My discoveries per year - Music Diaries - Forums : Best Ever Albums

dihansse · 2016-04-10T12:28:28-04:00

Well! Here I would like to start with my own long term project taking advantage of the best BEA has to offer: overall charts from people who are as interested in music as I am. I already have year charts which are based on the albums I already own or know, but there are a lot of them which I haven't listened to yet and which might be worth discovering. I'd like to do this by going through the overall BEA top lists per year starting in 1963 which is both my year of birth and the year in which I personally think rock music started to become interesting. To keep it a bit varied I will skip through the years in five year periods, ie starting in 1963 then 1968 then 1973 all the way to 2013 and then back to 1964 and so on. Every year I will start with some stats of my personal chart in comparison to the overall year charts, both top 20 an top 50 and will start to listen to at least the top 20 albums I don't know and I'll hope to give some comments sometimes very short, sometimes a bit longer. I will also update my personal year charts accordingly. In principle I will use Apple Music to listen to the albums, which I suppose will cover most of the field. If a certain album isn't present in Apple Music, I'll have to skip it. I will try to listen to all the albums at least once and sometimes twice if I doubt, but I'll skip the really stupid ones (ex a Xmas compilation in 1963) and also other compilations, classical music, jazz and easy listening. This will be a long term project which means there might be times in which I will stop a bit of course because I don't want be stuck listining to albums of the same year all the time. However I suppose this will take at least a month per year. I will try to keep it up but please don't be mad if I give up (maybe already after the first year :lol: )

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And a number of other 1974 albums:
- Natty Dread by Bob Marley And The Wailers (nr 25 on the overall BEA top chart of 1974): This is again a good Marley album with of course especially the two hits and fabulous tracks No Woman, No Cry and Lively Up Yourself. But also most of the other tracks including the title track are very good so again an addition to my personal top chart of 1974.
- Apostrophe (') by Frank Zappa (nr 26): again some good jamming on some tracks and especially on the title track I really like but overall not one of the Zappa album I would include in my personal chart
- Burn by Deep Purple (nr 27): I'm a fan of Deep Purple but not of this album which is the first without Ian Gillan and Roger Glover (who had a funny hit song Love Is all featuring a singing frog in the videoclip sung by Ronnie James Dio) and with new members David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. But there is of course that one great track, one of their greatest ever, the title track. The rest simply doesn't feature enough good songs. I can't say tracks like the signature song of Coverdale, Mistreated, are really bad and they do feature some guitar solos which are not too bad but this isn't the quality of their former albums.
- Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) by Brian Eno (nr 28 ): The first albums of Brian Eno after his Roxy Music period where certainly better than what came after and this is certainly one of his better albums where good songs (with however some strange titles) prevailed over more experimental/ambient ones. And there certainly are some good tracks on this one: Burning Airlines Give You So Much More, Mother Whale Eyeless, The True Wheel and China My China. In any case an album I like
- No Other by Gene Clark (nr 29): this album from the ex-Byrd has some finer moments like in the title track and Lady Of The North, but overall a bit too "country" for me.
- A Tábua De Esmeralda by Jorge Ben (nr 31): this album certainly has a nice flow combined with the Brazilian rhythms and the soft voice of Jorge Ben but overall it's a bit too mellow for my taste.

Next album to listen to is Phaedra by Tangerine Dream.

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Some more albums of 1974:
- Phaedra by Tangerine Dream: Tangerine Dream overall is a bit to ambient and spacey for me and this album is no exception. The very long title song has some interesting moments but it could have done without some of the noodling. The other tracks are really the ambient directionless pieces I expect from this band.
- Fulfillingness' First Finale by Stevie Wonder: this album is not really in the league of Songs In the Key Of Life and I won't include it in my personal top chart of 1974.
- Get Your Wings by Aerosmith: Woman of the World and especially the cover Train Kept A-Rolling are not bad with their bluesy atmosphere and fine guitar solos but the rest is a bit average like most songs from this band which is overall not really a favourite of mine (except from Dream On).

