Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Plastic Beach (2010)Plastic Beach (2010)Released Jan 1, 2010The Gorillaz story strands its band on an island of discarded material in the South Pacific. Let the opening wash of orchestra run into “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” where Snoop Dogg greets you over a much drier beat. The island keeps changing with each new voice, down to the…0
  2. 2The ArchAndroid (2010)The ArchAndroid (2010)Released Jan 1, 2010Janelle Monáe’s Cindi Mayweather story reaches its second and third suites here. Each suite begins with an overture, so the shift into “Suite III Overture” feels like moving into a different part of Metropolis. The sprint through “Dance or Die” early on and the long final stretch of “BabopbyeYa”…0
  3. 3Neptune's Lair (1999)Neptune's Lair (1999)Released Jan 1, 1999Drexciya’s electro sketches suggest a settlement beneath the water. Begin at “Temple of Dos De Agua,” then let the skipping drum patterns and submerged-sounding synths on “Andreaen Sand Dunes” fill in the terrain. Titles give you locations, while the sounds make the distance between them feel…0
  4. 4Splendor & Misery (2016)Splendor & Misery (2016)Released Jan 1, 2016A survivor of an uprising and an onboard computer are the main characters on clipping.’s interstellar cargo ship. Listen to the alarm-like jolts and machinery rhythms around Daveed Diggs’s voice. When gospel-like voices take over on “Story 5,” it feels like stepping out of the ship’s mechanical…0
  5. 5Deltron 3030 (2000)Deltron 3030 (2000)Released Jan 1, 2000Del the Funky Homosapien enters a future of rap battles, hostile institutions, and new technology. The grand opening of “3030” makes his city feel immense. Later, the loping “Time Keeps on Slipping” reduces its scale to a voice worrying about time itself. Follow those shifts in size to hear an…0
  6. 6Mothership Connection (1975)Mothership Connection (1975)Released Jan 1, 1975Parliament opens a broadcast from somewhere in space and turns it into a party. Hear the radio greeting in “P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” give way to the invitation in “Mothership Connection (Star Child).” By “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker),” the repeating crowd responses make…0
  7. 7Discovery (2001)Discovery (2001)Released Jan 1, 2001Daft Punk’s album later became the soundtrack to a film about musicians from another planet. Pairing the two makes the busy bounce of “One More Time” and the guitar rush of “Aerodynamic” play like movement through adjoining scenes. Even with the screen off, those sudden changes of texture give the…0
  8. 8Equinoxe Infinity (2018)Equinoxe Infinity (2018)Released Jan 1, 2018Jean-Michel Jarre returns to the mysterious Watchers from the cover of Équinoxe, giving the listener two possible worlds through alternate covers. The ten movements leave space for you to imagine what the figures are watching. Try the low, expectant texture of “The Watchers” and the brighter pulse…0
  9. 9Spirit World Field Guide (2020)Spirit World Field Guide (2020)Released Jan 1, 2020Aesop Rock frames this album as a field guide to a world beside our own. On “The Gates,” his rapid voice seems to notice more than the beat can fit, while “Jumping Coffin” makes strange encounters sound like instructions a traveler might pass along. It rewards listening as a sequence of dispatches…0
  10. 10Time (1981)Time (1981)Released Jan 1, 1981Electric Light Orchestra’s spoken “Prologue” opens onto the rushing chorus of “Twilight,” as if a door into 2095 has opened. “Yours Truly, 2095” introduces a computerized companion, and “Ticket to the Moon” lets the homesickness of the traveler catch up with the novelty. The sequence gives the same…0