A self-indulgent
collection of personal opinions and reflections.
Elvis Costello,
Get Happy!! (1980).
Apart from The Beatles' White Album, this is the only album in my experience that
rewards an unlimited number of plays. Ten years after it was released, at the end of the 1980s, quite a few
critics and music fans listed this as the best album of the decade. I agree with
them. On a first listen, you might be surprised at this assessment as it's not
an album with any classic standout individual songs. But listen again. And
again. And again. The songs are so short (20 songs averaging about two minutes
each) and so packed with ideas and hooks that they need repetition to be be
fully appreciated. Before long, you'll find
that playing it has taken over your life. This was Elvis at the height of
his clever-word-play phase, and there are many, many witty and clever puns,
double meanings and clever insights into the human condition hidden in the
lyrics of these songs so that you'll still be discovering them years or even
decades later. A couple of favourites: "Don't put your heart out on your
sleeve, when your remarks are off the cuff" (from Riot Act); "Though you may
not be an old fashioned girl, you're still going to get dated" (from Girls
Talk on the extended reissue version). The album was reissued in 2003 with a
free bonus disc of 30 tracks (B sides, outtakes, live tracks, etc.) making it
50 tracks altogether.
Elvis Costello,
This Year's Model
(1978): Searing power pop.
Trust
(1981): Beginning to broaden horizons. My
favourite album cover.
King of America
(1986): Amongst Elvis fanatics, this is usually voted his best. I might have
agreed if he had left off the two awful cover versions, but despite them, it is a
magnificent collection of deep and honest songs in a simple style - a sort of
dark but gentle folk/country.
Spike
(1989). Eclectic sound. Great musicians. Great songs.
The Juliet Letters (1993): Recorded with classical string
quartet, The Brodsky Quartet. The album has a wonderful feel. Fantastic singing
too. Brutal Youth (1994): Return to energetic rock sound with
The Attractions.
All This Useless Beauty
(1996): The last album he recorded with the Attractions. Painted From Memory
(1998) with Burt Bacharach. Wonderful songs, performed in rich and tasteful
arrangements (apart from those tasteless female backing singers). Includes my favourite
EC song: "God Give Me Strength". North (2003): It's very gentle, a bit like Painted
From Memory, but more positive and thankfully free of backing singers.
Takes some time to fully appreciate, but is worth the effort. Secret,
Profane and Sugarcane (2009): A return to approximately the same
musical space as King of America (gentle country/bluegrass). Not as good as
that earlier classic, but still very enjoyable.
See my various writings on Elvis Costello here.
Radiohead, OK Computer (1997). The best and most original
album from a period when there
were lots of good and original albums released. Clearly the best album of the
1990s, and a strong candidate for the best album of any decade (which it was
once voted by readers of Q). The preceding album,
The Bends (1995) was brilliant in a slightly more conventional rock
form. They followed up with Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001),
and Hail to the Thief
(2003) which lacked the same consistency and accessibility as OK Computer, but
were still excellent. I had come to accept that they would never match OK
Computer, but then came In
Rainbows (2007), which is another absolute masterpiece. Incredibly, it may even
be better. Disk 2 of the special limited release version of In Rainbows
can be purchased for download
here. Eight tracks that didn't make the main album. It's well worth
getting.
Sept 2009: They have started dribbling out new tracks on their web site.
One of them - These Are My Twisted Words - is available (for now) for free
download
here. Another one - Harry Patch (In Memory Of) - is available for £1
(which goes to charity)
here. Thom Yorke relseased a new single "1. Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses 2. The
Hollow Earth" in Septemer. At this rate we'll have a whole album worth of tracks before long.
Ryan Adams, Cold Roses
(2005). Cold Roses is one of my two favourite album of the century so far
(along with In Rainbows). It has a bit of a country
feel, but it's not too intrusive, and the songs are superb. An interesting
sidelight is that it comes as a double CD, even though it would (just) fit on
a single CD. Maybe Ryan wanted us to take a break half way, or maybe he wanted
to emphasise how generous he has been with the songs. It would have been
easily a double album on vinyl (and the CD's are printed up to look sort of
like vinyl). Also recommended are Love is Hell
(2003), 29 (2005), Easy
Tiger (2007) and Cardinology (2008) but definitely
not Rock N Roll, which he quickly knocked out for the CD company when
they decided that Love is Hell was not commercial enough! Anyone who
would prefer Rock N Roll to Love is Hell needs their head
examined. I saw a fantastic concert by Ryan in January 2009, and it's available
on the internet, for free, with Ryan's full blessing, in excellent sound
quality
here. Turns out that there are a huge number of his concerts available on
that site. I've sampled quite a few of them now, and the 2009 Perth show is
definitely the best one I've heard so far. Ryan is currently "retired" from
the music industry, ostensibly due to a hearing condition from which he suffers.