Next album is 461 Ocean Boulevard of Eric Clapton of which I already know many tracks and I'm sure I'll like.

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Next albums of 1974
- 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton (nr 36 on the overall BEA top chart of 1974): As expected I really like this album. Let it Grow is one of my favorite songs and Motherless Children is not far behind. And then of course there is the "hit" I Shot The Sherriff. All in all a very fine album.
- Starless And Bible Black by King Crimson (nr 37): again that double feeling with this band (btw this is one of the most difficult bands to look for via streaming sites but I found enough snippets via Youtube). There are some real good pieces in their albums but overall there's also a lot of clutter so again I won't include this one in my personal top chart of 1974

Next album to listen to is Sheet Music by 10CC.

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More 1974 albums:
- Sheet Music by 10cc (nr 38 on the overall BEA top chart of 1974): there are two very good tracks on this album: Wall Street Shuffle and Silly Love. The rest of the album is not so good in my opinion.
- Secret Treaties by Blue Öyster Cult (nr 39): wow this album has really taken me be surprise and is definitely the best album by this band. The combination of keyboards and guitar make them sound a bit like Deep Purple and I will even go further: the combination of the keyboards and the powerful sound of the bass guitar make them even sound a bit like the Stranglers at some points. The songwriting is sometimes on the border of cheesy as many of the guitar bands around that time but most of the times it results in great songs like Flaming Telepaths, Astronomy and so on. Definitely a big contender for the top of my personal top chart of 1974.
- It's Only Rock 'N' Roll by The Rolling Stones (nr 40): some people think that this is one of the worst albums of the band but I think it's one of the best album albums (ie without any real hits except for the title track). The guitar playing, the singing and the songs are all good while still maintaining that bluesy feeling in which they excel. The best track is Time Waits for No One. Again a big contender in my 1974 top chart
- New Skin For The Old Ceremony by Leonard Cohen (nr 42): also some of the best albums of Leonard Cohen. The songs are accompanied by more instruments than usual and Cohen sings with a bit more fire than on other albums which is not bad. Of course Chelsea Hotel nr 2 and Who By Fire are the standouts but also most of the other tracks are no less than good.

Next album to listen to is Bridge of Sighs by Robin Trower.

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and more:
- Bridge Of Sighs by Robin Trower (nr 43 on the overall BEA top chart of 1974): this sounds very much like Jimi Hendrix and there are certainly bands which are better sounding like Hendrix (ex Jimi himself) but I quite liked the songs and the guitar playing on this album so I will include it in my personal top chart of 1974
- Buddha And The Chocolate Box by Cat Stevens (nr 44): not the best album of Cat Stevens with only good song but it's a very good one: Oh Very Young (and maybe also Sun/C79). But overall not good of for a place in top charts.
- You by Gong (nr 45): although there are some good jazzy pieces in the longer tracks like Isle Of Everywhere there is too much clutter and aged goofiness in this album to make it a good one.

I'm coming near the end of my listening session of 1974 and the next album to listen to is Good Old Boys by Randy Newman.

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These are the last albums of 1974 (ie until overall BEA rank of 2500) I listened to:
- Good Old Boys by Randy Newman (nr 46 on the overall BEA top chart of 1974): I've got a best of Randy Newman and that's sufficient. It's not that I don't like the man or his music especially when he goes really cynical, but his albums are a bit exchangeable and there just isn't enough variety on a full album to keep it interesting.
- Meet The Residents by The Residents (nr 47 and an overall BEA rank of 2480, ie the last 1974 album below 2500): I agree that this album was a first on a number of levels but that doesn't make it an interesting album to listen to: it really isn't.

And here is my final verdict of the year 1974 which was overall a good year with still the aftermath of progrock and psychedelica but exploring already some new genre like electronic music and lots of experimental albums which weren't necessarily good in itself but laid the groundwork for the following years to come. It's also interesting that there wasn't much good hardrock in this year.

