OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. It reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart and marked Radiohead's highest entry into the American market at the time, where it debuted at #21. "OK Computer" expanded the band's worldwide popularity, becoming the last Radiohead album to have a delayed release outside of the United Kingdom. As of 2007, it has been certified triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. "OK Computer" included the singles "Paranoid Android", "Karma Police" and "No Surprises".

The album was recorded in rural Oxfordshire and Bath, England with Nigel Godrich, who would work with the band on all their future recordings. Although OK Computer was dominated by guitar, its expansive sound and wide range of influences set it apart from many of the Britpop and alternative rock bands popular at the time, laying the groundwork for Radiohead's later, more experimental work. The lyrics, by Thom Yorke, and the album's artwork by Yorke and frequent collaborator Stanley Donwood, emphasised themes such as consumerism, social disconnection, political stagnation and modern malaise, though the band denied they set out to make a concept album.

Upon its release, OK Computer received almost unanimously positive reviews. The consensus among critics was that the album was a landmark of its time and would have a far-reaching impact and importance. NME gave the album a ten out of ten score, and reviewer James Oldham wrote "Here are 12 tracks crammed with towering lyrical ambition and musical exploration; that refuse to retread the successful formulas of before and instead opt for innovation and surprise; and that vividly articulate both the dreams and anxieties of one man without ever considering sacrifice or surrender. In short, here is a landmark record of the 1990s, and one that deserves your attention more than any other released this year." Taylor Parkes of Melody Maker connected the album's release to the era's feeling of paranoia and alienation about millenarianism, and said "It's as pained and as slow-moving as the emotions that inspired it. ... In one way or another, Radiohead have excelled themselves." Q awarded the album five out of five stars, with writer David Cavanagh stating that "the majority of OK Computer's 12 songs ... takes place in a queer old landscape: unfamiliar and ominous, but also beautiful and unspoiled. ... It's a huge, mysterious album for the head and soul." Nick Kent wrote in Mojo that "Others may end up selling more, but in 20 years' time I'm betting OK Computer will be seen as the key record of 1997, the one to take rock forward instead of artfully revamping images and song-structures from an earlier era." In a four out of five stars review, Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote that the album "is surprising and sometimes inspiring but its intensity makes for a demanding listen."

The album was also favourably received by critics in North America. Rolling Stone gave the album four out of five stars. Reviewer Mark Kemp wrote that the album is "a stunning art-rock tour de force ... On OK Computer Radiohead take the ideas they had begun toying with on The Bends into the stratosphere. ... "OK Computer" is evidence that Radiohead is one rock band still willing to look the devil square in the eyes", but warned "OK Computer" is not an easy listen." An Entertainment Weekly review by David Browne gave the album a B+, and wrote that "When the arrangements and lyrics meander or sprout pretensions, the album grows ponderous and soggy. For all of Radiohead's growing pains, though, their aim — to take British pop to a heavenly new level — is true." In an article for The New Yorker, writer Alex Ross praised OK Computer for its progressiveness, and contrasted Radiohead's risk-taking with the more musically conservative "dadrock" of their contemporaries Oasis. Ross wrote that "Throughout the album, contrasts of mood and style are extreme. This band has pulled off one of the great art-pop balancing acts in the history of rock." Ryan Schreiber wrote, in a highly enthusiastic ten out of ten review in his online music magazine Pitchfork, that "Radiohead's third piece of incredible work, OK Computer, is not only their best yet, but one of the year's greatest releases. The record is brimming with genuine emotion, beautiful and complex imagery and music, and lyrics that are at once passive and fire-breathing."

Despite the album's widespread praise, it also received some criticism. Robert Christgau of the Village Voice granted "OK Computer" a B− but ranked it as the "Dud of the Month" in his consumer guide; Christgau commented that the album lacked "soul", calling it "arid" and "ridiculous" and comparing it unfavourably to Pink Floyd. Andy Gill wrote for The Independent in an otherwise positive review, "For all its ambition, OK Computer is not, finally, as impressive asThe Bends, which covered much the same sort of emotional knots, but with better tunes. It is easy to be impressed by, but ultimately hard to love, an album that so luxuriates in its despondency". While a review in Time was largely positive, particularly praising the songs "Airbag", "Paranoid Android", and "Let Down", reviewer Christopher John Farley criticised the second half of the album. Farley stated, "While the first half-dozen tracks reward repeated listenings with melodies that grow and bloom with familiarity, there is often no structure to be found in the remaining half-dozen numbers."

At the end of 1997, OK Computer appeared in many critics' lists and listener polls for best album of the year. OK Computer topped the year-end polls of the magazines Mojo, Vox, Entertainment Weekly, Hot Press, Muziekkrant OOR, HUMO, Eye Weekly, and Inpress, and tied for first place with Daft Punk's Homework in The Face. The album placed second in NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, Spin and Uncut. Q and Les Inrockuptibles both listed "OK Computer" in their unranked year-end polls. OK Computer was a nominee for the 1997 Mercury Prize, a prestigious award recognizing the best British or Irish album of the year. The album was nominated in the Album of the Year and Best Alternative Music Performance categories at the 1998 Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the latter award.

OK Computer first appeared in a "best of all time" list three months after its release, placing 16 in a chart based on submissions by customers of Virgin Megastores. This chart heavily favoured recent releases, which suggested that OK Computer's popularity was a passing fad. However, OK Computer has since appeared frequently in professional lists of greatest albums. In early 1998, OK Computer topped a Q reader's poll of the greatest albums of all time, and in 2001 Q placed it at number one in a list of the top 50 pop albums of the last 15 years. A number of publications, including NME, Melody Maker, Spin, Alternative Press, Pitchfork Media, and Time placed the album prominently in lists of best albums of the 1990s or of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 162 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Additionally, retrospective reviews from The A.V. Club and Slant Magazine have received the album favourably; likewise, Rolling Stone gave the album five stars in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, with critic Rob Sheffield saying "Radiohead was claiming the high ground abandoned by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, U2, R.E.M., everybody; and fans around the world loved them for trying too hard at a time when nobody else was even bothering."

OK Computer was recorded in the lead-up to the 1997 general election. It was thus seen by critics as encompassing public opinion through its "despairing-yet-hopeful tone" and themes of alienation. Yorke said his lyrics had been affected by reading a book about the two decades of Conservative government which were just coming to an end in 1997, as well as about factory farming and globalisation. However, in interviews, Yorke expressed little hope things would change under the "New Labour" government of Tony Blair. With the approach of the year 2000, many people felt the tone of the album was millennial.

Some critics have credited OK Computer with "killing" 1990s Britpop, as, within a few years of its release, the dominant style of UK guitar pop had become slower and more melancholy. Many of the newer acts used similarly complex, atmospheric arrangements. The band Travis worked with Godrich to create the languid pop texture of The Man Who, which became the biggest-selling album of 1999 in the UK. Others have credited Radiohead with beginning a mainstream revival of progressive rock and ambitious concept albums, though the band denied their affiliation with the genre. Radiohead described the prevalence of bands that "sound like us" as one reason to break with the style of OK Computer for their next album, Kid A. When asked by MTV interviewer Gideon Yago what the band thought of "bands like Travis, Coldplay, and Muse ... making a career sounding exactly like Radiohead did in 1997", Yorke replied "Good luck with 'Kid A'!".

Several rock bands which later became popular, ranging from Coldplay and Bloc Party to TV on the Radio, have said they were formatively influenced by OK Computer—TV on the Radio's debut album, for instance, was titled OK Calculator. Additionally, the album's popularity paved the way for British alternative rock bands such as Muse, Snow Patrol, and Keane. Classical and jazz musicians such as Christopher O'Riley and Brad Mehldau have performed material from OK Computer, and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen said "When I heard OK Computer, after five minutes I said, 'I actually get this. I understand what these people are trying to do.' And what they were trying was not so drastically different from what I was trying to do." Radiodread is a song-for-song cover of the album in a Reggae style.

OK Computer has received great acclaim from the public and critics. It is often cited as Radiohead's best work and as a landmark album of its time. In 1998, it was nominated for a Grammy Award as Album of the Year, and won for Best Alternative Music Album. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/OK+Computer">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. It reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart and marked Radiohead's highest entry into the American market at the time, where it debuted at #21. "OK Computer" expanded the band's worldwide popularity, becoming the last Radiohead album to have a delayed release outside of the United Kingdom. As of 2007, it has been certified triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. "OK Computer" included the singles "Paranoid Android", "Karma Police" and "No Surprises". The album was recorded in rural Oxfordshire and <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/OK+Computer">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

OK Computer

To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by American hip-hop artist, Kendrick Lamar. The album was released on March 16, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment, and distributed by Interscope Records. Upon its release, "To Pimp a Butterfly" received rave reviews from music critics. Lamar has described the album, which incorporates elements of funk, spoken word poetry and jazz, as "honest, fearful and unapologetic." In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Kendrick indicated that the title was a play on Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird". He was quoted as saying, "Just putting the word 'pimp' next to 'butterfly'… It's a trip. That's something that will be a phrase forever. It'll be taught in college courses — I truly believe that."

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of hundreds of reviews from music critics, the album has an average score of 96, indicating "universal acclaim". Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop gave it a perfect score, making it the third 10/10 he's given to a contemporary album. On music-reviewing website Rate Your Music, "To Pimp A Butterfly" has reached spot #3 on the list of the highest reviewed albums on the site. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kendrick+Lamar/To+Pimp+a+Butterfly">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by American hip-hop artist, Kendrick Lamar. The album was released on March 16, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment, and distributed by Interscope Records. Upon its release, "To Pimp a Butterfly" received rave reviews from music critics. Lamar has described the album, which incorporates elements of funk, spoken word poetry and jazz, as "honest, fearful and unapologetic." In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Kendrick indicated that the title was a play on Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird". He was quoted as saying, "Just putting the word 'pimp' <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kendrick+Lamar/To+Pimp+a+Butterfly">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

To Pimp a Butterfly

The band entered Abbey Road Studios during the first week of 1975 to begin recording on their follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon. In the previous year, they introduced three new pieces to European audiences during the first sets of each show. Two of them, "Raving and Drooling" & "You Gotta Be Crazy", were ultimately not recorded for Wish You Were Here, but re-shaped and recorded in 1976 for the Animals album as respectively "Sheep" and "Dogs". 

The third would take shape as the album's centerpiece, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". During tour rehearsals for the previous year's French summer tour, David Gilmour came up with the signature 4-note theme and the piece took shape from there. With the memory of former front-man/singer-songwriter/guitarist Syd Barrett fresh in his mind, Roger Waters wrote the lyrics as a tribute to his fallen friend, at the time already an reclusive figure.

In 1974, it would be performed as one uninterrupted piece. However, during the band's tour of North America the following year, it would be split in two parts, sandwiching another new song, "Have a Cigar". A funky guitar-driven piece, it would ultimately be sung on the final recorded version by Roy Harper, as Roger's voice was in poor shape. This song, and the ominous "Welcome to the Machine" were written reflecting the band's negative attitude towards the record industry. They also (with various instrumental parts of "Shine On") feature synthesizers in a stronger fashion than previous albums, as well as the sound effects (provided by Nick Mason) that are signature to the Floyd sound.

The title track took shape when Gilmour came to the studio and showed the band the chord sequence, which suitably impressed Waters. He then wrote the lyrics, referring to Syd Barrett's departure and Roger's own growing alienation from his band and from other people (these themes later on would become essential to his story of The Wall). More than any previous Floyd number, it has a very prominent Country & Western feel to the instrumentation (pedal steel guitar and acoustic piano) and the melancholy feel to the lyrics. It would eventually become one of the band's signature songs, and is as of now (May of 2009) the band's most scrobbled song on Last.fm.

Towards the end of the recording process, a stranger who at first looked unfamiliar to the band and the engineers appeared in the studio. After much discussion of who it was, the band slowly recognized him as the man whose story and personal relationship with the group had heavily influenced the record, Syd Barrett. Each member was unsure of what song they were mixing, but urban legend has it that it was "Shine On", which adds a new and deep personal resonance to the already emotional piece. Subsequently Syd disappeared from sight, as the band members attended David Gilmour's wedding ceremony that night. That was the last time any member of Pink Floyd had personal contact with their former enigmatic leader.

The record was released in the Fall of 1975, the band's first on Columbia Records (in the United States, EMI was and remained the Floyd's International label). It became the fastest selling record of their career, topping both the American (certified Gold within two days of it's release and ultimately 6X Multi-Platinum in May 1997 by the R.I.A.A.) and U.K. album charts (Gold within the year, but has yet to achieve Platinum status).

The band themselves hold the album in high artistic regard, despite the negative and disconnected environment during recording, with both Gilmour and Rick Wright saying it was their favorite. It was the last of their albums in which Rick played an important role in composing the music (making significant keyboard contributions on "Shine On"), until nearly 20 years later with The Division Bell. On the band's next three albums, the lions share of the song-writing credit would go to Roger Waters. This, in part with the deteriorating relationship between the band, would cause Roger to leave in 1985, ten years after Wish You Were Here.

Tracklist
1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (Gilmour/Waters/Wright)
2. Welcome to the Machine (Waters)
3. Have a Cigar (Waters)
4. Wish You Were Here (Gilmour/Waters)
5. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) (Gilmour/Waters/Wright)

Pink Floyd
David Gilmour – vocals, guitar, lap steel guitar, EMS Synthi AKS, keyboards, bass guitar, tape effects
Nick Mason – drums, percussion, tape effects
Roger Waters – vocals, bass guitar, guitar, EMS VCS 3, tape effects
Richard Wright – keyboards, EMS VCS 3, clavinet, background vocals

Additional musicians
Dick Parry – saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
Roy Harper – vocals on "Have a Cigar"
Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams – backing vocals
Stéphane Grappelli – violin on "Wish You Were Here" (uncredited)

Production
Brian Humphries – engineering
Peter James – engineering, assistant engineering
Phil Taylor – additional photography (remaster)
Hipgnosis – design, photography
Peter Christopherson, Jeff Smith, Howard Bartrop and Richard Manning – design assistants
George Hardie – graphics
Jill Furmanovsky – additional photography (remaster)
James Guthrie – remastering producer
Doug Sax – remastering <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pink+Floyd/Wish+You+Were+Here">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The band entered Abbey Road Studios during the first week of 1975 to begin recording on their follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon. In the previous year, they introduced three new pieces to European audiences during the first sets of each show. Two of them, "Raving and Drooling" & "You Gotta Be Crazy", were ultimately not recorded for Wish You Were Here, but re-shaped and recorded in 1976 for the Animals album as respectively "Sheep" and "Dogs". The third would take shape as the album's centerpiece, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". During tour rehearsals for the previous year's French <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pink+Floyd/Wish+You+Were+Here">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Wish You Were Here

In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is the debut studio album from the English rock band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969 on Atlantic Records. The album is considered to be one of the first and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band largely departed from the blues influences that rock music was founded upon and combined elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music.

The album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s using inferior copies of the master tapes. After the masters were located in 2003, a 40th anniversary edition of the album was released in 2009 with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson.

King Crimson made their live debut on 9 April 1969, and made a breakthrough by playing the Rolling Stones free concert at Hyde Park, London in July 1969, before an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people.

Initial sessions for the album were held in early 1969 with producer Tony Clarke, most famous for his work with The Moody Blues. After these sessions failed to work out, the group were given permission to produce the album themselves. The album was recorded on a 1" 8-channel recorder at Wessex Sound Studios in London, engineered by Robin Thompson and assisted by Tony Page. In order to achieve the characteristic lush, orchestral sounds on the album, Ian McDonald spent many hours overdubbing layers of Mellotron and various woodwind and reed instruments.

Some time after the album had been completed, however, it was discovered that the stereo master recorder used during the mixdown stage of the album had incorrectly-aligned recording heads. This misalignment resulted in a loss of high frequencies and introduced some unwanted distortion. This is evident in certain parts of the album, particularly on "21st Century Schizoid Man". Consequently, while preparing the first American release for Atlantic Records, a special copy was made from the original 2-track stereo master in an attempt to correct some of these anomalies. (The analog tape copying process usually results in generation loss.) From 1969 to 2003, this second-generation "corrected" copy was the source used in the dubbing of the various sub-masters used for vinyl, cassette and CD releases over the years. The original, "first-generation" stereo masters, however, had been filed away soon after the original 1969 mixdown sessions. These tapes were considered lost until 2003.

Barry Godber (1946–1970), a computer programmer, painted the design for the album cover. Godber died in February 1970 from a heart attack, shortly after the album's release. It was his only album cover; the original painting is now owned by Robert Fripp. Fripp had said about Godber:

Peter brought this painting in and the band loved it. I recently recovered the original from  offices because they kept it exposed to bright light, at the risk of ruining it, so I ended up removing it. The face on the outside is the Schizoid Man, and on the inside it's the Crimson King. If you cover the smiling face, the eyes reveal an incredible sadness. What can one add? It reflects the music.

The album cover is painted on a wall in the 1987 Troma Entertainment film Surf Nazis Must Die. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/King+Crimson/In+the+Court+of+the+Crimson+King">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is the debut studio album from the English rock band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969 on Atlantic Records. The album is considered to be one of the first and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band largely departed from the blues influences that rock music was founded upon and combined elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music. The album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold by the <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/King+Crimson/In+the+Court+of+the+Crimson+King">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

In the Court of the Crimson King

Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. On the verge of a breakdown after promoting Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer, songwriter Thom Yorke envisioned a radical change in direction. Radiohead replaced their rock sound with synthesizers, drum machines, the ondes Martenot, string orchestras, and brass instruments, incorporating influences from genres such as electronic music, krautrock, jazz, and 20th-century classical music. They recorded Kid A with OK Computer producer Nigel Godrich in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire, and their hometown Oxford, England. The sessions produced over 20 tracks; Radiohead saved many of them for their subsequent album, Amnesiac, released the following year.

