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The Dazz Band may be wild and free in the title, but the album's tighter than ever – a lean, focused approach to the Dazz Band sound – done here with loads of 80s production and instrumentation in the mix! The rhythms are heavy with drum machine lines – often mixed with keyboard bits and swirled together with a sound that's even more crossover than some of the group's earlier work. Vocals often take a back seat to the grooves – but on the ballads they shine through nicely, and remind us of the group's roots. Titles include "The Beat That's Right", "Wild & Free", "Love MIA", "Sunglasses", "Something You Said", and "Time Will Heal A Broken Heart". CD features bonus tracks – "Wild & Free (ext dance rmx)", "Last Chance For Love", "Love MIA (house mix)", and "A Place In My Heart".

Jr Parker gets some great help from Ray Parker – not that Ray's a family member or anything like that – he's just got a great ear for the kind of groove Jr's going for in his music! Ray produced and plays sweet guitar and keyboards on most tracks – giving the music that great Raydio bounce – which turns out to be a wonderful fit for the youthful Jr's vocals – almost styled in a Michael Jackson mode at points, but a bit deeper at other times too! Titles include "I Was Made For Dancing", "Too Young To Fall In Love", "If It's Love You're After", "Treat Me Right", "Mr Telephone Man", and "Bad Girls".

The classic! With "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Drain You", "On A Plain", "Lithium", "Polly", "In Bloom", "Come As You Are", and "Lounge Act".

Seminal work by one of the biggest gospel crossover stars of the 80s – the mighty mighty David Peaston, a man with a truly god-like voice! Production on the album occasionally has too much of that 80s slickness, but even so, David's voice cuts through the whole thing with a spiritual warmth and majesty that's simply wonderful. Titles include "Take Me Now", "Tonight", "Two Wrongs", "In This Together", "Can I?", and "Eyes Of Love".

10 tracks from Thurston & Co (in the Jim O'Rourke augmented lineup . . .), including "Pattern Recogniton", "Unmade Bed", "Dripping Dream", "Kim Gordon & The Arthur Doyle Hand Cream", "Stones", 'Dude Ranch Nurse", "New Hampshire", "Paper Cup Exit", "I Love You Golden Blue" and "Peace Attack".

A Shaolin hip hop essential! Heavy numerological rhymes, and the best production on any Wu project (still to this day, even). Probably our favorite LP in the entire Wu pantheon, and next to Enter The Wu Tang and a few of the other firstline efforts, it's a work of greatness from start to finish. 14 tracks on the original classic album: "Labels", "Cold World", "Shadowboxin", "Liquid Swords", "Living In The World Today", "Killah Hills 10304", "Investigative Reports", "Gold", "Duel Of The Iron Mic", "4th Chamber", "Hell's Wind Staff", "Unexplained", "Swordsman" and "I Gotcha Back". Chess Box edition also includes the full instrumentals on a bonus CD, plus extended liner notes – and a miniature chess set!

We never know whether we should call this their second album or not. We know it's their second, but their first was so poorly distributed for years, and besides, this one's light years ahead of that in both the approach to production and rhyme style. A modern hip hop essential, that blew our minds and changed the way we looked at hip hop, and certainly the first fully successful attempt at bridging live playing and sample based beats. 12 tracks in all: "Proceed", "Distortion To Static", "Lazy Afternoon", "Mellow My Man", "I Remain Calm", "Datskat", "What Goes On Pt. 7", "Silent treatment", "You Ain't Fly", "Do You Want More?!!!??!", "The Lesson Part 2" and "Silent Treatment".

A record that some might call the last truly great Peter Gabriel album – and a key cap to his excellent initial solo run! The album's got a deeper feel than before – slightly richer colors, more spiritual themes, and arguably more of a sense of majesty – almost an echo of some of the Native American modes explored by Laurie Anderson, who was then a recent collaborator of Gabriel! Instrumentation builds a bit more than before – with less guitars in parts, more percussive bits, and some funkier elements at the bottom that aren't exactly funky – more just a punch in force from the ground up. Gabriel's definitely feeling a sense of power here – and titles include "Lay Your Hands On Me", "Shock The Monkey", "San Jacinto", "I Have The Touch", "The Family & The Fishing Net", and "The Rhythm Of The Heat".

Mos Def's first for Downtown after a weird few years on Geffen that saw many a bumped street date, the hit & miss New Danger, and finally, the semi aborted release of the controversial True Magic – back with a top shelf, excellent album in 2009's The Ecstatic! It may not be Black Star or Black On Both Sides, but The Ecstatic is absolutely strong stuff, and to be honest, much better than we would have expected – even if we knew he had great hip hop left in him! The beats are compelling, unpredictable, and steeped in abstract global funk that would sound at home on Stones Throw – some of the beats are literally Stones Throw, given Madlib's Beat Konducta and Oh No's Oxperimental sounds to be found. If we weren't already loving it, Slick Rick drops an unforgettable guest appearance on the the moody "Auditorium", Georgia Anne Muldrow does her inimitable thing on "Roses", and Talib Kweli rhymes on "History". Mos rhymes skillfully throughout, and with an infectious immediacy, as if he dropped records this tight all the time. Sadly, he doesn't, so this one's all the more rewarding! Other tracks include "Twilite Speedball", "Revelations", "Pretty Danger", "Quiet Dog", "The Embassy", "Wahid", "Priority" and more.