Peter Hammill -Sitting Targets
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Peter Hammill — Sitting Targets | DeRank™: 0,73

"Sitting Targets" is a great album, like all of Hammill's works in the '80s up to 1986, although it could be considered a transitional album (which, in any case, would not diminish its value) as it sits between that triptych of new sound experiments in the '78-'80 period and the albums with the K-Group. In this album, Hammill's interest in new "wave" sounds has reached a certain completeness, a stylistic confidence that leads to a greater "agility" in the songs, at least compared to the skeletal, disarming, dark structures of "Black Box." Naturally, this is the "Hammillwave" and his approach to the wave of the time is entirely consistent with his artistic creed (and sometimes marked by Jackson's saxophone tone), and here too there are songs that offer little to a casual first listen, never banal in structure, while others summarize Hammill's best expressive explosiveness combined with very bright wave-pop rhythms ("My Experience," "Sign," "Empress's Clothes," the beautiful title track). The "floor" on which they rest is the same as the VDGG, the same as the visceral rock genuineness of Nadir, but reinterpreted in a wave that is sui generis. Then there are pieces closer to the nadirian rock ("Hesitation"), delicate guitar-voice ballads that are indispensable ("Ophelia"), and piano-voice ("Stranger Still," which however flows into an indefinite liquid sonic chaos). Compact and varied at the same time, it is truly a very beautiful album. more
Led Zeppelin -Led Zeppelin IV
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin IV | DeRank™: 11,79

And what can you say about the album with the symbols... The band checks the Blues box with the incredible reinterpretation of "When the Levee Breaks," the epic of blues. After paying homage to Harper, they honor another great like Joni with an acoustic gem like "Going to California." They treat us to two electric classics like "Black Dog" and "Rock'n Roll," along with their definitive acoustic masterpiece "The Battle of Evermore," enriched by a sublime duet between Plant and my beloved Sandy (complete with her very own symbol). They also offer two more unique tracks like Misty Mountain (beautiful) and "Four Sticks" (which gives me trouble because of Plant's timbre; did he inhale helium on this piece?). And then oh right... There's that devilish song that is wicked, and if you listen to it backward, all your albums turn into records by Nek and Biagio Antonacci. more
Genesis -Wind And Wuthering
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Genesis — Wind And Wuthering | DeRank™: 9,68

The latest grand album by Genesis. It's not a perfect record; sometimes these guys really shot themselves in the foot... The exclusion of a great track, perfectly in line with the "mood" of the album, like "Inside and Out," only to include Rutherford's syrupy misstep "Your Own Special Way" is inexplicable (especially since the chorus of "Inside and Out" is very melodic and nice but much more pleasant than Mike’s piece). With "Inside and Out" instead of the other, this album could have been another masterpiece for me, but oh well. It’s not as perfect as the previous one, but it has so many high-level elements, two masterpieces by Banks ("One for the Vine" and "Afterglow," which is one of their most beautiful "classic-linear" songs), one by Hackett (and Phil) which is "Blood on the Rooftops," and other great tracks ("Eleventh Earl" and "In That Quiet Earth"). They focus more than usual on instrumentals ("Wot Gorilla," another Fusion legacy of Collins, is pleasant but a bit filler). The choices in track inclusion are debatable here; it could have been even better than it is, but the overall quality is still very high, and I've always loved the gray, twilight, autumnal, and romantic atmosphere of the album. For me, a great record. more
Genesis -Abacab
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Genesis — Abacab | DeRank™: 0,00

The first PROT album by Genesis, which after a nice pop record like "Duke" slips into the abyss of mediocre songs. "Abacab" actually alternates these bad things with flashes of undeniable musical-compositional dignity from Totonno ("Me and Sarah Jane") and additionally boasts the excellent "Dodo/Lurker." I’ve always liked the title track a lot; as an electro-pop piece, it works really well—oh, it’s cool, with nice sounds and a great rhythm, it’s spot-on and gains even more points live. "No Reply at All" and "Man on the Corner" are two fairly decent songs that could have fit perfectly on Phil's contemporary solo debut (which, however, contains songs far superior to these two here). Unfortunately, there's the rest. The rest, alas, is fluff. Ugly fluff. more
Genesis -Live In Zürich 1977
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Genesis — Live In Zürich 1977 | DeRank™: 0,01

