#111 - Ravi Shankar - Sounds Of India

Another indian album, and again it's not about songs or anything common in western music. Shankar gives a short introduction about the music and the structure in the beginning, which is nice, but he failed to convey a deeper understanding in me. Also I didn't want to spend the whole time counting measures and such, so I just listened freely. I compare this album with this one, as they're both indian instrumentals. This album is not as hypnotic and floating, but of course brimming with indian atmosphere. The sitar is a more exhausting instrument, and there was much fast solo work that wasn't easy to listen to. It was an interesting experience and he is a great player without a doubt, but the music didn't touch me that much.

#110 - The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

A very british sounding pop album with no real hits, but lots of pretty good songs full of this old-time british atmosphere and good harmonic singing.

#109 - Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

This album is a beautiful strange, colorful mixture of folk, old celtic sounds, gospel and indian music. It is something completely different than most other albums in this list until now. There are no hits or especially catchy or outstanding songs, but everything is different and beautiful. A great listen.

#108 - Traffic - Traffic

This is a pretty good album with a mixture of blues, rock and pop. "Vagabound virgin" is a good pop song with a flute, "Crying to be heard" is beautiful and "No time to live" is a wonderful ballad. All in all a very diverse album with several highlights.

#107 - The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

A very bluesy album with several songs floating by without leaving a mark. "Sympathy for the devil" is not bad, but 4 minutes of "ooh oooh" is a lot. "No expectations" is a nice slow song, and "Street fighting man" has a certain power to it. "Salt of the earth" is also good, but the other songs sound like any other blues song.

#106 - Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You

Everybody knows "Respect" in her version, and it's a great song, full of energy. There are no other songs in that league on the album, but it's a pleasant album with a voice full of soul.

#105 - Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love

Already the second Hendrix album, and it falls short of the first one. There are no remarkable songs for me, not even the praised "Little wing", which doesn't stick and feels like it's faded out in the middle of the song. The beginning groove of "Spanish castle magic" reminded me a lot of "Foxy lady". Of course there's still the undeniably great guitar work of Hendrix, but it's just more of the same, and the songs are not that strong.

#104 - The Velvet Underground - White Light, White Heat

Strange, strange, strange. There's a song where some story is told on the left side, while the band plays and plays on the right, there's a 17 minute song full of noise, screeching organ and guitar solos and with little recognizable structure, there's a thin sound, supposedly the birth of "lo-fi". Well, behind the intentional strangeness and sound, there's not really much left, sadly. The songs themselves were not the highest priority when making this album, it's all about boundaries.

#103 - Pandit Shivkumar Sharma - Call of the Valley

This is an instrumental indian album, so it's not really comparable to anything in this list until now. There are no usual song structures, no repeated melodies, nothing really that makes a song in the western sense. And yet I was somehow sad when the last piece was played. This album has a hypnotic quality, the sounds of the instruments are never nerving, everything just fits together. It flows calmly or it pumps with steady rythms -  it was a really cool and interesting experience.

#102 - Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

Another textbook country album, this time with a typical female voice which is mostly nice, but it can sometimes be a little nerving, especially in the high tones. The special thing here are the lyrics that are dealing with problems and frustrations of womanhood at the time. Musically there is absolutely nothing special here, the album goes down easily and with no trace.

#101 - The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)

A rather mediocre rock album, a little psychedelic, but not very gripping. The calmer songs I liked a little better than the faster rockers.

100 albums down, 901 to go

So I heard 100 albums in the last two weeks  - wow, didn't think I would go this far so fast. Time for some thoughts about the whole project. With the exception of the albums I already knew and the occasional re-listen of a song or two, I heard each album only once. With one listen it's not possible to get a deep understanding of any album. But if I listen to every album 10 times, I'll still be writing here in 5 years, so I don't really see another way. I always try to be open about everything I hear, but of course I can't totally get over my tastes. But there were some jazz albums that I liked more than others, so it's not that I shut out any genres or artists. Also I try to keep the review as neutral as possible, no matter if I personally like the album very much or not at all. And in the end, all musical reviews are subjective, so if you want a personal fitting review, listen to the album and judge for yourself. I'm looking forward to the next 100, so let's get started.

