1978 OMAs: Album of the Year

A Very Good Soundtrack

• Star Wars: A New Hope (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), John Williams

If you only listen to one song: "Dreams"

An Iconic Collection of Music
The Star Wars soundtrack is really good. It's well conceived, well composed, and well executed. I recognized most of the major melodic themes on this soundtrack, which was surprising since I've only seen Star Wars once -- a testament to the score's quality and continued relevance.

Aja
Years ago, a friend recommended Aja -- the same friend who told me Court and Spark was the correct entry point to Joni Mitchell. I remain thankful for both of those recommendations.

Two notes about Aja:

One
A favorite pastime is marveling at how clearly Michael McDonald's voice comes through in the background harmonies on songs like "Peg" and "I Got The News".

Two
Shout out to the good ol' days, dancing the night away with The Combo. I have shaken many a tail feather to "Black Cow" -- hearing it gives me good, fuzzy memories of cutting up the dance floor.

Dreams
Rumours is a good album and "Dreams" is boffo smash of a song.

The 1978 nominees for Album of the Year

• Aja, Steely Dan
• Hotel California, Eagles
• JT, James Taylor
• Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
• Star Wars, John Williams conducting the London Symphony Orchestra

Featured songs from this post: Spotify

The current One Man Academy (OMA) project is listening to the Grammy's Album of the Year nominees and re-choosing winners, absent of historical context.

All previous OMA Album of the Year Winners