YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by YellowKing »

Sorry I haven't updated in a bit. I got sidetracked listening to some classic '80s/'90s albums I had never listened to in their entirety. Tears for Fears Songs From the Big Chair, Type O Negative's Bloody Kisses, stuff like that.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Unacceptable!!!
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Feature Creep infects all projects! ;)
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by Jeff V »

Rumpy wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:07 pm The worst kind of dreams are the ones where you don't get any resolution and leave you wanting. :lol:
In this case, it doesn't. The dream continues with them doing a Muzak version of Sympathy for the Devil.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by Jeff V »

New stuff by a dinosaur.

Peter Gabriel is releasing new music for the first time in 20 years. He's also touring this year. I've seen him three times, the first two were among the top 5 concerts I've seen. I don't expect this tour to compete, and will probably catch it on You Tube.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Did y'all miss me? Damn Hogwarts Legacy eating into classic album time!

56. Foreigner - Head Games (1979) - As an earlier Foreigner album I assumed I'd probably like this one. I'd say that was accurate, but with the caveat that it was probably my least favorite out of their first four albums. The album produced several singles: "Dirty White Boy," "Head Games," "Women," "Love on the Telephone," and "I'll Get Even With You." Oddly enough I liked some of their non-single tracks better, such as "The Modern Day," "Blinded by Science," - hell, the whole second side of the album.

This completes the Foreigner studio album discography, so my final thoughts? Never in a million years would I think I'd be a Foreigner fan, but I REALLY liked their first four albums. I don't have any desire to go past those four, but I think those will be part of my vinyl collection. In fact, I bought a really clean copy of their debut just this past weekend, and liked it even more on another listen.

Discovering albums (and bands) in this way was exactly why I created this challenge, so it's very satisfying to see it pay dividends.

Top track: "Head Games" Favorite track: "The Modern Day"

57. KISS - Revenge (1992) - With this album, KISS tried to answer the question: "Can this band post-80s really be anything more than a nostalgia act?" With this in mind they went with a heavier sound, but only met mixed results. Mixed reviews, and only mediocre sales.

I didn't think it was a terrible album (certainly not deserving of Rolling Stone's 1 star review). It's KISS being KISS, and I'm OK with that. On the other hand, maybe it's telling that my favorite song on the album was a pseudo-cover.

Top track: "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II" Favorite track: "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II"

58. Metallica - St. Anger (2003) - Oh boy, I was NOT looking forward to this one coming up in the rotation. I'd never actually listened to this one, just knew the criticism. It routinely winds up on the bottom or near the bottom of every Metallica album ranking.

Whereas Load (and to a lesser extent Reload's) change in style was still somewhat palatable to me, the departure on St. Anger is much more jarring. And let me tell you, I was not prepared for just how jarring. This was a tough one to get through, especially when they have to make very song about 3 minutes too long.

I swear most of this album Lars sounds like he's banging on a bunch of trash can lids. James can't stay on key to save his life. The goal seems to be "make as much noise as possible" with no regard to actual song quality. I can't believe they toured for two years promoting this shit. Some bands maintain success over the years despite sometimes radically changing their sound. Metallica is not one of those bands. They just seemingly lurch from one misstep to the next.

Top track: "St. Anger" Favorite track: N/A

59. Cheap Trick - Busted (1990) - An album with sales so bad their label dropped them. An album with sales so bad it even went out of print for years. Ouch. Honestly, however, I didn't think this album was all that bad. It was just sort of generic dad rock - nothing great but nothing offensive about it.

I still have yet to figure out Cheap Trick's "identity." Their sound seems to be all over the map. Sometimes a song sounds very Stones-y, sometimes I hear The Cars or The Beatles, hell, sometimes it switches within the same song. Maybe that's why they haven't clicked with me yet.

Top track: "When You Need Someone" Favorite track: "Wherever Would I Be"

60. The Who - My Generation (1965) - Classic debut album from The Who, and dare I say it - easily my favorite of the bunch I've covered so far. It's so early that it sounds like really early Stones/Beatles (though to me a bit more "bad boy" than their debuts). Hey, I've come to terms with the fact I'm probably never going to be a fan of this band, but at least albums like this give me a sense of their importance to rock.

Top track: "My Generation" Favorite track: "My Generation"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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I can’t remember if you have listened to any Cheap Trick releases from the 70s. You will probably like those much more than anything after the early 80s.


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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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How have you not hit a single a Fleetwood Mac album yet? :D
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Dramatist wrote:I can’t remember if you have listened to any Cheap Trick releases from the 70s. You will probably like those much more than anything after the early 80s.
Not yet - just luck of the draw all the Cheap Trick albums so far have been 90s and newer. I'm sure I will like their 70s stuff because there isn't a whole hell of a lot of 70s rock music I don't like.
geezer wrote:How have you not hit a single a Fleetwood Mac album yet?
It's coming, the project was too big trying to do 20 bands so I split it into Phase 1 of 10 bands and Phase 2 the remaining 10. Fleetwood Mac is in the second phase. Looking forward to that one though! I LOVE Fleetwood Mac but admittedly don't know much past their greatest hits/Rumours/Tusk.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:33 pm It's coming, the project was too big trying to do 20 bands so I split it into Phase 1 of 10 bands and Phase 2 the remaining 10. Fleetwood Mac is in the second phase. Looking forward to that one though! I LOVE Fleetwood Mac but admittedly don't know much past their greatest hits/Rumours/Tusk.
You know their Fleetwood Mac album as well, especially if you know Tusk. Also, I would recommend a lot of live samples from a lot of bands. Fleetwood Mac is one of them. Particularly, the emotion Lindsey Buckingham puts in to his playing and singing is really something. I'm looking forward to your impressions of the band from the days before they let girls in to the band. I've always meant to dip into very early FM and this deep in to life, I've yet to do so. Maybe you'll inspire me when you get there. Every few years I hear "Hypnotized" and I think I'm overdue to listen to early FM and then I see a squirrel.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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LordMortis wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:25 am
YellowKing wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:33 pm It's coming, the project was too big trying to do 20 bands so I split it into Phase 1 of 10 bands and Phase 2 the remaining 10. Fleetwood Mac is in the second phase. Looking forward to that one though! I LOVE Fleetwood Mac but admittedly don't know much past their greatest hits/Rumours/Tusk.
You know their Fleetwood Mac album as well, especially if you know Tusk. Also, I would recommend a lot of live samples from a lot of bands. Fleetwood Mac is one of them. Particularly, the emotion Lindsey Buckingham puts in to his playing and singing is really something. I'm looking forward to your impressions of the band from the days before they let girls in to the band.
:D

YK - You'll also know "Gypsy" from Mirage.

Newer Mac is just fine, thanks :). But I agree that their live performances are pretty good, and if you prefer your Mac with the ladies, as I do, "The Dance" - their last live album, is really, really good.

Also, if a 15x platinum record can be called "under the radar," Tango in the Night (YK - you'll know "Little Lies")- the last studio release with the core group (Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood, McVie & McVie) - is sneaky good (but The Dance version of Big Love with just Lindsay going nuts on the guitar is better than the studio version on Tango IMHO)
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Yeah, Tango in the Night is a really good album. Even tho, as our alum Triggercut stated, by that time, Buckingham/Nicks were saving their best stuff for solo/non Fleetwood Mac endeavors, and Christine McVie's songwriting was carrying them.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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61. Motley Crue - Motley Crue (1994) - This is an interesting one. Motley Crue finds themselves trying to record a follow-up to the smashing success Dr. Feelgood, but without Vince Neil, who left the band after a falling out. They tapped John Corabi of The Scream to take over lead vocals.

