ILM's Now For Something Completely Different... 70s Album Poll Results! Top 100 Countdown!

Yaaay Runaways! I only voted for 20 things so expect me to yaaay for them all.

Anyone want more tonight?

Sorry I was out!! What a great stretch of records!

469    Khan - Space Shanty    463 Points,   5 Votes
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Rty8bcqTY7M/Tv8H3yWQnxI/AAAAAAAAACM/R-xtrrT8puk/s1600/Khan-Space-Shanty-397468.jpg
RYM #70 for 1972 , #2043 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/3H1Al8EeGuAeAMje8Bng1g

review
by Richie Unterberger

Almost stereotypically overreaching early-'70s progressive rock; quasi-operatic vocals, spinning guitar solos, lengthy suite-like tracks on the order of "Stargazers" and "Hollow Stone (incl. Escape of the Space Pilots)." The highlight is Stewart's effervescent organ work during the gentle and meditative passages.

I'll take more but if you want to stop you can.

I love the sleeve artwork of Space Shanty

Khan is not available in my country. Booo!

I'm following, but also busy assembling stuff for the rest of the rollout!

xpost KHAAAAAAAN

I'm listening to FTB's cover of 21st century schizoid man right now it might be better than the original! </challops>

TIE
467    James Brown - Love Power Peace    464  Points  4  Votes
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dz5mrOSwV6Y/T_sz8Bc1kMI/AAAAAAAAARY/lrcU-pSrgrM/s1600/731451338922.jpg

467    Jethro Tull - Aquadung    464 Points   4 Votes
http://ring.cdandlp.com/elysee/photo_grande/115159591.jpg
RYM #12 for 1971 , #193 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/0NGM3Ftwjw0dLNpAowmz3x

review
[-] by Bruce Eder

Released at a time when a lot of bands were embracing pop-Christianity (à la Jesus Christ Superstar), Aqualung was a bold statement for a rock group, a pro-God antichurch tract that probably got lots of teenagers wrestling with these ideas for the first time in their lives. This was the album that made Jethro Tull a fixture on FM radio, with riff-heavy songs like "My God," "Hymn 43," "Locomotive Breath," "Cross-Eyed Mary," "Wind Up," and the title track. And from there, they became a major arena act, and a fixture at the top of the record charts for most of the 1970s. Mixing hard rock and folk melodies with Ian Anderson's dour musings on faith and religion (mostly how organized religion had restricted man's relationship with God), the record was extremely profound for a number seven chart hit, one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners. Indeed, from this point on, Anderson and company were compelled to stretch the lyrical envelope right to the breaking point.

WTF Aqualung was about God stuff? I've listened to the album at least a dozen times and never picked up on any of that.

I might be a bit thick... as a specific object.

Then again I have to point out all the obvious Xianity stuff in Master of Reality sometimes to friends...

This just came out Wednesday:
Looking Back (and Forward) on Jethro Tull's 'Thick As a Brick'
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/166734-looking-back-and-foreword-on-jethro-tulls/

Destroy All Monsters 1974/1976 was a top-20 pick, and though the Chrome comparisons are OTM in terms of lo-fi basement ambiance, this triple-disc set is stocked w/ ambling and occasionally freeform psych episodes that only occasionally rock (though they're v. cool and def. rawk). closer comparisons might be Throbbing Gristle, early SPK, Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos, Jandek, early Half Japanese, early Pain Teens, F/i's Past Darkly Future Brightly, Smog's Sewn to the Sky, Mahogany Brain and more recently Eric Copeland and probably half of the Not Not Fun roster. (freeform noise isn't usually my thing, so I'm sure others could make better comparisons). three of my fave tracks from 74/76:

Conga: http://youtu.be/yQWNwVyV17g
Shiver: http://youtu.be/xmF5ltz1HAQ
To the Throne of Chaos: http://youtu.be/2kSHjd1uOvU

466    Led Zeppelin - Presence    464 Points   5 Votes
http://www.terminal-boredom.com/presence.jpg
RYM #218 for 1976

review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Presence scales back the size of Physical Graffiti to a single album, but it retains the grandiose scope of that double record. If anything, Presence has more majestic epics than its predecessor, opening with the surging, ten-minute "Achilles Last Stand" and closing with the meandering, nearly ten-minute "Tea for One." In between, Led Zeppelin add the lumbering blues workout "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and the terse, menacing "For Your Life," which is the best song on the album. These four tracks take up the bulk of the album, leaving three lighthearted throwaways to alleviate the foreboding atmosphere -- and pretensions -- of the epics. If all of the throwaways were as focused and funny as those on Physical Graffiti or Houses of the Holy, Zeppelin would have had another classic on their hands.

