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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Gorillaz

Artists beginning with G

This article is more than 16 years old

Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel 4
(1982)
Although it contains the hit single Shock the Monkey, Gabriel's fourth solo album was overshadowed by his third and the mega-selling So. But it is a pivotal release, marking his first foray into funky world-music grooves, which he has never explored with more energy than he does here.

Serge Gainsbourg
Comic Strip
(1996)
It's possible that there isn't an adult in the western world who hasn't heard at least one song by Serge ­Gainsbourg. The trouble is, chances are equally high that the song most people have heard is Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus, the duet he recorded in 1969 with girlfriend Jane Birkin, an erotic paroxysm that apparently plays in Nigella Lawson's mind every time she turns on the hob. For all its merits - it gave the female orgasm some much-needed press, for a start - Je T'Aime doesn't tell you what made Gainsbourg special, what made him not just an arch provocateur but a peerless pop radical who revolutionised his country's music scene. For that, you need Comic Strip, the pop instalment of a three-CD collection gathering Gainsbourg's forays into jazz and Afro-­Cuban music. It draws on the period ­between 1965 and 1969 when he soaked up US and UK pop ­influences and transformed them into a quintessentially French sound. Un Poison Violent, C'est Ça l'Amour isn't just a pop song, it's a philosophical tract thrashed out in a cafe ­frequented by Jean-Paul ­Sartre. Every facet of Gainsbourg's pop personality shows. There's the cheek of Les Sucettes, delivered so tenderly only those with an intimate knowledge of French would ­realise it's about male appendages rather than lollipops. There's the playfulness of Comic Strip, with Brigitte ­Bardot as a cartoon heroine. Bonnie and Clyde smoulders hypnotically and disdain pours from Requiem Pour un Con. It's the kind of compilation that makes you wonder if the word "genius", applied to such a songwriter, isn't a touch mealy-mouthed. Maddy Costa

Galaxie 500
On Fire
(1989)
Though their narcotic drone-rock clearly owed the Velvet Underground a debt, Galaxie 500 had a unique. smouldering way with power. On Fire is a delicate weave of downcast melodies and limpid rhythms. Dean Wareham's hipster wail evinces poetry amid the mundane details of snowstorms and decomposing trees.

Gang of Four
Entertainment!
(1979)
An album of cerebral funk- and dub-inflected rock, Entertainment! was the startling debut from this Leeds four-piece, and signalled the shift to post-punk. Andy Gill's slashing guitar style combined with Jon King's hectoring lyrics about love as contract or disease, proving an inspiration for, among others, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Gang Starr
Step in the Arena
(1988)
Penfriends whose first compositions were put together over the phone, Keith "Guru" Elam and Chris "DJ Premier" Martin hit their stride on this second album. With Premier's phenomenal flair for finding melodic but hard-hitting beats and Guru's penchant for lyrical positivity expressed in a rich baritone, Step in the Arena began a run of records that made the duo hip-hop legends.

Jan Garbarek
12 Moons
(1993)
In Garbarek's poignant and desolate timbre, with its evocations of wind-blown snowscapes and its quivering cries, there is a unique post-Coltrane saxophone voice. Twelve Moons beautifully balances those atmospherics with explicit references to jazz and folk.

Gastr del Sol
The Serpentine Similar
(1993)
Art rock doesn't get much brighter or more accessible than this first outing as Gastr del Sol by the wayward experimental guitarist David Grubbs. The wonky, jagged melodies, the jazz-inflected rhythms and the meandering lyrics call to mind surrealist films in which people tilt and time accelerates: the album is that beguiling and strange.

Mary Gauthier
Filth and Fire
(2002)
After a tough early life that included running away from home, jail and drug problems, Gauthier became one of the most compelling songwriters in America, drawing on her own experience to sing about losers, misfits and those just struggling to survive.

Marvin Gaye
What's Going On
(1970)
Periodically voted the greatest LP of all time, Gaye's masterpiece is a benchmark soul album that transcends the genre. Provoked by the wars and social conflict of the day, the singer's ethereal funk symphonies and anguished vocals carry social, political and environmental messages that continue to resonate.

Genesis
Selling England By the Pound
(1973)
When Peter Gabriel fronted Genesis in gloriously silly fancy-dress, they were the archetypal widdly-widdly prog-rock band with very long songs. Antichrists for anyone with punk fibre, the band's impeccably crafted songs pining for medieval England are a guilty pleasure that must be experienced - if necessary, behind closed curtains.