In some ways this could be seen as fortuitous timing. With grunge taking over, this could be the chance for the band to update their glam rock to the times. And that they did, to some extent. This certainly doesn't sound at all like the typical Motley Crue record.

As you might expect, however, abruptly changing lead singers and sound didn't exactly fly with fans. The album failed to maintain sales after its initial burst of popularity, and managed to eke out only two singles, "Hooligan's Holiday" and "Misunderstood."

This is not a great Motley Crue album, but if you told me it was some other band's debut from 1994 I'd have told you it's pretty solid. You can definitely hear the grunge influences. Kind of interesting, with the benefit of hindsight, to hear how heavily grunge was influencing EVERYTHING in the early 90s.

Top track: "Hooligan's Holiday" Favorite track: "Misunderstood"

62. Van Halen - 1984 (1984) - To say I was looking forward to this one coming up in the rotation would be an understatement. This album is what introduced me to Van Halen, courtesy of MTV and the videos for "Jump" and "Panama." The album produced four singles - the aforementioned two, along with "I'll Wait" and another MTV video favorite "Hot for Teacher."

Oddly enough, as much as I loved these songs as a kid, they never made me a Van Halen "fan." Until I got into high school, music to me was just something that came on the radio. And by the time I got into high school, the hard rock of the '80s had been displaced by grunge and alternative, and I never looked back.

My brother happened to mention to me that he was currently listening to a lot of classic rock albums (and he knew nothing about this project). I expressed surprise that we came upon the same idea around the same time, and asked him why he thought that was. He said, "Because we're old and looking back to see what we missed the first time around." Yeah, I'd say that pretty much sums it up.

This is a spry little album, only 9 songs and 33 minutes of music. And I don't know that you can even call the first track a song - it's just a minute long instrumental. But in this case less is more. Every song here is solid. Put this one on and let it play.

As an aside, we had a guy at work named Adam Tonn, and sometimes when he walked in I'd sing "ADAM TONN, duh duh duh duh duh ADAM TO-ON" to the tune of Panama and it would crack him up every time.

Top track: "Jump" Favorite track: "Jump"

63. Cheap Trick - Standing on the Edge (1985) - Well we're slowly inching our way back to the '70s, but not quite there yet. This eighth studio album was supposed to be a return to form for the band, but was hamstrung by the last minute departure of the album's mixer. What was supposed to be a much more raw album fell victim to typical mid-80s production.

Despite the album not turning out exactly as planned, it did manage to produce a successful single in "Tonight It's You.

I found it, as I have most Cheap Trick albums so far, just kind of "there." Not bad, not good, just there. One of the critics on the Wiki for the album I read called it "bazooka bubblegum rock." I don't really know what that means, but it made me laugh and is as apt description as any.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blowing off Cheap Trick in this project yet. I have faith that I'm going to like their 70s stuff.

Top track: "Tonight It's You" Favorite track: N/A

64. Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil (1983) - Another classic Motley Crue album (their second), and the one that really put them on the map. The album produced three singles: "Looks That Kill," "Helter Skelter," and "Too Young to Fall in Love." Despite not being an official single, however, the title track became perhaps their most popular song from the record.

Not much more to say about this one - it's classic Crue and you either dig that or you don't. I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan, but I don't dislike them, and I certainly could put these early albums on any time and enjoy them.

Top track: "Shout at the Devil" Favorite track: "Shout at the Devil"

65. The Rolling Stones - Voodoo Lounge (1994) - Another interesting album in terms of the timing. The Stones had lost their original bassist, and this was their first studio album in five years. So some could call it a comeback of sorts.

Unfortunately it wasn't a smash success, despite winning the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Critical reception was positive, but a bit weak, and even though the album hit #2 in the US charts it's not really looked back on as a strong album.

Mick Jagger laid the blame on their producer Don Was, who tried to steer the band back towards a more traditional Stones sound. Perhaps their heart wasn't in it, as the songs are solidly performed but unmemorable.

I remember when this one came out to quite a bit of fanfare, but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. In 1994 I was entering my first year of college and certainly wasn't paying attention to geezer rock like the Stones. This album sort of left my mind as soon as it was finished. I will say, however, that I quite liked the softer songs such as "The Worst" and "New Faces."

It does make me wonder what would have happened if The Beatles had somehow had the longevity of the Stones. Would they have eventually put out some mediocre albums and duds, being fondly remembered mainly for their early classics?

Top track: "Love is Strong" Favorite track: "Love is Strong"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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66. Motley Crue - Theatre of Pain (1985) - Another classic Motley Crue album, featuring two standout singles "Smokin' in the Boys Room" and "Home Sweet Home." Both of those MTV videos were staples in my youth, and at the tender age of 11 I think the idea of smoking at school was possibly the most rebellious hardcore thing imaginable.

This album is credited with ushering in the era of pop metal which would be popularized by bands like Poison and Cinderella.

I think it's a great album, but the critics have never been kind to this band and despite the commercial success it didn't get much critical acclaim. Even the band has come out trashing this album, maybe because it was so MTV-friendly.

Top Track: "Home Sweet Home" Favorite Track: "Home Sweet Home"

67. Van Halen - Van Halen III (1998) - Woo boy, this is the album that you'll find at the very bottom ranking of Van Halen albums. Despite the iconic (to me) album cover, this was not a well-received album. Lead vocals were taken over by Extreme singer Gary Cherone, and the result was an album that simply doesn't sound very Van Halen-y.

There are some interesting tracks on here - sometimes wavering into Led Zeppelin territory, and even a Pink Floyd clone (final track "How Many Say I"). However, overall the album just feels weak and uninspired. This is not the Van Halen you're looking for.

Fortunately this would not be the band's swan song. They'd come back 14 years later with David Lee Roth in tow for A Different Kind of Truth (covered previously), a much better way to end their studio album career (at least so far?)

Top Track: "Without You" Favorite Track: N/A

68. The Who - Endless Wire (2006) - Not a whole lot to say about this one. An album neither critically/commercially super successful nor reviled. A lot of this was written with another rock opera in mind.

Not surprisingly it sounds similar to a lot of The Who's later albums, though I'll admit I did somewhat enjoy some of the the more mellow tracks. There is also some beautiful instrumentation here. Ultimately, however, it's just further reinforcement that I'm never going to be a fan of Roger Daltrey's vocals, which only got growlier with age.

Top Track: "It's Not Enough" Favorite Track: "God Speaks, Of Marty Robbins"

69. The Who - It's Hard (1982) - It's Hard found The Who creating an album and embarking on a tour they really didn't want, forced by their record company. The album was a middling success, but met with hot and cold critical reviews. Some stellar, some completely trashing it.

It did produce three singles: "Athena," "Eminence Front," and "It's Hard." The album was re-released in 1997 with new mixes on some tracks due to issues apparent on the first release.

I found this whole album to be really annoying, to be quite honest. I think it's safe to say there's never going to be a time in my life when I listen to The Who without being forced to in order to complete a music project. And again, no offense to any Who fans out there. Just not the band for me. Lord knows I like a ton of music that other people can't stand. I mean, ask me about my yacht rock obsession.

Top Track: "Eminence Front" Favorite Track: N/A

70. The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue (1976) - This wasn't a great batch, as we round things up with another mediocre album. It wasn't critically well received, produced only one single of any note ("Fool to Cry"), and at the time was mostly considered a forgettable footnote in the Stones discography.

If there's one silver lining to the album, it's that it finds the Stones at their most jam band grooviest, so if you like that kind of thing it's an interesting listen.

