UCR: Best albums of 1979

[SisterNightroad]

Top 10 1979 Rock Albums
by Michael Gallucci

As the ’70s turned into the ’80s, a funny thing was happening: Rock music couldn’t be as easily categorized as it once was. Punk, pop, disco and New Wave all found their way into music made by the era’s best new bands as well as many of the ones that came of age a decade earlier. Our list of the Top 10 1979 Rock Albums is evenly split among relative newcomers and established vets. And they all have one thing in common: The records they made at the end of the ’70s rank among their all-time best.



10
'Tusk'
Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac followed up their gazillion-selling 'Rumours' with an ambitious, two-record set that was to that point the most expensive album ever made. At times, 'Tusk' plays like the band's version of the White Album, with the group's three singer-songwriters essentially backing each others' solo records. But Lindsey Buckingham's meticulous production pulls together this sprawling, fascinating work by a group that was both on top of the world and unwilling to take the easy way out.



9
'Reggatta de Blanc'
The Police

The second album by the Police pretty much picks up where 1978's debut left off, with spiky, reggae-influenced rhythms meshing with punk, pop, jazz and New Wave basics. But 'Reggatta de Blanc' also extends the notion that the group wasn't comfortable with labels and preferred to let its music land wherever it happened to fall. Here, it's somewhere between the '70s and '80s.



8
'Armed Forces'
Elvis Costello & the Attractions

Elvis Costello thickened his sound on his third album, tightening the musicianship of his backing band the Attractions and focusing his songwriting on matters of the heart, which just so happened to be filtered through political and global unrest. 'Armed Forces'' best songs -- 'Accidents Will Happen,' 'Oliver's Army,' '(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding' -- ooze with spite, confidence and style.



7
'Cheap Trick at Budokan'
Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick had three albums out when they played Tokyo's Budokan arena in 1978. And unlike back home in the States, they were hugely popular in Japan, which gave 'Cheap Trick at Budokan' an energetic buzz missing from so many cash-in live albums. Originally available as an import, this record finally made the group stars in the U.S., where 'Budokan' soared into the Top 5 and spawned a pair of Top 40 singles. It's still one of the best live albums ever made.



6
'Squeezing Out Sparks'
Graham Parker and the Rumour

Like Elvis Costello (see No. 8 on our list of Top 10 1979 Rock Albums), Graham Parker played bar-band rock 'n' roll whose jagged music got him lumped in with the angry young punks. But Parker's smarter than that, and on his best album, he and the Rumour tear into a set of songs about love, hate, abortion and extraterrestrial beings. Every song here surges with grit and energy.



5
'Rust Never Sleeps'
Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Neil Young is no stranger to mixing his albums with electric and acoustic, live and studio. And on 'Rust Never Sleeps,' essentially a live record with all new songs, he checks in with one of his best. Crazy Horse turn up the amps for part of it, but the delicate solo cuts featuring just Young, his guitar and a harmonica are just as powerful.



4
'Highway to Hell'
AC/DC

Bon Scott died six months after AC/DC's breakthrough album was released, but he's the force behind 'Highway to Hell,' a blazing, full-speed-ahead trip fueled by winking innuendo and three-chord riffs. The title track is the killer cut here, but throughout the album the band sparks with an intensity that eventually gave way to formula. Here, it's all real, and it's a rock 'n' roll classic.



3
'Damn the Torpedoes'
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


By the time Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' third album arrived in 1979, they were ready for the hit it would quickly become. With instant classics like 'Refugee,' 'Here Comes My Girl,' 'Even the Losers' and 'Don't Do Me Like That,' 'Damn the Torpedoes' brims with confidence. Gutsy, unpretentious and catchy as hell, Petty has never sounded so full of life and optimistic. The music business eventually wore him down.



2
'The Wall'
Pink Floyd

'The Wall' was pretty much Roger Waters' project from the start, with the other members of Pink Floyd following his directions as he steered them on his most personal record, a mostly autobiographical chronicle of a rock star who isolates himself from his friends, family and audience. The double-LP concept album became a huge hit, but it also further divided the group, which would soon split with Waters after one more solo record disguised as a band project.



1
'London Calling'
The Clash

The Clash were eager to shed their punk label when they released their third album at the tail end of 1979. And they did it with pop, jazz, rockabilly, reggae, R&B, old-time rock 'n' roll and, yes, punk on this sprawling, two-LP masterpiece that never lets up. After 'London Calling,' there was little doubt that the Clash were rock's best band going into the new decade.





Read More: Top 10 1979 Rock Albums | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/1979-...ckback=tsmclip

[aleuzzi]

Good lord, I'm old. I remember all of these albums coming out!

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Good lord, I'm old. I remember all of these albums coming out!

And I must be very old inside, because I love almost all of this albums!

[TrueFaith77]

Terrible list.

My 10 Best Albums of 1979:
1. TUSK, Fleetwood Mac
2. BAD GIRLS, Donna Summer
3. FEAR OF MUSIC, Talking Heads
4. ARMED FORCES, Elvis Costello
5. DR. BUZZARD'S ORIGINAL SAVANNAH BAND GOEST TO WASHINGTON, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
6. RISQUE, Chic
7. OFF THE WALL, Michael Jackson
8. MANIFESTO, Roxy Music
9. RUST NEVER SLEEPS, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
10. THE CLASH, The Clash

(Note: London Calling was released in the US in 1980)

[FuzzyPlum]

Not sure what I'd relegate from that top 10 list but I'd argue the case for;
The Specials- The Specials
One Step Beyond- Madness
Discovery- ELO

[SisterNightroad]

As in love as this site is with Led Zeppelin, I'm surprised that they don't figure with "In through the out door"

[SisterNightroad]

Top 10 Double Albums
by Michael Gallucci


Releasing a double album in the ’60s and ’70s was a rite of passage. Even if an artist had no reason, let alone the material, to put out a two-record album, it was something that just needed to be done sometime during a career. The best double albums don’t leave you picking out half of the songs you’d think would work better on a single LP. For the most part, there’s nothing disposable on the records that made our list of the Top 10 Double Albums. Every single one of them belongs in your collection.

