My Top 10 Albums

As suggested earlier, here’s a post we can all dance around… Here are my Top 10 Albums with a sentence or two about each as a template to get you started. The Moderator has kindly given us a bit of leeway to include compilations, soundtracks and greatest hits … so here we go…

 

John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band

Hard to describe the impact this had after Abbey Road. Raw, honest and brave. Probably has to go at No. 1 as the best album ever made. Followed by, in no particular order…

 

 

Steely Dan: Can’t Buy A Thrill

The Dan’s first and most pop-oriented album. Well-crafted songs, original and intelligent lyrics, beautifully sung by David Palmer, great arrangements, great playing and benchmark production with absolutely no filler.  Still stands up over 40 years on. Timeless.

 

 

Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left

The most original songwriter of any era — and an exquisite record with Robert Kirby’s string arrangements. Everybody believed in him — except the one person that really needed to…  Nick Drake died at the age of 26 in enigmatic circumstances.

 

 

Van Morrison: Astral Weeks

The album was recorded in a day, semi-improvised, with the premier jazz players of the day. This album set a benchmark which only Nick Drake managed to touch.

 

 

The Verve: Urban Hymns

Every track is a winner here.  Great band sound. Like all great albums, not simply music, but a friend for life.

 

 

Brian Eno: Another Day on Earth.

A delicate ‘less is more’ chilled album you will not tire of listening to.

 

 

 

Jimmy Guiffre Trio: The Train and the River

My favourite jazz album. Bluesy jazz guitar, bass and sax trio. Having no drums allows the fluid rhythmic playing that expresses the album’s title.

 

 

Peter Gabriel: Passion (soundtrack)

My favourite ‘world music’ album — real world.

 

 

 

Jimmy Cliff: The Harder They Come (soundtrack)

My favourite reggae album — all the top artists, all their best tracks.

 

 

 

Abba: Greatest Hits

All the great songs in one place — a pantheon of 3-minute wonders, neither cynical nor clever, just one indestructible diamond after another. (I’m including Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 ‘cos my list goes up to eleven 🙂