#100 - Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced

I can understand why this album and Jimi Hendrix in general is viewed as very influential. The guitar sounds on this album are very new and modern and I haven't heard them like this on any album on this list until now. The style is lots of rock with blues and sometimes a little soul. Songwise there are some widely known hits, such as the rousing "Foxy lady", "Hey Joe" or "Purple haze", and some of the other songs seem very similar, a little formulaic, like "Manic depression". The singing of Hendrix is unique, but not really beautiful, it's more of a shouting sometimes. In soft songs like "May this be love" it sounds strange.

#99 - Merle Haggard - I'm a Lonesome Fugitive

A classic country album, apparently with prison life as the main topic. While I don't see the legal consequences of criminal deeds as a good topic for songs, I don't care too much about it as long as the music is good. And this one is rather mediocre. It has everything you would expect from a country album, the typical guitars, the typical voice, the typical songs, but that's the problem, there's nothing original in it.

#98 - Donovan - Sunshine Superman

This folk album with some rockier songs went by without leaving a big mark. Donovan has a nice soft voice, but the songs are not very strong. "Legend of a girl child linda" is halfway decent, but I won't remember much of this album, except that there was nothing to remember.

#97 - The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks

This is a pop album, but with this special atmosphere, a little like a renaissance fair, that's very unique and a trademark sound for the Kinks. Outstanding of course the famous sad "Death of a clown",  but there are several other songs worth exploring. A nice interesting album.

#96 - Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

Of course two tracks stand out here immensely, being "White rabbit" and "Somebody to love". While these two songs stand above everything else and have an incredible and unique atmosphere, held together by the mesmerizing voice, there are other good songs, too, be it a rockier "She has funny cars" or beautiful acoustic songs like "Today", "Comin' back to me" or the powerful acoustic solo "Embryonic journey" (that is used in the final moments of tv show "Friends", in case anyone wonders, how this piece can seem so familiar. A very good album with a wonderful female voice.

#95 - The Young Rascals - Groovin'

This was a rather mediocre album. There was absolutely no highlight for me in this, neither song-wise, nor the sound or the singing, nothing original.

#94 - The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday

A very nice album with some beautiful songs and great harmonic singing. Mostly it's folk rock with the classic Byrds sound, but there's some country too. "Renaissance fair" and "My back pages" stand out the most for me.

#93 - The Doors - The Doors

The sound of the Doors is very unique and instantly recognizable. The main elements are the dominating organ and Morrisson's voice. Already the first song is a well-known and great hit, "Break on through". But what's beyond this one and other songs like the even bigger hit and wonderful "Light my fire" and the morbidly funny and strange "Alabama Song"? Solid songs, partly bluesy, partly beautiful ballads. "The crystal ship" stands out with great piano playing, a welcome change from the organ sound. The atmosphere is dark in general, especially on "End of the night" and the mammoth "The end". A great album.

#92 - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

This is a very very smooth album. It sounds rather outdated in the context of the fresh music that surrounds it, and it could well have been number 2 in the list. But is it timelessly good or boring? It's a matter of taste, I guess. But this album won't hurt anyone who hears it. It won't leave any great impact either, though.

#91 - The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico

This is definitely an interesting album. It starts easy, lures you in with a sweet "Sunday morning", and then the songs grow more and more strange, but remain pretty good, mostly. I still don't really like the voice of Nico, but her songs are good, too. The album sounds rough and creative through and through. It's not an easy album, but I think it's worth the numerous listens it needs before you can really appreciate it.

#90 - The Who - The Who Sell Out

This is a surprising album if you mainly see The Who like in "My generation", like I do. This is a conceptual album with several songs having an acoustic guitar as the main element. As the cover suggests, there are some humorical short advertisement and radio jingle elements. The songs themselves aren't whimsy, though, they sound very nice, sung with a clear voice and beautifully and diversly arranged, while always sounding very poppy and easily accessible.

