Tag: Art Rock
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Muse ‘Absolution’ (2003)
In the pantheon of great alternative rock bands in my generation there’s few who come close to Muse in my book. This is a band who simply isn’t just fun to listen to (although they most certainly are) but also frankly a band who made me recognize the transformative nature of what rock music can…
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The Forms ‘The Forms’ (2007)
The Forms blend intricate indie rock with art-inspired elements, complex time signatures and captivating vocal arrangements. The band has created a puzzle-like quality that challenges listeners while maintaining a clear sense of purpose.
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Patti Smith ‘Horses’ (1975)
Patti Smith’s Horses was a pivotal punk album that blended poetry, garage rock, and performance art. Recognized for its raw energy and influence on punk, it echoes The Velvet Underground’s artistic expression. Today we explore its impact.
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Emerson, Lake & Palmer ‘Self-Titled’ (1970)
With Keith Emerson’s wild virtuosic organ work, Greg Lake’s soaring vocals and melodic bass, and Carl Palmer’s jazz-informed drumming, the dynamic trio blended classical music, jazz, and hard rock into something ambitious. The album moves from delicate acoustic moments to full-blown symphonic chaos that (at times) feels unapologetically over-the-top. The boys didn’t have any time…
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Miles Davis ‘On The Corner’ (1972)
Once lambasted by the mainstream jazz community (Bill Coleman once said it was “an insult to the intellect of the people”), On the Corner has since been reappraised as a groundbreaking and visionary work that was way ahead of its time. Fusing funk, rock, electronica, and jazz together, Davis’ tested the limits of what the…
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The Mothers of Invention ‘Freak Out’ (1966)
Led by Frank Zappa’s razor-sharp wit and avant-garde musical sensibilities The Mothers of Invention took rock and roll and dismantled it. Combining a mix of doo-wop, blues, musique concrète, and political satire, Zappa transformed the band from a blues rock outfit to a conceptual juggernaut, catapulting them towards an experimental sound which defied commercial expectations…
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Bloc Party ‘Silent Alarm’ (2005)
I remember the first time I heard Silent Alarm it felt like some lightbulbs went off in my brain. Here was an album that defied a lot of traditional songwriting barriers and embraced a genre-blurring approach that fused post-punk urgency with electronic music. It was an album that threw the middle finger up to rigid…
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Kate Bush ‘Hounds of Love’ (1985)
Hounds of Love is a perfect example of when artistic ambition meets the pop music framework. Showcasing her chameleonic vocal range—from guttural growls to ethereal whispers—Bush pushed the boundaries of pop with lush, experimental production and deeply evocative storytelling. But where it gets really special is the prog-rock concept album nature of it all (which…
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Pulp ‘Different Class’ (1995)
Different Class is a cornerstone of 1990’s Britpop, synth-pop theatrics combined with razor-sharp lyricism that at one point put them in the same stratosphere as the legendary Oasis. Released in 1995, the album examined themes of sex and social class through a lens that was biting and witty in a way our friends across the…
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Tool ‘Lateralus’ (2001)
Maynard James Keenan is one of alternative rock’s most enigmatic and influential figures. The dude the genre over the past three decades with his distinct voice, intellectual lyricism, and multifaceted artistry. As the frontman of three pretty killer rock bands (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) he has a chameleon-like ability to shift between various forms–…
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Pink Floyd ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon stands as one of the most profound explorations of human fragility ever captured. It’s one of my favorite albums of all-time for literally a hundred reasons, an introspective and powerful concoction of musical genius mixed with thematic brilliance. This is an album that makes you think and…
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The Killers ‘Hot Fuss’ (2004)
The Killers’ Hot Fuss remains one of the most electrifying debut albums in alternative rock history, a record that blends the grandeur of synthesizer-driven melodies with the grit of heavy, intricate guitar work. Tracks like “Mr. Brightside” showcase the band’s technical prowess, with its instantly recognizable riff being deceptively difficult to play (seriously that thing…
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Yes ‘Close to the Edge’ (1972)
Close to the Edge is a cornerstone of progressive rock, a sprawling masterpiece that pushed the boundaries of what rock music (and more broadly music in general) could achieve. Released in 1972, the album’s sprawling three epic tracks showcased virtuosic musicianship, complex compositions, and a sense of ambition that was unprecedented at the time and…
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Frank Zappa ‘Hot Rats’ (1969)
Frank Zappa was a groundbreaking composer, guitarist, and bandleader whose career spanned a metric ton of musical genres while he was active from the late 60’s to early 90’s. Drawing on influences from doo-wop to avant-garde classical music, he fused rock, jazz, and complex modern music with a satirical twist that often mocked popular culture…
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Genesis ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’ (1974)
A lot of people remember Genesis for their pop breakout 1986 album Invisible Touch but forget that ahead of that mainstream success they were a heavyweight prog-rock band with an embarrassment of riches on the talent side of the house. Any band that has Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins on its roster of musicians is…
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Nico ‘Chelsea Girl’ (1967)
Nico’s debut album Chelsea Girl showcases her as a pioneering figure in goth music, embodying a haunting, lunar sorceress singing of lost dreams. After leaving The Velvet Underground after their incredible album 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico, an experience that she described feeling “like a mannequin,” she partnered up with Jackson Browne and…
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Can ‘Tago Mago’ (1971)
Krautrock was an experimental genre of music that developed in West Germany during the late 1960’s, combining elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music. One thing the genre was especially known for was the usage of musique concrète, which basically describes the process of taking a typical sound recording (instrument or voice), modifying…
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The National ‘Boxer’ (2007)
It’s been a few years since I’ve listened to Boxer. I burned through this album during my early 20’s (it was my de facto soundtrack during my commute up highway 280 from Cupertino to San Mateo during my first job out of college) and it sounds just as great as it did back then. The…
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The Matches ‘Decomposer’ (2006)
My love for The Matches was first sparked by their debut album E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals. It was one of the first pop punk albums that truly felt personal to me in a significant way– as I wrote earlier this year when reviewing the album: There was a point in high school where…
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TV on the Radio ‘Return to Cookie Mountain’ (2006)
Return to Cookie Mountain was released during my freshman year of high school. One of my new friends in that class burned me a copy to listen to and I distinctly remember the feeling I had when I first heard “I Was a Lover”. It was a feeling of wonderment, strangeness, and utter disbelief. Being…
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The Velvet Underground ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ (1967)
Sexual deviancy and drug abuse have been the hallmarks of rock and roll since its inception, and The Velvet Underground were one of the first bands to really lean into those motifs as a core tenet of what they stood for. Upon its release The Velvet Underground & Nico was controversial and critically panned, both…
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The Nice ‘The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack’ (1968)
In the summer of 1968 prog-rock’s foundation was still being laid. Using elements of psychedelic pop that came to prominence off the heels of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and combining it with Cream’s affinity for blues-rock jamming found on Disraeli Gears, The Nice wedged themselves between the two and in the…
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The Residents ‘Duck Stab’ (1978)
Art-rock band The Residents never shied away from the bizarre and 1978’s Duck Stab is no exception. This album is unsettling, unexpected, and unique in a way that is either going to feel like a transformative piece of experimental rock or nothing more than pure drivel. I tend towards the latter and frankly struggled to…
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Wire ‘Pink Flag’ (1977)
Wire’s Pink Flag is best summarized as an impressionist version of punk rock, tiny vignettes of emotional outbursts captured and distorted through the lens of a group of artists unconcerned with conventional song structures. Since its release Pink Wire has gone on to influence a myriad of art rock punk bands in the years that…
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Jaco Pastorius ‘Jaco Pastorius’ (1975)
