Where Worlds Collide

5 more, 5 to go….

Led Zeppelin – Four Symbols

I thought very hard about not including this album, because it comes up as #1 on all those classic rock lists. But in the end I had to include it here. As for ‘Stairway to Heaven’, the song has only been spoiled by over-exposure. Just try and remember the first time you heard it.

Marillion – Brave

It’s very difficult to choose just one Marillion album; they’ve done many great ones, including all four they did with Fish, and last year’s superb “Anoraknophobia”. In the end, I have to choose “Brave”, their dark and intense concept album that appeared just after so many fans had written them off after it’s blandly commercial predecessor.

Pink Floyd – The Wall

An album which divides Pink Floyd fans; some think this was the beginning of the end for the band. It was reviled by the critics when it first appeared; Sounds notorious punk/indie pseud Dave McCulloch slammed it for containing too many guitar solos and gave it one star. Cloth-eared twit! Whatever I think of Water’s semi-autobiographical concept, I still love the music, especially those Dave Gilmour solos that Sounds’ critic hated so much.

Queensrÿche – Operation Mindcrime

I know I’m a sucker for concept albums, but 80s metal didn’t get better than this. The Seattle-based quintet’s finest hour, the concept is about cyberpunkish tale of an assassin drawn into a cult. Very much a product of it’s time (Cyberpunk was big in the 80s), but the powerful twin guitar attack and Geoff Tate’s distinctive voice passes the test of time.

Rainbow – On Stage

I always felt Ritchie Blackmore was constrained in the studio, and really shone playing live. The late 70s, both with Mk3 Purple and Rainbow saw some of his most ferocious playing. For Blackmore fans, this one is a must-have. It’s not just Blackmore who shines here, just listen to the way Ronnie Dio interprets Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” and makes the song his own. It wasn’t just punk bands that had the energy in 1977!

Here’s the next five of my Nick Hornby-like list of 20 favourite albums.

Dream Theater – Metropolis II: Scenes from a Memory

Dream Theater are the pack leaders of the prog-metal scene. Earlier albums such as “Images and Words” showed they had the chops, even though some of the songs turned into poorly-structured jams. They progressed through the darker and heavier “Awake”, and the tighter, more radio-friendly “Falling Into Infinity”. Their masterpiece, “Metropolis II” combines the best elements of these three preceding albums, and shows how they’ve developed compositional and arrangement skills to match their undoubted instrumental virtuosity. It goes without saying that this is a concept album, the theme being memories of past lives, and a murder mystery.

Genesis – Selling England by the Pound

I’ve reviewed this album on this blog before. I find it difficult to choose between this and “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”; both show the band at their peak, before Peter Gabriel left and the band began to turn away to a more commercial, blander direction. This is what 70s prog-rock was all about; Peter Gabriel’s sometimes surreal lyrics, complex classically-influenced arrangements, and lengthy instrumental workouts spotlighting Steve Hackett’s liquid guitar and Tony Banks’ keyboard skills.

IQ – Subterrainea

IQ had a chequered history. They began in the early 80s, and their early albums “Tales from the Lush Attic” and “The Wake” were clearly derivative of Gabriel-era Genesis. With a different singer they tried a more commercial approach with the “Nonzamo” and “Are You Sitting Comfortably” albums. They vanished for several years before reforming, back with the original vocalist Peter Nicholls. Their new sound was a more polished combination the best elements of the two earlier phases of their career. Of the three post-reunion albums, the second, the double concept album “Subterrania” shows them at their best.

Jon Lord – Sarabande

Attempts to combine rock and classical music get a bad press. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. This 1976 solo album by Deep Purple’s Jon Lord is an album that works, and is the best of several solo albums he’s released in parallel to his career in Deep Purple and Whitesnake. It’s based on the concept of baroque dance suite. Featuring Andy Somers, later of The Police on guitar, the rock band and the orchestra integrate into a single whole; sometimes the band play the theme with the orchestra adding tonal colour, in other places the orchestra takes the theme with band providing rhythmic support. Listeners are also treated to an extended jazz-rock workout from Jon’s Hammond.

King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson were to define the progressive rock sound, and then move on to different things as soon as making this musical statement. Although later incarnations of Crimson formed around guitarist Robert Fripp, this one is dominated by the soaring vocals of Greg Lake and the mellotron on Ian McDonald, and of course, the marvelous baroque lyrics of Pete Sinfield, although Fripp shines on the metallic opener, the classic “21st Century Schizoid Man”.

Over on BlogCritics, someone (can’t remember who) suggested the reviewers came up with a list of their top ten albums to give people an idea of where they’re coming from musically. He admitted the whole thing is a bit Nick Hornby-ish, but a lot of people like compiling lists, so here’s the first part of mine. Mine’s a top twenty because I couldn’t pare the list down to ten, even by ruling that no artist could have more then one album in the list.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the first five, listed alphabetically

Anathema – Judgement

Anathema began life as a standard death-metal act, all grinding riffs and death-grunt vocals. But once their original vocalist left, and rhythm guitarist Vincent Cavanagh took over vocals, things started to change. By the time they recorded “Judgement”, a strong Pink Floyd influence had crept in and they were sounding as much progressive rock as metal. “Judgement” is an atmospheric and emotional work, musically balancing light and shade, metal riffs contrasting with delicate acoustic passages.

Asia – Asia

Most critics scoffed at the idea of this supergroup, consisting of ex-Yes men Steve Howe and Geoff Downes, ELP’s Carl Palmer John Wetton of King Crimson, Uriah Heep and UK fame. While many expected a prog-muso chops-fest, what we got was a superb AOR pop-rock album, with the instrumental breaks cut back to fit the songs. Great combination of good playing, good songs, and powerful production, sadly they were never able to repeat the quality of this debut.

Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell

I know I’m probably a heretic for prefering Ronnie Dio’s operatic melodrama to Ozzy’s angst-ridden howl, but to me Dio’s voice and Toni Iommi’s guitar seemed a perfect match. As much the follow-up to Rainbow’s “Long Live Rock and Roll” as to “Never Say Die”, this is a great metal album when considered on it’s own merits rather than in comparison to the Ozzy canon.

Blue Öyster Cult – Secret Treaties

Blue Öyster Cult have always been my favourite American band, with their multi-layered sound, high wierdness lyrics and Buck Dharma’s wonderful guitar playing. All their albums are good, most of them are great, and this album, their third, is their best.

Deep Purple – Machine Head

What can I say about Deep Purple? One of the defining groups of the heavy metal genre, with the riffs that inspired a generation of bedroom air-guitarists, some of whom would go on to pick up real guitars and form the next generation of bands in the 1980s and beyond, even if most guitar shop owners are sick of hearing “Smoke on the Water”. Every song on this album is a classic; no filler at all.