10
'Tusk' (1979)
Fleetwood Mac



Fleetwood Mac followed up the gazillion-selling 'Rumours' with one of the weirdest records ever released by a superstar band. It cost more than $1 million to make -- a record number back in 1979. And, like the Beatles' 'White Album' (see No. 3 on our list of the Top 10 Double Albums), it plays like several solo records by various members with their bandmates serving as the backing musicians. But it's a triumph of style and substance, and a wonderfully nuanced record that earns its long length.



9
'Tommy' (1979)
The Who

Pete Townshend called the Who's fourth album a rock opera, and it opened the gates to a whole bunch of messy, pretentious records over the next several decades. But the Who's sprawling, ambitious story about a kid's awakening (sexual and otherwise) is told through a battering of guitars, drums and rock-god vocals. No one else even came close.


8
'The Wall' (1979)
Pink Floyd



Like 'Tommy' (see No. 9 on our list of the Top 10 Double Albums), 'The Wall' grabs much of its inspiration from the World War II childhood of its creator. In Pink Floyd's case, mastermind Roger Waters charts his own rise, ego and psyche in a crushing narrative about an emotionally damaged rock star bottoming out with issues, including the all-purpose mommy one.



7
'Physical Graffiti' (1975)
Led Zeppelin



Led Zeppelin's most gargantuan album is made up of thunderous new tracks and leftovers from previous albums. It's not always a seamless mix (the recent songs are easy to pick out), but the band manages to pull it together with massively epic songs that bridge Eastern and Western music. Possibly the most Zep-like album of their career.



6
'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' (1973)
Elton John



Elton John was at the point in 1973 where he could release a double album of show tunes recorded in the shower with his cat handling half of the vocals and it would be a worldwide smash. But 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' contains his best songs: epics, rockers, pop hits and old-fashioned standards retrofitted for electric guitars. And it all falls together as one of the best-sounding records of the decade.



5
'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs' (1970)
Derek and the Dominos



The ultimate song cycle of love in all its complicated shades -- from unrequited to spurned to brokenhearted. Eric Clapton brainstormed the project in light of his complicated relationship with pal George Harrison and Harrison's wife, whom Clapton pined for. Through a sturdy mix of originals and covers, Clapton and band -- including Duane Allman -- soar through the hole in his heart.



4
'Electric Ladyland' (1968)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience



Jimi Hendrix's third album is his most aurally rich experience, an overload of musical ideas from the outer spaces of his mind. The patterns and textures layered throughout the album remain among rock's most visionary. 'Electric Ladyland' is a blend of rock, blues, jazz, soul, funk and folk that filters the '60s through a futuristic fever dream.



3
'The Beatles' (1968)
The Beatles



More than any other record on our list of the Top 10 Double Albums, the Beatles' 'White Album' is the one that still reveals new insights with each listen. The Fab Four basically played backing band to each other's solo recordings on the record, and the songs unfurl like their past and present histories. It's the Beatles at their most splintered, personal and ambitious.



2
'Blonde on Blonde' (1966)
Bob Dylan



Bob Dylan capped 12 months of tremendous output -- starting with 'Bringing It All Back Home,' quickly followed by 'Highway 61 Revisited' -- with the two-record 'Blonde on Blonde,' recorded in New York and Nashville with members of the Band and session musicians. From sweet pop to bluesy rockers to 11-minute epics, 'Blonde on Blonde' is Dylan's most sprawling record. Song for song, it could be his best.



1
'Exile on Main St.' (1972)
The Rolling Stones



From the muddy production to the grimy guitars to the snapped-together songs, 'Exile on Main St.' is the sound of drugs, fatigue and egos sinking in. And it wouldn't work any other way. Nobody could touch the Stones at this point, and this audacious work -- bluesy, doped-up tracks that barely hide the hedonism that fuels them -- stands as their life's masterpiece. No wonder it took them more than five years, and almost as many albums, to recover from the high. Double albums don't get better than this.





Read More: Top 10 Double Albums | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/doubl...ckback=tsmclip



P.S.: Looks like Fleetwood Mac have the 10th position syndrome...

[louielouie2000]

Wow, Tusk is ranked among some real heavy hitters on both lists. Tusk ranking in the top double albums list is especially vindicating. Just look at the albums it's keeping company with! It looks like Tusk may finally be getting the critical respect it's long deserved.

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Wow, Tusk is ranked among some real heavy hitters on both lists. Tusk ranking in the top double albums list is especially vindicating. Just look at the albums it's keeping company with! It looks like Tusk may finally be getting the critical respect it's long deserved.

Yes, this site is usually quite fair about Fleetwood Mac in general, Tango in the night is even included among the best albums of 1987, and they wrote some good pieces about their most classic albums, but it still baffles me that they pay much less attention to the pre Buckingham-Nicks era and Stevie's solo career.
I think that Tusk between all those other albums is really well-fitting.