ILM's Now For Something Completely Different... 70s Album Poll Results! Top 100 Countdown!

https://i.canvasugc.com/ugc/original/5c85df2a48069765638e9d775f64f064fa9ad829.png
AKA 1970-1979 WTF - The Hard 'n' Heavy 'n' Loud + Krautrock, Arty, Noisy, Weird, Funky, Punky Shit - Albums Poll!

BOOKMARK THE THREAD!

A poll that does sorta cover a multitude of genres and bands in actual fact and not just RAWK before anyone asks. All of ilx was given the chance to nominate and vote. We received over 1000 nominations, 94 ballots (many of whom were the full 100)

The purpose was to have a poll that would have different results to the previous 2 polls. Stay tuned for the ride! There will be a Spotify playlist hopefully if someone volunteers to do it.

ps the top 100 comes later as we're starting at...

501 Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes 408 Points, 3 Votes
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QNq0NdpCuCQ/SUDCN8YPzdI/AAAAAAAACVk/Gw4vCdEtk9A/s1600/Scorpions+-+Tokyo+Tapes+(1978).jpg
RYM #18 for 1978 , #751 overall

hahaha a classic Top 100 poll starting with #501... love ya AG!

are we doing spotify links?

Lol. You just wanted to start with Scorpions as some kind of symmetry, right?

well the tracks poll started with Scorpions so it made sense. Plus it was a sign from God. Pope Francis looks like Bullseye (UK tv darts gameshow ) presenter Jim Bowen so it clearly was a sign to start at 501!

He doesn't look that much like Jim Bowen.

emil.y otm

viceroy yes but this album wasn't available (in the UK at least)

Would you like to do the playlist?

If anyone wasn't looking there was a tracks poll. Full list of results direct link - Rolling Stone Eat Your Heart Out: The Greatest Rawk Trax of the 1970s ILM/ILX Poll RESULTS

10 min interval between album postings ok?

RYM = http://rateyourmusic.com. Rankings are based on an algorithm using scores submitted by users, number of ratings and other factors. Thanks for doing that AG! I'll be helping with getting info and informative goodies on most of the rest after #450.

i'm looking forward to this one ...

I don't think I can do a playlist for this, its gonna be too huge!

but It's not on spotify US either.

Actually I'll just post whenever but it will usually be around 10 min intervals as its a lot of effort to find album covers,spotify,rym.

why is the albums list longer than the tracks list? shouldn't it be shorter? there were fewer albums nominated!

fnb is doing that stuff from 450 down so he will provide rym and acclaimed music rankings and other surprises.

no there wasnt there was over 1000 albums nominated. plus twice as mant voters

oh, ok. idk why I thought there were more tracks than albums.

Consider that the 2012 albums rollout was 77, which seemed like a good number that people were happy with. But that was just for one year! The equivalent for a decade poll would be 770 albums, so 501 is a fine compromise.

yeah, and after all, what else has AG got to do ...

I haven't peeked at any of the album results so this is all gonna be fresh for me. I wonder how it will compare to the tracks one where Post-Punk seemed to dominate pretty hard.

This being albums, perhaps Prog and Krautrock will get higher marks?

I guess I am just saying what I hope lol.

a lot more genres represented for the nominations in this poll than the tracks poll

TIE
499 Cheap Trick - Live At Budokan 408 Points 4 Votes
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/cheaptrick.jpg
RYM #54 for 1979 , #2847 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/5ttDbNMKXczvp0Z8QRgKs6

499 Bang - Bang 408 Points 4 Votes
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/metalmark1/BANG.jpg
RYM Ranked #276 for 1971
http://open.spotify.com/album/0gC4htPlxAEjXdcFOPuG0F

I just want to point out that albums rule

BANG!!! It made it!

I just hope the one Popol Vuh album that was nominated gets enough votes to place. That's all. The rest will be ok with me if that happens.

there was only one???

yup - i just checked the list!
coeur de verre/heart of glass/herz au glas

I don't really have the foggiest notion what Bang is. Someone care to spill the beans?

ONE Popul Vuh album got nommed?! Insanity this is what I get for focusing on other things to nominate.

