Beatles

When Rubber Soul arrived in the UK on 3 December 1965, The Beatles stepped into a new phase of their creative lives, a phase that would soon define the sound and ambition of popular music. The sixth studio album from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr landed during a frantic period in their global rise, yet the work itself came from a rare four-week window where the group were free of touring, filming and radio commitments, a gift they had never been offered before.

It has now been 30 years since Bruce Springsteen released The Ghost Of Tom Joad, a stark and deeply human record that shifted him away from stadium anthems and back into the quiet, shadowy corners of American storytelling. Released on 21 November 1995, the album arrived at a moment when Springsteen had just reunited in the studio with The E Street Band for part of his Greatest Hits collection, yet he chose to follow that reunion not with bombast, but with one of the most intimate projects of his career.

Thirty years ago this month, The Rolling Stones released Stripped, a bold and intimate reinvention that arrived fresh off the Voodoo Lounge era and reminded the world that beneath the stadium spectacle, the band was - at its core - a razor-sharp rock and roll unit rooted in blues, country, and soul.

Forty years ago this month, on 11 November 1985, Pete Townshend released one of the most ambitious albums of his solo career. White City: A Novel arrived at a defining point in his artistic evolution. The Who had wound down as a touring force three years earlier, and Townshend, free from the arena-sized weight of his band's legacy, was exploring more personal and socially grounded songwriting.

Fifty years ago, Deep Purple closed one of the most turbulent chapters in rock history with Come Taste The Band. Released 7 November 1975, the record marked the final breath of the band before their split the following year, and the lone studio outing for the short-lived Mark IV line-up with Tommy Bolin on guitar. Half a century later, the album stands as one of rock's great “what if” stories, a bold reinvention from a band determined to push forward, even as its foundations were buckling.

Sixty years ago this week, Motown released a landmark that would define the sound of soul for generations. Smokey Robinson And The Miracles' ‘Going To A Go Go', issued on 1 November 1965, stands as one of the signature albums of the golden Motown era, and six decades on its legacy still rings loud.

On 14 October 1985, INXS released Listen Like Thieves, the album that cracked their international code, and 40 years on it still sounds like a band discovering the shape of its future. The fifth studio album from the Sydney six-piece spent two weeks at number one on the Australian Kent Music Report and became the launchpad that propelled them into the US Top 20, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200.