Classic Albums
Classic Album: Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
On the release of Houses of the Holy in 1973, there simply wasn’t a bigger band on the planet than Led Zeppelin. Over their first four albums they had perfected blues rock, invented heavy metal, and then fused that folk influences, released a fourth album that was so anticipated that it required neither a title, …
Classic Album: Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
1982’s The Number of the Beast is one of Iron Maiden’s best selling albums, and saw the band re-assert their place as one of the prime heavy metal acts of the era. That they did this on the album that saw Bruce Dickinson replace Paul Di’Anno as their vocalist shows just how hard the whole …
Classic Album: Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
Good old Dark Side Of The Moon, without its massive influence, would we have to put up with the legions of gloomy and pretentious rock bands that see every note they perform as a statement of loneliness and alienation? Probably not when you think about it. There’s no two ways about it, The Dark Side …
Classic Album: Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies
Billion Dollar Babies is a prime example of what can be achieved if you strike while the iron is hot. The years in the run up to this album’s release saw Alice Cooper establish themselves as the great black hope of American rock and roll, with Love It to Death andKiller establishing them as an …
Classic Compilation: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Anthology: Through the Years
Tom Petty – a Dylan disciple, a Byrds with harder-wearing tunes, a Bruce Springsteen for the rest of us. Few artists have defined approachable Middle-American rock and roll radio quite like Petty and his loyal band, and no one has made such a consistently good job of it for as long as he did. Anthology: …
Classic Album: Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols
While no one would ever dare question Sex Pistols’ cultural impact, such was Malcolm Mclaren’s obsession with publicity stunts, that by the time Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols was finally released in late October ’77, they had very nearly missed the bus. Both The Damned and The Clash had beaten them to …
Classic Compilation: Orange Juice – The Glasgow School
So, who are the most influential British Indie band of all time? Okay, so I’m going to assume that almost all of you said The Smiths. It is after, all the, predictable and obvious choice. However such cultural myopia is also doing great disservice to Orange Juice, the Edwyn Collins fronted band of indie pioneers …
Classic Album: Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell
40 years after its release Bat Out Of Hell remains big, preposterous and totally mad. This is the album that took it upon itself to fuse hard rock, doo wop, insanely overwrought ballads, prog-rock and Wagner to create something that to this day no one has been able to emulate, least of all the two …
Classic Album: R.E.M. – Automatic for the People
R.E.M. may have taken the scenic route to international fame, but if the only thing they ever released had been Automatic For The People, that lengthy trip would have still been worth it. After years of hip college-rock credibility, a springboard into stadiums and a huge international success with Out of Time, R.E.M. were on …
Classic Album: Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue
When it comes to bloated and pompous 70s pop / rock not many matched Electric Light Orchestra for ridiculously overwrought statements, and 1977’s Out Of The Blue is their most overwrought album by some distance. Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that Out Of The Blue is my (as long as many others’) favourite …