Chuck Klosterman wrote about the cultural impact of the deaths of rock stars in Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story. Some artists, like Jeff Buckley, achieved more fame after death. There’s an added sense of mystery when someone is here one day and simply gone the next.
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Though not as tragic, the same holds true for the bands breaking up, or artists retreating from the public—especially when they only give us one single glorious album. Music fans lament what might have been. But the voices and sounds of vanishing ghosts live on in the recordings.
A great musical moment, like life, is fleeting. Music is most impactful when it mirrors the real-life experiences of its listeners. To see yourself in someone else is powerful. So the cultural impact of the albums below still resonates. Instead of focusing on what didn’t happen, just play the albums loudly and be grateful someone pressed record.
6. The La’s, The La’s (1990)
Noel Gallagher once said Oasis would finish what The La’s started. Britpop peaked in the mid-’90s. But four years before Britpop, The La’s’ “There She Goes” became a UK Top 20 hit. Singer and songwriter Lee Mavers had obsessed over the band’s recordings to the point where nothing would satisfy him. Producer Steve Lillywhite had to piece the album together, and upon release, the band immediately rejected it. Mavers retreated to his home in Liverpool, and The La’s were finished. Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard has called “There She Goes” a perfect song. Gallagher said it was his favorite song from the ’90s. Then he wrote “Wonderwall.”
5. The Postal Service, Give Up (2003)
Less than a year before his band Death Cab for Cutie released their breakthrough album Transatlanticism, singer Ben Gibbard released Give Up with his side project, The Postal Service. Named for the long-distance collaboration between Gibbard and electronic musician Jimmy Tamborello, The Postal Service’s debut album was released on Sub Pop in 2003. With little promotion, the album caught indie fire and eventually reached Platinum status, selling more than a million copies. Give Up is a collection of glitchy songs about love, loneliness, and friendship. Like OK Computer, it inspired a stream of imitators. Though they could repeat Give Up’s musical blueprint, the copycats faded like the filtered echoes in Tamborello’s production.
4. Derek & the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
Derek & the Dominos represents Eric Clapton’s best work. Even Clapton naysayers acknowledge Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a masterpiece. Thankfully, Duane Allman’s brilliance was captured here before he died the following year at the age of 24. “Layla” was born from Clapton’s obsession with George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Credit the drugs or the exhilaration of chasing his friend’s wife—either way, Clapton was at the height of his musical powers. Clapton, keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon, and bassist Carl Radle also contributed to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. And like Harrison’s album title, so did Derek & the Dominos.
3. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
Ms. Lauryn Hill’s one and only solo album is a tale of opposites. Fugees, her former group, imploded at the height of their success following the smash hit album The Score (1996). The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was born from pain—from the tumult of Fugees and her relationship with bandmate Wyclef Jean. But the album was also bathed in beauty. Hill was pregnant with her first child when she created one of the most revered hip-hop albums in history. She became the first hip-hop artist to win a Grammy for Album of the Year. Miseducation is one of the best-selling albums of all time, as well. Hill made a definitive, groundbreaking album, and then she stopped.
2. Jeff Buckley, Grace (1994)
Jeff Buckley created a heartbreaking masterpiece with his debut album, Grace. On it, he turned Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” into an eternal hymn. Buckley sang like a desperate, tortured angel, delivering an album full of emotional gifts. A virtuosic musician, Buckley was interested in intellectual and emotional pursuits.
Grace wasn’t a commercial success initially; many critics at the time dismissed the album. Meanwhile, artists ranging from Jimmy Page to Thom Yorke saw the light. After Buckley’s accidental drowning in 1997, Grace experienced a renaissance in how the world viewed the album. Buckley left the world with a near-perfect record and a few sketches of what would have come if he had survived the strength of the Mississippi River. “Last Goodbye” sounded very different the day Jeff Buckley died.
1. Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
Sex Pistols accomplished everything they needed to with one album. They took their cue from the New York Dolls in America and changed youth culture in England. In less than three years, they kick-started an emerging U.K. punk scene, pissed off the queen, and created a furious soundtrack to class rage and frustration.
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Johnny Rotten and company were so toxic, the U.K. charts wouldn’t even print the band’s name. And the group was infamously self-destructing from the beginning. Sid Vicious—who could barely play and would be dead at 21—replaced original bassist Glen Matlock. According to guitarist Steve Jones, media antics overtook the music. However, Never Mind the Bollocks became a seminal album. Sex Pistols didn’t have a future. But they left a legacy.
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