Is there really no possibility that music is just not as good as it once was?
Not a 40% chance?
How about 18%? Can I get an 18% chance?
Our pal Noam said this in yesterday's comments, "It's hard to top what blew you away when you were 18." Maybe. But I don't buy that completely. Not completely. It can't only be my impressionable 16 year old head and heart that
made me hold onto all the great music I heard back in the glory days.
Yesterday's list of records from 1977 could have been three times as long. Of course, I wouldn't have loved every title the way I love those I did list. I imagine some of you hate the Dead Boys "Young, Loud & Snotty" or "Saturday Night Fever" as much as I love them. But the key is, I have heard of every single title, and most likely, you have too. Even the records that are not listed. Almost all of them had a hit or three. The artists had careers. I didn't have to scroll, Google, surf, sample or research as if I was working on a high school chemistry paper to find five records that "aren't bad" or have "some good stuff" on them.
We've changed? Check. But, music has changed, too. The business has changed. It doesn't seem fair to take all of the blame because we've aged, or because we now listen with different ears. We deserve more credit. We know shit. We're old, remember?
I don't believe there is anything wrong with admitting music has gotten worse. Finding good new music shouldn't be a homework assignment. Who the hell liked homework?
"Have you heard the new one from Ulf Slaycock? He's the bass player from that band you said you kinda liked because you said they sounded like Fountains Of Wayne. He just put out a limited edition E.P. on Bandcamp, NZ."
Thanks, I'll just listen to Fountains Of Wayne.
Actually, now that I think about it, finding new music shouldn't be so damned easy.
That's really the problem.
What about record making? Does that no longer matter? Actually, no. It doesn't. It doesn't matter if your record sounds like crap. Just turn on your computer, open a few programs, and voila, you can make a record that you can release, with a mix that sounds like it was engineered by Marlee Matlin, drums that sound like Sterno cans, clunky, disjointed raps that are in a different meter than the beats behind them (and no longer bother to rhyme), and harmonies that sound less like Clarke, Hicks & Nash and more like Manny, Moe & Jack.
"There's good music out there. You just have to look for it."
Why? Why do I have to look for it? I don't want to look for it. I know where all my great records are.There is no one left to reject demo tapes because there are no more demo tapes. It's a damned free for all! Is it any wonder why there is so much music to choose from and why so much of it is only "not bad?" There is no one left to say, "Go back. Try again." Songs are conceived, recorded and on the internet in less time than it took Mal Evans to find an anvil to hit on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
The system is shit and because of that, much of the music suffers.
I shot an iPhone video of myself playing and singing "Carmelita" on my ukulele. 23 takes and I still wasn't happy. I also did a version of Fleetwood Mac's "Save Me A Place" under the moniker Lindsey Croakingham. I posted "Carmelita" on Instagram and got a few compliments, a "nice job" or two. I wasn't brazen enough to keep "Save Me A Place" posted longer than an hour. I did them for me and for the possible entertainment of some friends. I'm not charging $2.99 for them on Bandcamp. I wouldn't dare.
Am I saying all new bands on Bandcamp are as terrible as I am on the ukulele? Of course not. But some are, and some are worse.
That list of records from 1977 is, to quote Bill in yesterday's comments, "Wow!" I bet 1975 and 1979, and of course 1966 and 1967, not to mention 1971 are all just as "Wow!" There hasn't been a year in years that could boast a list of that many great records the way the 60s and 70s and even some of the 80s and 90s could.
The last 20 years has been woefully mediocre and I'm being kind in case there are children reading. The bar has not been lowered. It's on its way to China.
