Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 06:29:14 PM

Login with username, password and session length

VW's Top 1000 Albums

Started by The Boston Crab, March 07, 2009, 10:55:57 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Well, here we are. The simplest way is to follow the formatting/post layout. If anyone's got complaints/ideas/suggestions about how this is running, please post them in the 'Rules' discussion thread

1000. Jay Dee - Donuts



Released:   February 7, 2006
Genre:   Hip hop, instrumental hip hop
Label:   Stones Throw
Producer:   J Dilla

Let's skip the sad circumstances surrounding this album, recorded effectively on his deathbed and get straight into why I'm nominating it. This, to me, is the essence of great hip-hop: assimilation and reinvention. It's a pure cut-and-paste album, built entirely from samples, often fairly obvious ones. It's what he does with them that makes it. He dissects sounds like SebastiAn can only do in his sickest dreams. It's almost impossible to pick out the choice cuts because it's crammed start to finish with wildly detailed sketches, 31 tracks clocking in at an average of minute and a half. You feel he tried to pack everything into this, knowing he didn't have long left. It's definitely hip-hop which appeals to electronic music fans but there's so much melody and warmth in there, I can see this hitting the spot for anyone who just enjoys a tune and a groove. I've uploaded a couple of consecutive tracks to give you a feel of how he just hammers an idea, makes his point and then bang, what's next? The filler is killer. I rank this above Endtroducing...

http://sharebee.com/902d1934 Two Can Win
http://sharebee.com/227f3892 Don't Cry

Can't wait to see what you've got.

p.s. Sharebee links are good because they host at multiple sites, helpful for those who can't access certain places (I mean me).

boxofslice

999. Gene Clark - No Other



Released: December 1974
Genre: Rock
Label: Asylum Records
Producer: Thomas Jefferson Kaye

After leaving The Byrds, Gene Clark produced some great records such as 'The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark' and 'White Light' but it wasn't until 1974 that he would release his masterpiece, 'No Other'. Written while at his Northern California home overlooking the Pacific ocean, the album has a reflective and contemplative tone - Clark examining his own life and relationships in such songs as 'From a Silver Phial' and 'Some Misunderstanding'. The production is also worthy of note, taking over a year to record and at some expense at the time, the record has some lush arrangements on tracks like 'Silver Raven' and 'Strength of Strings'. Sadly the album was overlooked on it's release; critics at the time called it bloated, overblown and pretentious but now, as with so many other criminally judged records, it's regarded as a 'lost' classic.
Although being a fan of the Byrds early records, I didn't happen across this record until 1999 thanks in part to a Guardian list of overlooked records. At the time it was only available on CD through Japanese import at a cost of £20 I think but worth every penny. It's an album that opens and reveals with every listen and showcases what a superb and diverse songwriter Clark was. Thankfully it was re-released on CD in this country a few years later with bonus tracks including, among others, a marvellous stripped down version of 'Some Misunderstanding'. If you don't have, get.


http://sharebee.com/5cbf55c3 Life's Greatest Fool
http://sharebee.com/52eeac23 Some Misunderstanding

I've been trying to like Gene Clark's 'No Other' for years, as it's held up as a cult classic.  I also love The Byrds and Gram Parsons, so what is it about 'No Other' which, so far, has never clicked with me?

Artemis

998. Michael Franti - Songs From The Front Porch



Released: June 2003
Genre: Acoustic, Experimental Rap
Label: Reincarnate Music
Producer: Michael Franti

This is the guy sings/raps with Spearhead, and this album was a limited pressing, released, at least originally, in Australia. Franti is a musician, poet and activist with an unwavering positivity, and that shines through his music. His lyrics are progressive and uplifting while touching on politics, drug use, anti-establishment principles ("Stealing DNA samples from the unborn / then you coming after us 'cos we sampled a James Brown horn?"), and just being alive ("We need to heed the words of Dali Lama / or at least the words of your mama"). There are few new songs here, it's mostly stripped down versions of previously released tracks but they work brilliantly and it's a beautiful little album; engaging, insightful, empowering. It's genre busting too, with hints of folk, hip hop, funk and just laid back smoothness.  It really does take you somewhere, and I love it to bits. It's also a great introduction to a musical outsider, someone who deserves far more credit and attention than he gets.

http://sharebee.com/9b0d2c1c Stay Human
http://sharebee.com/7a1f88b9 Oh My God

997. Operation Ivy - Energy



Released: 1989
Label: Lookout!
Producer: Kevin Army


Operation Ivy's debut (and only proper album) is a genre classic.  Widely belived to be the first ska-core album, it features a bunch of short, punchy tunes.  From the opener, 'Knowledge' (since covered by many), it's obvious these chaps meant business.  Despite being labelled ska-core, most of the album is full on punk, though Matt McCall's complex bass parts stop the album from being too generic. 

