Music: Flashback -- The Best Albums of 1968 Continued - Part 2 of 2

By Noah Mallin

Here's the last installment of our survey featuring 1968's best albums.


11) The Kinks – Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks were one of The Beatles most serious rivals in 1964, with singer Ray Davies capable of writing more and better songs than the Stones still nascent Jagger-Richards combo. By 1968 a dispute with the musicians union in the United States was preventing them from touring and a whole spate of other bands and sounds had eclipsed Ray Davies' still formidable writing prowess and his brother Dave's guitar skills. Village Green was The Kinks turning their backs on the United States and centering their songs on particularly British subjects emerging with a record that was a commercial flop but has become the most beloved in their venerable catalog.



12) Sly and The Family Stone – Life
Life was Sly and The Family Stone's third album, and their second of 1968. Where their first two albums had a great deal of filler this one showed the depth of Sly Stone's vision while it's optimism was as yet undimmed. The lack of big hits actually contributes to the unified feel of the record. The punchy drums and fuzztoned guitars point the way to funk while still retaining the immediacy of great pop.




13) Family - Music in a Doll's House
Family were a sadly underrated band who made several solid albums in the late 60s and early 70s including this, their debut. Their blues based background was typical of the British scene that spawned Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds, and others, as was their fondness for blending it with jazz and folk flourishes. What set them apart was the sharpness of their playing and arranging and their intricate band composed songs. It doesn't hurt that Traffic's Dave Mason and Stones producer Jimmy Miller were on hand to deliver an atmospheric and rich sound. At times they rock as hard as Led Zeppelin would barely a year later.



14) The Doors – Waiting For The Sun
This is not the Doors' best album but even a middling effort from them was pretty damn cool. "Hello I Love You" is sleazy stuff delivered with a knowing leer, "The Unknown Soldier" is as harsh an indictment of Vietnam as the band would deliver, that is until you get to "Five to One", the records hard rocking highlight. Some of the ballads undoubtedly bring out the worst in Morrison's pretentious writing and delivery but fail to sink the album.



15) Velvet Underground – White Light/ White Heat
Lou Reed and John Cale jettisoned Nico and her sponsor/band Svengali Andy Warhol by the time their second album White Light/White Heat came out. Even more polarizing than the first album it goes from mellow drones like "Here She Comes Now" to the skronk of "I Heard Her Call my Name" to the head ripping fierceness of the 17 minutes plus "Sister Ray." This is not to mention Cale's two showcases, the hilariously twisted shaggy-dog story of "The Gift" and the mesmerizing "Lady Godiva's Operation." This album laid down a gauntlet that the Stooges and Modern Lovers would later pass down to the first punk rockers. It would also be Cale's last studio album with the band.



16) Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – We’re Only In It For The Money
Like the Velvets, Frank Zappa found the whole peace and love hippy vibe of 1967 to be totally alien and even repugnant. We're Only in it For The Money was his dystopian masterpiece, swinging a bat at the head of the counterculture and the establishment. Even better was his re-purposing of 50s and 60s doo-wop and R & B to underpin songs like "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" (your brain, natch.)



17) Cream – Wheels of Fire
Cream were a far from perfect band and the overlong 2 LP set Wheels of Fire is a far from perfect album. The high points do represent some of the band's best work including "White Room" and "As You Said." The live stuff on the second record is often over indulgent but "Crossroads" shows off guitarist Eric Clapton's legendary playing to great effect.



18) Gilberto Gil – Gilberto Gil
Gil was one of the leading lights of the "tropicalia" movement that was taking Brazil by storm in 1968. This, his second album was a strong driving work with a particular rock bent. The sound of the record sometimes feels akin to coming across a band like The Animals playing carnival music. In fact Brazil's military junta felt that his openness to new sounds was such a threat that he and Caetono Veloso (see Part One) were both jailed at the end of the decade. Gil would flee to the UK in the early 70s before returning.



19) Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Controversial both at the time of its release and today, Sweetheart of The Rodeo found Gram Parson's joining the Byrds and taking over the direction of the band. The sound not surprisingly veered to traditional country, seen as a bastion of the establishment in 1968 music circles. In addition Parsons was a wealthy high-living trust-fund kid which still leads to charges of cultural slumming for daring to tackle the Louvin Brothers "The Christian Life" and Merle Haggard's "Life in Prison". Bushwah says I. Sweethearts is a landmark of country rock and Parsons comes to the music with love and appreciation.In addition the countryfied cover of soul classic "You Don't Miss Your Water" is flat out genius.


20) Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Unlike the Byrds, no-one ever questioned Johnny Cash's legitimacy or right to sing songs of prison life. Cash feeds off the energy of his literally captive audience and they feed of the dark despair at the heart of so many of his best songs. An indelibly great performance.

Music: Flashback - The Best Albums of 1968 Part One of Two

By Noah Mallin

Continuing on our trip 40 years back into the tumultuous past, here is part one of the best albums of 1968 in no order whatsoever.

1) Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
Most soul albums at this time were collections of big hit singles with lesser tracks sprinkled in as filler. A few performers were so good that even their minor tracks made for a great album experience and Aretha was one of them. 1967 was the year she burst onto the scene on Atlantic records after an unhappy stint at Columbia. Lady Soul includes a few of that previous year's hits like the impassioned "Chain of Fools." It also includes the groundbreaking "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" a song described by critic Dave Marsh as an ode to the female orgasm. Even her cover of The Rascal's "Groovin" finds her in peak form with a suitably clever re-arrangement that brings out the soulfulness in the song.


2) Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
The Rolling Stones made the first flop of their carrier with 1967's Sgt. Pepper's aping LP Their Satanic Majesties Request. They also found themselves at odds with founding member Brian Jones who seemed to still think himself as the band's leader despite Jagger and Richards writing the vast bulk of their original material. Beggar's Banquet was repped as their return to roots, a popular notion in 1968 (rivals The Beatles would begin recording their own back to basics album by the end of the year, the aborted Get Back which would see the light of day in 1970 as Let it Be.) It's hard to describe this as a return to the blues of their early albums because the band had utterly transcended imitation to discover their own gritty supercharged sound. Beggar's would be the first of four classic albums that represent the peak of the band's achievements. Beggar's features almost no playing by Jones, with the guitars overdubbed brilliantly by Keith Richards. The highlight of the album is arguably "Sympathy For The Devil" but "Street Fighting Man", "No Expectations" and "Jigsaw Puzzle" are just a few of the major tracks here.




3) Dr. John - Gris-Gris
Dr. John was just one of the many incredible performers who learned their trade in the music clubs of New Orleans. Starting in the late 50s he plied his barrelhouse piano skills from clubs to bars across the city. For his first album Gris-Gris he had already dubbed himself "The Night Tripper" and fused elements of psychedelia, traditional New Orleans R & B , voodoo nuttiness, and whatever else popped into his head. After 40 years as a recording artist this is still the most compelling and far-out record in his catalog with the 7-minute plus "I walk on Guilded Splinters" a particular treat.



4) Caetano Veloso – Tropicalia

The entire Brazilian music scene was in a major creative upheaval in 1968 and Veloso was at the forefront of the new sounds. Intending Tropicalia to be Brazil's answer to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album Veloso and his collaborators jammed in pop, rock and psychedelic production flourishes to create a whole new genre that would come to be named after the song "Tropicalia." Technically the album was one of several untitled LP's Veloso would release but it is usually referenced by the name Tropicalia.

5) Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Van Morrison cut the cord from his garage band Them with his first record for Warner Bros, Astral Weeks. The lush, long songs take folk into jazz and classical directions, expertly arranged and played. In many ways the current "freak folk" of Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens can find it's roots in the expositional meanderings of Astral Weeks.


6) The Band – Music From Big Pink
The blandly named The Band earned their chops as The Hawks playing backup for rocker Ronnie Hawkins in the early 60s. When Bob Dylan wiped out in a motorcycle accident he joined them in their house in Woodstock New York, Big Pink, and laid down reels of music that later found release legit and otherwise as The Basement Tapes. Their first album as a unit defined the back to basics aesthetic that inspired many musicians in 1968, the timeless melodies and straightforward approach of songs like "The Weight" and "In a Station" suggesting tunes going back a century or more. This was heightened by the Levon Helms and Rick Danko's timeworn voices and the inventively simple instrumentation.


