With its organic instrumentation and ecological visual and lyrical sensibility, Talk Talk’s third album was a holistic concept rooted in the natural world.
Dead Kennedys’ Frankenchrist is a full-scale assault on Reagan’s America–the hypocrisy, seedy undercurrent beneath the slogans, and institutional racism.
Nighthawks at the Diner has received a 50th anniversary reissue. It remains a jazzy, captivating portrait of a young Tom Waits deep in character.
OutKast’s Stankonia is a diptych that opposes and mirrors the duo; creating a stylistic reverence for an inimitable vision.
Naked Eyes’ 1983 debut, Burning Bridges, is a good album for reflecting on our ironic modern world, as it can’t help but wax nostalgic for the sincerity of the past.
Montreal band Wolf Parade’s haphazard formation and instant momentum yielded their most captivating work, including what would become their defining anthem.
Eartha Kitt’s best recordings from the 1950s represent the bedrock of her career and deliver a charming respite from a world in turmoil. Miss Kitt, to You is a revelation.
Thirty years later, we can finally hear the songs that Son Volt’s Jay Farrar wrote without the alt-country baggage critics perpetuated to the point of cliché.
Thirty years on, Michael Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is among the most ambitious and personal pop statements of the 1990s, born from pressure, transformed into autobiography, and forever in our History.
Constantines are Canadian, but they understand the death of the American Dream, with their quiet, dignified stories of working-class struggles.
The New Pornographers took their power pop to another level on Twin Cinema, with Carl Newman’s impeccable songwriting and all three vocalists dialed in.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run is one of the great rock albums; it showcases youthful idealism’s shortcomings while keeping one enraptured with its false promises.
