COUNTDOWN: Top 50 Music Albums Of All-Time.

Can't believe people haven't heard of Lloyd Cole!
I must be showing my age........

Reberetta

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Just need Dylan and Waits now to complete my horror anthology.

Dylan made an appearance earlier-Blonde on Blonde at number 41. Pay attention! :P

speckle

I love listening to The Doors album, it evokes so many emotional states yet still is a very cohesive album.

JP Liz V1

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Me Too

This is not a WOKE thread you know but it IS an injustice you never heard of Lloyd Cole before -and also, how about Elvis Costello? Ring any bells?

lassykk

Reberetta wrote: »

At some heavy metal gigs, they had bottles thrown at them by the metalheads.

I regarded Linkin Park as faux-angst when I was younger. I never realized what a troubled, shocking life Chester Bennington led.

Amazing singer and a legend.

RIP.:(

Had some horrible start to life alright

Reberetta

Didn't Lloyd Cole play left-back for Chelsea, Arsenal and England?

speckle wrote: »

I love listening to The Doors album, it evokes so many emotional states yet still is a very cohesive album.

The End is amazing. Love Jim Morrison's lyrics, drug-induced though they may be.

speckle

Reberetta wrote: »

Didn't Lloyd Cole play left-back for Chelsea, Arsenal and England?



The End is amazing. Love Jim Morrison's lyrics, drug-induced though they may be.

Have The End and The Crystal ship on my list amongst others of potential funeral songs, going to be interesting when we are all older what we will be head banging or bopping too on our zimmer frames:D


It is getting to be a very long list, gonna be one helluva wake.

BonnieSituation

Deleted User wrote: »

We’ve had Blonde on Blonde -so there’s half your nightmare come true - Closing Time anyone? Followed by Blood on the Tracks?

Reberetta wrote: »

Dylan made an appearance earlier-Blonde on Blonde at number 41. Pay attention! :P

Ha!

I just whizzed by. The PTSD is too much sometimes.

Reberetta

17th  40 pts

Paul Simon
Graceland (1986)
Playlist.
Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: 3/1/3
Singles: "You Can Call Me Al", "Graceland", "The Boy in the Bubble", "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", "Under African Skies"
Nominated by quickbeam,Zaph,greenspurs

"My typical style of songwriting in the past has been to sit with a guitar and write a song, finish it, go into the studio, book the musicians, lay out the song and the chords, and then try to make a track. With these musicians, I was doing it the other way around. The tracks preceded the songs. We worked improvisationally. While a group was playing in the studio, I would sing melodies and words—anything that fit the scale they were playing in.

What was unusual about Graceland is that it was on the surface apolitical, but what it represented was the essence of the anti-apartheid in that it was a collaboration between blacks and whites to make music that people everywhere enjoyed. It was completely the opposite from what the apartheid regime said, which is that one group of people were inferior. Here, there were no inferiors or superiors, just an acknowledgement of everybody's work as a musician. It was a powerful statement."

—Paul Simon, 1986

Graceland features an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Mbaqanga, or "township jive", originated as the street music of Soweto, South Africa. The album was strongly influenced by the earlier work of South African musicians Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, and their band Juluka's Zulu-Western pop crossover music. Juluka was South Africa's first integrated pop band.

The album alternates between playful and more serious songs. Simon thought of it as like a play:

"As in a play, the mood should keep changing. A serious song may lead into an abstract song, which may be followed by a humorous song." On many songs, Simon and Halee employ a Synclavier to "enhance" the acoustic instruments, creating an electronic "shadow".

"The Boy in the Bubble" is a collaboration with Lesotho-based Tao Ea Matsekha

"Graceland" features the playing of bassist Bakithi Kumalo and guitarist Ray Phiri.

Simon remarks on the album's original liner notes that it reminded him of American country music, and wrote:

"After the recording session, Ray told me that he'd used a relative minor chord—something not often heard in South African music—because he said he thought it was more like the chord changes he'd heard in my music." Steel guitarist Demola Adepoju contributed to the track some months after its completion.

"I Know What I Know" is based on music from an album by General M.D. Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters. Simon was attracted to their work due to the unusual style of guitar playing, as well as the "distinctive sound" of the women's voices. "Gumboots" is a re-recording (with additional saxophone solos) of the song with which Simon first found himself enamored from the cassette tape that spawned Graceland.

