After the incredible success of the heavy, industrial The Downward Spiral in 1994, Trent Reznor kind of disappeared for a while. Topping himself wasn't going to be easy. When he reappeared five years later with the double-disc The Fragile, he was no longer the angry young man that many fans had fallen in love with.
Though The Fragile has its heavy moments, it's much more of a deeply personal headphones album than the NIN discs that preceded it. Think of it as Pink Floyd's The Wall for the Apple generation.
4. Ozzy Osbourne, Tribute
This batch of live tunes from Ozzy's 1981 tour was shelved indefinitely following the untimely death of guitar god Randy Rhoads the following year, but his deeply felt absence eventually made this double live album a moment in time that demanded to be relived.
Indeed, it's Rhoads' incendiary guitar playing that makes Tribute essential, with his flashy, classically-inspired solos effortlessly outclassing most of the hair metal dreck that ruled 1987. Thanks to Tribute, Rhoads' memory is still flyin' high today.
