25 great albums turning 50 in 2024
These classic discs—from artists such as Aerosmith, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, and the Rolling Stones—stand the test of time
Music Features 20th century in music
Looking back from the perspective of a half-century, it’s clear that 1974 is where the classic rock era started to peak. Survivors of the 1960s continued to flourish while new acts influenced by these very artists started to emerge. The passage of time and the prevalence of album rock radio tends to erase the distinctions between these interlocking generations but a close examination of the noteworthy albums from 1974 reveals how many titans of classic rock were in a nascent phase this particular year. Queen, Aerosmith, and Rush were all beginning to hit their stride, while cult favorites Big Star and Gram Parsons released records that didn’t make waves on the charts but proved to have an enduring influence. Then, there were a host of major artists who were at the top of their game in 1974: Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Steely Dan, and Linda Ronstadt all made records that helped define their careers as well as the sounds of the 1970s. This list of albums celebrating their 50th anniversary this year isn’t necessarily definitive—there was a surplus of great music released in 1974 encompassing all different genres—but what’s here is meant to capture the sound and feel of 1974, which may have been the most quintessentially ’70s year of the 1970s.
54 Comments
Todd Rundgren looked 75 when he was 26.
Good list, and I’m glad to see Eldorado on there — that and A New World’s Record are their two best, most consistent albums but a distance. The latter is one of the great pop rock albums, and Eldorado is much more interesting and varied than this description indicated. Lennonesque pop, yes, but also strutting blues and Jerry Lee pounding rock, and maybe over the journey over the course of the record one of the great arching vocal performances by someone who’s not really known for how good their singing is (see also: Roger Waters, The Wall). Just a great, great album,
‘….by a distance.” :-/
Agree with most of your comment, but Roger Waters never gave a “great,” or “non-painful,” vocal performance in his life, including on the Wall. One of the reasons that the chorus to Comfortably Numb sounds so great is that it is such a relief to switch from hearing Waters’ froggy vocal to Gilmour’s soaring one.
I don’t agree but can’t disagree.Did you ever hear the concert version where Van Morrison sang it? (Also featured in The Departed.) I like it quite a bit.
Never did but I will check it out; sounds intriguing. I just have a largely irrational response to certain popular musicians who sing but I believe really, really shouldn’t. Top of my list is Waters, but it also prominently includes Eric Clapton (except Layla, the one song where he sounds awake) and Robbie Robertson.
You must be a HUGE Dylan fan.
I am.
Robbie Robertson was a poor singer. They even shot The Last Waltz with his mic off, him knowing it.
It’s a concept album with a thin but pretty freeing storyline to hang almost any scene or style on: The protagonist is dissatisfied with life and more specifically, maybe, contemporary life, and he fantasizes and dreams about living in the past — maybe medieval times. There’s a “painted lady” to seduce him there, there’s a hero returning to the king’s court, surreal illusions all around — and the world is so rich that he decides he’d rather just stay rather than return to reality. An omniscient narrator calls him ‘an unwoken fool,” but he’s still “high on a hill in Eldorado.” Some of it is overblown and cheesy, but man, it works. If you do listen to it I hope you like it!
Huge ELO fan. I have gotten someone much younger than I into ELO now. At first she liked “Mr. Blue Sky” because it was a happy, positive, fun song that has been in a bunch of movies now. But she would cut it off right before the classic ELO driving classical rock section towards the end. I told her that was the best part lol. Now I have her listening to parts of Discovery and other Telephone Line. She will throw on Pandora and listen to ELO as she is cleaning her apartment haha.
Beat me to it.
Me too.“It’s a scientific fact.”
That’s a great depiction of how the shifting timeline of The Simpsons ruins references. Homer started out as a late Boomer (or “Generation Jones” — basically Boomers who were too young to have been of age in the 1960s and thus have nostalgia for the 1970s instead), then was retconned to be a GenXer, and I think since then he’s been retconned again to be a Millennial.
Well, it’s a show where no one ages but the times change.
Yeah, but that’s weird (except maybe in superhero stories)— most shows either have the characters age if they want to keep the story in the present, keep the story set in a time period (even it means that M*A*S*H* runs longer than the actual conflict in Korea), or be so vague as to time setting that it doesn’t really matter when it is set.
wait, when and how was he retconned to be an Xer, or anything else? he’s always been a boomer.
“That 90s Show” (Season 19, Episode 11). This provides a new backstory for Homer & Marge’s early years. Homer is a twenty-something singer in a grunge band “Sadgasm” in the 1990s when Bart is conceived, so definitely GenX. This obviously conflicts with “The Way We Was” (Season 2, Episode 12) which was set in 1974.
ahh, that explains it. i had stopped watching by that season. well, he’ll always be a boomer to this Xer, haha.
There are some great albums there, but not that many that you might consider the absolute best from that particular artist. Maybe Gram Parsons, and, depending on how you rate Court & Spark vs Blue, Joni Mitchell.
Right, seems like 1974 was the year of future iconic artists releasing… ok material? I don’t think anyone hates Diamond Dogs but it’s gotta be low on the list of Bowie albums from that era, especially sandwiched between Ziggy and Young Americans
Yeah. Being released between “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Captain Fantastic” certainly didn’t do “Caribou” any favors. It has two banger singles, sure, but the rest is just not up to the standard set by those two bookends.
