#5

LED ZEPPELIN — PHYSICAL GRAFFITI

Zepp’s first release on their own Swan Song label was eagerly anticipated, expectations being further heightened by delays due to challenges in the production of the die-cut cover. A studio double album, it is either expansive or sprawling depending on your mood. The epic tracks—”Kashmir” and “In my time of dying”—are widescreen statements of artistic vision as well as thunderingly good hard rock. But there are moments of acoustic reflection too (“Bron-Yr-Aur”) and even some funky rock and roll fun (“Boogie with Stu”). Within the variety, there is also cohesion; this is a world conquering band in full possession of their demigod power.

*

#4

BOB DYLAN — BLOOD ON THE TRACKS

Written amid personal upheaval, the songs on Blood On The Tracks unfold as fractured dialogues with shifting narrative viewpoints rather than confession, lending the album an unsettling yet muted power. The intimacy of the original New York sessions’ contrasts with later Minneapolis re-recordings, adding tonal variety without diluting focus. “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Simple Twist of Fate” anchor the set, while “Idiot Wind” burns with controlled fury. Without doubt Dylan’s mid-career peak, Blood on the Tracks reasserted his authority as a songwriter of rare psychological depth while alluding to a vulnerability that enriches the listener. This writer’s favourite Dylan album would have ranked higher except that the epic story “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” does start to drag after multiple listens over the decades.

*

#3

BRIAN ENO — ANOTHER GREEN WORLD

Eno’s third studio album is a rich and complex feast. Blending concise art-pop songs with instrumental miniatures, the album treats the studio as a compositional tool, foregrounding texture, timbre and atmosphere. Tracks such as “Sky Saw” and “St. Elmo’s Fire” balance fractured rhythms with melodic clarity, while ambient pieces like “In Dark Trees” and “The Big Ship” suggest a newly imagined musical ecology. Featuring understated contributions from Robert Fripp, Phil Collins and others, Another Green World is a quietly radical work that laid crucial foundations for ambient music and Eno’s later production aesthetic.

*

#2

NEU! — NEU 75

In late 1974 Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother met up and decided that they didn’t want Neu! to end with the ultimately unsatisfying curate’s egg of Neu! 2. They decided on one last ‘Hurrah!’ and entered the studio, producing the crowning glory of their collaboration. Side 1 is richly Rother: gorgeous guitar lines, wistful wisps of melody, rhythms as gently repetitive as the ocean. Piano adds to the tonal palette on opener “Isi”, where guitars and fluttering synths motor along over Dinger’s trademark foundation drumming. “Seeland” unfolds slowly with a melancholy melody evoking tension and an utterly romantic yearning that merges with falling rain and distant thunder. 

Side 2 smashes open the door with “Hero”. Listen to this or to the ranting, slavering closer “After Eight” and tell me the Sex Pistols weren’t Neu! fans. Julian Cope calls it “Ur-punk,” which is good enough for me. Beauty and power, loss and rage. It’s a potent combination and a timeless statement that earns Neu! 75 a place in Vinyl Connection Valhalla and the #2 spot in this 1975 list.

*

#1

PINK FLOYD — WISH YOU WERE HERE

After conquering the earth with Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd were shadowed by understandable anxiety regarding their follow-up. Eventually, they found inspiration in the things they knew. 

1. Their own history
2. An industry slavering at the door, demanding to be fed.

The result was an album of one extended piece (split roughly in half) and three shorter songs, two of which focused on the music biz.

“Welcome to the machine” and “Have a cigar” are both Roger Waters tunes, snapping at the hand that fed the band. This fury would increasingly overwhelm Pink Floyd and define Waters subsequent career, yet here it is less savage than it would become; more mocking than lacerating. Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?

The rest of the album has a quite different feel, as it wanders through reflections on Floyd founder Syd Barrett’s mental dissolution. “Shine on you crazy diamond” (Parts 1—5 open the album, Parts 6—9 complete it on side two) is a gently unfolding musical canvas of great charm and romantic sadness.

On this occasion “romantic” does not mean music to soundtrack a candlelit dinner; here the washes of melody and soaring guitar lines pulsate with regret and quiver with loss. Yet—almost surprisingly—the whole is uplifting, glorious even. “Shine on” is a beautiful and haunting elegy for a lost friend. That sense of grief and loss is also present in the title track, the yearning, questioning, “Wish you were here”. The writer once stood in light drizzle on a football pitch in Hannover with fifty thousand people singing along with the band. “We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year” echoed around the stadium. Giving voice to loss and confusion, we somehow come closer together and perhaps even find solace.

Ultimately this is the legacy of Pink Floyd’s most integrated and satisfying album. Here the talents of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason genuinely pooled together for probably the last time, connected by the ghost of their former bandmate.

*

In a few days I’ll post the entire album list with links to each post.

That would be an ideal place to share your 1975 favourites.

I’d love to hear them so get those thinking caps on!