Fred Frith, Speechless (side A)

Like Gravity which preceded it by a year, 1981's Speechless features a different backing group on each side. This time it's Etron Fou Leloublan on side A and Massacre on side B (the Massacre album Killing Time also came out in 1981). While plenty of quirkiness comes through, Speechless does not venture as far in this direction as the cover of "Dancing in the Streets" on Gravity. Speechless is a strange and uninviting, but rewarding listen. It does not emphasize Frith's guitar playing, and the interest in pop songs that became so prominent on Cheap at Half the Price is also not present here. He instead acts as something of leader in a series of short ensemble pieces. The sound is a bit rough, especially the treble. The simple cover image is iconic and appropriate.

Robert Calvert, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (side A)

1974's Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters has many odd qualities. It's hard to figure out why Calvert was so interested in German history. The narrative between songs has vague connections to this military history, but it's very clumsily executed (by Jim Capaldi and Viv Stanshall, along with Calvert himself). The songs, which alternate with the confusing narrative, are generally hard rock with prominent bass grooves. The list of musicians here is pretty amazing—Lemmy, Paul Rudolph, Twink, Arthur Brown, and even a strangely credited Brian Eno! The songs are simple, tasteful, and of course well played. I encountered the mid-90s Hey Drag City compilation before I realized that its cover art was an homage to Captain Lockheed's odd cover design.

Andrew Hill, From California with Love (side A)

Andrew Hill is known for his mid-60s Blue Note albums, especially Point of Departure, so it's interesting hearing him on his own. In many ways, despite the passage of a decade and the absence of an ensemble, 1979's From California with Love is not a radical change. Hill still has a foot in the avant-garde, but balances it with lyricism and melody that at times feels almost romantic. His compositions reveal their structure slowly—both pieces here evolve over entire album sides. His playing is fantastic, both when he is destroying the piano's top notes (the recording of this part sounds great too) and in the more fluid sections. The postcard design illustrates the title but relates little to the music, and Hill's confessional liner notes inside of the gatefold are entertaining.

Henry Cow, Western Culture (side A)

1978's Western Culture seems to receive less attention than the first three Henry Cow albums, perhaps because it does not have a sock on its cover. While the earlier albums focus more on careful compositions, Western Culture emphasizes the group's chaotic performative style. It is hard to tell exactly where compositions intersect with improvisations, but one hint of increased emphasis on improvisation is a cameo by noted pianist Irène Schweizer. The album sounds pretty strange—the existence of lower-budget recording equipment by 1978 leads to a grainier and cheaper sound than was achieved on the earlier albums. Aggressive playing gives Western Culture recognizable references to rock music, and it also foreshadows some of the energy and abandon that Henry Cow's members would bring to some of their later projects outside of the group.

SRC, Milestones (side A)

SRC seem to be remembered largely as an early hard rock innovator. There's some truth to this image, including Scott Richardson's blunt lead vocal style and the driving rhythms of much of the group's music. At the same time, they were capable of tender ballads like "Show Me" and even a strange and sophisticated (if overtly aggressive) arrangement of "In the Hall of the Mountain King/Bolero". The foreground Farfisa also does not neatly match with hard rock (or proto-punk) that followed SRC. 1969's Milestones is an interesting and diverse album with some great songs. The cover design, like the album, does not fit neatly into a niche or genre, and has aged nicely.

Ilhan Mimaroglu featuring Freddie Hubbard, Sing Me a Song of Songmy (side A)

1971's Sing Me a Song of Songmy is a tough album to describe. Highbrow composers before Mimaroglu have experimented with incorporating jazz ideas. Milhaud borrowed from his understanding of jazz with La Creation du Monde, and Gunther Schuller proposed his ideas of a "third stream". Also in 1971, Krzysztof Penderecki and Don Cherry collaborated on Actions. Sing Me a Song of Songmy stands out because of the way Mimaroglu uses the jazz quintet as yet another contextualized sound source. Their playing, when surrounded by a crazy string orchestra and some very strange vocal samples, seems completely detached from the jazz idiom that they're creating. The album is incredibly well recorded, and the violent Picasso image used on the cover matches the rich content of the vocal samples and track titles.

Badfinger, No Dice (side A)

In 1970, when Badfinger released No Dice, the hit single was "No Matter What". Harry Nilsson's 1972 cover of the previously-buried album cut "Without You" was a marginally bigger hit than the "No Matter What" single. By now, "Without You" has become a canonical song featured everywhere up to American Idol, all far closer in style to Nilsson than Badfinger. The song's presence at the end of side A drastically changes the experience of listening to No Dice. Crazily recontextualized hit aside, it's a great power-pop album in every way—singing, musicianship, songwriting, and sound. The album cover predates Bowie and Roxy Music's androgynous gatefolds, but fits with the music less than their cover art did.