Best Rock Album Ever

Product Information

Having given Oasis two songs on every album in the series, this is the first volume not to feature any of the bands' music; it does however feature The Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun" which is co-written by Noel Gallagher and features him on lead vocals. The following Volume 7 also featured no Oasis songs. In 2005, the series returned with a 3-CD album titled The Best of the Best Air Guitar Albums in the World Ever. Due to the fact volume 3 claimed to be the last volume, the liner notes (written by Brian May) note "OK, we lied". Most of the songs had already appeared on volumes 1, 2 & 3, but there were some which didn't, such as The Darkness' " I Believe in a Thing Called Love" and an exclusive Queen + Paul Rodgers live performance of " Fat Bottomed Girls". I think your list is quite good. Like anybody on the planet, I feel there are albums that aren’t included here that should be based on my personal preference. I won’t voice those opinions here because the point of this list is udiscovermusic’s opinion. Isn’t subjectivity great? Ian Curtis left the world with an influential album that defined the dark and moody, yet still danceable territory that would characterize post-punk. None of Joy Division’s best-known singles are here, but the soundscapes of Closer create a world that’s equally forbidding and enticing. 58: KISS – Alive! Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

Historically, the Go-Go’s debut ranks as the first No.1 album ever performed, and largely written, by an all-female band. It’s also a blast of pure fun, showing Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, and Kathy Valentine as first-class songwriters who’d absorbed everything great about California pop. “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed” never get old. 62: The Strokes – Is This It? This volume features repeats of songs featured in previous volumes from the series; The Stone Roses' "What The World Is Waiting For" featured on Volume 3, and Mansun's "Wide Open Space" featured on Volume 5, although the version of "Wide Open Space" here is a remix by Paul Oakenfold. When we first did the RS 500 in 2003, people were talking about the “death of the album.” The album —and especially the album release — is more relevant than ever. (As in 2003, we allowed votes for compilations and greatest-hits albums, mainly because a well-made compilation can be just as coherent and significant as an LP, because compilations helped shaped music history, and because many hugely important artists recorded their best work before the album had arrived as a prominent format.) Having scored a left-field breakthrough with the pop-friendly Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Robert Smith turned the other direction, reportedly dabbled in acid, and returned The Cure to its gothic roots. The result was the band’s darkest and most daring album – and perversely enough, one that stands as their greatest. 49: Metallica – Master of Puppets Take Arctic Monkeys away from the nightclub scene, and what do you get? An even better and more thoughtful band, one that can embrace electronica and textured pop without losing the raw edge. AM marked a personal turn in Alex Turner’s writing; it also gave a long-deserved payoff to the band’s mentor, street poet John Cooper Clarke, who gets a song covered. 65: Betty Davis – They Say I’m DifferentThe series was very successful. It offered a third alternative to the Now Dance series, with the other alternative being The Best Dance Album series.

Another classic band whose albums never score as highly in polls like this as you might think, The Who are possibly best loved for their extraordinary run of 60s singles than for their long-players. Which is odd, because a) they have made some classic albums and b) Pete Townshend is a man full of big ideas. The concept of the album is similar to the Harmless collections and to BMG Global TV's Blaxplotation album series. The series originally featured a globe on each album cover, to represent the world, as referred to in the album titles. When the Anthems...Ever! and the simply ...Ever! titles started to appear in 1997, the globe didn't usually appear on the cover. The globe continued to be featured on in the World...Ever! covers nonetheless, although in 2001–02, it started to become absent from the album covers of in the World...Ever! albums too, as it is absent from the Air Guitar covers and one of the Dance covers.

The guys in the first Utopia (not to be confused with the later quartet) were jazz-informed musos who could solo at length, so on paper, it makes no sense to throw in a pop songwriter of Rundgren’s caliber. But on disc, it works perfectly, with Rundgren’s catchy moments setting up and amplifying all the instrumental fireworks (plenty of which came from his own lead guitar). “The Ikon” was at the time the longest album side ever (30:22), but it’s anything but a slog; the opening riff takes about five seconds to hook you in. 7: Gong: You You could make a strong case for any of the “classic seven” Moody Blues albums but In Search of the Lost Chordstands out for its theme of mind expansion, offering three possible paths to enlightenment: Acid (via Ray Thomas’ ode to Timothy Leary, “Legend of a Mind”) meditation (keyboardist Mike Pinder’s mystical “Om”) and love (“The Actor,” a vintage Justin Hayward ballad). 19: U.K.: U.K.

Reinventing itself for a new era, King Crimson builds a fresh sound out of gamelan-like guitar parts, Adrian Belew’s songcraft, and a flexible rhythm section. The 80s Crimson threw away the musical trappings of 70s prog, while retaining the thrill of exploration. 36: Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime This is a double CD album of various Christmas music, originally released in 1996. In 2000, a new edition was released, The Best Christmas Album in the World... Ever! (new edition).Despite the first volume only entering at #5, it achieved at least Gold status, whilst the second volume received Platinum status. Music industry professionals refer to it as Difficult Second Album Syndrome, the condition whereby an emerging artist storms into the spotlight with their first album and then discovers that, after 18 months on tour promoting said release, they have no idea what to do for an encore. With Ride The Lightning, Metallica had no such problems.