I suppose I may as well take it down to 451 if you're all gonna be around

I've never heard that album, probably because it wasn't my dad owned while I was growing up.

I read a good reassessment of Presence about 6-8 yrs ago that inspired me to dig back into it. Can't remember where it was from though! Ima gonna make a drink and order food but will be around.

465    The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed    468 Points   3  Votes
http://www.caratulas.com/caratulas/T/The_Sensational_Alex_Harvey_Band/The_Sensational_Alex_Harvey_Band-Framed-Frontal.jpg
#153 for 1973 , #4595 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/6anl2vYU9wr5h1kEh5XAQ4

review
by Steven McDonald

Harvey's merger with Tear Gas, a faltering rock band, was the smartest move of his career. With a heady mix of theatrics and driving rock, SAHB quickly made a name for themselves across England, releasing this album along the way. Harvey struts and yowls and gets raunchy (prefiguring the SAHB version of "Delilah") while Zal Cleminson rips up the territory with some astounding guitar work. A great debut and a hell of a rock album.

I don't think this band ever crossed over to the states. I'd never heard of them before the tracks poll.

464    Graham Central Station - Now Do U Wanna Dance    468 Points   4  Votes
http://991.com/newgallery/Graham-Central-Station-Now-Do-U-Wanta-Da-541208.jpg

review
by Craig Lytle

The fifth album from the funk aggregate generated a smash hit with the title track, "Now Do-U-Wanta Dance." Paced by Larry Graham's rumbling bass and animated lead vocals, which feature the group leader on the vocorder, the synthesized funk track stayed on the Billboard R&B charts for ten weeks, peaking at number ten. The influence doo wop had on the bassist is revealed on songs like "Stomped Beat-Up and Whooped" and "Happ-E-2-C-U-A-Ginn." The former, paced by a rhythm track and Gail Muldrow's vocals, has a catchy hook phrase; it was the second single from the album to hit the Billboard R&B charts (number 25, 11 weeks). The latter is an upbeat, joyous a cappella number groomed around a melodious arrangement, Graham's streetcorner ad libs, and the group's vocal exchanges. Larry Graham's musical talents are inviting. He gives his own rendition of the Al Green classic "Love and Happiness." Maintaining that soulful appeal, Graham injects his robust riffs and his own dose of funk throughout this album. Even when he tones down the funk, the relish always remains present.

Lots of funk in this rollout!

463    Michael Rother - Sterntaler    473 Points,   4 Votes
http://ring.cdandlp.com/gintonic/photo_grande/114253781.jpg
RYM #307 for 1978
http://open.spotify.com/album/7MdQCuPtTOYIQOlb7QccZv

review
[-] by Thom Jurek

Sterntaler marked the beginning of Michael Rother's deep preoccupation with introspective melodies projected outward. Where Flammende Herzen was full of anthemic instrumental rock that was constructed to be just that, Sterntaler is more reflective even if its drive is as insistent and mechanically accurate. Again collaborating with producer Conny Plank and Can's drummer, Jaki Leibzeit, Rother set out with Sterntaler to create true electronic rock music -- even if what he came up with was the first real ambient trance music. Unlike his former bandmates in Kraftwerk and Harmonia who had wholeheartedly embraced electronic music as an end in and of itself, Rother was deeply entrenched in the idea that the entire idea for synthesizers and drum machines was to make rock & roll itself more futuristic. What's so odd about that notion is his method of composition. On the opener, "Sonnenrad," his signature electric guitar sound plays melodies that are almost folk-like in their simplicity over his trademark Motorik percussion and rhythmic churn. On "Blauer-Regen" Leibzeit's cymbals mark the simple chord changes on an introspective ballad filled with the sounds of falling rain cascading down through the guitars. "Stremlinien" and the title track are more hypnotic rock tracks with veritable choruses of guitars all playing the same notes in harmony over a cut-time drumbeat and Leibzeit's percussive embellishments. Keyboards swim through the mix, creating a chords progression -- though it feels like one phrase over and over again -- and Rother concentrates on using a slide guitar to control and advance dynamics in the swirl. This is awesome driving music, perfect maybe for the Autobahn, but certainly for American two-lane blacktops during the first flush of fall.

