November 8th
album anniversaries

Four symbols, one chosen by each member, stood in for a title when Led Zeppelin’s fourth album appeared; Atlantic opposed the idea, and the band held firm. Sessions began at Island Studios in London, and most of the record was then made at Headley Grange in Hampshire with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.

The house shaped the sound: for “When the Levee Breaks” the drums were recorded in the lobby with microphones hung above the staircase. Sandy Denny duets with Robert Plant on “The Battle of Evermore”, the only female vocal on a Led Zeppelin recording, and “Stairway to Heaven” follows it.

Michel Legrand composed the music for Yentl and Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics, so Barbra Streisand’s soundtrack carries one team’s songs from start to finish. “Where Is It Written?” opens the sequence, with “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” following straight after.

“The Way He Makes Me Feel” was chosen as the lead single and returns later in a studio version. “A Piece of Sky” arrives near the end of the film sequence. Columbia’s release reached number nine on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in the US.

Almost 80,000 people were at Donington Park on 22 August 1992 when Iron Maiden headlined the Monsters of Rock festival for the second time, during the Fear of the Dark tour. Steve Harris produced the recording, which runs from “Be Quick or Be Dead” to a closing “Running Free” with Adrian Smith joining the band.

The first edition was a limited triple vinyl set, with a double CD issued only in seven countries, and it spent a single week on the UK album chart. The 1998 reissue replaced the plain white sleeve with Mark Wilkinson’s concert poster.

Short instrumental passages open and close many songs on The Main Ingredient, a device Pete Rock carried over from Mecca and the Soul Brother. His beats draw on soul and jazz samples, with crisp drums and vocal scratches mostly drawn from Biz Markie.

“Sun Won’t Come Out” is built on Harvey Scales’s song of the same name. “Take You There” and “Searching” were among the duo’s singles from the record, and “Take You There” reached the Hot 100. Elektra’s release peaked at number nine on the R&B albums chart and number 51 on the Billboard 200.

Stuart Howard produced and mixed Amnioverse himself, his fourth studio album as Lapalux and the follow-up to Ruinism. AllMusic’s review heard sounds of the elements alongside modular synthesisers, with the music moving between near stillness and fractured rhythm.

Guest voices are spread through the sequence: Louisahhh on the opener “Oblivion”, JFDR on “Thin Air” and “The Lux Quadrant”, and Pawws on the closing “ESC”. Mike Lesirge adds Rhodes piano to “Voltaic Acid”, and “Earth” went out first as a single in October 2019, ahead of Brainfeeder’s release of the album.

Bobby Gillespie’s late father, Robert Gillespie Senior, appears on the cover of Come Ahead in a photograph by the artist Jim Lambie. The title is Glaswegian, the phrase said when someone threatens to fight you, and Gillespie has described conflict, inner or outer, as the album’s running theme.

The songs began as acoustic sketches that David Holmes encouraged him to develop. Holmes produced the record, working with guitarist Andrew Innes in Belfast, London and Los Angeles. “Love Insurrection” led the way with Curtis Mayfield-style funk and soul, and the album was Primal Scream’s first in eight years.