Great distortion, lots of energy. Production is really my kind of thing - guitars are wide and airy, drums are big and warm with such a characterful vocal over the top. Feels pretty alive, this stripped down and fuzzed out americana! Favourite tracks: Dead Leaves, Hotel Yorba (great opening combo!), Offend In Every Way, I Can't Wait

First time listening to a Björk album end to end! Crystal clear voice and real depth to the arrangements and production come together to create something alien but warm. Great pacing to the tracks, they swell not just in dynamics but (even more so) texture. Love the variety of synth/instrument tones. Listened to this album as the sun went down, perfect match. Favourite tracks: It's Not Up To You, Pagan Poetry, An Echo A Stain, Heirloom, Harm Of Will

Interesting harmonic (and harmonies!) stuff from the start, super strong turnarounds. Lots of soul, but I do wish the clean production was a bit grittier/warmer because it can get pretty heavy here and there. Rhythm section (all Stevie?) is superb. Wish there was more cohesion and a more consistent feeling to the album because it meanders a bit much for me. Favourite tracks: Maybe Your Baby, You've Got It Bad Girl, Superstition (why not lel), Blame it on the Sun

Really intriguing sound - feels simultaneously like it was recorded by many people, but also one entirely by themselves. Great desert vibes, or maybe more like the badlands in a sort of Stroszek way. Sad, but not mawkish, when it gets emotional - Nick Drake, filtered through Kyuss and gas stop cigarettes. Favourite tracks: Ballad of Big Nothing, No Name No.5, Punch and Judy, Cupids Trick, 2:45am

Pretty far out of my usual wheelhouse, but this album explodes right out of the traps with energy and melody. The "wall of sound" is spacier and darker than you'd expect from contemporary pop, and suits the woody/grounded vibe to Dusty's voice. What is exactly as expected is the eclectic mix of styles (although a definite lean towards country-infused doowop) and moods - it feels more like a collection of singles than a cohesive album. An absolute time capsule, but only a couple of songs really stuck with me. Favourite tracks: You Don't Own Me, When The Love Light Starts Shining Thru His Eyes, Nothing

Been a few years, but time to jump back into this beauty - forget about punk, this is pure rock and roll: redefined, reenergised and reoriented for the next generation. They were far from the first band to be loud, fast and brattish but they coalesced all of that into a sound and look which endured. The album itself - raw production, old fashioned surf pop sensibilities and hooks all over the place. Part of me wants to complain about the lack of variety, but a much bigger part of me loves the single-minded approach. Favourite tracks: Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, Let's Dance, I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You, Today Your Love - basically the whole 29 minutes are great!

This is a band I've respected but never loved, and in all honesty have never really explored so the material here was enjoyably unfamiliar. It's a heady mix of hypnotic rhythms, cop-show theme tune arrangements and Krautrock synths with some snappy songwriting, angular production and Byrne's idiomatic voice/lyrics - a very neat perversion of pop which gets darker and weirder as the album goes along. After an eclectic start it really grew in strength up to an amazing second side. I don't just respect this album, I quite like it in general and loved a good few songs. Also: Tina Weymouth!!! Favourite tracks: Paper, Cities, Life During Wartime, Memories Can't Wait (great run of tracks across the middle of the record!), Heaven, Drugs

Nothing but boundless energy here, it fizzes and crackles where other punks might crash and bang - the saxophone is a very welcome addition! Favourite tracks: Art-I-Ficial, Warrior in Woolworths, Let's Submerge

Wire are great. This is abrasive, articulate and engaging - pretty ambitious within its short run-time! Favourite tracks: Reuters, Lowdown, Strange, 12XU

This is indeed it - the sound of people who I don't like but wish to be, doing things which I don't approve of but wish I was getting up to. Favourite tracks: Is This It, The Modern Age, Someday, Last Nite, New York City Cops - it's all good!

Even if I don't really like what Korn do, I do like that they've always gone about it in their own way. There's energy, creativity and humour all over their music so they did well to stand out from the mass of Nu Metal dross that was poured into our ears at the time - this album really represents a certain culture at a certain time. Was the world a better place when our biggest cultural concern was that mum wouldn't accept this isn't just phase it's who I really am? Musically, it's a clever album - the bass and drums are tight and always deliver some sort of sinister groove, the guitars weave against each other in dissonant melody/harmony patterns and the vocals are brimming with character. Some fun songs, but I got bored of the whole album easily enough - still not my thing, but mostly well executed apart from all the unfunny homophobia on All In The Family.... Favourite tracks: Freak on a Leash, Got The Life, Pretty

A gorgeous album, diving deep into the spiritual psyche of a musical genius. I definitely prefer my Coltrane to be freakier, but this is a landmark achievement in connecting technical prowess and complex musical ideas with sublime emotion. The gnostic theism expressed here is totally opposite to my own beliefs, but the way in which it is expressed is profound and touching as the music flows between modes, rhythms and textures with ethereal ease. The quartet is in fantastic form, with Tyner and Jones particularly effective in regulating the dynamics and mood of this suite across the record. The massive bass chords all over the album (especially at the end of Pursuance) then bring a real darkness into the sound. I miss the revolutionary energy of Giant Steps and the frenetic edge of Ascension, but this album is a different beast and testament to the breadth of Coltrane's brilliance. Favourite tracks: the whole thing, end-to-end

Kind of like a space-age Kinks, it's a celebration of the pseudo-intellectual side of the 90s lad demographic - the sort of guy who joins the Socialist Society at uni in hope of better odds than the Young Tories. Great variety of guitar effects, charismatic vocals, but the rhythm section is far and away my favourite element. Love the way that other instruments like organ and brass intervene! Favourite songs: End of a Century, Parklife (why not)!, Badhead, To The End, This is a Low

Explosive, that's the word for this standard-setting live album. Every amplifier is pushed to its limit, with the PA set to have "everything louder than everything else" - thankfully, the ferocity of the band's playing matches the intensity of their sound as Deep Purple smash down, blow up and rip through some of their most classic material. I've loved this album for years, it still sounds as fresh and exciting as ever! Favourite tracks: Speed King, Lazy, Child in Time, Strange Kind of Woman, Black Night, Smoke on the Water, Child in Time again because it's just that fkn good

Hip-hop's "bling era" passed me by as a caricature to hate on, being the contemporary counterpart to Nu Metal, so I'm coming into this pretty fresh. Fun production, great bass lines, clever lines delivered with confidence. Gotta mention the bass again! Enjoyed this way more than expected, he's a good storyteller and the album is full of tasty music. Favourite tracks: The Rulers Back, Takeover, U Don't Know, Song Cry, Renegade, Girls x3

Time to get freaky - this is the antidote to all the nerdy, stuffy, boring, pointless, clean wankery played by white guys and called fusion. Herbie and the Headhunters are blasting off somewhere, and you are very much so taken along for the ride - even if the journey does lose direction here and there. Great tones and production, massive hooks and a tight rhythm section delivering an incredible groove throughout - this is an album where rhythm doesn't play a supporting role, but gives the whole thing life. The solos and harmonic explorations aren't memorable but also never detract from the mood. Favourite tracks: the riff in Chameleon, the middle of Watermelon Man, the groove in Sly

Noisy guitar-pop with a real lean into the harmonic side of rock. Plenty of dreamy guitars washing over melodic bass lines, and lyrics that could only come from one wonderfully sweary place. It was once interrupted by a burst of punk riffage, and I got my hopes up that this album was about to take off - alas. Maybe the best pub rock album I've heard? Favourite tracks: December, Star Sign, Is This Music?, The Wildhearts and Dinosaur Jr

Praise Jah. The lanky bass genius takes us on a lush dub journey which holds true to the title. Favourite tracks: Visions of You, Bomba, Evurline, Soledad, Wonderful World

Retro-vibed pop rock, totally mid tempo and relying on lush arrangements to develop the texture instead of pushing the dynamics, having a hook (goddess on a highway chorus aside) or anything fun like that. Dreamy and dull. The singer's voice annoys me. What if Bruce Springsteen made an album of fairy-tale lullabies? Bass is far and away the best thing about this album and probably all that saves it from one star. Bored. Favourite tracks: Goddess on a Highway, pick up if you're there

You wanted the best, but they didn't fucking make it. So here's what you get. From Hollywood. Guns and fucking Roses! What an album. Pure rock and roll. Filth, danger, sex, swagger, groove, drugs, melody, hooks, sex, riffs, humour, drugs, sex, drugs, sex, sex, drugs, defiance, joy, sex, drugs and beauty all wrapped up in one iconic package. GnR grew to become a by-word for the sort of boring rock excess that they were sent to destroy, but this album is a record of them living in garages, squabbling with the law and screwing each others' women (resulting the album's best track) whilst loaded like a freight train and flying like an aeroplane. Favourite debut album ever. Favourite tracks: Rocket Queen, Out Ta Get Me, Night Train, Paradise City, Think About You, Sweet Child O Mine, Anything Goes, It's So Easy, Mr Brownstone, Welcome to the Jungle, My Michelle, You're Crazy