1973 in Music

The music I’ve reviewed from 1973, the Annus Mirabilis of prog rock.

1. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (10/10)

This is the point when everything the Floyd had been doing for the last 5 years finally came together:

  • Waters’ wannabe singer-songwriter ambitions (which never fit in with the Floyd’s sound before),
  • Gilmour’s and Wright’s melodies,
  • the band’s jamming,
  • and the musique concrete;

It’s all here but for the first time it’s actually all together at the same time, instead of in different racks. Previous Floyd albums would have a Waters song and then a musique concrete or other experimental track, and some spacey jams. Here it’s all of a piece.

This is not my favourite Floyd album, in part because I think Waters has written way better lyrics but also because I just prefer the jammier version of the Floyd to this more restrained version. But it’s hard to deny how effective this record is – there’s a reason it was a massive hit – as well as how unbelievably well-produced it is. This stuff was really hard to do in 1972 and the fact that it still sounds good 45 years later is some kind of miracle.

It’s not my favourite album, it might not be their best album, but it’s far and away their most iconic album and one of the landmark records of the 1970s, with how it managed to integrate the avant garde into such a commercial package.

Read my reviews of all Pink Floyd studio albums.

2. The Who: Quadrophenia (10/10)

What they screwed up in Tommy they fixed here. Incredible. Their best album.

3. King Crimson: Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (10/10)

Like listeners of the day, I heard this record after first listening to earlier Crimson releases, and it was shocking. In hindsight, it’s clear that this was Crimson’s first sign that they weren’t like the other prog bands, they would actually evolve.

The result of this evolution (a completely new band) is a dramatic left turn into modernism, hard rock, funk and free improvisation, harder and more “rock” than just about any other prog rock being made at the time. It’s the beginning (or nearly the beginning) of Crimson’s inspiration for math rock and it’s likely one of the founts of progressive metal as well.

As the only record with Muir, it’s also got a weirdness to it – and a dense percussive sound world – that is unlike any other Crimson record.

Their best album or very close to it, and one of the great progressive rock albums ever.

Read my King Crimson album reviews.

4. Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (10/10)

Though not considered the classic the last record was, this is one of my favourite (perhaps my favourite) Zeppelin records. (In part because it was my first, I think.) Also, if you were to put a gun to my head, I might argue it’s their best (depending upon my mood).

This is the first Zeppelin album where they thought they could do everything: from borderline prog rock (“The Song Remains the Same” and “No Quarter”) to ballads!!! (“The Rain Song”) to funk (“The Crunge”) to reggae (“D’yer Mak’er”). And two of the three more traditional Zeppelin songs are among their best ever (“Over the Hills and Far Away” and, my personal favourite, “The Ocean”). Though it might all sound like Zeppelin to us now, in 1973 it was a bold left turn. So bold, in fact, that a lot of people didn’t like it. (Witness the hilarious contemporary Rolling Stone review from one Gordon Fletcher, who seems to have awarded the album zero stars because it doesn’t sound enough like “”Communication Breakdown,” “Heartbreaker” and “Black Dog.”” Seriously.)

If I were to make a case for Zeppelin as the best “hard rock”/early metal band, this record would be among the couple records that I would present.

Read my review of all of Led Zeppelin’s studio albums.

5. David Bowie: Aladdin Sane (10/10)

Though some consider this a step back from Ziggy Stardust, it has long been one of my favourite Bowie albums. (It vies with Scary Monsters.) Far more ragged and rough than Ziggy, it’s like the façade has dropped away. There’s no framing concept (beyond “Ziggy does America”) and you could easily argue that Ziggy is more coherent and a better album but I like these songs better. And, frankly, I appreciate the greater stylistic diversity here, and the ragged edges.

Also, some of Bowie’s greatest moments are here including some of my favourite Bowie songs, such as “Drive-In Saturday,” perhaps the perfect encapsulation of his famous “future nostalgia.”

And then there’s the title track, which contains the greatest piano solo in the history of rock music – I ask you to find a better one – and which is worth the price of admission alone. (Bowie always has great sidemen and Garson is at his absolute best on this record.)

Some days I prefer Scary Monsters, but if I was making a desert island list, this is often the Bowie album I’d put on it.

