Thriller - Michael Jackson

This Album, from 1983 needs little introduction, it sounds fresh and original today. With over 60 million copies sold worldwide, if you don't own it you know someone who does. Following up on the very successful Off The Wall Jackson again teamed up with producer Quincy Jones and together they delivered Thriller. 7 of it's 9 tracks charted in the Top Ten in the US and it's still selling. We'll be featuring many of these old familiars on Thursdays Livedrive
Track listing
1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Baby Be Mine
3. Girl Is Mine, The - (with Paul McCartney)
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. Lady In My Life, The

Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos

Little Earthquakes, released in 1992 set the bar high for female singer songwriters throughout the Nineties. Tori Amos gave us a deeply personal, challenging and often humorous debut and introduced an original and very individual talent. Crucify is probably the best known track, but other standouts include the ode to independence Winter, the jaunty and hopeful Happy Phantom and Precious, dealing with the desire to "break and wash away" painful memories. The overall result is a magical album for Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing
1. Crucify
2. Girl
3. Silent All These Years
4. Precious Things
5. Winter
6. Happy Phantom
7. China
8. Leather
9. Mother
10. Tear In Your Hand
11. Me And A Gun
12. Little Earthquakes

Doolittle - The Pixies

Released in 1989 this was the second studio Album from Boston alternative rock gods The Pixies and followed their magnificent but commercially unsuccessful Surfer Rosa. The album helped launch producer Gil Norton who has since worked with Foo Fighters, Maximo Park, Ben Kweller among many others

Doolittle was critically acclaimed, although it didn't sell very well and its real impact wasn't felt until after the Pixies disbanded. It laid the foundations to American grunge clearly establishing the quite-loud dynamic that was copied by Nirvana. PJ Harvey has a special fondness for Doolittle describing the songwriting as "amazing".

The album is filled with surrealist imagery, the opening track Debaser is based on a film by Slavador Dali and Luis Brunel. The biggest hit from the album was Here Comes Your Man which reached Number 3 in the US Modern Rock Charts. Essentially a pop song, believe it or not its about Hobos who die on a train during an earthquake in California. A song about God and garbage is one of their most popular. Monkey Gone to Heaven is environmentalism put to steaming grunge guitars and some screaming outros about the number of the beast. Its fantastic stuff!!

Doolittle is one of the quintessential alternative rock albums of the 1980's and has inspired a generation of musicians its sound is now the back bone of the new crop of Bands such as Maximo Park and a deluge of others. Thankfully the Pixies have reformed to show these whipper snappers how it should be done.

Track Listing
1. Debaser
2. Tame
3. Wave Of Mutilation
4. I Bleed
5. Here Comes Your Man
6. Dead
7. Monkey Gone To Heaven
8. Mr. Grieves
9. Crackity Jones
10. La La Love You
11. No. 13 Baby
12. There Goes My Gun
13. Hey
14. Silver
15. Gouge Away

Parallel Lines - Blondie

Bred from the New York Punk scene, 60's girl band referencing Blondie kissed the dying gasps of New Wave good bye and hooked up with British Pop producer Mike Chapman to produce 1978's Parallel Lines. It is the bands own songwriting that solidified their position at the top of the British and American charts with Picture This, Heart Of Glass and One Way Or Another all providing Hits. State of the art Pop/Rock pounds out on Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing
1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away And Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6. I Know But I Don't Know
7. 11:59
8. Will Anything Happen?
9. Sunday Girl
10. Heart Of Glass
11. I'm Gonna Love You Too
12. Just Go Away