Posted on Saturday 19th October 2024 at 12:00
Each year, the music industry and music aficionados everywhere come together to recognise National Album Day - a day dedicated to celebrating the music format in all its glory. And this year is no exception, as the national day is back once again for its seventh edition on Saturday 19th October 2024.
The theme for National Album Day 2024 is Great British Groups! Great Britain has undoubtedly produced some of the most celebrated and talented musicians in history, from The Beatles (named BBC Radio 2's Ultimate British Group) to The Smiths, Black Sabbath to Spice Girls.
So join us as we celebrate our favourite albums produced by Great British Groups this National Album Day. And be sure to let us know on social media which Great British albums are your top picks - you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and Threads.
This album is all killer, no filler! I had it on a loop on my iPod to and from school as a teen. That feeling of being a true fan and fancying all the members is something that's never quite as intense as when you're a teenager, but every time I hear anything from this album, it still fills me with joy - and makes me feel like a cheeky teenager!
The Cure’s seminal album Disintegration has been widely adored and critically lauded since its release in 1989: a triumph in cementing the goth icons’ dark and thematic sound. The band really hit their stride musically and commercially here, creating the most perfect personification of melancholy, romance, and pain - all wrapped up in a mammoth 71 minutes and 47 seconds. The album may be older than I am, but since discovering it as a teen and being immediately hooked on the band as a whole, I found instantly that no other album had resonated with me so profoundly, and remains that way to this day. If it’s your first time listening to the album, heed Robert Smith’s advice as stated in the LP’s liner notes: "this album was mixed to be played loud... so turn it up!"
I still remember the first time I ever heard this album at 11 years old; it was like I was hearing music for the first time in my life, my mind was blown. To this day, I can be in a terrible mood, and I stick this album on and it makes me feel invincible! I couldn’t wait to hear what else they had, and they didn’t disappoint!
With a doom-laden sound like nothing that came before, Black Sabbath laid the foundations for the following six decades of heavy music. Released only 217 days after their self-titled debut, Paranoid is their masterpiece. Classic songs like the title track, “Iron Man”, and “War Pigs” are ingrained in the pop culture canon; the rest of the album contains not a second of filler either. Hugely influential, and always listenable.
Art-pop outfit Let’s Eat Grandma - made up of duo Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton - released their third LP Two Ribbons in 2022, four years after its predecessor. Such a large gap between records was largely caused by the death of band member Jenny Hollingworth’s boyfriend in 2019, leading to an increasingly strained relationship between the pair.
While Walton and Hollingworth worked through their grief and mended a relationship they’d nurtured since they were just four years old, Two Ribbons was formed, and from this came an incredibly sophisticated and heart wrenching record, which eloquently conveys both the emotional turmoil of grief and the warm elation of enduring lifelong friendship. It’s triumphant, upbeat, and wildly moving, and it quickly became one of my favourites.
This album is quintessentially British in everything it is, written on the Thames, it marked Small Faces’ departure from the British mod movement yet has such an English feel to it. Whistles, cockney accents & dodgy haircuts. It’s wonderfully psychedelic and nuanced, yet powerful and really demonstrated the range of Marriot’s mighty voice. Big and soulful, yet playful and hilarious, it’s an absolute scorcher of a record. Six weeks at number one ain’t bad either!
Ezra Collective is nothing short of a revelation in the jazz world, and I can’t get enough of their sound. They’re like a musical blender, mixing jazz, soul, Afrobeat, and hip-hop into a vibrant smoothie that’s impossible not to groove to. With this album also hosting some massive features, they're beautifully placed within the album, from Jorja Smith to Loyle Carner and Kokoroko. In my opinion, they have been redefining what jazz can be, appealing not just to jazz aficionados but to anyone who loves music, for the better part of a decade.
Side project of Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, The Last Shadow Puppets’ sophomore album Everything You’ve Come To Expect was the duo’s grown up return, and it’s a flawless tracklisting. Orchestral, swooning, suave and sexy, this album - in my mind - is the finest record in both musicians’ careers and took some really bold leaps into unchartered territories musically. It’s so cinematic and alluring, I truly couldn’t get enough of this on first release and still wows me eight years later.
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