#518 - Joe's Garage, Frank Zappa

"Joe's Garage is generally regarded as one of Zappa's finest post-'60s conceptual works, a sprawling, satirical rock opera about a totalitarian future in which music is outlawed to control the population. The narrative is long, winding, and occasionally loses focus; it was improvised in a weekend, some of it around previously existing songs, but Zappa manages to make most of it hang together." (allmusic guide)

#517 - Dusty In Memphis, Dusty Springfield

"Sometimes memories distort or inflate the quality of recordings deemed legendary, but in the case of Dusty in Memphis, the years have only strengthened its reputation. The idea of taking England's reigning female soul queen to the home of the music she had mastered was an inspired one. The Jerry Wexler/Tom Dowd/Arif Mardin production and engineering team picked mostly perfect songs, and those that weren't so great were salvaged by Springfield's marvelous delivery and technique." (allmusic guide)

#516 - Paranoid, Black Sabbath

"Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record, it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound -- crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock -- and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics." (allmusic guide)

#515 - Stage Fright, The Band

"The treasure that is Richard Manuel's singing voice is reason enough to listen to the Band. Add in a truly one-of-kind take on the breadth of American music history, Robbie Robertson's understated brilliance as a guitar player, and the downright desperation of "Shape I'm In," and the Band's third album offers rewards you didn't even know rock 'n' roll could provide." (real music guide)

#514 - Tropical Brainstorm, Kirsty MacColl

"What makes this album so difficult to approach with much critical distance is the fact that MacColl was killed in a boating accident several months after it was completed; she died in the ocean off the coast of Mexico, one of the places that inspired the exuberant and sweet-natured music on this wonderful record. How to listen to this music in the wake of that fact? With grateful joy, one supposes." (allmusic guide)

#513 - Slow Turning, John Hiatt

"Slow Turning is an album of hard-won lessons about life and love, placing a subtle but pronounced emphasis on the nuts and bolts of family life with the mingled joys and annoyances of parenthood dominating both "Georgia Rae" and the title cut, and the newfound maturity that made Bring the Family so special is still very much in evidence." (allmusic guide)