Kevin Ayers, The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories (side A)

Ayers's work after 1974 is often considered past his prime and the beginning of his decline, though it also marks the year of his fascinating involvement with the Lady June album. The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories is in some ways a more overt rock album than his early, canonical solo albums, even as the songs can be stranger and more chaotic. The rock elements include driving and aggressive playing, punchier sound with drums sometimes in the foreground. The strangest thing about the album might be a radical rearrangement/reworking of Ayers's Soft Machine Classic "Why are We Sleeping", now called "It Begins with a Blessing/Once I Awakened/But It Ends with a Curse". Nico, Lol Coxhill, and sometimes Roxy Music bassist John Gustafson all show up along the way to help out. And the cover image, while very stylized and of its time, is also distinctive and memorable.