In an attempt to broaden my musical horizons, I have embarked on a journey to listen to the greatest albums released over the last 70 years. I have scoured the internet for best of lists and reviews to compile a comprehensive list of around 430 albums that are considered some of the best and most influential albums of all time.
It should be noted, this list has a strong North American bias and does not include many non-English international albums. Those albums deserve a list of their own. I’ve also made a concerted effort to limit the number of albums from the same artist, with some notable exceptions.
I will work my way through the list in chronological order starting in 1954 and ending in 2019. Each Friday I’ll chronicle my thoughts on the albums I listened to that week and give them a letter grade. Check out last week’s albums here. As I listen to each album, I will pick and choose my favourite songs and add them to a Spotify playlist.
This week’s albums are:
Shout!
The Isley Brothers
Released: 1959
Grade: A-
These guys have a solid collection of jams. The Isley Brothers produced a slightly more mature and cleaner version of pop than Little Richard. You can see how these guys might have influenced James Brown, the Jackson 5, and the funk/soul/disco artists in the 1970s. I really dug the vibe of this album, a massively underrated group, I never really knew about them before this.
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Chuck Berry is on Top
Chuck Berry
Released: 1959
Grade: A
Chuck Berry might have had more impact on the direction of Rock and Roll than anybody else. You can hear a lot of electric Dylan in this. Berry has a very neutral voice, its good but I wouldn’t consider it immediately recognizable. This is the type of early rock that I really relate to.
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The Genius of Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Released: 1959
Grade: A-
One of the most iconic voices of all time, I love Ray Charles’ style. This album was pretty great overall with amazing instrumentation. The only thing holding it back is a lack of any really memorable hits, although all the songs are still solid.
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Kind of Blue
Miles Davis
Released: 1959
Grade: A+
Yup, this is the greatest jazz album of all time. Smooth, groovy, and a great listen from beginning to end. Even people who don’t like jazz will dig this record. This album is pretty much perfect in my eyes.
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Giant Steps
John Coltrane
Released: 1960
Grade: A
Another steller jazz album, so much energy, so much fun. There are a couple of moments where they lose the plot and it veers just a bit too much into experimental jazz for my taste but overall this is a great album and would be a great 1-2 punch with Kind of Blue.
