Steve Miller Band - Children Of The Future (1968)

Steve Miller is an American musician who formed the band Steve Miller Band (official website) in 1967. Children Of The Future is their debut album, and it's a mixture of psychedelic and jazzy blues. It sounds interesting, but it seems I don't yet completely understand the psychedelic music in general, so that I can really enjoy it.

Interestingly, I find this album hard to listen on my headphones, but it goes very well as a background on the stereo. Overall I have mixed feelings about this particular album, but I can't deny that the blues songs are good and catchy.

Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus (1992)

Amorphis was formed in Finland in 1990, and made a very strong debut with the death metal album The Karelian Isthmus. Finnish people are well known to be good not only in death, folk, symphonic, gothic and whatsoever kind of metal, but also in rally driving, and knife fighting under influence (according to a Swedish guy with Hungarian origin, who grew up in California). Well, they are good in computer technologies too, even if we only count Linus Torvalds, who started the development of the Linux kernel and the Git revision control system.

Back to the music, The Karelian Isthmus is a very appreciated album among the dark death metal community. People say it is an important element of the history of black metal. The inspiration for the album came from the Finnish folk tales.

I like the sound of the whole album, which is so consistent that I hardly notice when the songs end and start. The growling is a bit too much for me, but it seems the death metal fans really enjoy it. You will find fast, brutal death metal with powerful tight drum performance. And these guys were teenagers, 16-18 years old, when they did the record, impressive!

Quite curious to hear their next records where Amorphis (official web page) had evolved into doom metal and even progressive metal and hard rock.

The Band - The Band (1969)

A couple of days ago I saw the movie The Last Waltz (1978), which documents the last concert, The Last Waltz, of the Canadian-Amercan rock and roll group The Band. I didn't even know that such band exists, and this is not only due to my musical ignorance, but due to the fact that they were popular mainly among music journalists and musicians.

The Band's style is a mixture of old country music, early rock and roll , and other influences. All the members of the group were multi-instrumentalists. In 1976 they broke up after 16 years touring. As Robbie Robertson (guitar, piano, vocals) says in the movie, they felt that they cannot continue this live anymore, that it's going to destroy them soon.

Anyway, I started with The Band's eponymous second album, released in 1969 and popularly known as The Brown Album.

I find the album quite good and enjoyable. The music is an amazing combination of guitars, church organ, piano, and who knows what else. My favorite songs so far are Across The Great Divine, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Up On Cripple Creek, but the whole CD is fantastic, I think.

Megadeth - United Abominations (2007)

Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from California. I never bothered to listen them until about two years ago. Back then, without any good reason, I went to their concert in Globens Annex, Stockholm, with a friend (Sasho) who is Metallica and Megadeth fan since his school years. To prepare myself for the concert I listened to United Abominations several times.

On this concert I decided to start growing long hair and to get myself a drum set. Yes, it was such a fun to watch Shawn Drover on the drums, that I completely overlooked the potential complications of having drum set at home, and the decision was made.

Eventually I ended up with the long hair only, which lasted for about two years. Another consequence of the concert is that I listen Megadeth, now and then. United Abominations is good album in my opinion, one you can easily listen from the beginning to the end.

INXS - Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (1993)

My first memories about INXS are from the times when I hated The Gift. I've just got to watch the morning MTV show Awake On The Wild Side (on a Serbian tv channel) and they played that video all the time:

For some reason I didn't like it at all. Now I think the song rocks, and it's quite cool. The Messenger is also cool, the entire album is cool.

INXS is an Australian band formed in 1977, in Sidney. Twenty years later, November 22, 1997, Michael Hutchence was found dead in a Sidney hotel room. There were speculations whether this was a suicide or an accident, but nothing was ever proven. Anyway, he was a great artist. RIP!

As I can see from the reviews, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was sadly overlooked album. But I like it, and I don't need to skip any song to enjoy it.

Aerosmith - Aerosmith (1973)

Aerosmith is the self-titled debut album of the American rock band Aerosmith.

Before reaching after this album I had a completely faulty stereotype image of the music of Steven Tyler and company. I just thought they make sugary, popular rock songs like Amazing, Crazy, Cryin', etc. What a mistake, this is a proper hard rock.

