Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
SZA -Ctrl (Gatefold LP Jacket, 150 Gram Vinyl, Colored Vinyl, Green)
Ctrl (pronounced "control") is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter SZA. It was released on June 9, 2017, on Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA Records.
SZA wrote most of the album's lyrics and collaborated with producers including Craig Balmoris, Frank Dukes, Carter Lang, Scum and ThankGod4Cody to achieve its sound. The efforts resulted in a primarily neo-soul and R&B album, with elements of hip-hop, electronic, indie and soul. Lyrically the album has a confessional theme, which touch upon SZA's personal experiences and complexities of modern love; including desire, competition, jealousy, sexual politics, social media and low self-esteem.
The album was released to acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, moving 60,000 equivalent-album units in its first full-tracking week. It generated the singles Drew Barrymore, Love Galore, The Weekend, and Broken Clocks. As of October 2017, the album has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for accumulating over 500,000 in album-equivalent units and pure sales. The album and its songs were nominated for four Grammy Awards, while SZA was nominated for Best New Artist.
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Limited vinyl LP repressing in gatefold jacket. Thriller is the sixth solo studio album by Michael Jackson. It was released by Epic Records on November 30, 1982, as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off The Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off The Wall, including pop, post-disco, rock and funk. Recording sessions took place on April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles with a production budget of $750, 000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. In just over a year, Thriller became-and currently remains-the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. It has become the first album ever to be certified 32 times multi-platinum for U.S. sales, marking more than 32 million sales shipped. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including for Album of the Year.
Tyler, The Creator - Igor
"Tyler, the Creator’s sixth album is impressionistic and emotionally charged, the result of an auteur refining his style and baring more of his soul than ever before."
Vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. 2019 release. Igor is the fifth studio album by rapper Tyler, The Creator. Produced entirely by Tyler, the album follows the 2017 release of Flower Boy. It features guest appearances from Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Solange, Kanye West, and Jerrod Carmichael, along with backing vocals from Santigold, Jessy Wilson, La Roux, CeeLo Green, Charlie Wilson, Slowthai, and Pharrell, among others.
Leon Bridges - Good Thing
Prince - Purple Rain
2015 Paisley Park remastered edition overseen by Prince. Includes original 1984 packaging including poster and lyric sleeve. 180-gram vinyl.
Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, the first to feature his band The Revolution, and is the soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name. It was released on June 25, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records. To date, it has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, making it the third-best-selling soundtrack album of all time.Tyler, The Creator - Scum Fuck Flower Boy
The consensus among most listeners, including myself, is that this is Tyler's best album. Each album he releases brings more maturity, more raw talent and more creativity. The album features Jaden Smith, Estelle, Kali Uchis, A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean, and others that take you on a trip through various styles of music from smooth soul to boom bap. Standout tracks are "I Ain't Got Time," "Who Dat Boy," and "See You Again."
No one will be surprised that Tyler, the Creator’s Scum Fuck Flower Boy courts controversy. The teen rapper who made a name for himself with cartoonishly violent murder fantasies and heavily misogynistic/homophobic narratives is as big and bold as ever. But what’s this? Is Tyler being serious when he declares “I been kissing white boys since 2004?" He delves into the topic multiple times on the album; he talks about thinking certain feelings were just a phase to bragging about the hotness factor of the dudes in his ride. This immaculately produced, beat-heavy, lyrically brilliant album sure doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches when Tyler repeatedly raps about his constant state of loneliness and boredom, so why doubt him? Perhaps we should just sit back, enjoy this amazing album, and listen to the man himself talk. “I’m the loneliest man alive/But I keep on dancing to throw them off,” he says at one point. In the end, what really matters about Flower Boy is how across-the-board awesome it is and how Tyler speaks his mind without any apologies. He’s as formidable as ever.
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
Mac Miller - Swimming
Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by English-American rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music. The album features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music.
By mid-1966, Hendrix was struggling to earn a living playing the R&B circuit as a backing guitarist. After being referred to Chas Chandler, who was leaving the Animals and interested in managing and producing artists, Hendrix was signed to a management and production contract with Chandler and ex-Animals manager Michael Jeffery. Chandler brought Hendrix to London and began recruiting members for a band designed to showcase the guitarist's talents, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In late October, after having been rejected by Decca Records, the Experience signed with Track, a new label formed by the Who's managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.
Are You Experienced and its preceding singles were recorded over a five-month period from late October 1966 through early April 1967. The album was completed in sixteen recording sessions at three London locations, including De Lane Lea Studios, CBS, and Olympic. Released in the UK on May 12, 1967, Are You Experienced spent 33 weeks on the charts, peaking at number two. The album was issued in the US on August 23 by Reprise Records, where it reached number five on the Billboard 200, remaining on the chart for 106 weeks, 27 of those in the Top 40. The album also spent 70 weeks on the US Billboard R&B chart, where it peaked at #10. The US version contained some of Hendrix's best known songs, including the Experience's first three singles, which, though omitted from the British edition of the LP, were top ten hits in the UK: "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe", and "The Wind Cries Mary".
