ILX 70s album poll - results

points: 564
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 20

THE RAMONES - THE RAMONES

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005JGAB.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Our Alice took this album (along with McFly and Busted ones) to her last day at nursery.

I don't know if they played it at her leaving party...

-- jel -- (freeduni...), January 23rd, 2003.

-- Justyn Dillingham (aubade8...), January 24th, 2003.

errr...let's have some posts about the band rather than about the album... well, they ARE interesting comments on the band, even if something more specific would be better. I'm sure there are lots of pertinent comments specific to this album out there, I'm just having trouble finding them.
I think Justyn is RIGHT.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 28th, 2003.

-- mark grout (mark.grou...), April 25th, 2005.

I'm just trying to imagine "Blitzkreig Bop" back to back with "Five Colours In Her Hair". Actually, at the risk of being flayed alive, it doesn't seem so terrible.

points: 564
1st place votes: 1
total votes: 16

AL GREEN - CALL ME

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000240T5.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Al Green. As a pure singer he's the best-- eddie hurt (eddshur...)

I dug out a copy of Maggot Brain as a result of this poll. Can't believe I'd overlooked it. Its an immense album - I should have voted for it.

Next poll, maybe..

Because with the possible exception of "The Battle of Evermore," IV is utterly perfect. III has moments of brilliance but a lot of weak spots as well, HOTH is fairly close but the overall quality level is prob. a bit lower.

points: 569
1st place votes: 1
total votes: 16

KRAFTWERK - THE MAN MACHINE

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000087HXO.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

This where Kraftwerk's style, image and theme find their ultimate
expression, The Man Machine is where the group's ideas are most fully
realised. Middle-European melancholy set in "Spacelab", futurism with
an old world touch. All six songs are perfect and beautiful, none of
them sound dated 27 years on. The robots that still define
Kraftwerk's image were introduced here, yet the men's eye for the
ladies in "The Model" shows the machines as human after all. This is
the international edition, in Germany the band released a German
language version. Oh my, the gentle kick drum that starts off "Neon
Lights" has just started while I type this. Oh, and there's that
synth line. I love this music so much.

JoB de wit

points: 601
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 17

THE STOOGES - FUN HOUSE

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000005IU2.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I love this album.

points: 601
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 18

MICHAEL JACKSON - OFF THE WALL

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=off+the+wall+jackson/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=12r98co0b/EXP=1114686155/*-http%3A//linux030.cshc.qc.ca/~dmercier/biographie45/michael/otwallalb.jpg

Off the Wall

Michael Jackson

Somewhere in between Michael Jackson’s difficult childhood and his possibly psychotic reactions to his difficult childhood, he managed to come out with Off the Wall. At the time, we thought it would always be thus.

You can no longer listen to this record without thinking about what came after. Thriller may have made him the King of Pop rather than a good-looking guy with a few hits, but the seeds of MJ’s musical destruction are there. The paranoia, the megalomania, the self-reference (fictional and non-) made for great songs on Thriller, but he’s walking on a wire. He wobbled on “We Are the World,” teetered with stuff like “The Way You Make Me Feel” a great song rendered stiff by the production) and eventually fell off, handing in calcified junk like “Invincible.”

Off the Wall breathes; it’s engaging while it’s impressive. You can dance to it without worrying that you don’t look as cool as Michael Jackson dancing to it. “We’re the party people living night and day/ Living crazy that’s the only way/ So tonight/ Gotta put that 9 to 5 up on the shelf/ And just enjoy yourself.” Slight? Maybe, but fun too. And, as on “She’s Out of My Life,” as on everything here, he sings like he knows what he’s talking about (even though he probably already doesn’t).

Weird Al Yankovic never parodied anything from Off the Wall (on record anyway). That’s because he tweaks excess. And there isn’t any here.

Rick Massimo

You mean: fahren!

points: 604
1st place votes: 1
total votes: 15

VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE HARDER THEY COME

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005LZWR.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The Harder they Come

John Peel had a rating system for songs: 1 star meant he might play it
on
the radio, 2 stars meant he should, and 3 stars meant he must. Every
few
years he would announce that an album had achieved the distinction of
every
track on it getting 3 stars (I remember Misty in Roots 'Live at the
Counter-Eurovision' and the first Bhundu Boys album being examples)

Anyway, 'The Harder They Come' falls into this category. Every track on
it
is not just good, but great, good enough that if you bought an album
and it
had just one of these tracks, you'd be satisfied with your purchase
even if
the rest of the album was rubbish.