Despite all this, however, I actually enjoyed this one more than I expected. I think the variety helped - it's kind of all over the place and in that respect I found it much more musically interesting than a lot of recent albums I've had to listen to.

Top Track: "Fool to Cry" Favorite Track: "Melody" - I love how unintelligible Mick Jagger is in saying the simple line "Melody, it was her second name."
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing wrote: Tue Mar 07, 2023 4:56 pm
67. Van Halen - Van Halen III (1998) - Woo boy, this is the album that you'll find at the very bottom ranking of Van Halen albums. Despite the iconic (to me) album cover, this was not a well-received album. Lead vocals were taken over by Extreme singer Gary Cherone, and the result was an album that simply doesn't sound very Van Halen-y.

There are some interesting tracks on here - sometimes wavering into Led Zeppelin territory, and even a Pink Floyd clone (final track "How Many Say I"). However, overall the album just feels weak and uninspired. This is not the Van Halen you're looking for.

Fortunately this would not be the band's swan song. They'd come back 14 years later with David Lee Roth in tow for A Different Kind of Truth (covered previously), a much better way to end their studio album career (at least so far?)
Extremely unlikely we get a new VH album, given that Eddie passed away in 2020
With a road-battered guitar, lightning-quick fingers and a welcoming good-time grin, Eddie Van Halen and his band Van Halen may have been just what the 1970s needed.

Amid a sea of aging ’60s rock acts and forgettable radio fare, Van Halen brought a refreshing jolt of energy to the stage with his hard-rock hooks and wild guitar flash in the Jimi Hendrix tradition. By the time the decade had come to a close, he’d become as influential as any guitarist who came before.

“Ed’s a once- or twice-in-a-century kind of guy. There’s Hendrix, and there’s Eddie Van Halen,” friend and guitarist Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains said earlier this year. “Those two guys tilted the world on its axis.”

In poor health for years, Van Halen died Tuesday at age 65. The cause was throat cancer.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Yeah but Queen's still touring and Freddie Mercury's been dead for three decades. :D
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:58 am
65. The Rolling Stones - Voodoo Lounge (1994) - Another interesting album in terms of the timing. The Stones had lost their original bassist, and this was their first studio album in five years. So some could call it a comeback of sorts.

Unfortunately it wasn't a smash success, despite winning the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Critical reception was positive, but a bit weak, and even though the album hit #2 in the US charts it's not really looked back on as a strong album.

Mick Jagger laid the blame on their producer Don Was, who tried to steer the band back towards a more traditional Stones sound. Perhaps their heart wasn't in it, as the songs are solidly performed but unmemorable.

I remember when this one came out to quite a bit of fanfare, but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. In 1994 I was entering my first year of college and certainly wasn't paying attention to geezer rock like the Stones. This album sort of left my mind as soon as it was finished. I will say, however, that I quite liked the softer songs such as "The Worst" and "New Faces."

It does make me wonder what would have happened if The Beatles had somehow had the longevity of the Stones. Would they have eventually put out some mediocre albums and duds, being fondly remembered mainly for their early classics?
my dad (who has become something of a big Rolling Stones fan in later years) sold his copies of _Bridges to Babylon_ and _A Bigger Bang_ (and while really into the blues, didn't care for _Blue & Lonesome_), but i think he still has _Voodoo Lounge_ (and the maybe the 'unplugged' album _Stripped_ that came out just after that). the Stones are still touring, but they're down to releasing one studio album per decade, now (and _Blue & Lonesome_ was entirely covers).
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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71. The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You (1981) - We finally get to a classic Stones album. A surprising classic, given that it's essentially an album of leftover studio outtakes and unfinished songs from the 70s.

This album contains two of my favorite Stones songs, "Start Me Up," and "Waiting on a Friend," both of which were released as singles along with "Hang Fire." But it doesn't contain my FAVORITE Stones song (any guesses?).

In the Stones vs Beatles debate, I'm a Beatles guy all the way. So I really have no desire to own the entire Stones discography on vinyl. But this is one of the albums I'll eventually add to the collection. It's a fun high-energy ride from start to finish.

Top Track: "Start Me Up" Favorite Track: "Start Me Up"

72. KISS - Asylum (1985) - ASYLUM was the first KISS album to feature Bruce Kulick, and continued the band's glam rock tilt from their previous album. It produced one single, "Tears Are Falling," but otherwise was pretty unremarkable from a commercial and critical standpoint.

I'm usually a pretty big KISS apologist, but this album didn't do a whole lot for me. It's really loud and energetic, but it also kind of blends together in one big muddy mess. I think it sounds maybe too serious for KISS? I like the camp, and this album is just delivered too earnestly. It's not until the final track "Uh! All Night" that you finally get a taste of the juvenile humor that makes for good KISS albums.

Top Track: "Tears Are Falling" Favorite Track: "Tears Are Falling"

73. AC/DC - High Voltage (1975) - AC/DC's first US studio album was a mash-up of their previously released Australian albums HIGH VOLTAGE and T.N.T. It was met with mediocre criticial reception, and some of the reviews are fun to read. I always enjoy watching critics trash an album that is now considered a stone cold classic.

This one has plenty of great tracks including "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)," "T.N.T," and "High Voltage." Like most AC/DC albums, I liked this one a lot.

Top Track: "T.N.T." Favorite Track: "T.N.T."

74. Metallica - Metallica (1991) - There are a lot of Metallica fans who consider this album the band's "jumping the shark" moment, and I tend to agree only if we're talking about everything *after* it. I still love this album because it was the first Metallica album I ever bought. Like a kid who loves The Phantom Menace because it was his first Star Wars film, I'll defend this album from the haters because my nostalgia is just too strong.

And really, there's no need to defend it. It's one of the best-selling albums of all time, was critically acclaimed, and was the second longest charting album in history behind Dark Side of the Moon.

It's also an album I still listen to fairly regularly. For years I used it as my default workout album for running on the treadmill, and it's been my soundtrack for several 5Ks. There's not a skippable track on this album in my opinion.

Top Track: "Enter Sandman" Favorite Track: "Sad But True"

75. KISS - Music from "The Elder" (1981) - This is a weird one. At this point KISS was bordering on irrelevance, so the decision was made to shake things up a bit with a concept album. This was to be a soundtrack to a movie about a boy being trained by a religious order to combat evil.

The album was a commercial flop despite some positive critical reception, and was considered for decades as not only one of the band's worst albums but one of the worst rock albums in general.

While critical response has trended more favorable as time has passed, I think it's safe to say this was a failed experiment. Not suprisingly, the band would return to hard rock on their next album, Creatures of the Night.

When I was listening to this, I was trying to not listen to it as a KISS album, but just as some generic rock opera album. And it's still really bad. Super cheese lyrics like something out of a high school musical. I'm surprised KISS fans didn't grab torches and pitchforks and burn the studio down after this. I found it *cringingly* bad.

Top Track: "The Oath" Favorite Track: N/A
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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76. AC/DC - Fly on the Wall (1985) - AC/DC set out to intentionally oppose the glam rock scene that was all the rage at this period of history, but ultimately failed to produce an album that was critically and commercially successful. Though two singles were released in the US: "Danger," and "Shake Your Foundations," neither failed to do much. Leaving this album as a mediocre entry in the AC/DC canon.

I tend to agree with the critical assessment as much as I'm generally pretty positive towards AC/DC albums. This one is pretty forgettable, and Brian Johnson's vocals are almost obscured in the mix. It's kind of a muddy release.

