The Top 10 Albums of 1975

If you aren't hip to the fact that Reza Mills from Clean Sheets and Sleeping Shaman has been breaking down the decades with me to uncover our top 5 songs in the pivotal anniversaries for these years, then you uare missing out, and you should check out our insights here...

 

Here I am taking my top 5 choices and expanding them into the top 10 albums of 1975, and also ranking them in order of their impact and staying power, so here are my top 10 albums of 1975. Be sure to check out the episode above for a more in-depth look at the top 5 here. 

10-Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow- "S/t"

Some of Dio and Blackmore's best work. 

 

9-Aerosmith-"Toys in the Attic" 

The radio hit might have worn out this one , but the deeper tracks are gold. 

8-Fleetwood Mac- "s/t'

 Lyndsey Buckingham steals the show on this classic.

 

8-the Grateful Dead -"Blues For Allah."

Not a Dead head but developed a deep enough appreciation for these guys, and this is my favorite album from Jerry and the Boys, as it is like free-form prog. 

 

7-Roxy Music- "Siren."

The pulse of this album proves that not only was love a drug, but also drugs were drugs. 

 

6-Elton John-"Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy."

John's most epic songwriting is dramatic and passionate, while almost going prog.

 

5-Pink Floyd- "Wish You Were Here'

Not Sure how I overlooked this one in the top 5 originally, though it's neck and neck with John's stellar songwriting, but the pristine guitar tone edges the Rocket Man out.

   

4-Alice Cooper - "Welcome to My Nightmare." 

Cooper's creepy cabaret beats out David Gilmore's pristine guitar tones

 

 3-Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

If you ever doubted Jimmy Page, this is the album to set things straight as the scope of his guitar mastery is broader than you think.

 

2-Black Sabbath "Sabotage"

I regard this album as Sabbath's best work, as it hits with power while bringing the trippy experimentation that had begun to dabble in

1-David Bowie -"Young Americans." 

Bowie recreates soul music in his own image and brings more sensual grooves to the party with his best vocal performances yet. 

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The Top 200 Greatest Rock Singers - 10 to 1

Now we are in the top 10, where I really had to be honest with myself; in what we are doing here which is focusing not only on technical vocal ability, in terms of range and power, as well as their dynamics, phrasing and the overall character of their voice. Can they emote from different places? How well does their voice hold up live? . How they control a crowd or their entertainment value as performers is also not a factor; there are some great front men who are also sub-par singers. There are also not going to be any Bob Dylan like singers, who are better songwriters than vocalists.

Pop singers, are far and few between, with; a few country or jazz singers who crossover just enough to qualify for this list, while having a significant influence on rock music. Don't expect rappers on this list or metal vocalists who just scream or growl, but never actually sing. I am keen on singers who are derivative of other singers. The bulk of these do their own thing, the few paying tribute to other artists made enough of an impact with their music. Having a unique vocal quality is going to be one of the most important factors often trumping technical ability. If they sound too much like Steve Perry from Journey after listening to their vocal coach rather than developing their own style, it is also not going to fly. Some of these might have been ignored by mainstream music media, now at the top 10, I am sure it makes sense, so here are the Top 200 greatest rock singers.

 10-Sade

 When I saw Sade in 1993 for "Love Deluxe" I was blown away. She shed a great deal of the restraint she uses in the studio and showed the real power she has. I also came up with the theory she might also be a siren who uses her voice to drain people sexually like a succubus. 

 

9-Freddie Mercury

He is not the only operatic singer in the top 10. Sure he was powerful live, sometimes his health in the last tours of the 80s caused his voice to wane from what they did in the studio, but no one can say he is anything less than amazing. Brian May and Roger Taylor deserve a foot note in his entry as the held their own harmonizing with him and both took over the mic at times. 

 

8-Prince 

Hard to say if he was a better guitarist or singer, since he was always flawless at both every time I saw him live. He had a great scream and impressive notes in his lower register for a little guy. He made songs about masturbation and god sound equally sexual.

 

 7-Elvis

I used to be obsessed with watching VHS tapes of his Vegas residency. I collected them. Even at his most fucked up, forgetting the words and laughing at himself moments, he hit every fucking note .He did not have to write his own songs, because as soon as he sang a song it was his no matter if George Harrison or Frank Sinatra sang the original. 

 

 6-Elizabeth Fraser

I do not think the guardians of the realm she was from meant for her to sing live. The results were always bizarre, so going off the recorded work she created, she was not singing for our mortal ears were were just lucky enough to hear her.