I’d rate Radio City over both #1 Record and Third/Sister Lovers.
I’ll take your word for it, Big Star don’t have a huge following here in the UK, and there were certainly no Big Star albums in my older brother’s record collection (my main source of 70s albums).
Oddly, the UK was where Big Star started having their resurgence: your music press loved them in the 70’s and from what I read in most bios of the band where the 3rd album first got a release: plus they put #1 Record and Radio City out as a double album for you guys.I always thought the UK had much more expansive music taste than the US personally.
Eh, not that anyone cares in 2023, but Get Your Wings is Aerosmith’s best.
Or in 2024.
Ah, dammit. It’s still 2023 to me!
Train Kept a Rollin is my favorite Aerosmith song by a pretty good margin. Runners up are Let the Music Do the Talking and Toys in the Attic.
Wasn’t LTMDTT on a Joe Perry Project album?
Yep, and then re-recorded by Aerosmith when he rejoined the band.
Ah, I gotta confess, I’ve never heard anything post Night In The Ruts. Like a whole record, I’ve of course heard the unfortunate comeback singles.
“Here Come the Warm Jets” is another example. It’s a great release but I’m not sure if it’s better than “Taking Tiger Mountain” for that kind of accessible pop/rock Eno.
yeah, there’s 30 albums on the list. nice hed. math is hard.
Some great stuff here to be sure, but this list does reinforce my impression that 1974 was not a peak year for classic rock but one step down from the peak. It’s the moment the royalty from the 60s had started their decline and just before the genre redefined itself with punk. I would basically see 1974 rock as exactly the music punk was rebelling against.
Was thinking the same thing, but at least it was early innings for some bands that would explode into greatness down the road.
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle was released in November 1973, otherwise it would be the quintessential example of that. And, you know, it still is.
Sheer Heart Attack is much underrated when lists of greatest albums are compiled. For my money it’s a considerably stronger collection overall than A Night At The Opera, which is the Queen album most people pick for those things.
That they can jump through so many genres from Ragtime (Leroy Brown), to embryonic Speed Metal (Stone Cold Crazy), Calypso (Misfire), Prog (Brighton Rock) and more without sounding forced makes it something very special.
If Brighton Rock is Baby’s killer track, it’s good enough for me.
No, I absolutely did not buy at least 15 of these albums, on vinyl, as routine purchases at record stores. Couldn’t possibly have been me.
Lot of great albums here but I would rank a few personal favorites in the top 35, including Zappa’s Apostrophe, 10cc/Sheet Music, Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs and my top BOC album, Secret Treaties.
Rush is my favorite band and their debut has some underrated bangers…but woof is “In The Mood” one of their worst songs. I have no idea how that track lasted so long in their setlists.
“Working Man” was in the second episode of this season of Fargo.
On the Beach is such a great album.
King Crimson’s Red is their best album and should totally be on this list.Yes’s Relayer might not be their best, but is still great and a huge departure from what came before and after.
Great year for music. Another 25…
Bar Kays-
Cold Blooded Black Heat-
No Time to Burn Blackbyrds-
Blackbyrds Bobby
Williams-
Funky Superfly Carlos Garnett-
Black Love Charles Earland-
Dynamite Brothers Commodores-
Machine Gun Eliminators-
Loving Explosion Frank Dube-
Proyecto B [unissued] Fred
Wesley & the New JBs-
Breakin Bread Geraldo Pino & Heartbeats-
Let’s Have a Party Gonzalez-
Gonzalez H Andrews Congregation-
Inner Thoughts of the H
Andrews Congregation Harold Alexander-
Raw Root Henri Guedon-
Cosmozouk Percussion Janko Nilovic-
Rythmes Contemporains Matata-
Indepence Midnight Movers Unltd-
Follow the Wind Mulatus Atatke-
Ethio Jazz = የካተት Ohio Players-
Skin Tight Ohio Players-
Fire Peter Herbolzheimer-
Wide Open Sapo-
Sapo Soul Searchers-
Salt of the EarthTyrone Washington-
Do Right
Obvious omissions: King Crimson’s Red, Blue Oyster Cult’s Secret Treaties, Hawkwind’s Hall of the Mountain Grill, Camel’s Mirage.
There appears to be 30 rather than 25.
15-16 year old me bought about half of those albums. As someone else pointed out, they weren’t necessarily the best the artists put out, and I didn’t like some of them like Todd, Country Life and Pretzel Logic as much as the albums that preceded them. Here Come the Warm Jets is one of my all time top 10, and I listen to Baby’s on Fire when I need cheering up because it has my favorite guitar solo.
That Robert Palmer album is an absolute little jam with a great cover photo. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
It’s probably blasphemous but Robert Palmer’s cover of “Sailin’ Shoes” in that first trio of songs is better than the Little Feat original.
Don’t forget The Firesign Theatre’s Everything You Know Is Wrong, considered a comeback after 1972’s Not Insane and a year apart doing separate projects. “Remember: Your brain may no longer be the boss!”
Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” should definitely be on The List.