50 Albums you must hear before you buy a house 4.0 (3)

And the heat goes on, if you only wouldn’t clap so hard:

GvZ:

40. (44) The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree (2005)
39.
(*) Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)
38. (21) The Band – The Band (1969)
37. (29) Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)

36. (26) The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)
“My brothers for a horse!”

RKH:

40. (42) Lambchop – How I Quit Smoking (1996)
39.
(*) XTC – Skylarking (1986)
38. (23) Love – Forever Changes (1967)
37. (24) David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust… (1972)

36. (35) Pixies – Doolittle (1989)
“Musical colon cleansing.”

50 Albums you must hear before you buy a house 3.0 (3)

Continuing our lists of relics, with #30-21:

GVZ:

30. (24) Neil Young – Harvest (1972)
“I am not a preacher, but just real lucky.”

29. (16) Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)
“Switch your gears while I drop the needle: this bed is our kingdom.”

28. (25) The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
“Who doesn’t remember his first time in Pepperland?”

27. (*) XTC – Skylarking (1986)
“Summer afternoon underneath a lone tree, praising yourself the luckiest man on earth with that hot beer you brought along.”

26. (11) Brian Wilson – SMiLE (2004)
“The sun starts to tease my eyes while flowers are growing out of my ass: the album winter can’t beat.”

25. (31) The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)
“If angels had balls, they would have been called Byrds.”

24. (20) Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)
“This album is even better than our last one, will somebody finally save us please?”

23. (36) Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
“Like a proud mother among her 49 sublime children.”

22. (*) The Kinks – Face to Face (1966)
“One of my best dreams from the past year must have been the one in which I had written this album.”

21. (15) The Band – The Band (1969)
“Yes we can (tell you where your country lies). “

RKH:

30. (28) Neil Young – After the Gold Rush (1970)
“The meaning of life, narrated by a 25 year old.”

29. (13) Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue (1977)
“Could have been the best album ever, if only it wouldn’t have been a double album.”

28. (15) The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
“Better than Pet Sounds.”

28. (27) Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)
“Better than Sgt. Pepper’s.”

26. (6) The Moody Blues – In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)
“Talent + drugs + mysticism = the definitive psychedelic experience.”

25. (23) Bob Dylan – Desire (1976)
“Cocaine fueled cowboys and indians fever dream.”

24. (*) David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
“When the apocalypse finally comes, you can find me in my car blasting this fitting soundtrack.”

23. (*) Love – Forever Changes (1967)
“Confrontational. Uneasy listening. Nerve wrecking. Cracked mirror for a hippie generation.”

22. (*) Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II (1969)
“Led Zep doesn’t care for intellectual ramblings about their music. The Sex Album.”

21. (46) The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
“Velvet Underground stroke its guitars and for the first time music knew the true meaning of ‘freedom’.”

GF:

30. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
“Ik kende hem al van ‘little fat man’ tijdens Extras, maar hier slaat hij toch een geheel andere weg in.”

29. Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti (1975)
“Bepaalde nummers op deze cd halen telkens een religieus gevoel in mij naar boven.”

28. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
“Tot ik dit voor de eerste keer hoorde, wist ik niet dat je op deze manier muziek kon maken en uitbrengen.”

27. Pink Floyd – Meddle (1971)
“Angstaanjagend begin, zomers deuntje ertussenin, zingende Liverpool – supporters en een geniale afsluiter.”

26. Neil Young – Harvest Moon (1992)
“Mijn favoriete wandelingen, zijn nachtwandelingen: strompelend of onder een volle maan, dit is in beide gevallen mijn favoriete album daarbij.”

25. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (2011)
“Yeah I’m tongue-tied and dizzy and I can’t keep it to myself”

24. Elliott Smith – Either/Or (1997)
“Een zachte stem, je zou hem niet horen als hij je roept, maar als hij zingt blijven zijn woorden heel lang hangen. “

23. Radiohead – Amnesiac (2001)
“De eerste keer onmiddellijk in de beste omstandigheden en op de meest geschikte plaats gehoord: in bed met zware koorts.”

22. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See a Darkness (1999)
“Toen men hem zocht om in een film een eenzaat te spelen had hij zijn darkness, onbereikbaar was hij maandenlang alleen op een roadtrip.”

21. The Beatles – Rubber Soul (1965)
Norwegian Wood, is het boek of het nummer beter, dit is in ieder geval de beste plaat van The Beatles.”

50 Albums you must hear before you buy a house 2.0 (7): 20-16

The music professors are starting to come up with the real stuff now, as they the enter the top 20 of their all-time favorite albums lists. One of the big names that were missing till this point finally shows up, as Led Zeppelin’s epic double album Physical Graffiti debuts in GvZ’s list, while Led Zeppelin II appears among DOK’s favorites at #19. RKH expands his fascination for Van the Man with the entrance of Morrison’s third solo album, while rumours are spread that Astral Weeks might be a serious contender for the #1 spot.

DOK:

16. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu (1970)
17. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks (1968)
18. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (1966)
19. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II (1969)
20. Eagles – Hotel California (1976)

GvZ:

16. (17) Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)
17. (7)   Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run (1973)
18. (*)   Pink Floyd – A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
19. (*)   Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti (1975)
20. (12) Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

RKH:

16. (*)   Van Morrison – Moondance (1970)
17. (9)   Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run (1973)
18. (8)   The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)
19. (18) Eagles – Hotel California (1976)
20. (26) DJ Shadow – Endtroducing… (1996)

Also two recurring albums this week, with Hotel California reaching the top 20 in both DOK’s and RKH’s list, while Band on the Run drops from the top ten twice to end up on #17 this year. Abbey Road is also degradated by RKH, as he considers this record to have only one side. Space rock, symphonic rock and progressive rock are all represented by one and the same band this week, with Pink Floyd reigning GvZ’s top twenty till this point. Overall the seventies still is the leading decade with 38% of all albums.

50 Albums you must hear before you buy a house (7): 20-16

We continue with our list today, having another ten splendid albums to fill your cold winter evenings with. Some big all-time classics are delivered by mister Hofmeijer while mister van Zwanendonk gives you the opportunity to complete your prog collection further.

RKH:

16. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks (1968)
17. The Moody Blues – In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)
18. Eagles – Hotel California (1976)
19. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)
20. Prince – Purple Rain (1984)

GvZ:

16. Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue (1977)
17. Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)
18. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
19. The Move – Shazam (1970)
20. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Hofmeijer starts with a little fetish on #20, after which two absolute Westcoast classics follow, Pet Sounds and Hotel California respectively. Both albums go together well with eating a Greek souflaki, or even better with thinking about eating a souflaki while you’re sitting in a hot van. The list is topped by two 1968 classics, with an absolute masterpiece at #17 and an album we found earlier in the other list at #41.

The only common album in van Zwanendonk’s part also appeared on #41 in the opposite list, more precisely Dark Side of the Moon. Other absolute prog classics can be found on 17 and 18, with Floyd’s heavily orchestrated Atom Heart Mother and the epic In the Court of the Crimson King. Also from 1970: the magnificent second album from The Move, one of the greatest British sixties bands that was never successful overseas. These guys started covering songs from The Byrds, and while the typical sixties pop sound still can be heard on this album, the band is already moving towards something different with longer and more complex compositions. That something different would end up to be Electric Light Orchestra, after Jeff Lynne joined the band. Their ultimate pop explosion of happiness can be found on #16.

Prog Albums Explained: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (side 3)

Progressive rock, a genre to love or hate.  It originated in the late sixties thanks to heavy psychedelic rock influences and was pioneered by bands that wanted to go beyond the standard verse-chorus  based song structures.  As a result, often complex instrumental songs were bundled on concept albums with epic pretensions. It’s well possible that you once caught yourself asking what the hell one of these bands was trying to tell you while listening to one of their albums. The answers are provided here, in Prog Albums Explained. All you need  is the album, a comfortable couch and some good headphones.

[singlepic id=30 w=320 h=240 float=left]

 

 

Year: 1974

Genre: Progressive Rock

Preceded by: Selling England by the Pound (1973)

Followed by: A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Related to: Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon

 

 

Side 3: (continued from Side 2)

Track 1: Lillywhite Lilith + Track 2: The Waiting Room

Another case of two songs merging into each other, with the second one being another instrumental. Rael is still in the middle of this chaos, when he suddenly hears a blind lady (Lilywhite Lilith) asking him to help her out of the crowd.  In return she will lead him out of this place. So Rael follows her but instead of escaping he’s left behind disillusioned in the darkness:  Then she sat me down on a cold stone, carved in jade. A bizarre noise is approaching now while he stays in ‘the waiting room’. Those sounds originate from unused compositions of the band from 1969, resembling the experimental parts from Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother.

Track 3: Anyway

This seems to be some kind of stream-of-consciousness experience from Rael in which he’s confronted with his death. Death seems to come much faster than Rael expected  (Anyway, they say she comes on a pale horse, but I’m sure I hear a train) and when the piano-driven song is at its highest orchestrated point, Rael looks Death right into the eyes…

Track 4: The Supernatural Anaesthetist

Death is impersonated by the supernatural anaesthetist. He approaches Rael, but it appears that he didn’t come to claim his soul and as such he disappears again.  This is the reason there are few lyrics in this song, which is mainly driven by Hackett’s guitar playing, including a beautiful outro. However, the anaesthetist left a charming impression on Rael: he’s such a fine dancer.

Track 5: The Lamia (+Track 6: Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats)

This track is really reigned by Tony Banks’ keys. Rael is tired of having this schizophrenic flashes in the middle of the rubble, so when he suddenly smells a strange scent, he decides to follow it to see where it comes from. It leads him to a hole in the wall and he succeeds to crawl through it. Now he witnesses the strangest thing: a pool filled with snakes all having female heads and breasts. The entities are seducing him to join them in the pool. Has this something to do with Rael’s criminal record? However, Rael stands astonished doubting his sight, struck by beauty, gripped in fright. Rael enters the pool and the Lamia start to devour Rael’s body but they end up dying because of his poisonous blood! The track flows over to ‘Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats’, a very calm interlude with a zooming mellotron, a sinister warning of what’s to come on side 4…

-Continue to Side 4