Read my reviews of all of David Bowie’s studio albums.

6. New York Dolls (10/10)

We can debate forever whether or not this is the first “punk” album, but even if it isn’t the first punk album, it’s a major step along the road to punk. (My person opinion is that it’s just too damn campy to be the first punk album. Most punk that comes after it is not remotely this campy.)
So much of what makes punk punk is on display here:

  • the love and celebration of early rock and roll
  • tons of attitude
  • the (relative) lack of professionalism
  • the reveling in immaturity.

In addition to its influence on what came later, it turns out they wrote a pretty great set of songs. Arguably a better set of songs than most of the other “proto punk” bands managed.

A classic and one of the most important albums of the 1970s.

7. Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power (10/10)

Disclaimer: I have only ever heard Iggy’s mix of this; it is the mix I know and the mix I like. I feel like listening to the original Bowie mix would be disorienting but I have never tried.

Though arguably a different band (not just in their name but because James Williamson is now here, co-writing the songs), this is the best Stooges album and the one that most encapsulates the band at their best. Gone are the 10 minute songs and the saxophone – sure there’s a celeste and what sounds like some kind of keyboard on two songs, but it’s still less arty and arguably louder (at least this mix is) than their first two records.

The songs are stronger too, I think, as a body of songs anyway.

Listening to this for the first time in a few years I’m left wondering why this is not quite punk. And I guess it isn’t because it’s too competent and still just a titch too arty. But it’s pretty damn close and it’s easy to understand why punk was the next logical step.

Read my reviews of albums by the two original versions of The Stooges.

8. Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters (10/10)

Incredible. I don’t know why people thought it was controversial.

9. Can: Future Days (10/10)

Of all CAN albums, this is the one I know the best so I have long thought of it as the best. When I heard earlier albums, I always compared them to this one. That isn’t fair given that the albums came earlier in time, but that’s how I felt.

With reflection and many listens to earlier albums, though, I still feel like this is some kind of culmination of CAN’s sound. The album is what your might call their “breeziest,” just floating by with seemingly minimal effort. The long tracks find some edenic place where the avant garde and new age meet. (“New age” isn’t the phrase I want, but I can’t come up with something more appropriate right now.)

And the record also contains the closest thing they ever wrote to a pop song, a song that remains far and away the most memorable CAN song I have ever heard.

It’s really remarkable that a band this radical could make a record this pleasant sounding.

10. Lou Reed: Berlin (10/10)

This has long been my favourite Lou Reed album, despite or perhaps because of its poor reputation among some people.

Reed and Ezra set out to accomplish something and I think they basically entirely succeeded; this is a legitimate candidate for “The Most Depressing Album of All Time,” at least up until July 1973. Reed’s songs are portraits of romantic and drug-fueled anguish, set in some imagined Berlin which is nothing like the actual place (that doesn’t matter).

And perhaps better than any other album, Ezrin’s over-the-top arrangements suit Reed’s songs. So many times, Ezrin gets in the way, but here its’ hard to imagine what Reed’s songs would have sounded like if he had performed them with two guitars, bass and drums. It would not have had the same impact at all. (If you ever want to understand where The Wall came from, listening to Berlin will give you a pretty good idea.)

Songwriter and arranger are basically perfectly matched and I have a hard time imagining the world without this record.

If I can say only thing in criticism, I think the album is a bit back-loaded in terms of song quality, but that’a minor quibble.

A unique beast.

Read my reviews of albums by Lou Reed.

11. Magma: Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (10/10)

I have no idea if this is the best Zeuhl record of all time, but I’m going to say it is. Read the review of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh.

12. Genesis: Selling England by the Pound (9/10)

This is the first Genesis album I ever heard and it is the record that made me fall in love with this (Gabriel-era) version of the band.

Over the years I have come to love both the previous and the subsequent albums much more, even though this record is definitely better produced (or at least better sounding) than Foxtrot.

It’s still one of the great prog rock albums of the era, and part of the Annus Mirabilis of prog rock. It would be on the list of albums I would recommend to anyone trying to get into or understand prog rock. It is nearly flawless.

But I still think there’s a misstep or two, and I think they made better records. So, years, after falling in love with it, I can’t quite justify the old 10/10 rating I used to give it.