Genius/GZA
Liquid Swords
(1995)
The best Wu-Tang solo album. RZA's production is on the money, the ready-made kung fu mythology is in full effect, and the rapping is, well, genius - by turns literate and menacing, the rhymes of a "child educator plus head amputator" who flows "like the blood on a murder scene".

Bobbie Gentry
The Delta Sweete
(1968)
An adept painter of musical pictures heavy with nostalgia, this Mississippi native and former Las Vegas showgirl oozed dreamy country-blues laced with a dose of churchy folk. Her southern-belle persona made the breezy, sultry Okolona River Bottom Band, the semi-yawning Mornin' Glory and the swinging Penduli Pendulum all the more intimate.

Get Carter
OST
(1971)
Michael Caine on the train home to Newcastle with revenge on his mind and the hip menace of Roy Budd's theme in his ears: film openings don't get much better. But the likes of Getting Nowhere in a Hurry showed that the jazzman Budd could write a cracking pop song, too.

Stan Getz
Jazz Samba
(1962)
Recorded in a church in Washington, DC, this album introduced Brazilian music to the world, and showed how Stateside jazzmen had truly mastered the bossa nova. Charlie Byrd's guitar provides the hypnotic pulse, but the star is tenor saxophonist Getz, sounding as though he's out to charm every babe on the beach.

Ghostface Killah
Ironman
(1996)
So named, according to his Wu-Tang Clan boss RZA, because he was "now you see him, now you don't", Ghostface Killah assumed more corporeal form on his astonishing solo debut. Building on the Wu's imaginary dramas, but providing a surprisingly candid backstory, it confirmed that behind the theatrics of his flow lay a huge emotional range.

Robin Gibb
Robin's Reign
(1969)
His split from the Bee Gees led to talk of short-story writing, painting and musicals. This sombre album is the only evidence of his ambitions, built around epic string arrangements, lyrical Edwardiana and a wheezy drum machine - the first ever on a hit record.

Michael Gibbs
Michael Gibbs
(1970)
The Rhodesian composer Mike Gibbs was a reluctant jazz hero. His richly nuanced debut album had an impact that resonated throughout the music, out of all proportion to its sales. Tunes such as Sweet Rain and Family Joy, Oh Boy sound as fresh as ever, with superb performances from an A-list team of British jazzers.

Gilberto Gil
Early Years
(2004)
Now Brazil's minister of culture, in the late 60s Gil was jailed as a dangerous musical rebel by the military authorities, before being exiled to England. Many of his greatest songs are from this early Tropicalia era, including the classics Domingo No Parque and Bat Macumba. Also included is his exquisite treatment of Steve Winwood's Can't Find My Way Home, recorded in exile.

Bebel Gilberto
Tanto Tempo
(2000)
Gilberto's seductively intimate vocals, added to bossa nova and chilled electronic beats, created a pastel-shaded formula that reverberated through modernist bars and hotels worldwide. What makes Tanto Tempo work is the quality control.

Dana Gillespie
Foolish Seasons
(1968)
Wayne Bickerton produced the Flirtations' Nothing But a Heartache and this psych-pop gem in the same month. Thunderous drums, harpsichords and fuzzy guitars embellish a dozen potential hit 45s. A glam/blues rethink in the 70s did her career more good.

Dizzy Gillespie
Cubana Be, Cubana Bop
(2000)
After Gillespie helped Charlie Parker launch the 1940s bebop revolution, he built a storming big band to play it - and spliced in the music of Cuba and South America. His stunning trumpet playing and audaciously exhilarating themes here define the postwar sound of modern jazz.

Ginuwine
The Bachelor
(1996)
Along with Aaliyah's One in a Million, Ginuwine's debut helped invent modern R&B, thanks to the innovative beats of Timbaland. Smooth and slow, but dramatic and full of surprising rhythms, The Bachelor features the US Top 10 hit Pony, a cover of When Doves Cry and guest vocals from Missy Elliott.

Paul Giovanni & Magnet
The Wicker Man OST
(1973)
Robin Hardy's hugely influential cult horror film had a fantastic soundtrack, full of terrifying folk music that was composed, arranged and recorded by Giovanni's impromptu band. Lecherous rabble-rousing drinking songs sway next to eerie jigs and reels, the mood darting wildly between innocence, danger and chilling erotica.

Girls Aloud
The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits
(2006)
In 2002, it did not seem likely that Popstars: The Rivals would add much to the sum of human happiness. But someone at Polydor broke the cardinal rule of reality-show pop and took a risk, entrusting the songwriting to a stubbornly maverick crew called Xenomania. The result shredded all expectations. Julie Burchill rightly gasped: "It's as if pop music has been created from scratch all over again, this time perfectly." Thus Xenomania rescued the idea of manufactured girl/boy-group pop from the dry cynicism of Westlife, restoring the labour-of-love principles of Motown's hit factory. On their three albums together since, they have consistently asked how far you can push the sound and shape of pop while still hitting the Top 10. A multi-part romp with the abrupt verse-chorus ­disconnect of Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out? Try ­Biology. Cantering synth-skiffle? That would be Love Machine. Distorted electro-punk? Wake Me Up. But all Xenomania's exertions would be wasted if Girls Aloud were mere trilling ciphers. They don't have the distinct cartoon personae of the Spice Girls, but no matter - they are a unit, a team, a mob. Between Cheryl Cole's quarrelsome candour, Nicola Roberts' forbidding scowl and Sarah Harding's falling-out- of-taxis antics, they radiate an appealing bloody-­mindedness. Years from now, when someone wants to know how bold and brilliant mainstream British pop could get in the noughties, play them this. Dorian Lynskey

Egberto Gismonti
Selected Works
2004)
Gismonti is one of those extraordinary characters who fits hardly anywhere, yet is welcomed everywhere - for his fiery, uncompromising piano playing, his extraordinary solo guitar performances and his creative collaborations.

Robert Glasper
In My Element
(2007)
Also known for his work with hip-hop heavyweights such as Jay Z, Kanye West, Q-Tip and J Dilla, this Blue Note set sees the Atlanta pianist in full-on jazz mode: subtly funky, deeply meditative and thrillingly inventive, mashing up Radiohead with Herbie Hancock and slyly replicating J Dilla's cut-and-slash production sound acoustically.

Global Communication
76:14
(1994)
The West Country duo Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard shunned song titles, lest they colour the listener's response. This unfathomably beautiful out-of-time masterpiece, informed equally by Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Detroit techno and the Cocteau Twins, could be a soundtrack to anything or nothing. Two awestruck fans, Pete and Katrina Lawrence, were inspired to found the Big Chill.

The Go! Team
Thunder, Lightning, Strike
(2005)
The Go! Team's debut was the vision of Ian Parton, a bedroom boffin obsessed with cop-show themes, retro musicals and early hip-hop. Aided by Ninja's cheerleader-style rapping, the Brighton sextet's debut demanded to be danced to. And, for those of a geekier disposition, each listen harboured a fresh new game of spot-the-sample.

The Go-Betweens
Tallulah
(1987)
Every Go-Betweens album is fantastic, but here Robert Forster and Grant McLennan's songwriting partnership attained a perfect balance. McLennan's romanticism and his startling ability to evoke his Australian homeland - both of which are audible on the remarkable Bye Bye Pride - are set against Forster's dark, mysterious tales of brooding outsiders and relationship anguish.

Goldfrapp
Black Cherry
(2003)
Goldfrapp's second album relocated their Parisian pop and Weimar cabaret to the dancefloor. Tracks such as Train and Strict Machine echo Giorgio Moroder's pioneering electronic disco work with Donna Summer, but replace old-style sensual yearning with sizzling postmodern hymns to kinky sex.

Luiz Gonzaga
Focus: O Essential de Luiz Gonzaga
(1999)
Still hailed in Brazil's north-west as the local equivalent of both Elvis and Bob Marley, Gonzaga was a rousing singer-songwriter and accordion player who became a major star across the country in the 40s and 50s. His finest, passionate songs like Asa Branca, included here, dealt with the suffering of his arid homeland.

Ruben Gonzalez
Introducing Ruben Gonzalez
(2007)
Ry Cooder, who plucked this octogenarian pianist from retirement to play with the Buena Vista Social Club, described him as "a cross between Thelonious Monk and Felix the Cat". This album shows us a pianist by turns flamboyant, clunky, majestic, dainty, hilarious and capable of moments of exquisite beauty.

The Good, the Bad & the Queen
The Good, the Bad & the Queen
(2007)
Damon Albarn, ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon and much-worshipped Nigerian drummer Tony Allen (plus ex-Verve bloke Simon Tong) evoke the troubled tenor of Britain circa 2007 and the travails of "a stroppy little island of mixed-up people". In all, a sobering counterpoint to the garish state-of-the-nation address that was Blur's Parklife.

