The albums of 1968

BEGGARS BANQUET (The Rolling Stones)   Following the hilarious catastrophe that was Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones…

BEGGARS BANQUET (The Rolling Stones)  Following the hilarious catastrophe that was Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones regroup and deliver the definitive soundtrack to the summer of revolution. Street Fighting Man and Sympathy for the Devil stand out.

THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER (The Incredible String Band)

Magnificently eccentric attempt to capture a particular spirit of the age - the one that involves pantheism and sharing lavatory facilities through the medium of deranged folk. A Very Cellular Song features the sound of the hammered dulcimer. Do you need to know more?

ELECTRIC LADYLAND (Jimi Hendrix)

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Nobody before or since Hendrix has combined metallic clamour with melody to such bewitching effect. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and Crosstown Traffic are still unavoidable.

ASTRAL WEEKS (Van Morisson)

He doesn't actually smile on the cover, but, amazingly, doesn't scowl either. As Belfast's most unhappy years were about to begin, Van offered a portrait of the city as an idyllic beatnik Nowhere. It never sounds old.

WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT  (The Velvet Underground)

On initial release, 36 people bought the Underground's first album. About half that forked out for its even noisier, even less friendly successor. The band had the last laugh, however, when songs such as the title track and the endless Sister Ray helped invent punk.

THE WHITE ALBUM  (The Beatles)

Ok, let's be utterly honest. There aren't that many truly great songs here, but the record does offer a comprehensive portrait of where the band's addled brains had got to in 1968. Helter Skelter may or may not have had something to do with the Manson murders a year later.

MACHINE GUN  (Peter Brötzmann)

One of the most bone-jarring records in free jazz (and that's saying something), Machine Gun finds the German saxophonist expressing the anger of the age through pure sound.

ARETHA: LADY SOUL (Aretha Franklin)

At this stage, soul music still had more to do with the single than the album, but the sessions gathered here form a perfectly balanced whole. Chain of Fools and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman are among the highlights.

THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY (The Kinks)

It is worth remembering how much of swinging London was taken up with a strange, distorting nostalgia. The Kinks' best album combines delightful melodies with hymns to an idyllic, warm-beer England

John Major might have appreciated.