Joshua Tree (album of the year 1987) was the first album where I really discovered this supergroup, U2. Many U2-hardcorefans holds their third album – War – higher than this, the fifth – Joshua Tree, but I count this as the best. U2, formed in 1976 was named after a word game with “You Too” as well as the name of a U.S spy aircraft. The name was first not liked by Bono, but slowly accepted.
Musically U2 has its roots in post-punk, but later incorporated more popular music and with this album many other influences (more about that later).
For me U2 is all about a clean crisp sound, but most of all, a clean crisp sound that’s absolute unique. With “The Edge” (David Evans) on guitar, Adam Clayton on his solid base, Larry Mullens drive on the drums, and of course Bono’s (Paul Hewson) voice. Things can’t be much better, and more unique.
During this “Best Album Of All Times”-trip I’ve read quite a lot about the artists, and each album. What I found fascinating with this particular album was that U2, before this album described themselves as root less. Roots that they searched before making this album.
Realising that “U2 had no tradition” and that their knowledge of music from before their childhood was limited, the group delved into American and Irish roots music. Friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards motivated the band to explore blues, folk, and gospel music and focused Bono on his skills as a songwriter and lyricist. U2 interrupted the album sessions in mid-1986 to serve as a headline act on Amnesty International’s A Conspiracy of Hope tour. Rather than being a distraction, the tour added extra intensity and focus to their new material. Later that year, Bono travelled to San Salvador and Nicaragua and saw first-hand the distress of peasants bullied in internal conflicts that were subject to US political intervention. The experience became a central influence on the new music.
Source: Wikipedia
The search for roots is also described in this interview with The Edge, and the live recordings with the Gospel Choir; for the song With Or Without You (watch video down below)
After releasing the “Joshua Tree” album U2 quickly got two number one singles in U.S: “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For”. Two epic songs at the time, and still is. The tour after the album Joshua Tree was portrayed in the movie “Rattle and Hum”.
What I truly enjoy with U2 (and many of the best bands) is their strive for perfection, and at the same time passion and honesty for what their music/work is about. I’ve always believed that there are no shortcuts for success. It’s all about hard work, and I think that U2 truly reflects that opinion. I hope you like this album as much as I do.
Rare clip with U2 and Bruce Springsteen – Still Haven’t Found What I Was Looking For
Full album
Interview with U2, 1987
For more parts, click the You-tube link
Carole King, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Faith Evans, Al Green, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Sheena Easton, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, Paula Abdul,Eric Clipton, Pebbles, Tevin Campbell, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Tamia, Shola Ama, 3T, Sisqó, Dru Hill, Fall Out Boy, Céline Dion, Honeyz, Katharine McPhee, Mariah Carey, Vanessa L. Williams, Chanté Moore, En Vogue, Kenny G, Kristinia DeBarge, Lil Wayne, Japanese singer Ken Hirai, P!nk, Marc Nelson, TLC, and Phil Collins among others.
That’s not a bad list of experiences for a producer/song writer, and it’s only a part of the “legacy list” of Kenneth Brian “Babyface” Edmonds.
My first experience with Babyface came the first day when I spent some time in New York back in 1997. On the first day of the trip I bought this CD “Babyface Unplugged NYC 1997” in the largest record store . It was love at first listening. An album that’s so impressive, from start to finish, with a musician line-up that’s absolute top class.
This album is like the finest bottle of red wine. The subtle tones, the power, the different flowers… they are all there.
What I really enjoy with this album is the atmosphere that he manage to set through all the tracks. The small talk between some of the tracks is also a great way to create that special atmosphere.
Truly inspiring
The speech that they are referring to at the end is this:
From iTunes
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• “Lapse It is by far the best time lapse application I’ve come across so far” by Robert Iagar, AppStorm
I don’t know if I ever experienced such a “listening-punch”, as the first time I heard this record at an acquaintance back in the 80’s (in Bergsviken Piteå). The vocals were awesome and the album was well kept together, and it was one of the first heavy metal albums that I discovered where normal and modern (at the time) synthesizers were used in such a good way.