IDK much about Bang but it was campaigned for in the nom thread and I liked it.

oh man this is gonna cause extra work

review
[-] by Eduardo Rivadavia

Signed by Capitol Records on a wave of goodwill toward heavy rock following the gang buster success story that was Grand Funk Railroad, the members of Bang were hastily ushered into the nearest studio while the ink on their contract was still drying and essentially asked to "show us what you got" by their new backers. What they had, as exemplified by memorable opening gambit, "Lions, Christians," was a hard rock style that tempered the sheer bombastic doom and gloom of Black Sabbath with a less oppressive, blues-reliant sound redolent of most every other proto-metal band out there at the time (think Toe Fat, May Blitz, Dust, etc.), to be quite honest, and therefore lacking in the uncontrolled danger of a Blue Cheer or Sir Lord Baltimore. In fact, such outright savagery was only momentarily threatened here on a few subsequent tracks, including the biting staccatos of ""Come with Me" and Neanderthal plod of "Future Shock," but by the arrival of lead single "Questions" and its undeniably infectious sibling "Redman," some measure of civility had largely been restored. And, sprinkled amidst these angrier moments lay a few curious stylistic diversions like the gentle Arthurian fingerpicking of "Last Will and Testament" and the hippie-dippy sentiments of "Our Home," each of which respectively veered into art rock and the sort of post-flower power whimsy that Altamont should have categorically nailed to a tree a few years earlier (and which had dominated Bang's ambitious but flawed first effort, Death of a Country, which was shelved upon delivery). Having thus heard Bang's best shot (if you catch our meaning) and then watched "Questions" flounder on the charts, the bean-counting suits at Capitol Records apparently and perhaps prematurely deemed their new charges to be anything but the perfect marriage of Sabbath and Grand Funk they were hoping for. The naïve musicians in Bang were barely given another chance to build upon this solid debut's abundant promise, and, as would be shown by pair of flawed and confused follow-up albums, their career was to be thrown into a tailspin before hardly getting off the ground.

Thanks K. "the gentle Arthurian fingerpicking" wtf?? I do like May Blitz so maybe I'll give this thing a whirl.

tl;dr - The boys really only had one album worth of songs in 'em.

I came here for a nice tidy 100 countdown and I get 500

" too much *clap clap* time on my hands..."

:D

This being albums, perhaps Prog and Krautrock will get higher marks?

Weren't there three krautrock tracks in the top 10 of the tracks poll?

haha true, there was.

Nice start with two iconic live albums recorded in Japan. Was that tradition started by Deep Purple or does it go back further?

Hoo boy, I won't be able to do it for most of this first round cuz I'll be commuting home from work, but...

Cheap Trick - Acclaimed: #964 | RS: #430

As a result of Cheap Trick's burgeoning Asian popularity, the band's Japanese label recorded a pair of April 1978 Tokyo shows and released a live album, At Budokan, proof of the band's supreme stage power and an opportunity to introduce several previously unreleased tunes ("Need Your Love," recorded for the next studio disc, whose release was held up by the live album's unexpected success, is amazing). The live version of "I Want You to Want Me" was picked up by American radio programmers, who turned it into a Top 10 hit. A dynamic rendition of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" also got play, and the platinum-bound album was finally released in the US the following year. -- Trouser Press

Bang

If you dig: Black Sabbath, Hard Rock, Classic Rock. Bang is a quintessential Heavy Rock album, very influenced by early Black Sabbath, but the band waivers off any over-adventurism or Psychedelic meanderings with only one song to break the five-minute barrier..."Questions" was even a minor radio hit in the States... Loved it? Try: Jerusalem, Hard Stuff, Buffalo, Lucifer's Friend, Pentagram. -- R. Chelled

Again, we're talking holy grails of fledgling metal magic here (see Sir Lord Baltimore... a sort of sickly anemic Sabbath trudge with excellent screechy, Ozzy Byron vocals and handicapped drums, more like traps. Rating 8/7 -- M. Popoff

TIE
497    The Vibrators - Pure Mania    411 Points   3  Votes 
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/the-vibrators/album-pure-mania.jpg
RYM #105 for 1977
http://open.spotify.com/album/1FSQBoO0bABGyl4nQssw2E

review
[-] by Mark Deming

Were the Vibrators real punks? Maybe not, but then again, were the Stranglers? Or Eddie and the Hot Rods? Even more to the point, was Steve Jones? Plenty of rock careerists jumped onto the punk/new wave bandwagon in the wake of the Sex Pistols' success (and more than a few folks, like Jones, stumbled into the new movement by accident), but unlike most of them, the Vibrators took to the fast/loud/stripped down thing like ducks to water, and both Knox (aka Ian Carnarchan) and Pat Collier had a genius for writing short, punchy songs with sneering melody lines and gutsy guitar breaks. If the Vibrators were into punk as a musical rather than a sociopolitical movement, it's obvious that they liked the music very much, and on that level their debut album stands the test of time quite well. Pure Mania boasts a bit more polish (and less politics) than many of the albums from punk's first graduating class (such as Damned Damned Damned or The Clash), but if you're looking for a strong, satisfying shot of chugging four-square punk, cue up "Yeah Yeah Yeah," "No Heart," "Petrol," or "Wrecked on You" and you'll be thrown into a gleeful pogo frenzy. Maybe Pure Mania isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that.

497    Focus - Focus III    411 Points   3  Votes
http://www.buffalomail.com/image.php?mime=image/pjpeg&destacados=1&idFoto=100070
RYM #84 for 1972 , #2439 overall
http://open.spotify.com/album/3N4wCf74U6Ye2c2MbLr9hv

review
[-] by Ben Davies

Riding on the success of their hit single "Hocus Pocus" from the revolutionary Moving Waves album, Focus got to work on this, their third LP in four years. While the debut album featured a style not too dissimilar to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Focus' second LP, Moving Waves, was purely instrumental and wholly serious-minded. Focus III kept this same sound, but approached it with a jollier, more accessible tone. As with its predecessor, Focus III featured only one tune that would have a chance of being a hit single. The enjoyable rhythm of "Sylvia," partnered with Jan Akkerman's victorious guitar solo, some of Van Leer's finest organ work, Bert Ruiter's tight basslines, and Pierre Van Der Linden's mellow drumming, assured the track classic status. "Sylvia" found worldwide success and gained the band valuable radio and press exposure. The song remains one of the most loved and best remembered songs from Focus' catalog. The consistency in musical quality throughout Focus III is enough to merit any listeners' respect. To be frank, this LP has it all: diverse songs, astounding musicianship, one of the finest singles ever released -- Focus III should unquestionably be ranked alongside the likes of Revolver, Dark Side of the Moon, and any others of rock's greatest.

496    Sparks - A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing    412  Points  3  Votes
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/003/411/0000341167_500.jpg
RYM Ranked #464 for 1973
http://open.spotify.com/album/65RIlZ4KlLzX2MxzV7A4hQ

review
[-] by Ned Raggett

Woofer... starts with another killer opening track, musically and lyrically, with "Girl From Germany," a chugging number detailing the problems the narrator has with his parents over his girlfriend, given their lingering wartime attitudes. The album builds upon the strengths of the debut to create an even better experience all around. The same five-person lineup offers more sharp performances. Album engineering veteran James Lowe takes over production reins from Rundgren, with, happily, no audible sense of trying to make the album more commercial. If anything, things are even wiggier this time around, from the naughtily-titled sea chanty which turns into a full-on rocker "Beaver O'Lindy" and the strings-plus-piano "Here Comes Bob," to the album's completely wacked-out, dramatic centerpiece "Moon Over Kentucky." Melodies start approaching the hyperactivity level which would flower completely on the band's subsequent releases. Ron and Earle Mankey trade off or play against each other, while the rhythm section of Jim Mankey and Feinstein executes the kind of sharp tempo changes which would become de rigueur for thrash-metal bands of the '80s, but fit in perfectly here with the spastic pop being played. Russell soars and croons over it all like an angel on deeply disturbing drugs, wrapping his vocals around such lines as "We surely will appreciate our newfound leisure time" from "Nothing is Sacred." The long-time live favorite "Do-Re-Mi" -- indeed a cover of the number from The Sound of Music -- first appears here as well, taking Rodgers and Hammerstein to a level Julie Andrews might be hardpressed to follow. Anyone wondering why Faith No More appeared on Sparks' self-tribute album Plagiarism need only listen to Woofer to understand -- as a full-on purée of musical styles in the service of twisted viewpoints, it's a perfect album.

Well Focus 3 sounds pretty good if Mr. Davies is to be trusted!

Don't know about the ramblings of this Raggett fellow, though...

the focus album is great

Wow, I didn't think that Sparks album would get even 3 votes. Such a great record.

495    Alternative TV - The Image Has Cracked    415 Points   3  Votes
http://991.com/newGallery/Alternative-TV-The-Image-Has-Cra-497104.jpg
RYM #410 for 1978

review
[-] by Ned Raggett

Starting with a nuttily bombastic synth intro (courtesy of Squeeze's Jools Holland!) which sounds just like the music punk was supposed to be destroying might seem an unusual move for a band founded by the guy who chronicled the original London explosion. But it's that very contrariness in Mark Perry which made the original Alternative TV such a thrilling prospect, and which makes The Image Has Cracked an unfairly neglected classic from the late-'70s upheaval. Seizing on the promise of punk as being a new means of expression rather than a new set of musical rules to be adhered to, Perry, along with a solid-enough band, whip up a series of incendiary pieces that explore as much as they thrash, caught somewhere between the Fall's divine ramalama and three-chord snarls. "Alternatives" captures the tense spirit of the band's work perfectly, a live recording where over a gentle groove Perry invites audience members to come up and "use the soapbox," only to have a bunch of chancers and screamers talk a lot about nothing much at all, until Perry spits vitriol at a pair of people in a punch-up and complains about "diluted sh*t." As an expression of going down defiant while punk became a new fashion, it's fierce and brilliant. A good half of the album comes from the same concert, including the harrowing final track, "Splitting in Two," as perfect a capturing of nails-dug-in-flesh paranoia and indecision as anything in music history, revived as a live favorite years later by the Chameleons. The studio cuts include a solid run-through of Zappa's "Why Don't You Do Me Right?" and the closest ATV ever came to an anthemic single, "Action Time Vision." The 1994 CD version adds 11 extra tracks to the original album, including the reggae-inflected "Love Lies Limp" and "Life After Life" singles, among many others, making it the edition of Image to look for.