This is the final chart with the overall BEA rank first and after that the BEA year rank, my rank before this session and after. This ranking system is also based on an update of my scoring system which I'm gradually introducing to rank all my albums.

BEA Rank Title Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before To My Rank after
281 Crime Of The Century Supertramp 4 - 1 To 1
3902 Quo Status Quo 69 - 5 To 2
1000 Country Life Roxy Music 19 - 4 To 3
1119 Eldorado, A Symphony By The Electric Light Orchestra Electric Light Orchestra 23 - 2 To 4
738 Radio City Big Star 11 - 3 To 5
270 On The Beach Neil Young 2 - To listen To 6
1065 Late For The Sky Jackson Browne 20 - To listen To 7
867 Pretzel Logic Steely Dan 15 - To listen To 8
1164 Second Helping Lynyrd Skynyrd 24 - To listen To 9
1225 Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) Brian Eno 28 - To listen To 10
1174 Natty Dread Bob Marley And The Wailers 25 - To listen To 11
7273 On The Border Eagles 121 - 7 To 12
852 Veedon Fleece Van Morrison 14 - To listen To 13
797 The Heart Of Saturday Night Tom Waits 13 - To listen To 14
498 Sheer Heart Attack Queen 8 - 6 To 15
929 Autobahn Kraftwerk 17 - 8 To 16
611 Here Come The Warm Jets Brian Eno 10 - 10 To 17
1117 Kimono My House Sparks 22 - To listen To 18
474 Diamond Dogs David Bowie 6 - 9 To 19
606 Queen II Queen 9 - 11 To 20
218 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Genesis 1 - Already listened To A No
274 Red King Crimson 3 - To listen To A No
341 Rock Bottom Robert Wyatt 5 - To listen To A No
479 Court And Spark Joni Mitchell 7 - To listen To A No
794 Relayer Yes 12 - To listen To A No
896 Mirage Camel 16 - To listen To A No
980 I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight Richard & Linda Thompson 18 - To listen To A no
1081 Bad Company Bad Company 21 - To listen To A No
1194 Apostrophe (') Frank Zappa 26 - To listen To A No
1198 Burn Deep Purple 27 - To listen To A No
1229 No Other Gene Clark 29 - To listen To A No
1242 Grievous Angel Gram Parsons 30 - Already listened To A No
1249 A Tabua De Esmeralda Jorge Ben 31 - To listen To A No
1454 Phaedra Tangerine Dream 32 - To listen To A No
1497 Fulfillingness' First Finale Stevie Wonder 33 - To listen To A No
1615 Rock N Roll Animal Lou Reed 34 - Live excluded
1927 Get Your Wings Aerosmith 35 - To listen To A No
1964 461 Ocean Boulevard Eric Clapton 36 - To listen To yes
1994 Starless And Bible Black King Crimson 37 - To listen To A No
2014 Sheet Music 10cc 38 - To listen To A No
2116 It's Only Rock 'N' Roll The Rolling Stones 39 - To listen To yes
2146 Secret Treaties Blue öyster Cult 40 - To listen To yes
2277 Irish Tour Rory Gallagher 41 - Live Excluded
2342 New Skin For The Old Ceremony Leonard Cohen 42 - To listen To yes
2401 Bridge Of Sighs Robin Trower 43 - To listen To yes
2412 Buddha And The Chocolate Box Cat Stevens 44 - To listen To A No
2424 You Gong 45 - To listen To A No
2462 Meet The Residents The Residents 47 - To listen To A No
2472 Good Old Boys Randy Newman 46 - To listen To A No
3025 Hamburger Concerto Focus 56 - Live Excluded
6891 Before The Flood Bob Dylan & The Band 119 - Live Excluded

I still have some albums to listen to of 1978, so I will first do this before I go to 1979.

