The Best Disco Album In The World 1979
Bartlett Vallee
The Best Disco Album in the World is a European compilation album released by WEA Records in 1979 comprising many recent disco-orientated hits. In the UK, the album was released in June and charted the following month, reaching No.1 in the albums chart for six consecutive weeks.[1] It was the longest-running No.1 album of the year and was certified platinum by the BPI.[2][3] In other parts of Europe, the track listing was altered.[4]
The best albums of 1979 reflect the changing landscape of music at the end of the decade. Punk, post-punk, R&B, disco, funk, and much more stood alongside one another. In some cases, like The Police and The Clash, they jumbled up together into a single band. Donna Summer put out one of her best albums. Fleetwood Mac followed up a tightly constructed masterpiece with a sprawling follow-up. In short, the albums of 1979 have something for just about any sort of music fan. Dive in to our list of just a few of the best.
Mitchell enlisted jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Jaco Pastorius for this tribute to the bebop pioneer, which incorporates work that Mitchell and Mingus had begun together before he passed away.
In defiance of the obsolescence that the album title implies, Young set out to prove that if rust works hard, he works harder. Immensely versatile and lyrically vivid, the artist makes a strong case for his own permanence.
Rocking a fuzzy bucket hat, chunky gold chain and a fur-lined, poofy pink jacket, Missy Elliott sits on a cinder block in front of a brick wall, seated next to an old-school boombox. Like the thematic content of Under Construction, the cover harks back to the golden age of hip-hop while still moving boldly into the future; despite the imagery, Elliott leans forward, eying something in the distance, always looking for the next thing.
The pop polymath and electronic music pioneer broke new ground with his synth- and sequencer-heavy solo album (separate from his work with YMO) and the cover art gives a vaguely surrealist impression of his creative mind; Hosono gazes serenely into the future as his hairline disappears into a pine forest skyline, with a glorious, heavenly collection of clouds hanging overhead.
Leading up to her debut album, the genre-blurring FKA Twigs made a name for herself on stunning visuals: music videos, EP covers, and even magazine shoots. This porcelain-sheen headshot was an exquisite introduction to the wonder of her music.
In 1969, artist Andy Warhol was approached by the Rolling Stones to create the cover art for their upcoming greatest hits album, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2). Whatever Warhol created for the set was seemingly never used, but his concept of employing a working zipper on an album cover came to fruition on the cover of Sticky Fingers. With photographs by Warhol (focused on the bulging jeans of a still-unidentified male model) and graphic design by Craig Braun, the set would earn a Grammy Award nomination for best album cover.
A nod to the Afrofuturism of artists like Sun Ra, the artwork for Fear of a Black Planet was conceived by Chuck D, who imagined the titular Black planet eclipsing earth. Appropriately, given the interplanetary concept, the group hired NASA illustrator B.E. Johnson to draw the final design.
The innocence of a baby-sized Biggie on the cover of his classic debut Ready to Die contradicted the lyrical content inside. But that was the point: the album traced his life from beginning to a mournful, foreshadowing end, using the innocence of a child to illustrate how a cruel world imprints on unmolded minds.
Joy Division's seminal album Unknown Pleasures celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2019, with 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs devoting an entire show to the classic LP and playing the record on vinyl and in full (available from 11.30am on Friday 14 June).
The sepia cover photo played up to the fantasy, featuring the band dressed in dapper 1930s garb, arranged around the piano in a plush hotel suite. Bassist Bernard Edwards is slumped over the keyboard while the rest of the group shiftily eyeball the camera as if they are suspects in a Raymond Chandler whodunit. A study in a decadence for the end of the disco decade.
While other British post-punk bands were edging towards harsh, industrial designs, Throbbing Gristle - the harshest, most industrial post-punk band of them all - marked themselves out as true musical rebels by going in the opposite direction. To complement an album that toyed with elements of jazz and exotica in an effort to keep their audience guessing, the band posed smiling in their Sunday best by a picturesque stretch of English coastline.
COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.
