Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

Hello Ffosse,
It's at No.668 mate, quite a way back.

Missed you in here buddy, you have some catching up to do , but the main thing is, I hope you're on the mend after your illness. Take care bud

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.361: "Script For A Jester's Tear" by Marillion (1983)
Always nice to have a gatefold sleeve image when it's as good as these early Marillion releases. This was Fish & Co's debut album in 1983 and after the press lashed into them with shouts of "Second-rate Genesis rip-off merchants" and so on, the band proved their worth with some sheer hard graft both in their recording studio and out on the road. The Peter Gabriel-soundalike Fish left the group in the late 80's but the band carried on with a more unique sound to this day releasing some very professional music.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.360: "MTV Unplugged" by Neil Young (1993)
An album and DVD centred around Young's best-selling album Harvest Moon the previous year, featuring many of those songs plus some earlier classics, Unplugged showed the unpredictable grizzled old rocker live on stage in an intimate environment with a virtually acoustic band. The video of this is well worth watching as it features some great moments such as when he is seated at a black piano in virtual darkness, all dressed in black wearing shades and asks "Can you still see me?". Another is his improvisation of musicians, one of them merely sweeping a broom on the floor with a microphone attached to it to get an authentic shuffling sound. Pure class.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.359: "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk (1974)
The German synth pioneers whose live outings make a Pet Shop Boys concert look like a heavy metal thrash night. I'm not sure about this highly technological outfit, but they have made some good stuff over the years, however tediously monologued them seem. Here is the full-length version of the title track. It's only in audio form with a still picture of the album sleeve to support it, but I reckon that is still far more exciting than watching this band perform it live.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.358: "A New World Record" by The Electric Light Orchestra (1975)
With Roy Wood departing a couple of years beforehand to form Wizzard, Jeff Lynne was now firmly at the helm of the ELO spaceship that took the pop world by storm throughout the following decade. With the majestical touch that Lynne has for intricate melodies and awesome production techniques, this very mild mannered man has always been in big demand as a writer and producer since.
I'll play the original video for the irresistible 'Livin' Thing' here, plus a wondefully relaxed version of 'Telephone Line' from Jeff Lynne's reformation of the band at Hyde Park in recent years. I was lucky enough to see his new band on a tour date last year and it was one of the most joyful and entertaining concerts I have ever seen live.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

That's just inspired me to put the Unplugged version of Like A Hurricane onto a playlist.

And, yes, Jeff Lynne is very talented - he did a lot of work with Tom Petty.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.357: "The Fox" by Elton John (1981)
When I posted Elton's 21 At 33 album slightly earlier on in this list I mentioned his rather forgettable early 80's work, and that I think they were unfairly dismissed by the general public. This follow-up contains no hits though three singles were released (see below) and some excellent instrumental passages too. Check out the live rendition of 'Chloe' in Sydney from a couple of years later where Elton is dressed up in Beethoven garb!

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

Good isn't it mate? The whole of that Unplugged album is superb. If you can get hold of the DVD it's well worth a watch.

Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever album is my favourite of all the Petty records. Expect to see that fairly high in this list.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

No.356: "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morissette (1995)
This diminutive Canadian songstress was noted as a big local star before she was finally noted for her songwriting worthiness from the efforts of this third album release. Containing some very cerebral writing, especially on the track 'Ironic', she has been very highly thought of since. A few years later an acoustic version of Jagged little Pill was also released and shows an even more personal side to these great songs.





Back tonight when I'll be taking things up to the 350-mark.

Re: Floydy's All-Time Top 1000 Favourite Albums

So we've more or less completed two thirds of the list and it's exactly three months to the day since we started this musical extravaganza of headache-inducing proportions.
I'm roughly predicting we should complete the whole thing by the end of May which is now my goal. Any later than that and it will drag into summer and we'll have to take a break. I won't be cooked up indoors in sunny weather (if we get any this year!).
Back soon with The Jam