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I only had 3 more albums to listen to of 1978 (with overall BEA rank better than 2500):
- Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye (nr 48 on the BEA top chart of 1978): you can feel this album is heartfelt and there are some good instrumental parts on this album but overall not really my taste
- Heavy Horses by Jethro Tull (nr 51): there are some good tracks on this album like One Brown Mouse and the title track but overall certainly not the best Tull record
- Lionheart by Kate Bush (nr 52 and the overall BEA rank is 2479 so this is the last of the year 1978 I will listen to): of course her first album couldn't be beaten but this second one is not bad either and is maybe a bit underrated. Her voice still shines and there are some great songs like Wow and Hammer Horror. I'll add this album as a last to my personal top chart of 1978 (at nr 28)

With this I can move on to 1979.

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This is the list of albums to listen to in 1979 (the ones with an overall BEA rank (first column) better than 2500. After the albums I have given the BEA rank of 1979 and the rank in my personal top chart before the listening session (or to listen):

BEA Rank Title Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before
14 London Calling The Clash 1 - 10
23 The Wall Pink Floyd 2 - 8
39 Unknown Pleasures Joy Division 3 - 6
289 Entertainment! Gang Of Four 4 - To listen
296 Fear Of Music Talking Heads 5 - 1
307 Highway To Hell AC/DC 6 - To listen
347 Off The Wall Michael Jackson 7 - To listen
365 Rust Never Sleeps Neil Young And Crazy Horse 8 - Already listened
446 Breakfast In America Supertramp 9 - 15
589 Tusk Fleetwood Mac 10 - 20
615 Metal Box Public Image Ltd. 11 - To listen
645 Specials The Specials 12 - To listen
675 Damn The Torpedoes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 13 - To listen
701 Armed Forces Elvis Costello & The Attractions 14 - 4
714 The B-52's The B-52's 15 - 5
722 Singles Going Steady Buzzcocks 16 - Greatest Hits Excluded
739 Reggatta de Blanc The Police 17 - 12
763 Setting Sons The Jam 18 - 9
809 Y The Pop Group 19 - To listen
1052 154 Wire 20 - To listen
1091 Live Rust Neil Young And Crazy Horse 21 - Live excluded
1141 Joe's Garage Act l Frank Zappa 22 - To listen
1153 Drums And Wires XTC 23 - To listen
1306 Lodger David Bowie 24 - Partly listened
1317 Cut The Slits 25 - To listen
1432 Discovery Electric Light Orchestra 26 - 11
1470 Three Imaginary Boys The Cure 27 - To listen
1476 Sheik Yerbouti Frank Zappa 28 - Already listened
1490 Strangers In The Night UFO 29 - To listen
1531 Look Sharp! Joe Jackson 30 - To listen
1591 Lovedrive Scorpions 31 - To listen
1599 One Step Beyond... Madness 32 - 2
1648 The Pleasure Principle Gary Numan 33 - To listen
1663 In Through The Out Door Led Zeppelin 34 - To listen
1737 Replicas Tubeway Army 35 - To listen
1755 Inflammable Material Stiff Little Fingers 36 - To listen
1963 The Raincoats The Raincoats 37 - To listen
2002 Eat To The Beat Blondie 38 - To listen
2017 Black Rose Thin Lizzy 39 - To listen
2045 Overkill Motörhead 40 - To listen
2088 The Undertones The Undertones 41 - To listen
2132 Communiqué Dire Straits 42 - 3
2193 Slow Train Coming Bob Dylan 43 - To listen
2197 Into The Music Van Morrison 44 - To listen
2225 20 Jazz Funk Greats Throbbing Gristle 45 - To listen
2347 Duty Now For The Future Devo 46 - To listen
2365 Machine Gun Etiquette The Damned 47 - To listen
2371 La Leyenda Del Tiempo Camaron 48 - To listen
2455 Candy-O The Cars 49 - To listen
2485 It's Alive Ramones 50 - To listen
2524 Van Halen II Van Halen 51 - 14
2646 Broken English Marianne Faithfull 54 - 18
2939 The Long Run Eagles 58 - 17
3580 The Raven The Stranglers 68 - Already listened
4484 Reproduction The Human League 74 - Partly listened
6289 Einstein On The Beach Philip Glass 97 - Already listened
6467 Night Owl Gerry Rafferty 99 - 16
13844 Wave Patti Smith Group 194 - 13
23185 On Parole Motörhead 281 - 7
24196 The Bells Lou Reed 298 - 19
27149 China Vangelis 318 - 21
27607 Head Injuries Midnight Oil 322 - 22

