Het Fok! Jaren '70 Album toernooi 2004/2005 - Finale

Hallo

Welkom bij de finale van het Fok! Jaren '70 Album Toernooi 2004/2005. Na een pouleronde en 3 knock-out rondes hebben 25 albums zich geplaatst voor de finale waarin uitgemaakt wordt welke plaat de plaat van de jaren '70 is volgens Fok!.

Hoe werkt het?

Uit de 25 finalisten die in de volgende post komen te staan mag je maximaal 8 albums uitkiezen. Van die (maximaal) 8 albums moet je er 3 twee punten geven en de rest 1. Geef dus in je post duidelijk aan welke albums 2 punten moeten krijgen en welke 1. Het album dat de meeste punten haalt wint uiteraard.

Voorbeeld

quote:

Voor 2 punten:
[album]
[album]
[album]

Voor 1 punt:
[album]
[album]
[album]
enz...

En dan ook nog

- Je hoeft dus niet precies 8 albums te kiezen als het er maar niet meer zijn. Zelfs 1 of 2 albums mag (bij 3 albums of minder krijgen ze automatisch allemaal 2 punten).
- Je hoeft niet alle albums te kennen in de ronde om mee te doen. Kies gewoon je favorieten.
- Wil je fragmenten van de albums beluisteren kijk dan op Allmusic.com, UBL.com, Amazon of Bol.com.



_{als er nog iets onduidelijk is, meld het even...}

De Finalisten

AC/DC



Highway To Hell (1979)

quote:

Given that Bon Scott's hard-partying, sex-booze-and-brawls lifestyle tragically caught up with him some six months after Highway to Hell was released, the album-opening title track — one of hard rock's all-time classics — now takes on an eerie resonance. It's not just a snotty, nihilistic party anthem, but a moment of unrepentant self-recognition from a rowdy ruffian who, for better or worse, exulted in what he was. The rest of the songs on Highway to Hell don't lend themselves to any deep readings, but of course, that's not the point. Highway to Hell distilled all the virtues of AC/DC's signature minimalism — loud, simple, pounding riffs, and grooving backbeats — into the tightest batch of songs the group had written to that point, barreling along at a take-no-prisoners rate and producing a handful of gems ("Girl's Got Rhythm," "If You Want Blood [You've Got It]") along the way. Highway to Hell is not only a fitting epitaph for Bon Scott, it's also a classic rock & roll album.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 1
- 2e ronde tegen Captain Beefheart - Clear Spot 7-7*
- 3e ronde tegen Queen - A Night At The Opera 5-3
- 4e ronde tegen Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St. 7-7*

The Beatles



Let It Be (1970)

quote:

The only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews, there are few other rock records as controversial as Let It Be. First off, several facts need to be explained: although released in May 1970, this was not their final album, but largely recorded in early 1969, way before Abbey Road. Phil Spector was enlisted in early 1970 to do some post-production mixing and overdubs, but he did not work with the band as a unit. And, although his use of strings has generated much criticism, by and large he left the original performances to stand as is: only "The Long and Winding Road" and (to a lesser degree) "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" get the Wall of Sound treatment. The main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to intergroup tension. All that said, the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a substandard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospel-ish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics; "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers; and the melodic "The Long and Winding Road," ruined by Spector's heavy-handed overdubs. The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. Most of the rest of the material, by contrast, was going through the motions to some degree, although there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 8
- 2e ronde tegen Santana - Abraxas 11-3
- 3e ronde tegen Camel - Moonmadness 6-2
- 4e ronde tegen King Crimson - Red 5-5*

Black Sabbath



Paranoid (1971)

quote:

Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound — crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock — and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man" (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect — the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals and Tony Iommi's lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 9
- 2e ronde tegen Neil Young - Zuma 9-6
- 3e ronde tegen Lou Reed - Street Hassle 7-2
- 4e ronde tegen Rush - 2112 9-4

