The Who - Quadrophenia

 

The sixth studio album by The Who and the second one that took on a concept album of being a rock opera. This time, as hinted at by its front cover, the main storyline covers a working class mod and his struggles with his own identity, relating to his parents' acceptance, his use of amphetamines staying in jobs that he doesn't enjoy and keeping up with his peers. After being shunned by The Who at a concert (yep they feature in their own story), he goes on a train to Brighton to relive the experiences of his youth only to find that the former leader of his gang has now taken on a menial job and moved on. He breaks down, steals a boat and sails out to a rock overlooking the sea and contemplates his life choices, it is ambiguous what happens to him after that. While production of the album was difficult for the group and caused relations to sour and the resulting tour no better, the album was a good success on release and contributed to the mod revival movement of the 1970s and resulted in a film adaptation.

 

I'm not sure why they picked their second concept album over Tommy or Who's Next which seem widely regarded as their best work, but I was interested to hear this anyway as I always really like concept albums, I just really love the thought of hearing music tell a story and this is certainly a very cinematic and ambitious opus. It's a bit of a long one, but worth it as you do really see the deterioration of the main character through the music and witness the changes as it goes along, the huge production, large orchestra and synthesizers make it a really lusciously dramatic and well composed album. Particularly towards the end, the songs get really long and dramatic at the peak emotional climax to Jimmy's journey. You can also see in the title track and The Rock, the instrumentals on the album the scope of the rock symphonic orchestra that accompanies the album, there's also impressive use of imitations of ambient sounds reflecting the surroundings like beach and seagull sounds. It's very much an album of two halves - the first half where we're introduced to Jimmy is pretty upbeat and has upbeat stadium ready rock which wasn't overly interesting before going more sombre before properly bursting to life on 5:15 (the time of the train he takes to Brighton), I'd heard bits of this before but this is a very easy standout as it's somehow an anthemic and singalong song yet it's bittersweet as it's clearly representing the deep psychological torment Jimmy faces on the train, it's a good midpoint for the album. The later tracks after Jimmy realises he may have no hope are suitably dramatic, Doctor Jimmy (despite it's rather questionable lyrics 'What is it? / I'll take it / Who is she? / I'll rape it' which I can only assume were a product of the 1970s where this term wasn't as taboo) and Love Reign O'er Me are wonderful numbers as dramatic and eclectically structured as they come. It's a fitting end.

 

The album isn't without it's problems, with how huge and towering its scope is, it can't help but feel a little overblown, certainly it could've been cut a little and I'm not sure how I feel about leaving it ambiguous as to what happens to him, but that might be the writer in me coming out that prefers closed endings. It's not exactly an album you can have on in the background music and requires real investment, so it may be an acquired taste, but even if it is, you can't help but admire the scope and work that went into it. It's as epic and cinematic as they come and they clearly put a lot in to this rock opera sound and it pretty much pulls it off, and it made me interested to check out their other rock opera albums. If you want to immerse yourself in a fully realised world with a gargantuan scope and rock sound behind it, then this is one for you (@Rollo, you must own this one?).

 

9.0

I like many of Kate Bush's singles but I've never listened to any of her albums. I should really rectify this so I'll start with Hounds Of Love.

 

It was only yesterday in Ireland that two women (one 17 years old and the other 23) were rescued after being lost at sea for 15 hours off the County Galway coast. They had been paddleboarding and got blown out to sea. They survived by clinging on to a lobster pot marker buoy.

 

 

I love the singles but haven't ever heard the full album. Was more in to singles back then but albums now.

Don't know Quadrophenia, never seen the film :o

 

I was never a massive Who fan, but Tommy is the one for me, I mean Pinball Wizard, See Me Feel Me, I'm Free and much more. All hits. There's nothing anywhere near as well known in Quadrophenia.

If you want to immerse yourself in a fully realised world with a gargantuan scope and rock sound behind it, then this is one for you (@Rollo, you must own this one?).

I don't own it or anything else by The Who. I do like a good dramatic concept album so I'll certainly have a listen to it on Spotify.