He's so prolific I can't imagine this retirement will last, but for the time being that
wonderful Perth show is one of his last concerts.
XTC, Drums
and Wires
(1979). An all-time favourite. Intelligent and creative pop music. XTC is criminally neglected. Skylarking (1986):
more perfect pop, this
time cleverly integrated into a thematic package by producer Todd Rundgren.
The band hated him, especially lead singer and main songwriter Andy Partridge, but acknowledged his outstanding contribution to this
album. XTC is one of my collecting obsessions. I have absolutely every track
of theirs, including all the obscure rarities. All their albums are worth
having, particularly Go 2 (1978), English Settlement
(1981), Nonesuch (1991) and Apple Venus (1999). Sadly, they recently split up. Actually it's been more like a slow
disintegration. In 1978 there was a bust up between Andy Partridge and
keyboard player Barry Andrews, and Andrews left. After they stopped touring in
1981 (due to terminal stage fright by Andy Partridge), drummer Terry Chambers
left and moved to Australia (joining Dragon for a while). They continued as a
trio with session drummers. Then in the late 90s guitarist Dave Gregory left
due to tensions with Andy, leaving XTC as a duo. And finally Andy seemed to
fall out with the last remaining member, bassist Colin Moulding, in about
2006. The common element in all of the tensions is Andy; I guess he must be
hard to work with. He does seem rather manic when you hear him interviewed,
but musically he's a gem.
Magazine. I am devoted to Magazine. Led
by the wonderful Howard Devoto, Magazine delivered a sequence of fantastic
albums in the late 70s/early 80s. The attitude of punk, music influenced by
Bowie/Eno of Low and Heroes era (see below), with the lyrical
brilliance of a Bob Dylan in a difficult mood. Howard has an unusual singing style,
something of an acquired taste. Perhaps in a similar way to Bob Dylan, you
wouldn't say he has a great voice, but he is a great singer in terms of
impact, delivery, and conviction. I love all five original Magazine albums: Real Life (1978),
Secondhand Daylight (1979) (my favourite), The Correct Use of Soap
(1980), Play
(1981) and Magic, Murder and the Weather (1981). I play
them regularly. Apart from the last one, they are all five-star albums.
Luxuria. After breaking up Magazine in
1981 (due largely to lack of commercial success), Howard Devoto released a disappointing solo album Jerky Versions of
the Dream (1983) (the songs are good, but the arrangements seem tame and
the mix is thin). Then he disappeared for five years, re-emerging as one
half of a duo called Luxuria. Almost nobody has heard of them, but they
released two great albums. Unanswerable Lust (1988)
is highly recommended and Beast Box (1991) is simply fantastic
-- just as good as Secondhand Daylight in my view, which is about as
good as it gets. But then these outstanding albums made even less commercial
impact than Magazine's had and Howard again lost faith in the music
industry. He retired from music, apparently for good, to the security of a day job,
managing a photo library in London.
ShelleyDevoto. I had given up hope of
ever hearing more treasures from Howard Devoto, when out of the blue came
Buzzkunst (2002). Pete Shelly and Howard were the founding members of
punk rock luminaries The Buzzcocks in 1976, and this history is suggested (not
too subtly) in the title of their 2002 collaboration, which is different (much
more electronic) but still highly enjoyable.
Then came the news I hadn't dared to hope for. In early 2009 Magazine reformed to perform a small
number of shows, mainly in England. They sold out months in advance, and
generated rave reviews (here,
here,
here).
It looks like they might finally be making a bit of money from their genius,
which is great. A major benefit of this reformation is that there is a bunch
of new Magazine product available. I've got the book, the T shirt, several new
live CDs and the concert DVD, and I'm in seventh heaven. The DVD in particular
it's just awesome. They've lost none of their power. And I'm more convinced
than ever that Play is one of the great live albums of all time. In
interviews Howard has even hinted that a new album is a possibility, and the
book hints that a tour of Australia could happen in 2010!!!! Fingers
very crossed.
