You wore out your welcome with random precision

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#264 : Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (1975)

For the follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd got even darker, exploring their main themes of lunacy and alienation. The poignant title ballad is a lament for their ex-bandmate Syd Barrett, one of the Sixties’ saddest acid casualties. They pay tribute in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” a 26-minute, nine-part suite that both opens and closes the album, with David Gilmour’s elegiac guitar. They also skewer the music business in “Have a Cigar” and “Welcome to the Machine.” 

Yes, I have heard of Pink Floyd - I was always under the impression I hated them, but in recent years I've undergone a slight re-evaluation and there are some songs which I admit I don't mind - or even like.  And "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)" is one of those songs and I also don't mind "Wish You Were Here" so was quite looking forward to this album.  And well, once you add on parts VI-IX (which aren't wildly different) you only have two "new" tracks left - which, let's face it, aren't massively different (although not as good).  So, I was a bit "OK, what was the point to that then?" - I enjoyed it, but was hoping for more.  As a random aside, if you like "Shine On", then check out Christy Moore's cover here, which I think I prefer to the original.

The Wikipedia page for the album is quite lengthy and has some very odd content indeed - unsurprisingly the section on Syd Barrett's visit is up there with the oddest, but given that it coincided with a remixing session on Dave GIlmour's wedding day, with the reception happening at the EMI studios, Syd's not the only contributor to the oddness here.  It doesn't sound like it was the happiest (or shortest) of album gestations and it also sounds like people weren't entirely convinced with the results at the time, but it's highly regarded these days (and it's sold 20 million copies globally, so it's got a few fans out there).  The band's Wikipedia entry is unsurprisingly somewhat lengthy - the band have certainly had their moments of drama which I suspect we'll have a few more opportunities to investigate further up the list.

"Customers also listened to" Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and The Doors - it will be interesting to see when we first meet the latter two on this list.  Overall, it's an album that hangs together pretty well, but the opening track is so good that anything is going to struggle to keep up and the other tracks don't quite manage it for me.  I like the album cover though!

#263 : A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles (1964)

This soundtrack to the Richard Lester film cemented all that U.S. listeners had heard about the Beatles’ genius in the off-kilter beauty of John Lennon’s “If I Fell” and the rockabilly bounce of Paul McCartney’s “Can’t Buy Me Love.” It was their first album of all-original material, showcasing leaps in their songwriting as well as new tricks like George Harrison’s 12-string guitar, picked up on tour in America, and the Dylanesque harmonica blast that opens “I Should Have Known Better.”

Ah, The Beatles albums are coming thick and fast now.  If I thought Help! was going to be somewhat homogenous, then I was was expecting this to be a 99 without a Yesterday flavoured flake.  And listening to it, it really didn't excite me.  I can see that it must have seemed pretty special at the time - which makes it difficult to discuss how great the album is, but that's a problem with a lot of these albums, isn't it?  I generally liked the tracks, but they didn't jump out at me except for "And I Love Her" which I knew, but had totally forgotten how much I loved and "Can't Buy Me Love" which I also obviously knew but it also stood out for me.  One thing I am quite surprised about is that I'm totally rocking the McCartney tracks rather than the Lennon tracks - because I find our Paul annoyingly dull (and his 3 hour live set of obscure tracks from the 70s did absolutely nothing to convince me otherwise).  I would also say that the album as a whole is obsessed with either finding your girl, keeping your girl or losing your girl - maybe that's all that mattered in the mid sixties, but it all got a bit dull for me in these enlightened times.  These are enlightened times, right?!?

The Wikipedia entry for the album is surprisingly short - and points out that the album is also surprisingly short - 30 minutes!  Which is kinda odd, because I didn't notice the album as being short whilst listening to it.  It also has the bizarrest selection of chart statistics, listing how it did it in 1964-65, 1987 (but only in Holland) and 2009.  I still can't face the band's Wikipedia page - I wonder if I'll get round to it before we get to whatever their top album is (which I'm interested to find out - Sgt Pepper or White, I'd guess - but let's face it, I have no idea!).  "Customers also listened to" albums by The Beatles or members of a little-known group called The Beatles - I'm guessing this album only attracts the hardcore fans.  And I wouldn't count myself amongst their number - it's got some good tracks on it, but there's nothing there to divert me from one of their many greatest hits albums.

#262 : Power, Corruption And Lies - New Order (1983)

On Power, Corruption & Lies, Manchester, England’s New Order fully moved past the death of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis to create a gloriously danceable synth-rock breakthrough. It was a whole new sound, heavily influenced by their early tours of America. “In England, clubs played dead-straight cheesy music,” said frontman Bernard Sumner, “but in America, they played the Clash, funk, a great mix of black and white music, and American dance music, early electronic music.… We were right there, and this new sound found us.”

I quite like New Order.  In small doses.  I bought their "Best Of" and most of the tracks are good, but if you try to listen to too many of them in one go, it just hurts your head.  It didn't help that I bought the 2 cassette version that lasted approximately 5 years, but that's not their fault.  Oh, hang on - it's almost entirely their fault (I realise I take some blame here as well!).  But I was interested to see if I got the same effect whilst listening to a "proper" New Order album.  And yes, I did.  Particularly if you listen to the "Definitive Edition" which includes 5 years worth of extra tracks, remixes and session versions.  But that's not their fault.  Oh, hang on...

I generally like their sound and if played any track off this album, I'd say I like it - but unfortunately for me it's a case of the whole being less bearable than the individual elements.  I was actually surprised that the original vinyl version of this album doesn't include any singles - "Blue Monday" (I don't know if you know it) is included in the cassette and CD versions and THREE versions are included on the "Definitive Edition", but I can imagine a lot of people bought this and were less than impressed that the single that was EVERYWHERE at the time wasn't included on it.  But that's not their fault.  Oh...

The Wikipedia page is extremely odd because it has only has two main sections - Artwork and Reception - there's nothing about how the album came together at all, which is very unusual.  Apparently the album artwork is in the National Gallery - I imagine quite a few people puzzling over where they've seen it before.  The band's Wikipedia entry is surprisingly sterile - it doesn't even mention the fun fact/rumour that "Blue Monday" actually lost money for Factory Records because of the sleeve design.  So what use is that?!?  "Customers also listened to" the multitude of New Order offshoot bands - I guess if you like it, you like it!  But, I won't be revisiting the album - I will be sticking with the odd track on my general playlist so I don't get New Order brain-ache.

Tricky one to declare a winner - definitely not New Order, but the other two are hard to compare.  I'd say The Beatles have better tracks, but Pink Floyd's effort holds up better as an album (and definitely has more interesting stories attached to it).  It comes down to The Beatles having annoyed me by having 2 albums so close together on the list (and the semaphore thing still rankles), so I'm giving this to the Floyd for the stories - it's not like this list is anything to do with music now, is it?

#267-265 - An unexpected winner
#261-259 - As far as I can tell, The Slits never went to Colombus