Talk about an interesting album. This is probably the Beatles' most discussed album, and for good reason. It follows their logical musical progress, diving further into areas they had barely traversed, but it also came at a time where the band was on the verge of breaking up at any moment.
I love stories behind albums, and I think that they can actually add to the enjoyment of the album. Like, it's awesome to think that while Fleetwood Mac was recording Rumours they were all sleeping with one another and writing songs about one another and doing a TON of cocaine. The same can be said about the White Album.
It must've been an absolutely maddening time recording this album. After a long meditation retreat in India to cleanse themselves of all the drugs they'd ever ingested and came back as clearheaded and creative as ever. And when you have creative people who won't back down from their ideas, you get chaos. Ringo quit the band for a couple day, the fab 4 only played altogether on less than half the album, and Yoko Ono existed in the general area of everybody. Throughout the anger and turmoil came some of the most enduring and interesting music that has ever been widely available.
I love this album because of how amazingly diverse it is. As I mentioned with Revolver, some of the transitions on this album are masterful. Take, for instance, Back in the USSR, the parody/homage to Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, which transitions seamlessly into Dear Prudence, an extremely underrated track. Though it may have benefitted from being crossfaded, these two songs should, in any other context, not flow so well into one another. Or Bungalow Bill to While my Guitar Gently Weeps? Or how about the entirety of side 3? At every turn this album is consistently amazing.
Some complain that the album is too long, and that there is an amazing 45 minute album in there somewhere. But I think that its length is one of its strengths. It shows the top band at the world throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this record, straining under the weight of their own genius, wrangling with their own musical progression, and reconciling with their increasingly publicity of their private lives.
I love everything about this album. Its ambition, bravado, excess, intimacy, and delicacy. Everything about this album begs for it to be listened to again. And again. And again. And again. So clear your calendar, and give this album another listen.
P.S. Revolution 9 is the most asinine piece of garbage that I've ever heard and Yoko Ono is not a good musician and below is proof how she ruins things by just existing near them.
Are you ready for some Dutch Progressive Rock?!?!?
I first got into Focus after seeking some obscure Progressive rock recommendations on this site. After collecting all the responses I got I decided to try out Moving Waves because I had seen the cover and it looked interesting. Yes, I realize that's stupid, but welcome to my brain. After enjoying Moving Waves, I didn't go any further into Focus for a while.
Over the summer, I was seeking out anything new to listen to. I remembered Focus and looked them up here and saw that Hamburger Concerto was their highest rated album, and had to give it a listen. And oh boy, it was certainly something.
The album starts with a Celtic-esque tune, with a guitar fugue and flute duet that play extremely well and paint a very olden-times portrait. After a little over a minute, the album decides to say fuck the sweet sounding music, and rock out. The album rolls along quickly and has an amazing balance of breakneck Prog and delicate instrumentals.
This is a really, really fun album. All of Focus' music is really fun, but this is my favorite of their work. If you feel so inclined, check out any of their work, but I specifically recommend Focus 3.
A formally underground album that's so mainstream it's weird if you don't know it.
I can't imagine listening to this album when it came out in 1967. It's literally the opposite of everything that ever been released up to that point. Lyrics were about some extremely dark subjects and the music was nothing like anyone had ever played. The influence it had cannot be calculated, with one person saying that they only sold 15,000 albums in their first run, but everyone who bought an album started a band after hearing this album.
I love this album because it's not polished, clean or friendly music. It's raw and honest, without anybody trying to show how amazing they are and how much better they are than you. It's music for music's sake. This is the birth of punk's manifesto.
I realize this is kind of ironic coming from me, the ultimate champion of Progressive rock and all things excessive, but sometimes you need bare bones rock to get you back to a different reality.
This is an intense and deep listen, which I'm sure most of you have already undertaken. But try it again! You might find something new!
"One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" *sick bass line*
Nick Mason's demon voice almost made me turn off this album on the first listen. Almost. I can't resist a tasty bass line.
This is Pink Floyd's most important album. Their "classic" period was born out of this album. Without this album, there would be no Dark Side, WYWH, Animals or Wall. (Have I stressed how significant this album is yet?)
Meddle is such an underrated album that I hardly knew it existed until it was $4.99 on iTunes and saw that it was a well-reviewed album, so I decided to buy it. After one listen I was hooked to this behemoth of music. I loved that it was so quintessential Floyd but nothing like had listened to before. Floyd had found it's voice in psychedelia, but was searching for a new direction. Before they nailed down that new direction, they were here.