Phenomena was not a regular “group”, but rather a “supergroup”, put together by producer Tom Galley, Wilfried Rimensberger and Mel Galley guitarist in Whitesnake) with many great musicians as contributors, among them Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath amongst others), Brian May (Queen) and John Wetton (Uriah Heep) and many others.
Phenomena’s production of rock songs based on a story line running through a whole album, attached to artworks and other multi-media aspects was credited for the “return of the concept album” in the 1980s.
There isn’t so much information about Phenomena to Discover, but an interesting news is that the recently formed “Tom Galley’s Phenomena” will perform live for the first time in Sweden 2014, at Swedish Rock.
Source: Wikipedia
Tracks in this YouTube-video (according to “Piwtoad”):
01 (00:00) Kiss Of Fire
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums — Cozy Powell, Guitar — John Thomas, Keyboards — Richard Bailey, Galley Songwriter — Richard Vocals — Glenn Hughes
02 (04:57) Still The Night
Backing Vocals — Pete Green, Drums — Ted McKenna, Guitar — John Thomas, Mel Galley, Keyboards — Robin Smith, Vocals, Bass, Songwriter — Glenn Hughes
03 (08:24) Dance With The Devil
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums — Cozy Powell, Guitar — John Thomas, Guitar, Songwriter — Mel Galley, Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Songwriter — Richard Bailey, Violin [Fiddle] — Rick Sanders, Vocals — Glenn Hughes
04 (13:07) Phoenix Rising
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums — Cozy Powell, Guitar, Songwriter — Mel Galley, Keyboards, Songwriter — Richard Bailey, Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Vocals — Glenn Hughes 4:45
05 (17:52) Believe
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums — Cozy Powell, Guitar — John Thomas, Keyboards, Songwriter — Richard Bailey, Lyrics By — Tom Galley Vocals — Glenn Hughes Vocals [Boy Soloist] — Neil Willars
06 (23:45) Who’s Watching You
Drums — Ted McKenna Guitar, Songwriter, Backing Vocals — Mel Galley, Keyboards — Don Airey, Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Vocals, Bass, Backing Vocals — Glenn Hughes
07 (27:26) Hell On Wings
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums — Cozy Powell, Guitar, Songwriter — Mel Galley, Keyboards, Songwriter — Richard Bailey, Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Vocals — Glenn Hughes
08 (31:20) Twilight Zone
Backing Vocals — Alison McGinnis, Paul Robbins, Pete Green, Bass — Neil Murray, Drums Cozy Powell, Guitar — John Thomas, Mel Galley, Keyboards, Songwriter — Richard Bailey, , Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Vocals — Glenn Hughes
09 (35:33) Phenomena
Arranged By [Choral Arrangements], Songwriter — Paul Robbins, Choir — Midland Boys Singers, Keyboards — Richard Bailey, Lyrics By, Songwriter — Tom Galley, Other [Musical Director] — Alvena Grant, Pete Grant, Vocals [Solo Vocalist] — Neil Willars
So, we’re getting close to the top. So far we’ve covered places 40-11, and it’s time to enter top 10. It’s almost impossible to compare the albums so close to the top but I’ll give it a go.
So, this will be an outsider. But an awesome outsider…
First out, in the top 10:s is the album Red Eden, by Sara Isaksson.
If Stephen Simmonds is a well-kept secret internationally in the category male singers, Sara Isaksson is almost an even more kept secret in the female singers category.
The album Red Eden is a quite low-key album where Sara:s incredible voice truly has the ability to shine. This will never be the album to listen to before a night out on town, but a great album to listen to when you get back home.
I guess in some sense it’s an album for musicians, but on the other hand it’s just an easy listening country, singer/song-writer album put together for everyone.
