My favourite albums from 1971

30

Faust

Faust
Krautrock | Experimental rock
1. Why Don't You Eat Carrots?
2. Meadow Meal ●
3. Miss Fortune
An album that fuses cacophony with rock instrumentation, Faust's debut is an aural assault of the highest order, full of avant-garde arrangements and a surprise around every corner. It is less a collection of songs, but more of a collage of various styles and sonic experiments.
Only three tracks make up the whole album with "Meadow Meal" (the most structured and conventional of the threee) sandwiched between two of the most trying 'songs' of its time. Maybe I'm not selling this well, but there is no denying the sheer genius of it and the confidence to come up with it.
29

Rosemary Lane

Bert Jansch
Folk
1. Tell Me What Is True Love?
2. Rosemary Lane ●
3. M'Lade Nancy
4. A Dream, A Dream, A Dream
5. Alman
6. Wayward Child
7. Nobody' Bar
8. Reynardine
9. Silly Woman
10. Peregrinatos
11. Sylvie
12. Sarabanda
13. Bird Song
Bert Jansch is an acoustic guitar legend and Rosemary Lane showcases his immaculate songwriting and guitar playing. It's a refreshingly stripped back album, which makes it sound like Jansch is in the room with you. It's intimate, simple, and ever-so-effective.
"Rosemary Lane" is a wonderful old-school folk tune, while the instrumental "M'Lady Nancy" shows what a brilliant guitarist he was. It's a delicate, natural album full of genuine moments.
28

Islands

King Crimson
Progressive rock | Jazz fusion
1. Formentera Lady
2. Sailor's Tale ●
3. The Letters
4. Ladies of the Road
5. Prelude: Song of the Gulls
6. Islands
Taking tbe band's sounds into even more esoteric realms, "Islands" is the point where King Crimson distanced themselves sonically from most of their peers. The interplay between jazzy and folksy bits, some of the songs really push the boundaries (as clichéd as that sounds) to create a unique blend of instrumental prowess and freeflowing musical interludes.
"Sailor's Tale" is easily the highlight of the album: it's a taut rocker with some of the most jaw-dropping instrumentation of King Crimson's career up to this point. The melacholic closer "Islands" is another highlight. It's a mind-numbing, difficult album. But it's all the better for it.
27

Meddle

Pink Floyd
Progressive rock | psychedelic rock
1. One of These Days ●
2. A Pillow of Winds
3. Fearless
4. San Tropez
5. Seamus
6. Echoes
Much like the previous album in this countdown, Meddle is where Pink Floyd sounded like the band they came to be known as for the first time. There were still the psychedlic rock of their late 1960s output peeking underneath it all("A PIllow of Winds"), but this is where they began to sound darker and 'cooler' than many of their peers.
The pseudo-instrumental opener "One of These Days" is one of their finest songs and despite popular opinion, it has a much better bass riff than "Money" in my humble opinion. The closer "Echoes", a 23-minutes-long epic where that aforementioned psychedelia lurks still, is progressive in every sense of the word. You can sense the beginnings of the greatness that was to come a few years down the line.
26

Blue

Joni Mitchell
Folk
1. All I Want
2. My Old Man
3. Little Green
4. Carey
5. Blue
6. California
7. This Flight Tonight
8. River ●
9. A Case of You
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard
25

Bryter Layter

Nick Drake
Folk rock | Folk pop
1. Introduction
2. Hazey Jane II
3. At the Chime of a City Clock ●
4. One of These Things First
5. Hazey Jane I
6. Bryter Later
7. Fly
8. Poor Boy
9. Northern Sky
10. Sunday
24

Just as I Am

Bill Withers
Soul
1. Harlem
2. Ain't No Sunshine ●
3. Grandma's Hands
4. Sweet Wanomi
5. Everybody's Talkin'
6. Do It Good
7. Hope She'll Be Happier
8. Let It Be
9. I'm Her Daddy
10. In My Heart
11. Moanin' and Groanin'
12. Better off Dead
Album blurb pending
23

Deuce

Rory Gallagher
Blues rock
1. Used to Be
2. I'm Not Awake Yet ●
3. Don't Know Where I'm Going
4. Maybe I Will
5. Whole Lot of People
6. In Your Town
7. Should've Learnt My Lesson
8. There's a Light
9. Out of My Mind
10. Crest of a Wave
Album blurb pending
22

Nantucket Sleighride

Mountain
Hard rock
1. Don't Look Around
2. Taunta (Sammy's Tune)
3. Nantucket Sleighride (to Owen Coffin) ●
4. You Can't Get Away
5. Tired Angels (to J.M.H.)
6. The Animal Trainer and the Toad
7. My Lady
8. Travellin' in the Dark (to E.M.P.)
9. The Great Train Robbery
Album blurb pending
21

The Yes Album

Yes
Progressive rock
1. Yours Is No Disgrace
2. Clap
3. Starship Trooper
4. I've Seen Good People ●
5. A Venture
6. Perpetual Change
Album blurb pending
20

Teaser and the Firecat

Cat Stevens
Folk rock
1. The Wind
2. Rubylove
3. If I Laugh
4. Changes IV
5. How Can I Tell You
6. Teusday's Dead
7. Morning Has Broken
8. Bitterblue
9. Moonshadow
10. Peace Train ●
Album blurb pending
19

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic
psychedelic funk | funk rock
1. Maggot Brain ●
2. Can You Get to That
3. Hit It and Quit It
4. You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks
5. Super Stupid
6. Back in Our Minds
7. Wars of Armageddon
Album blurb pending
18

St. Radigunds

Spirogyra
Progressive folk | Psychedelic folk
1. The Future Won't Be Long ●
2. Island
3. Magical Mary
4. Captain's Log
5. At Home in the World
6. Cogwheels, Crutches and Cyanide
7. Time Will Tell
8. We Were a Happy Crew
9. Love Is a Funny Thing
10. Duke of Beaufoot
Album blurb pending
17

