An interesting mix. Landing somewhere between a cool, international 90s trip hop and cheesy 80s smash pop hits. I’d happily listen again.

Beautifully sweeping around the boarders of insanity.

Very cool. Very weird. Very dark. A nice inclusion, I’ll try and listen to more.

Epic, soaring and cinematic. But also boring, annoying and forgettable. Time and a place, I guess, but this weekend wasn’t it for me.

Very cool. I’m not really a ‘jazz guy’ but this is the kind of stuff I can enjoy. Reminiscent of Headhunters or Heavy Weather to me, it’s wild and funky but still well structured not too shrill.

Yusss! I’m your face Dimery - you dumb shit! This mediocre, manufactured millennial pop is the perfect response to the dredge through dad rock I’ve just enjoyed/endured. Big 3 stars!

An interesting insight into what was going on in Sweden at the turn of the century. At first I wouldn’t have guessed Scandinavian, (sounded kind of Indian and Irish to me). Nice enough, but nothing I’d listen to by choice.

What is this incel Springsteen madness?

3 or 4 rad tracks on here. The rest of the album is a bit of a letdown for me, but the strength of the singles just about keeps it in the 5 star club.

Big respect to Hikaru for writing, performing and producing the whole thing. Sounded like mid career Madonna to me. For 30mins or so I was happy with four stars for the talent, the underrepresented genre and general inoffensiveness of the music. But unfortunately after about 40mins her voice started to grate on my nerves. A little trimming down and I’d have really liked it

It’s nice to hear “World Music” suggested by people from all around the world, rather than by some middle aged white guy from Croydon.

I think I’m usually more open and understanding with these user submissions but wow, this is borning.

Ugh, like, I’m sorry for your loss and all but do you have to make it everyone else’s problem?

Very cool. Glad to be exposed to some Italian funk. I like it and it’s very good, but I don’t think I can give a 5 as I don’t love it and it’s not quite great.

Oooph, this is right now the middle dad rock. He probably does deserve a place on the list but I struggled to give it my attention. I now know why I know the name but none of the songs.

If there one thing completing this project has solidified for me, it’s that I don’t like Jazz Trumpet. I find it shrill and stressful. But then here’s comes Chet with his beautiful mellow tones to completely shit that theory right out of the water. Nice work Chet.

Sorry but I really did not enjoy this. The vocals just annoyed me throughout. Probably a two star album for me but something else really got on my tits too… what is it with the fucking Irish cosplay of East Coast American? It’s cultural appropriation, a transparent marketing scam, and it makes you look stupid, stop it now. 😮🫨😮

One of the things I learned from this list is the actual definition of krautrock. I had a vision of David Hasselhoff in my mind, 80s, leather, metal studs, mullets and pointy guitars. I was pleasantly surprised to learn its true nature - experimental, electronica from the early 70s. So I was happy to get another example here to expand my knowledge. Unfortunately, this leans too far into “experimental” and ends up as noddling. None of the tracks seem to have much purpose and no-one in the outfit has the ability to write any form of hook. I think I’d rather listen to The Scorpions.

This is all over the place, in what I think is mostly a good way.

I don’t to be too mean, because I think there’s a fair chance OP is a member of or has a strong connection to this band. That’s the only way I can understand this being submitted to the list. It’s 20 years out of date and sounds like a second rate Nickleback.

This is kind of all over the place but not in a particularly good way. Not sure if he wants to murk me or make sweet love and raise my kids?

This is a nice find and extremely pleasant to have on in the background. But it’s in no way exciting or outstanding.

For the first 2 or 3 minutes I was fully on board for being a massive John Mayer fan. The album soon settled down into being “pleasantly boring” and my enthusiasm waned pretty quickly. It’s still “very nice” and I struggle to find anything wrong with it. It’s maybe just a little bit lame?

“The band had reached an unwieldy 15 members. In preparation of the album, they trimmed their numbers to ten” These guys have an odd take on brevity. Sounds like the boring bits between tracks of Entroducing…..

Generic Spiders Music

Decent 60’s psych. At times Beatlesque, but also borrowing from The Kinks and The Zombies. Surprised I’ve not come across it before but I doubt I’ll visit again.

