Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a whole heap of others - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

And so we enter the 70s, what wonders will await us? We shall have to see, I’m rather giddy at the prospect of a whole new decade of music.

Let’s get started with 1970, the year US troops invaded Cambodia, Tonga and Fiji gained independence from Britain, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died, an earthquake killed 50,000 people in Peru and the floppy disk was introduced.

Here’s what the rateyourmusic.com community rates as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Black Sabbath - Paranoid
#2 Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
#3 Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
#4 Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
#5 The Stooges - Fun House

We’ve got a whole host of newcomers to these lists, including Black Sabbath who’ve arrived with a bang! Let’s have a look further down the list and see what else tickles my fancy:

#6 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
#7 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
#8 Nick Drake - Bryter Layer
#9 Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
#10 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
#11 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
#13 Van Morrison - Moondance
#14 Deep Purple - In Rock

‘Have you lost your mind Clive?’ I hear you scream, ‘that’s 13 albums!!’. Yes, I know. However, I’ve noticed we still haven’t got a single female artist on the list, which quite frankly, just isn’t good enough. So I’m going down the list further to find the first couple of albums by female artists to appear to at least remedy that a little, something I’ll be doing in any subsequent years too. The music industry has thankfully begun to address this gender imbalance somewhat (though still nowhere near enough!), so I’d like to at least be conscious of this clear imbalance (which has NOTHING to do with musical talent, and everything to do with sexism in the music industry and beyond leading less opportunities etc, etc) a little more for the rest of this challenge. Here’s the first two female artists to appear on the RYM list, which I’ll add to my review pile:

# 17 Nico - Desertshore
#30 Alice Coltrane - Ptah the El Daoud

And that brings the total albums being reviewed to 15, which is a new record, so I’d best get started. Here’s my thoughts and ranking of the above. Let’s see who will come out the victor!

And so we move onto one of the albums that led to the development of punk rock, Fun House, along with the band’s self-titled debut and third album Raw Power (which we’ll get to in 1973) laid the foundations for punk-rock, or at least blew a rocket up its ass.

Their first album was a commercial failure, and there was a lot of talk that the band’s enigmatic live performances couldn’t be brought across on a recording. The whole thing was initially recorded in traditional studio style with everyone as isolated from each other as possible (in terms of sound) and Iggy hated how it sounded so everything was re-recorded with the band lined up as they would be live, with the engineers trying their best to capture what resulted. What you get is a raw punch in the face, which I suspect is exactly what Iggy Pop wanted. The album opens with Down on the Street, a perfect encapsulation of the band’s anarchy. A pounding bass riff is punctuated by some scratching guitar and Iggy’s hollow vocals before everything explodes in the chorus, Iggy’s throat sounding like it’s about to burst. I still think the studio has lost the band some of the dynamics and oomph they no doubt had live - the drums sound particularly over-processed and weak - but the atmosphere of the performance is very much left intact, and I’d say this is the best sounding track on the album from a production standpoint.

T.V. Eye features probably my favourite riff but is mixed rather quietly compared to the rest of the album for some reason, which makes what could be an album-defining guitar riff sound a little weak, a big shame. Later on, Dirt sounds like it could be on an album by the Doors, Pop’s vocals in particular baring an uncanny resemblance to those of Jim Morrison. On the following 1970, things go quiet again, something that plagues the last few tracks of the album too.

Fun House is a mess, which in many ways suits its chaotic content, but I can’t help but feel that if the whole thing had been recorded and mixed as well as the opening track, this would be a hell of a lot more powerful. Those issues aside, this is a great album, which was clearly very influential, and goes some way to trailblazing a path for the even better punk-rock albums to come, one of which was by this very band…

Song Picks: Down On The Street, T.V. Eye, Loose

7.5/10

Black Sabbath’s second album, their second of 1970 in fact, topped UK’s album charts on its release and features many of their most well known songs.

The album opens with War Pigs, an on the nose commentary on, as Geezer Butler describes it, ‘these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them.’ The song features the usual barnstorming riff work from Iommi on the guitar and Osbourne’s howls over the top of them (though they somehow sound less atmospheric than on the band’s debut). The song is a great demonstration of the band’s instrumental skills, not only is Tony Iommi a riff wizard, but Geezer Butler’s bass and Bill Ward’s drums complement him perfectly.

Paranoid is easily the band’s most famous song, written in only 25 minutes when the band decided they needed another song for the album according to Ward, it’s led by yet another pulverising riff by Iommi as Osbourne sings Butler’s lyrics of paranoia. Butler has said the song is about depression in particular, because he was unable to differentiate paranoia and depression at the time. It’s an iconic track, marked by the almost chanted vocals and chugging riff, which accentuates the end of each line with those three chords rooted into everyone’s brain.

