Best Ever Author Paco Picopiedra

"Animal Collective stopped hiding behind noise and let the songs breathe—the result was 2005's most emotionally direct experimental rock album, a record about love that actually sounds like love."

"Joe McPhee walked into a SUNY gymnasium in 1970 with a tenor sax and a pocket trumpet and recorded one of the most emotionally direct free jazz statements ever committed to tape."

"Before the concept albums consumed them, Pink Floyd made their most texturally adventurous record—a 23-minute song about absolutely nothing that somehow contains everything."

"Before punk had a name, Patti Smith walked into Electric Lady Studios and recorded an album that fused Rimbaud with rock and roll—the 1975 debut that proved poetry could sweat."

"Sly Stone made a funk album that forgot how to dance, and it's the truest thing he ever recorded."

"Steve Reich built a piece of music that breathes, and fifty years later it's still inhaling."

"Marc Bolan made glam rock's perfect album by refusing to take any of it seriously."

"The Cure made an album about drowning and it sounds like the most beautiful way to go."

"The Jesus and Mary Chain made feedback sound like a love song."

"The Smiths saved their biggest sounds for their final goodbye."