Whenever OpIV decide to lighten up, the ska moments are a joy.  'Sound System', 'Heathy Body' et al show obvious influces from the Specials' debut and The Clash's 'London Calling', albeit with more gusto.

Kevin Army's rather tinny production job lets the album down a little, but none of the energy is lost.  I've often wondered if the approach was down to a small budget, or whether it was partly in tribute to Elvis Costello's vinyl-sounding production used on the self-titled Specials debut LP.

In the mid 90s, this album was reissued on CD (re-titled 'Operation Ivy') featuring a bunch of bonus tracks.  The CD comprised 98% of the band's finished recordings, making it a must have.

After the band broke up, singer Jesse Michaels formed Common Rider, while Matt McCall (reverting to his real name, Matt Freeman) and Tim Armstrong formed Rancid.

buttgammon

#5
Does anyone mind if I go for a slightly obvious option at such an early stage?

996. David Bowie - Low



Released: 1977
Genre: Rock/Experimental/Ambient
Label: RCA
Producer: Tony Visconti and David Bowie

For David Bowie, often called 'the chameleon of rock' by lazy journalists, Low was this ultimate metamorphosis. Unlike a chameleon, he was shaping his surroundings rather than blending in with them. He had already taken a wild stab against the prevailing trends in pop music by making the Krautrock-inflected Station to Station but Low marked the time a world famous rock star truly moved over to the leftfield by collaborating with the massively influential (and often very experimental) Brian Eno.

The album symbolised a new beginning for Bowie, having left his Los Angeles nightmare for Berlin with Iggy Pop in tow and trying to finally 'kill' his former persona, the deluded coke addict who made Station to Station (something he finally did on the later single 'Ashes to Ashes').

The album is divided into two halves, the first side mostly consisting of short, vocal rock songs which are sprayed with electronic treatments and effects and the second side, four longer ambient pieces on which Eno's contribution to the album becomes clearer. 'Warszawa' and 'Subterraneans' in particular delve into the dark depths of Bowie's soul and these tracks rank among the most baffling and fascinating songs he has ever recorded. The rock songs generally feature a heavily distorted snare thwack and swirling synth noises and are often extremely brief, a far cry from the extended tracks of his previous album (the opener to Station to Station is over 10 minutes in length). Two instrumental tracks bookend the first side of the album but 'A New Career In a New Town" in particular is brilliant, starting with an electronic pulse which clearly shows that Kraftwerk's 'Radioactivity' was an influence on this album. The feeling of appreciation between Kraftwerk and Bowie was mutual and the German band namechecked 'Iggy Pop and David Bowie' on 'Trans Europe Express' soon after.

In spite of the experimental nature of the album, it sold well (though critical reactions ranged from praise to confusion) and Sound and Vision was a major hit single in spite of the fact that the intro is longer than the verse and the hi-hat sounds like something being tossed into a frying pan. The theme for the song is ultimately one of loneliness and withdrawal, which goes against the jauntiness of it but it still somehow fits. Probably more out of place is the rowdy, East End pub piano of 'Be My Wife', the other single taken from the album and another track with a very lonely sentiment. Bowie pleads for his estranged wife to come back to him, a glimpse of his state of mind at this time. When the track descends into a noodling guitar riff, I wonder how it all works. It sounds like a very lonely and depressed man expressing his angst by staging a musical as a Pearly King character. A rock musical.

As a radical meeting of the avant garde and the mainstream, a mega-star and an innovator of ambient music, Low helped to kick-start a new and fascinating era of experimentation for music, which saw popular bands become more willing to add more 'out-there' sounds into their music and electronic music gain huge mainstream success. Many of the post-punk bands (but most notably Joy Division) considered Low as much of an influence on their sound as the punk music which existed at a similar time, and the wide influence of the album on music still keeps spreading.

http://sharebee.com/3199f1c9 Sound and Vision
http://sharebee.com/f5d7e73f Subterraneans

Quote from: buttgammon on March 07, 2009, 04:50:41 PM
Does anyone mind if I go for a slightly obvious option at such an early stage?