Radiohead released no singles or music videos to promote Kid A and conducted few interviews and photoshoots, instead becoming one of the first major acts to use the internet as a promotional tool. The album was made available to stream and was promoted with short animated films featuring music and artwork. Bootlegs of early performances were shared on filesharing services and the album was leaked before release.

Kid A debuted at the top of the charts in Britain, where it went platinum in the first week, and it became Radiohead's first number-one album in the United States. Like OK Computer, it won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. Its departure from Radiohead's earlier sound initially divided fans and critics, but it later attracted widespread acclaim; at the turn of the decade, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and the Times ranked Kid A the greatest album of the 2000s, and in 2012, Rolling Stone ranked it number 67 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/Kid+A">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. On the verge of a breakdown after promoting Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer, songwriter Thom Yorke envisioned a radical change in direction. Radiohead replaced their rock sound with synthesizers, drum machines, the ondes Martenot, string orchestras, and brass instruments, incorporating influences from genres such as electronic music, krautrock, jazz, and 20th-century classical music. They recorded Kid A with OK Computer producer Nigel Godrich in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire, and their hometown Oxford, England. The sessions produced over 20 tracks; Radiohead saved <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/Kid+A">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Kid A

Loveless is the second studio album by Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 4 November 1991 by Creation Records. The album was recorded over a two-year period between 1989 and 1991. Vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields dominated the arduous recording process; intent on achieving a particular sound, he experimented with guitar tremolo techniques and tuning systems, unorthodox production methods, obscured vocals, and sampled percussion and feedback. The group cycled through nineteen studios and a larger number of engineers during the album's two-year creation, with total recording costs rumoured to have reached £250,000.

While Loveless did not achieve great commercial success upon its release, it received enthusiastic reviews from critics, who praised its sonic innovations and Shields' "virtual reinvention of the guitar." Following the record's release, My Bloody Valentine were removed from their record label Creation Records due to the difficulty and expense of working with Shields, a factor that was alleged to have contributed to the bankruptcy of the label. In the subsequent years, the group struggled to record a follow-up album and would eventually break up in 1997. Loveless would be their last full-length release for over two decades.

Since its release, Loveless has been widely proclaimed by critics as among the best albums of the 1990s, as a landmark work of the shoegazing genre, and as a significant influence on various subsequent artists. The album was reissued as a two-CD set on Sony in May 2012, containing remastered editions of the original digital tape and a previously unreleased ½-inch analogue tape. The reissues placed in several international charts and in July 2013, -"Loveless"- was certified Silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/my+bloody+valentine/Loveless">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Loveless is the second studio album by Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, released on 4 November 1991 by Creation Records. The album was recorded over a two-year period between 1989 and 1991. Vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields dominated the arduous recording process; intent on achieving a particular sound, he experimented with guitar tremolo techniques and tuning systems, unorthodox production methods, obscured vocals, and sampled percussion and feedback. The group cycled through nineteen studios and a larger number of engineers during the album's two-year creation, with total recording costs rumoured to have reached £250,000. While Loveless did not achieve great <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/my+bloody+valentine/Loveless">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Loveless

Madvillainy is the legendary collaboration between rapper MF DOOM and producer Madlib under the group name Madvillain. It is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. It was released on March 23, 2004, on Stones Throw Records.

The album was recorded between 2002 and 2004. Madlib created most of the instrumentals during a trip to Brazil in his hotel room using minimal amounts of equipment: a Boss SP-303 sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck. Fourteen months before the album was released, an unfinished demo version was stolen and leaked onto the internet. Frustrated, the duo stopped working on the album and returned to it only after they had released other solo projects.

While Madvillainy achieved only moderate commercial success, it became one of the best-selling Stones Throw albums. It peaked at number 179 on the US Billboard 200, and attracted attention from media outlets not usually covering hip-hop music, including The New Yorker. Madvillainy received widespread critical acclaim for Madlib's production and MF DOOM's lyricism, and is regarded as DOOM's magnum opus. It has ranked in various publications' lists of all-time greatest albums, including at 411 on NME's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time, at 365 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and at 18 on Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time.

MF DOOM and Madlib were off the radar to many in 2003, but the announcement of a collaboration and the first track, “America's Most Blunted”, brought all the quiet fans out of the woodwork, and led to a controversial and highly acclaimed album release in early 2004 that helped expose the two artists to a large audience for the first time. While the producer and MC both did what was completely natural to them, they turned the formula of popular rap at the time on its head, creating an album that is both unique and true to its hip-hop influences.

Several remixes of the album were released. Two remix EPs of Madvillainy were released on Stones Throw in 2005. The remixes were done by Four Tet and Koushik. Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix was released on Stones Throw in 2008, containing a complete remix of the album by Madlib as a part of a Madvillain box set. According to Stereogum, it was Madlib's "attempt to get DOOM excited enough to work on a true follow-up", recorded after he got tired of waiting for DOOM to record the official sequel.

In 2001, after Fondle 'Em closed, DOOM disappeared. During that time, he lived between Long Island, New York, and Kennesaw, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Coincidentally, Eothen "Egon" Alapatt, who was the manager of Madlib's label Stones Throw Records, had a friend in Kennesaw. He asked the friend to give DOOM (who did not know about Madlib and Stones Throw at the time) some instrumentals from Madlib. Three weeks later, the friend called back, telling him that DOOM loved the instrumentals and wanted to work with Madlib. Soon, one of DOOM's "quasi-managers" made an offer, asking for plane tickets to Los Angeles and $1,500. Despite the fact that the label didn't have enough money after buying the tickets, they immediately agreed. According to Egon, soon after arrival, the manager went to him demanding money, while DOOM visited Madlib:

"The first thing his manager did was get me in my bedroom, which was also the office, and corner me about the 1,500 bucks. I realized that if she was in here, then DOOM was with , and the longer I kept up this charade with her, the longer they’ll vibe and maybe it all might work out."

Egon's plan was successful, and DOOM and Madlib began working together. Soon after, Stones Throw Records managed to collect the money necessary to pay DOOM and a contract to the label was signed, which was written on a paper plate.

DOOM and Madlib started working on Madvillainy in 2002. Madlib created one hundred beats in a matter of weeks, some of which were used on Madvillainy, some were used on his collaboration album with J Dilla "Champion Sound", while others were used for M.E.D.'s and Dudley Perkins' albums. Even though Stones Throw booked DOOM a hotel room, he spent most of the time in Madlib's studio, based in an old bomb shelter in Mount Washington, Los Angeles. When the duo wasn't working on the album, they were spending free time together, drinking beer, eating Thai food, smoking marijuana, and taking psychedelic mushrooms. "Figaro" and "Meat Grinder" were among the songs recorded during this time.

In November 2002, Madlib went to Brazil to participate in a Red Bull Music Academy lecture, where he debuted the first music from the album by playing an unfinished version of "America's Most Blunted". Madlib also went crate digging during his time in Brazil, searching for obscure vinyl records he could sample later, with fellow producers Cut Chemist, DJ Babu, and J.Rocc. According to Madlib himself, he bought multiple crates full of vinyl records, two of which he later lost. He used some of these records to produce beats for Madvillainy. Most of the album, including beats for "Strange Ways", "Raid", and "Rhinestone Cowboy", was produced in his hotel room in São Paulo, using a portable turntable, a cassette deck, and a Boss SP-303 sampler. While Madlib was working on the album in Brazil, the unfinished demo was stolen and leaked on the internet, 14 months before its official release. Jeff Jank, Stones Throw's art director, remembers the leak in the interview with Pitchfork:

Those were the early days of internet leaks, and we thought it would completely ruin sales. People were approaching DOOM and Madlib at shows to tell them how much they liked the album, so they were like, 'Fuck it, I'm done.' Madlib started on other stuff, and DOOM, well, you never know what he's doing.

DOOM and Madlib decided to work on different projects. Madlib released Champion Sound with J Dilla, while DOOM released two solo albums: "Take Me to Your Leader" as King Geedorah, and "Vaudeville Villain" as Viktor Vaughn. Nevertheless, after the release of these albums, they decided to return to Madvillainy. For the final version of the album, DOOM altered his voice, described by Peanut Butter Wolf as going from "really hyper, more enthusiastic" to "a more mellow, relaxed, confident, less abrasive", and changed some lyrics to coincide with this change. Madlib was also asked by the label to change some instrumentals, but told them that he forgot the samples he used, in order to allow for them to remain on the album. Additionally, the label also requested the duo make a proper ending for the album, forcing them to rent a studio for the recording of "Rhinestone Cowboy". The beat used, however, was produced in Brazil.

The album consists of 22 songs, most of which are short, under 3 minutes, and contain no hooks or choruses. DOOM's lyrics on Madvillainy are free-associative. According to Stereogum, the album "is about using sound to craft semi-indecipherable vignettes that are situated somewhere between the real and the mythical". Despite originally featuring a more enthusiastic, excited delivery, the leak prompted DOOM to go with a slower and more relaxed flow on the final version of the album. This move has been praised by various publications, including Pitchfork, which said that it was "ultimately better-suited" than the original.

Throughout the album, DOOM uses a number of literary devices, including multi-syllable rhymes, internal rhymes, alliteration, assonance, and holorimes. Music critics also noted the extensive use of wordplay and double entendres. PopMatters wrote, "You can spend hours poring over the lyric sheet and attempting to grok DOOM’s infinitely dense verbiage. If language is arbitrary, then many of DOOM’s verses exploit the essence of words stripped of meaning, random conglomerations of syllables assembled in an order that only makes sense from a rhythmical standpoint", the critic added. The Observer stated that "the densely telegraphic lyrics almost always reward closer inspection" and that DOOM's "rhymes miss beats, drop into the middle of the next line, work their way through whole verses" allows for a smooth listen.

The album cover art was created by Stones Throw's art director Jeff Jank, based on a grayscale photo of DOOM in his metal mask. In an interview with Ego Trip, Jank said:

"Back then, 2003, DOOM didn't really have public image. Hip-hop heads knew he wore a mask, that he'd been in KMD a decade earlier, but he really was a mystery. So, I really wanted to get a shot of him on the cover, just to make a definitive 'DOOM cover'. Specifically, I was thinking of a picture of this man, who happened to wear a mask for some reason, as opposed to 'a picture of a mask'. I don't know if the distinction would occur to anyone else, but to me it was a big deal. I mean, who the hell goes around with a metal mask, what's his story?"

The photo was created by photographer Eric Coleman at Stones Throw's house in Los Angeles, and edited by Jank. While working on the Madvillainy album cover, Jank drew inspiration from King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King" artwork, however, following its completion, he noticed the artwork eerily resembled Madonna's "Madonna" artwork. Despite this, Jank stuck with the original artwork, labeling it as the "rap version of Beauty and the Beast". A small orange square was added to the final version of Madvillainy, due to Jank's thinking that the artwork "needed something distinctive", comparing it to the orange "O" on the Madonna cover.

Madvillainy influenced a generation of artists. Among some of them are rappers Joey Badass, the late Capital STEEZ, Bishop Nehru, Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown, Kirk Knight, producer and rapper Flying Lotus, producer and DJ Cashmere Cat, neo-soul collective Jungle, indie rock band Cults, and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums. According to Earl Sweatshirt, Madvillainy influenced his generation the same way Wu-Tang Clan influenced the rappers of the 1990s with their album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)". In 2009 a video of Mos Def working on his album "The Ecstatic" in a studio was released. In the video he praised DOOM, saying that "he rhymes as weird as I feel", and recited some of DOOM's lines, including the ones from Madvillainy. He added:

"Dude, I swear to God, when I saw that Madvillain record, I bought it on vinyl. I ain't have a record player. I bought it on vinyl just to stare at the album. I stared at it and I just kept going, 'I understand you'."

In 2015, in honor of the release of All-New, All-Different Marvel comics line and to pay homage to classic and contemporary hip-hop albums, Marvel released variant covers inspired by these albums. One of them was variant cover of The Mighty Thor comics, based on Madvillainy cover. It used grayscale image of Jane Foster's face behind the metal mask, with a picture of Mjolnir in a small orange square on top right corner and THE MIGHTY THOR text in pixelated font on top left. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Madvillain/Madvillainy">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Madvillainy is the legendary collaboration between rapper MF DOOM and producer Madlib under the group name Madvillain. It is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. It was released on March 23, 2004, on Stones Throw Records. The album was recorded between 2002 and 2004. Madlib created most of the instrumentals during a trip to Brazil in his hotel room using minimal amounts of equipment: a Boss SP-303 sampler, a turntable, and a tape deck. Fourteen months before the album was released, an unfinished demo version was stolen and leaked onto the internet. Frustrated, the duo stopped working on <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Madvillain/Madvillainy">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Madvillainy

The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. The album built on ideas explored in earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterized their earlier work. Its themes explore conflict, greed, the passage of time, and mental illness, the latter partly inspired by the deteriorating mental state of founding member and principal contributor, Syd Barrett. Developed during live performances, an early version was premiered several months before recording began; the new material was recorded in two sessions in <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pink+Floyd/The+Dark+Side+of+the+Moon">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

The Dark Side of the Moon

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band The Beatles. It is their last recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band's dissolution in 1970. Work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, and the album was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States.

Abbey Road is widely regarded as one of The Beatles' most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time. Despite the tensions within the band, Abbey Road was released to near universal acclaim and is considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2012, Abbey Road was voted 14th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2009, readers of the magazine also named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Abbey+Road">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album released by the English rock band The Beatles. It is their last recorded album, although Let It Be was the last album released before the band's dissolution in 1970. Work on Abbey Road began in April 1969, and the album was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States. Abbey Road is widely regarded as one of The Beatles' most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time. Despite the tensions within the band, Abbey Road <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Abbey+Road">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Abbey Road

In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was first released on October 10, 2007 as a digital download that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on January 1, 2008. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career.

"In Rainbows" was recorded in London, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire with producers Mark Stent and Nigel Godrich. Radiohead worked on the songs for more than two years, beginning in early 2005. In between recording, the band toured Europe and North America for three months in 2006. Radiohead used a wide variety of musical styles on the album, incorporating string arrangements and electronic music, pianos, celestes and the ondes Martenot, yet renewing their focus on guitars, drums, and bass as lead instruments. The songwriting on In Rainbows was more personal than that of Radiohead's other work, with singer Thom Yorke describing it as his attempt to write "seduction songs".

 Upon its retail release, In Rainbows entered the United World Chart, UK Album Chart, and the U.S. Billboard 200 at number one. "In Rainbows" also earned widespread critical acclaim, and several publications ranked it as one of the best albums of 2007. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/In+Rainbows">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was first released on October 10, 2007 as a digital download that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on January 1, 2008. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career. "In Rainbows" was recorded in London, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire with <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/In+Rainbows">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

In Rainbows

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1972 concept album by English rock musician David Bowie. It peaked at number five in the United Kingdom and number 75 in the United States on the Billboard Music Charts. A concert film of the same name directed by D.A. Pennebaker was released in 1973.

Upon its release on 6 June 1972, Ziggy Stardust reached number five in the UK and number seventy-five in the US. The album was eventually certified platinum and gold in the UK and US respectively. The only single from the record, "Starman", charted at number ten in the UK while peaking at the sixty-fifth spot in the US.

In 1997, Ziggy Stardust was named the 20th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers placed it at number 24 and Virgin All-time Top 1000 Albums ranked it at number 11, while in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 48. It was named the 35th best album ever made by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2000 Q placed it at number 25 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2004 it was placed at number 81 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In his 1995 book, "The Alternative Music Almanac," Alan Cross placed the album in the #3 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 2006, the album was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.

In 2005, Seu Jorge did a cover album of 14 Bowie songs, many of them from Ziggy Stardust, as a soundtrack for the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou called The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions. The translation into Portuguese is not always exact, as Seu Jorge maintains the melodies and styles, but often varies the lyrics. Musician Saul Williams named his 2007, Trent Reznor produced album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, clearly in a nod to Bowies album.

Bowie claimed that the name came from a tailor's shop in London called Ziggy's. Bowie later told Rolling Stone it was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter 'Z'." "Stardust" comes from one of Bowie's labelmates, a country singer named Norman Carl Odam, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Bowie covered a Legendary Stardust Cowboy song, "I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)" thirty years later on Heathen.

The Ziggy Stardust sessions began just a few weeks after Hunky Dory was released. The first song recorded for the album, the cover "It Ain't Easy," was recorded in September 1971. The first session in November produced "Hang on to Yourself," "Ziggy Stardust," "Rock 'n' Roll Star" (later shortened to "Star"), "Moonage Daydream," "Soul Love," "Lady Stardust," and "Five Years."

Also recorded during the November Ziggy Sessions were two more cover songs intended for the as-yet untitled album. They were Chuck Berry's "Around and Around" (re-titled "Round and Round") and Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam" (re-titled "Port of Amsterdam"). A re-recording of "Holy Holy" (first recorded in 1970 and released as a single, to poor sales, in January 1971) was initially slated for Ziggy, but was dropped in favour of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide." "Round and Round" was replaced by "Starman" and "It Ain't Easy" replaced "Amsterdam" on the album's final running order. All three were eventually released as b-sides.

"Velvet Goldmine," first recorded during the Hunky Dory sessions, was also intended for Ziggy, but was replaced by "Suffragette City." RCA released it in 1975 as the b-side to the UK re-release of "Space Oddity" after having it remixed and mastered without Bowie's approval.

After recording some of the new songs for Sounds of the 70s with Bob Harris (which appear on Bowie at the Beeb) as the newly-dubbed Spiders from Mars in January-February 1972, the band returned to Trident. They recorded "Starman," "Suffragette City," and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" by the end of the month.

