Urban75 Album of the Year 1973

[Fez909]

This Spinners album is dripping with ultra-smooth, perfectly produced Philly soul. Lovely stuff.

Spinners - Spinners

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Spinners by Spinners. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

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[Fez909]

Lyn Christopher released this absolutely stunning tune on her self-titled (and only) album. You might recognise it from plenty of hip hop tunes that have sampled it, if you don't know it outright.

I haven't heard the rest of the tunes on the album, and it's not on YouTube/Spotify/etc, which is annoying. I bet it's quality.

Lyn Christopher - Lyn Christopher

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Lyn Christopher by Lyn Christopher. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

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I have just found out this is actually a cover, with the original also from 1973.



The phrasing is different to the Lyn Chrisopher cover, which makes it sound weird at the start. Might prefer this overall, though. Lovely.

 

[ska invita]

This Spinners album is dripping with ultra-smooth, perfectly produced Philly soul. Lovely stuff.

Spinners - Spinners

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Spinners by Spinners. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

one of those overplayed songs you think are too rinsed then you hear it again and it hits as hard as ever
look forward to checking the album, well in the mood for that

 

[The39thStep]

Jesus just gave that Cockney Rebel -Human Menagerie a quick re-listen . utter pish, wouldn't mind but I remember going to see them but couldn't remember how shite they were. They were quite popular for a year or so.

 

[Sir Belchalot]

Would have been For Your Pleasure, Billion Dollar Babies 0r Aladdin Sane at the time but I'll go for Raw Power in hindsisght.

 

[The39thStep]

Would have been For Your Pleasure, Billion Dollar Babies 0r Aladdin Sane at the time but I'll go for Raw Power in hindsisght.

For Your Pleasure was the best Roxy Music album imo

 

[The39thStep]

War never seem to get the credit they deserve in my book, Great series of funk /soul albums , brief but rewarding period of collaboration with Eric Burdon and managed to put on a 50th Anniversary show last year. The 1973 album Deliver the Word is worth spin or two .

 

[Magnus McGinty]

As Dark Side probably won't even be an also ran on here, despite being one of the best selling albums of all time, my vote is with Gong.

 

[The39thStep]

King Crimson -Larks Tongue in Aspic . Completely new line up , put together by Fripp , of Bill Bruford ( from Yes) , John Whetton ( Roxy Music and Family ), Jamie Muir and David Cross . Muir was a somewhat extrovert percussionist into free jazz and Cross was a violinist. So no mellotrons, jazz doodlings etc from the excellent Islands album and an ambition to 'make music that sounded like Jimi Hendrix playing Bela Bartók’s compositions.'

The album, out of necessity I think , has a couple of ballad-type songs and a definite 'rock' one in Easy Money amongst its new angular direction but is bookended by the two Larks Tongue compositions which defines it and sets the direction for the next two albums Starless and Red.

 

[editor]

Quadrophenia. Fucking amazing album and still relevant today. And then Lou Reed: Berlin. And Aladdin Sane. But what a year for music 73 was!

Oh, and Bump'n' Grind by Jackson Heights featuring two of the greatest ever drummers, Michael Giles and Ian Wallace

.

*Yes, the sleeve is fucking terrible

 

[belboid]

Have also been enjoying Hawkwind's Space Ritual. They sound like a great night out:

This is, of course, correct. One of the finest albums ever made. Probably the only one I would buy an 11 CD 'ultimate version' boxed set of, which will mean I own seven copies of it in one version or another

 

[The39thStep]

This is, of course, correct. One of the finest albums ever made. Probably the only one I would buy an 11 CD 'ultimate version' boxed set of, which will mean I own seven copies of it in one version or another

Liked for the obsession of buying ultimate versions boxed sets of anything

 

[The39thStep]

Quadrophenia. Fucking amazing album and still relevant today. And then Lou Reed: Berlin. And Aladdin Sane. But what a year for music 73 was!

