ILM's Now For Something Completely Different... 70s Album Poll Results! Top 100 Countdown! (Part 2)

66. RAMONES Ramones (2641 Points, 19 Votes)
RYM: #3 for 1976 , #199 overall | Acclaimed: #37 | RS: #33 | Pitchfork: #23
http://www.superseventies.com/oaaa/oaaa_ramones.jpg
http://open.spotify.com/album/4X44NrhroDDaWXheAhcvYY
spotify:album:4X44NrhroDDaWXheAhcvYY

I love this record--love it--even though I know these boys flirt with images of brutality (Nazi especially) in much the same way "Midnight Rambler" flirts with rape. You couldn't say they condone any nasties, natch--they merely suggest that the power of their music has some fairly ominous sources and tap those sources even as they offer the suggestion. This makes me uneasy. But my theory has always been that good rock and roll should damn well make you uneasy, and the sheer pleasure of this stuff--which of course elicits howls of pain from the good old rock and roll crowd--is undeniable. For me, it blows everything else off the radio: it's clean the way the Dolls never were, sprightly the way the Velvets never were, and just plain listenable the way Black Sabbath never was. And I hear it cost $6400 to put on plastic. A -- R. Christgau

Ramones almost defies critical comment. The fourteen songs, averaging barely over two minutes each, start and stop like a lurching assembly line. Joey Ramone's monotone is the perfect complement to Johnny and Dee Dee's precise guitar/bass pulse. Since the no-frills production sacrifices clarity for impact, printed lyrics on the inner sleeve help even as they mock another pretentious convention — although the four-or-five-line texts of "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You" and "Loudmouth" are an anti-art of their own. Like all cultural watersheds, Ramones was embraced by a discerning few and slagged off as a bad joke by the uncomprehending majority. It is now inarguably a classic. -- Trouser Press

If today's Rolling Stone were the Cahiers du Cinema of the late Fifties, a band of outsiders as deliberately crude and basic as the Ramones would be granted instant auteur status as fast as one could say "Edgar G. Ulmer." Their musique maudite -- 14 rock & roll songs exploding like time bombs in the space of 29 breathless minutes and produced on a Republic-Monogram budget of $6400 -- would be compared with the mise en scene of, say, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly or, better yet, Samuel Fuller's delirious Underworld U.S.A.

And such comparisons would not be specious. The next paragraph is almost literal transcription of something the American auteurist, Andrew Sarris, wrote about Fuller in The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. I've just changed the names and a few terms.

The Ramones are authentic American primitives whose work has to be heard to be understood. Heard, not read about or synopsized. Their first album,Ramones, is constructed almost entirely of rhythm tracks of an exhilarating intensity rock & roll has not experienced since its earliest days. The Ramones' lyrics are so compressed that there is no room for even one establishing atmosphere verse or one dramatically irrelevant guitar solo in which the musicians could suggest an everyday existence... The Ramones' ideas are undoubtedly too broad and oversimplified for any serious analysis, but it is the artistic force with which their ideas are expressed that makes their music so fascinating to critics who can rise above their aesthetic prejudices... The Ramones' perversity and peculiarly Old Testament view of retribution carry the day... It is time popular music followed the other arts in honoring its primitives. The Ramones belong to rock & roll, and not to rock and avant-garde musical trends.

How the present will treat the Ramones, proponents of the same Manhattan musical minimalism as the New York Dolls who preceded them, remains to be seen. Thus far, punk rock's archetypal concept of an idealized Top 40 music -- the songs stripped down like old Fords, then souped up for speed -- has unintentionally provoked more primal anger from than precipitant access to the nation's teenagers, and the godheads of AM radio don't seem to be listening at all. Why? Do you have to be over 21 to like this stuff? Doesn't "Blitzkrieg Bop" or the absolutely wonderful "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" mean anything to anyone but an analytical intellectual? Until now, apparently not.

Where's your sense of humor and adventure, America? In rock & roll and matters of the heart, we should all hang on to a little amateurism. Let's hope these guys sell more records than Elton John has pennies. If not, shoot the piano player. And throw in Paul McCartney to boot. -- Paul Nelson, RS
From its simple black-and-white cover photo to its quick-fire sonic assaults, the Ramones' debut album is the ultimate punk statement.

