The 10 best albums recorded at Sunset Sounds
Recording studios often have a distinct atmosphere influencing the music created within their walls. Each studio carries its own unique vibe, shaping the creative process and contributing to the sonic character of the recordings produced there. From the grandeur of Abbey Road Studios to the gritty ambience of The Record Plant in New York, the environment plays a crucial role in shaping the sound and feel of the music. Sunset Sound Studios, frequented by iconic artists like Led Zeppelin, exudes a special magic that has inspired countless legendary recordings, contributing to its status as a revered hub of musical creativity.
Located in the heart of California, the studio has radiated sunshine for the past half-century of popular music. From the sounds of the counterculture revolution to the new school of artists paving the way for new musical genres, nothing has been off the table whenever a promising musician tries their hand at making something on that hallowed studio floor.
While there might be a distinct musical texture to every one of the great albums recorded there, each of them has its unique identity. Despite the big name on the front of the door, the hallmark of each great album recorded at Sunset Sound comes from the souls who created it, practically using those four walls as an instrument to create a unique atmosphere that could never recreated.
Even though the studio is known as an open canvas for artists, Sunset Sound has created the soundtrack for generations by giving their musicians a clear path whenever they work. It may have just been constructed like any other studio, but when listening to the songs that have come out of the doors, it’s practically like listening to ghosts of the past.
10 best albums recorded at Sunset Sound:
10. The Doors – The Doors
Based on the raw footage from the time, the late 1960s looked like spending 24 hours a day in hippy heaven. Although artists may have been looking to expand their craft musically, the music scene coming out of California has always been draped in the kind of idyllic sounds of jam bands, folk music, and the kind of experimental rock that could have only been possible through the help of LSD. If California was rock and roll heaven, then The Doors were the demons hiding in plain sight.
Mixing together poetry, rock and roll and debauchery under one roof, the band’s debut encapsulated everything that the dark side of Flower Power stood for. As opposed to The Beatles singing about all we needed was love, Jim Morrison singing about wanting a woman to light his fire was far more risque for the time.
Even though parents were shellshocked when hearing the band for the first time, there was a lot more sophistication beyond the hits, with tracks like ‘Alabama Song’ showing their knack for show tunes and ‘The End’ sprawling out into a drawn-out exercise in avant-garde chaos. The Doors may have just intended to be an artsy rock and roll, but these few minutes captured on vinyl blew a hole in rock’s future that it wouldn’t soon recover from.
9. Hot Rats – Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa never made anything with commercial potential in mind. Throughout his career with The Mothers of Invention, there’s a good case that Zappa was known for making anti-commercial music, doing everything he could to experiment his craft against what the radio wanted. When you only march to the beat of your own drum, though, it makes for the purest music when you hit the right idea.
After being the representative for musical weirdos throughout the late 1960s, Hot Rats was where Zappa transitioned from art rock to jazz cat. While this would be home to the immortal exercise ‘Peaches en Regalia’, the best moments come from when Zappa is just riffing with the rest of the band, exploring different themes that feel like a warped version of what Miles Davis might have done if he were given a guitar instead of a trumpet.
Even though some tracks may not be for everyone (Captain Beefheart is on here, after all), Hot Rats is still one of the most adventurous albums made by a man who was all about reinventing what music was supposed to be. Whereas most artists wanted to make a musical acid trip whenever they played, this is the kind of massive soundscape that doesn’t need any kind of chemical assistance.
8. After the Gold Rush – Neil Young
Rule number one of working with Neil Young is never to question Neil Young. Even though the man may have had a track record for being one of the most difficult men in the industry, Young has been known to do whatever the hell he wants, even if it means moving out of the studio to create magic. While the majority of After the Gold Rush would be completed in Young’s house, that homespun feel remained intact when working in Sunset.
Liking the sounds of his vocals outside of his home studio, Young elected to sing as much as he could in a proper studio. While recording in two separate spaces tends to sound like a disaster for any other artist, the clean vocal next to the homemade instrumentation makes you feel like Young is in the room singing the song directly to you.
Free from his other projects with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, After the Gold Rush feels like the first time audiences got a taste of what Young was actually like with all the adornment removed. Without the blaring guitars and heavenly harmonies behind him, Young was still the real deal, and he would spend the rest of his career capitalising on the earnestness he captured here.
7. Full Moon Fever – Tom Petty
At the end of the 1980s, Tom Petty had started to feel chained to the Heartbreakers. After going through one of the most devastating periods of his life when someone burned his house down, the band’s collaboration with Bob Dylan led to Petty taking his foot off the gas for a little bit, eventually working alongside his fellow rock legends in the Travelling Wilburys. Hitting it off with Jeff Lynne, Petty knew that his next record would be the perfect excuse to stretch his muscles beyond his main gig.
Recorded in a handful of weeks before Lynne flew back to England, Full Moon Fever is the kind of album that feels like it could have been made in a weekend. Featuring layers of acoustic guitars and heavenly harmonies, Petty seemed to listen to every lesson his Wilburys had to impart and channel them into his music, resulting in amazing songs like ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and ‘Free Fallin’.
While the end result wouldn’t sit well with all of the Heartbreakers afterwards, Petty would look back on the sessions as one of the best times that he had even spent in the studio. That Heartbreaker muscle may not have been accounted for this time around, but Petty’s take on California sunshine never sounded more natural than this.
6. Pearl – Janis Joplin
There are only a handful of artists who could ever hope to reach the intensity of Janis Joplin. Whereas most vocalists need to spend a healthy amount of time warming up their voice whenever they walk into the studio, Joplin’s thick bluesy register made her a musical force of nature from the minute she sang ‘Piece of My Heart’ with Big Brother and the Holding Company. While Joplin may not have been long for this world after losing her battle with her demons, she did leave us with one parting gift.