The third track, Planet Caravan, is perhaps one of the band’s most relaxed songs. I generally find Butler’s lyrics a little too direct on this record, but on Planet Caravan the lyrics describe floating off into space with a lover and they work perfectly with the relaxed, jazzy and slightly psychedelic feel of the song:

We sail through endless skies
Stars shine like eyes, the black night sighs
The moon in silver dreams
Pours down in beams, light of the night
The earth, a purple blaze
Of sapphire haze in orbit always

On an album of great riffs, the best one is the one that explodes after the first ten seconds of Iron Man, a song initially called ‘Iron Bloke’ as Ozzy decided the riff sounded ‘like an iron bloke walking around.’ I wish they’d stuck with that name, it sounds so fabulously British. The lyrics, again rather simplistically, tell of a giant iron man spreading mayhem and fear, the cataclysmic riff perfectly embodying that feeling. It’s one for the finest heavy-metal riffs ever written.

Electric Funeral again features a brilliant riff - Iommi is on absolute fire on this album - this time given some sort of phaser treatment to make it sound like it’s blasting down from space. It’s a great marching piece of metal again, held back only by the fact Ozzy seems to be struggling to work with Butler’s unimaginative lyrics. The subsequent Hand of Doom is, yep you guessed it, yet another riff masterclass from Iommi.

Paranoid is a tricky one for me to review as a whole. On the one hand it features some absolutely brilliant songs, but then it also features some songs like Rat Salad that are a little uninspired, and I feel like it’s missing some of the atmosphere of their debut - which I feel is down to the production. Nevertheless, Iommi’s stupendously good guitar work - I think it has to be one of the strongest riff albums out there - still makes the whole package well worth a listen.

Song Picks: Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs, Planet Caravan

7.5/10

Van Morrison’s third album sees him returning to more conventional songwriting after the commercial failure of - the magnificent - Astral Weeks. Moondance was both a commercial and critical success and kicked off Van Morrison’s career, starting the up-beat blues/rock sound he became known for.

His vocal talents are as evident as always, and the album is bursting with memorable melodies which make you constantly want to sing along. The opener And It Stoned Me features just one of those melodies, but it’s Moondance that stands out, a pop song with jazz elements where Van Morrison’s vocals sit perfectly with the walking bass, whistling flute and tamed brass section. It’s that swinging chorus that raises the song into the realms of brilliance though. This is followed by Crazy Love, a beautiful love song featuring a gentler vocal performance from Morrison.

The rest of the album doesn’t quite reach the heady heights of the opening three but it continues to be so pretty and well written that the whole thing is hard to resist. My only complaint would be that the bass is a little loud and plodding in the mix, but other than that Morrison clearly knows how to thicken out his songs with a whole variety of instruments, while never losing the core of what makes the song tick.

Moondance is much more conventional than Astral Weeks, and thus it’s much more accessible. It doesn’t have the mystery and abstract nature that makes Astral Weeks so special, but it’s still a collection of finely crafted songs performed with a voice like butter. Van Morrison sure knows how to write a song, and that was perhaps never more evident than on Moondance.

Song Picks: And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Crazy Love, These Dreams of You, Glad Tidings

8/10

Deep Purple are one of those bands who have been through all sorts of member changes throughout their significant lifespan. This is the ‘Mark II’ line-up of Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Paice, Gillan & Glover are the only ones still in the band today.

The album was a direct response to Lord & Paice’s concerto, which gave the band a lot of publicity, but also muddied the waters as to who the band were. Richie Blackmore was particularly keen that this album was heavy and that Deep Purple cemented themselves as a rock band, hence the album’s title.

My Dad’s a big Deep Purple fan, and I remember during one of our trips to Switzerland to visit him as kids he once gave me and my brother an mp3 player - remember those? - with some music pre-loaded on it. From what I remember it was about the size of a usb flashdrive nowadays and could fit about 3 albums on it. I remember it was my favourite possession for quite a while, and particularly revolutionised my running, as I no longer had to carry around a tape walkman the entire time. Anyway, as you’ve probably guessed, this was one of the albums Dad had pre-loaded onto the player and so it holds a lot of nostalgia value for me, and I’ve highly enjoyed returning to it.

Although In Rock is clearly a rock album, Deep Purple haven’t let go of the more symphonic nature of the sound that I assume was present in the aforementioned concerto. Child in Time opens with an operatic drama not yet common in rock, and the opening track Speed King features a surprisingly gentle line on a synth before the barrage of heavy guitars announce the band’s real intentions. Moments like these are dotted throughout the album, which is primarily made up of pulsating riffs (see Speed King & Bloodsucker) and help to give the album plenty of dynamics.

I’ve already mentioned Child in Time, but it’s the album’s highlight, so I’ll mention it again. An epic track building from a gentle synth intro to a marching hold-on-to-you-seats solo section where Blackmore’s guitar skills explode into a colourful frenetic firework display, before things calm down again as Gillan’s vocals get more and more theatrical. Paice’s drumming is also pretty splendid, grooving perfectly on the slower sections - the way he comes in after Gillan sings ‘wait for the ricochet’ is magic - and perfectly punctuating the song’s heavier, faster sections. The whole thing is a tour-de-force of composition and performance. The way the song is followed by the no holds barred Flight of the Rat - which features Ian Paice on absolute fire on the drums again - is a perfect encapsulation of the album’s combination of rock and theatrics. Flight of the Rat being one of the heaviest songs released up to this point in my eyes, and a clear pre-cursor to later bands like Rage Against the Machine.

