Alice In Chains - Dirt (1992)

Wow, what an album. Dirt is the second studio album by Alice In Chains, and it rocks like hell. The Seattle-base formation is categorized as grunge band, but there is a lot of hard rock in this album.

I just cannot stop listening, and there is nothing much to say now. This album is classics and no one should miss it. Period!

The Verve - A Northern Soul (1995)

Here is another cool English alternative band - The Verve (originally just Verve). The formed in 1990, and split up and re-unite a couple of times, 2009 being the last break up.

A Northern Soul is their second studio album, which according to the critics is more traditional alternative than the previous. The title refers to the 1960s soul movement in England, Northern Soul (I know nothing about it so far, but this can change soon).

The song A Northern Soul is dedicated to our old friend Noel Gallagher from Oasis, who is a friend of The Verver's lead singer Richard Ashcroft.

Mew - A Triumph For Man (1997) 2 CD 2006 re-release

Thanks to my former colleague at SU Thomas Rasmussen (from Denmark) I was introduced to some really nice Danish rock bands. For example Mew. They formed in 1994 and they determine their style as pretentious art rock. 

A Triumph For Man is Mew's debut studio album, released in 1997. I happened to have the 2006 re-released version consisting of two CDs. Interestingly, the original 1997 release was printed in 2000 copies only and those CDs reached over $200 on eBay. 

My picks are No Shadow Kick, I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (for You) from the first CD, and in the second one Say You're Sorry is a good one, but I a kind of don't like the noisy chorus sections.

Stone Sour - Come What(ever) May (2006)

Stone Sour is an American alternative rock band, two of whose members are also members of Slipknot - lead vocal Corey Taylor, and lead guitarist Jim Root. The band went into breaks and reunited several times due to their work with Slipknot. 

Come What(ever) May is their second studio album released after their second reunion. The most famous tracks here are the singles Through Glass, Made Of Scars, Sillyworld, 30/30-15, and Zzyzx Rd.. The entire album is pretty good and listenable.

Placebo - Placebo (1996)

Yet another amazing debut album. This time it is the self-titled album by the English alternative rock band Placebo. There is no single weak song in this CD. Bruise Pristine is my favorite anyway.

Before listening to the Placebo album I only knew their single Every You And Every Me from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack. The movie itself is pretty good, I strongly recommend it.

Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob (2007)

Fresh and lively, this is Yours Truly, Angry Mob, the second studio album by the British indie band Kaiser Chiefs. I  decided to get this album because I saw the video of Ruby on TV and I liked it. 

Even with the punky sound I find the entire album listenable and enjoyable. The first three tracks Ruby, The Angry Mob, and Heat Dies Down are just lovely, Love's Not A Competition ... is slow and nice.  Thank You Very Much, My Kind Of Guy, Everything Is Average Nowadays, and Retirement are charming even though not exactly my favorite kind of songs. Another good one is I Can Do Without You, and Try Your Best has cool guitar sections.

David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

His real name is David Robert Jones, but he is known like David Bowie, and he is an exceptional English musician, singer, and songwriter.

David Bowie's debut eponymously-titled album is not very recognized compared to his later work. First I thought it sounds too strange, and it is strange in a way. Nevertheless, I gave it some time and played it often on my iPod on my way to work and back, and soon I started to enjoy it. 

The nicest songs in my opinion are Love You Till Tuesday, When I Live My Dream, Little Bombardier, Come And Buy My Toys, She's Got Medals.

Sell Me A Coat

AC/DC - High Voltage (1975 Australia)

High Voltage from 1975 is the first studio album by AC/DC and it was released in Australia only. Four of the tracks are present in the 1984 EP 74'Jailbreak - Baby, Please Don't Go,  You Ain't Got A Hold On Me, Show Business, and Soul Stripper. In 1976 the band issued an international version of High Voltage, containing only Little Lover and She's Got Balls from the Australian version. 

I think She's Got Balls, Little Lover and Stick Around and pretty good ones. Love Song is quite unusual for AC/DC, without the specific guitars in the beginning I would never guess it's their song.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973)

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American Southern rock band from Florida, formed in 1964. In 1977, soon after they have gained some prominence, three of the band members died in a plane crash. Lynurd Skynyrd reformed in 1987 and is still active.

