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

Answer: Can

"Tago Mago" was Can's third studio album release. In 1968, they had recorded an album called "Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom" but it lay unreleased until 1981 when it surfaced as the excellent "Delay 1968".

"Tago Mago" was the first Can album to feature Damo Suzuki on vocals and it saw them really get into their swing. It was a double album, and personally I would rather it hadn't been since without side three's longueur "Aumgn" (17:37), side four's pointless "Peking O" (11:37), and with a bit of editing here and there, they could have made the perfect two-sided album. However, who am I to try and turn back time and mess with genius?

Answer: Pavement

"Terror Twilight" was Pavement's fifth album and the last before they split up in 1999. Each of the group's first four albums was very different from the others, sometimes radically so. On this one, it all seemed to come together and although many of the group's trademark rough edges had been smoothed down, I think it best summed Pavement up. Taken on surface value, it was a much more mellow affair than some of their previous outings but if you scratched just below that veneer, it was actually a deeply disturbing album.

Much of the credit for sorting Pavement's sloppy mess out in order to make a classic album had to go to producer Nigel Godrich. I daresay some of the band's hardcore fan base disliked the more polished, graceful Pavement but I lapped it up.

Pavement were one of the highlights in an era in which there was little to celebrate in guitar-driven mainstream music. They got the quirkiness just right, had some hilariously insightful lyrics, some fabulous tunes, and seemed to be having fun. "Major Leagues" has to have been "Terror Twilight"'s standout track, and to my mind their best song ever. Having said that, every track therein was a winner.

Answer: Bathory

"Twilight of the Gods" was the sixth studio album by Bathory. By that point, Bathory was a one-man band and that man was the late great Quorthon. The second most important person in Bathory's history was the producer of most of the band's albums, Börje "Boss" Forsberg, who, it later turned out, was Quorthon's father.

I love everything Bathory ever did and think Quorthon was a true trailblazer in extreme metal. Bathory's oeuvre has quite a range from the rawness of the eponymous debut in 1984 to practically inventing Viking metal with 1988's "Blood Fire Death".

On "Twilight of the Gods", Quorthon perfected the Viking metal sound and added a great depth to it with slower paced compositions and a strong influence from classical music. Furthermore, his vocals were much clearer than on some other releases which gave him a vulnerability which was very easy to relate to.

As the name Bathory might suggest, there was always an obsession with blood in Bathory's imagery. In this case, we get three songs with the word blood in the title: "Through Blood by Thunder", "Blood and Iron", and "Bond of Blood".

"Blood and Iron" might have actually been the album's standout track. The third part of the song ended up sounding like the Viking metal of a Led Zeppelin song like "Kashmir".

Answer: Mike Oldfield

"Tubular Bells" was Mike Oldfield's debut solo album. He was just nineteen when he recorded it. However, he had already been on the music scene for a good while and was anything but callow.

Oldfield had tried to flog his concept album to several music biz bigshots but had got nowhere until Richard Branson decided "Tubular Bells" would be perfect as his fledgling label Virgin's first release. It was a huge risk but paid off and the album was a massive success.

The album was split into two parts, one each side. The parts were unimaginatively called "Tubular Bells, Part One" and "Tubular Bells, Part Two" but that is where the lack of creativity ended since the music was as varied as one could ever desire. Just a look at the instruments Oldfield played should be enough to make one's jaw drop: acoustic, bass and electric guitar, Farfisa, organ, flageolet, glockenspiel, piano, mandolin, percussion, timpani, and, of course, tubular bells. There were also some vocals on the album, although apparently the record company's wish to have some singing in order to release a single riled Oldfield. One of my favourite bits of the album was actually a result of the fallout; about half-way through "Part Two" we got some wild, incomprehensible guttural shouting. Fantastic in itself, and even better when you realise it was a drunken Oldfield antagonistically appeasing the record company.

Answer: Celtic Frost

"To Mega Therion" was Swiss weirdos Celtic Frost's either first or second full-length album depending on where you live. In Europe, they had released the fabulous "Morbid Tales" as a mini-album but in the US it had been released as a full album. In both regions, the group's second release had been the mini-album "Emperor's Return".

"To Mega Therion" was Celtic Frost's greatest step into making it clear that the slightly awkward sound wasn't just technical ineptitude but an artistic statement in itself.

The cumbrous opening track "Innocence and Wrath" made that very clear, and although the following track, "The Usurper", was ostensibly more straight-forward, there was still something so colossal about the riff that it seemed almost vulgar.

This theme was developed in several ways on the wonderfully titled tracks reminiscent of H.P.Lovecraft such as "Dawn Of Meggido", "Circle Of The Tyrants" (possibly Frost's best ever track), and "(Beyond The) North Winds".

