Listed below are the best albums of the 1970s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 5 hours ago).
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"What can you say about Rumours that has not already been said? One of the most beautiful and yet bittersweet collection of songs ever put on record. It's impossible to pick standout tracks because they are all equally good but different to each other. How the record shifts from Chrissy's heartbre...""What can you say about Rumours that has not already been said? One of the most beautiful and yet bittersweet collection of songs ever put on record. It's impossible to pick standout tracks because they are all equally good but different to each other. How the record shifts from Chrissy's heartbreakingly wistful performance on "Songbird" and builds thru to Lindsey/John's climatic finish to "The Chain" leaves your head spinning and is undoubtedly one of the finest passages of rock music ever commited to vinyl."[+]Reply
"Great band cutting loose, recorded badly but what can you do. Even if you're sick of the title song, the first three sides are great for just hearing Clapton and Jim Gordon and all these guys doing their thing. Bobby Whitlock, of course, is the piano player and second singer on this album. If you...""Great band cutting loose, recorded badly but what can you do. Even if you're sick of the title song, the first three sides are great for just hearing Clapton and Jim Gordon and all these guys doing their thing.
Bobby Whitlock, of course, is the piano player and second singer on this album. If you go to YouTube and find his channel, he has in the last few months been doing a bunch of little talks sitting at a table with his wife, reminiscing about this album and All Things Must Pass especially, and his encounters with other rock stars, everybody from Keith Moon to Elvis. He has many, many stories and thoughts about this album, he's been putting up a video nearly every day recently; highly recommended.
He responds to comments sometimes, but I don't have the guts to ask him how he feels about the sound quality of the thing. The legendary producer Tom Dowd gets lots of respect, deservedly so for much of his other work. But this is a great album for the playing, not for the sound, which is famously bad. One thing Whitlock did take exception to was Dowd saying in his memoirs that they had run dry of inspiration after the first three songs and then Duane Allman came in and energized everything. Whitlock said that was totally false and is angry that Dowd wrote it and made it history. Anyway, in addition to being a natural born musician, he's a good storyteller and you might want to check out his channel.
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"Crosby, Stills & Nash released their first album very succesful in 1969, and in 1970 with the addition of Neil Young they were ready to release a second album, "Deja Vu". The three original members were all experienced songwriters and great singers, and with Neil Young on top of the hat, it could...""Crosby, Stills & Nash released their first album very succesful in 1969, and in 1970 with the addition of Neil Young they were ready to release a second album, "Deja Vu".
The three original members were all experienced songwriters and great singers, and with Neil Young on top of the hat, it could hardly go wrong; and It did not.
All four members contribute two songs each. Moreover, the two old friends from Buffalo Springfield, Stills and Young together wrote the finale number, "Everybody I Love You". Finall they recorded a cover-version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" . The Woodstock Festival was an event the four members took an active part in.
There is a lot to go for on this album, not least the beautiful harmony vocal arrangements. The songwriting is also of very high class. Both Nash's contributions are among the best he has written, "Our House" is great and "Teach Your Children" has probably already become a classic, covered by several other artists
Both Neil Young's songs are also very fine - in particular the very moving to "Helpless".
Still's upbeat "Carry On" is a perfect opening number. A complex composition that shows many different facets of the group. His quiet acoustic "4 and 20" is a sweet little song and one of the simplest on the album.
I've always had it a bit difficult with David Crosby's songs. They often seem somewhat convoluted. "Almost Cut My Hair" is a blues-like number, very well arranged, but with corny hippie-like lyrics. The titletrack is more unconventional - again with a somewhat pretentious lyrics.
The closing-track "Everybody I Love You" - sounds much like a Steve Stills number, almost as good as the opening-track.
"Woodstock" is probably the most rocking song on the album - strong but perhaps not as interesting as the group's own original songs."[+]Reply
"One of the funnest, and least emotionally draining post-beatles albums, and one I would most likely recommend to anyone wishing to explore the Beatles solo work for the first time. I personally think it's McCartney's best solo album, though it is technically a wings album without the title or cre...""One of the funnest, and least emotionally draining post-beatles albums, and one I would most likely recommend to anyone wishing to explore the Beatles solo work for the first time. I personally think it's McCartney's best solo album, though it is technically a wings album without the title or credits; but it doesn't beat George's All Things Must Pass or The Plastic Ono Band album. That doesn't mean it isn't worth listening to. Many of these songs would have fit perfectly on a theoretical 70's Beatles album. Also, if you're a fan of McCartney's primal yelling, Monkberry Moon Delight probably serves as his greatest showcase of such talents. Most would agree that Uncle Albert is the best song; but my personal favorite is Too Many People, which is actually one of my favorite songs Paul McCartney ever wrote!"[+]Reply
"One of my favorite albums of all time, not a weak track to avoid. Carlos is at his creative peak and the percussion is measured and not over indulging. Would love the release of an official live document from that period. It would be all downhill from there. Santana III is all over the place and ...""One of my favorite albums of all time, not a weak track to avoid. Carlos is at his creative peak and the percussion is measured and not over indulging. Would love the release of an official live document from that period. It would be all downhill from there. Santana III is all over the place and then Rolie and Schon left and Santana never had a decent vocalist again. I know that Carlos is an icon and he deserves the recognition, but Abraxas remains his master piece."[+]Reply
"I have 225 records and only 224 listed on this site, I kept going through them over and over to see which one I hadn't yet listed.... b4 doing this though, I went through the top 1000 albums on this site and added all of them to either my wish list or collection.... so when going through my recor...""I have 225 records and only 224 listed on this site, I kept going through them over and over to see which one I hadn't yet listed.... b4 doing this though, I went through the top 1000 albums on this site and added all of them to either my wish list or collection....