Here are some of the best records of 2002:
Norah Jones- Come Away With Me
Eminem- The Eminem Show
Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Coldplay- A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Missy Elliot- Under Construction
Bruce Springsteen- The Rising
Interpol- Turn On The Bright Lights
Sigur Ros- ()
Audioslave- S/T
Comets On Fire- Field Recordings From the Sun
Songs: Ohia- Didn't It Rain
Blackalicious- Blazing Arrow
Beck- Sea Change
Ashanti-S/T
David Bowie- Heathen
Oasis- Heathen Chemistry
Flogging Molly- Drunken Lullabies
Spoon- Kill The Moonlight
Avril Lavigne- Let Go
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers- The Last DJ
Pearl Jam- Riot Act
Deerhoof- Reveille
Elvis Costello- When I Was Cruel
Tegan & Sara- If It Was You
There are a number of fine records on this list. But few have the legs of any record on that 1977 list. Is Petty's "The Last DJ" even considered a good Petty record? I can only imagine how the records on this year's list will look in 2042.
The New York Times list of Best Records Of 2022 reads like a game of "Can You Top This?," or more comically, a twist on that Monty Python bit of who had it worse.
"I walked to school in the snow, barefoot." "Oh, you had feet?"
Each critic is trying so hard to impress with their obscure choices, by the end of the article, I forgot I was reading about music. I didn't want to listen to any of it. I wanted two Advil, two fingers of bourbon and a date with "London Calling."
I no longer feel the need to stay current, or to appear cool and "with it," if I ever appeared cool and "with it." The only pulse my finger is on is my own. I don't have the time or desire to sample hundreds of new records just to see if something sticks. If it's going to stick, it will find me. Great records used to find me all the time. Sadly, those days are gone.
I have 5,000 amazing records at my fingertips at all times. That's not living in the past. It's guaranteed pleasure. The records I love keep giving. Hundreds of plays and they still reward with subtle musical gifts, like a tasty bass line I missed first time around, or a low harmony that changes the whole feel of a song. These days, when I like something new, I rarely want to go back for a return trip, which is why when something hits, I gush like a geyser. It feels like a miracle.
My Top 10 of 2022 might end up being a Top 7. But I prefer having 7 amazing records that I play over and over on my Top 10 list, than 25 "not bad" records with a few favorite songs like "The second one, the fifth one, and that one at the end with that sample...you know the one I mean!"
Do you think the dream of all those great artists with records released in 1977 or any damn year before autotune and Max Martin, was to create an album that would be listened to once or twice and then filed away for good?
"Rubber Soul? Great. Next!" "My Aim Is True? Great. Next!"
Only in 2022 could the idea of creating something that is evergreen be considered trite.
I have lost all patience for "not bad."
Thanks for reading.
Please forward all hate mail to Lindsey Graham.
37 comments:
i've always had to hunt for the good stuff, except when i've lived in college towns that have the one or two cool stores. but it's easier now with the internet. just found this Dave Holland/Kevin Eubanks trio outing from last year that i've never heard before - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdDE4hnXdak
Sir Paul said it wisely, Memory Almost Full. Don’t sweat it, seems logic to think that at certain age there is no way to keep consuming music like before. Just my 2 cents.
Roy
Well said. Whenever I want to have a chuckle, I go to the Pitchfork site and see how many performers with new records that I recognize.
To be fair, when I was in my teens and early twenties my bandwidth for what I would listen to was quite narrow. I was also a bit of a musical snob. Finally, I began to explore music outside my comfort zone including big band music, jazz, blues, southern soul, show music and the crooners of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Journeys well worth it.
I know this is a bit off the topic, but I am hoping that this generation will eventually look back see the rich legacy of popular music that we have.
In the previous century and the early bit of this one, I was often listening to radio and visiting record stores to hear new music, reading magazines to find out about some things that I may have missed, and had friends that tipped me off on other records to check out.
Moving halfway around the world twice has made the friends connection almost dry up. Some friends are still listening to the same stuff we listened to back in the 80's or they had children and listen to what their kids like (unless that is just too awful).