In Rock is an absolute steam train of an album driven by a band that love theatre just as much as a heavy guitar riff, and they ain’t stopping for no one. I’d say the high-vocal hard-rock sound has aged somewhat, but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable listening

Song picks: Bloodsucker, Child in Time, Flight of the Rat, Living Wreck

8/10

Nico’s third solo album is produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground - whose debut album she famously featured on in 1967.

Desertshore is an atmospheric collection of songs featuring long, orchestral, symphonic notes on the Harmonium creating large, bold soundscapes behind Nico’s haunting vocals. The gorgeous opening track Janitor of Lunacy, which is reportedly about former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones perfectly displays Nico’s vocal talents, as she tunefully sings the song’s simple and sparse lyrics, over the equally simple and sparse backing, and yet manages to create something of striking depth and power.

The album also features multiple songs in Nico’s native German. Abschied and Mütterlein are just as dark and brooding as the album’s English tracks, but add an added sense of mystery, if you don’t understand the language, or just a refreshing variety to her delivery if, like me, you do understand. Most notably perhaps, you can hear how her native tongue has impacted her unique singing style.

Afraid, perhaps the album’s most accessible and penetrable track, tells the story of Nico’s experience as a model, the fakeness of it, and the prevalence of eating disorders in the profession. The production features none of the dread present in the other songs, as Cale’s additions only serve to make the song even more beautifully sad.

Desertshore is a challenging listen. It is stark, full of dread and dissonance, and yet hymnal. It’s also one of the most original pieces of music I’ve ever heard, haunting you with it’s dark beauty for many hours after the final notes of the spoken word infused All That Is My Own. Indeed, on Desertshore, all is very much Nico’s own.

Song Picks: Janitor of Lunacy, Abschied, Afraid

8.5/10

Curtis Mayfield’s debut album after he left his previous group the Impressions is the first heavily funky album we’ve had on these lists. Mayfield produced the album and thus the sound is very much a departure from that of the Impressions, and more of a realisation of the more funk and politically inspired sound he’d wanted to create for a while.

Although now regularly regarded as a funk and soul classic, on initial release the political lyrics were deemed overly simplistic, something I can understand, there’s nothing really new here in that regard, though I feel a powerful sense of Black pride evident in this album that deserves a mention.

Instrumentally, the album is bristling with energy, something particularly evident on the classic Move On Up - famously sampled by Kanye West - where the percussion skitters along throughout the song, creating a continuous flurry of effervescence that helps give the track its boundless energy. It’s an optimistic masterpiece.

I’ve read criticisms that the production and instrumentation is a little elaborate and doesn’t add much to this album, but I couldn’t disagree more. I think it’s the instrumental sections like the one on We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue that make this album the fun, infectious, soul-funk fest that it is, and I’d go as far as saying it sounds ahead of its time.

The opening of the first track (Don’t Worry) If There is a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go opens up with a bass riff and some twinkling that appears to be charging up the album for the funkery to come. The infectious bass riff continues throughout the song’s near 8 minute duration as Curtis sings in his trademark high-pitched, gentle style about race-relations in the US. You could say, as some have, that the lyrics are more about rhymes than saying anything particularly revolutionary, and I’d agree the lyrics are probably the song’s weakness, but the rest of it more than makes up for this.

Curtis’ gentle falsetto is particularly glorious on the love song The Makings of You where the band is somehow both grandiose and calm at the same time, the shimmering piano helping to bind everything together.

On Curtis, Mayfield has created a sound very much his own. The tenderness of R&B, the infectious danceability of soul & funk, and production that is clean, punchy, and yet somehow manages to tame the horns into something that compliments rather than dominates. An optimistic, danceable album with a conscience.

Song Picks: (Don’t Worry) If There is a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go, Move on Up, The Makings of You

8.5/10

PtahElDaoud — 9. Ptah The El Daoud

Alice Coltrane

As you might have guessed, Alice was John Coltrane’s wife, and indeed the pianist in his band at the time of his death in 1967. This is her third album as a bandleader. In terms of the album’s title: Ptah is an Egyptian god (of craftsmen and architects), and El Daoud means ‘the beloved’. Don’t say I don’t teach you anything.

The title track, which opens the album, is a pretty good sign of what’s to come. The sax solos by Joe Henderson and Pharaoh Sanders are as free as a flock of birds, at times sounding dissonant. Pharaoh’s in particular buzzes along like a lost bumble bee clashing with numerous windows and occasionally getting stuck on its way home. Coltrane’s piano playing perfectly complements the piece. It’s heavily reverbed and so looses a bit of its detail, but her solo around half way through the track is a twinkling delight. Full of speedy scales and a knack for keeping things interesting with short pauses and repeated starts resolving beautifully later on. Ben Riley’s drum solo towards the end of the piece is brilliantly sparse and makes the re-entry of all the other instruments - led by Henderson’s sax - all the more impactful. It’s a mysterious, spiritual track, that leaves a lingering mark.

Turiya and Ramakrishna is particularly remarkable for Coltrane’s piano playing that opens it. Her fingers bouncing beautifully up and down the keys, skittering flurries of notes all over the place. I’d happily listen to an album of Alice Coltrane just playing the piano, she’s got such a unique quickly-glinting style that’s a joy to get lost in.

On track 3, Blue Nile, Coltrane plays the harp (something pretty rare in jazz), which provides a hyperactive and yet ethereal bedding for Henderson and Sanders’s flute theatrics. Ron Carter’s bass is heavenly, its gentle tuneful humming lulling you into a relaxed state. There are points during this track where I was just completely blown away by how well everything complemented each other. When Coltrane’s harp solo enters you feel like you’re being rushed up a stairway to heaven, what a magnificent piece of music.

The closing track, Mantra, is a dark, 16 minute epic like a journey into a complex cave network, it’s a track full of dissonance and atmosphere and ends with Henderson and Sanders’ warm saxophones, as the light beams in, alerting you to a way out. Coltrane’s rapid piano scales scatter like the increasing light on all the walls before it’s all light, and you collapse to the ground, relieved.

Ptah The El Daoud is a a hidden gem. It’s a collection of marvellous instrumental talent, not least from the magnificent Alice Coltrane leading the band, that combines to create something rather beautiful and unique. I’d put this up there with a lot of the more famous jazz albums from the 60s, and you do wonder if it might be more famous had it been led by a man.

Song Picks: Ptah, The El Daoud; Turiya and Ramakrishna; Blue Nile

8.5/10

Their debut album, Black Sabbath is generally regarded as the first heavy-metal album, with it’s opening track being considered the first example of doom-metal. I’ve mentioned before how great it is to hear the birth of new genres during this challenge, and this is another example where an album feels substantially different from anything that has come before it. There’s a heaviness here that is hinted at in some recordings by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple up to this point, but nothing as bone-shatteringly heavy and menacing as the riffs on this album, particularly the slow, doom-march of the opening track.

As with that opening track, on N.I.B. the riff is enough to blow the biggest of heads off, the band’s bassist Geezer Butler (great name) says the song is a ‘humorous take on Satan falling in love’. As well as that barnstorming riff, it features a superb, twiddly guitar solo from Tommy Iommi.

I’ve heard Ozzy’s vocals described as monotone and I can see where that criticism comes from, but I find it quite refreshing he’s not as high-pitched as lot of the heavy rockers of the time. I still wouldn’t say his vocal style is completely up my street, but the slightly haunting nature of them perfectly matches the gothic lyrical content, and the way they soar above the bombardment of guitars is what Black Sabbath are all about. He also has a knack for giving a studio recorded vocal the immediacy and power of a live performance.

The 10 minute Warning is perhaps the album’s highlight, an odyssey perfectly demonstrating Butler’s ability to nail a bass groove, Iommi’s ability to go from a punishing riff to Hendrix-esque soloing and Osbourne’s ability to dial up the drama to 11.

This is hard-hitting guitar rock with great riffs, an inventive and unpredictable style with just the right amount of jamming, and some great bass-work from the aforementioned Butler - particularly on Warning. And all this is before you even consider the fact it invented a whole new genre, which puts it in very unique company indeed.

Song Picks: Black Sabbath, N.I.B., Warning,

8.5/10

Young’s third album only featured Crazy Horse - who had backed his previous album - on two songs, with the majority of the album being recorded with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young bassist Greg Reeves, Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina and Nils Lofgren on guitar and keys. The songs on the album were inspired by the screenplay to the unmade film of the same name by Dean Stockwell-Herb Bermann, though Young has mentioned only two that were written specifically for the film: After the Gold Rush and Cripple Creek Ferry. As we’ve seen again and again on this challenge, the album was met with mixed reviews on its release, but has since become regarded as a classic.

After the Gold Rush has a singer/songwriter vibe to it, with all the songs having the feel of something initially written on an acoustic guitar and then brought into the studio to have things added on. Despite this though, there are some surprisingly heavy tracks such as Southern Man, where Young’s falsetto, which is devastatingly fragile on the quieter tracks, somehow still manages to hold its own.

