So here I am, having passed 10% of the albums. It continues to be a rather anglocentric exercise, with most albums from the US, UK and Canada.
No discoveries of albums in this tranche that I subsequently added to my collection. But the exercise is exposing me to records I've not played before, which has to be a good thing even if it confirms my existing taste!
| 100 | The Band | The Band | 2 |
3.37
|
| This is a rather dull album of country inflected rock, with insipid lyrics. | ||||
| 99 | Selling England By The Pound | Genesis | 3 |
3.17
|
| I haven't played this in years since I lost interest in this style of music. I'm really not keen, though I get the point of the album, and Collins' drumming is great. A pleasant enough set of songs to listen to. | ||||
| 98 | I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got | Sinead O'Connor | 4 |
3.14
|
| Lovely voice, but I get the feeling I being lectured, even gently. Not really to my taste. | ||||
| 97 | School's Out | Alice Cooper | 3 |
3.2
|
| While I hadn't played this album before, I was familiar with the title track. After listening to the album several times, I reckon that School's Out (the track) is fantastic, but that the rest of the album doesn't quite match it. | ||||
| 96 | Hunky Dory | David Bowie | 4 |
4.02
|
| The first great Bowie album, this is chock full of excellent songs - it's where he demonstrated serious songwriting talent. Big Warhol/Factory/VU influence here in some of the songs. | ||||
| 95 | The Wildest! | Louis Prima | 2 |
3.56
|
| Well this is fun to listen to, but it's not something that appeals to me for repeated plays! | ||||
| 94 | Third/Sister Lovers | Big Star | 3 |
2.77
|
| This album seems to have something of a complicated history, with several versions having been released over the years - I think I played the 1992 Rykodisk edition, minus the bonus track. I was familiar with two of the songs ("Holocaust" and "Kanga Roo" through their covers by This Mortal Coil. I like the cover of "Femme Fatale". On first listen, I thought this album OK. On second listen, I liked several tracks, but not the whole album. I listened to the album a third time, and I felt it sounded a bit patchy and unfinished. | ||||
| 93 | Young Americans | David Bowie | 3 |
3.64
|
| Well, I think this isn't one of Bowie's best albums, though I do like 'Fame'. | ||||
| 92 | Ray Of Light | Madonna | 2 |
2.97
|
| Oh this is a rather dull album. | ||||
| 91 | The Köln Concert | Keith Jarrett | 3 |
3.36
|
| Well, this is a pleasant album to listen to, though it doesn't grab my attention and noodles away quite soothingly in the background. The back story to the recording (in the wikipedia article) is interesting. | ||||
| 90 | Marquee Moon | Television | 5 |
3.49
|
| This is a classic mid-70s guitar album. Every track is excellent. And look at Verlaine's hands in Mapplethorpe's cover photo! | ||||
| 89 | Hard Again | Muddy Waters | 5 |
3.63
|
| Recorded towards the end of his storied career, this is a cracking album by Muddy Waters - rousing Chicago electric blues by the master (and produced by Johnny Winter, whose backing yelps are audible). Every track is great. Excellent stuff. | ||||
| 88 | Strange Cargo III | William Orbit | 3 |
2.82
|
| I new of William Orbit as a producer for other artists' records, but I'd not listened to any of his own albums before. On my first play, I thought this was nice enough, but not particularly outstanding. | ||||
| 87 | The Lexicon Of Love | ABC | 4 |
3.09
|
| In the early 1980s, ABC burst onto the UK music scene with a wildly refreshing cleanly produced pop music. ABC didn't sit well with my tastes at the time (severe post-punk) with its combination of polished pop and occasionally really trite lyrics. In retrospect, the album is quite an achievement of pop production though quite where it should sit in the firmament of the greatest albums I'm not sure. It's difficult to pick out the best tracks - the whole album seems to me at the same level. | ||||
| 86 | Sign 'O' The Times | Prince | 3 |
3.46
|
| I've never been a particular fan of Prince, and I've never playing this record before. On first listen, I was quite pleasantly surprised. However, as the album proceeds, I think there are some weaker tracks there - in fact, the last track 'Adore' is really pretty awful. Overall, this might have been a stronger album has a bit stricter quality control been applied. | ||||
| 85 | The Hour Of Bewilderbeast | Badly Drawn Boy | 2 |
3.18
|
| I didn't find this a particularly exciting or engaging album to listen to. | ||||
| 84 | Disraeli Gears | Cream | 3 |
3.47
|
| I think this album marks the beginning of a heavier blues rock style of music, and Cream were one of the early 'supergroups'. I don't think this style of music has stood the test of time, but I do think it was quite an influential album. | ||||
| 83 | Me Against The World | 2Pac | 2 |
3.27
|
| This is an astonishingly boring record. | ||||
| 82 | Born To Run | Bruce Springsteen | 3 |
3.62
|
| This album is Springsteen's jump to major league stardom, and the title track is a classic stadium track. Springsteen worked really hard at making this album as strong as it is. The title track is the most recognisable and is very anthemic, though Springsteen's music isn't generally to my taste. I love the cover. | ||||
| 81 | Pearl | Janis Joplin | 4 |
3.71
|
| I never really listened to Janis Joplin much before this. This is a great album, except for "Me and Bobbie McGee", where my dislike of country music trumps my liking for Joplin's voice. I wonder what the album would have been like had Joplin lived to properly complete it. And I wonder what her career would have been like. | ||||