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.
Author: Quarkmonkey (page 2)
173. Alexander Spence – Oar
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.
165. Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul
The sixties were a golden age of soul, as Otis, Solomon and Marvin would happily testify, but with the decade…
164. The Youngbloods – Elephant Mountain
“Come on people now… smile on your brother… everybody get together.” For most, The Youngbloods are remembered almost entirely for…
163. Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking
I’ve never really got into folk music. Not that I think that there’s anything definitively bad about the genre you…
162. Chicago Transit Authority – Chicago Transit Authority
OK, so this is hardly the first time I’ve opened a post on this blog with a humble apology for…
161. Tim Buckley – Happy Sad
I’ll admit it – when I reviewed Tim Buckley’s “Goodbye and Hello” way back when, he was essentially just ‘Jeff’s…
160. Sly and the Family Stone – Stand!
If The Temptation’s “Cloud Nine” wasn’t enough to convince you that the seventies were well and truly knocking on the…
159. The Temptations – Cloud Nine
OK, so TECHNICALLY “Cloud Nine” hit the shelves in February 1969, but in terms of getting the seventies funk going, this…
158. MC5 – Kick Out The Jams
True story – I worked for a while as a copywriter for a company that sold office supplies, and I…
157. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
Discovering these albums 25 years later, as I did, it’s easy to miss out on the timescales of how they…
156. The Band – The Band
If “Music from Big Pink” subtly shook things up in the music world, this eponymous follow-up from The Band was…
155. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I
So long flower children… A new decade was coming and things were getting interesting. From the initial DUH-DUH of the…
154. Quicksilver Messenger Service – Happy Trails
It doesn’t take much to win me over, and a side-long psychedelic trip through Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”…
153. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
For what was their third album, and their first with the absence of John Cale, The Velvet Underground took a…
152. Elvis Presley – From Elvis in Memphis
The sixties never really swung for Elvis. After his brief but totally kicking return from Army duty, he soon buggered…
151. Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis
On a grim January morning*, where I’m filled with flu and a monster writers’ block with this blog, it was…