1001 Albums: 301 - 313 It's 1974!

The day has arrived! The first post of the most essential music of 1974! The sounds of the year of my birth! A crucially essential and important post since it's all about me!

Too bad I didn't love any of it. Oh don't get me wrong friends, there's some good stuff to be found. Stevie Wonder put out a good disc, and Van Morrison tore it up with a live set. It's more a case of none of these blew me away, and I really wanted to be blown away. At least on the whole music is shaping up to be more consistently better and less consistently annoying. That murky 70's heroin sound seems to be a thing of the past, replaced with clear, crisp, nice sounding recordings.

Here's the round up, again with links to samples via Amazon so clickity click click!


0301 Eno, Brian – Here Come the Warm Jets - I was filled with dread prior to this. I expected another ridiculous "Tubular Bells". This however was real solid, sophisticated glammy pop. Which ends up being a very good thing.


0302 Bad Company – Bad Company (1st Album) - I thought there was a Bad Company prior to this that recorded for The Beatles Apple label. So I expected pleasant Brit pop. Ends up this is mostly pleasant Brit cock rock. It's the type of music that is kind of generic to me. If it comes on the radio, I wont flip the dial, but I'm not going to seek it out on my own either. (Note, I was thinking of "Badfinger" as far as the Apple records thing goes. Durrrrr)


0303 Genesis – Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - I was eager for this after being so pleasantly surprised by that other Genesis album on the list. I didn't like this one as much. It has a really strong start, but kind of loses it's way. That said, I missed the concept of this (I'm guessing there is a concept to be found here...) so I probably have to spin it 10 more times to fully appreciate it (probably not going to happen anytime soon).


0304 Otis, Shuggie – Inspiration Information - R&B that left no impact, and since it's been a few days since I listened to it, no memory! That's a fail. This is his last album unless the one he's been working on for the past 37 years actually arrives this year. So much for Guns & Roses taking a long time...


0305 Wonder, Stevie – Fulfillingness’ First Finale - Finally, Stevie's most famous album! What's that? You never heard of it? I hadn't either before it showed up here on the list. I actually like this one much more then the more famous "Songs In The Key Of Life" and "Innervisions". Maybe because I didn't recognize any of these songs from American Idol. Anyways, it's quite good and comes off more personal in a way.


0306 Clapton, Eric – 461 Ocean Boulevard - This was Eric's big comeback album. Not from a horrid accident, but from heroin addiction. It was ballyhooed with such talk as "Eric is back! He's speaking clearly!" So in celebration of being able to perform the most basic human functions, he put this out. It has his biggest ever hit that doesn't deal with child death ("I Shot The Sheriff", a cover song) and that's all I got to say about this since I still don't like Eric Clapton and his blues rock.


0307 Kraftwerk – Autobahn - Kraftwork whip out some more bloopy bleepy synth music, and it's pretty great. The title track anyways. The last track is a horrid, random selection of computer bird noises that is quite terrible. But that title track, "Fun fun fun on the Autobaun" indeed!


0308 Morrison, Van – It’s Too Late to Stop Now - Van the man puts out a dead solid live album with this. A bunch of hits are here, along with tracks I don't recognize, and all of them sound great. Vans in amazing voice, and the band is even better. It's a recommend!


0309 Mitchell, Joni – Court & Spark - Joni puts out a fine album here, and I will place money, without peeking, that's it's the last of hers to appear on this list. It really is a fine album, but not as good as "Blue". Her voice is starting to show some limits, and many of the arrangements veer from being too jazzy to being a bit corny. If you like Mitchell, this will be fine, but not as a first time go around.


0310 Queen – II - Queen make a glorious appearance on the list, with an album that has none of their hits on it. This is usually a black mark, but it ends up this was pretty good. It's completely over the top, because it's Queen, and that type of bravado is always appealing when it works. And it works here. Yay Queen!


0311 Roxy Music – Country Life - I still think that this album is popular more for the pervy cover then the actual music. Not terrible, but it's a little too full of itself .


0312 Tangerine Dream – Phaedra - This is more of an ambient soundtrack to a movie that never got made then a proper album. In my biased opinion anyways. I don't see the point of random sounding synth noise with little to no beat or melody.


0313 Sparks – Kimono My House - This is just what I needed after Tangerine Nightmare! A peppy little pop album that sounds bizarrely Asian despite not being Asian at all. I enjoyed it, and it will be getting a couple more spins which is about as highly rated as this list gets.

See? Nice surprises by wonderkind producer Brian Eno sets us up, and Sparks let us off the ride with a smile on our faces. Makes up for the Tangerine Dream and Eric Clapton!

Till next time

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!