7) The Outsiders - CQ
The Dutch are well-known for all kinds of hedonism but rocking out (Golden Earring notwithstanding) is not one of them. The Outsiders are one of the great unsung bands of the 60s, a garage band that found their own way to integrate psychedelia and even pensive folk elements into their albums without losing site of great hooks and crunchy guitars. CQ was sadly their last album and also their best.


8) The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland
Hendrix had exploded onto London's music scene in 1967 with a series of mindbending live shows and two stellar albums. By 1968 he was a superstar and looked to push his bandmates to their limits and beyond for what would prove to be their last album together, the double LP Electric Ladyland. The record is famed for the "underwater" sound Hendrix pushed for, with radical studio tricks matching his wildly fierce guitar playing. His cover of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" was so revelatory that Dylan himself essentially covers Hendix's version when he plays it live.


9) The Beatles – The Beatles
Like the Stones, the Beatles had also received their first setback in 1967.After the huge success of Sgt. Pepper's they conceived the television film Magical Mystery Tour, released at the end of the year to a critical savaging. An ill-fated retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi did have a salutary effect on the band's songwriting with each member coming back with a clutch of songs (even Ringo had two!). The Beatles a double LP popularly known as The White Album after the stark white sleeve, showed the unwillingness to whittle down what each songwriter had. In fact the band had become backing musicians to whoever's song was being recorded on a particular day. This led to their most varied and for some most fascinating record yet. A young Jann Wenner described it as encompassing the whole of popular music up to that time and with heavy proto metal like "Helter Skelter" jostling with the gorgeous psych-folk of "Dear Prudence", the Beach Boys pastiche of "Back in The U.S.S.R." and the 30s style "Honey Pie" the band's reach seemed limitless.




10) Silver Apples – Silver Apples
Every electronic music artist from Kraftwerk through Suicide on down to Daft Punk and Aphex Twin owe a huge debt to this pioneering new York duo who first fused pop music sensibilities with the electronic experimentalism of the musical avant-garde. Though far from popular the droning shifting oscillations and pulsing beats of their debut album held enormous influence and still sounds contemporary and riveting today.

Music: The 40 Best Albums of 2007 4-1 !

Here it is-- The final four!

1) Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are you The Destroyer?
This is the best concept album ever about moving to Norway with your new wife only to find your marriage falling apart. Lest you think that's faint praise, this is a disgustingly good album, fun to listen to with it's mash up of Beck circa Midnight Vultures white electro-funk and Neutral Milk Hotel crunchy goodness.
Here’s the video from “Gronlandic Edit”:



2) The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
No album has suffered from more backlash-itis this year than Neon Bible. Yes it's achingly sincere, almost to the point of square. Yes it's overstuffed with church organs, violins, choirs, and god knows what else. Its also one of the year's best albums. When people are talking about it that much -- you know they have done something.
Here’s the footage that caused thousands of Arcade Fire fans to weep like little babies – Springsteen live with Win and Regine doing “Keep the Car Running”:



3) Radiohead – In Rainbows
Another great record that is already receiving backlash. Even beyond their innovative pay what you choose Internet release, this is some of the band's best music -- Yorke's voice is given a crystalline setting and the complex arrangements of guitars and strings are expertly handled.
Here’s a video that sets “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” to footage from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver:


4) Les Savy Fav – Let’s Stay Friends
Les Savy Fav returned from a long layoff with their best album yet, bursting with ideas and inventive songs.
Here’s the video for “Patty Lee”:

Music: 40 Best Albums of 2007 9-5

5) LCD Soundsytem – Sound of Silver
What sounds like a mish-mash initially gels into a fantastically varied collection of songs. Rock dynamics married to electronic beats and all of it married to great choruses.
Here’s the video for “All My Friends”:


6) Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
One of America's best bands does it again. There's nothing radically new here for Spoon, just meaty songs with lots of space.

