Classic Rock Magazine

A New World Record added Olympian levels of commercial success to Jeff Lynne's mix of melodic craft and production nous

The polar opposite to Mick Jagger’s synthesised solo clatter, Keith Richards' Talk Is Cheap brimmed with soul

Everyone seems to love that title track. The rest? Your mileage may vary

Combining Massive Attack with Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins was always a great elevator pitch

Joined by Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson, Motörhead's Another Perfect Day has increased in stature over the years – just don't mention the shorts

Brian Wilson's celebrated masterpiece, reappraised

Future Shock found Gillan with a free-spirited sound that brought to mind nothing so much as an update on vintage Deep Purple

More than just a flashy sidekick?

Ian Dury: Equal parts music-hall scamp, art school troubadour, estuary poet and new-wave figurehead

Desperate for major label success, The Tubes turned to David Foster, who had just struck gold with Earth, Wind And Fire

Mahavishnu Orchestra's The Inner Mounting Flame was the first jazz-rock album that found favour among significant numbers of rock aficionados

What happened to Jeff Lynne in between the Idle Race and the Electric Light Orchestra

Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover's endearing all-star 1974 period piece revisited

Hated by their US record company, Twisted Sister's You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll was a mission statement and a launchpad

Extreme's third album, the three-part III Sides To Every Story, was the sound of a band over-reaching themselves

Stick a pin in Eric Clapton’s late-period work and you’re liable to hit a stinker, but for sheer lack of invention, Pilgrim is routinely held up as his lowest ebb

For their second album, The Band relocated from upstate New York to California and turned Sammy Davis Jr.’s poolhouse into a makeshift studio

The trousers were tight, the guitars were wielded like weapons, but The Datsuns' second album hasn't aged well

Two decades on and people still can't decide whether Permission To Land is parody, pastiche or perfection

The final entry into Black Sabbath's original golden run, Sabotage is often hailed as the band's heaviest and most fearless album. But is it really?

Made between the much-derided Burnin' Sky and the much-derided Rough Diamonds, Desolation Angels was heralded as a return to form - but was it?

Dixie Chicken solidified Little Feat's reputation before later albums saw them drifting towards a jazzier sound

After being let go by Whitesnake, John Sykes returned with supergroup Blue Murder and a debut album that failed at the box office