David Bowie



The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)

quote:

Borrowing heavily from Marc Bolan's glam rock and the future shock of A Clockwork Orange, David Bowie reached back to the heavy rock of The Man Who Sold the World for The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Constructed as a loose concept album about an androgynous alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust, the story falls apart quickly, yet Bowie's fractured, paranoid lyrics are evocative of a decadent, decaying future, and the music echoes an apocalyptic, nuclear dread. Fleshing out the off-kilter metallic mix with fatter guitars, genuine pop songs, string sections, keyboards, and a cinematic flourish, Ziggy Stardust is a glitzy array of riffs, hooks, melodrama, and style and the logical culmination of glam. Mick Ronson plays with a maverick flair that invigorates rockers like "Suffragette City," "Moonage Daydream," and "Hang Onto Yourself," while "Lady Stardust," "Five Years," and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" have a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll. And that self-conscious sense of theater is part of the reason why Ziggy Stardust sounds so foreign. Bowie succeeds not in spite of his pretensions but because of them, and Ziggy Stardust — familiar in structure, but alien in performance — is the first time his vision and execution met in such a grand, sweeping fashion.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 15
- 2e ronde tegen Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Going On 13-0
- 3e ronde tegen Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True 9-1
- 4e ronde tegen King Crimson - Larks' Tongues In Aspic 6-4

Low (1977)

quote:

Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with David Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his place at rock's cutting edge. Driven by dissonant synthesizers and electronics, Low is divided between brief, angular songs and atmospheric instrumentals. Throughout the record's first half, the guitars are jagged and the synthesizers drone with a menacing robotic pulse, while Bowie's vocals are unnaturally layered and overdubbed. During the instrumental half, the electronics turn cool, which is a relief after the intensity of the preceding avant pop. Half the credit for Low's success goes to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functioned as a conduit for Bowie's ideas, and in turn Bowie made the experimentalism of not only Eno but of the German synth group Kraftwerk and the post-punk group Wire respectable, if not quite mainstream. Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible — "Sound and Vision" has a shimmering guitar hook, and "Be My Wife" subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion — the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 2
- 2e ronde tegen The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot 11-2
- 3e ronde tegen The Alan Parsons Project - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination 8-1
- 4e ronde tegen Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother 7-6

"Heroes" (1977)

quote:

Repeating the formula of Low's half-vocal/half-instrumental structure, Heroes develops and strengthens the sonic innovations David Bowie and Brian Eno explored on their first collaboration. The vocal songs are fuller, boasting harder rhythms and deeper layers of sound. Much of the harder-edged sound of Heroes is due to Robert Fripp's guitar, which provides a muscular foundation for the electronics, especially on the relatively conventional rock songs. Similarly, the instrumentals on Heroes are more detailed, this time showing a more explicit debt to German synth pop and European experimental rock. Essentially, the difference between Low and Heroes lies in the details, but the record is equally challenging and groundbreaking.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 19
- 2e ronde tegen Prince - Prince 11-3
- 3e ronde tegen Japan - Quiet Life 9-1
- 4e ronde tegen Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti 10-4

Deep Purple



In Rock (1970)

quote:

After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord's overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple's soon-to-be classic Mark II lineup made their proper debut on 1970's awesome In Rock. The cacophony of sound (led by Ritchie Blackmore's blistering guitar solo), which introduces the opener "Speed King," makes it immediately obvious that the band is no longer fooling around. The slightly less intense "Bloodsucker" allows for some breathing room before the band embarks on the album's epic, ten-minute tour de force "Child in Time." In what is arguably his greatest performance, singer Ian Gillan leads the band on a series of crescendos, from the song's gentle beginning through to its ear-shattering climax, and back again to an even more intense encore. With searing power chords, "Flight of the Rat" is another example of the band's new hard-rock stance; though at nearly eight minutes, it too finds room for some extended soloing from Blackmore and Lord. "Into the Fire" and "Living Wreck" are more concise but equally appealing, and despite the closer "Hard Lovin' Man," which waffles on a bit before descending into feedback, this is still an essential album.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 15
- 2e ronde tegen Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure 7-7*
- 3e ronde tegen Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life 6-5
- 4e ronde tegen David Bowie - Diamond Dogs 8-5

Made In Japan (1972)

quote:

Recorded over three nights in August 1972, Deep Purple's Made in Japan was the record that brought the band to headliner status in the U.S. and elsewhere, and it remains a landmark in the history of heavy metal music. Since reorganizing with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover in 1969, Deep Purple had recorded three important albums — Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head — and used the material to build a fierce live show. Made in Japan, its selections drawn from those albums, documented that show, in which songs were drawn out to ten and even nearly 20 minutes with no less intensity, as guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord soloed extensively and Gillan sang in a screech that became the envy of all metal bands to follow. The signature song, of course, was "Smoke on the Water," with its memorable riff, which went on to become an American hit single. But those extended workouts, particularly the moody "Child in Time," with Gillan's haunting falsetto wail and Blackmore's amazingly fast playing, and "Space Truckin'," with Lord's organ effects, maintained the onslaught, making this a definitive treatment of the band's catalog and its most impressive album. By stretching out and going to extremes, Deep Purple pushed its music into the kind of deliberate excess that made heavy metal what it became, and their audience recognized the breakthrough, propelling the original double LP into the U.S. Top Ten and sales over a million copies.

Weg naar de finale:

- 4e poule 4
- 2e ronde tegen Queen - Sheer Heart Attack 11-3
- 3e ronde tegen Television - Marquee Moon 5-4
- 4e ronde tegen Tom Waits - Closing Time 9-4

The Doors



LA Woman (1971)

quote:

The final album with Jim Morrison in the lineup is by far their most blues-oriented, and the singer's poetic ardor is undiminished, though his voice sounds increasingly worn and craggy on some numbers. Actually, some of the straight blues items sound kind of turgid, but that's more than made up for by several cuts that rate among their finest and most disturbing work. The seven-minute title track was a car-cruising classic that celebrated both the glamour and seediness of Los Angeles; the other long cut, the brooding, jazzy "Riders on the Storm," was the group at its most melodic and ominous. It and the far bouncier "Love Her Madly" were hit singles, and "The Changeling" and "L'America" count as some of their better little-heeded album tracks. An uneven but worthy finale from the original quartet.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 3
- 2e ronde tegen Carole King - Tapestry 11-3
- 3e ronde tegen Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food 8-2
- 4e ronde tegen David Bowie - Station To Station 8-6

George Harrison



All Things Must Pass (1971)

quote:

Without a doubt, Harrison's first solo recording, originally issued as a triple album, is his best. Drawing on his backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era, Harrison crafted material that managed the rare feat of conveying spiritual mysticism without sacrificing his gifts for melody and grand, sweeping arrangements. Enhanced by Phil Spector's lush orchestral production, and Harrison's own superb slide guitar, nearly every song is excellent: "Awaiting on You All," "Beware of Darkness," the Dylan collaboration "I'd Have You Anytime," "Isn't It a Pity," and the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" are just a few of the highlights. A very moving work, with a very significant flaw: the jams that comprise the final third of the album are entirely dispensable, and have probably only been played once or twice by most of the listeners that own this record.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 8
- 2e ronde tegen Queen - Live Killers 9-3
- 3e ronde tegen Kate Bush - The Kick Inside 5-4
- 4e ronde tegen The Police - Regatta De Blanc 5-4

Joy Division



Unknown Pleasures (1979)

quote:

It even looks like something classic, beyond its time or place of origin even as it was a clear product of both — one of Peter Saville's earliest and best designs, a transcription of a signal showing a star going nova, on a black embossed sleeve. If that were all Unknown Pleasures was, it wouldn't be discussed so much, but the ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair. The quantum leap from the earliest thrashy singles to Unknown Pleasures can be heard through every note, with Martin Hannett's deservedly famous production — emphasizing space in the most revelatory way since the dawn of dub — as much a hallmark as the music itself. Songs fade in behind furtive noises of motion and activity, glass breaks with the force and clarity of doom, minimal keyboard lines add to an air of looming disaster — something, somehow, seems to wait or lurk beyond the edge of hearing. But even though this is Hannett's album as much as anyone's, the songs and performances are the true key. Sumner redefined heavy metal sludge as chilling feedback fear and explosive energy, Hook's instantly recognizable bass work at once warm and forbidding, Morris' drumming smacking through the speakers above all else. Curtis synthesizes and purifies every last impulse, his voice shot through with the desire first and foremost to connect, only connect — as "Candidate" plaintively states, "I tried to get to you/you treat me like this." Pick any song, the nervous death dance of "She's Lost Control," the harrowing call for release "New Dawn Fades," all four members in perfect sync, the romance in hell of "Shadowplay," "Insight" and its nervous drive towards some sort of apocalypse. All visceral, all emotional, all theatrical, all perfect — one of the best albums ever.

Weg naar de finale:

- 4e poule 12
- 2e ronde tegen Tom Waits - Small Change 10-4
- 3e ronde tegen Simple Minds - Life In A Day 6-1
- 4e ronde tegen Yes - The Yes Album 8-3

Kraftwerk



Autobahn (1974)

quote:

Although Kraftwerk's first three albums were groundbreaking in their own right, Autobahn is where the group's hypnotic electro-pulse genuinely came into its own. The main difference between Autobahn and its predecessors is how it develops an insistent, propulsive pulse which makes the repeated rhythms and riffs of the shimmering electronic keyboards and trance-like guitars all the more hypnotizing. The 22-minute title track, in a severely edited form, became an international hit single and remains the peak of the band's achievements — it encapsulates the band and why they are important within one track — but the rest of the album provides soundscapes equally as intriguing. Within Autobahn, the roots of electro-funk, ambient, and synth-pop are all evident — it's a pioneering album, even if its electronic trances might not capture the attention of all listeners.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 11
- 2e ronde tegen Soft Machine - Six 10-4
- 3e ronde tegen The Stooges - Fun House 5-2
- 4e ronde tegen Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate 8-5

Led Zeppelin



III (1970)

quote:

On their first two albums, Led Zeppelin unleashed a relentless barrage of heavy blues and rockabilly riffs, but Led Zeppelin III provided the band with the necessary room to grow musically. While there are still a handful of metallic rockers, III is built on a folky, acoustic foundation that gives the music extra depth. And even the rockers aren't as straightforward as before: the galloping "Immigrant Song" is powered by Robert Plant's banshee wail, "Celebration Day" turns blues-rock inside out with a warped slide guitar riff, and "Out on the Tiles" lumbers along with a tricky, multi-part riff. Nevertheless, the heart of the album lies on the second side, when the band delve deeply into English folk. "Gallows Pole" updates a traditional tune with a menacing flair, and "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is an infectious acoustic romp, while "That's the Way" and "Tangerine" are shimmering songs with graceful country flourishes. The band hasn't left the blues behind, but the twisted bottleneck blues of "Hats off to (Roy) Harper" actually outstrips the epic "Since I've Been Loving You," which is the only time Zeppelin sound a bit set in their ways.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 3
- 2e ronde tegen Nick Drake - Pink Moon 11-4
- 3e ronde tegen John Lennon - Mind Games 5-4
- 4e ronde tegen The Cure - Three Imaginery Boys 8-6

IV (1971)

quote:

Encompassing heavy metal, folk, pure rock & roll, and blues, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album is a monolithic record, defining not only Led Zeppelin but the sound and style of '70s hard rock. Expanding on the breakthroughs of III, Zeppelin fuse their majestic hard rock with a mystical, rural English folk that gives the record an epic scope. Even at its most basic — the muscular, traditionalist "Rock and Roll" — the album has a grand sense of drama, which is only deepened by Robert Plant's burgeoning obsession with mythology, religion, and the occult. Plant's mysticism comes to a head on the eerie folk ballad "The Battle of Evermore," a mandolin-driven song with haunting vocals from Sandy Denny, and on the epic "Stairway to Heaven." Of all of Zeppelin's songs, "Stairway to Heaven" is the most famous, and not unjustly. Building from a simple fingerpicked acoustic guitar to a storming torrent of guitar riffs and solos, it encapsulates the entire album in one song. Which, of course, isn't discounting the rest of the album. "Going to California" is the group's best folk song, and the rockers are endlessly inventive, whether it's the complex, multi-layered "Black Dog," the pounding hippie satire "Misty Mountain Hop," or the funky riffs of "Four Sticks." But the closer, "When the Levee Breaks," is the one song truly equal to "Stairway," helping give IV the feeling of an epic. An apocalyptic slice of urban blues, "When the Levee Breaks" is as forceful and frightening as Zeppelin ever got, and its seismic rhythms and layered dynamics illustrate why none of their imitators could ever equal them.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 7
- 2e ronde tegen Fleetwood Mac - Tusk 9-3
- 3e ronde tegen The Doors - Absolutely Live 8-1
- 4e ronde tegen David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World 9-7

John Lennon



Imagine (1971)

quote:

After the harrowing Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon returned to calmer, more conventional territory with Imagine. While the album had a softer surface, it was only marginally less confessional than its predecessor. Underneath the sweet strings of "Jealous Guy" lies a broken and scared man, the jaunty "Crippled Inside" is a mocking assault at an acquaintance, and "Imagine" is a paean for peace in a world with no gods, possessions, or classes, where everyone is equal. And Lennon doesn't shy away from the hard rockers — "How Do You Sleep" is a scathing attack on Paul McCartney, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" is a hypnotic antiwar song, and "Give Me Some Truth" is bitter hard rock. If Imagine doesn't have the thematic sweep of Plastic Ono Band, it is nevertheless a remarkable collection of songs that Lennon would never be able to better again.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 7
- 2e ronde tegen Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run 9-5
- 3e ronde tegen Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 1 6-2
- 4e ronde tegen Ramones - Ramones 8-4

Pink Floyd



Meddle (1971)

quote:

Atom Heart Mother, for all its glories, was an acquired taste, and Pink Floyd wisely decided to trim back its orchestral excesses for its follow-up, Meddle. Opening with a deliberately surging "One of These Days," Meddle spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, "Echoes." If there aren't pop songs in the classic sense (even on the level of the group's contributions to Ummagumma), there is a uniform tone, ranging from the pastoral "A Pillow of Winds" to "Fearless," with its insistent refrain hinting at latter-day Floyd. Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and Meddle is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of Dark Side of the Moon and the entire Roger Waters era. Here, David Gilmour exerts a slightly larger influence, at least based on lead vocals, but it's not all sweetness and light — even if its lilting rhythms are welcome, "San Tropez" feels out of place with the rest of Meddle. Still, the album is one of the Floyd's most consistent explorations of mood, especially from their time at Harvest, and it stands as the strongest record they released between Syd's departure and Dark Side.