Another live (bootleg) from the "Wind and Wuthering" tour. Good audio quality, actually excellent for a bootleg, although at some points the vocals sound like crap, at others the instruments sound like crap too, but overall it has a nice rendition. Now, since the live albums by Genesis are practically all the same and they certainly weren't known for improv on stage, a fan just needs 2-3 live recordings from a couple of different periods to be satisfied. Here, the interesting factor that sets the setlist apart from their other live albums is the presence of "Inside and Out," a rarity, a great track (of collective composition but I believe primarily with Stefano's input) that was disgracefully left out of "Wind and Wuthering" and relegated to a silly EP. It's great to hear a live performance of this song, which perhaps deserved more recognition from the band. As for the rest, compared to "Second's Out," there's even more W&W in the setlist: a beautiful performance of the splendid "One for the Vine," especially, really cool, and "In That Quiet Earth." Ah, the wonders of bootlegs: Phil announces Cinema Show at a certain point but Cinema Show is not on the album. Ehr... more
Crowded House -Crowded House
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Crowded House — Crowded House | DeRank™: 3,48

Very cool pop disco, how much I love the flair and style of Crowded House, very eighties pop but (almost) never predictable. Just a couple of tracks that don’t quite reach the heights of the album (and by heights I mean stuff like "Hole in the River," "That's What I Call Love," and "Love You 'Til the Day I Die") but other than that, it's quality stuff. more
David Bowie -Diamond dogs
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

David Bowie — Diamond dogs | DeRank™: 2,95

We're no longer at the level of the superb triad "Hunky-Dory-Ziggy-Aladdin," but boy, is this a great album too. It has a beautifully "dirty" sound and is full of wonderful songs, with the Glam imprint still clear as it envelops pop, rock'n'roll/R&B (again very Stones-like, which isn’t surprising at all), along with some more black/soulful hints, in addition to beautiful ballads with a decadent and theatrical spirit. Bowie was still inspired, it was Bowie during one of his many personal revolutions (completely revamped backing band, farewell to the Spiders from Mars), the Bowie of productions that had recently led to albums like "Transformer" and "Raw Power," where his influence was strongly felt, it was a Bowie who was rich and busy, in short. The title track is lovely, the evergreen jaggerichards-esque riff of "Rebel Rebel" is delightful, and there are beautiful pieces like the "suite" (in fact) in three parts "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing" or "We Are the Dead," etc. The only misstep in a very solid album, for me, could have been leaving "Big Brother" as the ending, which would have been better. more
Neil Young -Rust Never Sleeps
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Neil Young — Rust Never Sleeps | DeRank™: 12,39

To keep it short: one of the most beautiful albums of the '70s, in my opinion. Legendary. And the use and sound of the electric guitar on this album, well... I believe that in 1979 and in the '70s in general, only Neil Young played like Neil Young. In the following two decades, however, you wouldn't even be able to count the number of followers. A masterpiece. more
Dire Straits -Dire Straits
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Dire Straits — Dire Straits | DeRank™: 0,00

For me, Dire Straits have never composed a true masterpiece; it is also true, however, that they managed to release four great albums one after another, always enjoyable and filled with quality songs, led by a guitarist who is, well, quite talented. This debut is a good album, featuring at least two standout tracks like the classic "Sultans of Swing" and "In the Gallery." The rest has pleasant songs but without notable peaks and, I admit, a few moments of boredom. Overall, though, it’s always a pleasure to listen to. more
ABBA -ABBA
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

ABBA — ABBA | DeRank™: 3,01

This album features what is perhaps my favorite chart-busting single by ABBA ("SOS") on one side, and on the other, the song that is my personal winner for the greatest #diteloallozioiside of all time and space since the dawn of the World and even 3000 years from now, and I won’t even say which one it is; I’ll just say it’s the song that deserves the fastest skip in the west. For the rest, however, I definitely like it a lot less compared to "Waterloo" or their other later albums (especially the last one, which is the best), even though the instrumental interlude by Andersson and Ulvaeus is nice, the sound is always meticulously crafted, the musicians are all well-prepared and talented, but still, meh. more
Comus -First Utterance
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Comus — First Utterance | DeRank™: 9,20

Indescribable. One of my absolute favorite albums, that's all I can say because for everything else I would never find the right words to convey what is in "First Utterance." more
Giuni Russo -Voce Prigioniera Live
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Giuni Russo — Voce Prigioniera Live | DeRank™: 2,07

