Grateful Dead – American Beauty

My brother loves this record. At first I didn’t have a clue why. American Beauty sounded too much like an imitation of Crosby, Stills & Nash (maybe not & Young).

Of course it didn’t help that Grateful Dead sounded completely different on Live/Dead, where they were the ultimate jam band. And now they’re doing this soft folky countryrock-thing? What the heck? Everyone is allowed to change styles of course, but it made the CSN-impression harder.

However, there are some nice tunes to be found here, and actually it’s quite an enjoyable album. The harmonies are…

Van Morrison – Moondance

I fell in love with the beauty of Astral Weeks. Where Astral Weeks has a rather sad atmosphere, Moondance is the sunnier and jazzier side of Van Morrison. It’s also beautiful of course. And It Stoned Me is not only a great song title, but also the most terrific song on this album. Swinging goes easily on Moondance, that has a charming 50s sound. Caravan is the typical song to play in your car while driving through France (nice trumpets!). Into The Mystic is so simple and so beautiful, what a beautiful piano. The happy…

Deep Purple – Deep Purple In Rock

For those who are still following my journals, yes it's been a long time… And as my life will even get busier I don't expect me continuing the 1001 albums list at a fast rate… But step by step I eventually hope to reach the end. So, first some reviews that were already written (but never ended up here on last.fm… until now). Old music, I'm back again!

Hmm, yes, oh well… So, here’s Deep Purple. Again a hard rock / heavy metal (I find it hard to distinguish the two) album, after…

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II

Immigrant Song is a song to put in a frame. It’s exciting, modern and has one of the most rhythmic riffs ever. And the yell in the beginning of the song is so famous I bet they even know it in outer space.

The good news is that Immigrant Song sets the example for the other songs on this album. Where Led Zeppelin I and II brought variations on the same trick (excellent guitar, drums and a lot of dramatic singing by Robert Plant), Led Zeppelin III contains much more variation. Good as Led…

Neil Young – After The Gold Rush

Of course it helps to appreciate an album when you know almost all numbers by heart… I have an infinite admiration for Neil Young, as many others have, and that admiration is based on a lot of songs present on After The Gold Rush. It is easy enough to mark Neil Young as a guitar wonder, but this album proves that even without extended sublime guitar solos Neil Young can make the most fragile and precious music. With his characteristic high voice he creates some very vunerable songs (After The Gold Rush…

Black Sabbath – Paranoid

I really wonder how the order of the albums in the book is determined. It isn’t alphabetical and it isn’t very chronological either (except for the year chronology of course). It probably depends on the taste of the editor, and in this case I guess he was eager to prove the second Black Sabbath album IS really better than their first: only four albums after their debut, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid is presented. I guess reality wasn’t that fast :)

So, is this one better? Yes, of course it is. It’s more challenging, and has more variation.…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu

The gain of a new son: Neil Young has finally arrived. Strangely the same happens as with Buffalo Springfield: where the previous CSN-album was a quite coherent one, this one seems (just like Buffalo Springfield Again) more a compilation of songs made by great individuals of course. I guess Neil Young is the one to blame!

After the first nice but not that memorable two songs, Almost Cut My Hair tells us what it is all about: slicing electric guitars, superb singing by Crosby (reminds me a bit of Jason Molina here).…

John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band

Well yes, of course the tears come first, then the crying for your mother, then the heartache over the ex-Beatles, and a solo album by one of them seems like a small patch. As if a piano-based and loaded with quite self-conscious lyrics album like this could ease that pain… Think again!

Actually, play again: starting from the second listening (when calmed down a bit) this album grows and grows… And all those songs that don’t seem that interesting (and even a bit boring) at first, start to develop into little masterpieces. Little pieces…

Stephen Stills – Stephen Stills

Crosby, Stills & Nash send out their sons: here’s the first solo album of Stephen Stills. And of course it includes some guests with the names Crosby and Nash (haha), but that’s not all: also included are Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix in Old Times Good Times and (yesyes) Eric Clapton on Go Back Home. Yeeha, if this album doesn’t sell, what does!

What’s nice about this album is that Stephen Stills adds a gospel background choir to some of the songs and it is no surprise those are the best songs on this album:…

Carpenters – Close To You

I really wanted to like these guys… Never recognized by critics, in the meanwhile selling lots and lots of records… and now appearing in the 1001 albums book: that calls for my sympathy! And sure, the arrangements by Richard Carpenter are very detailed, Karen Carpenter has a very pretty voice, and the harmonic singing sounds nice.

However, it all reminds me too much of Disney music. I don’t mind Disney music as long as there’s a movie connected to it, but that’s not the case here. The soft happy tone of the melodies (apparently there…