A to Z: 100 Best Australian Albums so "B" is for...

Well, above now is a Satin Bowerbird, or for short just a Bowerbird which is again from the John Gould's The Birds of Australia.

OK, last week was my one year anniversary of my blog which I started with a post about one of my classic albums and it was going to be series but I only did one album. All these albums here could be in my classic albums series so maybe I'll get back to it after posting the A to Z: 100 Best Australian Albums list. I think I could write a lot more about each of these albums but I did promise to keep it short so I will.

The Best of the... by Hard-Ons
Right, here's a best of album which I think is justified because the Hard-Ons always put out a lot of 7" singles, Mini-albums or EPs and was really a D.I.Y. band when they started in the 80's. This compilation is of all the most important early work by them. The only band I've seen live which brought the ceiling down on the crowd, literally but that still didn't stop them playing, I have to tell that story in full at a later date.


Big Name, No Blankets by Warumpi Band
One of the greatest bands from the 80's which are totally unfortunately forgotten now. In my opinion they should be remember like Midnight Oil but are not, maybe just as their footnote which is totally unfair. At least no one in this band turned into a shit politician, I don't know how people listen to them without thinking about that. Warumpi Band have a long off-on history but have a very short recording out-put which can't help, I guess. This is thier debut album from 1986 and I recommend it to anyone who listened to that other band, this is better.


Blood Red River: 1982-1984 by The Scientists
Before these reissues The Scientists albums were so hard to find with Sub Pop in America having only one compilation album of their huge recording out-put but now in the last few years all of it became available. This one is of the middle years and the best, well maybe, at least the best place to start with but off course you should go get the earlier and later recordings as well. Kim Salmon is very prolific but so underrated too and not the last time he will appear here.


Blue Trees by Mick Turner/Tren Brothers
After the last Dirty Three album in 2005 and the violin player running off with someone who I don't need to name here. Mick Turner released this in 2007, underrated compilation album of recordings he and Jim White recorded without that mad fiddle player bloke and I'll say here it's better than some of the Dirty Three albums and proves these two are just as important as that other guy, what is his name anyway?


Body Language by Kylie Minogue
Kylie really gets to much of a bad rap for being one of the biggest singers, if not the biggest music star ever from Australia, it's that tall poppy thing. I love Kylie and I don't care what anyone says. Her 2003 album Body Language is her masterpiece, in my opinion, which came two years after the run-away success of her single "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and the previous album, Fever plus a couple of years before her cancer scare.


Stay tuned for the letter "C" soon...

Great Read: The 100 Best Australian Albums by John O’Donnell, Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson

OK, I'm going to write something about this book that is not too long. It came out late last year so it's taken me a while to read. I read bits and pieces then went and started at the introduction and it made a bit more sense. To start with I just thought it was a bit silly because of the selection of albums but there are some rules they have gone by which are briefly: No greatest hits after 1970's because singles were the main format at this time. No live albums but they broke that by including Billy Thorpe's album, they have to be Australians of-course but artists and bands who fuck-off overseas like Kylie Minogue, AC/DC and Bee Gees are included and also New Zealanders who have based themselves in Australia are here too. The albums are NOT their favourite but have to have "had a enormous effect on the the culture and the nation." Anyway record sales they say are a consideration but NOT the main reason for ranking, it's amazing though how many are here. So I have about 30 of these 100 albums on vinyl or CD but a few on the computer as mp3's but if I can't hold it in my hand I don't really count them or if I can't be stuffed going out and buying it in a shop, it's not that important then, yeh?

The top ten have a few pages written about them each and the next ninety have one page of writing and a page is the album cover art. It's good writing about each album and all have valued points about each band/artist/album. I could say it's great because this book has even got me to revise my view of Cold Chisel which for years and years I couldn't stand listening to because my dad would play them all the time as a kid, it was like not this bloody music again but it didn't change my mind about solo Jimmy Barnes. So the four pages did it for Circus Animals but not the one page for For The Working Class Man but I do now have my dad's vinyl copy so maybe one day I'll put it on turntable.

Triple J is now doing a Hottest 100 voting poll thingy and their industry list is even more totally silly compared to this book. It includes 8 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds plus 2 Birthday Party is overstating his importance just a bit too much and I'm a fan but really only three of these albums were recorded in Australia anyway. I think there are to many repeated artists/bands on their industry list but they did included three The Drones albums. A voting poll I think will be even worse but I never agree with Triple J any-more because they're too mainstream and play too many major label records these days.

There are some records I don't think should be included in the book too but I think I'll make my own list as my next blog posts. I think I would rate this book: The 100 Best Australian Albums by John O’Donnell, Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson, 4 stars or 4 out of 5. I did also get the 5 CD set too so it can't be all bad. Hearing just one song for those albums I don't like was OK because there's so much good or even great stuff here and like the authors point out nothing like it has been done before. So go a read it yourself too or just listen to your favourite Aussie albums again.Stay tuned for more soon...