Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1975

Gone with 'Godbluff'

Diffcult again!

Hot take: Another Green World is one of the most overrated albums of all time. There is literally one ambient song on there: “Becalmed” and it’s great! the rest is crap.

This is probably Physical Graffiti, even though I still think the songs are too goddamn long. Kind of a down year tbh.

I'm going to have to decide between NEU '75, Siren, Born to Run and possibly Toys in the Attic for this one... but where's Young Americans?

I agree that AGW is overrated. I mean there's some decent stuff on there but it's much less exciting to me than the first two.

This is the first year that my favourite hasn't been listed, namely Renaissance - Scheherazade And Other Stories

the two Neil Young LPs have been conjoined into a single option. I think Herbie this year.

ah sorry I see that is mentioned in the intro!

voting let's take it to the stage, which is my favorite funkadelic album. just as easily could have gone with joni, sabbath, steve hillage, or isley bros. nice to see pavlov's dog on there too.

would add:
popol vuh - das hohelied salomos
john martyn - sunday's child
magma - live
joão donato - lugar comum
hawkwind - warrior on the edge of time
kraftwerk - radioactivity
bob marley and the wailers - live!
sugar babe - songs

No obvious winner for me, but Fela has to get some props on one of these, so Expensive Shit!

It's Wish You Were Here or nothing. I might just boycott this edition.

:O

Blood on the Tracks, Agharta or Another Green World? (and that's excluding PF's WYWH)

My brain is exploding

probably joni, love me some "hissing of summer lawns"

i'll add my suggestions for omitted albums later

I suppose it's obscure outside of Quebec, but Harmonium's Les cinq saisons should totally be in there. On the ECM front, John Abercrombie's Timeless, his Gateway trio with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, and Terje Rypdal's Odyssey are also missing.

Another Green World definitely not overrated in my book! It would get my vote were it not for the Hissing of Summer Lawns, which is possibly my favourite record to have appeared on any of these lists so far.

On the one hand, I'm suffering from the opposite problem posed by '74 (where the surplus of valid options stymied my ability to vote) inasmuch as I'm just not that familiar with the musical landscape of '75. On the other hand, Physical Graffiti is almost certainly in my top 5 both in terms of favor and number of times I've listened to the damn thing, so that was pretty easy.

another green world sounds like not from this world, by far the most enchanting album of 1975.

All of the Eno/krautrock selections from this year are contenders, for sure.

Caetano Veloso's 'Joia' is probably my favorite from this year, and my favorite Veloso record of them all. Such a wonderful minimalistic sound. I think I'll vote for 'Another Green World', though 'Agartha' is very good as well.

fela or joni, voted for neil last time so i'll leave him be this time

Man. Born to Run, AGW, Harmonia, Physical Graffiti, Neil Young, Parliament, Siren ... I'm not even thinking of albums from favorite acts that might have done a bit better previous or subsequent years, like Neu! or Fela or Curtis Mayfield. Tough call, those aforementioned could comprise a solid desert island collection.

Hot take: AGW (still a fave!) may be overrated, but less so than Horses.

this is really tough, Neu! '75 is pretty much a perfect album to me and I think one that will hold up forever, but Godbluff is probably one of my 10 favorite albums ever. AGW is great as well. I'd also have to consider Magma Live if it was on here...but yeah, I think Godbluff is the one

high fives to frogbs. You can tell how much I rate that album when it beats out 2 of my fave Parliament albums

Weirdly I've only heard H to He, Who Am the Only One and Pawn Hearts. To Godbluff I go!

Hmm, it looks like I have it, but maybe never listened? Hmm...

Hot take: Horses is amazing.

Always been my fave VDGG

that's prob my fav Fela, so I can't not vote for it

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
Joe Higgs - Life of Contradiction
Max Romeo - Revelation Time

if you listed the Burning Spear it would've been a tough choice for me

Evening Star

I'm probably going to end up voting for it as well, even though I ultimately prefer (No Pussyfooting).

Donald Byrd - Places and Spaces/ Stepping Into Tomorrow

This ... tho "Movin'" might be my favorite single of the year.

