The Best of B.T.O. (So Far)
Artist: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Community Score: 7.50

This nine-song collection released in 1976 was the first of close to two dozen "Best Of," "Greatest Hits," and "Greatest Hits Live" collections by the Guess Who's major competition when Randy Bachman left that venerable Canadian band. If you add "Free Wheelin'" (not included on this initial compilation), Bachman-Turner Overdrive equaled the... 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

Breakfast in America
Artist: Supertramp
Community Score: 7.69

With Breakfast in America, Supertramp had a genuine blockbuster hit, topping the charts for four weeks in the U.S. and selling millions of copies worldwide; by the 1990s, the album had sold over 18 million units across the world. Although their previous records had some popular success, they never even hinted at the massive sales of Breakfast in... 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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You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish
Artist: REO Speedwagon
Community Score: 8.67

You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish was a breakthrough album for REO Speedwagon in a sense, gelling the guitar craft of Gary Richrath and the vocals of Kevin Cronin with songs that rambled and rolled and never stopped for air. Richrath's style finally formed some catchy hooks, and Cronin's songwriting is solid, while his voice sounds... 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

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

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