I love this album because it picks up where Atom Heart Mother left off in terms of ambition, and decides to push it even further. There is not a moment in this album where the album falters and it remains consistently compelling. I even love Seamus! Okay, maybe not love but I still enjoy it.
I even love the cover, which I, to be honest, did not realize was a photograph of an ear underwater until I read it on the wikipedia page. I still need to watch their movie Live at Pompeii which has a bookended performance of a top 5 Floyd song: Echoes.
Echoes is a masterpiece of pure ambition and creativity that Pink Floyd only touched again a few more times in their career. It is an endless journey of musical exploration that rewards with every listen. One of my favorite things about this song is its synchronization with the final sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm not joking, it syncs up spectacularly, but you can judge for yourself.
I love stories behind albums, and I think that they can actually add to the enjoyment of the album. Like, it's awesome to think that while Fleetwood Mac was recording Rumours they were all sleeping with one another and writing songs about one another and doing a TON of cocaine. The same can be said about the White Album.
It must've been an absolutely maddening time recording this album. After a long meditation retreat in India to cleanse themselves of all the drugs they'd ever ingested and came back as clearheaded and creative as ever. And when you have creative people who won't back down from their ideas, you get chaos. Ringo quit the band for a couple day, the fab 4 only played altogether on less than half the album, and Yoko Ono existed in the general area of everybody. Throughout the anger and turmoil came some of the most enduring and interesting music that has ever been widely available.
I love this album because of how amazingly diverse it is. As I mentioned with Revolver, some of the transitions on this album are masterful. Take, for instance, Back in the USSR, the parody/homage to Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, which transitions seamlessly into Dear Prudence, an extremely underrated track. Though it may have benefitted from being crossfaded, these two songs should, in any other context, not flow so well into one another. Or Bungalow Bill to While my Guitar Gently Weeps? Or how about the entirety of side 3? At every turn this album is consistently amazing.
Some complain that the album is too long, and that there is an amazing 45 minute album in there somewhere. But I think that its length is one of its strengths. It shows the top band at the world throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this record, straining under the weight of their own genius, wrangling with their own musical progression, and reconciling with their increasingly publicity of their private lives.
This alone is already better than my own list covering 8 of their albums and it’s good reason why I should just pack up shop haha. I’m officially behind now . Plus I’ve been listening to The White Album again and I regret putting it so low. It used to be my favourite, after all. I should just talk more about the facts than my personal feelings, yuck. Thanks for this, Denny, it was outstanding. Loved your thoughts the two Eno records. I know you’ve heard Another Green World but Im interested to read where you stand on “The Big Ship”. It’s one of my all time favourite songs, cause it’s big enough to live in. _________________ Some RYM paraphernalia:
This alone is already better than my own list covering 8 of their albums and it’s good reason why I should just pack up shop haha. I’m officially behind now . Plus I’ve been listening to The White Album again and I regret putting it so low. It used to be my favourite, after all. I should just talk more about the facts than my personal feelings, yuck. Thanks for this, Denny, it was outstanding. Loved your thoughts the two Eno records. I know you’ve heard Another Green World but Im interested to read where you stand on “The Big Ship”. It’s one of my all time favourite songs, cause it’s big enough to live in.
Boy, you sure know how to boost someone's ego but let's not go that far haha. I really enjoy reading your massive diary as well, I also wish I had your steadfast commitment to listening to new music. I used to have that desire, but that desire has faded with my inability to listen to music with headphones at work. As for "The Big Ship" I do not remember that particular track, but I am slowly making my way through Eno's whole discography, and will make my way back around to Another Green World. I really appreciate all the feedback from you (and everybody else) on my little journey through my list. _________________ Don't get work up over my posts. I'm an idiot.
Rantings on my Top 100 My podcast
This album NEEDS to be higher on my list, but that's a duty for another day.
Ah, Big Star. Hell I might need two posts for this album, that's how much I love it. #1 Record was an album released in 1972 to widespread critical acclaim, with some critics claiming that Big Star was a band that was going to be the next big superstars. And then: nothing. Due to poor distribution by their parent label, Stax, less than 10,000 albums were sold in their initial run.