Oh, and Bump'n' Grind by Jackson Heights featuring two of the greatest ever drummers, Michael Giles and Ian Wallace

.

*Yes, the sleeve is fucking terrible

Like both but for me Giles is/was an extraordinary drummer jazz influenced and also learnt military style drumming. Bruford might also be up there as well.

 

[belboid]

Liked for the obsession of buying ultimate versions boxed sets of anything

There was a 6 CD (or probably 10 LP) version of Raw Power that came out about twenty years ago. At the time I thought it was absurd. I’d buy it now

 

[The39thStep]

There was a 6 CD (or probably 10 LP) version of Raw Power that came out about twenty years ago. At the time I thought it was absurd. I’d buy it now

Wait until you get into King Crimson box sets

 

[andysays]

Possibly the last great album by Can

 

[andysays]

I prefer this to Headhunters, personally

 

[andysays]

Recorded (live, and not terribly well, TBH) in 1958 by the band that would go on to do Kind of Blue; released 15 years later

 

[ska invita]

sextant is great but its way more out there and abstract - i love the way head hunters does similiar stuff but properly grooves. thats the sweet point for me....
was just having a look at the credits on head hunters and just had a thought that the track Sly might be dedicated to Sly Stone (eta: wiki confirms it is)

 

[Knotted]

Henry Cow Legend (or Leg End)




I first heard this in 1993 30 years ago and 20 years after its release. On first listen I didn't understand at all what was going here being unfamiliar with any sort of free jazz or free improvisation or contemporary classical music and it was like I had discovered a huge void in my life that I never knew was there. These are angular compositions and free improvisation tending to noise. But there is something more. It's not just breaking down standard rock or recapitulating the avant jazz of the 60's but building something new. It has its own melancholic European/English character which is somehow both familiar and uniquely deployed. It doesn't sound like American jazz just as it doesn't sound like British rock (progressive or otherwise) even if you can hear nods to Ornette Coleman or Soft Machine if you know where to look. I would play this two or three times a week for about a decade, enthralled and trying to decode it. It's not a perfect album. The band themselves critiqued their overuse of overdubs. It's messy, it's chaotic. But I want that. I want a splurge of rich sound. I thought the musicians must be saints or angels or something. Everything seems independent, the drums hyper dynamism, the bass staccato wandering about, small bursts of guitar lines like the most iconic rock instrument is mere ornamentation, the horns blasting/whaling away, bits of tuned percussion or flute. Somehow coming together falling apart diving into noise/chaos and then crashing out of it into something almost funky.

I was listening to King Crimson including 1973's Larks Tongues in Aspic a lot at the time (early-mid 90's) and was getting interested in ideas about improvisation. Whereas King Crimson seemed advanced, even experimental. This feels like a sub-culture on its own tiny island, something truly independent even if they somehow managed to get signed onto Virgin. I can come back to this and I know it so well but I'm in love all over again. Nothing else is like it, not even later RIO bands influenced by it, not even other Henry Cow albums.

 

[The39thStep]

Henry Cow Legend (or Leg End)

View attachment 383092


I first heard this in 1993 30 years ago and 20 years after its release. On first listen I didn't understand at all what was going here being unfamiliar with any sort of free jazz or free improvisation or contemporary classical music and it was like I had discovered a huge void in my life that I never knew was there. These are angular compositions and free improvisation tending to noise. But there is something more. It's not just breaking down standard rock or recapitulating the avant jazz of the 60's but building something new. It has its own melancholic European/English character which is somehow both familiar and uniquely deployed. It doesn't sound like American jazz just as it doesn't sound like British rock (progressive or otherwise) even if you can hear nods to Ornette Coleman or Soft Machine if you know where to look. I would play this two or three times a week for about a decade, enthralled and trying to decode it. It's not a perfect album. The band themselves critiqued their overuse of overdubs. It's messy, it's chaotic. But I want that. I want a splurge of rich sound. I thought the musicians must be saints or angels or something. Everything seems independent, the drums hyper dynamism, the bass staccato wandering about, small bursts of guitar lines like the most iconic rock instrument is mere ornamentation, the horns blasting/whaling away, bits of tuned percussion or flute. Somehow coming together falling apart diving into noise/chaos and then crashing out of it into something almost funky.

I was listening to King Crimson including 1973's Larks Tongues in Aspic a lot at the time (early-mid 90's) and was getting interested in ideas about improvisation. Whereas King Crimson seemed advanced, even experimental. This feels like a sub-culture on its own tiny island, something truly independent even if they somehow managed to get signed onto Virgin. I can come back to this and I know it so well but I'm in love all over again. Nothing else is like it, not even later RIO bands influenced by it, not even other Henry Cow albums.

I also remember Virgin signing Slap Happy I think around the same time , who sounded nothing like Henry Cow , but illustrated Virgin's quite brave recruitment policy to their label in trying to establish a chunk of the market. I had a close mate who went to work for the label in identifying artists for Virgin and looking for opportunities to promote their roster. At the time although I would buy their records I always had this gut feeling of disliking Branson despite my mate trying to reassure those who shared the same mistrust that he was ok.

 

[Knotted]

I also remember Virgin signing Slap Happy I think around the same time , who sounded nothing like Henry Cow , but illustrated Virgin's quite brave recruitment policy to their label in trying to establish a chunk of the market. I had a close mate who went to work for the label in identifying artists for Virgin and looking for opportunities to promote their roster. At the time although I would buy their records I always had this gut feeling of disliking Branson despite my mate trying to reassure those who shared the same mistrust that he was ok.

Slapp Happy of course collaborating and merging with Henry Cow in 1975.

I understand Branson just hit it lucky with Mike Oldfield/Tubular Bells and signed up some adventurous acts hoping to repeat that success. I don't think he actually had any interest in the music himself.

 

[Knotted]

Talking of which there's this of course

 

[The39thStep]

Slapp Happy of course collaborating and merging with Henry Cow in 1975.

I understand Branson just hit it lucky with Mike Oldfield/Tubular Bells and signed up some adventurous acts hoping to repeat that success. I don't think he actually had any interest in the music himself.

Yes, my mate said that that was the banker and allowed him and others a large amount of space to recommend bands that wouldn't have normally got a look in. I think the labels promotional 50p albums also did quite well.

 

[Knotted]

Yes, my mate said that that was the banker and allowed him and others a large amount of space to recommend bands that wouldn't have normally got a look in. I think the labels promotional 50p albums also did quite well.

That was Gong (You?) and The Faust Tapes and something else for 50p iirc.

 

[The39thStep]

That was Gong (You?) and The Faust Tapes and something else for 50p iirc.

Wasn't it a reggae album, something to do with Front Line ? Got a flashback of barbed wire and a black fist or hand?

 

[Knotted]

Wasn't it a reggae album, something to do with Front Line ? Got a flashback of barbed wire and a black fist or hand?

I think I'm going by something Julian Cope said somewhere. It's all before my time.

 

[belboid]

That was Gong (You?) and The Faust Tapes and something else for 50p iirc.

Faust Tapes was 50p, as was Camembert Electrique.

 

[AverageJoe]

Wow. I didn't realise how many amazing albums were released in this year.

Check out this list.

100 Greatest Albums of 1973

List of 100 greatest rock and pop music albums released in 1973 featuring "Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd at number 1.

digitaldreamdoor.com

 

[Raheem]

Wow. I didn't realise how many amazing albums were released in this year.

Check out this list.

100 Greatest Albums of 1973

List of 100 greatest rock and pop music albums released in 1973 featuring "Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd at number 1.

digitaldreamdoor.com

Not a single woman in the list afaict.

Although, tbf, I have the same issue with my own preliminary list. That and also, it reads a bit like a game of "what drug do all these albums have common".