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

Answer: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Whether "Electric Ladyland" is an eclectic visionary masterpiece or an overambitious sprawling mess is a much-debated point. Actually, I tend to think it's all of those things, and at the end of the day it's a hugely enjoyable splurge of ideas and styles. There's no doubt that Jimi Hendrix was looking way beyond the rock trio format more than ever on this album, but having said that it does contain catchy numbers, none more so than "Crosstown Traffic". One thing that is noticeable is the number of people guesting on the album, something that apparently didn't go down well with everybody involved in the group.

"Electric Ladyland" was the last album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and they broke up the following year. As great as the group was, Messrs Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell had gone about as far as they could go. If Hendrix had lived longer (he died in 1970), he undoubtedly would have taken his exceptional talent in all sorts of interesting directions. As we can hear on "Electric Ladyland", he was fearless in his curiosity.

Answer: Can

"Ege Bamyasi" was German group Can's fourth studio album. It's one of the few albums I never get bored with and appreciate more every time I hear it. There's something about the apparent mellowness being mixed with an uncanny feeling of an underlying sinister element that really hits a nerve. Whether that's the intention or not is an eternal question I don't want an answer to.

The album's opening track is classic Can; rhythms and percussion going off in all directions, minimal guitar comments, and Damo Suzuki's underplayed, indecipherable vocals. The next track, "Sing Swan Song", is one of the saddest songs around, but it's hard to sum up why. "One More Night" rounds off side one with another tight, mellifluous, rhythmic ditty. Side two boasts two of Can's best-known songs, the opener "Vitamin C" and the closer "Spoon". The latter was an unlikely hit in the group's native Germany. Sandwiched in-between are the ten-minute-plus "Soup" and "I'm So Green". Not a single wasted note on this masterpiece.

Answer: DJ Shadow

"Endroducing..." was DJ Shadow's debut album and enjoyed one of those rare and very special moments when something innovative was also appreciated by a wide audience. The album was practically all made up of samples and DJ Shadow proved to the masses that the skill in putting together samples is an art just as much as playing the stuff in the first place.

The album was also notable for the range of moods created, and the affirmation that what goes on beneath a rap track is worth listening to in its own right. Furthermore, "Endtroducing" was fundamental in the establishment, or at least further consolidation, of instrumental hip-hop as a valid genre.

For anybody with eclectic taste in music, "Endtroducing" was such a buzz, and speaking personally, it was like the soundtrack in my head finally being put down on tape.

By the way, for anybody as pedantic as I can be; the title includes five full-stops after the title "Endtroducing" but FunTrivia has a very useful in-built phobia of too many full-stops in order to eliminate bad punctuation. Apologies Mr DJ.

Answer: Gang of Four

Right from the off you know what you are in for with "Entertainment!". It's angular guitars, urgent, funky rhythms and overlapping voices all the way. I daresay I'm in the minority who finds that a recipe for dancing around like a nutter.

The strange thing about "Entertainment!" is how much of a guitar-lovers' album it is, despite the fact that the guitarist Andy Gill's style is totally anti-guitar hero. It's all choppy and almost bereft of the flashy showmanship most guitarists make their names with. The album was also noteworthy for having the bass very high in the mix, and even more so for using the bass as the vehicle to carry the song.

As one would expect from the name of the band, the lyrics are highly politicised, but Gang of Four are much less preachy than some of their predecessors or copyists.

Answer: T. Rex

"Electric Warrior" was the second album under the name T.Rex, although four folky albums featuring the group's star, Marc Bolan, had been released between 1968 and 1970 under the name Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"Electric Warrior" was a drastic change in direction and one which alienated many fans of the earlier style, including one of the group's early advocates, DJ John Peel. However, T.Rex gained more fans than they lost with the glam rock sound. In fact, the album was something of a glam rock blueprint. Personally, I can't think of a better way to start an album, a statement of new artistic intent, arguably a music genre, than the fabulous quartet of songs: "Mambo Sun", "Cosmic Dancer", "Jeepster" and "Monolith".

Obviously a lot of what makes T.Rex so timeless is the fact that Marc Bolan was a great songwriter, a highly underrated guitarist, and dripped with charisma. Nevertheless, "Electric Warrior" was a band effort and especially the rhythm section of Steve Currie (bass guitar) and Bill Legend (drums) deserve credit, as does Mickey Finn on bongos and congas, and finally whoever was responsible for all that fantastic clapping!

Answer: Candlemass

How much fun misery can be! As the dodgy Latin title promises, "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" is a very doom-laden record. However, it's thoroughly enjoyable and quite cathartic.

The Swedish metal group were honourably brave since at that time in the metal genre practically everybody else seemed to be playing as fast as they could, but Candlemass decided to take the other path and slow it all down in order to achieve real heaviness. Fans of heavy music responded and the group garnered fans around the globe. After "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", Candlemass took on an even more formidable vocalist, Messiah Marcolin, but to my mind the material and overall sound took a down-turn.

Answer: Patti Smith Group

"Easter" was the Patti Smith Group's third studio album. As good as the first two, "Horses" (1975) and "Radio Ethiopia" (1976), had been, they were too elusively arty for the average record-buying rock fan.

Personally, I have always found Patti Smith takes herself too seriously and so she ends up being slightly ridiculous, but on "Easter" she seems to have let her guard down a bit and as a result made a great, sophisticated rock album. There was still a lot of provocative religious imagery, political anger, and more spoken poetry than you'd expect on a rock album, but it also spawned a hit single, "Because the Night".

Answer: The Rolling Stones

"Exile on Main St" is a really fascinating, complex album. If we were to judge it on its opening tracks, it'd probably be the greatest rock 'n' roll album of all time, but that would be too easy for the Stones. It was the Stones' tenth studio album, a double lasting almost 70 minutes, and it came at the end (in my opinion) of an incredible string of four superb albums. Brilliant in its scope, I think it's let down by a few lesser songs that stretch it all out too far. A bit more separating the wheat from the chaff and they could have made the perfect album.

The production by Jimmy Miller has come in for a lot of criticism, including from Mick Jagger, but I love it. He somehow managed to make everything sound a bit dirty and skanky but still remain clear. The star of the show on this album, and not only this album, is Charlie Watts who is not just setting the time, but the whole groove.

Answer: Bob Marley and the Wailers

By the time "Exodus" came out, Bob Marley was a huge international star. The Wailers' rhythm section had been playing with Bob since the early 1970s and had been with Lee "Scratch" Perry before that. Pete Tosh and Bunny Wailer were long gone, but their replacements were no lesser musicians. The album sounds like they had soaked up all sorts of influences, which all came together into a really sophisticated, smooth, sound. They were all brimming with confidence too so the feel of "Exodus" was actually really mellow, despite the heavy topics it dealt with. Bob's vocals were really gorgeous, as were the female backing singers, the I Threes.

Possibly my favourite Wailers song, "Turn Your Lights Down Low", is on side two among a batch of songs which were all released as singles while it wasn't. To my ears it gets what was so special about Bob Marley's voice and delivery, as well as the almost ethereal quality of the music.

Answer: Neil Young with Crazy Horse

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" was Neil Young's second solo album. You might think that the unusual riff and rhythm of "Cinnamon Girl" would rule it out of opening your album, but not only did Neil & Co. throw caution to the wind and do exactly that, they even released it as a single. It has since become one of Neil's signature songs and has been covered countless times.

The album wasn't just about the one song though and it didn't contain a dud. The two longer songs which close sides one and two, "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand", are worthy of particular note.