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5 David Bowie

When Bowie left this Earth, some one in my mental health support circle told me, I did not need to fall into a deep depression , because Bowie was only meant to bring the music down from the cosmos to the people then get beamed back up. His voice was a reflection of that sentiment.

 

 4-Robert Plant 

When it comes to rock of the harder variety then it is clear Plant is the last man standing. Zep was not a metal band, but he delivered his vocals with the kind of bombast that would inspire generations of metal singers to come. That just happened to only be one aspect of who he was as a singer. 

 

 3-Roy Orbison 

How did Roy beat out Robert Plant? Well I am sure Plant would agree he should bow out in favor of Roy. In 1961, there was little in the way of effects and he did not have a Jimmy Page experimenting with mic placement and what hall way of the castle he should sing in. He just stepped up to the mic and poured himself into every note. One of the most powerful voices ever.

 

 2-Kate Bush

 Do yourself a favor and watch her show at the Hammersmith. She not only knocks out notes fit for a top tier soprano but she does it while dancing ballet, because it was no big deal .She would be number one if I had not witnessed the fury of the top singer in person, Kate I only have her legacy to pine after.

 

 1-Lisa Gerrard 

I have seen more than my fair share of actual opera. When I went to see Dead Can Dance, the first notes Lisa uttered were more powerful than ny singer of any opera I had ever witnessed. Not to mention the sublime breadth of range her work in the studio has touched upon. Dead Can Dance might not be a rock band in the sense that most of the songs they cover are 400 years old, but there are rock elements and rock bands have been inspired by them. She is a force of nature.

Enter.. the Weekly Shuffle

It amazes me how popular this column is, I just review the first ten songs that pop up in my iPod and this gets more views that reviews of bands you would are big enough to compete with my iPod. It must be the power of the nameless kitten god from the abyss that makes it so.

"All I Want" by the Cure

The kitten gos is already at work, as all Robert Smith wants is to be an animal, hold you like a dog.. or doll. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss me  is a darker album than it gets credit for, sure its not Pornography, but there are some great drug coated guitar sounds.

"All That May Bleed" by Watain

A week ago someone said one of the silliest things I heave heard , that they don't like Watain, but like Dissection. So what you are really saying is that you don't like Erik's personality, as they take themselves much more seriously than Reinkaos. Watain blasts it in the more traditional second wave of black metal fashion. Dissection influenced these guys, and Erik even toured with them, so it's hard to separate the two at times, though the sonic scope of what they do is darker than Dissection in my book.

"All the Madmen" by David Bowie

Here Bowie, gets into some Syd Barret like prog but with T-rex powered guitars. This was next level shit, even though it might sound like typical Blue Cheer 60's rock.The bass line has crazy groove that wanders all over the place.Bowie was using Pink Floyd  as the template for what experimental was.

"All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" by Bauhaus

Oh to be.... this song is a fitting follow up to the Bowie as you can hear that era of Bowie's influence on this song. It's one of Murphy's better melodies, live his voice really kills it and this song shows a wide spread of this range and defies the typical goth spookiness.

"Alavartr" by Emperor

This song really shows what I think Emperor is about and that much more than blast beats alone.It's pretty much just and interlude , but has some great guitar playing that leads into the atmosphere.

"Don't Swallow the Cap" by The National

This album came out and I intended to review it for Soletron as I thought it was too mainstream for this blog and was prepared to rip it a new ass hole , but it surprised me and now it is still growing on me and I love it, though they are playing some festival with a bunch of hippie teeny bopper bands I hate so don't hold your breath for a live review.

"Dreamer" by Chelsea Wolfe

Back on her first album when she wrote rock songs ...or sorts. Sure she is getting played on trailers for "Game of Thrones" , but it doesn't mean anything to me, she is not a sell out and at her heart she just writes songs, this is a good example of that fact ,when she tried her hardest to be normal. This has an almost 50's doo-wop feel.

 "the House That Pain Built" by Killing Joke

They are well into their industrial phase here, and Ministry really need to fork over some of their royalties to these guys. The melody on the chorus is pretty awesome, the backing vocals work where I normally don't like gang vocals.The stiff guitar here works, in the same way it works for Kmfdm.

"Houses of the Holy" by Led Zeppelin

Well if it wasn't for all the occult references this song would be almost too happy for me. There is some good guitar playing on this, but it's Jimmy Page so how could it suck? Unless I guess it's the Firm, but I still like the song "Radioactive".