Top Track: "Back in Business" Favorite Track: "Back in Business"

77. Bad Company - Rough Diamonds (1982) - The last album to fetaure Bad Company's original lineup, with only one real hit in the opening track "Electricland." However, it wound up being the worst-selling album of the original group.

Even so, I quite dug this one. It doesn't really contain any standout tracks aside from the aforementioned single, but there's nothing on here that's bad. I found it to be quite enjoyable background music while I was working.

Top Track: "Electricland" Favorite Track: "Electricland"

78. Bad Company - Desolation Angels (1979) - Jumping back in time a bit, we come to the album previous to Rough Diamonds. This one did manage to hit the Top 10 and produced two successful singles, "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" and "Gone, Gone, Gone."

Just like the previously reviewed album, I quite liked this one. Just solid energetic classic rock that you can just put on and work to.

Top Track: "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" Favorite Track: "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy"

79. The Who - The Who Sell Out (1967) - At last we come to what some critics consider The Who's best album. Going into this one I expected I'd like it more than most of their other albums since it's an early record and by all accounts a classic. The album's gimmick is that it's interspersed with commercials like you're tuning into a London radio station. It's really well done with a great sense of humor.

I've really been diving back into this time period as of late, listening to a lot of psychedelic bands. And this album certainly has that flavor, starting off with the trippy "Armenia City in the Sky." I also loved the quirky novelty songs "Mary Anne With the Shaky Hands" and "Silas Stingy."

As far as I'm concerned, this is The Who's equivalent of Sgt. Pepper or Pet Sounds. While it's not as good as either of those albums, it's the high point in their discography for me, and the only Who album of those I've covered that I'd ever consider buying. I liked this one quite a bit.

Top Track: "Sunrise" Favorite Track: "I Can See For Miles"

80. AC/DC - Stiff Upper Lip (2000) - As far as AC/DC albums go, this one is straight down the middle. Critically and commercially well received, but nothing really remarkable about it. The album produced one single in the UK "Stiff Upper Lip" and two more in Australia, "Safe in New York City" and "Satellite Blues."

I've always said AC/DC is the pizza of rock and roll. Some of it's better than others, but in the end it's still pizza. I'd say this one was a frozen pizza, but one of the better premium frozen pizza brands.

Top Track: "Stiff Upper Lip" Favorite Track: "Stiff Upper Lip"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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81. Metallica - ...And Justice for All (1988) - I mentioned before that I consider this my favorite pre-Black album Metallica album, and after a re-listen I think I'll still stick with that.

That's not to say the album doesn't have its detractors. The mix was heavily criticized at the time of release (I'm not sure how much the remaster, which is what I listened to, corrects this). It's also been described as a "sterile" sound. But for me, it's the early Metallica album I have the most familiarity with largely due to my love of "One."

I guess it's a bit hypocritical of me to have criticized Metallica's song length on later albums when this album has equally lengthy tracks (a couple falling just short of 10 minutes). However, the constant tempo changes and crazy riff switching keeps even these long songs entertaining.

Intellectually I realize this album should probably be ranked behind the first three, but I genuinely just love this one. The heart wants what it wants.

Top Track: "One" Favorite Track: "One"

82. AC/DC - Black Ice (2008) - For this last album with Malcolm Young the band tried to go back to its roots with a more "classic" AC/DC sound (to my ears every album has sounded like their classic sound, but let's just go with it). This formula apparently worked, as the album was both commercially and critically well-received and produced four singles: "Rock 'n' Roll Train," "Big Jack," "Anything Goes," and "Money Made."

This is a fun album. The band definitely tried to get back to hook-y choruses, and even though I'm not sure they entirely succeeded on that front since none of the tracks really stood out for me, it's still a good time.

Top Track: "Rock N Roll Train" Favorite Track: "Black Ice"

83. The Who - Tommy (1969) - Oddly enough as much as I love musicals, I've never considered myself a fan of "rock operas". Rock musicals like Grease or Jesus Christ Superstar, sure, but the classic rock opera epic concept albums not so much. There are exceptions of course - I adore Pink Floyd's The Wall, for instance. But outside of "Pinball Wizard" I wasn't looking forward to this one much.

This album reminded me of an incident that happened when I was about 14 years old. I was listening to Metallica and my grandma came in and told me she really liked the intro to one of the songs. I was kind of blown away that my grandmother liked Metallica, so I was asking her about it and she explained that while she didn't necessarily love the vocals, she liked the guitar parts.

I think that was the first time I realized that music wasn't an all or nothing proposition. You could like *parts* of a song even if you didn't like the rest. You could tear songs apart and appreciate one instrument. I was really young in my appreciation of music, and this concept just smacked me right in the face.

And thus it is with Tommy. This is not an album I'd just put on to listen to. But there are elements of it I really liked. Some of the instrumental stuff is spectacular. There are certain aspects of certain songs that I really get, even if I don't necessarily love it as a whole.

Incidentally I have a friend who's last name is Cohn who absolutely loves pinball. And I can't hear Pinball Wizard without singing "Ever since he was a young boy, Cohn played the silver ball."

Top Track: "Pinball Wizard" Favorite Track: "Pinball Wizard"

84. AC/DC - Power Up (2020) - Conceived as a tribute to Malcolm Young, this late entry in the AC/DC canon could have been a flop. Instead, the band managed to put out yet another album of blues-driven rock that satisfied on a commercial and critical level.

I'd actually heard this album before, as it was featured on a vinyl show I follow on Twitch where they played the album in its entirety. One of the guys in chat was talking about how much this album "sucked." I mean - it sounds like every other AC/DC album...how is it that THIS is the one that sucks? LOL. At any rate, his opinion was not the consensus, and most of us hearing it for the first time quite enjoyed it.

Look, you know the drill now when it comes to AC/DC. It is what it is. You either dig it or you don't.

Top Track: "Shot in the Dark" Favorite Track: "Demon Fire"

85. Bad Company - Fame and Fortune (1986) - With the band reduced to only two founding members (Mick Ralph and Simon Kirke), a new singer (Brian Howe) and a session bassist, it's probably not surprising that this album failed to make much of a splash.

Without being really familiar with the band it was a little tough for me to judge this one since the absence of certain band members doesn't resonate as much with me. So I didn't find it "bad," just felt like bland dad rock. Could definitely feel that 80s ballad influence creeping in, which I kind of liked with Foreigner but came off a bit cheesy with these guys. Maybe because I already expected it out of Foreigner.

Top Track: "This Love" Favorite Track: "This Love"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Playing off of the Tommy comment; at my mother's funereal part of the eulogy was Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap). Not the whole song but enough to contrast her very proper, classical music loving, outward appearance to her love of anything with a deep voiced singer and a good beat.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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When I was a young man I was enamored with the Tommy album. Now I find it unlistenable.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Tommy has good songs, but there's a lot of filler on there too. I always preferred Quadrophenia if I had a hankering for a pretentious, lengthy Who rock opera.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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86. Bad Company - Dangerous Age (1988)

We appropriately enough come to the follow up to Fame and Fortune, but one I wasn't anticipating much since the previous album didn't do a lot for me. Brian Howe returned as lead vocalist, with Steve Price on bass.However, this one had a much better reception, with three Top 10 Rock tracks: "No Smoke Without a Fire,"One Night," and "Shake It Up."

While I wasn't familiar with those three songs, this album definitely brings a bit of edge back to the band. While certainly not as good as their 70s stuff with the original lineup, it at least does a reasonable job of steering the band back into their lane. Solid, if not necessarily remarkable, album.