494    Bang - Mother/Bow To The King    416 Points   4  Votes
http://sinistersaladmusikal.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/100_3957.jpg
RYM #372 for 1972
http://open.spotify.com/album/5WFIHWa1WyhmrTmVhevQZR

review
[-] by Eduardo Rivadavia

Bang's sophomore album, 1972's Mother/Bow to the King, probably raised quite a few eyebrows in its day based on its curious cover art alone (is that "mother" herself serving the band a very large pie, and is that one dude wearing a cape?), but it was likely the two-for-one title intended to represent each of its vinyl sides that was most revealing of the young band's impending crisis of artistic direction. Until recently, the Philadelphia natives had been just another inexperienced power trio aspiring to become the next Cream, Mountain, or Grand Funk Railroad; then they were plucked out of obscurity by the latter band's parent label, Capitol Records, and asked to deliver in kind, so one can only imagine the sort of pressure and uncertainty tormenting the members of Bang once their first LP failed to set the world on fire. All that being said and notwithstanding the unnecessary sacking of drummer Tony Diorio, there was nevertheless a lot of musical continuity between that debut and the sophomore Mother/Bow to the King, both halves of which were still dominated by high-energy proto-metal exercises like "Humble," "Idealist Realist," and "Feel the Hurt," among others. The folky handclaps of "Mother," the funky guitar of "Keep On," and the proggy ambitions of "Bow to the King" showcased the band's broadening songwriting interests in a positive light; but it was Capitol's insistence that Bang cover the Guess Who's "No Sugar Tonight" (which needless to say stuck out like a sore thumb) that told the real and rather unhappy story behind these sessions -- a sign of bigger problems yet to come. For the moment, however, Bang seemed willing and able enough to tackle these various setbacks and compromises in the interest of developing its career for the long haul. Circumstances would sadly quickly scuttle any chance for them to achieve those long-term goals, but at least for the moment, Mother/Bow to the King saw Bang churning out a decent amount of fledgling heavy rock with which to gain a few new fans.

The write ups really add something, thanks for taking the time to put them on.

lol, wtf?

107?

I hope one day to be described as "highly inappropriate".

Anyone dismissing Mooney is a fool.

what I thought too, emil.y

haha xps

yes its 107

you had me worried there thinking I'd missed something out

Nice to see some Temptations, but I'd rate these over it, none of which were nominated:

Sky's The Limit (1971)
All Directions (1972)
1990 (1973)
Masterpiece (1973)

Meanwhile, I listened to Isley Bros' The Heat Is On several times, and while their musicianship is always tight (nice guitar solos on "Hope You Feel Better Love"), it seemed they were shooting for extended ballads along the lines of Al Green territory, and not quite nailing it. I like the idea of "Fight The Power," but I've been listening to that and "For The Love Of You" for over 20 years via the T-Neck Years Vol. 2 comp, and have always found them boring. Sure, I get the love for the Isley Brothers in general, but it makes no sense to me that just about every one of their 70s albums placed in this poll while most of the Temptations were shut out!

I need to get a copy of the DNA album...

temptations, dna and can in a row. nice!

haha an American in a kraut band?! HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE!

Lol Soul Desert is one of my favorite tracks on Soundtracks.

106. MANDRILL Mandrill (1997 Points, 15 Votes)
RYM: #451 for 1970
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5UDBa6DLv6s/USe3zXySzPI/AAAAAAAAETg/IGrIhJUZBHE/s1600/Front+Cover+copy.jpg

review
[-] by John Bush

Mandrill's debut isn't half the album it could've been, since the band's talented musicianship and desire to experiment were often subverted -- by ambitions of pop success as well as a dry, over-serious approach to music-making. The three Wilson brothers, though masters of over a dozen instruments, still hadn't mastered the added burden of songwriting; "Warning Blues" is perfunctory (as is the vocal performance) and "Symphonic Revolution" is a summer-day soul song with cloying strings. The group sounds much more confident getting into a good groove and allowing room for some great playing; the band's self-titled song, "Mandrill," is the best here, featuring great solos for flute and vibraphone. Mandrill also loved playing with different musical forms: "Rollin' On" moves from an average rock song to a torrid Latin jam and climaxes with a testifying gospel session. Most ambitious of all is the five-part, 14-minute suite "Peace and Love," but the intriguing concept is negated by a few bizarre pieces, one of which sounds like a parody of a Vincent Price reading over a Santana jam. The band would soon learn that experimentation and stylistic change-ups were a means, not an end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayhpzgUrPQM

^amazing footage

Yeah but these embeds are really going to make this mammoth thread impossible to load for some people.

lol the only thing that allows me to do it is having images turned off

'it' = obv following this thread

I'll start a new thread when we reach 100(with a recap at top)

105. MAGAZINE Real Life (2013 Points, 16 Votes)
RYM: #20 for 1978 , #815 overall | Acclaimed: #1321
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0000/026/MI0000026511.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/5cy3t8bW0lNzw9hjCPkRUT
spotify:album:5cy3t8bW0lNzw9hjCPkRUT

Produced by John Leckie, Real Life sports an eerie Grand Guignol sound throughout its nine punchy pop tunes, including the Devoto/Shelley-composed hit, "Shot by Both Sides." Adamson's driving bass and Formula's electronics dominate the presentation, while Devoto paints a deranged world of betrayal and suspicion, mixing urban alienation with such material as Tibetan mysticism and the Kennedy assassination. But beneath the dark veneer is humor and top-notch music. -- Trouser Press

Magazine gets only a fraction of the acclaim and attention lavished on Joy Division not for lack of good music, but because rather than off himself, Howard Devoto worked in an office after the breakup of his band (when he wasn’t working on underrated solo projects and spinoff bands). The truth is, their music is as powerful and groundbreaking as their more famous contemporaries. Just as their name can evoke the glamor of fashion rags or the menace of a weapon, the band walked the line between sophistication and violence. Devoto was a key player in the beginning of the punk movement, organizing two early Sex Pistols shows in Manchester and forming the Buzzcocks. Yet before more than a few hundred people even heard of punk, Devoto grew bored with its limitations and moved on. He found like-minded musicians in Scottish guitarist John McGeoch, keyboardist Dave Formula and future Bad Seed Barry Adamson on bass. He intended to expand on what Iggy Pop and Bowie did the previous year on The Idiot and Low. Real Life is one of the earliest and most riveting examples of post-punk, embodying perfectly the tension between Devoto’s roots in punk and his desire to stretch out, particularly on “Shot By Both Sides,” based on a riff written by his former Buzzcocks mate Pete Shelley. “Definitive Gaze” is a glistening sci-fi chase song that builds upon Eno and Bowie without soundling like copycats. Their definitive song is the glowering “The Light Pours Out Of Me.” Bonus tracks include a rougher, original single version of “Shot By Both Sides,” second single “Touch and Go” and the James Bond theme “Goldfinger.” If Devoto was the emotionally distant outsider on Real Life, he was a glacier on Secondhand Daylight. While it has highlights such as “Rhythm of Cruelty” and “Permafrost,” the album’s main accomplishment is its consistently brittle sound and feel, that would influence The Comsat Angels, The Cure and many others. -- Fastnbulbous

review
[-] by Andy Kellman

Howard Devoto had the foresight to promote two infamous Sex Pistols concerts in Manchester, and his vision was no less acute when he left Buzzcocks after recording Spiral Scratch. Possibly sensing the festering of punk's clichés and limitations, and unquestionably not taken by the movement's beginnings, he bailed -- effectively skipping out on most of 1977 -- and resurfaced with Magazine. Initially, the departure from punk was not complete. "Shot by Both Sides," the band's first single, was based off an old riff given by Devoto's Buzzcocks partner Pete Shelley, and the guts of follow-up single "Touch and Go" were rather basic rev-and-vroom. And, like many punk bands, Magazine would likely cite David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Roxy Music. However -- this point is crucial -- instead of playing mindlessly sloppy variants of "Hang on to Yourself," "Search and Destroy," and "Virginia Plain," the band was inspired by the much more adventurous Low, The Idiot, and "For Your Pleasure." That is the driving force behind Real Life's status as one of the post-punk era's major jump-off points. Punk's untethered energy is rigidly controlled, run through arrangements that are tightly wound, herky-jerky, unpredictable, proficiently dynamic. The rapidly careening "Shot by Both Sides" (up there with PiL's "Public Image" as an indelible post-punk single) and the slowly unfolding "Parade" (the closest thing to a ballad, its hook is "Sometimes I forget that we're supposed to be in love") are equally ill-at-ease. The dynamism is all the more perceptible when Dave Formula's alternately flighty and assaultive keyboards are present: the opening "Definitive Gaze," for instance, switches between a sci-fi love theme and the score for a chase scene. As close as the band comes to upstaging Devoto, the singer is central, with his live wire tendencies typically enhanced, rather than truly outshined, by his mates. The interplay is at its best in "The Light Pours out of Me," a song that defines Magazine more than "Shot by Both Sides," while also functioning as the closest the band got to making an anthem. Various aspects of Devoto's personality and legacy, truly brought forth throughout this album, have been transferred and blown up throughout the careers of Momus (the restless, unapologetic intellectual), Thom Yorke (the pensive outsider), and maybe even Luke Haines (the nonchalantly acidic crank).

