70s Strikes Back

LaVoe and Willie Colon came blazing out of the bugalu era and wrote a new script for New York salsa during the late '60s and early '70s: a script that included Puerto Rican and Panamanian graftings on the basic Cuban scion, and a tough lyricism that spoke of "barrio" problems to a "barrio audience". Then the pair split, and eventually Ruben Blades filled LaVoe's place in the Colon band's developing persona. Now – for this album at least – LaVoe and Colon are back together with that fat, macho trombone sound and the old width of reference (including a splendid plena, "En el Fiando.")

A sudden switch in image accompanied Gilbert O'Sullivan's second album, 1972's Back to Front and its simultaneously released separate single "Alone Again (Naturally)." Gone was the mischievous little scamp sporting a jaunty cap and hand-me-down tweeds, in was a slick, hairy-chested lothario and along with this visual makeover came an aural overhaul, with O'Sullivan's sprightly show tune-inspired pop sounding slicker than before. And it's not just that Back to Front is given a gloss that would not have seemed out of place on a televised variety show from 1972, it's that O'Sullivan is taking great care to write sprightly theatrical tunes, songs that take great pride in their clever-clever twists, smiling, crowd-pleasing melodies, and the proudly cheeky sentimentality that drips off of “Clair,” to name the most obvious example here. In many ways, the unabashed showbiz cheer of Back to Front trumps the bedsit introspection of Himself: in his heart Gilbert O’Sullivan is a song-and-dance man possessing a way with a snappy hook or tearjerking melody, qualities that are amply – and charmingly – displayed here.

Original Album Series contains the first five albums from the mighty Dayton funk band Slave: Slave (1977), The Hardness of the World (1977), The Concept (1978), Just a Touch of Love (1979), and Stone Jam (1980). Each disc is in a thin cardboard pouch with reproductions of the original front and back sleeve designs. Since the series limits itself to five discs, the band's phenomenal sixth album – Show Time (1981) – couldn't fit, but this is a convenient way to snap up the majority of the output from one of the planet's best funk bands. Not even the two-disc The Definitive Groove Collection covers all the great singles and album cuts featured within this small box.

Picking our list of the Top 100 '70s Rock Albums was no easy task, if only because that period boasted such sheer diversity. The decade saw rock branch into a series of intriguing new subgenres, beginning, at the dawn of the '70s, with heavy metal. Singer-songwriters came into their own; country-rock flourished. The era ended with the revitalizing energy of punk and New Wave. No list would be complete without climbing onto every one of those limbs. Here are the Top 100 '70s Rock Albums, presented chronologically from the start of the decade.

Picking our list of the Top 100 '70s Rock Albums was no easy task, if only because that period boasted such sheer diversity. The decade saw rock branch into a series of intriguing new subgenres, beginning, at the dawn of the '70s, with heavy metal. Singer-songwriters came into their own; country-rock flourished. The era ended with the revitalizing energy of punk and New Wave. No list would be complete without climbing onto every one of those limbs. Here are the Top 100 '70s Rock Albums, presented chronologically from the start of the decade.