Urban75 Album of the Year 1973

[maomao]

real revelation playing this today, just starting to read up on it, wiki summary gives an idea how good it is

"It is widely regarded as Green's masterpiece, and has been called one of the best soul albums ever made.[9] In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 70th greatest album in any genre. Call Me was a Top 10 Billboard Pop Album, and the third #1 Soul Album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 289 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 290 in a 2012 revised list.[10]"

really recommend giving it a try
its quite a subtle record, runs on mood rather than any big stand out showy tracks, all the better for that tbh
youtube playlist

It's a great album; I thought I had posted this in post #5 but something seems to have not worked and there's just a grey box.

 

[ska invita]

albums i havent enjoyed playing this week
JB - Payback - a couple of classics but not a great album experience, makes better sense in the film I bet
Marvin Gaye - too sex pesty
Dark Side - its great for what it is of course but unless you're prepared to get inside it for an hour its not fun to listen to - too immersive and demanding.
Pharoah Sanders - kicks off with Price of Peace, an alltime favourite, but the rest is too much primal screaming and I cant deal with that at the best of times
McCoy Tyner - brilliant overall sound and line up and melodies but the soloing too intense for where my head is right now. Another time this would be great.
The Who - came in to this wanting to like it but didnt do it for me

 

[RainbowTown]

One of Stevie Wonder’s greatest works and definitely worthy of inclusion:

 

[Indeliblelink]

Barry White, his first two solo albums came out in 1973 and the second from Love Unlimited, that he wrote & produced.

 

[Knotted]

OK so we need to talk about Magma and Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh



The third studio album from a very strange group. Drummer/singer/composer Christian Vander realising his vision or at least on part of it. Musically it's jazz-rock-funk but with pounding militaristic rhythms and a whole choral section singing in a made up language that sounds suspiciously German. It has inspired a micro genre Zeuhl which is a sort intense bass driven fusion.

It's a masterpiece but there's also a Hitler thing going on that's difficult to assess the extent of and of which the rest of the band were quite possibly unaware of. See this blog post and the discussion for more information.

Personally I won't listen to it anymore, but otherwise it would be in my top 3 of the year.

Zao were a spin off an earlier formation of Magma and made this fast and furious fusion with wordless vocals. May not be as artistically meaningful as the above, but frankly that's a good thing and it still has this wild and unique zeuhl sound. 7=7L

 

[The39thStep]

Procul Harum never seemed to quite hit on any direction and stick to it . At their core and origins, they were based on blues R&B and soul adding psychedelic rock and bits of baroque. Grand Hotel is a marvellous preposterous overblown throw the kitchen sink extravaganza that pretty much has all of this and pomp and more pomp. However, it's surprisingly listenable even if it was ultimately lacking direction.

Two tracks: Fires Which Burnt So Brightly



and in contrast : Bringing Home The Bacon

 

[krtek a houby]

OK so we need to talk about Magma and Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh

View attachment 383596

The third studio album from a very strange group. Drummer/singer/composer Christian Vander realising his vision or at least on part of it. Musically it's jazz-rock-funk but with pounding militaristic rhythms and a whole choral section singing in a made up language that sounds suspiciously German. It has inspired a micro genre Zeuhl which is a sort intense bass driven fusion.

It's a masterpiece but there's also a Hitler thing going on that's difficult to assess the extent of and of which the rest of the band were quite possibly unaware of. See this blog post and the discussion for more information.

Personally I won't listen to it anymore, but otherwise it would be in my top 3 of the year.

Zao were a spin off an earlier formation of Magma and made this fast and furious fusion with wordless vocals. May not be as artistically meaningful as the above, but frankly that's a good thing and it still has this wild and unique zeuhl sound. 7=7L

View attachment 383598

Slight tangent - Magma were a big influence on Hans Zimmer, iirc. If you listen to his opening titles for First Born, you can hear it

 

[Serge Forward]

I was thinking Donny Hathaway live... but that might have been 72 .

 

[Knotted]

Slight tangent - Magma were a big influence on Hans Zimmer, iirc. If you listen to his opening titles for First Born, you can hear it

That really is nicked straight from MDK!

 

[krtek a houby]

That really is nicked straight from MDK!

Yeah! Back when the series came out, didn't really know anything about Magma. But years later, when my music tastes expanded, could really hear the, uh, homage...

 

[hash tag]

Yessongs along with quadrophenia and space ritual are among my all time greats with tubular bells and dark side.
Not liking tales, Rick Wakeman went solo about this time. Yes had one more decent album in relayer after this.
Albums I haven't seen mentioned yet; Purples who do we think we are, Skynyrds pronounced, Quo's hello, Alice Cooper's billion dollar babies and of course Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
All of these are at home ( and on phone ). All in all a good year.

 

[krtek a houby]

The marvelous Billy Cobham



And bandmates Mahavishnu Orchestra



A fine year for fusion.

 

[The39thStep]

No Roxy Music this year but a Bryan Ferry solo . A collection of 60s tracks , soul songs and a jazz classic with Roxy members in 'non-experimental mode' and Ferry verging on self parody Carry Grant mode . None the less intriguing

 

[Knotted]

No Roxy Music this year but a Bryan Ferry solo . A collection of 60s tracks , soul songs and a jazz classic with Roxy members in 'non-experimental mode' and Ferry verging on self parody Carry Grant mode . None the less intriguing

For Your Pleasure was 1973.

 

[The39thStep]

For Your Pleasure was 1973.

