10 really cool albums from the past 55 years

To these epic recordings, you can relax, sing, dance, be sad, shout, rejoice, play sports. Choose your option for today's mood.

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

• Executor: The Beatles.
• Genre: rock.

"Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Orchestra" - position number one in Rolling Stone rankings. In fact, this record is recognized as the best disc of all times and peoples. The title of the album is a kind of pseudonym for The Beatles, which was coined by Paul McCartney. So the performers wanted to move away from the image of the Beatles already known to the whole world and reveal themselves in a new way. One of the most famous songs on the album is When I’m Sixty Four, which McCartney wrote when he was 16. By the way, now the musician is already 77.

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2. London Calling

• Executor: The Clash.
• Genre: punk.

Even if travel is out of the question and “London Calling” is only in our dreams - this song is cool and uplifting. Album The Clash from 1979 - by the way, recorded in London - is in eighth place in the list of Rolling Stone magazine. Incidentally, in the 80s England was at the peak of unemployment, decline in production and the rise of insane raves. Perhaps an energetic punk beat from those crazy days will help you feel that things aren't so unstable right now.

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3. Thriller

• Executor: Michael Jackson.
• Genre: pop.

You've surely heard the single from this album many times, but it has eight more tracks, and four of them were written by Michael Jackson himself. This disk for a year became the best-selling album of all time and has received many awards: it is ranked 20th on the list Rolling Stone. Also, the Library of Congress included him to his collection as a "culturally significant record." The album mixes many different styles: rhythm ‑ n ‑ blues, funk, pop, post-disc. For some of the album's songs, clips were shot that had historical significance: they were the first videos with black performers who managed to get on the air on MTV.

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4. 21

• Executor: Adele.
• Genre: pop.

A piercing album by English singer Adele from 2011. By the way, 21 is her age while working on the songs that went into it. Here you can find various tracks: light folk, deep soul and as many as five singles, the most famous of which are Someone Like You and Rolling in the Deep. Adele wrote these songs during parting with a loved one and threw out her pain through creativity. Critics from the music industry all over the world have praised this album. UK record became best-selling in the XXI century. And the American edition Billboard placed the disc in the Billboard 200 rating, where "21" took another record: the longest top-charting album ever recorded by a woman.

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5. The Marshall Mathers LP

• Executor: Eminem.
• Genre: rap and hip-hop.

Eminem's third album, co-produced by Dr. Dre. It was Eminem's "studio binge": he worked on songs 20 hours a day. The lyrics tell of his sudden fame, his relationship with his mother and wife, criticism and controversy surrounding his music. In this album, the rapper often speaks on his own behalf, unlike the previous one, where he sang on behalf of the famous alter ego Slim Shady. But it was this disc that included the famous song The Real Slim Shady, where Eminem makes fun of the American stage. In its first week after release, The Marshall Mathers LP sold nearly 1.7 million copies - unprecedented for a rap album. And by the end of the year, that number had reached almost 8 million.

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6. Catch a Fire

• Executor: Bob Marley & The Wailers.
• Genre: reggae.

The great Bob Marley recorded Catch a Fire with his Jamaican band The Wailers in 1973. This disc is tacitly recognized as the best reggae album in the history of music, and is also included in Rolling Stone rating. Reggae music performed by Bob Marley is not always a pleasant relaxing beat, for example, there are many dynamic, almost warlike songs in this album. And also - deep, social and political texts that speak about the problems of the whole world of that period. You can get stuck in this album and not notice how several hours have flown by - most of all during quarantine, when time drags on painfully slowly.

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7. In Utero

• Executor: Nirvana.
• Genre: alternative.

The legendary Kurt Cobain and his band recorded In Utero in 1993. Frontman said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that it will be an album of extremes: some songs will sound too raw, others - pop and polished. Listen and decide for yourself whether this plan succeeded. The collection includes the famous song Rape Me - you can scream and let off steam, singing along with Kurt. Or, on the contrary, calm down to a softer and more lyrical Heart-Shaped Box. Album received Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 1993 and another award from a British magazine New Musical Express in 2004.

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8. Melodrama

• Executor: Lorde.
• Genre: pop.

The talented New Zealand singer Lorde worked on this album for several years - from 2013 to 2017. It turned out to be both complex and deep, but at the same time alive and light. Melodrama is included in the rating best albums of the decade according to Rolling Stone magazine. By the way, despite the popularity that Lorde already had at that moment, the girl suffered from loneliness and dedicated many songs to him. If you are self-isolating without company, these songs will help you understand that you are not alone in your feelings. But at the same time, you can easily dance to some of the album's compositions - alone or with friends at a zoom-party.

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9. Blonde on Blonde

• Executor: Bob Dylan.
• Genre: author's song.

Blues-rock American artist Bob Dylan in the album Blonde on Blonde is another cult disc from Rolling Stone rating. It includes one of the most famous songs Just Like a Woman. Bob Dylan's soft voice and guitar envelop the mind - after a stressful day with a lot of work, slowing Wi-Fi and crashing videoconferences. But if you want to dive deeper into Dylan's work, listen to the lyrics - they have many important social, political and artistic references. Bob Dylan's work is a kind of counterculture and free-thinking of the time. Some of his songs have become anthems of the human rights struggle or the movement against the military campaign in Vietnam.

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10. A night at the opera

• Executor: Queen.
• Genre: Hard rock.

At every Queen concert, at least a few songs from this album were performed. For example, a group often completed performance of the song God Save the Queen - the anthem of Great Britain, which was arranged by Queen's guitarist Brian May. You probably know "Bohemian Rhapsody" - an incredibly epic song that you can listen to a million times and not get tired of the variety of its drawing. But there are other lesser-known songs on this album. For example, I’m in Love with My Car is a track that Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor argue about in a film about the life of the group.

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