10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's FactoryCCR is one of the masters of simple, but catchy rock music. Their songs follow normally pretty basic few chord rock patterns, but still there's something weirdly appealing in their music. John Fogerty's voice is even a bit annoying once in a while, since he's mimicking a rougher voice than he really has. Still, Cosmo's Factory is a great album. It has some influences from 60's psychedelia scene, if you listen to the guitar sounds. Travelin' Band and Up Around the Bend are among the band's most well-known songs, but most interesting songs to me are probably the opening Ramble Tamble with it's psychedelia guitars and over eleven minute jam of I Heard It Through the Grapevine. CCR is definitely a significant part of the rock n' roll history and I'm glad to be able to include Their probably best album here. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Cat Stevens is mostly unknown to me, even though I've known a couple of his hit songs for most of my life. I was surprised to find out that i actually like his music as much as I do. Tea for the Tillerman is a great album of easygoing folk. This music leans more to the English folk tradition than the Americana folk tradition, which is probably more familiar to most people these days. Tea for Tillerman has a few hit songs, like Where Do the Children Go to Play? and especially Wild World that is known to almost anyone. For me, the best song, however is probably the melancholic sounding Hard Headed Woman, or beautiful piano ballad Sad Lisa. I don't know if the American folk scene was just so much more played in the radio, or why it is so dominant in my mind, but i'm glad that this blog has introduced me to more English folk albums, since I really seem to like them. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Atem Heart Mother is again one of my childhood albums. This is so, because it was one of my father's favourite albums. I don't think it's nearly as good as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, for example, but it's still a fine piece of work. The starting title-track is over 23 minute long epic almost film music sounding piece of brilliance. It goes from quiet violin solos, spiced up with rock organs and clear guitars to massive choir parts and King Crimsonesque progressive rock bits. The rest of the album is definitely overshadowed by this masterpiece, but even so, there are some great moments on the B-side as well. If almost sounds like Goodbye Cruel World from The Wall and 13 minute Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast shows a bit more down to earth psychedelia. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This album is Lennon's first solo album and already it takes his music quite far away from The Beatles stuff. The lyrics are really personal and much more upfront than before. He speaks about his relationship with his mother a lot more than about anything else. I guess it was the first chance for him to really speak out all those things that had been hurting him during his seven last years of hectic life with the Beatles. The album's greatest song, and one of the best Lennon songs ever is a dark but simple folk bit Working Class Hero. This song has been since covered by Green Day and adopted as kind of a catch phrase for Oasis. This album could have been really great, had Lennon made more songs like this, but now it loses some points by focusing too much on whining. Still, this is one of the best after-Beatles era solo albums by former members. Listen to the album on Youtube.
The Beatles ended their career with the two main members not basically speaking to each other. Seven years of making best albums in the world had wore them down. Let It Be is the worst of the late Beatles albums, but it still has some really good songs on it. It was first supposed to be a live album. This plan of The Beatles having a gig after few years of break did not happen, however and when the break-up of the Beatles was confirmed they released Let It Be as a normal album. As a result, Let It Be became the group's last album, even though it was recorded before Abbey Road. Let It be shows a broken band of master musician's who make great individual songs, but don't work together as good as they used to. Across the Universe and Dig a Pony are some of the great songs from the album. Listen to the album on Youtube.
Morrison Hotel starts to show the drunken and broken Morrison, whose singing parts were apparently fairly hard to get onto the album. This drunkenness, however, gives great attitude to songs like Roadhouse Blues. Morrison Hotel is one of the rockiest albums of The Doors. There are only a few quieter hypnotic songs that made the other half of the band's sound on many other albums. The Spy is a beautiful demonstration of these kinds of songs. Maggie M'Gill is the best example of raunchy drunk that Morrison had become. It's still one heck of a song. Indian Summer is a great hypnotic ballad that seems so lividly like it was made under the influence of drugs, that I think there's no mistake. Morrison hotel is not one of the best The Doors albums, but it's still pretty an excellent album. Listen to the album on Spotify.
I've only truly found Nick Drake recently. For some reason I was not introduced to his music years ago, when I was going through my 70's phase. Then people said, that if I listen to artists like Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens and other new folkers, I must know Nick Drake. So I started listening and I liked it. Bryter Layter is a really fantastic album, but still not as good as his debut. There's some otherworldly quality to Drake's voice. When he sings, the world stands still. At the Chime of a City Clock is probably the best song on the album. The album has a surprisingly light sound for a Nick Drake album. This is more suitable for Sunday laziness than wallowing in self pity in the dark. The strings and flute give the album a fairytale-like sound. Nick Drake is one of the best guitar players and singers of all times. Listen to the album on Spotify.
When talking about Led Zeppelin, I find that almost always people bring up albums II and IV. It may be true that these two have the most legendary hit songs, but still in my mind their third album is just as good if not even better. It starts with a massive hit Immigration Song, with weird lyrics about Viking hell Valhalla. The high pitched vocals are quite unique. Zeppelin's best blues song, heartbreaking Since I've Been Loving You is among the best overall songs from them. Tangerine is one of the more radio friendly pop-songs. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp takes the sound to folky waters and features some amazing skills from Jimmy Page. Despite the heavy opening song, this album has all together a folkier atmosphere than the other early albums and I for one like it. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The legendary Black Sabbath made their careers two best albums in the same year and it took me a long time to decide which one to feature on this blog, since I did not want to take something else off by including both of them. I decided on Paranoid, simply because it's even more legendary. But I want to say, that their debut self titled album is also fantastic, especially the title-track. But back to Paranoid. it kicks off with amazingly great funky but heavy War Pigs. Followed by Paranoid, which despite its classic status, is one of the worst songs on the album. A story tells that it was included on the album at the last second, since the album would've been too short otherwise. Electric Funeral and Fairies Wear Boots are also fantastic songs as is probably the whole album. This is how heavy metal music started, and it was good! Listen to the album on Spotify.
I've said some good things about Canadian folk singer Neil young before, but this album is his best one and an absolute masterpiece. The songs are absolutely beautiful folky americana pieces with authentic sounds that give me the shivers down my spine every time. The piano-led title-track is one of the most beautiful ballads ever written. Southern Man takes a bit more electronic approach showing the world already the future sound of Wilco. It's difficult to bring up individual songs like this, since every single song on this album is so fantastic. Not many albums can really do the same. Neil Young has paved the way for many of my all time favourite artists, by creating the sound all the modern folk bands take influences from. The sound on this album is timeless and I couldn't say when it was made if I didn't know. One of the best albums ever! Listen to the album on Spotify.
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