Timbale

Rumours is sublime pop music. Most of Hotel California is overwrought balladry. A couple of the rockers are good (although I never need to hear them ever again) but songs like New Kid In Town and Wasted Time make my skin crawl. Fleetwood Mac by a (non)country mile.

I voted for 3 albums - Rush, Test For Echo and Snakes and Arrows. I know Rush is beloved in its way...but for me I didn't hear that record until I knew most of their 70s and early 80s stuff, and so I could appreciate it as a kind of museum piece - a "this is where they came from and how far they've come" album. I still feel that way about it - it's kind of a novelty album to me. I have nostalgia for it, because I was a Rush freak and so of course listened to it tons of times anyway...but I will never pull it out to listen to it now unless it's "memory lane" time. If it was my intro to the band, I would have found it too generic and boring. Test For Echo goes on the list because I think it's bland, by the numbers, and pretty much the only Rush album in their discography that I think is totally non-essential. If it didn't exist, I just don't think it would change the trajectory of the band at all...which I don't think you can say for any of their other records. It just feels pretty empty of inspiration..and if I'd heard it first it would not have made much of an impression. Snakes & Arrows is tough, because I remember, like, a snippet somehow of Far Cry being on the internet before the record came out (on their website maybe?) and thinking, oh my, they're back to making some kick ass music. And I think that opening song delivers. But the rest of the album is a slog for me, a mid-tempo, all-the-songs-sound-the-same trudge. If I'd heard it first it would have made little impression on me...save for that killer opener. I think, unlike a bunch of people here, a lot of the 80s stuff WOULD have had me checking out the rest of their catalogue. A record like Hold Your Fire to me is somewhat unique...a sort of progressive pop akin to what Yes and Genesis were up to at the time, which was stuff I liked. I listened to hard rock like Sabbath and Zep at the time...but I also listened to Howard Jones, Talking Heads and Art Of Noise...and Rush's use of synths mixed with a kick ass rhythm section and an unusual lead guitarist was a very enticing mixture to me.

I guess I could say I've seen solos as good...but certainly not better. This is really something...

I agree that these are pretty cliche 70's choices, and "rock" is such a wider palette than these type of lists give credit for. Personally, I think most of these belong on a top 100 list for sure, but for me Van Halen is in no way a top ten album or band. They're just on a different tier from The Stones, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, etc. My opinion, of course. I think the thing with the Last Waltz is...it's the most "rock" of their output, in terms of being the closest thing to hard rock. So, if you're gonna have a list with Zep and Van Halen on it, there isn't another Band record that remotely fits...and I think whoever the hell wrote the list feels that The Band is important enough that they belong on a list with The Beatles, Stones, Who etc (which I agree with). But to your point about rock "expanding"...the Band, along with Dylan (who's not on the list!) essentially created the Americana or Roots Rock genre, which clearly has HUGE influence and ripples through modern rock music. But if you put Big Pink or the self-titled album (which would be my pick) on a list like this, it seems not "rock" enough to be included.

All Things by a large margin. I like Imagine, particularly Jealous Guy and How Do You Sleep, but George's record is one for the ages. I would find those poll a tiny bit harder if it were up against Plastic Ono Band, which I think is superior to Imagine. But George would still take it.

Wow - that's super cool. Getting to see even a bit of Neil's solo circa '76 is a little mind blowing.

Yeah, by the time of The Last Waltz, he was so inconsistent night to night. You can find the full night's performance here and there...and a few of the tunes that he sang that didn't make the album/film are pretty awful. But then, what - 2 weeks before? - they go on SNL and he sings a version of Georgia On My Mind that is breathtaking. My god. He was also pretty special in that both his falsetto and full voice were equally amazing. As you said, when he belted it, he sounded like Ray Charles. But when he went up into that upper register (Lonesome Suzie, Whispering Pines) it broke your heart in a whole other way. I'm gonna put on Big Pink now.

Yeah, I don't mind it on Counterparts...it's a little overdriven for my taste, but not distracting. He's going for a thing with it, and I think he achieves it in a musical way, even if it isn't my fave of his tones. But I totally agree with the 2000s stuff (his solo album not withstanding...) - it's just too much for me. I've mentioned this elsewhere....but it makes me think of John Entwhistle's sound in the later part of his career. Early on, he got that awesome level of drive from having his amp at insane levels of volume - you can tell it is an amp being overdriven. But as those guys aged, and I'm sure the need for lower stage volumes became a priority, you can hear that he's using "distortion" instead of drive...and it is not the same. it's a very processed sound. And while Geddy's thing sounds a bit more organic...it's similarly too much of a 'rock guitar' sound for me.

For sure - such a talent. It really is astonishing that The Band had 3 lead singers...each of whom was just an unbelievable singer. Most bands don't have one singer that good.