To write lyrics, Simon listened to the recordings made during his time in Johannesburg, identifying patterns in the music to fit to verses. He said:

"It was very difficult, because patterns that seemed as though they should fit together often didn't. I realized that in African music, the rhythms are always shifting slightly and that the shape of a melody was often dictated by the bassline rather than the guitar. Harmonically, African music consists essentially of three major chords—that's why it sounds so happy—so I could write almost any melody I wanted in a major scale. I improvised in two ways—by making up melodies in falsetto, and by singing any words that came to mind down in my lower and mid range."

Simon told Robert Christgau in 1986 that he was bad at writing about politics, and felt his strength was writing about relationships and introspection. In contrast to Hearts and Bones, Graceland's subject matter is more upbeat. Simon made an effort to write simply without compromising the language. Composing more personal songs would take him significantly longer to complete, as this process would involve "a lot of avoidance going on".

Rewrites were necessary as Simon ended up using overcomplicated words.A perfectionist, Simon rewrote songs only to scrap the newer versions. Songs such as "Graceland" and "The Boy in the Bubble" took three to four months, while others, such as "All Around the World" and "Crazy Love", came together quickly.

"The Boy in the Bubble" discusses starvation and terrorism, but mixes this with wit and optimism. Simon concurred with this assessment:

"Hope and dread—that's right. That's the way I see the world, a balance between the two, but coming down on the side of hope."The song retains a variation of the only lyric Simon composed on his South African trip: "The way the camera follows him in slo-mo, the way he smiled at us all." The imagery was inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

"Homeless" discusses poverty within the black majority in South Africa. According to Simon's ex-wife Carrie Fisher, the "Graceland" lines "She’s come back to tell me she’s gone / As if I didn’t know that, as if I didn’t know my own bed / As if I’d never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead" refer to her. She confirmed she had a habit of brushing her hair from her forehead, and said she felt privileged to be in one of Simon's songs.

Throughout the recording process, Simon remained unsure of the album's thematic connection. He kept dozens of yellow legal pads with random words and phrases he would combine in an attempt to define the album. He derived the album title from the phrase "driving through Wasteland", which he changed to "going to Graceland", a reference to Elvis Presley's Memphis home. Simon believed it represented a spiritual direction: just as he had embarked on a physical journey to collect ideas in Africa, he would spiritually journey to the home of the rock "forefather" to revitalize his love for music.

Ten things you didn't know about the album.

Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage.

Reberetta

Reberetta wrote: »

17th  40 pts

Paul Simon
Graceland (1986)
Playlist.
Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: 3/1/3
Singles: "You Can Call Me Al", "Graceland", "The Boy in the Bubble", "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", "Under African Skies"
Nominated by quickbeam,Zaph,greenspurs

"My typical style of songwriting in the past has been to sit with a guitar and write a song, finish it, go into the studio, book the musicians, lay out the song and the chords, and then try to make a track. With these musicians, I was doing it the other way around. The tracks preceded the songs. We worked improvisationally. While a group was playing in the studio, I would sing melodies and words—anything that fit the scale they were playing in.

What was unusual about Graceland is that it was on the surface apolitical, but what it represented was the essence of the anti-apartheid in that it was a collaboration between blacks and whites to make music that people everywhere enjoyed. It was completely the opposite from what the apartheid regime said, which is that one group of people were inferior. Here, there were no inferiors or superiors, just an acknowledgement of everybody's work as a musician. It was a powerful statement."

—Paul Simon, 1986



Ten things you didn't know about the album.

Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage.

Most excellent

BonnieSituation

BonnieSituation wrote: »

It'll be going on now as soon as herself goes on a group zoom with her Tan friends in the bedroom and I pour myself a dram of Method and Madness.

Reberetta wrote: »

19th 38 pts

Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory (2000)

Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: 4/4/2
Singles: "One Step Closer", "In the End", "Crawling" and "Papercut"
Nominated by Sawduck, Necro, Y0ssar1an22, Sheridan81



Inside story behind the album.

Interview with Chester Bennington about the album.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

I hated them.

Then I actually gave this album a chance. It's fantastic. A Cure for the Itch is still a stunning piece of work.

