Each video here is a whole LP, about 40 minutes of music: My Halloween Treat for You. If you Bookmark or Hotlist this diary, then you'll have a shelf of albums to explore later. You can play an album in a background window while you catch up on your internet reading, or put one on quietly while you have a nap. If a particular album hits your sweet spot, click the YouTube button at the bottom right of it, to open a whole page of related suggestions. I picked classic LPs, but they're offbeat and eclectic enough that you won't know them all. Though if you do know them all, kudos. Should you leave an album in your comment, see if you can find a flavor of rock that I left out: Punk, Funk, Hippie, Hip-Hop, or an album which doesn't fit in any box. I mean metaphorically; literally, every album fits in a box.
Here is one of those albums that builds a box unto itself. If you don't know Astral Weeks, your life is incomplete. It's the perfect 5AM album, whether you've been drinking all night, or have to wake up reluctantly to go to work. Van Morrison rides his chariot down the boulevards of Dublin, then ascends to heaven on wings of faith and his own celestial voice.
Joni is the Queen of Rock. Others rock harder (Janis, Grace, Patti, Chrissie), but none has as many dimensions of pioneering. I can't resist a woman who says “My work has always contained the question of how far the pop song could go." Court and Spark is where Joni reached her pop pinnacle. After this, she began to turn left and down and twirling.
Purists of sonic assault say true heavy metal arrived with Metallica, Slayer, Pantera et al. (all formed in 1981). In truth, Heavy Metal was born twelve years earlier. Its Zeus, Hades and Poseidon are Led Zep, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Machine Head is the crown of Purple's imperial phase, all five members exploding with invention, assurance and raw power.
Aretha is the Queen of Soul. Rolling Stone had 179 experts rank the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Aretha came in at #1. "Aretha has everything — the power, the technique. She is honest with everything she says. . . . And she has total confidence; she does not waver at all." Aretha can sing any kind of music; she fits more passion in a word than most songs hold.
Toots Hibbert is on Reggae Rushmore with Marley, Tosh and Cliff - but he dives deeper into soul and funk than them. Funky Kingston had eight of his best songs. Then Toots kidnapped Louie, Louie and Take Me Home, Country Roads (!), plied them with rum and ganja, and reggaefied them until they forgot the USA, making Jamaica their hearts' new home.
I Just Can't Stop It is where reggae and punk got married, with R&B as best man. See also, The Specials and Too Much Pressure. 2 Tone was a short-lived movement, but it cast a long shadow. The Beat split into Fine Young Cannibals and General Public; later Sublime and No Doubt stole their sound. The CD version of this includes their cover of Tears of a Clown.
Kraftwerk invented electronica. Suicide, Eno and Tangerine Dream blazed trails; Bowie hopped on the bandwagon first, and drove it from station to station. But Kraftwerk were making '80s synthpop in '74. On The Man Machine, they compressed their formula into a diamond. Each track is a masterwork of melody, rhythm and sonic invention. Flawless and haunting.
Talking Heads are a car crash of 3 bands: an art-nerd singer, a rhythm section too funky to be white, and a guitarist from the roots of punk. Remain in Light is the sum of all that plus top session players, world music, and Eno's imagination running wild. A dense, subtle, stunning exploration of pop's future possibilities. But it was too weird to have a hit single.
If you splice hip-hop with electronica, then sprinkle soul, jazz and funk on top, you get Blue Lines. This was the first album of Trip-Hop, a style which changed '90s pop, and remains pervasive today. It's a magnificent work, balanced between passionate vocals and chilly synthesizers, transporting us from Saturday night fever to Sunday morning coming down.
The Stone Roses melded rock and dance music, and had the talents, synergy and egos of a heroic band. They found their moment in '89 with The Stone Roses. Then their record company took them to court, stopping them from recording. They returned 5 years later, their synergy frayed. Then Britpop stole their thunder. But they should have been conquerors.
Radiohead are the band since 1990 that I'd rank in the top 10 rock bands. Huge talents: chops, melody, harmonies, especially exploration. Like Neil Young they had a huge hit, hated it, and left the mainstream - for the stratosphere. Ok Computer is where they shredded rock and invented a new '90s. Of later, weirder Radiohead CDs, In Rainbows is full of sweet hooks.
We've already heard a lot of great rock albums in this 21st century - though it's hard to gauge Classics from this near. I thought of sharing Outkast or LCD Soundsystem for the beats, maybe Antony And The Johnsons or PJ Harvey for the heart. But Iron and Wine are catchy, different, evolving - and you've probably never heard Kiss Each Other Clean.