Top Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire" Favorite Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire"

87. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)

This is an album that needs no introduction, but in the interest of thoroughness we'll go through the process. This is an absolute classic, featuring some of the Stones' best known songs: "Gimme Shelter," "Midnight Rambler," the countrified version of "Honky Tonk Women" called "Country Honk," and "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

By the way, is Merry Clayton's background vocal performance on Gimme Shelter the best in rock history? The only one that even comes close to me is Claire Torry from Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky." I guess I'd give the edge to Claire Torry for sheer length. Comment if you can think of some others.

It was fun hearing the full length versions of "Midnight Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" which you never get to hear on the radio.

And nope, this album doesn't contain my favorite Stones track either.

Top Track: "Gimme Shelter" Favorite Track: "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

88. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick (1997)

20 years after their debut album, Cheap Trick put out this second album of the same name (sometimes referenced as Cheap Trick II or Cheap Trick '97). And unlike a lot of bands who fail with these types of comebacks, they actually succeeded in garnering some positive reviews.

I tell you 7 albums into Cheap Trick's discography and I still haven't quite been able to put my finger on this band's style. However, I did really enjoy the Beatles-esqueness of this album. Some of these tracks sound like something that may have come out in some alternate timeline where the Beatles never broke up.

I will say I vastly preferred the "power pop" songs over the ones that got a bit heavier. Overall, however, this was a pleasant surprise considering it's a later era Cheap Trick record.

Top Track: "Say Goodbye" Favorite Track: "Carnival Game"

89. Bad Company - Bad Company (1974)

I was really excited to check out Bad Company's debut album. This one is a classic that reached #1 on the Billboard charts, went five times platinum, and routinely makes "Top Rock Albums" lists. The album produced two singles, "Can't Get Enough," and "Movin' On," but also includes other tracks considered to be among the band's best.

In terms of "all killer, no filler" albums, this one packs a punch. Only 8 tracks clocking in at a sparse 34 minutes. This one's for sure going on the "to buy" list for my vinyl collection.

Also, I'm not sure which came first, the song or the band name, but you gotta have some big brass balls to have a song on your debut album with the same name as your band.

Top Track: "Bad Company" Favorite Track: "Bad Company"

90. AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video (1988) - This is another entry in the AC/DC discography that's typical of their largely forgotten entries. While this album is credited for a comeback of sorts, they'd find more commercial success on their follow-up, The Razor's Edge (previously reviewed in this thread).

Incidentally this is a follow-up to their Maximum Overdrive soundtrack album "Who Made Who" which I'm not covering in this list since it's more of a soundtrack than a proper studio album. So I'll take the opportunity to talk about that album here.

"Who Made Who" is one of, if not my favorite, AC/DC track. While the Maximum Overdrive movie is objectively terrible, I have a huge fondness for the film because it was filmed in my hometown. In fact, the Burger Lean diner at the end of the movie that the kid shoots up the drive-thru belonged to my granddad. I was on set watching the filming of that sequence, and met a lot of the cast and Stephen King (though I was only 11 years old so I really had no concept of who they were at the time - to me it was just a bunch of random grown ups).

Back to our regularly scheduled review of this album. AC/DC albums are the hardest to talk about because they're just so dang consistent. Not surprisingly I found this one good in the way all AC/DC albums have some merit. But certainly not as memorable as others in their discography.

Top Track: "Heatseeker" Favorite Track: "Kissin' Dynamite"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 2:04 pm 86. Bad Company - Dangerous Age (1988)

We appropriately enough come to the follow up to Fame and Fortune, but one I wasn't anticipating much since the previous album didn't do a lot for me. Brian Howe returned as lead vocalist, with Steve Price on bass.However, this one had a much better reception, with three Top 10 Rock tracks: "No Smoke Without a Fire,"One Night," and "Shake It Up."

While I wasn't familiar with those three songs, this album definitely brings a bit of edge back to the band. While certainly not as good as their 70s stuff with the original lineup, it at least does a reasonable job of steering the band back into their lane. Solid, if not necessarily remarkable, album.

Top Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire" Favorite Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire"
I had this on cassette! I actually saw them when they toured for this album. The highlight was when Simon Kirke came out from behind the drum kit, sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar, and performed a solo version of "Shooting Star".
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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"Bad Company" by Bad Company is pretty much their only song that I like. So much so that I figured it out on guitar (not that tough).
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Rumors of the death of YK'S Classic Rock Music Project have been greatly exaggerated. New batch!

91. Van Halen - OU812 (1988) - The second Sammy Hagar Van Halen album, this record was a smashing success on the Billboard charts. It produced no less than four Top 40 singles: "Black and Blue," "Finish What Ya Started,""When It's Love," and "Feels So Good."

Despite this success, critical response was mixed. Even Eddie Van Halen himself didn't like the mix, which has been criticized as having really thin guitar and bass.

"When It's Love" is a great track, and one I rediscovered with this listen. One of my absolute favorite things in music is hearing a song I haven't heard in years and gaining a new appreciation for it. This is a track I probably skipped past on the radio multiple times throughout my life, and now I get to see it from a new angle with some history behind it - knowing the artist, knowing the album, knowing where it charted. That's so satisfying.

I will say I liked the singles off this album more than the other tracks. Maybe needs a couple of relistens, but all in all not bad.

Top Track: "When It's Love" Favorite Track: "When It's Love"

92. The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones, Now! (1965) - For this project I tried to use the US studio album list when possible. So just like you see with the Beatles around this time period, US albums and UK albums could differ quite drastically.

This album is an amalgam of previously released UK tracks and their single "Heart of Stone." It's also largely composed of covers, which wasn't unusual for this time when English rock bands were borrowing heavily from American R&B.

I usually enjoy early releases by these classic bands, but in this case perhaps this record was a smidge *too* early. Just as I love The Beatles but don't go out of my way to listen to their covers and early live recordings, I prefer my Stones a bit more seasoned.

There are still some interesting things in here. In the Chuck Berry cover "You Can't Catch Me" the line "here come a flat-top, he was moving up with me" (later changed slightly by John Lennon in "Come Together") proves that the Stones and Beatles were drawing from the same well.

Top Track: "Little Red Rooster" Favorite Track: "Heart of Stone"

93. AC/DC - For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981) - Another classic AC/DC album, and the only one to hit #1 in the US until Black Ice. Despite the critical and commercial success, this follow-up to "Back in Black" didn't quite deliver the hooks of that album.

As iconic as this album is, from the title track to the cover, it still kind of falls in the middle of the pack for me. Aside from the title track, it just didn't have many memorable moments for me. There are some exceptions; I liked the little "Werewolves of London" rip-off riff of "Evil Walks" and a couple of other tracks. But all in all I found it to be ok and a bit by the numbers.

Top Track: "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" Favorite Track: "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)"

94. Bad Company - Company of Strangers (1995) - This album was hard to find much information about, perhaps reflecting its weak reception. The first with lead singer Robert Hart who replaced Brian Howe, this album would produce one follow-up and then Bad Company's studio album days would be over.

So I went into this one really cold, not knowing much at all about it. Things started off pretty promising with the title track, good classic rock sound. And somewhat to my surprise, it continues throughout the album. Kind of sounds a bit in the Allman Brothers lane. Does it occasionally have a tinge of cheese, maybe given it's a 90s album trying to emulate 70s rock? Perhaps a bit, but I didn't mind that too much.

Overall I really enjoyed this album. Not sure why it didn't make much of a splash, other than it was a bit outside of its time when it was released during the height of grunge rock.

Top Track: "Company of Strangers" Favorite Track: "Company of Strangers"

95. KISS - Unmasked (1980) - Ooh boy, this is a rough one. Critically despised - heck, even the band despises it. Gene Simmons called it "a shitty album" that he wouldn't play for his own mother. Peter Criss didn't even play on it, and many of the tracks were just one member of the band. The single "Shandi" is a perfect example of how far astray the band is on this record - it's a cheesy soft rock ballad with a disco tinge.

Just a forgettable album all around with no standouts. Even the other two singles "Talk to Me," and "Tomorrow" fail to make any impression.

Top Track: "Is That You?" Favorite Track: N/A
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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YellowKing wrote:86. Bad Company - Dangerous Age (1988)

We appropriately enough come to the follow up to Fame and Fortune, but one I wasn't anticipating much since the previous album didn't do a lot for me. Brian Howe returned as lead vocalist, with Steve Price on bass.However, this one had a much better reception, with three Top 10 Rock tracks: "No Smoke Without a Fire,"One Night," and "Shake It Up."

While I wasn't familiar with those three songs, this album definitely brings a bit of edge back to the band. While certainly not as good as their 70s stuff with the original lineup, it at least does a reasonable job of steering the band back into their lane. Solid, if not necessarily remarkable, album.

Top Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire" Favorite Track: "No Smoke Without a Fire"

87. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)

This is an album that needs no introduction, but in the interest of thoroughness we'll go through the process. This is an absolute classic, featuring some of the Stones' best known songs: "Gimme Shelter," "Midnight Rambler," the countrified version of "Honky Tonk Women" called "Country Honk," and "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

By the way, is Merry Clayton's background vocal performance on Gimme Shelter the best in rock history? The only one that even comes close to me is Claire Torry from Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky." I guess I'd give the edge to Claire Torry for sheer length. Comment if you can think of some others.

It was fun hearing the full length versions of "Midnight Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" which you never get to hear on the radio.

And nope, this album doesn't contain my favorite Stones track either.

Top Track: "Gimme Shelter" Favorite Track: "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

88. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick (1997)

20 years after their debut album, Cheap Trick put out this second album of the same name (sometimes referenced as Cheap Trick II or Cheap Trick '97). And unlike a lot of bands who fail with these types of comebacks, they actually succeeded in garnering some positive reviews.

I tell you 7 albums into Cheap Trick's discography and I still haven't quite been able to put my finger on this band's style. However, I did really enjoy the Beatles-esqueness of this album. Some of these tracks sound like something that may have come out in some alternate timeline where the Beatles never broke up.

I will say I vastly preferred the "power pop" songs over the ones that got a bit heavier. Overall, however, this was a pleasant surprise considering it's a later era Cheap Trick record.

Top Track: "Say Goodbye" Favorite Track: "Carnival Game"

89. Bad Company - Bad Company (1974)

I was really excited to check out Bad Company's debut album. This one is a classic that reached #1 on the Billboard charts, went five times platinum, and routinely makes "Top Rock Albums" lists. The album produced two singles, "Can't Get Enough," and "Movin' On," but also includes other tracks considered to be among the band's best.

In terms of "all killer, no filler" albums, this one packs a punch. Only 8 tracks clocking in at a sparse 34 minutes. This one's for sure going on the "to buy" list for my vinyl collection.

Also, I'm not sure which came first, the song or the band name, but you gotta have some big brass balls to have a song on your debut album with the same name as your band.

Top Track: "Bad Company" Favorite Track: "Bad Company"

90. AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video (1988) - This is another entry in the AC/DC discography that's typical of their largely forgotten entries. While this album is credited for a comeback of sorts, they'd find more commercial success on their follow-up, The Razor's Edge (previously reviewed in this thread).

Incidentally this is a follow-up to their Maximum Overdrive soundtrack album "Who Made Who" which I'm not covering in this list since it's more of a soundtrack than a proper studio album. So I'll take the opportunity to talk about that album here.

"Who Made Who" is one of, if not my favorite, AC/DC track. While the Maximum Overdrive movie is objectively terrible, I have a huge fondness for the film because it was filmed in my hometown. In fact, the Burger Lean diner at the end of the movie that the kid shoots up the drive-thru belonged to my granddad. I was on set watching the filming of that sequence, and met a lot of the cast and Stephen King (though I was only 11 years old so I really had no concept of who they were at the time - to me it was just a bunch of random grown ups).

Back to our regularly scheduled review of this album. AC/DC albums are the hardest to talk about because they're just so dang consistent. Not surprisingly I found this one good in the way all AC/DC albums have some merit. But certainly not as memorable as others in their discography.

Top Track: "Heatseeker" Favorite Track: "Kissin' Dynamite"
Pretty cool Maximum Overdrive anecdote: did you get a picture with the Green Goblin truck?

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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Pyperkub wrote:Pretty cool Maximum Overdrive anecdote: did you get a picture with the Green Goblin truck?
Unfortunately no, though I think I'm pretty sure my uncle has a pic of him with Stephen King. The Green Goblin head used to be in town for awhile but it was sold to a collector in Ohio who restored it and used to take it around to conventions and stuff.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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Just a bump that the music project is returning!

As you might expect, the hiatus was due to a combination of no time (work has been nuts). But I was also suffering burnout on the bands involved. In addition, I went down a huge record collecting rabbit hole and was listening to more stuff on records than streaming.

So I decided to throw in the other 10 bands that were originally going to be part of Phase 2, just so I have a wider variety to draw from and hopefully alleviate some of the boredom.

At any rate, I really want to see the project through as an outlet for writing about music and to help with my own classic rock collecting.

As usual, the selection of covered albums are chosen randomly from a random number generator. So you never know what's going to get covered. Stay tuned!
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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I'm tuned in. Though I wish you could skew the RNG over to (early) Fleetwood Mac.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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96. KISS - Monster (2012) - This is the final studio album by KISS, and it's a solid if not necessarily remarkable album. For the album the band attempted to reset and go with a heavier sound.

I'll have to say, there are certainly worse albums a band could have gone out with. It stays consistently heavy (for KISS) throughout, and I didn't find any of the tracks particularly tedious or instantly skippable. On the other hand, it also lacks any standouts.

The album's critical reception mirrors my own perceptions; a lot of three star reviews that planted it squarely in the annals of mediocre KISS records. For a late-era record from the band, however, I think they did about the best they could.

Top Track: "Hell or Hallelujah" Favorite Track: "Hell or Hallelujah"

97. Def Leppard - Diamond Star Halos (2022) - I was laughing a bit about this one because my local record store accidentally bought WAY too many copies of this album. They did everything trying to sell their inventory - featuring it on their Facebook live shows, going through various discounts of 25%, then 50%. It finally wound up being a free giveaway when someone bought a high dollar collectible album. Even then there were people who were like "Nah I'm good, thanks." As far as I know, they STILL have unsold copies of this album lying around in the back.

Which is too bad, because this is actually a pretty damn good album. We've already seen aging 80s rock bands who put out terrible products in the latter stages of their career, but Def Leppard managed to put together an album 40 years later that's better than what some bands put out just 20 years past their prime. And while it may not always rock as hard as their early stuff, the slower songs like "This Guitar" are beautifully done. These guys still know how to write decent hooks.

As an aside, I'm only listening to these albums once for the purpose of these reviews. So one might ask the question - how can you tell if an album is "good" or "bad" after one listen? Well, I don't think I can tell someone else something is good or bad even after a hundred listens - music is subjective. And no, I'm not going to fully appreciate an absolute classic album after one listen. But what I can do with one listen is tell if there's something there that lands *for me.* I feel pretty confident that one listen can tell me if I'm interested enough in the album to listen to it again, or if it's one and done. In the end, all I can offer is my opinion which, as Radiohead says, is of no consequence at all.

