So why is The Easybeats’ Easy on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
There are a couple of really wild things about The Easybeats and Easy, easily my favorite album of theirs (see what I did there?).
The first is that The Easybeats sound like a classic mid-‘60s British Invasion band, except they’re actually from Australia. The second is that Easy wasn’t even available outside of Australia until the 1990s. From the perspective of the streaming era, that factoid seems almost impossible – especially considering how good this band and album is.
With The Easybeats and Easy, it seems wrong to start with any other song except “It’s So Easy.” I’m sure I’m biased to an extent, but it really feels like these guys mainlined the sophisticated songwriting and chord changes The Beatles rolled out, especially on A Hard Day’s Night (an album I revere), and produced an original and great tune leaning on that influence.
“I’m Gonna Tell Everybody” ranges back to a slightly earlier British Invasion sound in a perfectly dreamy and groovy way. Fantastic harmonies here, and also note how effectively the band switches vocal parts around… well, much like another band you might be familiar with.
“She’s So Fine” shows the band developing their own sound, this time with some American garage band influence, such as The Kingsmen. Rollicking good fun.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to The Easybeats’ Easy
In 2007, my wife and I were lucky enough to get down to New Zealand. The timing was such that an old friend of mine and his wife were living in Auckland at the time. We met up there* and then spent a week traveling around the north island together. My wife and I the took another week to explore the south island before heading home.
* There are a few places I’ve been to and immediately think to myself, “Oh yes, I would love living here, absolutely.” Auckland is one of those places.
It was an amazing trip, and lots to chat about there, but I’ll stick to the music. I was really interested to learn how popular dub and reggae were in New Zealand around that time. It’s “super chill scene” music, and the best of these bands that I heard was probably The Black Seeds. Here’s “Heavy Mono E,” off of Into the Dojo.
I also really dig “Roady,” by Fat Freddy’s Drop.
Cut to late 2022, and we traveled to Australia for the first time. Another great trip, lots to report, etc. but let’s cut to the music and cultural scene. In my limited exposure, it seemed like American culture has an enormous influence these days.
For example, I saw many people wearing American sports paraphernalia, and particularly New York Yankees hats. As a native New Yorker who grew up worshipping the Yanks, I found this most amusing. I asked an Aussie about this, and he said it was really about the “brand” of the team versus having anything having to do with the sport (baseball, in this case), which I found truly fascinating.
And in terms of music, it seemed we heard either American or UK-based music on the whole throughout the trip. Which was an ever so slight bummer as somewhere in my mind’s eye (ear?) I expected to step off the plane and hear Midnight Oil and INXS playing everywhere.
Before the trip, I created a Spotify playlist called “down under ‘22” (catchy, eh?) and packed it with bands ranging from the Oil and Men at Work to The Vines, Jet, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
And I was kind of proud to add some Easybeats in there to round things out kind of nicely.
Some stats & info about The Easybeats – Easy
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Australian Bands, Rock & Roll
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Easy released? 1965
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #474 out of 1,000
The Easybeats’ Easy on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Easybeats’ Easy that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I woke up bright and early this morning, my little girl was not in sight. I been looking everywhere, morning, noon, and daylight.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.