Levon Helm!

I always thought the PRS guitars were kinda lame...like from a stupid, ""they don't look cool or classic" way...and I loved when he started playing Les Paul's again. But when I really listen back...Alex's foray back into Gibson is actually TOO heavy for me a lot of the time, too muddy and big. The guitar tone on this live track is just so perfect - heavy but not grungy and taking up too much of the frequency so the other instruments can also shine. So good.

I wish Counterparts had a bit more proggy-ness to it. The songs, for my taste, are all quite good...but I agree with you that few better the great Dreamline and Bravado. (Maybe Cut To The Chase...) The songs on CP mostly just find a thing and stick to it - I wish they were more "part"y. But..again for my taste, there aren't any songs on CP that are as bad as Face Up or as bland as Big Wheel or Heresy. And while both things are a bit embarrassing to me...the rap in RTB is worse than the spoken part of Double Agent - and Double Agent (not my fave song at all) at least takes some interesting chances.

It does surprise me - I would have expected something much more clever...some play on words or something. I'm not a prude and don't care if he swears, but it seems out of character to me.

I am definitely a bigger fan of Geddy's 80s-90s vocal choices than his 70s stuff. Of course I have a love for all the 70s records, and there is total classic material there...but hearing him screech at the end of Cygnus hasn't really aged all the well for me. I really have to be in a "retro" mood to crank songs like that up. I think he sings quite well on HYF through RTB as well. I just think there's a warmth and relaxed nature to his vocals on Signals that is not matched anywhere else. In comparison (I'm talking subtle differences...), I find HYF and Presto a little more brittle and cold. "You move me, you move me" from Analog Kid...it just goes straight to my heart. Same with all of Losing It. It's sort of a tough call between Counterparts and RTB, I guess. I do think Counterparts is more consistently good, although there are some forgettable tunes on there too. For me RTB starts so promisingly, with the awesome 1 2 punch of Dreamline and Bravado (both some of Geddy's best vocal performances!)...but then it just sinks for me. Ghost Of A Chance is a bit of a bright light later in the record, but otherwise it's uninspiring. Alien Shore, Double Agent or Everyday Glory are not in my top 10 Rush songs...but they are WAY better than Face Up, Heresy or Neurotica. Although it's an 80s album...I actually prefer Presto as an overall listening experience to RTB...

I remember that feeling with Keith Richards' "new" album Crosseyed Heart....it was like a really enjoyable 33 minute album...that ran 58 minutes. 🙄😂

I feel this quite often as well.

That's really up front! Can you see yourself in the GUP video?!

My mistake...it wasn't in order of release and I missed it. :)

You'd think the bass player from Genesis would have more sympathy for a band stretching out and progressing.... 😉 Seems like a lot of people felt like that at the time. Mourning the loss of a "rock" band for whatever they were becoming. The review looks pretty silly now.

It was interesting to see the albums categorized that way...when you put Permanent Waves in the 80s (which I guess technically it is) for me it makes that decade tower over the 70s. PeW, MP, ESL and Signals in a row?! What a run... I picked Hemispheres for the 70's - it is the best side long piece by quite a margin for me...and although the Trees is a pretty silly song lyrically to me now as an adult, side 2 is still super solid. The 80s was super hard, but Signals continues to be a super special album for me...and I think it is the best singing Geddy did in the whole catalogue. The drumming, and drum sound, is also arguably Peart's best work. Stellar...but obviously PeW and MP are no slouches... (also, you missed ESL in the poll...I might have picked it just barely above Signals...) The 90s I went with Counterparts. I don't listen to it very often at all..but I think I like it better than the other choices. RTB has a few good songs...but a bunch of forgettable filler to me. T4E, again, for my taste, is really their most forgettable album. Not even their worst maybe...but it just could cease to exist and it would make little impact. The 2000s....I picked CA...but that's mostly for The Garden and maybe Caravan a bit. All the 2000s stuff is pretty middling to me. The Garden sticks out. Far Cry does, too...but the rest of that album is a slog to me, so CA gets the vote.

i/o by Peter Gabriel. One of his new songs. I am obsessed by it.

Peter Gabriel. He is releasing a song a month this year (on every full moon) until by the end of the year a whole new album is out. There are 5 new songs at this point, and they are really good! I am obsessed by them...particularly, at the moment i/o. I love that he is still making great music.

I love, and am very familiar with the live Deep End version of this cover…but this version, which only seems to be available on YouTube, tops it for me. It’s magical…and I think recorded at the height of his singing abilities…

The first Scoop was the moment for me of realizing that The Who were not a “normal” band who jammed stuff out to come up with songs. The were a hard rock band with a singer/songwriter at the centre of it all…who really really worked it all out. I adore a bunch of the Scoop songs that didn’t end up anywhere else.

Sparklehorse