Best Albums of 1971

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31.

Madman Across The Water 

 Elton John

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"For me this is Elton John at his peak. Tackling progressive rock, Elton John and Bernie Taupin expanded their songcraft and in doing so created my personal favourite album of all time. What helps Madman Across the Water to be so exceptional are a couple of things. Firstly, the album holds some of...""For me this is Elton John at his peak. Tackling progressive rock, Elton John and Bernie Taupin expanded their songcraft and in doing so created my personal favourite album of all time. What helps Madman Across the Water to be so exceptional are a couple of things. Firstly, the album holds some of the most incredible musicianship both Elton and his band produced. Elton John is stunning on piano as usual and he has also evolved vocally, however Elton can't take all the credit for Madman Across the Water. Drummers Roger Pope, Barry Morgan and Terry Cox are all great as well as bass guitarists David Glover, Brian Odgers, Herbie Flowers, electric guitarists Caleb Quaye, Chris Spedding and acoustic guitarist Davey Johnstone. The real standout here though is Paul Buckmaster with his soaring string arrangements on 7 of the 9 songs. This album also has 4 of not just Elton John's greatest songs, but in my opinion 4 of the greatest songs ever. "Tiny Dancer" is one of Elton's enduring classics and deserves to be. "Levon" is an epic tale which features some of Taupin's most cryptic lyrics and a sublime Elton melody transforming into a grandiose crescendo. "Madman Across the Water" is a dark, brooding portrait written from the perspective of a psychopath in an asylum - "Is the nightmare black, or are the windows painted” - which starts off quietly with Davey Johnstone on acoustic guitar and then fades into one of the greatest battles in music history between Chris Spedding (electric guitar) and Paul Buckmaster (strings). "Indian Sunset" is an underrated masterpiece which chronicles the story of an unnamed American Indian warrior on the verge of defeat from the white man and has one of Elton John's most delicate vocal performances."  [+]  Reply

- Seventiesfan | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

329 charts

Rank Score:

1,628

Rank in 1971:

31

Rank in 1970s:

222

Overall Rank:

1,064

Average Rating:

 78 (450 votes)

Comments:

26

32.

First Utterance 

 Comus

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"This album could be described as folk. But the folk in it isn't the relaxed gentile songs that most people would associate with the genre. It has a pagan feel to it. It feels like it should be played in a dark ancient woodland around a fire by a band all more animal then human. The whole album is...""This album could be described as folk. But the folk in it isn't the relaxed gentile songs that most people would associate with the genre. It has a pagan feel to it. It feels like it should be played in a dark ancient woodland around a fire by a band all more animal then human. The whole album is like a pulsing living organic monstrosity. It is tribal in feeling, with a blend of flute, violin, hand drums, acoustic guitars, female and male vocals and mix of other instruments. "  [+]  Reply

- zonrod | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

217 charts

Rank Score:

1,511

Rank in 1971:

32

Rank in 1970s:

235

Overall Rank:

1,146

Average Rating:

 80 (203 votes)

Comments:

13

33.

