Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Bryter Layter (1971)Bryter Layter (1971)Released 1 Jan 1971Nick Drake's second album wraps his melancholic songs in sparkling chamber arrangements, and the contrast is the story. Robert Kirby's baroque string charts, horns and the members of Fairport Convention give the record a bright, almost sunny surface, while John Cale's celesta and piano on Northern…0
  2. 2Astral Weeks (1968)Astral Weeks (1968)Released 1 Jan 1968Recorded in a handful of New York sessions with jazz players who had barely heard the songs, Astral Weeks turns Van Morrison's stream-of-consciousness Belfast memories into impressionistic chamber folk. Richard Davis's roaming double bass, John Payne's flute and Warren Smith Jr.'s vibraphone answer…0
  3. 3Graceland (1986)Graceland (1986)Released 1 Jan 1986Facing creative deadlock, Paul Simon travelled to Johannesburg to collaborate with South African musicians, letting their buoyant mbaqanga rhythms dictate the storytelling. Bakithi Kumalo's acrobatic fretless basslines and Ray Phiri's sparkling, syncopated guitar riffs actively dramatise the…0
  4. 4Sail Away (1972)Sail Away (1972)Released 1 Jan 1972Randy Newman's masterclass in musical irony pairs biting, morally bankrupt narrators with lush, Aaron Copland-esque orchestral splendour. In the title track, sweeping cinematic strings and majestic brass lend an appalling, seductive beauty to a slave trader's sales pitch, forcing the listener to…0
  5. 5The Party (2016)The Party (2016)Released 1 Jan 2016Chronicling the awkward encounters and unspoken desires across a single house party, Andy Shauf arranged and performed every instrument himself. Warm clarinets, muted drums and subtle string flourishes weave between the verses like eavesdropping guests, puncturing social bluster with quiet…0
  6. 6Titanic Rising (2019)Titanic Rising (2019)Released 1 Jan 2019Natalie Mering, recording as Weyes Blood, frames modern environmental and emotional dread in lavish 1970s-style chamber pop. Swelling strings, slide guitar and church-like piano billow around her rich, Karen Carpenter-like voice, so the arrangements literally sound like sinking serenely into deep…0
  7. 7Swordfishtrombones (1983)Swordfishtrombones (1983)Released 1 Jan 1983Shucking off piano-ballad conventions, Tom Waits rebuilt his sonic universe around Harry Partch's microtonal ideas and Brechtian theatre. Marimbas, parade snare drums, pump organs and muted bass trombones on tracks like Underground construct a junkyard carnival world that perfectly matches his…0
  8. 8All Mirrors (2019)All Mirrors (2019)Released 1 Jan 2019Originally tracked as sparse solo sketches, Angel Olsen teamed with arranger Jherek Bischoff to drape her songs of identity and heartbreak in a fourteen-piece string section and towering modular synths. The orchestral swells surge and recede like tidal waves, mirroring the narrator's struggle…0
  9. 9Want One (2003)Want One (2003)Released 1 Jan 2003Melding nineteenth-century European grand opera with theatrical pop, Rufus Wainwright crafts arrangements as flamboyant and wounded as his lyrics. Tumbling horn sections, harp flourishes and lush string arrangements mirror his recovery from addiction, celebrating decadent ambition while laying bare…0
  10. 10I Love You, Honeybear (2015)I Love You, Honeybear (2015)Released 1 Jan 2015Josh Tillman, as Father John Misty, sets his frightened, funny account of falling in love inside widescreen Hollywood strings and mariachi brass. The opulence is half a joke at the expense of old-fashioned love ballads and half sincere, and that double meaning is the whole point: the arrangement…0