Being the only full solo album that she ever made, Pearl is one of the most earnest recordings that Joplin could have offered at the time of her death. While songs like ‘Cry Baby’ are the kind of bluesy romps that most would have expected out of her, there’s nothing in the way of her voice this time around, even featuring her front and centre on the song ‘Mercedes Benz’.
While she may have been known for her booze-soaked voice, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ was the kind of tender love song that previewed where she might have gone next. Joplin may have been responsible for outdrinking everyone in the room in her prime, but underneath that partying attitude was a true artist who was bound to take over the world.
5. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
Before Pet Sounds had even been committed to tape, Brian Wilson was already a musical genius. Compared to the other bandleaders of his time, Wilson could do everything he set his mind to, usually having finished songs mapped out in his head before going into the studio to create The Beach Boys’ classics. Once he found competition in The British Invasion, Wilson knew that he needed to push himself musically on their next project.
Although The Beach Boys Today may have started the band’s move towards studio-focused material, Pet Sounds was the first time Wilson was given free rein in the studio. Utilising every member of The Wrecking Crew, every song on the album was about testing where a pop song could go, either featuring orchestral instruments on ‘God Only Knows’ or creating his answer to Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ on ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’.
While the album may have featured some of the wildest ideas ever put to tape, the rest of the world knew that they had to step up their game as well, with The Beatles creating Sgt Pepper a few months later to outdo what Wilson did. Even though it took hours of hard work to complete, the end result is the closest fans will get to understanding the brilliance inside Wilson’s head.
4. Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin
After Jimmy Page left The Yardbirds, he knew that he wanted something more out of rock and roll. Although blues-rock had served him well, the sounds of the same chord progressions were not going to fly when putting Led Zeppelin together. While the band’s fiery debut gave fans a preview of the power they had, their second album was the unofficial start of what the 1970s rock scene would look like.
Recorded in various locations while on the road, Page helped make the guitar riff the greatest force in music across every song, either through the sleazy sounds of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ or the primal stomp of ‘Ramble On’. After showing his chops on the first album, Robert Plant would ultimately earn his ‘Golden God’ persona on this album as well, taking from old bluesmen and creating something entirely new with his distinct wail.
While Led Zeppelin II was intended as a way to capture the sound of what the band could do live, every song is practically a lesson in where rock and roll can go. Zeppelin had officially become one of the greatest bands of all their peers, and the rest of the hard rock scene would have to live in the shadow of Led Zeppelin II for the rest of their lives.
3. Van Halen – Van Halen
If Led Zeppelin helped usher in the 1970s, the decade was looking worse for wear by the end of the decade. Even though artists like Zeppelin and their contemporaries like Aerosmith were making quality records, it felt like they were more gods among men than anything that an up-and-coming musician might aspire to. While punk may have helped rock out of the doldrums, California had its own answer to pompous rock with Van Halen’s debut.
After the genre started to become a parody of itself, the band’s self-titled debut made rock feel like one big party again. Whereas Black Sabbath and Deep Purple may have had a foreboding tone to much of their music, the feel-good spirit of David Lee Roth, matched with Eddie Van Halen’s intensity behind the fretboard, left a huge mark on any kid trying to master their instrument.
Aside from the party songs, ‘Eruption’ would become the benchmark for rock guitar for decades, giving birth to an entire generation of guitar players trying to copy Eddie’s signature style. While hard rock was all about making the kind of music that could melt people’s faces, Van Halen reminded us that the genre could still be fun when it wanted to.
2. Exile on Main St – The Rolling Stones
By the end of the 1960s, The Rolling Stones were about to go on the greatest creative streak of their career. While there had always been a constant competition between them and The Beatles throughout the previous decade, the loss of the Fab Four left Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as one of the few iconic songwriting duos still standing at the decade’s end. The party didn’t have to stop after 1970, but Exile on Main St marked the moment when the band turned into musical outlaws.
Moving out of England to record due to tax issues, Exile is the kind of album made by people who don’t have a home. Sprawling across two albums, every song on the record feels like the band created it on a whim, casually turning in pieces of musical brilliance on tracks like ‘Tumbling Dice’ and ‘Shine a Light’.
Although they had their music down to a science for a while, the best moments on the project are when they take risks, like the Richards-fronted song ‘Happy’ or their flirtation with punk-rock attitude years before the genre started on ‘Rip This Joint’. Those blues tropes may still be hanging around, but The Stones had gone from being students of the genre to making their own blues classics.
1. Purple Rain – Prince
Half of Prince’s greatest moments can be traced back to the trademark Minneapolis sound. Although he may have been the kind of star that Hollywood fawns over, ‘The Purple One’ was always known to represent the sound of his city, blending R&B, rock and funk under one roof to create the greatest music that the late 1970s had ever seen. After storming into the 1980s as a musical superstar, all he needed was a movie to help tie everything together.
After he signed a movie deal to tell the story of his upbringing, Purple Rain was everything anyone could ask for from Prince. Even though a movie soundtrack usually feels like a vanity project for most artists, Prince left a piece of his soul in between the groove of the vinyl, from blowing the doors down on ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ to flirting with art-rock on ‘When Doves Cry’ to opening his heart up tot he world on ‘The Beautiful Ones’.
By the time the title track actually starts, Prince delivered the kind of cinematic masterpiece that old Hollywood would have been proud to hear, getting the most out of The Revolution while keeping that white-hot spotlight forever fixed on him. Prince may not be the most celebrated artist of all time, but Purple Rain is about as close to perfection as any other album can get.
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