That LP have two albums in the top 50 is mad.

That it's 20 years old is even madder.

Up will go on after I listen to Hybrid Theory.

I actually know every f**king word of this album. Ridiculous.

Forgot all about "With You". What a tune!

bubblypop

bubblypop wrote: »

Can't believe people haven't heard of Lloyd Cole!
I must be showing my age........

Alright young one- point made :P

Reberetta

16th 41 Pts

Manic Street Preachers
The Holy Bible (1994)
Playlist.
Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: -/6/-
Singles: Revol, She Is Suffering, Faster
Nominated by Urbansprawl, BPKS, Rikand, Rothko

‘The Holy Bible’ was dark, bleak and irascible. It was also leaps away from the zeitgeist at the time: it was released on the same day as ‘Definitely Maybe’. “I remember being in a taxi with Richey and we heard ‘Supersonic’ on the radio. We felt a bit bowed by it, in a strange commercial kind of way.”

-James Dean Bradfield

“We were in the studio doing ‘Revol’ when we heard Blur’s ‘Girls And Boys’. And I thought, ‘****, we’ve just written a song about group sex in the Politburo and really the biggest thing out there from an indie band is about going off on holiday in Ibiza. We couldn’t be ****ing further from the musical explosion than we are now!”

-Nicky Wire

According to drummer Sean Moore, the band felt they had been "going a bit astray" with their previous album, 1993's Gold Against the Soul, and so the approach to the follow-up was for the band to go back to their "grass roots" and rediscover "a little bit of Britishness that we lacked".

Singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield recalls the band feeling they had become "a bit too rockist [...] we had lost our direction".

The band stopped listening to American rock music and returned to influences that had inspired them when they first formed, including Magazine, Wire, Skids, PiL, Gang of Four, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

The shock of the new came from a first glimpse of the artwork. Artist Jenny Saville’s Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face) features a large woman in her underwear, examining herself from three different angles, a breathtaking challenge to the male gaze that has dominated the art world for centuries.

When Richey Edwards (Richey James in the sleevenotes) sat down with Saville to explain the meanings behind the songs and the album’s overarching themes, she agreed to let them use the image for free.

Epic Records had proposed that the album be recorded in Barbados, but the band had wanted to avoid what Bradfield called "all that decadent rockstar rubbish".It was bassist Nicky Wire's idea, says Bradfield, that the band "should not use everything at its disposal" in recording the album. Instead, recording began with sound engineer Alex Silva at the low-rent, "absolutely tiny" Sound Space Studios in Cardiff.The album was mixed by Mark Freegard, who had previously worked with The Breeders. "She Is Suffering" was produced by Steve Brown. The recording took four weeks.

Bradfield has described the recording of the album as preventing him from having a social life.  The album was constructed with "academic discipline", according to Bradfield, with the band working to headings and structures "so each song is like an essay".

Guitarist Richey Edwards attended recording sessions but would, according to Wire, "collapse on the settee and have a snooze" while the other band members did all the recording. He was drinking heavily and frequently crying."Inevitably", says Bradfield, "the day would start with a 'schhht!'; the sound of a can opening."

He was struggling with severe depression, alcohol abuse, self-harm and anorexia nervosa, and its contents are considered by many sources to reflect his mental state. The Holy Bible was the band's last album released before Edwards' disappearance on 1 February 1995.

The album's lyrics deal with subjects including child prostitution, American consumerism, British imperialism, freedom of speech, the Holocaust, self-starvation, serial killers, the death penalty, political revolution, childhood, fascism and suicide.

Faster itself begins with a sample of John Hurt’s Winston Smith in the film adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: "I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt."

The quotes and clips that pepper the album are an essential element, adding a human voice to subjects almost too weighty to approach. And so The Intense Humming Of Evil, inspired by the band’s visit to the concentration camps at Dachau and Belsen, begins with a report on the Nuremberg Trials, opening up to the bleakest few minutes you’re ever likely to hear on a mainstream rock record.

And so while there are plenty of moments they let loose, with the frantic Yes, the aforementioned Faster, a blazing gallop through the sexual peccadillos of world leaders and dictators, there are moments so stripped back to the bone the pain is palpable.

