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Apple Music 100 Best Albums

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Trans-Europe Express

Kraftwerk

71

The German group combined electronic experimentation with futurist philosophy.

Kraftwerk were never shy about reinventing themselves. If their electronic period began with the pinging arpeggios of 1974’s Autobahn, their synth-pop era kicked off in earnest with 1975’s Radio-Activity, where they explored shorter songs and sharper hooks. But with 1977’s Trans-Europe Express, they perfected their fusion of electronic experimentation and futurist philosophy.

A photograph of Kraftwerk.

Trans-Europe Express situated Kraftwerk as something like Germany’s answer to Andy Warhol—in music for the masses, they invented a new kind of conceptual art. The album includes some of their most consequential sounds—the title track’s melody would form the basis for Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”, while the grinding rhythm of “Metal on Metal” would help shape the birth of techno a few years later. In mood, the album is torn between boundless optimism and darker, more doubtful tones. It’s up to the listener to decide whether the blissful vocoders of closing track “Endless Endless” are genuinely hopeful or a cheeky glimpse at a post-human future.

“It is a seminal record in electronic music [and] one of my all-time favourite records. I remember smoking a joint and listening to it on really loud speakers and I thought I saw God.”

Elton John

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Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A

70

Relentlessly violent and wilfully outrageous, it still retains its power to shock, delight and enlighten.

Straight Outta Compton turned N.W.A. from a local phenomenon in LA into a nationally feared public menace. Dr. Dre’s simple but impeccably equalised production, Ice Cube’s powerhouse flow and incipient Black radicalism, Eazy-E’s sneering nihilism and MC Ren’s stolid ice grill started to shift the focus of the hip-hop universe 3,000 miles west.

“N.W.A. not only changed music, but we changed pop culture all over the world. Because we made it all right for artists to be themselves.”

Ice Cube

N.W.A

The adrenaline surge of the title track, the blaring sirens of “Fuck tha Police” and the roughshod drums of “Gangsta Gangsta” comprise nothing less than one of the most bracing opening sequences in music history. Relentlessly violent and wilfully outrageous, Straight Outta Compton arose from Los Angeles’ sprawling swap meets and dilapidated suburbs like a biblical plague, warning that hip-hop could no longer be ignored by the musical mainstream and still retains its power to shock, delight and enlighten. Ignore it at your peril.

Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A