Young’s strength undoubtedly lies in his melodies and lyrics, both of which are very much evident on this album. He has an ability to make verse melodies just as catchy as those in the chorus and if his vocals weren’t so unattainably high, you’d probably want to sing along constantly. Lyrically, I feel the title track is the best example of what he’s capable of. When asked about its meaning, Young apparently stated, “Hell, I don’t know. I just wrote it. It just depends on what I was taking at the time. I guess every verse has something different I’d taken.” There’s a clear environmental theme to it, but there’s also a dreamy nature to it which matches somewhat with Young’s description of it. The opening verse is my favourite, and shows his gift for imagery:

Well I dreamed I saw the knights in armor comin'
Sayin' something about a queen
There were peasants singin' and drummers drummin'
And the archer split the tree
There was a fanfare blowin' to the sun
That was floating on the breeze
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the 1970s
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the 1970s

The words weave perfectly with the beautiful melody, the simple piano accompaniment never distracting from either of them. It’s a fine example of Young’s song writing and performance talents. The next track, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, reportedly about Graeme Nash’s break up with Joni Mitchell, shows he can write a catchy chorus too. It’s a song that has been covered countless times since.

The term singer/songwriter has negative connotations nowadays, which is daft really. After the Gold Rush is a prime example how one man’s songwriting and performing talents can very much carry an album. It’s full of beautiful melodies with lyrics that seem to fit them perfectly, performed with an affecting fragility, and recorded and produced with a lovely clarity. The whole thing is just refreshingly warm and earnest. It feels like a slightly melancholy hug, and I rather like that.

Song Picks: After the Gold Rush, Tell Me Why, Only Love Can Break Your Heart

8.5/10

LedZep3 — 6. Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin sure knew how to name an album. Obviously, this is their third album, largely recorded using the fabulous ‘Rolling Stones Mobile Studio’ which, if you’re a recording nerd like me, you’ll thoroughly enjoy reading about here.

Often seen as a transitional album for the band, this is where they began to incorporate more acoustic and folk elements, which provides a bit more variety from their previous all-heavy sound.

This new folk influence isn’t something that’s obvious straight out o the gate though, as the opening Immigrant Song will blow your head off in familiar Led Zeppelin fashion as Bonham’s pounding drums and Page’s repetitive, bulldozing riff clatter into your ears. Plant belts out a load of lyrics about being a Viking and wanting to go to Valhalla or something, and Led Zeppelin III has officially arrived, following up that two and a half minute bullet-train with the slightly more relaxed Friends, featuring, gasp, an acoustic guitar. Celebration Day features more magicianship on the guitar from Jimmy Page who unleashes yet another unholy riff - perhaps my favourite on the album - as Plant sings his most rapid vocals on the album. The chorus is lifted brilliantly by Jones’ flying bass part.

The band takes the world’s biggest chill-pill before they start the next track, Since I’ve Been Loving You, which begins with a bass and drum groove, and synth and guitar part as relaxed as a cuba libre by the beach. Bonham’s ability to make the simplest beat sound as elegant as the most elegant of swans is evident yet again here as the song slowly builds to its magnificent crescendo, punctuated by a fabulously sloping guitar part which sounds as big as the universe itself. It’s the pinnacle of the blues-rock the band are so good at, and one of their best songs in my books. Seven and a half minutes of some of the finest rock instrumentalists we’ve ever had on top, top form.

The acoustic guitar returns on Gallows Pole where Plant’s vocals excel in the acres of room given to them. He sounds as if he’s belting out the melody from inside the most magnificent cathedral, before the band comes along to push him out in a cacophony of banjo, bass, and heavily distorted guitar. This is followed by Tangerine, another fine example of the massive sound this album creates so well, even with its folkier songs, featuring a surprisingly melodic chorus. Things remain acoustic for Bron-Y-Aur Stomp and the closer Hats off to Roy (Harper), where Page shows a great ability to translate heavy riffs into a gentler setting. The latter in particular features one of Plant’s most ferocious vocal performances, which when combined with an acoustic guitar, creates a sound all of their own.

Led Zeppelin III is my favourite album by the band so far. A great mix of the heavy blues-rock we’ve had up to this point, with the added spice of some really unique takes on acoustic folk.

Song Picks: Immigrant Song, Since I’ve Been Loving You,

9/10

AllThingsMustPass — 5. All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

Harrison’s third album, and first since the breakup of the Beatles was also the first triple album - although the third LP is made up of informal Apple Jams. The whole thing is packed with music from an artist creatively exploding from his supporting role in the Beatles. The album is produced by Phil Spector and features a whole host of famous musicians such as Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and even Phil Collins.

There are so many songs here it’d be daft to try and take a look at them all in this review so I’ll just pick out a few of my favourites.

The opener I’d Have You Anytime was written by Bob Dylan and Harrison together. The chorus was Dylan’s creation, something evident in its melody. It's a touching song about their friendship, which I think would have been a particularly great duet. Harrison and Dylan did in fact record a version together, but it has yet to be released.

Track two, My Sweet Lord, which topped charts worldwide is probably Harrison’s most famous song, and is notable for being the first number one in America or the UK by an ex-Beatle. It reached number one for a second time in the UK after Harrison’s death due to lung cancer in 2001. Written very much in praise of the hindu god Krishna, it introduces the spiritual themes prevalent throughout his subsequent solo career as well as the slide guitar style that became a signature for Harrison. The song itself features Phil Spector’s famous ‘wall of sound’ production and is an affecting spiritual journey, that sounds as timeless as it does huge, with a hell of a catchy chorus.

