Pearl
Janis Joplin made the blues her own. Though she didn't live to finish this album before her 1971 death from a heroin overdose, her intense passion and frantic cries of pain and ecstasy were enough to make "Pearl" one of the most memorable recordings of her era. Her band does fill up some vinyl with the instrumental "Buried Alive in the Blues," but it's the vocals that make this album worth hearing these many decades later. Listen to the tortured heartbreak of "Cry Baby" or the hopeful declarations of Kris Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee" and understand why Joplin remains an essential, if tragic, figure in pop.--Steve Appleford