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

Answer: Duke Ellington

"Money Jungle" was released as a Duke Ellington album, but the trio was completed by Charles Mingus and Max Roach whose names featured prominently, albeit in smaller letters than Duke's, on the cover. All the compositions were written by Duke.

Mingus had played briefly with Duke Ellington back in the early 1950s but had been kicked out of the band due to friction between him and trombonist Juan Tizol. In a weird twist of fate, Juan Tizol co-wrote "Caravan", which appears on this album.

I love everything Duke Ellington ever did, but I'm so fond of "Money Jungle" because of its pared down sound. Having said that, this trio had as much going on as in one of Duke's big bands and the three of them zigzagging in and out of each other was so dynamic and fresh. As great as Duke's ambitious "Black, Brown and Beige" was, or as much fun as his innovative "Jazz Party" was, I don't think he ever sounded as pertinent as on "Money Jungle".

Answer: The Damned

"Machine Gun Etiquette" was The Damned's third studio album. They had actually broken up after the excellent second album "Music for Pleasure", gone off and done various things, then come back together with a slightly altered line-up.

"Machine Gun Etiquette" branched out a bit and had some really unexpected mellow moments, but it maintained the group's inimitable chaotic feel. There was always something intrinsically English about that sound. The group always sounded like it was all about to fall apart but never did, unlike the slicker, apparently tighter bands of the first wave of British punk.

The album also produced three of The Damned's best singles: "Love Song", the inspirational "Smash It Up", and "I Just Can't Be Happy Today".

Answer: The Smiths

"Meat is Murder" was The Smiths' second studio album. As great as the songs on the group's eponymous debut were, it sounded sappy whereas "Meat Is Murder" did the group's ephemeral sound more justice.

That sound had broadened by that point too, and all of a sudden it was impossible to ignore the fact that this band were challenging people's expectations of what pop music could be. Morrissey was also more strident in his challenging of accepted morality, most noticeable in the title track but not only. Having said that, it was not all preachy and Morrissey's literary aspirations were also evident.

As much as anything else it was a great sophisticated pop album, with catchy tunes, pathos, and lashings of dark humour.

Answer: The Troggs

The Troggs' album "Mixed Bag" was exactly that. While such range might usually make an album disjointed, I think that its variety actually made it work. Part of that might be since one of The Troggs' main tricks was playing Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which they did to great effect on this album. Don't forget, this was the group whose biggest hits were the proto-punk classic "Wild Thing" and the nauseous "Love Is All Around".

The main culprit was of course lead singer Reg Presley. One could easily be fooled into thinking that his slightly raspy voice is that of a smooth charmer on "Lazy Weekend" or "Hey Little Girl", his laid-back delivery that of a naive hippy on "Listen to the Man", but then out came the menace on "Feels Like a Woman", the lewd "Strange Movies", and the ode to recreational drug use of "Everything's Funny".

Answer: Three 6 Mafia

I'm not convinced horrorcore really exists as a sub-genre of hip-hop, but if it does, Three 6 Mafia's debut album "Mystic Stylez" must have fallen firmly into the category. On this album they rapped about anything unpleasant and unruly in irreverent tones and, most importantly, over really nasty sounds. By 1995, hip-hop and rap had unequivocally entered into the mainstream and subsequently lost much of its edge, so it was invigorating to hear something so indecorous flying the flag once held high by rock 'n' roll.

The album is very sophisticated in musical terms, silver-tongued in its expression, and last but not least, a lot of fun.

Answer: Black Sabbath

"Master of Reality" was the Sabs' third studio album and the first brick in the foundation of stoner metal. It came after the groundbreaking eponymous debut, and the huge hit "Paranoid", both released in 1970. What was lacking on "Paranoid" was the feel of an album despite, or possibly because of, the number of great individual songs. "Master of Reality", on the other hand, was definitely a cohesive statement. It also ushered in a string of groundbreaking albums, and arguably the group's spiral into madness.

The album kicked off with a rasping cough, and then jumped straight into classic Black Sabbath territory with the wonderful "Sweat Leaf". The overused term seminal is really the only word which can be used to describe the groovy, headbanging sludge led by Tony Iommi's riff and augmented by the heavy bass of Geezer Butler and thumping drumming of Bill Ward. The album didn't really let up in terms of heaviness from then on until the equally seminal "Into the Void" twenty-odd minutes later. Having said that, the album's real bludgeon,"Children of the Grave", was cushioned between two acoustic interludes.

What was so great about "Master of Reality" was how it managed to balance heaviness with groove, world-weariness with something uplifting, space with oppressiveness. It hasn't aged a bit either.

Answer: Black Flag

"My War" was only Black Flag's second album but it was met with cries of sell-out from some who felt the group had moved away from their fan base.

The main gripe seems to have been how much they had slowed down, in particular on side two where the songs were at a snail's pace compared to the band's earlier stuff. Another grievance was the muddy sound, in particular Gregg Ginn's guitar sound. Strange as it may seem, these are both reasons why I am so fond of the album. As exciting as super-fast hardcore punk can be, I reckon Black Flag took on such a deeper, darker feel on "My War". I'm not sure they later developed that in the right way and subsequent albums lost the plot, but on this opus they got it just right.

Answer: Television

By the time Televison's debut album "Marquee Moon" came out in 1977, they were already a seasoned live act and had honed their songs down to perfection. Right from the opening track "See No Evil" there was so much going on in such an apparently straight-forward poppy punk number, you just couldn't help but get drawn in.

Although bassist Fred Smith was the only native New Yorker, the album had that unmistakable New York sound which is so hard to pin down. Tom Verlaine's evocative lyrics had a lot to do with the punk movement which Television were rather lazily lumped in with, but his take on the familiar themes were head and shoulders above his contemporaries.

Answer: Metallica

After the oddly disappointing second album "Ride the Lightning", Metallica fans such as myself were waiting with bated breath for "Master of Puppets" and Messrs. Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton and Hammett didn't let us down. It wouldn't be far-fetched to say it was the essential album of the 1980s for metal fans.

What they got just right on this one was the intensity and brutality of early thrash crossed with the sophisticated songwriting of 1970s progressive rock bands, and an almost avant-garde interest in dissonance at times. Needless to say, I wasn't aware of that at the time, but I knew it was something special.

Furthermore, where "Ride the Lightning" had fallen short was quality control and cohesiveness. On "Mater of Puppets" there was no filler, and each track made sense both in itself and as part of a whole.

Definitely in my top ten of best albums of all time.

Answer: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

"Murder Ballads" was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' ninth album, and despite the morbid theme, the first one which was accessible to a wide audience. What's more, it was the first of their albums to really work as an album. It might be argued that the murder motif actually hinders the album, i.e. it was flogged to death, but I would argue that the variety of gruesome tales and range of musical styles kept its head above water and saved it from drowning.

Some of the yarns are really quite disturbing, others sorrowful, a couple darkly funny, and at least one rather existential. The big hit was the noir-esque duet with Cave's co-patriot Kylie Minogue, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", although the highlight for me was his duet with PJ Harvey "Henry Lee".