Famous music critic Robert Christgau called Randy Newman’s 12 Songs “a perfect album,” and I can’t disagree. That’s why it was an easy pick as my best album of 1970.
I consider this record and Newman’s follow-up, 1972’s Sail Away, his very best albums and that makes them two of my very favorite albums of all-time. This one is as simple a distillation of Newman’s songwriting as you can imagine. Nothing fancy, just a brilliant lyricist and musician spinning tales both acidic and sweet.
My second favorite album of 1970 is Frank Sinatra’s little-known but no less classic concept album Watertown.
The album tells the tale of a man picking up the pieces after being left by his wife. He raises his two children, earns the sympathy of his neighbors, and quietly tries to win her back. The record ends with him waiting in the rain at a train station, the wife having gone back on her promise to return.
Van Morrison sist at #3 on my list of the best albums of 1970 with his third release, Moondance. This record could easily claim the #1 position but I have a soft spot for the two albums still to come.
The folk, soul and R&B sounds on this album, paired with Morrison’s unique vocals, put it in a class all its own. I can’t say that I reach for Moondance on a regular basis, but every time I hear it I wonder why I ever bother listening to anything else.
My fourth favorite album from 1970 is the final record by Simon & garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water. I’ve already featured five of this album’s 11 songs on the blog so clearly it hits a nerve.
This record was a smash hit for the duo. In fact, for the decade before the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982, this was the best-selling album of all time. But Simon and Garfunkel has already decided to part ways. The front cover, with Simon partially obscuring Garfunkel’s face, was perhaps unintentionally symbolic of the dynamic between them.
Last year I started a new ‘Decades’ series by focusing on my birth year, 1972, then 1982, 1992 and 2002, counting down my own favorite albums from each of those years and then 10-15 unfamiliar (to me) albums that received acclaim at the time.
I’m doing the same thing again, backing up a couple of years and focusing on 1970, ’80, ’90 and ’00. The next several weeks will be dedicated to 1970.
Meet Me In Montauk 