Not at all.  After all, it's not in any particular order, is it?
While I'm here, since I can't locate my copy at the moment, if anyone has the Operation Ivy disc, could they upload 'Knowledge' and 'Sound System' as an addition to my entry please?  Thanks.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: buttgammon on March 07, 2009, 04:50:41 PM
For David Bowie, often called 'the chameleon of rock' by lazy journalists, Low was this ultimate metamorphosis. Unlike a chameleon, he was shaping his surroundings rather than blending in with them.
Well, to be a pedantic git, chameleons don't blend in to their surroundings either.

Emma Raducanu

#8
995. Goldmund - Corduroy Road



Released:   21 Feb 2005
Genre:   Piano, piano, piano
Label:   Type Music
Producer

Simple, beautiful surprises brighten life. A piece of fruit from a friend. A rain shower in sunny weather. These events inspire optimism. The commonplace feels suddenly benevolent, as if the world's grimy shell has cracked to reveal the luster beneath

Keniff cannot stray far from his beloved piano.

The production reflects his adoration for the instrument. The recordings capture the sound of his fingers on the keys, the depression of the pedals, and the click of the microphone as it turns off. Envision his piano, lights off, pushing the keys gently enough that they do not make a sound. If the image is eerily sensual, that's OK.

The music is too.


The simplicity of the album is its greatest asset. Keniff allows a note to die slowly before he proceeds to the next. The process is quietly wrenching. Each song becomes an homage to the sounds lost in its creation. To listen to the note return to silence is to be reminded of the greatness of music—its impermanent beauty.

Marching through Georgia (1 min)

http://sharebee.com/cbf7e2bd

Methusela Tree (8 mins)

http://sharebee.com/e3a15f64

EDIT:  Quoted rather than edited by mistake.  Move along, move along.

Retinend

Quote from: buttgammon on March 07, 2009, 04:50:41 PM
Does anyone mind if I go for a slightly obvious option at such an early stage?

996. David Bowie - Low

Great choice for a Bowie album, though. I think it's better to get the 'obvious' ones out of the way early, anyway.

Retinend

#11
#994

Todd Rundgren - Todd



Released:   December 1973
Genre:   Advant Garde, Prog-Rock, Rock, Power Pop
Label:   Bearsville
Producer:   Todd Rundgren

Rundgren fans are divided over this album. To put it in context, it was the 2nd of a set of a 3 albums which began with '73's playfully experimental 'A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR' and ended with '75's dense (but noodley) prog-rock masterpiece, 'INITIATION'. The albums were similar to Neil Young's 'ditch' trilogy in that they were an iconoclastic reaction to mainstream success. '72's 'SOMETHING/ ANYTHING' was very much Rundgren's 'HARVEST' (released in the same month no less). Some think this trilogy of albums represents Todd's best work, but a great deal more think that they were an interesting tangent which spun a great deal of essential tracks, but far more which were dull and masturbatory.

While 'A WIZARD, A TRUE STAR' and 'INITIATION' are both fine albums, 'TODD' is by far the best album to come out of this experimental detour (before recapturing the pop/rock sound which made him famous with 'FAITHFUL' and 'HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW'). The album is a schizophrenic and uneasy mix of genres - something which is often cited as a shortcoming. It does not ease you in, beginning with a severely monged crescendo of unintelligible spoken word, buzzing and repetitive electronic noises, a perfect build up to the first killer ballad, 'I THINK YOU KNOW'.

With the exception of the abrasive 'IN AND OUT THE CHAKRAS WE GO (FORMERLY: SHAFT GOES TO OUTER SPACE')', this album features some of Todd's most tight and appealing instrumental tracks, featuring the density of 'INITIATION's operatic compositions, but without the unecessary lenth. The superb 'SIDEWALK CAFE' is the best on the album, but the ambient waltz of 'DRUNKEN BLUE ROOSTER' and the dizzying heights of 'THE SPARK OF LIFE' are also great instrumental tunes; the kind you can only appreciate after multiple listens.