In the meantime I have already listened to number of albums:
- Entertainment! by Gang Of Four (nr 4 in the overall BEA top chart of 1979): I mainly knew this band from the fantastic I Found That Essence Rare which is featured on the compilation album "Best Of Peel". Also Damaged Goods is very good which the other tracks are for me good but not fantastic. All in all however an essential album for my personal top chart of 1979.
- Highway To Hell by AC/DC: this last album with Bon Scott is to me the best regular album of AC/DC (in fact I already knew the album) of which all the tracks are top notch with of course especially the title track, Walk All Over You and If You want Blood.. Will be one of the highest in my top chart of 1979.
- Off The Wall by Michael Jackson (nr 7): after Thriller I think this must be the best Michael Jackson album with of course especially Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. The rest of the album is however not so good and in general I'm not really a big MJ fan so I won't include this one in my personal top chart.
- Metal Box by Public Image Ltd. (nr 11): this is a very special album and while it's difficult to select individual best tracks the overall feel of the album is very good. So again for my top chart
- Specials by The Specials (nr 12): this is an album defined by some tracks like of course Message To You Rudy, Concrete Jungle, Monkey Man and especially Too much Too Young. The rest is not so good but nevertheless one of the essential ska albums and I'll include it in my top chart
- Damn The Torpedoes by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (nr 13): there is of course Refugee but that's for me not the best track on the albu. Century City and You Tell Me are better. I doubted a bit because the songs of Tom Petty can be a bit monotonous, but this one is good enough for my personal top chart
- Y by The Pop Group (nr 19): this is one of these deconstructivist albums which I can sometimes appreciate (ex from Suicide), but this one is really not good enough.

The next album to listen to is 154 by Wire.

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And here is the second batch of 1979 albums I listened to:
- 154 by Wire (nr 20 on the overall BEA top chart of 1979): one of the better albums by this band
- Joe's Garage Act l by Frank Zappa (nr 22): again not one of the albums I like by Zappa
- Drums And Wires by XTC (nr 23): Of course apart from the great hit Making Plans For Nigel, I must say I was not really familiar with this album. This is a bit the rougher version of XTC compared to their latter albums but I really liked it, so this is a fine addition to my collection of well appreciated albums by XTC.
- Cut by The Slits (nr 24): The only good track on this album is Love And Romance which I already know from a Peel Sessions compilation album in a better version. It's not really bad but I didn't find enough interesting moments in this album and from a cover like I Heard It Through The grapevine (not on the original version of the album), I'm realising I'm also a bit annoyed by the voice of the singer.

The next album to listen to is Lodger by David Bowie, one of those albums that for one reason or another is not in my collection.

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Three more albums of 1979 I listened to:
- Lodger by David Bowie (nr 25 on the overall BEA top chart of 1979): this is not the best Bowie album but there are certainly a few tracks worth listening to like the great Look Back In Anger and the swinging Boys Keep Swinging. Overall still an album worth having in my overall 1974 personal chart.
- Look Sharp! by Joe Jackson (nr 30): this first Joe Jackson album is a gem: a mix of punk influences, thriving rock and some very good ballads.
- Lovedrive by Scorpions (nr 31). I love the Scorpions from the time of The Tokyo Tapes ie just before this album and I even saw them live then. The only problem with these albums are that they are very badly produced. This album immediately follows that period and is a complete change with ao a new guitarist and the introduction of the stadion Van Halen guitar sound. And I have to admit: it works on this album. There are some really good tracks here and the ballads are not yet as cheesy as in their later period. So definitely a discovery.

Next album to listen to is In The Evening by Led Zeppelin.