A Space in Time

Ten Years After
Blues rock
1. One of These Days ●
2. Here They Come
3. I'd Love to Change the World
4. Over the Hill
5. Baby Won't You Let Me Rock 'n' Roll You
6. Once There Was a Time
7. Let the Sky Fall
8. Hard Monkeys
9. I've Been There Too
10. Uncle Jam
Album blurb pending
16

Tapestry

Carole King
Pop rock | R&B
1. I Feel the Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It's Too Late ●
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You've Got a Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Album blurb pending
15

Fragile

Yes
Progressive rock
1. Roundabout ●
2. Cans and Brahms
3. We Have Heaven
4. South Side of the Sky
5. Five per Cent for Nothing
6. Long Distance Runaround
7. The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
8. Mood for a Day
9. Heaty of the Sunrise
Album blurb pending
14

Killer

Alice Cooper
Hard rock | garage rock
1. Under My Wheels
2. Be My Lover
3. Halo of Flies ●
4. Desperado
5. You Drive Me Nervous
6. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
7. Dead Babies
8. Killer
Album blurb pending
13

Pawn Hearts

Van Der Graaf Generator
Progressive rock
1. Lemmings (Including 'Cog') ●
2. Man-Erg
3. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
Album blurb pending
12

Pearl

Janis Joplin
Blues rock | Soul
1. Move Over
2. Cry Baby
3. A Woman Left Lonely
4. Half Moon
5. Buried Alive in the Blues
6. My Baby
7. Me and Bobby McGee ●
8. Mercedes Benz
9. Trust Me
10. Get It While You Can
Album blurb pending
11

Look at Yourself

Uriah Heep
Heavy metal | progressive rock
1. Look at Yourself
2. I Wanna Be Free
3. July Morning ●
4. Tears in My Eyes
5. Shadows of Grief
6. What Should Be Done
7. Love Machine
Album blurb pending
10

L.A. Woman

The Doors
Blues rock | Psychedelic rock
1. The Changeling
2. Love Her Madly
3. Been Down So Long
4. Cars Hiss by My Window
5. L.A. Woman
6. L'America
7. Hyacinth House
8. Crawling King Snake
9. The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
10. Riders on the Storm ●
Album blurb pending
9

First Utterance

Comus
Progressive folk | Psychedelic folk
1. Diana ●
2. The Herald
3. Drip Drip
4. Song to Comus
5. The Bite
6. Bitten
7. The Prisoner
Album blurb pending
8

Demian

Demian
Blues rock | Psychedelic rock
1. Face the Crowd
2. Windy City ●
3. Love People
4. Coming
5. Todd's Tune
6. No More Tenderness
7. Are You with Me Baby
8. Only a Lover
Album blurb pending
7

Songs of Love and Hate

Leonard Cohen
Folk
1. Avalanche
2. Last Year's Man
3. Dress Rehearsal Rag
4. Diamonds in the Mine
5. Love Calls You by Your Name
6. Famous Blue Raincoat ●
7. Sing Another Song, Boys
8. Joan of Arc
Album blurb pending
6

Tago Mago

Can
Avant-garde rock | Progressive rock
1. Paperhouse ●
2. Mushroom
3. Oh Yeah
4. Halleluhwah
5. Aumgn
6. Peking O
7. Bring Me Coffee or Tea
Album blurb pending
5

Salisbury

Uriah Heep
Heavy metal | progressive rock
1. Bird of Prey
2. The Park
3. Time to Live
4. Lady in Black ●
5. High Priestess
6. Salisbury
Album blurb pending
4

Aqualung

Jethro Tull
Progressive rock | hard rock
1. Aqualung ●
2. Cross-Eyed Mary
3. Cheap Day Return
4. Mother Goose
5. Wond'ring Aloud
6. Up to Me
7. My God
8. Hymn 43
9. Slipstream
10. Locomotive Breath
11. Wind-up
Album blurb pending
3

Master of Reality

Black Sabbath
Heavy metal | stoner metal
1. Sweet Leaf
2. After Forever
3. Embryo
4. Children of the Grave ●
5. Orchid
6. Lord of this World
7. Into the Void
Album blurb pending
2

Fireball

Deep Purple
Hard rock | heavy metal
1. Fireball
2. No No No
3. Demon's Eye
4. Anyone's Daughter
5. The Mule
6. Fools ●
7. No One Came
Album blurb pending
1

Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin
Blues rock | hard rock
1. Black Dog
2. Rock and Roll
3. The Battle of Evermore
4. Stairway to Heaven ●
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Four Sticks
7. Going to California
8. When the Levee Breaks
Album blurb pending

My favourite albums from 1971

Faust

Tracks:

Rosemary Lane

Tracks:

Islands

Tracks:

Meddle

Tracks:

Blue

Tracks:

Bryter Layter

Tracks:

Just as I Am

Tracks:

Deuce

Tracks:

Nantucket Sleighride

Tracks:

The Yes Album

Tracks:

Teaser and the Firecat

Tracks:

Maggot Brain

Tracks:

St. Radigunds

Tracks:

A Space in Time

Tracks:

Tapestry

Tracks:

Fragile

Tracks:

Killer

Tracks:

Pawn Hearts

Tracks:

Pearl

Tracks:

Look at Yourself

Tracks:

L.A. Woman

Tracks:

First Utterance

Tracks:

Demian

Tracks:

Songs of Love and Hate

Tracks:

Tago Mago

Tracks:

Salisbury

Tracks:

Aqualung

Tracks:

Master of Reality

Tracks:

Fireball

Tracks:

Led Zeppelin IV

Tracks: