10 Albums You Actually Need to Hear Before You Die

Comprised of thousands of samples (the band has estimated anywhere from 900 to 3000 over the years), Since I Left You is a veritable encyclopedia of modern recorded music and sound: disassembled, then reconfigured to create something new and beautiful out of the already known.

Neil Young’s world was falling apart in 1973-74, with friends dying of heroin overdoses, a relationship on the rocks and he could see the end coming. “The world is turning, I hope it doesn’t turn away,” he sings on the title track, a slow burning, introspective rumination on fame and his current state of affairs…

What the average music consumer doesn’t know is that Funkadelic is one the greatest rock bands to ever grace a stage: A blistering, heavy psychedelic rock band. As if that wasn’t enough, they also happen to be one the funkiest bands to ever exist on planet Earth. Now that you’ve heard this record, you’re part of the club…Feels good, doesn’t it?

Station to Station was also a transitional record for Bowie: a bridge between the blue eyed soul of “Young Americans” and the experimental, synthetic rock and ambient soundscapes of “Low” and “Heroes”. On paper, with that description, you might not think it would be as engrossing and timeless as it is.

Can, seemingly, has found a way to transcend time and space with their music. How else do we account for an album that, 50 years from its release, sounds just as fresh and ahead of its time today? I suspect that in 2073, 100 years from its release, it will still sound ahead of its time, even if I’m not around to confirm that theory.

Similar to watching one of David Lynch’s films, you aren’t just listening to an “album” when you throw on a GBV record. From the record cover to the songs and lyrics, you are stepping into Robert Pollard’s world. It’s a world full of Valuable Hunting Knives, Hardcore UFO’s, Bright Paper Werewolves, Main Street Wizards, Wild Strawberry Girls and Christian Animation Torch Carriers, all kept in check by the Teenage FBI.

On the counter by the register, the shop owner had a record on display - Television’s Marquee Moon - with a Post-It note affixed to it with these exact words scrawled: “Fuck The Strokes - This is the *real* sound of New York City” …and that was all it took to sell me on this record.

…The Damned take risks on every song on this record and every one of those risks pays off tenfold. Machine Gun Etiquette is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders and capturing that lightning in a bottle. It’s not just one of the greatest punk albums of all time, it is one of the greatest albums of all time.

Emerging from Lower Manhattan’s No Wave scene in the early 80’s, Sonic Youth represented an almost wholesale rejection of modern musical convention. With their guitars set in tunings of their own design, drum sticks under their strings, fuzz pedals working overtime and a healthy appreciation for the avant garde, they were hell bent on tearing down convention, picking up the pieces and rebuilding it in their own image.

In your peripheral vision, the scenery starts to blur: trees, buildings, other cars are no longer permanent - they coalesce and fade into the background as you pass them by at speeds you could never accomplish on your own. You’re left to focus intently on what is front of you, the bends in the road lead you to your destination and the things around you are left to the ether. It can be a calming, nearly meditative experience… Neu! is the musical embodiment of that sensation.

While Krautrock may be Stereolab’s most obvious influence, it’s certainly not the be-all-end-all. Across their discography, Stereolab are Pop, they’re Avant-Garde, they’re jazzy, they’re funky, they’re psychedelic, noisy and experimental, they’re retro, they’re futuristic….they play Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music.