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

Answer: Led Zeppelin

"Houses of the Holy" was Led Zeppelin's fifth studio album. To my mind it's when they really came into their own after four very good but highly derivative albums. The opening song "The Song Remains the Same" serves as a sort of bridge from the previous bluesy/folky material to the new stuff. You can tell they were really delving into new territory and had finally developed a sound all of their own.

Not everybody was quite so enamoured with "Houses of the Holy" as I am, and many contemporary reviewers bemoaned exactly what I am so keen on. It would appear that many Zep fans have always loved the solid rock of "Black Dog" and would have preferred them to produce that for evermore.

Answer: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

"How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart" was Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's seventh studio album in less than ten years, and in my opinion not just their best but one of the best albums of its era. What makes it so good is the mellowness which pervades the whole record, balanced with biting wit, and a somber wistfulness which is so rare.

John Peel once said "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery with it" and the same could be said of Ayers aficionado and Gorky's founding member Euros Child. Even on early home recordings from when he was still a teenager on the band's debut 10" album "Patio" (1992), you can hear he was already something special. There's nowhere better to relish in that perspicacious brilliance than on "How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart".

Answer: Dio

"Holy Diver" is worthy of its place on a best-of list just thanks to Ronnie James Dio's performance on the title track. I daresay it's one of the few hard rock songs on which the lead vocalist comes in humming.

But it's not just Ronnie's humming that made the album so special. The whole album stood out as a great heavy rock album in a very arid period. Ronnie James Dio had clearly worked out what his niche was after stints in big cheeses Rainbow and Black Sabbath and he took it to its logical end, God bless him.

The opening track "Stand Up and Shout" gets the ball rolling in fine style, and it doesn't really stop for forty minutes. There are brief softer moments, but I get the feeling they are just there to amplify the heavy parts.

Answer: Rush

The first three minutes of "Hemispheres" are amongst my favourite moments in music. I still recall buying this album and sitting gobsmacked at how they could get through so much so swiftly and adeptly.

"Hemispheres" was Rush's sixth studio album and they were so slick on all the weird time signatures and changes it was almost, and I emphasise almost, boring. Indeed, on the following album they ditched progressive rock to a certain extent and went in search of new challenges. "Hemispheres" was the perfect way to wrap up a brilliant stage in their career.

Answer: Van der Graaf Generator

The intriguingly entitled album "H to He, Who Am the Only One" was Van der Graaf Generator's third album. Although it wasn't a big seller at the time of its release, it has since become one of the most emblematic albums of the group's legacy, and a progressive rock classic.

The opening track "Killer" could be used as a litmus test of whether you are going to like the group or not since it has everything they have to offer laid bare. What amazes me is how the lack of a guitar on what is essentially a rock song is so inconspicuous. If you still aren't sure, the second track "House with No Door" should nail it. On this one we have Peter Hammill's enigmatic lyrics and distinctive vocal delivery right up front. Fabulous.

Answer: Discharge

"Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" was Discharge's debut album although they had already built up a formidable following through EP releases such as "Realities of War", "Fight Back", "Decontrol", and the brilliant "Why?".

Criminally overlooked in many potted histories of punk, Discharge were actually hugely popular amongst punk rockers and beyond, but generally hated by the press. I suppose they weren't particularly endearing. Their obsession with the threat of nuclear destruction wasn't quite as newsworthy as lesser artists' perkier exploits which were more fitting of rock-star standards.

The album itself is an aural assault as much as it is a virile denouncement of government and its inevitable cronyism. Its influence on a whole sub-genre, mostly from Sweden, is evidence enough that Discharge made sense to lots and lots of people.

Answer: Marvin Gaye

"Here, My Dear" should have been a prize turkey. Right from the off, Marvin Gaye just sang about his failed marriage to his wife Anna Gordy Gaye in such an intimate way it must have been cringe-worthy for anybody who knew them, but he also managed to make a cracking album. It must be great being so talented you can just vent your spleen over rhythm and blues tunes as a way to make a living.

Having said that, it has to be admitted that much of popular culture, and pop music in particular, is a weird symbiotic relationship based on those with artistic talent expressing what we, the humble punters, can't quite say. In that context, "Here, My Dear" is as powerful as anything popular culture has conjured up and rings painfully true with anybody who has found themselves in the situation Marvin Gaye did. The amount of alimony may be different, but the emotions are the same.

Answer: Radiohead

"Hail to the Thief" was Radiohead's sixth album. It followed two great albums: 2001's "Amnesiac", and "Kid A" from 2000. Its reception was somewhat lukewarm, and group members themselves have pointed out its flaws.

While it's true that "Hail to the Thief" seems rushed, perhaps even sketchy, I reckon these imperfections make it all the more interesting. It's eclectic and sprawling, but I love all the ideas floating around in an atmosphere of experimentation rather than the overbearing grandiose attempt at the perfect album which hampered some of Radiohead's earlier releases. Like so many of their predecessors, Radiohead seem to thrive on disjointedness, in fact to my mind that disconnect is how they captured the zeitgeist of the turn of the century so well.

Answer: Cheap Trick

"Heaven Tonight" was Cheap Trick's third studio album and they got the balance between sweet pop rock 'n' roll and scathing, quasi-punk, hard rock just right.

Cheap Trick are highly underrated and arguably misrepresented by their high-profile hits from the 1980s. At their artistic peak, which is best heard on their first four 1970s studio albums, Cheap Trick were brilliant at making great catchy pop-rock coupled with sarcastic, cynical lyrics. Thankfully, they avoided the easy route of being directly political and managed to ride the cusp of critique and criticism, homage and parody. They also really rocked out, and made hummable tunes.

Answer: Bob Dylan

What can I possibly say about "Highway 61 Revisited" that hasn't already been said, and much more coherently than I ever could? Well, I'll just say that what amazes me is how nonchalant Dylan sounded as he effortlessly changed music and youth culture for ever on his first (almost) fully-electric opus.