AllMusic Staff Pick:
Various Artists
Classic Maritime Music from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

In the early-2000s, Smithsonian Folkways was in the process of digitizing its vast archive of historic recordings from throughout the 20th century. Among its long-out-of-print prizes were records by Paul Clayton & the Foc'sle Singer, the X-Seamen’s Institute, and British icons A.L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl. When this vital collection was released in 2004, who could have predicted that a youthful subculture of the internet would suddenly embrace many of these traditional sea chanteys, nearly two decades later?

- Timothy Monger

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Henry Mancini
Touch of Evil [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

This score to the classic 1958 Orson Welles film of scandal and intrigue along the Mexican border used a lot of appropriate Latin accents: Afro-Cuban percussion, smoky Tijuana jazz jive, and honky tonking instrumental jump blues with a strong rock & roll flavor. Both ominous and exuberant in its evocation of temptation and deceit, it attracted the specific praise of no less a critic than François Truffaut.

- Richie Unterberger

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Desireless
François

This 1989 debut from the French pop singer is a synthpop gem that may have gone unnoticed were it not for the international smash “Voyage Voyage,” which went on to become an enduring favorite that has been covered by artists across multiple genres. Beyond that, the album is padded with great era-specific tracks that recall early Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. Other notable songs include “John,” “Hari ôm Ramakrishna,” and “Qui sommes-nous?”

- Neil Z. Yeung

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Flying Saucer Attack
Further

Released in 1995, the second, home-recorded album from this English band perfected their specific approach to rural psychedelia, adding misty fuzz and mysterious layers of noise to softly-sung, late night acoustic tunes. Where earlier material had sounded like a rock band experimenting with volatile ideas, Further found Flying Saucer Attack cocooning themselves into a warm, if wobbly, otherworld of sound.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Jimmie Lunceford
Anthology 1934-1942

The Jimmie Lunceford orchestra served as an incubator for jazz talent like trombonist Trummy Young, saxophonist Willie Smith, and trumpeter and future bandleader Gerald Wilson. It was while working with the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra that trumpeter and arranger Sy Oliver got his chops together and prepared himself for his later triumphs in the music industry. Cabu’s Jimmie Lunceford Anthology serves up 44 of the best recordings this band ever made, from the exciting early works of 1934 to the wartime swing of 1942.

- arwulf arwulf

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Original Soundtrack
Spawn: The Album [Original Soundtrack]

Arriving at a time when soundtracks were almost as important as (and, in this case, better than) the movies they accompanied, this took the Judgment Night hybrid model and amplified the chaos with a rock-meets-electronic free-for-all. While some pairings work better than others (the Filter, Orbital, Metallica, Slayer, and Silverchair songs for starters), it’s notable as both a time capsule and a strangely prescient look at a genre-less future.

- Neil Z. Yeung

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Ben Sidran
Feel Your Groove

Sidran’s debut solo album was the beginning of a long, quirky, varied, and sometimes puzzling series of albums. The music ranges from dirty rock and R&B numbers like “Poor Girl,” with Sidran playing both the B-3 and electric piano, to “Alexander’s Rag Time Band,” which brings ‘60s Blue Note soul-jazz to '70s Prestige and Mainstream funk. Sidran uses his voice so musically, with enough reserve, restraint, and savvy in his phrasing, that it’s a delight to listen to. This offers proof that Sidran was already in full possession of his gifts as a writer, producer and arranger.

- Thom Jurek

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom, released 50 years ago today, was Robert Wyatt’s most focused and relaxed album up to its time of release. In 1974, it won the French Grand Prix Charles Cros Record of the Year Award. It is also considered an essential record in any comprehensive collection of psychedelic or progressive rock.

- Jim Powers

AllMusic Staff Pick:
The Lijadu Sisters
Horizon Unlimited

One of the last in a run of solid work from these Nigerian twins, this 1979 album is a magical, groove-centric collection of pop-minded Afrobeat burners. As with much of the Lijadu Sisters’ ‘70s output, these six songs are powered by dual vocals, joyously funky instrumentation, and locked-in polyrhythmic percussion.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick:
At the Drive-In
Vaya

With the release of this absolutely astounding seven-song, 23-plus-minute EP, released 25 years ago this month, At the Drive-In seem to have finally come together and found the true and beautiful essence of their music. They have taken the raw intensity and power of their earlier efforts, and focused upon it, bringing forth something that surpasses anything they have done to this point.

- Blake Butler

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Tiger
We Are Puppets

They may have been too weird for Brit-pop, but Tiger’s roaring take on indie-rock bristles with fuzzy guitars, call-and-response vocals, unconventional hooks and pounding rhythms that still sound fresh nearly 30 years after their debut album was released.

- Heather Phares

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Stevie Wonder
Fulfillingness’ First Finale

After the righteous anger and occasional despair of the socially motivated Innervisions, Stevie Wonder returned with a relationship record: Fulfillingness’ First Finale, released 50 years ago today. The cover pictures his life as an enormous wheel, part of which he’s looking ahead to and part of which he’s already completed (the latter with accompanying images of Little Stevie, JFK and MLK, the Motor Town Revue bus, a child with balloons, his familiar Taurus logo, and multiple Grammy awards).

- John Bush

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Various Artists
Down from the Mountain: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Sounding almost like an all-traditional country episode of “A Prairie Home Companion,” the guests (including Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, the Whites, the Fairfield Four, and the Cox Family, among others) amiably exchange songs on-stage, reveling in the atmosphere of warm country, bluegrass, and blues music. Highlights include two non-traditional tracks from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, whose earthy compositions fit in seamlessly with the time-honored traditional songs, and Emmylou Harris’ contribution “Green Pastures” (which originally appeared on Roses in the Snow, her own Americana revival album from some 20 years earlier).

- Zac Johnson

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Robyn Hitchcock
Jewels for Sophia

Released 25 years ago today, fans celebrated the return of original Soft Boy Kimberley Rew on two tracks for the first time in 18 years, and Hitchcock also commandeered a squadron of reverent co-conspirators in other cities to make a good LP into a first-rate one. Three-quarters of the Young Fresh Fellows along with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck are unmistakable on a trio of Seattle-recorded tracks, especially “Elizabeth Jade.” Elsewhere, guitarist Tim Keegan of Homer reprises the sidekick color-man role he played in the film, and who wouldn’t want Grant Lee Phillips and Jon Brion to sit in on some L.A. sessions?

- Jack Rabid

AllMusic Staff Pick:
Clifford Brown
The EmArcy Master Takes, Vol. 2: The Singers Sessions

The 2012 Clifford Brown three-disc anthology The EmArcy Master Takes, Vol. 2: The Singers Sessions collects all of the tracks Brown recorded with vocalists Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Helen Merrill during one magical five-month period in 1954. All of these sessions are now considered classic recordings and landmarks in the careers of each singer, as well as legendary trumpeter Brown.

- Matt Collar