One of the great things about Queen is also a major flaw of the band: they were a songwriting democracy and that led to both a greater diversity of sound and a lack of consistency.
Tag: Hard Rock
Joan Jett aka Bad Reputation (1980)
Joan Jett was pretty young when she made this record – only 19 or 20 – but it sounds like it was made by someone 10 years her senior. That’s often a compliment but it’s not here: like so many punk-adjacent albums of the late ’70s and early ’80s, this one is obsessed with the …
Empty Glass (1980) by Pete Townshend
The story goes that Townshend was writing songs for both this album and the subsequent Who album and Daltrey at least feels like Townshend kept most of the good material for himself and gave the band the less good stuff. (I should point out I’ve never bothered with Face Dances because one thing I don’t …
Hair of the Dog (1975)
I wasn’t going to talk about this album until I realized the American version contained the band’s two biggest hits – well their biggest hit and the title track, which became a classic rock radio staple, though it wasn’t a hit initially – and so I figured I should deal with it. So where we …
Women and Children First (1980) by Van Halen
I listen to this record and I don’t remember it a few hours, maybe even minutes later. The first time I listened to I wasn’t even sure I listened to it a couple of hours later, I had to look at the track listing to confirm. What I’m saying is that this record doesn’t have …
Nuthin’ Fancy (1975) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
There was a time in my life that I should have listened to all Skynyrd albums. I wouldn’t have necessarily loved them but I would have liked most of them, and I would have had a lot more time for them.
Dressed to Kill (1975) by KISS
One of the things I will just never get over with Kiss is how their makeup and stage show just do not match their sound. Another thing I will never get over is that they are not very good songwriters. These things, plus the general stupidity of their fans, make me dislike them. (Truth be …
Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) by Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is one of those performers whose reputation and actual music don’t really mesh, at least in my mind. His music is always tamer than I imagine it, and that’s especially true with this album, in which he goes full Bob Ezrin. (Thanks not only due to Ezrin’s participation, but also due to the …
First Step (1970) by Faces
Full disclosure: I love this band. I have an irrational love of their next two albums, both of which I have listened to way too many times. So even though this record is acknowledged as a bit of a mess I knew I wanted to listen to it anyway and I knew I would like …
High Voltage (1975) by AC/DC
Sometimes debut albums show a fully formed band and listening to them its easy to imagine the band going on to be very successful. (That’s especially easy with the benefit of hindsight, of course.) But sometimes debut albums are more confusing, even or especially with hindsight. And such is the case with AC/DC’s true debut, …
Shazam (1970) by The Move
This is a bonkers record which, had I discovered it when I was in my late teens or early 20s, I might be telling you is one of the great unknown masterpieces of the early ’70s. However, time has dulled my tolerance for the “anything goes” approach of this band, especially given how scattershot the …
Sheer Heart Attack (1974) by Queen
This is, by all accounts, the record where Queen really becomes Queen, taking their bizarre (insane, really) hybrid style and finally pairing it with enough quality songs that it no longer seems gimmicky. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but I get why people feel this way.
Stay Hungry (1984) by Twisted Sister
My image of Twisted Sister was pretty much busted by their debut record. So much of what I thought was true about them seemed to not actually be true about them, at least on that first record. However, listening to this, I feel like the initial impression was maybe a little more correct than I …
Secret Treaties (1974) by Blue Öyster Cult
This is my third Blue Öyster Cult record and I feel like I feel about it as I did about the other two: meh.
Second Helping (1974) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
This record is notable for containing Skynyrd’s most famous song (apologies to “Freebird”), perhaps the definitive Southern Rock song, their biggest hit and such a cultural touchstone that Kid Rock managed to have a hit sampling it decades later. (The less said about that last one, the better.) But the presence of “Sweet Home Alabama” …
Love at First Sting (1984) by Scorpions
I have been avoiding listening to a Scorpions my requisite three times for a long time, every time an anniversary of theirs has come up, because every experience of them I’ve had has told me I do not like them. From their biggest hit (heard here) to any of their records I’ve begun to listen …
Overkill (1979) by Motörhead
I have never listened to Motörhead’s debut in part because I have been warned off it by bad reviews. It came out a year and a half before this record but, in the meantime, the much more polished but still fast and relatively rough (for ’70s metal) Stained Class came out. What I’m trying to …
Van Halen II (1979)
I grudgingly gave Van Halen’s debut album a positive rating because, as much as I do not like this band, I must admit that they have a very, very good guitar player they are good at what they do and they have been (unfortunately) very influential. All of that is still true on the second …
Queen II (1974)
I think it’s safe to say that there’s no other band that sounds like Queen: hard rock plus operatic vocals plus other weird arty or proggy ideas, in a really accessible package, with occasional diversions into other genres that shouldn’t fit – pick a Queen record and there’s usually at least one of these. I …
Kansas
When I was curating albums for the latest episode of my podcast, I glanced and the Wikipedia entry for this album and saw a 5 star review. I sighed and figured “Fine, Kansas it is.” I looked again later and realized that the ranking came from a site I didn’t put much credence in. But, …
Get Your Wings (1974) by Aerosmith
There was a quite a lot of loud blues rock around in the early 1970s. You generally had to do a lot to standout. The thing is, a lot of bands did a lot to stand out, at least at the time. Now, the sheer number of blues rock “classics” from the late ’60s and …
KISS (1974)
For a band that looks scary – well one of the members looks scary – and with their kind of stage show, this is some pretty tame blues rock. Much like Alice Cooper, the appearance and show match the music in a way that can only be described as incongruously. It’s a wonder how these …
1984 by Van Halen
I know when I listened to Van Halen’s debut album – I think the only album of theirs I’ve actually listened to all the way through before this one – I was thinking it lacked one thing: synthesizers. The decision to add a cheesy ’80s synth to a sound that was already pretty fucking dumb …
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) by Black Sabbath
Is a band that does one particular thing very well, like Black Sabbath, allowed to evolve? It’s one of those tricky questions. On the one hand, we expect many if not most artists to evolve in some way. (Thank the Beatles for that, if you hate that.) On the other hand, some bands (AC/DC, Ramones, …
Killing Machine (1978) by Judas Priest [aka Hell Bent for Leather]
Judas Priest are not my favourite metal band by a long shot, but I had to admire how significant Stained Class was, with some tracks feeling like they were NWOBHM before such a thing even existed. I can’t decide now whether that was due to my very low expectations or the sound of that record, …
Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993) by Meat Loaf
Full disclosure: I don’t like the original Bat Out of Hell. I know most of the words to the songs and probably even most of the words in the spoken word parts. But I hate what that record represents – nostalgia meets the Broadway musical meets arena rock – and the whole thing is so …
No Rest for the Wicked (1988) by Ozzy Osbourne
I was really tempted to think of Ozzy as an anachronism by 1988, as metal had changed one hell of a lot in the last 20 years. But the opening intensity of the guitar gave me hope that maybe he wasn’t! Then that talk box kicked in, and I wasn’t so sure.
Shout at the Devil (1983) by Mötley Crüe
I have managed to avoid Mötley Crüe for most of my life, beyond their biggest songs, and I can’t say I was looking forward to this. But I find myself…. not pleasantly surprised but at least not horrified. For all their reputation as a “hair metal” band, on this record at least they still sound …
Devil Without a Cause (1998) by Kid Rock
Full disclosure: I don’t like Kid Rock. I don’t like his urban hick persona. I don’t like his public support of The Donald. I don’t like that he owns a craft brewery that makes watery lagers because he didn’t think there were enough watery lagers available in the United States. If I never heard another …
Vagabonds of the Western World (1973) by Thin Lizzy
I’ve been meaning to listen to Thin Lizzy since I listened to classic rock almost exclusively (i.e. for 20 years). For some reason that has never happened. And now I find myself listening to a different album that their reputed best. I worried that was a recipe for disaster. Good thing Thin Lizzy are pretty …