I couldn’t find any YouTube tracks from this particular album so I settle with the Spotify playlist.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Source: Carscoop
Who could believe that a group, named after Malcolm and Angus sister Margaret had seen the initials AC/DC on a sewing machine, would be one of biggest groups in history? (in Australia they are commonly called Acca Dacca”)
When I started to arrange this top 40-list, it was obvious that AC/DC would end up on the list. A band that have pretty much gone their own way over time, and for instance never have produced a commercially ballad like many other Heavy Metal bands. AC/DC always stays true to their concept, straight on, pub-rock inspired heavy metal, with guitar, bass, drums and vocals.
In my opinion this is their best album (so far?); Back in Black. With over 40-50 million (both figures can be found on internet) records sold this is the second, or fourth most sold album in history (depending on source).
Back in Black was the first album with Brian Johnson on vocals, after the tragic death of Bon Scott (after a tragic night of severe drinking 1980). It’s been said that the band was about to quit at the time, but Bon Scott’s family wanted them to continue.
Various candidates were considered for his replacement, including: Buzz Shearman, ex-Moxy member, who was not able to join because of voice problems, ex-Back Street Crawler vocalist Terry Slesser and then Slade vocalist, Noddy Holder. The remaining AC/DC members finally decided on ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson.
Angus Young later recalled, “I remember the first time I had ever heard Brian’s (Johnson) name was from Bon. Bon had mentioned that he had been in England once touring with a band and he had mentioned that Brian had been in a band called Geordie and Bon had said ‘Brian Johnson, he was a great rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard.’ And that was Bon’s big idol, Little Richard. I think when he saw Brian at that time, to Bon it was ‘Well he’s a guy that knows what rock and roll is all about.’ He mentioned that to us in Australia. I suppose when we decided to continue, Brian was the first name that Malcolm and myself came up with, so we said we should see if we can find him.” For the audition, Johnson sang “Whole Lotta Rosie” from Let There Be Rock and Ike & Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits”. He was hired a few days after the audition.
The album was named Back in black as a sign of mourning, and respect to the late Bon Scott.
Source: Wikipedia and AC/DC fan page
AC/DC Documentary from 1979
AC/DC live at River Plate – Full Concert (HD 1080p)
“We don’t speak very good spanish, but we speak rock n’ roll”
This may be the greatest artist that have ever lived, and this album is for sure one of the best albums ever. It’s really impressive to follow the making of the album in the Youtube-clip (attached later in this post). All the details, all the thoughts and Michael Jackson’s amazing touch for everything, together with Quincy Jones as a producer. An unstoppable team.
What was interesting at this time in music history, was the importance of music videos. This may be one of the albums with the most music videos produced from it.
Five of the tracks from the made it to number one in U.S.
I will not go into details for every song in this post, since it’s so well described in the documentary. Don’t miss that one, if you haven’t seen it before.
Michael Jackson – Bad, full album
Oh, now things are heating up. Thirteen albums left, and I think every one of them are totally awesome. At 13:th place I’ve placed an album, that I think I’ve said in every post, could/would’ve been placed higher up. This album is one of those that I return to every now and then, in short a real goldie, literally; the album Gold from the Swedish Music Collective, Blacknuss.
Blacknuss plays a combination of RnB, Soul and Jazz in a great mix, and among the musicians you find many of the Swedish elite. Only one person have played on all albums, the drummer Martin Jonsson.
I’ve been fortunate to watch Blacknuss live at Mosebacke in Stockholm, and when it comes to rhythmic experiences, and “people just can’t be standing still”-experiences, that’s still my nr. 1.
It’s hard to point out some favorites, since all tracks has its place on this awesome album, but if I should try, you shouldn’t miss Thinking Of You, Rising To The Top (with the amazing Lisa Nilsson on vocals), Dinah, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, It Should Have Been You… or… just listen to the album. This is one of those albums, that after a few plays will stay in your library forever and really hasn’t any big weaknesses.
Nikki Sixx (Frank Ferrana), Vince Neil (Vince Neil Warton), Mick Mars (Robert Allen Bippus) and Tomme Lee (Tomme Lee Bass) may be the band that have lived the rock’n roll life to its absolute maximum. Success, fame, glam, women and party on one hand. Drugs, jail, trash, crash, burn and even dead band members. Nikki Six was in an academic way dead for two minutes before found by Slash in his hotel room 1987, and the injected with adrenalin in the heart and survived. This was actually the background for the track “Kickstart my heart” on the Dr Feelgood album.
