SOLID GOLD by GANG OF FOUR
1981 on Warner/EMI
ENTERTAINMENT! is widely regarded as Gang of Four's masterpiece, and with good reason... it's a masterful album, filled with classic songs... a tight-as-hell rhythm section, truly great lyrics (and I never pay attention to lyrics usually), unconventional songwriting, that weird and haunting melodica,dry production with loud bass, a great vocal performance (with multivocal interplay!), and...ONE OF THE GREATES GUITARS EVER! A true fucking guitar hero, inspiring a billion other post punk guitarists... in my opinion, not since Magic Band's Zoot Horn Rollo had their been such a truly unique, brilliant guitar player in the relative "underground". He was abrasive yet melodic, and sounded like he was about to go completely out of tune and fuck up the whole song any second.. but still amanged to keep it together. Some of the songs sounded like a "guitar solo", in a sense -- there soimetimes weren't any established "riffs", the guitarist just played what he wanted over the top for the whole song, sometimes never repeating at all, and it sounded great.
....well, this album is all those things, except it's way better, in my opinion... first of all, it's dark as hell; Entertainment! wasn't fairies and roses, but this album finds the band about a hundred times darker... the production is REALLY murky and evil, not since Wire's PINK FLAG had anyone heard an album this dark... and the songwriting is even looser and more unconventional, but it totally works. This band was all about taking risks (which probably explains why, after a certainn point, they released so much crap). Really, just have a listen to PARALYZED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnieM... 28B4&index=48
this is, simply, one of my favorite songs, and maybe the best opening track ever recorded. In 3 minutes, it perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the album (and the last song is just as good, kind of a sequel of sorts).
I'm sure many people will reply saying they prefer Entertainment, but this album blows that one away in every way, imo. Though I've always wondered what the deal with that "ONE CHEESEBURGER TO GO!" sample was.
Go to that site for media, that's on fire, and attach /?ayqjnomqgze to the end and you might just get a surprise!!