{"id":99779,"date":"2024-05-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?p=99779"},"modified":"2024-05-23T10:38:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T09:38:37","slug":"the-100-best-of-albums-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/the-100-best-of-albums-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The 100 best of albums of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 style=\"user-select: auto;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff; user-select: auto;\">These are the 100 best albums of all time&#8230; at least, according to Apple Music based on cultural impact and quality rather than numbers.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Music is such an incredibly vast and varied medium, how could you ever choose the greatest of all the albums released in history? Well, Apple Music have attempted to do just that with their list of the 100 Best Albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple Music states that this list is not based on streaming numbers. It is instead an &#8220;editorial statement&#8221; based on the influence and impact of the great music of today and yesterday. Apple Music&#8217;s senior director of content and editorial, Rachel Newman writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;100 best brings together all the things that make Apple Music the ultimate service for music lovers &#8211; human curation at its peak, an appreciation for the art of storytelling, and unparalleled knowledge of music and an even deeper love for it. We have been working on this for a very long time, and it&#8217;s something we are all incredibly proud of and excited to share with the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, without further ado let&#8217;s find out what (Apple reckons are) the best albums of all time with descriptions from Apple&#8217;s editorial team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Album links are for Spotify based on where people listen the most.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>100. Body Talk &#8211; Robyn <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273b4375effb23372cc8cff5045\" alt=\"Body Talk - Album by Robyn | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Early on in her seventh full-length album\u2014and international breakthrough\u2014the Swedish pop star makes a declaration: \u201cFembots have feelings, too.\u201d And, boy, does&nbsp;<em>Body Talk<\/em>&nbsp;have feelings. The album launched two of the 21st century\u2019s definitive \u201csad bangers\u201d\u2014\u201cDancing on My Own\u201d and \u201cCall Your Girlfriend\u201d\u2014inspiring a wave of aching but triumphant crying-on-the-dance-floor anthems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0le9TO3kU69m6iWHTjNs9Y?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>99. Hotel California &#8211; Eagles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2734637341b9f507521afa9a778\" alt=\"Hotel California (2013 Remaster) - Album by Eagles | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In early 1976, the Eagles released&nbsp;<em>Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975<\/em>, a compilation that would spend the next half decade on the Billboard 200 and go on to become the biggest-selling album of the 20th century in the United States. But the band\u2019s most popular, career-defining song was still months away: the title track to&nbsp;<em>Hotel California<\/em>, the record where the Eagles expunged any lingering trace of their country-rock roots and took up residence in the football stadiums of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2widuo17g5CEC66IbzveRu?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>98. ASTROWORLD &#8211; Travis Scott<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273072e9faef2ef7b6db63834a3\" alt=\"ASTROWORLD - Album by Travis Scott | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Named for a now-closed Six Flags in Travis Scott\u2019s native Houston,&nbsp;<em>ASTROWORLD<\/em>&nbsp;delivers on any good amusement park\u2019s promise and premise, offering breathtaking peaks and drops and daring thrills. Perhaps the biggest hairpin turn: By stacking and expertly curating his third solo album with a sprawling and adventurous collection of both A-list and emerging musical, vocal, and production talent, the rapper\/superproducer emerges as the most exciting attraction in the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/41GuZcammIkupMPKH2OJ6I?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>97. Rage Against the Machine &#8211; Rage Against the Machine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27324f31a0a281320f0cec6f86f\" alt=\"Rage Against The Machine - Album by Rage Against The Machine | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the revolutionaries, MCs, and hard rock that inspired it,&nbsp;<em>Rage Against the Machine<\/em>&nbsp;exists in all caps. Its most lasting lyrics\u2014\u201cSome of those that work forces\/Are the same that burn crosses\u201d (\u201cKilling in the Name\u201d), \u201cAnger is a gift\u201d (\u201cFreedom\u201d)\u2014have the instant memorability of a protest chant. The immediacy isn\u2019t just a metaphor for their message; it\u2019s a way to spread the word and put power into the hands of the people. It\u2019s an album you could listen to at the gym&nbsp;<em>or<\/em>&nbsp;build a syllabus around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/4LaRYkT4oy47wEuQgkLBul?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>96. Pure Heroine &#8211; Lorde<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273187331e276c898d39764cc98\" alt=\"Pure Heroine - Album by Lorde | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>During the aughts, the party-hearty teen-pop pantheon was a sea of Auto-Tuned vocals, sugary-sweet lyrics, misappropriated school uniforms and twerking Disney stars. Then came Lorde. On&nbsp;<em>Pure Heroine<\/em>, her 2013 debut album, the Auckland-born singer-songwriter born Ella Yelich-O\u2019Connor relied instead on restrained, almost growled vocals set to skeletal, programmed beats. She focuses on the realities of suburban teenage ennui from the very first track, \u201cTennis Court\u201d, which opens with the line \u201cDon\u2019t you think that it\u2019s boring how people talk?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0rmhjUgoVa17LZuS8xWQ3v?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>95. Confessions &#8211; USHER<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273365b3fb800c19f7ff72602da\" alt=\"Confessions (Expanded Edition) - Album by USHER | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a distinct memory of 2004, then you remember how inescapable USHER\u2019s fourth studio album was for the entirety of that year. This was Usher Raymond in his final form: No longer a boyish heart-throb under the tutelage of top producers who doubled as mentors, he\u2019d finally reached his artistic prime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1RM6MGv6bcl6NrAG8PGoZk?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>94. Untrue &#8211; Burial<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ad7f95966b473742cd323de8\" alt=\"Untrue - Album by Burial | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Released in 2007,&nbsp;<em>Untrue<\/em>&nbsp;immediately became a touchstone of UK electronic music, aided by the mystique surrounding Burial\u2019s anonymity (to this day, William Emmanuel Bevan rarely grants interviews). The album is gritty without being abrasive, with house-like vocals that lend a gentleness to the thundering, muddy bass. The album\u2019s second track, \u201cArchangel\u201d, is perhaps one of the most recognisable songs in electronic music, with its pitched-down soprano sample consisting of the lines \u201cHolding you\/Couldn\u2019t be alone\/Couldn\u2019t be alone\/Couldn\u2019t be alone.\u201d (Bevan apparently wrote and produced the song in 20 minutes, following the death of his dog.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1C30LhZB9I48LdpVCRRYvq?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>93. A Seat at the Table &#8211; Solange<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2731c4540d0ecafaa45305aa5a0\" alt=\"A Seat at the Table - Album by Solange | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFall in your ways so you can wake up and rise,\u201d Solange sings in the intro track of her third album. The line encapsulates the journey of the then 30-year-old artist\u2014formerly known as Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles\u2019 little sister\u2014emerging from an eight-year hiatus from music and recognised as a bona fide visionary in her own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3Yko2SxDk4hc6fncIBQlcM?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>92. Flower Boy &#8211; Tyler, The Creator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2738940ac99f49e44f59e6f7fb3\" alt=\"Flower Boy - Album by Tyler, The Creator | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even when he was the enfant terrible of underground hip-hop, Tyler, The Creator\u2019s most provocative and irony-soaked albums still provided windows into his anxiety and self-loathing. But his fourth solo album, 2017\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Flower Boy<\/em>, was the moment Tyler fully embraced his role as bloodletting diarist, stripping away the appeals for shock and fully embracing expressions of lovesickness and loneliness. He emerges as a pan-genre auteur, as likely to spit rhymes as croon in a Pharrell-ian falsetto, landing somewhere at the intersection of hip-hop, neo-soul and chilled jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2nkto6YNI4rUYTLqEwWJ3o?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>91. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 &#8211; George Michael<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273a0063c4e190db470d96d5939\" alt=\"Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 - Album by George Michael | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The pervading mood of&nbsp;<em>Listen Without Prejudice<\/em>&nbsp;is one of subtlety, political consciousness and emotional desolation. Woodwinds evoke sparse battlefields (\u201cMothers Pride\u201d), echo adds ghostly desperation (most notably on the spine-tingling Stevie Wonder cover \u201cThey Won\u2019t Go When I Go\u201d) and wind-blown acoustic guitar nods to folk (\u201cSomething to Save\u201d). Crowned by the grand Lennon-ian sweep of \u201cPraying for Time\u201d, it is a quietly radical, deeply affecting creative progression\u2014the sound of an artist retreating from pop\u2019s synth-driven orthodoxy into something touched by timelessness, profundity and, in almost every sense, real soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3wefJju6OeLfLCd5KJWi7o?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>90. Back in Black &#8211; AC\/DC<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2730b51f8d91f3a21e8426361ae\" alt=\"Back In Black - Album by AC\/DC | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When impish AC\/DC singer Bon Scott died on 19 February 1980, the band\u2019s career\u2014one that had, after years of hard touring, made a huge leap in America on the back of 1979\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Highway to Hell<\/em>\u2014seemed destined to go with him. But after Scott\u2019s father pulled Angus and Malcolm Young aside at the funeral and gave his blessing for the band to continue, the brothers began working on new music\u2014at first as a way of mourning, but soon as a chance at rebirth. Six weeks later, Brian Johnson was in, and AC\/DC were back. (Yes, they\u2019re back.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6mUdeDZCsExyJLMdAfDuwh?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>89. The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) &#8211; Lady Gaga<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2735c9890c0456a3719eeecd8aa\" alt=\"The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) - Album by Lady Gaga | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With the arrival of 2008\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Fame<\/em>, a star was (forgive us) born. But before Lady Gaga was living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, Stefani Germanotta was getting ready in the New York club scene. That\u2019s what makes&nbsp;<em>The Fame<\/em>&nbsp;such a self-manifesting statement\u2014it chronicles the glamorous A-list culture Gaga had yet to actually experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6rePArBMb5nLWEaY9aQqL4?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>88. I Put a Spell on You &#8211; Nina Simone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273892abb1ade35b4863b29e051\" alt=\"I Put A Spell On You - Album by Nina Simone | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I Put a Spell on You<\/em>&nbsp;became one of Nina Simone\u2019s most successful albums, and its title track\u2014a string-laden, melodramatic cover of Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins\u2019 campy rock classic\u2014would turn out to be her biggest single since her debut. But it was \u201cFeeling Good\u201d that ultimately became the album\u2019s best-known track\u2014the scale of the horn section and orchestra are no match for Simone\u2019s vocal force on the completely reimagined show tune. It\u2019s the rare minor-key celebratory anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3ofZeSWPHZOE5WC2tNZDez?