Back to the album. This is after all a “Best album of all times”-list. Shout at Devil was released in 1983 and was Mötley Crües biggest hit at the time. The sound, with its roots in Blues, and old school rock n’ roll, played on speed became part of the beginning of a new era in the hard rock / heavy metal scene; Glam rock.
Many parents in Sweden were really afraid of Mötley Crüe and other bands at the time (especially W.A.S.P), and even Swedish Television arranged a talk show around this matter (Swedish), and even though Nikki Sixx tried his best to explain the lyrics in a more down to earth way, the parents hated the album, which always is a good reason for the teenagers to do the opposite. “What a crock of shit! There was nothing demonic about Shout at the Devil. All we were saying was that everyone should stand up and shout at those people who are holding them down, whether it’s their parents, their teachers, or their bosses.” Nikki Sixx (source: nikkisixx.tv).
The highlights on the record, except for the title track is, in my mind “Looks that kill”, “Helter Skelter” (Beatles Cover) and “Too young to fall in love”.
I really like the full sound of Mötley Crüe at this stage in their career, with the crisp guitar, the always amazing drums, Nikki Sixx (as the most frequent writer of the tracks) bass lines and of course the falsetto voice of Vince Neil.
Some other facts:
If you wan’t to discover more from Mötley Crüe, try out these tracks:
Full album:
This may be one of the most touching videos I’ve seen. The story behind it, is that Rooie Mark, 54 years old has a deadly disease and only have a short time left. One of his last wishes is to watch Feyenoord one more time. However, the season hasn’t started yet so his friends arrange the possibility for him to watch the first training of the season. What Rooie didn’t know was that the fans and players had prepared something really special for him.
Soccer isn’t all about people fighting in the stands.
Rooie passed, sadly, away just three days later.
P.S If you don’t have time to watch the full video (even though I think you should), click on this link for a short photo version D.S
11:th of June 2008, Coldplay released the Brian Eno produced album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends”. For me, this album was the first time I really started to enjoy Coldplay. As often when I come across new artists it takes a little while to get used to the sound, the atmosphere and of course the lyrics. What really makes this album complete, is the fulfillment of all those categories.
In short, the album covers the aspects of life, death, war and love. Not the typical “easy going topics”, to say the least.
The album starts off with Life in Technicolor, which is a long intro to the rest of the album. In my opinion this intro works perfectly as an atmosphere leveler.
Cemeteries of London; a typical track about the topics of the album, was recorded in a Barcelona church, and if you listen closely you can hear some spanish “clapping” in the song, while “Bass player Guy Berryman told Entertainment Weekly: When I imagine the song in my head, I see London in 1850. A hell of a lot of rain and men in top hats.” (reference Entertainment Weekly)
Lost! is really well described by “Floridaguy” on song meanings:
This was one of the first songs Coldplay worked on for the record. The band were originally inspired by the song “Sing” by Blur, which they were listening to in their dressing room before performing in a gig in Detroit. They tried to write a song like it and it ended up evolving in various ways with lots of different versions before the final recorded rendering. Chris Martin explained to MTV News: “That’s often how we write, is we listen to something and we think it’s incredible, and we feel stupid for not having anything as good as that, so we go and try to play it. And then, of course, because we don’t know how to do that, we often come up with something new.”
42 is a quite melancholic track with many of the big life questions asked. So far in this review I’ve kept much focus on the lyrics, but the album musically is really amazing. What’s different with this track is that it doesn’t contain a chorus. Instead it’s divided into three parts.
Lovers in Japan. When asked about the development of the song, during a track-by-track reveal, drummer Will Champion said:
We were in a studio in New York, this place called the Magic Shop, and it had this thing called a tack piano there, which sounds like an old honky-tonk piano, where you put little tacks in the hammers, so it sounds like more of a harpsichord almost. And so we wanted to use that kind of sound, but we didn’t have a tack piano, so rather than sample it, we went and bought an old piano from the shop up the road from our studio, and we bought a load of tacks, and me and Guy and Jon spent a couple of hours pushing tacks into the piano hammers. (Source Wikipedia)
Yes: As many of the tracks on this album, this track also have it’s completely own identity. The vocals by Chris Martin are really low.