xp Alex Harvey is so good. I talked about that some when discussing "The Faith Healer" in the singles thread. I had only first heard of him when I was digging deep into glam stuff in the 90s.

Michael Rother has been a key Kosmische player since before he briefly was a member of Kraftwerk. He and Dinger established the influential “motorik rhythm” (a misnomer due to the fact that the subtle inconsistencies are distinctly humanoid) in Neu!, and breaking further boundaries in collaborating with Cluster in Harmonia. It’s often been mentioned that Rother turned down an opportunity to collaborate with Bowie. The truth came out, according to David Buckley’s Bowie bio, Strange Fascination, in a 2001 email exchange between the two that neither had turned the other down, but rather Bowie’s management tricked them into thinking so. How Rother would have influenced Bowie’s Berlin trilogy is anyone’s guess. The elliptical guitar playing in his solo work is certainly mellow, but the sublime, subtly shifting melodies end up with something more personal and emotional than he’d previously achieved. Working with producer Conny Plank and Can’s Jaki Leibzeit, his solo debut Flammende Herzen (Flaming Hearts) actually sold more copies initially than the Neu! and Harmonia albums combined. It also inspired a movie of the same title, created around the album as a soundtrack. The epic Sterntaler edges it out as the one to start with. Named after a Brothers Grimm tale, the sound is filled out with keyboards and vibraphones, bringing his background in Arabic music (he lived in Karachi, Pakistan as a child), Chopin and Hendrix into fullest realization. His creative arc continued with Katzenmusick (1979), which made NME‘s year-end top 40 list, and Fernwärme (1981), which mostly drops the guitar for chilly electronics. Impatient listeners might dismiss them as too new agey, but they’re far more rewarding than any other contemporary ambient work.

Presence.is too low, thats a fun lil record

Also, I forgot about Sterntaler, would've voted for

Wow that sounds awesome, can't wait to check it out!

462    Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now    475 Points   3  Votes
http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/177/177443_1_f.jpg
RYM #81 for 1974 , #3038 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/5nflfddG6Tlrt2YiZhXJAD

review
[-] by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

If Dixie Chicken represented a pinnacle of Lowell George as a songwriter and band leader, its sequel Feats Don't Fail Me Now is the pinnacle of Little Feat as a group, showcasing each member at their finest. Not coincidentally, it's the moment where George begins to recede from the spotlight, leaving the band as a true democracy. These observations are only clear in hindsight, since if Feats Don't Fail Me Now is just taken as a record, it's nothing more than a damn good rock & roll record. That's not meant as a dismissal, either, since it's hard to make a rock & roll record as seemingly effortless and infectious as this. Though it effectively builds on the Southern-fried funkiness of Dixie Chicken, it's hardly as mellow as that record - there's a lot of grit, tougher rhythms, lots of guitar and organ. It's as supple as Chicken, though, which means that it's the sound of a touring band at their peak. As it happens, the band is on the top of their writing game as well, with Bill Payne contributing the rollicking "Oh Atlanta" and Paul Barrere turning in one of his best songs, the jazzy funk of "Skin it Back." Each has a co-writing credit with George -- Payne on the unreleased Little Feat-era nugget "The Fan" and Barrere (plus Fred Martin) on the infectious title track -- who also has a couple of classics with "Rock and Roll Doctor" and the great "Spanish Moon." Feats peters out toward the end, as the group delves into a 10-minute medley of two Sailin' Shoes songs, but that doesn't hurt one of the best albums Little Feat ever cut. It's so good, the group used it as the template for the rest of their career.