Recorded in two days for a meagre $6,000, Ramones stripped rock back to its basic elements. There are no guitar solos and no lengthy fantasy epics, in itself a revolutionary declaration in a time of Zeppelin-inspired hard-rock excess. Pushed along by Johnny Ramone's furious four-chord guitar and Tommy's thumping surf drums, all of the tracks clock in under three minutes. And while the songs are short and sharp, the group's love of 1950s drive-through rock and girl-group pop means they are also melodically sweet.

The album's lyrics are very simple, boiled-down declarations of teen lust and need. Joey Ramone yelps about what he wants ("I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue") and what he does not ("I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You'). Only "53rd And 3rd" -- a dark narrative based on Dee Dee's experiences as a rent boy -- hints at the expression of something more meaningful and deeply felt.

Praised on its release by a small circle of music journalists (Creem declared, "If their successors are one-third as good as the Ramones, we'll be fixed for life"), Ramones failed to enter either the U.S. Top 100 or the UK Top 40. But the few kids who bought the album took its hyped-up, melodic minimalism as a call to arms. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the Buzzcocks all used The Ramones' four-chord blueprint to express their frustration at rock's stale and self-indulgent state. Revolution would never sound so simple again. -- Theunis Bates, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

review
[-] by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

With the three-chord assault of "Blitzkrieg Bop," The Ramones begins at a blinding speed and never once over the course of its 14 songs does it let up. The Ramones is all about speed, hooks, stupidity, and simplicity. The songs are imaginative reductions of early rock & roll, girl group pop, and surf rock. Not only is the music boiled down to its essentials, but the Ramones offer a twisted, comical take on pop culture with their lyrics, whether it's the horror schlock of "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," the gleeful violence of "Beat on the Brat," or the maniacal stupidity of "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." And the cover of Chris Montez's "Let's Dance" isn't a throwaway -- with its single-minded beat and lyrics, it encapsulates everything the group loves about pre-Beatles rock & roll. They don't alter the structure, or the intent, of the song, they simply make it louder and faster. And that's the key to all of the Ramones' music -- it's simple rock & roll, played simply, loud, and very, very fast. None of the songs clock in at any longer than two and half minutes, and most are considerably shorter. In comparison to some of the music the album inspired, The Ramones sounds a little tame -- it's a little too clean, and compared to their insanely fast live albums, it even sounds a little slow -- but there's no denying that it still sounds brilliantly fresh and intoxicatingly fun.

xp thanks guys, also on emusic. Downloading now!

yay Ramones!

I know a lot of american metal fans who hate bands like the ramones because "they cant play". Usually van halen fans funnily enough. I bet it was even worse back in the 70s.

65. SLAPP HAPPY Acnalbasac Noom (2642 Points, 16 Votes, 2 #1s)
RYM: #2968 overall
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcm59cbipy1rc22qso1_1280.jpg

At its best, though, the band was refreshing, diverting and sometimes moving. Nearly a decade after the release of Slapp Happy's eponymous second album — which contains the song "Casablanca Moon" but does not bear that title — the band issued its original demos as Acnalbasac Noom. It's a gem from start to finish. Blegvad crafts some wonderful, offhandedly literary lyrics while Moore provides sophisticated tunes to match. (As the group didn't contain a drummer or bassist, the group employed the rhythm section from Faust, not that you'd ever guess.) Although there are some songs in common, this is an entirely different album from Slapp Happy, which was recorded using anonymous studio musicians and features some ambitious (but odd) string arrangements.  -- Trouser Press

review
[-] by Richie Unterberger

The history of this album is a bit complicated. Originally titled Casablanca Moon, it was recorded for Polydor in 1973, but scrapped when the group signed with Virgin; their first Virgin release was an entirely re-recorded version of the same material, although it was entitled Slapp Happy when released. To compound the confusion, the Virgin version was retitled Casablanca Moon when it was reissued on CD in 1993 (on a single-disc release that also included their 1974 Virgin album Desperate Straights). Acnalbasac Noom is the original, 1973 recording of the Casablanca Moon material, and not a mere archival curiosity; it's quite worthy on its own merits. The group's songwriting had improved since their debut, and Krause's German chanteuse-influenced vocals found catchier, more rock-oriented settings. The lyrics are witty and oddball without being pretentious. Tracks like "Mr. Rainbow" recall Yoko Ono's early-'70s song-oriented material, with an important difference: Krause's vocals are much better than Ono's, while just as distinctive. "The Secret," with its almost girl-group-worthy catchiness, and "Charlie 'n Charlie," with its nifty surfish guitar riff, even sound like potential commercial singles. The four bonus tracks include the delightful 1982 single "Everybody's Slimmin'," with its immortal opening line, "Listen my children and you will hear/You can shed weight and still drink beer."

