The follow-up to the sterling Ssssh record finds Alvin Lee and crew really kicking out the jams. Some big and lengthy ones, most of them between 5 and 7 minutes. This was the record with oddities like "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "Love Like a Man" on it, and just by the title alone you have to wonder where their heads were at. So yes, it's pretty excessive, but just a touch past their peak Ten Years After was a band well worth listening to a bunch of times. Recommended.

For me, TYA's unabashed peak. First side is perfect, highlighted by the hard-charging "Stoned Woman" and their head-banging take on the blues standard "Good Morning Little School Girl". The second half of this record is no slouch, either – if it's slow drawn-out heavy blooze you want, look no further than "I Woke Up This Morning" - and anyway, goes to show you there was way more than Led Zeppelin around in '69 if you wanted a prime slice of psycho-blues crunch. And the cover is iconic, although I read somewhere the other guys resented Alvin because it was only his face on the cover. Oh well, can't win' em all, and not long after this, TYA records started slipping in quality.

Billy Ocean's debut record didn't sound much like the music he would make in the 80's, that would bring him to super stardom. This was a curious mix of disco-pop and Motown-ish oldies/soul stuff. It's just OK at best, with one of these songs becoming a chart hit (the ABBA-like "Love Really Hurts Without You", which is fairly nice), but ultimately disposable. Maybe you want to hear it for sheer contrast or curiosity, like I did?

Did the world really need Great White – or the legions of sound-alike hair bands that got popular around the same time, for that matter? Probably not, but their third and breakthrough release is a cage full of unabashed sleaze-rock fun, and nice ambiance if the album cover came to life. They even have the courtesy to put the power ballad at the very end of the record, and it's worth price of admission ("Save Your Love"). Take a few bites out of this – it won't hurt.

Every major artist that existed in 1967 made some sort of conceptual record (or seemed like they did) and The Who were no different, although in their career arc it feels like warmups for the real heavy material that was to come soon afterward. This one had a very campy cover spoofing advertising and pop art, and some of the content within did that as well. Most of the sneer and leer from the first two Who records was packed into "I Can See For Miles" and amplified for miles and miles, which of course, was undeniably great. The rest of the record got bogged down in the concept, although some of this stuff sounds like 70's Who songs that are just not as polished. It's been re-issued a ton of times, including a 5-disc version with over 100-plus tracks, so yeah, you can say it's a well-liked record. I'm not head-over-heels in love with it – or most of what The Who did, for that matter - but understand its' significance.