Finally, in 1998, a stunning live performance that captures all the greatness of Giuni Russo and represents the second true masterpiece of her career, 17 years after "Energie." Following that, there were several very valid albums (especially "A casa di Ida Rubinstein," almost entirely represented in the live performance) and some that were a bit less impactful, but none had reached the same heights of excellence. Seventeen years spent finding a thousand loopholes to manage to record and publish the music she truly wanted to create or compromising with record labels (hence, obviously, the title of this live album), often forced to limit her ideas and her enormous vocal and expressive potential. "Voce prigioniera" gathers a selection of concerts by Russo in the '90s and shines as a crowning achievement in the career of an extraordinary artist, one of the greatest voices of the second half of the 20th century—there's little room for debate here—captured at the peak of her splendor and in the years of her artistic maturity. The highlight is "Nomadi" by Camisasca, which was originally written and conceived for her, then given to Alice after the usual obstructionism of the record label, but here it returns, at least in a live setting, indeed arriving in the hands of its intended original interpreter. more
Tom Waits -Closing Time
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Tom Waits — Closing Time | DeRank™: 2,95

First album, 23 years old and a string of songs that come to be immediate classics of American songwriting, with various colleagues (Tim Buckley in the same 1973, Eagles the year after) ready as lightning to give their interpretation of some of them; atmospheres of a smoky nightclub, the style of a seasoned crooner and the melancholy of perpetually broken hearts, lonely souls, incredible melodies that shake and move you, songs already old and already eternal, a piano as the center of gravity and a beautiful voice not yet hoarse from the abuse of alcohol, smoke, and that brilliant theatricality of an old fox, sometimes with songs arranged for guitar, all enriched by a trumpet that often becomes a fundamental second voice and a spine-tingling instrumental piece at the end ("Closing Time," indeed) just to highlight the talent as a musician and pure composer, beyond singing and (beautiful) lyrics and, if it happens, also an irresistible burst of the exuberance of a crafty ice cream vendor. A classic album, the beauty lies entirely in the enormous quality of the songs, all of them, some even more than others, of course. The masterpiece of the very early Tom Waits ('73-'75) for me is this one. more
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends - Ladies And Gentlemen
hjhhjij
For me, the peak of the trio lies in their live performances and albums, where, in my view, the excesses, virtuosity, and exaggerations of the supergroup find their greatest meaning, and where it can be exhilarating to listen to/see Emerson ravish his keyboards in an orgy of mystical/luciferian/fiendish ecstasy. So "Welcome Back..." along with a couple of their other live performances is what I appreciate most about ELP. The apex, even conceptually, of the live show is of course the sprawling version of "Karn Evil 9" (35 minutes), a bacchanalian circus of excesses and a symbol of the Emerson/keyboard instruments symbiosis. However, for me, even in this live performance, the most thrilling moment is when Lake takes the stage. The highlight of the album is indeed the medley of songs entirely composed by Lake: "Take a Pebble/Still... You Turn Me On/Lucky Man," all performed in a completely acoustic version. Lake is spine-chilling. more
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -Emerson Lake & Palmer
hjhhjij
In the studio, for me this debut remains the trio's best work. Fresher compared to what will come later, with the Isle of Wight performance just a few months prior still presenting them as a rock band; different in proposing the language of "rock", but still a rock band. The rock power also emerges here, fortunately concise in 5 minutes, in the splendid "Knife-Edge," which, moving between Janacek and Bach, gives us a fiery and beautiful performance from the trio. The other two masterpieces of the album are original tracks, and, coincidentally, both bear the signature of Lake. The rest (like especially "The Three Fates") instead confirms my scarce feeling with Keith Emerson in the role of composer. more
The Blasters -Hard LIne
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