Here’s the video for “The Underdog” by Spoon:


7) Black Francis – Bluefinger
Pixies frontman and formerly monikered Frank Black, Black Francis puts all he knows about rocking, tight tunes, and crazed singing into this killer concept album.
Here’s a fan video for “Tight Black Rubber”:


8) Electrelane – No Shouts, No Calls
Electrelane goes out on top with what looks like their last release. Throbbing pulsing guitars and stacked vocals means they come on like a more warm and organic Stereolab.
Here’s a fan video for “Tram 21”:


9) Caribou – Andorra
Sounding like The Hollies if the Hollies grew up wanting to be The Chemical Brothers, Caribou uses electronics to evoke echoes of British invasion sounds. A stunningly beautiful album.
Here’s the video for “Melody Day”:

Music: Top 40 Best Albums of 2007 14-10

10) M.I.A. – Kala
M.I.A. brings it on with an incredible array of beats and a heady stew of third world power anthems and clever references.
Here’s the video for “Jimmy”:


11) Battles – Mirrored
Prog rock was never this much fun. Battles puts the groove and beat into the genre, making for a giddy stew of tempo changes and twisty-turny songs.
Here’s the video for “Atlas”:


12) Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof moves further away from their hard guitar sound and into the world of exotic rhythms and springy arrangements.
Here’s the video for “The Perfect Me”:


13) Feist – The Reminder
Feist does the cool iPod commercial chick thing well, becoming this year's Regina Spektor. But her album is full of curveballs like the blazing jazzy "Sea Lion Woman".
Here’s the video for “My Moon, My Man”:


14) Jay-Z – American Gangster
Jay-Z took a few moments out of his busy day job as atop music exec to lay down his best rhymes since the Black Album.
Jizza chats with David Letterman and then favors us with a performance of “Roc Boys”:

Music: Top 40 Best Albums of 2007 19-15

15) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band– Magic
Springsteen returns with his most vital and enjoyable disc since the mid-80s.
Here’s the Boss doing “Living in the Future” live in Madrid:


16) Low – Drums and Guns
Low found tempos in the midrange on their last album and continue to poke at their old slowcore sound on Drums and Guns. Drum machines and spare construction give the songs a skeletal beauty that's new for this band.
Here’s the video for “Breaker”:


17) The National – Boxer
Less immediate than its predecessor, Boxer is a grower that unfolds its knotty lyrics and subtle songs on repeated listening.
Here’s the video for “Mistaken for Strangers”:


18) The New Pornographers – Challengers
This may not be their best album but there are some great songs and performances here, augmented by bigger arrangements and half an orchestra.
Here’s the video for “Challengers”:


19) The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
This was a whipping boy for plenty of critics but the strong melodies and the variety of approaches kept me coming back to it's Kinks-y goodness.
Here’s the video for “Australia”:

Music: Top 40 Albums of 2007 24-20

20) The White Stripes – Icky Thump
Jack and Meg return with a classic rocker that brings the songcraft.
Here’s the video for “Conquest”:


21) Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
What felt like a retreat at first opens up to reveal intricacies that deepen with each listen.
Here’s the video for “What Light”:


22) Various Artists – David Shrigley’s Worried Noodles
A sampler of great indie rock featuring artists from Franz Ferdinand to Grizzly Bear to David Byrne to Final Fantasy marrying Shrigley's clever lyrics to great songs.
Here’s a video promo for the album featuring Shrigley’s artwork and the band YACHT:


23) Future of the Left – Curses
Mclusky fans look no further. Ex Mclusky members team up with the bassist from Jarcrew. Driving anger fueled rock with snarky lyrics follows.
Here’s the video for “adeadenemyalswayssmellsgood”:


24) Blitzen Trapper – Wild Mountain Nation
The Pavement aping album cover and a few of the songs on this debut album suggested a cover band called Debris Slide trying to write originals for the first time. In reality there is more than meets the ear with pastoral folk, and freaky-deaky indie that hews its own course.
Here’s the video for “Devil’s A-Go-Go”:

Music: Top 40 Albums of 2007 29-25

25) Ween – La Cucaracha
Ween are method musicians... doing blissed out techno pop for "friends", haunting balladry for the truly screwed up "Object", sneery post punk for "Shamemaker". Like DeNiro in his prime, they believe it, so we believe it. Oh yeah and David Sanborn guests. That's commitment.
Here’s the video for “Friends”:


26) Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raisin’ Sand
Mummified Led Zep wailer Plant and beloved bluegrass warbler Krauss seem like an odd couple setup. But when those voices start a-twining and a-pining on these great songs the proverbial magic happens.

