Neil Young's "Harvest" is one of those strange albums that has achieved lasting success without ever winning the full approval of rock critics or hardcore fans. Inglis here explores the creation of the album and its lasting appeal.

Though "Nevermind" was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, "In Utero" has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves. This work tells the story behind the creation of "In Utero".

What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.

This title is one of many in a series of books which focus on epic albums of our time. Here, Joe Pernice looks at The Smith's album "Meat is Murder".

A factional novella: a place where fictional characters rub shoulders with real people, and where actual documented events thread their way through the text alongside imagined scenarios. Through the eyes of 23-year-old Greg Keltner, drug dealer, wannabe musician, and hanger-on, here, we witness the gestation and birth of an entertaining album.

The album that Brian Wilson created in an attempt to outdo the Beatles' Rubber Soul album. Worshipped by music lovers for its harmonies it is also regarded as an early demonstration of how to use the recording studio as an instrument. Brian Wilson has recently been touring the album again, playing it to thousands of devoted fans.

Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album. But, "Paul's Boutique" eventually transformed the Beasties from a fratboy novelty to hiphop giants.