Quarkmonkey, Author at Quarkmonkey's 1001 Album challenge

The “1001 Albums…” 2016 Edition is here!

The 2016 edition of “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” is here, and there’s more than a few notable absences.

179. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

While arguably not a truly ‘great’ album, this debut from Black Sabbath still has a few choice moments on it, and it’s a landmark in music history too.

178. Spirit – The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus

They’re mostly known as the band in the “Stairway” case, but as Quarkmonkey learns, Spirit could belt out both a decent tune and the odd bit of creativity.

177. Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

This is where I start to struggle. This isn’t the first time I’ve alluded to the fact that I can’t…

176. Derek and the Dominos – Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Ah Eric you smug racist, credit-stealing, overrated cunt… good to see you. Of course, as much as the band’s title wasn’t particularly rocktastic…

175. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cosmo’s Factory

Quarkmonkey kicks off the seventies with what could be Creedence Clearwater Revival’s finest hour.

174. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats

There’s a lot of wizardry to be enjoyed here, and it should be celebrated if only because it’s a Frank Zappa album that I don’t want to punch myself in the head after listening to.

Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett, Sinead O’ Connor, Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain… there’s always been a parallel between rock music and mental illness, just as there has been with pretty much any art form worth bothering with.

To say that Skip Spence is no exception is probably underselling it.

172. The Stooges – The Stooges

It’s one thing looking back from 2016 and the knowledge of the career and legacy that The Stooges had on rock music, but Cale’s production keeps things in order and it’s a much more focused affair because of it.

171. Scott Walker – Scott 4

Of course, Walker had his fair share of sixties successes, both with the Walker Brothers and on his earlier, Jacques-Brel-heavy albums, but “Scott 4”, his first production composed entirely of his own songs, was a notable critical and commercial failure.

170. Fairport Convention – Liege and Lief

There’s a lot more going on here than the usual “fiddle de dum fair maiden came a walking” bollocks that cynical old arseholes such as myself tend to attach to the British folk genre.

169. Leonard Cohen – Songs from a Room

For me at least, one of the big paradoxes of Leonard Cohen is that, for all the outward melancholy, there’s something uniquely uplifting about his songs.

168. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King

Now THAT’s how you start an album. It takes about 25 seconds before it kicks in, but when it gets going, the opening track, “21st Century Schizoid Man” explodes through the speakers.

167. The Kinks – Arthur (or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

OK, so we had the Beatles and the Stones doing it for us, but if there was ever a band in the sixties who deserve praise for flying the Union Jack, it’s The Kinks.

166. The Grateful Dead – Live/Dead

The Grateful Dead… why do I feel like I’m opening a Pandora’s box here?

Truth is, I know that the ‘Dead were big. I know that they had a massive following, that back in the day they were a proverbial Hajj for every stoner out there. But yeah, never really paid them any attention.