1001 Album Club

The Band, the group’s second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit, and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural…

Led Zeppelin had a fully formed, distinctive sound from the outset, as their eponymous debut illustrates. Taking the heavy, distorted electric blues of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Cream to an extreme, Zeppelin created a majestic, powerful brand of guitar rock constructed around simple, memorable riffs and lumbering rhythms.

Without question, this follow-up to Quicksilver Messenger Service’s self-titled debut release is the most accurate in portraying the band on vinyl in the same light as the group’s critically and enthusiastically acclaimed live performances. The album is essentially centered around the extended reworkings of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” and “Mona”. The group finds…

Upon first release, the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album must have surprised their fans nearly as much as their first two albums shocked the few mainstream music fans who heard them. After testing the limits of how musically and thematically challenging rock could be on Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat, this 1969…

After a 14-year absence from Memphis, Elvis Presley returned to cut what was certainly his greatest album. The fact that From Elvis in Memphis came out as well as it did is something of a surprise, in retrospect

Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, Springfield signed with Atlantic Records, Home of soul greatest Dusty idolized such as Aretha Franklin. Although she was well versed in R&B and soul songs, she had never released an entire album of R&B material. It was there in American Sound Studios that dusty create one…

Underrated in his own time Nick Drake had a resurgence after his passing at a young age. On this debut album Drake’s lyrics capture a subtle poetry of emotion while his singing is soft, articulate and sometimes haunting.

For their next album Let it Bleed The stones would continue the return to the ragged blues rock songs of protest and misery but this time they would do away with any psydelic elements in favor of a country accent. And like the previous album the opening track shows that the Stones only sharpen their…

An unexpected album from the UK folk “supergroup” featuring Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Jacqui McShee that moved folk into jazz territory with flourishes of psych.

The group members may disagree for personal reasons, but Odessa is easily the best and most enduring of the Bee Gees’ albums of the 1960s.

Upon its release, the album was met by controversy among music critics, particularly those of jazz and rock music, who were divided in their reaction to its experimental musical structure and Davis’s electric approach. Grady has a lot to say and Rob thinks he is starting to like Jazz.

After the dry run of the Who’s previous album “ the who sell out” Pete Townshead spearheaded a new project that was both innovative and ambitious. Tommy was a full-blown concept rock opera complete with overtune, interludes and an interwoven story about a boy Tommy.

The last Beatles album to be recorded (although Let It Be was the last to be released), Abbey Road was a fitting swan song for the group

After the success of Bayou Country producer and primary songwriter John Fogerty would continue his run of great songwriting in this second of the three albums recorded in 1969. The band worked tirelessly shunning the drug scene and breaking free from the drawn out San Francisco psychedelic jams with a straight ahead stripped down southern…

What more do you want ? It’s Johnny Cash in a prison talking shit about the prison he’s singing in.

By 1969, Gram Parsons had already built the foundation of the country-rock movement through his work with the International Submarine Band and the Byrds, but his first album with the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin, was where he revealed the full extent of his talents

It was commercially successful, rising to the top of the U.S. charts for a collective seven weeks and yielding three successive Top 5 singles. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970. We hate it and Rob loves it because it reminds him of marching band and late nights in Vegas.

Crosby , Still and Nash begin as a loose idea of songwriters all with an affinity for close harmonies blended with folk and pop music. Having been at odds with their previous groups they decided to use their surnames as identification to ensure independence and guarantee that the band could not continue without any one…

Opening slowly with the dark, swampy “Born on the Bayou,” Bayou Country reveals an assured Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band that has found its voice between their first and second album.

Experimental avant-garde/free-jazz artist Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, releases Trout Mask Replica, a polyrhythmic, polytonal collection of noise that is either an unlistenable mess or a work of genius.

This marked the beginning of Young’s recording association with Crazy Horse. With them, Young quickly cut a set of loose, guitar-heavy rock songs — “Cinnamon Girl,” “Down by the River,” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” — that redefined him as a rock & roll artist.

From the beginning, Frank Zappa cultivated a role as voice of the freaks — imaginative outsiders who didn’t fit comfortably into any group. We’re Only in It for the Money is the ultimate expression of that sensibility, a satirical masterpiece that simultaneously skewered the hippies and the straights as prisoners of the same narrow-minded, superficial…

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