The fifth AC/DC studio album marked a crucial change. It offered blood-and-fire Rastafarian prophesy detailed via impossibly beguiling vocal harmonies and gorgeous minor-key melodies the coming apocalypse has rarely sounded so sweet. Gangsta rap’s world-conquering popularity could not have happened without this pivotal debut.įew albums exemplify the contradiction at the heart of roots reggae quite like the Abyssinians’ debut (also known as Satta Massagana), which collected the vocal trio’s early 70s singles. Years before Jay-Z and Biggie made the hustler a rap archetype, and while NWA’s noisy, post-Public Enemy aesthetic was defining a new genre, Above the Law showed that gangsterism had a smooth, muscularly musical side. Antonio Hart’s blues-inflected alto sax adds a jazzy edge. This set sometimes has the jostling heat of a street-market, and sometimes the brassy blare of a Latin-jazz or New Orleans marching band. Produced by Trevor Horn, ABC’s debut took the pulse of disco and returned the sensual sweep that post-punk had stripped out of it, framing Martin Fry’s witty meta-narratives in soaring strings and irresistible funk.īeirut-raised oud player and composer Abou-Khalil vivaciously connects western jazz and classical music with Arab culture. Post-punk was great, sure, but not very sexy. And Head Over Heels proved they were still capable of buoyant pop, despite their maudlin mood. Yet the title track (a tale of fear and paranoia, layered with ominous synths and an intelligent disco chorus) was a career high. Her untimely death in 2001 robbed the world of an artist coming into her own.Ībba’s final studio album followed the gritty breakdown of both the band’s marriages, as evidenced on the aching One of Us and the gushing Slipping Through My Fingers. The producers provided the acid bass, fragmented beats and lavish synths, but Aaliyah’s glacial presence made her the undisputed star.

The turn of the century was a golden age for R&B, as honey-voiced singers teamed up with cutting-edge producers. They were too far ahead of their time to be successful, but Early compiles the 1978-85 cuts that influenced everyone from former ACR support acts Talking Heads and Madonna to, more recently, LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture. Named after a Brian Eno lyric, ACR fused jagged Wire guitars and George Clinton beats to create the now commonplace sound of punk-funk.

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