Boston

Artist: Boston

This album was largely recorded by Tom Scholz (guitars) in his basement. The former Polaroid senior product design engineer’s now legendary perfectionism drove him to create one of the best rock albums of all time. Never satisfied with just mediocre performances, Scholz labored for months doing countless overdubs and re-takes for his masterpiece. In the end he created one of the best, if not the best, guitar-records to come out of the seventies.

The production on this record is stunning. Every instrument fits perfectly in the mix, and the overall sound is simply stunning. This record still sounds fresh and alive thirty-five years after it was released. This is all pretty amazing considering Scholz’ limited equipment, some of which he made himself, and his lack of any formal education in audio engineering.

Even if you’re not a ‘classic-rocker’ you’ve no doubt heard at least one of the eight songs on this record. They are featured in numerous commercials, and all of them are classic-rock radio staples. The album is the second best-selling debut album of all time, and has sold 17 million copies as of 2003.

Even though I’ve heard these songs hundreds –if not thousands– of times over the course of my life, I never change the station when one comes on. In fact, I usually find my hand cranking up the volume. Yeah, they’re all that good.

When making my own recordings, I always compare them to this album. Not only for the technical reasons that I mentioned earlier, but because despite the fact that it is a “guitar player’s record,” it is widely accessible and popular with non-musicians because of its energy and vibrancy. This album raised the bar for all rock records, and still remains at the top over three decades later.

Rating: 5/5