neither review mentions Motorcade, which is probably Magazine's best song

glad LL is getting into Ultravox! and I Want To Be A Machine especially

dont start a new thread Kerr, unless everybody else likes the idea. I wasnt bitching, I can get around just fine. I don't like that idea too much myself. I was just relaying practical information.

Real Life not even in the Top 100? WTF is ILM all about these days? Do we need an intervention?

No its ok, a few people said on FB that they couldnt load the thread so was going to start a new one at #100 anyway. Dont want people having to miss out because of browser issues.

It's hardly a big deal starting a new thread

are ILM huge Magazine fans? I dont barely know anything about them except for checking out Secondhand Daylight on a whim...

its not like everyone on ILM voted you know

there may well be plenty magazine fans who didn't vote

weird. i run a very low spec xp laptop via a crummy wi-fi connection, and not had problems with this thread ..

I am against a new thread but that's cause I have a nice computer.

I dunno that album had a lot of tracks place n the other poll though.

my love for magazine clicked into place this year ..

104. MAN Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics (2019 Points, 15 Votes)
RYM: #377 for 1974
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0000/654/MI0000654680.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Compounding once and future Iceberg Deke Leonard with two Help Yourselfers and the minimum quota of Williamses and Joneses, this is the best record to come out of San Francisco in quite a while, pretty impressive for a band that never saw the Golden Gate till after the thing was released. The chemistry's right, that's all--Leonard's eccentric dissonances and gullet-model wah-wah are sweetened by the Help Yourselfers and rolled with a steady rock by Williams and Jones. Unphilosophical but trenchant, short on tunes but chocked with riffs. B+ -- R. Christgau

Man is a Welsh-based band with its heart in San Francisco specifically, in the elongated and textured music of Quicksilver and the early Dead. Earlier versions of Man were content to put the bulk of their energies into extended live performances, rarely concerning themselves with transferring their work to the recording medium; their albums have generally seemed cold and remote. But the current band (a kind of Welsh all-star unit, with two members remaining from the last edition joined by former Man vocalist and more recently solo artist Deke Leonard and by a pair from the disbanded Help Yourself) seems more interested in making good records than in jamming into the dawn. Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics has more tracks--six--than most Man albums, and each has been carefully structured. The California-style hazy openness is still evident, but it's been built into songs rather than appearing as the end product of improvisation.

Leonard, a leather-voiced and leather-coated rocker; longtime member Micky Jones, still thoroughly psychedelicized; ex-Help Yourself leader Malcolm Morley, who's cultivated a refined Neil Young sound--all are versatile, daring musicians with complementary skills and, evidently, lots of rapport. The songs, all collaborative efforts, stay sufficiently close to pop conventions in a formal sense to make them accessible, but enigmatic lyrics, and lots of wry musical twists and shifts distinguish the work. In its conscientious avoidance of the obvious mood or transition, the band has become a sort of British Steely Dan.

There's tremendous compressed energy in 'Taking the Easy Way Out Again', an up-to-date story of unrequited love that easily could have been on Leonard's Iceberg LP, and on 'Four Day Louise', the repeated rock & roll riff which recalls the Chuck Berry archetype only in its high voltage. 'Kerosene' contains instrumental elaboration marked by fluidity and momentum. 'The Thunder and Lightning Kid' and the album's eight-and-a-half-minute 'Scotch Corner' generate tension by juxtaposing pretty, expansive melodies with ironic lyrics. The latter track is further intensified by simultaneous stratospheric guitar solos from Leonard and Jones. Guitar work is superb throughout the album. It may have an old name, but with Leonard and Morley involved, this Man is a brand new band. -- Bud Scoppa, RS

review
by Paul Collins

An excellent set of material energized by the return of the pleasingly abrasive vocals of Deke Leonard; it charted nearly as well as Back Into the Future, and its tighter composition means that in many ways it's held up better over the years. The second half may be the band's artistic high point -- bookended by the pomp-wah instrumentals, "Intro" and "Exit," it contains the unusually sultry "Kerosene" and the epic "Scotch Corner," which builds up from rattling snare and picked guitar verses to beautiful choruses of harmonized vocals.

i have the reissue of the greasy trucker gig which as a full length man set (along with hawkwind and brinsley schwarz )

seem to recall it being bloody good.

time to dig it out of the archive ...