Pawn Hearts 

 Van Der Graaf Generator

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"The quotes below are - for the most part - from “Van der Graaf Generator - The Book” by Jim Jim Christopulos and Phil Smart. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) - "When we started touring for the album By The Way, I and the rest of the band would always be listening to Pawn Hearts on the bus ...""The quotes below are - for the most part - from “Van der Graaf Generator - The Book” by Jim Jim Christopulos and Phil Smart. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) - "When we [RHCP] started touring for the album By The Way, I and the rest of the band would always be listening to Pawn Hearts on the bus and back stage... With Hammill's singing there are so many vocal gymastics, he's capable of so much with his voice, and he's pushing himself even beyond his capabilities! Anthony [Kiedis, RHCP singer] has a couple of Van der Graaf albums, and he likes that extreme kind of singing very much. As a singer myself, I'm really in awe of Hammill." Stephen Morris (Joy Division & New Order) - [names Pawn Hearts as one of his all time faves] "At the time, with Pawn Hearts, all of your mates would say: 'Ooh, there's a track that's three days long… it's pixie stuff'. But 'A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers' is... like a nightmare with saxophones... terrifying. I really like Peter Hammill. He's another guy who's really unique - he has a really individual way of singing, and it's very raw." Simon Gallup (The Cure) - "'We Go Now' [a SG 'desert island' pick off of Pawn Hearts] is brilliant. Van der Graaf weren't involved in all mysticism and stuff, they were still a bit hard, there was some attack. Peter Hammill was a bit of a god as well." Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) - "I liked them, especially Pawn Hearts... [Peter Hammill] is one of the most brilliant songwriters of his or any other generation." Julian Cope (Teardrop Explodes & solo artist) - "Prog wasn't all Genesis and Gentle Giant, baby. VdGG were punks in a prog rock style... Pawn Hearts is a masterpiece in the old-fashioned sense of the word, that is: it is a musical blueprint on which to build in the future and has as sensibly structured an anti-structure as you could wish for. It is in turns beautiful, ridiculous, foul, overwhelming, irritating, mutating, and magnificent... First time I ever heard Pawn Hearts was in [summer 1972]. How I adored this record. However, thirty-one years and a couple of hundred spins later I'm still genuinely disoriented by this extremely everything LP, and even more in shock and awe of Peter Hammill than I was all those years ago." Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) - "Peter Hammill was one of my childhood lyrical hero's but, you know, you say 'Peter Hammill' to most people and they go, 'Huh?'... And it's such a shame cause they had so much more to them, I think, than Genesis. They were a bunch of pansies compared to Van der Graaf, really... I was talking about this with the manager of Entombed, Dave Thorne, who's a huge Van der Graaf Generator fan and we were talking about how amazing some Van der Graaf Generator songs would sound if a metal band did them. It'd sound really f***ing heavy... I mean, can you imagine 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' done by a real prog metal band, it'd be amazing!" Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, frequent Jeff Buckley collaborator, solo artist) - "Pawn Hearts to me was the summation of all that was great about Van der Graaf. Lyrically and instrumentally, it was haunting, elegiac, eerie, and mad. It gave new credibility to the words 'progressive rock.'""  [+]  Reply

- Lakonac | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

236 charts

Rank Score:

1,470

Rank in 1971:

33

Rank in 1970s:

238

Overall Rank:

1,180

Average Rating:

 79 (282 votes)

Comments:

13

34.

Faust 

 Faust

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"Great album. If you told me this album was made by an extraterrestrial life form I might believe it."  Reply

- bestdressed | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

241 charts

Rank Score:

1,350

Rank in 1971:

34

Rank in 1970s:

252

Overall Rank:

1,270

Average Rating:

 77 (329 votes)

Comments:

19

35.

Nilsson Schmilsson 

 Harry Nilsson

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"Good album. Really good songs including, jump into the fire, coconut, and off course the Badfinger cover, without you. This is one of those albums where you don't realise how many songs you know from it until you hear it. Underrated."  Reply

- garycottier | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

259 charts

Rank Score:

1,208

Rank in 1971:

35

Rank in 1970s:

275

Overall Rank:

1,405

Average Rating:

 78 (263 votes)

Comments:

12

36.

Jack Johnson (Original Soundtrack Recording) 
Soundtrack

 Miles Davis

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"This is the closest Miles Davis ever got to making a rock'n'roll record. 'Jack Johnson' is the soundtrack for the 1971 documentary of the same name, about the life of Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. His story resonated personally with Miles, who did not...""This is the closest Miles Davis ever got to making a rock'n'roll record. 'Jack Johnson' is the soundtrack for the 1971 documentary of the same name, about the life of Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. His story resonated personally with Miles, who did not only share Johnson's passion for boxing, but also his love of cars, jazz and women. The idea Miles had in mind for the music here was to emulate 'the effect of a train going at full speed (which he compared to the force of a boxer)', which is particularly evident on the first track, the magnificent 'Right Off', a series of improvisations by stellar jazz musicians like John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Davis himself, where Billy Cobham's drums feature a very train-like feel to them. This, plus the fact that it's mostly one chord throughout the song only adds to the steadiness and intensity Miles wanted to achieve. It almost feels like you're in the ring."  [+]  Reply

- chivocosmico | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

226 charts

Rank Score:

1,207

Rank in 1971:

36

Rank in 1970s:

276

Overall Rank:

1,406

Average Rating:

 82 (265 votes)

Comments:

10

37.

Pieces Of A Man 

 Gil Scott-Heron

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"This album is incredible piece of a man, of Gil Scott, of art."  Reply

- | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

219 charts

Rank Score:

1,189

Rank in 1971:

37

Rank in 1970s:

279

Overall Rank:

1,429

Average Rating:

 80 (201 votes)

Comments:

6

38.