That is going on the list then

 

[Knotted]

Just listened to Stevie Wonder's Innervisions and was surprised by just how jazz it is. Amazing album but there's a few songs towards the end that suddenly seem very pedestrian by comparison.

 

[belboid]

and, if in need of more Eno, there is always the first Fripp-Eno album, No Pussyfooting. Arguably one of the first ambient albums, it is...fairly dull, to be honest. Kinda interesting, but nothing compared to what would come next year. The CD release came with an extended version of the album where they played Side 1 again, but at half speed. Yes ha.

A trick they stole from another 1973 album, Neu! 2. - or Neu! 1 1/2 as it is occasionally known due to the fact that Side 2 is made up of their previous single played at 33, 16 & 78. Obviously, it was hated at the time. Now it is seen as.... a cheap way of completing the album and very vaguely interesting. Side 1 is great tho.

 

[The39thStep]

and, if in need of more Eno, there is always the first Fripp-Eno album, No Pussyfooting. Arguably one of the first ambient albums, it is...fairly dull, to be honest. Kinda interesting, but nothing compared to what would come next year. The CD release came with an extended version of the album where they played Side 1 again, but at half speed. Yes ha.

A trick they stole from another 1973 album, Neu! 2. - or Neu! 1 1/2 as it is occasionally known due to the fact that Side 2 is made up of their previous single played at 33, 16 & 78. Obviously, it was hated at the time. Now it is seen as.... a cheap way of completing the album and very vaguely interesting. Side 1 is great tho.

Remember buying No Pussyfooting and it pretty much went to the back of the LP pile for that year ( embarrassingly with Wakeman's six wives of Henry VIII). Fripp's later release Exposure is a lot more fun.

 

[The39thStep]

I remember Maria Muldaur for one song, the delicious Midnight at the Oasis which appears on her debut album, the self-titled Maria Muldaur. I'd never listened to the rest of the album however turns out it's a superb blend of pop, country, folk, and blues. The musicians include Ry Cooder, Andrew Gold and Dr John and the song writers include Kate McGarrigle, Wendy Waldman and Dolly Parton. The songs also include a couple of versions of 1930 songs. Well worth a listen

 

[Idris2002]

This morning the TouYube algorithm presented me with Bruce Cockburn a 70s singer-songwriter from Canada no less, whom I'd never heard of. With this guy, the vibe is "Nick Drake for grown-ups", and I'm listening to his 1973 album Night Vision right now.

Night Vision (Bruce Cockburn album) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"The only thing I know is the blues got this world by the balls"

 

[Idris2002]

According to Discogs, the Dubliners' Plain and Simple was 1973:



The way I remembered it, they didn't do explicitly "up the 'ra" stuff after the balloon went up in the north, but some of the stuff on this one could be listened to with approval by those of the Republican persuasion. . .

 

[Raheem]

Not mentioned yet and contenders for my list
...

Faust - Faust IV

Tangerine Dream - Atem

Faust - The Faust Tapes

 

[Knotted]

There's also the Tony Conrad + Faust album so that's 3 Faust albums to choose from.

 

[Knotted]

Very brief Italian progressive + avant rock/jazz run down

There's a few dozen albums in the "symphonic" progressive rock vein and I don't know most of them. They generally have a more raw, passionate, energetic feel than British bands such as Genesis or Pink Floyd who by 1973 are very polished. A few mentions for:

Jumbo - Vietato ai minori di 18 anni
Le Orme - Feloni e Sorona
Museo Rosenbach - Zarathustra
Osanna - Palepoli
Campo Di Marte - Campo Di Marte
Premiata Forneria Marconi - Photos of Ghosts

But lots of others as well. Best of the bunch is probably Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's Io sono nato libero



But aside from all that here are three albums that are more in the fusion/avant rock vein.

Dedalus - s/t



A really distinctive jazz-rock sound on this one with some experimentation

Franco Battiato - Sulle corde di Aries



Probably best known for his 80's synth pop he cut this experimental synth jazz/drone masterpiece in 1973. It's like a long lost krautrock classic but with that distinctively Italian prog rock style of vocals. No chord changes which is the correct number of chord changes.

Area International Popular Group - Arbeit macht frei



An absolutely astounding album that combines an energetic fusion where all the musicians are compacting more sound into less space with free improv soundscapes and then on top you have Greek yodelling Marxist Demetrio Stratos. File under fuck yeah.

 

[Knotted]

This is definitely a year where we're really getting some super cool euro avant jazz-rock.

You might know Gilbert Artman from his huge saxophone orchestra Urban Sax. Here he is with his 70's band Lard Free. Suave jazz and electronica. Eyes firmly on the horizon.

 

[Knotted]

Can's Future Days mentioned above. There's also Soundtracks of various mostly Wim Wender (iirc) scores they contributed to 69-70 period and it's entirely fantastic.

 

[Raheem]

Can's Future Days mentioned above. There's also Soundtracks of various mostly Wim Wender (iirc) scores they contributed to 69-70 period and it's entirely fantastic.

View attachment 383818

A fantastic album, but came out in 1970.

 

[Dr. Furface]

For Your Pleasure was 1973.

That is going on the list then

Stranded too!

 

[Idris2002]

Looks like 1973 was a good year for Irish trad. Here's the first of Planxty's two albums of that year:

 

[Knotted]

Faust IV is a splendid album but I love The Faust Tapes. It's like a zen mystery. Tuneful at times but abstract - the meaning not directly expressed but somehow behind it. Like the whole thing is played with a wink and a smile.