1001 Albums: 94- 110 "Broke 100!"

So I'm dreadfully late with this blog posting. So late in fact that I'm debating on scrapping the blog all together. I meant to post this as a wrap up for the first one hundred, and use that as an excuse to even out the numbers to better reflect future ten packs. I lost track of the last week or so though and blew it! Anyways, here's the remaining tracks to get the 100:

0094 The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
Another solid offering pooped out by the Byrds. None of it is as strong as the kick ass "So You Want To Be A Rock N' Roll Star?", but it's strong enough to keep you going for the ride.

0095 Young Rascals – Groovin’
Completely forgettable outside of the genius title track. The cover art makes you want to punch every single Rascal in the face.

0096 Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow
If you haven't heard "White Rabbit" or "Somebody to Love", then you have failed at life. The rest of the album sounds like those two tracks, so it's all pretty good. Grace Slick can sing the shit out of anything, without her, this band wouldn't of been so memorable.

0097 Kinks – Something Else by the Kinks
I absolutely loved this album. More suburban rock by the Kinks that is absolute perfection. I will no longer forget that the Kinks are greater then their two most popular songs. ("You Really Got Me" and "Lola", in case you forgot....)

0098 Donovan – Sunshine Superman
It has two great songs, the title track and "Season Of the Witch". The rest was pretty forgettable folk rock that made me wish "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was on this one.

0099 Haggard, Merle – I’m a Lonesome Fugitive
It's Merle Haggard, and it's great. What more do you need to know?

0100 Hendrix, Jimi – Are You Experienced
Hendrix's debut makes a strong impression. Lots have been said about Hendrix and this album, I like it. Strong singles are more rock and pop then his future releases, and I think that's why I prefer this to his other albums.

There it is! 100 albums down out of the 1001! I've found this list to be much smoother to get through compared to the Rolling Stone Top 500. With the greater variety of genre and complete lack of compilations, even when I hit an album I hate there's enough variety to not kill my will to continue. That said, I'm still pretty far away from the potential horrors of the eighties....

Since I listened so far ahead before posting this one, here's the next 10 pack. A bunch of these are pretty near must listens, with a couple of crap ones that you should be able to figure out.

0101 Electric Prunes – I Had too Much to Dream (Last Night)
This was some kick ass garage rock that didn't over do the psychedelia. Liked it.

0102 Lynn, Loretta – Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)
A dead solid country "girl power!" album. Loretta is not to be messed with. That said, she sings about her own transgressions as well. The end result is a surprisingly complex album, sung with a voice that was born to sing these songs. Great stuff.

0103 Sharma, Shivkumar / Brij Bushan Kabra / Hariprasad Chaurasia – Call of the Valley
It's the 60's, so you knew that Indian music was coming, so this isn't much a surprise. How boring it ended up being though, was a surprise indeed. These songs sounded like warm ups that never get cooking. I was expecting something peppier. Shame!

0104 Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat
I've loved this one ever since I first heard it years ago. The album starts strong, and keeps getting louder and more ramshackle by the track. By the time you get to the volume competition that is "Sister Ray", this ends up being one of, if not the, all time great rock albums. Awesome stuff, and sounds nothing like their previous album which is huge boners for me.

0105 Hendrix, Jimi – Axis: Bold as Love
Hendrix's second album has never done much for me, and continues to do so. It features some of his prettiest songs, but as a whole it never really gets off the ground. A side note, as much as this album doesn't grab me to listen to, it's killer fun to play on "Rock Band" if you're a gamer. Something to consider.

0106 Franklin, Aretha – I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Fantastic album that's perfect in instrumentation, bringing on the blues and soul effortlessly, only to have Franklin kick the shit out of you with her awesome voice and no bullshit swagger. Amazing, and a must listen.

0107 Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
This, for me, is the first true Stones album. They aren't trying to sound like their blues idols or keep up with the Beatles, they are simply kicking out the jams as hard as they can. It's brilliant stuff, and completely holds up with the timeless music that inspired them in the first place. Highly recommended.

0108 Traffic – Traffic (2nd Album)
I've never liked Steve Windwood, and because of this, I've always avoided Traffic (Nyuk Nyuk). So while I'll admit that a few of these songs are pretty good, on the whole, I still don't like them, or him.

0109 Incredible String Band – Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Ends up that they aren't all that incredible, or much of a string band. They are fucking horrible in many ways. The songs all sounds like they're sung by a tone deaf hobbit, which does nothing to save abysmally, childish shit like "The Minotaurs Song". Only when he cribs some folk standards does this get bearable. Avoid.

0110 Kinks – Village Green Preservation Society
This might be the most perfect Kinks album they ever did. All that stuff I wrote about "Something Else"? Double it and just buy this fucking thing already!

Right! Until next time! If there is a next time... who knows...