Ed Kuepper, Today Wonder (1990): The start of
a fantastic sequence of five albums in quick succession on which Ed could do
no wrong. Today Wonder is wonderfully sparse with just Ed, his acoustic guitar
and a drummer playing lightly, often with brushes. Honey Steel's Gold
(1991) (pictured): More of
a full band sound. Still wonderfully sparse and tasteful 'though. Black Ticket Day
(1992): Darker,
heavier sound, but retains the spirit and atmosphere that pervades
these five albums. Serene Machine
(1993): Apparently
Ed finished recording this album, and then erased the tapes because he felt it
had been too easy. The second attempt is fantastic. Character Assassination
(1994):
Perhaps the best of them, although some weeks I prefer Serene Machine. The
version of Character Assassination that includes a bonus album of acoustic demos is worth seeking out.
This was the end of the golden run. After that he put out several rather weak
albums (only Frontierland is mosty good), with the
latest one Smile ... Pacific (2000) being particularly disappointing.
It has a few reasonable songs, but some of the other songs on it are
embarrassingly bad. Since then Ed has been much less visible. It's a remarkable contrast to his amazing productivity in
the 1990s, and a great shame given his capacity to make great music. He does
have another studio album out in the last few years, but since the
debacle of Smile ... Pacific I don't feel sufficiently tempted. I will
eventually, I'm sure.
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(2002). This album grew on me slowly, but just kept
growing. It's off-centre music, with all sorts of elements. Some
pop, rock, alternative, country, folk, and sundry sound effects. It works
brilliantly, because the songs are so great. Their record company (Reprise)
are pathetic cowards and philistines, and refused to release it
because it didn't seem commercial enough. Released the band from their contract
and let them keep the master tapes. Reprise might not have liked it, but Wilco
soon found 30 other labels courting them. They ended up signing with Nonesuch
which, in a delicious irony, turns out to be under the same parent company as
Reprise. Final
element of the sweet revenge was that the album was a huge critical success,
and a respectable commercial success. (You should help that further by buying
it). In a wonderful stroke of luck, a young film maker had decided to make a
movie about the making and touring of the album, never suspecting the drama
that would unfold. He captured the whole thing, including the fateful phone
call from Reprise, and you can see it in the highly recommended
movie I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (available on DVD). It
includes quite different versions of some of the album's songs, and these
reveal different aspects that strengthen your appreciation of the album as
well. Summerteeth
(2000), A Ghost is Born
(2004), Sky Blue Sky (2007), and
Wilco (2009)
are also
highly recommended.
Bob Dylan. Bob
is an icon of Western culture - one of the few 20th century artists whose work
will be remembered in centuries to come. My favourite 60s Dylan album is Bringing
it All Back Home (1965), and from the 70s I love Blood on the
Tracks (1974) and Street Legal (1978). After Street
Legal he put out a whole string of truly awful records, relieved only by
Oh Mercy (1989). I stopped paying attention
until the buzz around Time Out of Mind (1997) was so strong
that I couldn't resist the temptation. And it certainly is a gem, even if Bob
sounds like a croaking frog on its death bed (he actually did almost die
around that time). Time Out of Mind marked a complete return to form
for Bob, which continued with Love and Theft (2001) and Modern Times
(2006).
Actually, Love and Theft is currently my favourite Dylan album of all.
Tell Tale Signs (2008) is also fantastic, even though it
consists of left-over unreleased tracks or unreleased versions of songs from
his recent albums. Then came Together Through Life (2009) which
is very good too, though not quite as good as the previous four I've
mentioned. I don't think Bob has released such a strong sequence of albums in
his whole career as he has managed since 1997. (He's spoilt it by putting out
a Christmas album in 2009!!)
Tom Waits:
I love almost all his studio albums from 1983
onwards: Swordfishtrombomes (1983), Rain Dogs (1985),
Frank's Wild Years (1987), Bone Machine (1992),
Mule Variations (1999), Alice (2002), Blood Money
(2002), Real Gone (2004). In 1983 Frank's wife Kathleen Brennan convinced him to take on the
role of producer of his own albums, and to follow his creative instincts
rather than record company preconceptions about him. He has proceeded to make
the most wonderful and original sequence of albums, vastly better than his
early stuff. He and Kathleen are truly a songwriting team that deserves to be
described as "great".