Radio and music shops are almost non-existent. Streaming sites do not serve as a proper replacement. Most of the music magazines are focused on the past or reviewing the dreck that you mention, so they are almost useless, too. So now it's blogs that I read to find something new that may be interesting and I stream those suggestions to weed out the crap.
I do find new music that I really enjoy, but little of it sounds completely new. Back in 1977, I was 14 and nearly everything was new to me. Now it is only a few albums that I find that are able to surprise me, but when they do, it's just as special as those times past.
- Paul in DK
I have to give it to you, for trying to come up with 10 from 2022. Can't remember the last time I went into an actual "record store" I have sympathy for the brick and mortar stores that are trying to compete in an outdated market. I know they have to compensate for their overhead i.e. employee paychecks, electric bills, store rent. But for them to charge the prices they want for their merchandise as compared to what "THEY" paid for it is just a little too expensive for me, especially when I can go to my local flea-market (on a good week) or garage sales (on a good week) and pick up numerous titles for a dollar to five (that's my cut off unless it's something I really need) I don't re-sell. What I buy is for my own personal use. I do occasionally buy from Amazon and only because they will be cheaper than anywhere else here in my city. Which brings me to your point, I have a playlist here in front of me, right now that consists of 3-4 hundred CD's and at least that many vinyls(sic) that I need to get around to listening to. Hell, I'm 67 now so I'm gonna die before I get around to listening to all of this. Of all the things that I have bought over the past year I can only come up with one or two things that have a 2022 press date. So I guess that's the thing, there is so much great music from the past that I'm trying to catch up on I'll never have the time to listen to what "THE KIDS" are listening to now. Oh, another thing I believe that most people who read "music blogs" are in the 40 to 70 years old range. Unfortunately, I don't posses the writing skills that you have Sal, for trying to get this message across but I'm hoping you get what I'm trying to say.
Thanks for the thoughtful (as always) remarks. I concur that it is math. When there are no entry barriers the pool will get flooded. College applications went way up when they started the common app. Duh!!! What did they expect. On top of that the lack of A&R departments meant that the woodshedding bands would do the first few years went away. Quality goes down. Rick Beato has a YouTube post about how the focus on streams has also changed songwriting to get to the "hook" faster. All of this was inevitable, but distressing, nonetheless.
I feel exactly as you do about the lack of good new music. There is now so much available but almost nothing that sticks for me.
I was the twelve-year-old hanging out at the record shop and flipping through each record from A to Z. I got to know the record store employees who gave me many reliable recommendations. FM radio was still somewhat freeform. 96 Rock in Atlanta would play entire albums at midnight which I would record. At various stages of my life I poured through Rolling Stone, Musician, Trouser Press, Pulse! and Spin magazines. These were my tastemakers and curators. Now I have you, Sal. And you’re just as frustrated as I am.
My first three adult records were Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All of These Years, Wings’ Venus and Mars and Chicago IX – Greatest Hits. I still greatly enjoy each of these albums from first track to last. You focused on 1977 while these three came out in 1975, as did Toys in the Attic, Blood on the Tracks, Born to Run, Wind on the Water, Young Americans, One of These Nights, That’s the Way of the World, Face the Music, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Fleetwood Mac S/T, Dreamboat Annie, Blow by Blow, Red Octopus, Wish You Were Here, A Night at the Opera, Katy Lied, The Who by Numbers AND Physical Graffiti AND The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
I couldn’t afford to buy all the music I wanted.
We were lucky to have grown up in a golden age for music lovers. But I think our luck has run out.