"Generation Landslide" by Alice Cooper

The lyrics are great , if I was looking to slough off some gigs taking up space and had to clear out some Alice Cooper, this might not make the cut, but her has so many great songs, the chorus is mine but it is a little Beatlesque and has more happy notes than I like from him.

    


   

The Weekly Shuffle

If you don't know what this is by now I am not sure why you are reading it, hitting shuffle on the Ipod and seeing what pops up.

"Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin- One of my old bands use to cover this one, and I would ask the crow if they had their 20 sided dice ready. This is one of their many tributes to Tolkein, which is a strong argument to put the Sabbath vs Zeppelin debate to rest. John Paul Jones is the star of this show for sure.

"Movie Screen" by Chelsea Wolfe-No big surprise here. I like the trip hop element in this song and truth be told stumbled across Chelsea Wolfe in connection to the whole "witch house" movement that kind of came and went in electronic music. Live I think this songs comes across even better as in the studio it sounds like she is sometimes holding back.

"the Unknown Knows" by Voi Vod - A tragically under rated band that merged from the thrash scene of the 80's, they are one of my all time favorites. Like most of the under dogs I root for these guys had a lot going against them as they were too weird for your average Slayer fan at the time and they were from Canada. so they eventually began to give into being Rush's country men and things got proggy, even on "Nothingface" which was a break through album of sorts for them. Then grunge came. This song is one of the albums heavier moments , but still is filled with some of the punk sneer they tend to carry like Killing Joke. Way ahead of their time, if this came out today it would still sound current.

"Black Moon" by Killing Joke - Speaking of Killing Joke, "Pandemonium" has always been my favorite album by them as it blends melody with the stark industrial sounds that they pretty much single handedly influenced...ok Swans helped too.This song this typical of the great moodiness this album dwells on. The vocals sound great and the guitars have a lot of sonic coldness behind them. .

"Mourning Sun" by Fields of the Nephilim - These guys alway hit a perfect blend of dark sonics, menace and mystery and when you listen to this song you can really hear how it influence the most recent Watain.

"Sunbather" by Deafheaven- Well it's getting hard to separate these guy's music from their career choices, as the band is now playing Bonnaroo. A closer listen to this song proves the only thing separating them now from a band like Russian Circles is  their vocals. Kylesa has played both Bonnaroo and Coachella and they are still playing bars so their might be hope.

"I'm Still In Love With You" - Thin Lizzy- As far a ballads go, this one is done pretty right. Not a fan of love songs, as lyrically they tend to run the sames lines. The guitar playing and the drumming on this song kick all kinds of ass.

"The Stars Are All Out Tonight" by David Bowie- This album continues to grow on me with each listen, which is a good thing as it is probably the last we will get from him as he just had another Birth day and I doubt we are going to hear a 70 year old Bowie crank another out.

"Invaders" by Iron Maiden- Growing up I thought of this song as a fast forward classic as compared to the rest of the album it's fairly straight forward, but after covering it I grew a new appreciation for it.

"Forever Animal" by Beast Milk- Before the fervor that built around Climax last year, these guys were already kicking ass, though I caught a more Hawkwind vibe from them than the goth thing back then and his vocals have come a long way.          

What's Metal in 2014?

I was having one of my defining metal conversations, in regards to the new Cynic, and felt that metal is something that can be defined, as it contain certain sonic properties, while these are quantifiable in terms of decibels and gain levels in distortion. I think sheer power and aggression along with technique are other defining qualities, that keep it separate from genres like punk, hardcore and grunge. Sure it might come down to splitting hairs and counting straws, but for defenders of the faith, this knowledge is the first line of defense. Though there are some bands who try to play down the fact they are metal, when it becomes a bad word.

It was brought up that music is objective and who is anyone to define this, well the term came from a music critic, and last time I checked you are reading this article so I guess I must be qualified or you wouldn't be reading this on this site or any of the others this is going  article to be syndicated on. So lets break it down with the abcs and set the record straight for what metal is in 2014. I'm going to give several examples to use as a guide, not trying to write the encyclopedia of whats true or false, just a reference point for those who haven't been listening to it for almost 30 years.

The base line we are using here is Judas Preist, Iron Maiden  and Black Sabbath, if you are not consistently as heavy as these bands you are not metal.

