No.512: “Ashgrove” by Dave Alvin (2004)
Country blues rocker Dave Alvin was founder member of the band The Blasters in the 80’s before going solo with a succession of superbly written albums. This one is his best as far as I’m concerned. If you’re not familiar with Alvin’s sound, here’s a couple of tasters:
Back soon.
No.511: “Mylo Xyloto” by Coldplay (2011)
Coldplay are a lot of people’s “The band they love to hate” as they are massively successful yet annoyingly so with Chris Martin’s preening towards the environment as he does like so many rich celebrities peddle nowadays. Nothing wrong with saving the planet of course but sometimes it becomes cheesy and irksome when they do it more for publicity than for actual gain…but that’s another thread I guess.
This is the umpteenth Coldplay album in my list with still another one to come. They just seem to come up with the goods on their releases and their albums are great to listen to as a whole rather than by picking off odd tracks here and there. Their live outings are wonderfully colourful, although I haven’t seen them myself as yet.
This song was probably best known for being ‘The Sound of the 2012 London Olympics’, Charlie Brown:
No.510: “Ocean Rain” by Echo & The Bunnymen (1984)
Motormouth Liverpudlian Ian McCullock and his durable band - 40 years this year - with probably their magnum opus Ocean Rain. Moody, atmospheric, wonderful songs. Three fabulous singles in ‘Seven Seas’, ‘Silver’ and the magnificent ‘The Killing Moon’. Here’s that classic:
No.509: “Meat Is Murder” by The Smiths (1985)
Stphen Morrissey, Johnny Marr and the lads from Manchester with their third album which all revolves around Moz’s cheerfully-sung pop ditties (!). But that’s the point and the reason why so many people miss it about this band. If you can grasp the great songwriting and the playing by the band, then Morrissey’s deadpan droll can be almost) put to one side.
For me, this is their finest song:
No.508: “More Specials” by The Specials (1980)
Marginally better than their more ska-based debut offering (which I mentioned last week), More Specials had some brilliant singles on it. ‘Rat Race’ and ‘Stereotype’ were just two of them. Another two are these coming up: ‘Do Nothing’ and the very different indeed ‘International Jet Set’:
No.507: “Telekon” by Gary Numan (1980)
The follow-up to the massive-selling The Pleasure principle and it’s single Cars, Telekon was less commercial in its songs but did have it’s fair share of electronic majesty. Two tracks here, the first is ‘I Die: You Die’ and the second is ‘We Are Glass’, a single which mysteriously wasn’t on the album but is also from 1980.
No.506: “Blondie” by Blondie (1976)
Fresh from CBGB’s the debut album from New York’s Blondie was released in December 1976. Full of catchy, invigorating pop-rock, it paved the way for (the slightly inferior) Plastic Letters which followed then superstardom with Parallel Lines a year after that. Oh Debbie, I’ll always remember you on my bedroom wall as a spotty 12-year old!
No.505: “The Weight Of Your Love” by Editors (2013)
Editors’ fourth album was this brilliantly-produced masterwork of cool doom and gloom without a single bad track amongst it’s songs. This track ‘Honesty’ is probably my favourite of all their songs, a hell of a moody, propelling song. Saw them live on this tour in Leeds.
No.504: “Paul Simon” by Paul Simon (1972)
Debut solo release from Paul Simon which contained the hit ‘Mother And Child Reunion’ plus my favourite song from the album:
No.503: “Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive” (1981)
In a radical departure from his new-wave post-punk Costello0-styled hits, Joe Jackson made the bold move to old-fashioned swing music of the 1920’s and 30’s, Cab Calloway-style. Many of these tracks were old favourites from the time of prohibition and dance hall or were self-penned songs in the vein of that old variety hall scene. I think it worked a treat as these two songs from the album show:
No.502: “The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death” by The Housemartins (1987)
Coming from Hull and living along the same stretch of road as a boy where The Housemartrins were formed, I actually knew the band first when they would play as members of a music quiz team in one of the local pubs. We played against them and frequently beat them as far as my memory serves. Paul Heaton, Stan Cullimore, Hugh Whittaker and Ian Key (later replaced by Norman Cook were regulars around the Newland Avenue area of the city, spending most of their time in The Grafton pub…ahhh happy days!
