Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1976

Modern Music is an album, like Made in Germany in the previous poll, that I love and played the hell out of, yet wouldn't try to convince anyone it's the best (or even in the running for best) of '76.

Station to Station, Modern Lovers, or Ramones, although The Wild Tchoupitoulas was a gateway into a world of New Orleans music for me. Maybe I should toss that one a vote.

Always thought that Augustus Pablo album was '77 (RYM has it as that year, that's probably why).

Some classics here and a lot of things I like but I'd say there's definitely a drop in overall quality compared to the previous few years. Can't spot any major omissions in terms of my personal favourites either (B. Dylan's Desire maybe?)

Voted for Station to Station (my favourite Bowie album these days).

I'm a little stunned by how few of these albums I know/know well. Gotta be Key of Life though, with Station to Station a near second.

xp Discogs says 1976 but that's probably just as likely to be wrong as RYM

I concur with Dan re: Be Bop Deluxe's albums from this year. Glad they were included in the first place! But for me it's Cluster every day and twice on Sunday.

I thought Zombie was 77 for sure

I voted Super Ape

Presence over Hejira

here, here is finally where i vote for joni

Never heard the Heldon album listed here but I do really like their third record (from '75), will have to give it a listen.

it's solid, less out-there and rock-like than Stand By or Interface, but I like it - it was the first one I heard

this is where I chime in saying that the Modern Lovers were a pile of absolute shit

thank you

xp pffft at least they're better than The Cardiacs

np

if there's a more bafflingly-beloved, turgid, complacent, tuneless band out there I'm yet to hear them

the rest of this list seems good though

Hear, hear.

I love Joni but it felt like revisionist (personal) history for me to vote for anything besides Bowie.

if there's a more bafflingly-beloved, turgid, complacent, tuneless band out there I'm yet to hear them

― PPL+AI=NS (imago), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 16:56 (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the cardiacs? defo agree

as usual, the Imago TMOQ.

What a roll Thin Lizzy were on with BOTH those amazing albums coming out in the same year. I've been playing them a lot lately.

I'll have to go with "The Royal Scam" though, the best and most hard-headed Steely dan album

War ina Babylon - thats an amazing album, def one of my fave reggae lp's

Hejira

For me, Bowie was a or the great singles artist of the 70s (and a little before, little after)---albums were casting about various angles etc., usually worth hearing, but Station to Station was the one that came vaulting into compulsive listening from first drop of the needle, in terms of sustained design, execution, bracing sonic precision and almost reckless emoting (but no bad singing on this one!) Still plays itself in my head--so comes vaulting over equally worthy/maybe better options as I vote. Top Ten of course would incl. Miles, Miles, Stevie, Modern Lovers, Funkadelic, Bootsy etc.

No, just one Miles for Top Ten; Water Babies is not one of his best outtakes collections.

Royal Skam

it's funny how rock fans think its a lesser year but heavy rock fans think its a classic.

Johnny liked to gamble with his lady Louise
She was a blackjack deuces are wild
He got to thinkin' 'bout his nose in the breeze
Johnny looked and he smiled
He started thinkin' bout the fortune and fame
And the young girls down at his knees
He dug the money but forgot all the names
So he knew just how to appease
Lick and a promise
He gave the ladies a lick and a promise

Hejira

Aerosmith Rocks

If this was ‘76, it would be Boston over Aerosmith. And I wouldn’t even have known anything about 80% of the list. Today it’s Modern Lovers over Stevie and Steely Dan.

you are right in 1976 it would have been boston for me too. but when i listened to the first time to joni mitchell about ten years later it was hejira and it was love at first ear contact. still by far my fave of the albums i know of the list. actually my favourite music of 1976 is the keith jarrett sun bear concerts box but it was released two years later.

