13th December - Patti Smith's Horses

Artist – Album: Patti Smith - Horses

Released: 13^th December 1975

Sounds Like: Uniqueness

Of all of the universally agreed great albums, Horses is the most difficult to define. It’s regularly posited as punk, but punk isn’t supposed to have happened until ’77, and it most certainly never included jazzy ten minute long epics such as ‘Birdland’ or ‘Land’. Worse still, the likes of ‘Kimberly’ sound almost like brilliant post-punk, which is a real find for any fans of time travel but little use for those of us trying to describe the record. ‘Gloria’ could be straightforward Sixties garage rock, but in Smith’s hands it becomes something else, something more primal and awesome, whilst ‘Break It Up’, featuring Tom Verlaine could easily be a lost Television classic. The calypso-ish ‘Redondo Beach’, the tough rocker ‘Free Money’ and the poetic ‘Elegie’ couldn’t sound more different from each other, never mind anything else of the era.

I think the point of Horses, and Patti Smith full stop, is that it doesn’t sound like anything else really. A true one of a kind.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Gloria – 5:57

2.       Redondo Beach – 3:26

3.       Birdland – 9:15

4.       Free Money – 3:52

5.       Kimberly – 4:27

6.       Break It Up – 4:04

7.       Land – 9:25

8.       Elegie – 2:57

 

Listen to ‘Free Money’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSHf1svbQrA

3rd December - The Who's My Generation

Artist – Album: The Who – My Generation

Released: 3^rd December 1966

Sounds Like: Suitable for all generations

For those that are more familiar with the bloated excesses of The Who’s 70’s efforts such as rock-opera Tommy and the behemoth Who’s Next, My Generation comes across as incredibly trim. The fact that only one track reaches the four minute mark suggests a collection that is at once both lean and geared up. Indeed, that incredible title track is as wiry and tough as music got in the Sixties, as it stutters and bounces like a bog-eyed, pogoing amphetamine addict. But that only tells half the story, as one of the real treats of listening to their debut is that it leaves little clue as to what genre they would come to rest on – would it be the proto-punk of ‘My Generation’, the soul-tinged “Maximum R&B” of ‘Please, Please, Please’ or the glistening power-pop of ‘The Kids Are Alright’? In the end, the group cemented their legend on anthemic dad rock and windmilled power chords, but at this point in their career it seemed that they could have done anything

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Out in the Street – 2:31

2.       I Don’t Mind – 2:36

3.       The Good’s Gone – 4:02

4.       La-La-La-Lies – 2:17

5.       Much Too Much – 2:47

6.       My Generation – 3:18

7.       The Kids Are Alright – 3:04

8.       Please, Please, Please – 2:45

9.       It’s Not True – 2:31

10.   I’m a Man – 3:21

11.   A Legal Matter – 2:48

12.   The Ox – 3:50

Listen to ‘The Kids Are Alright’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afam2nIae4o

Also released on the 3^rd December:

1965: The Beatles – Rubber Soul

27th July - New York Dolls' New York Dolls

Artist – Album: New York Dolls – New York Dolls

Released:  27^th July 1973

Sounds Like: The Rolling Stones meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show

On the cover to the New York Dolls’ self titled debut album, David Johansen, Johnny Thunders and co gaze back at you, half fascinated and half menacing, and sporting aggressively applied make up and drag. Looking like extras from the Rocky Horror Picture show, they make a startling, campy vision that contains just a hint of danger. The look also just so happens to be a perfectly accurate embodiment of their sound.

Album opener ‘Personality Crisis’ jumps out at you with the full shebang, full of brash guitar riffs, wolf whistles and over exaggerated Mick Jagger-esque vocals. Its decadent glam rock is seen as the best in their oeuvre, and was selected by Rolling Stone Magazine as the 271^st Greatest Song of All Time. Although the tempo does sometimes lessen from the full on assault of ‘Crisis’, the rest of the album continues to rock out on a regular basis. ‘Looking for a Kiss’ is dark R&B, ‘Lonely Planet Boy’ is odd, otherworldly folk, ‘Frankenstein’ is visceral rock and roll and ‘Trash’ is the perfect punk pop song.

It’s thrilling stuff. However, it’s also a lovely and sunny Saturday and so I’m gonna go out now and enjoy my day. See you tomorrow!

