Thank Me Later is the debut studio album by Canadian recording artist Drake, released on June 15, 2010, by Aspire Music Group, Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Universal Motown Records. Production for the album took place at various recording studios during 2009 to 2010 and was mostly produced by longtime collaborators Noah "40" Shebib and Boi-1da. It also featured contributions from Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, The-Dream, and Kanye West, among others.
Thank Me Later has a languorous, ambient production that incorporates moody synthesizers, sparse beats, obscured keyboards, minor keys, and subtle arrangements. Thematically, the album focuses on Drake's introduction to fame and his romances over the course of confessional, club-oriented, and sexual songs. Drake's emotionally transparent, self-deprecating lyrics are delivered in both rapped and subtly sung verses, and explore feelings of doubt, insecurity, and heartbreak.
Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented Drake's personal themes and drew musical comparisons to the works of hip hop artists Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Discovery is the second studio album by French house duo Daft Punk, released on 3 March 2001, by Virgin Records. It marks a shift in the sound from Chicago house, which they were previously known for, to disco, post-disco, garage house, and synthpop-inspired house. The album later became the soundtrack of the anime film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which was a collaboration between Daft Punk, Leiji Matsumoto, and Toei Animation. All of the music videos for the tracks on the album are segments of the film, which follows a story of a kidnapped extraterrestrial band.
Discovery is recognized as a concept album in reviews by New Musical Express and Spin magazines. Early versions of the album included a "Daft Club" membership card. The card included a code which granted access to an online music service, which featured tracks later released on the album of the same name and Alive 1997.

Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records, as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary music. Recording sessions took place between April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones.
Of the album's nine tracks, four were written by Jackson. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three of the singles had music videos released. "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady in My Life" were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with sales over 65 million copies worldwide according to various sources. In the United States, it also tied with the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits as the best-selling album at 29 million units shipped.

Curtain Call: The Hits is the first greatest hits compilation album released by American rapper Eminem by Shady Records. It was released on December 6, 2005, under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. The album collects Eminem's most popular songs, as well as four new tracks, including a live version of "Stan" featuring Elton John from the 43rd Grammy Awards, plus new songs "Fack", "When I'm Gone" and "Shake That" featuring Nate Dogg.
The album was certified double-platinum in the US, triple-platinum in Australia and the UK, and quadruple-platinum in New Zealand. It reached #1 on several charts, including the UK and US Albums Chart. Curtain Call: The Hits was released nine years after the release of Eminem's debut studio album, Infinite.

A Rush of Blood to the Head is the second studio album by British alternative rock band Coldplay. Released on 26 August 2002 in the UK through the label Parlophone, the album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson. Recording started after the band became popular worldwide with the release of their debut album, Parachutes, and one of its singles in particular, "Yellow". The songs featured in the album have a greater use of electric guitar and piano than its predecessor.
The album was made available in August 2002, two months after its original planned release date. It was released on 27 August in the United States through Capitol Records. Capitol released a remastered version of the album in 2008 on a 180-gram vinyl record as part of the "From the Capitol Vaults" series. The album debuted and continued their huge commercial legacy, an ongoing pattern that began with Parachutes which made Coldplay one of the best-selling bands worldwide. It topped the UK Albums Chart upon its first week of release in the United Kingdom, and became the eighth biggest-selling album of the 21st century in the UK.

Turn Blue is the eighth studio album by American rock duo the Black Keys. It was co-produced by Danger Mouse and the band, and was released on Nonesuch Records on May 12, 2014. The record was the group's fourth collaboration with Danger Mouse, following their previous studio album, El Camino, which was their biggest commercial and critical success to that point. For Turn Blue, Danger Mouse reprised his role from El Camino as an equal songwriting partner alongside guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney.
The Black Keys recorded the majority of Turn Blue at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, from July to August 2013, with additional recording taking place at Key Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, in early 2014. The sessions coincided with Auerbach's divorce from his wife, which inspired much of the album's lyrics. The resulting material was more melancholy and slower paced than the uptempo, hook-laden songs from El Camino. The album exhibits influences from psychedelic rock and soul, further departing from the raw, blues rock sound of the group's early years.

Bob Marley’s definitive greatest hits collection is unequaled as an all-time best-selling album, rarely exiting Billboard's Top 200. The dorm-room favorite has transcended generations and the reggae genre itself, achieving international acclaim via Marley’s universal songcraft, from honeyed ballads (“Waiting in Vain,” “Is This Love”) to rousing social-justice anthems (“Get Up Stand Up,” “Exodus”). Marley’s music serenades and inspires with tunes that are both reflective and energized.

Don't Kill the Magic is the debut studio album by Canadian reggae fusion band Magic!. It was first released on 30 June 2014 by Latium Entertainment and RCA Records. The album was preceded by lead single "Rude" on 11 October 2013, which peaked at number six on the Canadian Hot 100 and became a chart-topper in the United States and the United Kingdom and top ten hit in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of nearly 36,000 copies. In their home country, Canada, the album entered at number five on the Canadian Albums Chart.

Hip-hop debuts don't come much more "highly anticipated" than Kendrick Lamar's. A series of killer mixtapes displayed his talent for thought-provoking street lyrics delivered with an attention-grabbing flow, and then there was his membership in the Black Hippy crew with his brethren Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, and Jay Rock all issuing solo releases that pleased the "true hip-hop" set, setting the stage for a massive fourth and final. Top it off with a pre-release "XXL Magazine" cover that he shared with his label boss and all-around legend Dr. Dre, and the "biggest debut since Illmatic" stuff starts to flow, but Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City would be a milestone even without the back-story, offering cool and compelling lyrics, great guests (Drake, Dr. Dre, and MC Eiht) and attractive production (from Pharrell, Just Blaze, Tabu, and others). Here, Kendrick is living his life like status and cash were extra credit. It is what makes this kid so "good" as he navigates his "mad" city (Compton) with experience and wisdom beyond his years (25). He's shamelessly bold about the allure of the trap, contrasting the sickness of his city with the universal feeling of getting homesick, and carrying a Springsteen-sized love for the home team. Course, in his gang-ruled city, N.W.A. "was" the home team, but as the truly beautiful, steeped-in-soul, biographic key track "The Art of Peer Pressure" finds a reluctant young Kendrick and his friends feeding off the life-force of Young Jeezy's debut album, it's something Clash, Public Enemy, and all other rebel music fans can relate to. Still, when he realizes that hero Jeezy must have risen above the game -- because the real playas are damned and never show their faces -- it spawns a kind of elevated gangsta rap that's as pimp-connectable as the most vicious Eazy-E, and yet poignant enough to blow the dust off any cracked soul. Equally heavy is the cautionary tale of drank dubbed "Swimming Pools," yet that highlight is as hooky and hallucinatory as most Houston drank anthems, and breaks off into one of the chilling, cassette-quality interludes that connect the album, adding to the documentary or eavesdropping quality of it all. Soul children will experience déjà vu when "Poetic Justice" slides by with its Janet Jackson sample -- sounding like it came off his Aunt's VHS copy of the movie it's named after -- while the closing "Compton" is an anthem sure to make the Game jealous, featuring Dre in beast mode, acting pre-Chronic and pre-Death Row. This journey through the concrete jungle of Compton is worth taking because of the artistic richness within, plus the attraction of a whip-smart rapper flying high during his rookie season. Any hesitation about the horror of it all is quickly wiped away by Kendrick's mix of true talk, open heart, open mind, and extended hand. Add it all up and even without the hype, this one is still potent and smart enough to rise to the top of the pile. [A Deluxe Edition added a second album with three bonus tracks.]