100 - "Music from Big Pink" by The Band

 "Music from Big Pink" is the debut studio album of The Band, who had earlier served as the backing band to Bob Dylan during his famous "going electric" tour. The songs were mostly written while the band was living together in a remote house in upstate New York affectionately known as 'Big Pink.' Knowing little about the album other than its 1968 release date, I came in fully expecting a psychedelic, LSD-infused odyssey; I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to be completely wrong in my expectation. 

The album is instrumentally pretty bare-bones, and has a really folksy, small-scale vibe. It took me a few listens to get the hang of the album- I was initially very thrown by album opener "Tears of Rage," which plays like a funeral dirge, every measure feeling more weighed down and melancholic than the last. However, upon repeat listens, I came to enjoy the ambience and totally downbeat nature of the song. My favorite song on the album is probably either "Chest Fever," with its driving and heavy organ riff, and the bluesy and soulful (and apparently Dylan co-penned) "This Wheel's on Fire." All in all, a quite enjoyable album through and through, albeit something I probably wouldn't have sought out were I not doing this project. I could potentially see myself revisiting this at some point in the future.

Looks like the next album on this list is Taylor Swift's "Red." Should be an interesting listen... Here goes nothing.