Dissolution Wave by Cloakroom
The energy this band emits on this album is incredible. They call it stoner emo but you can also call it hard shoegaze or just very good guitar rock. I still like this album very much and it moves from the 64th to the 51st rank.
And an album from my wishlist:
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Fall Into The Sky by The Vibrators
You can divide this album, supposedly their last, up in two parts. On half of the tracks (ex. So Long) the band sounds a bit tired as does the voice of Knox. But on the other half they rock/punk on as they have always done even on more laidback tracks as Part Of Your world. So overall not their best album but still very enjoyable and good for the 77th rank.
This Stupid World by Yo La Tengo
A true return to form of one of my favorite bands. Back are the long VU like jams and they are really good at it. Especially the first two tracks and Brain Capers are great. So good that the album stays at the 8th rank of the year.
And an album from my wishlist:
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Baby Doll by Rat Columns
Their first two albums were good but fairly regular shoegazey jangle rock but this is really something else and much more let's say stubbornly doing their own thing. But the first half is completely my cup of tea: still kind of shoegaze but with many more influences and adventurous like songs like Life In The Jungle and Virtual Sweden prove. The second half is both more subdued and experimental and maybe a bit less good but still a proof of what I was saying: stubbornly doing their own thing. So I don't really know why I picked up their first two albums and not this one because it's a must hear and good for the 56th rank in my year chart.
And for the final year in this round 16: here is 2024:
First an album I already know/own:
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A Matter Of Time by Shed Seven
A bit the ugly little sister of britpop as Shed Seven never had a real breakthrough although they were good in the nineties with albums like A Maximum High. And then there is this very rencent album: in fact it has everything to dislike: sometimes it sounds like a poppier version of Green Day and in most instances they are completely over the top with batteries of violins and music that is so sugary you get stuck on them. But this music certainly hits a bit chord in me: the melodies are incredibly good and infectious and it's really difficult to name a highlight because nearly every track is one. If this album would have been released in the eighties or nineties I think this album would have been a major hit, but the times are not friendly any more for this kind of music which should be radio friendly as hell. After a few more listens the album even rises from the 4th to the 3rd rank. If you are a music lover: listen to this.
And an album from my wishlist:
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New Heaven by Inter Arma
In recent other posts I already praised the albums of this very heavy band which released very good albums like Garbers Days Revisited and Sky Burial. But this album doesn't do it for me at all. Too many grunts, too much over the top and especially completely not interesting. Only the shorter Gardens In The Dark is slightly good but that's not enough to earn a place in my top chart.
And already at round 17 and first an album of the whole of the fifties I listened to of an album I already know:
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Jacques Brel Et Ses Chansons by Jacques Brel
This first album of the master is not really grand Jacques yet and no track really jumps out yet. So I decided to delete this one from my 1950's charts.
And this is an album I chose to listen to from the first half of the sixties I already own/know:
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A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles
And the first album where they really changed into the band they were going to become: the most influential band ever to be on this earth. This album is just filled with songs which were meant to be true works of genious. And the quintessential song of that bunch of great songs is If I Fell which to me is one of the best ever written. If there's one song made in heaven for close harmony it's this one (there is even a live version where the song remains intact in between the screaming girls) and the song was covered many times: Alan Parsons and David Pack, the Bee Gees doing a three voice harmony and even the Smithereens did a worthwhile version of it. But the best version in my opinion (apart from the version of The Beatles themselves of course) is that of the Austrian MonaLisa Twins. There's much more songs where the close harmonies shine but it would never be topped until of course God Only Knows came along.
But If I Fell is not the only great track on the album: the other two best in my opinion are And I Love Her and Things We Said Today; and of course not to forget the title tracks and the many other highlights here. This album is by far the best album of 1964 and one of the best of the sixties as a whole (although I'm an even bigger lover of Help!).
The fun part about listening to most sixties records is that they fly by and this is already an album from 1965 I listened to (no albums on my wishlist):
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My Generation by The Who
Maybe a bit uneven but hey, this is their first full album. And songs like The Ox are maybe not that memorable for a contemporary listener but at the time you couldn't find much heavier guitar or more frantic drumming. But of course there a few real classics to be found here: next to the title song nobrainer there is that other real The Who classic The Kid's Are Alright with also A Legal Matter being one of their greatest. After that there's not really much special but as a debut this is an album that counted and still counts and it moves up from the 4th to the 3rd rank of 1965.
Again only an album I already know/own for the year 1966:
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Blonde On Blonde by Bob Dylan
I know that many people adore the longer tracks on this album like Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands or Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again (also long titles) but for me this album is just about I Want You And Just Like A Woman and not much more. Not being a Dylan Lover this one still is not the highest ranked on my 1966 year chart but nevertheless rises from the 17th to the 9th rank of the year.
Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane
This album contains some really boring tracks, especially on the middle part but if you have both Somebody To Love and especially White Rabbit on one album you can't go wrong so the album goes from the 16th to the 18th rank of the year.
And an album from my wishlist:
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Underground by The Electric Prunes
A very psychedelic album but also a bit too mellow and boring for me although it has some fairly good tracks like Great Banana Hoax and Antique Doll. But not for my 1967 year chart.
S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things
And again an album with a lot of psychedelic influences not dissimilar to what the Beatles and The Stones did around that time, only with a bit less talent. And at the same time it also had some resemblances of the rock operas the Kinks and The Who were doing. So certainly not a bad album but still with fairly average songs. And the album goes from the 26th to the 24th rank.
And an album from my wishlist:
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The Birthday Party by The Idle Race
The first band of Jeff Lynne and it is clear his signature voice and sound we would come to know from ELO was already clearly there. But in my opinion the bulk of the tracks here sound very silly and not really with the genious he would show later. So not an album for my year chart.
Only an album I already own/know (nothing any more on my wishlist):
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Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire by The Kinks
A bit of a concept album/rock opera but to me the sum of the part is not really greater than the individual parts. Of course there are some really great tracks like Victoria and Shangri-La and overall the album has a nice flow but to me this is not a masterpiece and the album goes from the 16th to the 20th rank on my 1969 year chart.
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