"Starman," released as a single in April (and not intended for the final album at first), has never appeared in its original "loud" mix on CD. It differs somewhat in that it "features a subdued 'morse code' section between the verse and the chorus" compared to the original released in 1972. "Starman"'s b-side, "Suffragette City," was mastered for the album with a three-note coda leading in from "Ziggy Stardust" to make the songs sound linked. They were never played as such by Bowie in concert.

Recorded and released during the ensuing Ziggy tour were two other songs. The first, "John, I'm Only Dancing," was recorded at Trident in late June and released (in the UK only) in September. "The Jean Genie," recorded at RCA Studios in New York in early October at the start of the American tour, was released in the U.S. in November. The song was remixed for Aladdin Sane.

Rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman was given the opportunity to play keyboards on the album but Rick opted to join the progressive rock group Yes instead.

The album was intended by Bowie to serve as the soundtrack and musical basis for a stage show and/or television production telling the story of Ziggy Stardust. As well as the songs on the album, Bowie also intended songs such as "All the Young Dudes", "Rebel Rebel" and "Rock 'n' Roll With Me" (the latter two later recorded for Diamond Dogs) for this realization of the Ziggy story. In a Rolling Stone interview with William S. Burroughs, Bowie outlined the full plot of the Ziggy Stardust story:

"The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. 'All the young dudes' is a song about this news. It's no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite.

The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I've made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage.

Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes 'Starman', which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately...The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox...Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song 'Rock 'n' roll suicide'. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible."

The more generally acknowledged story, however, has Ziggy Stardust himself being the "starman", from Mars, who has come to save the Earth with messages of love and peace, and Bowie has referred to Ziggy as a "Martian" in several interviews.

Simple two-syllable phrases provide the spine for "Suffragette City" ("hey man"), "Hang on to Yourself" ("come on"), "Lady Stardust" ("all right"), and "Five Years" ("five years").

"Starman," the album's single, has been described as a cross between mod and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Correct track listing:
1. Five Years - 4:43
2. Soul Love - 3:34
3. Moonage Daydream - 4:39
4. Starman - 4:14
5. It Ain't Easy - 2:57
6. Lady Stardust - 3:20
7. Star - 2:47
8. Hang On to Yourself - 2:39
9. Ziggy Stardust - 3:13
10. Suffragette City - 3:24
11. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide - 2:59

Bonus tracks on Rykodisc reissue:
12. John, I'm Only Dancing - 2:46
13. Velvet Goldmine - 3:12
14. Sweet Head - 4:17
15. Ziggy Stardust (demo) - 3:39
16. Lady Stardust (demo) - 3:33 <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/David+Bowie/The+Rise+and+Fall+of+Ziggy+Stardust+and+the+Spiders+From+Mars">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1972 concept album by English rock musician David Bowie. It peaked at number five in the United Kingdom and number 75 in the United States on the Billboard Music Charts. A concert film of the same name directed by D.A. Pennebaker was released in 1973. Upon its release on 6 June 1972, Ziggy Stardust reached number five in the UK and number seventy-five in the US. The album was eventually certified platinum and gold in the UK and US respectively. The only single from the record, <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/David+Bowie/The+Rise+and+Fall+of+Ziggy+Stardust+and+the+Spiders+From+Mars">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

good kid, m.A.A.d city is the second studio album by American hip-hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar. The album was released on October 22, 2012, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment, and distributed by Interscope Records. The album serves as Lamar's major label debut, after his signing to Aftermath and Interscope in early 2012. It was preceded by the release of Kendrick's first studio album Section.80, released exclusively through iTunes independently.

The album was recorded mostly at several studios in California with producers such as, Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Scoop DeVille, Jack Splash and T-Minus, among others. Billed as a "short film by Kendrick Lamar" on the album cover, the concept album follows the story of a Lamar's teenage experiences in the drug infested streets and gang lifestyle of his native Compton, California. 

The album was supported by five singles – "The Recipe", "Swimming Pools (Drank)", "Backseat Freestyle", "Poetic Justice", and "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe". All five singles achieved chart success of varying degrees. Lamar also went on a world tour between May and August 2013, featuring the other members of the hip hop collective, Black Hippy.

Upon its release, good kid, m.A.A.d city received rave reviews from music critics, who praised its thematic scope and Lamar's lyrics.  The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 242,000 copies in its first week – earning the highest first-week hip-hop album sales of 2012 from a male artist, along with the best-selling debut from a male artist of the year. The album generated 2.8 million streams through Spotify, becoming the second highest first week stream total of the year. It became Lamar's first album to enter the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 16, and entering the UK R&B Albums Chart at number two. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and, by July 2013, had sold 980,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kendrick+Lamar/good+kid,+m.A.A.d+city">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

good kid, m.A.A.d city is the second studio album by American hip-hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar. The album was released on October 22, 2012, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment, and distributed by Interscope Records. The album serves as Lamar's major label debut, after his signing to Aftermath and Interscope in early 2012. It was preceded by the release of Kendrick's first studio album Section.80, released exclusively through iTunes independently. The album was recorded mostly at several studios in California with producers such as, Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Scoop DeVille, Jack Splash and T-Minus, among others. Billed <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kendrick+Lamar/good+kid,+m.A.A.d+city">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

good kid, m.A.A.d city

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a studio album by Charles Mingus, released on Impulse! Records in 1963. The album consists of a single continuous composition—partially written as a ballet—divided into four tracks and six movements. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Charles+Mingus/The+Black+Saint+and+the+Sinner+Lady">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a studio album by Charles Mingus, released on Impulse! Records in 1963. The album consists of a single continuous composition—partially written as a ballet—divided into four tracks and six movements. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Charles+Mingus/The+Black+Saint+and+the+Sinner+Lady">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American new wave band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980, on Sire Records. It was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator Brian Eno.

Following the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to make an album that would dispel notions of the group as a mere vehicle for frontman and chief lyricist David Byrne. Drawing on the influence of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the group experimented with African polyrhythms, funk, and electronics, recording instrumental tracks as a series of sampled and looped grooves, an innovative technique at the time. Recording sessions also incorporated a variety of side musicians, including guitarist Adrian Belew, singer Nona Hendryx, and trumpet player Jon Hassell.

Byrne initially struggled with writer's block, but soon adopted a scattered stream-of-consciousness lyrical style inspired by early rap and academic literature on Africa. The artwork for Remain in Light was conceived by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, and was crafted with the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computers and design company M&Co. Talking Heads expanded to nine members for a promotional tour, and following its completion the band went on hiatus for several years, leaving the individual members to pursue a variety of side-projects. The album was the last of the band's collaborations with Eno, though Eno and Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts would be released the following year.

Remain in Light was widely acclaimed by critics, who praised its sonic experimentation, rhythmic innovations, and cohesive merging of disparate genres. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 in the US and at number 21 on the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from Remain in Light: "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion". The record was certified Gold in the US and in Canada during the 1980s. It has been featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1980s and the best albums of all time, and it is often considered Talking Heads' magnum opus. In 2006, it was remastered and reissued with the addition of four unfinished outtakes. The Library of Congress deemed the album "culturally, historically, or artistically significant", and selected it for preservation in their National Recording Registry in 2017. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Talking+Heads/Remain+in+Light">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American new wave band Talking Heads, released on October 8, 1980, on Sire Records. It was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator Brian Eno. Following the release of Fear of Music in 1979, Talking Heads and Eno sought to make an album that would dispel notions of the group as a mere vehicle for frontman and chief lyricist David Byrne. Drawing on the influence of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Talking+Heads/Remain+in+Light">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Remain in Light

Revolver is the seventh studio album by English rock band the Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver feature an electric guitar-rock sound that contrasts with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber Soul (1965). In Britain, the fourteen tracks from Revolver were released to radio stations throughout July 1966, "building anticipation for what would clearly be a radical new phase in the group's recording career".

It reached number one on both the British chart and American chart and stayed at the top spot for seven weeks and six weeks, respectively. The album was remastered 9 September 2009 for the first time since its 1987 digital compact disc release. Placed at number 1 in the All-Time Top 1000 Albums and number 3 in the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the album is often regarded as one of the greatest achievements in music history and one of the Beatles' greatest studio achievements. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Revolver">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Revolver is the seventh studio album by English rock band the Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver feature an electric guitar-rock sound that contrasts with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber Soul (1965). In Britain, the fourteen tracks from Revolver were released to radio stations throughout July 1966, "building anticipation for what would clearly be a radical new phase in the group's recording career". It reached number one on both the British chart and American chart and stayed at the top spot for <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Revolver">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Revolver

A Love Supreme is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones.

A Love Supreme was released by Impulse! Records in January 1965. One of Coltrane's bestselling albums, it is widely considered his masterpiece.

Composition
A Love Supreme is a through-composed suite in four parts: "Acknowledgement" (which includes the oral chant that gives the album its name), "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm". Coltrane plays tenor saxophone on all parts. One critic has written that the album was intended to represent a struggle for purity, an expression of gratitude, and an acknowledgement that the musician's talent comes from a higher power. Coltrane's home in Dix Hills, Long Island, may have inspired the album. Another influence may have been Ahmadiyya Islam.

The album begins with the bang of a gong (tam-tam) and cymbal washes on the first track, "Acknowledgement". Jimmy Garrison enters on double bass with the four-note motif that lays the foundation of the movement. Coltrane begins a solo. He plays variations on the motif until he repeats the four notes thirty-six times. The motif becomes the vocal chant "a love supreme", sung by Coltrane accompanying himself through overdubs nineteen times. According to Rolling Stone, this movement's four-note theme is "the humble foundation of the suite".

In the fourth and final movement, "Psalm", Coltrane performs what he calls a "musical narration". Lewis Porter calls it a "wordless recitation". The devotional is included in the liner notes. Coltrane "plays" the words of the poem on saxophone but doesn't speak them. Some scholars have suggested that this performance is an homage to the sermons of African-American preachers. The poem (and, in his own way, Coltrane's solo) ends with the cry, "Elation. Elegance. Exaltation. All from God. Thank you God. Amen."

A Love Supreme was categorized by Rockdelux as modal jazz, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, hard bop, and post-bop.

Other performances
An alternative version of "Acknowledgement" was recorded the next day on December 10 with tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and a second bassist, Art Davis. This version omitted Coltrane chanting "a love supreme"; he preferred the quartet version with the chant, placing that on the issued album. There are two known live recordings of the "Love Supreme" suite. For years the only known live recording of the "Love Supreme" suite was of a performance at the Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes in Juan-les-Pins, France, on July 26, 1965. On October 29, 2002, the album was reissued as a remastered deluxe edition by Impulse! Records with this live performance and the alternate takes on a bonus disc. A further iteration with more studio breakdowns and overdubs was issued as a three-disc complete masters edition released by Impulse! on November 20, 2015. The other known live recording of the suite was recorded October 2, 1965, at The Penthouse in Seattle. The set was recorded by saxophonist Joe Brazil. This live performance was released on October 22, 2021, by Impulse! as A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle.

Reception and legacy
Released in January 1965 by Impulse! Records, A Love Supreme became one of the most acclaimed jazz records, and contemporary critics hailed it as one of the important albums of post-war jazz. By 1970, it had sold about 500,000 copies, far exceeding Coltrane's usual sales of 30,000, although it never charted on the Billboard 200. It has since been regarded as Coltrane's masterpiece and is "without question Coltrane's most beloved album", according to Robert Christgau, who adds that it "cemented 'Trane's divine status in Japan".

A Love Supreme was widely recognized as a work of deep spirituality and analyzed with religious subtext, although cultural studies scholars Richard W. Santana and Gregory Erickson argued that the "avant-garde jazz suite" could be interpreted otherwise. According to music professor Ingrid Monson of Harvard University, the album was an exemplary recording of modal jazz. Nick Dedina wrote on the Rhapsody web site that the music ranged from free jazz and hard bop to sui generis gospel music in "an epic aural poem to man's place in God's plan". Calling it a "legendary album-long hymn of praise", Rolling Stone said that "Coltrane's majestic, often violent blowing (famously described as 'sheets of sound') is never self-aggrandizing" and that he is "aloft with his classic quartet", "soar with nothing but gratitude and joy" on a compelling journey for listeners. The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985) said that "each man performs with eloquence and economy", while calling the album "the masterpiece from the quartet's studio work", "the first comprehensive statement of Coltrane's spiritual concerns", and "the cornerstone of many Coltrane collections". On the other hand, jazz critic Tom Hull said that he has not much considered the album "spiritual" but rather "the most perfectly plotted single piece of jazz ever recorded".

A Love Supreme has appeared frequently on professional listings of the greatest albums. In 2003, it was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time; maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, re-ranking at number 66 in a 2020 reboot of the list. NME ranked it number 188 on a similar list ten years later. The manuscript for the album was included in the National Museum of American History's "Treasures of American History" collection at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2016, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance." It is Coltrane's second album to be included after Giant Steps in 2005. It was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was voted number 85 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Based on such rankings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists it as the 61st most acclaimed album in history.

According to Joachim-Ernst Berendt, the album's hymn-like quality permeated modern jazz and rock music. As Christgau explains, the record was "adored by American hippies from the Byrds and Carlos Santana on down, and served as theme music to Lester Bangs's wake at CBGB". Musicians such as Joshua Redman and U2, who mention the album in their song "Angel of Harlem", have mentioned the influence of the album on their own work. Both Santana and fellow guitarist John McLaughlin have called the album one of their biggest early influences and recorded Love Devotion Surrender in 1973 as a tribute. "Every so often this ceases to be a jazz record and is more avant-garde contemporary classical," said Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy. "I love the combination of abstract piano that's all sort of 'clang', and weird chords with wailing saxophone over the top."

In The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave A Love Supreme a rare "crown" rating but asked whether it was "the greatest jazz album of the modern period..or the most overrated?" Miles Davis, Coltrane's former bandleader, said the record "reached out and influenced those people who were into peace. Hippies and people like that". Jazz critic Martin Gayford later elucidated Davis' comments: If a listener is "in the mood", he wrote, "it's majestic and compelling; if you're not, it's interminable and pretentious." In Gayford's own appraisal for The Daily Telegraph, he argued that it "marked the point at which jazz—for good or ill—ceased for a while to be hip and cool, becoming instead mystical and messianic". Christgau, writing in 2020, said, "it's meditative rather than freewheeling, with each member of his classic quartet instructed to embark on his own harmonically mapped excursion and the title set to a chanted four-note melody you could hum in your sleep. I'm on my fourth consecutive play with no signs of tune fatigue as I write, plus my wife loves it. All true, all remarkable. But how much you value it, I expect, depends on how much faith you place in your own spirituality." He concluded that the next time he will listen to the album "may well depend on who dies when".

Personnel:
The John Coltrane Quartet
John Coltrane – bandleader, liner notes, vocals, tenor saxophone
Jimmy Garrison – double bass
Elvin Jones – drums, gong, timpani
McCoy Tyner – piano

Additional personnel:
Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone on alternate takes of "Acknowledgement"
Art Davis – double bass on alternate takes of "Acknowledgement"
Rudy Van Gelder – engineering and mastering
Bob Thiele – production and cover photo
George Gray/Viceroy – cover design
Victor Kalin – illustration
Joe Lebow – liner design

Reissues
Erick Labson – digital remastering (CD reissue)
Kevin Reeves – mastering (SACD)
Michael Cuscuna – liner notes, production, and remastering (deluxe edition)
Joe Alper – photography (CD reissue)
Jason Claiborne – graphics (CD reissue)
Hollis King – art direction (CD reissue)
Lee Tanner – photography (CD reissue)
Ken Druker – production (deluxe edition)
Esmond Edwards – photography (deluxe edition)
Ashley Kahn – liner notes and production (deluxe edition)
Peter Keepnews – notes editing (deluxe edition)
Hollis King – art direction (deluxe edition)
Bryan Koniarz – production (deluxe edition)
Edward O'Dowd – design (deluxe edition)
Mark Smith – production assistance (deluxe edition)
Sherniece Smith – art coordination and production (deluxe edition)
Chuck Stewart – photography (deluxe edition)
Bill Levenson – reissue supervisor (SACD)
Cameron Mizell – production coordination (SACD)
Ron Warwell – design (SACD)
Isabelle Wong – package design (SACD)
Ryan Smith - LP Remastering 2020, Acoustic Sounds Series (Vinyl) <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/John+Coltrane/A+Love+Supreme">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

A Love Supreme is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones. A Love Supreme was released by Impulse! Records in January 1965. One of Coltrane's bestselling albums, it is widely considered his masterpiece. Composition A Love Supreme is a through-composed suite in four parts: "Acknowledgement" (which includes the oral chant that gives the album its name), "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm". Coltrane plays tenor saxophone on all <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/John+Coltrane/A+Love+Supreme">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

A Love Supreme

Illmatic is the classic debut studio album by American rapper Nas, released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992–1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. 

Since its initial reception, Illmatic has been recognized by writers and music critics as a landmark album in East Coast hip-hop. Its influence on subsequent hip-hop artists has been attributed to the album's production and Nas' lyricism. It also contributed to the revival of the New York City rap scene, introducing a number of stylistic trends to the region. The album remains one of the most widely celebrated albums in hip-hop history, appearing on numerous best album lists by critics and publications.

Its production was handled by Nas, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and DJ Premier. Styled as a hardcore hip hop album, Illmatic features multi-syllabic internal rhymes and inner-city narratives based on Nas' experiences in Queensbridge, New York.

The album debuted at #12 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 59,000 copies in its first week. However, its initial sales fell below expectations and its five singles failed to achieve significant chart success. Despite the album's low initial sales, "Illmatic" received rave reviews from most music critics, who praised its production and Nas' lyricism. On January 17, 1996, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and on December 11, 2001 it earned a Platinum certification after shipping one million copies in the United States. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nas/Illmatic">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Illmatic is the classic debut studio album by American rapper Nas, released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992–1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. Since its initial reception, Illmatic has been recognized by writers and music critics as a landmark album in East Coast hip-hop. Its influence on subsequent hip-hop artists has been attributed to the album's production and Nas' lyricism. It also contributed to the revival of the New York City <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nas/Illmatic">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Illmatic

By late 1958, Davis employed one of the best and most profitable working bands pursuing the hard bop style. His personnel had become stable: alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Bill Evans, long-serving bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. His band played a mixture of pop standards and bebop originals by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tadd Dameron. As with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, and saw its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity.

