In the Heat of the Night
Artist: Pat Benatar
Community Score: 10.00

With her debut recording In the Heat of the Night, Pat Benatar wasted no time starting out of the gate with the furious leadoff track "Heartbreaker," which solidified her place in a class of women who were taking the rock world by storm in the late '70s. In the Heat of the Night was an album that obviously had its share of filler, but the... Read More

Greatest Hits 1972-1978
Artist: 10cc

A straightforward rendering of, indeed, 10cc's greatest hits is drawn from both their UK and Mercury label catalogs, and rides seamlessly, too, across the creative divide ignited by the departure of co-founders Kevin Godley and Lol Creme in 1976. Early singles -- the sequence that runs from the doo wop pastiche "Donna" to the drug anthem "I'm... Read More

Fine Old Tom
Artist: Tom Newman
Community Score: 7.00

Longtime producer/engineer for Mike Oldfield and many others, Tom Newman displays his creative chops on this, his first solo effort. A real sleeper, Fine Old Tom is a relatively obscure yet refreshing original pop/prog-rock project constructed by Newman and his pals, with Jon Field, Mike Oldfield, Ned Callan, Chris Cutler and Fred Frith in the... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: Roxy Music

The first Roxy Music hits collection, released during the hiatus that divided Siren from Manifesto, was a straightforward rendering of all but one ("Both Ends Burning") of the band's UK hits, buoyed by an intelligent selection of key album tracks - US radio fave "Do The Strand", the pulsating "Editions Of You" and so on.


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Siren
Artist: Roxy Music
Community Score: 6.00

Abandoning the intoxicating blend of art rock and glam-pop that distinguished Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music concentrates on Bryan Ferry's suave, charming crooner persona for the elegantly modern Siren. As the disco-fied opener "Love Is the Drug" makes clear, Roxy embraces dance and unabashed pop on Siren, weaving them into their sleek,... Read More

Jazz
Artist: Queen
Community Score: 8.09

Jazz has been unfairly slagged in some quarters as an inconsistent and unfocused record; granted, there's a bit of filler cluttering the second half, but as for the latter criticism, it's not like A Night at the Opera wasn't all over the map. The fact that it didn't produce any huge hit singles in the U.S. probably hasn't helped its reputation,... Read More

A Night at the Opera - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Queen
Community Score: 8.75

Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on Sheer Heart Attack, but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation, A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two... Read More

Gold
Artist: Jefferson Starship

This 1979 compilation culls the hit singles and strongest album tracks from Jefferson Starship's four elemental-titled albums of the 1970s: 1974's Dragon Fly (evoking air), the 1975 number one smash Red Octopus (water), 1976's Spitfire (fire), and the more obviously titled Earth from 1978. These albums saw the Jefferson Starship hit-making... Read More

Red Octopus
Artist: Jefferson Starship
Community Score: 10.00

Technically speaking, Red Octopus was the first album credited to Jefferson Starship, though practically the same lineup made Dragon Fly, credited to Grace Slick/Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship. The difference, however, was crucial: Marty Balin was once again a fully integrated band member, writing or co-writing five of the ten tracks. And there... Read More

Trick of the Tail
Artist: Genesis
Community Score: 7.65

The quality of the group's first post-Peter Gabriel album astonished everyone, especially coming out after an 18-month gap following The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The opening number, "Dance on a Volcano," almost deliberately recalls "Cinema Show" from Selling England by the Pound in melody and structure, and Phil Collins sounds more like Peter... Read More

Peter Gabriel - 1
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Community Score: 8.50

Peter Gabriel tells why he left Genesis in "Solsbury Hill," the key track on his 1977 solo debut. Majestically opening with an acoustic guitar, the song finds Gabriel's talents gelling, as the words and music feed off each other, turning into true poetry. It stands out dramatically on this record, not because the music doesn't work, but because... Read More

Frampton Comes Alive!
Artist: Peter Frampton
Community Score: 8.40

At the time of its release, Frampton Comes Alive! was an anomaly, a multi-million-selling (mid-priced) double LP by an artist who had previously never burned up the charts with his long-players in any spectacular way. The biggest-selling live album of all time, it made Peter Frampton a household word and generated a monster hit single in "Show... Read More

The Ultimate Collection
Artist: Roxy Music

A companion-but-not-really to the 1986 Street Life compilation, Ultimate Collection was released just two years later, yet thought nothing of restating half a dozen of its predecessor's tracks. It was a shocking miscalculation on the compilers' part for, had it not done so, The Ultimate Collection would have dovetailed with Street Life to... Read More