so when going through my records I never guessed that this one hadn't already been added when I went through the top 1000. I skipped right past the fleetwood mac albums b/c I "knew" they'd already been accounted for. it doesn't make any sense - I've listened to this + Rumours a MILLION times each, and this one probably even more often than Rumours. how in the hell is Rumours considered that many leagues higher than this? this isn't even top 1000, are you f*&^ing kidding me?
this has got to be the most underrated album of all time. landslide, rhiannon, monday morning, warm ways, over my head, say you love me, crystal, I'm so afraid... unbelievable ranking here. the quality is extremely close to that of Rumours."[+]Reply
"Rumors was an incredibly focused, accessible, and well written album. Most of Fleetwood Mac's fanbase undoubtedly came from that album for those reasons. Tusk has the misfortune of being the followup to Rumors, and was specifically designed to turn the Rumors formula on its head, while still maki...""Rumors was an incredibly focused, accessible, and well written album. Most of Fleetwood Mac's fanbase undoubtedly came from that album for those reasons. Tusk has the misfortune of being the followup to Rumors, and was specifically designed to turn the Rumors formula on its head, while still making a great piece of art. This means that Tusk was designed to be messy, inaccessible, but still well written. I feel that a lot of the detractors that this album has are hung up on the fact that this album is long and varied, and tend to overlook the incredible innovation and incredible songwriting on this beast. I first listened to this album probably seven years ago, and I could not make it through on my first few listens. However, as I have grown older, I have learned to appreciate this album more than Rumors. If Rumors is about the deconstruction of relationships, then Tusk is about the deconstruction of the self. Here we have a band who know each other very intimately- Stevie and Lindsay were a couple, Stevie and Mick had a fling, and the McVie's recently had a divorce. Each member is dealing with the memories of their intense relationships with each other, and coping in different ways. Buckingham has devolved into a paranoid cocaine abuser, Stevie Nicks is clearly traumatized by the betrayal of her new lover Mick Fleetwood as well as her recent abortion, and Christine McVie is still processing her divorce, and the breakdown of the band. This leads to a variety of music that ranges from beautiful, to heart-wrenching, to utterly deranged. "Sara" has one of my favorite drumming performance of all time, and is an utterly beautiful song where Nicks alludes to her aborted baby, Sara, as well as her friend that Fleetwood left her for (also Sara). Fleetwood apparently put 24 hours straight of effort into making the drumming for this song as perfect as possible, and it shows. I could be reading into it to much, but the drum tone almost conveys a sense of remorse that adds to the ethereal bitter-sweetness of the song. McVie's songs aren't quite as depressing as Nicks' contributions, but they exude a similar energy. "Over and Over" is a beautiful opener that sets the tone for what the rest of the album will be, but then is quickly subverted by the bonkers "The Ledge". Buckingham had succumbed to a "blizzard of cocaine" when writing this album, and was apparently obsessed with appealing to Talking Heads fans and Beach Boys fans alike with his compositions. This leads to occasionally beautiful harmonies like those in "Save Me a Place", but usually results in paranoid, angry songs like "Not that Funny". "Tusk" is the culmination of Buckingham's paranoia, which is essentially a song about telling Nicks and Fleetwood that he knows their dirty little secret and can blackmail them whenever he wants, then forces Fleetwood to give the best damn drumming performance of his career on it.
At this point I am rambling, but that in a way is part of what Tusk is. It is rambling and unfocused, but contrary to what other commenters on here say, is devoid of filler. Filler implies that an artist wanted to reach the length of time required for a full album, but that is definitely not what is going on here. Each song has a unique soundscape and purpose that contributes to themes and sound that is Tusk."[+]Reply
"This is ranked outside the top 500 albums! Incomprehensible!! This is a real classic- so much energy, humour and personality. This album is a joy. So many classics including their peerless cover of "a message to you Rudy". The pace never lets up and the tracks simply burst out of the speakers. Hi...""This is ranked outside the top 500 albums! Incomprehensible!! This is a real classic- so much energy, humour and personality. This album is a joy. So many classics including their peerless cover of "a message to you Rudy". The pace never lets up and the tracks simply burst out of the speakers. Highly recommended."[+]Reply
"Younger people say, "The bootleg series is the proper version." Older people say, "Oh it was all on bootleg, anyway, everybody had already heard it." Not if you were 14 when this came out on LP, and didn't know what a bootleg was. This was like finding some sort of occult text from another world....""Younger people say, "The bootleg series is the proper version." Older people say, "Oh it was all on bootleg, anyway, everybody had already heard it."
Not if you were 14 when this came out on LP, and didn't know what a bootleg was. This was like finding some sort of occult text from another world. I used to pour over every second of this version, trying to figure out exactly what it all meant, making up my own meanings, playing along on my acoustic. This is the version that brought Dylan to the teens of the 70s, along with Blood on the Tracks and Desire.
It's like the Memphis Jug Band came back to life in the late 60s. What an album.
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"A very good collection of songs here. The first one, You Can Get It If You Really Want, was the strongest for me. Most the tracks on this album are very uplifting in their mood and there are few which I would call weak. Harder They Come and Sitting In Limbo are also highlights."Reply