Also on the first side of the album, Wah-Wah is perhaps the pinnacle of Phil Spector’s aforementioned wall of sound production on the album. Wah-Wah refers to the headache caused to Harrison by fans and media after the breakup of the Beatles. The production perfectly encapsulates the feeling of the song, the headache represented by the blare of numerous distorted guitars as Harrison tries to make himself heard above the din. The song also features numerous solos buried within its vast soundscape, finishing with the self-explanatory lines, ‘Now I don't need no wah-wah's / And I know how sweet life can be / If I keep myself free - of wah-wah’ before Harrison’s repeated ‘wah-wahs’ fade out, the headache replaced by his new found musical freedom.

Side two opens with the joy that is What is Life. It’s the simplest of songs lyrically, essentially about a longing for love, featuring an absolutely triumphant chorus with blaring horns and a whole host of other instrumentation, as Phil Spector yet again makes a fabulous melody even better with his maximalist production, something that is evident again later on on the equally triumphant Awaiting On You All.

The following cover of Bob Dylan’s If Not for You deserves a mention too as - although it doesn’t add much - Harrison’s slide guitar work, the lovely skipping drum-beat, and thick production do give the song an extra sheen, and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Speaking of Dylan, Behind That Locked Door is a touching message to our king of the 60s about his return to live music following his time away.

Often to referred to as ‘the quiet Beatle’, it’s Harrison’s music that resonates with me the most of all their solo careers. There’s an unheralded joy about being able to express himself as he’d like evident on this album, no longer held back by McCartney and Lennon’s doubts about his songwriting skills, Harrison came out and blossomed, creating an album that’s length is part of its charm. Sure, it could probably have done with a trim to make it a more digestible package. But actually, I enjoy everything here - even the Apple Jams have a great sense of fun to them - and there’s a wonderful poignancy to an artist who’d had many of these compositions rejected from Beatles albums, creating an album that rejects no part of himself.

Song Picks: I’d Have you Anytime, My Sweet Lord, What is Life, Awaiting You All

9/10

Nick Drake’s second album once again - unlike his final album Pink Moon - features accompaniment on all its songs, this time from musicians from Fairport Convention, the Velvet Underground and the Beach Boys. Apparently, Drake ‘had intended the music to evoke Pet Sounds’ (Wikipedia). It was again, like his debut, a commercial failure, likely because he refused to promote the album due to his deteriorating mental health. Drake had pretty much retired from live performances by now, reportedly walking off half way through his song Fruit Tree in one of his last performances. His family encouraged him to see a psychiatrist around this time, where he was prescribed with anti-depressants.

Bryter Layer is a strange one, in many ways the backing sounds like really well played lift-music, or the type of music you get while waiting on hold on the phone, but somehow, these obviously talented musicians’ performances, when combined with Nick Drake’s vocals, just work.

The opening track Introduction reveals all, there’ll be no holding back here when it comes to accompaniment, Drake’s open-tuning guitar plucking accompanied by a gorgeous all-encompassing string part. The next track, Hazey Jane II is accompanied by surprisingly jolly backing, complete with jangly guitar intro, bouncy bass, bopping drum beat and horn jabs punctuating various parts of the song. It would sound pretty cheesy if it weren’t for Nick Drake’s gentle and introverted vocal style, which is completely his own. As it is however, the instruments provide a comfy cloud for Drake’s poetic lyrics to hover over. It’s remarkable not just because it’s an upbeat song by Nick Drake, but because it’s brilliant. Next up is At the Time of a City Clock, for which I love music journalist David Hepworth’s description: "the perfect soundtrack for the dispensing of a cup of tea in a polystyrene cup, marrying sound and image in a way that made me unsure whether I was watching a commercial or actually in a commercial." I’m not entirely sure what he means here, but I love it regardless.

One of These Things First is a devastating song about all the things Drake has failed to become, it’s a sad look into the mind of a musician devastated by his lack of success - if only he could see himself now - pondering all the things he could have been but isn’t. The way he sings ‘I could have been, one of these things first’ is one of the saddest things ever committed to tape, and even the jolly backing piano part can’t lift his vocals from the abyss. Drake’s voice on the later, beautiful Fly evokes a similar feeling, he sings, ‘I've fallen so far / For the people you are / I just need your star for a day’ at the end of the second verse in a way that makes you really want to give him that star, and this time the accompaniment is as sad as his words. The following Poor Boy features the unexpected treat of some backing vocals, which again would sound pretty cheesy in any other context, but work here in a tale of a poor boy who’s ‘so sorry for himself’.

The penultimate track, Northern Sky is the album’s masterpiece however, a remarkably positive love song, a glimmer of hope in the darkness that is the rest of the album’s lyrics. I think the last verse pretty much sums it up:

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky

John Cale of the Velvet underground added celeste, piano and Hammond organ - something Drake was originally sceptical about, but that add to create a soundscape that is just heavenly. You know this joy won’t last though, not least because Drake seems unable to sing it in anything but a melancholy way. But while it’s here the world stops for a moment, and the stars come out and shine. The instrumental Sunday finishes the album beautifully, with what sounds like a musical rendition of the phrase ‘this too, shall pass’.

