Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armour coming

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

#91 : Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen (1978)

“When I was making this particular album, I just had a specific thing in mind,” Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone. “It had to be just a relentless … just a barrage of that particular thing.” His obsession on this album is a common one: how to go on living in a mean world when your youthful dreams have fallen apart. Springsteen sang with John Lennon-style fury, as he chronicled the working-class dreams and despair of “Prove It All Night” and “The Promised Land,” as well as his definitive car song, “Racing in the Street.” After the youthful exuberance of Born to Run, Darkness was the first sound of Springsteen’s hard-won adult realism

I'd listened to this album once and didn't mind it, but didn't find it an immediate grabber so hadn't revisited it - and was quite pleased to be made to do so.  And yeah, it still doesn't quite grab me - it's quite brooding, but I can see that it's Brucie doing realism, so it's going to be brooding.  "Badlands" and the title track (the opening and closing tracks) stood out for me, but it's all done well and has a good overriding theme - but just not in a style that's quite grabbed me yet.  I can imagine if I listened to it a load more times, I'd totally get into it - but I'm quite busy with other albums at the minute, so it's not top of the list.  I'm quite tempted at some point in the future to do some entire back catalogue reviews of some artists, and I think it's safe to say Bruce would be in with a shout as a possible victim - there's enough variation over the years to keep it interesting.

Wikipedia amusingly tells us that this album is "a somewhat less commercial album" than it's predecessor Born To Run - no shit, Sherlock.  Apart from that, it doesn't have an awful lot to say about the album other than that he wrote 70 songs for it, and most of them ended up being used by him or someone else - eg "Because The Night" did OK for Patti Smith after Bruce said "If she can do it, she can have it".  His Wikipedia entry tells us that he was kept out of the studio for nearly a year because of a legal dispute with a former manager, so I'm guessing he had plenty of time on his hands to churn them songs out.  He also spent a lot of time touring to keep the band together and developed his reputation for long live shows around this time (I saw him at Glasto and he didn't stop for 3 and a bit hours until they pulled the plug on him)

"Customers also listened to" Dylan, Costello and Mellancamp (who is someone I would have liked to have seen on this list, but it's looking unlikely now).  I want to like this album and I think I could get there, but I'm not quite there yet - I feels like it deserves its great reputation though.

#90 : After The Gold Rush - Neil Young (1970)

For his third album, Neil Young fired Crazy Horse (the first of many times he would do so), picked up an acoustic guitar, and headed to his basement. He installed recording equipment in the cellar of his Topanga Canyon home, near Los Angeles, leaving room for only three or four people. There, Young made an album of heartbreaking ballads such as “Tell Me Why” and “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.” The music is gentle, but never smooth. Nils Lofgren, then an 18-year-old hotshot guitarist, squeezed into the sessions — but Young assigned him to the piano, an instrument he had never played in his life.

Mr Young - welcome back!  Has it really been 130 albums since we saw you with your mates and 206 albums since we saw you on your own?  Why, it feels like only yesterday!  Surely, at some point, I'm going to find one of your albums at least bearable - could this be the one?!?  

Well - having listened to it, I'm not sure it's entirely bearable but it's not completely unbearable - so that's a step up, at least.  I still don't like his voice, but I do quite like some (maybe even most) of the songs.  "After The Gold Rush" is a fine song, well covered by Prelude, kd lang and Natalie Merchant, all of which I already knew and liked, but I didn't know it had also been done by Dollie, Linda and EmmyLou which can be seen here - it's a fine version but I'm mostly including it because it features our old friend the glass harmonica!  I also was very aware of St Etienne's cover of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - without ever knowing it was a cover version.  If, like me, you know and like the song but weren't aware it was a cover, then check out the original because it only increases your appreciation of the song.  The other tracks on the album were generally at least OK - except for the small problem of the guy singing them.  It's also got a very odd album cover.

Wikipedia has surprisingly little to say about the album - it seems like the Nils Lofgren decision was just "Neil being Neil" but nonetheless it seems an interesting decision to make.  Apparently, the critics didn't particularly like this album upon release - of course they all think it's a masterpiece now though.  Interestingly, his Wikipedia entry actually has more to say about the album - apparently people didn't like "Southern Man" because of its whole "you know, racism isn't that great" message.  That'll teach him to be controversial eh?  Athough, actually, if there's one thing his Wikipedia entry does teach us is that there's no danger of him learning any such thing - and credit to him for that (although he doesn't always go about it in possibly the best way)

"Customers also listened to" Neil Young, Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills and Nash - I think we've all learned there's a link there over the previous 410 albums.  I almost like lots of this album and think it shows off his song-writing skills much better than any of his previous albums I've had to endure - but I just don't like his voice, I'm afraid.

#89 : Baduizm - Erykah Badu (1997)

“If the head wrap was my trademark, the drums, African drums, were my soundtrack,” Erykah Badu recalled. “It’s just who I was at the time, and I wanted to be completely who I was when I did what I did.” Recorded between New York, Philadelphia, and her hometown of Dallas, the singer’s debut suggested a Billie Holiday raised on hip-hop and Stevie Wonder, celebrating herself and her heritage over resplendently relaxed grooves. Baduizm’s Seventies-meets-Nineties vibe, Badu’s exquisite lyricism (“On & On” is at once spiritual, apocalyptic, and funny), and jazz-steeped cadences (see “Appletree”) combined to make the 25-year-old singer a figurehead for the neo-soul genre that essentially began with this album.

Our second visit with Erykah on this list, and last time I found it OK, but just a bit too annoying for me to get along with.  And apparently that was the accessible second album after this, her more challenging debut - so obviously I was totally looking forward to listening to this.  But - I actually quite liked it.  Whether I was just in a better mood for it and her potentially-but-not-quite-annoying voice, but I found myself badu-ba-dee-ing along to her jazzy, soulful sounds - at times she reminded me of a more laid-back version of Lauryn Hill.  I don't really remember any of it, but if I felt the need to just chill out at some point and I remembered this album existed, then I'd be quite tempted to put it on (high praise indeed!)

Wikipedia doesn't tell us much about the album other than it was very well received - particularly in the US, where it got to #2 which seems astonishing to me.  And obviously we have to investigate further and find out who kept it off the top spot - Leann Rimes, who is someone I don't expect to be troubling us on this list.  I think Erykah probably got over it though with sales of over 3 million in the US alone - they really went for it in a big way.  Her Wikipedia entry is long but we covered the important bits (ie the silly names she's given her kids) last time, and I'm sure there's nothing else on there quite as important as that.

"Customers also listened to" D'Angelo, Angie Stone and Lauryn Hill - definitely all in the same ballpark.  But I liked this more than either of the D'Angelo efforts I've had to suffer so far (and we've still got one to come!) and I suspect it would be a grower if I'm in the right mood for it often enough.

Wow, look at that - three albums that make me want to be a better person and like them more and that makes it a tricky one to declare a winner on.  I think Erykah probably has the best chance of me really liking it - and, according to Wikipedia, is the best selling of the three, which I suspect very few people would guess.  And Bruce probably has the best claim to greatness of the three albums - it's got a good theme running through it and I imagine those lyrics have been studied in great detail over the years.  But, do you know, Neil's finally ground me down and so, largely on the basis of some great cover versions demonstrating his songwriting skills to me and the fact that I didn't totally hate it, I'm giving this round to him (and to be honest, I never thought this day would come)

#94-92 - Attitude, attitude, attitude
#88-86 - Three albums from a five year period