Big Star is a group that has reached massive critical acclaim and has exuded great influence over many influence, including the Replacements and REM. Someone once claimed that the only other group with more influence with the lowest commercial success on their initial run was the Velvet Underground. I'd say that's pretty good company to be in.
#1 Record is my favorite record of Big Star, and definitely higher than #62, but I digress. Put together piecemeal in the Ardent recording studio in the wee hours of the day, boasting a sound unique and utterly captivating on every listen. Every track on this album is a miniature masterpiece of lovely chords and soul-stirring harmonies.
I love every track on this album. Every song has a distinct purpose and mood it's trying to achieve and it achieves every goal beautifully. Whether it be the raucous fun of Feel and In the Street, the melancholic nostalgia of Thirteen, the confessional-esque desire for deliverance and redemption of Ballad of El Goodo and Try Again, or the simplistic beauty of Watch the Sunrise. This album is an absolute masterpiece of mood from top to bottom.
The music on the album is not overly complex, but that really doesn't matter. What does matter is the shear emotionality and personal attachment you feel to every song with every listen. As I've listened to this album more and more I've grown from liking it to loving it to being utterly obsessed with it and everything Big Star. This album grows inside of you, blossoms in the places you never expected it to blossom, and gives you an appreciation for everything in life someone experiences. Happiness, sadness, fear, melancholy, turmoil, excitement, and pure beauty.
That's what I love about this album. It's SO beautiful. It's just a delightful album to hear. The production value, while low, is meticulous and clean, with reverberating chords and soaring vocals echoing throughout the chamber of your brain.
A few friends and I started making powerpoints of our favorite albums in college, and last I checked, we were at 200 albums (creating these powerpoints took weeks). Through our weeks long discussion of our albums, we continuously brought up how mu life our favorite albums give us, and the indelible impact music has had on our lives. This album makes me enjoy life, it gives me a greater appreciation of all of life's trials and troubles. I can listen to this album under any circumstances, and it fills me with the same sense of wonder and awe I've felt for this album since the first listen.
If you haven't listened to this album, you are missing out on an unknown masterpiece that deserves to be known in all corners of the world.
Quite a write-up for my 62nd favorite album ever, right?
I never got why Springsteen's music was so depressing and desperate. Then I visited New Jersey. Then I got it.
The album that shot Bruce to the top, Born to Run is a brash and speedy trip through several stories that paint vivid portraits of lives that seems to real to be fake.
I've never been a huge Bruce guy, I've never really even liked his hits. He always sounds too polished and clean which kind of clashed with his "tough guy from the streets who has seen some shit" vibe and I found this juxtaposition kind of phony. It wasn't until I listened to Born to Run that I realized that he only sounds polished because his songs are about juxtaposition.
Some of his happiest sounding songs are some of his most brutal lyrically. My girlfriend will jump around and dance to 'Hungry Heart' while completely ignoring the man who left his wife and kid in Baltimore, jack. Hell, Reagan (and everybody else) thought Born in the USA was some über patriotic rock song. Bruce crafts these amazingly interesting songs that have the appearance of joy and solitude, but below the surface are in utter ruin.
I guess that's a decent metaphor for life, right? We put on happy faces and are subtle or ignorant about our true feelings that only creep through when we're on our last leg. This is what the entirety of Born to Run feels like, someone on their last leg just wanting to break out and leave all of their troubles behind for promises of a better tomorrow.
Also, my favorite track on this album is Meeting Across the River, which is clearly a metaphor for the river Styx. Just saying.
Completely agree with the entirety of your write-up on #1 Record, well said. Glad to see that even someone who's a huge fan of prog rock (I am assuredly not) can enjoy that album as much as I do. _________________ It's easier to say "I love you," than "Yours, sincerely," I suppose
This album is essentially a greatest hits album for the Who, and really the only album you really need. I'm not saying that it's the only one you should listen too, but it's my desert island Who album.
I really grew to love and appreciate this album on long car trips to and from school as a mountain album. I would always put this on as I started in the mountains and it always enhanced the already entrancing drive even more. Despite being a raucous rock album, I always felt calmer listening to it and listening to it through the mountains is one of my favorite things I've ever done.
There's not much else to say about this album, just the fact that it's a great way to foster some peaceful thoughts while driving through extraordinary beauty.
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. Plus I’ve been listening to The White Album again and I regret putting it so low. It used to be my favourite, after all. I should just talk more about the facts than my personal feelings, 
