0021: The 100 Best Rock Albums (21-30)
Submitted by lbangs on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:26
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- 21. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys: These songs are almost impossibly delicate and beautiful, with the band truly sounding like boys confessing their deepest adolescent doubts and fears. Somehow, this album's conviction and remarkable music keep these songs from ever spilling over into precious goo. Brian Wilson was intent on creating a multi-layered masterpiece of harmonies, strings, accordions, flutes, saxophones, harmonicas, vibraphones, glockenspiels, Theremin, and coke cans. Every layer flows perfectly over the others, and the writing creates the bedroom of a lonely 14-year-old boy fearing the future. On second thought, this album is extremely precious after all.
- 22. Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966 - Royal Albert Concert - Bob Dylan: After spending decades as a bootleg, this album finally saw the light of day a few years ago. For fans who had never heard it, it was a revelation. Split into an acoustic and electric side, Dylan plays a well-chosen set of his classics with a passion missing from every other live album he ever released. Dylan was at the peak of his powers, and the crack set of musicians playing behind him on the second disc would eventually be known simply as The Band. During the initial disc, the crowd sits quietly through brilliant versions of Visions of Johanna, Desolation Row, and Dylan's best-ever performance of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. As soon as the second disc begins, however, the crowd, mostly folk fans who felt betrayed by Dylan's decision to plug in, explodes, and the previously polite audience does its best to stop the show. Dylan absorbs the obnoxious clapping, the heckles, and the slurs and flings it all back at the crowd inside his songs. The incident at the album's close is now legend, and Dylan delivers a blaring, blazing version of Like a Rolling Stones with more venom than anyone knew even he had. Make no mistake, this is the greatest live album in rock history and the best, most important CD of the last five years.
- 23. Otis Blue - Otis Redding: Otis Redding was simply the greatest male soul singer ever, and this album oozes with ecstasy and agony. Few singers in the late 60s would have dared to cover 3 Sam Cooke songs, but Redding even manages to perform Cooke's signature song, A Change Is Gonna Come, better than the master himself. He wrote Respect, a song Aretha Franklin would eventually make a hit. He remade The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, and he not only did not sound silly, but he also reinvented the song to the extent that it sounded completely at home on a soul record. He turned I've Been Loving You Too Long into one of the paragons of classic soul. The miracles on this album never cease, and Redding's singular voice, both smooth and gritty and loaded with raw emotion and sophistication, never spoke as clearly or as bone-jarringly direct as it does here. If you love soul, you must have this album.
- 24. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan: Never has a major talent erupted so calmly. Dylan's debut proved him to be an above-average folk singer with little impact on the world at large; this, his second album, changed the world and ignited a decade. Sure, Dylan simply sang songs accompanied by a guitar and occasional harmonica breaks, but the songs burst into flames. Blowin' in the Wind introduced introspective thoughts that would lead to the culture of the 60s, and Masters of War was one of the very best protest songs ever written. These may have excited listeners, but the painfully sad, sweet Girl from the North Country made them cry, and the perfect Don't Think Twice, It's All Right managed to express every emotion involved in lost love in a few simple minutes. Dylan saw a way to make folk songs both political and personal, and his ragged, whispered voice gave the impressions that someone was telling the most intimate of secrets. It may be amazing for some to believe a simple folk album could lead to everything this album set off, but they have obviously never heard this impossibly literate, touching, and rebellious work before.
- 25. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground: While the debut knocked the world flat, this album pricked it with a needle and watched the air bleed out. Forsaking the wild noise of their previous albums, the band deflates their roar, picked up their acoustic guitars, and created a warm yet tired masterpiece of unpronouncable emotions always beyond understanding. This is the burn out the first two albums threatened, but somehow, the band has never sounded better. Many of Reed's best and most haunting songs, such as Pale Blue Eyes and Candy Says, are here, and sleeze and mercy sit cheek to cheek with songs such as Jesus and Beginning to See the Light following each other. An odd combination of opposites that never sounds less than perfect and natural, this under-sung masterpiece quietly waits to be rediscovered.
- 26. Achtung Baby - U2: Despite the protests from fans who came of age in the late 80s, this is U2's greatest hour. U2 created an entirely new sound while somehow managing to keep a tight grasp on the very elements that made them special to begin with, and the endlessly inventive textures and noises that gurgle through this album are rooted within Bono's greatest songs yet. With The Joshua Tree, the band searched for answers while making grand statements. Here, the band ditches the statements for a darkly personal album that collapses the political concerns of the band into the scope of personal relationships. This album's popularity tends to hide its disturbing, troubling nature, but moments of grace shine through. U2 has been trying to recapture this sense of adventure and genius ever since, but Achtung Baby still stands as their peak, a moment where the band stripped naked and began to make miraculous music from mad poundings and thrashings in the night.
