1001 Album Club

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259 Davd Ackles - American Gothic Jul 27, 2020

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The years have only been kind to the album considered David Ackles’s masterpiece when it was released. Ackles combined an early ’70s singer-songwriter sensibility with a theater music background that placed him as much in the tradition of Brecht-Weill and Jacques Brel as Bob Dylan. Not only are his songs fully realized, dramatic statements, but Ackles proves himself a warm, accomplished singer. When this album got no higher than #167 on the charts, Ackles’s fans were heartbroken. Decades later, American Gothic remains one of those great albums that never found its audience. It waits to be rediscovered. – William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995

258 T Rex - The Slider Jul 23, 2020

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Buoyed by two U.K. number one singles in “Telegram Sam” and “Metal Guru,” The Slider became T. Rex’s most popular record on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that it produced no hits in the U.S. The Slider essentially replicates all the virtues of Electric Warrior, crammed with effortless hooks and trashy fun.

257 Stephen Stills - Manassas Jul 20, 2020

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From the Steven Stills website

By 1972, what we call classic rock was pretty much peaking – though nobody at the time knew it. Except maybe Stephen Stills. The band and double-album he piloted and released that year—both named Manassas—now seem pivotal. Manassas brilliantly summed up the remarkable 1960s creative surge that revitalized rock’s roots and encouraged experimentation just when it was at its crest.

256 Stevie Wonder - Talking Book Jul 16, 2020

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After releasing two records during 1970-71, Stevie Wonder expanded his compositional palette with 1972’s Talking Book to include societal ills as well as tender love songs, and so recorded the first smash album of his career.

255 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken Jul 13, 2020

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It took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band until this album to come up with a merger of rock and country music that worked for both sides and everyone involved. Not only did this album result in exposure to a new and wider audience for the likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, and others, but this was the first real country album that a lot of rock listeners under the age of 30 ever heard.

254 Todd Rundgren - Something Anything Jul 09, 2020

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After two albums, Todd Rundgren had one hit and a burgeoning cult following, plus growing respect as a hitmaking record producer. There’s no question he was busy, but as it turns out, all this work only scratched the surface of his ambition. He had decided to abandon the Runt pretense and recorded a full double album by himself .

253 Milton Nascimento E Lô Borges - Clube Da Esquina Jul 06, 2020

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1972 saw Brazil controlled by a repressive military regime, but it was also a watershed moment for Brazilian pop music, or as it’s often called, MPB. Tropicália heroes Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso had found success outside of Brazil and had already stirred the flames of inspiration for the corner music collective and people from the Minas Gerais state called Clube Da Esquina.

252 Hugh Masekela - Home Is Where the Music Is Jul 02, 2020

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Home is where the music is , marked a sharp detour from Hugh Masekela’s more pop-oriented jazz records of the ’60s. Masekela was chasing a different groove altogether. He was looking to create a very different kind of fusion, one that involved the rhythms and melodies of his native South Africa, and included the more spiritual, soul-driven explorations.

251 Lou Reed - Transformer Jun 29, 2020

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Being Lou Reed in 1972 was a raw deal: two years after walking away from one of the greatest and most influential bands in rock history, he found himself a penniless, strung-out wreck, with a career suddenly and seriously on the wane. To make matters worse, his self-titled solo debut, released earlier that year, was a monumental flop, a hastily thrown together collection of second rate re-recordings of Velvet Underground outtakes that lacked the intensity and focus of his earlier music. Reed was at a crossroads, unsure of which direction to take his newfound independence.

250 Yes - Close to the Edge Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

Close to the Edge comprised just three tracks that represented the musical, lyrical, and sonic culmination of all that Yes had worked toward over the past five years. We are now in heavy prog.

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