In 1953, the pianist George Russell published his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, which offered an alternative to the practice of improvisation based on chords and chord changes. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships of classical music, Russell developed a new formulation using scales, or a series of scales, for improvisations: This approach led the way to "modal" in jazz. Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his studio album Milestones (1958). Satisfied with the results, Davis prepared an entire album based on modality. Pianist Bill Evans, who had studied with Russell but recently departed from Davis's sextet to pursue his own career, was drafted back into the new recording project, the sessions that would become Kind of Blue.

Kind of Blue was recorded on three-track tape in two sessions at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City. On March 2, the tracks "So What", "Freddie Freeloader", and "Blue in Green" were recorded for side one of the original LP, and on April 22 the tracks "All Blues", and "Flamenco Sketches" were recorded, making up side two. Production was handled by Teo Macero, who had produced Davis's previous two LPs, and Irving Townsend.

As was Miles Davis's penchant, he called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. As described in the original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans, Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set to taping the sextet in studio. While the results were impressive with so little preparation, the persistent legend that the entire album was recorded in one pass is untrue. Only "Flamenco Sketches" yielded a complete take on the first try. That take, not the master, was issued in 1997 as a bonus alternate track. The five master takes issued, however, were the only other complete takes; an insert for the ending to "Freddie Freeloader" was recorded, but was not used for release or on the issues of Kind of Blue prior to the 1997 reissue, Pianist Wynton Kelly may not have been happy to see the man he replaced, Bill Evans, back in his old seat. Perhaps to assuage the pianist's feelings, and also to take advantage of Kelly's superior skills as both bluesman and accompanist, Davis had Kelly play instead of Evans on the album's most blues-oriented number, "Freddie Freeloader". The live album Miles Davis at Newport 1958 documents this band. However, the Newport Jazz Festival recording on July 3, 1958 reflects the band in its hard bop conception, the presence of a Bill Evans only six weeks into his brief tenure in the Davis band notwithstanding, rather than the modal approach of Kind of Blue.

Kind of Blue is based entirely on modality in contrast to Davis's earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz and its complex chord progression and improvisation. The entire album was composed as a series of modal sketches, in which each performer was given a set of scales that defined the parameters of their improvisation and style. This style was in contrast to more typical means of composing, such as providing musicians with a complete score or, as was more common for improvisational jazz, providing the musicians with a chord progression or series of harmonies.

Modal jazz of this type was not unique to this album. Davis himself had previously used the same method on his 1958 Milestones album, the '58 Sessions, and Porgy and Bess (1958), on which he used modal influences for collaborator Gil Evans's third stream compositions. Also, the original concept and method had been developed in 1953 by pianist and writer George Russell. Davis saw Russell's methods of composition as a means of getting away from the dense chord-laden compositions of his time, which Davis had labeled "thick". Modal composition, with its reliance on scales and modes, represented, as Davis called it, "a return to melody." In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review, Davis elaborated on this form of composition in contrast to the simple chord progression predominant in bebop, stating "No chords ... gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things. When you go this way, you can go on forever. You don't have to worry about changes and you can do more with the  line. It becomes a challenge to see how melodically innovative you can be. When you're based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that the chords have run out and there's nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them."

Released 	August 17, 1959
Recorded 	March 2 and April 22, 1959   (New York, New York)
Genre 	Jazz
Length 	45:44
Label 	Columbia
Producer 	Teo Macero
Irving Townsend

    * Miles Davis – trumpet, leader
    * Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
    * John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
    * Wynton Kelly – piano, only on "Freddie Freeloader"
    * Bill Evans – piano on all, except "Freddie Freeloader", liner notes
    * Paul Chambers – bass
    * Jimmy Cobb – drums
 <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/Kind+of+Blue">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

By late 1958, Davis employed one of the best and most profitable working bands pursuing the hard bop style. His personnel had become stable: alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Bill Evans, long-serving bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. His band played a mixture of pop standards and bebop originals by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tadd Dameron. As with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, and saw its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/Kind+of+Blue">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Kind of Blue

"Paranoid" is the second album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in September 1970 through Vertigo Records. The album consists of some of the band's most readily identifiable work including "Iron Man", "War Pigs", and "Paranoid".

The album is regarded as a classic, and one of the most influential of the heavy metal genre. It has been certified quadruple platinum with over four million copies in the US alone, making it Black Sabbath's best-selling album.

The "Paranoid" single, released before the album, reached number four in the UK. Pushed by its success, the album hit number one in the UK, and is the only Black Sabbath album to have done so. The US release was held until January 1971, as the Black Sabbath album was still on the charts at the time of Paranoid's UK release. The album broke into the top ten in the US in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the US alone, with virtually no radio airplay. The chart success of "Paranoid" in the US allowed the band to tour there for the first time in December 1970. This spawned the release of the album's second single "Iron Man", and although it failed to reach the top 40, "Iron Man" remains one of Black Sabbath's most popular songs.

The album was again panned by music critics of the era. However, modern-day music critics are much more favourable towards the album than those of the time. An example is Allmusic's Steve Huey, who cites "Paranoid" as "one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time", which "defined the sound and style of metal, more than any other record in history".

    * In 1999, Q Magazine (12/99, p.170) included it in their list of The Best Gothic Albums Of All Time, writing that, " stamped their bombastic and doom-laden imprint on British rock forever."
    * In 1999, Vibe (12/99, p.162) included it on their list of 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.
    * In 2003, the album was ranked number 130 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
    * In 2006, the album was ranked number 6 on Guitar World magazine's list of The Greatest 100 Guitar Albums of All Time.
    * As of January 2009, the album is # 60 on Rate Your Music's Top Albums of All Time list and #2 on their Best Albums of 1970 ranking. 

After the release of their eponymous debut album in February 1970, Black Sabbath returned to the studio in June that year, again with producer Rodger Bain, to record their second album. The album was recorded at Regent Sound Studios and Island Studios in London, England. The album's eponymous single "Paranoid" was written in the studio at the last minute. As drummer Bill Ward explains: "We didn't have enough songs for the album, and Tony just played the "Paranoid" guitar lick and that was it. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom." The song was written with no intention of it being a successful hit for the band, only to be a filler on the album.

The album was originally titled "War Pigs", but allegedly the record company changed it to Paranoid, fearing backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War. At the time, the band felt that the song was lighter, with the potential to become a single. However, the band's visual interpretation of a "war pig" was still featured on the cover; a distorted, eerie photograph of a man with sword and shield jumping out from behind a tree. This image confused many of the band's fans, who thought that the image did not resemble the album title to any extent.

The original UK vinyl release was in a gatefold sleeve. The inner of the gatefold had a black and white photo of the band, posed outdoors on a grassy hill, and was their first appearance on album artwork. To spread the original picture over the gatefold, Ozzy Osbourne was separated from the other members of the band and a section of the grass was copied and dropped into the gap. This is only readily apparent if one compares it with the original photograph.

In comparison with their previous album, the songs on "Paranoid" were given more focus and direction, with less improvisation. However the lyrical content is equally as dark, exploring themes such as war, mental illness, drug abuse and sci-fi horror. Much of the album could be viewed as a kind of social commentary. Spin magazine wrote that the band "saw heavy rock as a way to emulate the horrors of a fallen world."

The lyrics of the opening song, "War Pigs", discuss war and the absurdities of those who make war without regard for those forced to fight it. It is often viewed as a protest song. Similarly, the lyrics of "Electric Funeral" discuss the bleak aftermath of nuclear warfare. These songs were written in the midst of the Vietnam War and the Cold War, and could be seen as quite representative of the political situation at the time.

The song "Paranoid" is uncharacteristically fast and simplistic for Black Sabbath in their early days. Supposedly the band members intended it only as an interlude or as "filler". Its lyrics concern the stigma of mental illness. In a related way, "Iron Man" is about a time traveller from the future who has been turned to steel. He is outcast by society but eventually takes his revenge on humanity. It is also a reference to Vietnam war veterans, who upon returning from war were outcast by society and had no help re-integrating into normal life or dealing with their post war mental disorders.

The song "Iron Man" is thematically very similar to the Ted Hughes novel, The Iron Man. This book was made into an animated film which was called The Iron Giant.

Three songs on the album appear to concern dreams, hallucinations and drug use. "Planet Caravan" and "Fairies Wear Boots" are quite psychedelic in style and their lyrics are quite abstract. "Hand of Doom" was written as a message against heroin use. The song transitions between slow, soft passages and fast, loud passages as a representation of the drug being injected. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Black+Sabbath/Paranoid">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

"Paranoid" is the second album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in September 1970 through Vertigo Records. The album consists of some of the band's most readily identifiable work including "Iron Man", "War Pigs", and "Paranoid". The album is regarded as a classic, and one of the most influential of the heavy metal genre. It has been certified quadruple platinum with over four million copies in the US alone, making it Black Sabbath's best-selling album. The "Paranoid" single, released before the album, reached number four in the UK. Pushed by its success, the album hit number one <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Black+Sabbath/Paranoid">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Paranoid

Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven!

Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. It initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 in the Billboard 200, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In the United Kingdom, the album was hailed by its music press and was an immediate commercial success, peaking at number 2 in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart and remaining among the top ten positions for six months. Pet Sounds has subsequently gathered worldwide acclaim from critics and musicians alike, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential albums in music history.

The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after he had quit touring with the Beach Boys in order to focus more attention on writing and recording. For Pet Sounds, Wilson's goal was to create "the greatest rock album ever made" — a personalised work with no filler tracks. It is sometimes considered a Wilson solo album, repeating the themes and ideas he had introduced with The Beach Boys Today! one year earlier. The album's lead single, "Caroline, No", was issued as his official solo debut. It was followed by two singles credited to the group: "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (backed with "God Only Knows") and "Sloop John B".

Collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, Wilson's symphonic arrangements wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unusual instruments such as bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, trains, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, and barking dogs, along with the more usual keyboards and guitars. Unified by Wall of Sound-style production techniques, the album comprised Wilson's "pet sounds", consisting mainly of introspective songs like "You Still Believe in Me", about faithfulness, "I Know There's an Answer", a critique of LSD users, and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", an autobiographical statement on social alienation (as well as the first use of a theremin-like instrument on a rock record). Recording was completed on April 13, 1966, with an unprecedented total production cost that exceeded $70,000 (equivalent to $520,000 in 2016). A follow-up album, Smile, was immediately planned, but left unfinished. In 1997, a "making-of" version of Pet Sounds was supervised by Wilson and released as The Pet Sounds Sessions, containing the album's first true stereo mix.

Pet Sounds is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the field of music production, introducing non-standard harmonies and timbres, and incorporating elements of pop, jazz, exotica, classical, and the avant-garde. A heralding work of psychedelia, the album furthered an aesthetic trend within rock by helping it transform from dance music into music that was made for listening to, elevating itself to the level of art rock. Author Bill Martin said that Pet Sounds represents a turning point where the Beach Boys "brought expansions in harmony, instrumentation (and therefore timbre), duration, rhythm, and the use of recording technology. Of these elements, the first and last were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock." In 2004, Pet Sounds was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." One year earlier, Rolling Stone ranked it second on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". As of 2015, Acclaimed Music lists Pet Sounds as the statistically most acclaimed album of all time. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beach+Boys/Pet+Sounds">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. It initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 in the Billboard 200, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In the United Kingdom, the album was hailed by its music press and was an immediate commercial success, peaking at number 2 in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart and remaining among the top ten positions for six months. Pet Sounds has subsequently gathered worldwide acclaim from critics and musicians <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beach+Boys/Pet+Sounds">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Pet Sounds

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the legendary debut album of American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released November 9, 1993 on Loud Records and distributed through RCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and it was mastered at The Hit Factory. The album's title originates from the martial arts film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978). The group's de facto leader RZA, also known as Prince Rakeem, produced the album entirely with heavy, eerie beats and a sound largely based on martial-arts movie clips and soul music samples.

The distinctive sound of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) created a blueprint for hardcore hip hop during the 1990s and helped return New York City hip hop to national prominence. Its sound also became hugely influential in modern hip hop production, while the group members' explicit, humorous, and free-associative lyrics have served as a template for many subsequent hip hop records. Serving as a landmark record in the era of hip hop known as the East Coast Renaissance, its influence helped lead the way for several other East Coast hip hop artists, including Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z.

Despite its raw, underground sound, the album had surprising chart success, peaking at number 41 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. By 1995, it was certified platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), after sales of 1 million copies. Although it initially received some mixed criticism, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) has been regarded by music writers as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all-time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 386 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Wu-Tang+Clan/Enter+the+Wu-Tang+(36+Chambers)">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the legendary debut album of American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released November 9, 1993 on Loud Records and distributed through RCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and it was mastered at The Hit Factory. The album's title originates from the martial arts film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978). The group's de facto leader RZA, also known as Prince Rakeem, produced the album entirely with heavy, eerie beats and a sound largely based on martial-arts movie clips and soul <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Wu-Tang+Clan/Enter+the+Wu-Tang+(36+Chambers)">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Red is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It was released on 6 October 1974 through Island Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in North America and Japan. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in July and August 1974, and produced by the band themselves. The track "Providence" was a free improvisation recorded at their 30 June 1974 concert at the Palace Theater in the city of the same name. Parts of some of the pieces were conceived during previous improvisations performed by the band live. "Starless" was originally considered for their previous album, Starless and Bible Black (1974), but was deemed incomplete at the time. The lengthy version included on this album was refined and performed during concerts throughout 1974.

Red is a progressive rock album with a noticeably heavier sound than their previous albums; it was later called one of the 50 "heaviest albums of all time" by Q. This was achieved with the performances of just three band members: guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist and vocalist John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford. The dense sound of the album was created by use of significant layering, multiple guitar overdubs, and key guest appearances by musicians including founding King Crimson member Ian McDonald, classical oboist Robin Miller and English jazz trumpeter Marc Charig.

Roughly two weeks prior to the release of Red, King Crimson disbanded. The album turned out to be their lowest-charting album at that time, spending only one week in the UK Albums Chart at No. 45 and the US Billboard 200 at No. 66. However, it was well received among fans and critics. It has received further praise retrospectively, being recognized as one of the band's best works, and has been re-issued many times.

Background and recording
Near the conclusion of King Crimson's 1974 US and Canada tour, the decision was made to ask David Cross to leave the band. EG, the band's management, urged Fripp not to tell Cross until after the final date of the tour, but he would not be able to do this anyway as Fripp would not return from the US until after Cross would return to Europe. Fripp reached an agreement with EG management that they would tell Cross, "on proviso that (Cross) was told that I objected to not telling him personally." Despite reaching this agreement, Cross would not be told by EG until 7 July, the day before the recording of Red began.

Red was recorded in studio 2 of Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. The band reunited with recording engineer George Chkiantz, who had previously worked with them on Starless and Bible Black. Chkiantz remembered Fripp placing himself and his guitar amplifier in the drummer's booth, "sitting on a stool with the light off, quite possibly with the door pulled to, basically playing when the stuff was counted in." Once Bruford was no longer needed in the studio he cycled home, leaving Wetton and Chkiantz to record the vocals. With the backing tracks put down, the band brought back several contributors to past albums in Cross's stead: Robin Miller on oboe, Marc Charig on cornet, former King Crimson members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins on saxophones, as well as Julian Lloyd-Webber on cello and an uncredited acoustic bassist.

Red sees King Crimson follow in the direction established by their previous two albums, Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) and Starless and Bible Black (1974), but in contrast to those albums, Red features more layered production with multiple overdubs, as well as the return of the earlier instrumentation of the guest players. Red's heavier tone was largely due to the influence of the rhythm section of Wetton and Bruford, whom Fripp has referred to as "a flying brick wall". During the recording of the album Fripp, increasingly unsure of the group's direction, took a "backseat" when making large decisions, leaving Wetton and Bruford to call the shots over the final content. Wetton and Bruford believed Fripp was merely "pulling another moody", but in the week prior to recording Red Fripp had discovered the works of mystic John G. Bennett and decided to take "a year's sabbatical ... at Bennett's Institute".  Fripp offered the idea of McDonald rejoining the band in his absence to EG. When this idea was met with lack of interest, Fripp abruptly disbanded King Crimson on 24 September 1974, and Red was released two weeks later.

Writing
Much of the material on Red has origins in improvisation. Motifs that would eventually be used for "Fallen Angel" were first played by Fripp in 1972 as part of improvs performed with the quintet line-up that recorded Larks' Tongues in Aspic. These improvisations are documented as "Fallen Angel" and "Fallen Angel Hullabaloo" on the Larks' Tongues in Aspic: The Complete Recordings box set, as well as standalone releases of their respective concerts. The distinctive introduction to "One More Red Nightmare" was deployed by Wetton and Fripp in various improvs throughout 1974, which can be heard in the Starless and The Road to Red box sets. Lastly, "Providence" itself was an improv, taken from the group's show on 30 June 1974 in Providence, Rhode Island. It was released in its uncut form on several releases, such as The Great Deceiver box set and the 40th anniversary edition of Red itself.

