Best 70’s Albums
Share:
A noteworthy point to make at the top of an incredibly arrogant article, in which I will pretend my opinion of music is in anyway a definitive guideline for anyone else, is that the 70’s churned out some of the very best music to have ever graced our good Earth. Nonetheless, I have whittled it down to five albums from the crème de la crème of musical artistry. If you disagree then ultimately it doesn’t matter, write your own best albums of the seventies and see if you can do a better job.
1. Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin (1971)
Genre: Hard rock/Rock and Roll
Top three tracks: Stairway to Heaven, Battle of Evermore, When the Levee Breaks
Released following the lukewarm reception of their previous album Led Zeppelin III, the album features not only some of their best songs but also some of the best cover art of the decade. Some bands just get things right, and in the case of Led Zepp, it is their instrumentals, which are arguably some of the very best known to music.
2. The Kick Inside – Kate Bush (1978)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Top Three Tracks – Wuthering Heights, L’amour Looks Something Like You, Oh To Be in Love
Kate Bush’s debut album shows her in all her glory. It features The Man With the Child in His Eyes, a song bush wrote when she was 13 and recorded with a full orchestra when she was only 16. By the time she was my age Kate bush had already achieved more than I will in my entire life.
3. Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan (1975)
Genre: Folk Rock
Top Three Tracks: Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, Shelter from the Storm, Buckets of Rain
Although following its initial release Blood on the Tracks met mixed reviews, it has since been accepted by critics and fans alike as one of Dylan’s best albums and remains one of his best selling studio released. It’s essentially a mash-up of the things Dylan does best, and for a fan of his music, it would be very difficult not to like.
4. The Dark Side of The Moon – Pink Floyd (1973)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Top Three Tracks: Time, Eclipse, Us and Them
Infamous for really very long songs which tend to be fairly heavy on instrumental, Pink Floyd are probably for most an acquired taste. Regardless, Dark Side of The Moon is generally accepted as one of the best albums ever released, and alongside The Wall is probably the group’s strongest. It also features one of the most distinctive album covers, of not only the decade, but ever.
5. Aladdin Sane – David Bowie (1973)
Genre: Glam Rock
Top Three Tracks: Lady Grinning Soul, The Prettiest Star, Time
I have a theory that I could do one of these lists for every decade since the 60’s and Bowie would make it onto every single one. There’s two from the 70’s that could make it onto here without question (the other being The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust), however, I thought it was only fair to give some other artists a chance. It’s an almost flawless album, and I’ll take anyone who says otherwise to task on that. How anyone could not love David Bowie is beyond me.