Pronounced is their first studio album, from 1973, and it sounds quite good. Not surprising considering the fact that they have been playing together for almost 10 years. 

My featured tracks are Tuesday's Gone, Simple Man, and Free Bird.

Check out the album on Spotify.

The White Stripes - The White Stripes (1999)

This album is not something you find very enjoyable in the first place, but the more you listen to it the better it sounds. The simple guitar-drums-voice scheme of The White Stripes is actually quite efficient. I love their guitar riffs and the straightforward drums, simple and distinct sound.

I got to know about this band from their appearance in The Simpsons. Just from curiosity I decided to put my hands on their first eponymous album, and I never regret it. Among my favorite songs here are Jimmy The Exploder, Do, and Screwdriver.

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)

The Stone Roses are one of the pioneers of the Madchester music scene, who unfortunately did make it only to their second album. Their eponymous debut album was released in 1989 and in my (and not only my) opinion is an everlasting one.

The best track here is Fools Gold, which appeared in US in the 1989 Re-release of the album, and in the UK in the 1991 Re-release. Really cool one!

I find the entire CD quite enjoyable, but my favorites are the opener I Wanna Be Adored, Elephant Stone, Waterfalls and I am The Resurrection.

Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)

Yet another amazing debut album. This time it is by the Seattle grunge band Pearl Jam (formed in 1990). Ten is named after the jersey number of the basketball star Mookie Blaylock. The lyrics for the album come from Eddie Vedder and deal with depression, suicide, loneliness, murder, and some social concerns.

In 1991 Eddie Vedder took part in Temple Of The Dog project, where he provided backing vocals for a couple of songs and the vocals on Hunger Strike.

The first six songs are absolutely awesome and among my favorites. Jeremy is arguably the most famous Pearl Jam song, together with Even Flow, Alive and Once. Black, Garden and Garden are also very strong, 

Here is the album on Spotify.

Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night (2008)

Only By The Night is the fourth studio album, and the only one by far I've heard, by the American rock band Kings Of Leon. It's a family band comprising of three brothers and their cousin.

I love the whole album, but Sex On Fire, Crawl, Closer and Manhattan form the upper layer. The Deluxe Edition of the album, coming with a bonus live CD, contains 7 tracks from their performance in April, 2007 in London.

The basic CD (11 tracks) is available for free on Spotify.

Coldplay - Parachutes (2000)

What a debut album! Don't Panic and Shiver sound out of this world, and Yellow and Trouble are incredibly tender and nice melodies. High Speed is also cool song and sounds a bit Oasis-like to me. Despite these highlights all the tracks are worth listening, Parachutes is just an extremely good album.

Coldplay is a British alternative rock band formed in 1997.  The group members are Chris Martin (vocals and piano), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar), Guy Berryman (bass), and Will Champion (drums, back vocals).

Here is a live performance of Yellow by Chris Martin and Noel Gallagher:

Bob Geldof - The Happy Club (1993)

Not that I was really interested in Bob Geldof and his music, but I saw this CD in the library and I just needed to stretch out my hand - why not! Robert Frederic Zenon Geldof is an Irish musician and political activist. As far as I remember I heard his name for the first time in connection with the Live 8 concerts. His charity effort picks up both both praise and criticism, but that's life, it is hard to make everyone happy.

The Happy Club is Bob Geldof's third solo album, released in 1993. I won't say it is impressive but it's not bad either, and it's a kind of interesting. My favories are The Soft Soil, A Hole To Fill, and The Song Of The Emerging Nationalist. I'll keep listening and I'll come back to this post if I have something more to say.

Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)

Before the release of In Rainbows, all I used to know about Radiohead were two of their most famous songs - Creep and Karma Police. Honestly, I didn't even know the titles of these two songs. One day however, I was listening to the online radio ZRock and the program was dedicated to the new album by Radiohead. It sounded quite weird, but intriguing at the same time. I got the album and I think it is one of the best in my music library.