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>87. Blue Lines &#8211; Massive Attack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273e3810f1470d42f7f2e39144e\" alt=\"Blue Lines - Album by Massive Attack | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspired by the reggae music of the Caribbean diaspora in their native Bristol as much as by nascent UK rap, DJ and MC collective Massive Attack forged a new aesthetic by mixing remarkable clarity with the paranoid fug of weed smoke. This tension between unease and harmony continues throughout their debut, but ultimately it\u2019s the album\u2019s most well-known track, \u201cUnfinished Sympathy\u201d, where they reach their peak: Pairing luscious string orchestrations with eerie vocal samples and singer Shara Nelson\u2019s yearning vocal lamenting an unrequited love, Massive Attack create five minutes of soul music that stirs as much as it soothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5mAPk4qeNqVLtNydaWbWlf?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2>86. My Life &#8211; Mary J. Blige<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273bb50577fe673ce16374ac275\" alt=\"My Life - Album by Mary J. Blige | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With Mary J. Blige\u2019s first album,&nbsp;<em>What\u2019s the 411?<\/em>, the emerging \u201cQueen of Hip-Hop Soul\u201d had imbued diaristic R&amp;B with a youthful hip-hop sensibility. For the follow-up, 1994\u2019s career-defining&nbsp;<em>My Life<\/em>, the 23-year-old got even more personal, drawing on her depression, struggles with drugs and alcohol, experiences with domestic violence and heartbreak, and the spiritual fortitude that carried her through it. All this while trying to process her breakneck trajectory from a Yonkers housing project to worldwide fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1OQ5l5rHKqUumPpn559zJC?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>85. Golden Hour &#8211; Kacey Musgraves<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2732e35d25eb7288830d5540484\" alt=\"Golden Hour - Album by Kacey Musgraves | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>No one saw it coming: not even Kacey Musgraves\u2014just look at the \u201csurprise face\u201d meme that went viral after she won the Grammy for Album of the Year for&nbsp;<em>Golden Hour<\/em>. It was a passion project dedicated to fresh love, made with a new production team (Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian) and a little bit of LSD, and partly recorded above Sheryl Crow\u2019s horse barn. But it was a passion project that exploded Kacey Musgraves from critically adored artist into global superstar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7f6xPqyaolTiziKf5R5Z0c?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2>84. Doggystyle &#8211; Snoop Dogg<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273733af86f8dea9692a3f59d29\" alt=\"Doggystyle - Album by Snoop Dogg | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming fast on the heels of Dr. Dre\u2019s seminal solo debut, Snoop Doggy Dogg\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Doggystyle<\/em>&nbsp;plays like the night of partying and ensuing hangover that must inevitably follow&nbsp;<em>The Chronic<\/em>\u2019s long lazy afternoon of Crenshaw cruising. Though tracks like the unforgettable \u201cGin and Juice\u201d and \u201cDoggy Dogg World\u201d provide moments of gleeful levity to rival the sun-saturated joy of \u201cNuthin\u2019 But A \u2018G\u2019 Thang,\u201d&nbsp;<em>Doggystyle<\/em>&nbsp;often sounds stressed and weary where&nbsp;<em>The Chronic<\/em>&nbsp;was celebratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5IFOummNcGXY3qCBWRchqP?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>83. Horses &#8211; Patti Smith<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f6e013384bb28789fd5af8ea\" alt=\"Horses - Album by Patti Smith | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In some ways, Patti Smith was a traditionalist, taking inspiration from the likes of Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger and \u201960s pop. In others, she was a radical\u2014the resolve, the intensity, the way she informed a nascent, rough-hewn downtown New York art and punk scene with poetry and jazz, name-checking Rimbaud and Kerouac. Her 1975 debut (produced by The Velvet Underground\u2019s John Cale) covered all of this ground and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0OeuSeP8wp8n8OuTqYb61C?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>82. Get Rich or Die Tryin&#8217; &#8211; 50 Cent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273465be6cda98a1a6950a12964\" alt=\"Get Rich Or Die Tryin - Album by 50 Cent | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the cover of&nbsp;<em>Get Rich or Die Tryin\u2019<\/em>, 50 Cent essentially looks like a superhero\u2014but if anything, the album was an origin story for one of rap\u2019s all-time great supervillains. 50 learned the ropes under the mentorship of Run-DMC\u2019s Jam Master Jay, landed a deal with Columbia Records and built a buzz with single \u201cHow to Rob\u201d before being hit with nine bullets outside of his grandmother\u2019s home in Queens. After he recovered, his legendary mixtape run with his G-Unit crew reworked the hit rap and R&amp;B records of the time, adding his own deadpan, street-savvy choruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5G5rgQHzdQnw32SI0WjIo5?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>81. After the Gold Rush &#8211; Neil Young<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2731e52dc7f7425f0c5bc3a4047\" alt=\"After The Goldrush - Album by Neil Young | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After the Gold Rush<\/em>&nbsp;is probably the first multi-platinum album to be recorded in someone\u2019s basement, but just as importantly, it sounds like it. Young settled into the style that defined him for the next 50-plus years: intuitive, direct, a little messy, but with a reliable line on what often felt like deeper creative truths. When the hotshot teenage guitarist Nils Lofgren fielded his request to play piano by saying he didn\u2019t know how, Young said great\u2014that\u2019s exactly the kind of pianist he was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5EVlXlHbRQI8ybuNt4ArXI?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>80. The Marshall Mathers LP &#8211; Eminem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273dbb3dd82da45b7d7f31b1b42\" alt=\"The Marshall Mathers LP - Album by Eminem | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By Eminem\u2019s own admission,&nbsp;<em>The Marshall Mathers LP<\/em>&nbsp;was a peak. He was already a lightning rod after his legend-making&nbsp;<em>The Slim Shady LP<\/em>&nbsp;a year prior, but here his provocations were more provocative (the ultraviolence of \u201cKim\u201d), his catchier moments among the catchiest in early-2000s pop (\u201cThe Real Slim Shady\u201d). And if you didn\u2019t think he was capable of something as complex and empathetic as \u201cStan\u201d\u2014which did nothing less than invent one of 21st-century pop culture\u2019s most inescapable words\u2014it\u2019s as acute in its portrayal of everyday desperation as a Springsteen tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6t7956yu5zYf5A829XRiHC?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>79. Norman Fucking Rockwell! &#8211; Lana Del Rey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273879e9318cb9f4e05ee552ac9\" alt=\"Norman Fucking Rockwell! - Album by Lana Del Rey | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Tucked inside Lana Del Rey\u2019s dreamscapes about Hollywood and the Hamptons are reminders\u2014and celebrations\u2014of just how empty these places can be. Winking and vivid,&nbsp;<em>Norman F*****g Rockwell!<\/em>&nbsp;is a definitive riff on the rules of authenticity from an artist who has made a career out of breaking them. She paints with sincerity and satire, and challenges you to spot the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5XpEKORZ4y6OrCZSKsi46A?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>78. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road &#8211; Elton John<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f72f1e38e9bd48f18a17ed9b\" alt=\"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Remastered) - Album by Elton John | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Having rocketed from the lavish orchestrations of \u201cYour Song\u201d and \u201cLevon\u201d to the barroom romps \u201cHonky Cat\u201d and \u201cCrocodile Rock\u201d in less than three years, Elton John saw fit to make a Big Statement tying together all his musical impulses. The double LP&nbsp;<em>Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/em>&nbsp;cemented not only his nearly wayward eclecticism, but also his audience\u2019s willingness to follow any path he took. The result was his critical and commercial peak\u2014an album whose tracklist looks, at first blush, like a greatest-hits anthology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5WupqgR68HfuHt3BMJtgun?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>77. Like a Prayer &#8211; Madonna<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273fabcc97fd6c3d80fae8d959e\" alt=\"Like a Prayer - Album by Madonna | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>From the gospel ecstasy of its chart-topping title track\u2014and its controversial accompanying video, which mixed religion, racism and interracial desire as only Madonna could\u2014<em>Like a Prayer<\/em>&nbsp;is the work of a pop sensation who\u2019s made it through tabloid hell and has come out of the experience reborn as a true-blue artist. And while there\u2019s only an occasional reference to her then-recent split with husband Sean Penn\u2014most notably on the dizzying synth-pop bop \u201cTill Death Do Us Part\u201d\u2014the album finds Madonna making the personal stuff about her and not her ex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/48AGkmM7iO4jrELRnNZGPV?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>76. Un Verano Sin Ti &#8211; Bad Bunny<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27349d694203245f241a1bcaa72\" alt=\"Un Verano Sin Ti - Album by Bad Bunny | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After a couple years spent collaborating with and co-signing new talent\u2014and then watching the effects of his influence\u2014the sudden arrival of&nbsp;<em>Un Verano Sin Ti<\/em>&nbsp;in May 2022 put the focus back on Bad Bunny himself. Described by the artist as a summer playlist of sorts, it\u2019s his most expansive and evocative musical vision to date: Gone was the streetwise trap of his past, supplanted by potent and uniquely genre-bent takes on reggaet\u00f3n, pop, indie and tropical forms. Its release signalled a clear and kaleidoscopic shift in global pop, emphatically sweeping away any misconception that Latin American music (and its many fans) was just a regional phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3RQQmkQEvNCY4prGKE6oc5?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>75. Supa Dupa Fly &#8211; Missy Elliott<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f27571e59cac2e7a4624c9c4\" alt=\"Supa Dupa Fly - Album by Missy Elliott | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1997, Virginia rapper Missy \u201cMisdemeanor\u201d Elliott and producer Timothy \u201cTimbaland\u201d Mosley were already two of the most forward-thinking hitmakers of the era, writing boundary-pushing avant-R&amp;B tracks for Aaliyah, SWV and more. But nothing could prepare the world for Elliott\u2019s star turn\u2014a rap-sung tangle that played like a stroll through a malfunctioning robot factory, which she delivered dressed as a crazysexycool funkateer in inflatable garbage bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6UkdyvPElK6JDkyeRClbI2?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>74. The Downward Spiral &#8211; Nine Inch Nails<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f69bd9abbfeb819840993207\" alt=\"The Downward Spiral - Album by Nine Inch Nails | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even at a moment when bands like Nirvana could become famous,&nbsp;<em>The Downward Spiral<\/em>&nbsp;felt extreme. Trent Reznor once called Nine Inch Nails\u2019 second full-length album a \u201ccelebration of self-destruction in the form of a concept record that somehow managed to become a multi-platinum worldwide hit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7a7arAXDE0BiaMgHLhdjGF?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>73. Aja &#8211; Steely Dan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273e5dd0952c693529017743e39\" alt=\"Aja - song and lyrics by Steely Dan | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Donald Fagen and Walter Becker\u2019s approach to recording had evolved from a fixed group of people playing a set of songs from start to finish to a piecemeal process in which they tried out multiple players for the same part until they found a satisfactory combination\u2014all before doing it all over again on the next song. As sophisticated as the process was, Steely Dan never sounded as direct as they do on&nbsp;<em>Aja<\/em>. There\u2019s the R&amp;B of \u201cJosie\u201d, the bounce of \u201cBlack Cow\u201d and the fact that \u201cPeg\u201d felt like&nbsp;<em>actual<\/em>&nbsp;dance music rather than a dissertation on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1hOK2ey9W76x9GnftSRgrw?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>72. SOS &#8211; SZA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27370dbc9f47669d120ad874ec1\" alt=\"SOS - Album by SZA | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017,&nbsp;<em>Ctrl<\/em>\u2014a 14-track project filled with songs about love, sex, self-doubt and heartbreak\u2014became one of the most influential albums in modern R&amp;B. It was the soundtrack for many people in their twenties, highlighting the growing pains of young adulthood via diaristic, ultra-relatable lyrics and ruminations straight out of friend group chats. Five years later, SZA returned\u2014just as honest, but trading self-love and acceptance for defiance.&nbsp;<em>SOS<\/em>&nbsp;is the sound of someone who\u2019s had enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/07w0rG5TETcyihsEIZR3qG?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>71. Trans-Europe Express &#8211; Kraftwerk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2737cf7be893131178035b2a3cb\" alt=\"Trans-Europe Express - 2009 Remaster - song and lyrics by Kraftwerk |  Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Kraftwerk were never shy about reinventing themselves. If their electronic period began with the pinging arpeggios of 1974\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Autobahn<\/em>, their synth-pop era kicked off in earnest with 1975\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Radio-Activity<\/em>, where they explored shorter songs and sharper hooks. But with 1977\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Trans-Europe Express<\/em>, they perfected their fusion of electronic experimentation and futurist philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0HHRIVjvBcnTepfeRVgS2f?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>70. Straight Outta Compton &#8211; N.W.A.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273c79a70e8167cc1a4fab83781\" alt=\"Straight Outta Compton - Album by N.W.A. | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Straight Outta Compton<\/em>&nbsp;turned N.W.A. from a local phenomenon in LA into a nationally feared public menace. Dr. Dre\u2019s simple but impeccably equalised production, Ice Cube\u2019s powerhouse flow and incipient Black radicalism, Eazy-E\u2019s sneering nihilism and MC Ren\u2019s stolid ice grill started to shift the focus of the hip-hop universe 3,000 miles west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0Y7qkJVZ06tS2GUCDptzyW?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>69. Master of Puppets &#8211; Metallica<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273668e3aca3167e6e569a9aa20\" alt=\"Master Of Puppets (Remastered) - Album by Metallica | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With 1984\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Ride the Lightning<\/em>, Metallica found themselves caught between the worlds of underground purity and mainstream recognition, the bruising and brutal outsider art of thrash metal starting to make its way inside. Its successor,&nbsp;<em>Master of Puppets<\/em>, was even more intense\u2014in speed, in aggression, in its hostility toward forces of control\u2014yet its appeal managed to be even broader; their days in vans were numbered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2Lq2qX3hYhiuPckC8Flj21?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>68. Is This It &#8211; The Strokes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273436bdbd6ade8ab0634d100c4\" alt=\"Is This It - song and lyrics by The Strokes | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Few albums in modern rock history can match the instant, game-changing impact of&nbsp;<em>Is This It<\/em>&nbsp;in 2001. Seemingly overnight, rock \u2019n\u2019 roll turned grittier, haircuts grew shaggier and the secondhand-blazer section at your local thrift store got a lot more crowded. It\u2019s impossible to separate The Strokes from the wave of like-minded turn-of-the-millennium bands at home in NYC (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, TV on the Radio) or further afield (The Hives, The White Stripes, The Libertines), but&nbsp;<em>Is This It<\/em>&nbsp;bore a singular mix of grime and glamour that felt like a sea change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2yNaksHgeMQM9Quse463b5?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>67. Dummy &#8211; Portishead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273dc20397b139223620af148f6\" alt=\"Dummy - Album by Portishead | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Few debuts have arrived as distinct and fully formed as Portishead\u2019s 1994 release&nbsp;<em>Dummy<\/em>, a downtempo template for the eerie sound that would go on to become known as trip-hop. Named after a \u201970s British TV drama about a deaf woman who becomes a prostitute, the record is replete with turntable scratches, shuddering drums and scrapes of fragmented guitar, all anchored in vocalist Beth Gibbons\u2019 crystalline falsetto singing about \u201cthe blackness, the darkness, forever\u201d (\u201cWandering Star\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3539EbNgIdEDGBKkUf4wno?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>66. The Queen Is Dead &#8211; The Smiths<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ada101c2e9e97feb8fae37a9\" alt=\"The Queen Is Dead - Album by The Smiths | Spotify\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Morrissey had already aspired to be the Oscar Wilde of pop music, but The Smiths\u2019 third album is the first time he sounds like a lock for the title. The singular chemical reaction between his perpetual despair and Johnny Marr\u2019s ringing guitars is indie rock\u2019s often imitated but never duplicated formula\u2014songs about sadness that are also a hoot to listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5Y0p2XCgRRIjna91aQE8q7?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>65. 3 Feet High and Rising &#8211; De La Soul<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273fa8d314f6f91e81889335dfc\" alt=\"3 Feet High and Rising - Album by De La Soul | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Transmitting live from Mars\u2014or, more specifically, the Long Island suburbs\u2014De La Soul emerged fully formed and casually bugged-out in 1988 with \u201cPlug Tunin\u2019\u201d, a 12-inch that mixed off-the-wall wordplay with the most off-kilter samples hip-hop had ever seen. On their subsequent debut album, Trugoy, Posdnuos, DJ P.A. Pasemaster Mase and producer Prince Paul laid out a playful 63-minute blueprint for rap\u2019s odd future. They were outcasts before Outkast, the roots of The Roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/34LxHI9x14qXUOS8AWRrYD?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>64. Baduizm &#8211; Erykah Badu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273b5e18a80757ba2f787213d21\" alt=\"Baduizm - Album by Erykah Badu | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1997, as the Soulquarians\u2014a new collective of socially conscious hip-hop soul songwriters that included Common, The Roots, D\u2019Angelo and more\u2014began to emerge from the underground,&nbsp;<em>Baduizm<\/em>&nbsp;shifted the entire R&amp;B landscape. A 25-year-old Texan with a seemingly preternatural sense of groove and a jazzy twang that evoked a modern-day Billie Holliday, Badu brought an approach to songwriting that embodied the sound of neo-soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3qr4pTBWEU1SVf01j6RAx3?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>63. Are You Experienced &#8211; The Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273c9adfbd773852e286faed040\" alt=\"Are You Experienced - Album by Jimi Hendrix | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Like a lot of science fiction, the futuristic qualities on Jimi Hendrix\u2019s debut album\u2014his sky-kissing use of feedback and noise and imagery\u2014are offset by familiarity. He wasn\u2019t experimenting with modern classical music like The Beatles or high-minded pop orchestration like The Beach Boys; he wasn\u2019t even tapping into out-there psychedelia like Pink Floyd. Instead, he took the simple, gut-level sounds of the Muddy Waters and Little Richard records he grew up on and turned them into something new, foreshadowing the Black psychedelia of Prince and Outkast, not to mention almost everything blues-related that came in his wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7rSZXXHHvIhF4yUFdaOCy9?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>62. All Eyez on Me &#8211; 2Pac<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273073aebff28f79959d2543596\" alt=\"All Eyez On Me - Album by 2Pac | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recording career that lasted less than five years, hip-hop\u2019s most complex figure showed us many sides. He was a political firebrand on 1993\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.<\/em>, an introspective diarist on 1995\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Me Against the World<\/em>&nbsp;and a temperamental hothead on his Makaveli project, released shortly after his death in September 1996. However, most of the 27 tracks on&nbsp;<em>All Eyez on Me<\/em>\u2014the last album released during his lifetime\u2014showcase 2Pac as a gangsta-rap tough guy, one of the reigning kings of \u201990s G-funk on one of the genre\u2019s most defining releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/78iX7tMceN0FsnmabAtlOC?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>61. Love Deluxe &#8211; Sade<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ee65bbd54f993b5f01d5c511\" alt=\"Love Deluxe - Album by Sade | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Sade\u2019s revelatory fourth album&nbsp;<em>Love Deluxe<\/em>&nbsp;is an exercise in pure immersion, beginning with the opening bassline of the immortal \u201cNo Ordinary Love\u201d. Its nine songs represent rich-sounding music that, in less capable hands, would risk becoming totally overwhelming. Just as the smash debut&nbsp;<em>Diamond Life<\/em>&nbsp;arrived at the peak of quiet storm\u2019s popularity in the mid-1980s, the slinky dub and drum machines of&nbsp;<em>Love Deluxe<\/em>&nbsp;coincided with trip-hop\u2019s emergence in the early 1990s, sharing ostensible shelf space and musical DNA with Massive Attack\u2019s monumental 1991 debut&nbsp;<em>Blue Lines<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2PfGKHtqEX58bHtkQxJnWG?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>60. The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico &#8211; The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273449911a105dba137b650d3e7\" alt=\"The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico - Album by The Velvet Underground | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When&nbsp;<em>The Velvet Underground &amp; Nico<\/em>&nbsp;came out in early 1967, it was part of a continuum with Beat poetry, Pop Art, and French New Wave filmmaking\u2014movements that stripped away myths about expertise and put art in the hands of whoever wanted to make it. It can be noisy and confrontational (\u201cEuropean Son,\u201d \u201cThe Black Angel\u2019s Death Song\u201d), but it can also be sweet (\u201cI\u2019ll Be Your Mirror\u201d). And even when their subject matter gets dark, they never make it too difficult to grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/4xwx0x7k6c5VuThz5qVqmV?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>59. AM &#8211; Arctic Monkeys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2734ae1c4c5c45aabe565499163\" alt=\"AM - Album by Arctic Monkeys | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>AM<\/em>&nbsp;feels like the record Arctic Monkeys had been building up to for the preceding half-decade. There was a willingness to move away from the sound of a band playing together in a room and combine \u201970s, Black Sabbath-style riffs with the sleek production of the Dr. Dre records they had bonded over as teenagers. Out of that emerged the most forward-thinking record of their still-young career\u2014a mesmerizing blend of slick, rhythmic rock \u2019n\u2019 roll with an R&amp;B swing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/78bpIziExqiI9qztvNFlQu?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>58. (What&#8217;s the Story) Morning Glory? &#8211; Oasis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27385e5dcc05cc216a10f141480\" alt=\"What\"s The Story) Morning Glory? [Remastered] - Album by Oasis | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This was the apex of the Britpop era, full of outsize egos and attitude and ambition, yet none bigger than theirs. How could it be allowed for so many classics to be next to each other on the same album? As well as \u201cWonderwall\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Look Back in Anger,\u201d there\u2019s the melancholy uplift of \u201cCast No Shadow,\u201d the cosmic opus of \u201cChampagne Supernova,\u201d the thrilling crackle of the title track. It\u2019s the story of the decade, unfurled in 50 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2u30gztZTylY4RG7IvfXs8?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>57. Voodoo &#8211; D&#8217;angelo<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2737a42e9ed8eebd3d6a262f74b\" alt=\"Voodoo - Album by D\"Angelo | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When D\u2019Angelo released his masterpiece&nbsp;<em>Voodoo<\/em>&nbsp;at the turn of the century (and five years after his debut,&nbsp;<em>Brown Sugar<\/em>), it was immediately clear he\u2019d avoided the dreaded sophomore slump to evolve into a musician as concerned with honoring the past as he was with following his artistic impulses. At the time, the neo-soul movement was an alternative to the flashier edge of \u201990s hip-hop and R&amp;B, and&nbsp;<em>Voodoo<\/em>&nbsp;was its apex: a gumbo of Black innovation\u2014blues, jazz, soul, funk, gospel even\u2014peppered by a full spectrum of humanity, from despair to ecstasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2lO9yuuIDgBpSJzxTh3ai8?