Metallica - 'Master of Puppets'

It was the band’s first on a major label, their last with the late, great Cliff Burton (who died in a bus accident in Europe on the tour promoting the album) and their first to go gold, eventually selling six million copies. And while more than three decades later the band faithful have become one incredibly fractured bunch, their love for this one is unanimous. As it should be. Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, it is undoubtedly one of the greatest metal albums ever made.

Released March 3, 1986.

Karen Anne Carpenter (3/2/1950 - 2/4/1983)

Milestones: 'Stain'

Living Colour's third album—and first with bassist Doug Wimbush—was nearly the band’s last, as they broke up after its tour. And while they managed to reunite a decade later, with a new album, this one was out of print for yet another decade over legal issues. So, it’s not been smooth sailing for a record that was darker, harder and more intense than their previous output, garnering many negative reviews along the way.

A challenging listen indeed, but a rewarding one depending on your frame of mind and willingness to experience both the album and the band in a new light.

Released March 2, 1993.

Lou Reed (3/2/1942 - 10/27/2013)

Milestones: 'Dark Side of the Moon'

There’s very little, if anything, left to be said about this legendary and ubiquitous collection of songs. The vision of its creators, the reach of its influence, the majesty of its songs and the gargantuan sales numbers have all been repeatedly covered with much better eloquence and detail than I ever could. Suffice to say it is not only our favorite of theirs but we truly love this record more and more as the years go by.

Released March 1, 1973.

Flashback: 1983

The 'sweet and fun' counterpart, if you will, to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", this tune makes a brief but memorable appearance in a scene in which the ladies are getting dressed for a night on the town in Valley Girl [1983].

Milestones: 'War'

Emotionally and sonically raw, it’s widely considered U2's first politically-oriented album, mostly due to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day”, as well as the record’s title itself. But despite scathing initial reviews in the UK (where it eventually dethroned Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ from the top spot on the charts) it became their first album to go gold in the US, while performances from the subsequent tour cemented their reputation as a live band to be reckoned with.

A 25th anniversary remastered edition notwithstanding, time has been kinder critically than sonically to this one, which is just as well.

Released February 28, 1983.

Karma Police: Radiohead and Lara Del Rey Face Off

Amy X. Wang, who is not very adept at concealing a grudge against theft accusations towards hip hop, has written yet another article for Quartz with a blatant, not very subtle agenda that skimps on facts (there is no Radiohead vs Lana Del Rey lawsuit as of yet), equates court results with industry standards (ex: failing to note how some instances in which Led Zeppelin escaped a punitive verdict have nothing to do with music but legal technicalities), links to articles as iffy and badly sourced as her own, and has the fucking temerity to call all of jazz “essentially a study in plagiarism”. Fuck, feels like a headache coming on.

Unfortunately, only us music geeks take this sort of thing seriously but we've always been irked by and called out folks whose writing can be kindly and euphemistically referred to as "problematic", reaching a large audience under the imprimatur of respectability that a serious publication grants their nonsense, mainly because it spreads misinformation at best; and at worse plain ol' ignorance.

Radiohead’s Lawsuit Against Lana Del Rey Shows How All Music Is Stolen