Back in time

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – Scottish Dream Pop Masters Released Their Debut Album ‘TIGERMILK’ Today 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

6 June 2026

Scottish dream pop collective BELLE AND SEBASTIAN released their
debut LP, called TIGERMILK, on 6 June 1996, today 30 years ago.

It came out through a small Scottish label, ‘Electric Honey‘, on a limited release of
just 1,000 copies. It sold out quickly, but it took 3 years to re-release it properly
and sell over 120.000 units.

The album is named after an instrumental that did not end up on the record.
All of the songs were written by Stuart Murdoch between 1993 and 1996, and
originally performed solo on the Glasgow open mic circuit.

The LP’s cover photograph was taken by Murdoch and features his girlfriend
Joanne Kenney, who also appeared on the cover of the Dog On Wheels EP.

Pitchfork wrote: “Tigermilk is proof that pop can foster a community
without catering to elitism or attempting to be one-size-fits-all.”

TUTV: Start of a long, successful career for
the melancholic and romantic pop masters.

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RADIOHEAD Released 2nd Experimental Electro Album ‘AMNESIAC’ Today 25 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

5 June 2026

RADIOHEAD followed their electro experimental album Kid A
a year later with the equally synth exploring full-length, their 5th,
named AMNESIAC on 4 June 2001, today 25 years ago.

As with Kid A, Amnesiac incorporates influences from electronic
music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock.

The LP debuted at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US.
By October, it had sold, over 900,000 copies,
worldwide.

Rolling Stone: “Between arena tours and Number One albums, Radiohead want to get away from it all. Not a week in Goa or a summer in Provence but a more complete escape: oblivion. The songs on Amnesiac contemplate suicide, divorce, paranoia and mysterious disappearances, and the music follows them into the ether.”

Turn Up The Volume: Many thought that Thom Yorke and co would commit commercial suicide with this album and its twin brother Kid A (released a year before). I have no idea how many copies it sold. What I do know is that 25 years after it troubled many Radiohead fans, Amnesiac still sounds nothing less than amazing.

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METALLICA Cut Their Hair And Released 6th Album ‘LOAD’ Today 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

4 June 2026

Metal titans METALLICA released their
6th album LOAD on 4 June 1996, today
30 years ago.

The recording sessions were very productive, resulting in almost 30 songs being
recorded. While a double album was considered, the band decided to split the material into two albums; half appeared on Load, and the other half was released as Reload
the following year.

Metallica strayed away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound.
The group became influenced by non-metal artists during the writing process, resulting
in an array of musical styles such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, alternative rock,
and grunge.


Bam Magazine – 1996

They also changed their looks, which included short hair,
leather jackets, and make-up. Many fans disliked it.

Load received mixed reviews.

Q Magazine (British music monthly) said: “These boys set up their tents in
the darkest place of all, in the naked horror of their own heads. Metallica are
still awesome. What is new is streamlined attack, the focus and, yes, the tunes.”

The New York Times wrote: “For the first time, Metallica sounds as if
it’s looking over its shoulder, wondering where it fits in the era of grunge.”

Mixed reviews didn’t stop the album from becoming a global topper.
#1 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and all over Europe.

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MY MORNING JACKET Released Their 6th Album ‘CIRCUITAL’ Today 15 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

31 May 2026

Thus far, Kentucky rockers MY MORNING JACKET have released 10 albums
between 1999 and today, with last year’s LP ‘is’ as their most recent one.

Today, they celebrate their 6th full-length, titled CIRCUITAL‘s
15th anniversary. It was released on 31 May 2011.

It peaked at #5 in the US, selling more than 55,000 copies
in the first week. It got stuck at #60 in the UK.

The album cover is a close-up shot of a magic eye tube fitted onto vintage radio receivers from the 1930s. The purpose of tuning eyes in these radio sets was to help tune a station in at its strongest point on the dial. So when the perfect frequency was found, the magic tuning eye would be lit up all the way, like the album cover’s.

AllMusic said: “This isn’t a conventional rock album by any means, and My Morning Jacket
rarely waste an opportunity to dive down the creative rabbit hole and see what exists on the other side.

‘70s rock epics, trippy pop waltzes, piano ballads, Motown metal fusions, and orchestral
folk songs are what they come up with, and the album rarely explores the same sound twice, bouncing between amalgamated genres with purpose and a sly grin.”

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ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – Masterpiece Album ‘HEAVEN UP HERE’ Is 45

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

29 May 2026

Band: ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

Album: HEAVEN UP HERE
Their 2nd one, released on 30 May 1981,
today 45 years ago (45? Sounds unreal)

It peaked at #10 in the UK, and was their first LP
to chart on the US Billboard 200, at #1984.

In the liner notes for the 2003 remastered version of the album, lead singer 
Ian McCulloch said he constantly had The Velvet Underground‘s What Goes On 
in the back of his mind.

He also stated that the band wanted to record a soul album. In the same liner notes, bassist Les Pattinson said that the band was often lazy and hence had hired rehearsal space at the Ministry in Liverpool.

He said this made them work harder and develop “language” in the rhythm. McCulloch considers Heaven Up Here to be guitarist Will Sergeant‘s album because he was bossy
and a control freak during the recording.

NME wrote: “One of the most superior articulations of ‘rock’ form in living memory.”

TUTV: One of the (many) flabbergasting albums from one of my
all-time favorite bands (on record and on stage). Masterpiece.

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3 Big Blasts From The Past – SMASHING PUMPKINS – AIR – ROD STEWART

Posted on by JL

28 May 2026

Band: AIR
1995-present

Album: 10 000 HZ LEGEND
The French synth duo’s 2nd LP was released
on 28 May 2001, today 25 years ago.

AllMusic said: “10,000 Hz Legend is a darker work, just as contemplative
and unhurried as its predecessor, but part of a gradual move from drifting,
almost pastoral melancholia to a downright post-modern helplessness in
league with Radiohead.”

It peaked at #7 in the UK, and #3 on the US Dance Album Charts.

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Band: THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
1988–2000, 2006–present

Album: GISH
Their debut full-length. It came out
on 28 May 1991, today 35 years ago.

Rolling Stone said: “Awe-inspiring with meticulously
calculated chaos and a swirling energy.”

It went silver in the UK and platinum in the US.

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Artist: ROD STEWART
1961–present

Album: EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY
It was Rod The Mod‘s 3rd solo one, released
on 28 May 1971, today 55 years ago.

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35 Years Ago Today – JOHNNY MARR + BERNARD SUMNER = ELECTRONIC

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

27 May 2026

Former The Smiths legend Johnny Marr and New Order voice Bernard Sumner
teamed up as ELECTRONIC for a total of 3 longplayers (between 1989 and 1998)
with their eponymous debut LP as their best (to my ears). Synth-pop at its brisky
best.

It was released on 27 May 1991, today 35 years ago.
It peaked at #2 in the UK and sold more than 1 million
copies worldwide.

Vox (English music monthly) said: “Electronic is simply a 100 per cent pure
distillation of Marr and Sumner’s respective talents. Hit single ‘Get the Message’
has it in a nutshell: it breaks no new ground; it simply achieves perfection”

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HOT CHIP – British Synth-Pop Idols Released Their 2nd LP ‘THE WARNING’ Today 20 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

22 May 2026

London‘s synth-pop idols HOT CHIP released their jubilant
2nd LP THE WARNING today 20 years ago, on 22 May 2006.

With this sophomore HC created an LP that was received much more
focused and pop friendly. One critic said: “A step away from Prince and
a step towards LCD Soundsystem”.

It peaked at #43 in the UK and #13 on the US Dance Charts.

NME: “There’s something of New Order in Hot Chip. The same
mix of art school-meets-working man demeanour.”

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MARVIN GAYE – Timeless Masterclass Album ‘WHAT’S GOING ON’ Came Out Today 55 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

21 May 2026

The late soul giant MARVIN GAYE (1939-1984) released his 11th album, the
masterclass opus WHAT’S GOING ON on 21 May 1971, today 55 years ago.

It’s a concept album with most of its songs segueing into the next and has been categorized as a song cycle. The narrative established by the songs is told from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran returning to his home country to witness hatred, suffering, and injustice.

Gaye‘s introspective lyrics explore themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War.
He has also been credited with promoting awareness of ecological issues before the public outcry over them had become prominent.

The album was an immediate commercial and critical success, and came to
be viewed by music historians as a classic of 1970s soul and significant to
the development of progressive soul.

Multiple critics, musicians, and many in the general public consider What’s Going On
to be one of the greatest albums of all time and a landmark recording in popular music.

It went platinum in the UK and gold in the US.

AllMusic wrote in retrospect: “What’s Going On is not only Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece, it’s the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices, a man finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist. With What’s Going On, Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past, as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty. “

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Discography

MANIC STREET PEACHERS – Grand Mixed Emotions Opus ‘EVERYTHING MUST GO’ Released 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

20 May 2026

Welsh heroes MANIC STREET PREACHERS released their
4th album EVERYTHING MUST GO on 20 May 1996, today
30 years ago.

The first album without guitarist/lyricist Richey Edwards,
who disappeared mysteriously in February the year before.

Nicky Wire (bassist, lyricist) in an interview with The Guardian in 2016: “We always
wanted to be massive. It would have been great for Richey to have been with us at those
huge gigs. That’s the real sadness. It’s great that he is on the record with some of his lyrics thoug.


Manics on the cover of NME in 1994

James Dean Brandfield (Vocalist, guitarist) in the same interview: “Look, let’s get in
a room together as a band rather than as friends, and see what the dynamic is like without Richey. Writing a song like A Design for Life was a massive relief: it was the only way we could
be ourselves again.”

The record peaked at #2 in the UK.

NME said: “You leave feeling privileged to have experienced such a life-affirming
and tuneful bout of self-counselling, and you feel it’s done them good as well.

‘Everything Must Go’ punches at its own heavy, emotional weight – of recent memory only Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’ can spar in the same ring – but as the right hand pounds you with desolation, the left follows through with a tentative and gentle tickle of optimism.”

TUTV: My all-Manics-time favorite album. A grand mixed emotions opus. The first LP without the sadly missed Richey Edwards. Everything Must Go felt and still feels like a heart and soul tribute to him.”

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