Bob Dylan’s 1974 Planet Waves was released between the album widely considered his worst (1973’s Dylan) and one widely considered his best (1975’s Blood on the Tracks).
Planet Waves definitely falls closer to the Blood on the Tracks side of that continuum, even if it doesn’t come close to the heights of that classic. Its songs are thoughtful meditations on love and death with rich backing music provided by The Band, and it fits nicely just below the top tier of Dylan albums.
The best 1974 album I’ve written about so far, Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys was his fourth studio album and the follow-up to 1972’s brilliant Sail Away.
Good Old Boys started as a concept album about the Deep South, following a character named Johnny Cutler. Newman eventually broadened the focus to the South in general, though bits of Johnny’s story show up throughout the tracklist.
I haven’t done a full-career deep dive of David Bowie, but I did spend three weeks in 2016 exploring his catalog following his death.
Among the albums I featured was 1974’s Diamond Dogs, an ambitious record that paired Bowie’s glam rock style with a grungier aesthetic inspired by the Rolling Stones. Best known for ‘Rebel Rebel’ and the title track, the album sold well despite mixed reviews.
Like Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky, the second classic 1974 album on this list showed up in a deep dive earlier this year. Too bad Madonna didn’t record in 1974 or we could have gone three for three.
Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark was her most popular album, commercially, and has been critically hailed. As I wrote back in February, however, I remain immune to its charms.
This week I’m kicking off the latest installment of my ‘Decades’ series, wherein I feature songs from renowned albums from a single year across four decades. So far I have covered the first four years of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. That brings me back around to 1974.
Normally, I count down my own favorite albums from the given year before moving on to albums with which I’m not familiar. This year, though, proves to be a bit of a blindspot for me. While I have passing familiarity with the first five or six albums I’ll feature, I don’t know them well enough to rank them.
Meet Me In Montauk 