Robin Murray has put together an excellent list of 100 essential albums under different headings such as debut albums, political albums etc.
The list is compiled from the 1980’s so no place for Marquee Moon, Ziggy Stardust, What’s Going On or London Calling.
I’ve always found music at its best when you listen to an album. There is a certain something about listening to the album in full in the track order intended by the artist and sometimes the tracks hold a larger meaning when listened to collectively rather than they do individually. The excellent album ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ by Kate Tempest is a left field choice in the list that’s definitely best listened to in full.
These days, with music streaming, there’s so much music instantly available it’s tempting to shuffle music rather than listen to an album.
The albums are listed with notes about the album, further viewing/reading and some recommended tracks to get you started. If you like the album it recommends some further artists/albums that you might like.
The debut album list kicks off with the brilliant Stone Roses but, if that’s not to your taste, this is a list that covers many genres of music - world, rock, rap, R&B etc.
Whenever a music list appears it always leads to conversations on what should or shouldn’t be in the list - where are the Arctic Monkeys with their brilliant debut album? However, this is Robin Murray’s personal list and there’s no point in reading a book that lists a hundred albums that I’m already familiar with. It’s an interesting list which has guided me to some new material to listen to and reminded me of some of the albums I’ve enjoyed in the past that I ought to return to. It’s always good to discover a new album so thoroughly enjoyed making my way through Robin Murray’s list and highly recommend this book to any music lover out there.