Music is different now. The distribution system is different now. The recording process is different now. In some ways the music scene, driven by YouTube, is about singles more than albums just like it was in the 50s and early 60s. I haven't heard most of what's on Pitchfork's 50 best of 2022, although the Billboard list included Bonnie Raitt's latest, which I actually own. Can I say that music I haven't heard isn't as good as the stuff I still listen to? Can you criticize me for not giving the latest Springsteen or Rundgren record a chance when you "don't have the time or desire to sample hundreds of new records just to see if something sticks" (I don't have that desire either, but let's be fair). Is Wet Leg that much better than the new Beyonce or Yaya Bey (I haven't heard those last two either). Will today's sixteen year olds look back fondly on the music of today 50 years from now? (I kinda hope so.) I was in a record store yesterday, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new Sloan record and the new Jon Cleary. But I don't expect them to sell to sixteen year old kids. The thing is, were old now. As Frank Zappa said, "It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
"Can I say that music I haven't heard isn't as good as the stuff I still listen to? Can you criticize me for not giving the latest Springsteen or Rundgren record a chance when you "don't have the time or desire to sample hundreds of new records just to see if something sticks"
Cleveland Jeff,
Springsteen and Rundgren and Bonnie Raitt are established artists releasing new records. Having no desire to listen to these artists because you either had enough, or were never a fan in the first place is not what I am talking about. I'm talking about the endless supply of new, inexperienced, factory made pop stars and DIY'ers that are consistently raved about on Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan and blogs, that do not come close to matching up to the music of ANY genre, made years ago.
How is it possible to offer opinions or a critique that would be considered fair unless we miraculously heard every single note of every release of every year? It's not.
AND THIS:
"I was in a record store yesterday, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new Sloan record and the new Jon Cleary. But I don't expect them to sell to sixteen year old kids."
Why the hell not? Don't you see that is part of the problem?
I was buying Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis and Woody Herman records, along with David Bowie and Mott The Hoople when I was a teenager. Why? I wanted to learn. I was curious and it paid off. Why aren't 16 year olds curious now? Why can't a 16 year listen to Sloan and Jon Cleary?
There's the old Irving Berlin quote that people like to toss around:
"Popular music is popular because people like it," or something close to that.
I used to like that quote when I needed it to defend my love of a pop tune by Kelly Clarkson or Solange. But it's kind of a crap statement. Billions eat McDonald's every day and millions still smoke cigarette even though both are horrible for you.
And I was not criticizing anyone for not listening to the Bruce Springsteen record. I was criticizing those who criticized it without hearing it, and wondered why it made some who did listen to it so damn angry.
I don't think I listened to 10 albums made in 2022 , never mind trying to name" 10 best", not out of stubbornness or misplaced nostalgia , the enjoyment just wasn't there.
I like to comment here, but I'm always wrong.
If you were buying Sinatra and Bowie when you were sixteen, I think you were an outlier.
I didn't get to Sinatra until I was considerably older. He was my father's music in 1971. And the music he made at that time was hardly his best.
I agree that music today does not seem as good as in the past, but I don't really listen to enough of it to feel qualified to actually say that, and that means maybe I'm just a nostalgic curmudgeon.
Cleveland Jeff,
Sorry you feel you are always wrong. Not my intention. This is a conversation I love having and if we don't agree, we don't agree. That's not a reason to stop the conversation.
My father was listening to The Band and The Rascals in 1971. My cousins were listening to Traffic and CSN, as well as The Monkees when they were 12. I wrote a piece about ten years ago about growing up around people who listened to all types of music. My 50 year old Uncle in Brooklyn introduced Toots & The Maytals to me when I was 12.
I have a friend who is my age who played his 4 year old son Bruce and Petty and Elton and the Dead. Now his son is 10 and he loves all four, Petty the most.
I don't think I am an outlier. The people in my life, friends and relatives and friends of relatives, loved it all...doo wop, crooners, reggae, hard rock. I had the soundtrack to Superfly the week it came out. I wasn't yet a teenager. This is just my story. I'm sure there are millions with similar stories.
But this is veering off into a very different subject.
Great topic and great commentary, Sal. My time working in the retail record world was short, 77 - 82. It was easy for me to access the hits and the records that just never caught on, no matter how much I played them in the store.
There is too much "music" released now to even begin to keep up with. We are all fortunate that Sal writes about what has caught his attention.
Little Steven wrote that bands need to study the great songwriters to learn the songwriting craft as they are coming up. As Sal mentioned, these same bands should be paying attention to how music is recorded and produced also.
Is there an answer? We are all different in our tastes and the time we have to search for new music that excites us. I find satellite radio to be helpful with finding new music, but it's still challenging to find artists who can put together a collection of 8-10 songs worth listening to once.
I'm content to go back and rediscover music I missed over the past 50 years or more and check out the new music Sal offers his opinion on. I'm open to finding new music that moves me the way the albums on Sal's 1977 list did, and still do. I can do without the not bad.
Not Bad has always been with us, but great seems to be in particularly short supply these days.
You were lucky to have such a diverse group of influences when you were young.
I hope plenty of kids are having a similar experience these days.
By the way, I also listened to Marquee Moon yesterday.
They don't make 'em like that anymore, although they never made 'em like that except for that singular instance.
I think Mr BBJ puts it nice and succinctly. And as a twist on the end of your considered, well reasoned piece (plus a mention for one of my favourite 70s albums): "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band? Next. Great!" Cheers.....
I listened to a fair amount of new music to me but unfortunately they all came in some year in the path, some way back and some relatively current. I had never heard Cosmic Rough Riders, The Nude Party, Mommyheads, Squeeze's Play. I still listen to The Orange Peels double lp from last year. And I am loving Heroes and Villians Comp of Sound of LA. I don't remember Along Comes Mary sounding so garagey but it sounds great. Completely agree with the sentiment that there is way way too much product. You should feel pretty lucky when something sticks.
To Cleveland Jeff:
Actually there is an act that makes music to match the quality of Marquee Moon. It's Chris Forsyth and except for the ocasional weak vocals (not Tom Verlaine's strength either) it is often wonderful.Not okay but wonderful. Check him out.
Would anyone like to see my list of my favorite new acts of the 2000's? It's short but sweet and most could have come from the 1960's and 1970's.
Captain Al
I agree with you and the other posters that feel this way. It isn't as good. I'm not sure why it has degraded so much. Maybe for all of the reasons you and others speculated about.
I also don't think it's just about youth or the particular time of one's youth either. The reason I think I'm able to truly love so much music years and decades and centuries (classical) before the golden age of my own youth is that it's really, really good music. Once you build up a broad knowledge of what good music is, including 1977, current music is just so far beneath it that with the limited amount of time we all have it just makes more sense to try work your way through music from the past that you may not be familiar with because experience tells you the odds of finding something good or great are so much higher.
Whatever "new" music I hear never seems to grab me enough to follow up and explore more. I don't think that's not my fault. That doesn't mean that I've always liked all the music I do now instantly. Sometimes you have to give it a few spins. But in those cases I always felt pretty confident that if I did it would pay off and it mostly has (Trout Mask Replica excepted). Something made me want to give it a second or third or fourth listen. I don't get that feeling at all with the music of the last couple decades, not that I haven't tried. But to keep trying something that basically never pays off just feels like a waste of time when that wealth of amazing music is out there. It's also not my fault that music comes from the past. I would much prefer it was happing now.
It's a shame but I think that for whatever reason(s) the era of so much great music in a single year, year after year, is over and has been for quite some time.
So at some level, I agree with what you've said in the past -- there are no more gatekeepers like Seymour Stein, Jimmy Iovine, Berry Gordy, Mo Ostin, Don Kirshner etc -- label men from the big record companies who really decided what we were going to hear and -- dammit -- we learned to like it. We didn't have to look for it -- it's because that's all that there (really) was and all we had was the radio and American Bandstand, etc.
MTV opened the doors for the need for more visual product which opened the doors for a wider variety of music an more exposure to things you wouldn't have heard on American Radio. Then the internet blew those doors off the goddamn hinges. And I think we are all the better for it.
Without Pitchfork (which admittedly gets a lot of valid barbs thrown at it), I never would have discovered Sufjan Stevens, The New Pornographers, or other more current artists that I think are absolutely fantastic.
However -- we are coming out of Covid (well, you know what I mean...). Some (many, most?) records that have come out this year and last -- were never road-tested -- so they just went out. A lot of these Covid-period albums are pretty weak because of that, IMO. I can certainly hear it in the production and in some of the material (who knew so many musicians would get divorced during Covid because they couldn't hide out on the road...so they wrote about it and probably shouldn't have?)
But all that said -- I'm pretty sure looking at how many records I added to my personal collection that I liked -- nay *loved -- I will have 10 albums that I'd be happy to recommend unabashedly.. (But, no, "Midnights" won't be on it...) Did I have to go hunt for it? At some level, yes -- but finding that diamond in the rough is part of the thrill of taking chances.
Its true that every aspect of the music industry (record labels, radio, record stores, concerts) has changed pretty dramatically since the 1990s (not to mention the '70s), often for the worse. But I can't help but think that part of the problem is that the kind of people who in the '60s or '70s or '80s would have wanted to be in a band (for artistic expression, or to be famous, or to get laid) now have other outlets -- TV or video games or YouTube or TikTok. And many of the kids who in an earlier era would have spent their time and pocket money on music, and defined themselves by the bands and genres they listened to, now play games or binge shows or spend their time on social media.
Marc
The wonderful thing about great music is that you can listen to it over and over and over again, and it still sounds great. There's not too many other things you can experience like that.
How come I have to trundle over to Instagram to see Carmelita? Where's your loyalty to Burning Wood readers?
Randy
Captain Al,
Yes! Write up your list.
Those of us of a certain age (and boy, 70 is certain and certified) experienced music in
our youth that was a springboard to having big ears. I remember doing my paper route (and that certainly dates me) and listening to AM radio in L.A. (KHJ, KRLA and others) that would be playing The Troggs, Dean Martin, Standells, Tijuana Brass, Supremes and there was no classification, no need to say "now here's one for the rockers". "Strangers In The Night", followed by "Devil With The Blue Dress On". Today, that sort of segue seems like it would produce whiplash. It wasn't Boss Radio's mission, but crooners and fuzz guitars and surf music and lush instrumentals all have a place in my heart, and a sense that they and their children and grandchildren all can be appreciated, and some will stay loved, others I'll just wonder why. But most of all, my ears are open to the musical possibilities that follow, and to the foundations upon which it's all been built.
Captain Al,
Thanks for the heads up on Chris Forsyth.
And yeah, do your list!
You're right.
Re: old fogeys. I strongly disagree with those who suggest saying current music sucks is just a sign of old age. I think it's true for casual fans, people who only listen to the music they fell in love with at 17. But it's not true of lifers.
"Not Bad" is the new "great." I strongly disagree. I don't think most people believe an album with three or four tracks you like qualifies as one of the best albums of the year. Their taste might not be good but I believe most list-makers actually believe the music is great. I THINK Sal might be teeing off a bizarre comment I read somewhere in a best of the year list. Billboard? They referenced a massive double album by country breakout act Zach Bryan. It's a 34-track monster and the person including it on their list said, yeah, sure, no one can maintain incredible quality on a two and half hour 34 track album but in there you'll find 11 or so killer tracks. Uh, no thank you.
Young people don't listen to or care about classic rock, jazz, big band etc. -- Most people aren't that fanatic about diving deep into genres, Sal's family and circle excepted. And yet most people will loudly say they like ALL types of music. But I believe there is always a strong number of music fans (not a tiny, fanatical clique like us) a substantial small group of fans (contradictory, much?) who are passionate about music and eager to learn. There always will be.
