CRIME OF THE CENTURY

This is an absolute masterpiece, a fantastic album and still sounds as fresh as ever, 30 years later. The band produced some outstanding albums afterwards of course, in fact their entire catalogue is of very high quality, but for me this is the pinnacle. The mixture of darkness and humour in the lyrics as it tells the story is underpinned by the amazing musicianship, from bluesy pianos to full on progressive rock with sax and guitar solos, its concept at its best. School opens up with that haunting harmonica and develops into an incredible track. My personal favourite is Asylum, but there are so many good songs throughout an album which, must be considered one of the best of all time.