When it was released 25 years ago, Endtroducing sounded like nothing that had come before – an album of beats, beauty, and chaos. Looking back, no other popular record better summarizes the end of the 20th century. Josh Davis, alias DJ Shadow, took elements of hip-hop, funk, rock, ambient, and psychedelia, as well as found sounds, oddball spoken-word clips, and cut-out-bin nuggets – a trove of mostly forgotten or obscure recorded sounds – and then wrote the ultimate lesson.

It’s an album that sits with you and lingers. It’s an album you can return to and discover whole new areas you hadn’t been aware of, like finding a room in your house you never knew was there. There is something about Endtroducing which often ranks high on critics’ best albums-of-all-time lists that always brings me back to it. It never fails to deliver emotionally on so many levels. Despite its melancholic atmosphere, there is something uplifting at its core. “If I were to find one word that resonates more than anything within Endtroducing, it would be ‘hope,”’ Josh has said.

– Eliot Wilder