Radiohead is an English alternative band from 1985. The frontman Thom Yorke is acclaimed as one of the greatest and most influential singers ever. In Rainbows was released in quite an unusual way by the band - they made it available online for a download, and the customers could choose the price they want to pay (including 0).

I really love In Rainbows, it is very touching and sometimes tracks like Reckoner even make me feel sad. I wouldn't say that any song is better than the others, they all peculiar but somehow they fit together perfectly. This album should be listened from beginning to end, including the bonus disk (containing 8 tracks).

Bob Dylan - Street Legal (1978)

I just discovered Bob Dylan! Better late than never, people say. His real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman and he is an American artist performing with guitar, keyboard, and harmonica. Bob Dylan's discography lists countless number of studio albums, live albums, singles etc. He is just a legend in the popular music and I'm gonna consider seriously his work.

Street Legal was my random choice at the library a few weeks ago. The 18th studio album by Bob Dylan is very pleasant and easy to listen, and brings me really lovely emotions. I find it more moving on the headphones than on the stereo, but probably on a good stereo in the right environment it will be equally enjoyable. 

Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) is maybe my favorite track. The opener, Changing Of The Guards, is quite heartwarming, New Pony is a slow rocker, and No Time To Think is catchy but it could've been shorter. The rest of the songs are all just really good.

That's it for now. I'm really excited about Bob Dylan's works and I'm happy that I reached out for Street Legal the other day.

U2 - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)

U2 is an Irish rock band formed in 1976, which remained intact with the original band members - Bono (real name Paul Hewson) (vocals, guitar, harmonica), The Edge (real name David Evans) (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion). Their success is out of discussion with over 150 million records sold and 22 Grammy Awards.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is the eleventh (out of twelve) studio album of U2. I start my U2 posting with it, just because it is the first one I have listened from beginning to end. 

I won't really make comments at this point, before exploring carefully other U2 albums. It's enough to say that the record is good, it has the peculiar U2 style, and it sounds quite refined. Besides the single Vertigo I like City Of Blinding Lights, All Because Of You and Original Of The Species, but the entire album is listenable and enjoyable.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is available on Spotify!

Since I love the live performance of U2 I can't help myself for embedding this one:

Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog (1991)

Temple Of The Dog is a Seattle rock band formed as a tribute Andrew Wood (1966-1990). He was an American rock singer and bassist who died 24 years old of a heroin overdose. After his death his roommate and friend Chris Cornell initiated the band together with future Perl Jam members.

The reason I got to this album is my enthusiasm about Chris Cornell, and particularly his work with Audioslave. I was taken with his remarkable voice and after some googling I found out among the other stuff, his one-album project Temple Of The Dog.

Chris Cornell alone wrote the first two songs, Say Hello 2 Heaven and Reach Down, when he went touring in Europe after Wood's death. Later on, he and some of Wood's former bandmates  decided to form a band, and they recorded the album in 15 days.

The album is melodic, slow, and sounds emotional, but it still rocks. Lots of nice guitars together with Chris Cornell's sterling vocals... that's Temple Of The Dog. Don't miss it! Apart from the above mentioned singles, Pushin' Forward Back and Call Me A Dog are one of the best tracks, in my opinion.

The album is freely available on Spotify!

Dio - Holy Diver (1983)

The mighty Ronnie James Dio is dead, what a sad news! Rest In Peace Ronnie, you were wonderful and we'll always remember you.

He passed away yesterday, May 16 2010, of stomach cancer. Ronnie took part is several rock bands -  Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and Dio. Thanks to his Italian grandmother he "invented" and popularized the famous sign of the horns in heavy metal. The powerful magnificent voice of Ronnie James is something that nobody can take away from us, and it'll never be forgotten.

Writing this, I am listening to the debut album Holy Diver (1983) by Ronnie's own band, Dio. Excellent classic heavy metal CD, where the peculiar voice of Ronnie James reveals itself in a fantastic manner. Holy Diver and Rainbow In The Dark are killer hits that probably everyone have heard. Another favorite is Don't Talk To Strangers, but the whole album is quite enjoyable. 

Holy Diver on Spotify