In 2005, Rolling Stone ranked Are You Experienced fifteenth on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. They placed four songs from the album on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: "Purple Haze" (17), "Foxy Lady" (153), "Hey Joe" (201), and "The Wind Cries Mary" (379). That same year, the record was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in recognition of its cultural significance to be added to the National Recording Registry. Writer and archivist Rueben Jackson of the Smithsonian Institution wrote: "it's still a landmark recording because it is of the rock, R&B, blues ... musical tradition. It altered the syntax of the music ... in a way I compare to James Joyce's Ulysses."
Michael Jackson - Bad (Picture Disc)
Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures
Khruangbin - Mordechai
Khruangbin - Mordechai Remixes
"The dancer wants to get in a groove and stay there until he has exhausted his invention or his body. The timescale and momentum of any physical activity is vastly different from the attention span of listening."
Albert Goldman "A good remix is when the remixer's sonic fingerprint is present, without sounding forced. It should feel like it's own story, with at least some of the same characters as the original." Khruangbin The art of the remix has been around for several decades, from the fervid imaginations of JA pioneers like Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid or King Tubby to the disco enthusiasts of New York, such as Tom Moulton, who bequeathed us the modern iteration of the remix and provided a template from which most remixers still work. Moulton's first commercial remix, a reworking of BT Express' appropriately-named 'Do It 'Till You're Satisfied', which stretched it from three minutes to a luxurious five, assisted the band in securing it's first Billboard R&B Number One, as well as providing a pathway for remixers like Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan, Richie Rivera and Tee Scott, to completely reinvent the concept of a remix (and in some instances, deconstructing the idea of what comprised a song). It has subsequently been used as a marketing tool, a dancefloor-devastator, a gimmick (both cheap and expensive) or even as a way of reaching a different audience (think Tori Amos' 'Professional Widow'). Khruangbin are no slouches when it comes to the remix themselves. They've been reworked before, in 2016, with the highly collectible EP on Boogiefuturo. But this time, they're taking it a step further with an album dedicated to the art. Entering the tight-knit world of a Khruangbin song can be a little daunting. They have created this entire universe in which the trio seem to function telepathically in the way the music is composed, arranged and played. To mess with their delicate eco-system can invoke feelings similar to that of an unwanted guest crashing a good-time party. "We write our music to be interpreted; this is another wonderful interpretation of the music," reassure Khruangbin. "There is something very vulnerable about letting others work on your music. But through the correspondence with the different artists, we gained a bigger connection to the songs themselves." The choice of remixers for this album is neither arbitrary nor accidental. They're not names picked randomly out of a hat or chosen via a throw of the dice. All have some connection to the band, sometimes personal friendships, musical connections, or simply mutual musical appreciation. Harvey Sutherland and Ginger Roots have both toured with the band, Kadhja Bonet and Ron Trent had their own mutual fan club going on, Knxwledge sampled 'White Gloves' on a recent mixtape, Natasha Diggs and Soul Clap's Eli's are recent buddy-ups, Quantic is a mutual friend of Bonobo (crucial in the KB origin story), while I've known Laura for number of years; plus she is also godmother to one of Felix Dickinson's kids. Doesn't get much more intimate than that, right? Some of these remixes were specifically made so you can dance your ass off while getting down to the Khruangbin sound, while some might better be appreciated horizontally with headphones on, wearing fashionably loose clothes. The choice is yours. But all were made with love and respect for Khruangbin. "A good remix deconstructs, recontextualizes, or simply extends a good time," say the band. Amen and out. Bill BrewsterThe Weeknd - Dawn FM
Doja Cat - Hot Pink
Hot Pink is the second studio album by American singer and rapper Doja Cat. The album was released on November 7, 2019, by Kemosabe.A departure from the dancehall and psychedelic style of her debut album Amala (2018), it is a pop, R&B and funk record containing elements from soul. Doja Cat wrote all of the tracks alongside its songwriters and producers. It features production from Doja Cat, Yeti Beats and Tyson Trax, among others.
The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics. It debuted at number 93 on the US Billboard 200, after one day of tracking. The next week, Hot Pink rose to number 19. Later, the album reached a new peak of number 17 on the chart. It produced six singles, including "Juicy", featuring Tyga, "Bottom Bitch","Rules", "Cyber Sex", "Say So", and "Like That". "Say So" became Doja Cat's first top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 7.The album features guest appearances from Smino, Tyga and Gucci Mane.According to Rolling Stone, Hot Pink has sold 365,100 album-equivalent units in the US during its chart run with 10,283 of those units being pure sales. Doja will embark on the Hot Pink Tour to promote the album.
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love [Stereo]
The Weeknd - After Hours
Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights
OutKast - Speakerboxxx/TheLove Below
Michael Jackson - Dangerous
The Weeknd - The Highlights
Double vinyl LP pressing. 2021 release, a career-spanning album from The Weeknd pulling together a collection of his biggest songs from the last ten years.
Black Pumas - Black Pumas [Deluxe Edition][One Year Anniversary]