Read the reviews of all of Genesis’ albums.

13. Neil Young and the Stray Gators: Time Fades Away (9/10)

Three years ago, I posted the following on Facebook while listening to this record for a list of Neil Young songs I was writing:

“I know Neil Young was drunk the whole time and I know it’s not normally thought of among his best, but Time Fades Away is a fucking great record.”

It’s weird that some of us enjoy others’ pain so much, when that pain is expressed artistically. Though Dylan has denied that Blood on the Tracks is at least in part about the collapse of his marriage, he’s also marveled at how excited people have gotten about a record that, for him, was a horrible experience to make. The same is true of Young’s unofficial “Ditch Trilogy,” of which this is the first part. (The name comes from Neil Young supposedly driving his career into the ditch after the success of Harvest.)

Nobody enjoyed themselves making this record; the band all hated Young and possibly each other. Crosby and Nash had to be brought in to help because Young couldn’t sing as well any more. But for reasons I cannot quite articulate, these performances reach me. It helps that it’s a decent set of new songs but a lot of the appeal is in the performances, how ragged they are, unexpected they were for the crowd, how emotional they are – how raw everything is at a time when basically nobody else, certainly nobody of Young’s stature, would dare release anything like this.

It’s this raw emotion that is missing from so much of the pre-punk music of the 1970s, as it’s usually polished out. But this record has it in spades. It’s far from his best record, but I love it.

Read my reviews of all of Neil Young’s albums.

14. Gram Parsons: GP (9/10)

I came to country through country rock (and, to a lesser degree alt country) so I am a sucker for country music meshed with rock. For some reason, I just cannot find straight-up country as appealing as country rock. Maybe that will change as I experience more and more “real” country, but it hasn’t so far.

When I think of the country rock albums that have shaped my view of country rock, this one is right up there, second only to the Burritos records Parsons made before it.

The song selection is great, featuring music from a bunch of different places, but rendered as one coherent whole by Parsons and his band. The aesthetic is appealingly fragile – so much so that when I hear country music that isn’t this fragile I am underwhelmed – and everything is basically note-perfect.

I don’t know if it’s quite up to the standard of the Burritos’ debut record – both in quality and in influence – but it almost is. It’s a pretty great record.

Read my reviews of Gram Parsons’ albums.

15. Henry Cow: Leg End (9/10)

Is it jazz? What about those pieces that are written out, which don’t resemble jazz?

It is prog rock? What about the clearly improvised pieces?

What is it?

These musicians have found the point at which two forms of avant garde music meet; not content to just improvise, they compose; not content to just write out big prog rock pieces, they spazz out.

To this day I’ve still never heard anything else like it.

And it’s no wonder it took them so long to get a record out; this is music for people who have a high tolerance for the avant garde.

Read my reviews of Henry Cow albums.

16. The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire (9/10)

The same as the debut, really.

17. Return to Forever: Hymn of the 7th Galaxy (9/10)

No singer works well. Maybe better. I can’t make up my mind.

18. The Wailers: Burnin’ (9/10)

Their best album, I think. Read the review of Burnin’.

19. Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (9/10)

Of all of ELP’s formula records, this is the best one.

The formula? A big prog epic, usually about a side long, a Greg Lake ballad, a “comedy” number and one or two adaptations of “classical” pieces (in this case a hymn and part of a modernist piano concerto).

  • The prog epic is among their very best and certainly has perhaps their best hook for one of these epics.
  • Aside from “Someone get me a ladder,” the Greg Lake ballad is perhaps the best he wrote since “Lucky Man.”
  • The comedy number is not funny, as usual, but it’s probably less bad than some of their other numbers.
  • And the adaptations are up to par; “Jerusalem” is fine but “Toccata” is probably the best one they ever did.

If, for some reason, you decide to listen to just one ELP album, rather than a “best of CD,” this is probably the one you should listen to. I’m more partial to their debut, which is pre-formula, but it doesn’t really sound like ELP did for the rest of their career, and might give you a false impression. (Especially if you really like it!) So I guess that makes this one the one essential ELP record, for what it’s worth.

Read my reviews of albums by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

20. Ladysmith Black Mambazo:  (8?/10)

I don’t know if it his is a classic of the genre or not, really I don’t. Listen to the review of Amabutho.

