To end this 10th round, these are two albums of 2018 I listened to:
An album I already know (on my Apple Music playlist):
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Boygenius by Boygenius
A mini-album of a collaboration between Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus and that collaboration works very good here where each of the three seem to have an important contribution the the whole. I fairly like it and the album remains at the 97th rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Your Queen Is A Reptile by Sons Of Kemet
Fairly addictive album and I liked the first songs but after a while the whole becomes a bit repetitive and although I doubted, I decided to not include it in my 2018 year chart.
So back at the start with round 11 and starting with two album of 1969:
First an album I already own (on CD):
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Concerto For Group And Orchestra by Deep Purple
’ll start with a boutade. I like classical music and certainly would like to know more of it although I think I have listened to enough classical music and enough saw classical concerts to know a bit of it. But there’s only two classical pieces I can really feel in the same sense that I feel the best rock music: Beethoven’s ninth and this one.
And to me this is real classical music. It is composed by Jon Lord, a rock musician, but who enjoyed a classical schooling which is also clear in his organ performance in the rock career of Deep Purple (see ex Child In Time which is also featured on the CD version I own of this album). The other members of the band were not so enthusiastic about this project but the end result is just magnificent. The concert was taking place on 24 september 1969 in the Royal Albert Hall in London and played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The rock members were of course Jon Lord on Organ, Ian Paice on drums, Richie Blackmore on guitar and for the first time with Roger Clover on bass and Ian Gillan as a singer.
I own the album already for the first time and it’s the first time I saw the actual concert via Youtube:
It starts with the first movement which is already perfection and pure bliss with the classical instruments (with first a beautiful clarinet) at the start and only after some 7:30 in the first movements, these classical instruments start intertwining completely with the rock instruments: Jon Lord delivers some excellent organ solos and Richie Blackmore is even better with a number of blistering guitar solos without ever giving the impression that the rock part is overtaking the classical part (ex the timpani play about the same role as Ian Paice’s drums).
In the second andante movement, it’s mainly the classical part which dominates until Ian Gillan takes over with some magnificent singing with then some very lyrical violins and joined by the rest of the orchestra leading to a soaring and middle part finally ending in a guitar/singing finale of this movement.
And then comes the third movement with again a number of very good guitar solos, organ solos (only Jon Lord can do those long organ solos which never get boring) and especially also a real good drum solo (although John Bonham on Moby Dick on The Song Remains The Same is still the best).
And the concert ends in a grandiose finale dominated by the classical orchestra only intertwined by Jon Lord’s organ.
Btw I also found this 2021 version of the piece featuring Roger Glover and.... yes Bruce Dickinson doing the vocals (but doesn't really fit here).
The original version is much better but this is an experience anyway.
To conclude: this is to me still the best marriage between rock and classical music and the album moves from the 7th to the 4th rank of my year chart of 1969.
Then an album on my wishlist:
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Eight Miles High by Golden Earring
The center piece of this album is a cover of Eight Miles High which they extend until infinity (nearly 20 minutes) and maybe it's a bit too long and some pieces are just boring. But nevertherless they do their best in giving a druggy rendering of an already druggy song. Als the rest of the album (only 4 tracks) is very psychedelic but the first track, Landing, is very good and might have been a forgotten single. All in all an album which is not too bad and ends up at the 16th rank of my year chart of 1969.
For 1970 I have only listened to an album on my wishlist:
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Cricklewood Green by Ten Years After
and what a great and classic album it is. By far the best tracks are Love Like A Man but also 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain. Apart from the two last tracks which are a bit inferior to the rest, that rest is also very good so the album immediately enters my year chart at the 12th rank.
And again only one album from my wishlist from the year 1972:
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Ennismore by Colin Blunstone
Of course this second album of former singer of The Monkees, Colin Blunstone, sounds cheesy and dated with that addition of sugary violins and all. But there's no denying that there are some beautiful tunes here with Don't Believe in Miracles and Andorra as the highlights. This one just has to be part of my year chart so it enters at the 16th rank of the year.
Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen
His first album and already a good one although most of the tracks are known via covers by Manfred Mann (Blinded By The Light, For You, Spirits In The Night) and the other ones are fairly folky. But a good album though not his best and it ends up at the 22th rank (moving up from 30).
An album on my wishlist:
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Holland by The Beach Boys
It's already a long time I wanted to listen to this album but never came around doing it until now. It's the last album before they were really in shambles by drug and other problems but this is actually a very good album and much better than some of the critics. Both the songwriting and the harmonies are still very good so no wonder this album ends up at the 26th rank of the year.
Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield
Completely in the same vein as its predecessor Tubular Bells (and album I already know for most of my life) with also two long pieces and inclusion of those tubular bells as well as many other instruments. In itself not so interesting and a bit dated and because of the interesting ending of the second piece I entered it into my year chart anyway at the 31st rank.
And 1975 is another year with only an album of my wishlist:
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Bandolier by Budgie
This was an album which was already for a time on my wishlist because I know many BEA user love it. This album wasn't available on Apple Music so had to listen to it on Youtube.
But I must admit I didn't really. Ex. Bon Part 1 has everything I don't like in hard rock ballads. But part 2 is fairly good. But that's about all: all in all an album I didn't really enjoy.
Station To Station by David Bowie
Again a semi-classic I haven't yet given enough credit, maybe because there's two tracks on it I don't really like: Word On A Wing and Wild Is The Wind. But the rest is really good with of course TVC15 but especially the title track and Golden Years. Its rank increases from 27 to 4.
An album on my wishlist:
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Amigos by Santana
The first album after their (his) jazz period and best to be described as Latin guitar music which is especially noticeable in Gitano and Dance Sister Dance which have some very nice percussion. But the highlight of the album is of course Europe which together with Samba-Pa-Ti is one of those timeless speechless guitar classics. Two underwhelming funktracks (Tell Me You Are Tired and Let It Shine can't prevent his album entering at the 24th rank of the year.
An album I already own (I bought the CD not when it was released but much later):
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My Aim Is True by Elvis Costello
To many people this is the best album of Elvis Costello. I think there are better ones but it's still a good were it not for one of his greatest tracks: Alison. Most of the other tracks are good but not brillant but better than I originally rated them so the album goes from the 53rd to the 22nd rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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Deceptive Bends by 10cc
I included this album on my wishlist because I like two of the three hits: Good Morning Judge and The Things We Do For Love (People In Love is a bit too cheesy) and because I had seen some raving comments on the long ending suite: the title track. But although the latter part features a good guitar solo, it's just not very interesting. And most of the rest of the album is just not good. So I stick to my original idea: this is a good band for a greatest hits album but I have yet to hear a good full album.
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