Top 5 of 1971!!

Yup, we're starting this over again!  Back when I did my Anniversary Article, I focused on who both prog rock and hard rock were evolving, and this Top 5 reflects that!  While Black Sabbath, with their detuned guitars, and Deep Purple, who cemented their Mark II sound, were considered, they couldn't quite make it in as those albums also have some lackluster tracks.  Remember: a few great songs do not a great album make.  As always, I couldn't listen to everything, and this is super subjective, but these are my Top 5 albums of 1971!

5. Jethro Tull - Aqualung

This band has always been on the weird side, even among their prog rock contemporaries.  Featuring curious folk melodies and quirky lyrics, this album squeezes into the Top 5 primarily because the songs feel very well thought out.  For all their fanciful strangeness, these songs are exactly what they need to be, and the title track is a classic for these same reasons.

4. Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

When I first listened to this, I thought it was alright, but upon revisiting both of their 1971 albums, this one stood out as the stronger of the two, mainly because it had a more focused rock approach.  The title track is a great start and "July Morning" really builds well, and the rest of the album just has the right touches to help put this one in the Top 5.

3. Led Zeppelin - IV

I've been relistening to a lot of Zeppelin lately, and as cliche as it may be, I do think this is their best album.  Not only featuring some of their most iconic tracks like "Black Dog" and "Stairway to Heaven," I was more recently blown away with the droning blues song "When the Levee Breaks."  I know I had heard it before, but this last time, it stayed in my mind much longer than I expected!

2. Pink Floyd - Meddle

It took them more than a few albums, but Pink Floyd finally pull themselves together and make some great music. While there are a few goofy tracks here and there, they arrive at excellence with the dark and brooding "One of These Days" and the epic underwater journey "Echoes."  Absolutely beautiful stuff.

1. Yes - The Yes Album & Fragile

I know this is cheating again, like I did with my Top 5 of 1985, but when my favorite band brings out two incredible albums in a year, this is just gonna happen!  Seriously, though, this is some of their best material.  Getting Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman on board expanded their sound considerably.  While I do think The Yes Album is probably better as a whole, Fragile does have my favorite Yes song "Heart of the Sunrise," so it's a close match.  In any case, Yes is certainly the best of the year, and I'm not ashamed to say it!

New Videos - June 2019 Part 2!

Man, I can't believe we're already half-way over with 2019!  Where did the months go?  The time probably flew by from listening to all this great new rock music!  Here's a bunch more!

Billy Sherwood is better known these days as the replacement bassist in both Yes and Asia, but he is also a good songwriter.  When Yes brought him on for the Open Your Eyes album, it definitely had his stamp all over it, one that I find I quite enjoy, and with this song, it's nice to hear more of it.

Starbreaker come together with an epic pop metal anthem here.  With a massive wall of sound, and a chorus that gets stuck in your head, it's a solid piece of work.  Tony Harnell really gets dramatic on this one, and he sounds great!  

I'm racking my brain to remember if I knew about this band or not.  Essentially a sequel to Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders carry on a unique folk/hard rock sound, and this song really shows it!  Full of character and vibe that doesn't come easily these days.

Oh, look, it's Diviner again.  Seriously, this album sounds amazing with all the songs they've released for it.  This is just another slab of excellent, epic heavy metal, full of great riffs with Yiannis's vocals soaring over it all! 

Visionatica is a new symphonic metal band, and while they may not break the mold much, this is still very epic stuff.  The lyrics are a little clunky, but Amara Avodem sings with bravado and clarity, backed by some solid riffs and orchestration.  

Let's finish off with another piece of epic symphonic metal.  Singer Chiara Tricarico has a bit more attitude on this one, but it's backed by some awesome power metal drumming and more epic riffs than one song deserves.  Great stuff!