My Top 666 Albums Ever Part 35

Because I was away again yesterday, I'm playing catch-up here... so here's my second lot for today.

54) Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)

Black Sabbath's second and still their greatest album. With the exception of 'Hand Of Doom' and 'Rat Salad', every track on here is among the band's all-time greats.
Best Songs: War Pigs; Iron Man

53) Muse - Absolution (2003)

'Absolution' is Muse's album, and it marked the point in which the indie rockers evolved into some a lot more grandiose. It's also the album in which they finally became as huge as I knew they were going to be the first time I heard 'Plug-In Baby'. 'Butterflies And Hurricanes' is another one that is high up on my list of the greatest songs of all time.
Best Songs: Butterflies And Hurricanes; The Small Print; Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist

52) Guns N' Roses - Lies (1988)

'Appetite For Destruction' had just hit the stratosphere, and the touring commitments for Guns N' Roses were rapidly mounting up, preventing them from returning to the studio to record a full follow-up at that point. So instead, the band's first EP, 'Live Like A Suicide' was re-packaged along with four new acoustic tracks and released as 'Lies'. Those new tracks showed a different side to Guns N' Roses than had previously been displayed, especially on the tender ballad, 'Patience'. Unfortunately, allegations of racism and homophobia (due to lyrics in the track, 'One In A Million', which tells the story of Axl's leaving rural Indiana for the first time and travelling to the city... I'd say it was supposed to show how ignorant he was at the time and he had since learned his lesson, and therefore is justified in the same way it's justified in Django Unchained, though there has been much debtate about this over the years), and misogyny (due to the jokey 'Used To Love Her', for which he didn't even write the lyrics but still was the target of hatred) mired the release the album in controversy. None of that stops this from being a great record. The semi-acoustic version of 'You're Crazy' found on this record is far superior to the faster-paced electric version found on 'Appetite For Destruction'.
Best Songs: Patience: Used To Love Her

51) Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile (1999)

The follow-up to the breakthrough album 'The Downward Spiral' is a vast, epic double album. Trent Reznor's experiments in soundscapes, electronic beats and ambient noise along with a greater emphasis on melody sets this album apart from the far more abrasive, distorted industrial music of 'The Downward Spiral'. With nearly two hours of music that goes through melancholic piano instrumentals, soothing ballads, the band's industrial metal, and in instrumental 'Complication' even plays a little with dance music, 'The Fragile' is Reznor's most sprawling, ambitious recording to date. In fact, so stubborn is its refusal to be pigeon-holed into a particular sound, listening to the full record in one setting can try the patience of some listeners. For this reason the album received mixed reviews upon release, and the man himself has commented on how he never wants to make an album like this again. It's a fascinating record, and a thing of beauty that is the most underrated in NIN's catalogue, though.
Best Songs: The Day The World Went Away; Just Like You Imagined; Starfuckers, Inc.

50) Duff McKagan's Loaded - Sick (2009)

In 2008, Velvet Revolver fell apart with Scott Weiland announcing on stage that the people there were witnessing the "last ever Velvet Revolver tour", taking fans and the rest of the band (who insist they were already planning to fire him) by surprise. And as far as I'm concerned, it's a good thing, because as great as Velvet Revolver were for a while, their "hiatus" (which is looking more and more like a plain old break-up all the time) freed bass player Duff McKagan up to restart Loaded. Another band called Loaded threatened a lawsuit, however, so they were forced to rename themselves Duff McKagan's Loaded. It's ironic that adding his name to the band and thus making it sound like a solo project came at this point, because it was also the point where Loaded officially became a band in their own right. Duff, along with guitarist Mike Squires, bassist Jeff Rouse and drummer Geoff Reading spent a few months in 2008 recording, 'Sick', their first album since 2001's 'Dark Days', before embarking on a UK tour and an EP consisting of tracks from the album that Autumn in which they struck up a rapport with their fans that it's all but impossible for band's the size of Velvet Revolver or Guns N' Roses to achieve. The full album came the following Spring, and it's one of the most enjoyable slices of hard rock to have been released in quite some time. The title tracks was a song performed by the band when they were touring for 'Dark Days', but everything else was brand new, including the incredibly catchy 'Sleaze Factory', 'Translucent' - featuring vocals from Jeff Rouse, and the 'Exile On Main St.' era Stonesy ballad, 'Wasted Heart' - Duff's ode to his wife, Susan. Records like this prove that there's no need to reinvent the wheel when there are so many spokes left to discover on the ones already existing.
Best Songs: Sick; Sleaze Factory; Translucent

49) Nirvana - Bleach (1989)

Nirvana's first album is a raw and ugly combination of punk and metal, with none of the pretense that band's in those genres had been displaying in the previous decade. Cobain was a banshee of emotion, screaming at the top of his lungs with distorted guitar. And in amongst this, the Beatles-esque 'About A Girl' showed the commercial sheen that would be exploited to its full extent for 'Nevermind'. No one could have foreseen at this point how big Nirvana would become. But listening to this nowadays, it should have seemed inevitable.
Best Songs: About A Girl; Negative Creep

48) David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)

David Bowie created Ziggy Stardust - a supernaturally talented rock star from Mars - for what is still the best album he has ever recorded. Every single track, from 'Five Years' to 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' would deserve its own entry. 'The Man Who Sold The World' and 'Hunky Dory' were enough to plant the seeds of glam rock, but 'Ziggy Stardust' saw them grow into something far greater.
Best Songs: Lady Stardust; Ziggy Stardust

47) Aerosmith - Rocks (1976)

Aerosmith's fourth album sees the band at the peak of their talents and is among the most influential rock albums of all time.
Best Songs: Back In The Saddle; Rats In The Cellar

46) The Cure - Disintegration (1989)

'Disintegration' marks both the commercial and artistic peak of The Cure's career. The second part of their "trilogy" of dark gothic rock albums isn't an easy listen, by any means, but it's a highly rewarding one.
Best Songs: Pictures Of You; Lovesong; Lullaby

45) Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline (2012)

Since Lacuna Coil became a commercial hit after the release of 'Karmacode', they seemed to have lost their way for a little while, resulting in the disappointing 'Shallow Life'. Luckily, they managed to find their way back again with 'Dark Adrenaline', which is a stunning album from start to finish. The best thing the band have ever recorded, even if it is still lacking the atmospherics of their earliest releases.
Best Songs: Trip The Darkness; Against You; I Don't Believe In Tomorrow

44) Smashing Pumpkins - Gish (1991)

The debut album from Billy Corgan and co. was financed and released by the band themselves, becoming the biggest selling independent release of all time (I may be wrong, but I think it may still hold that record). So strong was the buzz around the Smashing Pumpkins that they were immediately snapped up by Virgin Records and the album was reissued on that label, reaching an even larger audience.
We were a long way from the multi-layered lush production of future releases, with this album being more of a straight hybrid of heavy metal and shoegaze/dreampop, but it showed a major songwriting talent in Billy Corgan, even if his lyrics did (and still do) often fall into insipid spiritualism.
Best Songs: Siva; Snail

43) Pearl Jam - Vitalogy (1994)

Pearl Jam's third album.
Best Songs: Spin The Black Circle; Nothingman; Better Man

42) Soundgarden - Superunknown (1994)

By 1994, many of the band's caught up in the "grunge" phenomenon (something, that considering the sheer diversity of sounds you could hear in the different bands of this era is just a horrible pigeon-holing of bands that really shared nothing but geographical location and - sometimes - dress sense) were expanding upon the sound that made them famous. The sludge-like riffing of Soundgarden's 'Badmotorfinger' for example, weren't completely abandoned for 'Superunknown', but were less prominent with elements of psychedelia (something that really showed in the video's for songs on this album) and at times even Middle Eastern influences finding their way into the recordings. Alternative tunings came into play for the guitars on many tracks, and the dark subject matter made this a distinctly early 90's record (I called it once, an album for the Twin Peaks generation due to the weird feeling you get listening to it). It's hard to categorise, but it's not hard to know that you're hearing a great band performing one of their best albums.
Best Songs: Fell On Black Days; Limo Wreck; The Day I Tried To Live

41) Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape (1997)

After the first album was a surprise hit, Dave Grohl went back into the studio with his touring Foo Fighters (including Pat Smear, Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith) line-up for the first time to record the cover-up. Goldsmith left the band partway through recording, leaving Grohl to play drums on almost every track, but 'The Colour And The Shape' has since gone down in rock history as one of the best albums of the 1990's. Pretty much every track is pure pop-rock perfection.
Best Songs: Monkey Wrench; Hey, Johnny Park!; Everlong

40) The Replacements - Tim (1985)

'Tim' is the first major label release from The Replacements. Produced by Tommy Ramone (of The Ramones), the album shows the diversity of Paul Westerberg's influences. This album in turn has gone on to influence many bands (among them Green Day) over the years. One of the best album's of the 1980's.
Best Songs: Bastards Of Young; Here Comes A Regular

39) Stone Sour - House Of Gold & Bones Part 1 (2012)

The first part of Stone Sour's concept album was released last year. The second greatest album of the year (after another album that I'll be talking about in Monday's entry). If the second part (due out in April) lives up to the standard set by this, it'll be amazing.
Best Songs: Tired; Taciturn

38) Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (2011)

Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins and the returning Pat Smear went into the studio in 2010 with the legendary Butch Vig (producer of Nirvana's 'Nevermind'), which resulted in the best Foo Fighters album ever. Most band's don't sound this good seven albums in. Flawless.
Best Songs: Bridge Burning; Walk

37) Korn - Issues (1999)

If 'Wake Up' (chorus: "I can't take no more. What are we fighting for. You are my brothers, each one I would die for. Please just let this go. All our heads are blown. Let's take the stage and remember what we play for") had existed a few years before, I can think of a certain band I'd've wanted to have listened to it and taken its message on board. But as well as that, 'Issues' is consistently Korn at their very best.
Best Songs: Falling Away From Me; Make Me Bad; Wake Up