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Apple Music 100 Best Albums

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I Put a Spell on You

Nina Simone

88

A singular interpreter at the peak of her powers, shape-shifting across styles.

I Put a Spell on You became one of Nina Simone’s most successful albums, and its title track—a string-laden, melodramatic cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ campy rock classic—would turn out to be her biggest single since her debut. But it was “Feeling Good” that ultimately became the album’s best-known track—the scale of the horn section and orchestra are no match for Simone’s vocal force on the completely reimagined show tune. It’s the rare minor-key celebratory anthem.

“She can do everything as if she means it.”

Brittany Howard

By putting her stamp on so many different types of songs, Simone fought against the somewhat limiting designation of “jazz singer”. “Pop singer” hardly was the best replacement, as evidenced by the way Simone’s musical edge never dulls, no matter how many layers of orchestration get added atop it. She was simply a singular interpreter, never hampered by the ways other artists might sing a song before or after her. Whether reimagining musical numbers (“Beautiful Land”), temporarily transforming into a chanteuse (“Ne Me Quitte Pas”, one of three tracks originally written in French) or casually tossing up familiar-sounding R&B songs like “Gimme Some”, Simone sounds equally comfortable—and equally, indelibly herself.

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Blue Lines

Massive Attack

87

From Bristol, UK, a pioneering mix of soothing soul and simmering paranoia.

Inspired by the reggae music of the Caribbean diaspora in their native Bristol as much as by nascent UK rap, DJ and MC collective Massive Attack forged a new aesthetic by mixing remarkable clarity with the paranoid fug of weed smoke. This tension between unease and harmony continues throughout their debut, but ultimately it’s the album’s most well-known track, “Unfinished Sympathy”, where they reach their peak: Pairing luscious string orchestrations with eerie vocal samples and singer Shara Nelson’s yearning vocal lamenting an unrequited love, Massive Attack create five minutes of soul music that stirs as much as it soothes.

The group would go on to be labelled innovators of a new laidback genre called “trip-hop”, spawning dozens of imitators and hundreds of chill-out playlists. Yet there is nothing relaxed about Blue Lines: Amid its euphoric melodies is an ominous vocal, and between its groove there is a bassline breaking almost to distortion. There is always a reason to look back over your shoulder.

“I’ve never been an idealist, but I felt it could change other people’s lives because of what we were doing.”

3D

Massive Attack

Blue Lines by Massive Attack