Quadrophenia – The Who

Pete Townshend always had a grander vision for The Who that stretched beyond being a typical rock and roll band. ‘My Generation was a step in the right direction, but that wasn’t quite enough power to exact any real change over rock and roll. While Tommy laid the groundwork for Townshend to step into rock and roll history, the true benchmark of the band’s career came a few albums later once he could flesh out his concept.

Even though Who’s Next stands as their towering achievement, Quadrophenia is the most fully realised version of what Townshend could do. Outside of featuring songs from every member of the group, Townshend has a far greater handle on the medium now, eventually making tunes that sound like ‘My Generation’ with more bombastic energy behind them like ‘The Real Me’ or the towering epic ‘Love Reign O’er Me.’

But looking at where the band went afterwards, Townshend seemed to not have any clear sense of direction for a new concept, and once Keith Moon passed away after Who Are You, it was basically curtains for the rest of their time in the spotlight. While we still have the voice behind everything and the man who’s written it all, it’s hard not to think of Quadrophenia as the last moment when everything was perfect.

Meteora<em> </em>- Linkin Park

Before Linkin Park, it still wasn’t clear whether or not the nu-metal movement was one big gimmick. There were still artists who could write some great riffs, but considering the spokesman for that generation was Fred Durst, no one was looking at it in such hallowed terms as grunge or punk back in the day. While Linkin Park gave the genre some much-needed credibility, their sophomore album ended up being almost too good for anyone touch in their field.

Because, really, Meteora does everything that Hybrid Theory had done and made it about ten times better. Outside of the pure anger behind ‘One Step Closer’ or ‘Crawling’, there was a lot more heart put into songs, such as hearing the closest thing to a nu-metal ballad in ‘Breaking the Habit’. And even when looking at their heavy stuff, they could knuckle down even harder the second time around, working out pieces like ‘Hit The Floor’ with riffs that would make Korn jealous.

But despite the band continuing to make phenomenal records afterwards, not everything was as airtight as it was before, with Minutes to Midnight becoming a bit too meandering and A Thousand Suns, while brilliant, being bogged down by far too many interludes for anyone to take too seriously. There aren’t too many moments where Linkin Park openly struck out, but when this is what they are capable of at 100 per cent, it makes even 90 per cent records look tame.

Boston – Boston

Every single aficionado of classic rock is going to possess at least one copy of Boston’s debut album somewhere in their house. Even if they haven’t listened to it in years and are only vaguely aware of what the songs are, the opening acoustic intro of ‘More Than a Feeling’ and the guitar stabs of ‘Peace of Mind’ have been seared on the brains of anyone that actually remembers the 1970s. However, no one really talks about Boston’s other albums in the same breath.

As much as their sound is very good, Tom Scholz may have shown his hand a bit too quickly when making the group’s debut. Every single track on the record could be considered a staple of classic rock radio, and yet the minute that people start thinking of other songs that they would consider up there with their best, only ‘Don’t Look Back’ and the ballad ‘Amanda’ come to mind after this record.

Admittedly, it probably didn’t help that ‘Don’t Look Back’ is a subtle in-joke about what their career was looking like around the time they made their sophomore effort. Everyone was still on cloud nine, but that song alone may as well have been the subtle distraction to make sure no one figured out that they were repeating the same mullet rock for a second go-around.

Hotel California – Eagles

Every part of Eagles’ story felt like it was building towards something bigger. Don Henley and Glenn Frey certainly wanted to be in a successful band, but by the time they came off the road for One of These Nights, they realised that they could be spoken about in the same conversation as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd with one more smash album. All they needed was the right idea, and the darker side of California provided the perfect backdrop for them to paint their masterpiece.

Despite being the poster children for the West Coast in the 1970s, Hotel California was the first time that the band started looking at the harsh aspects of their home state, talking about the sleaziness that comes with Hollywood and how most people can find themselves dead if they fly too close to the sun. And considering how high they flew, it’s not like they didn’t get burned when coming back down.

By the time The Long Run came out, no one seemed to care about the ambitions of the group, usually making whatever they could to make for a slightly convincing Eagles song before bottoming out in the ’80s. They may have had Long Road Out of Eden to wrap up their career on their own terms, but that was only a reminder of the good times rather than trying to get anywhere close to songs like the title track or ‘Life in the Fast Lane.’

Achtung Baby – U2

U2 were never aiming for anything less than the title of the best band in the world. They had their aspirations in the punk scene, but Bono knew that their music had the power to touch people in a way that most couldn’t really define. And even if The Joshua Tree should be considered any band’s final victory lap at the end of their career, they weren’t quite done giving us our fair share of surprises. 

With Achtung Baby, U2 accidentally put themselves in a different league of artists. They no longer had to worry about being posturing rockstars, and hearing them embrace the irony and sincerity of tracks like ‘One’ and ‘The Fly’ was the first time they felt like people rather than the gods they had talked themselves up as. Then again, there is such a thing as going too far into irony as well.

While Zooropa saw them still taking chances, hearing Pop made them feel directionless, and that massive shakeup was enough for them to go too far back into sincerity on albums like All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Although they have lived on as everyone’s favourite dad-rock act of the modern age, it’s hard to say whether they are capable of putting out another classic when they are too busy redoing their old tunes.

