The 1970s is the peak of the album. What had been building since the mid-’60s through the Beatles, Dylan, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and countless others unleashed in a tidal wave of ambitious, unfiltered, groundbreaking musical products that would define each and every genre for the next half century and beyond. In New York, the influence of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground spilled over into all of underground rock through CBGB acts and Massachusetts’ Modern Lovers. The Motown and Atlantic records hit-single darlings matured into more socially-conscious and explicitly-romantic avenues. In West Germany, the persistence of the Berlin Wall created cheap spaces for artists like Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk to take experimental rock to heights not seen before or since. The UK rock scene built off of the Beatles’ popularity and prestige with massive concept albums and symphonic epics; UK punks were lurking ready to send it all crashing down. The decade also featured the unofficial creation of heavy metal, jazz fusion, ambient, industrial, reggae and disco, all of which caused massive ripple effects seen to this day.
Most notable when looking through the best music of the 1970s was the nexus of genius and prolificity. Consider how the average artist today takes 2-3 years between albums; some at their highest creative powers like Frank Ocean and Rihanna have taken 8 years and counting. In the 1970s, the expectation for releases was different. David Bowie released 11 albums in 10 years, often completely changing his aesthetic and battling a cocaine addiction. Stevie Wonder’s classic albums period featured 5 albums in 6 years with a 4-day coma sprinkled in the middle. Brian Eno churned out 13 solo & collaborative albums in 7 years, started a record label, produced for many artists and dealt with a collapsed lung in the middle of it all.
The heavy toll these artists paid to meet the standards of the era are well-documented. By the mid-’70s, Miles Davis developed a life-threatening drug addiction that forced his quasi-retirement. Neil Young was liquefying marijuana and injecting himself with it by the time of On the Beach. Artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Duane Allman would not survive the decade. The ballooning budgets for albums like Tusk and The Wall caused record execs to reign in the creative spirit of their most prized acts.
Musicians in the ’70s were fulfilling their creative freak flags in just under the wire, before the music industry figured out how to better control artists and commercialize every aspect towards their profit margins. It was a culture not dependent upon the image-making styles of MTV or any other visual accompaniment that has followed, offering little to the final product apart from some cool music videos every once in a while. Buying and listening to an album in the ’70s was just you and the vinyl; the artwork was often elaborate and meant to be stared at while laying down on the shaggy carpet for 40 or so minutes. What’s a bull doing at the center of Fulfillingness’ First Finale? How long did it take to hand draw this Hissing of Summer Lawns city? Buy any used vinyl from the decade, and the sleeves are drastically faded with the corners now paper-white. They actually feel used and not at all like the ornamental pristine vinyl we parade around today for exorbitant prices. To live in that time meant having a more patient and deeper listening experience with every vinyl you could get your hands on. To live in that time meant having a never-ending stream of the greatest music ever made.
Here are the 250 best albums of the 1970s, chosen and ranked by me and presented in two parts. Part 1 is albums ranked 250-101. Part 2 will be the top 100.
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250. Van Dyke Parks – Discover America (1972)
249. Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (1975)
248. Donald Byrd – Places and Spaces (1975)
247. John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band (1970)
246. Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves the Sunshine (1976)
245. Linda Perhacs – Parallelograms (1970)
244. Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
243. Charlemagne Palestine – Strumming Music (1976)
242. Gal Costa – Índia (1973)
241. Paul Simon – Paul Simon (1972)
240. Mutantes – A divina comédia ou ando meio desligado (1970)
239. Bernard Parmegiani – De Natura Sonorum (1978)
238. Townes Van Zandt – The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (1972)
237. Tim Maia – Racional Vol. 1 (1975)
236. Art Ensemble of Chicago – Les Stances a Sophie (1970)
235. Archie Shepp – Attica Blues (1972)
234. Ann Peebles – I Can’t Stand the Rain (1974)
233. The Abyssinians – Satta Massagana (1976)
232. Iannis Xenakis – Persepolis (1972)
231. Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy (1978)
230. Pharoah Sanders – Love In Us All (1974)
229. Steve Reid feat. The Legendary Master Brotherhood – Nova (1976)
228. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)
227. Cluster – Zuckerzeit (1974)
226. Cerrone – Supernature (1977)
225. Manuel Göttsching – Inventions for Electric Guitar (1975)
224. Robert Ashley – Private Parts (1978)
223. David Bowie – Aladdin Sane (1973)
222. Sister Sledge – We Are Family (1979)
221. Tom Zé – Todos os Olhos (1973)
220. Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
219. The Kinks – Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970)
218. David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)
217. Loretta Lynn – Coal Miner’s Daughter (1970)
216. David Behrman – On the Other Ocean (1978)
215. Chico Buarque – Construção (1971)
214. Willie Hutch – The Mack (1973)
213. Bob Dylan – Desire (1976)
212. The Delfonics – The Delfonics (1970)
211. XTC – Drums and Wires (1979)
210. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972)
209. Bennie Maupin – The Jewel in the Lotus (1974)
208. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run (1973)
207. Fripp & Eno – Evening Star (1975)
206. Kris Kristofferson – Kristofferson (1970)
205. Tangerine Dream – Phaedra (1974)
204. Leon Ware – Musical Massage (1976)
203. Marianne Faithfull – Broken English (1979)
202. Gene Clark – No Other (1974)
201. Donny Hathaway – Live (1972)
Bitter Melodies 