 

 

Blur - Parklife

 

Arguably the album that started it all for Britpop or at least put Blur on the map along with Oasis who released their debut in the same year. Parklife was their third studio album and a return to form after the disappointing sales of their last album and was their big commercial breakthrough attracting four hit singles. It would open the doors for many more bigger hits over the years, but this album is still seen as their best as really capturing the sound of modern day Britain at the time and contributing the wider Cool Britannia movement that defined the 1990s.

 

I've never explored Blur in depth, but I do really enjoy what I've heard from them. Damon Albarn comes from my home town so that certainly helps, and perhaps considering, it's more surprising that I'm more of a fan of those devil Northerners, Oasis. But while I understand comparisons like this were very common between these two, listening to this album soon after listening to Morning Glory makes me realise that it's rather superfluous as they really are quite different bands who just happened to be two young, competitive bands from Britain, and I think these albums are a good indication of their differences, because while Morning Glory was all about the huge choruses and anthemic guitars, Parklife is much more concerned with sonically adventurous songs with social commentary embedded that span a very wide array of genres. The diversity on offer is really impressive and not what I expected, there's ofc. the wonderfully electronic inspired Girls and Boys and there's also a section on the album where it goes in completely unexpected directions with the fast paced, punk rock Bank Holiday to the more restrained acoustic ballad Badhead to a dancehall-esque instrumental The Debt Collector to the spacey synths of Far Out to In The End (see below) and then going rather new age and 80s inspired with London Loves onwards, you really can never guess what's coming next which is always a good thing for me. As well as good sounds, there are some very smartly observed lyricism that varies from observations from everyday life that still maintain today with Parklife (with some additional cockney from Phil Daniels) and sometimes are tragic and relatable tales of how people are going nowhere in life, End of a Century is a good example that would've probably been more relevant at the time but the lyric 'end of a century / it's nothing special' is such a simple yet wryly observed reaction to something that was probably inescapable. My favourite one that I didn't already know was To The End, a heartbreaking tale of a couple that couldn't last the distance that is accompanied by a beautiful orchestra and sweeping strings straight out of a 1940s movie and even some spoken French it gives it such a grand, epic feel.

 

I was really impressed with this album overall, the second half is less impressive than the first overall (though none were quite as bad as Bank Holiday, don't need to hear that again oops) it was very diverse and had some great, relatable lyrics that could only come from a London or UK native and did make me realise that they were much more diverse than I originally gave them credit for, and has made me realise how that Blur vs Oasis was a bit of a load of shit as they were very much both doing their own thing and didn't warrant much comparison outside of both being similar-ish base genres, but what's new with the media? This is a great album nonetheless that really set the seeds of creativity that Albarn would go on to flourish with inside and outside of this band and has made me interested in exploring further material from them.

 

8.5

Love Parklife, so much better than Morning Glory although as you say, not really comparable albums and very different bands. Blur was doing, well, lots of things but especially this lovely meld of electronic and indie rock that comes through very well on most of the tracks.

 

Lyrics are also a highlight, Parklife (the track) has always been the most attention capturing on here for that, but most of them have an interesting take on some aspect of 90s London culture. Very good summation.

Blur were more diverse than Oasis, more arty, but I love both. To The End is still my jaw-dropping-god-it's-beautiful Blur moment, yet I've never got round to buying the album - bought the singles instead, so still a treat in store for me I'm sure :)

I mean I did prefer Morning Glory a lot, but again, kind of unfair comparison as I was very familiar with that for years and I only got round to this this year!

 

 

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend

 

A legend indeed. The artist that put Jamaican and Rastafarian music on the map and has become an icon of Jamaican culture over the years and argued some harsh political truths. Bob Marley was active since the 1960s but was only really noticed and had great success in the 1970s before his tragic death in 1981 due to Melanoma. In the wake of this, all of his hits were put together on the album Legend, containing all ten of his UK hit singles and a few selected cuts from his earlier work. It has been seen as a definitive guide to his music and much like Gold and Immaculate Collection, has become a staple of every music buyer's collection and is the world's best selling reggae album with 33 million copies sold worldwide and has spent 932 weeks in the top 100 of the UK album chart, the third longest of all time, only behind ABBA and Queen's Greatest Hits albums.