On second thought, Collin Walcott's Cloud Dance would get my vote.

oor, what is your preferred version of DDDDC ?

voted station to station

what do i have that's not on here? let's see:

babel - s/t
bob ohiri & his uhuru sounds - uhuru aiye
boz skaggs- silk degrees
char - s/t
chet atkins & les paul - chester and lester
corte dei miracoli - s/t
david forman - s/t
experience unlimited - free yourself
fania all stars - live at yankee stadium vol. 2
giant step - giant on the move!
goblin - roller
grupo folklorico y experimental nuevayorkino - lo dice todo
gualberto - vericuetos
harry roesli - titk api
the horrific child - l'etrange monsieur whinster
jazz celula - ohe a poar
jean phillipe goude & olivier cole - jeunes annees
jean-pierre massiera and bernard torelli - turn radio on
joyce - visions of dawn
kalyanji & anandji - hera pheri
kanno mitsuaki - bushou
marijata - this is marijata
mark iii - marvin whoremonger
milt ward & virgo spectrum - s/t
mort garson - plantasia
norman blake - whiskey before breakfast
olive - s/t
osamu kitajima - benzaiten
pascal duffard - dieu est fou
pierre akendengue - afrika obota
pilot - morin heights
robert lester folsom - music and dreams
sam fan thomas - funky new bell
sergio sampaio - tem que acontecer
steve reid - nova
taeko ohnuki - grey skies
timeless legend - synchronized
vyto b - tricentennial 2076
zanov - green ray
zbigniew seifert - man of the light

lots of unknown euro-prog, obv. of the ones i've listed my faves are the horrifc child, visions of dawn, and tricentennial 2076, but there's plenty of stuff here i honestly need to listen to more.

Definitely a step down on the preceding years, I mean, "World Record" by Van der Graaf Generator? I think not.

― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.)

oh yeah as if "still life" isn't the single best record they ever made

and i still didn't vote for it

Another worthy candidate is 15-60-75 - Jimmy Bell's Back In Town EP. This is still just a shit-hot rock-blues-jazz melange.

Single of the year has got to be The Saints "I'm Stranded" (which came out in Sep 76 in Australia and apparently on 12/31/76 in the UK) or The Sex Pistols "Anarchy In The UK" (which came out in November).

^ i’d pick the saints but should check the charts

I know I'm about to be told it's really not all that, but Water Babies is the Miles I listen to the most besides KoB and IaSW. ͡¯\_(°_o)_/¯

How can anybody deny "roadrunner"??? Don't answer that

More great reggae from this year:

Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man
The Mighty Diamonds - Right Time
The Abyssinians - Satta Massagana
Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream

Also Lucio Battisti's La Batteria, Il Contrabbasso, Eccetera, which I love.

Got about six I'm trying to choose between and Modern Lovers is in the mix.

yeah Modern Lovers are great wtf

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/717ErVUJIrL._UL1500_.jpg

The 1976 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll

Albums

1. Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Tamla) 292 (25)
2. Graham Parker & the Rumour: Heat Treatment (Mercury) 234 (22)
3. Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum) 232 (22)
4. Graham Parker & the Rumour: Howlin' Wind (Mercury) 215 (19)
5. Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate & Anna McGarrigle (Warner Bros.) 208 (16)
6. Steely Dan: The Royal Scam (ABC) 182 (14)
7. Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum) 169 (16)
8. Ramones: Ramones (Sire) 153 (15)
9. Rod Stewart: A Night on the Town (Warner Bros.) 150 (15)
10. Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune (Columbia) 148 (13)
11. Eno: Another Green World (Island) 143 (12)
12. The Wild Tchoupitoulas: The Wild Tchoupitoulas (Island) 136 (14)
13. David Bowie: Station to Station (RCA Victor) 136 (13)
14. The Modern Lovers: The Modern Lovers (Home of the Hits) 111 (12)
15. Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: Night Moves (Capitol) 109 (12)
16. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band: Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (RCA Victor) 99 (7)
17. Bob Marley and the Wailers: Live! (Island) 86 (10)
18. Ry Cooder: Chicken Skin Music (Reprise) 84 (8)
19. Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon (Asylum) 81 (8)
20. The Dwight Twilley Band: Sincerely (Capitol) 80 (7)
21. Boz Scaggs: Silk Degrees (Columbia) 79 (10)
22. Boston: Boston (Epic) 78 (5)
23. Richard & Linda Thompson: Pour Down Like Silver (Island) 74 (9)
24. Arlo Guthrie: Amigo (Reprise) 68 (8)
25. Thin Lizzy: Jailbreak (Mercury) 66 (6)
26. Bob Dylan: Desire (Columbia) 59 (5)
27. Jeff Beck: Wired (Epic) 58 (5)
28. Andy Pratt: Resolution (Nemporer) 57 (6)
29. Linda Ronstadt: Hasten Down the Wind (Asylum) 55 (4)
30. Patti Smith Group: Radio Ethiopia (Arista)