Someone's campaigning worked for sure

speaking of Finder's Keepers, if I had thought of it (and knew that people would go for the weird stuff in this poll) I would have nominated Jacky Chalard - Je Suis Vivant, Mais J'Ai Peur. awesome sci-fi spoken word space prog, soundtracky stuff. and also speaking of french stuff and since Heldon did well, I also should have nominated Patrick Vian - Bruits et Temps Analogues. Those are two of my favorite '70s french records apart from the obvious stuff like gainsbourg, magma, gong, fontaine, etc.

Albums that were a bit unknown but were campaigned for did well (see all the funk and krautrock in the 101-501 range for example)

If other albums had been campaigned for (or nominated them campaigned for) then perhaps the same could have happened.

btw the 501-550 range is pretty strong and some really good stuff missed out

64. PERE UBU The Modern Dance (2644 Points, 24 Votes)
RYM: #7 for 1978 , #405 overall | Acclaimed: #226
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0000/032/MI0000032902.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Ubu's music is nowhere near as willful as it sounds at first. Riffs emerge from the cacophony, David Thomas's shrieking suits the heterodox passion of the lyrics, and the synthesizer noise begins to cohere after a while. So even though there's too much Radio Ethiopia and not enough Redondo Beach, I'll be listening through the failed stuff--the highs are worth it, and the failed stuff ain't bad. A- -- R. Christgau

With its debut album, The Modern Dance, Pere Ubu engineered a dauntingly seamless coupling of arty introspection and old-school garage-rock squall. Frontman David Thomas uses his bizarro-world warble to yelp out fusillades of angst ("Life Stinks") and spin dreamworld visions ("Sentimental Journey") that ultimately proved far darker and more challenging than any three-chord ranters operating at the time. It includes two songs remade from early 45s that Pere Ubu had released on its Hearthan label (when Thomas was calling himself Crocus Behemoth and the late Peter Laughner was one of the sextet's guitarists and main songwriters). -- Trouser Press
These two records are vivid, exhilarating examples of how Americans can use New Wave punk music for their own purposes. Both Pere Ubu and the Suicide Commandos are from the Midwest (Cleveland and Minneapolis, respectively), and The Modern Dance and Make a Record are the first two releases on Blank, an intelligently subversive subsidiary of Mercury.

Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance is harsh and willfully ugly, yet always mindful of certain rock & roll imperatives: a solid beat, snappy lyrics and engaging themes. Ubu tends to break these imperatives apart: if the lyrics are funny, the melody will be excruciatingly abstract; if the melody is catchy, the lyrics will be intentionally dull or indecipherable. But David Thomas' smooth, adenoidal vocals and Tom Herman's staccato guitar playing provide the musical glue to hold everything together.

The band's name, derived from a character in turn-of-the-century avant-gardist Alfred Jarry's famous plays, has some significance. As in the work of Jarry and other Dadaists, there is, beneath Pere Ubu's shouted cynicism, a painfully hopeful romanticism, a feeling that if you wallow in ugliness with a sufficiently noble and artistic intent, the ugliness will become attractive. It did for Jarry, and it does for Pere Ubu, especially on the title song--a swirling, complex collage--and on the sardonic but hearty "Humor Me." -- Ken Tucker, RS

