1001 Album Club

The Beatles were at the peak of their global influence and visibility in 1968. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released the previous year, had enjoyed a combination of commercial success, critical acclaim, and immense cultural influence that had previously seemed inconceivable for a pop release.

Initially Sweetheart of the rodeo was going to be a collection of songs that would represent American popular music of the 20th century, encompassing examples of country music, jazz and rhythm and blues, among other genres but the concept was abandoned early on and the album instead became purely a country record

Lauded as one of the greatest albums in the rock ’n’ roll canon, Astral Weeks feels less like rock, more like a benediction, a song cycle of rebirth.

Odessey and Oracle was one of the best albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom, mixing trippy melodies, ornate choruses, and lush Mellotron sounds with a solid hard rock base.

Noted for his distinctive baritone voice and for the unorthodox career path that has taken him from 1960s pop icon to 21st-century avant-garde musician this second solo record sees Scott Walker stretching out in range and creativity.

Caetano Veloso’s first album as a solo artist marked the birth of the culturally revolutionary tropicalia movement, of which Veloso and Gilberto Gil were the leading figures. The concept of the movement was to modernize Brazilian popular culture and, through creative music and poetry, reflect the Brazilian society as it appeared at the time.

Truth them became Jeff Beck’s breakout album and cemented him as a leader of heavy blues inspired guitar music. Along with Rod Stewart, future Rolling Stone bassit Ronnie Wood , and a tight session drummer Micky Waller.

The album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.

It was time for the small faces to show that they could really think in terms of whole albums as opposed to snippets of three-minute glory. The result? Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. Sometimes brilliant sometimes annoying and sometimes confusing.

“Bookends’ problematic, disillusioned themes, sometimes disguised in wry humor, striking arrangements, and augmented orchestral instrumentation, portray the sounds of people in an American life that they no longer understand, or understands them. In just over 29 minutes, Bookends is stunning in its vision of a bewildered America in search of itself.” AllMusic Review Thom Jurek

The band was thinking about a completely different direction and developed the idea for SF Sorrow a bold and uncompromising concept record with a complete storyline that has since been acknowledged as being the first ever “rock opera” ; as it was released a year before The Who’s “Tommy”.

With its endless, droning minor-key riff and mumbled vocals, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is arguably the most notorious song of the acid rock era

Dr. John’s Gris-Gris is among the most enduring recordings of the psychedelic era; it sounds as mysterious and spooky in the 21st century as it did in 1968.

The United States of America was an American experimental rock band whose works, recorded in late 1967, are an early example of the use of electronic devices in rock music. The short-lived band was founded in Los Angeles by experimental composer Joseph Byrd and singer and lyricist Dorothy Moskowitz

They quickly rose to fame for their exciting live performances and a charismatic 22 year old Texan singer named Janis Joplin. The 1968 album Cheap Thrills was Initially planned as a live album but because a studio recording mimicking their live set.

Yet another Byrds record in this book?! This was is one of the band’s most interesting and cohesive sounding albums that furthered the ever evolving sound of the Byrds.

Vincebus Eruptum is a glorious celebration of rock & roll primitivism run through enough Marshall amps to deafen an army; only a few of Blue Cheer’s peers could turn up and they did it with just three people.

Lady Soul completed a remarkable 12 months of achievement for Aretha Franklin. Having been signed to Atlantic in 1966 after years in the doldrums at Columbia. These 10 tracks represent Aretha Franklin’s coronation as the Queen of Soul. There’s soul. And then there’s Aretha Franklin.

A brilliant and innovative composer, with intricate, haunting works highlighting her singularly powerful vocal phrasing, evocative lyrics. Modern comparisons have been drawn to Kate Bush and Tori Amos to St. Vincent and Joanna Newsom. This album and song structures are completely baffling.

The album has gone on to be something of legend. An outlaw country singer with a penchant for danger performs songs about breaking the law and casualty jokes with the inmates as if they had been locked up together. This record would further push the romantic outlaw aura for Cash as not only the man…

At a time when a growing number of pop songwriters were embracing a more explicitly poetic approach in their lyrics, the 1967 debut album from Leonard Cohen introduced a songwriter who, rather than being inspired by “serious” literature, took up music after establishing himself as a published author and poet.

Jimi Hendrix’s third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix’s original musical vision at its absolute apex.

Os Mutantes’ first album is an astonishing listen. It’s far more experimental than most of the albums produced by the era’s first-rate psychedelic bands of Britain or America and at times seems like a reinterpretation of the genre itself.

Ravi Shankar could be considered one of the the most famous Indian musician’s on the planet. And his introduction to India music is soothing and incredible.