Future Blues
Artist: Canned Heat

The final Canned Heat album to feature co-founder Alan Wilson, Future Blues was also one of their best, surprisingly restrained as a studio creation by the band, the whole thing clocking in at under 36 minutes, as long as some single jams on their live discs. It was also one of their most stylistically diverse efforts. Most of what's here is... Read More

The Best of Mountain
Artist: Mountain
Community Score: 9.00

Mountain's meteoric ride through the early '70s was as memorable as it was brief -- so much so that this excellent greatest-hits set was released less than four years after the band had inaugurated their career at Woodstock. In retrospect, its easy to understand why the strange chemistry (pun intended) struck between boogie-loving,... Read More

Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival - SPLIT
Artist: Jimi Hendrix

Contrary to the title listed here, this album is actually the classic Monterey festival recording featuring one side of Otis Redding and one side of Jimi Hendrix. Rhino has recently issued a wonderful boxed set covering the entire event, which is certainly worth having as well, but this was the album that made stars out of both Hendrix and... Read More

Barnstorm
Artist: Joe Walsh
Community Score: 10.00

Barnstorm, Joe Walsh's first solo album after leaving the James Gang, garnered him fame not only as a guitarist but also as a songwriter. While it's true that Walsh established himself as a late-'60s/early-'70s guitar hero on the Gang's more boogie-oriented rock numbers, it's Walsh's love of lushly textured production and spacy, open-ended songs... Read More

The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get
Artist: Joe Walsh
Community Score: 9.00

The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, Walsh's second solo studio album, continues the heavy and light rock mix of tracks found on his previous release Barnstorm. Indeed, the opening two tracks bear this out. The first, perhaps Joe Walsh's most recognized track, "Rocky Mountain Way", comes replete with overly distorted guitars and the... Read More

Too Much Too Soon
Artist: New York Dolls
Community Score: 9.75

After the clatter of their first album failed to bring them a wide audience, the New York Dolls hired producer Shadow Morton to work on the follow-up, Too Much Too Soon. The differences are apparent right from the start of the ferocious opener, "Babylon." Not only are the guitars cleaner, but the mix is dominated by waves of studio sound effects... Read More

New York Dolls
Artist: New York Dolls
Community Score: 8.53

There are hints of girl group pop and more than a hint of the Rolling Stones, but The New York Dolls doesn't really sound like anything that came before it. It's hard rock with a self-conscious wit, a celebration of camp and kitsch that retains a menacing, malevolent edge. The New York Dolls play as if they can barely keep the music from falling... Read More

Brain Capers
Artist: Mott the Hoople
Community Score: 5.00

Re-teaming with producer Guy Stevens, Mott the Hoople delivered the great forgotten British hard rock album with their fourth album, Brain Capers. Stevens was a legendary rock & roll wild man and he kept Mott careening through their performances; they sound harder than ever, even dangerous at times. This fortunately coincided with Ian Hunter's... Read More

15 Greatest Hits
Artist: The James Gang
The Cry of Love
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Community Score: 10.00

This was the first of the posthumous releases in the Jimi Hendrix catalog and probably the best as it collected most of the studio tracks that were either completed or very near completion before Hendrix died. Some of these tunes, like "Angel" and "Ezy Rider," have become well-known pieces in the Hendrix canon, but they sit alongside... Read More

Grand Funk
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Community Score: 8.33

Grand Funk Railroad's 1970 somewhat eponymous album, their second for Capitol, is characteristic of the classic rock radio sound that would permeate the airwaves of the late 20th century. Grand Funk Railroad was a seminal force in giving the friendlier side of the heavy-rock sound its charm and making it stick. Built on fuzzed-out blues riffs,... Read More

Rock & Roll Outlaws
Artist: Foghat
Community Score: 9.00

After establishing a new level of credibility on record with 1974's Energized, Foghat cranked out another album of boogie rock before the year ended. The result, Rock and Roll Outlaws, is not as consistently inspired as its predecessor but remains a worthwhile listen for the group's fans. This time out, the group settles for a more... Read More

Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!
Artist: Santana
Community Score: 10.00

From December 1971 to April 1972, Carlos Santana and several other members of Santana toured with drummer/vocalist Buddy Miles, a former member of the Electric Flag, and Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys. The resulting live album contained both Santana hits ("Evil Ways") and Buddy Miles hits ("Changes"), plus a 25-minute, side-long jam. It was not,... Read More