There Ain't Half Been Some Great Albums: D Quiz

Answer: Love

As the name suggests, "Da Capo" saw Love starting all over again after their eponymous debut album which was also released in 1966. Although the debut was interesting in the context of the group's work as a whole, if they had left it there I daresay they would be a mere footnote in 1960s music history. Instead, on "Da Capo" we can hear the group's musical, and especially Arthur Lee's lyrical, genius blossom. Side one features great tracks such as the demented "Stephanie Knows", the proto-punk "7 is 7", and my favourite Love song, "She Comes in Colors".

Then onto the second side of "Da Capo": "Revelation". This lengthy blues workout, which was relatively unusual at the time, is very dated but what I love is the band and the record company's, audacity at putting out an album containing such a longeur.

Answer: Babyshambles

"Down in Albion" was the debut album by Babyshambles, the group notorious media-star Pete Doherty formed when he was temporarily kicked out of The Libertines due to his drug habits.

This album shows Doherty's songwriting talents off well, but even more so his performances. It's got a great loose feel, and his artless songwriting was a breath of fresh air in an era of either uptight pretension or macho posturing.

It's a shame Pete Doherty has ended up the focus of the media due to his antics and precarious lifestyle rather than his oft-overlooked musical talent. Having said that, performers with as dramatic a lifestyle as Pete's are bound to attract that type of interest.

Answer: The White Stripes

Although I don't think The White Stripes made a bad album, I reckon it's their second, "De Stijl", which captures their raw, bluesy, garage rock the best. There's some great songwriting on display here, and also very a pertinent choice of cover material. From the album's opener, "You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)", something about rock 'n' roll music's everlasting naive charm is captured perfectly. I still haven't worked out what the lyric on the aforementioned song is about, but its childlike simplicity is pure brilliance.

No doubt the cover version of Son House's "Death Letter" introduced the blues luminary to a whole new audience, like it did me. Shame it was too late for him to enjoy it. Also, two Detroiters closing their album with Blind Willie McTell's "Your Southern Can Is Mine" was genial.

Answer: Leonard Cohen

"Death of a Ladies' Man" is one of the oddest match-ups in the history of popular music: erudite, poetic singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and pop music svengali genius Phil Spector. What could have been an embarrassment to both men, turned out to be one of the most entertaining episodes in pop music.

Cohen apparently didn't like the album when it came out, complaining that it had somehow escaped his grasp and become somebody else's (guess who?) record. I disagree and think it's really refreshing to hear Cohen's inimitable drawl and hilarious lyrics in the Spector spectrum.

There are too many crazy stories which circulate about the recording of "Death of a Ladies' Man" and especially the album's producer Phil Spector's escapades to recount here. We all know what happened to him, what I find so hard to understand is how he didn't get locked up years earlier.

Answer: ZZ Top

I reckon that on "Degüello", ZZ Top's sixth studio album, they were a leaner, meaner, tighter group than they had been, or than they would be again. They sounded really cool in a sleazy way on this album. That seedy groove wasn't present on their previous albums and certainly disappeared again when they got super-slick. That's not to say their other albums aren't great, but in a very different way.

ZZ Top have always stood out thanks to their ability to inject ingenious humour into their blend of rock blues without being goofy, and on "Degüello" they had that wit spot-on with stuff like "Cheap Sunglasses", "She Loves My Automobile", "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide", and "A Fool for Your Stockings".

Answer: Sonic Youth

"Daydream Nation" was Sonic Youth's fifth studio album and it perfectly nailed a switch in underground music from what many listeners found unpalatable post-punk noise to much more accessible pop tendencies. It could be argued that what this shift eventually led to was so-called "alternative rock" becoming obsolete since what was it an alternative to when it was mainstream? However, in 1988 with "Daydream Nation", Sonic Youth were on the cusp of that new era and the album is something of a landmark.

The range and depth spread across this seventy-plus minute double album is quite breathtaking. What's even more astonishing is how well it has aged. To my ears, it still sounds like it's from the future.

Answer: Ozzy Osbourne

"Diary of a Madman" was Ozzy Osbourne's second solo album, coming out just a year after his debut solo opus post-Black Sabbath, "Blizzard of Oz", had been released. The latter is probably higher on most Ozzy fans' lists, but I have always loved "Diary of a Madman" more. I daresay you could argue that the songs are not as well-crafted as on "Blizzard of Oz", but I think you can hear the inimitable guitarist Randy Rhodes come into his own on "Diary of a Madman". Furthermore, the three opening tracks "Over the Mountain" and "Flying High Again", and "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" are exactly how an early 1980s metal album should start. The title track is one of my favourite Ozzy performances too.

Having said all that, I might favour it over "Blizzard of Oz" simply because I had this album on tape as a kid and heard it countless times on long car journeys!

In the early 2000s the incredibly strange, and perhaps unprecedented, decision was made to rerecord the original bass and drum tracks with different musicians on both "Blizzard of Oz" and "Diary of a Madman" thus denying Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake, original bassist and drummer respectively, any claim to royalties from the reissued CD. Thankfully, the original recordings have since been restored to anniversary editions of both albums.

Answer: Adam and the Ants

"Dirk Wears White Sox" was Adam and the Ants' debut album, and the only album to feature the line-up of Adam Ant, Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman. Those Ants went on to become the equally brilliant Bow Wow Wow with Annabella Lwin soon afterwards.

When Adam got new Ants the group became much more commercially viable and were a pop sensation, whereas "Dirk Wears White Sox" is an odd little post-punk gem. On this debut they seemed to want to try out everything from funky beats, angular guitar riffs, odd song structures, and very enigmatic lyrics that make complete sense without making any sense.

By the way, the white-socked Dirk of the title is film star Dirk Bogarde. If only they had used his full name and called the album "Sir Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde Wears White Sox".

Answer: Portishead

The group is essentially a trio: vocalist Beth Gibbons, and multi-instrumentalists Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley. Their recordings often list several other people who played a wide range of instruments, and they make extensive use of programming and sampling.

Portishead's debut album, "Dummy", brought something musical that was happening in Bristol to the forefront of British (and beyond) consciousness. Fellow Bristolians Massive Attack had paved the way but nothing could really prepare the record-buying public for such creepy yet beautifully fragile sounds as Portishead served up on "Dummy". There isn't really a stand-out track as the whole album works perfectly in unison, very much like a film score does.

Answer: Aerosmith

"Draw the Line" isn't often mentioned as a great Aerosmith album, but it's among my favourites. It sounds really fresh to my ears, even more so than more-celebrated Aerosmith classics. Certainly "Draw the Line" isn't as smooth an album as some of the group's other works, but I think that adds to it. I wonder if the advent of punk rock played its part since it has an edgy feel, and it gets quite frantic at times. On the other hand, this sound/feel maybe the vast amounts of drugs certain members of the band were ingesting, or perhaps it could be attributed to the bust-up between several members which was on the horizon.