I had made a list a while back. I think these top x lists are not worth all that much if there's no explanation given. With that said...
Top 6 albums of all time.
Criteria
-Nearly every track needs to be good. These must be discs you can put on and listen to start-to-finish or at least the first 7 or 8 tracks.
-Discs I still listen to several times a year
-Didn’t walk over the CDs and look at them trying to decide.
1) Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984). This was their first album. It’s a perfect mixture of romantic reminisces, great melodies, memorable metaphors (“her heart’s like crazy paving, upside down and back to front”), and Neil Clark’s guitar. These songs conjure evocative places and times. Places you might have been.
2) Paul Weller – As Is Now (2005). A surprise. He has a large body of very good work and has changed his style several times over the decades. Of course, he was a founding member of The Jam, then did the Style Council for a couple of discs in the 80s and has about 5 solo albums since the early 90s. If it had been 6 months ago I would have said his second album “Wildwood” was easily his best. But his new album is quite good. I don’t know where this guy’s creative well comes from but this album is contemporary (As is now!) and more importantly still rocks. You can hear the maturity in his lyrics and stuff obvious influenced by midlife and the times, e.g. kids, war, relationship things. Just so happens I can relate to that.
3) Bryan Ferry – Bete Noire (1987). Perfect in every way. Production, lyrics, music. Amazing job in the studio. Some would say over-produced but this is studio perfection. He wrote this after his break up with Jerry Hall. Unfortunately, he’s been happily married since then and has really only turned out one good album since – a disc of covers (Taxi) with Robin Trower in the early 90s. Of course his work with Roxy Music is great as well but only one title per artist.
4) Greg Allman – Just Before the Bullets Fly (1988). I’ve always preferred Greg’s solo stuff to the Allman Brothers. Dickey Betts is a great guitarist but somebody needed to rein him in a bit more. All that noodling gets tedious after a while. Greg has the best musicians on JBTBF, especially guitarist Dan Toler. Guitarist and production again excellent. “… a spark of life brought down from an angel, to raise a stranger from the dead.” Can you dig it?
5) Steeley Dan – The Royal Scam (1976). Tough choice. Just about any of their albums could be on the top 10 list. I picked Royal Scam because they reached a perfect balance between the rawer early albums and later overproduced ones. Interesting songs, great music, go!
6) Frank Zappa – Shiek Yerbouti (1979). Perfect album for the times. Makes fun of everything – something offensive for everyone. Also as a bonus has the greatest guitar solo of all time on Yo Mama. Band included Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons), Andrian Belew (King Crimson, Talking Heads).
