Фирма 1972

Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie-Pop

Mars Audiac Quintet saw Stereolab beginning to shed their experimental tendencies in favor of a post-modern space-age pop. The album exudes a sophisticated cool and catchiness that helped them gain new fans while straddling the line between their experimental-rock brethren and the ascending class of premillennial British pop. It's also the album that put them on the A-list of underground rock bands. Arguably the band's most accessible album, Mars Audiac Quintet not only features gentler textures than any of its predecessors, but also more upbeat and hooky songs such as "Ping Pong" (the first Stereolab song to receive widespread video and alt radio airplay) and "L'Enfer Des Formes," not to mention groove-dominated tracks like "Outer Accelerator" and "Transona Five." The album is layered with a sensual and beguiling vibe, bringing the allure of lead vocalist Laetitia Sadier to the forefront. The hints of exotica and lounge music on Transient Random- Noise Burst With Announcements are now fully explored on the mellow, marimba-driven album closer "Fiery Yellow" (featuring major contributions from The High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan). The bubblegum pop of "Wow and Flutter" exhibits the earliest example of the band's Krautrock stylings being overpowered by an ingratiating melody. Mars Audiac Quintet is one of Stereolab's most complete attempts at bridging experimental rock and retro-pop. Future releases were at times more cerebral or more poppy, but rarely again were the two simultaneously so perfectly realized Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie-Pop

Formed in 1979 and fronted by the mercurial and troubled Adrian Borland (he would commit suicide in 1999 after years of battling depression), The Sound are one of the most unjustly neglected band of the '80s. They may not be as well-known as their contemporaries Echo & the Bunnymen or Joy Division, but their contributions to the first wave of English post-punk are equally unique and influential. Featuring rough-edged production fitting its £800 recording budget, Jeopardy is a caustic rush, full of songs with hooks and emotional impact that never resort to histrionics. The album's opener starts off minimally, until the nervy guitars of the chorus rip through the tension. This auspicious beginning only hints at what's to come. Every song that follows builds on the momentum of a complex pop masterpiece. Borland's lyrics also prove him to be one of the few post-punk songwriters whose words areworth poring over and analyzing. For The Sound's sophomore LP, the group decided to work with producer Hugh Jones (Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus). A relatively restrained but vital follow-up to the charged and ragged Jeopardy, From the Lions Mouth proves that The Sound's critical stature among the post-punk elite was no fluke. A more robust recording budget allows them to explore a fuller, more cohesive sound, while Adrian Borland's lyrics are even more introspective. Tracks like "Sense of Purpose" and "Contact the Fact" still feature a sweeping urgency and highlight the tension between Borland's grim worldview and his knack for a hook. Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie Rock

Formed in 1979 and fronted by the mercurial and troubled Adrian Borland (he would commit suicide in 1999 after years of battling depression), The Sound are one of the most unjustly neglected band of the '80s. They may not be as well-known as their contemporaries Echo & the Bunnymen or Joy Division, but their contributions to the first wave of English post-punk are equally unique and influential. Featuring rough-edged production fitting its £800 recording budget, Jeopardy is a caustic rush, full of songs with hooks and emotional impact that never resort to histrionics. The album's opener starts off minimally, until the nervy guitars of the chorus rip through the tension. This auspicious beginning only hints at what's to come. Every song that follows builds on the momentum of a complex pop masterpiece. Borland's lyrics also prove him to be one of the few post-punk songwriters whose words areworth poring over and analyzing. For The Sound's sophomore LP, the group decided to work with producer Hugh Jones (Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus). A relatively restrained but vital follow-up to the charged and ragged Jeopardy, From the Lions Mouth proves that The Sound's critical stature among the post-punk elite was no fluke. A more robust recording budget allows them to explore a fuller, more cohesive sound, while Adrian Borland's lyrics are even more introspective. Tracks like "Sense of Purpose" and "Contact the Fact" still feature a sweeping urgency and highlight the tension between Borland's grim worldview and his knack for a hook. Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie Rock

The recipe for a cult-classic: a band's most-anticipated release which features a big change in sound encounters a divisive reception. Fans of the band's early work cry foul, and a younger, more open-minded set of fans (acquired by a catchy, almost accidental hit, nonetheless) welcome a tuneful and nuanced, yet often mournful offering. Pepper in an undated production and jump almost two decades into the future. The remarkable thing about Stoned & Dethroned, The Jesus & Mary Chain's fifth album, is not that it's a cult classic, but that it's also regularly touted as the band's best album. Previously known for feedback-drenched pop songs and gothic surf / blues storms, The Jesus & Mary Chain followed a successful year of touring in 1992 (including a slot on the second Lollapalooza tour) by entering the studio to record an acoustic album. The sessions were the first time that principal members Jim and William Reid had embarked on a recording with a full band since their incendiary debut, but the results could not have been different. Though the hooks were still there, Stoned & Dethroned emerged with a calmer, almost folk / country-tinged sound. Any feedback appears as hazy atmospherics rather than pain-inducing squeals. The sound of the album nobly approximates the drugged swagger of the classic early-'70s Rolling Stones records, but with The Jesus & Mary Chain's uniquely foreboding lyrical perspective. The album's first single, "Sometimes Always" featuring Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, was an MTV and modern rock radio hit. The song updated the Lee & Nancy / Porter & Dolly duet mold with a catchy hook and ringing guitar lead. It became an instant classic. It was also no coincidence that the sonics of Stoned & Dethroned resembled those of Mazzy Star's electric / acoustic psych hybrid. Sandoval and the elder Reid were a couple at the time of its recording and he was obviously feeling the pull of the West Coast vibes. Another guest vocalist, The Pogues' Shane MacGowan, provides the anguished lead on the stellar "God Help Me." The Jesus & Mary Chain picked the perfect time to make this record.Their sonic assaults and industrial pop could've only taken them so far. Proving that they were capable of making more intuitive and subtle art, Stoned & Dethroned positions the underlying desperation of the Reids' music in a different light. Record Label: 1972 Style: Rock/Pop

Porcupine is Echo & The Bunnymen's most profound and personal album from their early period. Weathering band turmoil, rejections from their record company and spans of songwriting drought, the group emerged with a passionate and compelling set of songs de Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie Rock

This is another new one off the greatest album ever made. It's called 'My Kingdom.' Rock and roll arrogance has never hemmed so close to the truth as this Ian McCulloch introduction to My Kingdom during the 1983 A Crystal Day concert special. Not only wer Record Label: 1972 Style: Indie Rock