Todd's virtuosity has always lain in his ability for writing immaculate rock/ pop ballads, however, and 'TODD' doesn't disappoint. 'A DREAM GOES ON FOREVER' is a simple but moving, electric-piano led ditty, 'USELESS BEGGING' is a fantastically understated tune with a strange but perfectly suited 'windscreen-wiper' electronic effect, and 'IZZAT LOVE' is a simply sublime, immediately loveable, trademark Rundgren ballad, whose uplifting harmonies are the closest thing on the album to 'SOMETHING/ ANYTHING?'. 'I THINK YOU KNOW' and 'DON'T YOU EVER LEARN' are slow and deceptively simple ballads, but offset with an uneasy ambience. The standout track on the album, however, is the epic and heartbreakingly intimate 'THE LAST RIDE', featuring, near the end, one of Todd's most electrifying guitar-solos (one often forgets what an accomplished player he is) and a magnificent and immensely passionate, half-spoken lyrical delivery.

The rest of the double album does not quite match the quality of these ballads and instrumentals, but the bizarre 'ELPEE'S WORTH OF TUNES', with it's oblique appraisal of the music industry, the manic 'HEAVY METAL KIDS' and the final track, 'SONS OF 1984', with it's stirring chanted chorus, all add to the overall effect of the album. Though one has to be in a certain mood to appreciate 'TODD's wide spectrum of musical styles, It is this variety which makes 'TODD' such a fine showcase of Rundgren's talents and, in my humble opinion, the crowning achievement of his respectable repertoire.

http://sharebee.com/531721f0 - The Last Ride.mp3

Vitalstatistix

#993. The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows



Released: February, 2004
Label: Record Collection
Producer: Dave Sardy

The Walkmen's follow-up to their well-recieved, understated 2002 debut Everyone Who Pretended to Like me is Gone achieved breakout success largely due to the popularity of the exhilarating single "The Rat". The song, still a regular fixture at indie nights today, shapes cathartic, strained vocals over pummelling, frenetic drums, but its pace and vigour are unusual for this drunkenly introspective group.

Spoiler alert
"The Rat" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg8U3YG9wCA
[close]

What many fans of "The Rat" to this day fail to understand is that the genius of Bows + Arrows (and The Walkmen's whole ouevre) lays in the cuts which don't strain so much for your attention. Like many great albums, B+A requires time and patience, and pays off stunningly.

I love this album like an old drunken friend who always lightens up a party with his wit and cynicism. If we don't like the crowd or the music, we go outside and smoke cigarettes. We glare at other party-goers and drink whisky menacingly. I drink too much and swear too much when I'm with Bows + Arrows, but we get high together on a certain melancholic misanthropy. By the end of the night, Bows + Arrows is mumbling about some girl he once loved, but he's drunk too much booze so I take him home.

Music-wise, B+A is a reverb-drenched, luscious sounding trip. The guitars are distant and unshowy, the drums phenomenal, and the piano and organ at times heartbreaking. Vocalist Hamilton Leithauser's Dylanesque croon is compelling, always one or two drinks away from falling apart.

At a gig, I asked guitarist Paul Maroon if he ever gets pissed off that crowds get so excited for The Rat compared to his other stuff (new album You & Me is particularly exceptional), and he said "nah, it's a cool song, and it's fun to play."

Here are my two favourite songs. They are also the final two songs of the album. For most enjoyment, play loud, drink hard and think of the one which got away.


http://sharebee.com/3aac77f1 - "Thinking of a Dream"
http://sharebee.com/d22c40b9 - "Bows And Arrows"

ThickAndCreamy

#13
992

Grandaddy - Under The Western Freeway




Released: October 1997
Genre: Indie pop/Space rock/Lo-Fi
Label: Lakeshore Records
Producer: Jason Lytle

Beautiful is a label used so liberally to describe certain records, when in reality so few actually achieve this feat, however, Under The Western Freeway, Grandaddy's masterpiece truly deserves this label.

There's so few albums that manage to replicate the pure dream like beauty of this record, from hazy guitar riffs applied so nonchalantly throughout to the endearingly simple lyrics sung with such a magnificent tone of dreariness. The simplicity of the lyrics are a fantastic facade, making the whole album seem so easy to indulge in at first listen, but the more the record is placed the more it becomes obvious how intricate and deep the album is. That's not to say the lyrics are at all bad due to the marvellous underlying sadness and poignancy throughout them, mixing the pure ecstatic joy of the music with the cold, desolate lyrics so incredibly well. The key to the album is how fantastically the instruments supplement each other and how truly remarkable they sound. The drums on "Nonphenominal Lineage" for instance just sound so elongated, vast and expansive that the album almost delivers you into a glorious dream world, with the space like nature of the guitars and keyboard further implementing this view. Synths create a trance like expanse which the guitars parade so elegantly over.

