Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1972

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

2011: No definitive winner - 5 albums tied with 3 votes
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Danny Brown - XXX
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials
Radiohead - The King of Limbs

I'm not giving a tiebreaker vote or a winner declaration when the voting accumulation was so low. Minimum votes for a winner should be 5. So we'll just say that this year did not have a definitive winner, as disappointing as that is

I trust that we won't have the same problem with 1972, which is an absolutely massive year. I'm giving you 29 options are pure majesty. Looking forward to the tally.

10/04: 1992
10/06: 2001
10/09: 1976

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[YoSoyLalo]

Great year for folk

Pink Moon, Harvest, and Paul Simon’s self titled are all big time favorites of mine. And Transformer ofc.

I’d have to go with Paul Simon though. It’s probably in my top-5 favorite albums of all Time

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Pretty bad year for me... The next two (1992, 2001) are great though.

1. Don Bradshaw-Leather – Distance Between Us
2. Ornette Coleman – Science Fiction (skip that first track! The rest is great / Coleman had another album that year, Skies of America, which speaks a lot less to me)
3. Alice Cooper – School's Out
4. L'Infonie – Vol. 333 (a few parts are kind of lame, but mostly amazing)
5. Xhol – Motherf***ers GmbH & Co KG
6. Iskra 1903 – Iskra 1903
7. Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band – Clear Spot / Captain Beefheart – The Spotlight Kid
8. Jacques Brel – Ne me quitte pas
9. Franco Battiato – Fetus
10. Brigitte Fontaine – Brigitte Fontaine

HMs
Pharoah Sanders – Black Unity
Can – Ege Bamyasi
The Kinks – Everybody's in Show-Biz
Frank Zappa – Waka/Jawaka (Zappa also has a live album and one with The Mothers from 1972, both subpar IMO)
David Ackles – American Gothic
Weather Report – I Sing the Body Electric
Shawn Phillips – Faces
Roxy Music – Roxy Music
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Framed
Deuter – Aum
Faust – So Far
Charles Mingus – Let My Children Hear Music
Neu! – Neu!
Pekka Airaksinen – One Point Music
Miles Davis – On the Corner
Paul Simon – Paul Simon
Ten Years After – Rock N Roll Music To The World
Richard Thompson – Henry the Human Fly

Curiosities:
David Peel & the Lower East Side – The Pope Smokes Dope
J. A. Seazer – Jashumon (Heresy)
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen – Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites
Cluster – Cluster II
Leo Kottke – Greenhouse
Tangerine Dream – Zeit
Nina Simone – Emergency Ward! (I try to stay away from live records as much as possible for these rankings, but this is half/half and a really special record – not always good, but when it's on, it's great – if you're curious to hear Nina work with some of George Harrison's material, Isn't It A Pity is amazing)
Matching Mole – Matching Mole's Little Red Record
Franck Dervieux – Dimension 'M'
Algarnas Tradgard – Framtiden ar ett svavande skepp, forankrat i forntiden

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, easy choice for me here.

I love Bowie and this is IMO his best album. No filler, all great songs

 

[Mescaleroman]

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Genesis - Foxtrot
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Roxy Music - s/t
Neil Young - Harvest
Toots and the Maytals - Funky Kingston
Yes - Close to the Edge
Harry Nilsson - Son of Schmilsson
Shel Silverstein - Freakin at the Freakers Ball

HM's
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Uriah Heep - Demons and Wizards
Edgar Winter - They Only Come out at Night

 

[Teemu]

Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Neil Young - Harvest
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Dr. John - Gumbo
Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill

Manfred Mann album has three of the greatest rock covers I've heard

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I've been waiting for this one. 1972 was one of the greatest years for progressive rock and early heavy metal. I think one of the reasons there were so many great records is because many of the bands were well-established by this point, and were willing to experiment and take risks - but they were also early enough in their careers that they were full of (generally) good idea. That's an over-generalization, of course. Some comments on specific albums:

Wishbone Ash - Argus. This is one of the most unjustly forgotten hard rock albums of the 1970's. The band is similar to their contemporaries Thin Lizzy (dual lead guitars, a hyperactive bassist and singer, and a solid drummer) - but this is better than any album in Lizzy's catalogue. "Argus" (which has been my profile picture for 10 years here) features a mix of folk rock (the ten-minute opener), a mournful ballad with a stellar bass line, an upbeat pop-rock song, a quiet contemplative song about nature, and three darker hard rock songs with lots of great riffs. The guitar duel that runs during the last couple of minutes of the album is one of my all-time favourite passages of music. If anyone is into Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, or Judas Priest, and hasn't yet heard this album, give it a try.

Yes - Close to the Edge. Arguably the pinnacle of progressive rock. There are only three songs - clocking in at 19, 10 and 9 minutes. As immensely talented as the band members are, the songwriting on this album is strong and, surprisingly, quite accessible (just that it's enhanced by all kinds of complex instrumentation - like an unexpected harpsichord solo). The lyrics are nearly gibberish.

Black Sabbath - Volume 4. A messy, experimental album. Not surprisingly, it's inconsistent. There's a laughably bad piano ballad, two minutes of synthesizer effects that sound horribly dated, and a few sludgy, generic mid-tempo songs. But the high points are brilliant - the album opens with an eight-minute epic, "Snowblind" combines great riffs with harsh lyrics about drug abuse, "Supernaut" is fast and heavy, and there's even a surprisingly sophisticated, soft instrumental that provides a welcome breather.