Amy Winehouse does O Brother, Where Art Thou? It’s not doing much for me.

Beautifully sweeping around the boarders of insanity.

Oh lads! You’re bringing me all of this rage and “poetic” angst and fury and all these tumultuous emotions… I’m 44 guys, the best I can do you is tied and annoyed.

This is good. I’m somehow pleasantly surprised but also a bit disappointed. My assumptions on Charli were proven wrong (I though she was just an another annoying Nicki Minaj) figure but then I got myself all hyped up by the comments on here and the album couldn’t live up to it. It’s good but it needs a couple of recognisable bangers to push it to a 5 for me.

Epic, soaring and cinematic. But also boring, annoying and forgettable. Time and a place, I guess, but this weekend wasn’t it for me.

Ooh, that’s a bit much for me. I couldn’t even hack 26mins I’m afraid.

Not as lame as I was expecting. I did visuals for these guys just as this album was coming out and found them pretty forgettable. I was DJing regularly around this time and downloaded a few of these songs but never really played them out. But listening now, a few years down the line, this is…. kind of OK.

I enjoyed this one. I was settling into the 80s homage but just as that was starting to wear thin it switched up enough to keep my interest.

Seemed pleasant enough for 10mins or so but really didn’t hold my attention I’m afraid.

Not really my genre at all but I found it enjoyable in parts. That one song definitely made me smile, but the rest of the album lacked the same humour and didn’t keep me engaged.

An interesting mix. Landing somewhere between a cool, international 90s trip hop and cheesy 80s smash pop hits. I’d happily listen again.

A Master class in repetitive and predictable sample sequencing. Really over-hyped for me. While there’s still a few good memories and a couple of big bops on here, it generally gets a bit boring. Tough to choose between a 3 and a 4 but I’m generally glad it exists.

Middle of the road bangers! It’s slightly depressing that I’m now the key demographic for these miserable little upbeat ditties. To tap my toes and nod my head through a collapsing marriage and a midlife crisis. I kind of want to mark them higher but it’s just so middle of the road it can’t be anything other than a 3.

I don’t know if this sounds like it’s 25 years late or 40 years late but either way: it doesn’t sound very contemporary, it does sound like it’s peaking into the red and I’ve very little desire to get to the end of the album.

What the shit? How am I so far off the popular opinion on this one? This is just naff. Sounds like it was cobbled together by a session band using half baked lyrics from someone who’s had half their brain zapped away by electrodes. Maybe if this was 1969 you could make a case for it being groundbreaking but for 1980… it’s just shit?

Why would anyone want to make those noises? Or listen to them by choice. Gross.

Decent. Occasionally sounded like a cohesive White Album or Cream but then also sounded like a teenage neighbour had just got his first electric guitar so they dug out a tin whistle and xylophone to have a jam. A nice inclusion to the list.

Very cool. Very weird. Very dark. A nice inclusion, I’ll try and listen to more.

Loved a couple of the singles when this came out, I probably should have listened to the whole album back then. Very cool surf/punk simplicity but with kind of ethereal shoegaze atmosphere at times. Norgaard and If You Wanna put it on a 4 and the rest of the album does enough to nudge it to a 5.

Do we really need another Elvis Costello album on the list? To be fair, this also sounds a lot like: Joe Jackson, Squeeze, Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzie, The Undertones and I’m sure a few others. Thankfully I like most of those things so listening to this isn’t a problem.

She’s just out here making great pop songs! First time I heard Hot To Go I was doing the stage set up for a gig and I knew it and loved it by the time the second chorus came around. I went home and played to my family and now my 1 year old loves it and will demand I play it for him with some weird, uncoordinated form of toddler semaphore. Along with Olivia Rodrigo they’ve restored my faith in music in the 21st century (props to Dan Nigro). Nice one OP, great choice.

Fine. I feel like maybe we had Mumford & Sons in the UK while the US had this? Nothing standing out to me but nothing pissing me off. Fine.