103. MOTORHEAD Overkill (2037 Points, 17 Votes)
RYM: #12 for 1979 , #457 overall | Acclaimed: #854
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/384/MI0002384401.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/24i8GMSEEvgr6ImpEYAI9w
spotify:album:24i8GMSEEvgr6ImpEYAI9w

Moving from Chiswick to Bronze, and from Keen to ex- Stones producer Jimmy Miller, the trio put out a trio of solid LPs, each with its own merits and classic cuts. Overkill's title track, "Stay Clean" and that ultimate putdown, "No Class," are balanced by the atypically slow, deliberate "Capricorn."  -- Trouser Press

...Overkills was a record tattooed on our life in most of those formats during our dwindling high school days. The record was one obnoxious crank of a rocker, sticking its finger in the eye of punk and shaking up a bloated metal aristocracy with one vile mess of decibel lunacy. Lemmy in full flak throat leads the charge, croaking through such cat-swinging gems as "I'll Be Your Sister," "Stay Clean," and ultimately "No Class" with its slaughtering of Tush's classic riff amidst WWII axe solos from one pillaging Fast Eddie. The ultimate power trio, Motorhead as a recorded experience was pure unharnessed, unvarnished wattage. They were a band of unrelenting destruction, playing the role of rock soldier, the hapless underdog sent to the front with a jammed weapon. The rough surface of records like Overkill is actually borne of a love of many musics, the band then setting upon, with drunken double vision, a pogrom to gleefully and with good intention, stomp the blues, psychedelia, old Chuck Berry riffs (as Lemmy will tell you) and last week's punk rock under a tarnished metal hammer that always lives to swing another day. Thus Overkill became the band's first realized manifesto, a collection of barbs the band tears from its bleeding, weathered, unshowered flesh in unnecessary demonstration of a most deadly seriousness of intention. 10/9 -- M. Popoff

review
[-] by Jason Birchmeier

Motörhead's landmark second album, Overkill, marked a major leap forward for the band, and it remains one of their all-time best, without question. In fact, some fans consider it their single best, topping even Ace of Spaces. It's a ferocious album, for sure, perfectly showcasing Motörhead's trademark style of no holds barred proto-thrash -- a kind of punk-inflected heavy metal style that is sloppy and raw yet forceful and in your face. Motörhead, the band's self-titled debut from 1977, had been rush-recorded, and its stripped-down, super-raw sound wasn't all that impressive, at least not relative to what would follow. Overkill is what followed, recorded in December 1978 and January 1979, and released not long thereafter. The band's sound is fully formed here, and it totally explodes right off the bat on the five-minute title track. A number of Motörhead standards follow, among them "Stay Clean" and "No Class." Produced by Jimmy Miller, who had helmed a number of classic Rolling Stones albums (Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup), Overkill sounds wonderful, especially on the numerous remastered editions of this album. The band's classic lineup -- Lemmy (bass and vocals), "Fast" Eddie Clarke (guitar), and "Philthy Animal" Taylor (drums) -- is well in place here, and they seem eager to rip loose wildly on every single song. This, in addition to the solid track listing and Miller's production, makes Overkill a perfect Motörhead album. Several great ones would follow, of course, but Overkill was the first of the great ones, and quite possibly the greatest of all.

Was Rachel Sweet eligible for this poll? She's not very ROCK but neither is a lot of this stuff. It doesn't look like Fool Around was nominated, but I bought that over the weekend too and it is SO GOOD! Northeast Ohio has totally represented so far, but she would have been icing on the cake.

I don't know that Magazine album aside from SBBS. Should rectify that, I guess.

yeaaaah! OVERKILL!!!

Those drums, that bass, "Overkill" is one of the most badass beginnings to an album ever! *fist bump my Lemmy figure sitting on my desk*

Rachel Sweet wasn't nommed, and I've never heard Fool Around but will try to correct that soon!