Viva La Vida is the big top hit from this album reaching the top in both the UK singles chars as Billboard Hot 100. I guess almost everyone who reads this blog at least have heard the typical strings intro. The lyrics carry many biblical references but seems to be more aimed at the conflict between people and government, and especially around war.
Violet Hill. Also a track about a soldier going into battle. The first rows in the lyrics are truly amazing, and gives the rest of the track its atmosphere.
Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow
I really like the contrast in this song (which I may write about almost all the tracks on this album)
Strawberry Swing is a low-key track with african drums, a guitar melody that almost runs throughout the track as a thread.
The last track, Death And All His Friends somehow share some identity with the Swedish pop band Kent.
In the later part of the track the summarize the album beautifully with the sound of “Life in Technicolor”
Full album on Youtube:
Gary Moore (1952-2011), is probably one of the “all greatest guitarists so far”. Maybe not always the fastest, but the combination technical skills, incredible melodies and a 6:th sense to catch an atmosphere has brought him to the absolute top.
As I wrote in the first post in this series – The Best Album of All Times – I will only post one album per artist and I guess that Gary Moore could hold more places than one. The hard part is to choose between the three of them Wild Frontier, After the war and Run for Cover.
In my opinion Wild Frontier is the best when it come to a complete album without any big dips, and oh’boy this album is on the safe side all the way. The difference between this album and the earlier ones are obvious but an interesting detail is the use of a drum machine instead of a human drummer.
The album kicks off with the famous “Over The Hills And Far Away” (later covered by many others for example Nightwish), followed up by the title song “Wild Frontier”. These both songs marks perfectly the change in Gary Moores style after the previous mentioned albums. The Heavy Metal is more popilicious, and the overall sound more friendly.
It continues with “Take A Little Time”. Still a really good song, but a bit after the first two tracks. In my opinion this track get’s a little bit to flirty with the new style and the chorus isn’t far away from many other Dance-tracks.
The Loner is a true epic track with Moore showing of his rare sensitivity in creating emotions / feelings with a guitar. An awesome track!
The weakest part of this album may be the start of “Friday On My Mind”, and it doesn’t really kick off completely, but still is an okay track.
Strangers In The Darkness is a track that may be influenced by Billy Idol (?). The atmosphere, and even more, the vocals are pretty close.
Thunder Rising; a track with a heavy guitar adrenaline stamina that runs almost through the whole song, a punchy chorus and after approx 3:30 a guitar that almost sounds like a bagpipe.
Johnny Boy; a sad track with beautiful melodies dedicated to his friend Phil Lynnot that passed away 1986.
Don’t miss the last track (since it’s hidden behind a second version of “Over the hills and far away”). I’m not really sure how to comment on this track. This track is really different from the others. Some West Coast influences (?), some pop and a bit of a 70’s sound at the same time. In short, Great track! Don’t miss!
If you want to explore more songs from his previous albums I suggest:
After The War
Led Clones (With Ozzy Osbourne on Vocals)
Military Man
Empty Rooms
Out in the fields
Every now and the most of us receives, and shares quotes. What’s really hard to find is quotes that aren’t to corny or sentimental, and just get’s to the core. These 42 points is all about that. I hope you’ll find them as thoughtful as I did.
Best wishes
Stephen Simmonds may be one of the best kept secrets internationally when it comes to male singers. Stephen is a Swedish singer and is appearing frequently in tv-shows, back other artists but rarely plays on his own stages. I’ve never figured out why he hasn’t made it to the big stages in the BIG world, but sometimes I guess it’s a choice of his own.
His album, For Father, released in 2002 is absolutely amazing, and while I’m writing this I’m starting to think that it might be higher up in the list, but as always prioritizing is hard and music can never be “absolute”.
actually I didn’t discover this album until the 2010’s within Spotify, and I directly got struck by it. The album is low key and as a rich full red wine perfect for long evenings at home.
If you like me enjoys his voice, he uses his full potential on all tracks. The high notes in the album, in my opinion is the title song For Father, Where is your heart, Always in my head and More to do and I guess I could list them all.
If you haven’t given Stephen Simmonds a chance before, now you have the chance. Don’t miss it out.
If you like to try out new photo apps for your iPhone / iPad you might enjoy some paid apps that are currently free for a short period. Click on the name of the app for a direct link to each app.
If you like to add text:s to your photos this app may be what you’re looking for. Normal price $1, now free.
A typical Photo Editor app, with quite a lot of functionality built into it. Even though it says that the app used to cost $21 and now’s out for free it’s not the full truth. I checked the history of the app and they increased the price on the 10:th of July from $1 to $21. Maybe a good advertising trick. Anyhow, it seems like a good app even though I’ve not tried it out that much yet.
A traditional “filter app” in the same tradition as many others. Some nice ones if you like to add new filters to your vault.
Ratt, the band with the name that’s a synonym to Steering Wheel in Swedish was one of my big favorites as a teenager, and they still are. Risen from the L.A Glam scene, in competition with bands like Mötley Crüe, Van Halen and its likes, Ratt was a solid contender of the heavy metal scene back in my youth. In Sweden they had a few hits, but my feeling is that the group didn’t get the attention that they deserved, and experienced in other parts of the world.
The guitar sound from this record may be one of the most “cold” guitar sounds ever, and the tempo slow for this kind of music, while the vocals are “slow”; but wow this is a great album from start to finish. An album that’s solid and well-kept together as a whole. This was one of those albums that could’ve ended up on many places in this 40-top list; both higher and lower.
In my opinion Round and Round is the most significant contribution of all songs on this record. The song is almost a summary of the rest of the tracks.
I guess the lyrics won’t be mentioned in the lyrics classes in the 2100:s, but the clean crisp sound may end up in the musical classes.
If you want to explore more music by Ratt, check out the track Lay it down from the “Invasion of your privacy album” (1985), and while you’re at it, their more recent albums.
In my opinion the more recent contributions doesn’t share the same quality as before but still some good music to explore… and yes, they are (as a brand at least) still active with new albums on their way.
Best wishes for a great Tuesday.
Aldo Nova, a Canadian artist became a huge success in the early-/mid 80:s with his albums “Aldo Nova” and “Subject..”.
Even though the first two albums are really good, I think Twitch is the one that’s the most complete, and keeps a certain atmosphere through the whole album with its 80’s Gary Moore influenced guitars and easy straight rock in the flavor of Bryan Adams, and maybe also Bon Jovi. If I’ve read the facts right this album was not a huge success in the world, but in Sweden it became the most successful one when it was launched in 1985.
As mentioned earlier the album is really solid, and if there is one song that lacks behind it may be the title song – Twitch. Other than that it’s an album that can be kept on replay a number of times.
On the other side it’s harder to pick a favorite, which often is the case with “Best albums”.
Aldo Nova has also been a successful song writer to a number of artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Céline Dion, Blue Öyster Cult, Chantal and Clay Aiken’s “This Is the Night” (co-written with Chris Braide and Gary Burr), which in the U.S. was a number one hit and the best selling single of 2003. (Source: Wikipedia)
These types of videos almost always contains a child with super skills early in life. This is the opposite, a cool grandma drummer beating the shit out of the drums.
I hope you all have a great weekend finish. Tomorrow, number 19 in the album list, and a photography to go with it.
I will never forget the first time I heard this album. It was, at the time, my svärbror (brother-in-law) who have spotted it and played it loud. For quite a long time I thought he was kidding. NO ONE can like this. So rough, a wicked singer who rap-singed, and a guitar player that made the most strange noises ever.
Then it started to grow…
What an amazing album this is. Full of energy. An awesome guitar player, and a sound that (together with Clawfinger) created a new musical era.
