Kraftwerk are often talked about in terms of their influence alone—which was, of course, considerable, given they more or less invented electronic music and gave a big helping hand to hip-hop too. But The Man-Machine, their seventh album, shows how brilliant their music is in itself. Just like the cyborg melding that the title suggests, the songs combine robotic rhythms with gleaming, affecting melodies. And with the opening track itself called “The Robots,” it can’t be said that Kraftwerk don’t know how to poke fun at their buttoned-up image.
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd (1975)
Prog rock has a bad reputation, but not all of it succumbs to the stereotype of pretentious concept albums and 10-minute keyboard solos. Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here has more than a famous cover—it contains some of the band’s best music. The elegiac, understated title track balances out the album’s more complex moments: in particular, the seven-part epic “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” a tribute to the band’s troubled former singer Syd Barrett.
Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division (1979)
The first of Joy Division’s two albums, and the only one released while singer Ian Curtis was alive, has an even more famous cover—Peter Saville’s design has been replicated and parodied on thousands (probably millions) of T-shirts around the world. The music itself is dark, echoing and utterly magnetic, reflecting the bleak, post-industrial northern England the band grew up in. Just as you see the cover everywhere, you can hear the influence of the music in so much of what followed.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