P.J. Harvey, Dry (1992): Just a three piece
band, but fantastic and original arrangements, full on delivery by Polly Jean,
great melodies, powerful emotions. A magnificent debut. To Bring You My Love
(1995):
Smoother, but still hard. Richer sound and (even) more confident delivery. Is This Desire?
(1998): Gentler,
but still original and challenging. My favourite of hers. Stories from the City, Stories
from the Sea (2000). Slightly more pop than the others. Consistently great songs,
like all five of these. Uh Huh Her (2004) is
another brilliant album from
Polly. Saw her live for the first time in Nov 2004. It was an awesome concert.
Such a tiny person, but such a huge presence. Also saw her in 2008, a very
different experience, quiet and solo. In that show, she responded at some
length to something I called out. I feel like I've almost had a conversation
with her!
Jeff Buckley, Grace
(1994). Of any album, this is the most likely to reduce me to tears. Jeff sang
like an angel and lived inside the songs.
Muse, Absolution
(2003). I first got into Muse when they were relatively unknown. Now they are
one of the biggest bands in the world, and deservedly so. One of those rare
cases when talent and quality align with popularity. They have elements of old
fashioned prog rock, mixed with heavy metal and pop. Superb melodies, great
arrangements, brilliantly performed. Absolution is my favourite.
Origin of Symmetry (2001) and The Resistance (2009) are
excellent too.
Cotton Mather, Kontiki (1997). Sparkling Beatlesque power pop.
Neil Finn, Try Whistling This (1998),
One
Nil (2001), and 7 Worlds Collide (2001). Essential pop gems.
Neil has a genius for melody. The DVD of 7 Worlds Collide is
also fantastic. For some reason I can't quite identify, the crowd singalong at
the end "Fall at your feet" on the DVD affects me to a ridiculous extent. One of my favourite minutes of music of all, and Neil isn't even singing! I think it's
partly the way the huge crowd gets this not-very-well-known but lovely song
word perfect and note perfect, not just the chorus but even the long bridge.
Crowded House, Recurring Dream, (1996).
There are a few great Crowded House songs missing (from their third and
fourth albums) but this compilation holds most of their
masterpieces.
They Might Be Giants, Flood (1990).
I love albums with stylistic diversity where every song is strong. This is one
of them.
The Sundays, Static and Silence (1997).
Harriet Wheeler's voice is a priceless gift. On hearing it,
atheists believe in heaven. Also buy Reading, Writing and Arithmetic
(1989) and Blind (1992).
Ron Sexsmith, Ron Sexsmith
(1995). Peaceful, reflective, insightful, great songwriting, great singing. I
also like all his other albums including Other Songs (1997),
Whereabouts (1999), Blue Boy (2001),
Cobblestone Runway (2002), Retriever
(2004), Destination Unknown (2005), Time Being
(2007), Exit Strategy of the Soul (2008). My friend Dave Dole proposed a
theory that Ron's real name is Ron Smith, and he decided he needed a name that
was more sexy. (But I've since been assured by a Canadian email correspondent
that it's his real name, and there are indeed Sexsmiths in the Toronto phone
directory - I've checked.) I chatted with Ron after his concert in Perth in 1999 when I gave
him an Elvis Costello bootleg (he and Elvis are friends).
Elliot Smith,
XO
(1998), Figure 8
(2000). Not a million miles from Ron Sexsmith, but darker in sentiments.
(I wrote that before Elliot's suicide on 22 October 2003. Very, very sad. What
a waste. Makes the sad dark sentiments and drug references on these albums
rather hard to take.) From a Basement on the Hill (2004), the
album he was working on at the time of his death, was released posthumously,
and is another beauty. Those three albums are all performed with full band
backing. His first three albums are all simply arranged and largely acoustic affairs: Roman
Candle (1994), Elliot Smith (1995) and Either/Or
(1997). Very different listening experiences, but just as lovely. Then
there is New Moon (2007), another excellent posthumous release
with unreleased recordings drawn from those early acoustic days.
