The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie
Thx to Kurt, this is the best known song of the album and overall it is. Many people saw this as only the beginning of the David Bowie legacy but to me it is completely part of it. It is a very guitar based album and also Mick Ronson is showing here what he is capable of. And the album goes from the 21st to the 14th rank.
An album on my wishlist and another one of the list of singer songwriters by Ryan:
Emitt Rhodes by Emitt Rhodes
Even the Beatles were not as Beatle-esque as this singer songwriter but that doesn't mean I didn't like the album. It is really good and all the songs have that bit extra-quality. Good for the 15th rank of the year
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
An album I already own:
Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones
Gradually this album has stumbled down to the lower parts of my year chart: to my great annoyance. So I absolutely needed to relisten to it. And you know what: it moved from the 38th to the 10th rank. Why? Of course because of Wild Horses. And because of nearly all those other fine tracks here.
For the albums on my wishlist I first tried two albums from Ryan's singer songwriters list: Since There Were Circles by Bob Lind but too country and One Year by Colin Blunstone but too mellow.
So I tried this one of which I had never heard:
Music To Eat by Hampton Grease Band
Very weird but especially very long. The links to Beefheart and Zappa are clear and there are some nice guitar parts in these very long tracks but overall the album is too long (1,5 hours for only 7 tracks) to support its weirdness. I admit I didn't listen to it completely but I think enough to know it's not really my thing.
Vol 4 by Black Sabbath
This album was very low ranked in my year list so time to bump it a bit. The thing is however that there are indeed a number of mediocre tracks to be found here starting with the awful ballad Changes moving into FX which is just FX. And of course there are still some classic BS tracks: Snowblind and Under The Sun/Everyday Comes And Goes. So all in all the album just moves up two ranks to 18.
The two albums I chose to listen to from 1973 are:
an album I already own and again a very low ranking one:
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Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
And ranked a bit too low. Living For The City, Higher Ground and Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing are great and overall the albums shines so goes from the 38th to 35th rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Ball Power by Coloured Balls
Again the least known album by me on my wishlist and I suppose I picked it up from Purplepash. It's very hard Australian blues rock and I like it. Immediately goes to the 16th rank.
Diamond Dogs by David Bowie
Widely regarded as not his best an in my year chart also ranked very low so I wanted to find out if this still holds because Rebel Rebel and the title track are so good. But it already starts with the latter which in its single version is one of his best track but on the album is delivered in some watery version. And it remains true, besides the two mentioned tracks and 1984; there's nothing particularly interesting to be found on this album although it's still David Bowie of course. And it's rank doesn't really improve: only from 32 to 30.
An album on my wishlist:
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Too Much Too Soon by New York Dolls
An album I chose particularly in remembrance of Syl Sylvian, one of those godfathers of punk. But their albums are always mixed bags with two real classics, It's Too Late and Human Beings, one good track, Chatterbox and a lot of clutter which is not best but doesn't rise above most other rock songs, only here they are delivered in a messier way. But nevertheless an album for my year list at rank 24.
Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan
I like and respect Bob Dylan's work and legacy but don't love it. This is without doubt a good album which is proven by great tracks like Tangled Up In Blue, Simple Twist Of Fate and Shelter For The Storm. The rest of the tracks are also ok but not great and the album climbs from the 37th to 26th rank because the former rank was indeed much too low.
An album on my wishlist:
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Jungle Rot by George Brigman
Again an album on my wishlist but I had never heard of it before and I must say I'm glad I listened to it. I would call him the bluesy Stooges. There is some punky atmosphere to his atmospheric guitar blues and sometimes it works and sometimes not. So definitely a bit of a mixed bag but you can't deny he was original. Goes to the 34th rank.
The Roaring Silence by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
This was actually an album I bought on Itunes but I ranked it the lowest of my 1976 albums. And the reason why is clear. There is one absolutely track here, Blinded By The Light, and the long version here is even more sublime than the singles version. And the track showed that it could be at the same time very prog and very catchy: the song sounds very adventurous and the singing is impeccable. BBBBUUUUTTTT: the rest of the album is absolute crap and it just showed the bad side of the band: long and very dated songs and on most of them the organ sound is just awful. So I should stick by the rule: one album (that was a single) followed by tracks I don't like isn't an album I'd want to have in my top albums list so I threw it out.
An album on my wishlist:
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3:47 EST by Klaatu
This band has always intrigued me but I didn't come round to listen to it so now I have. And they were certainly not the Beatles or maybe yeah: Th Yellow Submarine Beatles because this album matches that one a bit in it's goofiness. I must say I liked the first track Calling Occupants (which was even covered by The Carpenters) but then it all became a lot less interesting. So finally a meeh album and decided to not include it in my year list.
So the first time in these five rounds where my year list is actually shrinking (to 35 albums).
Low by David Bowie
David Bowie's albums tend to be in the lower parts of my year charts. I like them and in many cases there are a few real killers on them but also a lot of filler (I should say fillers to make it rhyme lol).
And in this year there are even two of those. Heroes and this one which has great songs like Speed Of Life, Sound & Vision, Always Crashing In The Same Car and of course the very atmospheric Warsawa. But even on the first half there is filler like Breaking Glass and then the second part hasn't come yet which is all about instrumentals in cooperation with Brian Eno. And apart from Warsawa they all sound very dated and boring in my opinion and they still do after numerous listening attempts so the album only rises from the 55th to the 51st rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Pezband by Pezband
Again a band I had never heard of but Repo seems to like it so I wanted to give it a go. And it's certainly not band but sometimes the songs are a bit too easy on the songwriting skills with not a lot of adventure. But nevertheless ok for the 37th rank of 1977.
Adolescent Sex by Japan
There's two sides to Japan and this is definitely their glam/New York Dolls side and it was parked at the last place of my year chart because apart from the title track I didn't find a lot of interesting in it. But there some more good tracks here like the long closing track Television and some others. And it goes from the 52nd to 40th rank.
And an album on my wishlist and I again chose a band completely not familiar to me:
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Fulham Fallout by The Lurkers
And I didn't even know it was punk. And very good punk: a mixture between genuine English punk in the style of the Buzzcocks and The Ramones and somebody a lot of Ramones. But the sheer energy gives them extra points and they even go in overdrive on Go Go Go. A very welcome addition to my year chart and it immediately goes to the 16th rank.
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dihansse
Mercury