"Red" was composed solely by Fripp. In an analysis of the piece by composer Andrew Keeling, he describes "Red" as "an instrumental piece scored for electric guitar (multi-tracked in three layers), bass guitar and drums," as well as "one of the more muscular pieces of Robert Fripp's, in particular the deployment of open strings and heavily attacked and syncopated bass and drums." In an online diary from 2012, Fripp wrote about its development: "A motif; moved from (The missing piece)  "Blue" to "Red": the opening and closing theme of "Red" itself. The driving, relentless figure that follows it, and the middle figure played by the basses, weren't enough for a complete piece." Once the track was put down Fripp recalled: "We played it back and Bill said, 'I don't get it, but if you tell me it's good, I trust you.' ... I said, 'We don't have to use it.' John was in no doubt: 'We'll use it.'" An unused variation of the song's middle section would later emerge in the writing rehearsals for Three of a Perfect Pair (1984). Though it went unused, it finally saw light as the middle section of the instrumental "VROOOM VROOOM" on THRAK (1995).

"Starless" was originally written by Wetton, with the intent of it being the title track for Starless and Bible Black. At the time, the piece consisted only of the vocal section of the song, and Wetton claims that it got a "cold reception" from Fripp and Bruford. Later, an introductory theme was devised by Fripp was performed on violin by Cross, and two additional sections were added after the vocal, one being contributed by Bruford. The final section reprises various themes heard earlier in the song, and it also reuses a bass part which was originally written for "Fracture" on Starless and Bible Black. This early arrangement of "Fracture" can be heard on the Starless box set, as well as the standalone releases of their respective concerts. The lyrics went through several iterations, with one early verse later included by Wetton in "Caesar's Palace Blues", a song he would perform with U.K. Since the title "Starless and Bible Black" was already used for an improvisation on the group's previous album, the song's title was shortened to "Starless". On Red, "Starless" is credited to the quartet, as well as lyricist Richard Palmer-James.

Packaging
During the mixing stage, ideas for the album's title and artwork were discussed. The needles on the VU meters on the studio's mixing desk were observed to be "bouncing and crashing sharply into the red". For Wetton, this symbolised where the direction of where band's music was heading and, for a while, was to influence the front cover of Red. However, EG had the album's marketing potential in mind, and suggested a group photograph was easier to sell, particularly for the American market. EG director Mark Fenwick pitched to hire John Kosh, who subsequently commissioned Gered Mankowitz to produce photographs of the VU meters and the group, but the difficult group relations at the time led to the decision to photograph each member alone and form a composite to appear as if they are standing together. The severe shadowing has drawn comparisons to the front of With the Beatles (1963). Fripp recalled: "I loathed the session and was ill at ease with all of it.

The lyrics to the three songs on the album were not originally included as part of the packaging for the album, unlike all previous Crimson studio albums, which had lyrics printed either on the inside of the gatefold covers or on the custom inner sleeves. The first printing of the lyrics would occur 26 years after the album's initial release, on the 30th anniversary edition released in 2000.

Release and reception
Released in October 1974, Red spent only one week on the British charts, at No. 45, whereas all the band's previous studio albums had reached the top 30. In the United States, it reached No. 66 on the Billboard 200. However, it remained a popular album with fans and critics.

At the time of release, Sounds reporter Steve Peacock believed the group's disbanding was merely a marketing ploy to boost album sales. Retrospective reviews were resoundingly positive. In theirs, AllMusic declared Red to be weaker than its two predecessors, but nonetheless a superlative work: "few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement." Robert Christgau also applauded the album, having been generally critical of the group's past work, calling it "Grand, powerful, grating, and surprisingly lyrical" and commenting that "this does for classical-rock fusion what John McLaughlin's Devotion did for jazz-rock fusion." Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune praised Red as "progressive rock's finest hour." Classic Rock reviewer considered Red "a walk down a lightless corridor and an unhappy and ferocious counterbalance to the frolics of King Crimson's beginnings", and described it as "dark, brooding and laden with heavily distorted sections and a decidedly melancholic vibe".

Like most of King Crimson's catalogue, Red has been re-released numerous times since 1974. First issued on Compact Disc in 1986, it has also been released as part of the "Definitive Edition" series in 1989, and the "30th Anniversary Edition" series in 1999. In 2009, Red was chosen, alongside In the Court of the Crimson King and Lizard, to launch the "40th Anniversary Edition" series. As part of this series, each album is presented in a CD/DVD-A package, with new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes crafted by Steven Wilson. Unlike the other editions in the series, however, Red launched with no new stereo mix. In 2013, Wilson and Fripp created a new stereo mix for The Road To Red boxed set, and this mix was also issued separately as part of a 2CD package.

Legacy
In 2001, Q magazine named Red as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time" and Pitchfork ranked Red number 72 in its "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" list, stating that "For a band that was very obviously about to splinter, King Crimson's music sounds remarkably of a single mind. On Red, they achieved a remarkable balance between bone-crushing brutality and cerebral complexity." Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 15 on their list of the 50 best progressive rock albums of all time.

"Red" was also ranked as the twentieth best progressive rock song of all time by PopMatters, as well as number 87 in Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs". Red has been regarded as being highly influential to the development of avant-garde metal and math rock. Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain said that Red influenced the sound of their album In Utero.

Musicologists Eric Tamm and Edward Macan both consider Red, particularly the track "Starless", to be the highlight of King Crimson's recorded output. "Starless" is played over the opening titles of the 2018 horror film Mandy.

Tracklisting
Side one

   1. "Red" (Robert Fripp) – 6:16
   2. "Fallen Angel" (Fripp, Richard Palmer-James, John Wetton) – 6:03
   3. "One More Red Nightmare" (Fripp, Wetton) – 7:10

Side two

   1. "Providence" (Bill Bruford, David Cross, Fripp, Wetton) – 8:10

          Recorded at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, 30 June 1974

   2. "Starless" (Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James, Wetton) – 12:16

Personnel
King Crimson

    * Robert Fripp - guitar, mellotron
    * John Wetton - bass guitar, vocals
    * Bill Bruford - drums, percussion

Additional musicians

    * David Cross - violin
    * Mel Collins - soprano saxophone
    * Ian McDonald - alto saxophone
    * Robin Miller - oboe
    * Marc Charig - cornet
    * Uncredited  - Cello <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/King+Crimson/Red">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Red is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It was released on 6 October 1974 through Island Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in North America and Japan. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in July and August 1974, and produced by the band themselves. The track "Providence" was a free improvisation recorded at their 30 June 1974 concert at the Palace Theater in the city of the same name. Parts of some of the pieces were conceived during previous improvisations performed by the band live. "Starless" was originally considered <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/King+Crimson/Red">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure, released on May 1, 1989.   The record marks a return to the gloomy gothic rock style and introspective lyrics the band had established in the early 1980s, and is one of three quintessential Cure albums performed in entirety on the band's double live album, Trilogy.  Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it the "culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s." In spite of record label fears that the album would be "commercial suicide", Disintegration became the band's commercial peak, and produced several hit singles including 'Lullaby,' 'Fascination Street,' 'Lovesong,' and 'Pictures of You.' <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Cure/Disintegration">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure, released on May 1, 1989. The record marks a return to the gloomy gothic rock style and introspective lyrics the band had established in the early 1980s, and is one of three quintessential Cure albums performed in entirety on the band's double live album, Trilogy. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it the "culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s." In spite of record label fears that the album would be "commercial suicide", Disintegration became the band's commercial <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Cure/Disintegration">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Disintegration

"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is the second and final studio album by the American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released in the United States on February 10, 1998 on Merge Records and May 1998 on Blue Rose Records in the United Kingdom.

Jeff Mangum moved from Athens, Georgia to Denver, Colorado to prepare the bulk of the album's material with producer Robert Schneider, this time at Schneider's newly created Pet Sounds Studio at the home of Jim McIntyre.

The album was the sixth-best-selling vinyl album in 2008. NME named it the 98th greatest album of all time.

"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is widely considered to be written about Anne Frank due to lyrics seemingly referring to her, such as lines referring to her birth and death dates. Though the group has never officially stated that the album is indeed about Frank, it is a popular theory among fans, and Jeff Mangum has mentioned the influence her diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, has made on his craft and outright referred to "Holland, 1945" being about her while performing live. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Neutral+Milk+Hotel/In+the+Aeroplane+Over+the+Sea">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is the second and final studio album by the American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released in the United States on February 10, 1998 on Merge Records and May 1998 on Blue Rose Records in the United Kingdom. Jeff Mangum moved from Athens, Georgia to Denver, Colorado to prepare the bulk of the album's material with producer Robert Schneider, this time at Schneider's newly created Pet Sounds Studio at the home of Jim McIntyre. The album was the sixth-best-selling vinyl album in 2008. NME named it the 98th greatest album of <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Neutral+Milk+Hotel/In+the+Aeroplane+Over+the+Sea">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It contains six songs played over 40 minutes, and was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio.

Forming in 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky, Slint had met as teenagers playing in the Midwestern punk scene but soon diverged sonically from their hardcore roots. By the time they recorded Spiderland in late 1990, the band had developed a complex, idiosyncratic sound characterized by atypical rhythmic meters, harmonic dissonance and irregular song structures. McMahan's vocal delivery on the record alternates between spoken word, singing and shouting. The lyrics are presented in a narrative style and cover themes such as unease, social anxiety, loneliness, and despair.

Slint broke up shortly before the album's release due to McMahan's depression. In the US, Spiderland initially attracted little critical attention and sold poorly. However, a warm reception from UK music papers and gradually increasing sales in subsequent years helped it develop a significant cult following. Spiderland is widely regarded as foundational to the 1990s post-rock and math rock movements, and is cited by critics as a milestone of indie and experimental rock, inspiring a myriad of subsequent artists. Slint reunited in 2005 to perform the album in its entirety across three international tours.

Slint formed in 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky, after the dissolution of two local bands: Squirrel Bait and Maurice. The founding members included David Pajo (guitar), Britt Walford (drums) and Ethan Buckler (bass guitar), with Brian McMahan (guitar, vocals) joining soon after their first performance. Their debut album Tweez was recorded by Steve Albini and released in 1989 on the group's self-owned record label Jennifer Hartman Records and Tapes. Buckler left the band out of dissatisfaction with Tweez, and was replaced with Todd Brashear. Their second recording was an untitled extended play (EP) commonly referred to as Slint. Its instrumental rock sound featured on the EP, which would not be released until 1994, reflected both their new direction and increased musical sophistication since writing and recording their debut album.

The 1989 studio recordings drew the attention of Corey Rusk, co-founder of Touch and Go Records. He said that the album "was just so radically different than Tweez. ... I remember getting a tape of that and just listening to it over and over, really fucking loud." By early 1990, Rusk had agreed to pay for studio time and committed to a release their next record with Touch and Go. In July 1989, two weeks after the release of Tweez, Slint supported concerts by Crain and King Kong at which they debuted early versions of the songs: "Nosferatu Man", "Breadcrumb Trail", "Good Morning, Captain" and "Washer". That June, they performed nearly finalized instrumental renditions of the Spiderland songs during a concert at the Kentucky Theater.

Throughout the summer of 1990, the band practiced the music for six new songs McMahan and Walford had written for Slint's second album. The songs were recorded in August 1990 with producer Brian Paulson, who was known for his "live" recording style and minimal takes. Paulson later said that the recording "was weird... because I remember sitting there, and I just knew there was something about it. I've never heard anything like this." McMahan and Walford wrote the lyrics at the last minute while in studio, although they had worked out the vocal melodies in advance using recordings of practice sessions and a four-track. The album mostly explored themes of coming of age and anxiety about the approach of adulthood, and McMahan did not want the lyrics or vocal style to be heard by others until the actual recordings. He said: "I did not want to rehearse the vocals...it was a one-shot, cathartic experience."

The recording sessions were intense, fraught, and often difficult. According to AllMusic, they were "traumatic...and one more piece of evidence supporting the theory that band members had to be periodically institutionalized during the completion of the album." Rumors circulated that at least one member of Slint had checked into a psychiatric hospital. Walford later said that there was no truth to such claims, although the band was "definitely trying to be serious about things, pretty intense, which made recording the album kinda stressful." The recording was completed in four days.

The album's guitar work is noted for its roomy sound, angular rhythms, dramatically alternating dynamic shifts, and irregular time signatures. McMahan's singing style varies among mumbling, spoken word, strained shouting, and a written-narrative style. Influences on the record included Gang of Four, Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth. Will Hermes of Spin summarized the album's sound as "mid-'70s King Crimson gone emo: screeching guitar chords and gorgeous note-spinning in odd-metered instrumentals speckled with words both spoken and sung". Melody Maker described the music as "structurally and in tone", saying that the band "recalls Television circa Marquee Moon and Crazy Horse, whose simplicity they echo and whose style they most certainly do not".

The lyrics are usually narrative in style, and have been described as "eerie" and having "peculiar syntax". Both the vocal melodies and words were written by McMahan and Walford after the basic tracks had been recorded during practice sessions, and often were not heard by Pajo and Brashear until their final recording in studio. The vocal additions often pulled the songs in new directions, with examples being "Good Morning, Captain" and "Washer". McMahan was never comfortable taking the role of vocalist and only did so because nobody else in the band would. He considerably increases his range on "Spiderland", incorporating both his earlier whispered and shouting approaches with what Tennent describes as conventional, "actual singing".

The opening track, "Breadcrumb Trail", describes a day at a carnival with a fortune-teller. The song is built from complex guitar arrangement with sharp transitions, during which the guitar fluctuates between a clean-sounding riff with harmonics in the verse to heavy and high pitched distortion in the chorus. "Nosferatu Man" is the second track and was inspired by the 1922 German Expressionist silent film Nosferatu. Its verse includes a dissonant guitar riff which uses high-pitched notes similar to those in "Breadcrumb Trail" and a drumbeat centered on snare and toms. The chorus, featuring "jagged" distorted guitar and a beat with "thrashing cymbals with quick drum fills", segues into an extended jam before the song ends with 30 seconds of feedback.

Walford sings and plays lead guitar on "Don, Aman", a deliberate anagram of Madonna. Delivered in a hushed tone, the song's ambiguous lyrics depict the thoughts of an "isolated soul" before, during, and after an evening at a bar. The tempo quickens as the song develops, becoming loud and distorted at its peak, before slowing back to the original speed. "Washer" is the album's longest track, and features a low volume intro with guitar and cymbals before the rest of the band joins in the recording. The song builds until the final verse, when the tension is broken by loud distortion, followed by a lengthy outro. Pajo has said he is particularly proud of the song's one-note guitar solo, admitting that "at that point in my life, if someone asked me to do a solo, I would do the exact opposite of what a solo usually is. Instead of playing a bunch of notes, I would just play one, though I did some decorative stuff around it there. There’re some cool, weird things in that song". When McMahan's girlfriend accidentally found the song's lyrics on a piece of paper, she mistook them for a suicide note.

The instrumental "For Dinner..." begins with a quiet section of "brooding chords throb(bing) with the occasional rumble of muted toms and bass drum", the song cycles through sections of building and releasing tension. Unlike other tracks on the album, the guitars employ standard tuning, and does not use effects pedals. The closing song, "Good Morning, Captain", has been described as a tribute to the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner but the band have denied this. The song, which Pajo says is his favorite from the album, is built from a two-chord guitar structure, described as a "spindly, tight riff", and a "jerky" drumbeat. During the recording of the final chorus, McMahan became physically sick due to the strain of yelling over the guitars. David Peschek of The Guardian compared "Good Morning, Captain" to Led Zeppelin for its epic scope, though not its bleak mood, writing: "the extraordinary (song) is (Slint's) "Stairway to Heaven", if it's possible to imagine Stairway to Heaven bleached of all bombast."

The title originates from McMahan's younger brother, who thought the record sounded "spidery". Its black-and-white cover photograph, which depicts the members of the band treading water in the lake of an abandoned quarry at lake in Utica, Indiana, was taken by Will Oldham. An article in The Stranger credits the image as responsible for the later mystique surrounding the publicity-shy band, and notes how "most people only had seen Slint as four heads floating in a Kentucky quarry on Spiderland's cover. Listeners pondered the band's sparsely adorned black-and-white covers as if they were runes bearing secrets."

Chris Gaerig of the Michigan Daily wrote that the album cover "captures the joyous fear and violence of the album so precisely it shakes souls. The group—submerged in a lake to their chins with deranged smiles—seems to be stalking you, hovering out of the black-and-white façade." Several other promotional images have been taken from the same photo session with Oldham.

The photograph on the back cover is of a dead wolf spider, taken by Noel Saltzman, who also took the uncredited cover photo for their untitled 1994 EP. Saltzman found the spider in a shed while working his summer job. As it would not remain still enough to be photographed, Saltzman killed, froze, and repositioned it with tweezers to take the shot. The inside sleeve contains the message "interested female vocalists write 1864 douglas blvd. louisville, ky. 40205". The words "this recording is meant to be listened to on vinyl" is printed on some CD issues, indicating Slint's preference for analog audio devices.

Spiderland is considered a major influence on the post-rock bands Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Isis and Explosions in the Sky. Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh said the album was "quiet-to-loud" while still sounding like nothing before, as if "a new kind of music", while PJ Harvey included it in her 1992 "Ten For Today" list of records. Bob Nastanovich of Pavement ranked it as among his favorite albums. Its cover was recreated by The Shins in the music video for "New Slang". The album is regarded as essential to "the fabric of math-rock genre". Peschek described it as "the ur-text for what became known as post-rock, a fractured, almost geometric reimagining of rock music stripped of its dionysiac impulse."Rachel Devine of The List called Spiderland "arguably the most disproportionately influential (album) in music history". Pitchfork's Stuart Berman noted how the album "motivated a cluster of semi-popular bands in the late-90s and early 2000s to adopt its whisper-to-scream schematic. It's the boundless inspiration it perpetually provides for all the bands that have yet to emerge from the basement." In 2015, Gigwise named the album in their list of "The 11 most vicious post-hardcore albums ever."