Jaco Pastorius is the living embodiment of spontaneous combustion, an artist who rose to massive prominence in the 1970’s backed by his prodigious bass playing capabilities before flaming out spectacularly under the weight of mental issues brought on by massive drug use in the 80’s which led to homelessness and a drug-induced bar fight that…
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Deftones ‘White Pony’ (2000)
I’ve always loved the production sound of Deftones’ White Pony in a way that borders on obsessive — whether it be the crack of the snares, the massively lush electric guitars, lead vocalist Chino Moreno’s haunting vocal performance, and the deep thump of the bass, this is one of the best sounding albums I’ve ever…
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Big Thief ‘U.F.O.F.’ (2019)
There’s a real beauty in seizing a moment in space that captures a specific period of time. It’s a concept that Big Thief managed to capture during the recording of their third full-length album U.F.O.F. Featuring majestic soundscapes, ethereal vocal melodies, and subtle mood changes that matriculate throughout the entirety of the experience, Big Thief’s…
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Television ‘Marquee Moon’ (1977)
Television’s Marquee Moon was a landmark album in music history despite receiving little in the way of commercial popularity, similar in that sense to Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds. Its influence on the musical direction that would follow in the 1980’s is vast and wide-ranging– the stripped-down production of the album that gave clear…
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The Alan Parsons Project ‘Eye In The Sky’ (1982)
For those unfamiliar with The Alan Parsons Project you’ll immediately recognize the first song off Eye In The Sky entitled “Sirius”. It’s ubiquitous with American sporting events, first becoming popular during the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls dynasty in the 1990’s and later as any introduction during an entrance to any big sporting event, and it…
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The Doors ‘The Doors’ (1967)
Long considered one of the best debut albums of all-time, The Doors self-titled 1967 debut had a nearly immediate impact on the formation of psychedelic music that was beginning to dominate in the late 60’s. The Doors had it all in the grab bag of eclectic rock– drummer John Densmore’s feverish jazz-influenced syncopated rhythms that…
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Brian Eno ‘Another Green World’ (1975)
Another Green World by Brian Eno is an eclectic collection of avant-garde pop vignettes. Calling them songs doesn’t really do the whole thing justice— these are emotions in audio form, a collection of feelings that were somehow transposed into music through the filter of Brian Eno’s astounding production capabilities. It’s often hard to listen to…
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Fievel Is Glauque ‘God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess’ (2021)
Fievel Is Glaque’s 2021 album God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess is a collection of live mono cassette recordings that were cut in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world in 2020. The ensemble includes American keyboardist Zach Philips and French singer Ma Clément as well as a collection of nearly 30…
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Sinéad O’Connor ‘Lion and the Cobra’ (1987)
Yesterday’s tragic passing of Sinéad O’Connor at the age of 58 has rocked the music world. O’Connor’s advocacy for mental health, human rights, and victims of child abuse has made her a protest rock icon over the years, traits that ultimately transcended her artistic endeavors. Her own longtime personal struggles with trauma certainly influenced this…
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The Stooges ‘Funhouse’ (1970)
The Stooges were a band seemingly lost in time, a decade ahead of their peers in the late 60’s. Throwing elements of psychedelia, American garage rock, and British blues into a blender, Fun House is effectively the first seed of punk rock that caused legions of bands to follow in their footsteps. The Clash, Ramones,…
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The Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ (1966)
Initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial reception after it’s 1966 release, Pet Sounds had a resurgence in the mid-90’s and is now regarded as one of the most critically acclaimed and respected albums of all-time. There isn’t a serious list of all-time albums where Pet Sounds doesn’t occupy the top spot or somewhere…
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alt-J ‘An Awesome Wave’ (2012)
I was fresh out of college and into the working world when An Awesome Wave came out in 2012 and can still vividly remember this album encapsulating my feelings at the time– wistful nostalgia for friends left behind and the hope of what life had in store. Listening ten years later, there’s still something about…
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