 

Another Greatest Hits then, but then again, if you want a definitive album from Bob Marley in his very short career, this is definitely the one that gives you a basic overview of his most well known songs. I knew the majority of these songs and yeah, they're all pretty great. You can't discredit Bob Marley, his music was unique and likeable and he had a vision and brought the sounds of Jamaica to the world and had a clear vision of a freer world and is pretty much still the first name most will think of when you think reggae music. Ofc. there was some compromise in his huge success and a lot of these songs are still super pop radio-friendly and accessible, but they're pretty timeless however much they've been rinsed by the radio. Jammin', Three Little Birds, Could You Be Loved and Stir It Up are probably my favourites of his super well known stuff, but unlike Madonna and ABBA where I knew the majority, there was a fair few I wasn't as familiar with, mainly the very few that you don't hear so much on the radio that reflected more of his activist and political side. Redemption Song is one which advocates for the Pan-Africanism which he stood for and is a haunting and beautiful very subtle with just Marley's voice and an acoustic guitar, I can see why it's often praised as one of his best songs. I Shot the Sheriff is a pretty frantic yet fun number especially considering the subject matter and Exodus which is a seven minute call to arms the current search for acceptance by comparing Moses leading the Israelites to Egypt in search of freedom for the Rastafarians. He may have had a happy and likeable image in general, but there was definitely a defiant activist in there that isn't often given attention, he was staunchly in favour of legalising marijuana for example.

 

There is an argument that the album is too sanitised and radio friendly for a figure that did have a sharper edge to a lot of his material and wanted to promote activism in his music, I mean I certainly wouldn't have known about his radical edge going by his most well known songs that are played on the radio so I do kind of agree, however if that was stuck to, the album certainly wouldn't have sold as well and stayed as ubiquitous as it was and his legend may not have been as big as it was, so while it may not be truly definitive, it certainly does promote his message of positivity as well as really making clear the contribution he made to bringing reggae and Jamaican music to the forefront of popular culture, and there is certainly still the seeds of his more activist side scattered there too. It's a respectable and pretty comprehensive section of one of the most popular artists of his genre, and if that continues to keep his legacy going throughout generations and keeps his name ubiquitous in pop culture, that can't be a bad thing.

 

8.0

Parklife remains a great album and as you say, was very much a career-saver for Blur - hence the title of the follow-up album. A lot of it shows Damon Albarn's reverence of Ray Davies as a songwriter which is a very good thing. Blur v Oasis was always a bit of a nonsense. There were plenty of people, including me, who were big fans of both. I even made a point of wearing a Blur t-shirt to Oasis gigs and vice versa. Blur, though, were the more interesting of the two, largely because Albarn took in so many more influences than the Gallaghers as his subsquent career (from Gorillaz to opera) has demonstrated.

I really enjoy Parklife still. My favourites are Badhead, End Of A Century, This Is A Low, To The End and Trouble In The Message Centre - the latter two in particular remain particular favourites :wub:

Bob Marley's album that should be on the list, really, was Exodus, recorded in the UK during a happening musical period after he skipped Jamaica following an assassination attempt (he was shot). 6 of the tracks were hits and are also on Legend. Jamaican reggae had been big before Marley broke through (Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff especially) but they had been big on singles only. Exodus made reggae a serious album artform, and Marley a world success. He'd had success as a writer (with hit songs Stir It Up recorded by Johnny Nash, and I Shot The Sheriff by Eric Clapton) and a live act (No Woman No Cry live recording was his breakthrough) but Exodus was political, religious, social commentary & relationship all in one.

 

And most importantly it gave us the immortal line, "How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts?"

 

Wi jam in!

 

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

 

The seventh studio album from Elton John and released as a double album. It contains some of his best known hits and has sold 33 million copies worldwide. It was recorded in France after problems recording at the intended location in Jamaica, and you can hear some of his intended Jamaican tributes on one of the album's songs. It is widely known as his strongest album and has been included on many all-time best lists.

