What's Going On
1971
Berry Gordy called it the worst thing he had ever heard and refused to release it until Gaye said he would never record for Motown again.
★ 9.8
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.
Songs in the Key of Life
1976
It took so long that Wonder and the band took to wearing T-shirts reading We're Almost Finished. Twenty-one songs, and no filler.
★ 9.2
Sign "O" the Times
1987
It was meant to be a triple album and the label refused. Some of it is sung by a sped-up alter ego called Camille.
★ 8.8
There's a Riot Goin' On
1971
Sly overdubbed most of it alone onto a drum machine at home. The title track is listed as running zero seconds and has no music.
★ 8.4
Innervisions
1973
Wonder played almost every instrument on it himself. Days after it came out a car crash put him in a coma for four days.
★ 8.3
Back to Black
2007
Producer Mark Ronson had a Brooklyn soul band play it live to tape like a sixties session. Winehouse wrote about the man she kept leaving.
★ 8.2
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
1967
The Muscle Shoals session collapsed in a fight after a day and a half, and the rest was finished in New York without the argument.
★ 8.1
Live at the Apollo
1963
King Records refused to pay for a live album with no new songs on it, so Brown funded the recording himself. It reached number two.
★ 8.1
Talking Book
1972
The Superstition riff is a clavinet, an electric keyboard with strings inside, layered several times over. Wonder had just won control of his contract.
★ 7.9
I Put a Spell on You
1965
Simone had trained to be a classical pianist and was turned down by the conservatory. You can hear the Bach in her left hand throughout.
★ 7.9
Let's Get It On
1973
The title song began as a political lyric someone else wrote, and Gaye rewrote it into a seduction before the tape rolled.
★ 7.6
Otis Blue
1965
Recorded in a single twenty-four-hour stretch, with a break so the musicians could play their regular Saturday gigs, and three Sam Cooke songs on it.
★ 7.5
Stand!
1969
One track runs thirteen minutes and another uses a talk box to make the two singers argue through their instruments about race.
★ 7.4
Superfly
1972
Mayfield watched the film and wrote songs attacking the drug dealing it made look glamorous, then sang them in a falsetto over congas.
★ 7.4
Dusty in Memphis
1969
Springfield was so intimidated by the Memphis players that she could not sing in front of them. Her vocals were added later in New York.
★ 6.9
Lady Soul
1968
Her sisters sing behind her throughout, and Eric Clapton plays guitar on one track without ever being credited for it.
★ 6.9
Star Time
Brown fined his musicians on the spot for missed notes and scuffed shoes, which is one reason the band plays like this.
★ 6.7