Deep Purple - Machine Head. It's a shame that most people remember this album for the simplistic (but enjoyable) "Smoke on the Water". I find that Deep Purple's instrumental prowess is often underrated (their songwriting is frustratingly inconsistent, but they were always highly talented musicians). The band isn't quite as heavy as they were on "In Rock", but this features the best songwriting of their career and is, in my mind, easily the most consistent album of their career. Note that the band also released "Made in Japan" this year - one of the best live rock albums ever.

Gentle Giant - Three Friends. I wrote about this band previously. None of the members are virtuosos at any one instrument, but they collectively play around two dozen instruments proficiently. This, combined with their ability to write highly complex music (intentionally incorporating dissonance, constant tempo changes, and irregular time signatures - with band members sometimes following different ones at the same time), results in some strange, inaccessible music - which is quite rich and interesting if you can get past the weirdness. "Three Friends" is their best recording - it's a concept album about three childhood friends and the paths their lives take. (They also released "Octopus" this year - also a good album, but less consistent).

Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds. Pink Floyd has a strange reputation. A large number of classic rock fans claim them as one of their favourite bands, but relatively few people are familiar with their catalogue aside from their three or four most famous albums. This album is easily overlooked - no hits, no lengthy epics, lots of softer material - but it's consistently enjoyable. Someone getting into Pink Floyd shouldn't start here, but it's a good listen after you've gone through their more famous albums.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Trilogy. ELP can be a frustrating band. All three members were highly proficient at their respective instruments, and Lake was a great singer. And although I truly admire Emerson's immense talent, usually I don't want to listen to him wanking on his keyboards for 20 minutes. Usually with prog rock bands, I prefer their longer suites, but in ELP's case, it's usually the opposite. Fortunately, this is a pretty focused album, with a lot of shorter songs. The two longest compositions are the worst; but generally it seems like Emerson was kept on a short leash here, and that's a good thing.

Caravan - Waterloo Lily. Caravan is one of the best examples of the Canterbury scene (an offshoot of progressive rock - less serious and with more of a jazz influence). The opener (a seven-minute jazz-rock song about a prostitute) is probably the band's best song. The album is inconsistent, but David Sinclair does a brilliant job on the bass throughout.

 

[frisco]

Other than Pink Moon:
As Recorded At MSG-Elvis Presley
Hot August Night-Neil Diamond
Rocky Mountain High-John Denver
He Touched Me-Elvis Presley
To Whom It May Concern-Bee Gees

My Best-Carey

 

[Chili]

Harvest
School`s Out
Can`t Buy a Thrill

Added:

Eagles-Eagles
Doobie Bothers-Toulouse Street
Moody Blues-Seventh Sojourn

 

[plank]

1. Exile On Main St. - The Rolling Stones
2. Harvest - Neil Young
3. Saint Dominic's Preview - Van Morrison
4. Garcia - Jerry Garcia
5. Sailin' Shoes - Little Feat
6. Rio Grande Mud - ZZ Top
7. Boomer's Story - Ry Cooder
8. Toulouse Street - The Doobie Brothers
9. Naturally - J.J. Cale
10. Eat a Peach - The Allman Brothers Band
11. Ace - Bob Weir

 

[WetcoastOrca]

1. and 2 Tie: Nick Drake: Pink Moon/ Bowie: Ziggy
3. Neil Young: Harvest
4. Steely Dan: Can't Buy a Thrill
5. Van Morrison: St. Dominics
6. Other: Eagles
7. Elton John: Honky Chateau
8. Deep Purple: Machine Head
9. Alice Cooper: Schools Out
10. Uriah Heep: Demons and Wizards
HM
Curtis Mayfield
Sabbath Vol. 4
Roxy music

 

[Cas]

I think this is the first time I haven't voted for the "Other" option.

Deep Purple - Made in Japan and Machine Head
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Not a year I know much about, perhaps sadly.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

AINEC.

 

[kihei]

Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
Yes: Close to the Edge
Jimmy Cliff: The Harder They Come
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Roxy Music: Roxy Music
Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
Steely Dan: Can' Buy a Thrill
Genesis: Fox Trot
Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express: Second Wind
Ten Years After: Rock n Roll Music to the World

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Can - Ege Bamyasi
Stevie Wonder - Talking Book
Fela & The Africa 70 - Roforofo Fight
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

 

[Saturated Fats]

I don't really have a hard time with this year - most of my favourites are in the poll. As someone above mentioned this is an amazing year for folk. But it is also amazing for art rock and stuff on the more experimental side, which makes it a fun and compelling year. My favourite album on the year is Transformer, as Lou Reed is on my Mt. Rushmore of songwriters, and this is his magnum opus. It is an album of such ephemeral beauty and nostalgic glam, even when setting aside 'Perfect Day' and 'Walk on the Wild Side'. One can really sense the Bowie influence, but with the decidedly melancholic and heartbroken reminiscence that Reed brought to all of his best projects.

1. Lou Reed - Transformer
2. David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
3. Nick Drake - Pink Moon

4. Townes van Zandt - The Late, Great Townes van Zandt
5. Elton John - Honky Chateau
6. Genesis - Foxtrot
7. Neil Young - Harvest
8. Blue Oyster Cult - Blue Oyster Cult

9. Joni Mitchell - For the Roses
10. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.