Orange Juice, Rip it Up
(1982). Edwyn Collins' first band. This is one of those rare albums that doesn't have a weak track. A jangling pop masterpiece. Edwyn has another one of those
acquired-taste voices that I seem to like acquiring. Also recommended from
Orange Juice are their two other original albums, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever
(1982) and The Orange Juice (1984).
Edwyn Collins,
Hope and Despair (1989). His first solo album after leaving Orange
Juice. His most well known track as a solo artist is "A Girl Like You", but
these earlier solo albums are quite different to that. More laid back and
contemplative. Hope and Despair includes a beautiful love song called "You're Better Than You
Know" which alone makes the album worth owning. His second album, in a
similar vein and with a fantastic title, is also excellent: Hellbent on Compromise
(1990) (pictured). In February 2006 Edwyn suffered a major cerebral
hemorrhage and almost died, saved by a major operation. He was very badly
affected, and underwent a long slow process of rehabilitation. Although he's
still not fully recovered (and I'd guess that he might never be), he recently
released a new album Home Again (2007), which was recorded
before his illness but mixed after.
The
Rezillos,
Can't Stand The Rezillos (1978). Fantastic punk pop band. This
album includes the best bass guitar sound ever recorded,
bar none. They have recently reformed, but not with
the original bass player.
The
Boomtown Rats, A Tonic for the Troops (1978). I really couldn't
give two figs for anything else Bob Geldof has released (I've owned most of it
at various times) but this album is just fantastic. Great songs, terrific
production (by Mutt Lange, who later married Shania Twain!), no filler. Just
about perfect new wavy pop.
King Crimson, Discipline
(1980). The second half of the sixties
was a peak for creativity in music, but there was also a brief peak in 1978-1980
when several of the best-ever albums were released (see elsewhere on this
page), including Discipline. King
Crimson is often seen as being primarily a vehicle for Robert Fripp's guitar
(especially by KC obsessives), and he is unambiguously the leader of the band,
but it was Adrian Belew joining the band in 1980 that elevated them into another level.
His singing is wonderful and his guitar playing, by turns beautifully fluid
and completely wild, complements Fripp's highly structured linear style
perfectly. All their
subsequent albums are worth having too, especially Thrack (1995) and
the construKction of light (2000).
Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (1978). At the start of his solo
career after leaving Genesis, Peter Gabriel release four albums in a row all
called Peter Gabriel.
(Outside the US that is. The label's US marketing people couldn't cope with
such an interesting concept.) The best of them, predictably, was the least successful. Robert Fripp produced it, and it has that wonderful clarity and
atmosphere of his productions from this era. Of the other three albums called
Peter Gabriel, the third (1980, with "Games Without Frontiers") and fourth
(1982, with "Shock the Monkey") are also excellent. The songs on the first one are not
at the same high standard, apart from Solsbury Hill and Here Comes the Flood, which
definitely are. The later albums So, Us and Up are slicker and
a couple of them were
vastly more successful, but they are ultimately less satisfying. What a pity he didn't maintain
the same album name for them as well.
The Roches, Keep on Doing (1982). Another excellent Robert
Fripp production, and at least partly thanks to him, this is the best Roches album.
The Roches are three sisters who specialise in close three-part harmonies,
acoustic guitars and gently humorous songs about people and relationships.
Folk, but with a progressive pop attitude.
Talking Heads, Remain in Light
(1980). Hugely
innovative and influential album. Revitalised dance music. A precursor to rap
(not that I'd boast about that). Other classics are
More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) and Fear of Music
(1979). One of my all-time favourite concerts was Talking Heads at the
Perth Concert Hall in 1978.
U2, Achtung Baby (1991). Superb hybrid rock,
dance, pop album. Easily their finest hour.
David
Bowie. More than any other artist in modern music, the quality of David Bowie's work has
spanned the highs and lows (although, come to think of it, I guess Bob Dylan might span a similar
quality range).