#89 - Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

The mesmerizing intro to the first song "Astronomy domine" is already the climax of the album for me. It is a very psychedelic album with, while being rock, strange sounds, songs and structures, and most of that is rather lost on me. The songs themselves are just not that good, they don't get to me. Interesting it was, but not what I'd say is good.

#88 - Cream - Disraeli Gears

A bluesy rock album with a stronger first half. "Sunshine of your love" is a great classic, of course, and I really liked "World of pain", too. Towards the end the album gets more and more bluesy which I didn't like that much.

#87 - Love - Forever Changes

This was mainly a good experience, an experimental folky rock album with strong songs, only the endless guitar solo on "Live and let live" wasn't interesting. Otherwise there was nothing too special, but nothing bad either.

#86 - Tim Buckley - Goodbye and Hello

I liked this album very much. I guess it's folk rock, but the songs seem just timeless, they still sound good in the context of today. They are rather complex and wonderfully instrumentated. The mood is sweet melancholy and the voice is very nice, bright and clear. I liked "Phantasmagoria in two" and the epic 9 minute "Goodbye and hello" best. Just a very good album.

#85 - The Monkees - Headquarters

This is a nice album, it sounds like they were much influenced by the Beatles. The voices and harmonies are very pleasant. My favorite is "Shades of gray".

#84 - The Beau Brummels - Triangle

This is a beautiful rock/folk album with a rich varying instrumentation, based on acoustic guitar, with strings, winds and other instruments as accessoires. The songs are very nice, slightly melancholy, and there's not really one to emphasize, they're all equally good, while varying in style and tempo. The voice is very nice, a little like Bob Dylan's, but much more pleasant and with a cool vibrato.

#83 - Love - Da Capo

A good, slightly psychedelic rock album with the last track being a 19 minute blues mammoth. Not much more to say, it was a good listen, but I won't remember much for long.

#82 - Moby Grape - Moby Grape

This is a very entertaining and diverse album. Most tracks rock in a classic or bluesy way, but there are some sweet soft songs too ("8.05"). The harmonic singing is beautiful, and while there are no hits or instant catchy songs, they all sound very good, I liked the whole album.

#81 - Captain Beefheart - Safe As Milk

A very strange album. Partly blues, partly experimental rock, it's hard to get a grip. Beefheart's voice is certainly a trademark, but I don't like it much, which makes it heard to enjoy this album, even though there are some songs where someone else sings. I liked "electricity" best, it would still sound good today, and there's a cool vibrato in the singing voice.

#80 - Buffalo Springfield - Again

The album sounds very diverse. There are softer acoustic songs with a slight country influence and rockier songs. The former are better in my opinion, especially with the soft singing voice. But it's a good album overall, with "Broken arrow" as my favorite.

#79 - Country Joe & The Fish - Electric Music for the Mind & Body

A bluesy psychedelic rock experience, so neither country nor electr(on)ic music awaits in this album. The songs are not bad, but not especially good, it went by without causing much in me.

#78 - The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band *

Well, what do you write about the most praised albums of all? I've heard every song on this album at least 20 times, and I've read a lot about the album, too, The many boundaries that were broken with it, the many revolutionary ideas that went into the recording process, the impact on all music created afterwards etc. But all that is not important, I'll focus just on the music. First thing that comes to mind is that there is not one of the better-known hits by the Beatles on this album, "With a little help from my friends" is known from the famous Joe Cocker cover, "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" is the famous drug-song (or is it), but otherwise the songs are not well-known for themselves. This makes me look at the album as a whole, which is indeed one of it's main points, it is supposed to be the first concept album ever. There are no real weak songs in the album, "Within you, without you" might get a little boring if you're not into the indian sound. The songs all have a certain atmosphere, almost like a color, and all of them together make the collage that is this album, just as the famous cover is a collage of heads.
There is really a little bit of everything in this album, from classic to rock, from old-time to modern, from happy and colorful to melancholy and dramatic, and while no song is an ear-bug, they all grow on you if you listen to them more often. The last song, "A day in the life" is by far the best for me, it sounds the most timeless and without much (obvious) experiments in instrumentation or sound, it's just a simple sad song.
To finish up, I can't see this album as big as it is made, even though it contains so many new things, the songs are not as good as the production and concept was revolutionary and influential. But it is still a very good and complete album.