The entire album just eminates pure beauty, it's a culmination of so many genres dominate in the 1990's, lo-fi, psychedelic pop, space rock and even elements of shoegazing. With the coming together of so many ideas and the explosion nature of the bands members the album should of been a disaster, instead they created one of the most accessible, graceful and dazzlingly exquisite indie rock records of all time.

Emma Raducanu

Sophtware Slump is (maybe) my favourite album ever.

Vitalstatistix

#15
...

Quote from: Retinend on March 07, 2009, 07:43:34 PM
Todd Rundgren - Todd

By coincidence, I was thinking about this album as I wrote my half-arsed appraisal of the Operation Ivy disc.  Everything I've heard from this Rundgren album is staggering.

Retinend

Quote from: trotsky assortment on March 07, 2009, 09:41:35 PM
By coincidence, I was thinking about this album as I wrote my half-arsed appraisal of the Operation Ivy disc.  Everything I've heard from this Rundgren album is staggering.

Glad you agree! I have no idea why it's so dismissed.

rjd2

Quote from: DolphinFace on March 07, 2009, 09:32:48 PM
Sophtware Slump is (maybe) my favourite album ever.

Agreed its really super. I shall nominate this record.....
Number 991
Reflection Eternal (Kweli + Hi Tek)-Train Of Thought
Released in 2000
Label - Rawkus



Kweli and Hi Tek – reflection Eternal....
Remember when rawkus were going to make hip hop all awesome? This record in my humble opinion is the highlight of their brief reign. Monch and Mos Def released fine albums, but this album which is Kwelis best work is the labels defining record. There are lots of highlights, such as Move Something which is total funk. Too Late a cautionary tale where Kweli clearly wary of the bloody hip hop scene imploring his peers to wise up is also very good. Love Language another track is simply beautiful.
Hi Teks beat are phenomenal on this record, and combined with Kweli one of the finest rappers of recent times at his peak make this Rawkus's finest moment.
Il upload some tracks later....

CaledonianGonzo

Strong start, folks.  I'll check in this evening (hopefully), once I've narrowed it down to one album..

In the meantime, did anyone else have issues with TBC's tracks?  I seem to keep downloading corrupted files.

I'll get on the re-up later then. Thanks for pointing that out, Gonzales.

As for narrowing it down, I think crack on at will. I understand the motive behind the relevant suggestion in the rules discussion but realistically, I don't think anyone's going to dominate a thread like this...unless it slows to a crawl.

Emma Raducanu

990. Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender



Released:   3 May 2004
Genre:   Harp and shrieking
Label:   Drag City

When you listen to The Milk-Eyed Mender, what immediately jumps out at you is Newsom's voice; it's a trembling wail that ranges from plaintive purring to savage screeching, the multitracked harmonies cast over harpsichord, pitched somewhere between a shrieking banshee and a hive of bees.

Her tremendous voice takes The Milk-Eyed Mender to all kinds of magical, mournful places.


En Gallop

http://sharebee.com/f8ae4159

The Book Right On

http://sharebee.com/4df03422

Emma Raducanu

989 Miles Davis - In a silent Way



Released: 1969
Genre: Jazz
Label: Columbia

In a Silent Way is a foreboding and deeply meditative record that has an almost spiritual quality, low-lying, silent feel. Gone were the funky up-tempo tracks, replaced with two long tracks with sparse arrangements that relied more on atmosphere than any of Miles' earlier records.

Opening with the subtle and quiet "Shhh/Peaceful," the record begins a soothing adventure. In a Silent Way is a one of kind record that mixed the late-'60s pop and underground movement into the jazz realm.

An absolutely timeless work that proves that Miles Davis and crew were some of the most innovative thinkers in modern music.


Uploading one of the songs is taking me too long at 36mb. That's the last of me any way till others have their turn!

buttgammon

Brilliant choice, DolphinFace. That's one of my favourite Miles albums and one of the most fascinating jazz albums ever recorded. I know we're only on the first page but I could imagine that still figuring in my top ten albums mentioned in this thread by the end of it.