 

Something of a mixed bag this one, double albums very rarely don't have filler given how many songs there are on there and this is definitely the case here too. Fortunately, the highs are amongst his best singles, I confess there was a time that most of my knowledge of Elton John's back catalogue came from the Lion King, but this album allowed me to become familiarised with some of his biggest hits. Candle in the Wind, before it was turned into absolute mush, is actually a very well written and smartly realised song about Marilyn Monroe's death, and from what I know about Princess Diana, the original lyrics could've fit her very well as well so it's almost a shame it was rewritten (albeit probably necessary at the time). Elsewhere, the title track is really excellent, as well as a beautiful choice of metaphor with the film, it's also a vocal powerhouse in the chants in chorus that feels truly anthemic, the album opener is a part instrumental combination of two songs Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding which opens with five minutes of epic piano playing that really get you enthusiastic for the album followed by an epic guitar singalong. This Song has no Title and I've Seen That Movie too are also really good lyrically as well as musically.

 

Based on the first half, I was really ready to give this a glowing review but...then the second half happened. Where there is some truly trashy and dated stuff here, sometimes it's harmless but just a bit crap and these days, probably a little problematic like Jamaica Jerk Off, it's the sort of white person doing Jamaica routine that should definitely be left in the past, but that's not too bad compared to some of these extremely misogynistic lyrics. Sweet Painted Lady with such delightful lyrics as 'getting paid for getting laid / I guess that's the name of the game', Dirty Little Girl 'Someone Grab that bitch by the ears / Rub her down, scrub her back / Cause I bet she hasn't had a bath in years' (:mellow:). There's also some very questionable songs focused on marginalised groups in society like All The Girls Love Alice and Social Disease, it may be commentary but they're so meanly written that it's so hard to know if you're meant to sympathise with them or not (choice lyrics: 'She couldn't get it on with boys in the scene / but what do you expect from a chick that's just sixteen? 'One or two middle aged dykes in a go-go / but what do you expect from a sixteen year old yo-yo', 'I dress in rags, smell a lot / I'm a genuine example of a social disease'). Now I'm sure Elton is not bigoted (he's gay himself for one), he may not have even written these as he did work with Bernie Taupin as his chief songwriter and times were very different then, and I'm certainly not one to call 'cancelled' for something almost fifty years old, but still...it's eyebrow raising to say the least and I found it just a little bit too distracting.

 

Outside of that though, the music just gets a bit samey after a while, so many of these could've been eradicated from existence and the album would not be any worse for wear. So yes, a mixed bag, very much so. Some wonderful moments in the first half but unfortunately a mainly pretty dreadful and uncomfortable second half. I do really think this could've been cut and none of the quality lost, A positive is that most of the questionable moments were kept as album tracks and the singles remain really high quality and do represent the best side of this album. Check those out if you don't know them, just know a lot of this album is definitely left in the past.

 

6.5

And with that, we're halfway through! :o :cheer: Thanks for all the comments so far, I appreciate all of them even if I'm not directly replying to them all. I will aim to keep 4 or 5 a week until the end of the year where we can hopefully finish, although I have somewhat fallen behind on this target so far, so we may be waiting longer :kink: It'll be finished though, fear not~

tbh I'm just amazed you've made it halfway through - you clearly have commitment!

What can I say, I start what I finish! It's been helped by the fact I've had loads of free time over the summer as I couldn't go away, that may not be the case when I return to work in a week's time but I am 90/100 through in the list real time so it'll soon just be the writing up I need to do.

 

I agree about double-albums, sometimes less is more. I only relatively recently bought this and played it once or twice, there's a brilliant single album in here, I'd just cherry pick, bung on a playlist or CD and you probably really do have the best album of his career. Don't Shoot Me is good, Too Low For Zero fab, both are just the right length :)

 

Dr Dre - The Chronic

 

After first pioneering the rise of gangsta rap with the group N.W.A, Dr. Dre released his first solo album in 1992, named after a slang term for high grade cannabis. Though it was a solo album, there was a whole host of guest appearances that, sometimes taking over tracks entirely, as I suppose was customary for albums of this time. Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Doggy Dogg as he was known at the time) in particular pretty much features on every track even uncredited, being one of his proteges. While it wasn't a huge success here, it still eventually sold 3 million worldwide. It's influence has remained through the years and it was largely seen as one of the most important albums for West Coast Hip Hop, bringing gangsta rap to the mainstream and it has been particularly praised for its production, popularising G-funk and use of synthesisers in rap music.

