1001 Album Club

MP3 Audio [34 MB]DownloadShow URL One of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and arguable the best album Simon an Garfunkel ever produced as a duo. The production and arrangements are stunning.

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.  We discuss if…

known for its loose and scrappy approach Rod Stewart’s band members break out acoustic guitars and mandolins to play music that was never going to sound overly pretty because of the grit and gruff of Rod.  This is great first attempt for Rod but we all know the album that is going to really shine.

Soft Machine plunged deeper into jazz and contemporary electronic music on this pivotal release, which incited The Village Voice to call it a milestone achievement when it was released. We are surprised by how out there it gets while remaining somewhat accessible.  However Robert Wyatt vocals on “Moon in June” are terrible.

The prove that just because they can make an important artistic statement like Tommy that they are still one of the most uproariously exciting live band.  This was a crucial album to hold over the Mod rocking Who crowd till Who’s Next arrives. If you want to know how to put on a good maximum…

Shankar envisioned a musical form that blended Indian classical music with Western rock and electronic styles. Shankar’s first album was one of the first to successfully explore the crossover of psychedelic rock with Indian music including simplified sitar covers of jumpin jack flash and light my fire . What sounds like a parody to use…

Another Nick Drake album and more great tunes.

American Beauty eventually spawned the band’s highest charting single — “Truckin’,” the greasy blues-rock tribute to nomadic counterculture — but it also contained some of their most spiritual and open-hearted sentiments ever. While the Dead eventually amassed a following so devoted that following the band from city to city became the center of many people’s…

Moondance found Morrison abandoning the abstract folk jazz compositions of Astral Weeks in favor of more formally composed songs, which he wrote and produced entirely himself. Its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. Van the man!

Deep Purple entering their classic Mark 2 lineup has decided to go full on Rock in this fun album.

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.

Neil Young continues his gold era as he pursues the country ballads of love lorned heartbreak in After the gold rush.

Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath’s most popular record, it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. This makes us rethink recording a second album so close to the first because this album rules!

One of the most hotly awaited second albums in history Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts. Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu and scarcely functioned…

The cliché about singer/songwriters is that they sing confessionals direct from their heart, but John Lennon exploded the myth behind that cliché, as well as many others, on his first official solo record.

Stephan Stills created a number one hit with “Love the One You’re With.” but this album leaves a lot to be desired with the amount of talent that was included on the album including the presence of Hendrix and Clapton on two cuts.

This second album saw the carpenters come into their own with Richard’s light, airy melodies and meticulously crafted, clean arrangements that appealed to a wide variety of audiences. Karen Carpenter’s calm, crystal bell like voice was distinctive and fit perfectly with the music. The result was a well crafted pop gem that gave them super…

The Doors returned to crunching, straightforward hard rock on Morrison Hotel, an album that, despite yielding no major hit singles, returned them to critical favor with hip listeners.  For as much as they returned I don’t know that the Doors were ever the same.

Black Sabbath’s debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today…

MP3 Audio [35 MB]DownloadShow URL An overlooked album that still has some great songs that should be heard. The band’s lowest charting album to that point, it peaked at #63 on the Billboard 200 in February 1971, spending only fourteen weeks on the chart. However, it sold well as a catalog item and became the…

One of the most revolutionary albums in jazz history to some.  We try and formulate our opinions for an album that is made to be all things and nothing at the same time.

Formed by guitarist/singer Eric Clapton with other former members of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, in the spring of 1970. From late August to early October, they recorded the celebrated double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs with guitarist Duane Allman sitting in. Powerful record but not everyone in the club is excited about…

MP3 Audio [29 MB]DownloadShow URL With the release of Cosmo’s Factory in July 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival hit their commercial zenith. It was their fifth album in two years and became an international smash, topping the album charts in six countries. They sold millions of records, but never had a #1 hit. They did score…

Hot Rats’ genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock’s down-and-dirty attitude — there’s a real looseness and grit to the three lengthy jams. Frank is out there but some of the group don’t know that they want to be there.  We also end with a Zappa True/False.