CaledonianGonzo

988.  Queen – Queen II



Released:  8 March 1974
Genre:  Art-school Rock
Label:  EMI
Producer:  Queen and Roy Thomas Baker

Yes, Queen.  Even their most ardent admirers would concede that they're probably better represented in edited highlights and that, post-A Day at the Races, appreciating their oeuvre can be an exercise in cherry-picking and Hot Space-avoiding, but in 1974 they released their second album and I'm calling it out as an under-appreciated minor-classic*

Queen often get knocked, but it's difficult to slate them for not being diverse.  It's almost unimaginable that the band who issued a succession of relatively frothy and undemanding 80s pop singles were, only a decade earlier, crafting this complex, sublime-to-the-ridiculous swinging, mock-operatic minor masterpiece.

Operatic?  Before you leave the thread disappointed (like so many people before you), it's probably best to point out that it's not, not really.  But then neither is 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  Due to over-familiarity and 'classic' single status, it's easy to forget that Queen's calling card is, at heart, just a really, really good tune.  It mutates into another really good tune, has a bit of a gimmicky bit, but at the heart of it there's some world class song-writing going on, and it's maybe due for a bit of serious reappraisal whereas it's often regarded as a bit of a joke.

As is the case here.  For what Queen II has, in abundance, are tunes.

In this early, moustache-free incarnation, Queen were demonstrably a synthesis of their influences, and the DNA of their sound is pretty easy to trace.  It's a meld of The Who without the delusions of intellect, Led Zepp without the blues-screeching and The Beatles without the reverence for simplicity.  Add a swirl of Hendrix and a smattering of Sondheim and you're there.  And Queen II is the purest distillation of these influences and yet...and yet...something more...

For a start, it's not so much a concept album in matters of story, but more in matter of feel, in otherworldly tone.  There's a certain consistency of Spanish castle whimsy to it, of English reverie.  The record is split into two sides – radical, I know – the 'Side White' in and the 'Side Black', marking pretty much an exact split between the work of May and Mercury, the band's principle songwriters in the early days - with one clunking exception, which we'll get to later.

Their debut album - Queen - despite having its moments ('Keep Yourself Alive', 'Liar') was no-one much's cup of tea, really, and realising it didn't really gel or catch anyone's imagination, they decided to really set out their stall with a reiterated, fine-tuned expression of similar sounds and themes.  Co-produced in London with Roy Thomas Baker of 'constantly-hired by people like The Darkness, Smashing Pumpkins and Guns'n'Roses who want to sound like Queen' fame, Queen II was their first serious stab at chart success (the album's first and only single is noticeably immediate and punchy than anything they'd tried their hand at hitherto).

The album itself opens, as do many such statements of intent, with a prefatory instrumental, an overture, if you will.  'Procession' is the humble beginning to a sequence of events that would result in Brian May standing on the roof of Buckingham Palace playing a guitar version of 'God Save The Queen'.  It is the 'Entrance of The Queen of Sheba' of the electric guitar, and I think it a suitably stately exordium for what is to follow.  And what follows is a short sequence of really rather lovely songs.  'Father to Son' is occasionally a little ponderous but has a solid melody at its core, some lovely soaring harmonies and isn't weighed down too far by its grandiloquent heaviosity.  'White Queen' a misty, almost ethereal confection - lush yet intimate, with unambitious lyrics that happily sound almost accidentally profound against the faintly fairytale backing.  'Some Day, One Day' is the purest example of the romantic, yearning songs about the passing of time that are May's balladic stock-in-trade.  The whole thing screams early 70s - you can almost smell the patchouli and unwashed afghan coats.

However, if it was just side 1 we were discussing, this album wouldn't be taking up one my five precious nominations.  As is often the way of things, the really interesting stuff happens on the Black Side. 

Even Queen's biggest critics wouldn't begrudge Mercury's skill as a frontman, and most concede that he's blessed with some of the greatest pipes ever to grace a rock band (listen again to 'Somebody to Love' – it's a tour-de-force).  But he's also capable of knocking together a rather wonderful pop-rock number that easily stands alongside the best of Jeff Lynne or Elton John.  He's also a pretty good world builder, and Queen II benefits from a fitting thematic unity.  Mercury's childhood fantasy world of Rhye was first evidenced in early Queen tracks like 'My Fairy King', but the second side of Queen II marks its fullest exploration.  It surfaced again in later songs like 'Lily of the Valley', but here is really the only occasion where he throws open the door wide and invites you inside for tea, like a velvet loon-panted version of Mr Tumnus.