4st 7lb, in particular, is a tough listen, Edwards’ portrait of the anorexia he was suffering via the avatar of a teenage girl. Beginning with a heartbreaking sample from a documentary called Caraline's Story and drifting into a sick euphoria that becomes more and more delicate as she wastes away, it’s a masterclass in restraint and musical sensitivity.

Simon Williams of NME saw The Holy Bible as primarily the work of James Dean Bradfield, saying "The Holy Bible isn't elegant, but it is bloody effective". Melody Maker, seeing it as primarily the work of Richey Edwards, described it as "the sound of a group in extremis [...] hurtling towards a private armageddon".

Observed Roy Wilkinson in Select: "Amid all the references to coma, carcasses, 'walking abortions' and dying in the summer sits the spectre of Richey, holed up in a private clinic, having drunk too much, eaten too little and cut himself for reasons varying between dramatic gesture, a surrogate for screaming out loud and something 'sexual' [...] Let's hope that, with a record of such unsettling, morbid resonance as The Holy Bible, no further gestures are required."

In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic called The Holy Bible "Richey James' last will and testament", concluding: "Every song has a passage frightening in its imagery. Although the music itself isn't as scarily intense, its tight, terse hard rock and glam hooks accentuate the paranoia behind the songs, making the lyrics cut deeper."

Upon its re-release ten years later, Dan Martin of NME described The Holy Bible as "a work of genuine genius". Joe Tangari of Pitchfork wrote: "In a way, the story of Edwards' spiral into some unknown oblivion is tied to the experience of The Holy Bible, which in retrospect has become a sort of horror-show eulogy for a man who couldn't live with the world around him."

Essay on the album.

The Holy Bible: Why It Mattered.

The Holy Bible: An anomaly, an education, a warning from history.

No major surprises so far -,except for Duran Duran


*off to say rosary in Rio*

Electric Nitwit

Reberetta wrote: »

17th  40 pts

Paul Simon
Graceland (1986)

Excellent pick

Haven't seen my name yet, really starting to wonder what I picked

Oh dear, I had told myself I'd do my best to listen to all 50 of these albums....but am really gonna struggle with Manic Street Preachers. Cannot bear them. And that smug self-congratulatory quote from Nicky psuedointellectual prick Wire just reinforces my strong dislike of them.

Also might struggle with Paul Simon, find something annoying about his voice that I can't quite pinpoint.

Declan A Walsh

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

Excellent pick

Haven't seen my name yet, really starting to wonder what I picked

I haven't seen my name yet either! I agree with you about Graceland by Paul Simon. I taped most of that album a long time ago.

I also taped most of Hotel California by The Eagles some years ago.

I bought the following albums already referred to:
Sgt. Pepper etc. - The Beatles - iconic album, some great tracks, but have to be in the mood

Rattlesnakes - Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Cracker of a debut album. I most certainly have heard of him and them! Radio Nova plays them sometimes. Just for the record, I bought two albums by them and also Lloyd Cole's first official solo album. I nominated the latter but I don't expect to see it!

Automatic for the People - REM - Some really great tracks.

Arghus

Linkin Park were a band that came around at just the moment where my musical taste was turning from the nu-metal that I cut my teeth on. Couldn't be dealing with their rapping, their turntables and their teenage angst overload - and then there was the question about whether they were a "real" band or just a load of label plants. That's why metal heads hated them.

Declan A Walsh

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Automation for the People - REM - Some really great tracks.

If you like that try Automatic for the People— it’s feicing brilliant :P

BonnieSituation

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh dear, I had told myself I'd do my best to listen to all 50 of these albums....but am really gonna struggle with Manic Street Preachers. Cannot bear them. And that smug self-congratulatory quote from Nicky psuedointellectual prick Wire just reinforces my strong dislike of them.

Also might struggle with Paul Simon, find something annoying about his voice that I can't quite pinpoint.

It's okay to dislike. I also don't like Simon.

I've tried so many times with so many of the "greats". Sometimes it's just not for you.

S.M.B.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Oh dear, I had told myself I'd do my best to listen to all 50 of these albums....but am really gonna struggle with Manic Street Preachers. Cannot bear them. And that smug self-congratulatory quote from Nicky psuedointellectual prick Wire just reinforces my strong dislike of them.

Also might struggle with Paul Simon, find something annoying about his voice that I can't quite pinpoint.

