Ace A's

I have finally reached the end of the first letter of my alphabetic jaunt through my CD albums, so time to look back.
The A’s it has to be said have been pretty fallow, on the whole the better A’s have been EP’s and singles, so haven’t got a play as they fall outside of the albums only rule, and it seems that some expected A’s have either been misfiled or downstairs near the stereo (Afghan Whigs)
So looking back upon the better A’s what has produced the alphabet starting results, and what left me hankering for the killer B’s.
The worst album amongst it all was Let There Be Rock by AC/DC, I mentioned that I think AC/DC would and probably do produce a great, greatest hits but this 8 track marathon could have ended later so I did not have to go through the unbelievable chore of sitting through it over and over as I aimed my car through the A roads of Staffordshire. Let There Be Rock was easily the worst edging out offerings by Auf Der Mer and The Avalanches, all seemed like diverse works of art compared to the honkings of AC/DC and the odd man that dresses as a school boy. The only song that raised the bar slightly from the level of a snakes belly was Whole Lotta Rosie and even that was only considered passable when placed next to the other manure on this album. You know that song Tarzan Boy by Baltimora, THAT is better than anything on this album.
I mentioned The Avalanches and Auf Der Mer, both albums were stinkers for their own reasons, The Avalanches purely as they took 3 second samples and strung them out for the entirety of a song and Auf Der Mer as she took every girl rock cliché and rung it for every drop, Auf Der Mers album was atrocious. A late entry into the truly appalling league was The Autonomists, anarcho punks that really were painfully bad, but is that what punk is all about? They were one of only 2 bands that got 0 out of 10 from me, the other being AC/DC.
So that’s the bad, what of the good? Well Air’s Virgin Suicides soundtrack and Moon Safari were high points, as was Richard Ashcrofts debut, I know what you are thinking, Dickie Ashcroft, I know, it surprised me, it was very good indeed, I was the king, I really was the king by Animals That Swim, but the best was The Amps’ Pacer. An album that I enjoy every time I hear it and I struggle to think of an A artist album better. Scoring wise, you will see that I placed Moon Safari higher, back to back though I think The Amps produced the better album.
I hope that the best B isn’t The Breeders by the way as it will make me look like a fanboy that I am not particularly, but the best A was an 9 out 10 and I was reluctant to give any album 10 as there are much better offerings in the T’s, the D’s and the B’s. The amps though when placed along side any album would always come off well.
Today it’s the start of the Killer B’s and that hopefully will not be too heavy on the Bragg, Beatles and Belle and Sebastian but I doubt it.