It seems to me that Drake’s albums never did particularly well mainly because he struggled to promote them. A natural introvert, it always makes me wonder just how many other Nick Drakes there are out there, creating beautiful music quietly, without the mental will to promote it. Particularly in today’s DIY music world, it seems your ability to promote your music is as important as your ability to create it, and it does make you wonder just how much great stuff is being missed, and how that stuff is likely to be the music of the quieter souls among us, who have no less to say.

Bryter Layer is an enigma. The production is often cheesy, and yet in the context of every single song, it’s also beautiful. I’ve said it too many times already, but it just works. Bryter Layer is my favourite Nick Drake album so far.

Song Picks: Northern Sky, Hazey Jane II, One of these Things First

9/10

Creedence’s fifth album is generally considered the jewel in their crown. Having prolifically released three albums in 1969 - including the great Willy and the Poor Boys - the band only released two in 1970, slackers.

The first of those two releases, Cosmo’s Factory, didn’t just put the band on that map, but all over it, topping the albums charts in six countries. Generally considered a singles band at the time, it very much proves their ability to create a great album, and features them branching out into a few songs that don’t fit the radio-ready 3 minute template.

The album is a great example of the whole host of things the band does best which are described citing perfect examples in the record’s Wikipedia article:

Cosmo's Factory displays the wide range of musical ingredients that provided the foundation for their "swamp rock" sound: R&B ("Before You Accuse Me", "My Baby Left Me"), soul ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Long As I Can See the Light"), country ("Lookin' Out My Back Door"), rockabilly and classic rock and roll ("Ooby Dooby", "Travelin' Band"), and psychedelia ("Ramble Tamble").

The whole thing is an infectious romp, to this day I can’t listen to Before You Accuse Me without bobbing around to it’s bouncy bass-line, to Travelin’ Band without feeling the insatiable urge to growl the words like Fogerty does (but very quickly realising I can’t), or to I Heard It Through the Grapevine without air-drumming along and pulling a whole host of stupid faces. The album features some of my very favourite Creedence songs (Travelin’ Band, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Long as I Can See the Light, Run Through the Jungle) and there isn’t a song that’s less than a whole lot of fun on the album. I don’t think Creedence ever did anything particularly new, but the way they could perform a whole host of genres, mash them together, and create something that was pretty much guaranteed to get everyone moving was pretty special.

Similarly, Cosmo’s Factory isn’t paving the way for some new genre or anything, but it is a collection of songs that’s very much a celebration of rock ‘n’ roll and all the various influences on it, performed with a perfection and energy that can’t help but go straight to your head. It’s one of the best rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time in my books, in fact right now I’m struggling to think of a better one.

Song Picks: Lookin’ Out My Door, Travelin’ band, Run Through the Jungle, Long as I Can See the Light

9.5/10

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and last album by the duo, and it’s generally regarded as their best. The majority of the album’s songs were written by Paul Simon while Art Garfunkel was acting in the film Catch-22, a film Simon was also supposed to be acting in until his part was written out when the script was skimmed down. It continued the more experimental nature of 1968’s Bookends, using plenty of studio magic to create a sound that perfectly complements the duo’s vocals and Simon’s songwriting.

The album opens with Bridge Over Troubled Water, a song that probably everyone reading this has heard, and what has to be one of the most covered songs in history. It spent 6 weeks at number 1 on its release. Simon has talked of his regret at insisting that Garfunkel sang lead on the song - Garfunkel didn’t feel the song was right for him initially - but to me, Garfunkel’s vocals are absolutely perfect here. Going from beautifully delicate at the start of the song, to a powerful and stadium-filling - while still incredibly high pitched - finale, it’s as much a display of Garfunkel’s vocal talents as it is Simon’s songwriting, with a chorus that has to be one of the most famous melodies ever written.

El Condor Pasa (If I Could) shows some of the album’s wonderful production, the piece was originally written by Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, and Simon heard it played by Los Incas in Paris. He asked if he could add some English lyrics to the piece and this is what resulted, a wonderfully distant, Latin guitar infused song with the wonderful flute played by Los Incas giving the song a real timeless quality.

Next up, we have Cecelia, one of the greatest pop-songs ever written. Opening straight away with it’s glorious chorus, complemented by some sparkling and thumping percussion which almost drowns out the acoustic guitar, giving the song a very percussive feel. The song tells of the highs and lows of an unfaithful lover and is just impossible not to sign along to. I’d also say it’s impossible to feel unhappy while it’s on.

The later Keep the Customer Satisfied and So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright show the duo’s talent for melodies, regardless of whether the song is big and bombastic like the former - amazing production again - or soft and gentle like the latter.

Then we’ve got The Boxer. You know, the one that goes ‘Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie, Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie, la la lie la lie’. Yep, that one. Simon has talked about his embarrassment at singing that part in particular as it was put in as a placeholder for a lack of lyrics initially. Keeping it in felt like a ‘failure of songwriting’ to him. The song tells the story of a kid feeling sad about the poverty he’s growing up in. The chorus might not be the most inventive, but I feel it perfectly brings across that feeling of accepting what you’ve been dealt, even if that makes you rather sad. At the song’s end the ‘lie la lies’ are sung over an increasingly menacing synth, the world crashing down as the titular boxer tries to hold it together.

Then we move onto Baby Driver - which the 2017 film is named after, a fabulously jaunty song, while The Only Living Boy In New York is a sad one about Simon’s loneliness when Garfunkel was off acting on Catch-22. The unique sound of the backing vocals of the latter was created by using multiple tracks of an echo chamber recording. The end of the song features only echoed vocals, and is one of the album’s most beautiful moments. The penultimate track, a cover of Bye Bye Love, features the live crowd clapping so loud it distorts, creating a granular and spacious sound to the recording before the final track, Song for Asking, rises gently from faded clapping of the previous song like a beautifully understated goodbye from the duo.

I recently heard an interview with Roy Halee, who co-produced the album, and his contribution deserves more than a mention here. He clearly had a massive influence on just how brilliant this album sounds and a lot of the unique touches I’ve mentioned are down to him.

Bridge Over Troubled Water is Simon & Garfunkel’s most consistent work. It’s ambitious, infectious, full of brilliantly written songs, and the performances and production are sprinkled with stardust.

Song Picks: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecelia, The Only Living Boy In New York, The Boxer

9.5/10

BitchesBrew — 1. Bitches Brew

Miles Davis

Miles’ follow up to 1969’s In a Silent Way is a double-album, 6 tracks spanning over 94 minutes. It’s generally seen as the pre-cursor to the jazz-rock genre and often appears near the top of all-time albums lists. It nevertheless has a fair few detractors, who just can’t get on board with it’s knack for, like In a Silent Way, floating around somewhere outside of general genre descriptions.

The opener Pharaoh’s Dance immediately creates a world of it’s own, and the whole host of drummers (up to three) combined with the percussionist create a thick, lively sound without the musical space being used up. This allows Miles’ trumpet to weave whole constellations of trumpet lines with perfect clarity. The drummers and percussion drive the track for the vast majority of its 20 minute duration, leaving you in some sort of trance by the end. As you exit a musical world like no other, you feel as if you’ve just returned from space, floating around with the cosmos’ most magical marching band.

I sat there and thought, there’s no way Miles can repeat that magic but then came the title track, which started off tentatively - as if everyone had suddenly dropped their instruments, and were struggling to hold on to them once they picked them back up - but soon evolved into a similar percussive powerhouse to the opening track. I’ve never heard anything like this, it’s like some sort of amalgamation of all the jazz, rock and god knows what else that came before it, as interpreted by some hyper-intelligent space alien. As the march stops, Miles and co blare horns into space, hoping for an answer from somewhere far-far away, but all that comes back are their own echoes and the impatient rumblings of their own drummers. I’m sat here at my keyboard, but I’m also not. Reality has folded before me, and I’m once again flying through space with a band that knows no bounds. Quite extraordinary.

But surely they can’t keep this up? By side two they’ll all be exhausted and out of ideas won’t they? Nope, my friends, they will not. The percussive heartbeat of this album is there once more, pushing things forward like an insatiable steam train, and the rest of the band can’t stop the pure instrumental wizardry just bursting out of them. Here we start to get a real sense of funk, as John McLaughlin’s electric guitar really dials it up, which along with the two bassists (yeah I know) makes something as funky as the funkiest James Brown track, while still not being funk. By the 9-minute mark I can’t keep any of me still, I’m bopping all over the place like a man possessed. This thing is an unstoppable fireball. I guess this album’s just going to continue to blow my mind isn’t it?

The funk continues on John McGlaughlin, the only song not featuring Davis and Wayne Shorter before we enter Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, a track starting with a particularly unique drum-beat, which was played by Don Alias - who was generally the congas guy - after Lenny White’s beat was considered ‘too slick’. As it reaches the beginning of its crescendo at the 10 minute mark, you’re left wondering how on Earth so many instruments can play solos at once, and still combine to create something more than the sum of their parts, an aural miracle.

By the time we breeze into Sanctuary, the final track of the original release (Feio was added on in the 1999 re-issue), there’s no doubt left in my mind that this is the best album of 1970, and indeed one of the best albums of all time. The fact that Sanctuary turns out to be the perfect, relatively calm ending to this directed storm of an album - with one last-gasp of instrumental boisterousness in it’s mid-section - only serves to solidify this.

Bitches Brew is a masterpiece. An album that tells a completely unique story. Not the kind of story that can be told in books, or with words, but the kind of story that could only be told in this format, and only by a whole host of talented musicians guided by one of music’s true geniuses.

Song Picks: Pharaoh’s Dance, Bitches Brew, Spanish Key

10/10