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Personality Crisis – 3:43

2.       Looking for a Kiss – 3:20

3.       Vietnamese Baby – 3:39

4.       Lonely Planet Boy – 4:10

5.       Frankenstein (Orig.) – 6:00

6.       Trash – 3:09

7.       Bad Girl – 3:05

8.       Subway Train – 4:22

9.       Pills – 2:49

10.   Private World – 3:40

11.   Jet Boy – 4:40

Listen to ‘Trash’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ChUvX8_cE

Also released on the 27^th July:

1993: Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream

Also released on the 27^th July:

1984: Metallica – Ride the Lightning

12th March - The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico

Artist – Album: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico

Released:  12^th March 1967         

Sounds Like: Top banana

The Velvet Underground & Nico cover art consists of a white background and a large yellow banana. I’ve read elsewhere that this yellow herb is the perfect symbol of what is represented within, decadent and sexual. You can run with that if you want but I’m not convinced. Admittedly they can be quite phallic, although I’m not sure about decadent – I have one for my breakfast every morning and I’m hardly a millionaire (yet). But I can’t help but just think that it’s a banana. It is just a banana. It was pop art genius Andy Warhol’s contribution to the sleeve art and I’m sure that this is what lends it some of it’s intrigue, but had his world famous painting of a soup can been on another album, I’m sure I would still be questioning it’s validity. Whatever the reason however, I can’t deny that this is one of the most iconic albums of all time.

Most of that success is of course nothing to do with Mr Warhol’s doodles, as the music contained within was an incredibly influential bout of art rock, made palatable by the groups prodigious musicality and Lou Reed’s bizarre tales of the strange characters that orbited around Warhol. ‘Sunday Morning’ is about a paranoid comedown, hidden behind a lullaby-like glockenspiel. In ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ the man in question is the drug dealer. ‘Venus in Furs’ is about fetishes. ‘Femme Fatale’ about maneaters. ‘Heroin’ about heroin (duh). This is fascinating, surreal stuff for the majority of us.

The music is different too. Back in 1967, most records followed pretty firm stylistic lines; genres weren’t crossed too regularly. But if we go back over those aforementioned tracks we get: lullaby, garage rock, baroque pop, pop rock, experimental rock (emphasize mental).  The result is one of the greatest albums of all time, one which was bought by few but influenced many, and one which still sounds amazing today. An album I think could be represented by something better than a banana.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       Sunday Morning – 2:54

2.       I’m Waiting for the Man – 4:39

3.       Femme Fatale – 2:38

4.       Venus in Furs – 5:12

5.       Run Run Run – 4:22

6.       All Tomorrow’s Parties – 6:00

7.       Heroin – 7:12

8.       There She Goes Again – 2:41

9.       I’ll Be Your Mirror – 2:14

10.   The Black Angel’s Death Song – 3:11

11.   European Son – 7:46

Listen to ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo

Also released on the 12^th March:

1991: R.E.M – Out of Time

Also released on the 12^th March:

2001: Daft Punk – Discovery

Also released on the 12^th March:

2007: LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

7th Feb - Iggy and The Stooges' Raw Power

Artist – Album: Iggy and the Stooges – Raw Power

Released:  7^th February 1973      

Sounds Like: Fire and theft

Nowadays Iggy Pop is better known for writhing around with his top off on car insurance adverts and for having a couple of good songs that soundtracked Trainspotting and, ahem, more adverts. But waaaayyy back before Swiftcover commercials, and even earlier than ‘Lust for Life’ or ‘The Passenger’, Iggy was the edgy frontman of proto-punk pioneers The Stooges.

This was their third and final album, the group finally disbanding after seven years of awful record sales and violent gigs but, like similarly underappreciated peers The Velvet Underground, their influence would be immeasurable and long-lasting.

The first track, ‘Search and Destroy’, is a belter. Driven by a repetitive cowbell and blistering power chords, Pop howls down the sky. Have a chew on this opening line “I'm a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm”. The next song, “Gimme Danger”, is as back seat as the first is in your face, but it broods in its little corner, menacingly eyeing you up.

The whole album is full of tunes as threatening and exhilarating as the first couple. Despite its lack of commercial success on release, today it’s rightly regarded as one of the greatest. It may be as scary as that creepy little puppet thing on those irritating adverts but it’s much, much more appealing.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Search and Destroy – 3:29

2.       Gimme Danger – 3:33

3.       Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell – 4:54

4.       Penetration – 3:41

5.       Raw Power – 4:16

6.       I Need Somebody – 4:53

7.       Shake Appeal – 3:04

8.       Death Trip – 6:07

Listen to ‘Gimme Danger’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9_hegaKOaY