xp I meant to post this for Khan - Space Shanty:

Brace yourself for some tasty licks and free-flowing rock-jams on this Steve Hillage vehicle. Like a limber, bendy Quicksilver Messenger Service, Khan plied a fluid coherent symphonic prog (with construction based on the modernist essentials of Guitar/Bass/Drums/Organ) without too many of the jarring jump cuts that can bedevil Prog. Rilly nice. -- Woebot

461    Wishbone Ash - Pilgrimage    479 Points   3  Votes
http://991.com/newGallery/Wishbone-Ash-Pilgrimage-211477.jpg
RYM #227 for 1971
http://open.spotify.com/album/7mbCAtpPslFbiyBrla2aGv

review
[-] by Dave Sleger

Wishbone Ash's sophomore release, Pilgrimage, unveiled their creative genius after a debut that merely presented them as a boogie- and blues-based rock outfit. The opening track, "Vas Dis," with its jazz bassline, slicing rhythm guitar, and gibberish vocals was their answer to "Hocus Pocus" by Focus (or vice versa as both were released in 1971). "Jail Bait" has gone on to become a Wishbone Ash staple as well as possessing one of the more memorable guitar riffs of '70s rock & roll. A conscientious effort seemed to be in place for this band to write and perform material better suited to their gentler vocal tendencies. Where Wishbone Ash essentially went full tilt throughout, Pilgrimage is a moodier affair that includes beautiful, slower melodies like the brief instrumentals "Alone" and "Lullaby" along with the chilling "Valediction," which should have been an Ash classic but is rarely featured on live and hits collections. Even though this band toned it down a bit for this album, their impressive guitar playing was heightened due to the variance in their songwriting. Next to Argus this is the Wishbone Ash album to judge all other Ash albums by.

TOO LOW!!!!

459    Dom - Edge of Time    479 Points   5  Votes
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2v62San9rpI/S-PxGjrBFKI/AAAAAAAAAQk/xXI39JL7gZM/s1600/f.jpg
RYM #231 for 1971
http://open.spotify.com/album/1KoGU3TfOPF9fNxGZKac5R

review
[-] by Rolf Semprebon

Witch & Warlock reissued Dom's Edge of Time in 1991, but one could barely hear the music over the scratchy vinyl they dubbed it off of and the poorly engineered sound. Thankfully, the more recent Second Battle reissue gives this classic early-'70s Krautrock album the CD treatment it deserves, with crystal-clear sound and even a bunch of bonus tracks. Edge of Time combines cosmic folk, psychedelic freeform, and electro-acoustic avant-garde in a unique mix that is strange and surreal. With just four long tracks, the album is dark and brooding, at times even haunting, as the music wends from hypnotic psychedelic folk to bizarre soundscapes of drones and clankings. Though much of the vocals consist of wordless trills similar to the first Ash Ra Tempel record, a couple of tracks, "Silence" and the title cut, have spoken word in English that only adds to the bleak beauty of the sound. Most of the bonus pieces date a couple years later by the original group, and though not quite as effective, are similar to the album cuts, though three of them at slightly over a minute long apiece are way too brief. The last cut, "Let Me Explain" from 1998, is the Baksay brothers from Dom fooling around with more contemporary, electronic-based music.

Thats a tie with
459    Buzzcocks - Love Bites    479 Points   5   Votes
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080523191629/lyricwiki/images/4/4e/Buzzcocks_-_Love_Bites.jpg
RYM #99 for 1978 , #4657 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/7p6Nh183RUdsEM5wltdv9Q