Unconcerned with the melodic trends of the moment, a fresh new face from Charlotte named DaBaby confidently zigged when everyone else was zagging. On March 1, he dropped a bomb with Baby on Baby, a 13-track project full of hard-hitting rap songs that knifed through a sea of sing-song rappers. Cut from the same cloth as traditional rap superstars like 50 Cent and Ludacris, who combined powerful vocal deliveries with oversize personalities, DaBaby emerged as a fully formed artist, armed with cartoonish catchphrases, witty songwriting, and a reputation for wildly entertaining music videos.
Depending on how you viewed it, To Pimp a Butterfly was one of two things. To most, Kendrick's third full-length was the moment in which he bucked the mainstream and decided to follow his vision to create an abrasive, yet important, piece of art that spoke viscerally about the issues he believed to be afflicting the group of people with which he most closely identified.
To Pimp a Butterfly and the album of outtakes that followed it were such aberrations from the center of rap that many wondered if Kendrick would ever return. Would he even continue to rap? Would he strike out as a jazz fusion artist? Would he take up spoken word full time? Would he ever answer the shots taken at him by Big Sean and Drake? Would he focus his time on more pressing issues and, by default, cede the crown to one of the aforementioned competitors? Did he even give a fuck about being the best rapper alive?
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Drake, Young Thug, Killer Mike
While Nicki controlled the year with the buildup to her album The Pinkprint, her Young Money counterpart Drake did the same with nothing more than the OVO SoundCloud. Throughout the year Drake would swoop in, drop a new song (or several), and basically nothing else in hip-hop would matter for the next few days. Drake confidently enjoyed another year of his prime by effortlessly communicating success (and its perils) with candor and wit.
His current statue isn't best explained in his raps but by an image: The cover art to the Jay Z-assisted "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe (Remix)" featured a young Kobe standing next to an aging Jordan. No one thought the analogy was far off. Time for everybody to bow down to King Kendrick Lamar (ya bish)!
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Drake, Danny Brown, 2 Chainz
The year is still young. Will K-Dot's reign on top be shorter than leprechauns? For Drake, once again the throne is for the taking. His third album is on the way and songs like "Started From the Bottom" and "5 AM in Toronto" show that he can still turn it on like a light switch whenever he fancies.
Even in an off year, Drake was on one. Take Care dropped late in 2011, so Drizzy was able to ride excellent singles like "HYFR,""Take Care," and "The Motto" in 2012, which made him a consensus pick for Best Rapper Alive honors by themselves. And even without those songs Drake was still an omnipotent force in hip-hop who dominated the rap conversation.
Jay Z once boasted, "For the right price I can even make yo shit tighter." In 2012, Drake didn't just make people's songs tighter, he became a kingmaker. Drizzy unleashed one monster guest verse after another and gave away Billboard hits that introduced buzzing artists to a wider audience. Rule of thumb: You're definitely in the Best Rapper Alive conversation if people will listen to any artist's song just because you're on it. And if you can make any song you're on a possible anthem, then you probably are the Best Rapper Alive.
There's a certain arrogance to the way Drizzy effortlessly bequeathed bangers to 2 Chainz, A$AP Rocky, and French Montana as if he had an endless stash of hits to give (who knows, maybe he does?). To understand his impact, consider that even throwaway lines like "Good ain't good enough" sparked intense debate about perceived shots at G.O.O.D. Music. More importantly, consider that if Drake had strapped together all his major guest verses and added a couple of strong solo cuts, he would've had a third album better than most rap releases last year.
Honorable Mentions: Kendrick Lamar, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross
We have no knock against Kendrick Lamar but are obliged to point out that he was relatively quiet for most of 2012 before dropping good kid, m.A.A.d. city. However, last year more and more fans got hip to his stellar 2011 release, Section.80. Still, most were left wondering if K-Dot could pull off a classic debut. But more on that later.
Meanwhile, 2 Chainz' momentum from 2011's T.R.U. REALigion hit its mainstream peak in 2012 as casual fans got hip to "Spend It." Chainz also went on a guest verse killing spree, which reached its climax when he spit the verse of the year on G.O.O.D. Music's "Mercy" and had Kanye telling him to start charging 100K for a 16. You know you're having a special year when you not only spit the last verse on the premier posse cut but Kanye is the one who throws up the alley.
c80f0f1006