Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1970

[Saturated Fats]

1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast

2010: The National - High Violet (7 votes)

2nd Place: Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit (6 votes) <---- Wow!
3rd Place (TIE): Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (5 votes)
3rd Place (TIE): Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3rd Place (TIE): Deftones - Diamond Eyes

I guess I'm a little surprised at the winner, although High Violet is easily the most beloved from a band that has become one of the most celebrated indie/alt acts of the decade. Easily way more surprised to see Marrow of the Spirit - an album I love, but definitely some more 'out-there' avant-metal - almost win.

This poll covers what is another absolutely massive year. 1970 was the end of some titanic acts, and the beginning of others, and I really don't know which direction to go with my predictions here.

9/2: 1998
9/4: 2002
9/6: 1989

Click to read more...

 

[plank]

1. Moondance - Van Morrison
2. American Beauty - Grateful Dead
3. All Things Must Pass - George Harrison
4. Rides Again - James Gang
5. Cosmo's Factory - CCR
6. After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
7. Deja Vu - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
8. Let it Be - The Beatles
9. III - Led Zeppelin
10. Gasoline Alley - Rod Stewart
11. Loaded - The Velvet Underground

and so many more!

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

By far the toughest yet, just couldn't make up my mind. And my HMs are a mess, but all stuff that deserves to be heard.

1. John Lennon – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
T2. The Beatles – Let It Be
T2. Alice Cooper – Easy Action
T2. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band – Lick My Decals Off, Baby
T2. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
T2. The Mothers of Invention – Weasels Ripped My Flesh / The Mothers of Invention – Burnt Weeny Sandwich
-
7. Syd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs / Syd Barrett – Barrett
8. The Stooges – Funhouse
9. Shawn Phillips – Second Contribution / Shawn Phillips – Contribution
10. Ten Years After – Cricklewood Green / Ten Years After – Watt

HM:
Harry Nilsson – Nilsson Sings Newman / Harry Nilsson - The Point
The Kinks – Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part 1
Sonny Sharrock – Monkey-Pockie-Boo
Soft Machine – Third
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew / Miles Davis – Live At the Fillmore East
Buddy Guy, Junior Mance & Junior Wells – Buddy and The Juniors
Charlies – Buttocks
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III
The Art Ensemble of Chicago – Les stances à Sophie
Van Morrison – Moondance / Van Morrison – His Band and the Street Choir
Anthony Braxton – For Alto
Emerson Lake And Palmer – Emerson Lake And Palmer
Funkadelic – Funkadelic / Funkadelic – Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow
Groundhogs – Thank Christ for the Bomb
The Bob Seger System – Mongrel
Frijid Pink – Frijid Pink / Frijid Pink – Defrosted
Evan Parker, Derek Bailey & Han Bennink – The Topography of the Lungs
Black Sabbath – Paranoid / Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
The Velvet Underground – Loaded
Otis Redding – Tell the Truth
Randy Newman – 12 Songs
Collective Consciousness Society – C.C.S. (Whole Lotta Love)
Guru Guru – UFO
Can – Soundtracks
Linda Perhacs – Parallelograms
Grand Funk Railroad – Closer To Home

Curiosities:
The Incredible String Band – U
Allen Ginsberg – Songs of Innocence and Experience


Anecdote: one of my top-2 songs by Alice Cooper wasn't actually sung by Alice...

 

[plank]

Some others that didn't make my list or the poll:

Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
B.B. King - Indianola Mississippi Seeds
Badfinger - No Dice
The Band - Stagefright
Bob Dylan - New Morning
Canned Heat - Future Blues
Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon
Chicago - II
CCR - Pendulum
Dave Mason - Alone Together
Delaney & Bonnie - From Bonnie to Delaney
Faces - First Step
Fairport Convention - Full House
Free - Fire and Water
Grand Funk - Closer to Home
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
J. Geils Band -s/t
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
John Phillips - John, The Wolf King of L.A.
Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Magnetic South
Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Loose Salute
The Moody Blues - A Question of Balance
Mountain - Climbing!
Paul McCartney - McCartney
Rodriquez - Cold Fact
Rusty Kershaw - Cajun in the Blues Country
Stephen Stills - s/t
Steve Miller Band - Number 5
Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
Van Morrison - His Band and the Street Choir
Willie Dixon - I Am The Blues

 

[Hockey Outsider]

An incredible year with lots of genre-defining hard rock and progressive rock albums. I'm not going to talk about some of the more obvious choices ("Paranoid", "Led Zeppelin III", "In Rock", etc), which most classic rock fans would be aware of. A few other good choices worth highlighting:

The Stooges - "Fun House" - this seven-song album is, essentially, a descent into madness. The first couple of songs are sleazy but straightforward hard rock. Towards the end of the album, the music is looser, freer, and the improvised saxophone is oddly suitable. The last song is either genius or idiotic. I'm still not sure.

Jethro Tull - "Benefit" - the band has a sprawling catalogue, but only a couple of albums are well-known by most casual fans. This is an underrated album and although the band isn't overly ambitious at this point, the songwriting is very good and there's a good balance of hard rock and folk rock elements.