Without too much thought involved either. If there's one record which would make sense of the entire selection here, it'd be "The Modern Dance". Cue long essay waxing rhapsodic. Nah. I got this in 1987 and it's stuck with me ever since. I reckon it's as pungent as it has ever been. I wish I had the original pressing, the one with the black and white linocut, rather than my shitty silver limited edition reissue. When I was 18 I hung around backstage at a Sonic Youth gig (when Ubu were supporting them) and met David Thomas. He was cool. -- Woebot, #1

review
by John Dougan

There isn't a Pere Ubu recording you can imagine living without. The Modern Dance remains the essential Ubu purchase (as does the follow-up, Dub Housing). For sure, Mercury had no idea what they had on their hands when they released this as part of their punk rock offshoot label Blank, but it remains a classic slice of art-punk. It announces itself quite boldly: the first sound you hear is a painfully high-pitched whine of feedback, but then Tom Herman's postmodern Chuck Berry riffing kicks off the brilliant "Non-Alignment Pact," and you soon realize that this is punk rock unlike any you've ever heard. David Thomas' caterwauling is funny and moving, Scott Krauss (drums) and Tony Maimone (bass) are one of the great unheralded rhythm sections in all of rock, and the "difficult" tracks like "Street Waves," "Chinese Radiation," and the terrifying "Humor Me" are revelatory, and way ahead of their time. The Modern Dance is the signature sound of the avant-garage: art rock, punk rock, and garage rock mixing together joyously and fearlessly.

63. FAUST So Far (2654 Points, 20 Votes)
RYM: #71 for 1972 , #2122 overall | Acclaimed: #1761
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/405/MI0002405431.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/62dqL9uBwUqz6TwhQ3QFFh
spotify:album:62dqL9uBwUqz6TwhQ3QFFh

Faust So Far is far more tightly structured, boasting actual songs like "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" and "Mamie Is Blue," which makes something out of abrasive electronic bursts, wah-wah guitar and minimal vocals. As the album was recorded in 1972, some tracks include twangy distorted guitar/plucky bass jams. Bizarre little experiments pop up between songs: overlays of effects-treated guitars and the like, sort of a German analogue to the Mothers of Invention's early sound adventures. -- Trouser Press

The second album SO FAR (again a novelty package, this time virtually all-black, with a set of 10 picture inserts depicting each track) acted more on parody, with shorter tracks and a wider range of styles, metronomic rock anthems (with nonsensical lyrics), guitars fuzzed with intense electronic effects, pseudo psychedelia onto trippy folk, dadaism and even a closing Pasadena Roof Orchestra styled jazz number! The lyrics are extraordinary, and every track is a surprise - invention upon invention - a bounty of delights. The "So Far" single was a very different version of the album title-track given a weird brassy edge and a very strange mix. A version of the B side later appeared on FAUST IV. -- Cosmic Egg

review
by Ted Mills

Faust's second album moves closer to actual song structure than their debut, but it still remains experimental. Songs progress and evolve instead of abruptly stopping or cutting into other tracks. The opening song "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" begins as a repetitive 4/4 beat played on toms and piano with the title sung over the top. But for seven minutes the song adds instruments, including a lush analog synth line, and ends in a memorable sax riff. Faust's lyrical side appears on the acoustic "Picnic on a Frozen River" and "On the Way to Adamäe," whereas its abrasive side pops up on "Me Lack Space." "So Far," a jam shared by guitar, horns, and tweedy keyboard, rolls along with a funky hypnotic beat and wailing processed synths. And on "No Harm," the crazed delivery of such lines as "Daddy, take the banana, tomorrow Sunday" makes one want to believe something profound is going down. In terms of scope and the wealth of ideas, this is probably the most balanced of their first four albums.

2 more tonight..

62. BRAINTICKET Cottonwoodhill (2666 Points, 20 Votes)
RYM: #380 for 1970
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/089/MI0002089659.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/7h2AERd0CxTtK0xWrUtlDE
spotify:album:7h2AERd0CxTtK0xWrUtlDE

Next time you feel like getting fried, listen to this! But never mind the first two songs on Cottonwoodhill; they are both a rather ho-hum affair. The real brillance on this disc is to be found throughout their 26 minute acid-fueled masterpiece, "Brainticket", the basis of which is a slightly varrying guitar/keyboard lock groove, kinda like Can at their most repetitive. Over this groove pulses all sorts of sound effects, such as machine guns, screams, gargeling, etc. Mostly, though, the overriding sound is their synthesizer, who, although not in the league of Klaus Sculze, nonetheless provides some very entertaining squawks, squeeks, beeps and drones, resulting is a very high-powered burst of aphetimene driven psychosis, dancable and meditative (but meditative in a disturbing, scary way)
But Brainticket the band doesn't stop there, and what really makes "brainticket" the song transcend ordinary greatness in pursuit of nutty brilliance is the voice of Dawn Muir. Sounding very Engish, she freaks out over the whole thing, recounting a very bad acid trip, doubting her exsistence, screaming her LSD-fueled insights, and just generally making a complete mess of herself.