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>56. Disintegration &#8211; The Cure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273858ed9e2832801189187391a\" alt=\"Disintegration (Remastered) - Album by The Cure | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Disintegration<\/em>&nbsp;is a deep dive into a singular mood: wistful and deeply melancholy, informing (and informed by) waves of British shoegaze and dream pop. Alt-rock staples \u201cPictures of You,\u201d \u201cLovesong,\u201d and \u201cFascination Street\u201d are as immediate and indelible as anything in their catalog, but the band tempers its emotions so that even the major-key tonality of a track like \u201cPlainsong\u201d is marked not by brightness, but a deeper, richer hue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6DZNOsLXIU2zOQfQDwDpIS?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>55. ANTI &#8211; Rihanna<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27333c6b920eabcf4c00d7a1093\" alt=\"ANTI (Deluxe) - Album by Rihanna | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When Rihanna unleashed&nbsp;<em>ANTI<\/em>&nbsp;on the world, it quickly became clear that this wasn\u2019t the Rihanna we\u2019d come to know. Having left her longtime label and tossed her own hit-factory formula\u2014which she had polished to perfection since her 2005 debut\u2014out the window, she was free from expectation, free to cultivate her own mystique, and free to rethink what a modern pop blockbuster could sound like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/4UlGauD7ROb3YbVOFMgW5u?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>54. A Love Supreme &#8211; John Coltrane<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ea42191f549dce4d9c8ecd1a\" alt=\"A Love Supreme - Album by John Coltrane | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s astonishing to think of what Coltrane achieved in 10 years, between his debut as a leader in 1957 and his death in 1967 at age 40.&nbsp;<em>A Love Supreme<\/em>&nbsp;remains the watershed\u2014concise yet thoroughly immersive, a founding document in the genre that would become known as spiritual jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7Eoz7hJvaX1eFkbpQxC5PA?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>53. Exile on Main St. &#8211; The Rolling Stones<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ad5b5ed2169d072a44e98a31\" alt=\"Exile On Main Street (Deluxe Version) - Album by The Rolling Stones |  Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>More than songs or performances,&nbsp;<em>Exile on Main St.<\/em>&nbsp;was about mood. Can you hear the young gods sweating it out in the basement of a French mansion overlooking the Mediterranean, surrounded by junkies and hangers-on, eating lobster in the afternoon and working all night? Never had the band managed to translate their myth so faithfully into sound. But&nbsp;<em>Exile<\/em>&nbsp;was also the closest The Rolling Stones ever got to something truly avant-garde, an album whose perceived mistakes\u2014the muddy mix, the dislocated performances\u2014conjured a feeling that something more correct would have wiped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5U4dnRZsfW8NmwBBkELFPh?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>52. Appetite for Destruction &#8211; Guns N&#8217; Roses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27321ebf49b3292c3f0f575f0f5\" alt=\"Appetite For Destruction - Album by Guns N\" Roses | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It isn\u2019t just that Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 epochal 1987 debut is dark, it\u2019s that the album never flinches from its full impact, no matter how ugly. The drug songs aren\u2019t about getting high, they\u2019re about blacking out (\u201cMr. Brownstone,\u201d \u201cNightrain\u201d). The sex songs don\u2019t relish the physical act so much as the power that comes with it (\u201cAnything Goes\u201d). When they give you an anthem, it\u2019s against a backdrop of filth and misery (\u201cParadise City\u201d). And when they give you a ballad, it\u2019s with the paranoid sense that nothing so pure could actually be real (\u201cSweet Child o\u2019 Mine\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/28yHV3Gdg30AiB8h8em1eW?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>51. Sign O&#8217; the Times &#8211; Prince<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2733b67e4695d120ebfe9ca359a\" alt=\"Sign &quot;O&quot; the Times - Album by Prince | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sign O\u2019 the Times<\/em>&nbsp;isn\u2019t just the most comprehensive album in Prince\u2019s catalog, it\u2019s one of the most comprehensive albums in pop. Everything he explored in his first 10 years as an artist is here: R&amp;B, soul, rock and gospel, Beatles-like vignettes (\u201cStarfish and Coffee,\u201d \u201cThe Ballad of Dorothy Parker\u201d), and carnal funk (\u201cU Got the Look\u201d)\u2014all without backing band The Revolution. He\u2019s as contemporary and politically charged as rap (\u201cSign O\u2019 the Times\u201d) and as classic as a doo-wop ballad (\u201cAdore\u201d), and in both discovers the minimal but highly expressive sound that makes Prince Prince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1XsXHctYSQNyAd9BANCk2B?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>50. Hounds of Love &#8211; Kate Bush<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27396ab64f52273635308b6bf27\" alt=\"Hounds Of Love - Album by Kate Bush | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If Kate Bush\u2019s first two albums were steeped in the art-rock of the \u201970s, then the British singer-songwriter\u2019s fifth LP in 1985 didn\u2019t just reflect its era\u2014it helped define it. Few songs are more evocative of the sound of mid-\u201980s pop than the eternal \u201cRunning Up That Hill,\u201d with its gated drums, quasi-dance beat, eerie vocal effects, and instantly recognizable synthesizer melody. Likewise, few albums did more to take the ambition of progressive rock and port it into the digital era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5G5UwqPsxDKpxJLX4xsyuh?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>49. The Joshua Tree &#8211; U2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f8996a3f97e80d9d700635c3\" alt=\"The Joshua Tree - Album by U2 | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Joshua Tree<\/em>&nbsp;represented something new for U2: the gospel influences, the emotional nakedness, the introduction of understatement to a sound that had defined itself by its forthrightness. In the past, they\u2019d let their songwriting be loose and in the moment. Now they were exploring the liberations that come with constraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5vBZRYu2GLA65nfxBvG1a7?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>48. Paul&#8217;s Boutique &#8211; Beastie Boys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2732288f4cd4bf3a8764624a0d2\" alt=\"Paul\"s Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition \/ Remastered) - Album by Beastie  Boys | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1989, sampling in hip-hop was in its Wild West period, before lawsuits slowed the free-for-all with a morass of legal hurdles. As it turns out, in 1989, the Beastie Boys were&nbsp;<em>also<\/em>&nbsp;in their Wild West period, having decamped from their native NYC to the Hollywood Hills to reap the many benefits of&nbsp;<em>Licensed to Ill<\/em>\u2019s runaway success.&nbsp;<em>Paul\u2019s Boutique<\/em>&nbsp;is the frenetic and fried collision of these two concurrent phenomena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1kmyirVya5fRxdjsPFDM05?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>47. Take Care &#8211; Drake<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273c7ea04a9b455e3f68ef82550\" alt=\"Take Care (Deluxe) - Album by Drake | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As the title suggests,&nbsp;<em>Take Care<\/em>&nbsp;is a testament to the theory that the best art requires time. After his studio debut&nbsp;<em>Thank Me Later<\/em>\u2014an album Drake himself felt was rushed\u2014he enlisted musical savant Noah \u201c40\u201d Shebib to draw on the very Toronto sound they\u2019d pioneered\u2014the sweet spot between rap and R&amp;B that had defined the acclaimed 2009 mixtape&nbsp;<em>So Far Gone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6X1x82kppWZmDzlXXK3y3q?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>46. Exodus &#8211; Bob Marley &amp; The Wailers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f7dcae50497dd2492f8306c8\" alt=\"Exodus (Remastered) - Album by Bob Marley &amp; The Wailers | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>What you hear on&nbsp;<em>Exodus<\/em>&nbsp;is the tension between the hope that every little thing will be all right and the creeping worry that it won\u2019t. Marley recorded the album during a self-imposed exile in London, a distance that cast his optimism about Jamaica in a cautious light. And while his politics had never been of more public interest, the album\u2019s most uplifting songs turned inward toward matters personal, romantic, and spiritual: \u201cThree Little Birds,\u201d the lovelorn \u201cWaiting in Vain,\u201d the legacy-defining \u201cOne Love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/655KljKIXl42fiNDMKivbY?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>45. Bj\u00f6rk &#8211; Homogenic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27361340a8868455be0d958fb39\" alt=\"Homogenic - Album by Bj\u00f6rk | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Icelandic superstar\u2019s third album is a rippling tapestry of techno innovation and orchestral songcraft. The urgency of the lyrics is real: The singer had been deeply affected by a string of personal incidents, including the highly publicized suicide of a stalker who had attempted to assassinate her with a letter bomb. That tension manifests on tracks like the towering, string-laden \u201cBachelorette\u201d\u2014\u201cI\u2019m a fountain of blood\/In the shape of a girl\u201d\u2014and siren-like ballad \u201cJ\u00f3ga,\u201d with its urgent couplets about emotional rescue and states of emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0h19Ty9F2Ma8pKkRdx17UT?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>44. Innervisions &#8211; Stevie Wonder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ea8ab1a548312b79ac955266\" alt=\"Innervisions - Album by Stevie Wonder | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The boldest political statement of Wonder\u2019s career yet\u2014assailing drug addicts, infrastructural racism, charismatic con men, and superficial Christians\u2014<em>Innervisions<\/em>&nbsp;also managed to be deliriously funky. Wonder played and produced just about everything, and the musical peaks were as high as Wonder would ever get, though the tone was more accusatory than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5jgI8Eminx9MmLBontDWq8?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>43. Remain in Light &#8211; Talking Heads<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f9e2d82b9969defab2105859\" alt=\"Remain in Light - Album by Talking Heads | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Talking Heads and their producer Brian Eno shared a love of African music, especially the work of Nigerian firebrand Fela Kuti, who built 15- to 20-minute songs out of repeated funk and jazz riffs. Fela was one of the strongest influences on&nbsp;<em>Remain in Light<\/em>, which used polyrhythms like no rock record had before. All four band members and Eno played multiple instruments on the album\u2019s eight songs, and they also brought in percussionists, guitarist Adrian Belew, soul singer Nona Hendryx, and avant-garde trumpeter Jon Hassell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1JvXxLsm0PxlGH4LXzqMGq?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>42. Control &#8211; Janet Jackson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273d43ed38753792fe6606568f2\" alt=\"Control - Album by Janet Jackson | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1986, the 19-year-old baby of the Jackson family juggernaut had released two albums but had yet to become a superstar in her own right. All that changed when she bossed up and fired her own father, Joe Jackson, as her manager and went to Minneapolis to work with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on what would be her true debut. The pairing of streetwise Prince prot\u00e9g\u00e9s with sheltered music royalty was an odd coupling that worked, putting a nasty spin on Minneapolis funk that was all Miss Jackson. The result was one of the most successful and enduring artist-producer collaborations in pop history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7GWkceE5McMVfffd1RGL6Y?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>41. Aquemini &#8211; Outkast<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273377a6d2051b23afea65ee41a\" alt=\"Aquemini - Album by Outkast | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Aquemini<\/em>&nbsp;is the connective tissue between Outkast\u2019s beginnings as local heroes in Atlanta and the duo\u2019s full-fledged pop stardom. While their first two LPs featured no shortage of Andr\u00e9 3000 and Big Boi\u2019s tongue-twisting rhymes and the Dungeon Family collective\u2019s off-kilter beats,&nbsp;<em>Aquemini<\/em>&nbsp;was the creative leap forward that turned an already critically acclaimed group into thought leaders of the hip-hop avant-garde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5ceB3rxgXqIRpsOvVzTG28?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>40. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You &#8211; Aretha Franklin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2736aa9314b7ddfbd8f036ba3ac\" alt=\"I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You - Album by Aretha Franklin | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Franklin would release nine albums with Columbia before moving to Atlantic Records and working with producer Jerry Wexler, the legendary record man who, alongside his partner Ahmet Ertegun, signed and recorded the greatest R&amp;B artists of the 1950s and 1960s. The first record in this partnership,&nbsp;<em>I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You<\/em>, opens with Aretha\u2019s signature, definitive take on Otis Redding\u2019s \u201cRespect\u201d\u2014a version so dynamic, Redding had no choice but to acknowledge its superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5WndWfzGwCkHzAbQXVkg2V?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>39. Illmatic &#8211; Nas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273045fc920ecf4f8094888ec26\" alt=\"Illmatic - Album by Nas | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Nas introduces turns of phrase and perspective previously unheard within the art form: \u201cMy mic check is life or death, breathing a sniper\u2019s breath\/I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps,\u201d he spits on \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Hard to Tell\u201d.&nbsp;<em>Illmatic<\/em>\u2019s sample-heavy sound comes courtesy of a dream team of production talent\u2014DJ Premier, Large Professor, Q-Tip, Pete Rock and L.E.S.\u2014 a lineup that helped break a long-standing tradition of single-producer hip-hop albums. Together they present a unified vision of the murky, guttural, jazz-heavy hip-hop that would come to define the \u201990s New York sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>38. Tapestry &#8211; Carole King<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27323350feac07f56d8b96f33d5\" alt=\"Tapestry - Album by Carole King | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Carole King\u2019s second solo album, 1971\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Tapestry<\/em>, virtually defined the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Its warm, intimate tone; the simple, piano-based arrangements; and the cosy living-room feel of the album captured a moment in time and rightfully turned the limelight onto a songwriter who\u2019d crafted so many classics for others over the preceding decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/12n11cgnpjXKLeqrnIERoS?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>37. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) &#8211; Wu-Tang Clan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2735901aaa980d3e714bf01171c\" alt=\"Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) [Expanded Edition] - Album by Wu-Tang Clan  | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Wu-Tang emerged as a nine-member crew in the post-MTV age of small cliques, a mix of styles and voices: the violent beat poetry of Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Inspectah Deck; the drunken sing-to-scream ping-pong of Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard; the $5 words and scientific flows of GZA and Masta Killa; the boisterous coaching of RZA; the gritty rasp of U-God; and the slick talk of Method Man, who was already getting a star turn on his eponymous track. Though melancholy reminiscences like \u201cCan It Be All So Simple\u201d, \u201cC.R.E.A.M.\u201d and \u201cTearz\u201d made a trilogy of evocative narratives, the Wu provided few easy inroads to their mythology and poetry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3tQd5mwBtVyxCoEo4htGAV?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>36. BEYONC\u00c9 -Beyonc\u00e9<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2736a26b6ba045caa3b26f8b56e\" alt=\"BEYONC\u00c9 - Album by Beyonc\u00e9 | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Pop\u2019s sound had shifted at the turn of the decade, with electropop-influenced tracks taking the spaces on radio and on the charts where Beyonc\u00e9 and other R&amp;B-leaning artists had ruled during the 2000s. On&nbsp;<em>BEYONC\u00c9<\/em>, the singer and mogul showed that, radio play or no, she was still a member of pop\u2019s ruling class\u2014and she did so not by flipping pop\u2019s script, but by drawing inspiration from its most enticing aspects to write a new playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2UJwKSBUz6rtW4QLK74kQu?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>35. London Calling &#8211; The Clash <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273cd9d8bc9ef04014b6e90e182\" alt=\"London Calling (Remastered) - Album by The Clash | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>What was\u2014and is\u2014remarkable about&nbsp;<em>London Calling<\/em>&nbsp;wasn\u2019t just how much ground it covers, but how comfortably the band stake their claim to it. They\u2019re heavy (\u201cDeath or Glory\u201d, \u201cHateful\u201d), they\u2019re light (\u201cRevolution Rock\u201d, \u201cLover\u2019s Rock\u201d), they sing about public struggles (\u201cClampdown\u201d) and private relationships (Mick Jones\u2019 \u201cTrain in Vain\u201d) and advance the old chestnut that our inner lives are always products of our outer realities. What had once been framed as a local struggle\u2014poor white English kids searching for a future in the face of diminishing prospects\u2014became international, the plight of working-class people generally, the ballads of the common man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6FCzvataOZh68j8OKzOt9a?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>34. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back &#8211; Public Enemy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273629edfa71810af835f33f431\" alt=\"It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - Album by Public Enemy |  Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back<\/em>&nbsp;felt like a veritable firebombing\u2014a rap blitzkrieg led by a boisterous lyricist with a defiantly militant mindset. That revolutionary energy was palpable on \u201cBring the Noise\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Believe the Hype\u201d, seminal songs with hooks that sounded more like marching orders. Even further down the tracklist, cuts like \u201cBlack Steel in the Hour of Chaos\u201d and \u201cRebel Without a Pause\u201d hit as hard as what came before, the messaging as provocative and righteous as any on the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3PxXiYU3PjymOEE22PewGZ?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>33. Kid A &#8211; Radiohead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2736c7112082b63beefffe40151\" alt=\"Kid A - Album by Radiohead | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With its seasick sequences and Yorke\u2019s multiplied vocal lines folding in and over and around one another like an Escher sketch, \u201cEverything in Its Right Place\u201d is both taunt and gambit\u2014a little wink from the band that had gone from \u201cCreep\u201d to these so-called creepy sounds. That was simply the start. The demented bass and howling horns of \u201cThe National Anthem\u201d, the operatic tremors of \u201cMotion Picture Soundtrack\u201d, the refracted guitars and babbling circuity of \u201cIn Limbo\u201d: Radiohead found new space to explore on every track. Each was anchored to a hook\u2014however obscured\u2014before setting off into unfamiliar terrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6GjwtEZcfenmOf6l18N7T7?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>32. Ready to Die &#8211; The Notorious B.I.G.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273dfa5bb0198242e86e8fbf9a2\" alt=\"Ready To Die - Album by The Notorious B.I.G. | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>By naming his debut&nbsp;<em>Ready to Die<\/em>, Christopher Wallace bluntly encapsulated both his fearless, take-no-prisoners lyrical style and his sense that death could come for him at any time. While hardly the first to rap about the pleasures and pitfalls of drug dealing, Biggie Smalls elevated the form to a divine, brutally honest art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2HTbQ0RHwukKVXAlTmCZP2?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>31. Jagged Little Pill &#8211; Alanis Morissette<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27392c885317fbe4bfa680109b4\" alt=\"Jagged Little Pill - Album by Alanis Morissette | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Beneath the record\u2019s radio-friendly hooks and shiny harmonies were observations on the messiness and banality of life. Human weakness is a theme\u2014she\u2019s distracted on \u201cAll I Really Want\u201d, disoriented by happiness on \u201cHead Over Feet\u201d. Yet even if the album\u2019s core spirit is disillusionment, its legacy is hopefulness\u2014the idea that bleeding, screaming and learning is also, ultimately, living. Perhaps that\u2019s why, for all her angst and anger, Morissette is relatively kind to herself. In the easygoing \u201cHand in My Pocket\u201d, now a time capsule of cigarettes and taxi cabs, she forgives herself for not having it all figured out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5Ap3F8CxjjsQKZGASDcHNA?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>30. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? &#8211; Billie Eilish<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27350a3147b4edd7701a876c6ce\" alt=\"WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? - Album by Billie Eilish | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Billie, who is both beleaguered and fascinated by night terrors and sleep paralysis, has a complicated relationship with her subconscious. \u201cI\u2019m the monster under the bed, I\u2019m my own worst enemy,\u201d she told Apple Music. \u201cIt\u2019s not that the whole album is a bad dream, it\u2019s just\u2026surreal.\u201d With an endearingly off-kilter mix of teen angst and experimentalism, the album quickly and decidedly launched Billie Eilish as the perfect avatar for a new, uncertain era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0S0KGZnfBGSIssfF54WSJh?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>29. The Low End Theory &#8211; A Tribe Called Quest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273f38c6b37a21334e22005b1f7\" alt=\"The Low End Theory - Album by A Tribe Called Quest | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the wake of the release of A Tribe Called Quest\u2019s first album, 1990\u2019s stellar&nbsp;<em>People\u2019s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm<\/em>, critics who had previously ignored hip-hop sat up and took notice of Q-Tip\u2019s sophisticated and unorthodox productions and Phife Dawg\u2019s party-rocking, self-deprecating rhymes. But those critics often overlooked Tribe\u2019s far-reaching roots in the hip-hop underground and their larger place in the history of Black music in general.&nbsp;<em>The Low End Theory<\/em>&nbsp;was in many ways a conscious attempt to redress these oversights. It also happens to be one of the finest hip-hop albums ever recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1p12OAWwudgMqfMzjMvl2a?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>28. The Dark Side of the Moon &#8211; Pink Floyd<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ea7caaff71dea1051d49b2fe\" alt=\"The Dark Side of the Moon - Album by Pink Floyd | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even compared to other big rock albums of its time,&nbsp;<em>Dark Side of the Moon<\/em>&nbsp;was a shift, forgoing the boozy extroversion of stuff like The Rolling Stones for something more interior. As much as the album marked a breakthrough, it was also part of a progression in which Floyd managed to blend their most experimental phase with an emerging sense of clarity, exploring big themes\u2014greed (\u201cMoney\u201d), madness (\u201cBrain Damage\u201d, \u201cEclipse\u201d), war and societal fraction (\u201cUs and Them\u201d)\u2014with a concision that made the message easy to understand no matter how far out the music got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2WT1pbYjLJciAR26yMebkH?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>27. Led Zeppelin II &#8211; Led Zeppelin <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273fd17dfdceeded5de18061f4a\" alt=\"Led Zeppelin II - Album by Led Zeppelin | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>What had sometimes felt clunky the first time around on their 1969 debut\u2014British blues rock rendered slower, heavier, louder\u2014felt seamless just eight months later on&nbsp;<em>Led Zeppelin II<\/em>. Their time on the road showed: A couple songs either originated or evolved live, while others (especially \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d) reflected a relationship between the band members that made the music much more direct, but also enabled them to take bigger, weirder chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/58MQ0PLijVHePUonQlK76Y?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>26. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy &#8211; Kanye West<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273d9194aa18fa4c9362b47464f\" alt=\"My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Album by Kanye West | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its ostentatious appearance, the heart of&nbsp;<em>My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy<\/em>&nbsp;is that of raw honesty, with West\u2019s frayed ends of reflection, self-criticism, relationship woes, ruminations on fame and moments of anger.&nbsp;<em>My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy<\/em>&nbsp;would forever change the landscape of hip-hop, its genre-crossing boldness, limitless imagination and sheer sumptuousness of presentation foreshadowing the genre\u2019s 2010s turn towards maximalist sounds and arthouse design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/20r762YmB5HeofjMCiPMLv?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>25. Kind of Blue &#8211; Miles Davis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2737ab89c25093ea3787b1995b4\" alt=\"Kind Of Blue - Album by Miles Davis | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the years between the dissolution of Miles Davis\u2019 first great quintet and the formation of his second, the trumpet master ventured into something new in 1959\u2014not knowing it would become one of jazz\u2019s biggest albums ever. The fast-moving progressions of bebop and post-bop required improvisers to jump hurdles\u2014something Davis knew all about as Dizzy Gillespie\u2019s successor in the Charlie Parker Quintet. But on&nbsp;<em>Kind of Blue<\/em>, there were longer durations between chords, opening up space in the music; the soloist had the option of taking a breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1weenld61qoidwYuZ1GESA?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>24. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars &#8211; David Bowie<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273ce928bc5dc2ed4d8e6d82366\" alt=\"The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars - Album by David  Bowie | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The decadent-alien-rock-star concept behind David Bowie\u2019s fifth album was revolutionary, but the subversion was in the music: nasty but glamorous (\u201cMoonage Daydream\u201d, \u201cSuffragette City\u201d), theatrical but intimate (\u201cFive Years\u201d), primordial punk (\u201cHang On to Yourself\u201d) and cabaret for an audience who would\u2019ve never deigned (\u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Suicide\u201d). Bowie talks about himself in the third person but is so arrogant his fans kill him for it (\u201cZiggy Stardust\u201d), so deluded he thinks rock \u2019n\u2019 roll can save the world but so brave he\u2019s willing to die trying (\u201cStar\u201d). The artifice brings him down, but it also sets him free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/48D1hRORqJq52qsnUYZX56?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>23. Discovery &#8211; Daft Punk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27348905438b9c1153978d9fbf4\" alt=\"Discovery - Album by Daft Punk | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You can easily trace&nbsp;<em>Discovery<\/em>&nbsp;forward to EDM and the continuing entwinement of techno and rock. But you can also trace it back to&nbsp;<em>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<em>Pet Sounds<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Smile<\/em>: music that took pop seriously as art, but also recontextualised older, seemingly uncool styles in ways that felt progressive and fresh. Most of all, though, Daft Punk wanted to be universal. And as implausible as it may have seemed for two French men in robot helmets,&nbsp;<em>Discovery<\/em>&nbsp;got them there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2noRn2Aes5aoNVsU6iWThc?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>22. Born to Run &#8211; Bruce Springsteen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273503143a281a3f30268dcd9f9\" alt=\"Born To Run - Album by Bruce Springsteen | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>His first two albums had featured epic tales populated with wild characters. But with&nbsp;<em>Born to Run<\/em>, he finally cracked the code on how to tighten those stories, making them easier to absorb. Springsteen would later pinpoint the title track as the moment he learned to successfully combine power and emotion\u2014lyrically and musically\u2014in a shorter form, while still delivering the same impact. Built like a grittier, more fantastical version of Phil Spector\u2019s infamous Wall of Sound,&nbsp;<em>Born to Run<\/em>&nbsp;manages to feel at once exhilarating, heartbreaking, thoughtful and tragic\u2014the defining moment for Springsteen as a performer and as a songwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/43YIoHKSrEw2GJsWmhZIpu?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>21. Revolver &#8211; The Beatles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27328b8b9b46428896e6491e97a\" alt=\"Revolver (Remastered) - Album by The Beatles | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For a band that put out \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand\u201d less than three years earlier, the relative complexity of&nbsp;<em>Revolver<\/em>&nbsp;in both sound and subject matter not only challenged The Beatles\u2019 image as the pop band the whole family could agree on, but it also put pop on a course toward unfamiliar horizons. Not only were The Beatles able to bridge their interest in of psychedelia, experimental and Indian classical music with Motown (\u201cGot to Get You Into My Life\u201d) and what we now think of as classically Beatlesque pop (\u201cGood Day Sunshine\u201d),&nbsp;<em>Revolver<\/em>&nbsp;cemented the idea of the pop album as an intricate, laboured-over studio creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3PRoXYsngSwjEQWR5PsHWR?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>20. Pet Sounds &#8211; The Beach Boys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27350eb0c521d2d3b2f599bff04\" alt=\"Pet Sounds - Album by The Beach Boys | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Of all&nbsp;<em>Pet Sounds<\/em>\u2019 legacies, the most profound is the idea that pop music\u2014something accessible and extroverted\u2014could be used to express deep, internal worlds. Wilson\u2019s experiments with LSD aren\u2019t obvious in any garish way, but you can hear him trying to excavate feelings buried so deep that seeking them out is an adventure on par with any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2CNEkSE8TADXRT2AzcEt1b?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>19. The Chronic &#8211; Dr. Dre<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2739710731c9d7baec635f1bab1\" alt=\"The Chronic - Album by Dr. Dre | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The album, named for a high-grade marijuana of its time, contains fiercely competitive posse cuts (\u201cDeeez Nuuuts\u201d, \u201cStranded on Death Row\u201d), vivid depictions of the lives of young hustlers (\u201cLet Me Ride\u201d, \u201cNuthin\u2019 But a \u2018G\u2019 Thang\u201d) and a handful of ruminations on the perils of street life and also solidarity in the Black community (\u201cLil\u2019 Ghetto Boy\u201d, \u201cA N***a Witta Gun\u201d). All of which is not to mention a large dose of misogyny (\u201cBitches Ain\u2019t Shit\u201d, etc). But&nbsp;<em>The Chronic<\/em>&nbsp;was then, and is still, everything the legendary Death Row Records would become known (and notorious) for\u2014god-tier street rap and incubator of some of the most memorable talents in rap history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2V5rhszUpCudPcb01zevOt?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>18. 1989 (Taylor&#8217;s Version) &#8211; Taylor Swift<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273904445d70d04eb24d6bb79ac\" alt=\"1989 (Taylor\"s Version) - Album by Taylor Swift | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Shania Twain\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Come On Over<\/em>&nbsp;or even Bob Dylan\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Bringing It All Back Home<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>1989<\/em>&nbsp;is an instance in which an artist defies expectations and thrives. Swift didn\u2019t exactly grow up with the synthesised, \u201980s-inspired sounds that producers like Martin, Shellback, Ryan Tedder and future bestie Jack Antonoff help her create here; as the album\u2019s title reminds us, she wasn\u2019t even born until the decade was ending. But just as she played with the traditions and conventions of country music on her early albums, Swift uses the nostalgia of&nbsp;<em>1989<\/em>&nbsp;not to look back, but to move ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/64LU4c1nfjz1t4VnGhagcg?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>17. What&#8217;s Going On &#8211; Marvin Gaye<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273b36949bee43217351961ffbc\" alt=\"What\"s Going On - Album by Marvin Gaye | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The album\u2019s genius is in its lightness. Songs drift and breathe; performances feel natural, even offhand\u2014Eli Fontaine\u2019s saxophone part on the title track, for example, was recorded when Fontaine thought he was just warming up. As Sly &amp; The Family Stone channelled their anger into bitter funk (1971\u2019s&nbsp;<em>There\u2019s a Riot Goin\u2019 On<\/em>), Gaye sublimated his in lush string sections and Latin percussion\u2014signals not just of gentleness, but sophistication. Even in the face of bleakness (the addiction portrait of \u201cFlyin\u2019 High [In the Friendly Sky]\u201d, \u201cInner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler]\u201d), he floats. The revelation was that political music doesn\u2019t have to be confrontational\u2014it can also be warm and inviting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2v6ANhWhZBUKkg6pJJBs3B?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>16. Blue &#8211; Joni Mitchell<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273e79dc1438d650f426b5e99a7\" alt=\"Blue - Album by Joni Mitchell | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Blue<\/em>&nbsp;took shape in a moment of personal transition for Mitchell, right after the end of her relationship with Graham Nash and as she was falling for James Taylor; she wrote her way out of an old love and into a new one. And while&nbsp;<em>Blue<\/em>&nbsp;offers a glimpse into the recesses of Mitchell\u2019s heart at the time, it explores all love and loss\u2014\u201cLittle Green\u201d is an ode to the daughter she gave up for adoption, which she wouldn\u2019t reveal until the \u201990s.&nbsp;<em>Blue<\/em>&nbsp;is as much a testament to her talent as her willingness to share her most intimate truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1vz94WpXDVYIEGja8cjFNa?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>15. 21 &#8211; Adele<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2732118bf9b198b05a95ded6300\" alt=\"21 - Album by Adele | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On&nbsp;<em>19<\/em>, Adele established herself as a key part of the 2000s class of British R&amp;B-inspired singers that included Amy Winehouse and Duffy. For&nbsp;<em>21<\/em>, however, she added new dimensions to her sound, bringing in ideas borrowed from country, rock, gospel and modern pop\u2014as well as a gently psychedelic take on the downcast \u201cLovesong\u201d, originally by fellow Brit miserablists The Cure. But Adele\u2019s powerful voice and unguarded feelings were&nbsp;<em>21<\/em>\u2019s main draw, and her savvy about using them\u2014as well as going all in only when a song\u2019s emotional force required her to\u2014made it one of the 21st century\u2019s biggest albums, both a refuge and a rallying cry for anyone nursing a broken heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/5duyQokC4FMcWPYTV9Gpf9?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>14. Highway 61 Revisited &#8211; Bob Dylan <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27341720ef0ae31e10d39e43ca2\" alt=\"Highway 61 Revisited - Album by Bob Dylan | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On these nine songs, Dylan is over most everything\u2014the world\u2019s barbarity on \u201cJust Like Tom Thumb\u2019s Blues\u201d, high society\u2019s superficiality on \u201cBallad of a Thin Man\u201d, the heart\u2019s tangles and briars on \u201cIt Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry\u201d. As war escalated, the country heaved and Dylan battled his new status, these were the images of an overheated mind acting out the theatre of human experience in song. That gave listeners something to hold on to as the language and landscape of rock shifted in real time, which happened on\u2014and because of\u2014<em>Highway 61 Revisited<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6YabPKtZAjxwyWbuO9p4ZD?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>13. The Blueprint &#8211; JAY-Z<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2739992c5d2c010ccb3f6fa6bb6\" alt=\"The Blueprint - Album by JAY-Z | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Blueprint<\/em>&nbsp;pushed the lyrical parameters of mainstream hip-hop while returning to the form\u2019s origins, thanks to the album\u2019s samples of classic rock and soul (courtesy, in part, of a young producer named Kanye West). The result was a record that would help establish rap as music with historic continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/69CmkikTHkGKdkrUZTtyWl?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>12. OK Computer &#8211; Radiohead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273c8b444df094279e70d0ed856\" alt=\"OK Computer - Album by Radiohead | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For all of its dread,&nbsp;<em>OK Computer<\/em>&nbsp;is ultimately an act of hope, the expression of a belief that our inexorable path of progress does not have to cost us our goodness. And if there is a remedy to the dizzying pace of, well, everything, it\u2019s simple enough: \u201cIdiot, slow down,\u201d Yorke sings for the last words of closer \u201cThe Tourist\u201d. In the decades since&nbsp;<em>OK Computer<\/em>&nbsp;made Radiohead rock\u2019s new standard-bearers, its grievances\u2014namely, our accelerating isolation\u2014have only mounted. But the answers and the hope it holds linger still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6dVIqQ8qmQ5GBnJ9shOYGE?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>11. Rumours &#8211; Fleetwood Mac<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27357df7ce0eac715cf70e519a7\" alt=\"Rumours - Album by Fleetwood Mac | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>To understand what made&nbsp;<em>Rumours<\/em>&nbsp;so impactful, you have to look at the music that came out around it. This was the era of the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt\u2014artists who, like Fleetwood Mac, combined the intimacy of singer-songwriters with a softened take on rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. But it was also the era of Boston, Foreigner, Pink Floyd and a wave of bands that scaled up the ambition of \u201960s rock to blockbuster heights. And there, in the middle of the road, is&nbsp;<em>Rumours<\/em>. For an album that went on to sell more than 10 million copies, it\u2019s more unsettling than it probably should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1bt6q2SruMsBtcerNVtpZB?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>10. Lemonade &#8211; Beyonc\u00e9<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b27389992f4d7d4ab94937bf9e23\" alt=\"Lemonade - Album by Beyonc\u00e9 | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s one moment critical to understanding the emotional and cultural heft of&nbsp;<em>Lemonade<\/em>, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s genre-obliterating blockbuster sixth album\u2014and it arrives at the end of \u201cFreedom\u201d, a storming empowerment anthem that samples a civil-rights-era prison song and features Kendrick Lamar. An elderly woman\u2019s voice cuts in: \u201cI had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up,\u201d she says. \u201cI was served lemons, but I made lemonade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The speech\u2014made by her husband JAY-Z\u2019s grandmother Hattie White on her 90th birthday in 2015\u2014reportedly inspired the concept behind this radical project, which arrived with an accompanying film as well as words by Somali British poet Warsan Shire. Both the album and its visual companion are deeply tied to Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s identity and narrative (her womanhood, her Blackness, her marriage) and make for her most outwardly revealing work to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The details, of course, are what make it so relatable, what make each song sting. The project is furious, defiant, anguished, vulnerable, experimental, muscular, triumphant, humorous and brave\u2014a vivid personal statement, released without warning in a time of public scrutiny and private suffering. It is also astonishingly tough. Through tears, even Beyonc\u00e9 has to summon her inner Beyonc\u00e9, roaring, \u201cI\u2019ma keep running \u2019cause a winner don\u2019t quit on themselves.\u201d This panoramic strength\u2014lyrical, vocal, instrumental and personal\u2014nudged her public image from mere legend to something closer to real-life superhero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7dK54iZuOxXFarGhXwEXfF?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>9. Nevermind &#8211; Nirvana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273e175a19e530c898d167d39bf\" alt=\"Nevermind (Remastered) - Album by Nirvana | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even now, years after you first felt its edges, the chorus of \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d still sounds too dangerous\u2014too loud, too ugly, too&nbsp;<em>upset<\/em>\u2014for any mainstream. And yet&nbsp;<em>Nevermind<\/em>\u2019s opening salvo didn\u2019t just mark an unlikely breakthrough for the Seattle trio, it upended popular culture in ways we haven\u2019t seen since. Punk became pop, grunge became global vernacular, industry walls broke into rubble, and lead vocalist Kurt Cobain was anointed the reluctant voice of a generation in need of catharsis, all seemingly overnight. But what makes Nirvana\u2019s second album special isn\u2019t its rage, but its innocence. For as haunting and corrosive as it can often be, it was never at the expense of melody or songcraft or humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The old guard was actually still alive and well: Both Metallica\u2019s Black Album and Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 two-volume&nbsp;<em>Use Your Illusion<\/em>&nbsp;famously came out within weeks of&nbsp;<em>Nevermind<\/em>. And while the album went on to sell about as well as those\u2014even displacing Michael Jackson\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Dangerous<\/em>&nbsp;as the best-selling album in the United States for a brief moment in 1992\u2014Nirvana\u2019s influence extended well beyond sheer economics, cutting a path for generations of forward-looking artists that stretches from Radiohead to Billie Eilish. They presented themselves not as rock gods, but ordinary (and highly sensitive) mortals. As an alternative to the pin-up in leather pants, they offered the proud feminist, screaming until his voice gave out (\u201cTerritorial Pissings\u201d). In place of the glossy power ballad, they delivered something fragile and raw (\u201cPolly\u201d, \u201cSomething in the Way\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nirvana\u2019s angst didn\u2019t only come across in the lyrics, but in the delivery. None of Cobain\u2019s wisdom or fury would have resonated in the culture-shaking way it did if not for the sort of tunefulness that has always had a way of making wisdom and fury go down a little easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2UJcKiJxNryhL050F5Z1Fk?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>8. Back to Black &#8211; Amy Winehouse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2738f52f321140e4a76ea720c52\" alt=\"Back To Black - Album by Amy Winehouse | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Producer Mark Ronson remembers when Amy Winehouse came in with the lyrics for \u201cBack to Black\u201d. They were at a studio in New York in early 2006, their first day working together. Ronson had given her a portable CD player with the song\u2019s piano track, and Winehouse disappeared into the back for about an hour to write. What she re-emerged with was masterful: bleak, funny, tough, hopelessly romantic. The chorus, though, kept tripping him up because it didn\u2019t rhyme: \u201cWe only said goodbye in words, I died a hundred times.\u201d He asked her to change it, but she just gave him a blank look: That\u2019s just how it came out, she didn\u2019t know how to&nbsp;<em>change<\/em>&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all her brashness, what makes&nbsp;<em>Back to Black<\/em>&nbsp;so moving is the sense that Winehouse is constantly trying to punch through her pain\u2014not to suppress it exactly, but to wrap it in enough barbed wire that nobody could quite reach its core. The appeal to soul music is obvious: the Motown horns (\u201cRehab\u201d, \u201cTears Dry on Their Own\u201d), the girl-group romance (\u201cBack to Black\u201d), the organic quality of the arrangements (\u201cYou Know I\u2019m No Good\u201d)\u2014much of it courtesy of Brooklyn outfit The Dap-Kings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/097eYvf9NKjFnv4xA9s2oV?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>7. good kid, m.A.A.d city (Deluxe Version) &#8211; Kendrick Lamar <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273d58e537cea05c2156792c53d\" alt=\"good kid, m.A.A.d city (Deluxe) - Album by Kendrick Lamar | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A few days after releasing 2012\u2019s&nbsp;<em>good kid, m.A.A.d city<\/em>, the then-25-year-old Kendrick Lamar deemed his sophomore studio album \u201cclassic-worthy\u201d. He wasn\u2019t lying: Lamar\u2019s sophomore album is one of the defining hip-hop records of the 21st century. On the surface,&nbsp;<em>good kid, m.A.A.d city<\/em>&nbsp;is a hood tragedy, with Lamar painting a vivid picture of Black and brown youths growing up in underserved communities. But the album is also powered by faith and hope, with Lamar chronicling his turbulent coming-of-age through a cast of compelling characters that portray the trauma, familial guidance and relationships that led to his inevitable ascent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Coast hip-hop elders like Snoop and Dre anointed Lamar to carry on the legacy of gangsta rap, and his second studio album\u2014conceptual enough to be a rock opera\u2014certainly uplifts the genre with its near-biblical themes: religion vs. violence and monogamy vs. lust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sitting just a few miles from Compton, where much of&nbsp;<em>good kid, m.A.A.d city<\/em>&nbsp;takes place, Lamar pieced together tracks alongside collaborators Sounwave and Dave Free, both of whom had known the prolific rapper since high school. Throughout the writing process, Lamar would frequently return to his childhood neighbourhood to relive the \u201cmental space\u201d he was in during the early days of his rap career, unearthing the deeply personal tales that came to shape the monumental artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the album\u2019s opening scene\u2014a collective prayer of gratitude\u2014Lamar\u2019s approach is entirely theatric (he even gives&nbsp;<em>good kid, m.A.A.d city<\/em>&nbsp;a subtitle: \u201cA Short Film by Kendrick Lamar\u201d). And he never misses an opportunity to hold listeners in his grip, unspooling a series of vulnerable confessions over the album\u2019s 12 tracks. Graphic scenes of violence, addiction and disillusionment are pervasive here. But Lamar makes even the harshest truths easy to swallow, as he does on \u201cSwimming Pools (Drank)\u201d, a vivid tale of alcoholism.&nbsp;<em>good kid, m.A.A.d city<\/em>\u2019s legacy is a crucial example of American storytelling that established the future Pulitzer Prize winner as perhaps his generation\u2019s most accomplished writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/748dZDqSZy6aPXKcI9H80u?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>6. Stevie Wonder &#8211; Songs in the Key of Life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b2732fee61bfec596bb6f5447c50\" alt=\"Songs In The Key Of Life - Album by Stevie Wonder | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1974, Stevie Wonder was the most critically revered pop star in the world; he was also considering leaving the music industry altogether. So when&nbsp;<em>Songs in the Key of Life<\/em>&nbsp;was released two years later, demand was so high that it became, at the time, the fastest-selling album in history. All was forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wonder positioned himself as the benevolent overlord of a vast self-drawn cosmos, one with a remarkable cache of songs:&nbsp;<em>Songs in the Key of Life<\/em>, which runs nearly 90 minutes, is effortlessly melodic, broad in scope, deeply personal\u2014and often just plain weird. In the era of the overblown rock epic, Wonder had created the most searching and sprawling soul album ever released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start with the brassy, hook-filled and positively effusive chart-topping singles \u201cSir Duke\u201d and \u201cI Wish\u201d, both of which have soundtracked countless barbecues and wedding receptions for decades. At the other end of the spectrum: the stark reality-soul of \u201cVillage Ghetto Land\u201d and \u201cPastime Paradise\u201d, on which Wonder leaves the bandstand for the op-ed pages to decry the abandonment of the civil rights dream. Then Wonder\u2019s daughter Aisha shows up in the sugary Girl Dad anthem \u201cIsn\u2019t She Lovely\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As&nbsp;<em>Songs in the Key of Life<\/em>&nbsp;nears its conclusion, Wonder clears the dance floor for 15 minutes of sumptuous gospel-disco in \u201cAs\u201d and \u201cAnother Star\u201d. But the album\u2019s defining moment might come on a bonus track, one originally issued as an extra 45 with the album\u2019s vinyl release. It starts in deep space with the Afrofuturist fantasia \u201cSaturn\u201d, but as its last synthesiser chords fade out, Wonder zooms light-years to an urban playground where we can hear the sound of Black children skipping Double Dutch. Sonically, culturally and emotionally,&nbsp;<em>Songs in the Key of Life<\/em>&nbsp;is much more than a gigantic collection of songs\u2014it forms an entire world view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/6YUCc2RiXcEKS9ibuZxjt0?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>5. Blonde &#8211; Frank Ocean<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273c5649add07ed3720be9d5526\" alt=\"Blonde - Album by Frank Ocean | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the four years between Frank Ocean\u2019s debut album&nbsp;<em>channel ORANGE<\/em>&nbsp;and his second,&nbsp;<em>blond<\/em>, he had revealed some of his private life\u2014he published a post on social media about having been in love with a man\u2014but still remained as mysterious and sceptical towards fame as ever, teasing new music sporadically and then disappearing like a wisp on the wind. Behind great innovation, however, is a massive amount of work, and so when&nbsp;<em>blond<\/em>&nbsp;was released one day after a 24-hour streaming performance art piece (<em>Endless<\/em>) and alongside a limited-edition magazine entitled&nbsp;<em>Boys Don\u2019t Cry<\/em>, his slipperiness felt more like part of a carefully considered mystique. Even the apparent indecision over the album title\u2019s official spelling can be seen in hindsight as being characteristically mischievous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Endless<\/em>&nbsp;featured the mundane beauty of Ocean woodworking in a studio, soundtracked by abstract and meandering ambient music.