- 27. Murmur - R.E.M.: Where did this album come from? Or, perhaps the real question, when did this album come from? Despite titles of their other works, this is truly the disc out of time, sounding both ancient and contemporary at once. The guitars rang like the Byrds, the bass and drums are swampy, and Stipe's cryptic vocals sound like messages from the afterworld whispering during a seance. Like that kudzu on the cover, the music grows over you until it claims you forever. Rock's greatest debut, Murmur is an eternal mystery.
- 28. Purple Rain - Prince & The Revolution: While Sign O' the Times usually receives the acclaim for its non-commercial mad genius vibe, this is Prince's masterpiece. Prince's creativity and focus were both at their peak here, and as a result, he created a sound no less unique yet instantly pleasing than the Beatles' early Liverpool beat. James Brown and pure pop give birth to a music that took the world by storm, and the songs, while undeniable odd, were strong enough that even radio and MTV could not deny them. Rarely do songs such as When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, and Purple Rain work perfectly both as parts of an album and as singles, and there is not a weak second on the album. It is unbelievable that music this strange and new captured the public as thoroughly as Purple Rain did, especially as a soundtrack to a failed film, but then, there has never been a soundtrack as exciting, cohesive, and brilliant as Purple Rain.
- 29. Exile in Guyville - Liz Phair: Hard to believe the tremors this sent through the rock world in 1993. This is, after all, simply an album of folk songs played as sparse rock by a new woman on the scene. Those songs, however, were shocking. Sure, they were vulgar and rude in parts, but the shock was how well-written, insightful, and evocative the words and melodies were. Much has been made about its revamping of Exile on Main Street, but perhaps it is best to simply hear this album as the unique, assured debut it is. Phair wrote hauntingly personal songs of heartbreak and longing and found a style to convey her emotional songs in a way both modern and classic. She melded lo fi and classic Stones-based rock, and nobody really thought this could be done. That Phair not only did it but did it so stunningly was utterly unpredicted, and though she hasn't approached equalling this classic, her reputation is still firm based on this sole album. On only one listen, these songs already make a permanent home inside your mind. Here's hoping she has more to shock us with in the future.
- 30. Apple Venus, Pt. 1 - XTC: The first song is simply breathtaking, a marvelous and inventive merger of classic pop and orchestral splendor. It may well be the best song on this album, but just barely. After a 7-year break from releasing music, XTC returned in 1999 with this huge leap forward, an album that even eclipses their previous Skylarking. The music is beautiful but never stale, and enough wit and sorrow seeps in to keep the music from being a simple exercise in beauty. Not that the endlessly gorgeous music needed any leavening, as the melodies on this work are flawless and instantly memorable. I believe this is the newest album to grace this list, and its high showing should speak volumes to its quality. I venture that this album will only ascend as time proves its measureless worth.
Author Comments:
Influence and historical importance mean nothing here. Each and every album is ranked based solely on its own artistic merits. All official releases are fair game; only bootlegs are not considered. This is it - the best rock albums ever.
I will be adding entries as time allows. The list is complete, but I wish to write a bit about each album, so it may be a week or two until all albums are listed. I hope to add at least two or three entries each weekday and more if I have the chance.
Creating this list hurt. Great albums were left on the cutting room floor, and sadly, I fear albums near the bottom of the list may be looked down upon. Make no mistake - any album on this list is a fantastic work well worth your time. The difference between closely ranked albums was microscopic at best.
To prevent this list's size from becoming prohibitive, I am breaking the hundred entries into blocks of ten.
I'm a diehard U2 fan and I aplaud you on the albums you chose from U2 for your list. Achtung Baby is my favorite U2 album, and The Joshua Tree has some amazing artistic merit to it. The band memebers commented that Achtung Baby is the sound of 4 men chopping down the Joshua Tree and that it's 12 takes on an obsession. The Joshua Tree feels a lot more raw to me, in it's sound, but i think both of them are really terrific albums. I agee though, that Achtung Baby is the better of the two. Each song on that album is completly diferent from the one before, and yet, they are all the same on some level. The underlying concept about love caries through the entire album. And all I can say to your obvious incredible knowledge of rock is...wow!
Thanks for the compliments. Yes, I love Achtung Baby, although The Joshua Tree and War are also fantastic albums. I remember writing for a newspaper when the Achtung disc first arrived. I wrote a beaming review and was quite shocked to see the number of negative mail I received for it. Fans of Tree felt betrayed by both the band and me! I still stand by the assessment I made then; Achtung is (so far) U2's finest moment, and easily one of the best albums to arrive in the 90s!
Again, I appreciate your comments. I've been rather tardy finishing this list, but your comments encourage me to get on the ball and to finish the final 15!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs