Moby_Dick, Author at Lossless Music Archives

The Beach Boys – Albums Collection

The Beach Boys - Albums Collection

Beginning their career as the most popular surf band in the nation, the Beach Boys finally emerged by 1966 as America’s preeminent pop group, the only act able to challenge (for a brief time) the overarching success of the Beatles with both mainstream listeners and the critical community. Continue reading “The Beach Boys – Albums Collection”

Alanis Morissette – Discography (1991-2020)

Alanis Morissette - Discography (1991-2020)

Pitched halfway between glossy mainstream pop and angst-ridden alternative rock, Alanis Morissette’s American debut Jagged Little Pill caught the zeitgeist of the mid-’90s, splitting the difference between Gen-X cynicism and self-help actualization. Continue reading “Alanis Morissette – Discography (1991-2020)”

The Cranberries – Discography

The Cranberries - Discography

Combining the melodic jangle of post-Smiths indie guitar pop with the lilting, trance-inducing sonic textures of late-’80s dream pop and adding a slight Celtic tint, the Cranberries became one of the more successful groups to emerge from the pre-Brit-pop indie scene of the early ’90s. Led by vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, whose keening, powerful voice was the most distinctive element of the group’s sound, they initially had little impact in the United Kingdom. Continue reading “The Cranberries – Discography”

Phil Collins – Discography

Phil Collins - Discography

Phil Collins’ status as one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the ’80s and beyond was probably as much a surprise to him as it was to many others. Balding and diminutive, the Genesis drummer-turned-vocalist was almost 30 years old when his first solo single, “In the Air Tonight,” became a number two hit in his native U.K. (the song was a Top 20 hit in the U.S.). Between 1984 and 1990, Collins had a string of 13 straight U.S. Top Ten hits. Continue reading “Phil Collins – Discography”

Van Der Graaf Generator – Albums Collection

Van Der Graaf Generator - Albums Collection

An eye-opening trip to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith’s list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine that creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era’s preeminent art rock groups. Continue reading “Van Der Graaf Generator – Albums Collection”

Elton John – Discography (1969-2019)

Elton John - Discography (1969-2019)

Elton John was the biggest pop star of the ’70s, grabbing headlines and generating hits throughout the world. As it turned out, this was merely the first act in a remarkable career that kept him at the top of the charts for decades. He charted a Top 40 hit single every year between 1970 and 1996, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times, and mold the times to fit him. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter, John soon revealed he could also craft Beatles-like pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. Continue reading “Elton John – Discography (1969-2019)”

Harry Nilsson – Albums Collection

Harry Nilsson - Albums Collection

Although he synthesized disparate elements of both rock and pop traditions, singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson was at heart a maverick whose allegiance belonged to neither. He’s best-known for his versions of other people’s songs (Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’,” Badfinger’s “Without You,” an entire album of Randy Newman songs), but he was a skilled composer and is recognized as a pop craftsman of the first order. Continue reading “Harry Nilsson – Albums Collection”

Olivia Newton-John – Albums Collection

Olivia Newton-John - Albums Collection

Olivia Newton-John skillfully made the transition from popular country-pop singer to popular mainstream soft rock singer, becoming one of the most successful vocalists of the ’70s in the process. The transition itself wasn’t much of a stretch — her early-’70s hits “I Honestly Love You” and “Have You Never Been Mellow” were country only in the loosest sense — yet the extent of her success in both fields was remarkable. Continue reading “Olivia Newton-John – Albums Collection”

Neil Young – Discography (1968-2019)

Neil Young - Discography (1968-2019)

After Neil Young left the California folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield in 1968, he slowly established himself as one of the most influential and idiosyncratic singer/songwriters of his generation. Young’s body of work ranks second only to Bob Dylan in terms of depth, and he was able to sustain his critical reputation, as well as record sales, for a longer period of time than Dylan, partially because of his willfully perverse work ethic. Continue reading “Neil Young – Discography (1968-2019)”

Roxette, Marie Fredriksson & Per Gessle – Discography (1986 – 2016)

Roxette, Marie Fredriksson & Per Gessle - Discography (1986 - 2016)

Roxette were one of the biggest global pop acts of the ’90s, selling over 75 million records around the world and dominating the charts with songs like “The Look,” “Listen to Your Heart,” “Joyride,” and “It Must Have Been Love,” all four of which hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Hailing from Halmstad, Sweden, Roxette are a duo featuring vocalist Marie Fredriksson and songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Per Gessle. Fredriksson and Gessle first met in the late ’70s, when she was a member of the pop combo Strul & Ma Mas Barn and he played with Gyllene Tider, one of Sweden’s biggest groups of the late ’70s and early ’80s. In 1981, after Fredriksson’s group broke up, she joined Gyllene Tider as backing vocalist for a concert tour, and later worked with them in the studio in the same capacity. Continue reading “Roxette, Marie Fredriksson & Per Gessle – Discography (1986 – 2016)”

Roger Hodgson – Albums Collection (1984 – 2010)

Roger Hodgson - Albums Collection (1984 - 2010)

Best known for his stint fronting art pop hitmakers Supertramp, Roger Hodgson was born in Portsmouth, England, on March 21, 1950. While growing up in Oxford, Hodgson started playing guitar before he was a teenager, and was soon writing songs while at boarding school. He began recording during the late ’60s, issuing a single in 1969 as part of the session band Argosy with Elton John (then known as Reg Dwight). Continue reading “Roger Hodgson – Albums Collection (1984 – 2010)”

John Coltrane – Albums Collection

John Coltrane - Albums Collection

Despite a relatively brief career (he first came to notice as a sideman at age 29 in 1955, formally launched a solo career at 33 in 1960, and was dead at 40 in 1967), saxophonist John Coltrane was among the most important, and most controversial, figures in jazz. It seems amazing that his period of greatest activity was so short, not only because he recorded prolifically, but also because, taking advantage of his fame, the record companies that recorded him as a sideman in the 1950s frequently reissued those recordings under his name and there has been a wealth of posthumously released material as well. Continue reading “John Coltrane – Albums Collection”

Diana Ross – Discography (1970-2012)

Diana Ross - Discography (1970-2012)

As a solo artist, Diana Ross is one of the most successful female singers of the rock era. If you factor in her work as the lead singer of the Supremes in the 1960s, she may be the most successful. With her friends Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Barbara Martin, Ross formed the Primettes vocal quartet in 1959. In 1960, they were signed to local Motown Records, changing their name to the Supremes in 1961. Continue reading “Diana Ross – Discography (1970-2012)”

Dido – Discography (1999 – 2019)

Dido - Discography (1999 - 2019)

Electronic pop singer/songwriter Dido burst onto the international mainstream at the close of the ’90s, issuing two of the U.K.’s best-selling albums of all time. Her debut, 1999’s No Angel, topped charts around the globe and sold over 20 million copies. The follow-up, 2003’s Life for Rent, performed just as well, bolstered by her comforting blend of electronic production and pastoral heart, which was heard on singles such as “White Flag,” her highest-charting and best-selling to date. Continue reading “Dido – Discography (1999 – 2019)”

Muse – Discography (1999 – 2015)

Muse - Discography (1999 - 2015)

Muse’s fusion of progressive rock, electronica, and Radiohead-influenced experimentation have helped them sell millions of records and top charts worldwide. It’s all crafted by guitarist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, and drummer Dominic Howard, a trio of friends who began playing music together in their hometown of Teignmouth, Devon; they started the first incarnation of the band at the age of 13, changing the name of the group from Gothic Plague to Fixed Penalty to Rocket Baby Dolls as time passed. Continue reading “Muse – Discography (1999 – 2015)”