Experiment IV

Named after the Liverpool street where John Lennon spent his formative years with Aunt Mimi, the 1986 posthumous collection brought together recordings from two very different periods of his solo career. With Yoko Ono overseeing the release and Andy Warhol supplying the artwork, Menlove Ave. remains one of the more personal chapters in Lennon's posthumous catalogue.

Nick Cave once named the 1986 release his favourite Bad Seeds album, while Mick Harvey regarded the sessions as the moment the band found its musical identity. Forty years on, Your Funeral... My Trial remains one of the defining records of Nick Cave's early career.

Kim Wilde's fifth album gave her the biggest American success of her career, taking her version of The Supremes' 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Released in November 1986, Another Step also captured an artist expanding beyond her established synth-pop sound and taking a greater role in her songwriting.

Released on 27 October 1986, XTC's eighth studio album brought together Andy Partridge's songwriting, Todd Rundgren's production and a carefully constructed cycle of songs about love, nature, belief and mortality. A difficult studio relationship and the unexpected American success of "Dear God" helped shape the story of one of the band's most enduring records.

The Stranglers' ninth studio album reached No. 16 in the UK, below the chart peaks of its predecessors, but produced one of the band's most enduring songs. Released in October 1986, Dreamtime also carried a title drawn from Indigenous Australian cultural traditions.

Released in the UK on 20 October 1986, Get Close delivered the Pretenders' two biggest Mainstream Rock hits and marked a turbulent turning point that left Chrissie Hynde as the sole remaining original member.

Four decades on from its October 1986 release, Billy Idol's third studio album remains a sharp snapshot of mid-80s rock ambition, commercial muscle and the guitar-driven sound that defined his peak years.