&nbsp;<em>blond<\/em>&nbsp;built on those ideas and imbued them with more form, taking a left-field, often minimalist approach to his breezy harmonies and ever-present narrative lyricism. His confidence was crucial to the risk of creating a big multimedia project for a sophomore album, but it also extended to his songwriting\u2014his voice surer of itself (\u201cSolo\u201d), his willingness to excavate his weird impulses more prominent (\u201cGood Guy\u201d and \u201cPretty Sweet\u201d, among others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though&nbsp;<em>blond<\/em>&nbsp;packs 17 tracks into one quick hour, it\u2019s a sprawling palette of ideas, a testament to the intelligence of flying one\u2019s own artistic freak flag and trusting that audiences will meet you where you\u2019re at. They did. And Ocean established himself as a generational artist uniquely suited to the complexities and convulsive changes of the second decade of the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3mH6qwIy9crq0I9YQbOuDf?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>4. Purple Rain &#8211; Prince &amp; The Revolution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273d52bfb90ee8dfeda8378b99b\" alt=\"Purple Rain - Album by Prince | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You can\u2019t very well tell a story about a troubled artist whose difficult personality belies his musical genius without, you know, actual musical genius. In this sense, the soundtrack to&nbsp;<em>Purple Rain<\/em>&nbsp;began life with the highest degree of difficulty imaginable; the impossibility that its success could ever have been in doubt is the project\u2019s greatest legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With half its tracklist comprising Top 10 singles, the soundtrack is what truly turned Prince Rogers Nelson from&nbsp;<em>just<\/em>&nbsp;big enough to get to star in a summer blockbuster based on his life to one of the most instantly recognisable and distinctive pop artists ever. This is no slight to the movie, which has its charms (shout-out Morris Day), as much as it\u2019s a testament to Prince\u2019s all-engulfing star power and genre-fluid\/gender-fluid virtuosity\u2014nine perfect, definitive pop-soul-dance-rock-R&amp;B-funk-whatever-else songs that couldn\u2019t help but swallow everything in their orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The brilliance of&nbsp;<em>Purple Rain<\/em>&nbsp;is how it stirs seemingly contradictory moods\u2014lust, devotion, intimacy, alienation\u2014into a brew where nothing can be separated from anything else. Prince makes trauma sound erotic (\u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d) and salvation sound reckless (\u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy\u201d). His sexual escapades are spiritual, disorienting and almost psychedelic (\u201cDarling Nikki\u201d, \u201cComputer Blue\u201d), while his spiritual journeys are grounded in the mechanics of a guitar solo (\u201cPurple Rain\u201d). The album broke records and brains: Tipper Gore\u2019s overreaction to the image of Darling Nikki masturbating to a magazine begat a congressional witch hunt debating the morality of pop music. Prince often drew comparisons to Jimi Hendrix for the way he mixed music that felt Black and white, sacred and profane. The reality is that he had no precedent then and no comparison now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7nXJ5k4XgRj5OLg9m8V3zc?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>3. Abbey Road &#8211; The Beatles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Giles Martin, son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin, once told Apple Music that&nbsp;<em>Abbey Road<\/em>&nbsp;is the perfect gateway into the Beatles universe because it sounds so contemporary. And it\u2019s true: While other Beatles albums conjure a specific moment frozen in amber\u2014the matching suits and mop-tops or the mid-period mischievous experimentation with pop form or the technicolour burst into psychedelia\u2014<em>Abbey Road<\/em>&nbsp;sounds like nothing more or less than four extremely gifted humans playing one indelible song after another in the same room together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 11th and penultimate album in The Beatles\u2019 historic catalogue was the last on which all four members worked in the studio as a unit, all at the same time. And while singling out one album as their most impactful is a fool\u2019s errand, 1969\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Abbey Road<\/em>&nbsp;is indeed the most ageless, simply an immaculate, unmatched collection of songs by a world-changing band at their creative peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the sprawl of 1968\u2019s White Album,&nbsp;<em>Abbey Road<\/em>&nbsp;is a relatively concise representation of The Beatles\u2019 entire deal: wholesome (\u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d), a little freaky (\u201cCome Together\u201d, \u201cPolythene Pam\u201d), macabre&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;wholesome (\u201cMaxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u201d), first-wedding-dance romantic (\u201cSomething\u201d), whimsical (\u201cOctopus\u2019s Garden\u201d, \u201cMean Mr. Mustard\u201d) and, with its album-closing eight-song, 16-minute medley, playful with form. The embers of pop music\u2019s most dynamic collaborative force were dying out, but not before yielding one final and definitive document of unmatched creativity and camaraderie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/0ETFjACtuP2ADo6LFhL6HN?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>2. Thriller &#8211; Michael Jackson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i.scdn.co\/image\/ab67616d0000b273de437d960dda1ac0a3586d97\" alt=\"Thriller - Album by Michael Jackson | Spotify\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There are few pop albums, or even works of art, that denote a wholesale shift in time and space the way Michael Jackson\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Thriller<\/em>&nbsp;did in 1982. Noting its impact on the career trajectory of a child star turned R&amp;B hitmaker feels reductive; talking about its record-smashing commercial success diminishes its creative leaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stripping the weight of history from&nbsp;<em>Thriller<\/em>&nbsp;is a big job, but hearing the record as a statement in itself remains hugely rewarding. Seven of its nine original cuts were Top 10 singles, and it became one of the best-selling albums ever made, but more important is the way Jackson and producer Quincy Jones turned the singer\u2019s obsessions into intricate, stunningly sung pop-funk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The album\u2019s opening throwdown, \u201cWanna Be Startin\u2019 Somethin\u2019\u201d, is Jackson at his fiercest and funkiest, picking up right where 1979\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Off the Wall<\/em>&nbsp;left off\u2014and shoring up his R&amp;B bona fides. But from the Paul McCartney-blessed pop of the first hit single \u201cThe Girl Is Mine\u201d to the Eddie Van Halen-revved pyrotechnics of \u201cBeat It\u201d, Jackson\u2019s crossover moves opened up the eyes and ears of the industry\u2014and audiences around the world\u2014to what music could sound, look and feel like if we blurred those old colour lines. \u201cBillie Jean\u201d is a gripping psycho-study of the paranoia and persecution that he was already feeling\u2014yet it still maintains the mysterious allure of an artist who became the avatar for the omnipresent global pop superstar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2ANVost0y2y52ema1E9xAZ?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3>1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill &#8211; Lauryn Hill<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lauryn Hill\u2019s debut\u2014and only\u2014solo studio album was a seismic event in 1998: a stunningly raw, profound look into the spiritual landscape not just of one of the era\u2019s biggest stars, but of the era itself. Decades later,&nbsp;<em>The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill<\/em>&nbsp;still counts as a life-changer, with the preternaturally talented Hill rapping with the confident ferocity of a woman in total creative control and singing with the gospel-hued richness of the soul canon. It was an expression of interior depth during a time in which Black women were often portrayed as one-dimensional archetypes, and Hill delivered her magnum opus of life\u2019s triumphs and setbacks with such singular heart, sincerity and specificity that it transcended from an album into a universal statement of being. Her fortitude was so powerful that new generations continue to discover an album whose specific mastery of musicality, lyricism and frankness has not been replicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Miseducation<\/em>&nbsp;was forged in emotional fire. After seven years as the voice of the politically cogent, critically acclaimed New Jersey hip-hop trio Fugees\u2014and in the aftermath of a protracted, tumultuous relationship with her bandmate Wyclef Jean\u2014Hill set out to document a period of major life transitions, including the slow erosion of the group she\u2019d been with since high school. With the trauma came new beginnings: Hill was also inspired by the physical and mental transitions of pregnancy and the birth of Zion, her first child with Rohan Marley, using her attendant spirituality as a guiding light. This potent emotional crossroads led to what remains one of the rawest albums ever created, a lasting artistic beacon for musicians across genre, and a moment in which the whole world recognised Hill\u2019s talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Miseducation<\/em>\u2019s opening track, in which a teacher announces a classroom roll call only for Lauryn Hill to be absent, speaks to its thesis: that its lessons were of the sort that can only be learned through lived experience. As she weaved through painful eviscerations of an ex, which even at the time were understood to be directed at Jean, she redefined the way gritty, sharp rapping and lavish R&amp;B harmonies could fuse together in an era of nearly catholic separation between the two genres. (Even three years after Method Man and Mary J. Blige\u2019s \u201cAll I Need\u201d remix, hardcore rap was largely still teeming with misogyny, and R&amp;B was seen as a softer, more feminine pursuit.)&nbsp;<em>Miseducation<\/em>&nbsp;centred a young woman&#8217;s point of view, in all her rebellions and vulnerabilities, amid terrain dominated on the hip-hop charts by a certain vision of hyper-masculinity. But it also served as an entry point for a mainstream still inclined to denigrate hip-hop\u2019s musicality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The album was recorded, in part, at Hope Road in Jamaica, in Bob Marley\u2019s home\u2014a legacy reflected in Hill\u2019s idea for the album\u2019s cover art, which echoes The Wailers\u2019&nbsp;<em>Rastaman Vibration<\/em>&nbsp;cover. Yet the DNA of these songs, and a key to their endurance, draws on a classic Motown\/Stax sound that showcases Hill\u2019s immaculate vocal approach; the layered \u201cDoo Wop (That Thing)\u201d alone won her two of the five Grammys she took home in 1999, a validation of the freshness of her sound, as well as the way her music spoke to the emergent feminism of the Hip-Hop Generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The vulnerability in&nbsp;<em>Miseducation<\/em>\u2019s singles is often discussed, but Hill\u2019s concerns, and powers, were multi-valent. Once a history major at Columbia University, Hill explored her upbringing in Newark, New Jersey, with a sharp, subtle sociopolitical eye (\u201cEvery Ghetto, Every City\u201d, featuring clavinet from Loris Holland, minister of music at the storied Brooklyn Pilgrim Church) and philosophised on the nature of growing up in a disenfranchised world (\u201cEverything Is Everything\u201d, whose classic \u201970s soul sound comes courtesy of a backing band including a then-unknown pianist named John Legend).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Miseducation<\/em>&nbsp;is also proof that pure intention and unflinching emotional truth can be a path to deliverance unto itself. As Hill raps on the politically charged koan \u201cEverything Is Everything\u201d: \u201cMy practice extending across the atlas\/I begat this.\u201d She was, and remains, a once-in-a-generation talent whose inspiration, and innovation, can be heard through the decades. Artists exhaust long discographies hoping for a cohesive piece of work resonant enough to reshape culture and inscribe its creator into the pantheon; Lauryn Hill did it in one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1BZoqf8Zje5nGdwZhOjAtD?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the 100 best albums of all time&#8230; at least, according to Apple Music based on cultural impact and quality rather than numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":99835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,8614],"tags":[568,5802,825],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 100 best of albums of all time - 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