10. Faust - Faust IV
Faust is a German Krautrock band combining psychedelic rock, and progressive rock. Faust IV is the band's most ambitious and best album. The opening psychedelic track is amazing. These jams have, no doubt, influenced many psychedelia bands later on and it's even named Krautrock, which names the whole genre. The rest of the album is not as astonishing, but there are some pretty great songs in there. It's a bit surprising that I like this album so much, since it's more about great sounds than about melodies. I don't mean that there wouldn't be melodies in there, I'm just saying, that they're not on the forefront of this music. The sounds, on the other hand are so groundbreaking, that I just have to appreciate the producer of this album. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The Who was one of the most important bands to me in high-school. For some reason, i listened to a lot of 70's music at the time and The Who's album Who's Next was one of my favourites. For reasons unknown I never really was familiarised with this album at the time. Now I must say that this is among the best The Who albums ever made. Double album full of great and massive rock songs. All the musicians of The Who are amazingly talented in their own instruments. Together with Led Zeppelin, The Who made rock n' roll seem almost godly profession at the time. It's probably good that punk came and gave an opportunity for not quite as talented musicians to make music as well, but this era is certainly great in rock music. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Elton John is mainly known to young generations of today by his cheesy love ballads and contributions to The Lion King. For this exact reason I found it hard to believe as a teenager, that I would become to like some of his music. I was wrong obviously. His early 70's albums have amazing songwriting and sounds appropriate for the glam-rock era. Goodbye Yellow Brick road is probably Elton John's best album. A massive double album of great and ambitious music. One of the best bits on this album is the over eleven minute long opening track Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding. This explains to most doubters that Elton really deserves his place on this list. The title track is one of the best ballads by Elton. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Tubular Bells is one of the most ambitious album projects ever. The whole LP consists of just one 50 minute song. Mike Oldfield plays a substantial amount of instruments by himself. This music started his career with a bang, since it was used in box office hit film The Exorcist. The unfortunate thing is that Oldfield never quite could let go of this project. He has made numerous different versions of the same album and in the 90's he also made numerous sequels for the album. Like very often, the original is by far the best one of these. The musical styles on the album vary a great deal from classical sounding music to progressive rock, to synthesiser symphonies and hard rock. Tubular Bells is a classic that everyone should hear. Listen to the album on Spotify (no.2 of the albums).
Aerosmith got their huge worldwide success a lot later on in their career. In the 80's they became one of the biggest bands in the world. This success was in my opinion a bit misplaced, since their best music was made over 15 years before and certainly before their awful song in a film Armageddon. Aerosmith's first album is a great rock album that deserves to be acknowledged more. Steven Tyler's voice is not yet soaked with whiskey, but it has beautiful clean qualities and you probably couldn't even believe it to be the same. Aerosmith's best song, Dream On, is also on this album. It's a shame that Aerosmith couldn't keep up the same quality on their later albums and that most people only know their bad albums. Listen to the album on Spotify.
I bumped into John Martyn's Solid Air only quite recently listening through the book '1001 albums you must hear before you die'. The title-track really caught my attention. It's a great jazzy ballad with bluesy and dreamy elements. The rest of the album is also great. The main sound on the album is acoustic folk, but there are jazzy influences throughout the album as well as some more funky influences. The ballads on the album are hypnotising and beautifully eerie. The double bass used in quite many songs is beautifully played. I haven't really listened to much of John Martyn's music besides this album, but I've gotten a feeling that this album is the best one of them. But please prove me wrong if this is not the case, since I really wouldn't mind more music like this. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Tom Waits started his career playing beautiful and bluesy piano-ballads. Closing Time is one of the most approachable Waits albums with clear and beautiful melodies and quite stripped down sounds. Waits still hasn't lost his voice and it's even surprisingly clear in many places. In my opinion, Closing Time does not quite reach the brilliance of The Heart of Saturday Night, but it doesn't come far behind. With this album the phrase 'Keep it simple' most certainly is in order. most of the attention is given to piano, and Waits' singing, but there are some great instrumentations besides that there as well. Closing Time is filled with beautiful late-night ballads that make you nod your head along and appreciate one of the best artists of the 70's for the last time in this blog. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Now we're truly approaching the golden years of Bowie's glam-rock. Aladdin Sane is one of his best albums. Blinking piano is the dominant sound on the album. The songs are theatrical and mostly up-tempo. Some of my favourite Bowie songs are on this album, including Drive-In Saturday, The Prettiest Star and The Jean Genie. This also brought a new look for Bowie, though the look is probably not that different from his Ziggy Stardust persona. This album lacks the super-duper brilliant songs found on some other albums, but then again, it doesn't include a single song that couldn't be described as great. That's one of the reasons why this album is among the best albums in a year that was really difficult to get into. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Houses of the Holy used to be one of my favourite albums. Even now it's great. It's a bit different in my view of the other Zeppelin albums. The songs show amazing talent of all the members of this band. I can only marvel in front of their talents. Song Remains the Same kicks off the album beautifully. Rain Song is one of the most beautiful songs ever made with some excellent guitar work. Over the Hills and Far Away combines folk and hard rock in a beautiful way. D'yer Mak'er is the band's attempt in Reggae. The best song, however, on this album is eerily beautiful and massive No Quarter. I seriously think that is one of the best songs ever made. This album is a classic that is not easily beaten. Still there is one album that I graded even over this one. Listen to the album on Grooveshark.
This year's number one is very special. It stayed on the charts for years after years. Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best albums of all times and it's common knowledge to have heard this album. It's hard to even understand how something this amazing could have been made. The sounds are really modern for its time, songwriting is interesting and above all else, this album si so full of emotion, that it lifts all the hair in my neck up. The album cover is also one of the most recognised album covers ever. If you had to mention ten most classic pop albums of all times, this would definitely be on the list. It has just the right amount of innovative new sounds, great songwriting and emotions to be considered a classic everywhere. It can't get much better than this. Listen to the album on Spotify.
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