In the 2010s AllMusic's Mark Deming described it as one of the most singular and important albums of the '90s, and in 2003, Pitchfork named it the twelfth best album of the 1990s. Writing in 2000, Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic, and said that despite their "sad-sack affect", Slint are actually "art-rockers without the courage of their pretensions", and noted that the lyrics were not to his liking. In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, journalist Mac Randall felt even though it is more accessible than Tweez, "The absence of anything resembling a tune continues to nag." Touch and Go founder Corey Rusk observed how Spiderland is "like an icon now. But when it came out, nobody cared! The band had broken up by the time the album came out, and it really didn't sell particularly well or get written about all that much in the year it was released. But it was a revolutionary, groundbreaking record, and it's one of the few instances where people catch up to it later on."

In 2014, Touch and Go reissued Tweez and a version of Spiderland remastered by Bob Weston from the original analog master-tapes. The bonus tracks were selected by the band and include demos, outtakes and a live performance. The transitional songs (written after Tweez, but before the bulk of the Spiderland tracks) "Pam" and "Glenn" (whose recording is described as containing one the best drum sounds Albini ever achieved) were recorded during the Spiderland sessions but failed to make the album. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Slint/Spiderland">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It contains six songs played over 40 minutes, and was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio. Forming in 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky, Slint <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Slint/Spiderland">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Spiderland

"Pink Moon" is the third and final album by English musician Nick Drake. It was recorded at midnight in two separate two-hour sessions, over two days in October 1971, featuring only Nick Drake's vocals and guitar, as well as some piano later overdubbed by Drake on the title track.

Initially, "Pink Moon" garnered a small amount of critical attention, but decades after Drake's death it received widespread public and critical acclaim. The music on "Pink Moon" is sparse and unadorned (especially in comparison to Drake's previous recordings), leading some to consider it to be the least accessible of his three albums, though it nevertheless continues to be thought of by many of his fans as his greatest work.

The cover of the album features an illustration by the partner of Drake's sister Gabrielle, Michael Trevithick. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nick+Drake/Pink+Moon">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

"Pink Moon" is the third and final album by English musician Nick Drake. It was recorded at midnight in two separate two-hour sessions, over two days in October 1971, featuring only Nick Drake's vocals and guitar, as well as some piano later overdubbed by Drake on the title track. Initially, "Pink Moon" garnered a small amount of critical attention, but decades after Drake's death it received widespread public and critical acclaim. The music on "Pink Moon" is sparse and unadorned (especially in comparison to Drake's previous recordings), leading some to consider it to be the least accessible of his three <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nick+Drake/Pink+Moon">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Pink Moon

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American musician Kanye West. It was released by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records on November 22, 2010, following a period of public controversy for West in the preceding year, for which he retreated to a "self-imposed exile" in Hawaii. There, he worked on the album in a communal recording environment that involved numerous contributing musicians and producers. Guest vocalists on the album include Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Elton John and Raekwon.

Production was primarily handled by West, with additional production from a variety of high-profile record producers including Mike Dean, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink, and DJ Frank E. Noted by critics for its maximalist aesthetic, opulent production quality, and dichotomous themes, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy incorporates aspects of West's previous works, including soul, baroque, electro, and symphonic styles. The album deals with themes of excess and celebrity, and explores such issues as consumer culture, race, and the idealism of the American Dream.

To promote the album, West released free songs through his G.O.O.D. Fridays series, and four singles: the Billboard hits POWER, Monster, Runaway, and the international hit All Of The Lights. The album was also promoted with a short film directed by West called "Runaway" set to the album's music, functioning as a companion piece to the record. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA for having sold over 3,000,000 copies in the United States as of 2022. 

In its first week of release, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 496,000 copies. The entry blocked Nicki Minaj's debut album Pink Friday from the top spot with 375,000 sales; the week marked the first time in two years that the chart had two albums bow with over 300,000 units. It also gave West his fourth consecutive US number-one album and surpassed the 450,000 first-week sales of 808s & Heartbreak, with the debut becoming the fourth-best sales week of 2010. The album's first-week digital sales of 224,000 units accounted for 45% of the total and stood as the fourth-highest digital copies for an album in a week.

In its second week on the Billboard 200, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy descended six places to number seven with 108,000 copies sold, marking a 78% sales decline while remaining above Pink Friday by one place. The album lasted for 115 weeks on the Billboard 200, and as of July 2013, it has sold 1,300,000 copies in the United States, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan. By June 2011, the album had sold 483,000 digital copies, ranking as the second best-selling digital rap album ever. On November 23, 2020, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for pushing 3,000,000 certified units in the US. According to Billboard, as of 2022, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the Hot 100.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a chart-topper in Canada, giving West his fourth number-one album on the Canadian Albums Chart. It was less successful in Denmark, reaching number four on the Danish Albums chart. On March 9, 2021, the album was certified double platinum by IFPI Danmark for shipments of 40,000 in Denmark. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy opened at number six on the ARIA Albums chart and on September 10, 2021, it was awarded a double platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for over 140,000 copies shipped in Australia. The album charted within the top 10 in Norway, South Korea, New Zealand, and Switzerland. In 2018, it was reported that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy had been streamed a billion times on Spotify.

Widely considered West's magnum opus, the album was an immediate and widespread critical success. It became the first new release to be rated a perfect 10 by Pitchfork since  Wilco's 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, became West's third studio album to top the Village Voice's annual year-end Pazz and Jop critics' poll, was named the best album in many publications' year-end and decade-end lists (including Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and The A.V. Club), and has since appeared on several lists ranking the Greatest Albums of All-Time, including on Rolling Stone Magazine's 2020 List of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time, and NME's 2013 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kanye+West/My+Beautiful+Dark+Twisted+Fantasy">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American musician Kanye West. It was released by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records on November 22, 2010, following a period of public controversy for West in the preceding year, for which he retreated to a "self-imposed exile" in Hawaii. There, he worked on the album in a communal recording environment that involved numerous contributing musicians and producers. Guest vocalists on the album include Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Bon Iver, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Elton John and Raekwon. Production was primarily handled by West, with <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kanye+West/My+Beautiful+Dark+Twisted+Fantasy">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth album by British rock band The Beatles. It was recorded with breaks from the end of 1966 to the middle of 1967 and published on June 14, 1967. The producer was George Martin, and the studio engineer was Geoff Emerick. Most critics agree with the choice of "Rolling Stone" magazine, according to which this is the greatest rock album of all time. This album also has the most famous cover in rock history.

Released on 26 May 1967, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the Record Retailer chart in the United Kingdom and 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the United States. It was lauded by critics for its innovations in songwriting, production, and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture. Its release was a defining moment in 1960s pop culture, heralding the Summer of Love, while the album's reception achieved full cultural legitimization for pop music and recognition for the medium as a genuine art form.

At the end of August 1966, the Beatles permanently retired from touring and pursued individual interests for the next three months. During a return flight to London in November, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song involving an Edwardian military band that formed the impetus of the Sgt. Pepper concept. Sessions began on 24 November at EMI Studios with compositions inspired by the Beatles' youth, but after pressure from EMI, the songs "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were released as a double A-side single in February 1967 and left off the LP.

The album was loosely conceptualized as a performance by the fictional Sgt. Pepper band, an idea that was conceived after recording the title track. A key work of British psychedelia, it incorporates a range of stylistic influences, including vaudeville, circus, music hall, avant-garde, and Western and Indian classical music. The band continued the technological experimentation marked by their previous album, Revolver, this time without an absolute deadline for completion. With producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, the group colored much of the recordings with sound effects and tape manipulation, as exemplified on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "A Day in the Life." The recording was completed on 21 April. The pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth designed the cover, which depicts the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures.

Musicologists regard Sgt. Pepper was an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composition, extended form, psychedelic imagery, record sleeves, and the producer in popular music. The album had an immediate cross-generational impact and was associated with numerous touchstones of the era's youth culture, such as fashion, drugs, mysticism, and a sense of optimism and empowerment. It is considered one of the first art rock LPs, a progenitor to progressive rock, and the start of the album era. In 1968, it won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honor; in 2003, the Library of Congress inducted it into the National Recording Registry. It has topped several critics' and listeners' polls for the best album of all time, including those published by Rolling Stone magazine and in the book All-Time Top 1000 Albums, and the UK's "Music of the Millennium" poll. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time and the UK's best-selling studio album, with more than 32 million copies sold worldwide as of 2011.

The beginning of the psychedelic era:
After giving up the rock tour in August 1966, the Beatles' popularity began to decline sharply, and the media began to speculate that the band had "dried up" under the onslaught of a new generation of rock artists, primarily genre-oriented psychedelic rock. A type of rock and roll that is produced under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, primarily LSD.

The Beatles have used these drugs before, but their impact on their music has not been overly pronounced (except for a few songs from the Revolver album, including the group's first psychedelic song, Tomorrow Never Knows). In February 1967, at the urging of manager Brian Epstein, the Beatles released the single Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane, with songs originally planned for their next LP album. The single took second place on the charts and after several years; it was characterized as a failure. However, after this, the group did not leave the studio for several months.

Study work:
With the permission of producer George Martin to use certain amounts of drugs in the studio, the Beatles were led by Paul McCartney for the first time, because the former frontman, John Lennon, was depressed due to family problems. McCartney was the author of most of the songs on the album (including the title songs), however, Lennon also significantly contributed to this project with songs such as Being for Benefits of Mr. Kite and A Day in the Life, part of which was recorded by McCartney for his own song, but Martin added it to Lennon. All the songs of these two were later, by an earlier agreement, marked traditionally - Lennon / McCartney, but each author is the lead vocalist in his song, except in the case of the song "With a Little Help of My Friends," sung by the drummer, Ringo Starr. As for the studio technique, the previous 4-channel recording machine, ADT (Auto Double-Tracking) machine for doubling one's voice was used. In the coming period, this machine will be more and more popular, as the individuality of the members grows in the group, who will want to record most or even their entire songs on their own.

Cover:
According to various sources, the cover was also McCartney's idea. The Beatles, in guard uniforms, with wind instruments, for the first time with a mustache and beard, are an integral part of all versions of this album. However, in the American edition, that is where it all ends, because there is only a yellow wall behind the group. In the British  (European) edition, behind The Beatles there is a bunch of people, important in the then and past time - among them are Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, Marilyn Monroe, ... However, The Beatles themselves with the look of before this album. Also, below the members of the group is a floral decor with the inscription "The Beatles". An album like this was a lure for many conspiracy theorists, so this is also one of the most mysterious covers of all time.

The final concept:
The whole album is connected by one theme, which was a kind of precedent and thus The Beatles became the creators of the so-called Concept album. The protagonist of the story in question is a certain Billy Shears (when, thanks to the fact that he lent his voice in the song "With a Little Help of My Friends," interpreted by Ringo Starr), who modestly announces a performance after the pompous performance of the Sergeant Pepper Club more "lonely hearts," claiming that "a little help from a friend" is enough for him after a hard day. Then, in the following songs, the Beatles comment on various existential problems - from a normal working day ("Good Morning, Good Morning"), old age ("When I'm 64") to death itself and the problems around it ("Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"). The album closes with a slightly modified ("reprise") version of the first song, which builds on the last song --  "A Day in the Life" -- which features multiple crescendos. The whole album is accompanied by studio applause from the audience and applause. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Sgt.+Pepper%27s+Lonely+Hearts+Club+Band">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth album by British rock band The Beatles. It was recorded with breaks from the end of 1966 to the middle of 1967 and published on June 14, 1967. The producer was George Martin, and the studio engineer was Geoff Emerick. Most critics agree with the choice of "Rolling Stone" magazine, according to which this is the greatest rock album of all time. This album also has the most famous cover in rock history. Released on 26 May 1967, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the Record Retailer chart in <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/Sgt.+Pepper%27s+Lonely+Hearts+Club+Band">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Animals is the tenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 January 1977 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It was self-produced at Pink Floyd's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976. The album continued the longform compositions that made up their previous works, including Wish You Were Here (1975).

Animals is a concept album, based on the flaws of capitalism. Various castes in society are represented as different types of animals (Dogs as the businessmen, sheep as the powerless pawns, and pigs as the ruthless leaders). Although this album mainly attacks capitalism, several components are similar to George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm": In the book, various animals (mainly pigs, sheep, dogs, etc.) represent different roles assumed by individuals in a communist society.

While singer and guitarist David Gilmour are only credited for the music of one track, the epic "Dogs" (previously known as "You Gotta Be Crazy"), this song and "Raving and Drooling", a Waters song which would later become "Sheep", were created at the same time as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and originally destined for Wish You Were Here. Their creation process was similar to the method the band used during the late sixties and early seventies. They would adapt and expand their compositions by performing them live, and later in the studio find a more coherent form and concept for the whole album, with Waters writing the lyrics. Animals was the last Pink Floyd album created in this way, as the subsequent The Wall and The Final Cut, were primarily conceived by Waters and worked out in the studio with some input from Gilmour. Although Rick Wright admittedly did not contribute much compositionally, he had some influence on the arrangement of the songs, including solo playing on "Dogs" and "Sheep". As with "Welcome to the Machine" and "Wish You Were Here" on Wish You Were Here, Waters wrote "Pigs on the Wing" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" to tie together the other songs in the album's concept. His dominance in the writing credits and the discrepancy with the actual creation process are directly related to the increasing tensions within the band.

The three core songs are bookended by a pair of love songs written by Waters for his then-wife Caroline: "Pigs on the Wing, Part 1" and "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2". Both are in stark contrast to the misanthropic middle three songs and suggest that companionship can help us overcome our flaws – though the final lines suggest that the singer is or was once one of the dogs. For the 8-track cartridge release, which looped, Parts 1 and 2 were linked by a guitar bridge performed by Snowy White (subsequently available on White's 1996 album "Goldtop: Groups & Sessions"), and the 17:08 song "Dogs" was cut into two tracks.

The giant, helium-filled pig seen on the cover was actually flown over Battersea Power Station for the photoshoot (under the direction of Storm Thorgerson). On the first day of shooting, a marksman was on hand in case the pig broke free. However, according to Thorgerson, this was considered an "insurance problem", and he was not hired for the second day of the shooting. Ironically, on December 3, 1976, during the second day, a gust of wind broke the pig free of its moorings. Because there was no one to shoot the pig down, it sailed away into the morning sky. A passenger plane reported seeing the pig, causing all the flights at London Heathrow Airport to be delayed. A police helicopter was sent up to track the pig but was forced to return after following the pig to an altitude of 5,000 feet. A warning was sent out to pilots that a giant, flying pink pig was loose in the area. The CAA lost radar contact on the pig near Chatham in Kent, at a height of 18,000 feet and flying East. It finally landed in a farmer's field, without much damage. They then repaired the pig and flew it up for the third time. The resulting pictures were not deemed suitable on their own (as the clear, blue sky from day three was thought to be much less evocative), and the final image was made as a composite of the power station picture from day one and the pig from day three.

The album had custom picture labels, using drummer Nick Mason's handwriting as a typeface, as did the lyrics on the liner sleeve. Side one's label depicted a fish-eye lens view of a dog and the English countryside. Side two's was similar but featured a pig and sheep instead of the dog.

Originally released on Columbia Records in the U.S. and Harvest Records in the UK, Animals was then remastered in 1992 for its inclusion on the Shine On box set. The remaster was subsequently released on its own by EMI in 1994. In 1997, Columbia Records issued an updated remaster in the United States, Canada, Australia, South America, and Japan. Animals were again re-released in April 2000 by Capitol Records in the US, and on the EMI label in Japan, Canada, South America, and Australia again using the 1992 Shine On remaster along with the artwork from 1994 EMI Europe reissue.

The album proved a success in the United Kingdom, where it reached #2 in the era of punk music. It was also a success in the U.S., reaching #3 on the Billboard album charts (#1 and #2 were Hotel California by The Eagles, and the soundtrack to the Barbara Streisand film A Star Is Born). However, it was on the American charts for only six months even though it has continued to sell solidly, to the extent of its having gone quadruple platinum, according to the RIAA.

In the UK, the British Phonographic Industry awarded the album Gold (100,000 units) in 1977. It has yet to achieve Platinum.

In an April 2020 interview, Waters said he had pushed for the release of a remixed and remastered vinyl of Animals by James Guthrie, but that it had been rejected by Gilmour and Mason. In June 2021, Waters released a statement announcing a new release with stereo and 5.1 surround mixes. Waters cited a dispute between himself and Gilmour over a set of liner notes written by Mark Blake as the reason for the delay, and posted the rejected liner notes on his website. The remix of the album is expected to be released on September 16, 2022, on Vinyl, CD, & Blu-ray; also a limited edition deluxe gatefold package containing Vinyl, CD, Blu-ray, DVD and a 32-page book will be released on October 7, 2022. A Hybrid Multichannel SACD of the stereo and surround remixes will be released exclusively through Acoustic Sounds on September 16, 2022, as well. The band released the 2018 remix of "Dogs" as a digital single on July 22, 2022. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pink+Floyd/Animals">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Animals is the tenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 January 1977 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It was self-produced at Pink Floyd's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976. The album continued the longform compositions that made up their previous works, including Wish You Were Here (1975). Animals is a concept album, based on the flaws of capitalism. Various castes in society are represented as different types of animals (Dogs as the businessmen, sheep as the powerless pawns, and pigs as the ruthless leaders). Although this album mainly attacks capitalism, several components are <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pink+Floyd/Animals">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Animals

Vespertine is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Indian Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album began during the filming of Dancer in the Dark, which was characterized by conflict between her and director Lars von Trier. The sound of "Vespertine" reflected Björk's newly found interest in the music of artists such as Opiate and Console, who were also enlisted as producers. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bj%C3%B6rk/Vespertine">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Vespertine is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Indian Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album began during the filming of Dancer in the Dark, which was characterized by conflict between her and director Lars von Trier. The sound of "Vespertine" reflected Björk's newly found interest in the music of artists such as Opiate and Console, who were also enlisted as producers. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bj%C3%B6rk/Vespertine">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Vespertine

The Beatles [White Album]

Unknown Pleasures is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 on Tony Wilson's Factory Records. It followed an abandoned session for RCA Records, and was recorded and mixed over three weekends at Strawberry Studios, Stockport in April 1979 with record producer Martin Hannett. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville.

Factory did not release any singles from the album, and it did not chart despite the relative success of the group's non-album debut single "Transmission". Unknown Pleasures has gone on to receive sustained critical acclaim as a pioneering and influential post-punk album. It has been named as one of the best albums ever by publications such as NME, AllMusic, and Select.

Unknown Pleasures was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport over three weekends between 1 and 17 April 1979, with Martin Hannett producing. Describing Hannett's production techniques, Hook said, " didn't think straight, he thought sideways. He confused you and made you do something you didn't expect." Hook went on to say, "Derek Bramwood of Strawberry Studios said that you can take a group that have got on brilliantly for 20 years, put them in a studio with Martin and within five minutes, they'll be trying to slash each other's throats." However, Hook went on to say that Hannett was only as good as the material he had to work with, "We gave him great songs, and like a top chef, he added some salt and pepper and some herbs and served up the dish. But he needed our ingredients."

Hannett used a number of unusual sound effects and production techniques on the album; including the sound of a bottle smashing, someone eating crisps, backwards guitar and the sound of the Strawberry Studios lift with a Leslie speaker "whirring inside". He also used the sound of a basement toilet, as well as several AMS 15-80s digital delays and a couple of Marshall Time Modulators, tape echo and bounce. Hannett recorded Curtis's vocals for "Insight" down a telephone line so he could achieve the "requisite distance". Referring to the recording sessions, Hook remembered, "Sumner started using a kit-built Powertran Transcendent 2000 synthesiser, most notably on 'I Remember Nothing', where it vied with the sound of Rob Gretton smashing bottles with Steve and his Walther replica pistol." In his words, "Morris ... had invested in a syndrum because he thought he saw one on the cover of Can's Tago Mago: "you triggered it by hitting it.  frowned on it because he wasn't the one doing the triggering."

The band members' opinions differed on the "spacious, atmospheric sound" of the album, which did not reflect their more aggressive live sound. Sumner said, "The music was loud and heavy, and we felt that Martin had toned it down, especially with the guitars. The production inflicted this dark, doomy mood over the album: we'd drawn this picture in black and white, and Martin had coloured it in for us. We resented it ..." Hook said, "I couldn't hide my disappointment then, it sounded like Pink Floyd." Morris disagreed, saying, "I was happy with Unknown Pleasures. My theory on things at the time was that the two things—listening to a record and going to a gig—were quite different. You don't want to hear a record when you go to a gig: you want something with a bit of energy." Curtis was also happy with the production of the album and was impressed with Hannett's work. Hook conceded in 2006, "It definitely didn't turn out sounding the way I wanted it ... But now I can see that Martin did a good job on it ... There's no two ways about it, Martin Hannett created the Joy Division sound." Hook also noted that he was able to hear Curtis's lyrics and Sumner's guitar parts for the first time on the record, because during gigs the band played too loudly.

In 1994, Jon Savage described the music as "a definitive Northern Gothic statement: guilt-ridden, romantic, claustrophobic". Analysing Curtis's work, music journalist Richard Cook remarked in 1983: "sex has disappeared from these unknown pleasures; it is an aftermath of passion where everything's (perhaps) lost".

Peter Saville, who had previously designed posters for Manchester's Factory club in 1978, designed the cover of the album. Sumner chose the image used on the cover, which is based on an image of radio waves from pulsar CP 1919, from The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy. Saville reversed the image from black-on-white to white-on-black and printed it on textured card for the original version of the album. It is not a Fourier analysis, but rather an image of the intensity of successive radio pulses, as stated in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia. The image was originally created by radio astronomer Harold Craft at the Arecibo Observatory for his 1970 PhD thesis.

This image became well-known, featuring on T-shirts (even parodied by a quickly-withdrawn Disney shirt). When reviewing the 2007 remastered version of Unknown Pleasures, Pitchfork critic Joshua Klein described the cover art as "iconic". Susie Goldring, reviewing the album for BBC Online said, "The duochrome Peter Saville cover of this first Joy Division album speaks volumes. Its white on black lines reflect a pulse of power, a surge of bass, and raw angst. If the cover doesn't draw you in, the music will."

The inner sleeve features a black-and-white photograph of a door with a hand near the handle. It was some years later before Saville discovered that the photograph was Hand Through a Doorway, a well-known picture by Ralph Gibson. Author Chris Ott suggests that the album title was probably a reference to Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Joy+Division/Unknown+Pleasures">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Unknown Pleasures is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 on Tony Wilson's Factory Records. It followed an abandoned session for RCA Records, and was recorded and mixed over three weekends at Strawberry Studios, Stockport in April 1979 with record producer Martin Hannett. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville. Factory did not release any singles from the album, and it did not chart despite the relative success of the group's non-album debut single "Transmission". Unknown Pleasures has gone on to receive sustained critical acclaim as a pioneering and influential <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Joy+Division/Unknown+Pleasures">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Unknown Pleasures

The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by the English rock band The Smiths. It was released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records and released in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records. The album reached number two on the UK album chart, maintaining a chart residency for 22 weeks, number 70 on the Billboard  200, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in late 1990. It has sold consistently well ever since.

Guitarist Johnny Marr wrote several songs that would later appear on The Queen Is Dead while The Smiths toured Britain in early 1985, working out song arrangements with bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce during soundchecks. After releasing their September 1985 single, "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" (which is included on "The Queen Is Dead" in an updated, slightly re-mixed version), The Smiths turned to recording their third album. Marr produced the album with singer Morrissey, and worked with engineer Stephen Street, who had assumed the same role on the band's previous album "Meat Is Murder". Street recalled, "Morrissey, Johnny and I had a really good working relationship — we were all roughly the same age and into the same kind of things, so everyone felt quite relaxed in the studio".

At the time the group was having difficulty with their label Rough Trade, which Street characterised as "Rough Trade and EMI trying to sign up everything". Street noted, "But this didn't get in the way of recording because the atmosphere in the studio was very, very constructive." The group recorded "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" at RAK Studios in northwest London. After a brief tour, the group recorded and mixed the majority of the album at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, Surrey, during late 1985 and early 1986.

The album's title comes from the name of a chapter of Hubert Selby, Jr.'s cult classic novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn".

"The Queen Is Dead" finally emerged half a year later, in June 1986, and was previewed by the May single release of "Bigmouth Strikes Again", strictly speaking the only single taken from the album. Many encouraged the band to release "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" as a single, but Johnny Marr is said to have wanted an explosive, searing single, along the lines of The Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", to announce that The Smiths had returned from hiatus. It did not fare as well as expected, stalling at number 26 on the British charts.

The album is popularly regarded as The Smiths' best album. With its unique blend of musical styles (including jangle pop, British Invasion, music hall, rockabilly and punk rock), it quickly became a British sensation and established The Smiths as one of the biggest bands of their era. Both Morrissey and Marr disagree, however, citing its 1987 successor (and unexpectedly final Smiths LP), "Strangeways, Here We Come", as their peak.

Rolling Stone gave the album a five star rating. Reviewer Mark Coleman remarked on Morrissey's sense of humour and singled out the singer's performance on "Cemetry Gates" as a highlight. Coleman concluded, "Like it or not, this guy's going to be around for a while." Pitchfork Media ranked the album as the sixth best of the 1980s. In 2000, Mojo magazine placed "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" at number 25 on their list of the 100 greatest songs of all time, while VH2 placed it top of their Top 500 Indie Songs chart. In 2003, "The Queen Is Dead" was ranked number 216 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. In 2006 it was named the second greatest British album of all time by NME. In 2006, Q Magazine placed the album at #3 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".

The song "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", was a contender for lead single off the album, but was passed over in favour of "Bigmouth Strikes Again". (Later in 1986 it was released as a 7"-only single in France). It received a belated release in 1992, when it became one of WEA's singles in a programme to promote Smiths re-releases 

"Cemetry Gates" was Morrissey's direct response to critics who had cried foul over his use of texts written by some of his favorite authors, notably Shelagh Delaney and Elizabeth Smart. Oscar Wilde, who was also accused of plagiarism, figures as a patron saint of Morrissey's in the song's lyrics. A Wilde quote, "Talent borrows, genius steals", was etched in the vinyl run-out grooves of the first single off the album, "Bigmouth Strikes Again". "Cemetry Gates" also has interesting reverberations with fellow English writer Evelyn Waugh's 1948 novel The Loved One, much of which takes place in a cemetery. The novel's main character Dennis Barlow plagiarizes poems by various English poets in his overtures to Aimee Thanatogenos.

"The Queen Is Dead", which leads off the album and notably became an expressionistic music video directed by Derek Jarman, starts with a soundbite from Bryan Forbes' 1962 British film The L-Shaped Room. Another instance of Morrissey's fascination with '60s British cinema, the film featured performances by Pat Phoenix (who had already appeared as a cover star on the 1985 single "Shakespeare's Sister") and Cicely Courtneidge as an elderly lesbian veteran of the music halls. The soundbite is Courtneidge's character nostalgically singing the World War I song "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty". The actress had also appeared in a gala performance for Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee called "God Save the Queen", and died in 1980.

A few songs, including "The Queen Is Dead" and "Bigmouth Strikes Again", feature pitch-shifted backing vocals by Morrissey. Morrissey liked to experiment with effects on his voice, so Street ran his voice through a harmoniser for the backing tracks. Street recalled, "At that time, apart from the harmoniser, he didn't go for much backing vocal or harmony work — he's done that more on recent albums — but he did like to experiment". The backing vocals are attributed to "Ann Coates" on the record sleeve (Ancoats is a district in Manchester, just North East of the city centre).

The album cover of "The Queen Is Dead", designed by Morrissey, features Alain Delon from the 1964 film "L'Insoumis". <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Smiths/The+Queen+Is+Dead">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The Queen Is Dead is the third studio album by the English rock band The Smiths. It was released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records and released in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records. The album reached number two on the UK album chart, maintaining a chart residency for 22 weeks, number 70 on the Billboard 200, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in late 1990. It has sold consistently well ever since. Guitarist Johnny Marr wrote several songs that would later appear on The Queen Is Dead while <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Smiths/The+Queen+Is+Dead">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

The Queen Is Dead

Long Season (stylized in all caps; subtitled ...we are not four seasons) is the sixth studio album by Japanese dub group Fishmans. It was first released on October 25, 1996 in Japan by Polydor Records.It was recorded in July 1996 and consists of a single 35-minute composition based on the band's earlier song "Season <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Fishmans/Long+Season">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Long Season (stylized in all caps; subtitled ...we are not four seasons) is the sixth studio album by Japanese dub group Fishmans. It was first released on October 25, 1996 in Japan by Polydor Records.It was recorded in July 1996 and consists of a single 35-minute composition based on the band's earlier song "Season <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Fishmans/Long+Season">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Long Season

In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released July 30, 1969 on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969 at CBS 30th Street Studio B in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form, Macero edited and arranged Davis's recordings from the session to produce the album. Marking the beginning of his "electric" period, In a Silent Way has been regarded by music writers as Davis's first fusion recording, following a stylistic shift toward the genre in his previous records and live performances.

Upon its release, the album was met by controversy among music critics, particularly those of jazz and rock music, who were divided in their reaction to its experimental musical structure and Davis's electronic approach. Since its initial reception, it has been regarded by fans and critics as one of Davis's greatest and most influential works. In 2001, Columbia Legacy and Sony Music released the three-disc box set The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, which includes the original album, additional tracks, and the unedited recordings used to produce In a Silent Way.

Although Davis's live performances and previous records such as Miles in the Sky (1968) and Filles de Kilimanjaro (1969) had indicated his stylistic shift to fusion, In a Silent Way featured a full-blown electric approach by Davis. It has been regarded by music writers as the first of Davis's fusion recordings, while marking the beginning of his "electric" period. It is also the first recording by Davis that was largely constructed by the editing and arrangement of producer Teo Macero. Macero's editing techniques have incorporated elements of classical sonata form in Davis' recordings for In a Silent Way. Both of the extended tracks on the album consist of three distinct parts that could be thought of as an exposition, development and recapitulation. The last six minutes of the first track are actually the first six minutes of the same track repeated in exactly the same form. With this "trick" the track takes on a more understandable structure.

The album featured virtuoso guitarist and newcomer John McLaughlin, who had one month prior to the February 18th In a Silent Way session recorded his classic debut album Extrapolation. At the request of Tony Williams, McLaughlin moved in early February from England to the US to play with The Tony Williams Lifetime. Williams brought McLaughlin to Davis' house the night before the scheduled session for In a Silent Way. Davis had not heard the guitarist before, but was so impressed that he told him to show up at the studio the next day. McLaughlin would go on to great fame in the 1970s as leader of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

According to producer Bob Belden, organist Larry Young, whom Williams had also recently hired for his Lifetime trio, was also intended to play on In a Silent Way. However, out of fear that he would lose his entire band to Davis, Williams sent Young home as soon as he arrived. Instead Joe Zawinul, who had come to the session only as the composer of the song "In a Silent Way," ended up playing organ on the album. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/In+A+Silent+Way">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released July 30, 1969 on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969 at CBS 30th Street Studio B in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form, Macero edited and arranged Davis's recordings from the session to produce the album. Marking the beginning of his "electric" period, In a Silent Way has been regarded by music writers as Davis's first fusion recording, following a stylistic shift toward the genre in his previous records and <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/In+A+Silent+Way">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

In A Silent Way

Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, released in 1965 by Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album to be recorded entirely with a full rock band, after he experimented with the approach on half of Bringing It All Back Home. It is commonly tagged as documenting the "angry young man" period in Dylan's career, in-between the playfulness of its surrounding albums; many of the songs on Highway 61 are of an accusatory nature and feature rough, loud takes.

Featuring hits and concert staples such as "Like a Rolling Stone", "Desolation Row", and "Ballad of a Thin Man", it is also generally considered to be among the artist's best and most influential efforts. Dylan himself commented, "I'm not gonna be able to make a record better than that one... Highway 61 is just too good. There's a lot of stuff on there that I would listen to."

The album peaked at #3 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart and #4 in the UK, while "Like a Rolling Stone" reached #2 on the US Pop Singles chart and #4 in the UK, also receiving the accolade of being placed #1 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The album itself was ranked #4 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/Highway+61+Revisited">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, released in 1965 by Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album to be recorded entirely with a full rock band, after he experimented with the approach on half of Bringing It All Back Home. It is commonly tagged as documenting the "angry young man" period in Dylan's career, in-between the playfulness of its surrounding albums; many of the songs on Highway 61 are of an accusatory nature and feature rough, loud takes. Featuring hits and concert staples such as "Like a Rolling Stone", "Desolation Row", and "Ballad of a Thin Man", <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/Highway+61+Revisited">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Highway 61 Revisited

Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by English singer Kate Bush, released on September 16, 1985 by EMI Records. It was a commercial success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous album, 1982's The Dreaming. The album's lead single, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", became one of Bush's biggest hits. The album's first side produced three further singles, "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love" and "The Big Sky". The second side, subtitled The Ninth Wave, forms a conceptual suite about a woman drifting alone in the sea at night.

"Hounds of Love" received critical acclaim both on its release and in retrospective reviews. It is considered by many fans and music critics to be Bush's best album, and has been regularly voted one of the greatest albums of all time. It was Bush's second album to top the UK Albums Chart and in the US, it reached the top 20 on the Billboard 200. It is her best-selling studio album, having been certified double platinum for 600,000 sales in the UK, and by 1998 it had sold 1.1 million copies worldwide. The album was nominated at the 1986 Brit Awards for Best British Album, at which Bush was also nominated for Best British Female and Best British Single for "Running Up That Hill". <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kate+Bush/Hounds+of+Love">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by English singer Kate Bush, released on September 16, 1985 by EMI Records. It was a commercial success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous album, 1982's The Dreaming. The album's lead single, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", became one of Bush's biggest hits. The album's first side produced three further singles, "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love" and "The Big Sky". The second side, subtitled The Ninth Wave, forms a conceptual suite about a woman drifting alone in the <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Kate+Bush/Hounds+of+Love">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Hounds of Love

Dummy is the debut studio album by English band Portishead, released on August 22, 1994 by Go! Beat Records. The album is often credited with popularising the trip hop genre and is frequently cited in lists of the best albums of the 1990s.

"Numb" was released on June 6, 1994 as the album's lead single, followed by "Sour Times" in August of the same year and "Glory Box" in January 1995.

The tracks "Roads" and "Strangers" were used in the soundtrack of the 1994 horror film Nadja. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Portishead/Dummy">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Dummy is the debut studio album by English band Portishead, released on August 22, 1994 by Go! Beat Records. The album is often credited with popularising the trip hop genre and is frequently cited in lists of the best albums of the 1990s. "Numb" was released on June 6, 1994 as the album's lead single, followed by "Sour Times" in August of the same year and "Glory Box" in January 1995. The tracks "Roads" and "Strangers" were used in the soundtrack of the 1994 horror film Nadja. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Portishead/Dummy">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Dummy

Doolittle is the second studio album from the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. The album's offbeat and dark subject material, featuring references to surrealism, Biblical violence, torture and death, contrasts with the clean production sound achieved by the then newly hired producer Gil Norton. Along with Surfer Rosa, Doolittle is considered the band's strongest work.

Doolittle has continued to sell consistently well in the nineteen years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been cited as inspirational by many alternative artists, while numerous music publications have ranked it as one of the most influential albums ever. A 2003 poll of NME writers ranked Doolittle as the second greatest album of all time. Reaction to Doolittle was positive in general, with the album garnering praise from several major music publications. NME commented that "the songs on Doolittle have the power to make you literally jump out of your skin with excitement." Q, giving the album four stars out of five, said that Doolittle's "carefully structured noise and straightforward rhythmic insistence makes perfect sense." Tim Rolston, of the Daily Telegraph praised Doolittle as "a scintillating rock'n'roll album" and the Pixies' "finest half-hour so far." Other publications also awarded the album four out of five stars, including the British music weekly Record Mirror, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ rating, suggesting that "getting famous too fast could ruin them."

