by Quarkmonkey | May 7, 2015 | 1001 Albums
I’m sure I’m not the only one who originally came to discover Nick Drake in a desperate attempt to impress some young lady. After all, despite (because of?) his death aged just 26 from an overdose of antidepressants, he’s grown a cult following over the years, his...
by Quarkmonkey | May 6, 2015 | 1001 Albums
Sheryl Crow once said “This is the one I’d save from the fire”, and while you have to sympathise with the poor love not understanding how Spotify works, it’s a nice sentiment. “Let it Bleed” is, after all, a big bad classic album, standing perhaps even taller than...
by Quarkmonkey | Apr 2, 2015 | 1001 Albums
It’s sad that I’m writing this review mere days after John Renbourn, the founder of the band passed away, just as I’m starting to discover their back catalogue. Although, to my disappointment it turns out they weren’t named in tribute to our glorious satanic...
by Quarkmonkey | Mar 18, 2015 | 1001 Albums
I’ve never liked The Bee Gees. I don’t know why – I don’t like tinsel and I can’t explain that either. The Bee Gees? Why not Boney M or the fucking Goombay Dance Band while we’re at it? Plus, there was something unpleasantly earnest about them that pissed me off too....
by Quarkmonkey | Mar 17, 2015 | 1001 Albums
One of the things I’ve always liked about Miles Davis is, seeing as how I’m completely clueless when it comes to jazz, his career has the advantage not just of expanding from the mid-1940s up to guest appearances on “Miami Vice”, but also of...
by Quarkmonkey | Mar 16, 2015 | 1001 Albums
One thing I need to keep reminding myself about this book I keep working through is that it’s titled “1001 Albums you must hear before you die” and that means they’re the important, unmissable albums. Which doesn’t necessarily mean the best. I mention it because...
by Quarkmonkey | Feb 3, 2015 | 1001 Albums
I’ll let you into a secret. As much as I’ve gushed about “Rubber Soul” and “The White Album”, this one’s my favourite. I’m bashful about it because it’s not necessarily the choice of Beatles purists. It’s arguably as much a George Martin album as the fab four’s. It’s...
by Quarkmonkey | Jan 3, 2015 | 1001 Albums
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before on here, but one of my favourite films is “Almost Famous”. It’s whimsical, sure, but for capturing that golden age of rock music, of life on the road and the leviathans of the genre at their highest, it works...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 22, 2014 | 1001 Albums
“Every man knows he’s a sissy compared to Johnny Cash” – Bono “San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell” – Johnny Cash If Cash’s Folsom Prison album wasn’t bold enough, with this second live classic, “At San Quentin”, he doesn’t fuck about. With his dark...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 22, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Now I’m not saying I’ve got a grudge against country rock or anything. I’m down for some Eagles or Harry Chapin, and hey, it’s not like I’ve not reviewed The Band, Crosby Stills and Nash or “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” here...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 19, 2014 | 1001 Albums
There’s a bit at the beginning of the new Captain America movie where a fellow vet tells Steve Rogers, who’s still getting to grips with his 70-year hibernation, to listen to Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” soundtrack, saying it’ll tell him everything he needs to know....
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 18, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Crosby, Stills and Nash, arguably the first ‘supergroup’, made up of the best bits of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies respectively, made a big impact on the hippie scene when they landed with this big debut. It’s full of gorgeous production, lots of...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 14, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Creedence Clearwater Revival were cool. 1969 was a time for a lot of country and roots rock to raise its dreary head now that the hippies had given up their fucking in the bushes and started getting baked and going to craft fairs. And it’s arguable that CCR were...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 13, 2014 | 1001 Albums
“Oh it sounds like a ball of rusty barbed wire. It sounds like a piece of the Somme, lifted up and put in an art gallery.” – Andy Partridge, XTC “You could record an album of retarded chimpanzees bashing a piano to bits with hammers and call it...
by Quarkmonkey | Aug 13, 2014 | 1001 Albums
I grew up knowing about Neil Young more by reputation than by actually hearing any of his stuff. In my college days of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and reading the NME and the Melody Maker every Wednesday, Young was the mythical ‘godfather of grunge’, master of...
by Quarkmonkey | Jul 24, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Who listens to Frank Zappa? Seriously? Who is it that decides to set the mood for a quiet night in with this stuff? Or maybe slip it on their iPhone for a good gym workout? I mean, I’m open to stuff but there’s clearly this hole where Zappa and Captain Beefheart live,...
by Quarkmonkey | Jul 19, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Arguably, side D is where it all unravels. It certainly feels shorter than the other sides, and more disparate, disobedient and untidy than what went on before. Up until now, the guys had been poppy, creative, and idiosyncratic on the previous three sides, but side D...
by Quarkmonkey | Jul 17, 2014 | 1001 Albums
Like I said in my last review, each side of “The White Album” has a unique character, and for me, Side C is where they got down and dirty musically. Each one is, in its own way, a right belter, and while it sometimes suffers “The White Album” curse of four separate...
by Quarkmonkey | Jul 1, 2014 | 1001 Albums
The adventure continues on side B with the charming “Martha my Dear”, another one of Macca’s ditties to Jane Asher, and despite the music hall sound it’s a little bitchy lyric-wise (“hold your head up you silly girl, look what...
by Quarkmonkey | Jun 17, 2014 | 1001 Albums
NOTE: This is a behemoth of an album, and as such I’ve broken my review into four pieces to save you, dear reader, from going insane. Stay tuned, there’s more coming… It’s not their most refined album. It’s been accused of being flabby, indulgent, of...
by Quarkmonkey | Jun 16, 2014 | 1001 Albums
I’m not going to do it this time. Honest I’m not. Last time I reviewed a Byrds album I went on and on about how they had five albums in this book (more than Pink Floyd or The Smiths) and how I just wasn’t getting it. This time though, it’s the last one. Once this...
by Quarkmonkey | Jun 13, 2014 | 1001 Albums
“What Astral Weeks deals in are not facts but truths. Astral Weeks, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves” – Lester Bangs Do you remember that phase in the...
by Quarkmonkey | Jun 12, 2014 | 1001 Albums
There’s something romantic about the idea of a band that’s already decided to implode putting an album together. No commercial pressures, no fear of the critics, just an overriding urge to make something great. That’s essentially how “Oddesey and Oracle”...
by Quarkmonkey | Jun 11, 2014 | 1001 Albums
I discovered Scott Walker through a random Our Price bargain bin purchase of “Scott Walker sings Jacques Brel” back when I was editing a student magazine and didn’t have the money for such random purchases (much like now really). Sure, I’d...
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