Movin' Out is my favorite here, even though some people say it is a bit out-of place. Really cool guitar riffs.

The most recognized song in the album is Dream On, one of Aerosmith major hits, and considered as the first rock ballad.

Definitely very strong rock album, recommended.

Helloween - Walls Of Jericho (1985)

What I don't like in this album is the singing, except for a few songs like Walls Of Jericho/Ride The Sky, and How Many Tears maybe. There is something wrong with the vocals, like they're coming from a different place. Could be the way it was recorded, I don't know. But as far as I know Kai Hansen was not satisfied with his singing either, so that's why they had to recruit the teenager Michael Kiske.

Otherwise I like the sound. Good power metal with a lot of speed. The album artwork is fun too. I'll just move on to Helloween next albums, from which I've heard only single songs, so far.

Simple Minds - Glittering Prize 81/92 (1992)

Simple Minds is a rock band from Scotland, formed in 1977. Wikipedia gives plenty of info about them.

Glittering Prize is a compilation album containing the most famous song of the band - Don't You (Forget About Me). The song is written for the soundtrack to the film The Breakfast Club in 1985 (haven't seen it actually).

Another great hit single is Alive and Kicking, from the 1985 album Once Upon a Time:

I haven't yet heard an entire studio album by Simple Minds, but I like this compilation CD. Even though it has a rock genre label, and there are some nice guitars, it sounds more like new wave to me.

This is a nice album to hear, relaxing and pleasant. I recommend it to everyone, here it is at Spotify.

Led Zeppelin - Presence (1976)

This is the best 70s hard rock album I've ever heard. Led Zeppelin is my most favorite rock band and I love all their work, but this album is just perfect.

Great riffs from Jimmy Page, amazing rhythm with a lot of stop/starts, awesome vocals.Every sound is in the right place at the right time, pure perfection!

A curious fact from Led Zeppelin's mythology is that Robert Plant was suffering injuries from a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes (on 5 August 1975) during the recording of Presence.

I don't think it is necessary to say who Led Zeppelin are, so here is just a direct link (for Pesh) to their Official Website, and the Wikipedia Led Zeppelin pages.

Oasis - Be Here Now (1997)

This is not Definitely Maybe but it's definitely pure Oasis. The other day I was checking reviews about Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and I was hit by surprise when I found so much negativism towards Be Here Now. Right away I played the Oasis third album, and I did it at least three times that same day.

The CD might not be something extraordinary but there is no single song that I don't really like. Typical early Oasis britpop sound, not so much rocky like the next albums, but nice vocals and melodies. I think it deserves to be heard and if you don't believe me check it out on Spotify.

Oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (2000)

Some time ago I showed some interest in Oasis and a friend of mine (Pesh) recommended Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, as probably their best record. When I first heard it I was surprised but not really enthusiastic. Soon enough however, I started to appreciate the whole album.

This is Oasis fourth album, mainly a Gallagher brothers effort, and it marks a change in the band's sound.

Fuckin' in the Bushes doesn't sound like typical Oasis song to me, but I quite like it. There is plenty of rock in the album, and some psychedelic motifs. I like the melodies, the guitars, and the lyrics, and I like how Liam Gallagher sounds. This is a classic work from Oasis, and a must have.

Jethro Tull - Benefit (1970)

I will start with my most favorite album – Jethro Tull’s Benefit, released 1970.

Jethro Tull is formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, England in 1967. The frontman Ian Anderson is an amazing artist well known with his flute work and eccentric voice. The band's style had evolved from blues rock through folk rock and hard rock, into progressive rock.

The most known album of Jethro Tull is Aqualung from 1971, but Benefit is an album that one shouldn't miss. I cannot really pick a favorite song out of it since they are all damn good, from the beginning to the end.

All the songs carry awfully enjoyable melodies with remarkably complex lyrics. The amazing thing is that despite all the unexpected changes in tempo, the album goes smoothly as one big piece. It's a solid rock with progressive elements, special and unique sound from Jethro Tull.

Check out on YouTube this live version of one of the most recognized Tull songs - Teacher. Fantastic, isn't it!

Those who have Spotify can hear the album Benefit by clicking on this link.