review
[-] by Ned Raggett

More musically accomplished, more obsessively self-questioning, and with equally energetic yet sometimes gloomy performances, Love Bites finds the Buzzcocks coming into their own. With Devoto and his influence now fully worked out of the band's system, Shelley is the clearly predominant voice, with the exception of Diggle's first lead vocal on an album track, the semi-acoustic, perversely sprightly "Love is Lies." Though the song received even further acclaim on Singles Going Steady, "Ever Fallen in Love," for many the band's signature song, appears here. With its note-perfect blend of romance gone wrong, a weirdly catchy, treated lead guitar line, and Shelley's wounded singing deserves its instant classic status, but it's only one of many highlights. The opening "Real World" is one of the band's strongest: a chunky, forceful yet crisp band performance leads into a strong Shelley lyric about unrequited love and life. "Nostalgia"'s strikingly mature, inventive lyrics about where one's life can lead, and the sometimes charging, sometimes quietly tense, heartbroken "Nothing Left" are two other standouts. The group's well-seasoned abilities, the members' increasing reach and Martin Rushent's excellent production make Love Bites shine. The Garvey/Maher rhythm section is especially fine; Maher's fills and similar small but significant touches take the music to an even higher level. His undisputed highlight is the terribly underrated concluding instrumental "Late for the Train." Originally done for a John Peel radio session and rerecorded with even more a dramatic sweep here, it gives the group's motorik/Krautrock new power. Not far behind it is "E.S.P.," a strong rock burn that only fades out at the end very slowly and subtly.

uuuhnnn Pilgrim is so good

458    Rush - Hemispheres    480 Points   5 Votes
http://991.com/NewGallery/Rush-Hemispheres---Red-1189.jpg
RYM #14 for 1978 , #655 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/0jZ4xWuaEyUItsAtR6e6FD

review
by Greg Prato

While such albums as 1980's Permanent Waves and 1981's Moving Pictures are usually considered Rush's masterpieces (and with good reason), 1978's Hemispheres is just as deserving. Maybe the fact that the album consists of only four compositions (half are lengthy pieces) was a bit too intimidating for some, but the near 20-minute-long "Cygnus X-1 Book II - Hemispheres" is arguably the band's finest extended track. While the story line isn't as comprehensible as "2112" was, it's much more consistent musically, twisting and turning through five different sections which contrast heavy rock sections against more sedate pieces. Neil Peart had become one of rock's most accomplished lyricists by this point, as evidenced by "The Trees," which deals with racism and inequality in a unique way (set in a forest!). And as always, the trio prove to be experts at their instruments, this time on the complex instrumental "La Villa Strangiato." Geddy Lee's shrieking vocals on the otherwise solid "Circumstances" may border on the irritating, but Hemispheres remains one of Rush's greatest releases.

I think I will leave it here for the night. I may post the 457-451 at odd times (ie if theres more chat or i wake up or whatever.) But the 450 wont start til 1 or 2 pm UK time

If someone can do the recap or the spotify playlist (and post link here) that would be great.

Direct Link to poll recap & full results

I wasn't doing a spotify playlist its too much stuff!

a lot of great stuff already!

477 Destroy All Monsters - 1974 1976 451 Points 4 Votes

Former DAM saxophonist Ben Miller (brother of Mission Of Burma's Roger) is doing amazing work these days, both as a guitarist (tabletop, mostly) and saxophonist/composer/arranger (with his Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra).

Love Bites beating Another Music is just wrong, it's easily the weakest of the first three albums.

Really want to listen to Dom, Khan, Destroy All Monsters, and Alternative TV just based on the descriptions given here.

Finally listening to all of Khan. Really liking it.

Some nice Hillage soloing on "Stargazers".

nobody should sleep on that james brown record, it's my second fave live album, right after swans' public castration is a good idea. they're similar records, both being extended primal ecstatic onslaughts delivered by crackerjack teams of rhythm daredevils who execute with rigorous simplicity the bootcamp bombast demanded by their shamanistic + monomaniacal frontmen. while the strigency of these ascetic aesthetics can alienate some listeners who judge such din hopelessly self-involved, these strange beat beasts never pause to admire their own musculature in the icy mirrors of their frozen abbatoirs; they're too busy clubbing listeners like baby seals to pause to preen, let alone to address petty concerns about safe + humane behavior. both contain moments that forced an agog me to ask, is this even music? yes, yes it is.

here's a spotify link, guessing it's not available in the UK?

http://open.spotify.com/album/4pZ4G1VNCk3vTE3JCTQGDT

also lol at it tying w/ aqualung

Sterntaler TOO LOW. I know neu! & ld will do well & that's great but rother's solo stuff is underappreciated. So pretty & plangent. Not at all the ROCK end of kraut but hey it was nommed so I voted. Also: jaki!