Morning, Warbler

Deep in the wild reeds
A warbler greets the morning
With a merry tune

Zombie by Fela Kuti

This album is unique on this list in the effect that it had. The title track is an excoriating attack on the Nigerian military, effectively calling them mindless zombies for blindly following orders. The government junta was so threatened by this that they sent a force of 1000 soldiers to attack Kuti. They brutally murdered his elderly mother, razed his studio and the commune where he lived, and Kuti himself was lucky to escape with his life.

This experience didn’t deter him from his political activism (he stood for president and spent time in jail on trumped up charges), releasing a mind boggling number of albums (16 in 1976 and 1977 alone) and marrying 27 women at the same time. Wowzers - where did he find the time?

The music here is pure Afrobeat, taking traditional rhythms and reclaiming Western jazz and funk sounds, bringing them back to their African roots. The result is infectious, danceable and politically charged in all the right ways, and it’s easy to see why a performance of Zombie in Accra sparked a riot.

An easy five stars from me!

Sparrow, Ivy

Ivy creeps and climbs
Ancient walls concealed by green
A lone sparrow sings

Modern Kosmology by Jane Weaver

This album is one of the more recent ones on the list and has quickly grown to be one of my favourites of the last ten years. Jane Weaver combines electronica, folk and krautrock rhythms into a mesmerising mix that hits all the right notes for me. Weaver has a similar vocal style to Alison Goldfrapp, but where Goldfrapp harks back to glam, Weaver definitely leans towards krautrock and prog. The krautrock influences are also acknowledged on the track “Ravenspoint” featuring guest vocals Malcolm Mooney from Can.

I was lucky enough to see Jane supporting Public Service Broadcasting and she has a great live presence. I just wish there were more examples of great women musicians on this list. No hesitation in giving this five stars!

Willow Leaves, Gusty

The weeping willow
Trails her fingers in the stream
Stirred by gusty winds

Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges

This album was recorded in a couple of weeks and then Iggy was just given a day to mix it on a primitive desk and by his own admission made a bit of a bodge of it. The record company hated it. He called in his pal David Bowie who did his best to salvage something and eventually produced a master that was released.

There have been various attempts to revisit this over the years, trying to capture the spirit of the original, including one 1997 attempt by Iggy which is famously the loudest record ever released with everything turned up to 11 and oodles of compression and distortion. The 2023 remasters hit the spot for me though.

Whichever mix you listen to, this is an album that does exactly what it says on the tin. The literal raw power of Iggy Pop’s vocals and guitarist James Williamson’s blistering riffs bleed through your speakers and make your hair stand on end. I think this is as good a point as any to declare this as being year zero for punk, defining the sound for generations to come.

Bad by Michael Jackson

Calling your album ‘Bad’ is something of a hostage to fortune. This was Jackson’s third and final collaboration with the great Quincy Jones - Off the Wall was breezy soul, Thriller was a behemoth (and I’ll say more when it turns up on this list) but this album is very much diminishing returns. The good parts are pretty much all down to Jones, but Jackson’s increasingly weird vocal tics (shamone!) and yelps are distracting to the point of annoyance.

The pointy nosed elephant in the room though, is Jackson himself. It’s clear he was an extremely damaged individual who had an abusive and controlling father, and after the success of Thriller was the subject of intense and intrusive media interest. He also suffered from body dysmorphia and started the process of transforming his appearance in increasingly bizarre and extreme ways.

This does not excuse in any way his behaviour with children, even though the truth of that is still shrouded in out of court settlements and disputes. Was he sad? Definitely, judging by the song “Leave Me Alone”. Was he mad? More than likely. Was he bad? In my opinion, yes, but some fans may disagree. Do I want to listen to this album again? No.