Andy Price

From its buzzing guitar drone to its clattering drums, Ticket to Ride was certainly a step forward for the Beatles sonically - but did it really invent heavy rock?

It was a song that unravelled the psychology of hedonism - with an arrangement that came together in under an hour

Coldplay’s first stab at a euphoric crowd-pleaser was a clear indication that a stadium-filling future awaited

Released over a year ahead of its effervescent parent album Colors, Wow demonstrated that Beck’s penchant for genre-blurring was still in rude health

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who will be the fabbest of these four?

A cover of the song would later be a Christmas number one for Gary Jules, but the dense arrangement of the original remains hugely impressive

NAMM 2026: This year will mark 125 years of the premiere music technology expo, and its CEO is keen to put people first

It might be over ten years old, but nothing soundtracks an emotional pivot quite like Space Song

Bowie’s heartbreaking Lazarus was a rumination on the imminent end of a life lived to the full - and a lesson in how to channel the bleakest situation into enduring music

People initially labelled them a fabricated band, but we’ve got the Monkees to thank for being pop's first ever synth players

The melancholy masterpiece was a highlight of the group’s last album to date, and was accompanied by a surreal Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video

Bowie’s staggeringly prophetic 1999 Newsnight interview revealed his astute awareness of how the internet was on the verge of irreparably changing popular culture

A record allegedly driven by supernatural forces, Prince swiftly disowned the stark funk of the Black Album - but what caused him to pivot so dramatically?

Waits’ gritty Rain Dogs depicted a dark vision of New York’s underbelly, and was shaped by its ‘junkyard orchestra’ of inventive instrumentation

I Will Follow You into the Dark would shatter millions of millennial hearts, eventually becoming Death Cab's biggest song

The Rage Against the Machine axe-man’s most memorable moment saw him emulate a DJ scratch breakdown using a trick that few have fully mastered

What happens if you cross the inspiration of Pet Sounds with lyrics that convey a sense of resignation, and frame it within one of the most soothing arrangements of all time?

Hailed as one of this year’s most brilliant records, Lily Allen’s West End Girl’s rapid production process was overseen by the multi-talented Blue May, who spoke to us this week about how this remarkable album came to be