#193 - The Who - Live At Leeds

A rock live album with some of the Who's greatest hits ("Substitute", "My generation") and an okay, but not great live atmosphere. It didn't really pull me in. The sound quality is great considering the time it was recorded.

#192 - Ananda Shankar - Ananda Shankar

A strange india meets western rock/pop album. I didn't like the covers of "Jumping Jack flash" and "Light my fire", they just sounded like a cheap knock-off, the other songs were so-so. The sitar as the main instrument works for the occasional Beatles song, but for a whole album it's a bit strenuous. The atmosphere is nice though.

#191 - Nick Drake - Bryter Later

A nice acoustic songwriter album, flavored with various arrangements. Not a very standing out record, but a nice listen from start to finish.

#190 - The Grateful Dead - American Beauty

A very different album from the first dead album, beautiful songs, a relaxed acoustic arrangement, great harmonic singing and no endless improvisations. Very good.

#189 - Van Morrison - Moondance

Again a great album by Van Morrison. A little more opulent in arrangement, with horns and background singers and an organ, the songs are absolutely great. There's a little jazz in them and a spark of blues, but never too much, just a spice. Great listen!

#188 - Deep Purple - In Rock

Another classic hard rock album. Solid, but mostly nothing really great for me. "Child in time" stood out with a captivating organ.

#187 - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

The third Zeppelin starts off with a thunderous "Immigrant song" and continues with hard rockers, bluesy songs or more acoustic tracks, but all of them have in common that they can't really get to me.

#186 - Neil Young - After the Gold Rush

A beautiful album from start to finish. Mainly acoustic, the songs are bitter-sweet and sung with the wonderful tender high voice of Neil Young. A great listening.

#185 - Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Black Sabbath continued right where they left off with another classic, or in the context of time, ground-breaking heavy rock album. The star is the title track, of course, a timeless classic and great song to bang your head. The rest of the album is much less stellar but yet again solid hardrock.

#184 - Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Deja Vu

A very good album, largely acoustic, with great harmonic singing and very nice songs. A nice warm western atmosphere without being country.

#183 - John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

The first post-Beatles album in this list, and it's a mixed thing for me. There are beautiful and captivating songs like "Love", the disillusioned "God" or "Working class hero", but also less interesting material as well as songs that remind a lot of the Beatles, especially "Look at me", which sounds almost like "Julia". All in all a good album that makes you think what it could have been had three certain other guys worked a bit on the songs too.

#182 - Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills

A pleasant but unremarkable album, not as acoustic and sweet as I had hoped, it's rather bluesy and electric.

#181 - The Carpenters - Close To You

The title track is a widely known hit full of sweetness and so is the whole album. While I definitely do have the sweet tooth for music, this is a little too much, like a plate with sugar and honey on the side of syrup. There are nice songs on it as well as strange cover versions, like the easy listening sugared version of "Help" by the Beatles. An okay listen, but too easy and sweet, even for me.

#180 - The Doors - Morrison Hotel

The second Doors album in this list, but it's not an improvement. The atmosphere is much less dark, the organ steps in the background, the guitar is more distorted and the songs are mainly much more bluesy. It doesn't really sound like a Doors album to me.

#179 - Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

By today's standard a normal heavy metal album, but it's (one of the) very first. This album is dark and heavy, as one would expect. The songs are not hits (like the famous "Paranoid"), but they're good metal songs, which is remarkable, because there was no metal yet.

#178 - Spirit - 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus

A nice rock album with nice harmonic singing and a lot of piano in the arrangements, but it didn't really hit me or leave a mark.

#177 - Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

A tough album to review. It's very long, and the jazz on it is very free, as in not easily consumed. There are moments of interesting atmosphere, and I guess with more listens this will improve. But as it is it's largely a very difficultly accessible album.

#176 - Derek and the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

A long album title, and a long album, clocking in at almost 77 minutes. But largely, these 77 minutes were great! This is a wonderful album filled with melancholy rock music and some rather classic blues tracks. It features the widely known song "Layla" but many other songs on it sound great too and already have that typical Eric Clapton feel, sweet clear melodies and a laid back character. A great listen!

#175 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory

Another CCR album, once again it's poppy, sometimes bluesy rock'n'roll. This one contains several hits, which are all great, and the other songs are good too, if you can get used to or like the singer's gritty voice.

#174 - Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

A mostly instrumental and, as probably everything from Zappa, strange album, but it's not without appeal. I'd describe the music as jazz from a rock-pop perspective, there are long solos, but they're never too much out of harmonic understanding, and there's always a theme in each track that is recognizable and even catchy. "Peaches in regalia" stood out in this context. Also remarkable is the fact that I didn't even miss vocals and also could have gone without Captain Beefheart's vocals on "Willie the pimp".

