For every record collection

In Shades of Blue Madlib, hip-hop producer extraordinaire, tackles Blue Note's soul-jazz catalogue, enjoying free rein in the fabled label's vaults.

The all-star collaboration between a producer, a saxophonist, and a symphony is a celestial event. But it’s Pharoah Sanders’ playing that holds it all together, a clear late-career masterpiece.

Precise. Bass Heavy. Just right. These are the three qualifiers that encapsulate Midnight Marauders. All of them accurate. Credit: albumism.com

Selected Ambient Works 85–92 is the debut studio album by Aphex Twin, the pseudonym of British electronic musician Richard D.

Pieces of a Man is the debut studio album by American poet Gil Scott-Heron. It was recorded in April 1971 at RCA Studios in New York City and released later that year by Flying Dutchman Records.

Maggot Brain is the third studio album by the American funk rock band Funkadelic, released by Westbound Records in July 1971. It was produced by band leader George Clinton and recorded at United Sound Systems in Detroit during late 1970 and early 1971

Listening to the remastered box set of Massive Attacks's debut album 21 years after its initial release is like reading an old William Gibson novel that describes the then-near future, which is now the present, with unsettling precision.

Speaking In Tongues was the band's fifth studio album and became their commercial breakthrough, featuring the track that earned them their first US Top 10 hit "Burning Down The House".

Late Registration is the second album from Kanye West and is co-produced by Jon Brion - known principally as a soundtrack composer (magnolia, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind). 

"Screamadelica" is the third studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released in 1991. It is a fusion of various genres such as rock, house, and dub, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of the 1990s.

This release helped fuel the bossa nova craze in the United States and internationally.

In personal terms between the group, Abbey Road may have marked the beginning of the end but in creative terms it kept pace with the rest of the bands'

The results of Nick Drake's solo sessions were as harrowing and stark as anything by Robert Johnson or Charley Patton. enclosed in an inner world of psychological distress, Drake recorded 'Pink Moon's dispatches from a private hell that was simultaneously terrifying and beautiful

Madlib wanted to record with Doom. The label found the guy, brought him out to the house in the east Los Angeles hills where they were based at the time. Most of the tracks were written and recorded there, Madlib making beats in a former bomb shelter downstairs, Doom writing on the back porch and recording in a bedroom. 

No matter how controversial, it remains one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time.

Reissue of the 1979 and third album by 'the only band that matters'. 

The Score is the second and final studio album by the hip hop trio Fugees.

Sly and the Family Stone might have psychedelicised soul music, but Marvin Gaye personalised it. Although the powers-that-were Motown didn't even want to release the record, the unexpected success of What's Going On, issued in 1971, inspired Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and just about every other black artist on the planet to take greater responsibility for their music and its meaning.

Four decades have failed to dull the album’s power and awe-inspiring scope. It’s been cited as a favorite by figures like Prince, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey – and Wonder himself. “Of all the albums, Songs in the Key of Life I’m most happy about,” he told Q magazine in 1995. “Just the time, being alive then. To be a father and then letting go and letting God give me the energy and strength I needed.” Credit: Rolling Stone

The album’s new stereo mix was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, Beatles-preferred mono mix produced by Giles’ father, George Martin.

Given the pace of Michael Jackson's post-Thriller release schedule, it's striking that off the wall appeared between two albums with his brothers, Destiny (1978) and Triumph (1980), on which the twenty something phenomenon was also fully engaged.

Second studio album by the late singer. The album was co-produced by her close friend Mark Ronson and features the singles 'Rehab', 'You Know I'm No Good', 'Back to Black', 'Tears Dry On Their Own' and 'Love Is a Losing Game'.

Things Fall Apart was a turning point for the Roots, the record where they figured out what kind of band they could be. Both its themes and its eclectic mix of sounds resonate in the current moment.

The dubstep artist follows his critically acclaimed debut with the even richer*,* more complex, and more enveloping Untrue, a record of reverb-heavy and mournful songs that feel almost like beautiful secrets being whispered to a listener.

Arguably, the first psychedelic rock album, Revolver was praised for its musical experimentation.

The album has cemented its place in hip-hop history and has since gone on to achieve 6x platinum certification in the US, selling over 3.5 million copies, and has achieved platinum status in the UK as well.

Long held as the jazz album that even non-jazz fans will own, Kind Of Blue not only changed the way people regarded Miles, it changed the very face of music itself.

David Bowie's last curtain call and very possibly one of his greatest albums ever made. Essential.

Long held as the jazz album that even non-jazz fans will own, Kind Of Blue not only changed the way people regarded Miles, it changed the very face of music itself.

without 'rubber soul,' there would be no psychedelia.

"People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" is the debut studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released in 1990.

Kiwanuka is the follow-up to Michael’s number 1 album, Love and Hate, released back in July 2016 that resonated broadly both critically and in the public’s affections, netting the British musician his second Mercury Prize nomination and his second and third Brit nominations too.

Originally released at the end of the '60s, Hot Buttered Soul set the precedent for how soul would evolve in the 70's - simultaneously establishing Isaac Hayes as a major music force.

The hormonally charged voice of East London's Dizzee Rascal can be instantly singled out after the first introduction.

The album blends R&B, hip hop, and jazz influences with Badu's introspective and socially conscious lyrics.

Easily one of the most important records ever made, this was Coltrane's pinnacle studio outing that spoke of his search for spiritual and musical freedom, as expressed through polyrhythms, modalities, and purely vertical forms.

Even without a single, Remain in Light was a hit, indicating that Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential, it was no wonder.

The album is consistently named in magazine polls as one of the greatest albums of all time. No-one believed the Beastie Boys could top the hard rocking beast of 'Ill Communication', but along came 'Paul's Boutique'. Their first album release for Capitol Records the album was originally released in the summer of 1989 and frankly didn't hit the spot, initially, with many critics. Essentially a love letter to their home town of New York, 'Paul's Boutique' is a dense record with its multiple layers of samples and beats that helped to redefine just how good sampling could be. With the help of production duo the Dust Brothers, the Beastie Boys mix up numerous beats, samples and loops to create a great record that many critics now regard as one of the finest release of 1989, the decade or even the century.

Buena Vista Social Club was released in June 1997 and has since come to be regarded as a classic, selling 7 million copies worldwide.

The xx producer and percussionist Jamie Smith takes a stab at recontextualizing Gil Scott-Heron's excellent 2010 album, I'm New Here.

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, The seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity.

Jay-Z made damn good albums before The Blueprint, as well as some afterwards. But The Blueprint remains the album where everything came together. He was able to satisfy his audience, the critics, and the skeptics, while making a timeless album. For this album, he was everything he was supposed to be. Credit: Albumism

The Meters is the debut studio album by the band of the same name. It’s an essential album in the funk scene and one that contains a lot of energy and soul.

1973's Innervisions swings between delicate and airy ballads, Latin-influenced rhythms and his own synth-heavy versions of raw funk and soul.

No album better reflected the sound and style of New York, 94. Raw rap, soul samples and beat breaks.

After the success of 1974's Natty Dread and 1976's Rastaman Vibration, Bob Marley was not only the most successful reggae musician in the world, he was one of the most powerful men in Jamaica.

36 Chambers, an insular and weird album by design, arrived not a moment too soon in a decade where insular and weird music found unexpected traction in the mainstream.

"2001" is the second studio album by American rapper and producer Dr. Dre, which has been praised for its production and Dre's lyrical style.

Straight Outta Compton was the hugely successful and highly controversial second album from Eazy E, Ice Cube, and Dr Dre.

With a clear back to basics approach, The Doors fifth album Morrison Hotel released in 1970 was a showcase for all members of the group to highlight their artistic strengths. 

Free Will is the second studio album by American poet Gil Scott-Heron, released in August 1972 on Flying Dutchman Records.

Velvet Underground's self-titled third album seemed like the debut of a new band. John Cale had left (replaced by Doug Yule) and the group became, for all intents and purposes, Lou Reed's back-up band.

This release from 1969 stands as Scott Walker's most accomplished album. His first collection of entirely original numbers - marking a notable departure from the earlier precedent of having three Jacques Brel tunes per studio outing. The predominant mood of Scott 4 is set by lush and layered, though relatively subtle, string arrangements that perfectly complement his deep, expressive voice. while Walker would issue other important and intriguing recordings in the decades that followed, this album marks the end of his highly influential late-'60s heyday.

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound.

The double album is Lamar's first studio album release since Damn (2017), his first album release under his creative collective PGLang, and his final project with TDE (under which he previously released four albums and was one of their flagship artists).

The Beatles devised, wrote and directed a television film called Magical Mystery Tour which was broadcast on BBC Television at Christmas, 1967.

Decades later, Mecca and the Soul Brother stands as a watermark of the boom-bap era.

With classics such as "If You Want Me To Stay" and "Que Sera Sera", Fresh is one of Sly & The Family Stone's masterpieces.

The Electric Warrior album effectively buried the psychedelic folk rock of Tyrannosaurus Rex and immortalised the trashy hard rock of T Rex.

As his only release for Blue Note, this 1957 set is one of the finest bop albums recorded. 

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the most enduring album in the beloved duo's catalog, boasting some of their finest vocal performances as well as some of Simon's most accomplished songwriting.

When Scott Walker recorded this, his first solo album, he was 23 years old and sounded about two hundred. He was rich, handsome, absurdly famous - and he hated it. Though the Walker Brothers, the band his cavernous croon decorated, specialised in lavishly over-produced, heroically lachrymose ballads (Make it Easy on Yourself, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore), any subtlety they attempted was being lost beneath the screams of their teenage audiences. Scott Walker took to spending his days in darkened hotel rooms and becoming steadily obsessed with the work of legendarily louche belgian songwriter Jacques Brel. On the cover of Scott, a sunglass-wearing Walker stares tetchily at his shoes, as if the merest intrusion of a camera was, by this point, becoming intolerable. He needn't have looked so glum: the sleeve contained a masterpiece. of the 12 tracks on Scott, three were written by Walker, three by Brel and the rest by other famously consumptive writers such as Tim Hardin and Kurt Weil. Walker sang all of them like they were his valedictory message to humanity, finding greater depths than ever in his awesome voice, and drenching the whole thing in great surges of strings. This is a classic, which generations of self-consciously misunderstood young men have clasped close to their hearts ever since.