AllMusic Staff Pick:
Le Tigre
Le Tigre

The debut effort from Le Tigre, released 25 years ago today, sounds like the best new wave album not to come from the 1980s. Here, frontwoman Kathleen Hanna expands on the lo-fi sounds she tinkered with on her debut solo album. Le Tigre melds punk, new wave, and hip-hop into a seemingly cute package.

- Brian Flota

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Bob Marley & the Wailers
Natty Dread

Natty Dread, released 50 years ago today, is Bob Marley’s finest album, the ultimate reggae recording of all time. Marley was taking on discrimination, greed, poverty, and hopelessness while simultaneously rallying the troops as no other musical performer was attempting to do in the mid-‘70s.

- Jim Newsom

AllMusic Staff Pick:
James Iha
Let It Come Down

During lulls on the lengthy Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness tour and before the Smashing Pumpkins returned to the studio to record Adore, James Iha made his first solo album, Let It Come Down. Fortunately, it is one of the rare solo projects from a member of major band that explores territory that could not be covered by the band itself.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Paul Desmond
From the Hot Afternoon

Paul Desmond’s first genuine all-Brazilian album under the Creed Taylor signature was a beauty, a collection of songs by the then-moderately known Edu Lobo and the emerging giant Milton Nascimento, then only in his early twenties. All Desmond has to do is sit back and ride the Brazilian grooves while lyrically ruminating on whatever pops into his head.

- Richard S. Ginell

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Ray Charles
The Genius of Ray Charles

Some players from Ray Charles’ big band are joined by many ringers from the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands for the first half of this album (released 75 years ago this month), featuring Charles belting out six songs arranged by Quincy Jones.

- Scott Yanow

AllMusic Staff Pick:
The Refreshments
The Bottle & Fresh Horses

For their second album, the Refreshments moved away from the half-serious alt-rock that made their debut effort a minor hit. With the assistance of producer (and Butthole Surfer) Paul Leary, the group dreamed up an earnest, dustier sound, blending heartland rock & roll with elements of country and power-pop.

- Andrew Leahey

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Fred Neil
The Many Sides of Fred Neil

After listening to The Many Sides of Fred Neil, it makes sense that Neil turned into a recluse – this is moody, haunting music, unlike much of the work of his contemporaries. In particular, his eponymous album boasts challenging, innovative arrangements that remain fresh and startling to this day.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Handsome Boy Modeling School
So…How’s Your Girl?

This album, released 25 years ago today, ends up as a showcase for their eclecticism, tailoring productions to their collaborators and creating a colorful universe where classicist rap, turntablism, trip-hop, and electronica all get along comfortably. Parts of the album are surprisingly atmospheric, and rely more on the texture of the sound than the star power of the guest – which makes sense for a producer’s album.

- Steve Huey

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Mr. Oizo
Analog Worms Attack

Analog Worms Attack, released 25 years ago today, is an inventive album that somehow marries the experimental side of techno (Cristian Vogel, Laurent Garnier) with the outrageous flair of novelty tracks usually seen on, well, television commercials.

- John Bush

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
It’ll Shine When It Shines

Following the success of their self-titled debut, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils’ sophomore release, It’ll Shine When It Shines, released 50 years ago this month, continues on their already established path of California-style country-rock.

- Zac Johnson

AllMusic Staff Pick:
The Tragically Hip
Fully Completely

Fully Completely is where Kingston, Ontario’s Tragically Hip finally come to the apex of their talent. Lead singer Gord Downie sounds crisp and full of life, and the songs he verbally dramatizes are rich in lyrical sharpness and instrumental color.

- Mike DeGagne

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Tom Waits
The Heart of Saturday Night

If Closing Time, Waits’ debut album, consisted of love songs set in a late-night world of bars and neon signs, its follow-up, released 50 years ago today, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting.

- William Ruhlmann

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Suicide
Suicide

Over the course of seven songs, Martin Rev’s dense, unnerving electronics – including a menacing synth bass, a drum machine that sounds like an idling motorcycle, and harshly hypnotic organs – and Alan Vega’s ghostly, Gene Vincent-esque vocals defined the group’s sound and provided the blueprints for post-punk, synth pop, and industrial rock in the process.

- Heather Phares

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Miranda Lambert
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Taking her cue from the vengeful spurned woman of “Kerosene,” her hit debut single, Lambert has built her second album around a tough-chick persona, something that may be clear from the very title of the album, but this isn’t a one-dimensional record by any stretch.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine