October 24th
album anniversaries

Jerry Hall stands on the rocks at South Stack, Anglesey, on the cover of Siren, photographed by Graham Hughes from sketches by Antony Price. Roxy Music recorded their fifth studio album at AIR Studios in London between June and September 1975, with Chris Thomas producing and Steve Nye engineering.

“Love Is the Drug” opens the record and reached number two in Britain, also becoming the band’s highest-charting single in America. “Both Ends Burning” followed as a second single in December, while “Sentimental Fool” and the closing “Just Another High” both run past six minutes.

A diesel pump recorded at the Stanlow Oil Refinery sets the rhythm at the start of “Stanlow”, the closing track of Organisation. Dindisc wanted a new Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark album before Christmas, and most of it was written in June and July 1980.

Former Gong bassist Mike Howlett became the first producer the band had worked with, and session drummer Malcolm Holmes joined as a full member. “Enola Gay” was the only single and reached number eight in Britain, yet much of the record is darker, with “Statues” partly inspired by Ian Curtis and “Promise” carrying Paul Humphreys’ first lead vocal on an OMD album.

“Thirteen songs from the worst year of Stephin’s life” is how Merge Records describes Get Lost. Stephin Merritt wrote and produced them, with Claudia Gonson on drums, ukulele and vocals, Sam Davol on cello and flute, and John Woo on guitar and banjo. Robert Scott shares the writing credit on “The Village in the Morning”.

Natalie Lithwick is credited with French vocals, and the spoken French on “Smoke and Mirrors” was translated by Andrew Beaujon. The sequence runs from “Famous” to “The Dreaming Moon”. “All the Umbrellas in London” and “Why I Cry” appeared as singles in 1995. The Divine Comedy later recorded “Love Is Lighter Than Air”, and Tracey Thorn covered “Smoke and Mirrors”.

NRG Recordings in North Hollywood was the base for Hybrid Theory, recorded between March and July 2000 with Don Gilmore producing and Andy Wallace mixing. Chester Bennington completed the line-up: recommended by Jeff Blue, he had recorded new vocals over the band’s instrumental tapes.

The twelve songs run to less than 38 minutes, from the opening “Papercut” through “One Step Closer” and “Crawling” to “In the End”, all four later issued as singles. Mike Shinoda handles the rap verses and co-wrote the lyrics with Bennington, while Joe Hahn adds turntables, samples and backing vocals.

“I’m Like a Bird” went out as a single in September 2000, a month before Whoa, Nelly!, and later won Nelly Furtado the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She produced most of the album with Gerald Eaton and Brian West, recording between 1999 and 2000 at studios in Toronto, Mississauga and Tarzana.

The record opens with “Hey, Man!” and passes through “Baby Girl”, “Legend” and “Turn Off the Light” before closing on “Scared of You”. Furtado and Jon Levine produced “Well, Well” together. The album reached number two in both Canada and Britain.

In December 2024 Lily Allen made West End Girl, recording it in sixteen days with Blue May, her musical director and regular collaborator. Apple Music’s notes describe a record shaped by the end of her marriage and pitched between fact and fiction.

The title track opens the fourteen songs. “Ruminating” turns to drum and bass for its racing thoughts, “Relapse” deals with the struggle to stay sober, and “Nonmonogamummy” and “Dallas Major” bring a sardonic humour to a set that the same notes call mostly weary and sad.