102. ASH RA TEMPEL Schwingungen (2040 Points, 17 Votes)
RYM: #147 for 1972 , #4673 overall | Acclaimed: #2395
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/123/MI0002123226.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

After this, the former Steeple Chase Bluesband drummer Wolfgang Müller returned. The next album SCHWINGUNGEN ("Vibrations" in English) returned to their bluesy origins, and again (like their debut LP) it had contrasting sides. "Light And Darkness" exists as the closest any German band have got to early Hawkwind, a wild acid-rock cum cosmic-blues music fronted by eccentric vocalist John L. spouting rather than singing his LSD induced visions. It's intense, powerful, and for some - too dark and unnerving. In stark contrast, "Suche & Liebe" owed a huge debt to Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful Of Secrets", complete with shimmering vibes, a hazy electronic mist, and an overdose of Dave Gilmour style glissando guitars, stretching out to cosmic bliss. -- Cosmic Egg

By the second LP, Schwingungen (Vibrations), Klaus Schultze had temporarily left the band to record his mighty epic solo album Irrlicht, an album which begins like a night rally in some unknown stadium then continues into the very heart of cosmic-dom, Klaus accompanied only by his synthesizers and an orchestra which he said later “possibly thought I was mad.” In the meantime, Schwingungen saw Ash Ra Tempel going through its cosmic Stooges’ Funhouse stage, complete with Mathias Wehler on wailing alto sax, in the Steve McKay tradition. The line-up was augmented by their road manager Uli Pop on congas, and Wolfgang Muller on drums, and came on like an organic freerock blitz. Side 1 features ultrafreaky singer John L., recently sacked from Agitation Free for being just too much of everything. And on the awesomely tragic 12-minute “Flowers Must Die”, John L, pre-empted John Lydon’s PIL wail with a Seering death‘s head drama that Never has failed to bring tears to my eyes. The words, like so may translated rock‘n’roll lyrics, have a vivid and dignified poetic truth in their delivery that transcends the hippyspeak in which they are written:

“I see when I come back,
From my lysergic-day-dream
Standing in the middle
Of the glass and neon forest
With an unhappy name: City
Flower must die…
I want to be a stone, Not living, not Thinking, A thing without warm blood in the city.” -- J. Cope

review
[-] by Ned Raggett

Ash Ra Tempel's second album featured the first of several personnel changes, Klaus Schulze having departed for other realms and replaced as a result by Wolfgang Muller. A few guest players surfaced here and there as well, with one John L. taking the lead vocals -- another difference from the self-titled debut, which was entirely instrumental. The general principle of side-long efforts continued, though the first half was split into two related songs, "Light" and "Darkness." "Light" itself sounded halfway between the zoned-out exploration of "Traummaschine" and bluesy jamming, a weird if not totally discordant combination that still manages to sound more out there than most bands of the time. Gottsching's fried solo, in particular, is great, sending the rest of the song out to silence that leads into "Darkness." Said song initially takes a far more minimal approach that bears even more resemblance to "Traummaschine," fading out almost entirely by the third minute before a full band performance (including Uli Popp on bongos and Matthais Wehler's sudden alto sax bursts) slowly builds into a frenetic jam. John L.'s vocals become echoed screams and yelps not far off from Damo Suzuki's approach in Can, and the overall performance is a perfect slice of Krautrock insanity, sudden swirls of flanging and even more on-the-edge solos from Gottsching and Wehler sending it over the top. "Suche & Liebe" takes up the entire second side, the performers this time around concentrating on the quiet but unsettling approach, Gottsching's massive soloing kept low in the mix but not so much that it doesn't freak out listeners. The song concludes on an almost conventionally pretty band jam, something that could almost be Meddle-era Pink Floyd, only with even a more haunting, alien air thanks to the wordless vocal keening.

never knew those lyrics. awesome.

101. SWELL MAPS A Trip To Marineville (2050 Points, 15 Votes)
RYM: #61 for 1979 , #3249 overall
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/920/MI0001920722.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/0TAaL5fZZfzvXA85Bm6W4X
spotify:album:0TAaL5fZZfzvXA85Bm6W4X

A Trip to Marineville, released with a bonus four- song EP, finds our embryonic cartographers dabbling in Pistols-styled punk and more experimental noise-making, using unorthodox implements. Despite their energy and tenacious desire to produce something new, the package simply does not contain enough ideas that work. -- Trouser Press

review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Swell Maps' debut album was a scattershot affair, ranging from blistering three-chord punk to free-form noise experiments, that was intriguing, yet frequently incoherent.

Extensive AMG review

Direct Link to poll recap & full results

why does that erlewine hack get mentioned in half the reviews? he regularly shows no understanding. you can find much better reviews on amazon or rateyourmusic - please do so from now on. that you work for a review site shouldn't give you ulterior authority

Please go to ILM's Now For Something Completely Different... 70s Album Poll Results! Top 100 Countdown! (Part 2) and bookmark it please

from wiki: Erlewine is the nephew of musician and Allmusic founder Michael Erlewine.[3]

Lol. Plz could u make yr noise experiments more coherent?

Some of those Houses of the Holy reviews are interesting. "The Crunge" and "D'Yer Maker" make it less than perfect for me but otherwise, it might very well be the apex of Page's composition and orchestration with the electric guitar. V creative mix of jangly folk-rock, epic prog, and groove, with little trace of their early basis in Chicago blues.