11. Jethro Tull: Songs From The Wood (1977): The Revenge Of The Mad Flutist

"Songs From The Wood" was the first Jethro Tull album I ever heard, back in 1982 when I borrowed it (and "A") from a classmate at school. Thus, I have been hooked by the Mad Flutist Ian Anderson and his troops för 37 years now - and counting.

What was it that made this album so great? Well, firstly, the songs - inventive, melodic, driving, with lyrics full of everything from environmental awareness through myth to wistful romance and even sexual innuendo. Secondly, the way they were played - from a capella folk to classic hard rock and back, sometimes within the same song; if nothing else, the arrangements were unique. And thirdly, the way they were sung. I really like Ian Anderson's voice, just as much as his songwriting and head for arrangements. I did like "A" as well, but that's another of a line of stories I'll be coming back to.

This is one of the precious few records I have heard that are classics almost song by song. I won't boe you with all of them, but rather just state that the A-side of the album is great - from the hymn-like title track and the mischievous "Jack-In-The-Green" to the rather rollicking "Hunting Girl" - but the B-side is even better, containing no less than three timeless Tull classics.

First, "Velvet Green" is a blend of a hauntingly beautiful melody, a story of a secret romantic alliance - interspersed with a rather frantic instrumental section pulling out all the stops, then coming round full circle. "Pibroch (Cap In Hand)" is similarly built but even more intricate - the verses are pure blues, Martin Barre's guitar expressing the anguish - and once again, the mad flutist and his mery men butt in with another frantically folksy part, stanging out in even stronger contrast but somehow not breaking the air of sorrow - the narrator, seeing the strange boots in the hallway and the slippers by the fire, putting his cap back on and walking away.

And then comes the finale, "Fire At Midnight", a sweet little tale of coming home after the working day, a lovely tune carried by an exquisitely down-toned arrangement literally lovingly played. A modern classic of less than three minutes, in my books.

Whence the revenge? Well, after a first brace of well-received classics such as "Aqualung", "Benefit" and "Thick As A Brick" by 1972, Ian Anderson seemingly lost his way among ill-conceived thematic works, abandoned album sessions and brawling with critics, and some of JT's mid-seventies work perhaps wasn't really good - but this record reinvented the band and put them back on top, where they belonged.

10. Billy Bremner: Bash! (1984): The Man With The Voice - The Third Rock In The Pile

Rockpile never got round to make more than one album under the band name, but I reckon I have more than albums of good music in my collection, made by one or more members of the group. Nick Lowe heads the pack in numbers, Dave Edmunds takes second place, but this Billy Bremner album (one of two I own) just may be the best of them all. His later catalogue, much of it recorded in Sweden with Swedish musicians, may sound a bit tired to my ears - but not so this gem.

I like the sheer power and rolling ease of the band, the production that sounds natural for 1984 - a little Rockpile, perhaps a touch of Squeeze, and I like the songs. Some of them may be rather average, but most have a clear hit potential. Most of all I like his voice - its warm yet powerful, at best it kind of soars above the music like a bird, without losing any of its grit and earthiness. Ah, I can't find the right words for what makes it so good - you have to dig out the album and listen for yourselves.

Among the musical highlights I especially want to mention the Elvis Costello-penned matrimonial drama "Shatterproof", the amusing Drifters-wordplay pastiche "Tired And Emotional (And Probably Drunk)", the nostalgically wistful "The Boat That's Sunk A Thousand Ships" and "Losing My Touch" - especially the latter one is a great showcase for that voice. And it has to be said, that most of the songs sound like they were written just for him - those long vowels that he can wrap himself around to great effect - but on the other hand, the style and soundscape are varied enough to make this a perfect pop record anyway, covering a lot of styles but tying them together in one entity.

Thirtyfive years later, the man is still active - in fact, he played in two of my hometowns just a month ago, but I was of course abroad just then - but nothing he has done since this album measures up to what he came up with here and as a member of Rockpile. To add insult to injury, my own copy, bought straight upon its release, is the only actual copy of this album I have ever seen. I know that it's been re-released on CD, and you can find it on Spotify - and I would love to see more people boast and brag about having it. So if you find a copy somewhere, buy it at once! 

9. Rockpile: Seconds Of Pleasure (1980): Fine Fine Fine

My first encounter with the fine gentlemen in the group Rockpile must have been seeing them in the Concerts for Kampuchea show, then buying the soundtrack and realizing that the Beatles weren't the only band around relying on more than one brilliant singer/player/somgwriter - and all of this resulted in "Seconds Of Pleasure" becoming one of the first records I even bought quite soon after its release. I remember being a bit underwhelmed at first listen, but also that repeated play made me recognize and appreciate the fineries that filled this splendid helping of rock music.