21. Betty Davis (8/10)

YES. Read the review of Betty Davis’ debut album.

22. Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure (8/10)

This was the first ever Roxy Music album I heard and, for the longest time, the only one. So I have a real fondness for it – and for this era of the band’s history, which I greatly prefer to their later music.

But now that I’ve heard the debut, this record sounds relatively restrained. This is not to say that the record isn’t good – nobody else really sounded like Roxy Music at the time – but rather that its more professional, polished sound seems to have lost some intangible thing that makes me absolutely adore the debut record.

This is still a pretty great set of songs, featuring their typical balance of accessible music and crazy artiness and there are few other bands who could walk this line this well.

I just prefer the debut album.

23. The Allman Brothers Band: Brothers and Sisters (8/10)

You could think of this album as the first record that is out of of the shadow Duane; it’s not the hodgepodge tribute the previous record was, and instead is a good set of songs from the band’s two main songwriters. Though apparently Betts was winning the battle between him and Gregg for who would lead the band post-Duane, it’s certainly not evident in the finished product, which sounds coherent and lively and basically like what you would be thinking the Allmans should sound like, if a little bit more country than they used to be.

Read my Allman Brothers Band reviews.

24. Gentle Giant: In a Glass House (8/10)

To me, this sounds like a band growing with the times. The synthesizers sound way more modern – hell the entire record sounds better than any of their previous records in terms of production – and there’s a song that sounds like you could dance to it, if you really wanted to. (I was tempted to call it a “disco beat” but that’s not quite right. It has more in common with the robotic beats that would become so common in post punk in 6 years or so.)

I don’t buy the concept for a second, and I’m not sure this is their best set of songs, but the band sounds better to me overall, there’s more of a rock feel overall as well (to my ears) and it’s just very much in my wheelhouse.

It’s not their best album by any means, but it strikes me as one of their better ones.

Read my reviews of Gentle Giant albums.

25. John Martyn: Solid Air (8/10)

An exceptional jazz folk album by some guy I’ve never heard of. Read the review of Solid Air.

26. Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (8/10)

A lot of people seem to view this record as their best or, at the very least, the record upon which Little Feat hit their stride up until Lowell George fell apart.

Well, as an unabashed fan of Sailin’ Shoes, I must say I have a hard time accepting that view. I get why people like this, I just think it’s not its predecessor.

The band is bigger and, as a result, the sound is fuller than it was before. It’s arguable that everything is better integrated too – instead of jumping from style to style and genre to genre, everything is combined into Little Feat’s patented version of eccentric funky southern boogie rock.

And George remains a great songwriter, able to make you laugh as much as anything else. His idiosyncrasy has been tamed slightly by the band’s growing professionalism and size, but it’s still there.

But I just like the weirder, more idiosyncratic version of the band more. This is still pretty great.

Read all of my Little Feat album reviews.

27. Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe (8/20)

It’s possible I liked this so much because my expectations were so low. Read the review of Approximately Infinite Universe.

28. Steeleye Span: A Parcel of Rogues (8/10)

A unique, virtually drumlesss, take on folk rock. Read the review of A Parcel of Rogues.

29. (pronounced ‘lĕh-‘nérd ‘skin-‘nérd) (8/10)

Likely their best album. Read the review of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album.

30. Keith Jarrett: Fort Yawuh (8/10)

Jarrett is crazy. Despite that, this is a good performance.

31. Roxy Music: Stranded (8/10)

The first post-Eno record is good! Read the review of Stranded or read all my reviews of Roxy Music albums.

32. Doug Sahm And Band (8/10)

Lots of fun but nothing more.

33. John Cale: Paris 1919 (8*/10)

Not in any way what I’d expect but still consistent.

34. Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy (8/10)

I actually like this one! Read the review of Countdown to Ecstasy.

35. Bob Marley and the Wailers: Catch a Fire (8/10)

I think this is pretty good. Read the review of Catch a Fire.

36. Thin Lizzy: Vagabonds of the Western World (8/10)

Pretty good. Read the review of Vagabonds of the Western World.

37. Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin: Love, Devotion, Surrender (8*/10)

Sometime in the mists of time, I wrote the following:

All this is is two guys showing off. It’s great, but it’s just technique.