Sal is right. Pop music today is nowhere as peak great as the music of the 1960s and 1970s. It's true. Says the guy who does listen to hundreds of albums looking for the rush of finding a new talent like Cecile McLorin Salvant or Sufjan Stevens or Tinariwen or The Tallest Man On Earth. You can still find them. My best albums of the year list runs to 30-40, year after year. But they don't compare. I think pop music's time as the epicenter of art has ended. That epicenter is ever-moving. In the 1930s and 1940s it was theater. That's where you flocked as an artist because that was the center of the world. Jazz? 1950s. Pop? 1960s and 1970s. Cinema -- the 1920s and 1930s and then the mid-1960s with Bonnie & Clyde to 1980. Ish. Books? Hmm, not sure when peak book was reached but you can read good books today and yet it ain't the center of the world. Video games had its day. TV was amazing in the 1970s and is truly amazing again today. Poetry? 1860s-1880s? I'm riffing now but you get the idea. They overlap but there's no doubt you can spot peak periods when painting flourished and rocked the world but you will always find great painters in any area. Movies are not where it's at right now. Not even close. I still love watching great new movies. But it's just as valid to keep exploring and watching the great movies of the past. Music just ain't where it's at right now.
I belong to a dorky group of movie lovers who get together every year and vote on the best films of the past year. Called The IRAs. Once a decade we vote on the best films of all time a la the Sight & Sound Poll. Once every other year we also challenge ourselves to vote on the best films of a past decade: the 1940s, the 1970s, the 1930s the 1980s. It's an excuse to dive deep, rediscover old pleasures and find some new ones (The 1980s was better than some of the older members imagined.) We love movies but we recognize the past is filled with riches we've barely plumbed. (Mind you, these guys write books, teach, deliver acclaimed bios of filmmakers etc so they're far beyond me.) Hey, Sal. You could pick a decade and say, Hey, I'm going to walk you through this year or this decade and dive deep in the New Year. It' would be a lot more fun than some of us trying to pan for gold in new releases when the vein of pop music is tapped out. I vote for the 1970s! Or a certain year!
I've got a lot to learn!~ My list of the Best Albums of 1977. So far! (it's a work in progress.)
THE BEST ALBUMS OF 1977
STEELY DAN -- Aja
DAVID BOWIE -- Low/Heroes
FLEETWOOD MAC -- Rumours
MEAT LOAF -- Bat Out Of Hell
ELVIS COSTELLO -- My Aim Is True
MUDDY WATERS -- Hard Again
SEX PISTOLS -- Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
THE SAINTS -- (I'm) Stranded
JOHN WILLIAMS -- Star Wars Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
ELTON JOHN -- Greatest Hits Volume 2
KRAFTWERK -- Trans Europe Express
LEON REDBONE -- On The Track
RAMONES -- Leave Home/Rocket To Russia
AL GREEN -- The Belle Album/Greatest Hits Vol. 2
UTOPIA/TODD RUNDGREN -- Oops! Wrong Planet
ROLLING STONES -- Live At The El Mocambo
WILLIE NELSON -- To Lefty From Willie
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS -- Exodus
KATE AND ANNA MCGARRIGLE -- Dancer With Bruised Knee
MERLE HAGGARD -- A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today
PETER TOSH -- Equal Rights
PAUL SIMON -- Greatest Hits, Etc.
TONY BENNETT AND BILL EVANS -- Together Again
THE CLASH -- The Clash
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Saturday Night Fever
EMMYLOU HARRIS -- Luxury Liner
JACKSON BROWNE -- Runnin' On Empty
GLENN GOULD -- The Quiet In The Land (available on The Solitude Trilogy)
P_.S. I'm listening to Cheap Trick debut right now!
I think we just came of age during a golden age in the recording industry. I think we came about at a time when making a record was the primary way musicians made money and so time and care was put into making a record. That's no longer the case. Clearly musicians do not become less talented in the space of 20-30 years. The difference is how records are made. And, as terrible as it may be to say, the record industry resulted in some amazing music.
I've always wished you had a comprehensive list of favorite albums of the year, year by year. Thanks for the list. I'll listen or relisten to the albums on yours that aren't on mine.
http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2015/05/best-albums-of-year-master-list.html
Do what's fun for you! Maybe it would be fun for you to say 2023 is the year of The 1973 Project, where you dive again into 1973 and share your love for albums as you listen to them again and what strikes you about them today. Or tell us an album or two you'll listen to that week on Monday and then talk about them on Friday. Though having someone slag an album you love might drive you nuts! But whatever you do, we'll keep looking at what you're listening to and get ideas for what we should check out next.
Reckless - Morgan Wade
The Liar - Johe Fullbright
Four - Bill Frisell
Otherwise, I’ve been listening to older Bill Frisell after reading his biography and old Irma Thomas.
I guess I really am old.
"Though having someone slag an album you love might drive you nuts."
@Michael Giltz
Are you kidding? People have been slagging the shit I love on this blog since day one. Rundgren, Queen, Bruce, Bowie, reggae, Judas Priest and most recently Wet Leg.
Some do it the right way, so I don't notice.
Others...well....
(Great stuff, BTW. Sorry I focused on this.)
It's the 50th anniversary of 1973! I'd love for you to riff on that year in 2023, sharing what makes each album special, pointing us to ones we never heard and revealing new aspects of the ones we have. I'm sure I'm missing a lot from my list!
THE BEST ALBUMS OF 1973
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS -- Catch A Fire/Burnin'
HARRY NILSSON -- A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night
PINK FLOYD -- The Dark Side Of The Moon
JOHN MARTYN -- Solid Air
THE CARPENTERS -- The Singles 1969-1973
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN -- The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
STEVIE WONDER -- Innervisions
PAUL SIMON -- There Goes Rhymin' Simon
MARVIN GAYE -- Let's Get It On
DOLLY PARTON -- My Tennessee Mountain Home
TODD RUNDGREN -- A Wizard, A True Star
DAVID BOWIE -- Aladdin Sane
HALL & OATES -- Abandoned Luncheonette
BETTYE SWANN -- The Complete Atlantic Recordings
GRAM PARSONS -- GP
IRMA THOMAS -- In Between Tears
NEW YORK DOLLS -- New York Dolls
DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES -- Anthology
PAUL MCCARTNEY -- Band On The Run
AL GREEN -- Call Me/Livin' For You
THE TEMPTATIONS -- Anthology
BOBBY SHORT -- Bobby Short Is C-R-A-Z-Y For Gershwin
ELTON JOHN -- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
MOTT THE HOOPLE -- Mott
BILLY JOEL -- Piano Man
THE SPINNERS -- The Spinners
THE FOUR TOPS -- 19 Greatest Hits
@Michael Giltz
""Not Bad" is the new "great." I strongly disagree. I don't think most people believe an album with three or four tracks you like qualifies as one of the best albums of the year."
This might ruffle a few feathers, but my title isn't referring to records with a few great songs being called amazing. It's about people settling for a lot less and treating okay albums with the same reverance as "Blonde On Blonde."
Ahh, I misunderstood. Here's a modest thought: my list of the best albums of 2020 is sincere. I don't include stuff that's just not bad and I don't compare the albums to Blonde on Blonde or say such and such a band is the new Beatles. However, in 30 years time, maybe I WILL have cut out a third of the albums I listened to. Or even half. (And def added in some.)
My list of the best albums of 1992 and 1982 and 1972 and 1962 are albums I loved at the time (or the first time I heard them)...and they've stood the test of time. I've had DECADES to live with them, road test them, turn to them again and again. My list at the time for the 10 best movies of 1982 certainly has some stuff I don't include now. Time The Avenger.
Give my list of 2022 a few decades and it will be winnowed down, added to and much stronger than it is today. Though STILL not as strong as 1972 because those were the days of peak pop.
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