...Suddenly you realize that the insanity is contageous, as the song stops, revealing a weird computer voice going "Brainticket Brainticket Brainticket" and you are left wondering just what the fuck is going on,just what is this I'm listening to? But then the song fades back in, and it's back to where we started... 

Poor Dawn Muir, she sounds like a girl being dragged off towards a mental institution, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was still there. Because after this album, everyone in Brainticket freaked out, and only their keyboard player remained. While other Brainticket albums are interesting, none have the sheer grab you by the balls lunancy as witnessed all over Cottonwoodhill, the cover of which carries the helpful warning, "Don't listen to this record more than once a day or your brain will be destroyed!"  -- John, Head Heritage

review
[-] by Rolf Semprebon

Cottonwoodhill is one of the trippiest records ever made, capturing the intensity of the peak LSD experience far more successfully than any Timothy Leary recording, and even today, when many such documents from that era can sound silly and dated, Brainticket's fascinating debut still holds hallucinogenic potency. The record has only two proper songs, "Black Sand" and "Places of Light," with a side and a half of the album taken up by the three-part "Brainticket." "Black Sand" opens the disc with a driving funk beat and powerful organ and guitar interplay, adding in vocals distorted beyond coherency. "Places of Light" begins in a slightly lighter vein as a flute leads the proceedings, a looser jazzier piece that throws in some of Dawn Muir's odd spoken word vocals. Before one realizes what has happened, the piece has faded out and there is suddenly a crashing sound, car horns, and engines starting up. "Brainticket" is a bizarre roller coaster ride through weird sound effects and electronics, an endless organ riff, and Muir's acid-rush ramblings from hushed whisper to urgent screams, as any coherency she had earlier becomes lost to mind-expanding visions. Rather than the laid-back mellow groove of some psychedelic music from this era, Cottonwoodhill has a hyper energy in the frenetic organ riff and Muir's voice, like an acid trip out of control, while at times the various sound effects take over completely.

Acnalbalsac Noom + The Modern Dance. In the walkman days I had them either side of tape until it got chewed up.

Surprised nobody is commenting on these albums

That Pere Ubu's a gnarly beast. Sorry wrapping up worky work.

61. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA The Inner Mounting Flame (2685 Points, 20 Votes)
RYM: #28 for 1971 , #497 overall | Acclaimed: #598
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/629/MI0001629825.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
http://open.spotify.com/album/0chWLemqlI6G1GOEr1q1bz
spotify:album:0chWLemqlI6G1GOEr1q1bz

This excellent album bears absolutely no resemblance to the record that British guitarist John McLaughlin released around four months ago, except in the intensity of spirit in which the music was made. That album, My Goal's Beyond, reflected the serenity which McLaughlin was seeking under the guidance of the Indian teacher, Sri Chinmoy, who also counts as a disciple of McLaughlin's fellow guitarist Larry Coryell. On the earlier album, the Mahavishnu Orchestra used droning techniques, both traditional and innovative, to create a feeling of completion, the end of a long musical and soulful search. But The Inner Mounting Flame is a throwback in its own way, a retreat to more basic jazz and instrumental rock and roll. It's very similar to the first album that McLaughlin made after leaving Miles Davis' band, Devotion, on which McLaughlin and Buddy Miles (who sounded like a man drumming for his life) made it clear that heavy rock music wasn't necessarily like having an anvil dropped on your skull.

In the incarnation in which it presents itself on this new record, the Mahavishnu Orchestra is one of the tightest assemblages of musicians playing today. Gone (unfortunately) is Dave Liebman on soprano and McLaughlin's wife Eve, who performed beautifully on oud. The great Charlie Haden has been replaced on bass by Rick Laird, a fine Czech pianist named Jan Hammer has been added, and three of the original members remain: Violinist Jerry Goodman, formerly of the defunct Flock; Billy Cobham, one of the most proficient and creative session drummers working out of New York, and McLaughlin himself, who is one of the few electric guitarists in the world who has the complete facility of dexterous skill to bring his instrument fully into the world of fast, improvisatory jazz music.

There are eight songs on Flame, each one having something different to say about the real connection between music and spirit. "Meetings of the Spirit" is psychic and religious torch music, a hard rocker that lets each musician cook a little, each adding his own dash to the swirling stew. "Dan" is built at first slowly, and then frantically with weird, shifting cadences, around McLaughlin's beautiful but elusive melodic line.

"The Noonwind Race" is hard rock/jazz, fast almost beyond comprehension, stretching and reaching for something that only the musicians themselves know anything about. McLaughlin solos first in a blaze of 8ths and 16ths, then Goodman on electric, hopped-up violin draws a picture of complex, skirling luminescence, then Hammer's econonmical break on electric piano, then McLaughlin takes the final lap of this astounding, exhausting race. The rhythm section of Cobham and Laird is laid back, and very, very tight.

The side ends with "A Lotus on Irish Streams'," which is not a bar ditty you might have heard in your local tavern but a soft, acoustic instrumental, a kind of breather after the intensity of the sturm und drang. As it will in almost any acoustic ensemble, the violin dominates, and Goodman shows that he possesses a soulful, soft touch. As the title suggests, it's a lovely song.

Side two features Cobham strutting his stuff on "Vital Transformation," another fast, hard number reminiscent of Devotion, as is "The Dance of Maya," which also has a nice, slow blues line that's a treat to hear. "You Know You Know" is more subdued and presents pianist Hammer on electric keyboard, and he too is tremendously skilled, with beautiful phrasing and a smart ear for tart improvisation.

The last number, "Awakening," is just that: the band is up and moving fast again, as if it's getting ready for the next step on that good old Sri Chinmoy calls the "sky-kissing ladder." It's a short, almost curt song, but one that somehow says to us that there's more in store. As Sri would say, "Aspiration is the first rung; Realization is the last." -- Stephen Davis, RS

review
[-] by Richard S. Ginell

This is the album that made John McLaughlin a semi-household name, a furious, high-energy, yet rigorously conceived meeting of virtuosos that, for all intents and purposes, defined the fusion of jazz and rock a year after Miles Davis' Bitches Brew breakthrough. It also inadvertently led to the derogatory connotation of the word fusion, for it paved the way for an army of imitators, many of whose excesses and commercial panderings devalued the entire movement. Though much was made of the influence of jazz-influenced improvisation in the Mahavishnu band, it is the rock element that predominates, stemming directly from the electronic innovations of Jimi Hendrix. The improvisations, particularly McLaughlin's post-Hendrix machine-gun assaults on double-necked electric guitar and Jerry Goodman's flights on electric violin, owe more to the freakouts that had been circulating in progressive rock circles than to jazz, based as they often are on ostinatos on one chord. These still sound genuinely thrilling today on CD, as McLaughlin and Goodman battle Jan Hammer's keyboards, Rick Laird's bass, and especially Billy Cobham's hard-charging drums, whose jazz-trained technique pushed the envelope for all rock drummers. What doesn't date so well are the composed medium- and high-velocity unison passages that are played in such tight lockstep that they can't breathe. There is also time out for quieter, reflective numbers that are drenched in studied spirituality ("A Lotus on Irish Streams") or irony ("You Know You Know"); McLaughlin was to do better in that department with less-driven colleagues elsewhere in his career. Aimed with absolute precision at young rock fans, this record was wildly popular in its day, and it may have been the cause of more blown-out home amplifiers than any other record this side of Deep Purple.

That Brainticket album is such a bizarre beast. So surprised and very pleased it ended up this high.

Somebody already mentioned it once but it bears repeating:

Brrraaaainticket, Brrraaaainticket. Brrraaaainticket...

I voted for Birds of Fire over the Inner Mounting Flame, but I do have to admit "Vital Transformation" is one of my favorite songs of any jazz-related genre.

Only the 1 funk album today

The Lost Trident Sessions by Mahavishnu is really good too.

Does anyone know if the Cooking Vinyl reissues of the Pere Ubu (both the albums and Datapink In Year Zero box) from 2008 was a remaster?

Direct Link to poll recap & full results

Tomorrow we will enter the top 50! but first all latecomers and lurkers can discuss todays/previous days results if they want to..

Spotify f/ Black Flag's The First Four Years: http://open.spotify.com/album/78WwCynnhbncgNobigrXpq

Ohio Players - Pleasure has some biiiig grooves, I like it.
Even this high up the list there's plenty of stuff that's new to me - Heldon, Agitation Free & Selda were all artists that I'd never heard of before.

I'm loving that part of the rollout... The almost stress-inducing vastness of riches that I haven't even HEARD OF, much less listened to. I need to hear Heldon, Comus, Atomic Rooster, A.R. & Machines...

best poll i've ever read anywhere. Such an absurd amount of stuff I cannot wait to hear.

OH OF COURSE I'm out when half my ballot places. Hurrah for Selda, Slits, Pere Ubu, Faust. Double super hurrah for Cottonwoodhill. EXTRA MILLION TIMES HURRAH for Acnalbasac Noom. Seriously, when it didn't place in the 200s I really thought it wouldn't place in the top 500 at all. It was a pretty emotional struggle for me to not make it my #1, so I'm very very glad it's here.

Sorry I havent been following. Cut and Tanz were both top 5 for me. Also stoked to see Cottonwoodhill in the top 100

Who was the #1 for Tanz? Out yrself for kudos!

wow @ this Malesch album

Curtis at 78 is really disappointing, it's one of the most perfect albums ever made.

Very happy to see that the first Roxy Music album will be their highest, I have my fingers crossed it'll make the top ten.

I thought The Modern Dance would be a lot higher going on how well it did in the last 70's albums list.

Would have liked to see Radio City a bit higher, yet another perfect album.

There seems to be lots of albums showing up now that I have just never heard of.

Yeah I had Modern Dance pegged for top 20

best poll i've ever read anywhere. Such an absurd amount of stuff I cannot wait to hear.

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke),

Thanks!

It really makes it all worthwhile to see comments like that. Glad lots of ilxors are checking out lots of new-to-them albums and getting into them. The whole point of doing the poll for me!

I hope everyone is enjoying the reviews that fastnbulbous is doing a LOT of work in tracking down just for everyone?

It's been a treat.

Also I'm pleased that emil.y's campaigning for Slapp Happy paid off for her!

It's great that we're still getting surprise entries this high up in the list - I'd never heard of those Heldon records before, will have to check them out (I've got a twofer CD of their first and third albums which I do like). Curtis, Zuma, The Modern Dance and Inner Mounting Flame all got points from me.

I gave that Brainticket album a listen after enjoying the one that placed earlier, erm... yeah, it was a bit much.

Surprised Tanz and Wolf City placed so high - they're both good albums but I'd never rank them over Yeti.

Listened to that Selda album this morning. Really nice, not partic rocking IMO. Will definitely go back to it though. When looking at that I also picked up Jean-Claude Vannier's "L' Enfant Assassin des Mouches", also on Finders Keepers, which is some crazy freakiness and might have fitted well with this poll.

I think that was nominated, I agree that it'd fit right in here (I wouldn't be at all surprised if it made the top 60).

2 #1 votes for slapp happy! I haven't spent much time with them, probably should as I love in praise of learning, babble & all the art bears stuff.

I thought for your pleasure & cut would be top 20 for sure. Can't wait to see what bonkers stuff makes it to the upper reaches.

The amazing thing is emil.y wasn't even one of the #1 voters.

But it shows the power of campaigning.

Any hopes or predictions for the top 60?

Still hoping to see A Wizard, A True Star make it.

Along with Roxy Music I'd like to see Here Come The Warm Jets, Are We Not Men and The Modern Lovers very in the top ten/twenty.

I've been hoping that Motor Booty Affair would make it but just realised it wasn't nominated so I guess I'm now looking to see Mothership Connection high up. I would really love to see Standing on The Verge of Getting on beat Maggot Brain as I think it's a much better album, don't see that happening though. I'm sure Maggot Brain stands a good chance of being number one.

It seems like Marquee Moon is another obvious contender for number one but this list has been so unpredicatable so far I just can't be sure.

Entertainment! should do well I think. Everyone likes that record, right?

Simply Saucer ftw

will lol if maggot brain tops this one as well

Did I miss Yeti?

I am hoping Fun House is #1, but it v well cd be Maggot Brain or Tago Mago. Theres actually a lot of possibilities now that O think about it...

er, "now that I think about it..."

I read that like one of those screaming goats interrupted ..