2023: I actually listened to this recently but as part of a lot of other jazz rock. It’s impressive but I don’t know how “great” it is.

Read my reviews of albums by Santana.

38. Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (7/10)

This is an extremely ambitious album, all the more ambitious given it was performed mostly by one person. There are only a handful of “rock” records that had come out before this that matched or exceeded Oldfield’s ambition here, and the fact that Oldfield wanted this to be viewed as a singular piece (though it absolutely isn’t), adds to the daring. If there was really going to be unification between high art music and rock, or if prog rock really would create its own genre, this kind of thing is where you’d find it.

Of course that’s not what happened and just about every one of these overly-ambitious records now comes across as sort of bonkers. But I find myself liking this more and more, over time, than I did initially. Because even though I find the final part of Part One incredibly corny – and annoying! – it is a remarkably catchy record, for all its ambition.

And it’s also neat to look at it from the perspective of bedroom music – in some ways this is the idea of the pop genius in his bedroom taking to its logical extreme (if you forget about the additional musicians and you ignore that it’s prog rock).

PS The beginning of “Part 1” is also the theme from The Exorcist, so you’ve actually heard the beginning of this record, despite its inaccessibility.

39. Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (7/10)

They’re growing as a band, but I’m not sure that’s always a good thing. Read the review of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

40. 10cc (7/10)

Pretty fun and inventive, but too poppy for me to love. Read the review of 10cc’s debut.

41. Gladys Knight & the Pips: Imagination (7/10)

Pretty great if a little slick. Read the review of Imagination.

42. Kool & the Gang: Wild and Peaceful (7/10)

Half a terrible song away from being pretty dam good. Read the review of Wild and Peaceful.

43. Funkadelic: Cosmic Slop (7/10)

A bit inconsistent. Read the review of Cosmic Slop.

44. John Prine: Sweet Revenge (7/10)

Not my type of songwriter but I like it. Read the review of Sweet Revenge.

45. Billy Joel: Piano Man (7/10)

A Billy Joel Record I actually like. Read the review of Piano Man.

46. Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (7/10)

A solid covers album, but likely won’t ever be one of my favourites. Read the review of These Foolish Things.

47. Marvin Gaye: Let’s Get It On (7/10)

This is some smooth soul. Read the review of Let’s Get It On.

48. Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (7/10)

I get why people like this but I don’t. Read the review of Innervisions.

49. Willie Nelson: Shotgun Willie (7/10)

Maybe this should be ranked higher, but I honestly don’t know. Read the review of Shotgun Willie.

50. Eloy: Inside (7/10)

Derivative but pretty great. Read the review of Inside.

51. The Mothers: Over-Nite Sensation (7/10)

Once I wrote: “A far cry from the original Mothers, that’s for sure. Still very entertaining.” In 2018, I wrote the following:

Though I’ve hardly listened to every one of Zappa’s records between his debut and this one – this is number fifteen in the first 7+ years of his career, including at least three live records – I’ve listened to many of them, maybe even half. This is, from memory, the most commercial of them to date, the most likely to connect with people outside of experimental and comedy rock fans. (And that’s true, as it produced a relative hit for him with “Montana.”

Musically, it shows off Zappa’s ability to incorporate his heretofore avant garde musical sensibility in pretty accessible rock songs; the melodies are about as strong as they’ve ever been and the whole thing is pretty slickly done. If you’ve never listened to Zappa, this music is likely pretty damn weird for you but trust me, this is really accessible compared to the original Mothers of Invention.

And so I think this is a bit of an accomplishment, from a musical perspective, bringing really radical music into a commercial rock format. This is a Zappa gateway album if such exist. It is expertly played and performed, of course.

Where I struggle is with the lyrics. I used to not agree with the critics who got upset that Zappa started getting obsessed with sex and low comedy in the ’70s; I figured he’s always been obsessed with these things. But the older I get – perhaps I become more prudish – the more I have trouble with them. At least three of these songs are just stupid sex jokes on top of pretty great music. They’re funny, sure, but they’re misogynist and kind of pointless. And the older I get the less funny they seem to me.

But it’s harder to take them when he wants us to take his social comment about TV seriously on another track. Maybe release an album of just social comment or just sex jokes, not both.