I was all set to listen to them all but then a few popped up that I was very fond of a long long time ago but have no interest in listening to now.

Reberetta

15th 41 pts

The Rolling Stones
Let It Bleed (1969)

Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: 77?/1/3
Singles: Let It Bleed, You Got The Silver
Nominated by Plentyohtoole, Sawduck, NapoleonInRags, corm500

Let It Bleed doesn’t necessarily have any incredible production stories. Nobody mixed a song 91 times. Nobody beat their head with a boot to create some revolutionary drum sound. It’s just a superbly well written album full of eternally timeless tracks.

While the production is still amazing the instrumentation is often so sparse it feels as if The Stones are sitting in the room with you. In fact when Mick Jagger sings “We all need someone we can lean on,” the arrangement is so simple it’s as if Jagger has pulled up a stool next to you and offered his shoulder.

A white British band playing blues music was certainly nothing new by 1969, however with Let It Bleed, the Stones surpassed their contemporaries, solidified by the cover of  Robert Johnson’s Love In Vain. The Stones are so immersed in blues that you might not even know it’s a cover. The incomparable vocals of Jagger combined with Keith Richards soulful slides permeate the whole track as it pulses with loss and purpose.

The album is top and tailed by its crowning jewels however. You Can’t Always Get What You Want is an upbeat honky tonk classic, oozing with the swagger that only the Stones can muster. Gimme Shelter, on the other hand, is a protest song. No hoots, hollers or innuendos. It’s straight forward, powerful songwriting and the finest work the Stones have every created.

The main inspiration during this string of albums was American roots music and Let It Bleed is no exception, drawing heavily from gospel (evident in "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want"), Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers ("Country Honk"),Chicago blues ("Midnight Rambler"),[10] as well as country blues ("You Got the Silver", "Love in Vain") and country rock ("Let It Bleed").

Through their experimentation during the mid-1960s, the band had developed an eclectic approach to arrangements. Slide guitar playing is prominent (played entirely by Richards, except "Country Honk", which was performed by Taylor), and is featured on all songs except "Gimme Shelter", "Live with Me" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want", giving the album an authentic blues feel throughout.

In addition, an array of session musicians embellish the songs with various instruments. Alongside the piano performances (Ian Stewart, Nicky Hopkins), the record included fiddle (Byron Berline), mandolin (Ry Cooder),organ and French horn (Al Kooper),as well as vibes (Wyman) and autoharp (Wyman and Jones).

Of more importance, however, was the debut of both renowned saxophonist Bobby Keys on "Live with Me", a musician who was integral at giving the group's arrangements a soul/jazz background, and Taylor, who took on lead guitar duties with technically proficient playing, giving the band a harder rock sound during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Al Kooper, who tracked keyboard and french horn on Get What You Want recalls Jagger’s artistic control in awe stating, “Mick was really the producer. He knew what he wanted, and he was doing just about everything.”

Engineer Glyns Johns concurs, “I don’t know that Mick ever did anything other than from a producer’s level, really. Certainly, Jimmy Miller had an active role, but it was more of a co-production than not.”

When asked if the Vietnam War played a role in the album's worldview. Jagger said: "I think so. Even though I was living in America only part time, I was influenced. All those images were on television. Plus, the spill out onto campuses".

The story behind every song.

Arghus

The Manics post Richie Edwards disappearance and before are like two different bands, so if you hate them as they are now, then you might be okay with them as they were then.

Rolling Stones are another that fall into the category of "I know the hits" for me. I do enjoy most of what I know by them (and saw them live when they played Croke Park) but never gave any of their studio albums a proper go. Would Let It Bleed be a good one to start with? I do love "Gimme Shelter", and "You Can't always Get What You Want" is also very good.

Arghus

Exile on Main Street would be my Rolling Stones pick, but Let It Bleed is a fine album.

Electric Nitwit

Fun fact!



The cake on the front was made by Delia "Let's be 'aving you" Smith :pac:

Irish Aris

I was aware of Lloyd Cole but never heard his music closely.
Zaph submitted Perfect Skin in my Walrus - I really liked it and bought the album, which suits the 80s I've been listening to the last couple of years.
That and Paul Simon's Graceland (Again thanks to Zaph who submitted the duet with Linda Ronstadt) were 2 of the many interesting discoveries of my Walrus.