 

This is the first of many 90s gangsta rap albums on this list that appear in close proximity to each other, coming from your average white geek that never listens to this kind of thing, very apt :magic: But despite not being that educated on this genre, I've kept an open mind and I've generally enjoyed my experience so far. While these albums are generally all quite low budget and minimalist sounding, preferring letting the beats and rhythms speak for themselves, this one, of all of what I heard in this list, definitely has the best production and feels the 'biggest' album that you can dance to as well as pay attention to the lyrics, which was characteristic of the West Coast style, and the glossy production and danceability of the songs is definitely a big strength of the album. The synths sounds pretty good and instrumentals really moved with the beat to make something you can definitely nod along to, Nuthin' But a G Thang (the spelling on this album is something else) is a particularly good use of this and one I've almost certainly heard before. In fact, a lot of the first half is very boppy, including Let me Ride and The Day the N****z Took Over. Now the lyrics can be a tad...braggadocios at times as characteristic of the genre, but there is some pretty good observations of social commentary as well, A N**** witta gun (yeah that word's used a lot here) is a really good tale of the many tales of violence that went on at the time in these impoverished areas. The first half is pretty strong, one thing that really brings the album down though is, well, the constant explicitness does get a little tiring, but that's the genre and they're unfiltered so that feels a moot point, but worse is these godawful 'skits'. These come up on a lot of these albums and I think they're meant to be like in-jokes or just the artist and their mates messing around in the studio to fill up time and while I get these aren't high budget affairs, they are AWFUL. Such terrible, juvenile and overly crass 'humour', I don't get them at all, there's a near three minute skit called The $20 Sack Pyramid which is a 'game show' hosted by Big Tittle Nickie which should tell you about the style of humour here, and then there's The Doctor's Office which is so disgusting and unfunny, I'm not even gonna attempt to describe it. I've really tried to blank it from my mind since.

 

However, despite the terrible skits, this is a pretty good album. The first half in particular has some wonderful production and shows the main strengths of the album and it still sounds really big and well produced to this day. The second half is less good but does have a hell of a lot of guest rappers which diversifies things if nothing else, even if it's hard to tell who's singing at some points. I can see how this album was so influential and you can easily hear echoes of this in modern hip hop and the sound isn't dated. Now let's see what the East Coast has to offer...;o

 

8.0

 

Nas - Illmatic

 

From the glossy and well produced sound that was coming out of the West Coast, in comparison the East Coast was a lot more grittier and harsher, making the rhythm and lyrics stand out amongst the minimalist other production. A great example of this and what truly bought this genre to the mainstream was Nas' Illmatic, his debut which told the harsh and unrelenting stories of inner-city New York and poetic style of delivery featuring multi-syllabic internal rhymes, while it wasn't a huge success at all when it was first released, it has been extremely influential, inspiring the revival of the New York rap scene and introducing the stylistic trend that would define the genre. It has since received academic attention as well and is still widely studied and influenced to this day, even if he would achieve greater commercial success, this is still seen as his main work.

 

A lot's been written about this album so I'm not saying anything new here, but I'd never checked it out and have somehow avoided discussion about it over the years, but here's my hot take. So as I hinted at, rather than the very glossy production of Dr Dre's album, Nas' one was very much stripped back and letting the beats and lyrics speak for themselves, it nicely reflects the very bare bones and impoverished and dangerous life he grew up with and he has a very concentrated and rhythmic flow that really makes you listen, and while it may not sound as 'nice' as the West Coast version, I confess I actually found this one to be of more merit as you really do get a sense of his story and get a sense for his lyrical talents. Also, he is very poetic in this, using a lot of wordplay and figurative language that is really quite impressive for someone that apparently dropped out of school. In It Ain't Hard to Tell, he references Aesop and many multi-rhyme lines that are very impressive (example: My man put the battery in my back, a difference from Energizer / Sentence begins indented, with formality / My duration's infinite, money-wise or physiology). The meaning behind his lyrics is never lost too, One Love is a particularly hard-hitting number whose verses are letters to incarcerated friends and addressing all that's gone on in their absence and sometimes revealing the sad humanity that lies behind their thug life. Nas never sugarcoats any of the thug life and being aware that any day could be his last where he lives, it may sound unthinkable, but this is how he lives and he is speaking with honesty, which only strengthens the authenticity. While lyrics are very much front and centre on this album, there are some nice and infectious choruses as well, It Ain't Hard to Tell has a great sampling of Human Nature by Michael Jackson and The World is Yours with it's quotable chorus, Represent also has a great symphonic bassline.