None of this applies to “Montana,” one of Zappa’s best songs and reason to listen to this record; it is the best example I know of to date of Zappa’s ability to combine his avant rock sensibility with commercial rock music.

Anyway, I want to like this more than I do, but those lyrics wear me out.

If you can even consider this a Mothers of Invention record, you can find my other Mothers of Invention reviews here.

52. Dr. John: In the Right Place (7/10)

This is fine but it doesn’t grab me like his debut did. Read my review of In the Right Place.

53. Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (7/10)

There is a lot of potential here for a working-class Dylan. Read the review of Greetings from Asbury Park.

54. Neu! 2 (7/10)

Once you know how this record is made, it’s kind of hard to view it as a classic. Read the review of Neu! 2.

55. Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies (7/10)

Meh. Too polished to be shocking, really. Read the review of Billion Dollar Babies.

56. Sly & the Family Stone: Fresh (7/10)

A step towards the past. Read the review of Fresh or all read my reviews of albums by Sly and the Family stone.

57. Rick Wakeman: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (7/10)

Enjoyable but slight. Read the review of The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

58. Budgie: Never Turn Your Back on a Friend (7/10)

I’m not sure they have the range they think they have. Read the review of Budgie’s third album.

59. Yes: Tales from Topographic Oceans (7/10)

Way too over the top. Has its moments.

60. Kevin Coyne: Majory Razorblad (7/10)

Less weird than everyone thinks it is. Read the review of Marjory Razorblade.

61. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (7/10)

The second, more serious time doesn’t work as well.

Read actual reviews of some Jethro Tull albums.

62. Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, a True Star (6/10)

A giant mess, albeit a fun one. Read the review of A Wizard, a True Star.

63. Caravan: For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (6/10)

I really enjoyed the first Caravan album I heard – that would be their second – despite a few glaring drawbacks, and I looked forward to listening to a later one. But this just doesn’t do it for me.

For one thing, it’s pretty glaring how conventional these guys were compared to so many other prog bands. And this album, released in prog’s big year of 1973 – when seemingly every major progressive rock band released a classic record – just doesn’t sound particularly forward thinking compared to most of the other major prog rock bands. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just pretty conventional.

There are a number of really great moments: there are some great class prog drum fills on “Memory Lain”; there are a few moments of menace on “C’Thlu Thlu” (those disappear shortly); and they have created a fantastic “progressive” pop song in “The Dog, the Dog, He’s at it Again.” The last track is illustrative of the problem: if they applied the same creativity that they applied to its vocal arrangements on the coda to the rest of the album, they might have had something more.

This fine. It’s accessible, enjoyable prog rock, but it’s not going to change your life.

64. Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (6/10)

Front-loaded with hits, this becomes a slog. Read the review of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

65. Faust IV (6/10)

Trying to hard to be CAN and Neu! on too many of the tracks. Read the review of Faust IV.

66. Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (6/10)

Springsteen goes funk! Some of the time! It’s weird. Read the review of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.

67. Roy Wood: Boulders (6/10)

Not my thing. Read the review of Boulders.

68. T. Rex: Tanx (6/10)

A sort of half-assed diversion into soul. Read the review of Tanx.

69. The Isley Brothers: 3+3 (6/10)

A slick soul record with weird psychedelic guitar solos. Read the review of 3+3.

70. Paul McCartney and Wings: Band on the Run (6/10)

Is there a major English language singer songwriter who cares less about lyrics than Paul McCartney? That’s the question that keeps popping into my mind, the more and more I listen to McCartney’s solo records. Yes, he has songs in which he clearly has taken the time to express how he feels but, much more often, he seems to pick the words based upon how they work with his melodies, as long as they form some kind of loose narrative, one which often resembles a children’s story.

As ever, McCartney has assembled numerous catchy melodies, some of which I actually quite like. And there are moments on this record that I really enjoy – “Let Me Roll It” might be my second favourite McCartney solo song, or at least it’s up there. It’s impossible to deny McCartney’s ability to write a catchy song, or at least, on this record, a catchy song fragment.