Good call, Gerald, that Numbers Band record just rips. Chrissie Hynde’s brother Terry on sax:

https://youtu.be/TtQHtkjVQ24

AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
David Bowie - Station to Station
Peter Tosh - Legalize It
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life ,
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers

one of these five I guess.

man, I wish I had time to check out all the ones I haven't heard listed in this thread

there are plenty of good ones imo

I wonder if Rocks could be a dark horse winner

I might have voted for Silk Degrees if it had made the list

That Ry Cooder is good, some tight grooves

Xpost P&J list. I wanted to like the McGarrigle disc. Never stuck.

and i'd do it again

Tough choice between Songs in the Key of Life & Boston but Stevie wins

stevie will win this poll

The thing about the Boston album, with some people loving it and some who wanted to love it being a little meh: Chuck Eddy told me a long time ago that a guy finally told him that there were two pressings or masterings of it (because Tom Scholz changed his mind again, duh) and that the one with the orange label (think it was orange) was better, so he (CE) checked and sure enough his was the orange (or whatever). I dunno, but that's what he said.
Jimmy Bell's, hell yeah, no idea that was Chrissie Hynde's brother (barely mentioned in her memoir, according to a review). Rocks has always been my favorite Aerosmith, and was always struck by the fact that Jack Douglas supervised, as he did the most straight-ahead tracks on the sprawling, challenging, variously rewarding (play the title sprawl on reasonably big floor speakers, the kind that tune the house) Radio Ethiopia----well he supervised the whole thing maybe, but re "straight-ahead", thinking of "Ask The Angels" and "Punping (My Heart)" especially.

voted Station To Station but Hejira and Zombie ran it very close

dow is this different to the hot stamp pressings that people go on about?

um yeah it's just a different pressing... check out discogs

La Düsseldorf la.

I mean fuck it. Going with that. It's not really an emphatic best though sorry Klaus.

I for one miss the 70s fusion - Weather Report, Al DiMeola, and Stanley Clarke. The Peter Tosh and Stevie Wonder albums were excellent as well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

but does the public miss it?

Voted for Super Ape, a true dub classic.

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

dang

Is Rainbow's Rising any good? I see it's ranked third on RYM's 1976 list (Station to Station also happens to be their #1).

'good' is subjective but it's the origin point of nearly all Power Metal.

The only Rainbow album from the Dio phase that was recorded by a stable band (or didn't have huge chunks overdubbed by Blackmore to erase people he'd fallen out with or didn't think were good enough) it straddles the boogie elements (Starstruck) with the driving proto-thrash (Light In The Black), giving them all equal favour.

But the reputation and love definitely, more than anything else, comes from Stargazer (voted best metal track of all time on this very board iirc).

It's a sandals 'n' sorcery prog epic with far more key changes than necessary, a lifetime great soaring vocal and grinding, repetitive final coda that feels like it could go on forever (and possibly did, given it's faded out on the record).

And that's why it got my vote, despite arguably stronger candidates this year.

Rising is an excellent record, an absolute 100% classic. Those keyboards at the beginning of 'Tarot Woman'!

I'll have to check it out then, if only for historical reasons.

Best Album on My Favourite Albums of......1977!