John Prine · 1971 · The mailman who wrote 'Sam Stone' and 'Angel from Montgomery' before anyone knew his name.

Led Zeppelin · 1975 Spin it Again - Four sides of a double album recorded in a freezing stone mansion with a generator humming under the tape, and it's the best thing they ever did by about a mile.

Iggy Pop · 1977 Spin it Again - Iggy Pop and David Bowie in Berlin, making the coldest, most influential album of 1977 on a busted tape machine and leftover cocaine.

Little Feat · 1972 Spin it Again - A 1972 record from Little Feat that rewards close listening.

Steely Dan · 1972 Spin it Again - They came from New York to LA, hired the best session players money could buy, and made a debut so airtight it's still hissing 50 years later.

George Benson · 1976 Spin it Again - Tommy LiPuma and Al Schmitt gave Benson a bed of velvet that his guitar rode for an entire generation's easy listening.

Laraaji · 1978 Spin it Again - Recorded in a New York apartment on a rented zither and a TEAC reel-to-reel, this is the sound of a man finding his voice by letting the instrument teach him.

Syd Barrett · 1970 Spin it Again - David Gilmour and Roger Waters tried to hold it together in the studio. You can hear them failing.

Tim Buckley · 1970 Spin it Again - A man who had already abandoned folk for jazz then abandoned jazz for the outer reaches of the human voice.

The Stooges · 1973 Spin it Again - Iggy Pop and David Bowie fought over the mix, and the version that won sounds like a machine gun being recorded inside a bathroom.

The Who · 1971 Spin it Again - Pete Townshend spent a year building a spaceship and what came out was a concrete pylon in a slag heap.

Bill Evans · 1979 Spin it Again - Bill Evans with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera, plus horns, recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1978 — this is the album that proves Evans could still lead a quintet into sublime territory without losing the intimacy that defined him.

Bill Evans · 1979 Spin it Again - Bill Evans recorded this with horns he barely needed and a trio that knew exactly how to follow him into silence.

The Modern Lovers · 1976 Spin it Again - John Cale produced these sessions in two studios across the country, and the band fell apart before the tapes ever saw a pressing plant — which might be why it sounds so alive.

Big Star · 1978 Spin it Again - Chilton didn't so much record this album as bleed on the reels — and then Stax sat on the tapes for four years because nobody knew what to do with a masterpiece that sounded like a suicide note.

John Adams · 1978 Spin it Again - Minimalism’s hidden masterpiece — Adams wrote it at 31, before Nixon in China, and it still sounds like the future.

Philip Glass · 1978 Spin it Again - Philip Glass wrote an opera about a man who played the violin (badly) and never let him sing a word.

Steve Reich · 1978 Spin it Again - This is what it sounds like when eighteen people decide to breathe together, and the room becomes the instrument.

Gentle Giant · 1974 Spin it Again - This album is proof that prog could be intellectually rigorous without being boring.

King Crimson · 1974 Spin it Again - The album that nearly broke King Crimson opens with a sound like a tape machine struggling to keep its footing.