Joe Kay

Various - The Harder They Come (Soundtrack)

To this day, the artist on the spine of "The Harder they Come" reads
"Jimmy Cliff," although the album is indeed a compilation. Maybe it
was a recognition that Cliff's contributions are more numerous and
arguably better than anything else on the record, but it probably had
more to do with marketing, as Cliff starred in the lead role of the
film. The other selections, by reggae stalwarts such as Toots & the
Maytals and Desmond Dekker, are some of the island's greatest tracks,
and serve as a counterpoint to Cliff's four masterpieces. Even though
you'll often hear that this is a "great introduction to reggae," I've
always thought this collection is all the more powerful because Bob
Marley is absent from it. Not because he is in any way a lesser
artist, but the inclusion of such a major personality would have
distorted the balance of the album. Either way, it's indispensable
for both casual reggae fans and fanatics alike.

Keith C

points: 616
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 22

THE SEX PISTOLS - NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00000G6PJ.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

points: 683
1st place votes: 3
total votes: 18

THE MODERN LOVERS - THE MODERN LOVERS

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000A5BUA.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

i burned a copy of this for my girlfriend, and she told me they were a shitty Doors ripoff. She doesn't know it, but i still haven't forgiven her for that.
-- Felcher (wangchungvsah...), September 17th, 2003

points: 692
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 20

DAVID BOWIE - THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00001OH7P.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The TV announcer begins, telling us all of our imminent demise and the rest is a "what the fuck, its all over, let's take what we can get" ride. The last ever rock n roll band appearing, entrancing the kids, and getting torn to shreds. The aliens whispering over the airwaves, and those willing to listen going out, staring at the sky and hoping for some sort of salvation.

It ends with a stagger home, a lit cigarette, screeching brakes as the singer assures you you aren't alone, he'll comfort you, he'll make it all okay. Perhaps you just need to go home, come down, it'll all be okay. The world will be allright, and you imagined everything.

Not completely consistent, but which of his albums is? It doesn't need to be. The result is a technicolour dystopian dream - frightening and utterly seductive.

points: 698
1st places: 1
total votes: 19

GANG OF FOUR - ENTERTAINMENT

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00003WG0M.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

At least The Sex Pistols made top 20--glad the public turnaround on that isn't too intense. And also good to see Kraftwerk and Bowie's best albums both make the top 20.

Blondie - Parallel Lines
Eno - Before and After Science
Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Bruce - Born to Run (?)
Clash - London Calling
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe
Marv - What's Goin' On
PiL - Metal Box
Stones - Exile
Sly - Riot
T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Am I missing anything?

I'd bet money against this.

I'd be interested in seeing those predictions, though.

the 70s poll (albs and singles) predictions and things are posted here, i guess

I'll start it up again.

points: 732
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 22

STEVIE WONDER - INNERVISIONS

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004S363.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Innervisions

Stevie's third post-liberation album, and arguably the peak of his
career.
Dazzlingly diverse, from bubble-jazz to stately piano ballads to
singalong
gospel funk, but effortlessly commercial too (is that a Carpenters
influence
I hear on "Golden Lady"?). Every track could be - and probably was -
either
an FM or AM radio staple. Lyrically, it's gently hippie and gently
socially
conscious, which only adds to its crossover appeal. Faultless,
basically

Jeff Worrell

points: 732
1st place votes: 4
total votes: 18

THE ROLLING STONES - EXILE ON MAIN STREET

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000000W5L.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

If the Rolling Stones had only released Exile on Main
Street, they'd still have a good claim for "World's
Greatest Rock and Roll Band." A double album that
deserves all 4 sides. Xgau says "Weary and
complicated, barely afloat in its own drudgery, it
rocks with extra power and concentration as a result,"
in a remarkably lucid and entirely accurate remark.
An album that sounds good at first listen and
exponentially better on the 10th or the 100th.
Absolutely amazing and essential.

Matt Sab

points: 746
1st place votes: 0
total votes: 19

MARVIN GAYE - WHAT'S GOING ON?

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00007FOMP.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

However, it sounds downright futuristic compared to that half-awful Marvin Gaye album. Oh well.