Series: 33 1/3

In Janelle Monáe’s full-length debut, the science fiction concept album The ArchAndroid, the android Cindi Mayweather is on the run from the authorities for the crime of loving a human. Living in 28th century Metropolis, Cindi fights for survival, soon realising that she is in fact the prophesied ArchAndroid, a robot messiah meant to liberate the masses and lead them...

Like all double albums, Songs in the Key of Life is imperfect but audacious. If its titular concern—life—doesn't exactly allow for rigid focus, it's still a fiercely inspired collection of songs and one of the definitive soul records of the 1970s. Stevie Wonder was unable to control the springs of his creativity during that decade. Upon turning 21 in 1971,...

By the time Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke entered the studio to begin work on this album, they were basically falling apart at the seams. Ladyfriend, a song written by Crosby, had just failed miserably as a chart single despite the fact that he lobbied hard to get it released. This—coupled with the fact that he...

As immediately believable as they were cartoonish, as much an inner city cipher as a suburban boys gang, the foursome that made up the Pharcyde were the most relatable MCs to ever pass the mic. On their debut and magnum opus Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, they created a record almost overstuffed with possibility, the sound of four restless man-children...

The second compendium of extracts from Continuum's acclaimed and successful 33 1/3 series, Volume 2 features 20 sharp, savvy and very different writers' takes on albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, the Pixies, the Beastie Boys, Nirvana, R.E.M, the Band and many more. A perfect gift for the music lover in your life!

“It's Time To Party,” the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line — nothing fancy, just a couple of crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears — repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a quarter-note countdown. A faint, swirling effect intensifies with each bass kick and, by the eighth...

The Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera takes listeners on a road trip through the American South, with stops along mean old highways and soul-sucking swamps, iconic recording studios and doomed chartered jets, and even Heaven and Hell. Along the way, the Truckers attempt to untangle the mess that is southern history by exploring the contradictory, dualistic nature of the region....

Twenty years after its release, Phish’s double-CD collection A Live One has something rare and precious going for it: it still doesn’t sound like anybody else. Oversized, perverse, requiring an unusual amount of listener background knowledge? Yes to all. Yet the collective improvisations it captures, unprecedentedly coherent yet freewheeling and open-ended, are unique in rock ‘n’ roll. This book considers...

Of the many girl-groups that came out of the 1960s, none is more idiosyncratic and influential than the Shangri-Las. They were together only five years, but within that time they subverted pop standards and foreshadowed a generation of tough women in music. Critically, they are not lauded in the way of the Ronettes, and they are certainly not a household...

The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckley's fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album. With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckley's passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial...

Anthony Gomez III explores how out of the commercial failure of the 1980s Paisley Underground genre, a Los Angeles that suffered one of the highest crime rates in the country, the rise of Chicano/a art in the public eye, and record label disputes, singer Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback form the influential dream pop band Mazzy Star. Mazzy Star’s...

Through rare access to the Violent Femmes and their archives, this book investigates the creation of such iconic songs as "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add it Up" and "Prove My Love", as well as the album's recording process. The self-titled debut from Milwaukee post-punk acoustic trio the Violent Femmes is one of those rare albums that seems to...

On Saturday, June 28, 1986, George Michael picked up his tasselled leather jacket, walked out of London’s Wembley Stadium and cheerfully tore up five years of glittering pop history. He’d just disposed of Wham!, the band he’d formed with school friend Andrew Ridgeley when they were teenagers, and now, at 23, he knew he was all grown up. He just...

Situating the band and its groundbreaking debut within the context of The Troubles, this book explores the band’s complicated and controversial relationship with the Belfast punk scene, a scene that actively defied violent social divisions to create important non-sectarian spaces through which an “Alternative Ulster” was imagined and put into practice. Stiff Little Fingers’ 1979 debut album, Inflammable Material, was...

This is the album that sent a shockwave of empowerment through the nation’s cultural underground. In 1985, Olympia, Washington band Beat Happening released their eponymous debut of lo-fi pop songs on K Records and challenged every conception held about music. At the centre of the group was the enigmatic Calvin Johnson and his revolutionary vision of artistic creation. His foresight...