Top Track: "Kick" Favorite Track: "Kick"

98. Def Leppard - Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008) - The random number generator rarely cuts me any breaks, and this time it decided to toss me Def Leppard's tenth studio album. An album which I assumed would probably be inferior to Diamond Star Halos and more representative of a lot of other classic '80s bands' mid-2000s output.

The album was meant to be a throwback to a heavier '70s sound, and the opening track "Go" seems set to fulfill that concept. This leads into "Nine Lives," a collaboration with none other than Tim McGraw. (Weirdly enough, the band would continue their country collaboration from this album by performing "Love" with Taylor Swift on CMT Crossroads).

Despite the rejuvenated sound and original songs (their previous record was a cover album), Songs from the Sparkle Lounge still met a mixed critical reception. Reviews were all over the map, some praising the hooks and others lamenting the lack of them. The general consensus, however, planted this record firmly in "mediocre" territory.

I must say that personally I fell a bit more on the positive side of things. Perhaps my expectations are low for any of these bands in terms of 2000s output. Perhaps I've been burned too many times on this project with "comeback" albums (though in Def Leppard's case, they never really left). Either way, the past two albums showed me Def Leppard remained remarkably consistent, at least in terms of songwriting. No, these albums aren't Pyromania or Hysteria, but they're still decently entertaining rock albums that don't sound like a washed up band trying to re-capture the magic of their prime. This album didn't quite strike a chord with me like Diamond Star Halos did, but it's still a pretty good listen.

Top Track: "Nine Lives" Favorite Track: "Only the Good Die Young"

99. Genesis - Wind and Wuthering (1976) - Wind & Wuthering is Genesis' 8th studio album, and the second with Phil Collins taking over as frontman with Peter Gabriel's departure. I'm not familiar at all with Genesis' prog rock days (I grew up on 80s pop songs like "That's All" and "Land of Confusion"), so this project was an attempt to remedy that situation.

However, the album didn't take me totally by surprise since I had recently listened to "Selling England by the Pound" in its entirety on one of the vinyl DJ Twitch streams I tune into regularly. I was totally enthralled by that album, so I was hoping the same would be true for this one.

I've never considered myself a prog rock guy because traditionally the thought of a 7 or 8 minute song put me to sleep before I'd even heard it. However, recently I stumbled into several early Moody Blues albums and just got completely lost in them. Something in my brain clicked, and I realized that song length doesn't matter when you're listening to an album side. And these albums were meant to be listened to a side at a time.

Before we get too far down the Genesis rabbit hole, I must say I truly have no horse in the race when it comes to being a "Peter Gabriel guy" or a "Phil Collins guy." I think they're both brilliant, and I've greatly enjoyed both of their solo careers. I have also always enjoyed Genesis' pop songs, so I don't think pre-1980 vs post-1980 Genesis is going to be a debate I care to get involved in either.

But back to this album, it's another one I just kind of got lost in. Immediately after listening I couldn't point to one track that stood out, because it all blended into one journey. I had to go back and replay snippets of each track to figure out what my favorite was, and even then it felt like a bit of a cheat since the tracks don't really work in isolation. In the end the biggest thing that came out of listening to this album was - damn, I REALLY like this band and now I kind of want to own everything they ever put out. We'll see if that holds true as we progress.

Top Track: "Afterglow" Favorite Track: "Blood on the Rooftops"

100. Genesis - We Can't Dance (1991) - The random number generator tends to give me albums from the same band in the worst possible order, but in this case the joke's on it. Listening to a '90s Genesis album next to a '70s one is an excellent opportunity to compare and contrast, so I actually couldn't wait to experience this.

This was the band's 14th studio album, and the last with Phil Collins before he departed for his solo career. It kicks off with the brilliant "No Son of Mine" which I've always loved. The first surprise for me was the fact that amidst Genesis' radio friendly days, they still had 10 minute tracks on their albums. I always assumed there was a very clear division between their prog and pop eras, but in reality I guess there always been a little peanut butter in the jelly and vice versa.

Like their previous effort Invisible Touch, the album had its share of hits. "Jesus He Knows Me," "I Can't Dance," "Never a Time," and "Hold On My Heart" all got heavy radio play. However, I remember thinking as a kid that "I Can't Dance" was goofy as fuck (primarily thanks to the music video). In fact, I think that one song probably completely turned me off of Genesis for 20+ years. I can appreciate it now as the witty bit of consumerism satire that it is, but at the time the joke was completely lost on me.

Needless to say I really enjoyed this one. Not only does it have several tracks I fondly remember growing up with on the radio, the un-radio-friendly tracks like "Driving the Last Spike," "Fading Lights," and "Dreaming While You Sleep" are still stellar examples of the trademark Genesis sound. Great album that I'm super happy to get acquainted with.

Top Track: "I Can't Dance" Favorite Track: "Jesus He Knows Me"
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YellowKing
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

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101. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (1979) - It's hard to believe these days that this classic album was considered a commercial failure upon release. The follow-up to the smash hit Rumours and 12th studio album, Tusk went double platinum but still failed to repeat the success of its predecessor. There could be a couple of reasons - one, it was a higher priced double album, and secondly, it was an experimental album intentionally designed *not* to sound like Rumours.

While I'm intimately familiar with Fleetwood Mac's "Greatest Hits" collection and quite a bit of Stevie Nicks' solo work, this was my first real foray into the band's other tracks. I was instantly blown away by the absolutely beautiful "Over & Over" opening track which sounds like it absolutely should be on every greatest hits compilation.

Unfortunately things take a turn for the weird with the second track "The Ledge." And this is a recurring theme throughout the album. Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks' stunningly beautiful and traditional tracks contrasted with Lindsey Buckingham being a coked-up weirdo.

Despite the somewhat schizophrenic nature of the album, there are some big standouts. The stone-cold classic "Sara" being the biggest example. There are some other great tracks on here like "Storms," "Sisters of the Moon" - heck any of the Stevie Nicks/Christine McVie tracks are really good.

I think Lindsey Buckingham is a brilliant guitar player, but honestly I don't like his experimental weird shit. Not that anything on Tusk is super weird by today's standards, but it's just like he's playing on a completely different album. At the risk of sounding blasphemous towards a classic album, I'd have tossed all of his contributions in the garbage and made a single LP that was actually freaking awesome vs one in which I have to skip his bullshit every other song. No, I don't even like the song "Tusk," I never have. I don't like marching band music either, so it's kind of a worst of both worlds thing.

Top Track: "Tusk" Favorite Track: "Sara"

102. Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic (1975) - I came into Aerosmith a little backwards. They were not on my radar at all until their big resurgence in the late 80s/early 90s with Pump and Get a Grip, both of which had tracks with tremendous popularity on MTV. From there I jumped to their Greatest Hits which introduced me to a couple of their earlier tracks like "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way" from this album.

However, it wasn't until Guitar Hero came along that I was really exposed to anything outside of that. Once I heard "Train Kept A' Rollin'" however, I realized there was a sizable collection of tracks from their early years that I was completely missing out on. This was further reinforced when I went to see their tour with Motley Crue in 2006, where they played to the crowd and stuck primarily with their 70s/early 80s catalog.

Even so, this is one of those bands that I had no real desire to venture outside of the greatest hits comfort zone. So a lot of their early work is still completely new to me. I did recently catch a full broadcast of Permanent Vacation on a Twitch stream and loved it, but that's not a big surprise since it still falls into the early days of their MTV dominance.