But too many songs on this record feel like less shittier (less interesting, less innovative, less impressive), short versions of the second side of Abbey Road. The title track, for example, suggests that’s where it is going until it sticks to the main theme for (what I think is) the majority of its runtime. And the tracks which incorporate elements from the other song on the record – it feels like he’s doing this just because he knows how to, not because it serves some greater purpose. (I.e. these references feel far less coherent or necessary than when McCartney did similar things with the Beatles.) I’ve heard this type of thing before, done better, by a band that was able to keep McCartney’s worst impulses in check much of the time.

But it’s catchy as well and it’s very well made – nobody doubts McCartney’s abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, as a singer, or as a producer. I just don’t particularly like it, I have trouble taking it seriously and I think it’s one of any number of examples of McCartney coasting on his incredible talent after he left the Beatles. He may have been happier personally, but I don’t think the results are much more than meh.

71. Jackson Browne: For Everyman (6/10)

I guess the songs are decent but the aesthetic is the height of the soft ’70s. Read the review of For Everyman.

72. Roy Harper: Lifemask (6/10)

Harper at his most self-indulgent. Read the review for Lifemask.

73. Grand Funk Railroad: We’re An American Band (6/10)

Competent but inane. Read the review of We’re An American Band.

74. Elton John: Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player (5/10)

Does nothing for me. Read the review of Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player.

75. Suzi Quatro (5/10)

Disappointing. Read the review for Suzi Quatro’s debut.

76. Mott the Hoople: Mott (5/10)

A David Bowie rip-off with none of the artiness of Bowie. Read the review of Mott.

77. Seals & Crofts: Diamond Girl (5/10)

A soulless and slick version of roots music. Read the review of Diamond Girl.

78. Jimmy Buffett: A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (5/10)

Ugh. He’s awful. Read the review of Jimmy Buffet’s non-debut “debut” album.


Not Ranked:

King Crimson: The Nightwatch: Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw November 23rd 1973 (9/10)

This set was a famous bootleg before it was released for good reason, a bunch of it ended up (in edited form) as a major portion of Starless.

This is a loud, fierce and kind of raw set, the kind of thing prog rock bands weren’t supposed to be capable of. It’s considerably better than USA, the earlier official live album for this variation of the band.
This is the kind of thing that I wish people who think they hate prog rock could listen to, as it has an edge to it that so much studio prog lacks.

Anyway, their best live album that I am aware of.

Slapp Happy with Faust: Acnalbasac Noom (8/10)

So apparently this is the original album, which was rejected by their label and then re-recorded and released as the appropriate name. Then the original recordings were released in the early ’80s, or something like that.

I haven’t heard the polished second version of this record (self-titled Slapp Happy) so I cannot judge whether or not it was the right decision by the record company but my personal bias would say ‘probably not.’ What we have hear is catchy but odd-enough pop rock with utterly unique vocals and enough quirks to keep things interesting.

It’s hard to know what a record company would have been expecting from a trio backed by Faust, but this is remarkably commercial for that description. It’s very solid stuff, though it’s hardly as progressive as I was led to believe.

A note on the bonus tracks: at least one of them sounds like it was recorded in the early ’80s and doesn’t belong at all.

Duke Ellington: the Great Paris Concert (7/10)

This is a solid performance of a solid selection of songs by Duke and his orchestra. But what can I say? I like my jazz radical, and as much as this is an enjoyable set, I’d frankly rather listen to 1963 Mingus or 1963 Trane.

I’m not trying to put it down. The whole thing is mostly stellar. Ellington is a little idiosyncratic – do I care where the soloists are from during the actual song? – but I guess that was part of his charm. If you like big band – especially big band that honours jazz traditions – this is for you.


Singles

1. James Brown: “Down and Out in New York City” (9/10)

Extremely distinct intro for James Brown in the early 1970s (at least the songs and albums I’ve heard). The conga is really prominent and the part where the horns first come in is one of the most iconoic in his discography.

2. James Brown: “Sexy, Sexy, Sexy” (8/10)

This is a punchy one with lots of horns (with the lower end forward in the mix).

3. Fred Wesley and the J.B.s: “Doing It to Death”(8/10)

Credited to Trombonist Fred Wesley instead of James Brown. (Fred has a solo.) Like all of his A-sides from this period, this is an edit, but this is even less of the song than usual. An actual chorus!