Dwight E. Brooks deep dives into Earth, Wind & Fire's That's the Way of the World. Alongside interview material from members Phillip Bailey and Verdine White, he analyses how this album shattered musical barriers, transcended genres, and paid homage to African and American traditions. Understanding TTWOTW requires appreciating EWF founder Maurice White’s multifaceted vision for his band. White created a...

Late in the Reagan years, three young men at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University formed the Christian rap group dc Talk. The trio put out a series of records that quickly secured their place at the forefront of contemporary Christian music. But, with their fourth studio album Jesus Freak (1995), dc Talk staked a powerful claim on the worldly market of...

Two and a half decades on, Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1993-94) is the rare album to have lost none of its original loyalty, affection, and reverence. If anything, today, the cult of Jawbreaker—in their own words, "the little band that could but would probably rather not"—is now many times greater than it was when they broke up in 1996....

Every now and then, a song inspires a cultural conversation that ends up looking like a brawl. Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee, released in 1969, is a prime example of that important role of popular music. Okie immediately helped to frame an ongoing discussion about region and class, pride and politics, culture and counterculture. But the conversation around the song,...

Hangin’ Tough, the second album by the New Kids on the Block, has sold more than seventeen million copies worldwide since it was released in 1988. However, the album and the band have also been dismissed, derided, and deemed uncool by the music establishment. Almost thirty years later, the New Kids still perform the songs from Hangin’ Tough. Hundreds of...

The apex of critical praise and commercial success is a metric achieved by a select few. In 2020, Cardi B became synonymous with "record breaking" as her debut album Invasion of Privacy went five times platinum and became the longest-charting record by a female rapper in history. From streaming and charting to views, likes, retweets, and shares, Cardi dominates. Cardi...

To absorb Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash is to be taken on a wild voyage with a cast of downtrodden revolutionaries. Despite this notion, the epic themes of the Pogues' second full-length record have been overlooked by both critics and biographers in favour of two things: the band's penchant for combining Celtic folk with punk rhythms ("the sound") and the...

One of the greatest moments of College Rock in the 1980s, Let It Be had a huge impact on the fans who fell under its spell. For Colin Meloy, growing up in Montana - a state that's strangely missing from the tour itineraries of almost every band - the album was a lifeline and an inspiration. In this disarming memoir,...

Come to My Garden (1970) introduced the world to Minnie Riperton, the solo artist. Minnie captivated listeners with her earth-shattering voice’s uncanny ability to evoke melancholy and exultance. Born out of Charles Stepney’s masterful composition and Richard Rudolph’s attentive songwriting, the album fused a plethora of music genres. A blip in the universe of fusion music that would come to...

Through a series of interviews with a wide range of people connected to Pink Floyd in their earliest days (including Nick Mason, Peter Jenner, Jenny Fabian, Storm Thorgerson, Duggie Fields and Peter Whitehead), John Cavanagh paints a vivid picture of how this remarkable debut album was created. He brings to life the stories behind each track, as well as Pink...

It was 1969, and Miles Davis, prince of cool, was on the edge of being left behind by a dynamic generation of young musicians, an important handful of whom had been in his band. Rock music was flying off in every direction, just as America itself seemed about to split at its seams. Following the circumscribed grooves and ambiance of...

By 1976, Elton John was the best-selling recording artist and the highest-grossing touring act in the world. With seven #1 albums in a row and a reputation as a riveting piano-pounding performer, the former Reggie Dwight had gone with dazzling speed from the London suburbs to the pinnacles of rock stardom. His songs never left the charts, and his sold-out...

A discussion of White Limozeen, from Dolly’s self-fashioning to a rigorous critique of her genre. White Limozeen (1989) was a commercial recovery after Dolly Parton's first major failure two years previously with the release of Rainbow. This book is a case study in how an album is sold and a persona constructed. The album had a complex relationship to the...

Contradicting assumptions that disco albums are shallow and packed with filler, Donna Summer’s double album Once Upon A Time stands out as a piece that delivers on its promise of an immaculately crafted journey from start to finish. A new interpretation of the Cinderella story, it is set in the then contemporary world of New York disco and takes the...

Even at four in the morning, the strip clubs and watering holes surrounding the Honolulu studio were still hopping. The recording engineer heard a car pull into the lot, and soon the biggest man he had ever seen walked in. When he stepped into the studio, the floated floor shifted beneath the engineer's feet. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole engulfed the engineer's hand...