Really nice

I struggled to place this. Kind of an interesting one I guess, sounds quite contemporary at times but then also very “prog”. Maybe a bit to much for me to fully process but I guess I’m going neutral.

I just really don’t want to listen to this. It sounds like they are good at what they do but I guess I have different ways of dealing with my emotions than this? It’s a dilemma I’ve had throughout this project - do I rate it objectively or subjectively? Sorry OP but in terms of appeal to me this has to be a one star.

👏🤣 There’s no way I’m listening to two albums by these guys!

This is weird and all over the place, but maybe not in a particularly good way. I think want to like it more than I actually like it.

I tried to listen to this 3 or 4 times and for various reasons it kept getting turned down or off. So I heard the first 2 songs multiple times and they still made zero impression on me. I don’t dislike it, it’s just not doing anything to capture my attention.

Hummmm. Interesting, relaxing, provocative and boring.

Prog-grunge is not a genre that appeals to me. Not a lot for me to enjoy here.

Oh prog off, you prog.

Mixed feelings on this one. The vocals are undeniably annoying and I don’t think we really need a post punk Springsteen but it does kind of rock out and I kept coming back for more.

Great album, awesome talent. Easy 5 stars, this was on my short list of albums to add myself. She has really restored my faith in modern music. I do much prefer her punky rage to the ballads and this one has a better upbeat bop to ballad ratio than her debut. A fine choice OP.

I can’t get caught up in the fuss about this I’m afraid. It’s better than grunge I guess, I like it, I certainly don’t dislike it but I can’t even get excited about the singles. While Buddy Holly is an undeniable bop, I always used to want Say It Ain’t So to be I Miss You by Blink 182. I’d probably rather listen to Come Undone by Robbie Williams than The Sweater Song. It’s a 3 or a 4 for me. I’m probably being a little hash but marking it down as an average 3.

I can imagine that new music after a 15 year gap must have been pretty exciting to fans of The Cure. But personally, I was a bit underwhelmed by the albums on the original list, so I’m afraid I really don’t think we need another one adding. It’s fine, but it doesn’t feel he’s developed much in 40 years.

While I would not say that Adult Contemporary Country Pop is one of my favourite genres, this album has a few undeniable bangers on it. On the strength of the 3 massive singles and that killer opening riff (is that midi horns?!) I was almost ready to come out blast with a big 5 stars, but it kind of settles down to being 90s pop with a country (Canadian) twang and that is not something I can truly love. It’s another massive oversight from Dimery and a solid inclusion from OP.

Does this list really need more British post-punk from 1981? Now I guess if you like: The Cure, Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen etc etc. then this could be seen as a slept on classic. I however, am not a fan of post-punk, so I don’t really care.

If “Kids in the Hall” was a record.

I enjoyed this for a bit… until I didn’t. At first I was completely onboard with the RATMesque anger and call to action. I found the stops and starts and extreme dynamics exciting. I found the vocal tones engaging. I was considering 5 stars for bit. But my god it got formulaic. It’s not exciting and engaging if you do the exact same stop stars and intense drum emphasis every track. It just got annoying and stressful to the point I decided I was not having a good time and turned it off.

One of those albums where you have to check if your Bluetooth earphones are connected properly after 30 seconds because nothing has happened yet. Sure it’s got “dynamics” but the downs are boring and the ups are stressful.

Oh just plug it in to a PC, you silly hipster.

It’s like John Lennon and Chuck Berry but everyone is trying to out Yoko each other.

Pretty basic.

Very cool. I’m not really a ‘jazz guy’ but this is the kind of stuff I can enjoy. Reminiscent of Headhunters or Heavy Weather to me, it’s wild and funky but still well structured not too shrill.

Aah, I really wanted to love this album after track 2 but there’s not much else on here that stands out to me. And realistically, track 2 just sounds like Kasabian, who, yeah, did this stuff 20 years ago. I’m still just about falling on the positive side with this, because I think I will keep listening to Starburster, but I’m a bit disappointed that the rest of the album couldn’t deliver more bangers.

Seems like a fascinating guy, I quite like the instrumentals but I’m afraid I find the bleating vocals pretty unpleasant so can’t enjoy this one.