The AOR & Hard Rock Desk:

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King Swamp - King Swamp (1989)

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Chosen by LucieAndCo.

Whenever there's going to be a Top 100 Hard Rock Albums list - add this monster.

Toad - Toad (1972)

Complete: New Style Panel

Please point out anything missing!

First in aeons, and it's something quite unlikely ... or maybe not.

Lullacry - Crucify My Heart (2003)



A favourite album of mine for months when it came out, Lullacry's third album (the main difference to its predecessor and the exceedingly obscure debut being that lead singer Tanya had been exchanged for a Tanja) became more of a guilty pleasure when I grew up (?) to learn about the truer truths of gothic things (I believe the band identifies as gothic metal, but Hard Rock nevertheless struck me as the most appropriate desk), seeing how in comparison with even their campiest Scandinavian contemporaries they suddenly struck me as disturbingly sugar-coated. Rediscovering it now (and having become even wiser), I have come to the conclusion that the album can actually be extraordinary amounts of fun - if one doesn't treat it like a bubblegum cliché parade of gothic/hard rock/metal (although I certainly enjoy doing that), but rather as a heavier, less electronically enhanced version of, say, Garbage. Tanja's voice is the centre of attention, always walking the tightrope between banshee and Little Girl Screaming For Ice Cream, but without the constant alternating of whispers and screams known from some of her contemporaries (e.g. Jessicka Fodera); she's found her level of calculated unevenness and sticks with it, although it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between expressive exaltation and plain out-of-tuneness. Woven around her tales, the subjects of which can be vaguely identified as unconditional adoration and spiteful revenge plans, is a tight mass of guitar and merciless drumming, more often than not shaping up to a bona fide Disney Channel take on Spiritual Beggers. There is just one track that can definitely be considered a ballad, or anyway one that stands out as a little more restrained - Unchain, which qualifies as a standout for more than just that reason, since it allows the vocals to take the centre stage not only due to production but because it's the role they've been assigned. That aside, there's a little bit of everything: presumable party opening smashers à la Alright Tonight or Don't Touch the Flame, the sorts of songs that can grow into a hymn for anybody and everybody when it's echoing through a tightly packed abandoned train station with lots of beer around (the title track and especially Pitch Black Emotions)-- considering the dark posture, this material is amazingly energetic and (in its own none too intellectually challenging way) uplifting. It's trashy, no doubt, but apparently not trashy enough to be considered part of the camp canon yet. I don't care, I'm entertained.
Also recommended to fans of the likes of Lambretta or Die Happy.

Choice cuts:
This Time
Unchain
Crucify My Heart

Divinyls - In My Life



Chosen by 2cabs2toucan.

Writing on the Wall - The Power of the Picts (1969)



A great album with prog-psych elements.

AC/DC - Back in Black (1980)
Azitis - Help (1971)
Clutch - Pure Rock Fury (2001)
The Cult - Electric (1987)
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)
Deep Purple - Deep Purple In Rock (1969)
Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)
Dragonfly - Dragonfly (1970)
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien (1987)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin [IV] (1971)
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973)
Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Sainte Anthony's Fyre (1970)
Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come (1970)
Stalk-Forrest Group - St. Cecilia (2001)
Thin Lizzy - Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979)
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
Toad - Toad (1972)
Truth & Janey - Erupts (1988)
Writing on the Wall - The Power of the Picts (1969)

List: 100 Great Hard Rock Albums, Count: 20

AC/DC - Back in Black (1980)
Azitis - Help (1971)
Blue Öyster Cult - Secret Treaties (1974)
Clutch - Pure Rock Fury (2001)
The Cult - Electric (1987)
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)
Deep Purple - Deep Purple In Rock (1969)
Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)
Dragonfly - Dragonfly (1970)
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (1969)
GUN - Taking on the World (1989)
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
High Tide - Sea Shanties (1969)
Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien (1987)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin [IV] (1971)
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973)
Magnum - Rock Art (1994)
Mother Love Bone - Apple (1990)
Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Sainte Anthony's Fyre (1970)
Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come (1970)
Stalk-Forrest Group - St. Cecilia (2001)
Thin Lizzy - Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979)
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
Toad - Toad (1972)
Truth & Janey - Erupts (1988)
Writing on the Wall - The Power of the Picts (1969)

Rush - Subdivisions (1982)



Spice up the desks, post your favourite videos!

Blue Öyster Cult - Tyranny and Mutation (1973)



Chosen by wrdlbrmpf.

Place albums.