Low (1977) and
Heroes (1978), both produced by Brian Eno (see below), are landmark albums of real daring and
brilliance, and they had enormous influence on other musicians at the time and
ever since. But after Heroes, the quality trajectory was all downhill and ultimately reached shamefully dark depths in the 1980s before partially
recovering in the 1990s and 2000s. Some of his more recent
albums are good, especially Earthling (1997). Mind
you, "good" is a long way short of his brilliance on early albums like Hunky Dory (1971), The Man Who Sold the World (1971)
and Station to Station (1975). I never got into The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Mars (1972) in the 1970s, but many consider
it his finest album, including some people with remarkably similar musical
preferences to myself. So I thought I'd better give it another chance. Bought
it cheaply off ebay and played it quite a lot. I still don't feel
it rates with his very best work, but I can see
why people like it so much.
Brian
Eno, Discrete Music (1975), Music for Airports (1978). Eno's artistic
success as a producer of other people's music is without parallel. Have you
noticed an artist making a radical shift in direction, exhibiting a massive
burst of creativity and originality, pulling it off with great success, and
thereby influencing development of a whole cohort of new musicians? Have a
look at the production credits on their pivotal album and the probability that
Brian Eno was involved is very high. That is the case, for example, with
Low, Heroes, Remain in Light and Achtung Baby. To
have had anything to do with any of these landmark albums would have been a
great privilege. To be present on all of them is clearly no accident.
He is to producers what the Beatles are to popular music: in a separate,
higher category. (Elvis Costello has recorded one fabulous song with Eno: My
Dark Life. Later asked if he would record with Eno again, he said
something like, "any time, any place".) Eno's solo albums established a whole new genre of music: ambient. Lots of atmosphere, not a lot of noise. These two albums are favourite
examples.
John Lennon,
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
(1970): Fiercely honest and bare confessions. Quite bleak in its emotional
intensity. Remembering that his mother died when he was 16 and his Dad ran off
when he was a young child, try listening to "Mother" without being deeply
affected. My younger daughter came in recently when it was
on and said, "He's got ISSUES!!" Imagine (1971):
Much glossier, but what great songs. John didn't maintain this standard on
subsequent albums, but neither did anybody else.
The Beatles, The Beatles
("White Album") (1968). Less slick than their
most celebrated works, and all the better for it. Rewards an unlimited number
of plays. Sometimes described, with a hint of disparagement, as four solo albums, but that doesn't go close to doing it justice. After all, the
backing band on these solo albums is The Beatles, and they were at the
peak of their powers. This album marks the start of what must surely be
the most incredible 12 months of creative productivity by four musicians in
history. Consider this.
From mid 1968 to mid 1969, they recorded this double album, the Let It Be
album,
the Abbey Road album, enough additional material for the two CDs of
Anthology 3 (a triple album on vinyl), five fantastic singles "Hey Jude",
"Get Back", "The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Let it
Be" and "Something"/"Come Together" (eight of the ten songs on them appeared not at all or in different versions on
the albums), made the film Let It Be, and released the film and soundtrack
album Yellow Submarine. Outside the Beatles, there
were five (five!!!) Beatles solo albums recorded or released (one film
soundtrack by George and four highly experimental albums, one from George and
three from John and Yoko), a landmark single from John ("Give Peace a Chance"), Ringo
acted in a major film with Peter Sellers and Paul wrote
and produced big hits for Badfinger and Mary Hopkins. As well as all
this, they wrote quite a number of songs that turned up later on solo albums.
And in the middle of all that, two of them got married. They did all this in just barely over one year, and
it was a year when they weren't always getting on well. It's not as if
this extraordinary productivity caused the
quality to suffer either. Not all these outputs are classics (the solo experimental albums are pretty hard to listen to in fact) but much of the
year's output stands among the best music ever made. It is interesting to
compare this output with the usual release schedule of major acts these days. For example, through the 1990s, U2 released three albums, for an average of about five
songs per year. An average of 15 tracks per year is extremely high, probably
reached by only one or two major artists. The Beatles' efforts in this incredible 12 months spawned over
110 tracks that were released at the time or subsequently, not even counting
their non-Beatles work, and not counting the unreleased Get Back album,
or its relative, Let it Be ... Naked, which finally saw commercial
release in November 2003.
Other
favourites by The Beatles: A Hard Days Night (1964), Rubber Soul (1965),
Revolver (1966),
Sgt Pepper (1967),
Magical Mystery Tour (1967),
Abbey Road (1969),
Live at the BBC
(1994).
Of course, all their other albums are special. If I had to
forego any, it would be possible for me to give up
Beatles for Sale
(1964) and
Let it Be
(1970).
Music