Weg naar de finale:

- 4e poule 1
- 2e ronde tegen Velvet Underground - Loaded 9-6
- 3e ronde tegen Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby 8-2
- 4e ronde tegen Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run 7-6

Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

quote:

By condensing the sonic explorations of Meddle to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with Dark Side of the Moon. The primary revelation of Dark Side of the Moon is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance. But what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music, which evolves from ponderous, neo-psychedelic art rock to jazz fusion and blues-rock before turning back to psychedelia. It's dense with detail, but leisurely paced, creating its own dark, haunting world. Pink Floyd may have better albums than Dark Side of the Moon, but no other record defines them quite as well as this one.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 2
- 2e ronde tegen Rush - A Farewell To Kings 13-3
- 3e ronde tegen The Jam - This Is The Modern World 9-3
- 4e ronde tegen Supersister - To The Highest Bidder 12-1

Wish You Were Here (1975)

quote:

Pink Floyd followed the commercial breakthrough of Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here, a loose concept album about and dedicated to their founding member Syd Barrett. The record unfolds gradually, as the jazzy textures of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" reveal its melodic motif, and in its leisurely pace, the album shows itself to be a warmer record than its predecessor. Musically, it's arguably even more impressive, showcasing the group's interplay and David Gilmour's solos in particular. And while it's short on actual songs, the long, winding soundscapes are constantly enthralling.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 17
- 2e ronde tegen Neil Young - After The Gold Rush 9-4
- 3e ronde tegen Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath 8-3
- 4e ronde tegen Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine 12-3

Animals (1977)

quote:

Of all of the classic-era Pink Floyd albums, Animals is the strangest and darkest, a record that's hard to initially embrace yet winds up yielding as many rewards as its equally nihilistic successor, The Wall. It isn't that Roger Waters dismisses the human race as either pigs, dogs, or sheep, it's that he's constructed an album whose music is as bleak and bitter as that world view. Arriving after the warm-spirited (albeit melancholy) Wish You Were Here, the shift in tone comes as a bit of a surprise, and there are even less proper songs here than on either Wish or Dark Side. Animals is all extended pieces, yet it never drifts — it slowly, ominously works its way toward its destination. For an album that so clearly is Waters', David Gilmour's guitar dominates thoroughly, with Richard Wright's keyboards rarely rising above a mood-setting background (such as on the intro to "Sheep"). This gives the music, on occasion, immediacy and actually heightens the dark mood by giving it muscle. It also makes Animals as accessible as it possibly could be, since it surges with bold blues-rock guitar lines and hypnotic space rock textures. Through it all, though, the utter blackness of Waters' spirit holds true, and since there are no vocal hooks or melodies, everything rests on the mood, the near-nihilistic lyrics, and Gilmour's guitar. These are the kinds of things that satisfy cultists, and it will reward their attention, there's just no way in for casual listeners.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 6
- 2e ronde tegen MC5 - Back In The USA 10-2
- 3e ronde tegen The Clash - The Clash 7-4
- 4e ronde tegen Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - D้jเ Vu 9-5

The Wall (1979)

quote:

Roger Waters constructed The Wall, a narcissistic, double-album rock opera about an emotionally crippled rock star who spits on an audience member daring to cheer during an acoustic song. Given its origins, it's little wonder that The Wall paints such an unsympathetic portrait of the rock star, cleverly named "Pink," who blames everyone — particularly women — for his neuroses. Such lyrical and thematic shortcomings may have been forgivable if the album had a killer batch of songs, but Waters took his operatic inclinations to heart, constructing the album as a series of fragments that are held together by larger numbers like "Comfortably Numb" and "Hey You." Generally, the fully developed songs are among the finest of Pink Floyd's later work, but The Wall is primarily a triumph of production: its seamless surface, blending melodic fragments and sound effects, makes the musical shortcomings and questionable lyrics easy to ignore. But if The Wall is examined in depth, it falls apart, since it doesn't offer enough great songs to support its ambition, and its self-serving message and shiny production seem like relics of the late-'70s Me Generation.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 19
- 2e ronde tegen Madness - One Step Beyond 10-6
- 3e ronde tegen Talking Heads - Fear Of Music 8-3
- 4e ronde tegen Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac 12-2

The Police



Outlandos d'Amour (1978)

quote:

While their subsequent chart-topping albums would contain far more ambitious songwriting and musicianship, the Police's 1978 debut, Outlandos D'Amour (translation: Outlaws of Love) is by far their most direct and straightforward release. Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-'70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge. Some of it may have been simplistic ("Be My Girl-Sally," "Born in the '50s"), but Sting was already an ace songwriter, as evidenced by all-time classics like the good-girl-gone-bad tale of "Roxanne," and a pair of brokenhearted reggae-rock ditties, "Can't Stand Losing You" and "So Lonely." But like all other Police albums, the lesser-known album cuts are often highlights themselves — the frenzied rockers "Next to You," "Peanuts" and "Truth Hits Everybody," as well as more exotic fare like the groovy album closer "Masoko Tanga" and the lonesome "Hole in My Life." Outlandos D'Amour is unquestionably one of the finest debuts to come out of the '70s punk/new wave movement.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 6
- 2e ronde tegen Alice Cooper - School's Out 10-5
- 3e ronde tegen Jethro Tull - Songs From The Wood 5-2
- 4e ronde tegen Tom Waits - Blue Valentine 7-4

Lou Reed



Transformer (1972)

quote:

David Bowie has never been shy about acknowledging his influences, and since the boho decadence and sexual ambiguity of the Velvet Underground's music had a major impact on Bowie's work, it was only fitting that as Ziggy Stardust-mania was reaching its peak, Bowie would offer Lou Reed some much needed help with his career, which was stuck in neutral after his first solo album came and went. Musically, Reed's work didn't have too much in common with the sonic bombast of the glam scene, but at least it was a place where his eccentricities could find a comfortable home, and on Transformer Bowie and his right-hand man, Mick Ronson, crafted a new sound for Reed that was better fitting (and more commercially astute) than the ambivalent tone of his first solo album. Ronson adds some guitar raunch to "Vicious" and "Hangin' Round" that's a lot flashier than what Reed cranked out with the Velvets, but still honors Lou's strengths in guitar-driven hard rock, while the imaginative arrangements Ronson cooked up for "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "Goodnight Ladies" blend pop polish with musical thinking just as distinctive as Reed's lyrical conceits. And while Reed occasionally overplays his hand in writing stuff he figured the glam kids wanted ("Make Up" and "I'm So Free" being the most obvious examples), "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "New York Telephone Conversation" proved he could still write about the demimonde with both perception and respect. The sound and style of Transformer would in many ways define Lou Reed's career in the 1970s, and while it led him into a style that proved to be a dead end, you can't deny that Bowie and Ronson gave their hero a new lease on life — and a solid album in the bargain.

Weg naar de finale:

- winnaar poule 2
- 2e ronde tegen Cheap Trick - At Budokan 11-3
- 3e ronde tegen Supertramp - Crime Of The Century 6-4
- 4e ronde tegen Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols 11-4

Berlin (1973)

quote:

Transformer and "Walk on the Wild Side" were both major hits in 1972, to the surprise of both Lou Reed and the music industry, and with Reed suddenly a hot commodity, he used his newly won clout to make the most ambitious album of his career, Berlin. Berlin was the musical equivalent of a drug-addled kid set loose in a candy store; the album's songs, which form a loose storyline about a doomed romance between two chemically fueled bohemians, were fleshed out with a huge, boomy production (Bob Ezrin at his most grandiose) and arrangements overloaded with guitars, keyboards, horns, strings, and any other kitchen sink that was handy (the session band included Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Aynsley Dunbar, and Tony Levin). And while Reed had often been accused of focusing on the dark side of life, he and Ezrin approached Berlin as their opportunity to make The Most Depressing Album of All Time, and they hardly missed a trick. This all seemed a bit much for an artist who made such superb use of the two-guitars/bass/drums lineup with the Velvet Underground, especially since Reed doesn't even play electric guitar on the album; the sheer size of Berlin ultimately overpowers both Reed and his material. But if Berlin is largely a failure of ambition, that sets it apart from the vast majority of Reed's lesser works; Lou's vocals are both precise and impassioned, and though a few of the songs are little more than sketches, the best — "How Do You Think It Feels," "Oh Jim," "The Kids," and "Sad Song" — are powerful, bitter stuff. It's hard not to be impressed by Berlin, given the sheer scope of the project, but while it earns an A for Effort, the actual execution merits more of a B-.