 

I think the best thing about this album and what pushes it ahead of Dr. Dre's in my book, is that there's no filler (and this was somewhat unintentional on his part, considering it was rush released to prevent it leaking). It's only nine tracks long and forty minutes, no goddamn skits except brief spoken moments that actually contribute to the themes of the album and it never loses track of its strengths or outstays its welcome (could maybe do without One Time 4 Your Mind, if only cos it doesn't add anything new and is standard braggadocio, but it's not too bad). It's a very contained, focused and innovative piece of work that really still holds a lot of its power thanks to its timely themes. I'd really recommend it if you'd like to see gangsta rap with a lot more thought put into it and one of the foundations of the genre.

 

9.0

 

Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet

 

Something a little different now! Slippery When Wet was the third studio album from Bon Jovi and the first to truly break them into the mainstream with a much more commercial sound and new help from renowned metal hit machine, Bruce Fairbairn. It contains some of their best known songs and while critically the response was somewhat lukewarm at the time and retrospectively, it was a massive commercial success, being their best selling album to date at 12x Platinum and ensuring they would last through the ages. It has become trademark for the 80s 'hair metal' sound, which could explain some of the later derision as the entire genre was turned on it's head and deemed as 'uncool' with the introduction of Grunge in the 1990s.

 

The first track on this album - Let It Rock - actually starts out quite murky and dark sounding as the buzzing guitars and pounding xylophone come in, making you think you are possibly in for something a bit more experimental and diverse than you're used to from them...before completely abandoning that sound and turning into literally every stadium 80s rock song you've ever heard, and that doesn't let out for this whole album. If you wanted a picture perfect representation of what rock was like the 1980s, you could play this album and get everything you need. Which I suppose is why it remains iconic...and dated. Yeah, I don't hate this sound but it's definitely a genre that was left in the 80s for a reason and which you only really need the true essentials. Fortunately, the album is home to some of Bon Jovi's most iconic songs which have stood the test of time - You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive and of course, Livin' on a Prayer and definitely save this album, the latter needs no introduction, generic as it may be, it's truly anthemic and etched into everyone's brain that you can't not sing along to it and the other two aren't as well known but still angsty, singalong anthems that get that stadium sound just right. I don't deny they were masters of this sound and this may have sounded a lot of fun at the time but now? There's not much else worth salvaging honestly, they clearly had a formula they were sticking to and every song adheres exactly to that cliched, stadium rock sound. I mean there's a song called Raise Your Hands on here - and yes it is every bit as generic as that title suggests. It's easy to see how this style wore out, perhaps through parody (thanks This is Spinal Tap) or for just rock evolving, it just sounds so dull and hopelessly of its time and it really is impossible to separate that these days, especially when rock would evolve to so much greater and interesting heights in the following decades.

 

Ofc. however dated it sounds, it was one of the first of its kind and while many of these 80s hair metal bands copied this sound faded to obscurity, Bon Jovi remained, while never particular critical darlings, they have maintained their anthemic, radio friendly rock sound over the decades and to this very day are still together so they obviously found something that worked, but this album really hasn't held up as well. It's very easy to see why it was so successful and the singles did genuinely strike gold and still maintain to this day, but everything else on this album just feels like botched re-recordings that are very much of their time. Keep the singles, hard pass on the rest.

 

5.5

Some of us who were around in the 1980s still thought Bon Jovi were the epitome of generic tripe :P