#77 - Nico - Chelsea Girl

A calm album, a female voice with string-heavy arrangements. I couldn't really get warm with the voice, it's rather deep and sounds dry and a little strange to me.
The songs were okay, but not very special, this is mainly an atmosphere album, and it's a slightly dark, melancholy atmosphere with some strange moments that go beyond classical song structures. Interesting, but not beautiful.

#76 - Astrud Gilberto - Beach Samba

This album is easy listening at its best. A soft pleasant voice surrounded by soft pleasant music.Doesn't hurt anyone. "You didn't have to be so nice" is especially cute, a duet with the singer's son.

#75 - Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind

It's been a while since I heard a singer-focused album. This probably could also have been released in the 50s, it sounds timeless. The voice is very interesting, with a mezmerizing vibrato and a timbre that changes color very often, sometimes she even sounds like a man (in a good way). She sounds best with the piano, it underlines the drama in the songs (best in the title track). The band doesn't seem to stand a chance against Simone's voice or just doesn't fit well. Especially in "Wha keep on breaking my heart" the discrepancy is obvious, a light rythm and a dramatic voice. The album is very good, it sounds like Antony (from Antony And The Johnsons) has listened to it a lot.

#74 - The Yardbirds - The Yardbirds

Okay, what is this? Heavy blues-rock? Guitar rock-pop? Choir-like music? It's all that, but not in one. There are heavy blues songs, almost acapella ballads and dramatic chants, modern sounding rock songs, all not bad and very creative, but not really like an album, more of a random collection of songs.

#73 - John Mayall's Blues Breakers - John Mayall's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton

Yes, this album has the blues. It has the blues in all kinds of forms. There are almost acapella harp songs, there's a blues piano and, with Eric Clapton in the title, of course there's the blues guitar. It is a heavy blues album with distorted guitars, which made it a little more likeable for me, I prefer that to the clear old blues songs, but still I'm not a big fan of the blues atmosphere in general. As far as I was able to, I enjoyed it, it is a high quality blues album, but it won't become a favorite, same as probably any other blues record.

#72 - The 13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators

The album title says it all again. From the first title on there are strange sounds and songs that feel like you have to be high to really enjoy them. The atmosphere in the songs is strong, the songs themselves are not that strong for me. The voice reminds me of Mick Jagger's sometimes.

#71 - Simon And Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

I didn't make a star next to the album title, even though I know several songs of it, songs that probably everybody knows. I don't have to write about "Scarborough fair", "Homeward bound", "Feelin' groovy" or "For Emily, whenever I may find her", but they're not the only good songs on the album. In my opinion, S&G are best if the songs are mainly acoustic, as in all the mentioned hits, but also in "Cloudy" or "The dangling conversation". If they try to rock, like in "A Simple Desultory Philippic", it sounds rather awkward. The harmonic singing of the two is absolutely beautiful, their soft voices combine wonderfully, and most songs are strong enough to make something of this quality. The album closes with a beautiful, yet unsettling anti-war statement in the form of a soft rendition of "Silent night, holy night", combined with a recorded newscast about the vietnam war.

#70 - The Rolling Stones - The Aftermath

Highlights of this album are the known songs "Mother's little helper", "Under my thumb" and "Out of time", with an interesting old-tyme sounding beautiful ballad "Lady Jane" . The slower songs are generally the better ones on the rest of the album. The fast rockers sound a little generic and don't get stuck. The 11-minute "" seems a little forced. Long songs were the new thing, and this one sounds like they really wanted to have one too but didn't know how to fill it. It goes on and on but nothing really happens. A mixed album with high's and low's.