Declan A Walsh

Irish Aris wrote: »

I was aware of Lloyd Cole but never heard his music closely.
Zaph submitted Perfect Skin in my Walrus - I really liked it and bought the album, which suits the 80s I've been listening to the last couple of years.
That and Paul Simon's Graceland (Again thanks to Zaph who submitted the duet with Linda Ronstadt) were 2 of the many interesting discoveries of my Walrus.

Perfect Skin is the opening track of Rattlesnakes and gets your attention straight away. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions were a group of sorts at that stage rather than one individual, although he was the main songwriter, certainly the lyricist.

Reberetta

14th 44 pts

Bob Dylan
Blood On The Tracks (1975)

Chart Peak Ireland /UK/ USA: 38/4/1
Singles: Tangled Up In Blue
Nominated by Arghus, adrian522, Plentyohtoole, corm500

"It's a cliche, but there's a lived in truthfulness to this album that is bloody hard to top. When you're living through what he's singing about, it's hard to argue with the cathartic impact of this record."

The relatively obscure details about the album have also been documented. How Dylan initially recorded the entire album over four chaotic days in New York City. How on the eve of the album’s release, with test copies of the vinyl pressed and artwork printed up, he decided to recall it and rerecord at least half of it (possibly at the suggestion of his brother). How he recorded the album in Minnesota using mostly unknown session musicians; the only credited musician for Blood On The Tracks is Eric Weissberg of “Dueling Banjos” fame. How he retooled the album’s sound and changed the lyrics on some of the songs in order to “soften” them. How he helped make the album lighter by changing the key everything would be played in.

And the songs that constitute Blood on the Tracks have been described by many Dylan critics as stemming from his personal turmoil at the time, particularly his estrangement from his then-wife Sara Dylan.One of Bob and Sara Dylan's children, Jakob Dylan, has said, "When I'm listening to Blood On The Tracks, that's about my parents."

Dylan has denied this autobiographical interpretation, stating in a 1985 interview with Bill Flanagan,

"A lot of people thought that album pertained to me. It didn't pertain to me ... I'm not going to make an album and lean on a marriage relationship.A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It's hard for me to relate to that. I mean ... people enjoying that type of pain, you know?"

Addressing whether the album described his own personal pain, Dylan replied that he didn't write "confessional songs".However, on the live At Budokan album, Dylan seemingly acknowledges the autobiographical nature of the song "Simple Twist of Fate" by introducing it as "Here's a simple love story. Happened to me."

According to Rolling Stone Magazine, in Dylan's lyric notebook, the working title of Simple Twist of Fate was 4th Street Affair; Dylan and Suze Rotolo lived at 161 W. 4th St. The narrator of the song memorializes an affair of ten years ago instead of singing about Dylan's marriage.

In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles, Vol. 1, Dylan stated that the songs have nothing to do with his personal life, and that they were inspired by the short stories of Anton Chekhov.

Rolling Stone published two assessments. The first, by Jonathan Cott, called it "Dylan's magnificent new album". The second reviewer, Jon Landau, wrote that "the record has been made with typical shoddiness." In NME, Nick Kent described "the accompaniments [as] often so trashy they sound like mere practice takes", while Crawdaddy magazine's Jim Cusimano found the instrumentation incompetent.

An influential review of the album was written by Dylan critic Michael Gray for the magazine Let It Rock. Gray argued that it transformed the cultural perception of Dylan, and that he was no longer defined as "the major artist of the sixties. Instead, Dylan has legitimized his claim to a creative prowess as vital now as then—a power not bounded by the one decade he so affected."

This view was amplified by Clinton Heylin, who wrote: "Ten years after he turned the rock & roll brand of pop into rock ... [Dylan] renewed its legitimacy as a form capable of containing the work of a mature artist." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that although the lyrics occasionally evoke romantic naiveté and bitterness, Blood on the Tracks is altogether Dylan's "most mature and assured record".

Forty facts about the album.

Bob Dylan's masterpiece is still hard to find.

Retrospective.

speckle

Reberetta,

The list has nearly got to the top ten with only one female fronted album( maybe one and a half MBV).... so any chance of you posting a list of the top 20 from the full list?