And so follows the band's greatest sequence of songs, for sequence it is, with only part 5's Spectorish pop song not really fitting the mould.  Bow in awe, ye mighty, at these cosmic titles:


  • Ogre Battle
  • The Fairy-Feller's Masterstroke
  • Nevermore
  • The March of the Black Queen
  • Funny How Love Is
  • Seven Seas Of Rhye

OK, the second title down is half-inched from a painting by Richard Dadd that hangs in the Tate, but the rest read like something from an experimental, unreleased sophomore album by Neil from The Young Ones.  But, faith, one man's adolescent swords and sorcery-inspired nonsense is another man's none-more-British, Spenser-inspired visionary whimsy.  It's sometimes easy to forget that one of Queen's great saving graces was their sense of humour.  Even when their music is not lyrically funny, it can still be very amusing, in a Neil Innes pastiche kind of way (check out that jolly ukulele on 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown', speakeasy fans).  The notion that they weren't taking any of this D&D stuff seriously saw them accused at the time of dilettante-ish bandwagon jumping, but the raised eyebrow they undoubtedly sported is partly what has helped this to age so well.

As Mercury's primary compositional instrument was the piano, things never get too heavy or self-indulgent - it's a tight, focused, almost-cabaret like selection of songs.  There are harpsichords, but they are jaunty rather than staid.  There are tape-effects, but they don't outstay their welcome.  There is sturm and there is drang, but of a very vaudeville nature.

Most of all there are tunes.

Ogre Battle rocks!  The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke is the best power-pop song ever-written about an over-busy painting of a fairy cutting down a tree for Queen Mab!  Nevermore is a lovely, simple, wistful piano-piece that wouldn't disgrace The Wizard of Oz!  The March of The Black Queen is the best Queen track you've (probably) never heard, and it goes on and on and on and keeps getting better and better and better and is, in many ways, the multi-faceted, Skeletal Lamping-trumping jewel in their slightly-askew crown!  And Seven Seas of Rhye is ...this.

The downsides?  He may have been a dab hand with a gong and one of 1970s Britain's top eligible bachelors, but a lot of his song-writing is barely-passable nonsense and fulfils many of the worst possible fears of the 'a number written by the drummer' cliché.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Roger Taylor's tale of teenage angst 'The Loser in the End', which sits at the end of side one like a like, totally fugly gatecrasher at a party for the Valley Girls.  Or, rather, I don't give you it, and suggest you dispense with it immediately, as it completely ruins the mood and should have been relegated to a b-side somewhere out of harms way.  Its only merit is the cowbell and it's the humble beginning to a sequence of events that would result in "Queen" + Paul Rogers releasing a song last year called C-lebrity.

So, in summary, if it's not their best album - that honour probably goes to Sheer Heart Attack or ANATO - it's certainly my favourite and the one I return to most often.  For me, it's the one that deserves to be considered in the same light as albums like Ziggy Stardust and the cream of Roxy Music's early output as the best that 70s British rock and pop music have to offer.

Surrender to the city of the fireflies.

The Fairy-Feller's Master-Stroke
The March of the Black Queen




*Admittedly, I'm not the first to do so.  I think a number of US alt-types like Beck and The Dust Brothers have also singled it out for praise.  It also is, pretty much, the discerning Queen Fan's Queen Album of Choice.

Retinend

Quote from: buttgammon on March 09, 2009, 02:17:09 PM
Brilliant choice, DolphinFace. That's one of my favourite Miles albums and one of the most fascinating jazz albums ever recorded. I know we're only on the first page but I could imagine that still figuring in my top ten albums mentioned in this thread by the end of it.

Agreed; a fine album indeed.


Quote from: CaledonianGonzo on March 09, 2009, 06:34:55 PM
988.  Queen – Queen II



Released:  8 March 1974
Genre:  Art-school Rock
Label:  EMI
Producer:  Queen and Roy Thomas Baker

What a great, in-depth review!


Emma Raducanu

Come on, I put them in italics. And I'd do it all again!

Vitalstatistix

I think we'd rather know what the albums mean to you, personally.

You lazy bastard.

Emma Raducanu

Does my opinion matter that much? They're perfectly fitting descriptions and they are my recommendations. If you feel cheated, I'll try arranging some verbs, adjectives and nouns in the right order myself next time.