New York Dolls
1973
Todd Rundgren produced it in about a week and nobody was happy with how it sounded. It sold almost nothing and changed everything.
★ 5.0
The Albums canon
Sourced and spun.
Every record chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 542 records or filter by genre, artist, and year.
Browse all 542 records or filter by genre, artist, and year.
Madman Across the Water
1971
Paul Buckmaster's orchestra was recorded live in the room with the band rather than added afterward, which is why the strings breathe with them.
★ 5.0
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
1975
The songs run in order through the years Elton John and Bernie Taupin spent failing. It was the first album ever to enter at number one.
★ 5.1
Electric Warrior
1971
Marc Bolan sings everything with the same wobbling vibrato over two-chord boogie, and producer Tony Visconti buried strings underneath it.
★ 6.1
Transformer
1972
Herbie Flowers played two basses on Walk on the Wild Side, one upright and one electric, and was paid an ordinary session fee for it.
★ 6.7
Hunky Dory
1971
Rick Wakeman plays the piano throughout, and Bowie wrote Kooks in an afternoon for his newborn son. Ziggy Stardust was still a year away.
★ 8.1
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973
They tried to record it in Jamaica, gave up, and made the whole double album in about two weeks in a French château instead.
★ 8.1
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
1972
Bowie announced from the stage in 1973 that it was the last show Ziggy would ever play, without telling his own band first.
★ 9.2