#69 - The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!

I didn't freak out, but I sure listened to a partly weird album. There's no doubt that Frank Zappa (the musical leader of the group) is very skilled and can make good songs ("" is beautiful). But it seems to me like the whole record oozes sarcasm and irony. It's like he doesn't take anything seriously, not the music, not me, the listener, not anything. And this bugs me, because I do take it seriously. Musically, this is a very avantgarde album with sounds that are still modern today and must have been mind-blowing at the time. Some of the songs have little to no structure, some are just some kind of noise. It was definitely an interesting listen, but I'm no Zappa fan now.

#68 - Paul Revere & The Raiders - Midnight Ride

I have never heard of the band, the album or any of the songs, but this is a very good album! It has a very clear tight sound with pretty good songs, that are just a little short of being big hits. The arrangement sounds very modern with distorted bass and guitar, the songs contain interesting time signature changes ("All I really need is you", "Louie go home"). The main voice is very versatile and reminds sometimes of Mick Jagger, sometimes of James Blunt (sic) and always fits very well to the songs. A real gem of an album that should be much better known.

#67 - The Mamas And The Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears

It's hard to not be impressed by "California dreamin'", one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and "Monday, monday", both present on this album. It's not necessary to say much about those two songs, so I'll concentrate on the rest. Sadly I couldn't find other songs that could match the two, but on all of them there is a similar amount of sung harmony and musical sugar. "Got a feelin'" is sad and beautiful, as is "Do you wanna dance" or "Go where you wanna go". "I call your name" sounds strange if you're used to the original version by the Beatles, and the original material is not worse than their covers. All in all a nice album with two spectacular songs.

#66 - The Kinks - Face To Face

Hard to say something about this album. It sounds like something I could like, yet I don't. There's the famous "Sunny afternoon" song, and even this I don't really like. There are no formal things that come to mind why I can't like this album, maybe the harpsichord gets on my nerves after a while, but it's not that bad. It's just the songs I guess, they don't make me sing along or listen deeply or nod my head or anything.

#65 - The Monks - Black Monk Time

This is a very very strange album. There's a lot of distortion both on voices and guitars, and a lot of anger and just mayhem in the songs. Sometimes there's a hint of normality with sweet background choirs, but it's only for a moment, then there's new strangeness. And as unimportant as lyrics are for me, songs like "Cuckoo" with lines like "someone took my cuckoo, I wanna know who who" it's save to say that the weird music also has weird lyrics. The main voice reminds me of some metal singers sometimes. The songs are very short (16 in only 28 minutes), which makes the album appear like a collection of wild crazy ideas, which is probably what it is anyway.

#64 - Bob Dylan - Blone On Blonde

I was looking forward to the next Dylan album, and here it already is. It was revolutionary at the time just for its length, being the first rock double album. Musically it's not a step forward for my tastes, though. It's still better than the early nagging albums, but it's less electric than the previous one, and I liked that more. There are several very good songs on it, like "One of us must know" or the 11 minute "Sad lady of the lowlands", but many songs are very harp-heavy, and I didn't particularly like that. I also didn't like the bluesier songs. All in all it's an okay album with strong ballads and some poppier songs, but compared to the previous one, not better for my taste.

#63 - The Byrds - Fifth Dimension

This album is certainly a development from the earlier Byrds sound. The trademark twangy guitar is not heard all the time, and the songs are more complex. There's some country in them, blues, and they sound harder. But there are hardly any, that I find really good. Even the praised "Eight miles high", supposedly the first psychedelic song, with its nervous guitar playing, doesn't want to click with me. The album is a step forward musically, but for me personally a step away from my liking.

#62 - Fred Neil - Fred Neil

A mixture of songwriter folk, country and blues. A very calm and pleasant album containing the famous "Everybody's talkin'". The voice sounds like country, but not to the point where it bothers. A nice listen, but not more.