September 12th
album anniversaries

Wish You Were Here places the two halves of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” around songs about absence and the music business. David Gilmour’s sustained guitar lines and Richard Wright’s keyboards give that frame a slow, spacious shape.

Roy Harper sings the record-company salesman’s part in “Have a Cigar.” The acoustic title song then brings the album back to a more personal distance between people, without resolving the loss around it.

Scary Monsters brings Robert Fripp’s guitar into David Bowie’s increasingly sharp and unsettled pop arrangements. “Ashes to Ashes” revisits Major Tom through synthesizers, shifting rhythms and a vocal that sounds caught between confession and performance.

“Fashion” pushes the rhythm section forward, while “Teenage Wildlife” takes a longer, more expansive route. The album keeps Bowie’s experimental instincts inside songs with unusually clear hooks.

Aerosmith recorded Pump at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver with producer Bruce Fairbairn. “Love in an Elevator” turns the band’s interlocking guitars into a huge chorus, while “Janie’s Got a Gun” takes a darker narrative approach.

Jim Vallance contributed to “Young Lust” and “The Other Side.” Across those songs, horns, keyboards and short instrumental links enlarge the arrangements without obscuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s central partnership.

Death Magnetic brought Rick Rubin into Metallica’s studio process and returned long instrumental passages and Kirk Hammett’s solos to the foreground. “That Was Just Your Life” sets the pattern with an extended introduction and tightly cut rhythm-guitar figures.

“The Day That Never Comes” moves from a restrained opening toward a sustained instrumental surge. “The Unforgiven III” adds piano and orchestral color to the album’s otherwise aggressive attack.

Play starts a new sequence in Ed Sheeran's catalogue after the mathematical symbols of his earlier albums. Its title fits a record that moves between direct acoustic songwriting and bright, rhythm-led pop, with “Azizam” making that outward-looking approach especially clear.

The familiar voice and guitar remain easy to recognise even when the arrangements grow larger. “Old Phone” brings the focus back to memory and personal connection, offering a quieter counterweight to the record's danceable moments and keeping the changes in sound tied to individual songs.

Life in Slow Motion gives David Gray's songwriting a broader setting, with piano, strings and a fuller band sound around his familiar grainy voice. “The One I Love” provides the immediate lift, while “Alibi” opens the record at a more patient pace.

Working with producer Marius de Vries, Gray lets the arrangements carry some of the emotional weight without losing the songs underneath. “Now and Always” stretches that approach into a longer form, and the title track closes the album with a quieter sense of distance and reflection.