What makes an objectively great album? Music is such a personal taste and what one might find value in (ABBA) someone else might think is wretchedly awful (also, ABBA). Partly what makes an LP so excellent is the sheer unexpectedness.
One might buy the new Pearl Jam album and think, "I love every PJ record and this one better be great too!" That is unfair to the record. One has only set themselves up for disappointment (though the new Pearl Jam album is pretty great) as their expectations are set too high.
The five albums that follow all sort of came out of nowhere. Either it was a debut record from a band that knew they were good enough to be great. Or the musical artist had produced albums before and none gave any implication to the greatness about to be unleashed on the listening public.
Five 1970s albums that had no business being as fantastic as they turned out to be
David Bowie - Hunky Dory (1971)
This was Bowie's fourth album and only the third, The Man Who Sold the World, came close to being a cohesive work. While there was only a year apart from the release of these two records, one might assume years went by in between. Bowie's third album was probably the most straightforward hard rock record of his career while Hunky Dory was the true beginning of the idiom we would come to know as David Bowie.
The record was unexpectedly great because Bowie had done nothing previously to suggest he was capable of producing such an album. We didn't know then that the first three albums were just the performer working his way through the kinks. Once he fully bloomed, there would never be another musical artist like him.
Some have commented this record is about Bowie getting back to his signer-songwriter roots, and while that isn't completely untrue, that description also does a disservice to anyone who has never listened to the album. The LP is less Jim Croce and more dancehall-meets-poetry reading. And "Song for Bob Dylan" isn't an ode to Dylan, but a judgment of those who blindly follow the icon.
The record begins with the mature "Changes," darts to the glam of "Oh! You Pretty Things," then eventually finds its way to perhaps the most Bowie track ever, the brilliant "Life on Mars?" Side Two rips through songs about pop giants Andy Warhol, Dylan, and Lou Reed. For any music lover looking to finally get into Bowie's music, this is the album to start with.
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T. Rex - Electric Warrior (1971)
T. Rex went through so many lineup changes that one might feel as if they were listening to different bands who went by the same name. That Electric Warrior came together without too much fuss is almost a miracle. Plus, glam was always accidentally popular; a reaction to the 1960s with lavish clothing and big guitars, and this was the group's first foray into the subgenre after mostly having a folk-based sound.
Vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist Marc Bolan also made a huge transition with this record. Instead of fairytales, he dove headlong into rock cliches. The result was 40 minutes of pure fun that still sounds as good today as it did when the record was released in 1971. Perhaps because Bolan somehow knew how to fuse bubblegum pop with a pinch of harder rock and somehow make them almost literally shine.
Songs such as "Jeepster," "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," and "Monolith" didn't just come across as alien, they also helped start an entirely new subgenre. One that died out far too quickly.
The Velvet Underground - Loaded (1971)
Lou Reed and his mates left behind the psychedelia of the late 1960s to come up with a straightforward rock album and no one was quite sure it would work. Fans might have been turned off a bit by the record being less expansive and less experimental than the group's previous records. Instead, the talent of the group and their ability to spin a fantastic melody no matter what is happening underneath made this album boil with rock seethers.
"Sweet Jane" has been covered multiple times, but the Velvet Underground's version always seems slightly more biting. "Rock & Roll" seems like the song on which Belle and Sebastian has based 90 percent of their tracks. "Oh, Sweet Nuthin'" is the perfect track to simply sit back, watch the world in front of you, and just be...
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The Cars - The Cars (1978)
In a previous article, I wrote that the Cars should not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I stand by that. The debut studio record from the band is fantastic. Both things can be true. The Rock Hall should be about sustained excellence over many years, not one or two accidentally great records. Still, the Cars wanted to be something akin to Aerosmith and turned out to be a bit more like Talking Heads.
This record begins with three tracks that might be the band's best. "Good Times Roll," "My Best Friend's Girl," and "Just What I Needed" are a proper way to start any LP, but for a band to announce themselves that way on a debut record is even more impressive. The entire record goes by too quickly at just 35 minutes and 11 seconds so the Cars did leave fans wanting more.
They delivered too, at least until they faded into cliche pop-rock. Had they kept up the sound they created on the first album, they would surely be worthy of Rock Hall induction.
Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)
Had this album come out ten years later, people might have been thinking, "OK, fine. But don't we have enough of this music?" Hair bands were all the rage in the late 1980s, but in 1978 Van Halen was a bit different. They wanted to be guitar gods - and, as far as Eddie Van Halen is concerned, he was - but they didn't want to continue in the same dark realm as Black Sabbath. Van Halen wanted to have a lot of personality.
This worked, at least in the first lineup of the group, because while David Lee Roth did not have the greatest voice, he did know how to fit what he could do with the musical excellence of the rest of the group. The band could not make true ballads, but that was a great thing. Not until Sammy Hagar joined the band after Roth was kicked out did Van Halen start to lose its originality and become the same thing as Ratt and Quiet Riot.
The group's debut record had a number of bangers. "Runnin' with the Devil" was dangerous enough to scare middle-American parents. "Eruption" set the stage for Eddie Van Halen to become one of the most important guitarists in rock history. "Jamie's Cryin'" was a wicked stream of metal. The album did not change the history of rock, but it sure remains entertaining.