Weg naar de finale:

- Winnaar poule 16
- 2e ronde tegen Iggy Pop - Lust For Life 10-4
- 3e ronde tegen Boudewijn de Groot - Hoe Sterk Is De Eenzame Fietser 9-0
- 4e ronde tegen Jimi Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys 10-4

Neil Young



Harvest (1972)

quote:

Neil Young's most popular album, Harvest employs a number of jarringly different styles. Much of it is country-tinged, although there is also an acoustic track, a couple of electric guitar-drenched rock performances, and two songs on which Young is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. But the album does have an overall mood and an overall lyric content, and they conflict with each other: the mood is melancholic, but the songs mostly describe the longing for and fulfillment of new love. Young's concerns are perhaps most explicit on the controversial "A Man Needs a Maid," which contrasts the fears of committing to a relationship with simply living alone and hiring help. Over and over, he sings of the need for love in such songs as "Out on the Weekend," "Heart of Gold," and "Old Man," and the songs are unusually melodic and accessible; the rock numbers "Are You Ready for the Country" and "Alabama" are in Young's familiar style and unremarkable, and "There's a World" and "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" are ponderous and overdone. But the love songs and the harrowing portrait of a friend's descent into heroin addiction, "The Needle and the Damage Done," remain among Young's most affecting and memorable songs.

Weg naar de finale:

- 2e poule 5
- 2e ronde tegen Supertramp - Breakfast In America 8-5
- 3e ronde tegen Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All 5-3
- 4e ronde tegen Tom Waits - The Heart Of Saturday Night 8-3

Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

quote:

Rust Never Sleeps, its aphoristic title drawn from an intended advertising slogan, was an album of new songs, some of them recorded on Neil Young's 1978 concert tour. His strongest collection since Tonight's the Night, its obvious antecedent was Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and, as Dylan did, Young divided his record into acoustic and electric sides while filling his songs with wildly imaginative imagery. The leadoff track, "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (repeated in an electric version at album's end as "Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black]" with slightly altered lyrics), is the most concise and knowing description of the entertainment industry ever written; it was followed by "Thrasher," which describes Young's parallel artistic quest in an extended metaphor that also reflected the album's overall theme — the inevitability of deterioration and the challenge of overcoming it. Young then spent the rest of the album demonstrating that his chief weapons against rusting were his imagination and his daring, creating an archetypal album that encapsulated his many styles on a single disc with great songs — in particular the remarkable "Powderfinger" — unlike any he had written before.

Weg naar de finale:

- 12e poule 3
- 2e ronde tegen Van Morrison - Moondance 7-4
- 3e ronde tegen Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers 5-3
- 4e ronde tegen The Clash - London Calling 7-5

Makkelijker lijst met finalisten

AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Beatles - Let It Be
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
David Bowie - Low
David Bowie - "Heroes"
Deep Purple - In Rock
Deep Purple - Made In Japan
The Doors - LA Woman
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Led Zeppelin - III
Led Zeppelin - IV
John Lennon - Imagine
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Animals
Pink Floyd - The Wall
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
Lou Reed - Transformer
Lou Reed - Berlin
Neil Young - Harvest
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps

[ Bericht 97% gewijzigd door PogueMahone op 10-03-2005 11:21:05 ]

je mag overigens wel meerdere albums van een artiest kiezen

Kom op tong, als je 4 albums kiest moeten er drie 2 punten hebben

ok

_kick