All Things Must Pass – George Harrison

George Harrison never deserved the hand that he was dealt in The Beatles. His only crime was starting his songwriting career a little later than John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but that was enough to knock him back a few notches and to forever be known as the musical little brother of ‘The Nerk Twins’. So when he finally had the final say over what his album would be, he laid everything out on the table. In fact, maybe a bit too much.

While All Things Must Pass is phenomenal, it could have justifiably been two or three separate records. Harrison knew that if he was going to be a solo success, he needed something big, but having a triple album of all-new material was enough for people to catch every piece of his musical personality that they needed, whether that was the religious spiritual songs, thoughtful dissections of society, or lighthearted romps about the goofy side of humanity.

Even though everything onward didn’t match what Harrison did here, there wasn’t really much of a chance, either. There are moments on every one of his albums that are worth any Beatles fan’s time, so when venturing forward, it’s better to look at All Things Must Pass as both a glorified greatest hits record and a small sampling of what he would do for the rest of his career.

Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin never had a rule about staying in one genre for the rest of their career. Even if The Beatles challenged the norms of what could be done in the 1960s, Led Zeppelin could be considered the second major art-rock band that ever existed, taking music in different directions while helping invent genres like progressive rock and heavy metal. But for a band that embodied excess, it doesn’t get much better than listening to them tear through some of their most ambitious songs yet.

Although the band’s untitled fourth outing and sophomore release are treated with the utmost respect for any casual rock fan, Physical Graffiti is where the classics are put under one roof. Everything had been building to this, and when listening to songs like ‘Kashmir’ or ‘Ten Years Gone’, it felt like they had gone past rock altogether and started venturing into world music, with Page using different sonic textures that no one had thought of.

In the leadup to John Bonham’s tragic passing, though, their double album is the final essential listening, with Presence and In Through The Out Door housing great moments like ‘Achilles Last Stand’ and ‘All My Love’ without having anything as cohesive. The band were still on top of the world, but this was them taking their seat on the hard rock throne for the final time.

Rumours – Fleetwood Mac

Given what it takes to keep a band together, Fleetwood Mac could be considered indestructible in some respects. They had faced every single setback they could have asked for, and yet they still came roaring back every time, whether that was Peter Green losing pieces of his sanity or Mick Fleetwood dealing with his wife having an affair with one of his bandmates. But even when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham brought them to the pop-rock big leagues, that didn’t mean the drama was about to stop.

Outside of everyone breaking up with each other during the making of Rumours, there must have been some magic in the studio to make it sound so pristine, with each biting track about one of the band members sounding so beautiful when they played on the radio like ‘Don’t Stop’ or ‘Go Your Own Way’. If someone ends up having an album that’s in a major percentage of American households, though, chances are they would start overthinking things a little bit too.

While Tusk is still an acquired taste for some Fleetwood Mac fans, the rest of their albums later never seemed to have the same cohesion, even with some stellar moments on records like Tango in the Night. Although Say You Will felt like a warm hug from the band after a long time away, they were never going to try to outdo Rumours, and with the death of Christine McVie coming later, it’s probably best for them to keep the legacy where it is.

What’s the Story Morning Glory – Oasis

Oasis were never modest when it came to their success in the 1990s. They were clearly one of the biggest bands that the world had ever seen, and with the sudden success of Definitely Maybe, they knew they made something that would put them in the same league as Sex Pistols and The Stone Roses. Noel Gallagher dared to dream bigger than them, though, and while they eventually got the fame that The Beatles received back in the day, What’s the Story Morning Glory is the only time they hit that perfect middle ground of atmosphere and songwriting.

Even though Noel was convinced that their moment in the sun was coming with Be Here Now, this was really the peak of everything they had fought for. Compared to them wearing their influences on their sleeves, every track on the record feels like them taking their influences and sculpting them into unearthed classics, whether that’s ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ being the best song John Lennon never wrote or Liam doing a glam-rock take on John Lydon singing ‘Champagne Supernova’.

But as it relates to the rest of their catalogue, the Britpop legends’ follow-up was as much of a trainwreck as this was a fireworks show, and once they started to reassemble themselves from the ground up in the 2000s, they were clearly a much different band than they were when they started out. They could still deliver live and even have the occasional album that gave their first ones a run for their money, but the days of them putting out another tune like ‘Wonderwall’ or even ‘Roll With It’ were virtually non-existent.

Abbey Road – The Beatles

While many bands have failed to match any of their previous successes, there’s one theme that I tried to stick to on this list: no final albums. The whole point behind everything is to show fans when the artist stopped having that spark, and if they wrapped things up on their highest note, it’s not that hard for people to give all of their previous albums a try. But even if it didn’t come out when it was supposed to, Abbey Road was the final recorded Beatles album that left Let It Be looking like a cheap joke from the record company by comparison.

If you’re looking for anything that made the Fab Four so beloved, you’re going to find a piece of it here. Although Sgt Pepper is the acknowledged masterpiece, there’s nothing objectionable about any piece of this album, from them inventing the concept of prog rock with their medley at the end, proving they could get heavy on ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy),’ and gifting the world some of the greatest pop songs of all time like ‘Come Together’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’.

The only tragedy about the album is the fact that Let It Be came out afterwards, leaving the band to go out with a whimper rather than a bang in their discography. But that’s not how you should look at their discography. Abbey Road was the true moment where everything clicked for one last magical record, and even if it counts as a full album, the tapes from the Get Back sessions feel more like a postscript rather than the proper finale.