My discoveries per year
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1201
- Posted: 03/26/2022 17:49
- Post subject: Round 9: 1972
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Two albums of 1972:
An album I already own:
Eagles by Eagles
In fact this album is centered around two great tracks which are both very country-ish but just hit the right spot: Take It Easy (I've even visited that corner when I was in the US) and Peaceful Easy Feeling. Apart from a few other ok songs but there is also some filler with Earlybird as the lowpoint. So they would make better albums further on but this one already goes from the 18th to the 17th rank on my top chart.
An album on my wishlist:
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Case History by Kevin Coyne
I only own one album of Kevin Coyne, Marjorie Razorblade, and already for a long time and I love it. So I'm still on the lookout for another one of his which matches this masterpiece and I haven't yet, also not with this one. The innocence which makes Marjorie Razorblade so good is a detriment on this album. Sometimes he even sounds a bit beefheartean (especially on the last track) but also that is not giving the effect it should have. So I won't include this album in my year chart.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1202
- Posted: 03/26/2022 21:39
- Post subject: Round 9: 1973
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And here is 1973:
With an album I already own:
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Aladdin Sane by David Bowie
A very good album by Bowie where especially the songs that weren't hits rule and going from 15th to the 11th rank.
And an album on my wishlist:
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Love Devotion Surrender by Carlos Santana / John McLaughlin
I quite like this jazzy album by Santana and McLaughlin with its tribute to Coltrane. It mixes guitar play work by both great guitarists with a jazzy jammy atmosphere on the three long tracks. I like the two shorter accustic tracks less but in general a great album entering at the 25th rank.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1203
- Posted: 03/29/2022 18:54
- Post subject: Round 9: 1974
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These are two choices of albums of 1974:
An album I already own:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Sheer Heart Attack by Queen
This is a Queen album I don't really feel. Of course there's Killer Queen which is one of their best but it doesn't really fit in the album. There a few ok tracks which do fit here like Now I'm Here and Stone Cold Crazy. But with most of the other tracks I don't really connect. They would do much better on their next albums; it ends up at the 33rd rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Tooth Fang And Claw by The Amboy Dukes
Essentially a solo album by Ted Nugent and while his voice here is not really good, I really like the guitar sound and that's enough to give this album the 17th rank in my year chart.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1204
- Posted: 03/29/2022 20:32
- Post subject: Round 9: 1975
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And 1975:
An album I already own:
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Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
This is one of his best. Cortez The Killer is of course the real killer here: what a hurricane of a song. But that's certainly not all. The bulk of the songs are very bluesy but also very guitar centred like Barstool Blues, Don't Cry No Tears, Danger Bird, Stupid Girl and Drive Back. This album absolutely deserves its 2nd rank of the year.
An album on my wishlist:
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Slow Dazzle by John Cale
Also one of the best albums of John Cale where on the album art he even gives an impression of a Lou Reed pose. There's some poor attempts at rock'n roll like on Dirty Ass Rock'n Roll and Rollaroll which are as rock'n Roll as Celine Dion, but the real danger comes from slower but haunting songs like Darling I Need You, Guts and the fantastic Elvis cover Heartbreak Hotel. Great songs but it has to be stressed that the definitive versions of these songs are on the live album Fragments Of A Rainy Season which I can't recommend enough if you want to get to know the real John Cale. But Slow Dazzle goes to the 22nd rank of my 1975 year chart.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1205
- Posted: 03/30/2022 19:36
- Post subject: Round 9: 1976
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And then my choices of albums of 1976:
An album I already own:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Arrival by ABBA
As a teenager it was very popular to hate ABBA and I did. But what a wonderful album this is. There were the hits and they are plenty on this album: Dancing Queen, Knowing Me, Knowing You and Money, Money, Money and you know what the best song wasn't even a hit (at least not in Belgium): My Love, My Life. Of course there are a few cheesy songs but that's mainly because they weren't sung by the two A's but by the B's, Why Did It Have To Be Me?, or because they added some terrible instruments, bad bagpipes on Arrival. So all in all a good album after all which ends up at the 22nd rank (up from the 36th).
An album on my wishlist:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Technical Ecstasy by Black Sabbath
Not as bad as many people think its. Of course it has its flaws and the band members already didn't like each other any more but there are still a few good tracks here especially Dirty Women. The bass still roars and the guitars still shine and only the voice of Ozzy seems to be a bit tired (and maybe that was also because it is technically deformed quite a bit of times. All in all not a bad album certainly not in the league of their first ones but still ok for the 28th rank of the year.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1206
- Posted: 03/31/2022 20:53
- Post subject: Round 9: 1977
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And here are my albums of 1977:
An album I already own:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
No More Heroes by The Stranglers
The year when punk broke I wasn't into punk. I was 14 years old and listened to the radio and on Belgian radio no one was talking about punk. The hit parades were full of Meat Loaf, Fleetwood Mac and Mink Deville, not punk. And we heard far away rumours about a scandal in England where punk was banned on BBC radio especially God Save The Queen for obvious reasons and Peaches because of its scrabrous lyrics but nobody would dream to play it on national radio or television.
So it wasn't until a bit later when the second album of The Stranglers was released that the title track No More Heroes and for me especially Something Better Change were in the wide open and especially that last song I loved to pieces and punk broke, also in Belgium.
After all Rattus Norvegicus was a bit better than No More Heroes but that bass and organ and voice are so typical for the Stranglers that I still love this band and this album enormously although the lyrics are absolute rubbish (except for the two mentioned highlights). So an album that still rules and stays at the 10th rank of the year.