Here’s the video for “Gone Gone Gone”:


27) Nellie McKay – Obligatory Villagers
McKay has always been on the right side of the Crazy/Hot graph for me. She surprises here with a relatively compact set of songs but the arrangements and delivery shout out "Broadway!"
Here’s the delectable Nellie McKay doing “Zombie” :


28) The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes are The Dark Horse
Where Arcade Fire uses it's broad expanse of sound and musicians to create a communal vibe, Besnard Lakes is insular and brooding. Gripping and engrossing.

Here’s the video for “For Agent 13”:


29) Mark Ronson – Version
Ronson is the uberproducer responsible for last years great album by human trainwreck Amy Winehouse. Here he imagines britpop gold (and Britney Spear's "Toxic") as products of the Motown era.
Here’s a 40 sec. pop of Mark Ronson and Lily Allen’s cover of Kaiser Chief’s “Oh My God” (Columbia records, like a number of major labels, are too stupid to realize that videos are PROMO and not PRODUCT – so no full version to embed. Dumb wankers.)

Music: Top 40 Albums of 2007 34-30

30) The Field – From Here We Go Sublime
Musical chill pill - hypnotic repetition builds Philip Glass like patterns -- some of which you can dance to.

Here’s “The Little Heart Beats so Fast” live at Monterrey


31) Kings of Leon – Because of the Times
The Kings get complex -- Lynyrd Skynyrd force fed Pixies dynamics with lyrics that lead you down the garden path.
Here’s Kings of Leon doing “On Call” on Letterman:


32) Mark Olson – The Salvation Blues
Welcome to 1970. Superior country rock from ex-Jayhawk with sparkling melancholic tunes.
Here’s Mark Olson doing “Carol” live in Toronto:


33) Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam broadens his folky palette taking in elements of afro-pop, Deadhead jams, and tempo variations. His best yet.
Here is Iron & Wine on Letterman doing “The Devil Never Sleeps”:


34) Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
Contempo freak jammers continue to add songcraft to their Beta Band on acid crazy quilt:
Here’s the video for “Peacebone”

Music: Top 40 Albums of 2007 -- 40-35

35) Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter does nothing fancy -- just straight ahead well-written rock songs, an expansive success where so many other artists (like Ben Harper) have come up short.
Here’s Josh Ritter performing “Mind’s Eye” live:


36) The Cribs – Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
Famous friend Alex (Franz Ferdinand) Kaparos produces and tuneful spike britpop follows. What's not predictable are the sheer excellence of the songs or a collaboration with Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth doing his beat poet word association thing.
Here’s the “Men’s Needs” video:


37) Deerhunter – Cryptograms
Tangent happy experimentalists recall Swell Maps in disregard for song structure and fascination with off-putting textures. Moodily mesmerizing.
Here’s the video for “Strange Lights”:


38) Mary Weiss – Dangerous Game
Hot cougar Mary Weiss was lead singer for 60s girl group legends The Shangri-La's. Her voice is a little huskier but no less alluring on this fine collection of new songs. Here's the video for “Don’t Come Back”…cougar-licious!



39) Devin Tha Dude – Waitin’ To Inhale
Marijuana enthusiast Devin gets with some slinky low down tracks on his latest album. Surprising and hilarious rhymes combine with killer grooves.
Here’s the Video for “I Can’t Wait” preceded by a silly crank call :


40) El –P - I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
EL-P is pissed at the dystopian universe -- so he raps about it. The music is twisty and complex and so are the tales he tells.

Here’s the video for “Flyentology”