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Black Sabbath

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  The original heavy metal band has a number of different phases and lineup, which made ranking them interesting. The classic lineup of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy Osbourne is the best, and certainly the one anybody interested in the band should listen to first. However, don't sleep on the albums with Dio, all of which are truly excellent and contain some of the band's finest music. Outside of that, there is some decent stuff to be find, and if you're curious, hopefully this list will help you make sense of it. To the ranking! 20. Seventh Star This wasn't intended to be a Sabbath album, and they probably shouldn't have put the band name on it. After the disintegration of the Born Again lineup, Tony Iommi assembled an entirely new band to record what he thought would be a solo album. The music here is middle-of-the-road 80s hard rock, and although Iommi produces some decent riffs, especially on In for the Kill, the title track and the slow blues nu...
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Suede

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Honestly, I struggled ranking Suede. The 90s indie/glam favourites have a very consistent discography and there are a lot of albums that are only separated by the smallest of margins; while their best album is clearly better than their worst, putting everything in order was a real headache, and after the regular listen-through with my wife (who knows the band much better than me) I had to go through the whole discography again on headphones to sort out how I felt about it. This was one of my favourite of our discography journeys, though—I gained a new appreciation for Suede, who are undoubtedly one of the best of the 90s wave of British rock bands, and still going strong and making excellent albums.  9. Head Music (1999) Suede stretched out and experimented on their fourth album, ditching Ed Buller to work with dance producer Steve Osborne. It's their most experimental and "druggy" sounding album (Brett Anderson was notoriously addicted to crack at the time), and also the...
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Led Zeppelin

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  For my first ranking on this blog, I thought I'd try my hand at the Zep (who need no introduction). After listening through their discography, accompanied as always by my beloved wife, I have to say it's one of the most solid in all of rock music. They did not make a bad album, nor did they make one that's obviously better than all the others, so I could imagine almost any combination being somebody's ranking. And obviously, what a great band. Listening through their discography was a totally enjoyable experience. 8. Led Zeppelin II (1969) A controversial pick for last place--there are plenty of people out there who would put Zep II top of the podium. After all, it has Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker, plus three excellent Plant compositions, What Is and What Should Never Be, Thank You, and Ramble On, that indicate the path the band would take in the 70s. However, the rest of the album doesn't really do it for me, and Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) i...
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