King Crimson - "In The Wake of Poseidon" - objectively it's a pretty good album, but the issue is the first three songs are, essentially, inferior re-writers of the first three songs on their debut (a frantic acid rock nightmare, a gentle woodwind ballad, and then a more grandiose, dramatic ballad). The second half of the album is completely different, with an atonal jazz song with nonsensical lyrics (which, somehow, works), and a lengthy instrumental (which doesn't). (They also released "Lizard" this year, which is pretty bad from start to finish - the band seemed confused about their strengths and their direction).

Wishbone Ash - "Wishbone Ash" - great usage of dual lead guitars. The album features two shorter songs (one of which is pretty heavy by 1970 standards), two ballads, and two lengthy jams. Versatile but effective. The band's first few albums were hugely influential on Iron Maiden.

Gentle Giant - "Gentle Giant" - the debut of one of the most bizarre progressive rocks bands. None of the band members are virtuosos at any one instrument, but collectively they can play a few dozen instruments very well. Three of the four band members sing. Despite having a dizzying number of tempo changes, and at times writing intentionally dissonant passages, it all somehow works. A challenging but interesting album.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" - perhaps rock's greatest power trio, all three members are virtuousos. They'd release much more ambitious albums in the future, but the debut, maybe a bit restrained, forced them to stay focused and this is the strongest, most consistent album of their career.

Van der Graaf Generation - "H to He, Who Am the Only One" - this strangely-titled album is the prog rock band's best composition. The main problem that I have is singer Peter Hammill's high vocals are often too strained (the falsetto, used on the second track, is awful). Like ELP, this band would release more complex, ambitious albums, but none were this consistently good from start to finish, due to the best songwriting of their career.

 

[kihei]

John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
Neil Young: After the Goldrush
The Who: Live at Leeds
Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
The Band: Stage Fright
Paul McCartney: McCartney
The Beatles: Let It Be
Rod Stewart: Gasoline Alley

 

[Mescaleroman]

Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
Gentle Giant - s/t
Genesis - Trespass
Van Morrison - Moon Dance
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
CSNY - Deja Vu
Deep Purple - In Rock
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World

Probably the album I heard most in the early 70's was the Carpenters - Close to You seeing as my older sister could still beat up my brother and me for dibs on the living room stereo.

 

[Teemu]

Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
Grateful Dead - American Beauty
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III
The Beatles - Let It Be

The Dead is kind of a conspicous absence on your poll

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

The Stooges - Fun House
CCR - Cosmo’s Factory
Amon Düül II - Yeti
Black Sabbath
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

 

[Chili]

Great timing, Happy 75th to Van The Man!

Moondance
After the Gold Rush
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Abraxas
Deja Vu

Added:

Van Morrison-His Band and Street Choir
Guess Who-American Woman
Jethro Tull-Benefit
Blues Image-Open
Emerson Lake and Palmer-Emerson Lake and Palmer
Five Man Electrical Band-Goodbyes and Butterflies
Sugarloaf-Sugarloaf

 

[Saturated Fats]

Another absolutely mammoth year. For me, there are six albums that stand out above the rest

Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
The Stooges - Fun House

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Exuma - Exuma, the Obeah Man
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Tim Buckley - Starsailor
Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

And there are countless HM's that I feel at least worthy of a tip of the cap. Stellar year.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

 

[Cas]

I need to mention Sir Lord Baltimore's self-titled LP.

However, I think Black Sabbath's Paranoid was the best album this year. The self-titled LP is great, too, but Paranoid started to push into new territory. In Rock is a worthy, great album. Led Zeppelin III is alright, but after listening to it again I remember why it was the least played of their first five albums when I was regularly listening to them.

 

[frisco]

Other:
Hello, I'm Johnny Cash-Johnny Cash
Cucumber Castle-Bee Gees
Two Years On-Bee Gees
American Woman-The Guess Who
Absolutely Live-The Doors
That's The Way It Is-Elvis Presley

My Best-Carey

 

[MoreOrr]

Other: Blood, Sweat & Tears 3

 

[WetcoastOrca]

So many great albums. Hard to pick just 10.
1. Neil Young After the Goldrush. One of my top all time albums.


2. George Harrison All Things Must Pass
3. CSNY Déjà Vu
4. Van Morrison Moon Dance
5. Simon & Garfunkel Bridge
6. Black Sabbath Paranoid
7. CCR Cosmos Factory
8. Derek and the Dominoes Layla
9. Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman
10. Other: James Taylor Sweet Baby James

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I need to mention Sir Lord Baltimore's self-titled LP.

However, I think Black Sabbath's Paranoid was the best album this year. The self-titled LP is great, too, but Paranoid started to push into new territory. In Rock is a worthy, great album. Led Zeppelin III is alright, but after listening to it again I remember why it was the least played of their first five albums when I was regularly listening to them.

Agreed - Led Zeppelin III is easily my least favourite of their first five albums. (I still voted for it - because a disappointing Led Zeppelin album is still objectively really good).

The first half of the album (with three energetic riff-based rockers, and a long emotional ballad) is great, on par with any of their classic albums. But the band was fixated on writing songs that showcase the acoustic guitar, especially on the record's second half. I think they lost focus; in a softer, folk rock setting, the band had to downplay some of Jones and Bonham's abilities, and Page is better on the electric than the acoustic.

I'm not opposed to the band experimenting. "Houses of the Holy" is a hodgepodge that (mostly) works. But there they moved from one genre to another, rather than staying focused in one area that doesn't really showcase their strengths.