Leader of the Pack
1964
Their producer Shadow Morton put real motorcycle engines and seagulls on the records, and the singers were teenagers from Queens acting out small tragedies.
★ 2.9
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.
Close to You
1970
Karen Carpenter was the drummer, and sang from behind the kit until someone persuaded her to come out in front of it.
★ 2.9
The Hurting
1983
The two of them had played together in a Bath mod band as teenagers, and named this one after a line in a psychology book.
★ 3.9
Sinatra at the Sands
1966
Count Basie's orchestra behind him, Quincy Jones's arrangements, and a long unscripted monologue in the middle that is half the reason people keep it.
★ 3.9
Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
1964
The drum figure that opens Be My Baby is four beats long, and Brian Wilson has said he played it hundreds of times over.
★ 3.9
New Gold Dream
1982
Herbie Hancock turns up to play a keyboard solo on one track, which nobody expected on a Scottish post-punk record.
★ 3.9
Duran Duran
1981
John Taylor's bass carries the tunes the way a lead guitar normally would, which is what separates this from the synth-pop around it.
★ 4.0
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
1966
The four of them sang in a block harmony nobody had used in pop, and the first cover photograph had them all in a bathtub.
★ 4.4
Come Away With Me
2002
A twenty-two-year-old on a jazz label made a very quiet record, and it sold twenty-seven million copies and swept the Grammys.
★ 4.4
Arular
2005
Named after her father, a Tamil militant she barely knew, and built largely on a cheap secondhand sequencer in a London flat.
★ 4.5
A Christmas Gift for You
1963
Spector put the Wall of Sound behind sleigh bells and Darlene Love. It came out the day Kennedy was shot and sank without trace.
★ 4.5
Whitney Houston
1985
Her mother sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin. Arista spent two years and a great deal of money picking songs before releasing any of it.
★ 4.8
The Who Sell Out
1967
One sleeve photograph left Roger Daltrey sitting in a bath of cold baked beans long enough to catch pneumonia. The radio jingles between songs are real.
★ 4.8
Pure Heroine
2013
Lorde was sixteen, recording after school in an Auckland studio, and the tracks are built from almost nothing but voice, bass and finger snaps.
★ 4.9
Private Dancer
1984
Recorded in about two weeks in London on almost no budget, when Turner was forty-four and considered finished. Mark Knopfler wrote the title song.
★ 5.0
Madonna
1983
Madonna fought the label for control of her own debut and got a club DJ brought in to remix it. It sold ten million.
★ 5.0
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
CrazySexyCool
1994
Lisa Lopes burned down her boyfriend's house while they were making it. The album sold over twenty million and the group still went bankrupt.
★ 5.1