What's so good about it, then? Well, the playing is plain delicious - the wacka-wacka of the guitars, the relentless drive of Terry Williams' drums, the sometimes slighly quirky yet always swinging arrangements. The singing is also a treat - Dave Edmunds is a good rock singer, yet only my third choice in this line-up behind the more melancholy and versatile pipes of Nick Lowe and above all the spine-tinglingly soaring voice of Billy Bremner at his best.

And the songs are simply great - from basic fast numbers like "Teacher Teacher" and "Fool Too Long" and the spectacular "Heart" and "(You Ain't Nothing But) Fine Fine Fine", ornamented by Billy's vocals, to the clever wordplay of "When I Write The Book" and the heartfelt "Now And Always". There are no two songs alike, yet the album is a distinctive entity as a whole. As a bonus, the twelve tunes clock in at classic album length, somewhere aroung the 36 minute mark. No chance to ge bored - rather, short and sharp enough to be spun another round on the fly.

Rockpile never got round to releasing another album as an official band - but I soon learned there was plenty of music to be found involving the same gentlemen, and at least two more albums that in practice were Rockpile even though they were released as solo efforts. I will get back to those at another time - for now, I'll pick this album off the shelf and play it another time.
And BTW, this is one of the hidden gems you can't find on Spotify. Buy it instead!

8. The Kinks: Sleepwalker (1977): The Champion of Commentary Strikes Again

Looking back at the history of rock music, one could argue that quite a lot of it actually was invented by Ray Davies and the Kinks, even though the style originates from the blues and its' derivatives in the US. The Kinks were prime movers in hard rock ("You Really Got Me", anyone?), satirical social commentary (basically any Kinks track with a title that goes ".... Man" among others), thematic albums, and fusing styles from music hall nostalgia to punk. Even though I don't claim this to be the only true interpretation of rock history, I do believe one can be pretty sure that the Kinks mostly were ahead of the field when looking at and jumping into new styles and effects.

I also think that some of the earlier Kinks catalogue carried fairly ham-fisted musical results, but the sometimes mediocre musicianship was more than outweighed by the wit of the writer - for 50 years and counting Ray Davies has been doing three-minute snapshots of the oddities of life today in an identifiable and inimitable manner.

Sometimes the results have carrried the whole album - and by the late 70's the musicianship had been brought up to par as well. Thus, "Sleepwalker" stands out among the latter part of the Kinks catalogue as a nearly complete collection of modern popular music. I'm not sure exactly how the record fared on the charts, but 1977 was a tough time for the establishment - but I believe Ray Davies was one of the most revered old guys still around at the time. 

The songs speak for themselves. The coming to age of the boy in "Life On The Road", the contempt for the former friend who made it big in "Mr. Big", the themes of mental turmoil and disturbances in the title track, "Sleepless Night" and "Full Moon", the comforting ending with "Life Goes On" - in fact each one of the album's nine tracks is worth a mention on its own merits. Ray Davies may not be the greatest singer in the world, but he is a great interpreter of his own lyrics. And even though some of the songs suggest a character not totally happy and content, there is still a glimmer of hope at the end.

Add to this the beauty and dynamism of the arrangements, with their beautiful interplay between acoustic and electric guitar, the keyboards - and the deceptibily easy flow of the melodies, and you have a near-perfect end product. Some of the later Kink albums showcase almost as good a set of songs as this one, but not quite - and at times, the old power-chord overdepemdence takes them down a notch. Not this one, though - "Sleepwalker" is a jewel in the crown of the Champion of Commentary.

7. Radio Kings: Money Road (1998): The Blues Is Alive (Part 2)

One of the best things about popular music from a fan's viewpoint is its abundance. Just when you thought you knew most of the names worth to know, somebody comes along and widens your horizon. Today this is easy - just lean back and browse Spotify - but back in the good old days my favourite way of finding something new was to go to the library and pick up something I didn't know.

That's how I found Radio Kings - an American white boy blues band, who apparently have recorded at least one more album alongside this one, but who never quite made the big time as far as I know. Their relative obscurity cannot be explained by a lack of quality - this album has all the most inportant traits to make it into a favourite. A good singer, adequate players as far as I can judge, good and varying tunes (which isn't a given thing in the world of contemporary blues) and a nice, lively and breathing sound palate.

Three of the songs have a special place in my heart; the slow blues "My Day Of Reckoning (Has Finally Come)", which combines a forceful vocal with quite fresh chord and melody lines, the rolling midtempo starter "I Can't Win", which is another tour de force for singer/harpist Brian Templeton - a man with a blues voice and presence in the Kim Wilson/Sugar Ray Norcia mode, and "The Shelf"; another slow blues, perhaps a bit more conventional, but which has well written and eloquent lyrics on the theme of being cast aside.