The Blasters — Hard LIne | DeRank™: 1,10

If I'm not mistaken, this album was conceived when the brothers Alvin were spending at least 15 hours a day spitting at each other, and yet, as has happened time and time again in music, the result is a work that approaches perfection, a masterpiece that, with the spirit of the revival living through its golden years at the time, traverses most of the spectrum of American popular music: pop, rock'n'roll, rockabilly, country, gospel, R&B, ballad—in short, "Hard Line" is the exhilarating summary of the "greatest American pop song" you can imagine listening to, the result of Dave Alvin's maturation as a songwriter, who seamlessly strings together a series of songs perfect in their essential nature, not underestimating the value of the lyrics, which often add significant "depth" to the musical simplicity (I think of "Little Honey"). And there’s also Phil, as a singer and arranger, always with the right touches, with the right rhythms; it's impossible to get the guitar solos of "Hey, Girl" or the killer riff of "Common Man" out of your head, or the grand interpretation of the traditional "Samson and Delilah." As a cherry on top, we receive the gift of Puma Mellencamp in the form of yet another great pop song, perhaps the true expressive gravitational center of the album alongside "Just Another Sunday," which symbolizes D. Alvin's writing matured to just the right point. Masterpiece. more
Cows -Taint Pluribus Taint Unum
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Cows — Taint Pluribus Taint Unum | DeRank™: 3,81

A band of crazy cows from Minneapolis. The Cows proudly belong to that strand of bands that, starting from garage and raw rock'n'roll, plunged into the maelstrom of the most violent noise distortions, with the inevitable lesson of punk and, now and then, some slowdown of a blues matrix so deformed as to be unrecognizable or entirely new, nonetheless. And they didn’t forget an iconoclastic amateurish pride, a fury expressed amidst the shit, the provocative passion for playing music badly, ostensibly, ugly. And annoying. I say ostensibly because, amid the noise, with guitars that are pure dissonant and senseless background, there are rock'n'roll/garage/punk tracks that are excellent rock'n'roll/garage/punk tunes like "Sieve," "Yellowbelly," and "Mother (I Love That Bitch)," to name a few. There’s the fun of playing songs that seem like a joke for being so crooked and poorly made, and they truly are entertaining (and that little trumpet that pops up every now and then, all wrong, how great; and the genius cover of Philip Glass? Beautiful, I mean, hideous). Of course, if someone said to me, "What is this crap?" they would have every reason, and probably one has to be crazy to appreciate them, but so it goes... This debut album of theirs, one of the most twisted and mad in their discography, is the best possible business card for the music of the Cows from Minneapolis. more
Lydia Lunch -Queen Of Siam
hjhhjij
hjhhjij

Lydia Lunch — Queen Of Siam | DeRank™: 1,19

Nonsense lullabies, divided between boredom and existential malaise, sometimes pushing the limits of irritation ("Tied and Twist"), with that little voice of a twelve-year-old in the throes of sexual longing, which around the middle of the album fades into smoky and nocturnal swing-jazz-blues from a seedy joint, like an old song by a less-than-reputable crooner, where the girl becomes ironic, flirtatious, in her spoken-sung style ("Lady Scarface") or in grotesque cabarets filled with distortions ("Carnival Fat Man"). The contribution of the Billy Ver Plank Orchestra is crucial, just as Pat Irwin's contribution is essential for the entire album, in tracks that often feature instrumental outros when Lydia's lullaby fades away ("Cruise to the Moon" is even entirely instrumental, and it's one of the best). There’s also a nod to pop music, that '60s pop which the "Queen of Siam" has often shown a preference for; in this case, it's her personal version of "Spooky," one of the most catchy and fun moments on the album. The other cover, "Gloomy Sunday," which is not lively to begin with, is completely absorbed into the comatose lullaby mood of the first part of the album, a style that suits this song perfectly. This is surely a debut solo album that leaves a mark, and quite a significant one. A very beautiful record, especially considering that there are things in it that I appreciated even more. more
Clint Ruin & Lydia Lunch -Don't Fear the Reaper
hjhhjij
Here, I like this even more than "Stinkfist," more accessible but still beautifully twisted. There's still "sonic terrorism" (Clinch) but here Ruin and the Lunch also have fun with covers of two pop songs like the title track and even the Beatles from the white album, two gorgeous covers (the one by BOC is a masterpiece, IMO). However, the masterpiece is "Serpentine" by Ruin, an elegant and dark duet between the two voices accompanied by trumpet. A delightful "divertissement" between the two but splendid. more
Clint Ruin & Lydia Lunch -Stinkfist
hjhhjij
J.G. Thirlwell, in one of his 100 identities, alongside a perfect accomplice like Lydia Lunch, unleashes himself in three tracks of pure sonic terrorism, at times devastating. "Meltdown Oratorio," featuring Lunch's declamations, is sublime. In the fourth track, Thurston Moore joins in, co-authoring the piece with Lunch, and the three of them create a hell of a racket. The duo has done better separately, but for fans of these guys, this is a must-have. Beautiful cover :D more