Benny Goodman
Carnegie Hall, January 16th 1938
(2006)
Goodman was a dance-hall star of the 1930s, and this historic show, which launched concert-hall jazz, sweeps through jazz's 20s and 30s history with the clarinettist's band and some star guests. Count Basie, the saxophonists Lester Young and Johnny Hodges, the vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, the drum firebrand Gene Krupa and Goodman himself are all in stunning form.

Gorillaz
Demon Days
(2005)
Fair play to Damon Albarn: who else could have cajoled Shaun Ryder, Dennis Hopper and Ike Turner into contributing to a conceptual cartoon band's second album? More to the point, is there anyone of his generation who could have so capably revived the long-dormant idea of intelligent pop while so gloriously defying a genre straitjacket?

Gotan Project
La Revancha del Tango
(2001)
Retrieving tango from the tea-dance set and modernising it for worldwide consumption, the Paris-based trio achieved an astonishing ubiquity with their smooth Spanish-language electronica. Somewhat surprisingly, the frequent use of the music as TV incidental music hasn't diminished its impact.

The Graduate
OST
(1967)
Anyone who loves Mike Nichols' classic 1967 rite-of-passage movie must also own the soundtrack. Classic Simon and Garfunkel songs such as Mrs Robinson and The Sound of Silence instantly evoke Anne Bancroft's screen seduction of a young Dustin Hoffman.

Grandaddy
The Sophtware Slump
(2000)
The electronically enhanced Americana and millennial unease of Grandaddy's second effort brought OK Computer comparisons, but it's warmer and wryer. The album is rooted in that California where the rural past rubs against the digital future; Jason Lytle meditates with doleful eloquence on rusting air conditioners and alcoholic robots.

Grateful Dead
American Beauty
(1970)
Psychedelia had made them. The Grateful Dead would be sustained through the next 30 years, however, by something much earthier. In a policy begun on Workingman's Dead and continued here, the group plugged into folk and country, and found a new, harmonious relationship with their music - and with wider American culture.

Grease
OST
(1978)
Forget the 1950s hits by nostalgists Sha Na Na and forget the two genuine stars - Frankies Avalon and Valli. It's the knowing, affectionate pastiches, the zest for life and the enduring feelgood factor that make this soundtrack pop gold. Almost 30 years on, Grease is still the word.

Green On Red
Here Come the Snakes
(1989)
Green On Red's frequent implosions didn't help them towards crossover success, but they did give their music a thrilling sense of teetering on the edge of self-destruction. These are some of the greatest unheralded songs in American music: loser anthems soaked in country, rock, blues, booze and trouble.

Guided By Voices
Human Amusements at Hourly Rates: The Best Of
(2003)
Guided By Voices' position as totems of lo-fi US indie through the 90s obscures the fact that, when their Who-obsessed leader Robert Pollard wished them to be, they were also the most powerful rock band of the decade. This makes that case compellingly.

Guns N' Roses
Appetite for Destruction
(1987)
Guns N' Roses grabbed hair metal by the backcombed roots and gleefully rubbed its face in dirty rock'n'roll. Skulking through LA with a sneer on its face, this debut drips with fear and loathing. It united punks and rockers and introduced grit to the MTV machine.

Trilok Gurtu
20 Years of Talking Tabla
(2007)
The percussionist Trilok Gurtu can be a difficult man to pin down: he collaborates with every kind of jazz-world style you can imagine. This two-CD greatest-hits compilation gives a good account of his multiple talents, from 80s fusion to his recent adventures with strings.

Margo Guryan
Take a Picture
(1968)
It's a great late-60s story: jazz composer experiences Damascene epiphany while listening to God Only Knows and makes single album of breathy, gorgeous sunshine pop before evaporating back into obscurity. This justifiably cooed-over cult classic is the missing link between Astrud Gilberto and Saint Etienne.

Woody Guthrie
The Very Best of Woody Guthrie, Legend of American Folk Blues
(1992)
An inspiration to the young Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, the staunchly leftwing Guthrie travelled across America in the 30s and 40s, writing more than a thousand songs, from This Land Is Your Land to ones of more suffering and hardship such as Dust Pneumonia Blues.

· This article was amended on Monday December 3 2007. We said Peter Gabriel's fourth solo album was overshadowed by his third, the mega-selling So. We meant to say it was overshadowed by his third and by So. This has been corrected.

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