Toys in the Attic was the band's third studio album and to date their best-selling US album despite initial mixed reviews. My favorite anecdote from this album (and one I'd heard before) is that "Walk This Way" was inspired by the "walk this way" scene in Young Frankenstein, one of my favorite comedies of all time.

This is a great album and while my ears just instantly hone in on the better known tracks and kind of gloss over the others, there are no real duds here. Of the songs I didn't know, I gravitated towards "You See Me Crying" - probably not a surprise since it sounds very much like a precursor to their 80s output.

Top Track: "Walk This Way" Favorite Track: "Sweet Emotion"

103. Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979) - I was a bit confused when this one came up because I thought I had taken Pink Floyd out of contention for this project since I was so familiar with most of their discography. But it seems I covered The Final Cut earlier, so to stay consistent we'll plow through these.

I went through a HUGE Pink Floyd phase in high school, and when I first started getting into them I naturally started with Dark Side of the Moon. However, I'm pretty sure The Wall was my next purchase. I absolutely ADORED this CD, and kind of wish I still had it. It was in a big chunky two-CD case, and I listened to it so much the front cover was cracked. Of all my CDs, it could very well have been the one that got the most play. I listened to it a ridiculous amount. When I started teaching myself to play guitar, "Mother" was the first Pink Floyd song I learned.

So I don't even know how to talk about this album, because I'm so intimately familiar with it. How do you choose a favorite track when you love every track? I could recite you every lyric in my sleep. So instead of talking about the album, I'll tell you an embarrassing story about it.

The year is around 1992-1993. I get my first camcorder and fancy myself an amateur filmmaker. So I chose to film a music video to "Young Lust" because I thought the "Ooooh I need a dirty woman" lyric was hilarious. So for this cinematic masterpiece I recruited a friend and we went out in the woods and had me lip-syncing to this while wearing sunglasses. At the time we were filming, we thought it was the funniest thing ever. However, after we watched it back we realized it was a level of cringe probably never before seen on home video. We both agreed it must be destroyed, and so we obliterated the only copy. To this day I can't listen to that song without wincing slightly at the memory.

Also to this day I sometimes randomly say "If you don't eat your meat, how can you have any pudding?" to my kids when they don't touch their food. I randomly quote this album a lot actually. "Look mommy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky," etc.

Top Track: "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" Favorite Track: "Comfortably Numb"

104. Genesis - Duke (1980) - There is much debate on when Genesis crossed over from prog rock band to pop (though as pointed out in the earlier reviews, there's an argument that the band had straddled the fence all along). Some point to 1981's "Abacab" as the transition point, but others take it one step back and point to their tenth studio album, 1980's "Duke." The band was much different at this point, being reduced to the trio of Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford.

I can definitely see the argument - if "Misunderstanding" isn't a perfect example of a standard three-minute pop song, I don't know what is. I don't hear the pop as starkly as other tracks pointed out as examples such as "Duchess" or "Turn It On Again," but you can definitely tell that there are pop elements blended in.

To Genesis' credit, these dips into pop territory never feel incongruent with the rest of the album. While there is only one epic length song here (the nearly 9 minute "Duke's Travels"), the rest of the tracks flow into each other into an immersive whole. In fact, there were times when I wasn't looking at the track list in which I didn't realize one song had ended and another had started.

This is another great album, and while I don't think I enjoyed it *quite* as much as "Wind & Wuthering," it still reinforced the idea that I really like this band.

Top Track: "Turn It On Again" Favorite Track: "Misunderstanding"

105. The Who - Who's Next (1971) - At last we come to the final The Who album, which is perfectly fine by me. I have heard this album before; it was on my Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums project.

This fifth album by the band is widely considered their best. And considering it has three of the few The Who tracks I can actually stand ("Baba O'Riley" "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Behind Blue Eyes"), I'll go along with that assessment. I hope the Who fans reading this understand that my comments about disliking the band are all a bit tongue-in-cheek. There are very few artists of their caliber that I'm not at least a casual fan of, so when I get the opportunity to poke fun at one of them I have to take it.

All kidding aside, this is a good album. Most of the tracks here came from their abandoned rock-opera Lifehouse, so they all have either a really epic feel or the feel of a broadway solo ("Getting in Tune"). Still, if even their best album can't make me a Who fan, I don't think it was meant to be.

Top Track: "Baba O'Riley" Favorite Track: "Won't Get Fooled Again"
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by Jaymann »

Ha, you hit on one Fleetwood Mac album that I have never even bothered to listen to. Hopefully you will soon explore the meatier stuff.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by JCC »

[Re: Genesis - Duke]

Yes, this is generally the album that fans of the more proggy era of Genesis feel is where the big "downhill slide" truly began. (I love some of Duke and am bored with other bits. I probably favor the more proggy stuff, but I don't like some of the slow Banks stuff either. And certainly Misunderstanding is just a great song, no matter how "pop music" it is.) I think they always stayed at least somewhat progressive even through their more poppy albums. The irony is that their first album was an unabashed attempt at playing pop songs of the era. It's on their second album Trespass that they really switched to prog rock. Also, their final album (Calling All Stations - notably without Phil Collins) is probably my least favorite album, even though they were definitely going for a more prog rock sound. (I found the album dull.)

Personally, I think there is plenty of merit (and some filler) in the proggy and more pop oriented Genesis albums. I love "The Musical Box" and "Land of Confusion" in pretty much equal measure.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by hitbyambulance »

YellowKing wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:30 pm
24. Pink Floyd - The Final Cut (1983) -

Apparently some of this was recorded for The Wall, and you can definitely tell. It has a very similar feel. Heck "The Final Cut" even re-uses the riff from "Comfortably Numb." Definite headphone album, with a lot of great detail going on in the background and nice use of stereo. It's a really beautiful record but goddamn is it bleak. The anti-war sentiment is as relevant today as it ever was.
this can be paired with The Wall, but i found playing Animals and The Final Cut back to back was pretty intense. Waters is showing himself to be kind of a dipthong lately, but he gets his due credit for the latter-day Floyd albums in my estimation.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by Kraken »

I don't want to go into the prog. vs. pop. argument that YK is artfully trying to avoid, so I'll just say that Genesis + Peter Gabriel were better together than either act ever was alone. And I speak as someone who saw Genesis/Gabriel live, and then saw each one after the split.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by JCC »

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:51 pm I don't want to go into the prog. vs. pop. argument that YK is artfully trying to avoid, so I'll just say that Genesis + Peter Gabriel were better together than either act ever was alone. And I speak as someone who saw Genesis/Gabriel live, and then saw each one after the split.
I unabashedly admire both eras, so I wasn't trying to pick a side or start an argument at all! I love Genesis, it's the first band that made me take music seriously, and transported me into a die hard music fan as opposed to someone who liked music and listened to whatever was on the radio.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by Kraken »

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour gave me a new appreciation for stagecraft. The costumes, props, special effects, choreography...I'd never seen anything like that, nor have I ever seen any better. Pink Floyd might have rivaled them, but I never saw Pink.

After Gabriel split from the band he deliberately renounced showmanship to distance himself from Genesis and focus purely on his music. The first time I saw him live, he was downright boring. He eventually got over that.

Anyway, the Lamb show moved Genesis to the top of my list.
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Re: YK's Classic Rock Music Project

Post by YellowKing »

I've really been surprised by how much I'm enjoying the Genesis stuff. Sure, I grew up with the radio hits, but they were never a band I really thought twice about. Then the vinyl collecting got me really interested in 70s rock, which then inevitably led into prog rock, and here we are. It's just kind of a perfect storm situation where I'm discovering them at just the right time to coincide with current interests.
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