To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar

It’s a hip-hop album with a strong focus on themes of race in America and mental health. Lamar’s lyricism is incredible.

The instrumentation is equally great, drawing inspiration from jazz, funk, and soul.

Tool - Lateralus. It’s an album best played from start to finish, and takes a very dynamic ride that I interpret as a ride through human consciousness, communication with others and ourselves.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

I don’t even know where to start with this album.

The softer songs make heavy use of orchestral instruments. The strings add so much depth to all the tracks that feature them and make it seem like some classical soundtrack. Tonight Tonight and Galapagos are examples.

It also has some of their best heavy songs like Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings and Jellybelly.

There’s definitely something for everyone on this album. Would definitely recommend you listen to Zero, 1979 and Tonight Tonight for an idea of the sounds. If you can get used to Corgans vocals you should love it.

The Album art itself is also fantastic.

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Almost entirely ignored during his brief career and then promptly forgotten following his untimely death, Nick Drake’s three full-length albums have only since gained wide recognition and praise in more recent decades. The final of these three albums, Pink Moon, is by far the finest of the trio.

Released in 1972, Pink Moon is more stripped back compared to Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, which feature full, lush arrangements of horns, strings, pianos, often with a jazzy twist. Meanwhile, Pink Moon is the result of two nights worth of recording featuring only Nick’s voice and his expertly played acoustic guitar (plus a single overdubbing of a piano on the title tack). Nick’s guitar playing is captivating, playing amongst incredibly bizarre tunings and alternating between complicated, classical finger picking, and slightly more reserved strumming and chords. Nick shows himself to be an incredibly talented player, owing to his classical training, and this style would go on to inspire other artists much further down the line, such as Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, or Robert Smith of The Cure, the band’s name drawn from a line from one of Nick’s songs.

Nick’s singing is hushed and reserved, nearly breathless during some sections, as he weaves his way through the scant 28 minutes of the album’s run time. This ethereal, almost ghost-like singing prevents him from overshadowing his guitar, while at the same time perfectly delivering his poetic writing. The lyricism is sublime and suits the more reserved arrangements of the songs, but is also incredibly personal and introspective, reflecting Nick’s ongoing struggles during his life.

Struggling with depression and anxiety, Nick retreated into privacy following the album’s release and meger sales, never doing a live show in support of it. He would die from an overdose of medication in 1976, aged 26. On his grave in Tanworth-in-Arden, his tombstone is inscribed with a line from the final song off of the album, From the Morning:

“And now we rise, and we are everywhere.”

The Stage - Avenged Sevenfold

It’s a metal album with a pretty big departure from their normal sound (going from more traditional Heavy Metal to more Progressive Metal), and dropping a Single (the title track, The Stage) then the full album by surprise. It’s their first conceptual album with a focus on where humanity is (in 2016), how we interact with each other, our progression with technology, and our place in the universe which is still very interesting and fun to unpack. The extended version includes their covers of songs they grew up with in Southern California, ranging from Spanish folk songs to Pink Floyd. It’s fantastic to hear a band truly enjoy expanding their sound and creating music they want and seem to love.

Mezzanine - Massive Attack.

The album is incredible start to finish, every track genre defying. The production is phenomenal, from harder rock to softer ballads every track is a masterpiece.

Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden

Quick listen, just 8 songs and 40 minutes. Has probably my favorite closing song of any album. It’s the album I used to convince my bluegrass and folk-loving dad that metal had more artistry than he was giving it credit for. Bruce Dickinson’s voice is unreal.

The Mountain Goats- the Sunset Tree. It’s a concept album, if you’re a lyric person give it a listen. Regardless if it gets enough upvotes. Do yourself a favor, it’s that good

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

I picked this up randomly because I liked the cover and ten years later he’s still one of my all time favourite artists. I only recommended this album because it’s the one I’m listening to right now, but all of his other stuff is just as good; though, his earlier stuff (Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire) is more focused on folk music and I’m not into that all of the time.

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid

Cyborg woman defies her programming and falls in love with human man, thereby becoming a government target, and as chase ensues, she ascends to messianic status. But if you want, ignore the delicate lyricism and allegorical social commentary and focus on a stream of delicious melodies, meticulous arrangements, and effortless genre-hopping between funk, neo-soul, pastoral folk, theatrical orchestra, bossa nova… It’s an album that begs to be loved.

Red (Taylor’s Version) - Taylor Swift

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite album because so many of hers have had an impact on me, but Red really is just that album!! It has a beautiful blend of genres (pop, rock, more electronic tracks, country) and it covers every aspect of love — the infatuation, the rose tinted glasses, the hurdles and triumphs and the eventual fallout. Not to mention All Too Well (10 Minute Version) just being an absolute masterpiece of emotional storytelling.

I choose Taylor’s Version specifically because Red, in a way, is Taylor reclaiming herself from a troubled and not so great relationship (which she at the time perceived as normal) and so the parallel of her now also reclaiming her work just adds another layer to the mix.

Good Kid, maad City by Kendrick Lamar. It’s a concept album that tells a non-linear coming of age story. It’s a nice throwback to 90s west coast hip hop and the message behind the concept is powerful and relatable to anyone who has ever lived in low income neighbourhoods. Pretty much every thing this man has made is gold but GKMC is the one that impacted me most.

My favorite is The Beatles Revolver.

Revolver is, IMO, the best transitional album - the songs are all approachable, yet remain experimental. The execution is polished.

While many will say that Sgt Pepper is the Beatles’ best album, over the years I found myself leaning more toward Revolver. Pepper is a great concept album, but there are only a few memorable songs. Most people have heard the majority of Revolver at some point in their life.

So if I were to pick one album that represented the Beatles at their height as a pop music band, it would be Revolver.

Alt-J An awesome wave - it really is considered as a whole in its creation. There are interludes, dips & swells in the energy, and a whole journey of sonically related songs which keep introducing new variations and sounds.

Sufjan Stevens the BQE - another album that really should be enjoyed as a whole journey, it follows the daily commute of so many along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in NYC. It wanders from orchestral to electronic noise, and is a wonderful album to put on for a slow Sunday morning.

NOFX - War on Errorism

I used to listen to it and enjoy it when I was in high school. And since then my tastes in music matured a lot, as I’m not into punk rock that much anymore. But this particular album I always come back to: it is a high-octane gem, every song is special in its own way and none of them seem banal or predictable.
The lyrics, mostly satyrical, strike a good balance between meaningfulness and straigh fun, between anger and cheer