However, Doolittle received mixed reviews from several music critics. Time Out said that "Gil Norton's toy theatre production makes a drama out of what should have been a crisis." Spin ran a hundred-word review of the album, including critic Joe Levy's comment "the insanity less surreal and more silly, and the songs themselves more like songs and less like adventures." Rolling Stone, reviewing the album in July 1988, gave the album three and a half stars. Doolittle appeared on several end-of-year "Best Album" lists; both Rolling Stone and The Village Voice placed the album tenth, and independent music magazines Sounds and Melody Maker both ranked the album as the second best of the year. NME also ranked the album highly, placing it fourth in their end-of-year list.

A range of music magazines have since acclaimed Doolittle as one of the quintessential alternative rock albums of the 1980s. Rolling Stone, reviewing Doolittle again in 2002, gave the album five stars out of five, remarking that it laid the "groundwork for Nineties rock." Doolittle has received a number of international accolades and is consistently noted as one of the best albums of the 1980s in any genre.


Following its release, Doolittle sold steadily in America, and broke sales of 100,000 after six months. By early 1992, while the band were supporting U2 on their Zoo TV Tour, the album was selling 1,500 copies a week. The middle of 1993, two years after the band's last album, Trompe le Monde, saw sales average 1,200 copies per week. Doolittle was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1995. Ten years after the breakup, Doolittle was still selling between 500 and 1,000 copies a week; the reunion tour saw sales creep back up to 1,200 copies a week. At the end of 2005, best estimates put total sales in America at between 800,000 and one million copies.

Doolittle features an eclectic mix of musical styles. While tracks such as "Tame" and "Crackity Jones" are fast and aggressive, and incorporate the band's trademark loud-quiet dynamic; other songs such as "Silver," "I Bleed," and "Here Comes Your Man" reveal a quieter, slower and more melodic temperament. With Doolittle, the band began to incorporate further instruments into their sound. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" features two violins and two cellos; while other tracks on Doolittle are constructed around simple chord progressions.

"Tame" is based on a three chord formula; including Joey Santiago's playing a "Hendrix chord" over the main bass progression. "I Bleed" is melodically simple, and is formed around a single rhythmical repetition. Some songs are influenced by other genres of music; while "Crackity Jones" has a distinctly Spanish sound, and incorporates G# and A triads over a C# pedal, the song's rhythm guitar, played by Francis, starts with an eighth-note downstroke typical of punk rock music. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pixies/Doolittle">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Doolittle is the second studio album from the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. The album's offbeat and dark subject material, featuring references to surrealism, Biblical violence, torture and death, contrasts with the clean production sound achieved by the then newly hired producer Gil Norton. Along with Surfer Rosa, Doolittle is considered the band's strongest work. Doolittle has continued to sell consistently well in the nineteen years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been cited as inspirational by many alternative artists, while <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pixies/Doolittle">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Doolittle

Released in the fall of 1976, Songs In The Key Of Life was Stevie Wonder's longest, most ambitious collection of songs, a two-LP (plus accompanying EP) set that -- just as the title promised -- touched on nearly every issue under the sun, and did it all with ambitious (even for him), wide-ranging arrangements and some of the best performances of Wonder's career. The opening "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Have a Talk with God" are curiously subdued, but Stevie soon kicks into gear with "Village Ghetto Land," a fierce exposé of ghetto neglect set to a satirical Baroque synthesizer. Hot on its heels comes the torrid fusion jam "Contusion," a big, brassy hit tribute to the recently departed Duke Ellington in "Sir Duke," and (another hit, this one a Grammy winner as well) the bumping poem to his childhood, "I Wish." Though they didn't necessarily appear in order, Songs in the Key of Life contains nearly a full album on love and relationships, along with another full album on issues social and spiritual. Fans of the love album Talking Book can marvel that he sets the bar even higher here, with brilliant material like the tenderly cathartic and gloriously redemptive "Joy Inside My Tears," the two-part, smooth-and-rough "Ordinary Pain," the bitterly ironic "All Day Sucker," or another classic heartbreaker, "Summer Soft." Those inclined toward Stevie Wonder the social-issues artist had quite a few songs to focus on as well: "Black Man" was a Bicentennial school lesson on remembering the vastly different people who helped build America; "Pastime Paradise" examined the plight of those who live in the past and have little hope for the future; "Village Ghetto Land" brought listeners to a nightmare of urban wasteland; and "Saturn" found Stevie questioning his kinship with the rest of humanity and amusingly imagining paradise as a residency on a distant planet. If all this sounds overwhelming, it is; Stevie Wonder had talent to spare during the mid-'70s, and instead of letting the reserve trickle out during the rest of the decade, he let it all go with one massive burst. (His only subsequent record of the '70s was the similarly gargantuan but largely instrumental soundtrack Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.)

Songs In The Key Of Life eventually went on to be certified diamond. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Stevie+Wonder/Songs+in+the+Key+of+Life">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Released in the fall of 1976, Songs In The Key Of Life was Stevie Wonder's longest, most ambitious collection of songs, a two-LP (plus accompanying EP) set that -- just as the title promised -- touched on nearly every issue under the sun, and did it all with ambitious (even for him), wide-ranging arrangements and some of the best performances of Wonder's career. The opening "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Have a Talk with God" are curiously subdued, but Stevie soon kicks into gear with "Village Ghetto Land," a fierce exposé of ghetto neglect set to a satirical <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Stevie+Wonder/Songs+in+the+Key+of+Life">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Songs in the Key of Life

Low is the eleventh studio album by British musician David Bowie, co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti.

Widely regarded as one of Bowie's most influential releases, Low was the first of the "Berlin Trilogy", a series of collaborations with Brian Eno (though the album was mainly recorded in France and only mixed in West Berlin). The experimental, avant-garde style would be further explored on "Heroes" and Lodger. The album's working title was New Music Night and Day.

The genesis of Low lies in both the foundations laid by Bowie's previous album Station to Station, and music he intended for the soundtrack to The Man Who Fell to Earth. When Bowie presented his material for the film to Nicolas Roeg, the director decided that it would not be suitable. Roeg preferred a more folksy sound, although John Phillips (the chosen composer for the soundtrack) described Bowie's contributions as "haunting and beautiful". Elements from these pieces were incorporated into Low instead. The album's cover, like Station to Station, is a still from the movie: the photographic image, under the album's title, formed a deliberate pun on the phrase "low profile".

David Bowie – vocals (2-6, 8, 10-12, 14), saxophones (4, 11), guitar (6, 9-11), pump bass (6), harmonica (7), vibraphone (9-10), xylophone (10), pre-arranged percussion (10), keyboards: ARP synthesiser (1, 10), Chamberlin: Credited on the album sleeve notes as "tape horn and brass" (1), "synthetic strings" (1, 4, 9-10), "tape cellos" (5) and "tape sax section" (7), piano (7, 9-11), "instruments" (13)
Brian Eno – keyboards: splinter Minimoog (2), report ARP (3), rimmer E.M.I. (3), E.M.I. (5), Minimoog (8-9), piano (7-9), Chamberlin (8-9), other synthesisers, vocals (4, 14), guitar treatments (5), synthetics (7), "instruments" (12-13)
Carlos Alomar – rhythm guitars (1, 3-7, 14), guitar (2)
Dennis Davis – percussion (1-7, 14)
George Murray – bass (1-7, 11, 14)
Ricky Gardiner – rhythm guitar (2), guitar (3-7, 14)
Roy Young – pianos (1, 3-7, 14), Farfisa organ (3, 5) <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/David+Bowie/Low">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Low is the eleventh studio album by British musician David Bowie, co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti. Widely regarded as one of Bowie's most influential releases, Low was the first of the "Berlin Trilogy", a series of collaborations with Brian Eno (though the album was mainly recorded in France and only mixed in West Berlin). The experimental, avant-garde style would be further explored on "Heroes" and Lodger. The album's working title was New Music Night and Day. The genesis of Low lies in both the foundations laid by Bowie's previous album Station to Station, and music he intended for the <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/David+Bowie/Low">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Led Zeppelin [IV]

F♯A♯∞

 <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Microphones/The+Glow+Pt.+2">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

 <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/The+Microphones/The+Glow+Pt.+2">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

The Glow Pt. 2

Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In A Silent Way album. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.

Bitches Brew was Davis's first gold record, selling more than half a million copies. Upon release, it received a mixed response, due to the album's unconventional style and revolutionary sound. Later, Bitches Brew gained recognition as one of jazz's greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1971. In 1998, Columbia Records released The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, a four-disc box set that included the original album as well as the studio sessions through February 1970.

Recording sessions took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio over the course of three days in August 1969. Davis called the musicians to the recording studio on very short notice. A few pieces on Bitches Brew were rehearsed before the recording sessions, but at other times the musicians had little or no idea what they were to record. Once in the recording studio, the players were typically given only a few instructions: a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody, and suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way; he thought it forced musicians to pay close attention to one another, to their own performances, or to Davis's cues, which could change at any moment. On the quieter moments of "Bitches Brew", for example, Davis's voice is audible, giving instructions to the musicians: snapping his fingers to indicate tempo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, "Keep it tight" or telling individuals when to solo.

Davis composed most of the music on the album. The two important exceptions were the complex "Pharaoh's Dance" (composed by Joe Zawinul) and the ballad "Sanctuary" (composed by Wayne Shorter). The latter had been recorded as a fairly straightforward ballad early in 1968, but was given a radically different interpretation on Bitches Brew. It begins with Davis and Chick Corea improvising on the standard "I Fall in Love too Easily" before Davis plays the "Sanctuary" theme. Then, not unlike Davis's recording of Shorter's "Nefertiti" two years earlier, the horns repeat the melody over and over while the rhythm section builds up the intensity. The issued "Sanctuary" is actually two consecutive takes of the piece. Despite his reputation as a "cool", melodic improviser, much of Davis's playing on this album is aggressive and explosive, often playing fast runs and venturing into the upper register of the trumpet. His closing solo on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Davis did not perform on the short piece "John McLaughlin".

There was significant editing done to the recorded music. Short sections were spliced together to create longer pieces, and various effects were applied to the recordings. Enrico Merlin reports:

    Bitches Brew also pioneered the application of the studio as a musical instrument, featuring stacks of edits and studio effects that were an integral part of the music. Miles and his producer, Teo Macero, used the recording studio in radical new ways, especially in the title track and the opening track, "Pharaoh's Dance". There were many special effects, like tape loops, tape delays, reverb chambers and echo effects. Through intensive tape editing, Macero concocted many totally new musical structures that were later imitated by the band in live concerts. Macero, who has a classical education and was most likely inspired by the 1930s and 1940s musique concrète experiments, used tape editing as a form of arranging and composition.

    "Pharaoh's Dance" contains 19 edits – its famous stop-start opening is entirely constructed in the studio, using repeat loops of certain sections. Later on in the track there are several micro-edits: for example, a one-second-long fragment that first appears at 8:39 is repeated five times between 8:54 and 8:59. The title track contains 15 edits, again with several short tape loops of, in this case, five seconds (at 3:01, 3:07 and 3:12). Therefore, Bitches Brew not only became a controversial classic of musical innovation, it also became renowned for its pioneering use of studio technology.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Miles Davis trumpet
Wayne Shorter ss, Bennie Maupin bcl, Joe Zawinul p
Larry Young p, Chick Corea p, John McLaughlin g, 
Dave Holland b, Harvey Brooks electric bass
Lenny White d, Jack DeJohnette d, Don Alias drums, congas
Juma Santos shaker, congas

Mati Klarwein's painting on the cover 
Released April 1970 - Recorded August 19-21.8. 1969
Producer Teo Macero, Columbia <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/Bitches+Brew">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In A Silent Way album. With the use of these instruments, such as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style. Bitches Brew was Davis's first gold record, selling more than half a million copies. Upon release, it received a mixed response, due to the album's unconventional style and revolutionary sound. Later, Bitches Brew gained recognition as <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Miles+Davis/Bitches+Brew">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Bitches Brew

Souvlaki is an album by the British dream pop/shoegazing band Slowdive. It was released on May 17, 1993 in the UK and on February 8, 1994 in the U.S. Widely regarded as their best album, it benefits from synthesizer contributions from co-producer Brian Eno on "Sing" (which he co-wrote) and "Here She Comes." The album's U.S. release includes the previously unreleased cover of "Some Velvet Morning" (written by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in 1967) and three tracks from the band's 1993 "5" EP, comprising the four U.S. release bonus tracks.

A two-disc remastered re-issue of Souvlaki was released in 2005 by Castle Music, a subsidiary label of Sanctuary Records. Another two-disc remaster was released by Cherry Red Records on 16 August 2010, featuring the same bonus tracks on the second disc.

According to interviews with the band, the album was titled after an explicit skit on the first album by telephone pranksters The Jerky Boys, containing the line: "My wife loves that Greek shit. She'll suck your cock like souvlaki."

While touring Europe in early 1992, Slowdive began tentative work on Souvlaki, writing and recording multiple takes of around 40 potential songs. According to the band's chief songwriter Neil Halstead, these early songs were influenced by Joy Division and the David Bowie albums Low and Lodger. Alan McGee, the head of Slowdive's label Creation Records, was unimpressed by the band's material and rejected it, though he later decided to give Slowdive full creative control over the album.

After returning to the United Kingdom following a May 1992 tour of the United States, Slowdive contacted Brian Eno, of whom Halstead was a "big" fan, and requested that he produce Souvlaki. While Eno declined, he did agree to spend a few days recording with Slowdive, and out of these sessions came the tracks "Sing" and "Here She Comes". Following the sessions with Eno, Halstead began to take greater influence from ambient music in his songwriting; he has cited Aphex Twin, dub music, and early drum and bass as influences for the track "Souvlaki Space Station".

Meanwhile, Halstead was in a fragile emotional state due to his recent breakup with Goswell. At the suggestion of Slowdive's manager, Halstead temporarily exited the recording sessions for Souvlaki in the summer of 1992 and travelled to Wales, where he stayed in a rented cottage for around two weeks. In Halstead's absence, only bassist Nick Chaplin and guitarist Christian Savill persisted in recording material, though Savill would later recall that he and Chaplin ended up merely recording several "joke songs". By the time he returned, Halstead had written a new batch of "stark and much more personal" songs, including "Dagger", which would make the final album. He has said that the lyrics he penned during this period were informed by both his solitary living conditions in Wales and his feelings about the end of his relationship with Goswell.

Souvlaki was mixed by Ed Buller, who had previously worked with Suede and Spiritualized. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Slowdive/Souvlaki">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Souvlaki is an album by the British dream pop/shoegazing band Slowdive. It was released on May 17, 1993 in the UK and on February 8, 1994 in the U.S. Widely regarded as their best album, it benefits from synthesizer contributions from co-producer Brian Eno on "Sing" (which he co-wrote) and "Here She Comes." The album's U.S. release includes the previously unreleased cover of "Some Velvet Morning" (written by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in 1967) and three tracks from the band's 1993 "5" EP, comprising the four U.S. release bonus tracks. A two-disc remastered re-issue of Souvlaki was released in <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Slowdive/Souvlaki">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Souvlaki

Blonde on Blonde is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, released in 1966 by Columbia Records.

It is believed to be the first significant double album in rock music, its length forcing it to two LPs, although some digital reissues fit the album on one compact disc. It is notable for injecting Dylan's brand of blues rock, fully established on Highway 61 Revisited, with a more eclectic sound and even more surreal lyrics. Despite its uncompromising nature, it has come to be regarded as one of Dylan's greatest achievements, and "one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made".

It also marked the end of an era for Dylan, who would soon be injured in a motorcycle accident (significantly changing his musical approach).

Recorded in Nashville, the album was produced by Bob Johnston. It peaked at #9 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in the US, eventually going double-platinum, while it reached #3 in the UK. It is ranked as the ninth greatest album of all time by both VH1 and Rolling Stone. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/Blonde+on+Blonde">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Blonde on Blonde is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, released in 1966 by Columbia Records. It is believed to be the first significant double album in rock music, its length forcing it to two LPs, although some digital reissues fit the album on one compact disc. It is notable for injecting Dylan's brand of blues rock, fully established on Highway 61 Revisited, with a more eclectic sound and even more surreal lyrics. Despite its uncompromising nature, it has come to be regarded as one of Dylan's greatest achievements, and "one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made". <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/Blonde+on+Blonde">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Blonde on Blonde

"Marquee Moon" is the debut album by American rock band Television, released in 1977. While often considered a seminal work to come out of the New York punk scene of the late 1970's, the album differs from conventional punk in its clean, textured guitar-based arrangements and extended improvisation. As a result, it is also often cited as important to the development of post-punk and New Wave genres. While critically acclaimed at the time of its release, the album failed to garner commercial success.
A german post-punk band named themselves Marquee Moon after this album's name. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Television/Marquee+Moon">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

"Marquee Moon" is the debut album by American rock band Television, released in 1977. While often considered a seminal work to come out of the New York punk scene of the late 1970's, the album differs from conventional punk in its clean, textured guitar-based arrangements and extended improvisation. As a result, it is also often cited as important to the development of post-punk and New Wave genres. While critically acclaimed at the time of its release, the album failed to garner commercial success. A german post-punk band named themselves Marquee Moon after this album's name. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Television/Marquee+Moon">Read more on Last.fm</a>.

Marquee Moon

Part of SingleMint's Top 5000 Albums of All Time, {album} is a classic coming in at number {rank}.

Top 5000 Albums of All Time

The top 5000 albums of all time, as voted by the community.