Granny's list is great. The roots&dub firehose is on full strength by '75; I could list half a dozen others).

I like Joia too. Other personal faves: Don Cherry - Brown Rice and Gil e Jorge. Paêbirú is a cool record.

Paêbirú is amazing

It is! It's by Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho, which I didn't mention for some reason. Also, Gil e Jorge is by Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben, not Don Cherry which my bad syntax might have implied.

Born To Run

those 2 Parliament albums are hard to beat tbh. other contenders are Dictators & Dr Feelgood

no Hawkwind again :'(

Oh man I would've voted for Hawkwind too! I see Slave didn't make the cut either

This is Parliament vs Fela for me

Oh wait The Concept is '78! What is wrong with my head???

Siren for me, but I would wager I have played Made In Germany more than anyone on this board.

heh I bet you'd win that, I can't recall it at all

Metropolis is actually a highly regarded Amon Duul II track on ILM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSVgOFO2ng

Funk is not getting enough love in these polls, so it'll probably be Mothership Connection for me.

(xp) Made In Germany has gotten plenty of praise on ILX over the years.

I like it but I wouldn't describe it as one of the best albums of 1975.

I wouldn't either! It's a longtime personal fave though. (And every time I mention it I add that I have still never heard the entire 2 records, just the single US LP, which I have played to death.)

I missed a reggae album that's a personal fave:

Keith Hudson - Torch of Freedom

I will give that a listen

Great list. I'd add
"Metal Machine Music" - Lou Reed
"Fish Out of Water" - Chris Squire
"Caress of Steel" - Rush

Just realized there's no John Cale on this list, might have gone with "Helen Of Troy" / "Slow Dazzle".

Other 1975 albums I love that haven't been mentioned:
Be Bop Deluxe, "Futurama"
Richard & Linda Thompson - "Hokey Pokey" / "Pour Down Like Silver"
Monty Python - "The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I dig bits of Fairport Convention and Robert Wyatt's 1975 albums but not their entirety.

Voted Neu! since it's utterly perfect.

Einsjäger & Siebenjäger is probably the Vuh album I've played the most. Don't know the other one mentioned above.

It's the one after it. Einsjager was recorded in May 1974, I think, are we sure it wasn't released in 1974 too?

Slow Dazzle is and always was, since first release, one of my favorite and most played albums of the 70s! Still plays itself in my headbox without warning, like Another Green World never did, although it seemed like a dramatic change, revelation and milestone at the time, prob was, historically speaking.
Cale certainly facilitated the thin wild mercury sound of my gut vote, Horses---"we came in all glib and half-assed," Smith remembered; he put them right to work, on point like a knife in the swirl. So we get 'minimalist fury," as xgau said at the time, while still missing their live sound, but we do get spoken word intro of the title track, building and changing again, the headphones trip of "Birdland," lots of other (Tom Velaine's guitar melding to "Break It Up," American reggae like no one except Garland J, could so personalize, re "Redondo Beach," the BOC distillation of "Free Money," etc etc), yet it was its own thing, an eerie breath of fresh protopunk air through the starting-to-creak superstructure of already middle-aging Age of Rock.
Of course there's at least an invaluable Top Ten: Miles, Neil, Funkadelic etc.
xxpost Gary Stewart was a crazy and sometimes exhilarating country singer, outstanding in the left field, much younger than Willie, the only other living country singer me and my buddies were excited about in the 70s (yeah we liked Waylon and Emmylou and a few others, were shamefully ignorant of Townes and the ex-Flatlanders). Backstory in this brief review of the last album issued in his lifetime, but also touching/tripping on the reissue of Out of Hand) (prob still in villagevoice.com, but archived here after a few glitchy phases there):
https://myvil.blogspot.com/2005/12/out-of-hand.html

i somehow avoided listened to Neu 75 cause I haaaated the second one, but darn if 75 isn't incredible.

75 is amazing and probably my fave

Also weird that Young Americans, Physical Graffiti, and Wish You Were Here are missing. And surely Sabotage would best that Harold Melvin album

― calstars, Friday, March 8, 2019 8:34 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

given that you hadn't heard of harold melvin this is a bit of an assumption.

