#627 - Stand Up, Jethro Tull

"Even as they began to fancy themselves as codpiece-wearing Elizabethan minstrels in the gallery, Jethro Tull was a blues-based hard-rock group, and an explosive one, at that. On Stand Up, they enjoy the best of both worlds, with lighter fare such as "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square" and a jazzy instrumental take on J. S. Bach's "Bouree" mixing nicely with the blistering rock of "A New Day Yesterday," "Nothing Is Easy," and "For a Thousand Mothers." On Stand Up, the group's second album, you can hear the band, and the grand scheme behind it, begin to solidify." (amazon editorial review)

#626 - The Chronic, Dr. Dre

"Without question one of the most important and influential albums ever, The Chronic brought Gangsta Rap to MTV and made superstars out of Dre, Snoop, and Tha Dogg Pound. Fuelled by Dre's revolutionary G-Funk production, the album merged streetwise rhymes with irresistible beats, spawning several platinum hits and inspiring a legion of wannabe Gs worldwide." (real music guide)

#625 - Muswell Hillbillies, The Kinks

"The finest Kinks album of the 1970s offers alternately wistful, humorous and melancholic views on modern life. The album's title describes its English Pub Rock Played By Folks From West Virginia sound - which might have been the birth of Alt Country, but the Kinks were always too smart to be pigeonholed." (real music guide)

#624 - Freedom, Neil Young

"Neil Young is famous for scrapping completed albums and substituting hastily recorded ones in radically different styles. Freedom, which was a major critical and commercial comeback after a decade that had confused reviewers and fans, seemed to be a selection of the best tracks from several different unissued Young projects." (allmusic guide)

#623 - Under A Blood Red Sky, U2

"As if it wasn't enough that, by 1983, U2 were making "important" records that were actually good, they were regularly blowing people's minds during live shows. This EP captures the group exploding into a phenomenon onstage. Bono is sweating, screaming and flipping his mullet around, feeling every second of every song, and it's OK because you want to be there, too." (real music guide)

#622 - The Beauty Of The Rain, Dar Williams

"The Beauty of the Rain is Dar Williams' first recording that truly expands upon the sound of the album before it. For the first time in her career, Williams no longer pushed too hard to readjust her sound, but instead embraced and built upon it. The result is her most comfortable and confident recording to date and the first time Williams did not appear to be ashamed of her previous work." (allmusic guide) (Rhapsody link to album with artist commentary)