowly picks itself up. At least there’s a couple tracks here worth it.

The Essential Track: The Wild Side of Life

Up Next: Jeff Beck - Wired

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Jeff Beck - Wired

Jeff Beck brings in some folks from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so in as much as Blow By Blow was an expert level jazz fusion album, this one is that plus all the requisite fireworks, most of which are provided by Beck himself. A real Shreddy McShredderton album. And yet for all that, the music itself never suffers, even if it has less of a range than Blow By Blow. He takes on Mingus on a take or Goodbye Pork Pie, absolutely shreds through Head for Backstage Pass, and keeps the fire going for Sophie. As Jazz fusion goes, this is one of the better ones.

The Essential Track: Head for Backstage Pass

Up Next: Led Zeppelin - Presence