An album on my wishlist:
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Cabretta by Mink DeVille
So one of the reasons that punk didn't really break immediately was that one song by Mink Deville, Spanish Stroll, which was all over the place, but also was bloody marvellous. This is still a really original song with a magnificent groove. I like the voice of Mink Deville but mainly when he sings midtempo songs. On real rock songs, he sounds a bit forced and the soulful slows he sounds a bit cheesy in many cases. To me the best balance is still to be found on this first album of his with of course Spanish Stroll as the absolute killer song. The album in general is not more than ok and good for the 53rd rank of the year.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1207
- Posted: 04/02/2022 20:23
- Post subject: Round 9: 1978
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This is 1978:
An album I already own:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Easter by Patti Smith Group
Her next album, Wave, is much better but this is already a good one. There's the Bruce Springsteen, Because The Night, she does better, but there's that punk anthem Rock'n Roll Nigger. So a fairly good album which moves up from the 53rd to the 37th rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Street Hassle by Lou Reed
This a very good good album. It's chaotic and I suppose there were some drugs involved in making it but it's still a very good album. Just listen to Real Good Time Together. it starts subdued and very wobbly and then all of a sudden it become a fierce rock song, still chaotic due to the saxes but what a good song this is. And of course there's Street Hassle, one of his best, with a great role for Bruce Springsteen (again). All in all a great album which immediately goes to the 13th rank.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1208
- Posted: 04/03/2022 16:55
- Post subject: Round 9: 1979
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And to end the seventies here are two album of 1979 I listened to:
An album I already own:
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The Wall by Pink Floyd
This album has never had the emotional impact that Wish You Were Here has on me. But it is still unbeatable as the perfect concept album where every song fits and at the same time nearly every song is a good track on its own which is quite a feat taking into account the many tracks. So it's worth highlighting the individual quality of great songs like Mother (it's emotional intensity), Goodbye Blue Skye (its sensitiveness), Goodbye Cruel World (how can a song be so good in such a short notice), In The Flesh/Run Like Hell (their jaggedness) and of course Comfortably Numb (its guitar solo). In the past I haven't highlighted enough those individual qualities so the album rises from the 17th to the 4th rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Quiet Life by Japan
Gentlemen Take Polaroids is better but this first album where David Sylvian sings with less acrobatics is still beautiful. His voice is a real asset and so is the stillness of the overall sound where at first view the electronics sound cheap but convey an incredible emotional intensity and so do the other instruments like that beautiful fretless bass. All the songs seem to have something special which lift them to a higher level. Yes this also counts for All Tomorrows Parties where maybe the VU version is better but this version fully deserves to exist as well because it's so different from the original. I'm a fan of this Japan and the album immediately enters at the 18th rank.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1209
- Posted: 04/07/2022 19:21
- Post subject: Round 9: 1980
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These are my choices of albums of 1980:
An album on my wishlist:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police
Police albums are not always of great quality overall but of course there are the hits: here it's the wonderful Don't Stand So Close To Me and De Do (and some more De's, do's and da's). And there are other nice tracks like Driven To Tears and Canary In A Coalmine. So overall a good album which goes from the 32nd to the 21st rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Group Sex by Circle Jerks
I haven't grown with this album so I can understand that people like Repo have a much better connection with it than I have. So for me this is a fairly good punk/hardcore album with some weaker songs as well so just good for the 55th rank of the year.
And since this is a very short album and I've got so many albums of this year on my wishlist here is a second one:
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The Psychedelic Furs by The Psychedelic Furs
This is their first album which can clearly be heard from the bad sound quality of it. But the talent was still there as well as the organ, the great guitars and the singing voice of Richard Butler. I knew this band mainly from compilations so I started recently to also find out about their regular albums and I don't regret it because they are generally very good overall. Of course the standouts are still the ones I already know: here these are Sister Europe and Imitation Of Christ but also songs like India and Fall are very good. So overall a very good first album which directly lands at the 15th rank.
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dihansse
dihansse
Profile
- #1210
- Posted: 04/07/2022 19:36
- Post subject: Round 9: 1981
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And immediately 1981:
With an album I already know:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones
To me this is one of the best Stones albums. Of course this is not a real eighties album as it is mainly composed by leftover so seventies albums but that is not something you can hear because there's so much quality here. Of course there are that emblematic first track with its legendary riff Start Me Up but what a good drive Hang Fire is (I sometimes even had the impression that Pixies took some of the elements for their Hang Wire) and what a fantastic soulful song Slave is, and it takes all its time to develop. This album has it all, real rock, soul, blues and some real good slows with the highlight of course at the end with Keith's Waiting On A Friend. An album that surely deserves a lot of love also be me because I upgraded it from the 19th to a whopping 5th rank.
An album on my wishlist.
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Long Distance Voyager by The Moody Blues
To me the Moody Blues are more defined by the their hits than by their relatively proggy albums. And I listened to many of the early ones and none of them could satisfy me enough to put them in my year charts. But then I listened to this eighties record and it was really something else. Of generals sound of early eighties albums feels a bit dated now and this is certainly true for a sixties band who tries to make an eighties album but apart from that this one surprised in a good way. The songwriting is excellent and although it's more progpop than progrock and some songs sound a bit cheesy, gems like The Voice and Nervous absolutely made my day. And it enters at the 30th rank of the year.
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