AllMusic Staff Pick Frank Sinatra Songs for Swingin' Lovers!

Songs for Swingin' Lovers almost feels like a greatest hits album, with each song perfectly executed at the height of Sinatra's ring-a-ding-ding popularity. Nelson Riddle's orchestration matches Sinatra's bravado note for note, and while his previous masterpiece, In the Wee Small Hours, was downbeat and wonderfully melancholy, this album soars off the runway into the blue skies, perfect for a romantic evening of cocktails and hijinks.

- Zac Johnson

AllMusic Staff Pick: Dorothy Ashby Hip Harp

Released in 1958, the second album from groundbreaking jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby is a mellow, grooving affair. Along with a sturdy rhythm section and flutist Frank Wess, Ashby uses her deftly controlled harp to steer the album's seven laid-back selections. Ashby would later venture into psychedelic soul jazz, but on Hip Harp the moods are strictly cool.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick: Marvin Gaye Let's Get It On

After brilliantly surveying the social, political, and spiritual landscape with What's Going On, Marvin Gaye turned to more intimate matters with Let's Get It On, a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy. This album was released 50 years ago today.

-Jason Ankeny

AllMusic Staff Pick: Stevie Wonder Innervisions

When Stevie Wonder applied his tremendous songwriting talents to the unsettled social morass that was the early '70s, he produced one of his greatest, most important works, a rich panoply of songs addressing drugs, spirituality, political ethics, the unnecessary perils of urban life, and what looked to be the failure of the '60s dream -- all set within a collection of charts as funky and catchy as any he'd written before. Innervisions was released 50 years ago today. - John Bush

AllMusic Staff Picks Original Soundtrack Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola's impressionistic 2003 cityscape of a film was made all the more dreamlike by its soundtrack, which is heavy on textural electronics and liminal rock from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. Along with incidental sounds and the MBV-esque song "City Girl" from Shields, the perfectly sequenced soundtrack includes moments from Death in Vegas, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Air, and other big names in ambient pop.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick: The Isley Brothers 3 + 3

Turning 50 years old today, 3 + 3 proved to be a turning point in the Isley Brothers' creative direction. Moving from a trio to a sextet would be enough to change the sound of any group, but the addition of the supremely funky bassist Marvin Isley and particularly the Hendrix-infused guitar work of Ernie Isley hustled the band into a heavier, funkier, and slinkier direction. - Zac Johnson

AllMusic Staff Pick: Kylie Minogue X

Hindsight favors the pop icon's tenth LP, which closed out her wildly successful 2000s era. Though not as well-received upon release as its two predecessors, it's aged incredibly well. Packed with timely electro-inspired dance-pop similar to contemporary releases by Madonna, Gwen, Gaga, and Britney, it's pure dancefloor filler. Everything here is great, but start with the sweaty "Like a Drug" and the euphoric trio of "In My Arms," "No More Rain," and "The One."

- Neil Z. Yeung

AllMusic Staff Pick Low Secret Name

Secret Name, released 25 years ago today, is unadulterated lo-fi/sadcore, semi-orchestrated pop/rock par excellence. What Low do particularly well is stay grounded, close to the earth and real. The music is so warm it's a literal caress from the speakers -- and that's no mean feat in their notoriously chilly genre.

- Denise Sullivan

AllMusic Staff Pick: Sonic Youth Dirty

Even at the peak of their popularity, Sonic Youth defied expectations. Dirty arrived at the height of the grunge revolution they helped usher in, but the album's mix of reflective interludes ("JC," "Theresa's Sound World") and charged rock ("100%," "Sugar Kane") once again set them apart from the crowd.

- Heather Phares

AllMusic Staff Pick:Sinéad O'Connor The Lion and the Cobra

Sinéad O'Connor's debut was a sensation upon its 1987 release, and it remains a distinctive record, finding a major talent striving to achieve her own voice. Like many debuts, it's entirely possible to hear her influences, from Peter Gabriel to Prince and contemporary rap, but what's striking about the record is how she synthesizes these into her own sound -- an eerie, expansive sound heavy on atmosphere and tortured passion. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

AllMusic Staff Pick Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets

Eno's solo debut, released 50 years ago today, is a spirited, experimental collection of unabashed pop songs on which Eno mostly reprises his Roxy Music role as "sound manipulator," taking the lead vocals but leaving much of the instrumental work to various studio cohorts. Avant-garde yet very accessible, Here Come the Warm Jets still sounds exciting, forward-looking, and densely detailed, revealing more intricacies with every play.

- Steve Huey

AllMusic Staff Pick: Buckingham Nicks Buckingham Nicks

While it will be hard to find, this lone album cut by a young and ambitious (and still romantically attached) Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham a short two years before joining Fleetwood Mac is well worth digging out for your turntable. While still unavailable commercially, this album celebrates its 50th birthday today.

- John Duffy

AllMusic Staff Pick: Tall Tall Trees Freedays

Mike Savino's first solo outing under the indie psych-folk moniker, the project's third album highlights modifications he made to his banjo while playing out solo, including pickups, looping and pedal effects, and the ability to use his banjo head as a drum. Originally intending to rely completely on his banjo gear, he eventually brought in frequent touring partner Kishi Bashi, Ween drummer Claude Coleman, Jr., and drummer Philip Mayer for finishing touches. The resulting nine songs ultimately deliver heartfelt music that's at least as charming as it is innovative.

- Marcy Donelson

AllMusic Staff Pick: Jorge Ben A Tábua de Esmeralda

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, A Tábua de Esmeralda (together with Jorge Ben's 1976 album África Brasil) could be said to represent the creative culmination of his astonishing '70s. The music that Ben recorded during this period had tremendous influence on Brazilian musicians at that time and to a great extent helped to ignite the creative explosion that took place in the Brazilian samba rock and samba soul scenes during the '70s.

- Philip Jandovský

AllMusic Staff Pick: Digable Planets Blowout Comb

Second album from jazz-rap trio Digable Planets was more musically rich and expressive than their already impressive 1993 debut just one year earlier. Where the debut spent its time describing mellow sunny days in Brooklyn while coasting over lazy jazz loops, Blowout Comb felt like a mellow sunny day, with deeper production, more organic textures, and hints of dub echo and thick percussion adding to the album's undeniable groove.

- Fred Thomas

AllMusic Staff Pick Mott the Hoople The Hoople

Released 50 years ago today, Mott the Hoople's first album without guitarist and sounding board Mick Ralphs still delivers glammy punchy rock with Ian Hunter virtually alone at the helm. The hits hit hard, including the piano driven rave-up "The Golden Age of Rock & Roll" featuring a throwback '50s horn section, and the undeniable orgiastic strut of "Roll Away the Stone."

- Zac Johnson