MC5’s career was ill-fated, but the white-hot fury and sprawling chaos of their 1969 live album ‘Kick Out The Jams’ was their apotheosis.
Although forged during a period of professional turmoil, ‘The White Album’ feels like the most relevant and urgent Beatles album 50 years on.
‘Chairs Missing’, the second of Wire’s holy trinity of late ’70s post-punk classics, turns 40 years old.
‘This Year’s Model’ is the sound of Elvis Costello perfecting his art at a precociously young age, with a backing band that acts as an efficient vector for his caustic humour and barbed cynicism.
Key progenitors of no-wave and synth-punk, New York duo Suicide made their confrontational and divisive appearance on the city’s underground scene 40 years ago.
Unquestionably one of the most successful and influential albums in hip-hop history, Dr. Dre’s solo debut album ‘The Chronic’ is a product of its time but its sonics have aged unbelievably well.
A macabre masterpiece that expanded the palette of acid rock and presaged the death of Sixties idealism, ‘Forever Changes’ remains incredibly powerful 50 years on.
A cult classic that’s influenced generations of female artists, Nico’s debut album ‘Chelsea Girl’ is as compelling and vital in 2017 as it was fifty years ago.
Ian Dury’s debut album ‘New Boots And Panties!!’ often sounds rather dated 40 years later, but was one of the surprisingly few great albums of first-wave British punk.
A dimension jump in artistic terms, Hüsker Dü’s second album ‘Zen Arcade’ was one of the defining releases of the underground in America in the 1980s.