That doesn't mean that the rest is filler. As I write this, I'm listening to "Money In Her Pocket", an easy-rolling midtempo number built on Templeton's voice and harp - all ingredients are traditional, but the mix is fresh. The overall feeling of this album is that it by and large avoids the clichés of the genre, the band has a pleasantly warm yet firm sound, the solos are kept in moderate fashion, and the tunes are great examples of how the blues is so much more than twelve bars of whining about lost love and opportunities.

On the other hand, as the world looks today, it's no wonder that the blues is alive and well...

6. Robert Cray: Shame + A Sin (1993): The Blues Is Alive And It's Got A Lot Of Soul

I like the blues, its' minor keys and the feeling of cleansing when listening to it or singing it. And I like soul, its' beat and passion. And when these two are combined and performed in a suitably modern yet timeless fashion, respecting the tradition but trusting your own vision, it makes for some of the best music I know.

And for the past thirty or so years, one of the beacons of this kind of music has been Robert Cray. He did not invent the genre, but time after time he has come up with some of the most compelling blue sounds of their time. He has evidently been able to gain a recognition and following that many of his peers were denied. And he has made a pile of great records, among which this one is my biggest favourite.

"Shame + A Sin" highlights all of his strengths. He is a great singer - partly because he knows his limits and stays within them, but mostly because his voice is both warm and expressive within its understated delivery. He is one of my favourite guitarists, both because of his appealing tone and becuase he also knows when not to play. And he and his bandmates write great songs, combining lyrics that often deal with traditional themes of the blues with a contemporary twist and tunes that don't let the boundaries of traditional blues constrain them - and these elements meet in arrangements that are both light and tight, suited for both sunlight and darkness.

There are many tunes I love on this record. The ominous "Leave Well Enough Alone" with its distinctive bassline, the classic slow "Passing By", the Waitsily rolling "Stay Go", the atmospheric "I Shiver", the driving "Some Pain, Some Shame" - in fact every song on this album has some quirk or detail of its own that makes it stand out in some sense. And even though the tempos are varied, and the arrangements feature tasteful keys and touches of horns added to the traditional trio, the album makes for a distinct entity as well.

And when the last sounds of the quietly dramatic closer "Up And Down" fade away, you can choose either to press the replay button for some more of that sweet sound - or to pick another of his great albums, from "Bad Influence" and "Strong Persuader" from the 80s, the follow-up to this album "Some Rainy Morning" from the 90s, the slightly modernized "Time Will Tell" from the oughties, or the rejuvenated "Nothin' But Love" from a few years back. Or any other one of his albums, if truth be told; blues that's very much alive and full of soul.

PS. This album isn't on Spotify - hence I can only offer a teaser, I Shiver, from his Definitive Collection. All the more reason, then, to secure a copy of the album :)

5. The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965): Not A Track Too Much

My first eight albums were made by the Beatles - and the first one I ever bought was "Rubber Soul". This happened in December, 1978, so my romance with this LP has been going on for 40 years - and I still count it as one of the best pop albums ever made. It was recorded at a stage when the four young men from Liverpool had perfected the art of the two-and-a-half-minute pop song, but not yet succumbed to the lure of gurus and such, so in a way it represents the pinnacle of their career for me, and it is the most timeless of their albums.

In 1965, albums weren't thought of as artistic entities; rather, they were put out when there was enough stuff to fill the sides, and questions such as choice and sequencing of tracks were less important. The Beatles had good songs in abundance; they released more than 30 tracks in 1965 alone, a good number of which were self-penned originals to boot. Against this background "Rubber Soul" stands out even more - in my opinion it is one of the most brilliant collections of pop ever released.

There are the hits, of course - the romantic "Michelle", the Greek-flavoured "Girl", the feast of well-synchronised vocals that is "Nowhere Man", the Sharp "Drive My Car" and the atmospheric "Norwegian Wood". Each one of these songs is a classic in its own right, but they don't stand out on the album. In my ears, there are just as many album tracks worth mentioning: The ominously driving "Run For Your Life" - whose lyrics sound quite off today, so not all of the album has aged brilliantly - the soulful "The Word", the early Harrison-penned gem of "Think For Yourself", the majestically flowing "You Won't See Me".

The true crown of the record, though, is "Wait". This song has many of the hallmarks of a Beatles classic - the great melody, the well-arranged and -sounding vocals, the small hooks like the tambourine in the breaks, and the dynamic - in short, it's a song that many a group would have given an arm and a guitarist for, but the Fab Four could hide it somewhere on the flipside.

All over the record there are small pleasures like unusual instruments - starting from the sitar, but so far only in a supporting role, and Paul's lovely basslines, the vocals, of course - and the undisputed fact that there's a new, good song every three minutes, all different from each other but still parts of an unmistakable entity; the Beatles managed, at this stage, to sound personal and varied yet distinct. That, for me, is the formula for the perfect pop album; there's not a track too much - something that some of their later albums didn't match, great though they were.

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