Alternative
This section covers album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from artists across alternative and indie rock, plus notes on vinyl reissues as they come out. Alternative music grew up alongside independent labels, and many of its defining albums were pressed in comparatively modest runs the first time around, which is part of why later represses and anniversary editions get treated as real events rather than routine catalog work. Expect stories about how records were actually made — home studios, small budgets, unlikely breaks — and context on the pressings collectors look for when a favorite title finally returns to vinyl.
254 STORIES
Lenny Kravitz's 'Lenny' at 25
Lenny Kravitz released his sixth album 'Lenny' on October 30, 2001, writing and performing every track himself. The record drew on a police mix-up and won him a fourth straight Grammy.
· 4 min read
Why Did Sky Ferreira Pay for Her Own Debut Album?
Sky Ferreira's debut Night Time, My Time finally arrived on October 29, 2013. Capitol Records had refused to fund further sessions, so Ferreira paid for the recording herself with modelling money.
· 3 min read
How The War on Drugs Rescued I Don't Live Here Anymore
Adam Granduciel pushed Atlantic Records to delay The War on Drugs' fifth album. He and engineer Shawn Everett then remixed and remastered it in a twelve-hour session.
· 4 min read
How Imagine Dragons Made Radioactive Unstoppable
Imagine Dragons released "Radioactive" on October 29, 2012, and almost nobody noticed at first. The single set a record for the slowest climb into the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.
· 3 min read
Why Did Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Debut Need Fig Leaves?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome arrived on October 29, 1984 as a double debut on ZTT Records. Its sleeve was so explicit the printer refused to produce it.
· 4 min read
Why Did Grace Jones Make an Album with One Song?
Grace to the Rhythm arrived in 1985 as Grace Jones's first album in three years, with eight versions of one song and a cover that called it a biography.
· 3 min read
How Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party Split Their Sound
Oingo Elfman's band released Dead Man's Party on October 28, 1985, and the album's biggest hit came from a John Hughes film soundtrack.
· 4 min read
Why Did Arcade Fire Risk Everything on Reflektor?
Arcade Fire released Reflektor on October 28, 2013, a double album recorded in a Jamaican castle that cost 1.6 million dollars and split critics and fans.
· 3 min read
Creed: How Full Circle Rebuilt a Broken Band
Creed's Full Circle, released on October 27, 2009, was the band's first studio album since 2004. It also marked the return of original bassist Brian Marshall to the lineup.
· 4 min read
Refused: How The Shape of Punk to Come Broke Punk
Refused released The Shape of Punk to Come on Burning Heart Records in 1998, then broke up after eight shows. The album became a touchstone for post-hardcore years later.
· 3 min read
How Did XTC's Skylarking Survive Its Own Making?
XTC recorded Skylarking with producer Todd Rundgren in 1986. The clashes over drum parts and song choices became part of the album's story.
· 3 min read
Japan: How a Ten-Day Album Changed Everything
Japan recorded Obscure Reflections in seven months after their debut, mixing rock with post-punk and new wave under label pressure.
· 4 min read
Why Did 10,000 Maniacs' Unplugged Album Capture a Farewell?
10,000 Maniacs taped MTV Unplugged at Sony Music Studios on April 21, 1993. The album arrived on October 26, 1993, after Natalie Merchant had already left the group.
· 3 min read
The Fall: How Dragnet Turned a Crisis Into a New Sound
The Fall released Dragnet on October 26, 1979, with only Mark E. Smith and Marc Riley left from the previous line-up and a murky sound that Cargo Studios wanted taken off the cover.
· 4 min read
How Did Robbie Williams Survive His Second Album?
Robbie Williams released I've Been Expecting You on October 26, 1998. It became the best-selling album in the United Kingdom that year despite a lawsuit over one borrowed line.
· 4 min read
Why Does The Cure's First Live Album Still Matter?
Concert: The Cure Live, released on October 26, 1984, captured the English post-punk band mid-tour behind The Top. The cassette edition added a bonus album of rarities from 1977 to 1984.
· 3 min read
Why Did Joni Mitchell Paint Herself as Van Gogh?
Joni Mitchell's fifteenth studio album, Turbulent Indigo, arrived on October 25, 1994. Its cover recast her own face in the style of Vincent van Gogh.
· 4 min read
How Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" Survived a Ban
Frankie Goes to Hollywood's debut single "Relax" arrived on ZTT Records in October 1983. A BBC ban two months later helped turn it into the best-selling UK debut single in history.
· 3 min read
How Incubus Left Nü-Metal Behind on Morning View
Incubus recorded Morning View in a Malibu house in spring 2001, deliberately leaving nü-metal behind for alternative rock. The album came out on October 23, 2001, on Epic and Immortal Records.
· 4 min read
Why Did Nirvana's First European Show Matter?
Nirvana played its first European concert on October 23, 1989, at the Riverside club in Newcastle, on a double headlining tour with Seattle band Tad.
· 4 min read
How Did My Chemical Romance Survive The Black Parade?
My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, a concept album about a dying cancer patient called the Patient.
· 4 min read
Pulp's We Love Life: The Album That Almost Wasn't
Pulp's seventh album We Love Life arrived on Island Records on October 22, 2001, after stalled sessions and a producer change nearly ended the record.
· 4 min read
How Foo Fighters Scrapped a Million Dollars and Made One by One
Foo Fighters spent over a million dollars on sessions for One by One, then scrapped 29 songs. The band re-recorded the album in twelve days at Dave Grohl's home studio in Virginia.
· 3 min read
Lana Del Rey's Blue Banisters, the Album She Didn't Want You to Hear
Lana Del Rey released Blue Banisters on October 22, 2021, with almost no promotion after deleting her social media accounts a month earlier.
· 4 min read