#173 - Alexander Spence - Oar

A dark and strange album with an often haunting atmosphere and a very diverse voice, ranging from very scratchy over Dylan-y to a soft voice. Interesting, but won't become a favorite of mine.

#172 - The Stooges - The Stooges

A dirty rough album, very short, only 8 songs in 30 minutes with "We will fall" alone being a 9 minute dark hypnotic track. There are no hits on this album, nor especially catchy tunes, but the energy is great and it shows the way to punk.

#171 - Scott Walker - Scott 4

The second album by Scott Walker. Again it's a very good listen, but also again a strange style, there are lush and rich orchestra arrangements accompanying guitars and band instrumentations, which reminds me of Sinatra songs, but the songs here seem more like songwriter songs. It's a strange mixture, but it works, the album has its own sweet melancholy atmosphere.

#170 - Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief

A very nice folksy poppy album with an irish touch, or at least that what it sounds like to me because of the fiddle that is present in many songs. A pleasant listen from start to finish.

#169 - Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room

I really liked the first Cohen album and was looking forward to this one. To sum it up harshly: more of the same. I couldn't really enjoy it as much as the first one, because I already knew his style, and it didn't change a bit. The first song for example reminded me of "So long, Marianne" sometimes. There's still mainly an acoustic guitar and Cohen's voice, and the songs are largely calm and melancholic. If I wouldn't already have been so excited about his first album, I would be now.

#168 - King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

A big rock album that is difficult to review after one listen. There are 5 long songs on it, and they're complex and diverse. But the first impression is a very good one, only the "Moonchild" song can be a bit lengthy.

#167 - The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire

A nice pop album by the Kinks, with no real hits, but lots and lots of pretty good songs that don't have this old-time sound from the last Kinks album, but more of a timeless sound. A very good listen.

#166 - The Grateful Dead - Live / Dead

A long, flowing jam-rock album by a band whose name I have heard often, but who I never really heard. It wasn't a bad album. It is a live recording, and I think that the music is better if you actually see the musicians live. I found some parts lengthy and borderline boring, but there were nice parts too.

#165 - Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

A very precise album title. This is a pure, hot, steamy soul album. The songs on it are very long, only 4 in 45 minutes, but they're very good, as far as soul goes. The singer's voice is soothing, the music grooves and flows, it sounds like a blueprint for many soul albums, especially Barry White comes to mind.

#164 - The Youngbloods - Elephant Mountain

Overall a good album, with diverse songs, some pop and folk, some a little country, some more jazzy, but always high quality with pleasant singing, sometimes harmonic. I liked "Quicksand" and "Darkness, darkness" best.

#163 - Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

A very beautiful folk-rock album with a calm soft instrumentation, wonderful harmonic singing and great songs. "Genesis hall" and "Percy's song" stick out for me, but the whole album is a great listen.

#162 - Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority

Rock, funk, a bit bigband and length, so much length. It's not that there aren't some decent songs on here ("Questions 67 and 68" sticks out and contains an almost 80s like atmosphere which is remarkable in 1969), but it's just sooo much, I was really waiting for it to end and there are some experimental flowing endless tracks that were rather boring.

#161 - Tim Buckley - Happy Sad

A diverse album with the emphasis on the "sad" part of the title. There are calm acoustic melancholy songs and faster songs with a band instrumentation, of which I like the former ones better, especially "Dream letter". The style is mixed folk and a little jazz where again I like the former better.

#160 - Sly & The Family Stone - Stand!

A poppy funky rocky disco-y album that was really nice to listen to. I liked the title track best, but the whole album was good.

#159 - The Temptations - Cloud Nine

A funky soul album for a change. It is nothing ground-braking, but the sound was fresh and good. It features an earlier version of the Marvin Gaye classic "Heard it through the grapevine".

#158 - MC5 - Kick Out the Jams

This album sounds like a live recording of a wild punk band concert, which is remarkable if you remember that there was no punk yet in 1969. There are no especially good songs, and the sound is rather noisy, but it has a raw and hot atmosphere.

#157 - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Another Led Zeppelin album already? Sadly, it's obvious that this one must have been rushed, it misses a lot of the greatness of some of their first record's songs. There are some nice songs on it ("Ramble on", "Thank you"), but mostly it sounds rather generic and doesn't leave much behind.

#156 - The Band - The Band

I already listened to a The Band album, and I could almost copy the text. It doesn't sound bad, but there's something missing, it's not emotional for me. It's like a computer analyzing folk and rock and pop music and creating an album on its own. And I don't even feel like listening to it again, there was virtually nothing that pulled me in. Too bad, it's really a close call.

#155 - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

I admit that I'm one of these people who know (and love, at least) "Stairway to heaven" and that's basically it. I know that the chorus of "Whole lotta love" goes something like a fast "Wholelottalove", and I learned that the awesome guitar riff from that Puff Diddy song was originally from Led Zeppelin. Now I can say that I'm partially blown away by their first album. It contains nothing I new, but the epic rocker "Good times, bad times" and the even more epic follow-up "Babe I'm gonna leave you" are really great! Especially the second one shows already signs of the greatness that is to come, it starts as a ballad but gains more and more momentum. Sadly, a lot of the rest of the album goes like this: Bomm........bom-bomm.........bom-bomm.........bom-bomm.........This album......bom-bomm.........bom-bomm.........has the blues.............bom-bomm........bom-bomm. It's the slowest blues I've heard so far, and I'm not a fan of that, and in this context the yelling screaming singing voice gets a little strenuous. But if there are big highlights and other good songs like "Your time is gonna come", I can easily forgive the deep blue lows.

#154 - Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails

I think I would have used the expression jam rock even if I didn't read that this album contains it. For the most parts this album sounds like a band jamming together, like trying to write a song, or maybe not even that, some songs are more like sound experimentations, although that'd be too high an evaluation, the sounds they create aren't special at all, I could even call them noise. This album has many holes. I can accept that this is a kind of music, but in my opinion they should have practiced a little more and then should have condensed the material into digestable songs that are really songs. I thought it was a little like jazz, only not with the jazzy (dis-)harmonics and the virtuosity on the instruments, which leaves you with...exactly.

#152 - The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

The third Velvet Underground is much more tame than the first two. Some songs are nice ("Candy says", "Pale blue eyes"), but there are also several that just float by ("Beginning to see the light"). The album sounds very basic, guitar, bass, drums and a rather lo-fi mixing. Still nothing special for me about Velvet Underground.

#152 - Elvis Presley - From Elvis in Memphis

The king of rock'n'roll with an album filled with soft pop and ballads. It's not a bad album per se, but it's not what I'd call a true Elvis album. There's his trademark voice of course, but there's almost no rock and roll. "Only the strong survive" is another highlight next to the classic "In the gettho". An okay album, but not more.

#151 - Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis

A sweet voice and sweet songs with sweet arrangements. A sweet album, one might say. "Son of a preacher man" is the obvious highlight, but the other songs are not worse, although not as memorable. A good easy listen and a great start for a hard album listening day.

#150 - Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

A very calm and melancholic album, but not suicidal, as many say. There were no highlights for me, but the whole album is very good. A great listen for a rainy drive.

#149 - The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

Rock, blues, a hint of country. That's the Rolling Stones and that's this album. There were no highlights for me in this. The famous "You can't always get what you want" is nothing but lengthy, and "Gimme shelter" doesn't click with me either. I guess I'm just not the Rolling Stones type. I don't like the bluesy standard rock, I don't like Jagger's voice.

#148 - The Pentangle - Basket of Light

A pleasant album with lots of celtic traditional folk, haunting choirs and some modern, even jazzy hints, but also normal folk songs are on it. The harmonic singing is very nice, as is the whole album.

#147 - The Bee Gees - Odessa

Another long concept album, but this time it was the bloated thing I was afraid of earlier. In the beginning I liked the style, acoustic guitars, sweet strings and the three Gees's voices. But the songs couldn't keep up, they sounded bland to me, and I was glad when the last song stopped.

#146 - Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

A very calm (as the title might suggest) jazz album that went by easily without doing any harm, but also without leaving anything good behind. High class lounge music, nothing more, nothing less.

#145 - The Who - Tommy

I was expecting the rock opera, a bloated inaccessible piece, but I got a long and pretty good album with relatively soft rock songs with a lot of acoustic guitar, nice harmonic singing and a main voice reminding me of Paul McCartney more than once. No classic hit material, but all very high quality with "The hawker" and "Christmas" as my favorites and not one song that I would have cut off. I don't care about the story arc behind the lyrics, and apart from the fact that the word "Tommy" is uttered quite often, nothing was forced on me.

#144 - The Beatles - Abbey Road *

No one was waiting for it, but here it is, the other Beatles album fighting for the title of being my favorite, together with Revolver. The band was already falling apart at the time, so the songs are mainly one-man contributions. There are some of the most beautiful and famous Beatles songs on this album, the Harrison gems "Something" and "Here comes the sun", cool rocker "Come together" and, not that known but as beautiful, "Because", "You never give me your money" or "Golden slumbers". The last two are part of a medley in the second half of the song, that beautifully combines diverse songs or fragments with recurring musical themes. It is a wonderful album with few songs below the very high par ("Maxwell’s silver hammer", "Sun king"), and it is, compared to Revolver, the more round, consistent album with songs written by more experienced Beatles, but it lacks the exploration and innocent genius of it. So I guess I will have to live with two favorite Beatles albums. I'm not the lyrics type, but whenever I hear the last words of the album on "The end" (apart from the sugarcube "Her majesty"), I get goose-bumps: "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love, you make". Bravo.