1001 Albums: 285 - 300 (An even odder number round up)

Yes friends, it looks like it's that time of the month, where another blog post slowly oozes out of me and... actually, this is a terrible introduction so I'm just going to stop.

You may be wondering, why 301? At least you should since it is an incredibly stupid number to end this chunk on, seeing how 300 would be a natural milestone. Well reader, let me tell you! Yes, 300 albums are done, listened to and largely forgotten. "1001 Albums You Must Hear before you die" my ass! I guess it's a better title than " The 953 largely forgettable, 10 really poor ones, and 38 you might be surprised by Albums You Should Listen To Before You Die" which is what this is going to end up being. Doesn't really fit on the cover. Anyways, on top of being 300 albums in, number 300 is the last album of 1973. This is massively important because I was born in 1974, which means that all the albums coming down the pipe were made in my life time. Which of course means that the level of amazing and awesome should go up ten fold since nothing cool was invented prior to my birth. Good, yes, but not cool. So I'm pretty excited to see what music had in store for the year of my glorious arising on this earthly plain.

But that's all in next blog, this one wraps up the boring "Pre-Russ" era. Here's how that all peters out! So long 1973 and all the music that went before you! You were largely forgettable and kind of annoying, but some of you were shining stars! (And feel free to click on the albums to listen to samples! Well, maybe, if Amazon has previews...)


0285 Hancock, Herbie – Head Hunters - Kind of a prog rock/jazz fusion. Which means it's good to sleep through.


0286 Mott the Hoople – Mott - Mott over stays his welcome again. This one oddly sounds like a Bob Dylan/David Bowie love child, but hardly essential


0287 Oldfield, Mike – Tubular Bells - The first bit is spooky since it's used in "The Exorcist", then it gets hilarious when he starts telling you the sounds you're hearing. "This is, the BASS! This is the MANDOLIN! And this is TUBULAR BELLS!" Priceless!


0288 Rundgren, Todd – A Wizard, a True Star - It rocked a bit more then the other Rundgren album, but still a snooze fest.


0289 John, Elton – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - A dead solid album, and the one that makes me say "I'm a bit of an Elton John fan." (Not a particularly excited Elton John fan though... I would jsut say "Yeah, I like Elton John" if you asked me.)


0290 Steely Dan – Countdown to Ecstasy - God awful prog-jazz crap. I simply do not like Steely Dan. At all.


0291 Jennings, Waylon – Honky Tonk Heroes - A really solid country album by the guy who used to be in Buddy Holly's touring band. Can't go wrong with this one.


0292 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon - Arguably the most overrated of the Pink Floyd catalog, this is an amazing, near perfect record. I've listened to it countless times since discovering it, and it continues to be fresh.


0293 Wonder, Stevie – Innervisions - The other major Stevie Wonder album sounds like much the same thing. There's good songs on it, but I've never had the urge to revisit it outside of these lists.


0294 ZZ Top – Tres Hombres - ZZ Top's breakout album, well, other then "Eliminator" is everything that the latter album isn't. Swampy blues rock instead of 80's synth hell. I'm not sure which one I like more...


0295 McCartney, Paul & Wings – Band on the Run - I do not like McCartney and I was all ready to shit all over this, but the opening title track is pretty good. The next song "Jet" was good too! Then it all fell apart and Sir Paul can go to hell.


0296 Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Next - This is another one where you want to poo poo the band based on it's idiotic name. Ends up this was quite good! Full on 70's rock, a ton of fun. The only problem, the title song is a rocked up version of the Scott Walker song I loved on "Scott Walker #2", and not as good.


0297 Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies - About as good as Cooper gets. It kind of fizzles out by the end, but still will worth a listen or 10.


0298 Iggy & the Stooges – Raw Power - I've loved this album since blind buying it in the 80's when it was in a cheap bin and cost less then Iggy's "Blah Blah Blah" album. I never did buy "Blah Blah Blah", but I wore out the tape on this one.


0299 Isley Brothers – 3 + 3 - This was a pretty great funky rock album. The originals were fine, and the covers were decent enough, especially "Summer Breeze". they manage to turn that cringe worthy weak ass song into a funky masterpiece.


0300 New York Dolls – New York Dolls (1st Album) - There have been hints on this list, but this is the first album to sound like "proper" Punk. The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, it all clearly starts here.

Right, and that's a wrap! Be sure to follow me, subscribe, recommend etc, since next time we shall be looking at the first part of the glorious "Russ" era of music. So hold your breaths!