October 18th
album anniversaries

“She Sells Sanctuary” was already out as a single in May 1985, before the album around it had been recorded. The Cult made Love that July and August at Jacob’s Studios in Farnham and Olympic Studios in London, with Steve Brown producing for Beggars Banquet.

“Rain” and “Revolution” followed as singles, giving the band three UK Top 40 hits and their commercial breakthrough. Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy wrote all ten songs, from the opening “Nirvana” to “Black Angel” at the close. The album reached number four in the UK and stayed on the chart for 22 weeks.

Davitt Sigerson produced Everything for The Bangles and Columbia Records. The album opens with “In Your Room”, which went out as a single that October and reached the US Top 5, and its thirteen songs go on through “Bell Jar”, “Glitter Years” and “Crash and Burn”.

“Eternal Flame” followed as a single in January 1989 and topped the charts in almost every major country. The album itself reached number five in the UK and number fifteen in the US, where it was certified platinum. It was also the last Bangles record before a break that lasted from 1989 until 1998.

H. R. Giger supplied the sculpture on the sleeve, Life Support 1993, an update of a piece he had made in the late 1960s. Carcass recorded Heartwork at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool between May and June 1993, with Colin Richardson producing.

Earache released the album in the UK, and Columbia followed in the US in January 1994, the band’s only major-label release. “Buried Dreams” opens the sequence and the title track sits fourth, ahead of “Embodiment” and “This Mortal Coil”. Guitarist Michael Amott left after the recording and went on to found Spiritual Beggars.

Opening for The xx in 2017, Sam Shepherd played half-hour improvised sets alone with a Buchla synthesiser, and those nights pushed him towards Crush. He wrote and recorded the album in about five weeks, against the five years he had spent on Elaenia.

The same Buchla and a Korg drum machine formed the basis of the studio sessions, and the record leaves out the live guitars and drums heard on its predecessor. “LesAlpx” arrived first as a single, “Falaise” opens the sequence and two parts of “Apoptose” close it. Mixmag placed Crush second in its list of the best albums of 2019.

Seven months after Part 1, Foals completed their two-part project with this sixth album. The band produced it with Brett Shaw, and “Black Bull” led the singles, ahead of “The Runner” and “Into the Surf”.

The sequence begins with the brief “Red Desert” and ends with “Neptune”, which runs past ten minutes. Yannis Philippakis described Part 2 as more direct and confrontational than its companion. It became the band’s first number one album in the UK, and it was the last to feature keyboard player Edwin Congreave, who left in 2021.

“Lights Camera Action” led the way in late September, three weeks before Tension II arrived through BMG and Kylie Minogue’s own company, Darenote. The album holds thirteen songs, nine of them new studio recordings.

The other four gather recent collaborations: “Edge of Saturday Night” with The Blessed Madonna, “My Oh My” with Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo, “Midnight Ride” with Orville Peck and Diplo, and “Dance Alone” with Sia. “Someone for Me” followed as a single in January 2025. Tension II debuted at number one in both the UK and Australia.