Following their massive debut success with their previous album (here later), this second and final album had more of the same political pop tunes which made them and Heaton household names until even bigger success with The beautiful South two years later.
No.501: “We Are Paintermen” by The Creation (1967)
A Dutch-only release apparently, ‘We Are Paintermen’ was essentially a collection of the band’s very cool, underground sound in singles form. very underrated but pioneers of the ‘mod’ scene, they did record some great tracks and three are shown for you now:
Very much ahead of schedule, I believe I mentioned yesterday that I’d hoped to be starting the Top 500 on Monday, we are now half way through the list.
If you are enjoying this list but you would like me to make any adjustments to the format, please let me know and I’ll ‘think about it’.
In a moment, there will be a re-cap of albums 550-501.
550-501:
550-WHITNEY HOUSTON-Whitney-1987
549-NEIL YOUNG-Neil Young-1969
548-NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE-Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere-1969
547-GENESIS-The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway-1974
546-FRANK SINATRA-Strangers In The Night-1966
545-FLEETWOOD MAC-Fleetwood Mac-1975
544-ROY ORBISON-Mystery Girl-1989
543-SPECIALS-The Specials-1979
542-ABBA-Voulez-Vous-1979
541-JOHNNY CASH-American II – Unchained-1996
540-GRATEFUL DEAD-Live/Dead – Live In The Studio-1970
539-BEACH BOYS-Surf’s Up-1971
538-FREE-Tons Of Sobs-1968
537-GERRY RAFFERTY-North And South-1988
536-STEVE MILLER BAND-Fly Like An Eagle-1976
535-VAN MORRISON-It’s Too Late To Stop Now-1974
534-DAVID GILMOUR-David Gilmour-1978
533-PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION-Purple Rain (Soundtrack)-1984
532-ALAN PARSONS-Try Anything Once-1993
531-MAMAS & THE PAPAS-If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears-1966
530-BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-Working On A Dream-2009
529-GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS-George Thorogood & The Destroyers-1977
528-GARY NUMAN-Dead Son Rising-2011
527-GENESIS-Invisible Touch-1986
526-JEFF BECK-Truth-1968
525-COUNTING CROWS-August And Everything After-1993
524-STEVEN WILSON-Insurgents-2008
523-MEAT LOAF-Bat Out Of Hell II – Back Into Hell-1993
522-GERRY RAFFERTY-Night Owl-1979
521-BIG COUNTRY-The Crossing-1983
520-KEANE-Under The Iron Sea-2006
519-JAMES-Laid-1993
518-IRON MAIDEN-The Book Of Souls-2015
517-BOB DYLAN-Time Out Of Mind-1997
516-AGNES STRANGE-Theme For A Dream-1972
515-NATIVE AMERICANS-Sacred Spirit – Chants And Dances Of The Native Americans-1995
514-SANDY DENNY-Life An Old-Fashioned Waltz-1973
513-NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE-Ragged Glory-1990
512-DAVE ALVIN-Ashgrove-2004
511-COLDPLAY-Mylo Xyloto-2011
510-ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN-Ocean Rain-1984
509-SMITHS-Meat Is Murder-1985
508-SPECIALS-More Specials-1980
507-GARY NUMAN-Telekon-1980
506-BLONDIE-Blondie-1976
505-EDITORS-The Weight Of Your Love-2013
504-PAUL SIMON-Paul Simon-1972
503-JOE JACKSON-Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive-1981
502-HOUSEMARTINS-The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death-1987
501-CREATION-We Are Paintermen-1967
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Coming soon…
^ Don’t try to find any albums in that montage above if you’re looking for clues as to what could be appearing in the thread. It’s just any old pic I found on the net to tease you 
Bugger.
It looked a bit suspicious,no Bay City Rollers.
Haha. Well there you are. What all-time list would be complete without the Bay City Rollers? Twelve albums coming up. All in the top 10.
Oooo, “Is it Any Wonder” is a favorite. for getting revved up for a run or surfing. Incredibly full sound for no guitar…and the power of Chaplin’s voice makes for a good live concert…more but have to run…and play the video