What I didn’t knew at first was that most parts of the music brought political stories. Since I’ve always been a friend of that the human life is sacred, and no other man shall have the right to take another persons life, Killing in the name certainly stroke a chord.
The sound on this album was also at the time unique. It’s almost as RATM is a modern studio version of number 21, Dire Straits. Crisp clear guitars, a bass that sounds like a bass. Dry drums, and as I’ve mentioned a guitar that’s (still) like nothing else recorded before.
Even though I’m not a fanatic political wise I
If I could change history Bulls on parade from the album “Evil empire” also would’ve been included. Otherwise, a great album!
Today I started wondering about which albums, no matter the category, that are the best of all times in my opinion. With “best” I don’t necessarily mean the most historic or changing. I just mean, the best albums for me. The albums that I come back to time after time, some of them just for the memories connected to them, and others simply for the amazing music.
It might be good to know that my musical background has its roots in west coast/AOR, old school heavy metal and more instrumental genres, even though I listen to almost everything nowadays. In my music tab you can find my current favorites.
So instead of just posting them all in one post I figured that I’ll split them up in 11 separate posts, and today I begin with those that didn’t make it to the top-20 list and a special around the runner-up for top-20.
Some of my favorite artist would have more than one album on this list, but I’ve chosen to keep just one album from every artist, and mention others worth noticing.
And remember, best album doesn’t mean best two or three songs that are good or maybe even awesome. Best album is “Best album all together”.
So, here we go…
Which albums didn’t make it to the top-20 list? (Spotify linked)
21 Dire Straits – On every street (Special mention Brothers in arms)
22 The Fray – The Fray
23 Metallica – Metallica
24 Adele – 21
25 Top Gun – Motion Picture Soundtrack
26 David Foster
27 Nirvana – Nevermind
28 Peter Gabriel – So
29 Abba – The Album
30 Robert Plant / Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
31 Johnny Hates Jazz – Turn Back The Clock
32 Bruce Hornsby – The Way It is
33 Level 42 – Running in the family
34 Chicago – Chicago 17
35 Marc Cohn – Marc Cohn
36 Richard Marx – Richard Marx
37 Gun’s n Roses – Apetite for Destruction
38 Europe – Wings of Tomorrow
39 Saga – Wildest Dreams
40 Elvis Presley – G.I Blues
P.S I also try to post a photo of my own that I think is connected to each album in some kind of way. D.S
This album is, as Brothers in Arms one of the albums that are heavily used as a reference album when it comes to demonstrating sound in HiFi-shops. The sound is really clear, and you can separate all the instruments really well, and I guess the subtle music also makes some sense in a public place.
I guess many listeners would’ve voted Brothers in arms as the better album of the two, but I favor this album since I think the feeling / atmosphere as a complete album is more tight. Brothers in arms holds many of Dire Straits top selling hits but the album feels straggly compared to the more collected On every street.
This is maybe not one of the albums that I’ve listened to the most, but it’s an album that I come back to every now and then and the title song, On Every Street is one of my long time favorites.
The high points, except the already mentioned title song, is Iron Hand, Calling Elvis, fade to black and the country inspired The Bug.
Dire Straits in short, from Wikipedia:
Dire Straits were a British rock band, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), his younger brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). Dire Straits’ sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest to beat music within the context of rock and roll. Despite the prominence of punk rock during the band’s early years, the band’s stripped-down sound contrasted with punk, demonstrating a more “rootsy” influence that emerged out of pub rock. Many of Dire Straits’ compositions were melancholic.[3] Dire Straits’ biggest selling album, Brothers in Arms, has sold over 30 million copies.[4]
They also became one of the world’s most commercially successful bands, with worldwide album sales of over 120 million.[5] Dire Straits won numerous music awards during their career, including four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards—winning Best British Group twice, and two MTV Video Music Awards.[5] The band’s most popular songs include “Sultans of Swing”, “Lady Writer”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Tunnel of Love”, “Telegraph Road”, “Private Investigations”, “Money for Nothing”, “Walk of Life”, “So Far Away”, “Your Latest Trick” and “Brothers in Arms”.
Dire Straits’ career spanned a combined total of 15 years. The band originally split up in 1988, but reformed in 1991. Dire Straits disbanded for good in 1995 when Mark Knopfler launched his career full time as a solo artist. There were several changes in personnel over both periods, leaving Mark Knopfler and John Illsley as the only two original bandmates who had remained throughout the band’s career.
Photo by: Simon Christen; simonchristen.com
During the last month I’ve visited Malta and Amsterdam and of course spent time in my hometown Stockholm. In almost every scenic place around the world people are getting more frequent in hanging up locks to show their feelings for one another.
The tradition is to right something on the lock, hang it on a bridge, a wire or anywhere with the scenery behing it, lock it, and then throw away the key.
In these secular times, maybe this is a modern way of getting married?
All the photos are taken with iPhone 5.
If you wan’t to hear the mentioned “Lullaby crash”, you’ll find it here:
Recently I’ve posted a few videos about Sweden and Swedes, and there seems to be no stopping in the number of videos about us Swedes. Some of them more authentic than others. This one is actually more true than you might think 🙂
Thank you Lars for this one
In Sweden we have an expression called “I-landsproblem”. If I should try to explain it, it’s like a problem that’s only a problem when everything else is okay. For instance, your nearest store have changed the place of the Coca-Colas, your new Ferrari only comes with 18″ wheels, or that your planned washing time at your house is occupied 5 minutes longer than you expected. They are all “i-landsproblem”.
This post will probably hit one of those marks where “i-Landsproblem” almost won’t cut it, but still I find this topic a little fascinating since it’s all apart of our new society, and about Social Media. This phenomena (Social Media) that’s not even 10 years old but everyone knows all about it… or?
This topic is about those people who are commenting or “liking” friends posts that are “public”. You know with the “Tellus-symbol” attached to it. This means that the posts that your “friend”, “colleague” or just “facebook acquaintance” have posted is “all out there” for everyone to see. (1)
So what’s the big fuzz? What’s the problem with that?
Before I explain my thoughts around this matter; let me give a short insight to all of those who might not be aware of how Facebook friend categories work. If you know all about it.. -> Skip to “Continue here”
Everytime you post something on Facebook you will have the choice to choose who will see your message.
The main categories are:
Except the categories above, you can also categorize your friends in the category “limited”, which means that they will not see anyone of your posts, except the ones that are posted as “public”.
Continue here…
So, my question is, why do people click or comment, on friends “public” postings (except if the friend has a “higher” purpose of some kind like sending an important message or aiming at getting something important widely spread)? (1)
So, why shouldn’t you click on your friends public posts?
1) Your friend has maybe put you on their “limited” list, which means that you only see these posts that they’ve chosen to be public, which means that you’re maybe not so good friends after all.
2) When you click that public post, everyone of your friends, not just their friends… ALL of your friends will also see it. This will also mean that your digital foot print will be left entirely in their hands. Not in yours.
3) Except for the above; when you click a public post you will also “spam” your friends with the same message that most of them probably won’t care about, since they probably don’t know this person. Maybe not a big issue if you have 50 “friends”, but certainly if you have 500 or more.
So my tip to you “social media people”; think about where you’re putting your digital foot print, and make sure that you can control your own digital foot prints by yourself, instead of handing that choice over to somebody else who may keep it in public forever.
We’re living in a new era where we all are trying to keep up with these new media types, and I guess many of us (including myself) aren’t paying enough attention to what we are leaving as footprint forever.
So, in short, “like” and “comment” only posts that you know that you can control in the future.
A last short tip. When did you last clean your Facebook page, and made all your previous posts just visible to yourself? That’s a real good functionality within Facebook that many people don’t know about. Summer cleaning?
… and to all of you posting in public; remember that these posts will be public for your next employer, your friends friends (also in the future), the government and of course your children’s / parents friends.
(1) The information above isn’t applicable when you change profile picture or wall picture since those are (in most cases) public by default
Saarimner.com 