Top 10 for 1976

TheBigBlack's Rock Top 10

David Bowie
Station To Station

Classic Rock | Album | 23 January 1976

Thin Lizzy
Jailbreak

Classic Rock | Album | 26 March 1976

'Jailbreak' is the sixth studio album by Thin Lizzy. The album proved to be the band's commercial breakthrough in the U.S., and the only Thin Lizzy album with a certification (Gold) in that country.

Rainbow
Rainbow Rising

Classic Rock | Album | 17 May 1976

Richie Blackmore, having been the axeman for Deep Purple for close to a decade, had already cemented himself as a rock legend when he formed Rainbow. His vocalist on the other hand, a fresh-faced American named Ronnie James Dio, hadn't yet broken the big time. Whilst 1975's debut album showed promise, this is the album where both vocalist and guitarist really locked together to bring out each other's best. With proto-metal in abundance here, songs like 'Tarot Woman' and 'Starstruck' really shine, and Blackmore's solos feel like he really is invested in this music. The vinyl side B opened with the orchestrated monster 'Stargazer', setting alight the minds of heavy music fans everywhere, and showcasing Dio's amazing soulfully powerful vocals like no other track. Rainbow slowly became mostly 'commercial' after this release, with Dio unfortunately only hanging around for one more album, but there was little chance of them ever besting this masterpiece anyway.

Alice Cooper
Goes To Hell

Classic Rock | Album | 25 June 1976

KISS
Destroyer

Hard Rock | Album | 15 March 1976

Blue Oyster Cult
Agents Of Fortune

Hard Rock | Album | 21 May 1976

'Agents Of Fortune' is the fourth studio album by Blue Oyster Cult. The Platinum-selling album peaked at No. 29 on the U.S. Billboard chart. The band became a bigger concert attraction after the release of the album, in part due to extensive airplay of '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', to this day a staple of rock-station playlists. This is the only album in the group's discography to have at least one lead vocal performance by each original band member.

Led Zeppelin
Presence

Classic Rock | Album | 31 March 1976

In 1975 when Led Zeppelin released the double Physical Graffiti album they were kings of the world. As they lined up yet another world tour for later in the year vocalist Robert Plant was in a near fatal car accident, meaning all touring was on hold indefinitely. Much like other bands of their ilk (The Rolling Stones is great example) the band was also exiled from mother England due to massive (and unreasonable) tax bills, leaving them somewhat fractured and unclear of their next steps. All this pain and uncertainty seeped into the core of their next album, taking the material to somewhere very different than the band had been before, both in style and sound. During Pant's recovery guitarist Jimmy Page spent a lot of time with him at his home, so the majority of the songs were written by the two of them with little input from the other members. This meant that the album was very guitar-focused and surprisingly the entire album does not feature a single ballad of any type, something the band was always known for. Add to this the dry production and it has a very confronting and stark feel about it. 'Achilles Last Stand' is one of the great Zeppelin epics, and opens the album like an out of control freight train. The guitars are muti-layered and massive sounding, but Plant's vocals are immediately lacking in some of the power he previously sang with. Whilst this is possibly due to him recording a lot of his vocals from a wheelchair, there is something else at play, almost as if some of his confidence was lost in his accident. This carries throughout the album, giving it a feeling of tension like a rubber band about to snap back into place. 'For Your Life' drops the force back to a slow groove, that is incredibly catchy in its charm, almost feeling unfinished in its looseness at the time of recording. 'Royal Orleans' follows with a rollicking guitar and vocal line that really lifts the album. 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' (carefully borrowed from Blind Willie Johnson) opens side two and is the perfect centrepiece of the album. It is infectious and heavy, and Plant gives his best vocal performance of the album. Add to that he delivers a brilliant harmonica solo after the instrument was absent from any recent Zeppelin albums, and it all add up to being an essential track in the catalogue. 'Candy Store Rock' and 'Hots On For Nowhere' follow and unlike their predecessor neither of them are particularly necessary songs. They both have great hooks, but feel like they were always going to be filler. The album closes with 'Hats On For Nowhere', a return to the heavy blues of the band's early days. The songs could have soared like 'Since I've Been Loving You', but instead it plods to a close with only a couple of interesting moments, and listening closely it could be said that it is not only the weakest song on the album, but one of the weakest of their catalogue. On the first listens the album has a distinct amount of underwhelming material, and whilst repeat listens does mine a little gold, for the most part the album falls very short of previous releases. It is oddly void of any form of keyboard / piano and is totally guitar focused (something that would be the opposite on the following album), yet again making it sound quite unique in the band's recordings. The upside to this is that like many great bands, even the 'not so good' songs by Led Zeppelin are usually better than the best by others. Regardless, this album still feels like the beginning of the end.

AC/DC
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap [A.U. Edition]

Hard Rock | Album | 20 September 1976

Bob Dylan
Desire

Classic Rock | Album | 16 January 1976

TheBigBlack's Rock Honourable Mentions

Led Zeppelin
The Soundtrack From The Film 'The Song Remains The Same'

Classic Rock | Album; Live | 28 September 1976

TheBigBlack's Metal Top 10

Black Sabbath
Technical Ecstasy

Heavy Metal | Album | 26 September 1976

Judas Priest
Sad Wings Of Destiny

Heavy Metal | Album | 23 March 1976