Then it all got very weird on the experimental "Tears In A Prophet's Dream" which sounded like the tapes from a torture chamber.

It was all rounded off with the slightly wonky "Necromantical Screams" which had the improbably-named Wolf Bender providing some sombre French horn, and Claudia-Maria Mokri adding to the nightmare with some operatic vocals.

All in all, one of the weirdest, most influential metal albums of all time. Furthermore, impossible to headbang to, impossible not to headbang to.

Answer: Spirit

"Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" was Spirit's fourth studio album and it went on to be one of their best-known efforts. Spirit were very much a band of their time (late 1960s/early 1970s) and place (California) so some of the album has dated, but at its heights it was real cracker.

It started off with the brilliantly haunting "Prelude - Nothin' to Hide" followed by the ahead-of-its-time warning of environmental disaster, "Nature's Way". Next came the comedy "Animal Zoo".

It all got a bit hippy-drippy before "Mr. Skin" got it back on track, but all was forgiven thanks to this tribute to the bald drummer being a great funky rocker.

Side two cracked off with the pointless "Space Child" but it did introduce the much more interesting "When I Touch You", followed by the Love-esque "Street Worm". "Life Has Just Begun" once again pointed out what was so wrong with hippies, but the next song "Morning Will Come" thankfully tapped into something almost Motown. The album's closer brought all of the things that made Spirit great together and must have convinced even the doubting Thomases such as myself.

Answer: New York Dolls

"Too Much Too Soon" was the Dolls' second album. It didn't stray too far from their eponymous debut, but it did have a sharper sound. It has been opined that it was too polished, but nobody could completely rein in one of the most archetypal rock 'n' roll groups of their era that much. I reckon veteran producer Shadow Morton, who had produced The Shangri-Las among others, and the New York Dolls was a marriage made in heaven.

The result was one of the most fun rock records of the early 1970s. The whole group were on top form, but vocalist David Johansen had a field day putting on all sorts of funny voices to such an extent that it almost became the mockery they were accused of, but I emphasize almost.

"Too Much Too Soon" was a commercial flop and on the promotional tour the group's bad habits got the better of them. Missed planes, cancelled gigs, quarrels all led to their eventual destruction. Sad as that was, it couldn't really have gone any other way for such a bunch of brilliant reprobates.

Answer: Ramones

"Too Tough to Die" was the Ramones' eighth studio album and after a few faltering years it saw them come back as a lean, mean, punk rock machine. Part of the new lease of life was new drummer Richie Ramone who played hard and fast, which helped steer the group away from the mainstream sensibilities they had flirted with to no great success, and back towards the roots they had come from.

I'll never forget catching the Ramones on the iconic "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV programme in the UK and seeing Joey Ramone looking suitably impressed by the singing drummer on "Wart Hog", but at the same time looking incredibly awkward (as was his wont anyway) due to the fact that he didn't have to sing for once.

Answer: Blue Öyster Cult

"Tyranny and Mutation" was Blue Öyster Cult's second studio album and the one on which they really got into their groove.

Groove being the operative word too since the album hit listeners with an almost jazzy rhythm section right from the word go on the opening track "The Red & the Black" and didn't let them go until the doom-laden "Wings Wetted Down" on side two.

Much has been said about Blue Öyster Cult's heavy riffing and mystical imagery, but little credit has been given to Albert Bouchard's complex drumming which on this album more than any other really drove the songs. His interaction with his brother Joe, who was playing bass guitar, made "Tyranny and Mutation" a veritable feast of high-paced, intricate rock 'n' roll. I am amazed every time I listen to it how he got as much depth of feeling out of a drum kit as wonderful rock guitarists get out of a guitar.

Answer: Aerosmith

"Toys in the Attic" was Aerosmith's third studio album. They had definitely found what they were all about on this opus. Musically they had found a way of expressing themselves which was so acute that vocalist Steven Tyler could try out all sorts of tricks, a confidence he relished throughout the album.

The title track opened side one and they were off like a shot on this frantic rocker. Next up was one of group's most disturbing tales, "Uncle Salty". I don't really know what it was about but it surely wasn't a fairy tale. "Adam's Apple" was so densely littered with lewd insinuation it became almost impossible to follow the plot. Then came one of the group's signature tunes, "Walk This Way".

Although side one signed off on a slight low point with the rather pointless schoolboy humour of "Big Ten Inch Record", side two kicked off with the group's greatest moment as far as I am concerned: the sublime "Sweet Emotion". I will never forget seeing them perform this at the outdoor festival at Castle Donington around dusk. There were bonfires as well as all sorts of other things burning in the field and even the hardcore thrashers there to see Sepultura and Pantera had to concede that the heavy vibe of Joe Perry's talkbox was transcendental.

It would be a tough job to decide which Aerosmith album is their best, but "Toys in the Attic" would have to be a contender.