Fiona Apple · 2020

Motordamn · 1977–1978 Spin it Again - A tight touring band in a basement studio, playing like they knew every song could be the last one the label would release.

Chilliwack · 1977 Spin it Again - A radio-friendly rock album that sounds designed, not lucky—listen to the spaces between the notes.

Beastie Boys · 1986

Mötley Crüe · 1987 Spin it Again - It took a death, a near-death, a shattered arm, and roughly two years of studio wreckage before this record finally locked in — and it sounds like exactly that.

The Wailers · 1973 Spin it Again - Clapton heard 'I Shot the Sheriff' here first, made it a hit, and the original got left in the shade — which is exactly backwards.

The Who · 1973 Spin it Again - Townshend handed the band synthesizer demos so complete the other three sometimes felt like session players — and they still made it sound like a live wire.

Cream · 1968 Spin it Again - Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were already breaking up when they played these Fillmore shows, and you can hear it.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience · 1968 Spin it Again - He was twenty-five, burning through studios in New York and London, and somehow this is still the widest-sounding record anyone has ever made.

Howlin' Wolf · 1971 Spin it Again - Sixty-one years old, kidneys failing, flown to London — and he was still the least impressed person in the room.

Prince & The Revolution · 1984 Spin it Again - He stripped the bass line out of 'When Doves Cry' at the last minute and it somehow has more bottom than anything on the radio that year.

Eighth Wonder · 1988 Spin it Again - The number seven single that should have been a number one, from a year when the machinery was working perfectly and nobody quite noticed.

Diamanda Galás · 1994 Spin it Again - She trained as a concert pianist and then decided the voice was the more dangerous instrument.

Half Japanese · 1981 Spin it Again - Two brothers from Ohio who didn't know how to play guitar made something more honest than most people who did.

Half Japanese · 1980 Spin it Again - The lo-fi kids of the nineties all owe a debt here, and none of them paid it back in full.

A Place to Bury Strangers · 2007 Spin it Again - Oliver Ackermann wired his own circuits, recorded in his own shop, and made the most destructive shoegaze record of the 2000s before anyone was paying attention.

Soundgarden · 1994 Spin it Again - Cornell had four octaves and used none of them to impress you — that restraint is why this one still holds.

Pat Benatar · 1980 Spin it Again - She had been singing in Holiday Inns two years before this, and then she went quadruple platinum.

Led Zeppelin · 1971 Spin it Again - They didn't put their name on the cover, and it still sold fifty million copies — which tells you everything about whether the music needed the marketing.

Black Sabbath · 1970 Spin it Again - Four kids from Birmingham with two days of studio time invented an entire genre and didn't notice.