Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin
In November 1971, Led Zeppelin put out a record with no title on the cover and no band name on the sleeve, as if the music were tired of being introduced.
Loaded – Primal Scream
A piano figure keeps its manners while a kick drum, borrowed from somewhere sweatier, refuses the manners entirely.
Roygbiv – Boards of Canada
The synth is warm the way old plastic is warm, slightly melted at the edge.
Interview of Nina Simone (1968)
In 1968, the year Martin Luther King was murdered and Nina Simone answered with Why?
Vitamin C – Can
The drums lock into a figure that does not develop so much as insist, dry and close, and a voice enters speaking several languages at once, none of them asked to explain.
Ghosts – Japan
A synthesiser hangs in the room like frost on a window, no drum kit to reassure you, and David Sylvian's voice enters as if he were afraid of waking the house.
Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
The guitar states a small, perfect descent, and the river appears without being described at length.
Top 10 Absolute Night Songs
Night songs do not describe the dark.
Only Shallow – My Bloody Valentine
The first guitar does not announce a riff.
Take On Me – a-ha
A drum machine and a keyboard riff arrive already running, bright as a cartoon chase, and Morten Harket's voice climbs until the note is higher than the room expected.