I cant remember which Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes albums I have but its all the ones Teddy is on bar one

To be true is,I think,the last with teddy. has my favourite harold melvin song the single "bad luck " on it. Disco classic

Teddy just had the best voice.

I'm wrong, wake up everybody, the next album, is the last with teddy

Teddy is god but I still went '75.

im not sure how i managed to miss them out in my lists

That's the Way of the World is a conspicuous omission.

By my listening list (going back to '96), these are the five I have played the most.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti
Black Sabbath- Sabotage
Neil Young- Tonight's the Night
Jeff Beck- Blow by Blow

you've taken a note of everything you've listened to since 96?

This was Curtis since literally before I was born.

Easiest one so far as Expensive Shit / Water no get Enemy are the two best songs to blast in an open living room.

I like Blood on the Tracks and Horses too, and Deluxe, otherwise it looks like a really weak year.
Add: Días y flores (Rodriguez), Everything Scatter (Kuti), Funky Kingston (Toots)...

weak? no way

Biggest poll omission, and what I probably would’ve voted for is Leroy Hutson’s incredible Hutson LP, my favorite in 70s soul. You NEED this album.

By my listening list (going back to '96), these are the five I have played the most.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti
Black Sabbath- Sabotage
Neil Young- Tonight's the Night
Jeff Beck- Blow by Blow

Voted for Parliament as the chances are exceedingly high that I'll vote for Fela in 1977

Physical Graffiti just over Sabotage. Would have voted for Mothership Connection - but if I did, I'd also be voting for Chocolate City which just ain't gonna happen.

Chocolate City is brilliant

I assume that was a mistake sticking the two albums together like that?

no, Like the last poll I had to do it to make the 50 limit on the poll

Cheat.

hardly. its cost the vote of turrican #1

NME Albums 1975

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Natty Dread - Bob Marley & The Wailers
3. Live - Bob Marley & The Wailers
4. The Last Record Album - Little Feat
5. Nils Lofgren - Nils Lofgren
6. The Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan
7. Young Americans - David Bowie
8. Pieces Of The Sky - Emmylou Harris
9. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns - Joni Mitchell
10. The Who By Numbers - The Who
11. Tonight's The Night - Neil Young
12. The Sun Collection - Elvis Presley
13. Horses - Patti Smith
14. John Fogerty - John Fogerty
15. Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
16. Party Down - Little Beaver
17. Rock 'n' Roll - John Lennon
18. Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear
19. Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon
20. There's No Place Like America Today - Curtis Mayfield

I ended up going with Evening Star despite how rigged this poll is (PINK FLOYD RULES).

That Nils Lofgren album is really good

not heard it

Props to NME for being into Bob Marley before he got big.

And for still riding with Curtis, even after his commercial star had stopped shining as brightly.

the nils lofgren s/t is fine, i wouldn't call it "good"

he can write a song, and his voice is really pleasant to listen to imo but the grin and early solo records kinda drag, i feel like they are hampered by bad arrangements and too much filler

"everybody's missing the sun" is like a perfect song tho

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

*shrugs*

Wonder if we will get as many votes as the last poll

Voting for Harmonia

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy a distant third with a huge choice between probably my favorite Aerosmith album against a Black Sabbath disc that isn't their best but might be their darkest.

Think I have to go with 'Smith for this one but it's very close.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ah my funkadelic vote didn't register :(

not quite as many votes as the 1974 poll, but almost!

Good result overall, although I remain Dylagnostic and AGW is a bit too worshipped ;-)

And Brown Rice would have been my vote fer sure. Einsjager def '75 as well.

a lot of votes still

Thanks to everyone who voted.

New poll!
Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1976

Dang, I would have sworn I cast a vote for Siren. Well, consider it tied with The Snow Goose. (But it's better than that.)

Eric H. started a poll about Earth, Wind & Fire’s That’s the Way of the World, an album that, as he noted upthread, really should have been on the 1975 list.

Link here.