Controversial
27. King Diamond: ‘Give Me Your Soul Please’ – A concept album by King Diamond released on June 26, 2007. The album's concept and cover art are both based on a painting titled "My Mother's Eyes."
In the July/August issue of UK metal magazine Zero Tolerance, Diamond elaborated on the themes of the album, being a story of two dead children, murdered by their father, relating their tale to him. He stated that cases of parents killing their children and then themselves were a large influence, citing such an incident which occurred in Dallas four days before the interview took place. Ironically, Give Me Your Soul was also released the day after the highly publicized Chris Benoit double murder and suicide.
The album opens with a sister and brother waiting in the afterlife, haven been recently murdered by their father. The ambigious "Thirteen Judges" have deemed that the boy deserves to go to Hell because they mistakenly believe he committed suicide. The sister, called the Girl in the Bloody Dress, goes to search for a soul free of sin to save her brother from damnation. She arrives at Neverending Hill, where King Diamond lives with his black cat, Magic. She tries to contact him to help her, but only ends up haunting him instead, causing the lights to flicker, objects to move on their own, making the temperature drop to ice-like levels, and increasing the darkness. Using black magic, and fighting the darkness of the house, he finally contacts the girl who tells him her story; that her father chopped up her brother with an axe, splashing her with his blood, then choked her to death before shooting himself in the head. She looks into King's soul, but finds it's no good to her, because his soul is full of sin. In the final track, a rare ballad for King Diamond, he pleads with her to find a new house to search for a soul free of sin before the sun rises. The album ends with the Girl in the Bloody Dress saying that she's moving on to THIS house, implying that she's coming to the house of the listener of the album.
Wow, what kind of drugs were available for this recording session?
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Weird
27. Queensrÿche: 'Hear In The Now Frontier' Maybe they should have called "Five Ears in the Desert"- the mason jars are a nice touch. I love the concept and wonder why it isn't rated higher or even on the 'best' list.
Hear in the Now Frontier is the sixth studio album by progressive metal band Queensrÿche, released in 1997.
The album debuted at #19 but quickly vanished from the charts. The musical sound and style of the album was more basic and stripped down than anything the band had released to date, and some fans and critics pointed to the grunge musical style as being a major influence on the record. Despite the reaction, the singles "Sign of the Times" and "You" received substantial airplay. Queensrÿche has sold over 20 million albums worldwide including over 11 million albums and videos in the United States.
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Worst
27. Bee Gees – ‘Life In A Tin Can’ (1973) Now, I actually own a copy of this LP and I happen to like it. The pre-disco Bee Gees were actually a great pop/rock band and their career is iconic. Certainly an acquired taste, the Seventies soft-rock giants sold many records. But I still haven't figured out how they get in and out of that can.
The Gibb brothers (along with the Wilsons, probably the most famous 'family combo' in the world of pop music) weren't big innovators in the world of pop. What the brothers always had for them, and to a certain extent, have preserved up to the present day, is an incredible knack for writing solid pop melodies This is a plus. Another plus is the brothers' vocal talents: while their harmonies leave a lot to be desired, both Robin and Barry had tremendous singing voices, and were undeniably in the same league with Britain's (not to mention Australia's) best vocalists of both the Sixties and the Seventies... until, of course, they traded everything in for the irritating falsettos on their disco records. And that is where it all ended for me, although they continued to release music until the premature death of Maurice. Maurice Gibb died at a Miami Beach, Florida, hospital on January 12, 2003 of complications resulting from a twisted intestine. Following his death, his surviving brothers Barry and Robin announced that they would no longer perform as the Bee Gees.
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Best
27. Radiohead: ‘Amnesiac’ - Yet another Radiohead album cover designed by Stanley Donwood (he’s done the majority of the band’s complete back-catalogue), this somehow makes it onto the 'best' list- which is beyond comprehension for me.
Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was released on 4 June 2001 in the United Kingdom and on 5 June 2001 in the United States and Canada, debuting at #1 on the UK charts and #2 on the Billboard Top 200. Seen as the furthest departure yet from the rock style and heart-on-sleeve songwriting of the band's early career,[citation needed] Amnesiac nevertheless has more audible guitar than its direct predecessor Kid A, and unlike that album, it spun off several singles. Like Kid A, it synthesizes influences of electronic music, ambient music, classical music, and jazz.
In addition to the standard release of Amnesiac, a special edition album was released. This consists of a red hardback book, like the book pictured on the album cover. The book is styled as a library book from "Catachresis College Library", with the CD inside the book cover along with library slips and date stamps, some of which reference Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The book featured many pages of art designed by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, who went by the pseudonym of "Tchocky" when credited. In 2002, the special edition album won Donwood and Yorke a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" is called "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors" on this version.
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