A

Metal - Atriarch, Anthrax, Altar of Plagues, Amon Amarth, At the Gates, Acid Bath, Accept,Arckanum, Ahab, Amorphis

Not Metal - Ac/dc, Aerosmith,  Alice Cooper, Alice in Chains, Andrew Wk, Audioslave, Alterbridge, AFI, Anti Flag, At the Drive In

B

Metal- Black Sabbath, Burzum, Behemoth, Bolt Thrower, Brutal Truth, Bloodlet, Blood Bath, Blind Guardian, Borknagar, Black Anvil,

Not Metal -Bon Jovi, Breaking Benjamin, Buckcherry, Britney Fox, Boris, Black Veil Brides, Bush, Black Flag, Blink 182, Blue Oyster Cult

C

Metal -Converge, Carpathian Forest, Candlemass, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Cathedral, Coroner, Crowbar, Cradle of Filth,

Not Metal- post Traced in Air Cynic, The Cult, Coheed and Cambria, Clutch, Cinderella, Candle Box, Camp Freddy,

D

Metal - Deicide, Dark Angel, Dissection, pre-Sunbather Deafheaven, Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir, Dio, Death, Down, D.R.I

Not Metal - Danzig, Def Leppard, Drop Kick Murphys, Dream Theater, Disturbed, Deftones,

E

Metal - Evoken, Eyehategod, Enslaved, Entombed, Exodus, Exhumed, Emperor,

Not Metal- Evanescence,Europe, Extreme, Epica,

F

Metal - Forbidden, Falkenbach, Fear Factory, Fight, Fates Warning, Finntroll,

Not Metal- Faith No More,Fly Leaf, Foo-fighters, Filter, Faster Pussycat,

G

Metal -Godflesh, Gorgoroth, Gwar, Gojira, Grim Reaper,

Not Metal - Ghost, Glassjaw, Godsmack,Guns N Roses, Godspeedyoublackemperor,

H
Metal- Helloween, Hexis, Hell Hammer, Hammerfall,

Not Metal - H.I.M, Hollywood Undead, Halestorm, How to Destroy Angels,

I

Metal - Iron Maiden, Incantation, Immortal, Into Eternity, Inquisition, Iced Earth

Not Metal - Iron Butterfly, Isis, In this Moment,

J

Metal - Job For A Cowboy, Judas Priest

Not - Metal - Jane's Addiction, Journey,

 

K

Metal -King Diamond, Kampfar, Kreator,

Not Metal - Kiss, King's X, Kamelot, Katatonia, Kvelertak, Kyuss, Kylesa, Killing Joke,

L

Metal - Lamb of God,Leviathan, Loss of Self

Not Metal - Lacuna Coil, Led Zeppelin,Life of Agony,

 
M

Metal- Metallica, Megadeth, Marduk, Morbid Angel, My Dying Bride, Ministry -post Pslam 69, Mercyful Fate, Manowar, Mayhem,

Not Metal- Monster Magnet, Motorhead,Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue,

N

Metal- Nevermore,Neurosis, Nocutrnus, Nile, Nachtmystium,

Not Metal- Night Wish,Nazereth, Nine Inch Nails,

O

Metal- Obituary, Overkill,

Not Metal - recent Opeth, Post Dairy of a Madman Ozzy,

P

Metal - Pantera, Primordial, Primal Fear, Prong,

Not Metal -Porcupine Tree, Paramore, Pearl Jam, Pentagram,

Q-

Metal- Queensryche- first three albums

Not Metal- Queens of the Stoneage, Queen,

R

Metal - Rotting Christ, Rainbow, Russian Circles,

Not Metal- Ratt, Rage Against the Machine,Royal Thunder, Rush

S

Metal - Slayer , Sodom, Sanctuary, Sepultura, Slipknot, Skeletonwitch, Shining (swe), Savatage,

Not Metal- Scorpions, Steel Panther, Spinal Tap, Soundgarden, Shining(nor), Swans,

T

Metal - Taake, Tyr, Trouble, Testament, Twilight

Not Metal -Tool, Twisted Sister, Type O Negative, Torche, Them Crooked Vultures, Thin Lizzy,

U

Metal -Unleashed

Not Metal - Uriah Heap,

V

Metal - Venom, Voi Vod, Vio-lence,Von ,Vektor,

Not Metal- Valiant Thorr, Van Halen, Volbeat,

W

Metal- Watain, Wolves In the Throne Room,  

Not Metal- Whitesnake, Wolfmother, White Zombie,  W.a.s.p,

X, Y, Z

Metal- Yob

Not Metal -Young gods, ZZ-Top