Teaser And The Firecat 

 Cat Stevens

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"Cat's best album. Half of the LP is still played on the radio daily almost 50 years later. Peace Train, Morning Has Broken and Moonshadow are iconic songs of the 70s still known in most households today, and for Cat fans songs like How Can I Tell You (one of the greatest love songs goin round) an...""Cat's best album. Half of the LP is still played on the radio daily almost 50 years later. Peace Train, Morning Has Broken and Moonshadow are iconic songs of the 70s still known in most households today, and for Cat fans songs like How Can I Tell You (one of the greatest love songs goin round) and The Wind are common favorites. The Wind has become more appreciated since appearing in movies such as Almost Famous and Wes Anderson's Rushmore, both in powerful moments. Tuesday's Dead has profound but mysterious lyrics that fans are still unpacking and analyzing today. Definitely a defining moment for Cat, and for the 70s in general."  [+]  Reply

- IShallBeReleased | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

282 charts

Rank Score:

1,187

Rank in 1971:

38

Rank in 1970s:

281

Overall Rank:

1,431

Average Rating:

 79 (351 votes)

Comments:

15

39.

John Prine 

 John Prine

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""John Prine" is a delightful folk album easily up there with the likes of "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme", "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" or "Sweet Baby James." Admittedly, it's greatest weakness is that the songs can sometimes be a hair trite ("Hello In There") However, the album works very well..."""John Prine" is a delightful folk album easily up there with the likes of "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme", "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" or "Sweet Baby James." Admittedly, it's greatest weakness is that the songs can sometimes be a hair trite ("Hello In There") However, the album works very well as a whole, featuring an excellent mixture of material while remaining squarely in the folk genre. We have the humorous country of "Spanish Pipedream", the bluesy "Pretty Good", the zydeco of "Flashback Blues", and the George Harrison influenced sweep of "Angel from Montgomery." I must reserve special praise for the bluegrass "Paradise", now here is a song: Prine wrote this story of a small town overun by coal interests from his own personal experience. How incredibly cool that the town was called "Paradise" and it was on the "Green River", you can literally find all of this on Google maps! The end result: a song as personal and immediate as it is enduring and even mythological: you can literally feel a classic American song being born. Just brilliant. Prine said that he has trouble listening to this album because of the nervous shake in his voice, present on songs like "Donald and Lydia." Really, this adds a lot of character and warmth to his singing. Imagine hearing a record today with that kind of nervous shake! I miss the 70s."  [+]  Reply

- poppmusic | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

224 charts

Rank Score:

1,136

Rank in 1971:

39

Rank in 1970s:

286

Overall Rank:

1,493

Average Rating:

 79 (231 votes)

Comments:

13

40.

The Inner Mounting Flame 

 The Mahavishnu Orchestra With John McLaughlin

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"In this record The Mahavishnu Orchestra flutuates between nice melodic phrases and virtuoso showoff. For a musician, you can spot all of their musical tricks after a few listens and that's a boring cause there's not much more left than that. Unlike Zappa, McLaughlin and Goodman are way to excited...""In this record The Mahavishnu Orchestra flutuates between nice melodic phrases and virtuoso showoff. For a musician, you can spot all of their musical tricks after a few listens and that's a boring cause there's not much more left than that. Unlike Zappa, McLaughlin and Goodman are way to excited to tell stories within the solos even though they have good melodic moments together. They spent most of the time just shredding scales without any purpose. Overall, you can hear their egos battling for the lead part. "  [+]  Reply

- JoaoMoreira | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (4 helpful | 2 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

257 charts

Rank Score:

1,059

Rank in 1971:

40

Rank in 1970s:

306

Overall Rank:

1,604

Average Rating:

 80 (287 votes)

Comments:

13

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 4 of 100

Best Albums of 1971 composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Artist	Albums	%
Various Artists	11	1%
Elvis Presley	5	0%
The Rolling Stones	4	0%
John Mayall	3	0%
Fleetwood Mac	3	0%
Melanie	3	0%
James Brown	3	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	392	39%
	244	24%
	52	5%
	44	4%
	29	3%
	27	3%
	22	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	960	96%
Yes	44	4%

Live?	Albums	%
No	961	96%
Yes	43	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	988	98%
Yes	16	2%