Many innovative bands sprang into being in the wake of punk, but none developed their unique vision as completely as Talking Heads did on Remain in Light: the album is a tangle of Afrobeat polyrhythms and locked grooves with David Byrne delivering strange and provocative lyrics about modern alienation in only the way that his voice can; add Brian Eno’s production to the equation and you’ve got what was perhaps the greatest record of the 80′s, a landmark whose influence can be heard more clearly today than ever before.

10 / 10

Sire
October 8, 1980

On one of the most doubtlessly solid collections of his career, Bowie fully indulges in his theatrical tendencies as he touches on every topic and style that interests him, and shifts effortlessly between psychedelic folk, proto-funk, and orchestral pop; Hunky Dory isn’t as bold or experimental as the works that would come to define Bowie’s career, but it’s sound songwriting and warmth are undeniable.

This is just a tribute: Hunky Dory‘s lyrics are littered with cultural references and tributes. “Andy Warhol” and “Song for Bob Dylan”‘s intents are obvious, but “Queen Bitch” is supposedly inspired by The Velvet Underground and “Kooks” (arguably the most adorable song ever written) was about Bowie’s recently born son.

Grade: 4.9 / 5

RCA
December 17, 1971

Andre 3000 and Big Boi’s masterpiece and one of the best and most endlessly entertaining hip-hop albums of all time, Stankonia is a funkadelic tour of a distant world that seems to encompass both the sweltering streets of Hotlanta and the depths of outer space, like the acid-tinged, post-coitus dreams of some pimp supreme.

Grade: 4.9 / 5

LeFace/Arista
October 31, 2000

Poor Brian Wilson’s masterpiece, Pet Sounds was a combination of pop music and beautiful symphonics that had never been seen before, a huge milestone in the process of merging art with pop music and a universal, timeless statement about what it means to let go of your innocence and become a man.

Score: 4.9 / 5

16 May, 1966
Capitol Records

Jay-Z – The Blueprint

September 11, 2001
Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam
Rating: 4.6 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: Arguably Jigga’s masterpiece, he spits expertly only the way he can on then-beefs, girls (girls, girls), and a possible stint in prison, all without unnecessary skits and other frills and superbly soulful production from the likes of Timbaland, Just Blaze, and an at-the-time unknown Kanye West. (With a great guest appearance by Eminem on “Renegade”.)

Ain’t no love: With Jay-Z facing the possibility of a prison sentence for gun possession and assault, The Blueprint was written in a mere two days and recorded in two weeks. The album’s second track, “Takeover” addresses various MCs who were attacking Jay-Z at the time, including Nas, Prodigy, and Mobb Deep, with a mere “fuck y’all niggas” to all other critics.

Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

January 17, 1975
Columbia
Rating: 5 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: This is Bob Dylan taking off those big sunglasses and showing the world who he really is, resulting in one of the most tragic, powerful, sweet, occasionally even pathetic, but enduringly, touchingly, and unflinchingly human albums ever produced.

Best moments: The opener, “Tangled Up in Blue”, is the classic summation of the life and death of a relationship in six minutes. “Idiot Wind” is fierce and brutal and “Shelter from the Storm” is filled with heartbreaking desperation.

It’s personal: Created shortly after Dylan separated from his wife of ten years, Blood on the Tracks is quite possibly the greatest “break-up album” of all time. Dylan himself – however – has always denied that the album is autobiographical, because Bob Dylan is obviously a big fat liar.

The Beatles (“The White Album”)

November 22, 1968
Apple
Rating: 5 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: The perfect answer to the over-the-top near-ridiculous-at-times-ness of Sgt. Pepper’s, no other album covers as much ground as the Fab Four’s eponymous 1968 breakthrough, not just covering every genre from rock (“Birthday”) to music hall (“Honey Pie”), campy sing-alongs (“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”) to proto-metal (“Helter Skelter”) but covering every mood imaginable as well, from social activism (“Revolution”) to utter nonsense (“I’m So Tired”), simple devotion (“I WIll”) to unbridled lust (“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”); that The Beatles manages to coalesce into a perfect blend of, well, everything, is a small miracle considering that the group was being actively torn apart during its creation.

A real mockery: To say that the album draws on several genres and influences is perhaps only a half truth – the album is full of mockery that is, for the most playful (“Back In The USSR”, “Honey Pie”) but at times contains searing sarcasm (“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, “Sexy Sadie”).

Waste of space: Avant garde blowhards will claim “Revolution 9″ is a masterpiece, but it’s little more than a self-indulgent waste of 9 minutes that is only interesting when listening to it for clues that Paul is dead.

It could have been even better: As we’ve heard from the Anthology series, songs left off The Beatles include a large chunk of the second half of Abbey Road, and the original demo of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is such a spine-tinglingly, haunting beautiful dirge that it is downright scary to think what it might have been like if the boys had decided to add a third disc to the package.

Radiohead – Kid A

October 2, 2000
Parlophone/Capitol
Rating: 5 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: This is Radiohead’s masterpiece and the album that they’ll be remembered for, a dark, unsettling, atmospheric, and prophetic work and the modern day Dark Side of the Moon. (Only infinitely better than anything Pink Floyd did.)

Best moments: The ominous “Everything in it’s Right Place” leads into the disturbing, bizarre, and vocoded title track. “Idioteque” is techno turned terrifying. “Motion Picture Soundtrack” ends the album on a beautiful and moving note with a flurry of heavenly, ascending strings.

The Beatles – Abbey Road

September 26, 1969
Apple/Parlophone/EMI
Rating: 5 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: Abbey Road is the last album that The Beatles recorded and therefore serves as their grand farewell, and what a farewell it is: more rock-focused then some of their previous work but filled with incredible songwriting and vocals (more three part harmonies than any other Beatles album), this is when they hit their absolute peak as musicians.

Best moments: The opener “Come Together” is deservedly classic. “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” represent George Harrison’s maturation as a songwriter and the best stuff he ever wrote with The Beatles. The album ends with the famous “medley”, a series of short songs strung together into an appropriately powerful finale, climaxing with a series of guitar solos and the great, immortal words “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

The Cover: Abbey Road‘s cover is one of The Beatles’ most famous, rivaled only by the Sgt. Pepper’s cover, and it’s been referenced endlessly in pop culture. It was a major part of the “Paul is Dead” hoax: It’s said that the cover portrays McCartney’s funeral procession, with John representing the clergy, Ringo representing the undertaker, and George representing the gravedigger. If you’d like to – for whatever reason – monitor the famous zebra crosswalk any time of the day, check out the Abbey Road webcam and make fun of all the tourists taking pictures as they walk across it. (And pretend you wouldn’t do the same.)

The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies

November 24, 1971
RCA
Rating: 4.99 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: You will not find a more perfect blend of country, pop, and rock than Muswell Hillbillies; Ray Davies has created what is close to the perfect album, with a stripped-down-but-not-simplistic sound, the best lyrics he’s ever writen, and matching sound to subject sublimely, doing an even better job than the supremely underrated The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society at throwing back to the old old school.

Best moments: From the stubborn defiance of “20th Century Man” to the slurring mopery of “Alcohol”, the wistful backwoods twang of “Uncle Son” to the barebones country-blues of “Holloway Jail” – Muswell Hillbillies is full of them.

A lone and insignificant weak moment: The only weak spot is “Oklahoma USA”, and only because, unlike every other song on the album, it is a comparitively bland and generic ballad that based on sound alone almost doesn’t fit.

1998 CD reissue: The remastered version features two similarly excellent bonus tracks, including “Mountain Woman”, which could have easily been substituted for “Oklahoma USA”