Thursday, 12 December 2013

1972

The year 1972 is again pretty awesome year in music. Most of the albums this year can be categorised in either glam-rock or folk genres. However, there's also some funk, psychedelia and pop-rock in there. Again, the vintage factor is quite high. It's weird to realise, how in 1972, almost all the best albums are considered mainstream, wheres today, very few mainstream albums are at all listenable. I guess this is due to the way record companies work these days. But back to 1972. This year did not wow me as much as the years around it, but that's no reason to say that this year wouldn't be as good. When I get closer to the 1960's I find that most of the albums I consider to be core albums of the 70's are actually really early 70's albums. This era has been one of the most influential eras in popular music since then.


10. Moody Blues - Seventh Sojourn

There are two different kinds of Moody Blues. The early albums were all about mythical English poetry and influences from classical music. The later albums are more traditional pop-rock, paving way to bands like Electric Light Orchestra. Seventh Sojourn is one of the best albums on the latter category. The songs have great pop-melodies and excellent harmonic singing. Probably best song on the albums is I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock n' Roll Band), which has amazing bass lines and great mood, suitable even for dancing. The soft sounds combining with 50's rock n' roll makes for quite unique sound. Seventh Sojourn, however, is not the best Moody Blues album, since it does not succeed in being a coherent whole in a same way as the Moody Blues albums in the 60's. Listen to the album on Spotify.

9. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

The Rolling Stones has always been a band that makes singles, not albums. My favourite songs from them are from the 60's, but those albums really did not work as wholes. Exile on Main Street is just the opposite. It is quite coherently good album, but it lacks the super hits. This album has took some influences from glam rock, which obviously wasn't unusual at this time. There are also fairly strong rockabilly influences on the album. It's all in all a very upbeat album. That's probably always been my problem with The Rolling Stones. They make quite good radio-appropriate rock songs, but they don't give me goosebumps or move me in any way. I guess if you talk about those old fights between them and the Beatles back in the day, I'm all about Beatles. But this album still has its moments. Listen to the album on Spotify.

8. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

As a bass player, I've always been drawn to funk music, but my problem with it is, that the funk albums don't usually work as whole albums. Curtis Mayfield is an exception in every way. I love most of his music and especially this album is filled with amazing songs. Two of his super-hits, Superfly and Pusherman, are on this album. and for example Little Child Runnin' Wild is an amazing song. The bass lines are obviously amazing, but also the horn section and percussions are really something. It's weird to think this album as a soundtrack, since it works so well as just an album. Along with Isaac Hayes, Mayfield made the most beautiful funk in the early 70's. My knowledge on Mayfield's music is not brilliant, but I have a feeling, that this is his best album. Listen to the album on Grooveshark.

7. Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds

It's hard to think of this Pink Floyd as the same Pink Floyd, who made Dark Side of the Moon just few months later. The sound is completely different. Obscured by Clouds looks more to the direction of Krautrock of the time. The guitars have buzzing sounds and songs are hypnotising garage jams. It's one of the best psychedelia albums of all times though. So, whatever your feelings are on the classic Pink Floyd, this album may change your mind. I like both. Album is mostly instrumental and there are no famous songs on it. As a hippy era product, the album is a masterpiece. I don't think an album like this could've been made without the drug use common for the time. This album brilliantly shows how great a guitar player David Gilmour was. Listen to the album on Spotify.

6. America - America

America is pretty much known for their one song. Horse With No Name is, undoubtedly, their best song, but the greatness of this album does not stay there and I wish people would know the band from other connections as well. America plays beautiful americana folk with great vocal harmonies, acoustic guitars and subtle percussion. This music sounds a lot like Neil Young of the time, but the band is actually formed in London. I like the melancholic melodies of this band a lot. The music is timeless for me. It sounds, it could've just as easily been made ten years ago as forty years ago. I haven't really listened to America enough to form an opinion, that would last for years, but for now it sounds really great and really is among the best albums of this year. listen to the album on Spotify.

5. T.Rex - Slider

For some reason, T.Rex wasn't included in the glam-rock bands I listened to as a teen. Maybe I had not heard them that much at the time. Their type of glam-rock has harder sounds than other contemporaries in the genre. The melodies are not necessarily as interesting either, but the attitude is there. Marc Bolan's rock n' roll sound is great! Slider is probably the band's best album featuring hit songs like Metal Guru and Telegram Sam. There's not too much variation between the songs, but they sure know how to make catchy songs. I guess in that sense you might compare T.Rex to CCR and AC/DC. All their songs sound very similar, but if there's nothing wrong with the sound, then why complain. T.Rex is one of the classics of the early 70's glam-rock movement. Listen to the album on Spotify.

4. Neil Young - Harvest

Harvest is one of Young's best albums. It has all the americana folk cliches from harpsichord to acoustic guitars, but the biggest attention goes to young's fine high nasal voice. There is one peculiarity regarding this album. Songs A Man Needs a Maid and There's a World sound completely different from the rest of the album. They have tacky string arrangements and no proper folk sound whatsoever. The reason is that those two songs have been produced by a different producer from the rest of the songs. This is really unfortunate, since those two songs almost ruin otherwise perfectly good album. Heart of Gold is obviously one of the most well-known young songs, but for a good reason. That song is just a classic. This album proofs again the importance of Neil Young to later folk-rockers. Listen to the album on Spotify.

3. Nick Drake - Pink Moon

A lot of the music I listen to today, owes a lot to Nick Drake. His melodramatic folk has influenced thousands of singer-songwriters over the years. His voice has etheric qualities and his guitar-work is excellent. In my mind, Pink Moon is not as good of an album as Drake's debut album, but still it's one of the albums from this era, I can't listen too much of. It seems quite odd, that his later albums sound a bit more cheery than his first albums, considering he eventually died of an overdose of antidepressants. The production of this album is quite unusual for the time it was released. There's only Drake's voice and his acoustic guitar, while at the same time progressive rock, glam-rock and early metal bands included more and more instruments and production gags on their albums. Listen to the album on Spotify.

2. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

In the early 70's, David Bowie changed his appearance for almost every album and all the albums had a different visuals in the show. Ziggy Stardust is undoubtedly the best known phase in his career and this is also his best-known album. It has the super hits Starman, Ziggy Stardust and Suffragette City, but in my opinion the greatest song is the beautifully massive Rock n' Roll Suicide that rises from minimalist acoustic quietness to an epic extravaganza. The sound on the album is much more acoustic than on the subsequent albums. This actually makes me like this album even more. The album cover picture is from Fitzrovia in London where there is a sign saying K. West, which was obviously pronounced quest. More modern connotation is obviously Kanye West... Listen to the album on Spotify.

1. Lou Reed - Transformer

I'm not really that big of a fan of recently passed Lou Reed, but this album is one of the best albums ever made. Obviously David Bowie's role as a producer gave the album more glam-rock sound compared to Reed's earlier art rock albums with the Velvet Underground. Still, Transformer has only great songs on it and Reed's most famous song, Perfect Day, is still in my opinion one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Vicious, Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love also became huge hits and for all the right reasons. Transformer is one of the most commercial of Reed's albums, but in his case, it works absolutely to his advantage. His usually very laconic voice gets quite a lot of emotion in these songs and for me that makes the best album of the year 1972. Listen to the album on Spotify.

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