Thin Lizzy - Johnny the Fox

1976

     Their tightest most driving, focused rocker to date. Great songs, great vocals and storytelling. The production is great and the guitars sound amazing. Drumming is great and fun to listen to. Overall this album has a darker feel than any that came before.  This is their seventh album and it's in the running three others for their best. 

     I assume the pressure was on to follow up with a solid record after the success of Jailbreak. In many ways this is better.

Kiss - Rock and Roll Over

1976

     Right out of the box this one is smokin'! I Want You!
     Next song, uh...yeah, OK,OK Paul's singing again. Here we go, Party is still rolling! Live it up! Make Me Feel It Baby! Quick Ace Frehley solos always take it up a notch!
     Third song. Instantly recognizable. Dr. Love. Gene sings now. It's more menacing...right up to the chorus where it takes on a Beach Boys vibe. Repeat...Ace Frehley Solo!...chorus repeat a million times...and out. 

     The first three songs have a soaring rocking high energy feel/vibe to them.

     The forth song "Ladies Room" sung by Gene has a stiffer more upright feel. Like something from Dressed to Kill.
      Fifth Song sung by Peter. Baby Driver. It feels a lttle stiff too, but it's the vocals are cool and they're accented with Ace's guitar playing. I assume it's Ace. The interplay between the vocals and guitar are what sets this song apart. The song suffers from the formulaic pop verse chorus thing, but that was Kiss does.
     The next song Gene sings and I'm feeling the energy leave the room until they get to the chorus, "Love 'em Leave 'em". Then you start paying attention to the lyrics for the next verse and they lead you right back to the chorus and...look out here come some little taste of a solo coming up and...DUCK! another Ace Frehley solo. Success!
      Next song starts out stiff and upright again, like something off of Dressed to Kiss. Mr Speed. Paul is singing and the riff keeps you moving along, but...still kinda feels like filler, but it's catchy and keeps your attention and here comes the Ace solo...which ends ups being not quite as exciting as the on earlier songs. Then you end up just waiting for this song to be over.
     Next up a Gene song, more up tempo. With Paul doing the chorus.  It's kind of like Rock and Roll All Night, but more up tempo and more story telling, less anthem. Ace does a quick solo to make the song better than it was...and a boring repetitious outro.
      Now, Hard Luck Woman. Garth Brooks covered this 20 years later. It's a pretty awesome song with Peter singing. It feels out of place with everything else that has come up to this point. Obviously, Beth was a big hit on the previous album. So, they're trying to duplicate that here for a single I would assume. This is it's own song though and doesn't sound anything like Beth. It's just good by itself.             New song. High energy! Makin' Love! This one makes me think of Alive II version that is a high energy rockin' coooker! One of my favorite songs on Alive II...and Ace does a rippin' solo here. Then repetition and out. Now...what? The album is over? That was pretty good. This is a meat and potatoes blast off compared to the album before it. Destroyer and its fancy production. 

Dressed To Kill came out March 1975

Kiss Alive came out September 1975.

Destroyer came out March 1976.

Now this album comes out November 1976?!

Rock and Roll over is a different animal...it's apples and oranges, but this record is better than Destroyer. 

Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune

Meatloaf meets Alice Cooper.

This is the 4th BOC album. More commercial than the ones that came before it. Don't Fear The Reaper is on here. No of the other songs on the album sound anything like that one.

This one for sure is more polished than the first three. The edge gone, but they're still a great band. This one is even easier and more pleasant to listen to than the first three. I can see why this one appealed to the masses. There's a little bit here for everybody. Interesting songs, you can still rock out but it never gets abrasive. I think a lot of people go in thinking Blue Oyster Cult is some kind of Metal band like Judas Priest or something and they're almost always disappointed. Or they like the hits and and find out things are little bit more oddball than they expected. Blue Oyster Cult is one of the great misunderstood bands of our times.

Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Recorded in 1976, released in America in 1981 after the success of Back In Black. A couple great songs a bunch of good ones. It all sounds like AC/DC. A good record, but probably not even in my AC/DC top 5.

Rainbow - Rising

1976

This is a cooker. Dio/Blackmore.

AC/DC - High Voltage

Raw slimey boogie bluesy rockin'.

Fun Facts: This is a compilation for international release. This is mostly songs from the Australian release T.N.T with a few songs from their first Australian record also entitled High Voltage.

Kiss - Destroyer

1976

This didn't seem quite so ridiculous when I was in fifth grade.

I've been KISS fan forever, up until 82/83 when I started losing interest in the Band. Even when I was a kid I didn't think this was a great album it starts out great then if fades. Over the years, when people refer to this as the Mighty Destroyer or an all time rock classic or put it on a pedal stool. I've always thought, "that's not such a great album". Like every KISS album, there's a bunch of filler on here.

This is a well crafted album. All the songs contribute to making it...a unified thing. It takes you to a place. The Destroyer place.

Aerosmith - Rocks

The best Aerosmith album and one of the best rock albums of the 70's.

Fun Facts: Looks like they sold about three and a half million more copies of this since I got it.