Journey Complete!
Finisher #356 to complete the list
1089
Albums Rated
3.72
Average Rating
100%
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2010s
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Top Origin
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Rater Style ?
189
5-Star Albums
9
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter | 5 | 2.15 | +2.85 |
| OK | 5 | 2.57 | +2.43 |
| Phaedra | 5 | 2.73 | +2.27 |
| Third/Sister Lovers | 5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
| 69 Love Songs | 5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
| Music Has The Right To Children | 5 | 2.91 | +2.09 |
| Call of the Valley | 5 | 2.95 | +2.05 |
| The Dreaming | 5 | 2.96 | +2.04 |
| Ghosteen | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| Will The Circle Be Unbroken | 5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roots | 1 | 2.78 | -1.78 |
| Atomizer | 1 | 2.72 | -1.72 |
| Slipknot | 1 | 2.67 | -1.67 |
| Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby | 1 | 2.66 | -1.66 |
| Songs For Swingin' Lovers! | 2 | 3.52 | -1.52 |
| Surfer Rosa | 2 | 3.51 | -1.51 |
| The Marshall Mathers LP | 2 | 3.49 | -1.49 |
| Antichrist Superstar | 1 | 2.48 | -1.48 |
| Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water | 1 | 2.47 | -1.47 |
| Public Image: First Issue | 1 | 2.42 | -1.42 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 7 | 4.86 |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4.8 |
| Radiohead | 6 | 4.67 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.33 |
| U2 | 4 | 4.75 |
| The Who | 5 | 4.4 |
| Miles Davis | 4 | 4.5 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.67 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.67 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 3 | 4.67 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.67 |
| Prince | 3 | 4.67 |
| Arcade Fire | 3 | 4.67 |
| Kate Bush | 3 | 4.67 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.67 |
| Van Morrison | 3 | 4.67 |
| Peter Gabriel | 3 | 4.67 |
| Oasis | 2 | 5 |
| Fleetwood Mac | 2 | 5 |
| OutKast | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| The Pogues | 2 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 6 | 4.17 |
| Leonard Cohen | 5 | 4.2 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.25 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 4 | 4.25 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 4.25 |
| Bob Dylan | 7 | 4 |
| Paul Simon | 3 | 4.33 |
| Echo And The Bunnymen | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kraftwerk | 3 | 4.33 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 3 | 4.33 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Beach Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.33 |
| Tom Waits | 5 | 4 |
| Brian Eno | 5 | 4 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 5 | 4 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 5 | 4 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Sepultura | 2 | 1.5 |
| Slipknot | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Frank Sinatra | 2, 5, 3 |
5-Star Albums (189)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Judas Priest
3/5
Wikipedia: This album was recorded in Ringo's house
For some reason I feel that it's the most vital piece of info to share about "British Steel"
S'good
HL: the singles
10 likes
Neu!
5/5
Oh boy, 2 German albums in 2 days.
Guten Morgen! Ich möchte ein Mokka.
Wo ist mein Auto?
Little taken aback by this; it’s super easy to trace this to other albums I adore: obviously David Bowie’s “Heroes”, but also the gentle minimalism of Architecture & Morality & Music for Airports. At the same time, it’s got a swagger level somewhere between the Rolling Stones & the Clash. These things should cancel each other out, but they don’t.
Hypnotic, addictive listen
April 30, 2024
5 likes
Joe Ely
4/5
I’ve reached the 900th album here :)
Much like the 600th and 700th, it’s a country album. But wait- this ain’t no run of the mill country! “Cornbread Moon” gets a 4/4 breakdown (in contrast to the swing) not unlike punk rock, & “Boxcars” gets a hard rock guitar solo. It’s a crossover that is more in tune with the musical trends of the late 70s, and less with the outlaw/country rock of the 60s. However, many of the other tracks are pretty traditionalist; still glad we get that variety that’s missing from a few country records on this list
Rounding up to a 4 today
2 likes
SAULT
5/5
January 15, 2024
HL: “Bow”*, “Eternal Life”, “Black”, “Wildfires”, “Hard Life”, “Sorry Ain’t Enough”
Something I noticed about some of the newest albums’ inclusion is that they don’t make a lot of sense in a vacuum. Evermore doesn’t make a lot of sense without Folklore; Chemtrails Over the Country Club is an odd duck without its contrast to Lana’s earlier albums.
Untitled (Black Is) also drove me to a second Sault album (aka “Rise”), for 3 reasons: to get a better sense of their eclectic, studio-heavy production; because Black Is ended on what I felt was an intentionally unresolved note; and finally, because I was havin’ a heck of a time.
Alright that’s 2 straight hours of Sault over with, and my findings are that the 2 Untitled's enrich each other. Black Is feels incomplete? The last 6 songs in Rise feel like a proper dénouement.
Black Is’s politics are too broad and simple? Rise is more specific and overtly angry.
Rise is too moody and lowkey? Black Is is celebratory despite the grief in the lyrics.
Untitled (Black Is) by itself probably gets a 4.5 from me, but we're rounding up today.
P.S. The 1001 book describes Black Is as 1980’s Prince-like on the surface level but is actually closer to Massive Attack. I feel that’s apt.
P.S.S. It's now been over 3 years since I started this 1001 racket. I've already recently gave some of my first albums a second shot; because I didn't bother writing anything at the time, my memory of them was pretty unreliable. Nas and Mylo had some pretty great entries that I totally overlooked at the time, yet getting MJ Cole and Metallica back-to-back was probably the moment that I quit for a year.
I couldn't tell you a single thing about the Bill Evans or Mudhoney albums I listened to in 2021, so I guess I'll have to check them out as well.
2 likes
U2
5/5
1st listen (I think), though I’ve heard several tracks from this many a time.
Most Irish-ish sounding album from U2 I’ve heard, especially in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” & “Drowning Man”.
While Joshua Tree is probably #1 for me, Bono’s vocals in this album might be unparalleled (among U2 albums I mean, don’t get excited)
Also loved the “How long to sing this song?” callback to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in the final track.
HL: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “New Year’s Day”, “Like a Song…”, “The Refugee”, “40”
2 likes
4-Star Albums (487)
1-Star Albums (9)
All Ratings
Fleet Foxes
5/5
I don’t know how I overlooked this album (besides WWH)
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
13/01/21
I guess you have to be in the right mood for RATM, and today I wasn’t quite in the right mood (driving soundtrack?)
Cream
4/5
good- listened to it half while cooking a steak / half right before bed
Nick Drake
4/5
Nirvana
5/5
*screams endlessly, namelessly*
eh they're pretty good, this Nirvana group
Femi Kuti
4/5
Queen
5/5
Ravi Shankar
3/5
Gene Clark
4/5
Listened at work, not properly since volume was low enough but enough to know it was a solid album
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
2/5
Rod Stewart
4/5
The Clash
4/5
Police & Thieves cover. Garageland. And I'm So Bored With the USA
Joni Mitchell
4/5
R.E.M.
4/5
Van Halen
4/5
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Nas
3/5
Lauryn Hill
3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Salt of the Earth still one of my favourite RS songs
Killing Joke
3/5
3 1/2,
In line with my year-of-Covid angst pretty well. Also nice “prequel” to ‘The Downward Spiral’
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Beastie Boys
4/5
Lou Reed
3/5
Hard to rate, beautiful yet uncomfortable to listen to
Mylo
3/5
George Michael
3/5
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
4/5
The La's
4/5
Marvin Gaye
4/5
The Cure
3/5
Butthole Surfers
3/5
Television
5/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
Joy Division
4/5
David Bowie
4/5
Elton John
4/5
Devendra Banhart
3/5
Paul Simon
5/5
Mudhoney
3/5
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
LL Cool J
3/5
Slint
2/5
Roxy Music
3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Mj Cole
2/5
Metallica
3/5
Ride
4/5
Blur
4/5
Merle Haggard
3/5
Alice In Chains
3/5
*Them Bones, Down in a Hole, Dirt* I'm finally starting to get Alice in Chains; in the past, I generally would switch radio stations whenever they came on. Thematically and sonically heavy. I both love and hate the "sludge metal" sound that "Dirt" helped create.
DJ Shadow
4/5
Leftfield
3/5
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Magazine
4/5
Sabu
3/5
Some spots dragged in the 2nd half, overall a great showcase for Sabu Martinez.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
(4.5) over half the songs on this album still get regular airplay; like Thriller, I feel like I'm listening to a greatest hits compilation rather than a studio album.
Neil Young
4/5
*See the Sky… , Ambulance Blues*
Getting a sense of Neil Young behind the radio hits, and it is good
The Adverts
4/5
Jane's Addiction
4/5
Dire Straits
5/5
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
At first I felt out of my element with this mid-50’s jazz album, but I’d be lying if I didn’t have a smile on my face by the end of “How High the Moon”.
-edit for future me: Apple Music only had half the album (acc. to Wikipedia track list), so this goes for tracks 1-9
Stan Getz
4/5
I listened to Sarah Vaughan’s “At Mister Kelly’s” in the morning, and this album late at night. I just do as the random album generator guides, and I conclude this is a morning album. Pleasant, instrumental, a spicy solo every now and then. Would drink a mimosa to “Desafinado”. Would fry eggs to “Samba Dees Days”
T. Rex
3/5
3 1/2, could be more… can definitely hear elements from today’s (well 2010’s) indie/alternative scene.
Wilco
4/5
Favourite might be War on War;
have heard this album before but enough time passed that it felt like a new experience
Deep Purple
5/5
Bob Dylan
5/5
May 2022, but edited in January 2025
HL: title track, "Like a Rolling Stone", "Desolation Row", "Ballad of a Thin Man", "Queen Jane Approximately"
There's a growing collection of albums I promoted from a 4 to a 5 after the fact, but I wanted to add this begrudging personal note about Highway 61 from a recent visit: "It's a 5, if Time Out of Mind is a 4"
In May 2022, this was the only Dylan I had heard in full, and I thought it somewhat overrated. Now that I've heard 6 albums from this guy (not counting Traveling Wilburys), I get how OP it is among Dylan albums and, indeed, the genre of folk rock.
I still prefer Blonde on Blonde, bloated tracklist and all
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
At first I got frustrated with the repetitive, strident nature of some of the tracks, but the back half was more enjoyable I suppose
Iron Maiden
4/5
Delicious
I’m pretty familiar with 3/8 tracks but the others did not disappoint
Bob Dylan
4/5
(75th album on 27/05/22) Was about to type I've never heard such a concise debut album, then I learned this is Dylan's 2nd album. -_- still, "Hard Rain", "Don't Think Twice", even "Talkin' World War III"- a real classic
Fred Neil
2/5
I know I can’t change it after I rate it, but on first listen it didn’t leave much of an impression. Want to give it a 2nd try down the line, I was vibin’ to the raga rock at the end of the album
Richard Hawley
4/5
Deep Purple
3/5
3.5
I really liked Speed King, Child in Time, the distorted white noise-like organs in Living Wreck; also sometimes dragged in ways Machine Head didn’t
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
2nd listen-
Time, Family Affair, the opening & closing tracks, stand out to me.
Wish I didn’t relate as much to the, uh, retreat-into-oneself-in-the-face-of-societal-unrest themes
Crowded House
4/5
5/5
The Avalanches
4/5
Kraftwerk
5/5
Mm- Human music!
June 11/ 2022
Little Richard
3/5
Iggy Pop
4/5
Tonight, Neighbourhood Threat, L4L & The Passenger suggest Iggy Pop is better than I thought
June 14/22
Black Sabbath
4/5
Tom Waits
4/5
Dave the Butcher sounds like a 60s bootleg
Town With No Cheer sounds like the game Phoenix Wright when your client is in jail.
In the Neighbourhood is just pretty
Overall a bit disjointed, but I enjoyed myself
The Gun Club
2/5
Madonna
4/5
The Police
4/5
The Temptations
4/5
3/5
MGMT
5/5
Elvis Costello
3/5
Thought it was a good but not great debut by Costello
Favourite song was “Watching the Detectives”
23/06/22
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
Okay, this took some time to get into. The shouted refrain of “Bring da Motherfuckin’ Ruckus” is kinda a stress test at the beginning of the album for me, but the album hits a stride from Tracks 6-9 that’s hard not to like.
S/o to the fuzzy bass on the final track as well, “7th Chamber- Pt. 2”.
Like many albums, my opinion is still forming after the first listen (could I name all members of the clan? No).
06/22/22
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
Janis Joplin
5/5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
I liked this more than I thought I would; there’s forays into jazz & rock-and-roll; it sounds ‘of its time’ in the best way
30/06/22
Spiritualized
3/5
Hard to rate- Angel Sigh, Symphony Space + Sway were among my favourite moments, other tracks weren’t as interesting to me.
100th album
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Oh look, another 70’s album I love that I now have to listen to again with a critical, unbiased ear. Take your 5 stars Stevie
5/5
Manu Chao
3/5
Didn’t care for all of it, but I did enjoy how Manu Chao weaves through different genres & languages
Gorillaz
4/5
If I had one bad thing to say, it’s that a couple songs are almost- dare I say- annoying. But as my first Gorillaz album (and the 1st one) I was left wanting more.
Favourites: 5/4, Clint Eastwood, Tomorrow…, Slow Country
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
Not first listen, still as disturbing and catchy as I remember it.
Standouts: Closer, March of the Pigs, Eraser
11/07/22
PS the last note in “Hurt” will scare me every time I hear it, it seems
The Electric Prunes
3/5
3.5
Pretty consistent, garage-y psychedelic rock; thought of another album generated by this website by Paul Revere + the Raiders, “Midnight Ride”- but “The Electric Prunes” is more eclectic and fun in my opinion.
14/07/22
Pink Floyd
5/5
5/5
Having heard quite a few of the tracks already, pleased to report the others are about as solid. Tired of Wonderwall but would be lying if I said I didn’t sing along to it
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I like this more than the last Costello album I got from this site (“My Aim is True”), but seeing this is his 11th album (!!) of course his songwriting would strengthen over time
Guns N' Roses
5/5
Not first listen, but some tracks really stood out to me for the first time. (“Anything Goes”, “My Michelle”)
It’s comforting to know those couple weeks as a teen where G&R was my favourite band weren’t for no reason.
15/07/22
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
Will hopefully listen again when there’s no background sound, but my impression of the 90% I did hear was that it was pretty good but overlong in both side A & B
20/07/22
Coldplay
3/5
3.5
Definitely a warmup to “Rush of Blood” in my opinion, but Shiver & Yellow are as good as anything on that album
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Baaba Maal
4/5
I like how warm this album sounds
The guitars weave together & complement each other nicely, The percussion is sparse but It’s always welcome when it kicks in
July 22, 2022
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
Small Faces
3/5
What the hell is he talking about
Leonard Cohen
5/5
CanCon alert🚨
Favourite tracks at the moment are Suzanne, One of Us Cannot Be Wrong, & Sisters of Mercy.
Took most of my adult life (so far) to appreciate Cohen’s music, but what a great album to drive home to late at night
24/07/22
Black Sabbath
3/5
Reminds me a little of “Deep Purple In Rock”, which has some really great moments among duller (technically-impressive) passages. I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to hear the band’s ‘theme song’, oh God HELP ME 🔥
Adele
4/5
Thank goodness I’m hearing this today instead of 5 years ago, where I can finally separate the songs from the void of adult contemporary radio. Except for “Send My Love”, it’s not even a bad song but I’m still recovering from hearing it 20 too many times
Highlights: “Hello”, “I Miss You”, “When We Were Young”, “River Lea”.
Bad Company
4/5
Warm slice of apple pie
29/07/22
Prefab Sprout
3/5
I feel like Wiki describing this as a “pop” record is misleading, it’s both more interesting and less accessible. It’s one of the more unique albums I’ve heard so far, I’ll probably like it more over time.
Highlights: “When Love Breaks Down”, “Desire As”, “Goodbye Lucille #1”
Eels
4/5
Clearly I haven’t seen Shrek for a while, didn’t recognize “My Beloved Monster” when it came up on the album.
Something about mid-90s alt-rock/grunge production puts me off at times (though I was born in the mid-90s), but the songs are good enough that it doesn’t matter
HL: “Beautiful Freak”, “Flower”, “Lucky Day in Hell”
Waylon Jennings
4/5
Beatles
5/5
Don’t think there’s an album I’ve listened to in its entirety more than Abbey Road. So yeah. It’s OK.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
The Black Keys
4/5
Knowledge of the Black Keys is almost entirely between Brothers-El Camino-Turn Blue, while El Camino might be my favourite of the 3, Brothers is a very close 2nd.
HL: “Too Afraid to Love You”, “Next Girl”
B.B. King
4/5
Note to self- listen to it again with better speakers
David Bowie
5/5
This has been a good week so far on the album generator
August 4, 2022
Willie Nelson
3/5
Star rant:
A high 3 in the way that “Clandestino” & “Steve Mcqueen” are high 3s, not to be confused by the low 3s of “Locust Abortion Technician” and “I’m Living All Over You”. :/
Now the actual album:
“Down Yonder” has a great piano solo by Bobby Nelson, who I’m just learning of now and also that she died earlier this year. The performances are consistently great, as is Willie Nelson’s voice, it’s just that the earnest adherence to the classic country formula reminds me why I can only take so much of the genre.
PS to star rant: Blackstar was for me a 5 star, I knew that as soon as I gave it 4
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
It’s funny that I got through over 100 albums before I started getting artists from *my* teen years. Well I didn’t really grow up with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, except for “Maps” on Rock Band. Shoulda heard them more.
August 8 2022
Pixies
2/5
HL: WIMM, Brick is Red, River Euphrates
Mixed feelings about this one- can understand and hear the influence on other alt rock bands, but uh it felt longer than 34 minutes
August 11, 2022
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Might be premature, but new favourite Stevie album?
August 10, 2022
Fugazi
4/5
HL: Turnover, Blueprint
Dammit if this gets a 4 then so should “Rage Against the Machine” (1992).
The Undertones
3/5
Learned about the Undertones for the 1st time about a year ago, in a Derry museum. And I wasn’t immediately hooked listening to their most famous song “Teenage Kicks”, but now that I’ve heard the whole album it’s one of the better songs on one of the better punk albums I’ve heard on the list.
3 1/2
August 10, 2022
Paul Simon
5/5
HLs BESIDES ‘Mother & Child Reunion’ and ‘Me & Julio’: “Duncan”, “Peace Like a River”
M&CR is probably one of my favourite songs, the rest holds up pretty well too.
Jurassic 5
5/5
Consistently engaging, sometimes feels modern, and yet other times like the early 90s
August 14, 2022
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Billy Joel
4/5
Bottle of Red 🕺 Bottle of White 🕺
Not crazy about “Just the Way You Are” and “She’s Always A Woman”, but if that’s my personal low point, it’s still better than the highs of other artists.
HL: “Scenes”, “Only the Good Die Young”, “Get it Right”, “Movin Out”
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Genesis
4/5
I knew in my heart that I’d like “old” Genesis, even though the one song I knew from the era was “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”. Hope some Peter Gabriel solo albums are on this list as well.
HL: “Dancing…”, “The Cinema Show”
August 18, 2022
FKA twigs
4/5
HL: Hours, Two Weeks, Give Up
The simplicity & sincerity of Twig’s voice are much appreciated amidst the sea of synths. How does it come across as both minimal and borderline overwhelming. Sure have it both ways
August 18, 2022 (late nite)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Costello Album No. 3 for me, every one I’ve liked more than the last. I have a soft spot for albums that indulge in other styles, and there’s a little punk, prog, maybe early synth-pop stirred into this one. Maybe it’s just his voice I’m not the biggest fan of
HL: Oliver’s Army, Goon Squad, Accidents…
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Too long, not everything hits, has multiple personalities… reminds me a bit of my favourite Beatles album.
HL: 1979, Tonight, Thru the Eyes…and more
Mellon Collie: August 20th, listening while walking downtown
The infinite sadness: August 21st, commuting to work
Spiritualized
5/5
HL: “Broken Heart”, “Cool Waves”
August 23 2022
Paul Simon
3/5
3.5
HL: The Late Great Johnny Ace, Think Too Much B/A, Rene & Georgette…
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
I somehow relaxed to this before work (though it unsettled me in equal measure). Had to restart multiple tracks because with noise from outdoors all this album sounded like was white noise
HL: Loomer, When You Sleep, To Here Knows When
August 25 2022
Cat Stevens
4/5
Queens of the Stone Age
2/5
Not crazy about this one
HL: If Only, You Can’t Quit Me Baby
August 28 2022
Baaba Maal
4/5
HL: Minuit, Hamady Boiro, Gidelam, Lem Gi
Baaba Maal is one of my favourite recent discoveries from this album list (though reading Wikipedia, I heard his voice before in the Black Panther soundtrack). “Djam Leeli” was sparse and hypnotic, this is denser & more celebratory.
August 29, 2022
Prince
4/5
Disc 1 HL: Housequake, Starfish & Coffee, Slow Love
Disc 2 HL: I Could Never…, Strange Relationship, Adore
Not 1st listen, but I appreciated it more this time around. The slower, minimalistic songs give way to an O.TT. finale that reminded me what a tour de force Prince must have been in the 80s
August 29, 2022
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Around “Spanish Harlem” my interest started to wane, as the other covers so far had been pretty unique alternatives to the Beatles/Beach Boys recordings. Though the album’s first half is better, “Monday Monday”, “California Dreamin”, “Go Where You Wanna Go” & “I Call Your Name” are more than enough to sustain my enjoyment.
August 30, 2022
Frank Sinatra
2/5
HL: A punchy “Anything Goes”, “You Make Me Feel So Young”, “Old Devil Moon”
Sinatra’s music in advertisements & movies is so ubiquitous that I could never fully shake that feeling of commercialism. Will revisit when I have a lover to swing with, see if my attitude changes.
August 31, 2022
Dirty Projectors
4/5
HL: Useful Chamber, Stillness is the Move
There were moments where the album’s frequently-changing nature almost lost me. Overall though this was a great listen.
September 2, 2022
Metallica
4/5
Understand why some fans hated the shift in musical direction, but I also feel this album earned the constant-to-this-day radio play. And the deeper cuts were welcome discoveries, too (Wolf, Struggle)
HL: The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, Sad But True
Big Black
1/5
HL: “Passing Complexion”, “Kerosene”
I hit up Wikipedia immediately after the first track ended, to learn a little about Big Black/Steve Albini. Turns out he was involved (as an audio engineer) in several of my least favourite albums on this list so far (Blues Explosion, Slint, even Surfer Rosa), so my distaste with this sound is at least consistent. The demented riff in Passing Complexion was probably the high(est)light for me
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
Realizing that only knowing this band from Trout Mask Replica was a very limited impression. This is some great 60s electric blues (with some theremin & such thrown in) and I’m here for it.
HL: Zig Zag…, I’m Glad,
Count Basie & His Orchestra
5/5
Bauhaus
4/5
Had to board a bus at 5:30am, put this song on and was surprised how well this album complemented the pre-dawn atmosphere.
So far the two moods are “spooky ghost” and “spooky ghost d a n c e”, and I’m satisfied.
HL: “Hollow Hills”, “Mask”, “Kick in the Eye”
Madness
3/5
3.5
Easy 4 stars based on the first 4 tracks or so. I did love the wacky ragtime piano in multiple tracks, and feel bad now for basing my whole idea of Madness on a Maxwell House commercial
September 20, 2022- finally listened to this on YouTube
Talking Heads
4/5
HL: Tentative Decisions, Psycho Killer, The Book I Read
Relief that Psycho Killer isn’t the best song on this album; good for a debut; Talking Heads are a band I haven’t paid much attention to before this year, so better late than never.
September 9, 2022
The Smiths
4/5
HL: I Know It’s Over, The Queen is Dead, There is a Light…
September 9 2022 :0 you sly dog
2Pac
3/5
HL: “Dear Mama”, “Old School”, “Young Niggaz”
September 11, 2022
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
System Of A Down
3/5
George Michael
4/5
Orbital
4/5
Enjoyable overall; the bookend vocal loops really annoyed me but I’m not taking track 1 and 10 into consideration when rating this. Didgeridoos, tampuras and Paul McGann unite.
September 15, 2022
Tom Waits
5/5
Chalk it up to me being over-tired while listening to this album, but I thought this was excellent. As I tend to do, I focused more on the background music than the lyrics, but the clunky mix of brass, marimbas, and miscellany painted its own picture of Waits’ smoky, rough-and-tumble city. Also the songs are good
HL: “Downtown Train”, “Tango Till They’re Sore”, “Hang Down Your Head”
September 17th, 2022
Lynyrd Skynyrd
5/5
I give this album 7 key lime pies out of 5
September 18th, 2022
Sugar
3/5
HL: “Man On the Moon”, “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”, “Hoover Dam”
Unfamiliar with all of this, I guess Canadian radio has this 90’s alt-rock niche filled with the Barenaked Ladies & the Hip. I appreciate it for the poppy melodies shining through the distorted guitars.
September 18, 2022
Emmylou Harris
5/5
One of my favourite country albums so far on this list. Harris’s voice gave goosebumps on at least a few occasions.
September 19, 2022
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
After listening to this album since I was a kid, I have come to believe the best version ends with “Silver Springs”, a song I was unfamiliar with until recently because it wasn’t on either of the two Rumours CDs in my house. (I’m sure I have multiple copies of DSOTM and Graceland too)
September 20th, 2022
The Sonics
4/5
Quick, fun, dirty collection of rock n roll covers & originals. A tentative 4, for the live, unhinged feeling throughout the album. My reservation is that most of my favourite tracks were the covers, but hey- it’s not like I have a limited amount of 4s to give out
HL: Psycho, Roll Over Beethoven, Night Time…,
September 21, 2022
Mariah Carey
2/5
HL: Breakdown, Butterfly, Honey, The Beautiful Ones
What I like about this album: Mariah Carey’s performance, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the first 3 tracks, the Prince song
What I don’t like: the mid-90s adult contemporary gloss over almost everything. (The Beautiful Ones sounds like it samples the OG from Purple Rain, and the old drum machine sounds fresher to me than the couple tracks before it)
Steely Dan
4/5
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
HL: All Through The Night, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, She Bop
Was never a big fan originally, worked a theatre production featuring Cyndi Lauper music earlier this year, which was probably the turning point. I’ll admit I quite enjoyed this one
September 23, 2022
New Order
4/5
HL: Love Vigilantes, Sunrise, Elegia
Two nice 80’s synth albums back to back (along with Cyndi Lauper), though I probably wouldn’t study with Cyndi in the background.
Low-Life has no real low-points for me, and it was a pleasure to ride the highs and lows (I’ll stop now), from the melancholy “Elegia” to the bright n’ bitter “Face Up”.
Tim Buckley
4/5
Almost soured my 1st impression reading about his son & the song “I Never Wanted To Be Your Mountain”; however I can’t deny I enjoyed this mix of folk/psychedelic pop. The sugary production never quite overwhelms Tim’s voice, though I’m sure it’s too much for some listeners.
HL: Once I Was, No Man Can Find the War, Goodbye and Hello
Depeche Mode
3/5
3rd synth pop of the week, this one will take more time to digest. Depeche Mode has always left me a little cold, yet I was downright addicted to “Never Let Me Down Again” last year. The dark, almost Halloween-y detours were unexpected, particularly the chanting in the last track.
HL: Never Let Me Down Again, Behind the Wheel, I Want You Now
The Jam
4/5
Air
4/5
HL: Ce matin-là, Sexy Boy, Le voyage de Pénélope
It’s really good! The retro, 70’s-esque mix of analogs & organic instruments were a welcome salve to a stressful day.
The Everly Brothers
3/5
HL: “Cathy’s Clown”, “Made to Love”, “Sigh, Cry, Almost Die”
RIP Everlys
“A Date” definitely deserves to be on this list, also suffers from the syndrome of inspiring other songwriters I love more. Sort of like Little Richard, though this album’s sanitized cover of “Lucille” does the original no favours.
September 29, 2022
Green Day
4/5
Surprise: Basket Case is in the middle of the album; it sounds so much like an intro.
Not too many surprises afterward (from the 11 songs I didn’t know) but the limited musical palette means some real catchy hooks come in loud & clear.
Stereo MC's
2/5
HL: “Everything”, “Fade Away”, “Playing With Fire”
There’s some good jazzy/funky flourishes behind a vocalist (Rob Birch) whose delivery I didn’t find all that interesting. It’s fine for a party background/club (and I’m sure I’ve been to a club at least once in my life)
Beatles
4/5
Some of my favourites: All My Loving, It Won’t Be Long, Not a Second Time, You Really Got a Hold on Me
Also featuring some of the most trite songs on any Beatles album: Hold Me Tight, Little Child, I Wanna Be Your Man
I give this Beatles album the lowest possible score, 4 stars
Oct 2, 2022
Nick Drake
4/5
HL: Fly, Northern Sky, Hazy Jane I
Listened to while assembling a credenza. Didn’t get as stressed as I normally am with simple-to-assemble furniture, and so I give credit to the voice of Nick Drake. Liked the instrumental passages, but it’s odd going backwards from the stark Pink Moon to his earlier works.
October 3, 2022
Anita Baker
3/5
HL: Sweet Love, Watch Your Step, Mystery
Don’t have a lot to say about this album. Just that it’s really well performed and some sections reminded me of the music behind your local 7 day weather forecast
October 4, 2022
Funkadelic
4/5
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
5/5
HL: "Maid of Orleans", "She's Leaving", "Souvenir"
First heard "Maid of Orleans" earlier this year at a record shop, Shazam informed me that it was just a demo from "Architecture & Morality: The Singles". Not on Apple Music, but it was worth the extra effort to locate it. Beautiful, almost ambient-at-times, synth pop. Proves that there's more to OMD than "If You Leave" anyway.
October 12, 2022
Herbie Hancock
5/5
I was going to say my one criticism is that Herbie is having a little too much fun with the synth fx, but that’s also partly why this album is so good. Chameleon has one of my all-time favourite bass riffs, Watermelon Man is barely recognizable from the original but glad there are both versions, & the last 2 tracks are great complements to each other: the fiery sax & percussion of “Sly” is a world apart from the ethereal piano in “Vein Melter”.
October 9, 2022
Bob Dylan
3/5
More ambivalent over this one than other 60s Dylan albums I’ve heard, though it has some great tunes like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Mr. Tambourine Man”. Lots of 12-bar blues in the first half, and I felt the length of songs such as “115th Dream” and “It’s Alright Ma”.
October 10, 2022
Kraftwerk
4/5
Daft Punk
2/5
I used to think “Around the World” was obnoxious. Nowadays I quite like it, it’s very tasteful compared to “Rock’n Roll”, a painful listening experience.
This year marks 25 years of Homework, and to commemorate this anniversary I award 2.5 stars.
HL: “Da Funk”, “Around the World”, “Alive”
October 12, 2022
Khaled
3/5
Personally, kind of a sucker for the classical/folk elements in “Mele H’Bibti” & “Aalach Tloumouni”, though the more contemporary-sounding songs aren’t bad. I like “C’est la Nuit”, though it also grounds the album firmly in the 1990’s. Some of the genre crossovers sound a bit corny, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good (salsa in “Gouloulha-Dji”, Indian pop in “El Harba Wine”).
October 13, 2022
Queen
4/5
HL: “Father to Son”, “Seven Seas of Rhye”, basically the whole crazy 2nd half
For some reason, of all the classic rock bands (Led, Floyd) I was big on as a kid/teenager, I never explored Queen’s catalogue like those other bands. Which means I went into this almost blind, and what a treat!
If there’s one thing modern rock lacks, it’s fairies & ogres 👺
October 14, 2022
Aretha Franklin
5/5
HL: “You Make Me Feel”, “Chain”, “Ain’t No Way”
Easy listen, was surprised by the haunting final track “Ain’t No Way” as well as the rockin’ “Good to Me”. Also a fan of Aretha’s interpretation of “People Get Ready”
October 15, 2022
Metallica
4/5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Common
3/5
HL: “They Say”, “Go!”, “The Food”
3.5
Mostly liked West’s production, though the sample on Testify got a bit annoying. Surprised I haven’t heard more from Common, though I’m really only starting to learn about hiphop beyond the loudest & brashest acts (aka West) in my twenties.
October 17, 2022
Arcade Fire
4/5
Arcade Fire did a music video for “We Used to Wait” that had your neighbourhood (aka Google Maps imagery of your neighbourhood) getting overtaken by a forest. My brother and I listened to that song so many times putting different scenes from our shared childhood into the video.
Listening to the album in its entirety for the 1st time, the songs didn’t resonate with my own suburban memories quite as strongly, but I’m also really bad at listening to lyrics.
Very strategic of Arcade Fire to release this when I was still a kid, since it still takes me back there anyway.
October 18, 2022
Deee-Lite
3/5
HL: “Groove is in the Heart”, “Smile On”, “Try Me On…”
Big dumb fun dance album. Honestly didn’t expect Deee-Lite in this list. Whenever my attention wavered, there’d be some line or goofy sample (the Good, Bad & Ugly whistle in “E.S.P.”) to pull me back in
October 18, 2022
Thelonious Monk
5/5
200th album ;)
Not 1st listen, put it on while frying eggs & mushrooms for breakfast.
My favourite track is still “Pannonica”, and I appreciate the title track a lot more since doing a Thelonious Monk presentation in high school.
October 19th 2022
Public Enemy
4/5
HL: “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”, “Rebel Without a Pause”, “Don’t Believe the Hype”
After “Don’t Believe The Hype”, I started to wonder if I could listen to an hour of Public Enemy without getting exhausted. And by some miracle, I did not. The experience improved when I switched to headphones, as all the competing overdubs and samples didn’t sound great on my Bluetooth speaker. Special appreciation to the metal sample in “Channel Zero?!” (It’s Slayer, according to Wiki)
George Harrison
5/5
HL: “Frankie Crisp”, the title track, “My Sweet Lord”, “If Not For You”, “What is Life”, “Awaiting on You All”
Shame that All Things Must Pass is classified as a triple album, and not a double + bonus record. Would help with expectations.
Well, I love this album to bits. Definitely not first listen but some songs (Apple Scruffs, Art of Dying in particular) stuck out today, where in the past they’d be overlooked for the classics.
The Temptations
3/5
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
The Flaming Lips
4/5
HL: “Do You Realize”, “In the Morning of the Magicians”, “Are You A Hypnotist”
Who else is a sucker for 2000s psychedelic-indie-pop-rock like I am?
There were times that the sweeping synths (weeeUUUooouueee) distracted me from the song itself, but despite that, I can see myself listening through this album again soon.
October 26, 2022
Steely Dan
4/5
HL: “Peg”, “Aja”, “Deacon Blues”
Shoot, I’m unsure but “Aja” gets 4 stars for now. “Peg” is my favourite Steely Dan song; yet the second half dragged more than the first, despite the 1st having longer songs. Could be anywhere from a 3 to a 5 depending on mood & location.
Queen
5/5
Before I almost reflex-5-star this Queen album, I want to address any reasons why it might not deserve it:
“Death on Two Legs”: not a bad song, but surprisingly venomous for an opening track. Did Freddie Mercury just tell me to kill myself?
“Car”: it’s a dumb song about being in love with a car. However, if you don’t like this song you’re wrong
“Sweet Lady”: Might be filler, but I believe it’s only diminished by being on the same album as much better songs. The 3/4, or 4/4, switches are interesting.
“The Prophet’s Song”: the first time I heard the album I didn’t much care for the a cappella interlude. However this very proggy tune has grown on me a lot since then.
Taking away those songs you are left with some of Queen’s greatest work, including 3 very enjoyable old-timey ditties and the best version of “God Save the Queen” (sorry Sex Pistols). Can’t say whether it’s the best Queen album but it has just about everything one would want in a Queen album.
HL: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “39”, “Love of My Life”, “Seaside Rendezvous”
Brian Eno
3/5
Listened to the 3 songs NOT on Apple Music Canada first, “Regiment”, “Qu’Ran”, & “The Carrier”. (2/3 of those songs were apparently cleared of copyright issues and reinstated on streaming services. Not so.)
Liked all 3, but all felt transitory. Kind of like how “Any Colour You Like” glues 2 other songs together in DSOTM.
Upon finishing the rest of the album, that’s just how most songs are here. The mix of organic percussion, cut up vocals & cold synths can be really eerie (Mountain of Needles). Lived up to the “Ghosts” in the album title.
HL: “The Jezebel Spirit”, “Very, Very, Hungry”, “The Carrier”
October 28, 2022
PJ Harvey
4/5
HL: “The Glorious Land”, “On Battleship Hill”, “In the Dark Places”
Not English. Still enjoyed this quite a bit. 4/5
October 28, 2022
Portishead
4/5
HL: “Sour Times”, “Roads”, “It Could Be Sweet”
October 30, 2022
Cornershop
3/5
HL: “Sleep on the Left Side”, “Indian Tobacco”, “We’re in Yr Corner”
Today I learned about this band Cornershop.
There’s a kind of ‘cutting-room floor’ aura about some tracks, and I found some others to be overlong.
The Punjabi Beatles cover was a great note to finish on; it could be seen as a response to the many 60s rock bands using ragas and musical instruments as flavour.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
HL: “Lady Jane”, “Mother’s Little Helper”, “Out of Time”
October 31, 2022 🎃
The B-52's
3/5
HL: “Rock Lobster,” “Planet Claire”, “Downtown”
3.5
I think “B-52’s” (the album) will grow on me the same way its “Rock Lobster” did; for now I felt like I was being smacked in the head with its madcap energy after only 40 minutes.
November 1, 2022
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Wire
3/5
HL: “Mannequin”, “Strange”, “Ex-Lion Tamer”
Think I’m leaning closer to 3 stars than 2. I suspect in this list there will be a few more punk/postpunk LPs from the late 70s/early 80s that I am simply ambivalent over. At times it sounds like an album from the 90s, which certainly highlights their influence on later alt-rock bands. And there are just enough enjoyable songs to make the “1234!DuDuDuDu” song fragments worth sitting through.
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
I’m really into the first 3 songs, hmm but the slower burns- eg. “She’s Out of My Life”- might be too much for me, man. Tracks 5, 9 & 10 are probably my next favourites.
3.5
November 8, 2022
Edit January 2025: who pissed in your cereal, 2022 Me? "Girlfriend" and "She's Out of My Life" are still my least favourite tracks on the album, but that's like saying I don't particularly care for "The Lady in My Life" from Thriller. They're alright songs in a sea of fantastic ones
Nina Simone
5/5
Kind of perfect for the dreary, early winter atmosphere in which I commuted to work. It both complemented and served as an antidote to that atmosphere, sometimes within the same song.
HL: “What More Can I Say”, “Lilac Wine”, the title track
Love
4/5
HL: “Alone Again Or”, “Andmoreagain”, “Maybe the People…”
An album I have never heard before, yet knew of its existence for years (think it was one of the top albums in Rolling Stone’s old list); and I had a feeling I would like it. A band in the 60s doing psychedelic rock/baroque pop records would have to mess up really badly for me not to like it.
“Bummer in the Summer” is short but it’s a bit distracting in how much it sounds like the gibberish song “Prisencolinensinainciusol”.
(The night of) Nov 8 2022
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
HL: “When the Sun Goes Down”, “A Certain Romance”, “Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured”
Here’s another album I’m glad that I came across, it’s a fairly strong debut by the Monkeys but I’ll have to dig deeper for an album of theirs I really vibe with. Somewhere between the dance punk of this, the radio-friendly “AM” & the newer, jazzier stuff coming out this year.
November 10, 2022
The The
4/5
I first heard of this group in a list of the worst band names. Luckily the music leaves a much better impression. Reminds me of the previously reviewed “Rise and Fall” by Madness, in terms of eclectic, 80’s English pop rock.
“The Twilight Hour” sounds like a precursor to the lava levels in Super Mario 64.
If I change my mind about the rating later, it’s because I’m sick while listening to this tonight.
HL: “This is the Day”, “Giant”, “I’ve Been Waiting…”
MC Solaar
4/5
Solaar reminded me of the French I lost due to not practicing, so for that I give one star ⭐️
HL: “Caroline”, “Armand est mort”, “Bouge de là, Pt. 1”
November 11, 2022
N.W.A.
3/5
Here’s an album that 100% deserves a place on this list, but my own impression is a bit of a mixed bag.
Some songs feel like an extended roll call, where it seems like it’s done and then you hear “Hey MC Ren, tell em” & the song goes another two minutes. However their most famous songs, “Fuck the Police” and the title track, keep their momentum throughout. “Parental Discretion”, something of a celebration of the black & white sticker on the front cover, is also a highlight to me.
Mike Ladd
2/5
As an entire album, "enjoy" is a strong word. However I hope to find more albums like this: hard-to-define, experimental pieces by artists I'm unfamiliar with. The track I was dreading listening to (an over 10 minutes-long "To the Moon's Contractor") ended up being one of the highlights for me. Then there's a song like "The Animist", which wears out its welcome about 2 minutes too soon.
HL: "Planet 10", "Bladerunners", "Moon's Contractor", "Wipe Out"
December 12, 2022 (late)
Throwing Muses
3/5
Kudos to YouTube for providing the scraps I could assemble into an (almost) intact “Throwing Muses” album. Trying to ignore that everything sounded muddy & compressed from existing on YT for 11 years, the album’s not bad; my favourite song is the new wave-y “Call Me”, but I was probably more taken with the changes in tempo/dances with genre, than the lyrics & vocals.
HL: “Call Me”, “Hate My Way”, “Delicate Cutters”, “Rabbits Dying”
December 9, 2022
The Kinks
4/5
Only knowing (the really pretty) “Waterloo Sunset” from the song list, I didn’t have much expectation, but:
Death of a Clown
Lazy Old Sun
End of the Season
Two Sisters
Harry Rag
were also standouts to me. Despite the jolly harpsichord & brass, there’s a melancholy air that I was drawn to.
November 14, 2022
Def Leppard
4/5
I’ve only heard the 3 big songs (Photograph, Foolin’, Rock of Ages) a thousand times on classic rock radio, and there’s not really any surprises outside of those.
Without listening too closely, Track 1 might as well be AC/DC.
“Stage Fright” and “Too Late for Love” are pretty hooky & catchy, I might even like the former more than “Rock of Ages”.
Despite my own musical interests drifting away from 80s hair/glam metal as of late, I’m happy this list led me back there.
November 16, 2022
Kate Bush
4/5
-Fitting that I’d get at least one album from Kate Bush in the *Year of Bush* (a phrase that I will not use again).
-The music occasionally has an ambient element, which may frustrate listeners searching for a pop hook/structure, but the way the album carefully weaves between those songs, and more urgent-sounding ones like “Rocket’s Tail”, meant that each individual song felt like a movement in a symphony.
-I found out why track 9 sounded Pink Floyd-y. David Gilmour guests on that (and “The Fog”).
HL: “The Fog”, “Heads We’re Dancing”, “Deeper Understanding”, also a continuing appreciation of Uileann pipes as heard in the title track
November 18, 2022
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
HL: “When Seasons Change”, “So In Love”, “Jesus”
A serious but (I think) somewhat optimistic album which leans into gospel. I’m in a grey area where I don’t have much tolerance for evangelism but I love gospel music, so ultimately the spiritualism in Mayfield’s lyrics added to, rather than detracted from, the album’s calls for action.
November 20, 2022
Justice
3/5
HL: “Stress”, “Phantom, Pt. 2”, “Genesis”, “Valentine”
Enjoyment may have varied (I’ll have to think whether any of the guest vocals were necessary), but other tracks are deeply funky and kind of addictive. Idk is “dark disco” a thing?
Daft Punk 🤝 Quincy Jones 🤝 Deadmau5
3.5
November 19, 2022
Saint Etienne
3/5
HL: “Like the Swallow”, “Girl VII”, “Spring”, “Nothing Can Stop Us”, “London Belongs to Me”
Some unexpectedly psychedelic moments (like “Wilson”) I liked;
I’m confused as to why, with all the influences and genres at play, the album as a whole sounds *dry*. Is it a victim of the early CD era?
I was going to add the album was overlong, but turns out I had a deluxe version which was about 10 mins longer.
November 19, 2022
CanCon alert:🚨 They said Winnipeg
4/5
Think I enjoyed the first suite the best, church organs, cacophony & all.
My favourite 70s, prog, non-Floyd album is between this and the Court of the Crimson King now.
November 23, 2022 (late night)
Elliott Smith
4/5
HL: “Junk Bond Trader”, “Everything Means Nothing…”, “In the Lost & Found”, “Son of Sam”
There aren’t just shades of John/Paul/George, but possibly a bit of Syd Barrett & “The Piper” too. As with other artists whose tragedy precedes their music, I went into this expecting a far bleaker album than what I got: what a relief.
November 23, 2022
Moby
3/5
HL: “My Weakness”, “Run On”, “Porcelain”, “Find My Baby”, “Natural Blues”
Leave it to me to be well and truly done with this album at the end, then get enchanted by the final track “My Weakness”. Some really good tracks, and some tedious stretches. It really sold 12 million copies, eh?
November 24, 2022
John Lee Hooker
3/5
HL: “I’m in the Mood”, “That’s Alright”, “No Substitute”
I like how Hooker gets the last couple songs to himself. The roster of all-stars is mostly enjoyable, I think some of them could have contributed more- except in cases like the title track where the scales tip in the opposite record & it feels like a Santana album.
Charlie Musselwhite is a welcome guest (I saw him live a while back with Ben Harper)
November 25, 2022
Hole
4/5
HL: “Violet”, “She Walks on Me”, “Asking For It”
Quite liked it despite the grunge.
November 25, 2022
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Though I prefer Lady Soul (of the 2 Aretha albums I’ve listened to in full), there’s a certain gift in performing decent songs and making them sound like the anthem of a generation. Those Redding & Cooke covers, they’re enough to justify listening to this in full.
HL: “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”, title track, “A Change is Gonna Come”, “Save Me”, “Don’t Let Me Lose That Dream”
Sonic Youth
2/5
Highlights: “100%”, “Purr”, “On the Strip”, “Chapel Hill”
Listening to this made me return to “Sister” to try and figure out why I enjoyed that album more than this one. There’s catchy riffs in both, as well as plenty of distortion & screeching.
I read there’s 5 albums by Sonic Youth, so maybe after the other 3 I’ll get why this entry is so acclaimed.
The Verve
3/5
2nd half was better, but maybe that should because there were fewer distractions (listened to in transit, a couple songs at a time)
HL: “History” “On your Own” “So it Goes” “No Knock…”, “Life’s an Ocean”
3.5
Nov 29 2022
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I have heard a lot of about half this album, as when my family gets together the playlist is often a bunch of the same albums on shuffle. This brings me nostalgia, much like “Buena Vista Social Club”, “Graceland” + the Beatles’ “1967-1970” compilation are all ingredients in a big, nostalgic soup.
So maybe I was conditioned to like this, though it may not be quite as good as Cohen’s “Songs” from ‘67.
“Take this Waltz” is an example of some dated synth strings, but it’s still in my top 5 Cohen songs. And “Jazz Police” is delightfully weird & unfamiliar to me, considering how much I’ve listened to “Manhattan”.
HL: “First We Take Manhattan”, “Take This Waltz”, “Everybody Knows”, “Jazz Police”
November 30, 2022
Peter Frampton
4/5
Tim Buckley
3/5
Of the two looong songs on this album, thought “Love From Room 109 at the Islander” was beautiful, and “Gypsy Woman” to be pretty aimless jamming. The rest is decent enough, the kinda freeform nature of the album sets it apart from other 60s folk records I’ve heard, even from the last Tim Buckley album I heard (“Goodbye and Hello”)
HL: “Room 109”, “Strange Feelin”, “Sing a Song For You”
December 1, 2022
Traffic
3/5
- oh shoot, Steve Winwood plays just about every instrument here (slight exaggeration except when it’s literally true)
- seems like Traffic was smoking the same weed that Tim Buckley was on Happy Sad (the last album I listened to before this one)
- while I’m something of a Winwood fan- that voice! those keys!- this album feels incomplete, especially so with the inclusion of 2 Winwood demos in the version I listened to.
- zoned out in the first half to the point I can’t really provide much insight. Good sax 🎷
HL: “John Barleycorn”, “Every Mother’s Son”, “Empty Pages”
December 1, 2022 (late)
OutKast
5/5
(Dec 4) Speakerboxx
HL: “GhettoMusick”, “Unhappy”, “The Way You Move”, “The Rooster”, “Bust”, “Flip Flop Rock”
(Dec 5) The Love Below
HL: “Spread”, “Hey Ya”, “Roses”, “Love in War”, ”My Favorite Things”, “Take Off Your Cool”
Once again, I hear a double album that I’m not sure I’d give 5 stars to each individual disc, but I would to them combined (Mellon Collie, Songs in the Key of Life). Can’t say how this project compares to “real” OutKast albums, since this is the only full-length one I’ve heard so far, but it’s a great introduction to both member’s talents & musical influences.
Joan Baez
4/5
HL: “Silver Dagger”, “All My Trials”, “Wildwood Flower”, “John Riley”, “El Preso Numero Nueve”
December 5, 2022
Billy Bragg
4/5
Supertramp
4/5
HL: “Bloody Well Right”, “Dreamer”, “Hide in Your Shell”, “Asylum”
I’ll swing towards a 4 for this one, I admit to having my parents’ Supertramp Greatest Hits CD playing in the car on at least one occasion. There’s a shared sense of theatrics + pomp with Queen, ELO, Styx, etc, with a little less glam and a little more jazz. Nothing to get overly excited about, but I like it well enough.
December 8 2022
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
I have never had this many recommendations for a contemporary album from people in my life. First it was songs like “Alright” & “King Kunta”, then more in-depth remarks about the album’s scope & themes.
I listened to the whole thing eventually, after a Grammy award & Obama praised it or something, but I think the catalyst was learning that David Bowie took inspiration from TPAB for his final album. And I re-listened several times, concluding that the hype was for good reason.
I think hearing it now, after getting albums by NWA & 2pac on this website, makes me appreciate Kendrick more for taking the best from those sounds/eras (plus all the soul & jazz), and for making something both more emotionally complex & analytical.
the songs are good too.
December 7, 2022
Jane's Addiction
3/5
December 13, 2022
HL: "Jane Says", "Summertime Rolls", "Mountain Song"
Neneh Cherry
4/5
HL: "Buffalo Stance", "Manchild", "Inna City Mamma", "Love Ghetto", "Outré Risqué Locomotive"
1st instinct was to say I've never listened or heard of this artist before, but a lil Spotify sleuthing says she was featured in "We Will Always Love You" by the Avalanches (one of my favourite lockdown finds). For one track, but still.
I didn't anticipate to enjoy this as much as I did, after all, what other new jack swing have I listened to?- Michael Jackson?
That is probably bc this is music for moving, and not sitting & contemplating. Good thing I was walking home from work when I heard this.
"Manchild" is probably #1 for me on this album. "Locomotive" near the end is a really fun track as well.
December 11, 2022
Arcade Fire
5/5
Not 1st listen.
Probably one of my favourite albums from the 2000s, the opening track still gets to me 10 yrs after the 1st time I heard it (didn’t know it when it was new).
HL: “Tunnels”, “Wake Up”, “7 Kettles”, “Crown of Love”, “Rebellion”, “In the Backseat”
Dec 10 2022
David Bowie
5/5
December 14, 2022
It’s been over a year since I’ve last heard this album :/ Too long a time
HL:
Changes
Oh! You Pretty Things
Life on Mars?
Kooks
Quicksand
Queen Bitch
Carole King
4/5
It's been a week of re-listening, as about 4/7 albums are ones I'm already pretty familiar with. So it is with Tapestry, one of the best selling albums in my immediate family (There's probably more than one copy of Tapestry in my family house) and also the world.
Not much to say; can't find a weak link in the tracklist, the piano in this album makes my ears smile. Maybe this bored me when I was younger, but I've come around.
HL: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", "You've Got a Friend", "I Feel the Earth Move"
December 13, 2022
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
Skipped ahead to make this the 250th rating. Not first listen; I've returned to this little slice of Cuban folk a few times when I need a pick-me-up. (Also I've found it pretty easy where I'm from to find this CD in a thrift shop, so it wound up playing in my car earlier this year)
Between this, the concert, & the weed cookie that I took in later, consider me picked up. *maracas*
December 12, 2022
Machito
5/5
This is some spicy jazz
I like it very much
December 15, 2022
The Sabres Of Paradise
3/5
Closest to dark ambient music/hauntology in this list so far (I don’t see many others arousing a similar comparison).
The day before I heard this I happened to be scrolling through the worst-rated albums on this list, so that might have affected how I perceived this one. There’s definitely a common theme of non-musical, avant-garde elements in those albums, and this is no exception; where did they get those bizarre, metallic sounds for Bubble & Slide? Yet if they wanted to evoke rain dripping through a decaying discotheque’s ceiling, then sure, they pulled it off.
HL: “Haunted Dancehall”, “Duke of Earlsfield”, “Wilmot”, “Planet D (Portishead Remix)”
The Style Council
3/5
"I listen to grown-up music!"- Peppa Pig on UK sophisti-pop in the early 1980's
HL: "The Paris Match", "Headstart for Happiness", "Dropping Bombs on the Whitehouse", "The Whole Point of No Return"
December 16, 2022
Tori Amos
5/5
December 19 2022
Another new discovery for me; beautiful, sometimes harrowing.
HL: "Crucify", "Girl", "Leather", "Winter", "Tear in Your Hand"
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
2/5
HL: "Bomba", "Every Man Is An Island", "Visions of You"
Hard to rate, somewhere between 1 and 4 stars :p
Pro: très éclectique
Con: It's like Graceland without the memorable songs
Pro: Inspired instrumentals
Con: Wobble's singing voice
Con: I'm not feeling too hot tonight, so that might affect my enjoyment too
January 3 2023
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Twas nice to listen to in the moment
December 19, 2022
The xx
4/5
HL: Islands, Fantasy, Basic Space, VCR, Intro
I like to split albums into two categories, "Day" & "Night". This is definitely closer to the 2nd, but I could probably listen to it any time of day.
VCR reminds me strongly of two older songs ("Geraldine" by Glasvegas & "Heroes" by Bowie), but I can't help but enjoy it as well.
December 20, 2022
Blue Cheer
2/5
HL: "Parchment Farm", "Summertime Blues", "Second Time Around"
On one hand, almost the whole album has this muddy, gross quality to it, which started to feel one-note. Even its breakthrough cover of "Summertime Blues" (which I've listened to a couple of times earlier this year) is something I can only enjoy in small doses.
I did however, start to groove to this album by the final drum + bass solos, turning off my brain, not trying to measure its influence on later metal & punk albums. Y'know, just enjoying 3 musicians shredding in the studio.
December 21 2022, the frigid winter solstice
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
Maybe one drawback to this list is realizing I don’t like Run-DMC as much as I thought.
I’d easily rather listen to this in full than their self-titled debut. There’s more variety between songs, and the “Walk This Way”/“It’s Tricky” combo alone makes this a classic in my ears.
3.5
HL: “It’s Tricky” (a 5 star song), “Walk This Way”, “Raising Hell”, “You Be Illin”, “Proud to Be Black”
December 22, 2022
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
HL: “Country Home”, “Over and Over”, “Mansion on the Hill”, “Mother Earth”
—Now that I’m back on Apple Music, time to give this a proper listen.
—I’ve noticed that for quite a few albums I’m biased towards the opener & closer- as is the case for Ragged Glory.
—As much as I could criticize it for its long-windedness, something about its simplicity was satisfying; like a tool that does one thing really well.
January 24, 2023
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
December 23 2022
HL: "Radio Radio", "Lipstick Vogue", "No Action", "Pump It Up"
Could complain again about the excess of EC&tA here, but I enjoyed this one pretty much all the way through. Was reading about this album’s debt to the Rolling Stones, ca. Aftermath era. It has both the infectious riffs/choruses, as well as lyrics that make you go “Man, Costello\Jagger kinda sounds like an asshole here!”
The driving punk tempo energizes the tracks without getting obnoxious.
Laibach
4/5
Think the worst thing that could have happened to this album was being released in the late 1980s; dated production aside, I don’t know why I liked this as much as I did (up to “The Great Seal”; I haven’t heard the last 4, CD-only tracks yet). The incorporation of bugles, chanting & very loud drums makes this feel like less of an album & more of a soundtrack to a dark fantasy movie.
I caught the cover of “One Vision” by Queen but didn’t recognize the Opus track; knowing how the original sounds makes this album funnier as a whole. One of my favourite bands is Muse, which might explain my tolerance for the bombast & theatrics brought to this album, and in *both* versions of “Live is Life”.
HL: “Opus Dei”, “The Great Seal”, “Trans-National”*
*What is it about the weird loops & drum machines here that appealed to me tonight, when I struggled to get thru Big Black’s “Atomizer”
December 24, 2022
Various Artists
5/5
5 glasses of eggnog out of 5
Joy Division
4/5
this is the way
this is the way
(Listening to Colony): reminded of that quote in GH3 that says if you can hear your bassist, they’re playing too loud
Dk which is better: “Unknown Pleasures” or this one. The frenetic percussion of the opening “Atrocity Exhibition” makes one think it’ll be a punkier, more danceable record, but just like the outro in “Passover”, it slows down, going into the brooding, Gothic second half.
HL: “Twenty-Four Hours”, “The Eternal”, “Isolation”, “Decades”
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
HL: “My Curse”, “Debonair”, “I Keep Coming Back”, “Brother Woodrow”
Read during listening that the Afghan Whigs are heavily influenced by soul. Feel like it didn’t come thru until the final 3rd, which was disappointing (but that’s on me, I created expectations prior to listening).
Is this an essential listen? Not at all in my opinion.
Did I like it? Yeah, it was pretty good.
December 28, 2022 (late)
Ute Lemper
3/5
December 28, 2022
3*
1st cabaret-esque record
Points for the theatricality and eclecticism on display, conjures up a stormy Broadway musical
thought I knew what I was getting into with the Walker track (based on “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”), the brief break from dissonance was a goosebumps moment, but it definitely felt its length
The album leaves me more curious about The Divine Comedy/Neil Hannon, and about Ute Lemper’s career (sounds like this English crossover was kind of an anomaly)
HL: the Tom Waits ones, “Little Water Song”, “Punishing Kiss”, “You Were Meant For Me”, “The Case Continues”
Brian Eno
3/5
HL: “On Some Faraway Beach”, the title track, “Some of Them Are Old”
Don’t know if side 2 is better or if I was late warming to the overall sound & vibe, but there’s some instrumental passages I really enjoyed. The first 5 tracks I was unsure about, surprisingly rockin’ but nothing that grabbed me (at least on this 1st listen)
Didn’t know Brian Eno sang
December 30, 2022
De La Soul
4/5
Gang Of Four
3/5
HL: "Not Great Men", "Damaged Goods", "5.45"
3.5
The caustic lyrics and catchy rhythms set this apart from otherwise similar post-punk bands I've listened to.
January 4, 2023
Jungle Brothers
3/5
Billy Bragg
4/5
3/5
HL: "For Tomorrow", "Star Shaped", "Blue Jeans", "Chemical World", "Turn it Up"
Had to go thru the tracks the next morning to get the highlights, when I got a better appreciation for the melodies & different influences on display (the initial listen left me a bit cold, but I'm not sure why). Pretty sure my overall appreciation of Blur fluctuates with time; I thought their self-titled album was pretty great but I haven't felt a strong urge to return to it since.
3.5
January 8, 2023
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
HL: “You Never Should”, “Lose My Breath”, “All I Need”, “I Can’t See It”
A while ago on Audacity, I played around with audio files and applied this effect called “Paulstretch”, where simple musical phrases would be blown out & stretched beyond recognition. That kinda gave me the same feeling shoegaze/MBV does.
As I get into ‘23, time to acknowledge I do enjoy shoegaze quite a bit, though the indistinct, often abrasive effects can stress me out as often as they evoke a dreamlike atmosphere. Isn’t Anything doesn’t have as many layers as Loveless, but there’s moments of that peaceful/stressful feeling in tracks like “All I Need”, as well as more straightforward altrock in “Cupid Come”.
January 6, 2023
Sparks
4/5
HL: "Falling in Love With Myself Again", "This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both of Us", "Here in Heaven", "Amateur Hour", "Thank God It's Not Christmas", "Lost and Found"
"Falling in Love..." was a morning alarm for me a few times in 2022, and I've seen the documentary the Sparks Brothers, yet this is the 1st time I've listened to Kimono My House front to back.
Super likable album, a 4 for now but maybe a 5 tomorrow. I do think the songs are a little better in the first half, but I can't find any filler.
The tongue stays firmly in tongue throughout, which I understand is a Sparks trademark.
January 5, 2023
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
Willie Nelson
3/5
There’s something undeniably cozy about listening to this on the ride home from work, but it’s probably too 70’s-easy listening for my taste. “Blue Eyes Crying” started playing after the album ended, and now I feel I didn’t give *that* Willie Nelson album enough love.
HL: “Blue Skies”, “Unchained Melody”, “Moonlight in Vermont”
January 7, 2023
Amy Winehouse
3/5
HL: "Stronger than Me", "Help Yourself", "Moody's Mood For Love", "I Heard Love Was Blind"
January 9, 2023 (night)
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
HL: "One Love", "Three Little Birds", "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Natural Mystic"
Not much to say about this one; uh it's a triumph I guess. Surprised after all the times I've listened to "One Love", that opening piano chime transports me.
January 9, 2023 (day)
Muddy Waters
4/5
HL: "Tiger in Your Tank", "I Got My Brand On You", "I Feel So Good", "Hoochie Coochie Man"
Picks up speed like a rollercoaster, then ends on a downbeat "Newport Blues". No sifting through layers with this album, just some good blues vibes. Hard for me to listen to Muddy Waters without imagining Plant/Page or Jagger/Richards prowling nearby with hungry looks in their eyes.
January 10, 2023
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
HL: "Yes", "Revol", "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart", "This is Yesterday"
Hard to rate; the musicianship + melodies are like a 4-5 but the lyrics are like a 1-2 for me (I listened to much of it with the lyric sheet open after not getting most of what he was saying). I have a surface level understanding of the Manic Street Preachers/Richie Edwards, but it feels like his struggles were trivialized, so long as he was able to stay productive & finish the record.
It's also too easy to hear elements of a breakdown after the fact; perhaps the difference between this &, say, NIN's The Downward Spiral, is that the lyricist survived the press release/tour.
January 11, 2023
Lana Del Rey
4/5
(Precursor, Jan 11) I've enjoyed Ultraviolence & Lust for Life enough to call myself a Lana Del Rey fan, but I haven't really touched this one. Will listen tomorrow, but not before putting on some Norman Fucking Rockwell
HL: "White Dress", "Wild at Heart", "Not All Those Who Wander", "Yosemite", "For Free"
Okay, well the parallels to how recent albums Folklore & Evermore (Swift), and Solar Power (Lorde) sound are there, thanks to Bleachers Antonoff. I think the folksy, organic sound suits Del Rey just fine, though it is a little funny the editors included this along with Evermore instead of Rockwell & Folklore.
It doesn't sprawl in length like her past releases Rockwell & Lust for Life. It's got an unexpected Weyes Blood at the end (I just listened to And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow two days ago). The title track is her throwing a bone to those preferring her earlier music, even though Chemtrails isn't so much a radical redesign as a palette swap.
Trying to assess this album in a vacuum, ignoring her other releases, it's a pretty strong, piano-driven pop record, & the dips into Laurel Canyon folk are welcome.
There's a moment in Dance Till We Die that reminds me of maybe the best Antonoff collab album, "Daddy's Home" by St. Vincent. But she's already in the book, and I'm glad Lana Del Rey has some representation at least.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
HL: “May this Be Love”, “Fire”, “Manic Depression”, “Red House”, the title track
Oh there’s a US version?: “Hey Joe”, “The Wind Cries Mary”, “Stone Free”, “Purple Haze”
So many editions of the same album 🤯 I choose to rate the combined tracks together (book has the UK tracklist), since it feels like a greatest hits comp of Hendrix’s career. And it’s his debut!(s)
January 13, 2023
Stephen Stills
3/5
HL: "Jesus Gave Love Away For Free", "Colorado", "It Doesn't Matter", "Move Around"
First I'm hearing of the supergroup known as Manassas.
I did appreciate how each side is curated by style/genre; my favourite might be the country/western side 2 somehow. So points for organization, and points taken off for the bloat shared by its contemporaries "Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs" & "All Things Must Pass", without the soaring heights of "Layla" or even "Frankie Crisp".
January 14, 2023
Note to self: doing this 1st thing in the morning just works
D'Angelo
2/5
HL: "Lady", "Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine", the title track
I was a bit disappointed- & after reading about D'Angelo, and how he performed almost every instrument on this album I was disappointed that I was disappointed.
Or maybe the multi-instrumentalist production is why I couldn't connect, since I'm sure I'd enjoy much of the album's content live and in the right setting.
Perhaps Voodoo or Black Messiah would deliver for me what this album doesn't.
January 15, 2023
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
HL: “Sail Away”, “Powderfinger”, “Into the Black”
January 25 2023
Le Tigre
3/5
One of those albums I’m surprised I like. Late 90’s pop punk? Except it has more in common with The Bangles & the B-52s, artistically speaking? Maybe that’s not too much of a stretch (Edit: it’s called “riot grrl” apparently)
Fuck Giuliani, indeed
HL: Deceptacon, Phanta, Hot Topic, Les and Ray
January 17, 2023
Talking Heads
3/5
Steve Earle
3/5
HL: "Fearless", "Hillbilly Highway", "Someday"
The blend of mid-80s radio rock & country kinda slaps for the most part; I‘m skeptical that it’s Earle’s best album but it’s probably the first I’ve heard front-to-back.
January 19, 2023
T. Rex
4/5
Bob Dylan
5/5
Side 1: maybe my favourite collection of Dylan songs on any album
Side 2: chiller, has the nice bit of pop, “I Want You”
Side 3: Never knew about the Norwegian Wood response; “Most Likely” is a good tune I’m hearing about for the 1st time
Side 4: Though my favourite long, long B.D. song is “Desolation Row”, “Sad-Eyed Lady” is beautiful enough.
This might be my 1st listen through the entire 70 minute record, but Blonde on Blonde is my favourite of Bob Dylan’s (and somehow I had that feeling based only on songs like “Rainy Day” & “Just Like a Woman”)
Meanwhile Freewheelin’ & Highway 61 fight for 2nd place.
January 23, 2023
Elis Regina
4/5
My tolerance to 70s cheese must be really high today (at least as far as the production goes). Great introduction to this singer’s many styles & modes.
HL: Tracks 3, 5 & 9
January 22 2023
R.E.M.
4/5
I feel like throughout my childhood, my favourite musical artist has been many things: GnR. Weird Al Yankovic. Queen. Tears for Fears. And R.E.M, circa 2008 or something (though it wasn't for any song on this album! Think "Stand", "Losing my Religion", "It's the End...").
FM radio almost burned me out of "Everybody Hurts" & "Man on the Moon", but as far as 90's hit albums go, this still ranks pretty high in my own preferences.
Brooding can be beautiful
HL: "Everybody Hurts", "The Sidewinder...", "Nightswimming", "Monty Got a Raw Deal", "Man on the Moon"
January 26, 2023 (late)
ABBA
4/5
Thought I didn’t know any tracks from this until “One of Us”, one of my favourite ABBA songs, rose from the mist.
The synth orchestra is a little goofy but doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of The Visitors. Knowing the band from their Gold compilation alone, I know there’ll be days where I vibe to these (relatively downcast) songs more than Dancing Queen or Take a Chance on Me.
HL: “Head Over Heels”, “One of Us”, “Two for the Price of One”, “Like an Angel…”
The Divine Comedy
4/5
The Icarus Line
2/5
HL: "On the Lash", “Seasick”, "Spit on It"
Skipped a couple albums to listen to this 'blind', as it's always a treat to discover a new artist. I think.
I don't have anything personal against noisy garage rock; some songs I'll likely revisit in the near future, while others stray into obnoxious, edgy territory.
2.5*
January 26, 2023
Jimmy Smith
4/5
Album 300/ whatev the combined total is
It's -30 degrees Celsius tonight, and I'll have to remember this for future cold nights. I saw the album cover, took in the chicken and dog and expected something with more brass and percussion. Instead it's chill, smoky- perfect to have on in the background sipping on cocoa.
January 27, 2023 (late nite)
Fun Stats:
- I have had 0 albums by The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and the Byrds. (Not like there's anything stopping me from listening on my own time) BUT
- Already got all the Queen albums, 3/4 of the Leonard Cohen, Metallica and Stevie Wonder selections, & 4/6 albums by Elvis Costello
Linkin Park
3/5
Sepultura
1/5
HL: "Ratamahatta", "Itsari", "Ambush"
The idea of traditional Brazilian percussion mixed with modern(at-the-time) heavy metal fascinates me, but the end result was a 72 minute slog to reach those moments. Had to turn it off after 3 tracks, to revisit it the following day. But then, track 4 is probably my favourite of the lot.
January 30, 2023
Isaac Hayes
3/5
HL: "Do Your Thing", the theme, "Walk From Regio's", "Soulville", "No Name Bar"
Not the 1st 70's double album with too much muchness I've heard this month, but there are enough bangers to make the listen worthwhile. I first heard "Do Your Thing" when I was 10 or something, but didn't know there were 14 more minutes of the song after the single version fades out! The blaxploitation In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
3.5
January 30, 2023
The Slits
4/5
HL: "So Tough", "Newtown", "Typical Girls"
The manic piano running thru several tracks, the uneasy rhythm in "Typical Girls", the embracing of reggae/ska (that would be more prevalent and lazier sounding in 90's pop)- weird lil record that definitely deserves a spot on this list.
January 31, 2023
Boards of Canada
5/5
First “hauntology-esque” record
Kind of a strange way to listen to an album: a few songs on the way to work, and the final few on the way back home after barhopping with coworkers.
I really think this album is special as listened to in its entirety (rather than in the individual beats/songs)- although each time I returned to the album it took me to a similar contemplative mood.
HL: “Turquoise…”, “Rue the Whirl”, “Aquarius”, “Pete Stands Alone”
February 1, 2023
Missy Elliott
3/5
HL: "Sock it 2 Me", "Pass the Blunt", "Best Friends"
February 2, 2023
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
HL: “North American Scum”, “Someone Great”, title track
3.5
February 3, 2023
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
CHIC
3/5
HL: "Le Freak", "At Last I Am Free", "I Want Your Love"
Where does this rank between the 70’s discotheque jams I’ve got so far on this list?
EW&F’s “That’s the Way of the World” comes out on top, but this is pretty good too
3.5
February 5, 2023
James Brown
4/5
Performance was stellar, even when the songs weren’t as strong. Wasn’t until “Lost Someone” that I understood the gravity this concert/live album possessed.
February 6, 2023
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
HL: "Death Sound", "Section 43", "Masked Marauder”, "Porpoise Mouth"
Something about the organ tone irritated me, but that might be a production/digital master issue. As in, it was too loud and too treble-y.
I did like this (woo, 60s psychedelia) but I didn’t love it, and it’s valuable to me more for filling in the gaps of that 67-70 rock era, than as an album I want to put on repeat. Ya dig?
February 7, 2023
Sebadoh
3/5
HL: "Homemade", "Think", "Soul and Fire"
Neva heard of this band before today.
The (bitter)sweet melodies in songs like "Think" make the atonality/noise in other songs surprising (e.g. "Fantastic Disaster"). And vice versa.
Honestly I'm happy to have discovered Sebadoh, even though quality may vary among the 17 tracks on this particular release.
February 8, 2023
Frank Black
3/5
HL: "Two Reelers", "Headache", "Ole Mullholland", "White Noise Maker"
The Beach Boys
4/5
HL: title track, “A Day in the Life of a Tree”, “Student Demonstration Time”, "Long Promised Road"
Can recall listening to "Til I Die" before, but this is the first time I've heard the other tracks.
Pretty happy with this one. Has some of the baroque & experimental flourishes as heard in "Pet Sounds", delivered in a patchwork of (starkly) arranged pop songs, zooming between the jazzy "Disney Girls" & the glam stomp in "Student Demo" (tracks right beside each other). Unexpected synth in many of the tracks, too, not a bad or good thing- "Surf's Up" sounds like a straight prog album in certain moments.
February 10, 2023
Madonna
3/5
Highlights: Title track, “Skin”, “Sky Fits Heaven”, “Frozen”, “Shanti”
Kinda hate that one of my favourite tracks is the Sanskrit one (imagine if “Across the Universe” was in just Sanskrit)
Decent chillout album
February 11, 2023
Lightning Bolt
3/5
HL: "Dracula's Mountain", “Crown of Storms”, title track
S/o to “Longstockings” to seeming like a more mellow track before attacking my eardrums at the end
Also whoever added the lyrics in certain songs is either the band themselves, or someone at Spotify who needs a raise
Listening to this album in full was a pretty mixed experience, but the highs were *high*, maan. I'd take in a Lightning Bolt concert (with ear protection,
bien sûr)
February 12, 2023
AC/DC
4/5
HL: title track, "Touch Too Much", "Shot Down in Flames", "Love Hungry Man", "Night Prowler"
After more challenging rock albums by Sebadoh & Lightning Bolt, AC/DC is just like a big bowl of chili (surprisingly, 1st time I've heard the entire album).
February 13, 2023
John Grant
5/5
HL: "Marz", "Where Dreams Go To Die", "Silver Platter Club", "Sigourney Weaver", "Jesus Hates F******", & the title track
Yeah some of the lyrics are distracting & a little corny, but when dressed in such stellar & intricate pop rock, I can overlook it.
Because there are *many* 70's albums, and few albums from the 2010s in the book, having "Queen of Denmark" represent the later decade when it has so much more in common with the earlier one (shades of John Cale/Harry Nilsson/some "Wish You Were Here" synths) is a choice. But good luck finding an album from the 70s that deals with sexuality & anxiety so frankly.
February 14, 2023
The Stooges
3/5
HL: "1969", "Dog", "Real Cool Time", "We Will Fall"
Last thing I expected from this album was 10+ minutes of drone music! Huh
3.5
February 15, 2023
AC/DC
5/5
(not 1st listen)
I just had Highway to Hell generated and now this? Fate has ordained that this is AC/DC week.
Back in Black is dumb rock at its pinnacle.
Hell's Bells, Noise Pollution, You Shook Me, Shoot to Thrill & the title track are so good, that the remaining tracks being merely fine doesn't spoil my overall enjoyment.
My favourite track besides the big hits is probably "Let Me Put My Love into You", with the line "Let me cut your cake with my knife". It's so stupid! I love it!
February 16, 2023
Yes
4/5
Yes is a band that, twice now, I half-heartedly put on one of their albums only to remember just how much I like them. Maybe this doesn't top "Close to the Edge", but:
- "Starship Trooper" & "I've Seen All Good People" is some of the catchiest music I've heard from this band
- The shorter tracks, "Venture" & "The Clap" are great in their own right yet sound like they're from very different albums
- First & last tracks didn't particularly move me today, though the psych-jazz in "Perpetual Change" was more enjoyable.
February 17, 2023
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
HL: "Piece of My Heart", "Oh, Sweet Mary", "Summertime"
February 18, 2023
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
~~Reviewer Pete Silverton (Sounds) said that the single is the "Only wholly worthwhile track on the album." ~~~
Well, "Low Life" isn't bad. And the bassline in "Fodderstompf" is pretty decent.
But yeah, what an unrewarding listen. I've ranked a couple albums pretty low that actually have something to say. I just don't think that's any substitute for musical cunning, or melody
February 19 2023
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
HL: "Homeward Bound", "Scarborough Fair", "59th St Bridge Song", "The Dangling Conversation", "For Emily", "Flowers Never Bend"
-4/12 songs I already knew from my greatest hits CD
- Liked the other 8 well enough, though some songs (most notably "A Poem") sound like they end before a natural conclusion.
- So in 1966 we have a Bob Dylan song imitating John Lennon imitating Bob Dylan, from Blonde on Blonde, AND a Paul Simon song imitating Bob Dylan from that same album ("everybody must get stoned")
- "Silent Night" hits different in late winter
February 20, 2023
Isaac Hayes
4/5
The Young Gods
4/5
HL: "La fille de la mort", "Rue des tempêtes", "Charlotte", "Longue route",
A few albums I've heard this year feature some kind of unexpected genre fusion, but I was still taken aback by this metal/chanson française hybrid, L'eau rouge. It's like someone took all the more avant-garde elements (in a rock album) that appeal to me, such as theatre, tape loops, a horror movie atmosphere, and uh, weird strings (that's not a real category, but think Radiohead's "Burn the Witch" or Muse's "Unsustainable").
Not music for everyday listening, and Franz Treichler's voice isn't my favourite, but it's pretty low in the mix, & my French isn't good enough to absorb most of the lyrics anyway.
And I did recognize the title from the lowest-rated albums, went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.
makes me want to revisit the Killing Joke album
February 22, 2023
The War On Drugs
3/5
HL: "Under the Pressure", "An Ocean in Between the Waves", "Burning"
2nd WoD album I've heard, after 2021's "I Don't Live Here Anymore". I appreciate the spacey psychedelic elements in this one (they complement the album cover too), but IMO the newer album has slightly better songs.
3.5
February 23, 2023
Sonic Youth
3/5
ah yes, "Kool Thing" of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock fame. Finally
Hmmm what to give an album that you were enjoying, but the last 15 minutes kinda sucked in your humble opinion?
Mildred Pierce is on Sonic Youth's most popular tracks on Spotify, wtf
Didn't connect that track 2 was about Karen Carpenter; lines like "I feel like I'm disappearing" are heartbreaking, combined with that menacing minor-key riff it's a chilling moment near the beginning of the album. Speaking of menacing riffs, "Disappearer"'s is simple but effective
3*** before I change my mind
HL: "Dirty Boots", "Tunic", "Kool Thing", "Disappear"
February 24, 2023
The Sugarcubes
3/5
HL: "Traitor", "Birthday", "Blue Eyed Pop"
First Björk album (or album featuring Björk). Fun, inventive, quick album I'll probably revisit later on; I can't decide if any of the lyrics have purpose or if they're just stream-of-consciousness/nonsense poetry.
February 25, 2023
Haircut 100
4/5
HL: "Love Plus One", "Marine Boy", "Fantastic Day", "Surprise Me Again"
First off, bad name- I'll probably keep accidentally calling this band "Pelican West" instead of "Haircut 100"
Second, I really enjoyed this, though there's not much to analyze here. Is it not enough to have an album that makes ye feel good?
Cheery slice of 80's pop
February 26, 2023
Fiona Apple
4/5
When this came out three years ago (what how 🤯) I listened to the first couple tracks without too much interest. Bear in mind that in 2020 a lot of successful artists were putting out their homey releases: McCartney III, Punisher, how i'm feeling now, Folklore/Evermore, etc., so my attention was very much on other things.
But now that I've heard it in its entirety, I appreciated the oddball percussion & homemade sound a lot more. It's not a concept album, but the individual songs do sound better together than, say, if one came up on shuffle. Rivals Swordfishtrombones in terms of an idiosyncratic, experimental sound I vibe with.
HL: "Cosmonauts", title track, "Shameika", "Relay"
February 27, 2023
Tears For Fears
5/5
HL: "Beautiful Day", "Stuck in A Moment..." "Walk On", "In a Little While", "Wild Honey", "When I Look at the World"
Want to disregard this album for its basic 2000s adult contemporary rock-sheen, but I just can’t. Too many good songs
March 1, 2023
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
HL: "COME ON EILEEN", "All in All", "Celtic Soul Brothers", "Old"
There's been some fine 80's cheese this week! I wasn't entirely sold on the plastic (rubber) soul sound & spoken word bits throughout the record, but by the famous last track I found it charming overall. Appreciated the few Gaelige lyrics in "All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz)", even if the Celtic influences aren't on display all the time.
John Coltrane
4/5
- had Pt. 1 as a morning alarm for a short time, so I already feel alert listening to this
-Think I ended up being more focused on the talent of the musicians than the overall movement & composition.
This might be a masterpiece, but having just listened to Coleman’s “The Shape of Jazz To Come” (not on this list) a few days ago, I find I still get lost sometimes in the tempo changes and frenetic improvisation of free jazz. Make no mistake, this is still a gripping listen, with one of the coolest bass solos I have heard.
Was going to put it as a 3, but after listening to certain passages another time think I may have to bump it up to a 4
Röyksopp
3/5
HL: Eple, In Space, Poor Leno
Ananda Shankar
4/5
HL: "Metamorphosis", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Snow Flower"
Kinda love this
I'm sure this is on the list for side one, but there's something to be said about the looser interplay between the sitar & the Moog going on there; it's both very indicative of the era and also unlike anything else I listen to
Kanye West
3/5
HL: "Two Words", "Jesus Walks", "Through the Wire", "Never Let Me Down", "Slow Jamz"
3.5
Pretty strong debut despite the filler, lyrics weren't as obnoxious as I feared from other Kanye releases, and the big features (Jay-Z, Ludacris, Mos Def) don't overshadow his own contributions.
May I also say that, uh, fuck this guy & what he's become
March 6, 2023
Note to self: revisit Enter the Wu-Tang & Illmatic, two past 3-stars I might rank more highly now.
Pink Floyd
5/5
(not first listen) HLs off the top of my head: “Lucifer Sam”, “Bike”, “Flaming”
HLs apart from those: "Astronomy Domine", "Chapter 24", and sure "Interstellar Overdrive" in all its excess
Love this album, though it has had time to grow on me in the decade or so since I became aware of it (& the Syd Barrett days of Pink). This listen, I reflected on how rough & grungy(? there has to be a better word for that) the album sounds, yet the manic beauty of Syd's songwriting shines through
The Flaming Lips
5/5
How long has it been since I saw someone on Reddit recommending this album? 20 hours?
Turns out this is a real treat, the only song I knew before was "Race for the Prize", but it's great psych-pop rock all across the board- and 90s MIDI synths never sounded better
Simple Minds
3/5
HL: "Someone Somewhere", "Big Sleep", “Hunter and the Hunted”, “Promised You a Miracle”
3.5
It isn’t obvious to me that this is the same band that came out with “Forget About Me”. There’s more in common with the danceability of New Order, but a cooler shade that’s “The Hurting” era Tears for Fears.
Doing this 1001 has improved my 80s synthpop vocabulary for sure, for sure
Arcade Fire
5/5
The Byrds
3/5
HL: “My Back Pages”, “Mind Gardens”, “Renaissance Fair”
if bonus tracks count, then “Lady Friend”
Nice 1st Byrds album, easy-breezy folk rock, and then the backwards guitar in “Mind Gardens” jolted me out of that pleasant reverie 😬
Their version of “My Back Pages” is probably my favourite Byrds song.
Might be 4 another day, but let’s say 3 stars since there were a few songs this listen that went in one ear & out the other
March 11, 2023
Chicago
3/5
Hm, only knowing the sunny "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" didn't prepare me for how forward-thinking & experimental Chicago's debut could be.
Has a great finale in "Liberation", with the superfast last couple minutes & the brazen, sirens/trombones (just around the 11 minute mark), but there's a few songs/jams in the middle I struggled to engage with tonight.
HL: "Does Anybody Know...", "Questions 67 & 68", "Listen"
March 13, 2023
The Cardigans
3/5
-I get nothing from the album cover but that they are a band with a drummer
-early impression is that this aged super well, they sound more like contemporaries of CHVRCHES and Alvvays than I'd expect from a '96 album
-spoke too soon, "Never Recover" & "Step on Me" are unabashedly mid-90s (not a complaint)
-then there's "Lovefool", which is both super 90s but also foreshadows the disco boom in newer pop (e.g. "Say So" by Doja Cat)
-someone, somewhere, a classic metal fan is surely upset by the Cardigans' inclusion of Black Sabbath- & another is fist punching the air
3.5
HL: "Heartbreaker", "Been It", "Lovefool"
also March 13, 2023
Maxwell
4/5
HL: "Ascension", "Til the Cops Come Knockin'", "Sumthin Sumthin", "Whenever Wherever Whatever"
-Unfamiliar with Maxwell prior to today
- Something (sumthin) about some prior neo-soul / quiet storm albums I've heard made me think I was pretty ambivalent towards those genres. However I quite liked this
-It was kind of a strange vibe mellowing out to this while walking through busy downtown streets.
- reading now that some critics describe the Suite as derivative of its influences; eh. While I'm not refuting that, it uses the freshest ingredients from EWF and Marvin Gaye d̶i̶s̶h̶e̶s̶ records
****
March 14, 2023
Orbital
3/5
I was vibing to the Brown Album a few months ago, but this Orbital offering is proving trickier to get into. It's colder, and more metallic-sounding, but also has some of the out-of-left-field samples I appreciated in the Brown Album ("Are We Here?", "I Wish I Had Duck Feet")
HL: "Science Friction", "Kein Trink Wasser", "Forever"
Goldfrapp
4/5
HL: "Lovely Head", "Human", "Pilots"
Not even a day ago, I was reading about the pretty vocals in Snivilisation by Orbital to find out that they are in fact done by Alison Goldfrapp. And here she is again. Cool, experimental record. I wasn't too keen on the vocal distortion in "Deer Stop", but otherwise it joins the likes of Portishead's Dummy in chill-but-also-spooky records I enjoy
March 16 2023
The Stooges
3/5
HL: "Fun House/L.A. Blues", "Loose", "Dirt"
Alright, I won't try heroin! God!
Liked it somewhat more than the Stooges' debut. The wailin' sax doesn't let up in side 2, and the noise & improv builds up to a colossal finale. All this to say I get why others love this album.
March 17, 2023
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I gotta get me one of those pagers, they sound cool
HL: "Check the Rhime", "Show Business", "Excursions", "Scenario"
March 20, 2023
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
Volume 1 personal highlights: "All My Little Words", "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits", "The One You Really Love", "The Book of Love"
V2 HL: "Papa Was a Rodeo", "Kiss Me Like You Mean It", "The Sun Goes Down...", "Time Enough for Rocking...", "Promises of Eternity", "Abigail"
V3 HL: "I'm Sorry I Love You", "Bitter Tears", "Yeah! Oh Yeah!", "Blue You"
(Vol 2 out of 3 was my favourite)
The idea to listen to one volume a day came to me about 3 songs in, because I figured I'd get angry after listening to this for three hours straight. As I learned, my tolerance to 69 Love Songs was higher than I expected,
They cast their net wide, so much that hardly anyone's going to like every track here. Right? Plus, my love of the White Album has taught me that even the greatest works are allowed to have a little hot garbage mixed in.
Also, finding out Lemony Snicket laid down some accordion was a rush. Half expected to read Kenneth Oppel played the flute or something
March 20-23, 2023
The Crusaders
2/5
Here’s a strange comparison: I recently gave Slint’s “Spiderland”, one of my 1st from the generator, a relisten (because I took a look at RateYourMusic’s favourite albums and that was way up there).
And my conclusion is I get overly frustrated with albums that have a great start but fail to grab my attention after that, & I think that’s what happened with “Street Life” (and the Slint album)
I feel that my disinterest in jazz growing up was because I thought it was all like this: slippery-smooth café background that takes the edge off waiting for that crispy panini
(Where was I…)
I kinda feel bad for ragging on easy-listening music for being easy to listen to, but I’m going with my gut with this rating
March 21, 2023
Faust
3/5
(Holy, you'd think at some point they'd fix the song titles)
HL: "Krautrock", "Jennifer" ""Run" (track 7)
March 22, 2023
Raekwon
2/5
Respect this from a production standpoint (thanks RZA)- the western/kung fu samples are out in full force, and songs are woven together to keep a consistent energy throughout- but it’s ~20 mins longer than 36 Chambers and not as engaging to me. There’s definitely highlights, but “mafioso rap”, as Wikipedia described it, has generally been the hardest rap subgenre to get into for me.
HL: “Criminology”, “Guillotine”, “Wu-Gambinos”
March 23, 2023
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
HL: "Who'll Stop the Rain", "Lookin Out My Back Door", "Run Through the Jungle", "Up Around The Bend", "Long As I Can See the Light"
Pretty great offering by CCR, though all my favourite tracks were on Chronicle, something I've heard a lot back in the day. The best surprise was probably the opening "Ramble Tamble", a hoedown that becomes a psych-rock jam, kinda like "No Time" by the Guess Who
March 24, 2023
Van Morrison
5/5
I lived for a year and a half in Ireland, and at least part of this album was playing on a bus going through County Wicklow during my last day in the country. Bittersweet!
Seems unfair to have to objectively rate an album I associate with curtains on a phase on my life.
But I thought this was just lovely, that 3 song stretch from Crazy Love to Mystic hits all the right notes
HL: Crazy Love, Caravan, Into the Mystic, Everyone
March 24, 2023
Koffi Olomide
3/5
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
4/5
HL: “Forest Fire”, “Charlotte Street”, “Patience”, “2CV”, title track
Odd case where I wasn’t thrilled about the album the first few tracks, but something clicked about halfway through & I revisited much of the album later the same day. Conclusion: all the literary references feel like he’s aiming, over most people’s heads, for the English Newspaper Critic TM-
BUT it also times well with my current musical interests, including nostalgic-leaning artists like Bleachers & Future Islands, and Leonard Cohen.
March 26, 2023
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
HL: "Happy When It Rains", "April Skies", "About You", title track
3 for the dreamy atmosphere, but pretty much every song follows the same formula, also heard in the one J&MC song I was familiar with prior, "Just Like Honey"- root chord, 4th, root, 4th...
March 27, 2023
Shivkumar Sharma
5/5
Sublime experience somewhat ruined by having to listen to it on YouTube (FOUR ads in the first track alone).
I say sublime, because it somehow fit perfectly with taking a train through a frozen prairie, leaving the bustle of city life behind me if only for a day.
March 28, 2023
Leonard Cohen
4/5
“Partisan” & “Bird” are top-tier Cohen
Next favourites are “Nancy”, “Tonight”, and “The Old Revolution”
At L.C. album #4 I confess, I somehow get irritated hearing him say “your/her body”. Because there’s at least one example on all those albums- including some of my favourite songs, like “Suzanne” and “Manhattan”
March 29, 2023
The Undertones
4/5
“It’s never too late to enjoy dumb entertainment “- The Undertones
Doubling down on melody & earworms this time- and it works!
"The Way Girls Talk" sounds like an ancestor to "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer in the chorus
HL: “More Songs About Chocolate…”, title track, "Under the Boardwalk", "Wednesday Week"
March 30, 2023
The Cure
4/5
Track 1 wins the weekly Spooky Award, previously held by such songs as “Hollow Hills” by Bauhaus & “La Fille De La Mort” by The Young Gods
New to all of this album. Closer sonically to “Disintegration” than I expected, but mood-wise has a lot in common with “Seventeen Seconds”
HL: “One Hundred Years”, “Hanging Garden”, “The Figurehead”, “A Strange Day”, “Cold”
March 31, 2023
The Zombies
5/5
Not 1st listen
Mastapeece
Songs I unfairly overlooked in past listens include the elegant “Brief Candles” and the wheezing pump organ-centered “Butcher’s Tale”
“Care of Cell 44”, “Changes”, “Beechwood Park” & “A Rose For Emily” sound as good as I remembered.
And “Time of the Season” sounds quite ahead of its time
April 1 2023
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
HL: "Enola/Alone", "Interiors", "Small Black Flowers...", “No Surface All Feeling”
Heard “The Holy Bible” before this one, didn’t expect so much harp
3.5
April 2, 2023
Solomon Burke
4/5
HL: "Cry To Me", "Just Out of Reach", "Beautiful Brown Eyes", "Someone To Love Me", "Won't You Give Him One More Chance"
Not familiar with these songs, but it's straight comfort food for me 🍲
Sepultura
2/5
HL: “Desperate Cry”, “Subtraction”, "Orgasmatron"
Ah my favourite band again /s
I learned to temper expectations with Sepultura after Roots, as a death/thrash metal band experimenting with different styles is still a death/thrash band, and therefore won’t be my favourite thing in the world.
But there was more to love in this earlier offering, I found: for one, it's closer to 80's thrash than 90's nu metal; there are more melodic passages to balance the darkness; "Desperate Cry" is like "Keep Yourself Alive" from Queen's debut in that it's a whole album's worth of riffs.
And it's also like, 30 mins shorter than Roots
2.5, 2nd favourite album today; the 1st had to be "Dazzle Ships" by OMD
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
HL: title track, "Calm Like You", "My Mistakes...", "The Meeting Place", "Black Paint"
So, the Arctic Monkey's symphonic pop phase didn't come out of nowhere!
Johnny Cash
4/5
HL: "Hurt", "Personal Jesus", "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "In My Life", "Give My Love to Rose", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
Though I agree that it's a great cover, I picked up on Rick Rubin's clipping during "Hurt" and got a little annoyed that he produced this album
Love it but it’s a drag
April 6, 2023
Judas Priest
3/5
Wikipedia: This album was recorded in Ringo's house
For some reason I feel that it's the most vital piece of info to share about "British Steel"
S'good
HL: the singles
Soundgarden
3/5
HL: “Black Hole Sun”, “Spoonman”, title track, “4th of July”, “Half”
Had a similar problem with the previous album (Judas Priest), as it started to blend together & sound like Mainstream Rock Radio (there were times where I’d even reflex switch away from “Black Hole Sun”, it was playing so often).
There’s definitely greatness to be found in several tracks, as well as Cornell’s performance
Pentangle
3/5
I initially thought the cover was a occultish image of a bunch of tents in a field- not the Royal Albert Hall.
Out of the renaissance-fair-esque albums I've heard so far, Pentangle's Basket of Light sounds the most like it was recorded in a mystical forest.
Not crazy about every track, but most of the trad songs slap.
Appropriate for a sunny Easter Sunday, and, I'm sure, for the woods at twilight
Highlights: "Once I Had a Sweetheart", "Springtime Promises", "Lyke-Wake Dirge"
April 9, 2023
3.5 for now
Arrested Development
4/5
HL: “People Everyday”, “Fishin 4 Religion”, “Tennessee”, “Washed Away”
Unfamiliar with this group; Neat excursion into 90’s alt hip-hop.
While the production almost sounds too crisp and clean (wouldn't be the first late 80s/early 90s album I've felt that way about), there's something I enjoyed about the uncool-ness of the flow, and the diverse samples which put it somewhere between "3 Feet High & Rising" and "That's the Way of the World"
April 10, 2023
Sonic Youth
2/5
HL: "Tom Violence", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Expressway to Yr. Skull"
My reasoning for wanting to like this was that the 90s Sonic Youth albums were kind of misses for me but EVOL's follow-up Sister was pretty enjoyable. ...It's another miss for me, despite some standouts that bookend the album, and despite the foreboding goth atmosphere (“Shadow of a Doubt” is both of those things).
I couldn't shake the mental image of a 50-something's TEDTalk entitled "Why *You* Need to Hear the Albums *I* Got Stoned To At NYU"
"Daydream Nation" is the one Sonic Youth on this list I haven't heard, and based on the fact that it's a Sonic Youth double album, I'm not exactly waiting with bated breath to hear it
The Doors
4/5
HL: title track, “Love Her Madly”, “Riders on the Storm”, “Been Down So Long”
Taking out “Riders on the Storm” and “L.A. Woman”, I’m left with a decent blues rock record, but the classics definitely elevate the experience
Can
4/5
HL: title track, “Bel Air”
Far out man
Led Zeppelin
4/5
HL: "Whole Lotta Love", "Thank You", "Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid" (because I have a hard time separating them), "Bring It On Home"
It was bold and brash to put the moaning breakdown of "Whole Lotta Love" so early into the record; at least III had the decency to save the avant-garde elements for the *2nd* track
"Thank You" has been one of my favourite Zep songs for a while;
in theory I love "Ramble On" but I've heard it so goddamn much (that and "D'yer Maker") that I'm kinda numb to it.
"BUT GOLLUM- AND THE EVIL ONE- CREPT UP AND SLIPPED AWAY WITH HER, HER, HER" might be best Zep lyric tho
April 14, 2023
Talking Heads
5/5
First half is a joy
Listening to “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, thanks to this generator, helped contextualize what Byrne/Eno were working towards at this time (The Overload is probably the closest to that project)
April 16, 2023
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
(April 16 2023) will chase it down later, “not available for streaming in Canada”
(May 5 2023) I mean it was all on YouTube, I was just lazy
Some kickass trombone here, was trombonist in high school and hearing a good trombone solo out of the blue is like drinking water and then realizing how thirsty you were
It's a pretty gentle, tender record for the most part, you gotta be in the mood for it and I lucked out today
HLs: "Song for Sathima", "Tuang Guru", title track, "The Wedding"
3/5
HL: “Life Has Just Begun”, “Nature’s Way”, "Love Has Found a Way/Why Can't I Be Free"
Likeable-enough folky prog
Frank Ocean
5/5
ah this is is where the “potato flew around my room” Vine came from
“Pyramids” is dope, how have I missed hearing the songs on this album for 11 years
Can’t explain the musique concrete interludes, but it by no means ruins the flow of the album.
Might be too early a call, but I think this is a fascinating project and a great intro to Frank Ocean (besides the random couple of songs I’d hear on the radio)
HL: “Pyramids”, “Thinkin Bout You”, "Super Rich Kids", "Pilot Jones", “Crack Rock”, “Sweet Life”
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3/5
Jerry Lee Lewis
4/5
*listened to full version on YT rather than shortened version available for streaming*
HL: "Hound Dog", "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "Money"
Wilco
4/5
HL: "Far, Far Away", "Say You Miss Me", "Outta Mind (Outta Sight)", "The Lonely 1"
Starting to think I kinda like these guys- though I am surprised that this is the 3rd Wilco album I've heard (and 2nd discovered from this list)
Didn't *really* need to be a double album, but there's no song in particular I'd want to cut to make it a quicker listen
April 22, 2023
George Jones
2/5
Why does George Jones look like Jim Carrey playing Kaufman in "Man on the Moon"
I'd say the majority of the 28 minute runtime isn't for me. It's top-heavy, with a strong intro but not too much that grabbed my attention after that. For now I'm fine with knowing George Jones from the hits, though I don't mind this slightly deeper dive into his music.
P.S. My go-to tearjerker Roy Orbison doesn't even have one album on this list, by the looks of things.
HL: title track, "Darlin", "Our Private Life"
April 21 2023
Portishead
4/5
Spent the whole day* depressed & listening to this almost felt masochistic. Hearing “Threads” after walking home after midnight was eerie.
Usually I can hear entire songs without paying attention to the lyrics but these felt almost targeted towards my current mental state.
They had to be aware of the dour atmosphere, because the gentle “Deep Water” hit like a truck
Ultimately I’d say that the coincidence deepened my appreciation for this album, where it might have been a bummer another month.
*give or take an hour
HL: “The Rip”, “Magic Doors”, “Threads”, “Silence”
The Rolling Stones
5/5
HL: "Wild Horses", "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", "Moonlight Mile", "Brown Sugar"
April 24, 2023
Pantera
3/5
HL: "Hollow", "Walk", "Regular People (Conceit)", "This Love"
Hardest rate in a while- on one hand, it's an ugly sounding record (lots of bands/songs don't have to be pretty) with vocals I don't really care for, & the racism controversy centered on the vocalist doesn't help.
On the other, the ugliness belies some socially conscious lyrics (including a song that's sort of anti-racist?) and head-bopping grooves. The ballads are pretty strong, meaning that Anselmo has a chance to show off more than one dimension.
One of the better albums out of an era & genre of music that I don't appreciate all that much, aka late thrash/the tailspin into nu metal.
Nick Drake
4/5
HL: "River Man", "Way to Blue", "Man in a Shed"
"Safe in your place, deep in the earth
That's when they'll know what you're really worth" ("Fruit Tree") JESUS- not what I expected from the debut album
So Bryter Layter was the outlier, not Pink Moon- having heard the 3 albums in reverse order, I figured this would be more commercial & upbeat as well- nope. So very very melancholy.
Might be my least favourite of the 3 but it's such a narrow margin- gah it gets a 4 like the rest of em
April 26 2023
UB40
4/5
HL: "Tyler", "King", "I Think It's Going To Rain Today", "25%", "Food For Thought"
Enjoyable - listened to it piecemeal over the day, so it had longer to "stew" mentally.
It also was interrupted by more calls/messages than usual, so I re-listened to portions after midnight, or when I usually listen to these albums.
The issues raised in the lyrics didn't really register with me until the re-listen, since the first time I was too busy chilling out to the summery beats & icy synths.
The album cover, aka a literal UB40, should have given it away sooner though
Songhoy Blues
4/5
HL: "Soubour", "Irganda", "Nick", "Petit Metier", "Desert Melodie"
Dope
At first I was worried it would be standard modern blues rock a la Black Keys, but it combines it with the jangly, soulful guitar playing you hear in Ali Farka Touré in a really appealing way- add some danceable rhythms from both African & North American influences, and you have this.
April 28, 2023
Buck Owens
3/5
HL: title track, "Let the Sad Times Roll On"
Syd Barrett
3/5
Hearing “Dark Globe” reminds me how much Syd Barrett influenced Roger Waters’s style
First impression is kinda mixed, I love The Piper but the slapdash whimsy here is not quite as enjoyable.
HL: "Dark Globe", "Octopus", "Long Gone"
Garbage
4/5
Didn't know Garbage outside of a few songs, left feeling satisfied
Love Manson's vocals in this album
And while the production sounds incredibly mid-90s, it's also idiosyncratic and not easily comparable to other acts of this time. I've heard "Stupid Girl" before but only now realized they sampled the drums in The Clash's "Train in Vain"
HL: "Not My Idea", "Stupid Girl", "Milk", "Queer"
Bad Brains
3/5
HL: "Secret 77", "Sacred Love", title track
Moderately enjoyed it- actually listened to the whole thing twice today (short album), but got stuck appreciating it as a genre-bender without really getting moved or riled up.
Having vaguely heard of Bad Brains as a hardcore punk band, it did exceed expectations.
May 2, 2023
Keith Jarrett
5/5
Foo Fighters
4/5
HL: "Big Me", "I'll Stick Around", "Good Grief", "This is a Call"
Idk why I expected more growing pains from the Foo Fighters' debut (maybe because the Queens of the Stone Age self-titled debut didn't do it for me). While I feel that the 2nd half doesn't quite keep up the momentum that the first few tracks set up, there's enough to enjoy from Dave Grohl's solo-noodling throughout the album.
May 4, 2023
U2
5/5
1st listen (I think), though I’ve heard several tracks from this many a time.
Most Irish-ish sounding album from U2 I’ve heard, especially in “Sunday Bloody Sunday” & “Drowning Man”.
While Joshua Tree is probably #1 for me, Bono’s vocals in this album might be unparalleled (among U2 albums I mean, don’t get excited)
Also loved the “How long to sing this song?” callback to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in the final track.
HL: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “New Year’s Day”, “Like a Song…”, “The Refugee”, “40”
Kanye West
4/5
HLs: “Black Skinhead”, “New Slaves”, “Hold My Liquor”, “Blood On the Leaves”, “Bound 2”
Ah, I was afraid I’d like this album (based on knowing “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves”).
Something this list has revealed to me is my surprising tolerance for industrial & noise music, in certain doses.
I had no idea Daft Punk was so involved with Yeezus
Gotan Project
3/5
Funkadelic
5/5
Heard the title track enough times that I was pretty sure I’d enjoy the rest of it. And I did. Even the goofy sound collage at the end (which I listened to twice just to appreciate the high energy performances behind the sounds)
May 8, 2023
Album 400 (skipping Yeezus, I’ll hear it when I’m good & ready),
Checkpoint reached. Buds are on the branches. Rain’s falling instead of snow. Thankful that the albums I like from this list far outweigh the ones I don’t.
Reminder to self: don’t forget to keep an eye on new releases & bands, as fun as it is to explore the past!
Korn
2/5
Sonic Youth
4/5
HLs: "Teen Age Riot", "Candle", "The Sprawl", the trilogy
Here's the 5th and last Sonic Youth album on this list, and while they haven't ever been one of my favourite acts, I have at least an appreciation of the "sonics", aka the sounds they could produce with mere guitars.
Between this & Sister, they definitely tapped into a sound that I quite enjoy. The songs do sprawl, but the atonal, seemingly unstructured breakdowns carried a weight & energy I thought was absent in some of their other albums-
"Rain King" sounds like they're trying to summon a monsoon.
"Providence" is a moment of unexpected beauty, I don't really understand the context of the voicemail but it's ok
May 11, 2023
Megadeth
4/5
Gene Clark
4/5
HL: “For a Spanish Guitar”, “Where My Love Lies Asleep”, “Because of You”, title track
Last couple albums were great but not exactly in my usual genre of music (metal, noise rock).
70’s folk rock? No need to concentrate too much here, I’ll take it all baby
Lovely to walk down the city streets to, an antidote to the traffic.
Cypress Hill
3/5
HL: "The Funky Cypress Hill Shit", "The Phuncky Feel One", "Light Another"
rounding up to a 3 for the attitude & Latin elements; it has some good songs but I found the samples (see: "Hand on the Pump") overwhelmed and distracted from the vocals.
Actually it may be genius, as trying to listen to the lyrics was exactly like trying to follow a conversation stoned
May 14, 2023
Lucinda Williams
3/5
HL: title track, "Jackson", "Drunken Angel", "Can't Let Go"
3.5
Album cover is a liminal space if I've ever seen one
It's all decently enjoyable to me, but I might have to come back to it another time after reading about Williams' acclaim as a lyricist. I was more focused on her timbre and phrasing (e.g. "Car wheELS on a gravel ROAD") and less on the words, which seems to happen when presented with a unique singer that I'm relatively new to (James Bradfield, Stephen Merritt)
Japan
3/5
it's pre-Duran-Duran Duran Duran (edit: 3 of the 5 top reviews make this same comparison)
More notable for the atmosphere than the individual songs
liked the beep-boop synth (as enlightened musical academics call it) throughout \"All Tomorrow's Parties\". Didn't strike me as a Velvet Underground song but I don't know much about that band to begin with
HL: title track, \"Despair\", \"All Tomorrow's Parties\", \"Alien\"
May 15, 2023
SZA
4/5
There was a brief time in 2018 where I had "Garden" on repeat but didn't explore the rest of SZA's debut. Now that I've heard the whole thing, I have "Garden" on repeat once again :)
But wait, there's more to enjoy. Even the Travis Scott collab, which I was a little cold towards, but that detuned synth warranted a relisten, and now I actually kinda like it...?
Early on in the listen, I had the thought that SZA was about my age when she recorded this, and then "20 Something" comes on and it's just all about the anxiety of being over 25, with "not a phone in my name"
HL: "Garden (Say It like Dat)", "20 Something", "Doves in the Wind", "Drew Barrymore", "Prom"
The White Stripes
3/5
The Stone Roses
4/5
HL: "I Wanna Be Adored", "She Bangs the Drums", "(Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister", "I Am the Resurrection",
"Elephant Stone" (bonus track)
Nice excursion into jangly, early Britpop
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
Elvis Costello album #5 (and still no Bruce Springsteen or Radiohead, arrrgh) -and new favourite! Every time E.C. pops up I let my guard down, but especially so in this one. The lyrics are kitchen sink realism, & the production has everything but the kitchen sink. It's a weirdly good match
what a strange transition between "Long Honeymoon" & "Man Out of Time"
HL: "You Little Fool", "The Long Honeymoon", "Man Out of Time", "Beyond Belief", "...And In Every Home", "The Loved Ones"
May 19, 2023
Carpenters
3/5
HL: title track (S tier), “Crescent Moon”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”
3.5
Unobjectionable, pleasant AM tunes
The Velvet Underground
4/5
HLs: "I'll Be Your Mirror", "Femme Fatale", "Venus in Furs", "All Tomorrow's Parties" (again with this song), "The Black Angel's Death Song"
Finally sitting down with this oft-talked about album. Earns its reputation as prescient of many later genres of music- CureSonicYouthR.E.M.Morrissey and so on
wasn't feeling all of the extended jams & drone elements, just *most* of them
May 21 2023
The Beach Boys
4/5
HL: "Help Me Ronda", "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)", "Do You Wanna Dance?", "Kiss Me Baby", "In The Back Of My Mind"
It's not annoying like I thought it would be
I don't know why I expected it to be annoying though, I really like Pet Sounds & the other B.B. album from the generator, Surf's Up
Guess I thought it would be more like "Surfin USA"
The Offspring
2/5
Randy Newman
3/5
HL: "Marie", "Rollin", "Louisiana 1927"
Put this on first thing after I got up, no I was not ready for "Rednecks" (though I appreciate the sentiment behind writing the song).
Attention to the music waxed and waned, but there were enough pretty ditties to make the listen worthwhile
May 24, 2023
Motörhead
3/5
HL: title track, "Fast and Loose", "Fire Fire", "The Hammer"
Enjoyable, raw & rollicking, but I wasn’t compelled to revisit most songs after it ended
David Crosby
4/5
HL: "Laughing", "Song with No Words", "What Are Their Names"
I think the one song that I'm unsure of right now is "Cowboy Movie", which I guess I like less than that other super long, Em-to-A vamp: "Down by the River" by Neil Young.
The rest of the album I'd say is an easy addition to my library. Not long ago I mused whether I prefer albums that are meticulously crafted over those that sound like they were thrown together in a very good weekend; the answer is probably, but here's an example of the latter that really works for me.
"Orleans" & "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here" end the album on a surprisingly pretty, eerie note
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
HL: “The Concept”, “Is This Music”, “Star Sign”, “Alcoholiday”
May 27, 2023
3.5
Not really sure what’s keeping me from just throwing a 4 at it. Listening to it while eating some Vietnamese rice was a pleasant experience;
there were a few times about midway thru the record where I didn’t realize one song had ended & and another started.
It’s good, I’m not head over heels for it, will gladly keep some songs to listen for later
Morrissey
3/5
HL: “We’ll Let You Know”, “Seasick”, “You’re Gonna Need…”, “Tomorrow”
First couple songs sound like they’re from a different album entirely
Though I liked most of the various musical directions taken (including musique concrete in “I Know it’s Going to Happen Someday” & “We’ll Let You Know”), it’s not really essential listening.
And then there’s
“England for the English”, but it’s ironic! shut the fuck up
The Kinks
3/5
“Rosy…”, “Too Much on My Mind”, “Sunny Afternoon”, “Rainy Day in June”
3.5
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
😎 gettin funky
more enjoyable than the previous Chem Bros (over 300 albums ago, so it's not exactly fresh in my mind). "Elektrobank-Piku-Setting Sun" was probably my favourite part of the album, plus I was eating really good ice cream at the time.
I like how as soon as Noel Gallagher enters the fray the drumbeat starts to sound like a Beatles track (Ticket to Ride or Tomorrow Never Knows)
DYOH deserves recognition for holding my attention as long as it did for two reasons, 1) I don't listen to much electronica and 2) it's from an era of music that I don't pay much attention to (aka the late 90s, when I was alive but less concerned with music and more about PlayDoh flavours)
HL: “Setting Sun”, “Elektrobank”, "Where Do I Begin", "Private Psychedelic Reel", "Block Rockin Beats" (I think that's literally all the singles from this album)
Ryan Adams
2/5
HL: "To Be Young", "Bartering Lines", "Amy", "Call Me On Your Way Back Home"
2.5
😪
Kinda bored, which I think is about the worst feeling a record on the 1001 list should give me-
but it isn't without some strong moments (see above), and maybe a future revisit would stir up some feelings that were absent from the 1st listen
Tina Turner
4/5
Still get excited whenever "Better Be Good To Me" comes on the radio
The strange Bowie cover “1984” (not familiar with the original) revels in the then-modern sound, like they know it’ll sound like a bygone era in a few years.
Maybe it would be a 5/5 if “We Don’t Need Another Hero” was part of the original tracklist
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
"Weighted Down (The Prison Song)" is beautiful as far as menacing murder ballads go; right after, "War in Peace" is almost euphoric in comparison to the rest of the songs.
Reminds me of a country-style "The Madcap Laughs", but what surprises me is how much I prefer the sound of this
Last track made me uncomfortable, but I wouldn't say I disliked it...
other HLs: "Diana", "All Come to Meet Her", "Cripple Creek"
June 2, 2023
Donovan
4/5
Running it back to the 60s again today- It's been a great week for harpsichords, along with "Face to Face" by the Kinks.
Holy heck- do I actually like Donovan now? I heard "Sunshine Superman" all the time at my part-time job during high school and both the melody & his voice grated on me.
But now I see that Donovan wasn't the problem, it was minimum-wage drudgery after all.
Still not my FAVOURITE, but it's catchy
HL: “Ferris Wheel”, “Celeste”, “Season of the Witch”, “Guinevere”
June 3, 2023
Robbie Williams
2/5
HL: "Let Me Entertain You", "Old Before I Die", "Angels"
Very much middle-of-the road stuff overall. It can be energetic, and catchy, but there's something I'm craving that wasn't there.
Using my surface-level research, I've concluded that it's a safe bet from an already established singer-songwriter in the UK that borrowed sounds from the hitmakers of '97, and sold a load of copies. It doesn't do a lot for me now, but I have nothing against it
Miles Davis
5/5
First Miles Davis album
DISC 1: we'll let that settle for a minute. Feels a bit hostile & ominous at times, yet still captivating
DISC 2: "Spanish Fly" is the most accessible moment so far, for me personally. Is it just me or is the music on this warmer-sounding?
Great crescendo in "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”
it might be a masterpiece. Make no mistake, this is no “Head Hunters”, with no addictive hooks like in Chameleon & Watermelon Man. It’s a pretty different beast, and one I’m almost relieved to “shelve” for now. 90 mins is a lot. But wot a journey
Antony and the Johnsons
4/5
HL: "You Are My Sister", "Fistful of Love", "Hope There's Someone", "Spiralling"
Took a couple songs to get accustomed to Anohni's voice, but it's a pretty strong set of piano ballads with an emotional core nonetheless.
Also led me on a Wiki rabbit hole about the woman on the cover. I should really focus on my assignment
June 8, 2023
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
June 7, 2023 (late night, trying to write a theatre piece)
HL: “Samba de Bencao”, title track, “Close Your Eyes”, “Sem Contencao”
💃🏿
It sounds like purgatory. No I cannot fully explain what I mean by that
Even the brassy ending song “Close Your Eyes” doesn’t give much closure. It traps that carnaval energy in a loop. Is that just a feature of bossa nova then
Fave track has to be the intro, probably the best fusion of spooky electronica & serene acoustic guitar
3.5
Nico
4/5
HL: "Somewhere There's a Feather", "These Days", "I'll Keep It with Mine", title track
Traffic
4/5
Switch to the non-album single “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” was like a splash of cold water in the face, in how different it was to the actual album
💿 Two of these 60s albums back to back (following Chelsea Girl)- and aside from ripping off the brilliant Was (Not Was) to make “Pearly Queen”, this one is also more enjoyable than expected.
More sweet, sweet harpsichord to be found in “Cryin’ To Be Heard”
Less waffling here than in John Barleycorn Must Die
HL: “Feelin’ Alright”, “Don’t Be Sad”, “Cryin’ To Be Heard”, “No Time To Live”
June 9, 2023
Super Furry Animals
4/5
HL: title track, “(A) Touch Sensitive”, “Run! Christian! Run!”
Very fun album overall. Some bizarre twists & turns, like the CSNY-invents-dubstep in “No Sympathy”, or the bits about Monica Lewinski (I guess not that bizarre for a 2001 album)
“Receptacle” is either the best or the worst song- currently making up my mind about the last minute or so.
June 10, 2023
OutKast
5/5
HL: "B.O.B.", "Ms. Jackson", "Gangsta Sh*t", "So Fresh, So Clean", "Toilet Tisha"
I'm not here to argue that S/TLB is a better album (I gave that 5 stars). Maybe the biggest drawback to the album-a-day thing is that some albums deserve time to digest, and my opinions on several tracks/interludes on Stankonia aren't fully formed because I was still reeling from the song before it. Probably was the most tuned in during the first 5 songs & the last 5 songs. Definitely worth a relisten in the near future.
"B.O.B." continues to be my favourite Outkast song, bar none (not that I've listened to the other four albums yet)
June 11, 2023
Missy Elliott
5/5
Call it nostalgia (even tho I’m hearing roughly 12/13 songs for the first time today) but I loved this
Both Missy & Timbaland bring out their respective best artistic qualities in each other, & the guests (e.g. TLC, Method Man) are also pretty excellent.
I may have just had back-to-back 5-star hip-hop records (where’s that kid who only listens to the Beatles, Floyd & Queen now?), but while I’m still digesting the Outkast one, this more straightforward outing is easier to deliver a verdict with.
HL: “Bring the Pain”, “Back in the Day”, “Slide”, “Funky Fresh Dressed”, “Can You Hear Me”, “Work It”
John Prine
4/5
There’s a stretch from tracks 3-5 which is among the saddest I’ve heard in one album. Good thing every song isn’t like that
“Hello in There”, “Sam Stone”, “Paradise”, “Your Flag Decal”, “Angel From Montgomery”
Eurythmics
4/5
I have a feeling that Touch is their better album that is NOT in the book (it's also from 1983!), but makes sense that they'd choose their big break over the confident follow-up.
Still making up my mind over parts of it, like the plastic soul in "Wrap it Up", or "This City Never Sleeps" which just goes and goes, but I can't help but dig the Eurythmics sound, and Annie Lennox's voice elevates the weaker tracks and supercharges the strongest ones.
June 14, 2023
HL: "Love is a Stranger", "Jennifer", "I Could Give You (A Mirror)", "This is the House" oh yeah and that title track
Slipknot
1/5
Alright, nice things only:
1) Corey Taylor is a truly impressive vocalist
2) The frenetic rhythms on display prove both creativity & technical prowess
3) "Eyeless", "Wait and Bleed", "Surfacing", and "Spit it Out" is a consecutive run of songs where I wasn't praying for it to be over.
There were 2 lists I made as a teenager, Favourite Bands & Least Favourite Bands. I think Slipknot and Marilyn Manson were neck and neck for the top spot of the 2nd list, but my knowledge of both artists was pretty limited. Also that list included Kanye, T Swift and Rihanna from what I recall, so I could have been wrong about this too!
Still not a fan
Björk
5/5
Eurythmics to Slipknot then to Björk sure is some whiplash
What a glorious winter album that I’m discovering in summer.
Going back to individual tracks to decide on a rating was… odd, as the album does a good job of introducing the samples, the glitchy fuzzy beats & the glockenspiels. Well actually “Hidden Place” throws you in the middle of it all in the 1st 60 seconds, but does it *gently*.
HL: “Hidden Place”, “Unison”, “Pagan Poetry”, “Aurora”, “It’s Not Up To You”
June 16, 2023
Roxy Music
4/5
HL: "Re-Make/Re-Model", "If There Is Something", "2HB", "The Bob (Medley)", "Chance Meeting"
The mixing in some of the songs is a bit odd, thought my speakers were broken during "Sea Breezes", the sparse drum and bass feels incomplete somehow
"Chance Meeting" is better on re-listen, now that I'm anticipating that abrasive synth/guitar
I'm starting to "get" Roxy Music with Brian Eno, he clashes musically with Bryan Ferry but some interesting chemical reactions occur
June 18, 2023
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
3/5
HL: "Visions of Johanna", "I Don't Believe You", "Ballad of a Thin Man"
Alright. If I saw this show live it'd be an easy 5
June 19, 2023
Milton Nascimento
5/5
At its best, sublime, and at its worst a bit generic. Overall, love the mix of Brazilian folk & psych-rock. Have to remember this one for a midsummer road trip
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
First time hearing “Voodoo Dolly”: awful noise
The 2nd time: awesome, I love it
Finding there’s a lot to love in early 80s goth rock, between the Cure, Bauhaus and now this
HL: “Into the Light”, “Monitor”, “Night Shift”, “Spellbound”
Janet Jackson
3/5
HL: "Escapade", title track, "State of the World", "Lonely", "Love Will Never Do Without You"
Pretty good introduction to Janet Jackson's music (knew "Escapade" already tho)
listening to this thing in one go, I started to tire of the loud processed drums but in small doses it gets the head bopping
Definitely feels like a landmark album
3.5
June 24, 2023
Yes
3/5
HL: “Roundabout”, “Long Distance Runaround”, “Mood for a Day”
Little classical flourishes in “Mood” & “Cans & Brahms” are neat, and “Roundabout” is probably their best song, but I didn’t take as easy to Fragile as I did for the Yes Album & Close to the Edge. The mix of grand, multi-part odysseys & little song fragments demanded different levels of attention, and switching between them wasn’t always a simple task
June 26, 2023
Tom Tom Club
3/5
HL: “Genius of Love” (s tier), “L’elephant”, “On, On, On, On…”
Dumb fun album, kind of in-one-ear-out-the-other sometimes but I’ll have to remember this when I need a pick-me-up
June 25, 2023
The Divine Comedy
4/5
HL: “Frog Princess “, “Something for the Weekend”, “Songs of Love”, “The Dogs and the Horses”
Wasn’t expecting the actual Father Ted theme song on this list (in a way)
Enjoyed it even more than the last Divine Comedy, now my research for the evening is why a man from Derry sounds like an English aristocrat
June 28, 2023 (listening while heavy storm clouds cover the city)
Kings of Leon
4/5
“California Waiting”, “Red Morning Light”, “Trani”, “Talihina Sky”
Heard Kings of Leons songs on the radio for 15 yrs, accepted I’ll never understand anything he sings without a lyric sheet
It rocks and it rolls, I had a good enough time (though sometimes I got a craving for a Tom Petty song while listening)
June 29, 2023
Everything But The Girl
3/5
HL: “Before Today”, “The Heart Remains a Child”, title track
There’s a certain dichotomy between bands that deserve to be on The List but aren’t really my jam, versus bands I can get down to but are questionable entries on The List. Guess which one this is?
There’s only one Billy Joel album on the list btw
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
This album deserves all the love for not being Scum by Napalm Death
as well as having such a fire trombone section
HL: title track, "Buscando Guayaba", "Pedro Navaja"
June 30, 2023 (later)
Spacemen 3
3/5
HL: “Come Down Softly…”, “Lord Can You Hear Me”, “Honey”, “Let Me Down Gently”
Evokes a lot of the same feelings I got from “Lazer Guided Melodies”. There’s a lot about the sound/aesthetic of space rock that I enjoy, but the cyclical, droning tendencies can bore as much as they entrance me
June 29, 2023 (slightly later that day)
Tangent: when I get to #500 I was thinking of sharing albums that are 5 stars to me now, but weren’t when I first listened. My first nomination to that list is “Ladies and Gentlemen” by Spiritualized, that took the best elements that are heard in this album and emphazised the blues, gospel & heavier rock influences.
Napalm Death
1/5
the absolute worst
June 30 2023
Charles Mingus
5/5
Intense album for an emotionally intense day
July 1, 2023
Bobby Womack
3/5
HL: "If You Think You're Lonely Now", "Stand Up", "So Many Sides of You"
Not bad. Exists somewhere between disco, new wave & quiet storm. Not sure if I like this more or Anita Baker's "Rapture", they both kind of evoke an adult contemporary radio station I'd listen to for a couple songs then finding something else
July 2, 2023
The Specials
3/5
HL: “Concrete Jungle”, “Too Hot”, “A Message To You Rudy”
Decent. More punky than I expected (tbf I knew “Ghost Town”, & nothing else)
July 3, 2023
Aphex Twin
4/5
without knowing the chronology, the earliest-sounding (or at least the most 80ish) track is "Delphium"
Sometimes pretty, sometimes spooky (Hedphelym), as it stands I think I appreciate it more than the Moby album from this list but less than the Boards of Canada one.
Definitely won't try listening to this on the bus again, but I think it might be valuable for writing/studying to in the future.
HL: “Xtal”, “Heliosphan”, “Hedphelym”, “Ageispolis”
July 4, 2023
Pavement
3/5
HL: "In the Mouth a Desert", "Here", "Zurich is Stained", "Loretta's Scars"
The best songs outweigh the worst ones (I counted 3 tracks I actively disliked)
It's amiable enough that I understand why others love it, but the super-dry (like an overboiled egg) guitar sound isn't my favourite thing in the world.
Idk- it might grow on me too, too early to say.
2.75/5, aka 3 stars
July 5, 2023
Faith No More
4/5
HL: "From Out of Nowhere", "Epic", "Zombie Eaters", "Woodpecker From Mars"
Exceeded expectations. I've come around on "Epic", it used to be one of my least favourite songs on Rock Band for the PS2
Technically it's a bonus track, but "War Pigs" is the one thing I'd cut. Decent rendition of a great song, but isn't that different from the original when done by Faith No More
July 6, 2023
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
HL: "Expecting to Fly", "Bluebird", "Good Time Boy", "Broken Arrow"
July 7, 2023
Beatles
5/5
I just heard this album the other day, on vinyl! However, it was the North American version, leaving out one of my favourites, "Nowhere Man" (and inserting "I've Just Seen A Face", also one of my favourites :D - among other changes)
When I first got into the Beatles, I wasn't big on Rubber Soul (compared to other Beatles; I still heard it a lot). Yet it has two of my top 10 Beatles songs in it ("In My Life" & "Nowhere Man"), at least three others I had to learn on guitar ("I'm Looking Through You", "Norwegian Wood" & "Girl"), and even the most throwaway tracks have quite a bit of replay value to me ("The Word", "Wait", "If I Needed Someone", "Michelle" [don't @ me])
14 stars, one for every track, minus one for "Run For Your Life", so 13 stars then
July 7, 2023
Norah Jones
3/5
HL: "Don't Know Why", title track, "I've Got To See You Again", "Shoot the Moon"
Nice, cosy album. Can see its broad appeal, with the jazz & folk influences mixed in small doses so it doesn't swing too far in either direction.
No one song captivated me (like Jones's song "Sunrise"), but there are no bad songs either.
3.5
July 10, 2023
(note to self, last review was a typo & was heard on July 9)
Fiona Apple
4/5
HL: "Carrion", "Shadowboxer", "The First Taste", "Criminal"
At least 4 stars, maybe more, gets comparisons to all kinds of artists but it stands apart from most albums I've heard aside from "Fetch the Bolt Cutters". Nice to know that the offbeat, avant-garde sensibilities were there from the beginning (percussion in "Sleep to Dream", the extended instrumental outro in "Criminal")
July 11, 2023
Basement Jaxx
2/5
HL: "Rendez-Vu", "U Can't Stop Me", "Stop 4 Love".... maybe "Jump n Shout"?
I guess it deserves props for making Daft Punk want to make better music after Homework
(Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk proclaimed the album as "better than [theirs]." - Spin Magazine)
Inventive and quirky, some of the instrumentals are grating as heck, watched a couple music videos for the singles only to have the strobe-light visuals overwhelm me further.
Idk what the take away is, do I need to be on molly to wholeheartedly enjoy this?
2.5
July 11, 2023 (later)
Meat Loaf
5/5
HL: everything but the “wolf with the red roses” spoken word interlude. Actually even that’s good for a chuckle
Top 3: “You Took The Words”…, “Paradise”, title track
There’s still a special place in my heart for this kind of bombastic, theatrical rock & roll. I would be surprised that this isn’t ranked higher on the website, but I have met at least one person who haaates this album
Some serious mixed messages in side 2, going from “ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you” to “Praying for the end of time so I can end my time with you”, to “You know I love you”
July 12, 2023
The Soft Boys
4/5
HL: “I Wanna Destroy You”, “Tonight”, title track, “Positive Vibrations”
Soft boy summer
Wasn’t too hot on “I Got The Hots”, but for the most part I had a good ol time. As soon as I read the Wiki blurb mentioning that they influenced R.E.M.’s sound I suspected that I’d enjoy it.
Some offbeat musical choices such as the sitar in “Vibrations”, the fiddle in the title track & the wonky time signature in “Sideways” enhance the experience without feeling gimmicky.
July 13, 2023
Dr. John
3/5
Elton John
5/5
HL: title track, “Funeral for a Friend”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Saturday Night…”, “Harmony”
honourable mentions: “This Song Has No Title”, “All the Girls Love Alice”
Other HL: “Bennie & the Jets” I GUESS
Except for a slight lull in the middle, a nicely paced double album with a grand intro & finale. Most of the tracks deserve their longevity (50 years, holay)
July 15, 2023
Silver Jews
3/5
HL: "Let's Not and Say We Did", "Tennessee", "I Remember Me"
An alt-country record (and artist) I'm glad I was introduced to, though some of the songs sound a bit samey.
Maybe I'll have to let this one stew, as there's something in Berman's voice & words I quite enjoy.
3.5
July 16, 2023
Soul II Soul
3/5
HL: "Holdin' On", "Back to Life", "African Dance"
not bad at all, strikes a balance between danceable/peppy & laidback/chill.
Beyoncé
4/5
HL: "Drunk in Love", "Mine", "Superpower", "Blow", "Ring Off" (bonus track)
Less enthusiastic about: "Partition", "XO"
hindsight 20/20, I appreciate this whole era a lot more than I did back then. Not to disown all the Bastille, Imagine Dragons, Lorde & Lana Del Rey I was hearing at the time, but there were some clear blind spots in what I chose to listen to. m.A.A.d. city, Yeezus, Channel Orange and now this, all releasing around my senior year of high school only for me to basically tune it out, then decide 10 years later that they're actually very good
"Drunk in Love" is the one thing I knew about this album before today, which still holds up. Though I can't handle this level of maximalism every day, with the smorgasbord of guest producers, singers & songwriters threatening to overload the project, it's also a great snapshot of 2013 for that reason. Disturbingly, one of my favourite songs heavily features Drake, and Pharrell's slick nu-disco (wHiCh wAs tHe StYlE aT tHe TiMe) rarely sounded better than it does in "Blow".
While some tracks sound very of their time (“Pretty Hurts”), others feature a mildly experimental sound that aged pretty well (“No Angel”, “Haunted”)
July 18, 2023
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
fun fact: Rolling Stone put 3 Tom Petty albums on their greatest 500 list, not including this. This is the only Tom Petty album in a book of 1001 albums
Oh I'm not bitter
Jokes aside, I don't really know the Heartbreakers from their albums, just the radio hits- but this is a worthwhile entry in my eyes. It shows where American rock was headed in the 80's, mixing some power pop, punky attitude and even some synths to the southern rock formula.
That sounds more complicated than it is- basically, that \"make it last- MAKE IT LAST ALL NIGHT\" hook in \"American Girl\" encapsulates the sense of fun and breeziness throughout the entire album.
HL: \"American Girl\", \"Hometown Blues\", \"Breakdown\", \"Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll\", \"Luna\"
July 19, 2023
Grateful Dead
4/5
HL: “Ripple”, “Sugar Magnolia”, "Attics of My Life", “Brokedown Palace”
1st Grateful Dead album- was feeling a 3 at first but putting on some tracks a 2nd time bumped it up.
Mellow album which was more country than I expected. “Ripple” is a standout , and I put “Sugar Magnolias” on a playlist about beating the winter blues a while back.
July 20, 2023
Beatles
5/5
"Just hook it to my veiiiins!"- Barney Gumble, of the Be Sharps
In all honesty, the Taxman solo distorted & repurposed for "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of my favourite moments in any Beatles album.
"For No One" is a Beatles song that I forget about for stretches of time, but am always floored by how beautiful it is.
"Doctor Robert" may be the most underrated track, a great lil ditty whose only crime is being surrounded by even greater songs
And of course, kudos to George Harrison for getting more songwriting representation and experimenting right off the bat, with "Love You To" and the dissonant "I Want To Tell You"
July 21, 2023
R.E.M.
5/5
HL: “End of the World”, “The One I Love”, “Finest Worksong”, “Strange”, “King of Birds”
July 22, 2023
REM #3
Was thinking that, if I didn’t vibe to this album at least I’d have “The One I Love”. Well then again, REM haven’t yet steered me wrong
Caetano Veloso
3/5
HL: "Tropicália", "Clarice", "Soy loco por ti, América", "Paisagem Útil"
Thanks Brazil, very cool 😎
Think I liked other Brazilian offerings a little more (Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina). But there’s still much to enjoy about these helter-skelter, somewhat unfinished-sounding psych-samba songs
3.5
July 23, 2023
Rush
4/5
Not 1st listen (although I probably haven't heard the full thing since high school)
It's not a drill people, we have some Canadian content today 🚨
doing something a little different for this album- I listened to Side 2 first, to pay attention to the shorter songs before I possibly get Rush-ed out after the title track.
These songs in isolation are a solid 3 star EP for me, with the ballad "Tears" and "A Passage to Bangkok" easily being my favourite songs. Now on to the overture...
Yeah the album's now a neat 4 * in my eyes. The title track is ridiculous, it's wild, it ROCKS
July 24, 2023
Pulp
4/5
HL: "Common People", "Mis-Shapes", "Disco 2000", "Bar Italia"
The jubilant, bittersweet energy from the big single "Common People" is evident throughout the whole album.
Somehow doubt that "Funeral" by Arcade Fire would have been made without this album.
Maybe a 5 down the road. I haven't had a Britpop album that took me there just yet, now I must decide at some point which album tickled me the most: this, "What's the Story Morning Glory" or Blur's self-titled.
July 25, 2023
Leonard Cohen
5/5
HL: title track, "Leaving the Table", "If I Didn't Have Your Love", "Traveling Light", "String Reprise / Treaty"
despite the brevity of the album & the minimal instrumentation, I needed a 2nd listen tonight, free of the distractions of construction work & traffic, to really let it sink in.
It's amazing how much gravitas Cohen's voice carries despite his physical frailty.
Despite its status as Cohen's swan song (other than that posthumous album) and the grimness of the title track, there's also serenity and sweetness present in both the words and the music. For instance, the strings swelling in the final track.
5th and last Cohen album on this list. 1st I got from this list was his debut "Songs of Leonard Cohen", which is one of the albums that grew on me since the 1st listen to possibly belong with my 5-star favourites. Well here's another one
July 26, 2023
Robert Wyatt
3/5
real cognitive dissonance from this ‘97 album occasionally sounding like Atom Heart Mother-era Floyd.
One of the biggest headscratchers for me as to how this record got made & included on this list but at the same time, I was fascinated by its twists and turns (from freaky folk to plaintive jazz), and I enjoyed the majority of the tracks.
“The Duchess” sounds like it inspired some of the more demented musical pieces in Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and was the closest I came to turning off the album.
HL: “Heaps of Sheeps”, “Maryan”, “September the Ninth”
July 27, 2023
Patti Smith
3/5
not first listen
I don't love this album, despite it being such a trailblazer for future artists I like such as Alanis Morissette, PJ Harvey & Fiona Apple (among many others). I sometimes get lost in stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and some of the tracks sprawl and meander. However Horses has enough strong moments (eg. the build & accelerando in "Gloria") that I can appreciate its inclusion here.
HL: "Break it Up", "Gloria", "Land"
July 28th 2023
Hugh Masekela
4/5
1- great, energetic start to the record
2- purty
3- chiller, best solos yet
4- in one ear, out the other
5- maybe best track yet
6- piano intro & main tune are great in their own ways
7- basically the drummer’s show off piece
8- more bluesy than track 7 (Blues for Huey), cool, nighttime city vibes
9- groovy, at this part starting to feel the album’s length
10- a party (only vocals in the album I think?), but isn’t so much of a crazy grand finale as what sounds like the bandmates letting loose after a hard day at work
HL: “Maseru” (5), “Minawa” (2) “Part of a Whole” (1), “Inner Crisis” (6)
July 29, 2023
Slade
3/5
HL: "Let the Good Times Roll", "Look at Last Nite", "Mama Weer All Crazy Now"
July 30, 2023
The Byrds
4/5
HL: “Goin Back”, “Draft Morning”, “I Wasn’t Born To Follow”, “Get To You”, “Old John Robertson”
Little step up from “Younger Than Yesterday”; it takes the country & psychedelic elements and pushes them further so you get a more diverse set of songs.
My favourite is “Get to You”, which sounds like the Byrds’ take on baroque pop
4*
July 31st, 2023
Minutemen
3/5
HL: I don't even know
(listening to Side Mike) I feel like whatever I didn't get out of the micro-songs in Wire's "Pink Flag" is somehow present here. Even though the stop/start jerkiness also exists, the songs combined feel like they're moving somewhere (at 55 mph :0)
I want to go on a road trip now
(after 40 more minutes of this album) Just pumping the brakes a bit here. I think this is an artistic accomplishment, and very fun at times, but the length did hamper my enjoyment a little.
August 1, 2023
Peter Tosh
4/5
HL: title track, "Burial", "Why Must I Cry", "Till Your Well Runs Dry"
do it
August 2, 2023
Pere Ubu
3/5
HL: "Non-Alignment Pact", "Street Waves", "Humor Me"
Listening to this made me go back to Surfer Rosa, for two reasons. One, I underappreciated it the first time, plus this generator has blessed me with a tolerance for noisier rock I may not have had then. And two, there has to be some of Pere Ubu's David Thomas in Black Francis's vocal stylings.
This isn't an easy listen, but it's surprisingly catchy at times. I actually liked the spooky synth, but I was less enthused when it was isolated in my right ear.
Just put the damn oboe down
3*, I’m feeling generous
August 3, 2023
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
HL: "Atlantic City", "State Trooper", "Johnny 99", "Reason to Believe"
first Springsteen album in (nearly) 500 days 🎉
Listened to this in the heat of lockdown, and I vibed more with it then rather than driving to this on the highway.
Hard to rate, but I did the math & it's basically a 3.5. Some truly moving songs, some that were a lot less interesting to me, and all of them downers. Though it ain't my favourite Springsteen, I do appreciate it for its stark, spooky atmosphere
August 4, 2023
Marilyn Manson
1/5
HL: “The Beautiful People”, "Man that You Fear", "Tourniquet"
Funny that for the last two albums, I used the descriptive word "spooky" before getting Marilyn fucking Manson.
Let me be clear: I can appreciate elements of dread, foreboding, supernatural creatures, etc. in my music, movies & other art.
One example is NiN's The Downward Spiral, which is a kind of psychological horror.
What I don't like is in-your-face blood & guts horror, which this album does much better than it does the former. I guess dread and nausea kinda feel the same.
Though it's a major part of the package, if I remove the controversy, the Shock Rock of it all, I'm left with some interesting passages & songs ("Cryptorchid" is neat I guess), and a LOT of mediocre 90s nu metal. I heard the whole thing in one sitting at least, which I couldn't quite do with albums like Slipknot (1999) and Roots (1996).
While I can’t pretend to love much of this, at least the concept of writing a concept album from a villainous perspective (as opposed to disturbed, like the aforementioned T.D.S.) sparks my interest.
The Kinks
5/5
August 6, 2023
not 1st listen
maybe the most British-sounding album I've heard, and I've heard many British-sounding albums
But it's also an old favourite of mine, as far as non-Beatles 60s pop goes, and I relish an excuse to listen to it again. I actually had the opener as a morning alarm last month, and it's been stuck in my head continuously as a result.
"God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety!" <3
HL: title track, "Animal Farm", "Village Green", "Picture Book", "Big Sky", "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains", "Starstruck"
The Youngbloods
3/5
HL: "Rain Song (Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down)", "Darkness, Darkness", "Sunlight", "Ride the Wind"
Pleasant album to listen to, lots of noodling/false starts that affected the flow. The bluesy coda on "On Sir Francis Drake" might be the low point, not because I didn't like it but because it sounds like a studio outtake that was included to make Elephant Mountain a respectable length.
Celtic-sounding "Darkness" is great, "Sunlight" is pretty (reminds me a bit of "These Eyes" by the Guess Who)
August 7, 2023
Sigur Rós
5/5
When listening to Sigur Rós, time moves a little differently
HL: “Starálfur”, "Ný batterí", “Olsen, Olsen”,
"Viðrar vel til loftárása"
August 8, 2023
PJ Harvey
4/5
HL: "Sheela-na-Gig", "Water", "Hair", "O Stella"
Idk why I had such a hard time summarizing my experience here. Yesterday (the 9th) I listened to it with no distractions, yet I still had to listen to the whole thing again today (the 10th) to give a proper rating.
Apparently this is "real" PJ Harvey (I had Let England Shake as my introduction to her, which doesn't really evoke her sound on the early stuff).
I think the first listen, I just heard grunge. cowpunk. 90s angst. not really my thing.
And on the 2nd, I heard a lot more. funky time signatures. funky cello. unexpectedly heavy percussion on "O Stella". fury.
Either a 3 or a 5, so I'll compromise a bit here.
August 9, 2023
Snoop Dogg
4/5
HL: "Gin and Juice", "Lodi Dodi", "Murder Was the Case", "Who Am I"
I'm not what you'd call a fan of gangsta rap. But G-Funk... well, I like g-funk.
I will add though, despite the catchiness of the song itself, "Ain't No Fun" started to feel like misogyny for the sake of misogyny.
Why must lyrics get in the way of a good song
August 10, 2023
KISS
4/5
HL: “Detroit Rock City”, “Great Expectations”, “Beth”, “Shout it Out Loud”, “Do You Love Me?”
Oh come now
Big dum 70’s cheese, what’s not to like
I had an epiphany a couple years ago listening to their compilation Greatest Kiss, it being that Kiss weren’t as good as I remember from youth.
But now, with a clearer head, I have let them back into my eardrums (5/10 of these songs were in that comp) and we’re cool now
August 11, 2023
Public Enemy
2/5
HL: "Can't Truss It", "By the Time I Get to Arizona", "Bring The Noise (feat. Anthrax)"
Public Enemy No. 1 (No. 2)
Some bands demand some historical context, and I feel that growing up in a Canadian suburb in the 2000s means that I still lack context listening to Public Enemy. What now happened in Arizona in 1991? Who are the S1Ws?
I’m learning, but ignoring all that, I didn’t enjoy this album like 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'. I’m not sure why yet. One of my favourite songs here is the Anthrax version of "Bring the Noise" from that earlier album. And I'm not even sure I like Anthrax.
The beats in "Shut 'Em Down" and "Lost at Birth" are some of the heaviest I've heard in a hip-hop album. The skits were actually interesting, like the Harry Allen, media assassin stuff & the KKK advert that comes out of nowhere.
Overall, having 2 plus hours with this album (had to give some tracks an extra shot) was draining
August 12, 2023
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
HL: “A Different Point of View”, “The Theatre”, “To Speak is a Sin”, “Go West”
August 13, 2023
The Saints
3/5
HL: "Know Your Product", "No, Your Product", "Run Down", "Private Affair"
Not complaining about finding a new Australian band! The lush production in certain songs clashes somewhat with the two-fisted punk songwriting, and other certain songs could be written by any number of British bands in the 70s. It's still an enjoyable time
3.5
August 14, 2023
Brian Eno
5/5
August 15, 2023
500TH ALBUM 🎵
Honk if you love the Joshua Tree 📯
Honk if you love the Spore soundtrack 📯
and the Minecraft soundtrack 🎺
and the Hyrule Field theme in BOTW 🎺
And looking up liminal space pictures at 3am 🎺 🎺
By my logic, this is an album that should be boring (no sense of progression, no percussion, not one single trombone) and is instead a haunting & beguiling experience for me. Though this is the 1st time I’ve actually listened thru the whole thing, I already have some regret at not seeing a live performance in my hometown earlier this year.
It's a fitting album for #500, not only are its liminal qualities perfect for a pseudo-halfway checkpoint (I've heard about 40 more records that I haven't logged on this website, which is closer to the real halfway point), but I also feel like I'm dancing a liminal limbo in my actual life, while relationships, my job, and creative prospects all feel like they're on the precipice of change.
HL: “1/2, “2/2”
And now to celebrate this milestone, some albums that I feel I didn't appreciate enough the 1st time:
Nas- Illmatic (no. 17) : listened when my rap vocabulary was very limited. one of the best hip-hop albums I've heard
Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of... (no. 18) : there's a few albums I didn't actually properly listen to- distractions, questionable speakers at times. Guess that's why I mostly ignored this triumph in gospel/soul/reggae/rap fusion
Magazine- Real Life (no. 58) : a crossroads of post-punk, prog & glam that sounds better every listen
Dinosaur Jr.- You're Living all Over Me (no. 93) : didn't really like this much on the first listen, but noise rock has grown on me and so has this
Prefab Sprout- Steve McQueen (no. 120) : still not crazy about 80s sophistipop, but this might be the best example I've heard of it, or 2nd to Songs From the Big Chair
Bowie- Blackstar (no. 127) : easy 5-star, felt wrong as soon as I gave it 4
The Pixies- Surfer Rosa (no. 130) : same reasons as Dino Jr.
Spiritualized- Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (no. 143) : been on my mind too much this year to just be a 4-star
Thelonious Monk- Brilliant Corners (no. 200) : 2nd only to Head Hunters in jazz albums I've relistening to
Justice- Cross (no. 230) : recent listen-thru was still a bit exhausting, but some tracks ("Stress", "Phantom Pt II", "Let There Be Light") are excellent, and even "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" sounded better on relisten
Taylor Swift
3/5
HL: “Clean”, “Your Wildest Dreams”, “Blank Space”
alright
U2
5/5
HL: “Zoo Station”, “One”, “Until the End of the World”, “So Cruel”, “Mysterious Ways”, “Love is Blindness”
the first U2 album I properly listened to, but the final one on this list
Every U2 I’ve had on this generator, I’m surprised how much it holds up for me. And I’m already a fan!
As their premier 90s album, it contains some clearly of-its-time elements like the dance rhythms in “The Fly” and “Mysterious Ways”, but there’s still echoes of their 80s sound, like in “Wild Horses” & “Acrobat”. I remember not being crazy about the odd industrial buzzes and loops like in “Zoo Station” and “Until…” when I first found this CD (and often they have no bearing on the actual song’s content), but call them byproducts of a band willing to push themselves & experiment (before settling right down with All You Can’t Leave Behind)
August 17, 2023
Deerhunter
4/5
HL: “Helicopter”, “Don’t Cry”, “He Would Have Laughed”, “Earthquake”
Not quite sure how this made it on the list, but I’m glad it’s here. I believe it’s still in the newest edition, whereas other 2000s indie records by Dirty Projectors, MGMT & Grizzly Bear were culled, so I’ll take it as a representation of that era.
“Helicopter” was the only song I knew before, crackin’ good tune, that
****
August 18, 2023
Lambchop
3/5
not actually Britpop- it's Texpop
Actually though, now that I've read about the many influences behind Lambchop's music, and can hear said influences (country, soul), it still somewhat sounds like a Blur album to me
Could it be that I'll love this more with time? It's really pretty in parts
3.5
HL: "Up With People", "What Else Could It Be?", "The Distance from Her to There", "The Book I Haven't Read"
August 20, 2023
King Crimson
4/5
August 21st (later in the evening, gotta catch up)
Could be turned off by any number of LTiA’s quirks: the strange tunings, found percussion, unexpected heaviness. Yet combined they somehow make something pleasing to my ear.
More dynamic than most albums, goes from super quiet to super loud in a flash (so, like The Wall).
Only song I might mistake for Floyd is “Easy Money”
HLs: title track pt. 1, “Easy Money”, “The Talking Drum”
Dr. Octagon
3/5
Hard to rate, blend of cool verses & eerie instrumentals mixed with gross & disturbing lyrics
probably won't keep it in my streaming library, but I respect it for its originality
HL: "Earth People", "Blue Flowers (Revisited)", "3000", "Dr. Octagon"
August 21, 2023
Jeff Buckley
3/5
HL: "So Real", title track, "Corpus Christi Carol", "Hallelujah"
Rode in on the hype train, left feeling a bit underwhelmed.
"David Bowie considered Grace to be the best album ever made"
"the best album ever made"
Probably like many first listeners, I have only heard the Cohen cover (and oh, how I've heard it). I'm glad it's much more than an hour of sad guitar ballads, but the grungy "Eternal Life" sounds like it's from a completely different artist than his version of "Lilac Wine". Hard not to dwell on the deep potential here, since it sounds like someone on their way to realizing a grander artistic vision
ALSO- never would have thought I'd hear a parallel to Soundgarden, but both Buckley and Cornell had a bit of a Zeppelin thing going in '94. Hear the Eastern percussion in both the last track of this and Superunknown's.
3.5
August 22, 2023
Venom
3/5
Hearing Grace by Jeff Buckley the day before this is pretty funny to me.
"Hallelujah" vs "chaos in hell"
Like some other metal albums I've listened to, becomes samey after a certain point but there's a level of camp and theatricality that I can enjoy. Other commenters are accurate, Tenacious D sounds like they owe a lot from records like this
HL: title track, "Raise the Dead", "Sacrifice", "Countess Bathory"
less enthusiastic about: "Teacher's Pet"
6.66/10 (well more like a 5.9 but I needed to make the joke)
August 23, 2023
Simply Red
3/5
HL: title track, “Holding Back the Years”, “Heaven”, “Money’s Too Tight”
Kind of an amalgam of synthy sophistipop and more organic, R&B sounding tracks. Definitely wasn't expecting the Talking Heads cover.
You could say the duller patches made the standouts.... stand out more.
August 24, 2023
Kanye West
4/5
August 25, 2023
HL: "POWER", "Runaway", "Lost in the World", “All of the Lights”, “Monster”
Damn… the best album I’ve heard all week and it’s by self-proclaimed Nazi, Ye and company.
If there’s one thing that’s consistent among these very different Kanye albums, is that they bring out the best in his collaborators, whether it’s Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver or Raekwon. Wasn’t super impressed with “Runaway” the 1st time I heard it, but it works so well as a change of pace after the louder, more celebratory “POWER” & “Monster”
Here's a short list of all the artists who I had every album (on this website) before a single one by Radiohead:
Kanye West (3 albums), Leonard Cohen (5 albums), Queen (3), Sonic Youth (5), U2 (4), Wilco (3), Yes (3)
John Lennon
4/5
August 27, 2023
Big Beatles fan here, incredibly uninformed when it comes to their solo stuff though, to the point I’m hearing some songs for perhaps the 1st time.
Biggest surprise is “Soldier”, a dirge-y, bluesy jam in the middle that I liked more than expected.
Less surprising is that Phil Spector didn’t know when to leave something the hell alone, as evidenced in my favourite solo Beatles project, All Things Must Pass. Even so, his schmaltz doesn’t make “Jealous Guy” (formerly “Child of Nature”) any less great for me
HL: “Jealous Guy”, title track, “I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier…”, “Oh My Love”, “
The Pharcyde
3/5
hl: "I'm That Type of Nigga", "Soul Flower", "Passin' Me By", "Otha Fish"
As far as West Coast rap goes, well I prefer this to Straight Outta Compton
3.5
August 29, 2023
Randy Newman
3/5
Not the biggest fan of Newman’s bleak satire mixed with jolly melodies (though I can’t deny his craft as a songwriter), but once in awhile he decides to write one of the most beautiful songs ever written. With Good Old Boys, it was “Marie”, with this it’s “Old Man” and with Monsters, Inc. it’s “If I Didn’t Have You”
August 30, 2023 (before work)
Blood, Sweat & Tears
4/5
August 31, 2023
HL: "Spinning Wheel", "...Happy", "Sometimes in Winter", "God Bless the Child"
The Pogues
5/5
Part of the toxic relationship I have with this website is that the more I know about the albums that are left, I put off listening to ones I’m sure I’ll enjoy. I’ll hear them eventually, since they’re on the list!
(That didn’t stop me from binging “Dirty Old Town” & “Sally MacLennane” this year, even singing the latter at karaoke one time)
But yeah, Rum Sodomy & the Lash. Came not a moment too soon. Never a dull moment. Even the bonus tracks are fire
HL: "Sally MacLennane", "Dirty Old Town", "A Pair of Brown Eyes", "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", "Wild Cats of Kilkenny", "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda", "A Rainy Night in Soho" [bonus]
August 30, 2023 (much later)
Mott The Hoople
4/5
"I'm a Cadillac" sucked some of the energy from the 2nd half, and Bowie's influence is heavily felt, if not his direct creative input (like in "All the Young Dudes"). I kinda enjoyed the heck out of this, nonetheless.
It's a comfort food album. A big gourmet potato salad
HL: "All the Way in Memphis", "I Wish I Was Your Mother", "Honaloochie Boogie", "Ballad of Mott the Hoople"
Elvis Presley
3/5
ay first Elvis!
:)
3 stars
September 1 2023
Green Day
5/5
Louis Prima
4/5
Uplifting. Energetic. Cheeky. Enjoyed it quite a bit
Also, can't ignore the fact that it has some GREAT trombone.
HL: "Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody", "(Nothing's Too Good) For My Baby", "Body and Soul", "Basin Street Blues / When It's Sleepy Time Down South"
September 3, 2023
Jack White
4/5
3rd Jack White record this year for me, after the two 2022 releases; 4th if you include White Blood Cells from this generator. I've been hesitant so far to join the bandwagon of acclaim that he receives, but this is the most consistently great record I've heard from him so far (I'll get around to Elephant & Consolers of the Lonely at some point).
I guess the only problem I really have with it is in the context of the 1001 book. Due to the limited 21st century albums, this pretty straightforward rock-and-roll album from an artist already on the list a couple of times isn't the most compelling choice, at least on the surface.
I could say the same of Black Keys' Brothers, but that record also slaps. So how can I complain about Blunderbuss when it's just so pleasant to listen to
HL: "Hypocritical Kiss", "Sixteen Saltines", "Freedom at 21", "Love Interruption", "Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy"
September 4, 2023
Radiohead
5/5
1st Radiohead, after 520 albums. There goes my dream of making it to 1001 without one (jokes)
Unlike the other Radiohead entries in the book, I'm not familiar with any of these songs save the opener. My first impression is that it's especially devoid of warmth even for them. That's not really a complaint though; even at their most desolate and icy there's beauty to be found, whether it's in the post-punk screech of "There There", the eerie analogs in "Myxomatosis" or the piano/handclaps of "We Suck Young Blood" that evoke gospel & horror in equal measure.
It's also overlong and messy, but for once that doesn't kill the buzz for me.
Note to self: I wonder if I overrate albums that coincidentally match the vibe of the day? Anyway, apropos album for an afternoon darkened by wildfire smoke
HL: "2 + 2 = 5", "Sit Down Stand Up", "Go To Sleep", "Where I End and You Begin", "The Gloaming", "A Wolf at the Door"
September 5, 2023
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
HL: "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", "Prairie Fire That Wanders About", "Casimir Pulaski Day", "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!"
Not that it's my favourite track or anything, but it took until "Out of Egypt" for me to really embrace this album. Since at a certain point, the length (of the album & the individual songs) was weighing on me a bit. I tried getting into Sufjan Stevens a few years ago (with this + Carrie & Lowell) with mixed results, but I think I'm ready to call this a mastapeece.
Love the orchestral arrangements. Love the odd, quirky song structures. I've been spoiled with mid 2000s gems recently.
September 6, 2023
Germs
2/5
HL: "Land of Treason", "Richie Dagger's Crime", "The Other Newest One"
book has this album listed at 24 minutes long. I wish it were 24 minutes long
September 7, 2023
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
HL: title track, "Wrote a Song...", "Lodi", "Bad Moon Rising", "Night Time..."
If there's one bad thing I can say about CCR, it's that the songs on the albums (7 in 4 years, that's insane >:o) are sometimes interchangeable. Would any of these songs sound out of place on Willie & the Poor Boys, or Cosmo's Factory? Probably not
Then again, the songs are so consistently enjoyable that I don't care that much.
A big ole chicken pot pie of a record
September 8, 2023
Ray Charles
4/5
HL: "Worried Mind", "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Bye Bye Love", "You Don't Know Me"
I will have to meditate on why the lush, almost cloying arrangements tickle my eardrums in all the right ways.
Of course Ray Charles could sing the label on a shampoo bottle and make it sound heavenly
September 9, 2023
Will compliment this today with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Volume 2
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
HL: title track, “Pusherman”, “No Thing on Me”, “Little Child…”
I have to start watching these movies, having already heard their soundtracks (along with Shaft)
Happy to hear this classic in its entirety, but my favourite Mayfield album might still be There's No Place Like America Today (1975), which is more sonically diverse and intimate.
Meanwhile my favourite song of his is “Don’t Worry” (1970)
September 10, 2023
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Interesting to get this album on 9/11
Although they're perfectly serviceable albums, I regretfully have to group this with U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind" as indulgence on the 1001 albums' part. Both of them solid entries within their artists' body of work, but their most essential work is arguably here already (Born to Run, Achtung Baby, etc.).
Furthermore, this and ATYCLB were smoothed over by the conventions of early 2000s rock production, which doesn't ruin the experience for me but does erode a bit of personality that I know exists in both bands. If you have the E Street Band why not use em to their full potential?
I guess this has the historical document card going for it, RIP to all the victims
3.5
I vote we scrap this from the next edition and put back Muse's "Black Holes and Revelations"
HL: "Nothing Man", "Empty Sky", "Worlds Apart", title track
September 11, 2023
Kings of Leon
4/5
I feel like a big ol hypocrite writing this. Yesterday I lamented that the trappings of 2000s of mainstream rock held back a Bruce Springsteen album.
The difference with Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night is that, uh, they’re a 2000s band so they get away with it? But also this is the best I’ve ever heard them, right down to the assorted bells (“17”), background choirs, *compression* & millennial whoops (“Use Somebody”).
I wouldn’t say the rough edges of Youth & Young Manhood needed to be sanded over, but it works. It just works here.
HL: “Sex on Fire”, “Revelry”, “Closer”, “Notion”
September 12, 2023
Moby Grape
4/5
September 13, 2023: difficulty in finding this album, listened to Motomami by Rosalia & Blond by Frank Ocean today
September 16, 2023 (whole thing is on YouTube for free? well then)
Enjoying this very much. Sure some of the songs feel unfinished, but I wasn't prepared for the intensity & exuberance of the performances. Especially since I was expecting a snoozy country-fried record.
Among the better examples of 60s psychedelia in my eyes
4* at least
HL: "8:05", "Come in the Morning", "Omaha", "Sitting by the Window", "Lazy Me"
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
2nd one from The Jesus and Mary Chain
Not too long ago I realized that I'm more fond of the Pixies & Dinosaur Jr. albums I heard from this website than when I first heard them.
Now... Psychocandy joins the list of noisy 80's alt records I'm not 100% sure about. My first impression is that I enjoyed this more than Darklands, despite the abrasiveness. Occasionally the distortion was a bit upsetting, not unlike what initially turned me off of Lightning Bolt and Big Black.
It could also be that I'm warming to the overall sound of J&MC, not that this is leagues better than their other one. I heard the sunny 60s pop through the haze loud and clear, and I appreciated it.
HL: "Just Like Honey", "The Living End", “The Hardest Walk”, "You Trip Me Up"
3.5 for now
September 14, 2023
PS: I read that the drummer went on to form Primal Scream, which means that guy's on this list at least 3 times
Iggy Pop
2/5
September 17, 2023
HL: “Sister Midnight”, “China Girl”, “Tiny Girls”
Well. I have a new least favourite Iggy Pop album. Also a least favourite Bowie. If Station to Station had icy moments, then The Idiot is freezer burnt.
I applaud its unconventional nature though the blend of “krautrock” and Stooges stomping didn’t do a lot for me today. On the fence about “Mass Production”, kind of equal parts hypnotic and nauseating
Scott Walker
3/5
HL: "Come Next Spring", "The Amorous Humphrey Pugg", "Next"
Not the best aged of albums (lyrically anyway), but the lush arrangements make it a worthwhile listen.
September 16, 2023
Calexico
4/5
HL: "Sunken Waltz", "Black Heart", "Close Behind", "Güero Canelo", "No Doze"
holay, album of the week? (it's Monday today, just mean the last 7 days)
What a trippy blend of genres & influences. Fits in with the notion that my favourite country albums are actually country fusion or country-adjacent.
The cover of "Alone Again Or", which fits in perfectly with Calexico's eclectic sound, is a cherry on top.
September 18, 2023 (later)
Black Flag
3/5
An album where I'm ready for it to be done... before it's actually done; nonetheless I enjoyed Black Flag more than Germs, the other recent Californian punk band.
HL: "Rise Above", "Six Pack", "TV Party", "Depression"
September 18, 2023
King Crimson
5/5
Well just looking at this creepy face, I remember the title track being one of my favourites in all of prog. Now does the rest of the album hold up
Update: it holds up
One thing I didn’t remember from my last listen (sometime in the last decade) was all the jazz influence (see: the wall of noise at the end of “21st Century Schizoid Man”). The amount of freeform noodling is pretty high but they get a pass considering how strong the compositions can be.
Crimson King takes full advantage of my soft spot for musical indulgence.
5 stars
September 19 2023
Gil Scott-Heron
4/5
HL: "H20 Gate Blues", "The Bottle", "Rivers of My Fathers"
Misled myself a little, because I was expecting more funky times & it’s actually mostly slow-moving & meditative stuff. My bad.
For that reason, hearing these tracks first thing in the morning was kind of a bummer, but revisiting them this evening is a much better experience. Heron’s voice, while not technically the greatest, is rich & sonorous, and Jackson’s keys/fluting is the perfect backdrop.
“The Bottle”’s addictive groove belies its stark and sad portrayal of addiction
September 20, 2023
Britney Spears
2/5
ehhhhhh
About 3 songs in, I was ready to write something like "This album is actually good and some people are just not ready for that conversation"
Was ready for a good chuckle at the song "Email My Heart", but I have no recollection of hearing it even though I definitely put it on 10 minutes ago.
I started to dissociate after track 5
At least "The Beat Goes On" is a pretty good finish
HL: "...Baby One More Time", "(You Drive Me) Crazy", "Soda Pop"
September 21, 2023
Ice Cube
3/5
HL: "The Nigga Ya Love to Hate", "Once Upon a Time in the Projects", "It's a Man's World"
Lyrically, it has much of what I didn't like about N.W.A., but sonically has much of what I like about Public Enemy. Also I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Ice Cube's verses in this or Straight Outta Compton.
It's not described as such on the linked Wiki page, but it's a decent example of G-funk, and leaves me looking forward to the last P.E. record on this list, Fear of a Black Planet
September 22, 2023
P.S. Trying something new today, pairing a movie with the daily album. Today it's A̶r̶e̶ ̶W̶e̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶Y̶e̶t̶?̶ Straight Outta Compton (2015)
Suicide
4/5
HL: “Frankie”, “Ghost Rider”, “Rocket USA”, “Cheree”
I enjoy this against all odds. Violates some of my basic needs in music- its melodies are near non-existent, it’s repetitive, it displays its disturbing themes with the subtlety of a sledgehammer- and yet it’s kinda awesome as well.
It spreads the cliches and tropes of 50s rock-and-roll over a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
It should come with a headphone warning however
September 23, 2023
Giant Sand
3/5
“What in tarnation” 🤠
Decent album, what sounds like a simple country Americana gradually throws in classical samples, dissonance & distortion.
Something vaguely unsatisfying about the project as a whole, but it shines in individual moments. The amount of outtakes in the 25th anniversary version (it has not been 25 years since 2000!) reveals a band full of ideas & piss & vinegar, though it's possible those ideas were better fleshed out in Giant Sand's offshoot, Calexico.
HL: “(Well) Dusted”, “Satellite”, "Astonished (in Memphis)" "Way to End the Day"
of the bonus tracks I listened to, "Catapult" is pretty cool
September 24, 2023
The Auteurs
4/5
HL: "Show Girl", "Bailed Out", "Junk Shop Clothes", "Subculture" (hidden track)
The name & album cover put the word "pretentious" in my head before I heard a second of the Auteur's music.
It's pretty enjoyable for the most part. Actually I enjoyed pretty much every song, even though Luke Haines's vocal stylings are typical to a lot of 70s glam & 80s synthpop from England.
Sounds like OMD if they were more interested in T-Rex than Kraftwerk. If I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not
Also several of the songs ("Show Girl", "Starstruck", even "Bailed Out") allude to acting and the stage, which appeals to me
September 25, 2023
Beck
3/5
HL: "Qué Onda Guero", "Earthquake Weather", "Broken Drum", "Rental Car", "Scarecrow"
1st Beck album
Can't deny this album has style, but I've never been super taken with Beck's music. This offering does move the needle a bit, but I might have to revisit it a later time with an open heart. The crunchy overdrive in "E-Pro", "Rental Car" & "Go it Alone" remind me of truck commercial cock rock- but with more personality!
also cheers to that other anonymous reviewer who namedropped Dzama (the album cover artist), now I have a Canadian art Wikipedia rabbit hole to follow 🍁🍁🍁
Listened to Demon Days by Gorillaz afterward, which I wouldn't say was a better or worse experience. They're both respectable 00's alternative to me
3.5
September 26, 2023
Stereolab
4/5
HL: "Cybele's Reverie", “Percolator”, "OLV 26", “Tomorrow Is Already Here”
What to say about this weird, funky, fresh, French album?
Track 1, “Metronomic Underground” tested my patience at first. It takes forever to go nowhere, I thought! Relistening after hearing the rest of the album, I can appreciate its subtle layer building, as well as admit I was listening too closely.
Like the LCD Soundsystem I got a while back (which has grown on me), this is not the place to look for traditional song structures.
By the time I got to the title track, which has the same elements that tested me in “Underground” (2 minutes of the same looped drums before anything happens!), I was ready for it and could more easily enjoy it.
Rating: somewhere between a 1 and a 5
September 27, 2023
Aerosmith
5/5
Can’t remember if I ever listened to this the whole way through.
Deep cuts like “Combination” and “Nobody’s Fault” ring a bell, so odds are I did, as a wee lad of 17, when I was more interested in the 2003 Rolling Stone greatest album list.
I might agree with that magazine’s assessment, that this is the best Aerosmith album.
It probably doesn’t sound as vicious as it did in 1976, but the poppy harmonies, together with bitchin guitar riffs and Tyler’s vocal stylings, are what I like about the band, in concentrated form.
Even "Get the Lead Out", the weakest track imo, still rollicks along and continues the momentum.
HL: “Back in the Saddle”, “Sick as a Dog”, “Last Child”, “Nobody’s Fault”
September 28, 2023
Tom Waits
3/5
Tom Waits #3, here we go
As someone who got hooked on this artist through the 1-2 punch of Swordfishtrombones & Rain Dogs, I'm interested to see how his earlier stuff compares
Interestingly, while less experimental and often prettier than those albums, I had a harder time engaging with this one. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still much I liked between the bluesy numbers like “Til the Money Runs Out”, & the saccharine arrangements, eg “Ruby’s Arms”. Maybe my ADHD brain needs the kalimbas, pump organs, pots and pans of Rain Dogs, to give Waits’s world my undivided attention.
3.5
Who knows, maybe in 5-10 years this’ll be my favourite album by him
HL: title track, "Jersey Girl", "On the Nickel", "Ruby's Arms"
September 29, 2023
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Pleasant enough
This website says samba is one of my least favourite genres. I disagree. I don’t like how most samba albums I’ve heard are by someone named Gilberto tho
Or is samba somehow genetic
September 30, 2023
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
HL: "The sound of someone you love who's going away and it doesn't matter", “Surface Tension”, “Penguin Cafe Single”, “In a Sydney Motel”, “Giles Farnaby’s Dream”
God I love penguins
Oh the music- well, it can be unwieldy and slapdash, with a mix of very British strings with whatever “Pigtail” is. Kind of frustrating at first listen because of the sudden changes in quality, sometimes mid-song, but after the dust settling I’m already appreciating the absurd whimsy of the project a bit more.
3.5 / 5, at least
October 1, 2023
Skepta
4/5
HL: “Numbers”, “That’s Not Me”, “It Ain’t Safe”, “Lyrics”
Nothing dates something to the mid-2010’s like the airhorns in “Lyrics” (see also: “Hold Up” by Beyoncé), but as a full-length introduction to grime, Konnichiwa impressed me. Approaches something menacing in some tracks, while others are more offbeat & jovial.
I know my biased self would give A Moon Shaped Pool or Blackstar the 2016 Mercury Prize over this, but on the other hand it goes to show how much good music came out at the same time.
October 2, 2023
David Bowie
4/5
hasn't been too long since The Idiot- a rare example of something David Bowie was involved with I didn't take to immediately- but it's been about 300 albums since the last Bowie solo record. Where ya been man?
Never listened to Aladdin Sane before, in part because “Jean Genie” isn’t one of my favourite of his hits. It’s still good, just not “I need to hear an hour of this” good.
Luckily the rest of the album is a party. A lot of the pop sensibilities as in Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust, but there's further playing around with genre & song structures that sound more like the Berlin trilogy
HL: “Time”, “Drive-in Saturday”, “Panic in Detroit”, the Stones cover
October 3, 2023
Klaxons
3/5
HL: "Gravity's Rainbow", "Two Receivers", "As Above, So Below", "Forgotten Works"
neat
Even though "new rave", as the wiki describes it, mostly comes across as "loud & kinda annoying", there's still a lot I enjoyed about this.
There may come a day where I complain about finding a new 2000s indie rock outfit, but we're not there yet
October 4, 2023
Beach House
5/5
HL: "Zebra", "Silver Soul", "Norway", "Walk in the Park", "Better Times", "Take Care"
Listening to this a day after throwing out my back while performing the daring stunt of... getting out of bed, I now consider Beach House to be a form of medicine
Of course, now this + Future Islands have given me a new affliction, a sudden need to visit Baltimore, MD
October 5, 2023
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
HL: "Smoke Em", "I Can't Get With That", "We Have All the Time in the World"
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
had my head bobbing at least once or twice
Oct. 6, 2023
Eminem
3/5
October 7, 2023
As I may have noted before, a 3 star can mean very different things to me. Yesterday, Fun Lovin' Criminals' debut didn't move the needle too much in either direction, whereas this debut has soaring highs & outrageous lows. Take "Bonnie & Clyde", whose subject matter is depicted on the album cover. Would I still enjoy it if the humour of the Will Smith interpolation wasn't explained to me years earlier? Or would I be more shocked if I didn't hear arguments from supporters and detractors of Eminem's music my whole life essentially (I was 2 when this LP was released).
Of course, the tastelessness did get to me after 60 minutes. "Guilty Conscience" is a perfect example of the artisanship on display, where Dre & Slim Shady duet in a twisted game of angel/devil, yet the vileness of the 2nd verse undermines the humour.
Occasionally, in songs like "Rock Bottom" Eminem accidentally comes across as a real person.
3.5
HL: "My Name Is", "Bonnie & Clyde '97", "Cum on Everybody", "Rock Bottom", "Bad Meets Evil"
Marvin Gaye
3/5
HL: "Is That Enough", "Everybody Needs Love", "Time to Get it Together", “Anna’s Song”, “I Met a Little Girl”
It’s been about 500 albums since the last Gaye on this website, so I don’t have the most insightful comparisons to Let’s Get It On.
I did see the controversial stat on this website showing Here, My Dear as the lowest ranked of his, and I get why.
It’s fooken miserable, that’s why- or as the book tells it, “grimly fascinated” by misfortune.
To quote Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay: "It doesn't quite get you the first time”
and… same. Part of me understands this is some great 70s soul, while the other part tried and failed to be prepared for the bitter 70 minutes of this double album (alright, 62/70 minutes)
October 8, 2023
Steely Dan
4/5
HL: “Rikki”, “Barrytown”, “East St Louis Toodle-Oo”, title track, “Charlie Freak”
Idk what’s more shocking, the fact that this is the 3rd Steely Dan I’ve seen on this website or that they’ve all been pretty great?
Whether I like this more or their debut (Pretzel Man is my favourite album cover of theirs tho), there’s a lot of fun directions taken; the highlight might be two contrasting songs side-by-side, the Byrds-y “Barrytown” leading straight into an odd Duke Ellington cover, “East St Louis”.
October 9, 2023 🦃
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Having had the chance to see Wu Tang, Nas & De La Soul this week, it’s time for a slightly different New York State of Mind
Even though this is technically the 1st time hearing this record, I was more than familiar with 6/11 tracks since they were in The Best of Simon and Garfunkel.
They’re aight, the title track & “The Boxer” are just some of my favourite moments in pop music, so we don’t need to dwell on them.
How bout that brass in “Keep the Customer Satisfied” & “Why Don’t You Write Me”?
Or “So Long Frank Lloyd Wright”, which I found a bit slight on 1st listen but ended up being won over by its interesting jazziness & slightly dissonant melody.
I think when the nadir is a perfectly serviceable Everly Brothers cover, we have a real winner here.
HL: "The Boxer", title track, "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)", "Cecilia", "Keep the Customer Satisfied", "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright", "The Only Living Boy in New York"
October 11, 2023,
one of the best autumn albums I could hope for, cover & all
The Byrds
3/5
Good thing I like the Byrds, because my journey now includes 3 of their albums, 2 Gene Clarks, 1 David Crosby, & 1 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
HL: “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”, "You're Still On My Mind", “Hickory Wind”, "Nothing Was Delivered", "Pretty Polly" (bonus track)
It gets a little snoozy at times, which might be because my love of country music is conditional and fickle. I have the Flying Burrito Brothers as well as Gram Parson's solo stuff to see whether this particular strain of country rock gets more interesting.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is still a pleasant listen overall, but the more albums I hear by the Byrds, the more I feel the 3 stars I gave to Younger than Yesterday was too harsh.
October 12, 2023
Barry Adamson
3/5
Technically the 1st album for me that actually has Nick Cave on it
First couple songs are a mixed bag, don’t really like Jarvis Cocker’s ‘cool sexy dude’ thing removed from Pulp’s music
“The Vibes Ain’t Nothing…” is a step in the right direction, with its jazzy ambience
Hm I’ll have to think on this one. Couldn’t really get a sense of the story of this fictional movie, if there was one.
Barry Adamson really got Miles Davis sounding like the Undertale soundtrack
Maybe round up to a 3 for its eclecticism, while withholding those other 2 stars for some bland mush in between
HL: “Miles”, “Achieved in the Valley of the Dolls”, “The Big Bamboozle”, “The Sweetest Embrace”, “The Vibes Ain’t Nothing but the Vibes”
Friday the (October) 13th
The Black Crowes
4/5
HL: "Hard to Handle", "She Talks To Angels", "Twice as Hard", "Seeing Things"
As awesome as it is non-essential
It stays in one lane, & that is delightful southern rock. It has a gospel-seque singalong in "Seeing Things", and even though the song playcount suggests the album ends at "She Talks to Angels", "Stare it Cold" is a pretty triumphant closing track
October 14, 2023
Pearl Jam
4/5
Hm for some reason I’m biased against certain 90’s bands on this list that I’ve heard too much on the radio growing up (Soundgarden, The Offspring) yet others I’m totally fine with (Green Day, yesterday’s Black Crowes)
Definitely heard Pearl Jam one too many times, but maybe the album as a whole will be a better experience
As David Byrne once said, 'and it was'
I wouldn't say I learned much more from the deeper cuts than the aforementioned radio hits, but it's quality stuff throughout
HL: "Even Flow", "Alive", "Black", "Oceans", I guess "Jeremy", + that weird hidden track
October 15, 2023
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
I quite liked Ocean Rain, but probably haven't heard a single Echo song outside of that record. Let's see how their debut compares!
God this sounds like early U2 sometimes, but since this predates U2's Boy by several months, maybe it's more accurate to say U2 sometimes sounds like early Bunnymen
The moodiness & spook factor is noted & appreciated
HL: "Pride", "Villiers Terrace", "Pictures on My Wall",
October 16, 2023
The Fall
3/5
HL: "Barmy", "I Am Damo Suzuki", "Cruising Creek" (bonus)
hm- that's an acquired taste if I've ever seen one. According to the 1001 Albums book this is meant to be one of the most "pop" Fall albums.
I should revisit songs like "L.A." and "Paint Work" after a time, since they're intriguing (and apparently highly regarded) but didn't really land for me.
Faust, Sonic Youth, Pavement, and now this: examples of bands whose experiments with sound & distortion sometimes just sound like bad music to me, recorded & sung badly.
This is far from a bad album overall though; "What You Need", "Spoilt Victorian Child" and "Vixen" had my head bobbing right off the bat, "Barmy" fascinated me with its oscillation between power pop & darker atonality. "I Am Damo Suzuki" doesn't really sound like anything I've heard, but says on the Wiki it's very inspired by Tago Mago, an album I will hear at some point on this journey.
October 17, 2023
Christina Aguilera
4/5
Allow me to say, I love "Ain't No Other Man", but I'm going to have to pace myself here. The Wall is the same length!
Ok, Disc 1 is done, I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would, more than other crooners like Britney Spears & Mariah Carey.
Disc 2: oh this is a Tom Waits record
Alright it isn’t, but she had me fooled
It’s melodramatic, and the bloat is real, but I’d still go far as to say that they should’ve kept this in the book. It’s a decent representative of 2006 pop music, and it’s kinda silly only 4 albums make up that year in the new edition of the book
HL: “Makes Me Wanna Pray”, “Ain’t No Other Man”, “Slow Down Baby”, “Here to Stay”, “Candyman”, “I Got Trouble”, “The Right Man”
Not as crazy about: “Hurt”
Slayer
4/5
HL: title track, “Angel of Death”, “Altar of Sacrifice”, “Postmortem”
I wanted to make a joke about how “Angel of Death” is my favourite Bangles song, but now I can’t even find the brilliant YT mashup to back it up :(
In most cases, the extreme subject matter would be an instant turn-off for me. Yet somehow, this sits within the very limited threshold of thrash metal I enjoy. Blame Guitar Hero III.
In most cases, it’s the same kind of campy occult horror of witches and devils that put Venom on the map; but not only is Reign in Blood more polished than that band, it adds real-world examples of evil that, for better or for worse, leaves a lasting impression.
Also its short runtime keeps it from being completely exhausting
Spooktober 19, 2023
Guided By Voices
3/5
I kinda wish I was introduced to the finer points of lo-fi indie earlier in life, because now it's nearly always jarring to hear music that's deliberately released in an unfinished-sounding state, and recorded by a russet potato.
However, I'm pleased to have been misled by this band; Guided by Voices sounds like a culty new-age group, so I'll take the lo-fi indie.
Kinda on that note, Alien Lanes sounded fantastic on my portable Bluetooth speaker, whereas other albums I've tried with it sounded terrible (the polyrhythmic Remain in Light and densely-sampled It Takes a Nation of Millions, to name two)
Even though the nature of the short tracks means that few had a chance to really make an impression on me before the next one comes blazing in, the overall experience was quite pleasant. It's as though I fell asleep during a Kinks song, and that song kept distorting and permutating throughout the dream, picking up influences from Weezer & Dinosaur Jr along the way.
It's neat 👍 and I'll probably enjoy it more with time, once I've processed it a little
3.5
HL: "Watch Me Jumpstart", "Game of Pricks", "Closer You Are", "Motor Away", "Always Crush Me"
October 20, 2023
The Specials
4/5
HL: "Man at C&A", "Do Nothing", "Stereotype", "I Can't Stand It", "Rat Race" (bonus)
Even more Specials! Oh good, I was just thinking I haven't heard some good trombone in a while.
It's an album with an identity crisis, but I enjoyed this more than the 1st Specials. The kitschy synths in songs like "I Can't Stand It" just put me in a better mood somehow. I was a little put out upon realizing that "Ghost Town" isn't actually on this, and was recorded ca. a year later, but "Man at C&A" has a similar ominous vibe. Like dark clouds on a sweltering summer day
Maybe it's because of all the times they refer to nuclear war
October 21, 2023
Dion
2/5
HL: “The Whole World in His Hands”, “Make the Woman Love Me”
It’s just nice! It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just nice! (Srry I’ve been on a musical theatre kick lately)
Saying this as someone who gave the Phil Spector Xmas album 5 stars, he absolutely violates this record.
You could argue he did the same with the Beatles output of Let it Be, ATMP, & Imagine, but on the other hand those songs were generally good enough that the Spector (over)treatment didn’t matter to me.
These songs are decent but fold under the weight of the 7-minute orchestral versions.
The Shamen
3/5
After listening to over an hour of this, I see the book uses the 1990 vinyl tracklist, with no repeat tracks. Well that’s just fantastic, how was anyone supposed to know that?
& one of the guys died promoting this album?
En-Tact is really sending me down a rabbit hole, and it’s not even 10am!
I wonder if this would be rated as low as it is without all the fluff needed to pad this to a CD length. If I pretend the album ended at “Hear Me” like the book promised, then I’d say it was decently enjoyable.
(The 3rd song where the lyrics going back to “Move any Mountain” in the online version didn’t do much for me)
Right now it's a 3-star for me, if more for the textures & samples over the singing (& especially rapping). Certain 90s electronica I've been exposed to goes past right dated, into a dusty backroom & through the looking glass to a strange world where club music and the RuneScape soundtrack weren't all that far apart. And I kinda like it
Only other case of album version madness like this is Opus Dei by Laibach, which is a fascinating 40 minute album to me but an interminable 60 minute album, with all the extra CD tracks.
HL: “Move any Mountain” (which technically isn’t even in the *real* tracklist), “Hyperreal” (either of the two versions), “Possible Worlds”, “Omega Amigo”
Thin Lizzy
4/5
oh wow, Thin Lizzy! "Dia dhuit!"
I've never listened to them very religiously (or even agnostically) but I'm starting to see why live albums are part of this list. I'm getting more out of "Jailbreak" & "The Boys Are Back" today than I normally get from the oft-heard studio recordings. Canadian rock radio will give you those two songs and nothin else
HL: "Jailbreak", "Emerald", "Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)", "Cowboy Song"/"The Boys Are Back in Town",
October 24, 2023
The xx
4/5
2nd xx album, and now we'll have a moment of silence; for both have been removed by the latest edition, like everything by Adele & Kings of Leon :(
After “Dangerous”, I was ready for things to get *funky* yet they stayed relatively xx-brand melancholic in subsequent songs.
I’m not knocking I See You for that, I enjoyed it about as much as their last record. The samples here are pretty creative (who knew that was Hall & Oates in “Hold On”), and overall it’s a sunnier vibe than their wintery debut.
The polished gleam coming off these songs (& the album cover) won’t be to everyone’s taste but what is?
HL: “Dangerous”, “Say Something Loving”, “Replica”, “Brave for You”, “On Hold”
Fishbone
4/5
HL: “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” (is Mario Kart music in the best possible way), "Ghetto Soundwave", "Pouring Rain", "Freddie's Dead"
October 26, 2023
Nirvana
5/5
HL: "About a Girl", "The Man Who Sold the World", "Pennyroyal Tea", "On a Plain", "Lake of Fire", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
Now I'm not a big fan of Nirvana or anything
But it has accordion! And cello!
5*
Biggest surprise was how good the Meat Puppets covers were (esp. "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire"). I've heard most of the rest of this album already, in high school
October 28, 2023
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
HL: "Maaaaaaps", "Rich", "Pin", "Y Control"
This is YYY #3 for me, after It's Blitz (2009) and Cool it Down (2022). Thus, I strongly suspected I'd enjoy their debut as well, and was proven right today.
Every album has had a song I enjoy head-and-shoulders above the rest ("Maps" here); I don't know if that's a criticism, however, because there's still plenty more to like:
"Pin", part bubblegum, part chewing tobacco,
the melodic noise in "Y Control" & "Rich"
the dance-punk party of "Black Tongue" & "Date with the Night",
& the gentle wind down of the last 2 songs
Hell I’ll even take the weird breakdown in the hilariously named “No No No”
October 28, 2023
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
HL: “Compares”, “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”, “Three Babies”, title track
Glad this is on the list, it’s a jamboree of different genres and influences, but it’s also quite emotional and bleak (especially now).
I won’t say that we should be hearing The Lion and the Cobra instead of this one here, but I personally got more enjoyment out of that (even more) uneven debut.
Maybe it’s because of its rougher edges that get somewhat sanded over here, musically if not lyrically.
“Three Babies” is incredibly sad
Also, nothing quite like some Irish trad on a hip-hop beat
3.5
Julian Cope
2/5
HL: “East Easy Rider”, “Safesurfer”, “Beautiful Love”, “Las Vegas Basement”
The sound collage in ”Western Front”, the Beatles energy in “Beautiful Love”, the furious sax in “You”, and the marimba of “Drowning” all imply an album I should be interested in.
SHOULD.
But it’s not doing it for me today (or yesterday either, since I kinda broke it into two halves). “Leperskin” and “Pristeen” are some examples of songs I was bored with on the 1st listen.
Maybe I goofed by playing a Teardrop Explodes song before the album to prime myself on this unknown-to-me chapter of British post-punk. The difference in enjoyment between that single and the first couple tracks of Peggy Suicide was stark
November 2nd, 2023
Radiohead
4/5
October 31, 2023
Not first listen, but I recall the spookiness may be more than enough for today
Wow my first Radiohead phase was longer ago than I thought, I don’t remember any of these songs! (Pun not intended) ‘Cept “Pyramid Song” and “Pulk / Pull Revolving Doors” :)
Also, who knew I’d get my trombone fix with the closing track?
It’s transitory, like an elevator going to a strange new planet, but still pretty fun and inventive. To think there’s a whole song that’s 100% a backwards recording, and my first thought is just yep- that’s Radiohead being Radiohead.
HL: “Like Spinning Plates”, “Life in a Glasshouse”, “Pyramid Song”, “Morning Bell/Amnesiac”
The Who
4/5
Highlights: titular, “Good’s Gone”, “It’s Not True”, “The Ox”, “The Kids Are Alright”, “I Can’t Explain” (bonus), “Shout” (bonus)
Harmonies in songs like “Much too Much” hint at their future heights, but I’m having much fun diving deeper into their “garage” phase.
I’ve known for a long time this is considered the progenitor of hard rock/metal to come, and I’ve heard the title track often enough to become desensitized to its cultural impact.*
Still, the detuned guitars in “The Ox” at the end of “It’s Not True” still sound pretty far removed from their British Invasion contemporaries
“The Kids Are Alright” is a great Byrds song. & the weak stabs at American blues and r&b are also there, but EVERYONE was doing it
*I prefer the version catchily described as (Monaural Version With Guitar Overdubs), the dirtier sound really suits the song
** Nov. 1 / 23 **
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
HL: "I Love You", "Junkie", "Good Morning", "Hard On For Jesus"
Fine & dandy
The Birthday Party
3/5
November 3rd, 2023
Now this is a Halloween record
Straight from the 1001 Albums Generator Hall of Shame, it's the Birthday Party!
And I honestly can't tell at this point if I liked it.
I didn't NOT like it, if that's any consolation. Though it has some common ground with my personal least favourite albums, in particular the abrasiveness (Public Image Ltd.), the wailing (Now We Got Worry) and the grisly lyrics (Antichrist Superstar), I just can't hate it.
Maybe it's because I know Junkyard already gets its fair share of hate, and I must try harder to appreciate it!
Or the simpler answer, is that the scuzzy blues and intense, theatrical performance from Cave strikes an uneasy balance that's oddly fun.
Probably won't go around recommending it, but I bought it on Bandcamp
HL: “6" Gold Blade”, “She’s Hit”, “Big-Jesus-Trash-Can”
Finally, shout out to the biggest statistical anomalies of this website. The Who & Nick Cave have some of the most albums of any artist on this list, yet it took me almost 600 albums to see either one of them. Guess I needed to complete all the Sonic Youths and Leonard Cohens to “unlock” them 🔓
Black Sabbath
5/5
Alright, going from one of the worst-rated to one of the highest-rated should be a cinch
yeh it's a classic
The The
3/5
I feel like this The The has less musical personality than the last The The (Soul Mining), though The The continues to be an idiosyncratic diversion in 80's synth-art-pop.
Unexpected Neneh Cherry in "Slow Train to Dawn"
HL: "Heartland", "Angels of Deception", "Slow Train"
November 5, 2023
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
HL: "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", "Money Trees", "Poetic Justice", "m.A.A.d city", "Swimming Pools", "I'm Dying of Thirst"
not 1st listen, which is good. I definitely misunderstood it the first listen (in 2022), since Kendrick's detachment as the narrator meant I didn't realize how autobiographical GKMC really is.
I always did appreciate the cinematic structure though, and the build-up to the title tracks (especially "m.A.A.d city") is as chilling as ever.
Both this and TPAB have a song that sounded awful to me the first listen, but they have only continued to rise in stature. Those would be "For Free?" and "Backseat Freestyle"
On that note, GKMC is a 5 star that probably wouldn’t have been, had I been introduced to it today
November 6th, 2023
Tracy Chapman
4/5
HL: "Fast Car", "Talkin' Bout a Revolution", "Mountains O' Things", "If Not Now...", "Behind the Wall"
Wild Beasts
3/5
HL: “All the King’s Men”, “We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues”, title track, “The Fun Powder Plot”
At first I was annoyed that this seemed to be built from the ashes of removed albums by Muse, Arcade Fire, and Antony & the Johnsons.
I see now that it’s a different beast (lol) entirely. The difference between the dreamy instrumental soundscapes and the frontman’s voice is a bit oil-and-water for me, but that’s also what makes it stand out
And it wouldn’t be the first album to be a 3 today, 5 tomorrow
November 8th, 2023
Jane Weaver
4/5
In a quick flipthrough of the book, one can find a certain critic, Chris Bryans, that champions a lot of British artists I never heard of before starting this challenge. Yesterday’s Wild Beasts. Today’s Jane Weaver. Since there are barely any albums post-2010 in the book, I’d say he’s part of the reason those selections feel refreshingly unconventional.
Beyoncé. Taylor Swift. And HOOKWORMS
Enter Modern Kosmology: the reason why I went down the Chris Bryans rabbit hole. Very little about this- the vocals, the synths, the guitars- suggests it was recorded in 2017; rather, it sounds like an alternate-dimension 1972. What’s more, it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia article 🤯
Yet despite (or in spite of) all that, this album is a gem. It’s serene but danceable, dated yet futuristic. It ends on the same synth bass where it begins, meaning it’s an almost perfect loop. (It fades at the end)
Thanks for the rec, Chris
HL: title track, “The Lightning Back”, “Valley”, “Ravenspoint”, “The Architect”
November 9, 2023
Kid Rock
1/5
The best country rap album I have heard, 10/10
HL: “Bawitdaba”, “Cowboy”, “Welcome 2 the Party”
November 10th, 2023
But honestly, I can’t let this review slide without mentioning Kid Rock has a pretty great band behind him; the choir in “Wasting Time” and the funk in the title track are almost something, I almost forgot at times that they were being used to back up Kid Rock rapping about how he loves meth and hates women (paraphrasing)
“I Am the Bullgod” is bottom-shelf cock rock, so imagine my delight when it showed up twice in the tracklist
While I can argue that it’s not a good representation of hip-hop, country, classic rock or nu metal, the delight Kid Rock seems to take in tossing them together is the one reason I’m not going to decry the inclusion of the album on this list. At least not on this post
Jacques Brel
3/5
HL: “Amsterdam”, “Les vieux”, “Le plat pays”, “Jef”, “En suivant”
C’est bon
3.5
November 17th, 2023
Bee Gees
3/5
HL: “Lamplight”, title track, “Melody Fair”, “The British Opera”
A pleasant album. An hour of pleasantries
November 15, 2023 (later)
Shack
4/5
Very good, expected more odes to the great briny sea ⚓️
But H.M.S Fable won me over nonetheless
Oasis 🤝 Elvis Costello 🤝 The La’s
HL: “Captain’s Table”, “Comedy”, “Natalie’s Party”, “Cornish Town”
November 18th, 2023
Morrissey
3/5
Good but I still don’t fully get why he has 7 records on this list (aside from The Queen is Dead, admittedly a gem). Maybe it’s because I was exposed to the Smiths/Morrissey relatively late in my life
I do like Morrissey’s vocal performance throughout, however. Sounds more assured of the musical direction than in Your Arsenal, but also less musically diverse as a result. Ya win some you lose some
HL: “Irish Blood English Heart”, “You Know I Couldn’t Last”, “…Crashing Bores”
November 19th, 2023
Paul McCartney
4/5
HL: “Junk”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Every Night”, “Man We Was Lonely”,
Maybe some of the critical roasting of this 1st draft of an album is justified, but I love it still <3
Favourite song is “Junk”, an off-cut from the Beatles days (I’ll even forgive that they played it twice!)
November 15, 2023
GZA
4/5
HL: title track, “Gold”, “Cold World”, “4th Chamber”, “Investigative Reports”, “Swordsman”
One of my earliest albums on this list, Wu-Tang’s debut, got a wan 3 stars from me. While I still feel a bit out of my element listening to them, I’ve come around to enjoying pretty much every track from that album, going so far as to see the Wu Tang live when they rolled into town.
I remember thinking, man that GZA has a cool, calm presence (and also, maybe a bit tired), and also I’d like to hear more of his stuff.
Enter Liquid Swords! Compared to the other spin-off I’ve heard, “…Cuban Linx”, it’s more serious & less braggadocious, and combined with RZA’s hypnotic soundscapes, it just works better for me.
“Swordsman” isn’t my favourite song lyrically, but it might have my favourite sample on the whole album.
November 16th, 2023
The Fall
3/5
November 17th, 2023 (later)
Three stars for the audacity, though it’s starting to feel like The Fall is a British joke I’m too Canadian to understand.
HL: “Why Are People Grudgeful”, “League Moon Monkey Mix”, “Lost in Music”, “I’m Going to Spain”
Billie Holiday
4/5
HL: "For Heaven's Sake", "It's Easy to Remember", "I'll Be Around", "I'm a Fool To Want You"
November 19th, 2023
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
less pop and more menace than the last Banshees (Juju), but much of what I'd liked in their performances is also present in this debut.
Catchy bass. Theatrical vocals. sp00kiness.
HL: "Carcass", "Helter Skelter", "Switch", "Jigsaw Feeling", "Hong Kong Garden" (bonus track technically)
November 20th, 2023
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
ayo, first Bad Seeds album, let's go my dudes!
(jk I know this is a very sad album)
I held off on diving into Nick Cave's discography for so long because I knew there'd be a bunch of his stuff on this list.
This is the one I cared about listening to the most, as I've already heard a couple tracks and was taken by the analog synths and emotion involved.
Both cinematically grand and painfully intimate.
One of the lines that hit the hardest for me was at the end of the title track, where he wearily concludes: "the moon won't get a wink of sleep / if I stay all night and talk"
My Nick Cave knowledge now mainly consists of this, that song from Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, & the abrasive Birthday Party record. What an introduction
HL: "Hollywood", "Night Raid", "Sun Forest", "Spinning Song", "Galleon Ship", title track
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
HL: “Music Makes You Lose Control”, “About Funk”, “Sometimes” feat. Nik Kershaw, “Mdc Vendredi”
Supposedly 80s revivalist, but also sounds like it could only have been produced in 1999
I’d say this album is 1 part banger : 1 part forgettable : 1 part obnoxious garbage
Even one of my favourite tracks, “About Funk”, needs half its runtime to become good
I feel like I’d be less annoyed if it was an album excised from current editions of the book, like MJ Cole’s Sincere, & Justin Timberlake’s solo debut. The fact that it’s still considered essential listening is the real headscratcher
November 21st, 2023
Pretenders
4/5
HL: "Stop Your Sobbing", "Brass in Pocket", “Kids”, “Phone Call”
Hm, there's both a harder edge absent from their radio hits as well as the jangly pop they're known & loved for
Neat-o
November 22, 2023
Emmylou Harris
4/5
For album #600, we got some country and/or western!
Production dates it, not as much as (for instance) the synths in I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen.
Fortunately, I kinda like how the sampled beats in a song like “Tragedy” meshes with the more rootsy song structure, as it doesn’t totally wash away the acoustic elements, nor is it so prominent that it sounds like a remix.
I appreciate that Harris wasn’t interested in making a strait-laced country record at this point in her career, so I’d say the late-90s relics are part of the experience.
Finally, on the subject of production, it’s important for me to share that this album’s producer belonged to a Toronto synth-pop band, Boys Brigade, whose song “Melody” played all the time on the radio during my childhood 🇨🇦
HL: “Michelangelo”, title track, “My Baby Needs a Shepherd”, “Bang the Drum Slowly”, “My Antonia”
And “Melody” by Boys Brigade
November 23, 2023
Scott Walker
4/5
That Scott 2 did well commercially and Scott 4 bombed… that’s injustice
Eagles
4/5
HL: title track, “New Kid in Town”, “Life in the Fast Lane”, “Victim of Love”, “Try and Love Again”
I’ve been craving some cheese, and here you are
Prefer the rockier songs (bar “New Kid” and maybe “Wasted Time”), though I can go for an Eagles ballad generally speaking. “Desperado” anyone?
November 25, 2023
Happy Mondays
3/5
HL: “Kinky Afro”, “Bob’s Yer Uncle”, “Loose Fit”, “Donovan”
Bad album name
File this under my “big dumb fun” albums. Which is to say I didn’t need it today, but I might need it down the road.
Music video for “Kinky Afro” added to the positive experience
3.5
November 26, 2023
Ryan Adams
3/5
Sylvia Plath: lives a short, tragic, yet ultimately influential life
Ryan Adams: would that I could fuck her
Morrissey
4/5
Morrissey albums this year: 3
Morrissey albums this month: 2
The Smiths albums this year: 0
Good thing this album is good, otherwise I'd be right annoyed
Stephen Street definitely produced the f*** out of this, but then you get neat diversions like the orchestra in "Angel Angel Down We Go Together" and the new wave dance of "I Don't Mind if You Forget Me"
HL: "Late Night Maudlin Street", "Everyday is Like Sunday", "Alsatian Cousin", "Treat Me Like a Human Being", "Margaret on the Guillotine"
November 28, 2023
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
3 Nick Caves in a month after ~600 albums without him, better late than never I guess
In the first 3 songs, I couldn’t decide whether this was going to be a 5 or a 1 star. Lyrics are certainly grisly and profane, yet there’s something admirable about the stubborn commitment to the titular murder ballads. Will need more time to process, but loved much about the music, even though the over-the-top morbidity of the lyrics started to wear me down.
Highly recommend listening after dark
HL: “The Curse of Millhaven”, “Henry Lee”, “Wild Roses”, “Song of Joy”
3* or 1* or 5*
November 29, 2023
Nightmares On Wax
2/5
Soft Machine
4/5
December 1, 2023
HL: “Moon in June”, “Out-Bloody-Rageous”
Kind of as a counterpoint to another reviewer, the song order works for me because the spacey loops in the last track are a cool bookend to the atonal electronics in the first.
Aggression slowly gives way to serenity
I appreciated the book’s insight of the members of Soft Machine wanting to make “serious” music, to Robert Wyatt’s displeasure
Though people who don’t like jazz or prog will likely find this interminable… I probably should have a copy/paste of “Wow I liked this more than I expected” for every new prog band I come across on this list.
Finley Quaye
2/5
December 2, 2023
HL: “Supreme I Preme”, "Sunday Shining", "Even After All"
Like the guy's voice, and where some of the reggae/electronic was going but ultimately this felt like a lot of nice filler
2.5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
There are only 4 songs I haven’t heard yet from this album, and of those 4 “Mercy Street” was the most welcome surprise, followed by the opener “Red Rain” and the spacey interlude “We Do What We’re Told”.
If I have to say “That Voice Again” and the hyper-80’s-pop of “Big Time” are the weakest cuts, that’s another way of saying that there are no weak cuts to be found here.
HL: “Don’t Give Up”, “Mercy Street”, “Sledgehammer”, “In Your Eyes”, “This is the Picture”
December 3rd, 2023
Neil Young
5/5
Neil Young #4
and this might be recency bias, but if this list could only have one Young/Crazy Horse I’d probably choose this one
Tracks 3-5 together are a real Canadian rock powerhouse (recorded in California, yadda yadda, give us this please)
Thought the sad-sack performance of “Oh Lonesome Me” was uncharacteristic until I realized it was a cover. Still really like the song
An all-weather classic
HL: “Tell Me Why”, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, title track, “Southern Man”, “Oh Lonesome Me”, “I Believe in You”
December 4, 2023
1/5
Can we have 3 five-stars in a row?
(Checks to see Limp Bizkit is next)
fuck
I’m serious, if this is on the list because it’s important to early 2000s rock and sold a bajillion copies, then Nickelback’s Silver Side Up has the same right to be here
Not totally unredeemable, but the best tracks were the ones that made me forget I was listening to a Limp Bizkit record
HL: “My Way”, “Hold On”, “Rollin’ (Urban Assault Vehicle)”
December 5, 2023
The Vines
4/5
HL: "GET FREE", "Sunshinin", "In the Jungle", "1969"
🎶I’m sure, I’ve heard it all before, but I don’t really give a shit
HL: "Stay With Me", "Debris", "That's All You Need"
December 7, 2023
The Police
4/5
Bon Jovi
4/5
The Streets
3/5
December 10, 2023
HL: "Could Well Be In", “Blinded By the Lights”, “Dry Your Eyes”, “Empty Cans”
I’ll need time to stew on this one.
Having only heard “Dry Your Eyes”, the grime-y parts came as a bit of a surprise.
The production and performances are sometimes inspired (the overlapping argument in “Get Out of My House”) sometimes irritating (the hook in “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”). My first instinct is that Mike Skinner isn’t a good enough actor to portray the emotional hills & valleys, but then I remember this is a hiphop album, not a radio play.
The fact that I’m interested at all in the story is more than I can say for a lot of concept albums.
Cheap Trick
3/5
Mostly been a pretty undemanding week for me here, much of it I've already heard a lot on FM radio ("Stay With Me", "Wanted Dead or Alive")-- and still like to this day!
Kinda thought Cheap Trick would be an easy breezy 4 or 5, but apart from the trilogy of the Fats Domino cover, "I Want You to Want Me" & "Surrender", I don't think much of this was particularly elevated by being a live performance.
And generally, the thing I like the least about a live recording is the audience, and there's plenty of that here. Bookending At Budokan is about 2 straight minutes of screaming, which at a certain point oversells basically any band or song ever. There's a reason why I don't really seek live versions of Beatles songs
Don't let my mixed enjoyment of this live album fool you, I unapologetically like Cheap Trick's radio hits, even as much as "I Want You to Want Me" [Live] gets overplayed.
Hey Siri, play "The Flame"
HL: "Big Eyes", that trilogy
December 11, 2023
TV On The Radio
5/5
So good
I knew of TV on the Radio way back in 2009, when I had a subscription to Rolling Stone (at the age of 13 :/)
And maybe a contrarian streak kicked in, but the more they raved about this band, the less interested I was in seeking them out
As a result, I robbed myself of some funky, punky good times (especially because this would have been the album that Rolling Stone was raving about)-- until today :)
Even the point where I thought the album was getting too long was during the 2nd bonus track, “Dogs of Light”, so…
HL: “Crying”, “Gray Skies” (bonus track), "Stork & Owl", "Family Tree", "Lover's Day"
December 12, 2023
Aerosmith
4/5
HL: “Sweet Emotion”, “Walk This Way”, “Round and Round”, “Uncle Salty”, “No More No More”
Back to the classics today
December 13, 2023
Björk
4/5
HL: “Human Behaviour”, “One Day”, “Venus as a Boy”, “Aeroplane”
Talk about R A N G E.
In the red corner, you have “Violently Happy”, “Big Time Sensuality” & “There’s More to Life Than This”, 90’s dance bops that don’t do a whole lot for me other than remind me that this is an album from the 90’s.
In the blue corner, there are the sharp woodwinds of “Aeroplane” & “The Anchor Song”, the incredibly catchy “Human Behaviour” and the harp/traffic ballad “Like Someone in Love”.
I think this rounds up for a 4* for going in so many neat directions, despite not vibing to a couple tracks.
A cursory trip to Wikipedia shows there was a non-album single called “Play Dead”, whose cinematic elements may have overwhelmed this already eclectic record; even so, it’s pretty great & I highly recommend
December 14, 2023
Ghostface Killah
3/5
December 15, 2023
HL: “9 Milli Bros”, “RAGU”, “Whip You With a Strap”, "Back Like That", "Dogs of War"
Obligatory “I saw the Wu-Tang live this year” reminder.
First off, I didn't expect how sunny this album sounds? The contrast between the soul/r&b samples and the gritty mafioso lyrical content creates a tension that might help hold the album together.
Looks like 'rateyourmusic' favourites MF Doom and J Dilla produced some of my favourite tracks. It's past time that I checked them out
3.5 (for now)
Pere Ubu
3/5
Ubu #2
My first impression is, I kinda liked this more than the first one? Even if that just means that I’m now more accustomed to the funhouse-mirror-warped rock that is Pere Ubu’s music.
Not the easiest of listens, but I think this gets a bad wrap on this website.
I can’t decide on the big finale “Codex”, on 1st listen it sounded like the worst song ever written, but I keep going back to it…? Hm
3.5
HL: title track, “On The Surface”, “Caligari’s Mirror”, “I Will Wait”
December 16th, 2023
Doves
3/5
HL: "N.Y.", "Satellites", “There Goes the Fear”
The intro and album cover combined suggest a different, scarier album than what it actually is: nothing too out of line with other British 2000s indie, e.g. The Verve and Coldplay. Although Doves seems to have more of a flair for musical experimentation than their contemporaries, those diversions are mostly contained either when a song is ending or about to begin.
someday, I’ll relisten to this on the highway late at night and probably love it a lot more.
Special shoutout to the woodwinds in “The Sulphur Man” & “Friday’s Dust”
Afrika Bambaataa
4/5
never ask a woman her age,
a man his salary,
Wikipedia why we don't hear about Afrika Bambaataa anymore
If I'm going to be honest, this is pretty enjoyable 80's hip-hop for me (though I'd rank Paul's Boutique, It Takes A Nation of Millions, 3 Feet High & Rising, etc. all higher)
Maybe it's just been a good day for me, or maybe it's the blend of rap, funk & electronica doing something to transcend its 80's-ness
HL: title track, "Renegades of Funk", "Looking for the Perfect Beat", "Go Go Pop"
December 18, 2023
Joni Mitchell
4/5
this took a while to rate, my first impression was that it's a bit slight, like 70's AM radio pop, but there are quite a few interesting layers and diversions that I didn't quite get on the first listen.
odd and disjointed but I might love it
HL: "In France They Kiss On Main Street", "The Jungle Line", "Shadows and Light", "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow", "Shades of Scarlett Conquering"
P.S. With the way I stopped and started this project, I've gotten a Joni Mitchell once a year since 2021. Looking forward to Hejira in 2024
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
December 20, 2023
HL: “who sees you”, “new you”, "in another way"
Sad that 1001 Albums forgot about this, the entry for Loveless in the newest edition says they haven’t released an album since then -__-
So probably not essential for any non-MBV fans, but I found this pretty enjoyable.
How’s 21st-century My Bloody Valentine? Kinda similar to 90’s MBV but a bit more danceable 🕺
3.5
Gram Parsons
4/5
HL: “I Can’t Dance”, “Hickory Wind”, “Love Hurts”, “In My Hour of Darkness”
Idk how many versions of “Love Hurts” I’ve listened to at this point but this is easily one of the most moving.
Also GP seems to be having more fun here (aside from the devastating ballads) doin his own thing than he did in Sweetheart of the Rodeo!
December 21, 2023
Jamiroquai
3/5
HL: “When You Gonna Learn?”, “Too Young to Die”, “Music of the Mind”
The *bass*
December 23, 2023
10cc
4/5
December 24th, 2023
HL: “The Worst Band in the World”, “Hotel”, “Wall Street Shuffle”, “Clockwork Creep”
Musically, it’s a smorgasbord of forward-thinking bops. Lyrically it contains some stuff that could just as easily be left behind in 1974.
Tim Buckley
2/5
December 27th, 2023
HL: “Make it Right”, “Get on Top”
Takes forever to go nowhere
I don’t often think “I wish I was listening to the Doors right now”, but I had that a couple times today
Ash
4/5
also December 29th, 2023
HL: "Lose Control", "Girl From Mars", "Gone the Dream", "Kung Fu", "Innocent Smile"
The overblown guitars and strings are a match made in heaven and I'm not sure why
At least good enough to make me forget about my water boiling for my instant noods
Hot Chip
4/5
-1st note unrelated to the music... streaming has a stained-glass version of the cover art that I like quite a bit more
- is this what they mean by "eat hot chip and lie"
- In Our Heads continue the trend of modern albums on this list that sound like they're representing older decades. (Queen of Denmark, Kiwanuka, hell even Chemtrails Over the Country Club) Here's the thing my lil chili babies, I like those decades a *lot*, so I shouldn't be complaining at all.
-This sort-of renaissance of New Order & the Pet Shop Boys hits the spot, because it's derivative in a good way. The nostalgic synth bass of "Night and Day" is appropriated in a very funky and strange melody that isn't easily put in a box
(cuz Boxing Day)
- "These Chains" has a shuffl-y, UK garage sound, but enhanced with dreamy effects and, temporarily, a martial snare beat. None of these elements sound out of place to me
- if there's any reason why this isn't a 5 star classic, maybe it's that I underrate dance albums. Or that crave a more demented energy right now ( i.e. "Night and Day") over more polished tracks on display here ("Look at Where We Are", "Let Me Be Him")
December 26, 2023 📦
HL: "Night and Day", "Flutes", "Always Been Your Love", "Motion Sickness", "Don't Deny Your Heart"
David Ackles
4/5
December 27th again
HL: title track, “Family Band”, “Love’s Enough”, “Ballad of the Ship of State”, “Montana Song”
Well this was delightful
The title and rustic cover did nothing to advertise the orchestrations and theatricalism on display, but also fits perfectly with Ackles’ pastoral ballads (“Love’s Enough”)
Heaven 17
3/5
Back to December 30th, 2023
HL: “Play to Win”, “Geisha Boys and Temple Girls”, “Let’s Make a Bomb”, “We’re Going to Live for a Very Long Time”
Like another synth-pop album I really love, Architecture and Morality, I need to remember there wasn’t much of a blueprint for this stuff that would be everywhere by the mid-80s.
The reverb-less, dry production wasn’t something I cared for at first, esp. in “Fascist Groove Thing” & the title track.
I was about to write the album off as an early British new wave relic, but then the 2nd half’s more avant-garde tracks were surprisingly tolerable.
The pads in “Bomb” sound like something Aphex Twins or Boards of Canada would use
The Band
4/5
December 29, 2023
An open-faced steak sandwich of a record
With extra gravy
HL: “Across the Great Divide”, “Dixie”, “When You Awake”, “Cripple Creek”, “Jawbone”
American Music Club
3/5
HL: “Last Harbor”, “Firefly”, “Somewhere”, “Blue and Grey Shirt”
The alt-country selections in this list (almost) all come straight out of left field, but I’ve enjoyed (almost) all of them.
California imo veers between “fine” and “very good”, with not too many outliers (the rowdy “Bad Liquor” is probably the biggest surprise)
If this was the Canadian Music Club you wouldn’t stop hearing this on 80s/90s radio stations
December 30th, 2023
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
The slippery slope of having Harry Potter read to me at age 4 to becoming a Nick Cave fan at 27 is very real & dangerous. Heed my warning
(the song "O Children" is featured in the moving picture Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt. I [2010])
Surprised myself at how I enjoyed this a fair bit more than Murder Ballads, the more eclectic of the two (three?).
I guess when you have a winning cocktail of blues, gospel, rock & folk, with some theatre and horror added for good measure, I’ll take a whole double album of it.
HL: "Get Ready for Love", "Nature Boy", "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", “Supernaturally”, “Breathless”, “Carry Me”/"O Children"
December 31, 2023.
That was 2023, eh? Hm
The Go-Betweens
4/5
HL: “Streets of Your Town”, “Was There Anything I Could Do?”, “I’m All Right”, “Love is a Sign”
2nd Australian album in a row!
Apple Music promises “literate pop songs”, which sounds a lot like sophistipop; lo and behold…
While I’m not surprised at the 80’s music press enjoying this album, it rises above ‘just pleasant’ to ‘really pretty’ on quite a few occasions. The oboe kicking in definitely helped create a (maybe deceptively) feel-good, upbeat mood that fits the album title.
January 1st, 2024
The Darkness
4/5
HL: "I Believe in a Thing Called Love", "Love is Only a Feeling", "Givin' Up", "Friday Night"
Why wasn't "Givin' Up" released as a single?
*finally pays attention to the lyrics*
oh
Despite this sitting in my CD collection, this is the first time I've heard Permission to Land in full.
It's already near the top of my go-to "big dumb fun" albums, though. I get its inclusion in the 1001, and I also begrudgingly accept its removal
January 2, 2024
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
My takeaway from the last Mothers of Invention (We’re Only In It For the Money) was that a lot of the humour and satire didn’t land for me-
save some lines like “I will love everyone / I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street”
which made the more abrasive, experimental elements all the more unpleasant.
So far, Freak Out! is more conventional but less irritating, although I’ve just finished the first disc.
UPDaTE: finished the 2nd disc
Saved the best for last! Really though, either I have a thicker skin against the Zappa-isms in tracks like “It Can’t Happen Here”, or the broader, more surreal humour of this album aged better.
The deadpan pastiches of bygone 50s/60s pop are good as standalone tracks, while “Who Are the Brain Police?” reminds you of the terrors/delights to come
January 3, 2024
The Prodigy
3/5
If my star ratings are to be believed, the 90’s are the worst music decade by a country mile.
Though my first album by the Prodigy hasn’t done much to convince me otherwise, it’s important to note I listened to this with a headache, so my displeasure has little to do with the actual quality here.
In fact, it’s a pretty damn good album from a genre I don’t really care about (synthpunk? Hard techno?)
There is a pretty wide range of sounds between the jazz flute in “3 Kilos” to the (ugh) rhythmic glass breaking in “Break and Enter”.
Other tracks, like “Poison” & “Claustrophobic Sting”, just feel edgy to be edgy. Music to put your fist through drywall to
HL: “No Good”, “3 Kilos”, “Their Law”, “Voodoo People”, maybe “Break and Enter”
Less crazy about: “Poison”, “Speedway”
January 4th, 2024
Public Enemy
3/5
2022: got It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, rly liked it
2023: got Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black, wasn't a fan
2024: I'm not sure what to expect, but I already know "Fight the Power" is fantastic
I can recognize this is a major achievement in hip-hop, but that's not the same as loving it. The production from the Bomb Squad is *claustrophobic*, with shreds of James Brown, Vincent Price, heavy metal guitar and whatever that whirring sound is on "War at 33 1/3" all co-dominant, each commanding your attention. You'd think this being Public Enemy No. 3 would prepare me for this, but I think the 'sampledelia' is unprecedented even for their records. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say about the vibrant dynamic between Chuck D & Flavor Flav, nor on the potent topics being rapped about.
Vital, revolutionary, just not my thing (until I give it a listen down the road and feel like a dummy for rating this 3 stars)
HL: "Fight the Power", "Welcome to the Terrordome", "Burn Hollywood Burn", "Who Stole the Soul?"
The Young Rascals
3/5
HL: title track, "How Can I Be Sure", "I'm So Happy Now", "I Don't Love You Anymore"
A pleasant slice of sunshine pop, not every song has the artistry of "How Can I Be Sure", but if this album was just that, "Groovin'" and the remaining half hour of 90s dial-up internet screeching, I'd still be in a better mood after listening.
3.5
January 6, 2024
The Only Ones
4/5
January 7, 2024
HL: “The Whole of the Law”, “Another Girl Another Planet”, “The Beast”, “No Peace for the Wicked”, “The Immortal Story”
I have a habit of going into 70s British punk and new wave with low expectations. Why do I do that? (aside from the possible over-representation of that genre and era on this list)
This slaps! The 1st two tracks imply we’re in for a mopey ol’ time, but the Only Ones are also here to party, with raucous guitar solos and occasional bursts of saxophone.
Listened to the bonus tracks as well, which aren’t mind-blowing, but “Lovers of Today” is good enough to be on the main tracklist.
The Boo Radleys
4/5
January 8, 2024
HL: “Butterfly McQueen”, “Thinking of Ways”, “The White Noise Revisited”, “Wish I Was Skinny”, “Barney”, “One is For”
Hey this isn’t Coltrane…
But the Boo Radley’s Giant Steps excels in the noisy shoegaze and psychedelic pop… though I’m not as sold on the reggae/ska parts, and the album starts slow imo but builds to something more interesting by the midpoint.
That first verse of the last song hit especially hard tonight, even if I’m on the job hunt as opposed to “killing myself” at work for “nothing at all” right at this moment.
I admire the Radleys for trying so much here, even if not all of it sticks. The MBV-isms and Beatle-isms are also nice, while never feeling quite like a knockoff.
A mess to be sure but a welcome one
Bob Dylan
4/5
Bob Dylan No. 5, but I’ve had a nice six month break from him on this generator
TBH my interest in Bob Dylan's music is flagging post-70s, but as much as I hate to admit it, the critics are right: he did have his mojo back by this point. The blues are roarin', the ballads heartwrenching, the lyrics funny.
My attention span was a little fried by the time the 16 minute-long closer came around, but I did chuckle some at the detailed excuses to get out of drawing that waitress.
HL: "Standing in the Doorway", "Trying to Get To Heaven", "Not Dark Yet", "Make You Feel My Love", "Highlands"
January 9, 2024
3/5
As someone who doesn’t know much about XTC and loves symphonic rock, it was a bit of a headrush.
I’m going to say this might grow on me with time, but since I found it in a used music store the day it generated, fate has ordained it WILL grow on me.
HL: “River of Orchids”, “Easter Theatre”, “Harvest Festival”
Dead Kennedys
4/5
January 11, 2024
“Holiday in Cambodia”, “Kill the Poor”, “California Uber Alles”, “Drug Me”
I don’t know if punk will ever be my “thing”, but this seems about as essential as any punk release, hardcore or otherwise.
Jello Biafra seemed to know where right-wing politics were headed in our present day, well before Reagan was elected.
Chilling yet fun.
“Holiday in Cambodia” is an all-weather classic as well.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
If you like Fleetwood Mac, I dare you not to like this album
It’s elegant, it’s sweet, and it shreds.
HL: “Down to Zero”, “Help Yourself”, “Love and Affection”, “Like Fire”, “Somebody Who Loves You”
January 12, 2024
Bee Gees
3/5
New York Dolls
4/5
January 14, 2024
HL: "Personality Crisis", "Vietnamese Baby", “Frankenstein” "Trash"*, "Private World" (* favourite)
I listened to at least some of this earlier in my life, no doubt reading about how this was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and it did nothing for me then.
It’s hard to see the New York Dolls as subversive and dangerous-sounding nowadays (the cover’s shock value couldn’t have meant much even towards the end of the 70s), yet I enjoyed it a lot more this listen simply because I wasn’t expecting so much.
A straightforward, hi-energy romp that, among others, clearly inspired KISS.
Big dumb fun
SAULT
5/5
January 15, 2024
HL: “Bow”*, “Eternal Life”, “Black”, “Wildfires”, “Hard Life”, “Sorry Ain’t Enough”
Something I noticed about some of the newest albums’ inclusion is that they don’t make a lot of sense in a vacuum. Evermore doesn’t make a lot of sense without Folklore; Chemtrails Over the Country Club is an odd duck without its contrast to Lana’s earlier albums.
Untitled (Black Is) also drove me to a second Sault album (aka “Rise”), for 3 reasons: to get a better sense of their eclectic, studio-heavy production; because Black Is ended on what I felt was an intentionally unresolved note; and finally, because I was havin’ a heck of a time.
Alright that’s 2 straight hours of Sault over with, and my findings are that the 2 Untitled's enrich each other. Black Is feels incomplete? The last 6 songs in Rise feel like a proper dénouement.
Black Is’s politics are too broad and simple? Rise is more specific and overtly angry.
Rise is too moody and lowkey? Black Is is celebratory despite the grief in the lyrics.
Untitled (Black Is) by itself probably gets a 4.5 from me, but we're rounding up today.
P.S. The 1001 book describes Black Is as 1980’s Prince-like on the surface level but is actually closer to Massive Attack. I feel that’s apt.
P.S.S. It's now been over 3 years since I started this 1001 racket. I've already recently gave some of my first albums a second shot; because I didn't bother writing anything at the time, my memory of them was pretty unreliable. Nas and Mylo had some pretty great entries that I totally overlooked at the time, yet getting MJ Cole and Metallica back-to-back was probably the moment that I quit for a year.
I couldn't tell you a single thing about the Bill Evans or Mudhoney albums I listened to in 2021, so I guess I'll have to check them out as well.
Oasis
5/5
First listen, unless you count "Supersonic" and "Live Forever".
I have always prided myself on staying neutral during the 90's Britpop wars, on account of neither being British nor alive during much of that time period. However, as much as it pains me to admit, Oasis comes out on top for me.
Was going to say the only stinker was “Up in the Sky”, but on subsequent listens I was 100% all for its “Day Tripper”-ness (Tripper-osity?)
I've been blasting this album all day. Fuck Oasis. 10/10
HL: "Rock n Roll Star", “Shakermaker”, “Live Forever”, “Supersonic”, “Bring it On Down”, “Digsy’s Dinner”
January 16, 2024
Mudhoney
3/5
My final rating will take into account the little 6-song EP only, but I think today’s going to be Mudhoney day, as I try to figure out why this band from Seattle has as many albums on this list as Elton John. Hence I’ll check out some bonus tracks, and also revisit EBGDF (1991), album #39 on my journey.
I’m glad I listened to it more than once, as I started to hear the honey through the mud. Not really my idea of fun, but there’s enough energy & crunchy riffs to make it worthwhile, as well as the clear influence on 90’s alt-rock.
HL: “Need”, “No One Has”, “If I Think”, “Touch Me I’m Sick” (bonus), "Halloween" (bonus, a Sonic Youth cover :0)
January 17, 2024
P.S. A relisten of EGBDF, their 1991 full-length, was a relief in a way. I thought it was gone from my memory because it was mediocre, but turns out it's because I heard it 3 years ago & it's part of a genre I had very little interest in at the time. I'd say it's even more enjoyable than Superfuzz Bigmuff. (s/o to "Fuzzgun '91", "Pokin' Around" and "Good Enough")
Red Snapper
3/5
HL: “Bussing”, “I Stole Your Car”, "Belladonna", “Shellback”, “Keeping Pigs Together”
gonna give you like 3 stars
gonna give you like 3 stars
gonna give you like 3 stars
White jazz, English electronica & hip hop combine
Mildly frustrating experience, as about halfway through the album, the sound changed to something I wanted to listen to a lot more than the first half. Yet on the heels of “Rough and the Quick” & the annoying robot vocals in “Rake”, the switch to ambient strings and guitar feedback felt like I was suddenly listening to a different artist.
Radiohead
5/5
Radiohead, have you ever tried just NOT being depressed? -_-
This self-professed Radiohead fan has never listened to this properly all the way through.
Granted, I’ve most likely heard every song at least once, but in the iTunes days the songs would just come up on shuffle. Consequentially, I enjoy songs like “No Surprises” and “Paranoid Android” without appreciating where they fit into the album.
Well. It’s good. It’s very good.
“Airbag” and “The Tourist” are great bookends; the former’s anxious, cut-up drums contrast with the serenity of the latter. The contrast in mood between songs is also quite interesting. The rollicking “Electioneering” gives way to the eerie “Climbing Up the Walls”. “Alien” ends on what seems like an optimistic note, then the devastating “Exit Music” immediately follows it.
HL: "Paranoid Android”, "Subterranean Homesick Alien", "Exit Music (For a Film)"* "Let Down", “Climbing Up the Walls”, "No Surprises", “The Tourist”
January 19, 2024
The White Stripes
4/5
Liked this more than their debut actually, but I’m glad the editors of the book realized 3 White Stripes was a lot early on. Aka, I don’t mind that this was removed.
White & White try a lot on this album, and pretty much all of it works. Special s/o to the country “Little Ghost” and the supremely catchy “Doorbell”
HL: “Blue Orchid”, “My Doorbell”, “Forever For Her”, “Little Ghost”, “Instinct Blues”
Also January 21st, 2024
Os Mutantes
4/5
January 21, 2024
HL: "Panis et Circenses", "A Minha Menina", "O Relógio", "Bat Macumba", "Le premier bonheur du jour"
Surreal, a little creepy at times, loved it
Both the opener and closer of this album are bonkers <3
Cocteau Twins
5/5
oo I got this one on vinyl
Despite that, I've only heard Side A; luckily, what's good in the first half continues in the second.
The feeling I get from seeing the album cover is very similar to what I get listening to the songs: like an aurora in that it's transient, & leaves me wanting more.
Generator has been on fire this month, more Scottish nonsense pls
HL: "Cherry-Coloured Funk", "Iceblink Luck", title track, "I Wear Your Ring", "Fotzepolitic", "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
January 22, 2024
John Lennon
5/5
January 23, 2024
HL: “Mother", "Hold On”, "Working Class Hero", “Isolation”, "Love", “God”
Not first listen
I do remember how the minimalist musical direction didn’t wow me the first time, despite standouts like W.C.H. and “Love”.
As a Beatles fan (I should start every sentence with that), Plastic Ono Band is still an oddly challenging listen, not least because of the first and last tracks. Like John Lennon (and Paul McCartney), I lost my own mother when I was a teenager, so the emotion laid bare here is particularly intense.
Considering how much time I’ve had for this Lennon album to grow on me, I think it’s safe to say it’s another 5-star. Just not addictive in the way the other Beatles solo projects are on this list
Today gave me an excuse to listen to an album I’ve been putting off, Plastic Ono Band (Yoko’s Version). That was a bad move; but if you decide to check it out, do it for Ringo Starr. And Ornette Coleman
The National
4/5
HL: “Runaway”, “Terrible Love”, “Afraid of Everyone”, “England”
Having not really listened to the National, I’m getting very 2000s-indie-stadium, eg Coldplay & Arcade Fire.
(Brian Cox Succession meme) “I fucking love it here!”
Not all of it is enthralling, with some sleepy moments (see also: Parachutes & the Suburbs), but overall I feel uplifted, like I’ve just endured an inspirational montage where all my life’s hardships pay off in the end.
Can see how Berninger’s bassy voice isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m all for more bassy voices in pop & rock— having one myself 🎤 🐟
January 24, 2024
Sex Pistols
3/5
HL: “Holidays in the Sun”, “God Save the Queen”, “Anarchy in the U.K.”
A cause of a lot of better bands than the Sex Pistols, and a lot of worse ones, too
January 25, 2024
Ice T
3/5
HL: "Bitches 2", title track, "Midnight", "Body Count", "The Tower"
The Halloween sample in "The Tower" is used to great effect.
Same with the Zeppelin/Sabbath in "Midnight"; "When the Levee Breaks" is used so much tho lol
Even though the lyrical content is anything but amusing, there's something about Ice-T coyly introducing his metal band 18 tracks in that cracks me up (Y'know, I'm not JUST a rapper...)
This has a trying runtime like a lot of 90's hip-hop records, but some unexpected musical diversity. I also felt it got better over time, after not being into the first few tracks.
3.5
January 26, 2024
The Beau Brummels
4/5
January 27, 2024
HL: “Are You Happy Now?”, “Only Dreaming Now”, “It Won’t Get Better”, “Nine Pound Hammer”, “Magic Hollow”
Ye’d think I’d’ve had enough of this after all the Dylans, Simons, Youngbloods & Young Rascals. But no
This was very enjoyable
Short, but not slight. “The Wolf” is perhaps the most indulgent in 60’s psych-folkiness, but for the most part these tunes are concisely crafted and orchestrated without being overly corny or sentimental.
The warm brass in songs like the title track and “It Won’t Get Better” enhance my enjoyment
The following comparison probably doesn’t help anyone but myself, but I liked this more than Elephant Mountain (Youngbloods) and Oar (Skip Spence). Conversely, I liked Moby Grape and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (S&G) even more
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
Album #666
2nd 90s British electronic album with a grey, screaming face on the cover this month.
Unlike the Prodigy… well it’s pretty much nothing like the Prodigy.
A bold celebration of disparate music styles, AND a meditation on nuclear weapons.
Hard to believe the piano jazz of “Immigrant” and the scatting in “The Conference” are part of the same project.
Though I didn’t enjoy every track, there’s something to be said about an album that resists comparison so strongly.
HL: “Tides”, “Nadia”, “Anthem Without Nation”, “Homelands”
X-Ray Spex
4/5
HL: “Plastic Bag”, title track, “Identity”, “Highly Inflammable”, “Art-I-Ficial”
Haven’t heard of this before
Apple Music doesn’t have the songs in original release order- but at least all the songs are there!
Punk album of the month? I realize I just had the seminal Never Mind the Bullocks…, but in terms of vocals I’ll take Poly Styrene over John Lydon most days
Part of the Wikipedia article for this album is just shitting on “Plastic Bag”. I liked it tho…?
January 30th, 2024
The Teardrop Explodes
3/5
HL: “Sleeping Gas”, “Treason”, “When I Dream”, “Reward” (bonus track), title track (which oddly is a bonus track)
I approve of this seeming blend of Magical Mystery Tour & Talking Heads ‘77
Kinda makes me want to Watch Rafferty turn into a serial
3.5
January 31st, 2024
Sister Sledge
4/5
February 1st, 2024
HL: title track, "He's the Greatest Dancer", "Lost in Music", "Thinking of You"
Annoyed that the 1995 remastered album doesn't have the album version of their title track. (which is twice as long) Isn't that what albums are for...?
But good vibes all around. Since I didn't say it in my notes for the last Chic album (a year ago :o), BERNARD EDWARDS WAS THE GOAT.
The rest of the album is pretty good too imo
Fela Kuti
4/5
HL: “Let’s Start”, “Egbe Mi O”
February 2, 2024
Elastica
3/5
It’s all trendy, innit? Like if I had to describe a rock album that did well in the mid-90s, this wouldn’t be too far off the mark (besides having a predominantly female lineup)
HL: “Blue”, “Connection”, “2:1”
February 4th, 2024
Ramones
4/5
HL: "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat on the Brat”, “Chain Saw”, “Havana Affair”, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
After the Sex Pistols & Dead Kennedys last month, I thought that’s about all the classic punk bands I’ll be introduced to on this list. Psych! Here’s the Ramones, with a debut that’s spiky and catchy, if somewhat one-note.
Is “Blitzkrieg Bop” the greatest opening song ever or what
February 3, 2024
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
February 5, 2024
HL: "Disarm", "Cherub Rock", "Today", "Hummer", "Soma"
When I implied earlier that "Blitzkrieg Bop" was the greatest opening song, I forgot about "Cherub Rock" :/
Now, I gave Mellon Collie a 5er back in '22, but part of me feels that was temporary insanity, considering I revisit several of the other artists generated around that week (FKA Twigs, Spiritualized, MBV) a lot more.
However, today is a reminder that I continue liking the Smashing Pumpkins' music, even if Corgan's angsty lyrics don't always hit the spot.
Al Green
5/5
also February 5, 2024
HL: title track, "So You're Leaving", "I've Never Found a Girl", "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"
First things first, that first track is a CLASSIC
2nd round of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" in the last ~3 weeks? I think this one's an improvement
Item 3: this is just banger after banger
Miles Davis
4/5
February 6, 2024
HL: "Moon Dreams", "Venus De Milo", "Godchild", "Move"
I found this in a used CD store for 5 smackeroos after recognizing the title from the 1001 list. It would take over a year for me to actually have this on the website, thus making me listen to it in full (I've definitely heard the odd track throughout the year tho)
Complete world away from the last Davis-- Bitches Brew-- particularly due to its accessibility and short tunes. Whereas that one felt somehow rejuvenating but also totally exhausting, this breezed by and was over before I knew it. Maybe there's a happy medium between 3 minute and 27 minute songs :0
*eyes Kind of Blue expectantly*
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
A good ass-album
(desperately checks to see if anyone else in the reviews made this joke)
I feel like such a fake fan when I say I like this a lot more than Nebraska. After all, Nebraska’s stark, spooky folk tunes seem more up my alley than this fist-pumping album rock.
But I love it. Seven singles released, and I believe that even the lesser-played “Working on the Highway” and “Bobby Jean” could have easily been hits as well.
See what being raised on ‘80s AOR does to a developing brain?
5 stars
HL: "Dancing in the Dark", "Working on the Highway", "I'm On Fire", “Bobby Jean”, “I’m Going Down”, the title track
February 7, 2024
Nirvana
4/5
HL: "All Apologies", "Heart Shaped Box", "Dumb", "Very Ape", "Scentless Apprentice"
Nirvana #3-- not first listen
probably my favourite Steve Albini-produced record, either because it's had years to grow on me, or that the other producers that were controversially hired to remix/fix the album maybe made it better...?
Every time I hear one of the versions of "All Apologies" (between In Utero & Unplugged), I'm always sure that THAT's the definitive version. Today, I insist on the noisy, sludgy ending this one has.
Note to self: The statistics from this website contradict an assumption I have about myself- that I don't like grunge.
Prince
5/5
Yess
(Also 3 in a row I’ve heard before, what are the odds)
If not my all-time favourite, definitely in the top 20
No bad songs, but if I had to pick the most skippable, I’d choose the one PMRC had their panties in a bunch over, “Darling Nikki”
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Listening to the title track twice in an hour, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s neat. I’m generally a fiend for prog, so take from that what you will; however the 1st listen left me cold for some reason.
The “hymn” was an unexpected, beautiful, surprise as well.
3.5 (likely inspired albums I enjoy more)
February 10, 2024
David Bowie
5/5
I’ve heard the all the Berlin trilogy at least once before, but it’s been a hot minute
Forgot how much of a journey “Heroes” is: from the euphoria in the title track & the hand-claps of “Arabia”, to the dark avenues of “Doubt” and “Neuköln”, it seldom settles into a mode but I’m not getting much whiplash either.
Despite the more atonal moments, I’m really vibin’ with this today.
HL: the title track (to end all title tracks), "Beauty and the Beast", "Sons of the Silent Age", “V-2 Schneider”, "Moss Garden/Neuköln"
February 11, 2024
Beck
4/5
February 12, 2024
HL: “The Golden Age”, “Lonesome Tears”, “Round the Bend”, “Sunday Sun”, “It’s All in Your Mind”
Despite the overall bleakness, the Beatlesque and Laurel Canyon touches are more than enough to rescue this from mere sadness n’ gloom.
Love the strings in such songs as “Round the Bend”.
Beck and Nigel Godrich are a combination I didn’t know I needed to hear.
Iron Maiden
3/5
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Björk
4/5
After 1 Sugarcubes & 2 solo albums, we are at Björk no. 4
Unexpected CanCon with Tanya Tagaq 🚨 Though using “Ancestors” as an example, this is definitely not an album to put on at a party. Inuit throat singing sometimes induces a fight-or-flight response in me :0
Other songs give off renaissance fair vibes (Öll Birtan)
Definitely pushes into a more ambient soundscape, as hinted at in Vespertine (“Desired Constellation”)
Like her debut, a mixed bag in the best way. It’s too niche and strange to go around recommending this to my friends (even compared to the other 3 Björks), but it’s also a gem I’m glad to have come across.
HL: “Where is the Line”, "Vökuró", "Who is It", “Oceania”, “Mouth’s Cradle”
February 15, 2024
Shuggie Otis
4/5
Forward-thinking psych soul that sounds like a precursor to Thundercat and OutKast
Listened to some tracks from 1971’s Freedom Flight (eg its title track and “Strawberry Letter 23”), confusingly tacked on to the end of this album, and also found them enjoyable.
Supergrass
4/5
How to go from not knowing what Supergrass was to hoping they’ll reunite, in one hour!
Not the first Beatlesque album this month, but ye don't hear me complainin
HL: title track, “Late in the Day”, “Sun in the Sky”, "Cheapskate", "You Can See Me"
February 17, 2024
David Bowie
4/5
7th Bowie album on this list (and after this, I will only have Pin-Ups and Diamond Dogs as 70s Bowie albums I haven't yet heard).
Not as necessary as other Bowies, but I enjoy it all the same. Chillest 70s jams I’ve ever heard from this guy (Station to Station infuses the funk with some icy paranoia)
…though the album’s distinction of being traditionally black music (funk, soul) being interpreted through a white British lens doesn’t sound much like a distinction.
Weren’t Eric Burdon, Zeppelin, the Stones, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Elton John, etc. also kinda doing that by 1975?
HL: title track, “Win”, “Fascination”, “Fame”
Janelle Monáe
5/5
Monáe #3, after Dirty Computer & The Age of Pleasure
BUT- I’m going to make it #4, by listening to the Metropolis EP beforehand :)
Apparently that’s the first chapter of this project, and the Arch-Android is the next 2 parts.
While the EP was a nice listen, AA is a brave step forward, and takes its sounds, themes & bombast to new heights.
To be honest, "Suite 2" felt like the real album and "Suite 3" a victory lap. While it's certainly indulgent to a degree, it's also a joyous listen & celebration of Monae's influences. I love the unhinged theatre kid energy on display in this album.
The worst thing about this album is that it took me 14 years to get around to hearing it
HL: "Dance or Die", “Locked Inside”, "Sir Greendown", “Cold War”, "Tightrope", “Come Alive”, “57821”
February 19, 2024
Beck
3/5
Eight days after Sea Change, we have Odelay, the 3rd Beck on this list; an artist I haven't been motivated to study before this challenge.
If one Beck album had to represent his oeuvre it should probably be this one; odd, glitchy, inventive alternative rock/folk/hip hop that it is.
It’s definitely from the same funhouse that brought us “Loser”, but with even more experimentation.
However, I think this is another album that will grow on me, but I don’t love it at this time. I was so lost in the Dust Brothers’ eclectic production, that I think I appreciate it more than the actual songs at times.
The constant shifts in musical direction were often entertaining but sometimes grating- looking at you, feedback in “Hotwax” and jackass in “Jack-Ass”.
Also, and I realize this is not a fair criticism, the segues between the country and the electro/rap gave me uncomfortable flashbacks to Devil Without a Cause. The difference between “High 5” here and “Roving Gangster” from that album is that I’m having more fun with the former, but it IS still country rap to my ears.
3.5
HL: “Where It’s At”, “The New Pollution”, “Devils Haircut”, “Lord Only Knows”
Beastie Boys
4/5
February 21, 2024
HL: “Brass Monkey”, “Fight For Your Right”, “Rhymin & Stealin”, “She’s Crafty”, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
That funky monkey
The Incredible String Band
5/5
HL: "The Minotaur's Song", "A Very Cellular Song", "Waltz of the New Moon", "The Water Song", “Nightfall”
I have to confess, I listened to THBD before, since among the worst-ranked albums on this website, it was the one I was most curious about by far. How could a 60's psychedelic folk album be that bad, I wondered.
I just wanted to put on a couple tracks for a laugh, but ended up listening to the whole thing in a daze.
Now, the worst thing I can say from that experience is that the violin in "Cellular" felt like the sonic equivalent of chewing aluminum foil, but since it's just one element in this sonic maelstrom of kazoos, mandolins, & nursery rhymes, I didn't find it all that offensive. In fact, listening to it again today, "A Very Cellular Song" may be my highlight of the album. And that violin is easier on the ears when it returns in "Three is a Green Crown".
I know in the past, I've put on an album with low expectations and have been pleasantly surprised. But here is a moment where, bracing for an absolute slog, I instead found one of my favourite psychedelic albums. To be fair, the album cover is less Odessey and Oracle and more The Wicker Man. The vocals are unrefined, it's true. And the album as a whole is a dog's breakfast, with instruments thrown together with little regard to how they'd actually sound in the same recording.
But I can't detect any cynicism in the experimentation the way other contemporary rock acts introduced "world music" elements. While on paper, the concept behind this album sounds like the most pretentious thing ever, I can't recall a single moment where THBD takes itself seriously. In my opinion, that’s its greatest strength.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
HL: “Rocks Off", "Tumbling Dice", "Sweet Virginia", "Loving Cup", "Happy", "Shine a Light"
I put off this album for a WHILE. Perhaps like another album this month, Gaye’s What’s Going On, the hype and acclaim could never live up to the actual quality.
But considering I’ve listened to like 8 full Rolling Stones albums by this point, it probably shouldn’t surprise me that I really like this one too.
“Sweet Black Angel” & “…See His Face”, among other tracks, provide a kind of quaintness to the album that contrasts with the intentional whimsy in Their Satanic Majesty’s Request.
Almost like some 80s Tom Waits.
Also, “Tumbling Dice” and “Shine a Light” are top-tier Stones songs, which I enjoyed long before hearing Exile in full.
John Cale
4/5
PJ Harvey
3/5
HL: title track, “Missed”, “Dry”, “Me-Jane”
“There seems to be something lacking from this record, hmm…”
*turns volume louder*
“Oh there it is”
My worries about Albini’s name being attached to this project needn’t have been there. I actually prefer the production here over that of Dry (1992).
Still, overall I think I preferred the songs on that album more. However, Rid of Me’s twisted, angsty tone is nothing to sniff at, even if it’s not doing wonders for me this specific night.
3.5
Suzanne Vega
4/5
February 26, 2024
HL: “Cracking”, “Marlene on the Wall”, “Straight Lines”, “The Queen and the Soldier”
It’s a little sophisti-pop (a la Everything But the Girl), and a little coffeehouse folk (a la Norah Jones), but I found this a more engaging listen than albums by those aforementioned artists. The synthy touches on songs like “Cracking” & “Small Blue Thing” don’t overwhelm the core songwriting & nice guitar work.
And even though I often neglect lyrical content in these blurbs (perhaps making reviewing folk and hip-hop harder than it has to be), there’s a lot of rich imagery of nature, castles and vintage cinema here.
Nice to finally remove my impression of Suzanne Vega from “do do doo do do do doo do”
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
One of those albums where the performance is impressive but I felt emotionally distanced from it. There are moments of playfulness & fun during the tango, but of course this is New Tango, which sometimes flattens out the quirky, idiosyncratic rhythms with more atmospheric, noodly passages. (No love lost to the opening track, even though it's an odd choice to begin the album).
This may be the best vibraphone showcase in 1100 albums, so I have to shout that out at least.
HL: "Little Italy", "Operation Tango", "Milonga is Coming"
February 27, 2024
Aimee Mann
3/5
HL: “4th of July”, “Jacob Marley’s Chain”, “Mr. Harris”, "Fifty Years After the Fair"
Typical 90s pop rock or baroque pop brilliance? Or both? Or neither?
What even is Whatever? Who am I?
People suffering from Byrds fatigue will be pleased to know that Roger McGuinn's jangly guitar features in track 2
3.5
Method Man
3/5
I find I don’t have much to say about Tical aside from
M-E-T-H-O-D
maan
I think that’s it for Wu-Tang albums on this list- already heard Raekwon, GZA, Ghostface Killah and the OG 36 Chambers. In a similar vein to Sonic Youth, I never thought I needed to hear 5 albums from this collective, but it’s been a neat journey.
HL: “Release Yo’ Delf”, “Bring the Pain”, “I Get My Thang in Action”, “Mr. Sandman”
February 29, 2024
k.d. lang
4/5
Not a drill, we have some CanCon today 🚨
I don’t know lang’s music all that well, but I found a cover album of hers in a thrift shop- Hymns of the 49th Parallel- and really liked it.
Turns out this is a cover album, and I really like it as well, go figure!
Though like an another album from this list I enjoyed from way back, Coles Corner by Richard Hawley, this kind of revivalist country is strange to include in the big 1001 when the originators of the sound like Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison aren't.
Another reviewer pointed out the book roasts this very album in the entry for lang's Ingenue (1992), which is oddly not the first time that happens. (The entry for Isn't Anything by MBV derides the band Ride, only to feature their album Nowhere a few short pages later).
HL: "Western Stars", "I Wish I Didn't Love You So", "Black Coffee", "Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them"
The Band
5/5
700th album <3
And Canadian content 2 days in a row <3
HL: “The Weight”, “Chest Fever”, “I Shall Be Released”, “Tears of Rage”, “In a Station”, “Long Black Veil”
The Jam
4/5
Paul Weller #3
I forgot how good the Jam were! I've listened to well over 500 albums since Sound Affects, so I'm not really in a position to say whether this or that is the superior Jam.
Fun, punchy, doesn't overstay its welcome.
HL: “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight”, “English Rose”, "In the Crowd", “It’s Too Bad”
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Wrapping up the Stones' 6 albums on this list, it's The Rolling Stones (1964)- only 9 days after the critical darling Exile On Main Street (1972)
I feel like this quote from the book is an apt summary:
"'The Rolling Stones' is not as good as material they would release in ensuing years-- or even months. But its arrogant raunchiness had a seismic impact on polite pop then-- and continues to echo today."
I like when the reasoning for the entry goes beyond "This is the greatest music of all time, and you need to hear it!"
And being the Stones, it's a bop, but more interesting as a historical stepping stone than as a musical work. On its own, it just answers the question "What does the blues sound like as interpreted by well-to-do, white Londoners?"
HL: “Route 66”, “Mona”, “Carol”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
March 5, 2024
HL: “Into My Arms”, “There is a Kingdom”, “West Country Girl”, “The One I’m Waiting For”
Hm, Murder Ballads was musically intriguing but also gross n’ gruesome.
Boatman is often sweet, but its purposefully slow and sombre nature made me long for the variety of the former album, or at least the riot of “Curse of Millhaven”.
Can’t believe he made the song from Shrek 2 real though. Wild
Apart from The Boatman’s Call, Nick Cave has 2 five-stars and 2 three-stars from me- plus 2 Cave-adjacent ones (Punishing Kiss, Oedipus Schmoedipus) that weren’t the greatest but I gave 3 stars for their uniqueness.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
March 6, 2024
HL: title track, “I Want to Take You Higher”, “Somebody’s Watching You”, “Everyday People”, “You Can Make It If You Try”
So, There’s a Riot Goin’ On wasn’t the giant leap into doom and gloom I thought it was. Throughout the sunshine funk of Stand!, it shares some flashes of dread and frustration with its successor- as well as moments of indulgent noodling.
After stewing on “Sex Machine” for a few hours, however, it might actually be the perfect length. 5 minutes in, I was ready for the next track. By the climax, I somehow felt that the previous 12 minutes had been worth it. A “modern”-day Ravel’s Bolero.
The beat switch at the end of the title track sounds exactly like the music of the 60s giving way to the 70s (and also the hip-hop of the 90s)
And “Everyday People” continues to SLAP.
Beastie Boys
4/5
HL: "Sure Shot", "Sabotage", "Get it Together", "The Update/Futterman's Rule/Alright Hear This"
Wow, the Beasties going back to their hardcore punk roots is easier on the ears than I expected.
It's eclectic like Paul's Boutique, and the forays into Latin funk instrumentals, throat singing and heavy metal don't feel abrupt or messy.
It's kind of hard to appreciate individual tracks based on the way they all mix into each other, but as a whole I quite enjoyed it.
Strange how the lengthy instrumentals + distorted voices distanced me from the lyrics, though. Hopefully they didn't say anything profound or important past "Sabotage".
Queen Latifah
3/5
HL: "Dance for Me", ”Latifah’s Law”, “Wrath of My Madness”, “Ladies First”
(track 1) unexpected Sly and the Family Stone
(Track 2) unexpected De La Soul feature
Kind of like Ice Cube, I primarily knew Queen Latifah as an actor, not a musician.
This is pretty good! I found the forays into reggae/dancehall cheesy at first, but it’s growing on me even as I type this.
Also, the best songs are pretty early on in the record, but it has a smooth finish with “Inside Out”, and “Irie say in the fire you will burn”
3.5
Elvis Presley
4/5
HL: “Only the Strong Survive”, “I’m Movin’ On”, “Any Day Now”, “In the Ghetto”, “Suspicious Minds” (bonus)
Interesting mix of soul & country.
Big, glitzy, showy production, but this is the KING. If Elvis can’t do it then who can?
“Suspicious Minds” is definitely my favourite Elvis song, so the orchestra/choir didn’t exactly come as a shock.
More enjoyable than the last Elvis on this list, Elvis is Back! (1960)
This should be called Elvis is Back, For Real This Time I Swear
Edit: oh snap, “In the Ghetto” is technically the last track, so “Suspicious Minds” and co. are bonus tracks. The album’s still good without them, thankfully
Johnny Cash
4/5
HL: "Folsom Prison Blues", “Jackson”, “Green, Green Grass of Home”
Badly Drawn Boy
4/5
HL: "The Shining", “Everybody’s Stalking”, “Once Around the Block”, “Bewilderbeast”, “Say it Again”, “Cause a Rockslide”
I feel like I can’t justify why I’d rank this on the level of the previous albums (Elvis, Johnny Cash). It often sounds half-finished, with songs arbitrarily interrupting each other.
But darn if I haven’t been looking for a folksy album with this exact vibe- a wintery album that is also warm and uplifting. The horns in the opener and the birdsong in the closer solidify that feeling, even if the strange diversions in “Fall in a
River” and “Rockslide” threaten to shatter that coziness.
Every year further in the 21st century, this album’s (one-time) inclusion in the 1001 only gets stranger. 4 stars
The Strokes
5/5
March 12, 2024
HL: title track, “The Modern Age”, “Someday”, “Last Nite”, “Hard to Explain”
Playing catchup. Not only is today the first time I listened to (all of) the Strokes’ Is This It, it’s the first time for Room on Fire (2003) as well.
As someone who leans toward 2000s indie bands, this has been a longtime blind spot. At the same time, I couldn’t see the appeal in diving deeper into their catalogue past “Last Nite” and “Reptilia”, as catchy as they were.
So what to say about their debut that hasn’t been said? I don’t have any emotional connection to it, but after the 5 killer highlights I listed earlier, and my next favourites “Soma” & “New York City Cops”, there’s not really any loss of quality with the remaining 4 tracks. They built a pretty airtight ship here.
And the next one might be just as catchy, if not more so! Damn, nothing to justify my playlists going sans-Strokes all this time.
Somewhere between 4 and 5, but I’ll round up tonight.
Love
3/5
HL: “Stephanie Knows Who”, “She Comes in Colours”
Me when the Family Stone puts an indulgent 15+ minute track in their album: “sensational, mind-blowing, 5 stars”
Me when Love does the same thing 3 years earlier:
“boo, boring, get off the stage”
“Revelations” (aka half the album length) aside, I thought this precursor to Forever Changes was likeable enough. Less psychedelic and a bit more garage-y, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy it quite as much.
Incubus
3/5
Idk much about Incubus besides the fact I always confused them for Interpol
It’s 90’s nu-metal but decent for a change
HL: "Nowhere Fast", "When it Comes", "Clean"
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
I didn’t realize how much my RNG was holding out on classic 60’s albums until this month (every 2nd album has been from the 1960s so far)
HL: “She Has Funny Cars”, “Somebody to Love”, “Today”, “Coming Back to Me”, “Embryonic Journey”, “White Rabbit”
M.I.A.
4/5
HL: “Paper Planes” (obviously), “Come Around”, “Hussel”, “BirdFlu”, “Boyz”
First full M.I.A album
One gets the feeling Beyoncé wouldn’t have made RENAISSANCE, or Yitler made Yeezus 💿 the same way without stuff like this paving the way
“Bamboo Banga” is a pretty great indicator of how the whole album goes; abrasive and repeats itself a lot, but it’s ridiculously catchy and inventive.
March 16, 2024
Air
4/5
(March 18, taking a wee break from the generator to focus on other musical rabbitholes, as well as some fam time)
March 20, 2024
HL: “Bathroom Girl”, “Dirty Trip”, “Empty House”, “Dead Bodies”
Have not seen the movie, but by all accounts it’s a lighthearted, feel-good smash of the summer.
In seriousness though, TVS’ prog grandeur and film-noiresque ambience make for a pretty enjoyable listen. I’m not big on downtempo 90s/00s music a lot of the time, but Air? I like Air.
Primal Scream
4/5
Knowing this album has "Loaded" on it is enough to be excited for
March 21st, 2024
HL: "Loaded", "Come Together", "I'm Coming Down", "Movin' On Up"
I can't hear "Inner Flight" without thinking of the RuneScape theme, nor can I hear "I'm Coming Down" without imagining the Old School RuneScape woodcutting sound effect in the background. Not a complaint of the songs, but I am complaining that that game has ruined my brain.
Big dumb fun- but also big smart fun sometimes, in the layering and fusion of disparate sounds and grooves. In terms of the Madchester-related albums this list champions, this well may be my favourite- even though they're a Glasgow band, not from Manchester! :0
But it's also possibly overlong, with two "Reach for the Sun"s, neither of which I'm super crazy about. Will definitely keep this album around my (digital) library; it may be a five-star one day.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
March 23, 2024
I’ve liked the other Crazy Horse albums on this list so far, but this debut offering by them sure feels like lightning in a bottle. The rational part of my brain wants to laugh at the one-note guitar solos in “Cinnamon Girl” and “River”, but the rest of me is reaching for that 5-star button…
The Go-Go's
4/5
March 24, 2024
HL: The 2 big hits (u know the ones), “Automatic”, “This Town”, “You Can’t Walk in Your Sleep”, & “Tonite”
New wave classic
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4/5
March 24, 2024 (after dark)
HL: "Sin City", "Do Right Woman", "Dark End of the Street", "Wheels", "Hot Burrito #2"
I'm honestly shook at how well James Carr's "Dark End" works as a country ballad. I'm not sure why: Ray Charles did the soul -> country manoeuvre and it worked out just fine.
I've got a lot of 60's country-esque records in the last couple months, including two The Bands, a Neil Young and a very underrated Beau Brummels release. Not sick of them yet!
The Pogues
5/5
March 22, 2024
HL: title track, “Bottle of Smoke”, “Fairytale of New York”, “Thousands Are Sailing”, “Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant…”, “Streets of Sorrow”, “The Battle March Medley”
I have this on CD 💿
Though this is actually the first complete listen, as last Christmas I only played the first half (including “Fairytale”).
And while I loved this album pretty consistently throughout, the first few songs illustrate the 80’s excess/absolute mayhem on display. Going from the profane “Bottle”, to “Fairytale” 🎄 🎄, to the James Bond brass of “Metropolis” is almost too jarring to be on the same project. The key word being ‘almost’.
I think I skipped ahead to “finish off” this album because, coincidentally, I had just listened to a Chieftains album called Santiago in the wake of St Patty’s Day, which ALSO contains Irish folk mixed with Spanish folk and orchestras. Truly an underrated genre fusion- but where Santiago is reverent to its influences, IISFFGWG is proudly anything but.
Elbow
5/5
HL: “Starlings”, “Mirrorball”, “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”, “One Day Like This”, “The Fix”
Despite having half-heard this album like 10 years ago, I still don’t really know The Seldom Seen Kid, or Elbow for that matter. Considering Apple Music positions its sound between Pink Floyd and Coldplay, I really should’ve gobbled it up when it was new.
The three songs that really stood out from hearing years ago are the soft/loud “Starlings”, the spooky “Fix” (which features Richard Hawley, whoa), and the crowd-pleasing “One Day Like This”. Luckily the rest of the album lives up to that standard, HOWEVER:
The one song I’m on the fence about is “Grounds For Divorce”, which is part dreamy psychedelia, part truck commercial cock rock which seems at odds with the rest of the tracklist. At the same time, I don’t hate it…
The album quiets down in the 2nd half, but it doesn’t lose steam, with some of the prettiest moments nestled in songs like “Crane Driver” and “Some Riot”.
Adam & The Ants
3/5
Note to self: Adam and the Ants, and Alien Ant Farm, are NOT the same 🐜
HL: title track, “Dog Eat Dog”, “Feed Me to the Lions”
Fatboy Slim
2/5
HL: “Right Here, Right Now”, \"Rockafeller Skank\", “Praise You”, “Love Island”
I almost made it to April this year before getting an album I was ‘meh’ about. It was bound to happen…
Not that it was a waste of an hour, I understand this could be a banger in the right environment, and I almost always have time for “Check it out now, Funk soul brotha”!
But like some other 90’s electronic jams on this list, I felt tested listening to it in full. It seems like many of the songs- “Like Heaven”, “Kalifornia”, “Acid 3000”, the last minute of “Soul Surfing”, yes even my beloved “Rockafeller Skank”- have some element I find so irritating that it distracts me from the otherwise cool samples n beats.
Part of my drive to complete every album stems from the fear of my music taste fossilizing: being only to derive pleasure from MY music, not whatever YOUR music is.
Oddly though, that anxiety works both ways. Since I’ve had so many 4s and 5s recently, I was starting to wonder if I’m not putting ENOUGH critical thought towards those albums.
Thanks to Mr. Slim, for reminding me there are genres I still have to work hard to appreciate. You’ve earned both these stars.
March 25, 2024
Dolly Parton
3/5
March 26, 2024
"Take it, Dolly. Dale"- Pitbull
HL: title track, "Traveling Man", "Here I Am"
I might like this album a bit less then it deserves. I pulled up another 70's country album from my personal listening list, I'm Jessi Colter (1975) to try to pinpoint why. After liking the latter more, I realize it ain't that complicated. My ideal country is watered down with other genres- as in Colter's case, soft rock, pop & blues. Some of my favourite albums this year have been country-ish, with Gram Parsons, the Band, even k.d. lang representing that one foot in, one foot out mentality.
Coat of Many Colors is pretty traditionalist, and essential country listening, it's just not generally what I'd choose for everyday listening.
The title track is admittedly wonderful, as is "Here I Am" towards the end of the album.
ABBA
5/5
March 27, 2024
HL: "Dancing Queen", "My Love, My Life", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "Money, Money, Money", "Why Did It Have to Be Me?", & the title track
and "Fernando"
Oh come ON
JAY Z
5/5
The generator has drip-fed the odd Jay-Z feature, like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), & Beyonce (2013), but today is the first time I tried listening to a full-length release of his.
I wrote this a year ago about Raekwon's solo album:
' "Mafioso rap", as Wikipedia described it, has generally been the hardest rap subgenre to get into for me. '
Yet, I don't find it hard to get into this at all- in fact, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. A part of it, however, might be acclimation to hip-hop at large. Even though I may not relate to the life-of-crime narrative, or the brazen machismo (eg. the ballerina crack in “Takeover”), The Blueprint’s steamroller verses and immaculate production create an almost euphoric atmosphere.
Neither Illmatic nor 36 Chambers got much appreciation from me on 1st listen, but as that appreciation deepened over time, it opened a gateway into enjoying other rappers that I’d previously ignored. Like Jay-Z!
Definitely thought the Timbaland feature was "Jigga That N*gga", but turns out it's the new-jack-swinging "Hola' Hovito".
I also have a new appreciation for Yeezy's early production work, along with Common's Be and The College Dropout
HL: "Takeover", "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", "Hola' Hovito", "Never Change", “Renegade”, "Girls, Girls, Girls (Part 2)"
Weather Report
4/5
CanCon alert🚨 🍁- oops, retracted. We don’t actually own the maple leaf
Love “Birdland” already, but we’ll see where the rest of this album takes us.
HL: “Birdland”, “Teen Town”, “The Juggler”, “A Remark You Made”, “Havona”
My love for jazz fusion is fickle, with albums like Head Hunters and Bitches Brew being favourites from this generator, while others (idk if Street Life counts as jazz fusion) bored me, with my ears discounting fierce, virtuosic solos as samey mush.
Heavy Weather has a little of the latter example, but also a lot of what I liked about the former, with Latin percussion, spacey synths, and a willingness to explore contrasting textures (the suspense in “Teen Town”; the melancholy in “Remark”).
I can’t find much online about it, but “The Juggler” is an understated highlight, with a galloping, African rhythm and a playful descending riff from Zawinul.
A real bop from an era of jazz that I’ve often dismissed as background music of the Weather Network.
wait Weather Network… Weather Report… what does it mean…
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
HL: “Suite”, “Marrakesh Express”, “Helplessly Hoping”, “Long Time Gone”
“I didn’t realize how much my RNG was holding out on classic 60’s albums until this month”- Me, halfway through March, who would also get the Burrito Brothers, Neil Young + Crazy Horse, and CS&N’s debut within days of me typing that.
Maybe it’s not interesting to anybody who isn’t me, but ten groovy 60’s albums this March, vs seven in the previous 3 months, has been an unexpected treat.
I do feel this is an album where I like the beginning and the ending the best; the middle tracks are good but pale in the majesty of “Judy Blue Eyes” or “Helplessly Hoping”. Still enjoyed it quite a bit, a great album for melting snow and visiting family for the holidays 🐣
March 30, 2024
Gary Numan
4/5
HL: “Complex”, "M.E.", "Cars"
Maybe I’m wrong for rating such a repetitive album this highly, but…
The retro-futuristic takes on robots and A.I. have been fun, and Numan and co. squeeze a lot of potential out of the limited sounds and synths.
Ray Charles
3/5
HL: “Two Years of Torture”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Just for a Thrill”
Was looking forward to a brassy good time but something about this left me cold. At least there are moments where Ray and his piano aren’t totally lost in the mix
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I put on De la Soul is Dead a few days ago. Time to further my Native Tongues education!
Yeah, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm kinda confirms my belief that the N.T.'s era of hip-hop died too soon.
Catchy, goofy at times, but also smooth as heck.
Much like yesterday's listen of Beyoncé's new album, a Beatles sample almost never hurts ("Luck of Lucien")
HL: “Push it Along”, “Footprints”, “Can I Kick It”, “Mr. Muhammad”, "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo"
April 2, 2024
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Eating good ramen while listening to this, which is about as much of a high as lighting up 🔥
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
4/5
April 4, 2024
HL: "Satanic Reverses", "Language of Violence", “The Winter of the Long Hot Summer”, "California Über Alles"
Nice of Apple to provide some of the album :/ I guess some samples weren't cleared or something?
Well, this is my first time hearing the Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Digging through 15 year old YT videos to find every song is not an ideal way to listen to any album, but I think it was worth it to get the whole package. While it borders on jazz rap like A Tribe Called Quest, that sound is obfuscated by Public Enemy-like bursts of noise. Combine that with menace like "The Tower" from Ice-T's O.G. Original Gangster, and we have a surprisingly good combination. Oh, I forgot to mention, throw some Dead Kennedys and Gil Scott-Heron in there too, THEN you have a combination.
Final song, "Water Pistol Man", sounds like an atmospheric video game from the late 90s
Bert Jansch
3/5
Two notes about Bert Jansch:
1) I had heard “Needle of Death” previously, from 1001 SONGS you Must Hear Before You Die,
2) I gave his band Pentangle 3 stars about a year ago, but had its faux-medieval folk grow on me long enough to buy it on vinyl recently.
A remarkable performance, though more impressed by the guitar craft than the songs for the most part. “Needle of Death” is rightfully acclaimed for its terribly tragic lyrics and beautiful melody, but that really isn’t typical of Jansch’s self-titled. More blues than elegiac ballads.
3.5
HL: “Smokey River”, “Needle of Death”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Running From Home”
April 5, 2024
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
Eccentric collection of songs, that makes a mostly enjoyable listen. The low-quality recording makes it feel older than 1958 to me.
Didn’t expect the Boll Weevil song today, my dad played the Brook Benton version to me as a kid
Also why tf is “Dink” censored on Apple
HL: “Boll Weevil”, “New York Town”, “Dink’s Song”, “Old Blue” (bonus)
Dire Straits
4/5
HL: "Sultans", "Wild West End", "Water of Love"
Dire Straits are a comforting band to listen to for me. Maybe I don't like this debut as much as Brothers in Arms, or even Making Movies, but perhaps that is because today is the first time I've heard this from front to back.
April 7, 2024
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
HL: “I Gotcha", “Kick, Push”, “Sunshine”, “Daydreamin”
A day where I’m grateful this website includes excised albums. A mid-2000s treat I was (mostly) unaware of
The Who
5/5
Roxy Music
4/5
Roxy Music 3/3
Is the top comment going to be about the album cover?
Edit: yes
Funny that this is the Eno-less of the three, since songs like “Triptych” wouldn’t sound out of place on Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets.
If there’s one reason for having so much Roxy Music on this list, it’s the adventurousness that they explore genres and their influences, even if it has been somewhat hit & miss (I remembered being slightly baffled by For Your Pleasure, early on in this journey).
Like, just when I thought I knew their bag of tricks, along comes the funky “Casanova” and twisted march of “Bitter-Sweet”.
I promised myself once this album came and went, I’d finally crack open my mom’s copy of Avalon (1982), “credited with pioneering the sophisti-pop genre” (Wikipedia). And I know how much this list loves sophisti-pop, so not having that on here seems particularly strange.
But that’s for another night 🥱 got to be up early for first aid class
HL: “The Thrill of it All”, “Out of the Blue”, “Bitter-Sweet”?, “Triptych”
April 10, 2024
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
April 11, 2024: having trouble accessing this album, put on Avalon by Roxy Music, also from 1982 so it’s basically the same thing :|
April 15, 2024: well cobbling it together on YouTube is better than nothing
The Message has a little something for everyone. Gospel, electro, quiet storm. It might suffer from Big Single Syndrome (a phrase I definitely didn't just make up), with more filler than killer, but it has pretty much all the raw ingredients that made up hip-hop in the 90s and beyond.
The slow jams "You Are" and "Dreamin'" are neat but have almost nothing in common with "The Message" & why that's so acclaimed to this day.
HL: title track, "She's Fresh", "It's Nasty"
HL (of Avalon): “More Than This”, “Take a Chance With Me”, title track
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
(April 12 2024) 2nd album in a row I can't listen to with Apple Music; I see there are about 9000 other albums of his there, so I will share a Wikipedia quote from Chris Nickson, of Global Rhythm: \"trying to make order of Khan's entire discography would be a nightmare.\"
I'll get to Devotional Songs soon, but for now today's substitution is obviously Vampire Weekend (2008), followed by TV on the Radio’s Nine Types of Light (2011). Never really got around to hearing them, but I've often heard it said that Vampire Weekend is the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of New York indie rock :p
(April 16 2024) It was there the whole time! Bundled in a release called Love and Devotion, and mistakenly dated 1988. Wot
Ok, those were definitely some songs of devotion. I think my favourite ones were tracks 2 & 4. I might put on the “Love” half later, but no guarantees.
I don’t have my copy of the book right now; curious why this is Khan’s entry into the book out of all his other 9000 releases
Can
4/5
Side 1: ho-wee, contains the energy of a psychedelic steam engine
Side 2: (“Halleluwah”) notch down in energy, but as it’s a longer composition, Can’s gotta pace themselves. Love that sinister build of synths towards the end.
Side 3: (“Aumgn”) a real fockin’ racket. up to this point the more avant-garde elements have been contained in smaller sections like the backmasking in “Oh Yeah”, whereas here it’s the whole 18 mins. Should have taken the end of “Halleluwah” as a warning
Side 4: ok, it doesn’t fully return to the structure of the first half, but it’s not totally frightening like side 3 is
Tago Mago… If it was just the first half it’d be much easier to rate it 5 stars, but the atonality of the second doesn’t sour the whole experience for me, either. My first impression was that the drop-off in quality from Side 2 to Side 3 was stark, but knowing that the two discs are apples and oranges helps me forgive Can for the confusion I had listening to “Augmn” the 1st time.
Van Morrison
4/5
HL: title track, "Sweet Thing", “Cypress Avenue”, “The Way Young Lovers Do”
Beautiful, and another worthy Van entry in this list. Definitely wish I could have heard this a lot earlier in my life, since it’s a kind of album that my appreciation and understanding will likely deepen over time. The kind of freeform folk he has going on here didn’t scratch the same itch that Moondance (1970) did when it showed up here. Nonetheless, I expect it’ll hit harder once the leaves start budding
I mean spring, not pot
April 14, 2024
Throbbing Gristle
3/5
The moment has come (742nd out of 1089)
Actually, my curiosity in the overall worst-rated albums led me to 20 Jazz Funk Greats a while ago. The cover/album title remains one of my favourite musical jokes, the beatific smiles belying the horrors of songs like “Beachy Head”. I wasn't a big fan however, thus I wasn't in a huge rush to listen to D.O.A..
I noticed that while many artists on this list jump between genres and have jarring segues to the next track, TG almost weaponize that feature, giving the end of a track suspense as you wonder what disturbing sounds you’re in for next. On that note: “AB/7A”, maybe the most suspenseful moment on the album as it’s unexpectedly pleasant on the ears.
Something I never considered before starting this challenge is the value of music that *disturbs*. On one hand, it's no surprise Throbbing Gristle is as unpopular as they are on this website. On the other, I've ended up liking a whole swath of albums on this list that are disturbing in some way or another. Neither The Young Gods, nor Skip Spence, nor Suicide nor Nine Inch Nails have easy listens on this list, yet they've also have some quality that made them worth it. Furthermore, recent works outside this list that have inspired me include Leland Kirby's Everywhere at the End of Time (which hits the listener with lengthy passages of unsettling noise), Scott Walker's The Drift*** (which also deals with graphic subject matter), heck even the very industrial Chernobyl: Music from the Original TV Series by Guðnadóttir (partly composed with noise from actual nuclear power plants).
So why was this listen (at least somewhat) worth it? The most abrasive moments IMO come very early on in the album, with the worst offender, funny enough, being their single "United" sped up to a high pitched screech. (If you listen to the original version, it is funny that they'd destroy their own song like that). A reprise of "I.B.M." in the 2nd half might have killed this album for me. It's the quieter moments that made a stronger impression, with "Hometime", "Weeping", and "E-Coli" being dark, ambient moments that got under my skin much more than "IBM" or "Walls of Sound" did. A lot of bands were focused on how synthesizers could effectively substitute for orchestras, choirs or drum tracks, whereas T.G. were instead seemingly using them to transcribe their nightmares.
Maybe this is too many words to spend talking about T.G., but it definitely tickled my imagination more than a lot of albums. I wish the album cover was almost anything else, though
HL: “Hit by a Rock”, “Weeping”, “AB/7A”, "Hometime"
April 15, 2024
***I say inspired, yet I'd probably give that a 2/5 if going by my metric on this website. The palpable horror has diminishing returns after the halfway point
The Who
5/5
April 17, 2024
HL: “Armenia”, “Tattoo”, “Our Love Was”, “I Can See For Miles”, “Rael”, “I Can’t Reach You”
Another Who album this month? I feel like a lucky duck.
Something The Who Sells Out shares with Tommy, the previous Who I had, is that it’s overambitious and, at times, totally ridiculous. Some tracks (“Silas Stingy”) are ALMOST too silly. But damn if it doesn’t whet my appetite for 60s psychedelia all over again.
New favourite The Who album, possibly.
It’s mildly frustrating that the Apple Music version is 6 hours long, but I did spy a cover of “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that turned out to be enjoyable.
3/5
April 18, 2024
HL: “The Devil Gets His Due”, “I Really Don’t Want to Know”, “Making Plans”, title track
As with some other trad. country albums, I feel like I have to work to engage with it. Not sure why I don’t have that problem with later interpretations of the genre by Parsons, Harris & lang, but that’s the way she goes.
I did enjoy this more the longer it went on though, unlike some that had good starts but snoozy finishes. Maybe the inclusion of some chugga-chugga rock n roll in the 2nd half helped (“Devil”, “Get Whatcha Got”)
Loretta’s voice is great, as is the crisp production that sounds newer than other 60s albums I’ve heard.
3.5
Tangerine Dream
5/5
April 18th, 2024
HL: “Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares”, title track, “Sequent C”
A challenging listen does not mean bad. In this case, ‘challenging’ means ‘too repetitive for a close listen, too spooky to be in the background’. Yet I’ve now listened to Phaedra twice, and I have their followup Rubycon queued up, so I think I love this. If you wish the “weird part” in a Pink Floyd album (Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, DSOTM) was its own fully-realized album, then you might too
Upon finishing Rubycon, there are very similar vibes but I actually preferred Phaedra’s more sinister overtones. Rubycon was a chiller experience though (or am I just getting more used to Tangerine Dream?)
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
Grime might get a bad wrap on this website (also: Skepta, The Streets), but it’s not my favourite thing in the world, either.
It took until “Jus’ a Rascal” for me to admit, y’know, I might be enjoying this erratic, headache-inducing album.
Rascal’s energy is infectious even if his verses kinda blend together after an hour, but I think his production is the real winner here. Yesterday’s Tangerine Dream made me think of video game music, and so does this (albeit a much different game); the bouncy synths in “Sittin’ Here”, “Brand New Day”, “2 Far”, and “Do It” are chock-full of personality.
— Aha, I knew it! in the deluxe version he samples the game Street Fighter 👾
HL: “Sittin’ Here”, “Stop Dat”, “Brand New Day”, “Fix Up, Look Sharp”, “Jus a Rascal”
April 19, 2024
Miriam Makeba
4/5
April 20, 2024
The circumstances surrounding Makeba’s exile are grave, but this album is like sunshine recorded on tape.
Some easy, breezy pop tunes (“Flea”, the giggly one) along the more traditional S.A. songs. The former aren’t really essential listening, but equally encapsulate the joy of the latter
HL: "The Retreat Song", "The Click Song", "Olilili", “Lakutshn Ilanga”, "Mbube"
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Album #750, and 1st Rufus (except that time he sang with Antony & the Johnsons-- oh look, here she comes now, with a very long track)
Rufus Wainwright’s voice is like Thom Yorke’s, in that a) it’s beautiful and b) idk wot they’re singing half the time without a lyric sheet. It’s like they’re singing backwards.
This is a pretty rich album; a lot to take in.
It’s hardly the first on this list to indulge in classical flourishes, but “Agnus Dei” & “Little Sister” provided some welcome orchestra. If you choose the Canadian Version (which I’m obliged by CanCon law to listen to), you get two French chansons that provide a denouement to “Old Whore’s Diet”. I have no idea why it’s 9 minutes long, but it has a soaring finale that provides a dramatic end to the (main) album.
I understand this is the one that Dimery kept in later editions (Want One is cut), but if the other is anything like this one I’m looking forward to it.
HL: “Art Teacher”, “Hometown Waltz”, “Agnus Dei”, “Memphis Skyline”, “Peach Trees”
Peter Gabriel
5/5
April 22, 2024
HL: “And Through the Wire”, “Games Without Frontiers”, “Lead A Normal Life”, “Biko”, “Family Snapshot”, “I Don’t Remember”
Have heard maybe 3 songs from this album before.
I don’t know why I find early new wave/electronica so fascinating! There’s a restless energy it often possesses- OMD, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream- that strange Byrne/Eno collab- that’s infectious, even if not all of it lands.
“Melt” lies at those crossroads, but at the same time the songs are bristly and direct, unlike the spacey abstractions in the previous examples. In Gabriel’s hands, political fury becomes theatre (“Games”, “Biko”, “Not One of Us”), and the music alternates between abrasive and beautiful, sometimes both, to elevate the message of each song. That first droning note cutting through the spiritual intro to “Biko”- chills!
One of the best albums I've listened to this month
Grateful Dead
2/5
HL: “St. Stephen”, “The Eleven”
Entering my villain era, 2nd two-star this year 👀
For real, I’m not sure why the acid-washed likes of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, Oar & Soft Machine’s 3rd get a pass from me and this doesn’t. Maybe my own expectations got in the way, and I was looking for a finale besides a blues dirge & 8 minutes of guitar feedback to make up for the lengthy noodling beforehand.
Maybe in the future I’ll get something out of “Dark Star” to understand why it’s so acclaimed. I can’t bring myself to relisten to the whole thing just yet.
April 25, 2024
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
Me: doesn’t feel like listening to the Dead album yesterday, too long
Generator: Ok, here’s a much longer album for you today.
Me: Ok
Both impressive and slightly disappointing. Impressive in the focus on the South being more nuanced & bittersweet than I expected; disappointing in the racist politicians, drunk driving, & fiery plane crashes all kinda get the same musical treatment, so even after a more uplifting song like “Let There Be Rock” I still kinda felt mired down.
It does have a strong finish, at least, considering it’s like a 22 minute-long “Detroit Rock City” but about Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash. Those final 4 songs arguably have the finest guitar work of the record as well.
In several of the songs there are background vocals, either noise picked up by the mic or ghost vocals from a different take; either way it’s kinda creepy to listen to with headphones.
Finally, I have copy/pasted my favourite lines from the album:
“To the fuckin’ rich man, all the people look the same”
“Ain’t no use thinking about it / You’ll just drive yourself insane”
HL: “Dead, Drunk and Naked”, “The Southern Thing”, “Wallace”, “Moved”, “Life in the Factory”, “Greenville to Baton Rouge”
April 24, 2024
Django Django
3/5
Dig the album cover! 🏜️
It’s fun while it lasts, has some common ground with latter-day MGMT.
3.5
HL: “Hail Bop”, “Waveforms”, “Storm”, “Skies Over Cairo”
TV On The Radio
4/5
April 26, 2024
HL: "Dreams", "Staring at the Sun", "Ambulance", "Poppy"
I heard through the grapevine this album was a bit shoegazey. Did not disappoint. Another great offering from a band I didn't know I liked until doing this album-a-day six hundred odd times.
The loop pedal is the unsung hero here. "Ambulance" is a prime example, though I wasn't sure what to make of it at first: the simple doo-wop/soul background sounds eerie & industrial the way it's looped.
Steely Dan
4/5
1st Steely Dan where I didn’t recognize at least one song title.
And last on this list ;(
While my favourite of the four would either be Can't Buy Me a Thrill or Pretzel Logic, this has enough going for it to be a worthwhile listen. The smooth segues between genres are a Dan trademark at this point, and there are also the bitter chants of "Lost wages" in "Show Biz Kids", the stellar woodwinds in "Old School", & the blues fakeout of "Bodhisattiva", which starts like a basic 12-bar boogie before slyly modulating to a jazzier progression.
"Your Gold Teeth", on the other hand, is the kind of slick noodling that reminds me I prefer a whole host of genres over jazz fusion. I think that's what kept me from wholeheartedly enjoying Aja
HL: "Bodhisattva", "Boston Rag", "Show Biz Kids", "My Old School", "King of the World"
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
Took me over 750 tries to get In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and it's not even the Iron Butterfly version
Also, I’ve heard at least two albums on here that sample “Belgium”, from Leftfield & the Beastie Boys.
Legally speaking, this is CanCon but I don't buy it 🔫 They recorded the album in Canada to get more radio play in this country, a heinous crime that must never be forgotten.
Big Dumb Bongo Band
Good jams though. 🪘 🪘
HL: “Apache", "Last Bongo in Belgium", “Let There Be Drums”, “Bongo Rock”
April 28, 2024
Holger Czukay
4/5
we’re back in the Can Universe with: MOVIES
After Tago Mago & Phaedra, the other German 70s albums this month, my bias- sorry, Vorurteile- expected more sinister, heavy overtures. My mistake, Czukay’s solo outing is cheeky & airy, though I suppose sometimes laden with prog grandeur.
I enjoyed Movies’s approach to what would later be known as plunderphonics, even as it harkens back to the sound collages of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper & the White Album.
At the same time, I might appreciate it for what it represents in musical evolution more than for its songs. Though there are many interesting directions taken, the song lengths are- surprise, surprise- testing, the samples inscrutable or just absurd, and the vocals sometimes *out of pocket*.
Yet I’m having more fun in the 2nd listen, which I didn’t think I needed so soon after the first.
A flawed, messy experiment, and yet I wouldn’t have it any other way. Maybe because it sounds like how my brain feels after 700-800 random albums.
HL: “Persian Love”, “Hollywood Symphony”
April 29, 2024
Neu!
5/5
Oh boy, 2 German albums in 2 days.
Guten Morgen! Ich möchte ein Mokka.
Wo ist mein Auto?
Little taken aback by this; it’s super easy to trace this to other albums I adore: obviously David Bowie’s “Heroes”, but also the gentle minimalism of Architecture & Morality & Music for Airports. At the same time, it’s got a swagger level somewhere between the Rolling Stones & the Clash. These things should cancel each other out, but they don’t.
Hypnotic, addictive listen
April 30, 2024
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
HL: “Ain’t the Devil Happy”, “Come Clean”, “Jungle Music”
Rounding up to a 3 today.
He’s not a misogynist, he says so multiple times
Morrissey
3/5
We’re officially at the 4th solo Morrissey album, after a single Smiths album (The Queen is Dead, after Liz II passed away).
I don’t like that ratio.
The albums haven’t been bad, with my least favourite (Your Arsenal) still getting a 3 for inventive little twists and turns, but I’ve started each one with an increasing sense of weary determination.
Okay, again that’s not bad at all. Way to commit to that pastoral melancholy, even if it does get a bit sleepy (or maybe I’m what is sleepy 🥱 ).
The music is pleasant, competent 90’s alt rock. I find it at its best when it delves off the beaten path; for instance the half-whispered, woodwinds-laced “Lifeguard Sleeping”.
I’ve never related too strongly to Morrissey’s lyrics, instead associating him with the odd out-of-pocket song title (the maybe too ironic “National Front Disco”, “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others “). Vauxhall doesn’t really deliver in that regard, being pretty serious for the most part- unless his ironic humour is so subtle this time around I can’t clock it.
Probably my 2nd favourite of the 4, close behind Viva Hate.
3.5
HL: “Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning”, “Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself”, “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get”, “Now My Heart is Full”
May 2 (late at night)
The Beta Band
3/5
HL: “Assessment”, “Space”, “Pure For”, “Liquid Bird”, “Space Beatle”
I think what this shares with another recent album, Django Django (2012), is there are no bad tracks but no soaring standouts either. I dig some eclectic psychpop but I feel the album as a whole could lean further into either the layered beauty of “Space Beatle/Rhododendron” or the propulsive, trippy “Space” & “”Liquid Bird”. As it is it’s like a tasty sample platter.
3.5
May 3, 2024
LTJ Bukem
4/5
Whyy
is the tracklist
Not the same
But the name and album cover are?…
“Demon’s Theme” is a “classic”, “MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide” claims. But it isn’t on the Apple Music version…
I believe the only other album I failed to listen to in its entirety was Throwing Muses, and I’ll be damned if I can’t find the 2 hours, 22 minutes and 32 seconds of this ultimate in “hip cafés, hair salons, and fashion stores” music (that’s the 1001 Albums book talking, I’m not being snide).
Edit: someone finally uploaded the full Throwing Muses album on YouTube. Imma right some wrongs, listen to that in the meantime.
Edit 2: found Logical Progression in like 5 minutes, I don’t support piracy so definitely don’t go to the Internet Archive
I think it's no small praise that I didn't hate myself after listening to the full thing (I heard the 2 discs a few hours apart, though). I don't have much experience with D&B or jungle, but I did enjoy Orbital & Aphex Twin on this list, which LTJ Bukem's compilation here isn't too far removed from. The hi-speed rhythms may be relentless, but the intensity varies greatly, from the pounding intro ("Demon's Theme") to the ambient, nature sound-infused "Pharaoh".
It's music for studying. It's music for driving. It's music for enjoying a freshly brewed coffee while rebuilding a village in Minecraft, like I did.
May 4th, 2024
Peter Gabriel
4/5
May 5, 2024
HL: "Moribund the Burgermeister", "SOLSBURY HILL", "Humdrum", "Down the Dolce Vita", "Here Comes the Flood"
Though the rating doesn't exactly show it, this was a disappointment coming last after So and Melt. (The latter was just last month)
Though it is unfocused and overproduced, it's also exciting to see Gabriel's varied influences clearly visible here before they coalesced in later releases, like a nebula.
Tracks like "Slowburn" make me yearn for Queen or Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell, and "Waiting for the Big One" was a draggy blues tune, but most of the rest is pretty cool stuff.
The dynamic "Dolce Vita" slapped me across the face while I was walking through the city.
And "Solsbury" is just one of my favourite songs, period.
Ozomatli
4/5
May 6, 2024
Hey this guy stole the guy from Jurassic 5's flow- oh, it's the same guy. Cool
I'm quite enjoying this. It's trying to be all things to all people, but it's also vibrant and celebratory- & something I needed to accompany some of the first warm weather this year.
HL: "Love and Hope", title track, "Te Estoy Buscando", "Saturday Night"
Ian Dury
3/5
May 9, 2024
HL: “Sweet Gene Vincent”, “Blockheads”, “Plaistow Patricia”, “Sex and Drugs” (bonus)
Anything but mindless good taste
Dennis Wilson
4/5
May 8, 2024
HL: "River Song", "Moonshine", "Time", "Rainbows", “Tug of Love” (bonus)
warm summa breeze
the 4 bonus tracks were nice too
John Martyn
4/5
4 of the last 5 albums have been from 1977. Crazy year
Did a 180 on this album, thought it noodly & uninspired in the first little while, then something clicked on Side 2 and I had to play the album right back after it ended.
Though I prefer the 2nd half to the darker, bluesier 1st- geese n' all- the contrast with the second's atmospheric lightness is super satisfying. What a lovely piece to end the album on ("Small Hours").
HL: title track, “Couldn’t Love You More”, “Dancing”, “Small Hours”
later on in May 9, 2024
Hookworms
4/5
(Track 1) hey they got the mainspring from Clock Cleaners (the Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1937) to sing on this track
Settles into a more abstract place about halfway through, but I was pretty psyched by this album. Whenever I get a slice of 21st century psychedelia, my brain automatically sizes it up to MGMT, but the parallels to Neu! & Jason Pierce from the Guardian review are equally relevant.
HL: \"Negative Space\", \"Static Resistance\", \"Ullswater\", \"Opener\", \"Each Time We Pass\"
May 10, 2024
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
May 11, 2024
HL: “Double Dutch”, “Merengue”, “Punk it Up”
If I, a white man, made an album of traditionally black music, and it still sounded too white, can I copy/paste black American radio hosts between the songs to give myself further cred?
No, now that I say it out loud, it sounds like a really stupid idea.
“Buffalo Gals” deserves credit for being turned into better songs by Neneh Cherry & Eminem.
2.5
White Denim
5/5
HL: "It's Him", “Anvil Everything”, "Street Joy", "Bess St", "Keys"
I don't know what I expected going into this proggy folky garage album, but the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts here.
After not being sold on Live/Dead (1969) recently, the comparisons to the Grateful Dead that this album received had me a little gun-shy. Yet its sun-soaked joie de vivre and indulgent, arty noodling made a surprisingly addictive blend.
May 12, 2024
Big Star
5/5
Almost 800 albums in and yet I know nothing of Big Star, aside from random songs I've picked up in my life ("The Letter", sung by Alex Chilton pre-Big Star; "You and Your Sister" by Chris Bell after the band split).
This album was recorded in 1974, released in 1978, yet the version of the book emphasizes the 1992 version with bonus tracks.
Apple Music says it sounds nothing like their previous output.
I'm beginning to think this is not an easy intro to this band... but of course, I just go where RNGesus commands.
edit: I was mistaken, this is awesome; guess I’m a Big Star fan now 👍
HL: “Thank You Friends”, “Big Black Car”, “Jesus Christ”, the “Femme Fatale” cover, “For You”, “Take Care”, "Dream Lover" (bonus)
May 13, 2024
Terence Trent D'Arby
4/5
HL: “If You All Get To Heaven”, “Wishing Well”, “Dance Little Sister”, “Let’s Go Forward”
May 14, 2024
The KLF
3/5
oop, gotta head to YouTube for the real album again
Legends, they're responsible for "Doctorin' the Tardis" according to the 1001 book
Listened twice, once really early in the morning/late at night when I was unable to fall asleep, and then again later that evening. I haven't heard a lot of trance or house music, so combine that with the feverish, semi-conscious state I was initially in & you get an especially strange listen, particularly by the jungly noises in "No More Tears".
I didn't fully warm to it on the 2nd listen, even after a proper rest, but I'm glad it retained a level of mystique even through all the corny raps. The 2nd half is like a warm blanket compared to the first couple songs, which sound a lot more geared towards a rave.
HL: "Church of the KLF/Last Train to Trancentral", "No More Tears", "Justified And Ancient (Reprise)"
May 15, 2024
Dusty Springfield
4/5
May 16, 2024
HL: “You Don’t Own Me”, “Love Light”, “Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Wishin & Hopin”, “I Only Want To Be With You” (bonus)
I don’t love every song (“Do Re Mi”, “My Colouring Book”), but I love a good majority of them. I associate “Mama Said” & “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with the Shirelles, but Springfield has cracking versions of both, particularly the latter.
The Monks
3/5
It’s like I always say, “Ou yeah, it’s black monk time.”
More interesting for its place in music history than for the songs themselves, nonetheless its stomping rhythms, distorted organ and manic vocals provide a decent listen.
I listened to some of the bonus tracks, and they sound a lot closer to psych-pop of the era, particularly the brass-infused “He Went Down to the Sea”. They’re definitely not the reason this is on the list, but they’re closer to my own personal taste.
HL: “Shut Up”, “Complication”, “Love Came Tumblin’ Down”, “Blast Off!”, “He Went Down to the Sea” (bonus)
May 17, 2024
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
(From entry on Want Two, a month ago) “I understand this is the one that Dimery kept in later editions (Want One is cut), but if the other is anything like this one I’m looking forward to it.”
😤 I expect greatness
(Listening to “Beautiful Child”) this sounds like a finale, where do you even go from here
Okay, now that I’ve heard it in full, I might like this even more than Want Two. More of the delicate emotions, crafty song structures and thrilling instrumentation- even throwing in Ravel’s Bolero on the opening track. Maybe a couple tracks too long, but otherwise a delight.
HL: “Oh What a World”, “I Don’t Know What It Is”, “Go or Go Ahead”, “Vibrate”, “Beautiful Child”, “Dinner at Eight”
May 18, 2024
Amy Winehouse
4/5
-The only songs I'm 100% sure I know are the title track & "Rehab", though I've been looking forward to hearing this for a while now. (Frank [2003] was 497 albums-a-day ago :0)
-ok, I also know "Tears Dry On Their Own". Classic
- a Sunday comfort listen, at least as much as it can be knowing her tragic decline after Back to Black's release. I've never been the biggest fan of Winehouse's tunes, but I recognize greatness when I see it.
HL: title track, “Tears Dry On Their Own”, “Rehab”, “He Can Only Hold Her”, “Addicted” (bonus track, not on the CD copy I found)
May 19, 2024
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
I haven't heard Sleater-Kinney before, but I've heard OF them through a Wikipedia rabbit hole: SNL -> Fred Armisen -> Portlandia -> Carrie Brownstein -> this band
I like it, can’t help thinking of X-Ray Spex and other punk bands from the 70s (that I wouldn’t have known about if not for this list), but it’s not a bad reinterpretation of that era. It also seems to have more in common with the 2000s post-punk revival than the 90’s punk scene, unless there’s a reference I’m missing.
*checks the book* Ah, I have not listened to their influence, fellow Washingtoners Bikini Kill. Though that band’s spinoff, Le Tigre, is here and pretty enjoyable as well.
HL: title track, “One More Hour”, "Words and Guitar", “Not What You Want”, “Dance Song ‘97”
May 20, 2024
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
Come on England
3.5
HL: “Northern Whale”, “Nature Springs”, “Green Fields”, title
May 21, 2024
Girls Against Boys
1/5
It’s probably one of my least favourite on this whole list. for all my ambivalence towards fellow post-hardcore outfit Slint, at least they had menace & theatre going for them. This just plods…
In theory, twin bass guitars should provide a unique twist but it gets really muddy and monotonous. Speaking of monotonous, I was worn out on the singer’s rasp after two songs.
HL: “Bullet Proof Cupid”, “7 Seas”
May 22, 2024
Animal Collective
4/5
trippy lima beanss
Put off this album for a while in anticipation of it appearing on this website, though I did recently get into Strawberry Jam (2007) by them, as odd and as noisy as it was.
The cover is very fitting for the music: bright, psychedelic, if a little nauseating over time. I don't normally use that word for albums I like, ever, but today is an exception. "Brother Sport", the closing track, is a good example of where that tension comes from- beautiful Wilsonesque harmonies filtered through unpredictable, high frequency boops. It provides a distance between me, the listener, & the melody/bones of the song similarly to how the heavy distortion works in MBV's Loveless.
Though ultimately, it IS smoother on the ears than Strawberry Jam, which helped "My Girls" blow up like it did. I'm not saying that makes it better, but it it does mean it comforts more than it ruffles me.
It may be some hipster shit, but in the words of Gwen Stefani, "This my shit".
HL: "My Girls", "Summertime Clothes", "Daily Routine", "Taste"
May 23, 2024
Neil Young
3/5
We're at the 8th album (afaik) featuring ol' Neil. I'm pretty sure they've all gotten 4s and 5s from me, so it may be a safe bet that I like this too. I don't recognize any song titles, but I didn't with On the Beach (4 stars n counting) and Ragged Glory (4 stars) either.
I think this might be a grower. It’s pretty bleak & pessimistic, but also features great performances (eg. the guitar in “Steppin Out”. However, I wouldn’t say musically there’s much else done better than the later Crazy Horse albums (eg. Rust Never Sleeps)
Pretty sure all that’s left of this guy on this generator is Harvest (1972), his biggest hit…
HL: “Steppin’ Out”, “Borrowed Tune”, “Albuquerque”
The Fall
2/5
May 27, 2024
Well, of all the Fall albums I’ve heard this is definitely a Fall album.
While it would be easy to admit defeat after 3 albums, I intend to put on Hex Enduction Hour sometime soon, considered one of their best outside of this list.
There’s always the possibility that the combo of Smith’s vocals and the noisy guitars just isn’t for me, despite the bristly, energetic performances heard in this debut album.
Rush
5/5
May 26, 2024
HL: “Tom Sawyer”, “YYZ”, “Limelight”, “The Camera Eye”
Roll out the red/white carpet, we got some more CanCon today 🇨🇦
While I’d hate to rate it highly just because of an allegiance to some cloth 🇨🇦, it’s both my favourite and most consistent Rush album I’ve heard (so far), so I think it deserves its flowers. Unlike some other proggers on this list, I prefer this band’s 80s AOR era.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
May 28, 2024
HL: "Something 4 the Weekend", "If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You", "Hometown Unicorn", "Bad Behaviour", "Death By Melody" (bonus), "(Nid) Hon Yw'r Gân Sy'n Mynd I Achub Yr Iaith" (bonus)
It's been about a year since the last SFA, but in the meantime I found an album involving Gruff Rhys, called Praxis Makes Perfect. They (the project Neon Neon) toured with it as an immersive theatrical experience, about the life and times of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. You know, that Italian socialist activist and fighter of censorship, active during the 50's and 60s?
(I didn't know him either)
My point is, the seeming ease in which SFA comes out with eccentric, unconventional stuff makes them a pretty intriguing act to learn about. And while Fuzzy Logic is a little easier to follow than Rings Around the World, the flair for experimentation & genre switching is there. I'm listening to the "B Sides & Such", including tracks sung entirely in Welsh, and it is good.
Now, having listened to all the b-sides, I'd even say there's a better 12-track album hidden somewhere between the normal tracklist and the bonus ones. As released, Fuzzy Logic is still pretty damn neat.
Fairport Convention
3/5
May 29, 2024
HL: “Si Tu Dois Partir”, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”, “Percy’s Song”
An album of ‘almosts’. The patient crescendo of “A Sailor’s Life” almost quickened my pulse. “Million Dollar Bash” almost made me want to dance.
Maybe I just happened to be craving higher energy music today, which sometimes happens as a result of the randomness: mood & time of day are both vital factors in how I perceive new music.
Still pleasant enough, accordion laced tunes, and a good first impression of Fairport Convention.
3.5
Prince
5/5
May 30, 2024
HL: title track, "Little Red Corvette", "Delirious", "Automatic", "Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)", "All The Critics Love U In New York"
A small step down from Purple Rain, but comparing any Prince album to Purple Rain is unfair. Comparing any *album* to Purple Rain is unfair.
Though some songs move outside the formula, this is a high NRG collection of songs for dancing, and songs for... 👀 👀 👀
fucking.
And who wrote those kinds of songs better in the 80's than Prince?
1999 sounds a bit more claustrophobic than his other two albums on this list, due to him recording pretty much every instrument himself. But the illusion of a full soundstage is helped along by the production (He did that too? makes sense). "Little Red Corvette" sounds like it was born in a stadium.
Common
4/5
May 31, 2024
HL: "Time Travelin' (A Tribute to Fela)", "The Light", "Funky for You", "The 6th Sense", "Geto Heaven Part Two"
I found the perfect album to bridge this album with 1999 (yesterday's album): Voodoo* by D'Angelo. On one hand, D'Angelo has a lot of similarities with Prince, both in romantic R&B jams and in being a multi-instrumentalist prodigy; on the other, he worked with a group called the Soulquarians to usher soul/R&B into the 21st century. The Soulquarians included members like Erykah Badu, the Roots, and Common.
I don't know a whole lot about Badu or the Roots (time enough), but album #197 on this journey was Common's Be (2005), an album which evoked The College Dropout a lot more than Voodoo. I'm curious to see where this album's sound lands on that spectrum.
Okay, it officially supplants Be as my favourite Common album! Probably too long, but the big guest list and messing about with genre helps keep LWFC from becoming stale. J Dilla's production is smooth as heck, but the song that jumped out at me the most was handled by DJ Premier of Gang Starr, "The 6th Sense". Like the aforementioned Badu & the Roots, I know I'll be coming across Gang Starr at some point on this website, which I look forward to.
*Voodoo was much more enjoyable to me than Brown Sugar (1995), the one solo D'Angelo featured on 1001 Albums.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
May 31, 2024 (later on)
HL: "You Learn", "All I Really Want", "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "Ironic"
It's been at least 100 albums since I've had one I've heard before.
Is it bad that "You Oughta Know" has my favourite Flea bass, even among RHCP songs?
Is it a perfect album? No, but also yes
Aerosmith
3/5
June 1, 2024
HL: "Janie's Got a Gun", "Love in an Elevator", "What it Takes"
Self-proclaimed Aerosmith fan here—
The singles hold up for me but some of the deeper cuts weren’t as satisfying. Sounds more homogenous (in a big 80's radio rock kind of way) than Rocks & Toys in the Attic. Also, the interludes like "Water Song" & the didgeridoo are cool but ultimately don't add anything to the songs they follow or precede.
On the other hand it does have “Janie’s Got a Gun”
3.5/5
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
German industrial? On my birthday ;)
Can a guy be so lucky
The lead singer was also in the Bad Seeds for two decades, which makes this inclusion a lot less surprising. The book entry also draws direct comparisons to Throbbing Gristle & Faust, fellow "sonic terrorists" that I've already come across thanks to this list. This is definitely the least musical of the bunch, and therefore is not popular on this website, to say the least.
The consensus seems to be that Kollaps is a bunch of freaks banging on pots and pans, but that's not ENTIRELY accurate in my eyes. The ritualistic proceedings of many of the tracks carry a sense of dread, as though they're the opening ceremonies to something awful and unspeakable. The low-quality recordings and abrupt ends to the tracks further add to the wrongness of this album, like it was never meant to be released. The cherry on top is the album cover on Apple Music; it's slightly crumpled, like a hasty photocopy of a used record sleeve.
I definitely hört with schmerzen, but I didn’t hate it.
2.5
HL: "Tanz Debil", "Steh Auf Berlin", title track
Fugees
4/5
HL: "Fu-Gee-La", "Killing Me Softly", "Ready or Not", "No Woman, No Cry", "Zealots"
June 6, 2024
Christine and the Queens
3/5
Coldplay
5/5
HL: "Politik", "In My Place", "The Scientist", "Clocks", "Daylight", "Green Eyes", title track
Definitely not 1st listen
Parachutes is fine, but I like THIS
I am a product of my environment (growing up in the 2000s), which in other words means I would put Viva la Vida or X&Y on a 1001 Albums of my choosing*, to say nothing of the Muse inclusions. But even without the orchestras of Viva or the arena-minded synths of X&Y, AROBTTH is prime sadboi jams.
"Politik" is like a first stab at writing "Fix You", but almost as good, where "Green Eyes" is one of their best ballads.
If you're not convinced by this album, put on "The Scientist" whenever something inconvenient happens: a breakup, a parking ticket, forgetting your toast in the toaster & then it's cold & dry.
June 5, 2024
*Maybe even Ghost Stories, if I'm feeling frisky
Big Star
4/5
June 10, 2024
HL: “Feel”, “El Goodo”, “Thirteen”, “The India Song”, “Try Again”
A much sunnier counterpart to their Third album, a lot closer in sound to their British Invasion influences and further from the 80’s/90’s alt rockers that would follow in their footsteps.
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
HL: "Dumb Waiters", “It Goes On”, “Pretty in Pink”, "All of This and Nothing"
Some decent new wave today; I'm not crazy about Richard Butler's vocal performance in this, however. He doesn't sound that different than in "Love My Way", the only PF song I was familiar with. Maybe it's the lusher production in the latter that distracts me. But his too-cool-for-school snarl in songs like "I Wanna Sleep With You" is just annoying.
That song contains two of the things that redeem this album as a whole, funnily enough: the overdriven guitar and distorted saxophone parts (see also: "Dumb Waiters").
June 7, 2024
Elvis Presley
4/5
The fact this is all after his Sun Records stuff (“Mystery Train”, “That’s All Right”) means I have a bit more digging to do in the early Elvis catalogue before I get the complete picture.
Despite the raucous album cover, a lot is subdued crooning, but I don’t mind it. The simple, echoey production is timeless in a way Elvis is Back! wasn’t for me
HL: “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Blue Moon”, “I’m Counting On You”, “I Love You Because”
June 8, 2024
Q-Tip
4/5
June 9, 2024
HL: "Life Is Better” (featuring Norah Jones), "Shaka", "We Fight/We Love" (featuring Raphael Saadiq), "Official", "Move"
Smooth
I wouldn't say it's a giant step forward from ATCQ, but Q-Tip's jazz-rap styling updated for the sounds of 2000s hip-hop isn't as dated as I figured it would be. The inclusion of old-school-sounding soul works for me, and the guests (Jones, D'Angelo) are pretty well pitch-perfect for the album's stylings.
Today my heightened interest in the Soulquarians (sparked by listening to Common & D'Angelo last week), meant I paired this album with J Dilla's kaleidoscopic album Donuts (J Dilla produced "Move” on this album according to Wiki). And that was a good move- both that and The Renaissance further prove that there is a lot more to modern hiphop than I assumed at the start of this journey.
CHIC
4/5
June 11, 2024
HL: "Good Times", "My Feet Keep Dancing", "My Forbidden Lover", "Will You Cry (When You Hear This Song)"
I'm not sure if Chic needed 2 albums on this list, but what a funky, pretty listen. The slower songs like "Will You Cry" have a certain grandeur about them, and what's to say about "Good Times" that hasn't already been said.
BERNARD EDWARDS WAS THE GOAT.
also, officially at the 800th album!
What I accomplished in the last 100 days:
-became un-unemployed
-turned another year older
-survived the (admittedly mild) winter
The Residents
2/5
HL: "Constantinople", "Blue Rosebuds", "Lizard Lady", "Weight-Lifting Lulu"
can't give 1 star. clown'll eat me
June 11, 2024 (late)
Fats Domino
3/5
M.I.A.
3/5
June 13, 2024
HL: "Bucky Done Gun", "Galang", "10 Dollar", "U.R.A.Q.T.", "Amazon"
3.5
Maybe I don't love it as much as Kala, but its 42 minutes breezed by. Standout is "Bucky Done Gun" pretty early on in the record, with a brilliant sample of "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky
Duran Duran
4/5
June 14, 2024
HL: title track, “Hungry Like the Wolf”, "Hold Back the Rain", “Save a Prayer”, "The Chauffeur"
All 3 Duran Duran songs I knew before today are on this album
(nvm I know “Girls on Film”)
Like sophisti-pop, emphasis on the pop
It sure keeps its energy throughout the album, the closing track is unexpectedly beautiful, and the title track is timeless
4/5
The Smiths
4/5
September 2022, Queen Liz dies and I hear The Queen Is Dead for the 1st time. That was album #160
Nothing would be heard from those boys in the coming months, until this website gave me a solo Morrissey album, Your Arsenal, to listen to (#421). Album #591, #605, and #761 were also Morrissey, as it turns out.
I guess my interest in The Smiths wasn't high enough to dive deep into their work in the meantime, but I always knew there was more to come on the website, so... yay?
For the most part, this is a solid album. The lightness of the jangly guitar and rockabilly rhythms strike a good balance with Morrissey's heavy-handed lyrics. The only time I found the balance was off was in the title track, which is a decent sound effects-driven dirge but feels more like a PSA than anything.
HL: "The Headmaster Ritual", "Rusholme Ruffians", "Barbarism Begins at Home", "Nowhere Fast",
"How Soon is Now" (bonus track)
June 15, 2024
The Coral
4/5
Things I know about The Coral:
1) Bri’ish
2) they’re named after coral
Things I learned today:
1) During a weekend of 1st time listens for both the Smiths' self-titled debut & Meat is Murder, The Coral might be my favourite jangly rock out of the three of them!
2) Music critics really like white reggae, especially in the vein of Madness/The Specials. However, the tracks here are fun & few enough in number ("Skeleton Key", the hidden track "Time Travel") so the comparison luckily does not define the album as a whole.
3) Well it's something I kinda knew already, but I really like a lot of "neo-psychedelic" bands that carry 60's pop sounds into the 21st century. The Coral is no exception
HL: "Shadows Fall", "Dreaming of You", "Simon Diamond", "Skeleton Key", "Calendars and Clocks"
June 16, 2024
Rod Stewart
3/5
Title track slaps
Not as consistent as Every Picture Tells a Story, but amiable enough (that album was one of my very first on this website, but I just relistened to be sure)
Also this beats the Faces album by a bit, just because I can vibe with this mellow folk easier.
3.5
HL: “Creature Comforts”, “Only a Hobo”, title track
The Doors
4/5
HL: "Roadhouse Blues", "Waiting for the Sun", "Peace Frog/Blue Sunday", “Land Ho!”
A stellar 1st half, with some of their best psychedelic tunes & blues numbers. 2nd half is good; listening to both this and L.A. Woman reminds me that I prefer their earlier stuff ("hello i love u") to later-day Morrison. Still rounds up to a 4
The Cult
3/5
HL: "Peace Dog", "Love Removal Machine", “Electric Ocean”
Ray Price
4/5
June 20, 2024
HL: title track, "Lonely Street", "The Twenty-Fourth Hour", "Are You Sure", "Let Me Talk to You"
On the day I got k.d. lang's Shadowland, I lamented I wasn't getting much sad, croony country from the actual "golden age" here, instead getting modern acts very much inspired by those sad crooners.
Tonight I'm eating crow, since Ray Price, an artist I've never listened to before (increasingly rare on this website*), scratches that itch for me. It's got:
- great singing
- great lap steel
- Floyd Cramer piano (that's almost always mixed too quietly tbh)
- Willie Nelson
- melancholy mood music that fits the title (although much of Night Life's middle could also pass as AM radio in the A.M.)
- plenty of reverb
*Only other artists this month that I can say I've never put on before are The Coral, since curiosity about the most-hated albums on this list led me to both the Residents and Einstürzende Neubauten earlier
Blondie
5/5
Not 1st listen
If not the top of all the new wave/pop/punk albums of the late 70's/early 80's, then pretty darn close
HL: “Hanging on the Telephone”, “One Way or Another”, “Heart of Glass”, "Picture This", “11:59”, “Will Anything Happen”, pretty much every other song tbh
June 21, 2024
Doves
4/5
June 22, 2024
HL: title track, "Sea Song", "Catch the Sun", "The Man Who Told Everything", "The Cedar Room"
Doves #3, if we're counting their involvement in Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast.
After their other album on this list, I wasn't super interested in delving further into their catalogue. Maybe due to these storm grey clouds threatening rain all day, I found Doves easier to listen to. The first couple songs weren't all that intriguing, but with "Sea Song" onward the album kept growing on me.
"The Cedar Room" might be my favourite song on here, but it seemed like a bold choice to release it as their 1st single on their 1st album, with the slow build & droning bass. Though considering Coldplay filled stadiums with "Yellow" & "Fix You" a couple short years later, maybe not
Blur
5/5
Damon Albarn album count (not just this website): 6, or
3 Blur (Modern Life is Rubbish, The Great Escape, self-titled)
2 Gorillaz (self-titled & Demon Days)
The Good the Bad & the Queen (self-titled)
...And yet at times I still feel I haven't *gotten* it yet. Perhaps Parklife will spark my understanding of the Albarnsphere.
There are definitely some sparks happening
The racing hound cover is surprisingly accurate to the rate in which this album fires out creative ideas. The Kinks/Bowie comparisons are almost too easy to make, but like what 69 Love Songs does (more aggressively), it also checks in with styles of dance, punk and new-wave that preceded it a few short years prior.
Okay, Damon’s voice is same-as-it-ever-was, but... scratch that. "To the End" is the best thing I've heard that guy do vocally.
Ridiculously fun album, and I don't even consider myself a Blur fan (*cues up The Ballad of Darren right afterward to possibly contradict myself*)
HL: "Girls and Boys", "Tracy Jacks", "End of a Century", "The Debt Collector", "To the End", "Clover Over Dover", "Jubilee", "This Is a Low"
June 23, 2024
Beth Orton
4/5
June 24, 2024
HL: "Sweetest Decline", *Pass in Time*, title track, "Stars All Seem To Weep", "Blood Red River"
Two things are true: I haven't really listened to Beth Orton before
& I have this on CD because I recognized it from the book
Dr. John keeps popping up in this list in unexpected ways (this, Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space), and I'm all for it.
Also, Ben Harper on guitar?? (saw him live a while back with Charlie Musselwhite; not sure which songs have him in them [edit: "Stolen Car", "Love Like Laughter"])
Guest stars out of the way, I really like Orton's style; it's rootsy, but proceeds in a freewheeling, dreamy way. The songs themselves have a timeless quality about them, even though the downtempo/folktronica elements date the album to the 90s.
Jeff Beck
4/5
HL: “You Shook Me”; “Greensleeves”, “Beck’s Bolero”, “I Ain’t Superstitious”, “Ol’ Man River”
That’s a lot of Rod Stewart this month, but I’m not complaining (I just got Gasoline Alley, & relistened to Every Picture Tells a Story)
Interesting that he’s just another instrument this time in the Jeff Beck Group, rather than The Frontman; he’s also great in this, as is Beck, Nicky Hopkins & Ronnie Wood of Rolling Stones fame, and JPJ of Led Zeppelin fame. Man I took for granted how intertwined these British rock acts are
The Blue Nile
4/5
HL: "Tinseltown in the Rain", "From Rags to Riches", "Stay,", "Heatwave"
like Avalon but better
June 26, 2024
Genesis
4/5
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
June 28, 2024
HL: “Comin’ Home Baby”, “Lonely Avenue”, “One Who Really Loves You”, the title track to end all title trax, “I Got a Woman”
I like how they had “Mo Onions” ready to drop as a single 2 years after “Green Onions”
This is really the pop answer to Jimmy Smith’s jazzy Back at the Chicken Shack, though I knew of Booker T long before Smith. That probably accounts for the higher rating, even though the album is a somewhat disjointed grab bag of covers. My Dad always playing instrumental oldies in my youth clearly rubbed off on me.
Though, as far as ‘60s instrumental albums go, this has about as much right to be on the list as any of em.
Happy Mondays
3/5
HL: “Mad Cyril”, “Brain Dead”, “Lazy-Itis”, "Hallelujah (Club remix)" (BONUS)
I'll just paste this from the last Mondays:
'File this under my “big dumb fun” albums' (November 2023)
Because as much as I want to love the psychedelic haze and bass-heavy grooves, it just goes in one ear & out the other. In fact, Bummed does that more efficiently than Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches.
Even though I tend to get down with the new wave & Britpop picks, Happy Mondays, though caught somewhat in the middle of those genres, doesn't intrigue me all that much. But it doesn't bother me either
Massive Attack
4/5
(the night of) July 2, 2024
HL: "Safe from Harm", "Unfinished Sympathy", "Daydreaming", "Hymn of the Big Wheel"
First Massive Attack album /🔥\
I must admit I don't know much about this band besides "Unfinished Sympathy", which I've listened to quite a bit. Does anything match the majesty of that song? No, but what's left of Blue Lines is good in its own right.
Though it's disjointed in a way debut albums can be, with wildly different creatives & collaborators offering wildly different ideas, there's enough to unify these songs- ghostly synths, vinyl crackling, fantastic drum tracks.
~Will probably like this more over time. I feel like I've heard a lot of music recently that is in some way inspired by Massive Attack; definitely bumped some Burial this past winter
The Modern Lovers
3/5
July 4, 2024
HL: "Hospital", "Roadrunner", "Someone I Care About", "Dignified & Old" (bonus)
I like the organ, thanks Jerry
Context is important; if this was recorded when it was released (1976), it feels like awkward trend-chasing. Knowing that it was actually recorded as early as 1971 makes it surprisingly Modern!
Despite its similarities to 90s alternative & its likeability, if we're talking about marble-mouthed proto-punk music, it has stiff competition in this list. Like, if I had a choice between The Modern Lovers, vs Lou Reed, or Iggy Pop, or New York Dolls, or Television...
John Martyn
3/5
July 8th, 2024
HL: title track, "Over the Hill", "May You Never", "I'd Rather Be the Devil"
Pleasant folky album, didn't stir me as much as his other one on this list (album #768), but I'd like to revisit this in the future (maybe when the leaves start changing)
The upright bass player- Danny Thompson according to the liner notes- really stood out for me tonight for some reason. He also plays on One World, as well as Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story and the Incredible String Band's The 5000 Spirits, two other folky albums I enjoy.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
July 3, 2024
HL: title track, “Mood Indigo”, “What Is This Thing Called Love”, “I See Your Face Before Me”, “I’ll Be Around”
I don’t generally get a kick out of Sinatra’s music. I found the last album hokey (maybe the 2-star rating was too harsh), but THIS tho?
Turns out when you replace cheeky 50’s come-ons with rueful meditations on love and loss, I like Frank Sinatra’s voice a lot more.
I also friggen love the orchestra ebbing and flowing behind him, but that was also true of Songs For Swingin’ Lovers. Both arrangements are courtesy of Nelson Riddle, whose name I’ll have to look for in other contemporary recordings to this one.
Also, I find the whole is greater than the sum of its melancholy parts, as good as the individual songs are.
Hole
4/5
July 5, 2024
HL: title track, "Awful", "Use Once and Destroy", "Northern Star", "Heaven Tonight"
I can barely remember why I was dreading coming across this. Was it the promise of slick late 90's production, that Billy Corgan was involved, or that it's Hole/Courtney Love?
Because I really liked the last Hole (Live Through This), & I highly rated the Smashing Pumpkins' 2 albums.
So, maybe it's that I'm twice shy about 1998 albums (for some reason my least favourite year in music, at least according to the data here).
Well, dread was unfounded
If I have any real criticism, it's that Love's vocal performance seems flatter than I remember, and that it drags a bit after the firecracker that is the first three songs. Yet from "Use Once" onward, I got back in it.
"Northern Star" brings back the visceral roars I remember from the last Hole, in the form of... a spooky acoustic ballad!
The rest of the album is very poppy cuts, but wouldn't be unwelcome on MY 80s/90s radio, that's for sure.
Sam Cooke
4/5
July 6, 2024
HL: "Chain Gang", "Cupid", "Twistin' the Night Away", "Bring It On Home To Me"
Great listen; even with the 2005 "remaster" it still sounds like a bootleg tho
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
Also July 6th, 2024
HL: “Faith Healer”, title track, “Last of the Teenage Idols”
I could be imagining things, but I recall seeing this album cover in a bar in my hometown, which is pretty far from Glasgow.
Respectable hard rock, a good album for being downtown at rush hour
The book really only gives “Next” and “Faith Healer” as reasons why this is on the list, although “Swampsnake” (catchy) & “Vambo” (kinda annoying) are also highlighted on the tracklist. Oh, also they were apparently great live, which I GUESS you get a sense of through the rollicking, fun performances.
The last song sounds like a prototype for how Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf would sell a jillion records 4 years later
3.5
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
59 songs? But last year- last year I had 69! 😡
After breaking that Magnetic Fields album into 3 days of listening, I decided to power through it all today. Broken up, of course- a bit in the wee small hours (speaking of that, here’s another album this week arranged by Nelson Riddle!), a bit before the first coffee, a bit on the work commute, etc.
In no order, highlights include Ella’s takes on:
“Funny Face”, “I Got Rhythm“, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”, “Oh Lady Be Good”, “Just Another Rhumba”, “The Real American Folk Song”, “S Wonderful”, “You’ve Got What Gets Me”, “He Loves and She Loves”.
Since I don’t really choose to listen to vocal jazz in general, I was surprised how much I liked this. 3 hours is a bit numbing for any genre, and there are much shorter albums I didn’t fully absorb on 1st listen.
Nonetheless, I’ve already added Ella & Louis to my personal listen-list, so it’s probably a good takeaway that I didn’t listen to ENOUGH Ella Fitzgerald.
July 7, 2024
The Byrds
3/5
July 10, 2024
HL: “Eight Miles High”, “John Riley”, “Wild Mountain Thyme”, “What’s Happening”, “Why” (non-album single)
My opinion of the Byrds has become increasingly complicated since starting this list. True, I thought they were a great band before & I still think they are today, but pretty much every album has sounded like a mix of legitimately strong folk rock… & studio outtakes, cobbled together. It doesn’t help we’re dealing with 60’s stereo mixing, which is bad at the best of times (see: Revolver, one of my favourite albums ever) but especially distracting here.
Tbf, the psychedelic stylings of “5D”, “Eight Miles High” & “I See You” had me thinking this might be the best Byrds yet, but the one-two punch of “Hey Joe” & “Captain Soul”, an anemic blues number, sent me spiralling back to Earth.
A Byrds greatest hits would be straight fire in comparison to their studio albums 🔥
Thundercat
4/5
kinda psyched for this one, I enjoyed Thundercat's other solo album, It Is What It Is, as well as pretty much any song I've heard him guest on ("Wesley's Theory", "Cracker Island")
Kendrick jump scare on "Walk On By"
edit: 2nd Kendrick jump scare in "Friend Zone" ("Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe")
I can't say why Dimery & co. put it on the 2018 version of the book, since it was removed by the time I got the 2021 version.
It's both a maelstrom of genres & virtuosic compositions, as well as a a mess of ditties about Mortal Kombat, being a cat, & substance abuse (hence the title). If that doesn't sound good to you idk what to tell you bud
yacht rock • astral jazz
HL: "Them Changes", "Uh Uh", "Lava Lamp", "Friend Zone", "Drink Dat", "Inferno"
July 9th, 2024
Laura Nyro
4/5
Later on July 10th...
HL: "Lu", “Poverty Train”, “Eli’s Coming”, "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Emmie"
Too bad this didn't pop up earlier, delightful listen
Suede
3/5
July 11, 2024
HL: “So Young”, “Moving”, "Breakdown”, “Animal Lover”, “Where the Pigs Don’t Fly” (bonus)
Online articles mention the "Big Four" of Britpop- Blur, Oasis, Pulp & Suede.
Well I've heard 5(!) Blur albums, 2 Oasis (Oases), 1 Pulp and not a lick of this band before today.
A fine night-time listen, but in a tricky place between its influences (Smiths & Bowie) and the later 90’s Brit albums that came to define the era more. At least here in North America
Sade
4/5
The fact that Sade doesn’t rhyme with Suede makes me sad
HL: “Smooth Operator”, “Hang On To Your Love”, “When Am I Going to Make a Living“, “I Will Be Your Friend”, “Why Can’t We Live Together”
July 12, 2024
Duke Ellington
4/5
Generator is bringing out the big (band) guns, with Sinatra, Fitzgerald & Ellington all in about a week!
Really happy for Paul and his two-hour sax solo in "Diminuendo", what a warm audience response; speaking of that track, the first listen was grating, the 2nd a few hours later was sublime.
It was weird listening to this when I was craving more straightforward rock (I've been putting on QOTSA & Black Sabbath this scorching weekend, which Ellington isn't QUITE the same frequency as). However, the performances are amazing, it's a bop, I'll give credit where it's due.
HL: "Festival Junction", "Newport Up", "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"
July 13, 2024
Jethro Tull
3/5
sItTiNg On A pArK bEnCh *DUN, DUN-DUN*
I haven't listened to the title track, or any Jethro Tull, in quite some time, so I'm interested in seeing what an album by them is like
👌 not bad, some really pretty moments flit by like “Wond’rin” and “Slipstream”, but too much of it kinda blends together in my ears to be a classic.
Though much of the title track sounds condescending to its subject matter, it’s still a pretty great hard rock tune
HL: title track, “Mother Goose”, “Wond’ring Aloud”, “Locomotive Breath”
July 14, 2024
The Who
5/5
July 15, 2024
HL: "Baba O'Riley", "Bargain", "The Song Is Over", "Getting In Tune", "Behind Blue Eyes", "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Not 1st listen;
with such titans of classic rock/early electronic music being the first and last tracks, it's almost too easy to discount the songs in the middle. But ye shouldn't! "Bargain" and "The Song Is Over" are some of the best Who, if you don't check out before the grand finale of "Behind Blue Eyes" & "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Brian Eno
4/5
HL: "St. Elmo's Fire", "Sombre Reptiles", "Golden Hours", "Becalmed"
consider me becalmed
July 16, 2024
Joanna Newsom
4/5
HL: “Only Skin”, “Monkey & Bear”
If you need me, I have started a new life in the forest
Until my phone dies
Minor Threat
2/5
July 18, 2024
HL: “Betray”, “Cashing”
From what I gather, the influence it had on 90’s punk & grunge, as well as thrash metal makes this a worthy inclusion on this list.
I just don’t find it that fun to listen to
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
I can not remember whether or not I listened to Born to Run in full (60% positive that I did), so for shits & giggles I put on something I’m 100% sure I’ve never heard before: The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973). Though slightly rougher-edged, it has a lot of the exuberant performance & anthemic choruses as heard in, say, the song “Born to Run”.
Now about the *album* Born to Run: Let me be clear. I think my favourite Springsteen is the arena rock that is Born in the USA (unless I'm depressed, then it's Nebraska). However, I do love this album quite a lot. "Thunder Road" never used to be a song I really cared for, until a year or two back where something switched and now it's basically a never-skip. Unless classic rock radio kills it again.
HL: "Thunder Road", "Night", "Backstreets", "Jungleland", "Meeting Across the River", the title track
July 20, 2024
Todd Rundgren
4/5
July 22 (later in the night...)
HL: "International Feel", "Flamingo", "Zen Archer", "Is It My Name",
Unlike Freak Out! & Tago Mago, AWATS puts all its weird stuff right at the beginning. Bold move, Rundgren
Would listen again
Idk much about this man's music, but there are a few albums produced by him on this list: Bat Out of Hell. New York Dolls' self-titled. XTC's Skylarking, which I literally listened to today. When you include this wild psych album, I haven't really gotten closer to identifying Todd's sound or style. Except, I guess, multiple layers? Synths?
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
July 23, 2024
HL: "Now U Want My Love", "All I Ever" (yes, the Kenny G-ass track), "It Takes More", "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee", maybe "Afraid 2 Fly"
Contains some filler in the middle, but overall an enjoyable discovery in 2000s pop. Ms. Dynamite's name, and the bop opener "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee", contradicted the solemnity of the later part of the album.
3.5
XTC
4/5
July 22, 2024
HL: "Summer's Cauldron/Grass", "The Meeting Place", "Season Cycle", "Another Satellite", "Mermaid Smiled", "Dying"
Probably enjoyed this more, or faster, than Apple Venus, though I attribute that to Apple Venus opening the door on XTC's peculiar style.
There's something uncanny about listening to Skylarking as a Beatles fan, since you can find similarities to the earlier bands at the surface level, but the more I pay attention to the songwriting those similarities vanish like smoke. Whose idea was it to put muted trumpets in “Mermaid Smiled”? They’re awesome!
Tom Waits
4/5
Let’s see; I’ve heard Heartattack & Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, & Frank’s Wild Years, so this will be my 5th Waits album.
The guy at his spookiest. Einstürzende Neubaten would be proud 🥹
But really, the industrial leanings in Bone Machine somehow lend themselves really well to Wait’s stabs at country, blues n’ gospel songs. Why was I apprehensive towards this album? The reviews made it sound a lot more unpleasant than it actually is. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Waits album without some headscratchers. Why does he have a lisp in “Jesus”? What are those sub-minute interludes? Yet even with those in mind, it somehow sounds exactly like the album he wanted to make at the time, even though it sometimes has the air of never before heard b-sides and studio footage.
HL: “Dirt in the Ground”, “In the Colosseum”, “Goin’ Out West”, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”, “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me”
Elliott Smith
3/5
July 26, 2024
HL: “Between the Bars”, “Pictures of Me”, “Speed Trials”, “Say Yes”
One of those albums I feel like I should enjoy more than I do. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers was a favourite a few years ago, and it’s clearly inspired by Elliott Smith. That isn’t to say he doesn’t strike a chord from time to time, particularly in songs from his later albums (“Waltz No. 2”) but Either/Or’s honest, conversational lyrics come with songs that aren’t as remarkable to me.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
July 29, 2024
HL: the title theme, "Romantic Theme", "Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai", "Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na They", "Baby Let's Dance"
I didn't do this justice. Apple Music didn't have this (despite claims on the Internet to the contrary), and the YouTube upload turned out to be in a random order, so my primary criticism about the songs not flowing properly doesn't hold up.
There was enjoyment to be had, despite the fact that I've never tried listening to a Bollywood soundtrack before today. It's kinda trippy, although some of the effects (esp. the reverb on the vocals) were distracting. For those confused about this inclusion on the list, let me make the following suggestion:
wah wah sitar
3.5/5
Now I'll listen to College Girl, out of a desire for completion; it's not a real entry, but the book lists Shalimar & College Girl together, and I just do as the book guides
update: "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" jumpscare
Digital Underground
2/5
July 28, 2024
:/
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
Let me preface this by saying, I try to listen to every album like a friend has recommended it to me. Most of the time it has helped keep my mind open, but I hated PiL’s First Issue almost immediately. Imagine my disbelief when I found out there was another on this list, longer and even more abrasive (according to reviews) >:0
But, like many entries on this list, my opinion of First Issue has changed over time, most notably with the opening track “Theme”. Once an atonal slog, the emotion & intensity became more believable to me on repeat listens. It also seems to be the prototype for how this album sounds, cold & uncompromising.
Yet against all odds, this longer offering felt easier to listen to. While the greater focus on the rhythm section and atmosphere drove many of the songs into repetition & abstraction, it also means there’s less of Johnny Rotten’s more annoying vocal tendencies.
If you’ve heard Trans-Europe Express, you might agree that despite the repetition, you feel like you’re in transit, on the way somewhere. Metal Box/Second Edition, gives me a similar vibe, except the destination sounds a lot more ghastly.
There are perhaps too many stinkers to rank it higher (um, “The Suit” for one, don’t really like “Albatross” either), but overall I loved the strange guitar tone (which maybe isn’t as strange compared to later new wave releases), as well as the more dubby bass from Jah Wobble.
HL: “Radio 4”, “Graveyard”, “Poptones”, “Swan Lake”, “Memories”
July 27, 2024
Paul Weller
4/5
July 30, 2024
HL: "Sunflower", "Holy Man", "Country", "5th Season", "Shadow of the Sun"
Okay, we're at Paul Weller #4, after two the Jams & one The Style Council.
Does this need to be on the list? My answer is no, it sounds like from my extensive Wikipedia skimming that Weller wanted to make a Traffic album and succeeded, but we already have Traffic (plus the aforementioned Weller albums, plus John Martyn who was another major influence on this album).
H O W E V E R
This may also be one of the best ones on the generator this week, besides Bone Machine; the straightforward, easy-going nature makes it a great companion to the morning of my day off.
"Shadow of the Sun" is the longest track by far, but it's also my fave
ZZ Top
3/5
HL: “Gimme All Your Lovin” "Sharp Dressed Man", "Legs", "I Need You Tonight"
At least we’ll always have the 1st half of Eliminator
I’ve heard the singles (not “Tv Dinners”, thank goodness) many, many times growing up on BOB FM; they were one of my entry points into 80s rock culture, along with The Cars, Guns n’ Roses and the legendary Weird Al.
It’s clear after the halfway point that it doesn’t really get better than those singles, though I appreciate “Thug” & “I Need You Tonight” for being the outliers in a pretty homogenous-sounding record.
3.5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
2021: I got Blue,
2022: Court & Spark,
2023: The Hissing of Summer Lawns,
Now Hejira, on July 31, 2024
ooh I'm liking the echoey, dark, desert landscape this evokes so far
The less conventional song structures are back, last heard in Hissing. Though this album is a lot more consistent sounding than that one, it lacks Hissing's element of surprise (insert African drum loop here).
The interplay between Mitchell & Pastorius's guitars may be the best thing about Hejira.
I suspect this might be numero uno for Mitchell albums on this website, but I also thought that about the last 3.
This & Court & Spark are the two I have a physical copy of, so maybe they can fight for the top?
HL: "Coyote", "Amelia", title track, "Black Crow"
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
(the night of) July 31, 2024
HL: "Lucretia", "This Corrosion", "Driven Like the Snow", "Never Land"
Points for being big & gothic & ridiculous; points taken for the canned 80s drums & talk-sung vocals that I feel take away from the atmosphere these songs could have possessed.
I bet the Sisters would be better live
3.5
The Bees
4/5
not the BEES
I know exactly one song of theirs that I'm very fond of, which I found in a chance LimeWire discovery. I was looking for "Stand" by R.E.M. and I somehow downloaded a 2007 Bees song of the same name. Worth the untimely demise of my parents' Windows XP PC
Okay, recognized that riff from Os Mutantes immediately
Sometimes I sniff at white (usually British) bands co-opting sounds of the Caribbean, or Brazil, but, ehh *gestures at Paul Simon, The Police, The Clash, this album* clearly there are a lot of examples I enjoy
Okay, despite the fact that it got almost too breezy towards the end, Sunshine Hit Me is also exactly what the doctor ordered on a hot, hazy afternoon.
HL: "No Trophy", "Bimmel Bay", "Zia",
August 1, 2024
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
August 2, 2024
HL: title track, “Freedom Train”, “Rosemary”, “Empty Hands”
A little patchwork in quality, but I enjoyed this debut for its mix of the Beatlesque (title track) & psych-funk (“Fear”, “Freedom Train”)
3.5
Kelela
4/5
Eminem
2/5
Goldfrapp
4/5
August 7, 2024
HL: “Clowns”, “Happiness”, “Eat Yourself”, “Caravan Girl”, “A&E”
Echo And The Bunnymen
5/5
August 8, 2024
It’s been a long road to get to a THIRD Echo album
Gee willikers I did not care about this album until about 10 seconds into “The Cutter”, & now it’s one of my favourite albums in a minute.
I didn’t get the gothy fix I was craving with The Sisters of Mercy, but Porcupine, with its strange song structures, “found” percussion & cavernous reverb, gets me there.
The austere glacier on the front cover talks a mean talk, but is appropriate for the icy contents within
TLC
3/5
August 7, 2024
HL: “Sumthin’ Wicked”, “Waterfalls”, “Diggin’ on You”, “Creep”
I haven’t really given classic hip-hop its due recently (with both Digital Underground & Eminem ranking pretty low on albums I can’t wait to listen to again).
CrazySexyCool, while more neo-soul than rap, has been more enjoyable. Like the previous two, it also has the skits working to, if I had to guess, fill out the length to an hour. Idk if it's an essential album, but it contains some essential songs ("Creep", "Waterfalls")
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
August 9, 2024
Not first listen, though it’s been awhile (I seem more familiar with the 1st half than the 2nd)
One of those albums I like more than when I first heard it the first time (see also: Ok Computer, The Wall, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen)
A lot of people on this site (understandably) prefer Rumours’s illusion of a band united; however, I appreciate how in Tusk, each of the creative forces get away with doing their own thing.
Part of me believes that Lindsay doing his own drums on some of his songs instead of Mick is arrogance; the other part feels that it probably was the quickest way to reach his idea of modern/punk music.
Sara, Storms, Brown Eyes, The Ledge, Not that Funny, Save Me a Place, Beautiful Child, the TITLE TRACK 🎺
I friggin love this
Taylor Swift
3/5
August 11, 2024
HL: "Willow", "Gold Rush", "Happiness", "Marjorie"
As good as the music has been lately, much of it seems suited to much colder weather than what I've been having; Seventh Tree, Porcupine, & especially this,
tisn't the damn season
Funny that around the same time I started this project (early 2021), both this and Folklore were still pretty new & fresh. However I gave the latter my attention (rare for anything Swift-related), while only hearing a couple songs from this one.
Since it's been a few years since I listened to Folklore in full (& a year since listening to 1989), I can judge Evermore as its own release and not just offcuts from the preceding album.
It's definitely the most interesting of the 3, in my opinion; the electro/acoustic sides balance themselves really nicely, & some rich, atmospheric moments ebb and flow by like in "Happiness", "Closure" & "Gold Rush".
I do wonder whether my preference for this over 1989 has more to do with the "sad Christmas" aesthetic than actual lyrical content & song structure. For every "Willow" that I was vibing to, there was a "Champagne Problems" that I didn't really engage with. It's still a pretty consistent listen. A far cry from 1989, which had at least one song I plain do NOT like ("Bad Blood").
3.5, maybe a 5 later
Pink Floyd
5/5
August 10, 2024
Oh God, I’ve:
-listened to this over and over
-seen the movie
- bought Roger Waters: The Wall tour on BluRay
- watched R.W. do songs from this album with my own eyes in 2017
Is there any point in listening again? Are there any surprises left that my seventeen-year-old self hasn’t already gleaned?
Well, I’ve never noticed the rhythmic breathing in “Don’t Leave Me Now”
Or just how much noise is in the background in “Is Anybody Out There?” & “Nobody Home”
But yep- “Mother”, “Comfortably Numb”, the “this is when the Nazi section comes in” section- they’re all where I left them.
As pompous and self-pitying as it can be, there’s also basically nothing I’d change about it- right up to the breathtaking dementia of “The Trial”
Take ya 5 stars & get outta my face
The Associates
4/5
August 12, 2024
HL: “Skipping”, “Party Fears Two”, “Country Club”, the instrumentals
Perhaps I’m rating this too high, but I was fascinated with this album.
Look at a song like “It’s Better This Way”- it’s not worlds apart from what the Cure were doing around this time, but perhaps even eerier with its repetitive, discordant synth strings.
Or “Club Country”, one of the poppiest songs, yet the production drowns it in these aggressive, sci-fi sound effects in the background.
I’m not making much of a case for why I like Sulk so much, but unlike a few of the new wave/post punks on this list, it grabbed my attention and didn’t let go.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Overrated
The Velvet Underground
3/5
August 13, 2024
HL: “Murder Mystery”, “Jesus”, “Pale Blue Eyes”
Held off rating for a day to collect my thoughts, & I still don’t know wot I think of this
Not as strong as the Banana one, but definitely a gentler listen.
“Murder Mystery” is straight up a Sonic Youth song
ZZ Top
4/5
The Stranglers
3/5
August 15, 2024
HL: “Sometimes”, “Goodbye Toulouse” “Get a Grip”
+ bass
+ keyboards
- - the fact that a lot of quirky, punky albums around this era pale in comparison to the B-52’s debut, even though I have to live with the three stars I gave THAT one. Maybe I’ll be yearning for this one a year from now
P.S. hearing this and their 1979 album “The Raven” back-to-back; I appreciate them leaning into the (somewhat tacky) keyboard sound of Rattus Norvegicus
Little Simz
5/5
August 16, 2024
HL: "Selfish", "Wounds", "Venom", "101 FM", "Pressure", "Flowers"
My curiosity about this album soared after getting the 2021 edition of the book.
The front cover: Nevermind by Nirvana, very famous album cover, makes sense.
Back cover: a black-and-white picture of, well, somebody I had never seen before. Oh, it's English rapper Little Simz! Side-by-side with Nirvana? Alright.
I didn't actually listen to the whole thing before today, but I put on 2021's S.I.M.B.I. after the Simz hype finally reached me... this year. Actually that's not accurate, since I bought both this CD & Kiwanuka in a mall, after recognizing both artists from the book, *over a year ago*. Didn't think it would take this long to get either of them on the generator, but I can finally say the purchase was worth it.
After acclimating to certain tracks like "Venom", "I Love You, I Hate You" (SIMBI), and "Gorilla" (2022's No Thank You), throughout the past year, I'm not exactly surprised that I like this whole album.
The rawness of "Sherbet Sunset" & "Boss", next to the beauty in "Selfish" & "Flowers", delineates how fine-tuned the elements of Grey Area are; never overpowering each other, and often existing simultaneously (e.g. "101 FM")
I haven't been the most enthusiastic about hip-hop recently (let alone British hip-hop) but to me, this is up there with the greats.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Album #597 was my 1st Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (Ghosteen)- now at #868 I have my 5th. How time flies
He’s an interesting case in that there are definitely Nick Cave albums on other “great” lists (I’ve been reading through them), but critics can’t decide on which ones deserve to be there. Skeleton Tree & Let Love In are examples of touted Seeds that aren’t a part of this list.
I think Henry’s Dream has a lot going for it; the drama, the macabre, the strings. His dark folkiness is still best represented in Abbatoir/Orpheus, but there’s a radio rock sensibility here that’s only matched in the Boatman’s Call (+ a couple songs in Murder Ballads) of the albums I’ve encountered.
I’ve often judged music from how it’d sound on a car radio, probably because I got back into this project through long highway commutes towards a job I used to have.
In that regard, I wouldn’t mind hearing “Straight To You” on a dark desert highway
HL: "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" (oof not the homophobia), "Straight To You", "Brother My Cup Is Empty", "John Finn's Wife"
August 17, 2024
The White Stripes
4/5
Madonna
3/5
Madonna 3/3 (after LaP and RoL)
HL: “Amazing”, “What It Feels Like For a Girl”, title track
Can’t love it, can’t hate it. Exists in a blind spot I have in late 90’s/early aughts pop.
Orbit’s work on the track “Amazing” makes me think I underrated his work on Ray of Light.
It does anticipate 2000s dance-pop trends as some critics have suggested, but to me they’re all the ones that make me look back and think “what a tacky era of music”
But to illustrate my biases, I put on Robyn’s Body Talk (2010) on for the first time the other day, and I don’t think that aged the best either. Would definitely choose that over Madonna’s eighth album on a list of this caliber, though
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
Such a quiet album, I kept increasing the headphones volume on Apple Music throughout the experience, then had my eardrums assaulted by a different Bonnie Billy song queued up at the end.
Having known this guy only from a role in A Ghost Story (2017), I didn’t know what to expect from his songs, although I had an idea: harsh growls à la Tom Waits, as befitting the title + skull on the cover.
I was wrong. It’s still a dark, sometimes emotional listen, but the music & Oldham’s voice is immediately easy on the ears.
HL: title track, “Death To Everyone”, “Madeleine-Mary”, “Today I Was An Evil One”
August 20, 2024
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
August 21st, 2024
HL: "Give It Away", "Under the Bridge", "The Power of Equality", "Suck My Kiss", "Breaking the Girl", "Funky Monks"
It's strange, sometimes I hear a Rick Rubin produced record, & I consider it worse off. But then I hear something like this, or Raising Hell by Run-DMC, & I think wow, he should produce everything
To quote another anonymous review: "It feels like something a chubby middle school kid would listen to before he puts on a fedora and goes to the school dance, where he just stands in the corner judging the kids who are having fun"
I resent that, sir! I was not chubby in middle school
But I did once think they were one of the great rock bands, though my Chilis of choice during middle school was part Californication, part Stadium Arcadium. I still think they were among the best to fuse rock and funk music, though I concur you could shave 15 minutes off B.S.S.M. and it would be just fine.
To (mis)quote Community:
Look, eventually, you hit a point of diminishing returns on the horniness
Pixies
4/5
August 22, 2024
HL: "Monkey Gone To Heaven", "Debaser", "Wave of Mutilation", "Here Comes Your Man", "No. 13 Baby"
it's been... 743 albums since the last Pixies, Surfer Rosa. And I didn't like it! It's an opinion I've been atoning for the last two years, even though I still don't completely embrace its fusion of quirky melodies with god-awful noise. Ultimately, both it and the Big Black album (both produced by Steve Albini) have earned my begrudging respect.
So far, Doolittle is a much easier album to like for me, but not really leaps and bounds from Surfer. I guess a little polish can go a long way
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Dr. Dre
4/5
August 26, 2024
HL: “Dre Day”, “Let Me Ride”, “G Thang”, “Lil Ghetto Boy”
The Chronic saves its worst song for the end, so that the actual songs between Intro & Outro are stronger as a result. Thanks, Dr.!
I’m pretty lukewarm on Straight Outta Compton (the album, not the song) but I have enjoyed Dre’s production for artists like Snoop Dogg, Eminem & Kendrick Lamar quite a bit.
The G-funk sound has been copied so frequently that The Chronic sounded like a cliche at first, even though it pioneered that sound. While I could object to the violent lyrics, it’s so integral to the era & image (& massive success) that I might as well complain about the Wu-Tang Clan rapping about samurai, or Kraftwerk singing about robots.
Another enjoyable album from a subgenre I’m historically biased against
Talvin Singh
5/5
August 25, 2024
HL: “Traveller”, “Butterfly”, “Sutrix”, title track, “Light”
Had low expectations going into this (the late 90s picks of this list are hit-or-miss imo), but it blew me away. Somehow equally fitting for a rave & a spa. I was worried when the grandeur of “Traveller” gave way to the dirty synths in “Sutrix”, but by the end I believed it was all part of the same artistic vision. For comparison, I didn’t always feel that way with Red Snapper and Nitin Sawhney from this list, era, and country (the UK, surprise surprise).
An uneasy 5 stars from me
New Order
4/5
Aug. 27 (after hours)
HL: "Vanishing Point", "Run", "Guilty Partner", "All the Way"
3rd New Order I've heard, after Low Life and Power, Corruption & Lies
I can't argue for the importance of Technique in relation to acid house, synthpop or even among New Order albums. But it sounds good & I like it so... 4 stars it is
5/5
Time since the last The Beatles on this list: a year and a month
Time since I last listened to a Beatles album: like a day ago, when I put on Beatles For Sale 🤠
It’s not every day that I can just vibe with Sgt Pepper like I can with, say, Abbey Road or Rubber Soul, but today is one of those days. Between the orchestras in “Within You” & “Day in the Life”, the animal sounds in “Good Morning” & the tape samples in “Mr. Kite”, it’s as colourful as its sleeve suggests, but noisy in a way no other Beatles albums are (save Yellow Submarine, where “Only a Northern Song” & “It’s All Too Much” take the cake for Beatlesque avant-garde).
The title track reprise & “Lovely Rita” sound much newer than the 60s, in part because the innovations from Martin, Emmerick & co. are felt in later releases all across the rock and pop spectrum.
I was shopping for milk when the dog whistle came on @ the end, and it was all I could do not to attack the other customers in a feral rage, but apart from that I’d say the almost 60 years of hype for Sgt. Pepper is warranted.
August 27, 2024
5/5
Not fair to get an all-time favourite twice in a row; what do I have to look forward to for the last 200 albums now /s
If there’s one criticism I hold for BH&R, the flow is a bit odd. Intro “Take a Bow” belongs at the beginning, but the pretty “Starlight” immediately afterwards is a bit of whiplash.
They’ve had some up and downs, but there isn’t a Muse album I don’t like
Led Zeppelin
5/5
You gotta be kidding me, Beatles, Muse & Zep one after another?
I'm a big Houses of the Holy apologist, but at least one song here ("Trampled Under Foot") is a retread of a HotH song ("The Crunge") but done much better. In terms of songs evoking a beach, I'd take "Down By the Seaside" over "D'yer Maker"
"In the Light" and "Ten Years Gone" have grown on me substantially since I heard them years ago, which makes me wonder whether the intimidating length of this album bothered me more back then.
My favourite Zep (if not this or Led Zeppelin IV) is their III, so “Black Country Woman” & “Bron-Yr-Aur” are fantastic breaks from the Rock And Roll 🪨
Underworld
2/5
Albums from this month I own on CD/vinyl:
The Wall, Thriller, Sgt. Peppers, GREY Area, & whatever this is (I found it in a Cdn thrift store for two bucks :0)
It sure is a lot of techno all at once.
Wikipedia needs to cite their sources when it comes to "anthemic melodies", as this is by no means a melodic album.
"Blueski" sounds like it's about to become the electro/acoustic bop of the summer, and then it just... ends.
There are quite a few overlong albums I adore (Speakerboxx/The Love Below, Tusk, hell even Logical Progression if we’re talking electronica). Second Toughest is shorter than all 3 but I *felt* the length.
I didn't love it, but it's certainly worth working out to. (Of course, that would require one to work out.)
2.5
HL: "Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream of Love", "Banstyle/Sappy's Curry", "Stagger", "Born Slippy" (bonus)
August 30, 2024
The Dictators
3/5
Manitoba mentioned, 20 stars out of 5
August 31, 2024
HL: “The Next Big Thing”, “Master Race Rock”, “Cars & Girls”
3/5
HL: "Horses in My Dreams", "Kamikaze", "Big Exit", "The Whores Hustle...", "The Mess We're In"
Looking back at the other PJ Harveys on this list, I'd say Let England Shake was my favourite, but Rid of Me, representing 90's alternative, has the most reason to be on this list.
Stories is in an interesting midway point between the lower-fi Dry & Rid of Me, & the more melodic Let England Shake. It's not a huge departure from her 90's stuff musically, just smoothed over with hip, easy-on-the-ears production... until it isn't ("Kamikaze")
Perhaps as a result of knowing its enduring critical popularity, I let my expectations run too wild and found myself (a teensy bit) disappointed in the album I got versus the one I built up in my head. Though this may be the last I see of PJ Harvey on this website, the enigma remains as to why I can't get into her more, despite all 4 albums being really good in one way or another. Guess I gotta keep listening to her then -_-
3.5
Still September 5, 2024
The Prodigy
3/5
September 3, 2024
🦀🦀 $11 for Apple Music 🦀🦀
🦀🦀 uses it for a 2nd Prodigy album 🦀🦀
I saw the "Firestarter" video online as a kid for some reason* and it did absolutely nothing for me. Ultimately I didn't mind The Fat of the Land, even though I predicted I'd dislike it. Some of the vocals are obnoxious but most of the tracks are pretty fun.
HL: "Climbatize", "Mindfields", "Smack My B*tch Up"
*I remember now, it was to understand Weird Al's parody of the video ("I can't believe this haircut!")
Dolly Parton
4/5
Gives the Highwaymen a run for their money
Iron Butterfly
4/5
Sept 5, 2024
the solo around 11:26 of the title track is maybe my favourite organ solo in pop music
rest of the album is pretty good too
Erykah Badu
4/5
Alice Cooper
4/5
the stereo panning is doing some weird sheeit
Hm, time to rethink my opinion of Alice Cooper. An early favourite when I was first learning about classic rock, turned C-list radio mainstay (oh wow, "School's Out" AGAIN), they managed to wow me today. An opulent monument to bad taste
HL: "Hello Hooray", "Elected", "No More Mr. Nice Guy", "Mary Ann"
September 7, 2024
The United States Of America
4/5
September 8, 2024
"Cloud Song", "The Garden of Earthly Delights, "Where Is Yesterday", "Coming Down", "Love Song For the Dead Che"
Almost anti-musical at times (a la Throbbing Gristle, if that's not too extreme a comparison), but a majority of tracks are disarmingly pretty. I missed a lot of the satire/politics, though, maybe that's a lack of 60's education on my part (though it shines through on titles like "Love Song for the Dead Ché" and "The American Metaphysical Circus".
Delirious and dreamy
Donald Fagen
3/5
Night of September 8, 2024
HL: "Maxine", "I.G.Y." the title track
Contrary to my attempts to be open-minded, I decided this was a three star album before listening to it. An 80's solo spinoff from Steely Dan?
I enjoy some Steely Dan, and there's enough here to appeal to fans of that band. But it somehow took the slippery smooth production of Aja even further into the clinical jazz we get here. Interestingly, the lyrics themselves are wistful and descriptive; there is soul to be found.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
I thought this was a German band during childhood
edit: oh they actually sing lines in German, forgive me for making that mistake >:0
They're not escaping the 'derivative' accusations on this website, but Gang of Four updated with a modern sheen turns out to be all that I needed today. The 70s retroisms such as the spooky organ in "Come on Home" & a vocal performance not too removed from David Byrne don't take away from the fact that it's a 2000s classic; it's not really an anachronism when contemporaries LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes & Green Day were all plundering classic rock in some way or another.
HL: "Take Me Out", "This Fire", "Michael", "Dark of the Matinee", "Darts of Pleasure"
Bill Callahan
4/5
The faded pasture in the album artwork fits the music surprisingly well, even if this is no regular country album
The first song I heard from this was "Faith/Void" for some reason (maybe an Apple Music-curated playlist). It works better as the finale from this album, but on its own I was quite turned off by its length. I will say though, that from experience the loss of faith is a painful thing, so having that message in a repetitive mantra is some delicious irony.
The string arrangements are absolutely gorgeous and remind me of Parks's arrangements on Joanna Newsom's Ys. Oh wow, on a quick Wiki refresher, turns out Bill Callahan sang on that record as well!
Watched the Tiny Desk concert promoting this album in the distant era of... 2009. I appreciate it even more, since Callahan's wry sense of humour came through much more clearly in that performance.
was prepared to be bored by this artist; that turned out not to be a problem
HL: "Eid My Clack Shaw", "The Wind and the Dove", "Too Many Birds", "All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast"
September 10, 2024
k.d. lang
4/5
“Miss Chatelaine”, “Still Thrives This Love”, “Season of Hollow Soul”, “Constant Craving”
Though the musk of 90’s, adult contemporary, Canadian radio haunts this album, Ingenue is too eclectic & self-aware to fade into the background like some other 90’s pop
The Cars
5/5
not 1st listen
HL: “JUST WHAT I NEEDED”, “My Best Friend’s Girl”, “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”, “Moving in Stereo”, “Bye Bye Love”
and “Good Times Roll”
September 12, 2024
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
September 13, 2024
HL: title track, "Love Letter", "Have a Heart", "I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again"
The only song I knew before today was "Have a Heart"
Think this album's greatness lies mainly in opening the door for later Bonnie Raitt albums, though there are some great songs here. The opener & closer are enjoyable, though together they represent the unevenness of Nick of Time; slick 80s pop contrasting hard-hitting blues
3.5
Circle Jerks
2/5
HL: Paid Vacation, Live Fast Die Young, Operation
waste of 15 minutes
The Beach Boys
5/5
September 15, 2024
HL: "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "You Still Believe In Me", "Sloop John B", "God Only Knows", "I Know There's An Answer"
NOT first listen— it’s a stunna
For context, in 2007, my Xmas gift of an iPod Nano came with this album (among others). It took several years for me to really appreciate this album, but whoa is it a treat to revisit it.
Forgot how good “I’m Waiting For the Day” and “Here Today” were
Radiohead
4/5
September 16, 2024
HL: "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung", "Black Star", "Street Spirit", "High and Dry"
Radiohead #4 on this list
I guess I used my witchcraft to summon this album, since I just listened to The King of Limbs (2011) for the first time, an odd duck in their catalogue but still enjoyable to me (like a 3.5/5). Which means I listened to *every* other single album in Radiohead's catalogue, including Pablo Honey, before hearing The Bends once in full.
Now, the surprise isn't really there, since I knew the big songs, like "High and Dry" & "Street Spirit", in passing. I guess knowing them from their later, more eclectic releases makes the homogeneity of The Bends surprising. No jazz bands this time? No strange, syncopated time signatures?
Perhaps my slowness in reaching The Bends has to do with "Fake Plastic Trees";
In my first attempts to get into Radiohead, I saw it was touted as *the* great song of theirs (well maybe along with "Karma Police" & "Creep"). And I thought it was good, but in the realm of lighter-waving anthems from Coldplay, The Verve, Muse, Snow Patrol, etc., it kinda got lost in the mix. Now, I hear its fragility ("If I could be who you wanted / all the time") & slow build on a simple musical idea, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful songs of the 90s. I don't know what changed, tbh
Aside from that song, I enjoy this album, but consider my feathers unruffled. Admittedly, I see several of the songs in the same light I used to see "Plastic Trees". Logically, this implies The Bends will be my favourite Radiohead album at some point.
Coldcut
3/5
What’s Coldcut? --well, I'm finding out, thanks to 3dou on YT. First couple songs are good,
third had the Fall's frontman on (distorted) lead vocals, which was unfortunate
Bonkers Tarzan sample on "Stop This Crazy Thing", I dig it
Ah :/ I realize I have to do a bit of further digging, since "Smoke 1" and "Doctorin' the House" of the original UK album are replaced in the US version, aka the aforementioned YT upload. Seems there are other differences, like track lengths... but I don't really care about those
Okay, done the album- definitely earns the "Big Dumb Fun" award from me personally. Reminiscent of the sound of Gorillaz and the Avalanches. Now let's see what the US version is hiding...
"Smoke 1" plus Queen Latifah is maybe my favourite track now, but it was decent as an instrumental too, ngl. "Not Paid Enough" is fine, but long
HL: "People Hold On", "Which Doctor", "Smoke Dis One" (US Version), "Doctorin' the House" (UK Version)
September 17, 2024
Joe Ely
4/5
I’ve reached the 900th album here :)
Much like the 600th and 700th, it’s a country album. But wait- this ain’t no run of the mill country! “Cornbread Moon” gets a 4/4 breakdown (in contrast to the swing) not unlike punk rock, & “Boxcars” gets a hard rock guitar solo. It’s a crossover that is more in tune with the musical trends of the late 70s, and less with the outlaw/country rock of the 60s. However, many of the other tracks are pretty traditionalist; still glad we get that variety that’s missing from a few country records on this list
Rounding up to a 4 today
Solange
5/5
September 19, 2024
HL: "Cranes in the Sky", "Mad", "Don't Touch My Hair", "Junie", "Don't Wish Me Well", "FUBU"
an odd note but the leader of Dirty Projectors produces several tracks
quietly intense, initially thought the amount of interludes were excessive but the whole album flows together really well with their help. Some songs are so good ("Cranes in the Sky", "Don't Wish Me Well") I regret not hearing this album earlier. I had misgivings about "neo soul" early on in this journey, but between this, Erykah Badu & Sault, there's been a lot of good representation from that subgenre.
Definitely have been bumping this more than the average AOTD
The Who
3/5
Who #5
Barry Adamson
2/5
September 21, 2024
HL: "Sounds from the Big House", "The Swinging Detective", “Auto Destruction”
Listened in the dark, which I gather is intended for the album’s contents.
The only album this merits comparison to is Adamson’s other solo album on this list, which I had ca. a year ago. And while I appreciate the lack of celeb cameos this time around, there is a lot of space and noise that feels like padding to get it to 60 minutes.
The arrangements are eerie & jazzy, but are buried in the muddy production. In a way, it’s not too dissimilar to The Caretaker/ Leland Kirby’s use of degraded vinyl & reverb to disfigure old ballroom music. But while that artist’s projects happen to resonate emotionally, I spent most of Moss Side Story thinking about how I’m *meant* to feel from the artist’s intentions. I say this as someone who will put on soundtracks from the likes of Doctor Who, Gladiator & If Beale Street Could Talk just to feel somethin’
Those rewarded by listening to the bonus tracks get a cover of “Man With the Golden Arm” that’s much louder than the other tracks. Not fair to headphone users! >:o
Kings of Leon
3/5
I first started paying attention to music reviews/journalism around 2009, when I got a hold of a few issues of Rolling Stone. As such, the 2000isms of this list make a lot of sense to me in the context, for instance, Aha Shake Heartbreak being my 3rd album from the Followills on here.
In their 100 greatest albums of the aughts, R.S. rated this one higher than Vespertine, Late Registration & Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, despite all of those having much more general acclaim nowadays.
I still remember a cover story in that 'zine dedicated to this band & its members' volatility & alcohol abuse, and I remember thinking 'the "Use Somebody" guys??' Well, the beat-em-up music video for "Four Kicks", the f-bombs & the general raunchiness set the record straight here, in contrast with the slick Only By the Night & the gentler Can We Please Have Fun (not on this generator, it's the album they just dropped this year).
Though I may be a Kings of Leon apologist, I didn't take to this album right away. Which is odd, since the logical part of my brain has decided that it's a better-built album than their debut, Youth & Young Manhood. I don't regret the way I listened to it, a city walk on a Sunday morning, though perhaps a relisten in the future with fewer distractions would be valuable. The only song I heard before today is "Taper Jean Girl", which is a decent stomp but I don't find that "haw haw" hook all too compelling. It probably kills when sung live, though.
The dogged single-mindedness of Aha is part of what gives it charm, but partly why my brain tuned it out at times.
3.5
HL: "Day Old Blues", "The Bucket", "Four Kicks", "King of the Rodeo"
September 22, 2024
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
confusing, there's a Canadian band called Teenage Head
Hm, a weird week where Kings of Leon & The Who* didn't impress me like I thought they would, but this random San Fran rock band wins me over in like 2 songs.
No points for originality tho
Edit: listened to it a second time, I fear after the initial surprise I don't get much of a lasting impression. Still fun though
HL: "High Flyin Baby", “Have You Seen My Baby”, "Whiskey Woman"
*Speaking of Live at Leeds, perhaps it was a mistake to put on the expanded version, banter & all, rather than the 6-track version.
Violent Femmes
4/5
September 24, 2024
HL: "Blister in the Sun", "Please Do Not Go", "Confessions", "Gone Daddy Gone"
Violent Femmes' debut is what I imagined the Pixies would sound like, before seriously listening to either band.
I knew "Gone Daddy Gone" as a Gnarls Barkley song, back in 2007; this might be the first time I've listened to the original version. Strange!
Overall, I enjoyed the mix of melodic, hooky folk mixed with darker, noisier moments. As the top review on this website implies, it's about 10 years ahead of its time.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Sept. 25: y’know what? I’m gonna save this for a worse day
Sept. 30: not a bad day (windy and chilly tho), just wanted to close out this month with some Zep
Perhaps I just mean that I’ve heard it on the radio too much, but in terms of Zep opening tracks, the stop-starty “Black Dog” might be my least favourite, save perhaps “In the Evening”. Of course, that’s going up against stiff competition as “Achilles Last Stand” and “Good Times Bad Times”, so one could also say I just don’t love it as much as the other tracks.
Of course, radio overplay doesn’t mean I don’t adore “Rock and Roll”, “The Battle”, “Stairway”, “Misty Mountain Hop”, and “When the Levee Breaks”. The song I hear the least is, wait for it, “Four Sticks” but that means it felt like I was hearing the chiming guitars towards the end for the 1st time. And “California” is great!-but I will always overlook it in favour of “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp” & “That’s The Way” from III.
If it wasn’t for III, then IV would probably be my favourite.
David Holmes
3/5
cool blend of field recordings and jittery electronica
but it's (‘say the line, Bart!’) too long in my opinion. I found the first couple songs to be the best, but the uneasy 2nd half of the album, especially after the 4-drug cocktail bender, get points for being eerie as heck.
The dub song is also 🔥
HL: "Slasher's Revenge", "My Mate Paul", title track
September 26, 2024
Boston
5/5
Sept. 27: Imma save this for a worse day
October 1, 2024
the crème de la crème of A.O.R.
The omen for Boston's lack of future smash hits comes as soon as "Something About You", which I think is fun but basically rips off its own A-side.
How did I not realize the UFOs on the cover were guitars?
The Mars Volta
4/5
September 28, 2024
I’ve been hearing the name Cedric Bixler-Zavala in the news for a while; however my only exposure to the Mars Volta has been through a song in Guitar Hero IV.
Deciding to dig a little deeper today, pairing this album with Relationship of Command by At the Drive-In, Cedric’s former band, to get a sense of this songwriter.
Alright, that was At the Drive-In. Pretty shouty, but also high energy without being completely exhausting. Reminds me of the (newer) band Alexisonfire. Interestingly, the sfx, sudden changes & odd atmospheric passages suggest that there is already some prog pre-Mars Volta.
Edit: now for the actual album at hand. Deloused is not that far from the earlier band’s post-hardcore sound, though the vocals are more dynamic. The lyrics are hopelessly obtuse, with any attempt to follow the story met with failure. However, the album really shines in the instrumental passages, where hard riffs meet Santana-esque Latin grooves.
The hour (well closer to 2 hours, since I restarted it after getting distracted during the 12-minute “Cicatriz”) was exhausting in a way I usually only get with the heavy metal albums on this list, or experimental ones by Can & Zappa. Yet I can’t help but admire this monstrosity, even though I acknowledge its aggressive moments aren’t generally what I go for.
Tom Waits
4/5
September 29, 2024
Spent half of this album frustrated that I wasn't in on the jokes like Tom Waits & his audience were, and the other half going ‘"get the puck outta here", aha hockey I understood that reference’ 🤓
A pleasant enough time, I’d like to come back to this album on a cold day in winter, since the faux live setting is undeniably cozy n’ immersive.
This is probably the least essential Waits on this list, but has tons of character & spontaneity even for a Waits album. Still a bit mad at how long it was, but the good far overweighs the not-so-good this time.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
October 2, 2024
I found this on CD :) this’d be the 3rd or 4th time I’ve heard this, then
An upside to the book editors’ tunnel vision after 2010 means that this is the 3rd album this year relating to the Sault collective. Black Is has Kiwanuka, GREY Area has Kiwanuka & Cleo Sol, this has Inflo on production duties. All 3 stunning in their own right, but also each pretty distinctive. I think part of the reason this doesn’t sound like a Sault album has to do with Danger Mouse, who I’m not ENTIRELY sure was an appropriate fit. His compressed beats seem at odds with the orchestral grandeur simultaneously at play.
That’s a minor quibble, though; most of the movement & emotion comes from Kiwanuka’s voice, as well as the songs gracefully overlapping like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. I forgot how moody KIWANUKA was, despite the lightness of the closing & opening tracks.
Gotta go with my gut for this rating
The Charlatans
3/5
October 3, 2024
HL: "North Country Boy", "How Can You Leave Us", "Get On It", title track
I don't know if I'm just saying this because their keyboardist died during recording, but the keyboard is the best thing about this album.
Again, maybe a therapist is the only way to find out what my aversion to 90's rock trends is, but the hip-hop lite: kind of tacky. The Jagger-lite sneering: kind of tacky.
I guess the songwriting & performances are enough to make this an album I decently enjoyed, but ranks pretty low on albums I personally consider essential.
Metallica
4/5
October 2: not today, Metallica
October 5, 2024
Pro: It's Metallica with the S.F.O.
Con: they were still promoting Load/Reload :/
Pro: Pretty much all those cuts sound gud with orchestra
Con: realizing the song "Hero of the Day" was not even halfway through the whole concert
Pro: reading that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "One" are yet to come in the 2nd disc :)
Con: "One" is not as good as the studio version
Pro: "Bell" is pretty fantastic
I think my enjoyment of this album needs context. For one, I've never been a real heavy metal fan, with Metallica's albums generally wearing me out before they're actually over. The orchestra, while ofttimes ridiculous & over-the-top, also made me forget I'm listening to a 2-hour heavy metal album.
The other thing is that the rest of the Metallica on this list were all generated quite a while ago (last one was October 2022), so it's a bit nostalgic at this point, hearing these revamped versions of "Nothing Else Matters" and "Battery". Like no time has passed at all ;)
HL: "Master of Puppets", "Fuel", "Wherever I May Roam", "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
Marty Robbins
5/5
Late October 3rd, 2024
HL: “Big Iron”, “El Paso”, “Cool Water”, “The Master’s Call”, “Utah Carol”, “In the Valley”
If not the finest country album I’ve heard on this list, definitely in the top 5
Shoutout to “Billy the Kid” & its flipping between A major and A minor
Beatles
5/5
October 4, 2024
Perhaps I should’ve saved this after I got caught up on the Metallica double album, but it’s the friggin’ The Beatles (The White Album) [2009 Stereo Remaster]. When it calls, I answer
Matter of fact, I’ll tier-list the whole thing:
C Tier: “Wild Honey Pie”, “Cry Baby Cry”, “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road”, “Savoy Truffle”
B Tier: “Bungalow Bill”, “Rocky Raccoon”, “Don’t Pass Me By”, “Birthday”, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide”, “Sexy Sadie”, “Honey Pie”
A Tier: “Back in the USSR”, “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”, “I’m So Tired”, “Blackbird”, “Piggies”, “I Will”, “Yer Blues”, “Helter Skelter”, “Revolution 1”, “Revolution 9”, “Good Night”
S Tier: “Dear Prudence”, “Glass Onion”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, “Martha My Dear”, “Julia”, “Mother Nature’s Son”, “Long Long Long”
I might find this ranking laughable in a couple years, since as a teen I would’ve ranked “Glass Onion”, “I Will” & “Julia” much lower, and perhaps “Monkey” and “Birthday” a bit higher. It is telling that a lot of my favourite moments are among the album’s loneliest & quietest moments, like Paul’s “Mother Nature’s Son”; considering the White Album’s indulgent length & jarring genre shifts, it has provided a comfort listen many, many times.
It’s not even the best of the Beatles, but it may be my favourite album, period. Blame me in the late aughts for choosing the least accessible one to start my Beatles journey with.
Everybody wanna be demons / til they play Revolution 9 at night with the lights off
Massive Attack
3/5
October 6, 2024
HL: "Karmacoma", "Three", "Sly", "Heat Miser"
could very well be because I'm listening to this while under the weather, but it doesn't do for me what its predecessor, Blue Lines, did.
It's quieter, spookier, & loungier, so I acknowledge it provides a different atmosphere despite the musical similarities to Blue Lines.
Will say it's apropos to this time of year 🍂
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
At #918, it's Jimi Hendrix! Last Jimi was.... album #286.
Now this isn't one of those cases where I get to coast and revisit an old favourite; I only really knew his most popular songs before this challenge. Everything that isn't "Crosstown Traffic", "All Along the Watchtower" or "A Slight Return" is basically new to me.
It's definitely a touchstone of psychedelia.... I probably shouldn't dwell on its length so soon after praising The White Album, S&M & Physical Graffiti, but the hazy, meandering structure did frustrate me a little. The last two songs are about as grand a finale as any album, and "Merman" did provide a journey that no other Hendrix song has provided.
HL: "Voodoo Child (A Slight Return)", "1983....(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)", "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", "All Along the Watchtower"
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
October 8, 2024
HL: “Guilt”, title track, “Working Class Hero”, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
I like less than half of this record half as well as it deserves
The other half is brilliant
Supergrass
4/5
In the time since my last Supergrass review, where I typed “hoping they’ll reunite”, they have announced they are in fact reuniting, for the 30th anniversary of this album. Cool!
Coco is punkier than In It For the Money, rarely letting up except in the pause between one song ending & another starting. There's also a sense of restlessness I appreciate, especially for a first album, even if not all of it lands (the pitch-shifting in "We're Not Supposed To).
It's not groundbreaking, it's just likable af
HL: "Sitting Up Straight", "Alright", "Lose It", "I'd Like To Know"
Later on October 8th
David Bowie
3/5
October 9, 2024
HL: "Love is Lost", "If You Can See Me", "Heat", “The Stars”
‘How does the grass grow? / Blood, blood, blood”
Not my favourite Bowie, but being a Bowie fan to begin with I didn’t exactly waste an hour. There’s enough musical zaniness to compete with the overall darkness of the record.
The Damned
3/5
October 10, 2024
HL: "Anti-Pope", “Plan 9, Channel 7", “Love Song”, “Smash It Up”
Well, I like it better than the Dictators & the Stranglers
In fact, one day when my fatigue over early punk has faded, I’ll probably praise this as one of the most unique entries from that era. Less Sid Vicious than Syd Barrett
3.5
Roni Size
2/5
2 hrs, 19 minutes and 54 seconds of FUNNN
Wikipedia says "Ballet Dance" is the last song, forgive me if I don't get into the extra 3 hours on A.M.
Like the D&B compilation spearheaded by LTJ Bukem, Logical Progression, this also contains propulsive, intense beats with more atmospheric breakdowns. However, said breakdowns are less enjoyable this time around. They seem less like part of the track and more like a necessity to protect your brain from sensory overload.
"Trust Me", on disc 2, sounds like fragments of a more intriguing album is buried in here. The samples are like something RZA or Nas would've used, but chopped up in an otherworldly way.
Unnecessarily tedious
HL: "Destination", "Share the Fall (Vocal Mix)", "Watching Windows", "Hi-Potent"
10/11/2024
4/5
October 12, 2024
HL: "Good Old Days", "Enfant", "Broad Way Blues", "Chippie"
Imagine being the double bass player having to compete with two drummers
Well, apart from a single listen of "The Shape of Jazz To Come" last year, I can't speak much for the source material. And the other main influences at play, thrash & hardcore punk, are ones I generally avoid if I can help it. Yet all these elements smashed together provides a surprisingly compelling listen. I threw some highlights up there but trying to separate the little pieces from the chaotic whole doesn't really do the experience justice.
I may be reading into this, at times, literal noise, but for all that talk about free jazz being intimidating and inaccessible, you don’t need a music education to *get it*. Maybe all one has to do is just Get! in! THE PIT!
Cocteau Twins
4/5
October 13, 2024
Is that not the snare from “When the Levee Breaks”…? Either way, it’s really distracting
Bad drum machine aside, I did enjoy the overall experience, definitely fits an old forest in a dark fantasy movie. Hearing another album with Fraser's wordless vocals convinces me Sigur Rós was inspired by the Cocteau Twins.
HL: “Persephone”, “Pandora”, “Donimo”, “Lorelei”
CHVRCHES
5/5
I mvst admit… I’m a fan
Screen Violence was one of my favourite listens from 2021. I should admit that I didn’t listen to a second CHVRCHES album until today. However:
*rocks in a rickety chair* back in my day iTunes used to give away free songs to promote new artists. Through that I got tastes of artists like Phosphorescent, Bahamas, Bastille, and CHVRCHES, the last of which gave away the song “Recover”. Long story short, I was rocking to “Recover” years before I bothered to learn any other of their songs
Maybe due to that early exposure, I find this a joy to listen to. As indebted to yesterday's Cocteau Twins as the summery pop in She's Not Unusual by Cyndi Lauper, CHVRCHES’s debut holds up 11 years later. No notes
HL: “Recover”, “The Mother We Share”, “Tether”, “Science/Visions”, “Lungs”, "Night Skies"
Tortoise
4/5
October 15, 2024
Post-rock is one of those subgenres that, on paper, looks boring & dreadful. But my experiences with Sigur Ros, Godspeed! & now Tortoise prove otherwise.
I listened to Echoes and Shine On You Crazy Diamond literally this week, so I reallly shouldn’t complain about the length of “Djed”. Though I wasn’t prepared for all 20 minutes (I should state I knew nothing about this album before today) it IS an impressive feat in moody atmosphere, sometimes more IDM than alt-rock (Radiohead is that you?)
I also really enjoyed the final track, “Along the Banks of Rivers”, for it’s noir-ishness, and “The Taut and the Tame”, despite its proggy noodling.
4/5
Soft Cell
4/5
October 16, 2024
HL: “Tainted Love”, “Youth”, “Entertain Me”, “Say Hello Wave Goodbye”
Sometimes creepy, sometimes bizarre, always camp, always 80s
Very much a ‘time and a place’ kind of album, but overall a fun ride that got better on a repeat listen.
The Pretty Things
3/5
Beatles
5/5
October 18, 2024
Album 930: After 7 main albums and 5 solo ones, no more Beatles for the rest of the list! I kinda liked knowing the next random album might be an excuse to revisit the Fab Four, but since many of the albums I dreaded the most- Napalm Death, Public Image Ltd., 2-hr-long drum-and-bass records- are also behind me, I shouldn’t need my comfort listens to fall back on for a while 🥺
About AHDN: In a perfect world, it would contain “This Boy”, labelled as “Ringo’s Theme” in the actual movie soundtrack. But alas, we must settle for near-perfect.
The songs that ARE contained within are gems. If I had to choose a least favourite it would probably be “I’ll Cry Instead”, but only because John did the country ditty better on Beatles for Sale and Help!.
If I had to choose a favourite… today it’s “If I Fell”, a fragile duet that heralds the more artsy direction they would be heading in. But most days- it’s all about that title track baby 🎸 🎸 🎸
“I’ll Be Back”, “Things We Said Today” & “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” shoulda been big, but considering the saturation of Beatles Billboard hits at the time, maybe it’s best they didn’t
Don McLean
4/5
oo I wonder if Don McLean has an album of spooky tunes like "Babylon"
One of those albums that has a ubiquitous titan that kind of takes all the buzz (see also: the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, which I heard for the 1st time last month)- to be honest, the other 8 songs have to also compete with the stunning "Vincent".
"Everybody Loves Me Baby" is perhaps the only other uplifting moment apart from the title track, which I'm grateful is part of the album even though McLean's voice fits the slow songs the best
HL: title track, "Till Tomorrow", "Vincent", "The Grave", "Empty Chairs"
October 19, 2024
Johnny Cash
4/5
October 24, 2024
HL: “Wanted Man”, “San Quentin” (take your pick), “A Boy Named Sue”, “Darlin’ Companion”
I’m not here to argue that Cash deserved 2 live prison albums on this list but
Todd Rundgren
4/5
I will listen when I'm good and ready; I understand it's not as leftfield as A Wizard, A True Star but as it's like the 5th double album in the last lil while, my attention span is not at my (already low) standard. I HAVE made time for several smaller albums this week from my personal list (Tom Petty, Kris Kristofferson, B.T.O., so I haven't quite left the 70's singer-songwriter sphere).
October 25, 2024
Side 1: wonderful set of songs, and "I Saw the Light" is a great example of the rest of the album's pop rock
HLs: tracks 1, 3 and 4
Side 2: less consistent batch, but still very likable
HLs: tracks 9, 10, 11
Sides 3 and 4: S/A joins the ranks of All Things Must Pass and Double Nickels on the Dime for saving all the worst for the final quarter. Ya think I wouldn't notice a song called "Piss Aaron"? Shame on you, Todd
HLs: tracks 2, 3, 4, 7
Bloat aside, I am super impressed how the one-man show of Todd Rundgren sounds like an actual band (well 3/4s of it, as he has other people for the last stretch). Even during the asides before the song starts, he has chemistry with himself ("alright alright, 1-2-3-4...")
And really, when the biggest fault of a good album is that it's too long, there really could be worse problems to have
Tricky
4/5
October 23, 2024
HL: "Overcome", "Black Steel", "Suffocated Love", "Feed Me"
Take #2 of listening to this, as yesterday my coffee wore off & I started to doze off towards the end of "Aftermath". I generally don't fall asleep to music, so I wouldn't take that as a sign I was bored- I certainly am not today. Perhaps the delirious, slow-moving nature of Maxinquaye is best suited to just before bed, as Apple Music suggests. (It's between one and 2pm now tho :0)
The quietness of the vocals, often overpowered by the eclectic samples, forces me to be engaged with it more than some of the other downtempo albums I've experienced through this list.
"Karmacoma", one of my highlights from Protection (1994), gets a fresh coat of paint right at the beginning with vocalist Topley-Bird, and I honestly prefer it here.
The Cure
5/5
Later on October 25
Anyone remember Omegle? I had a music-related conversation with an anonymous Finnish person on there years ago, who said this album was a comfort listen in the face of recent tragedy. Whoever that was, hope they’re doing alright.
Having heard this album before all the rest (aka Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography), I have my doubts that it’s the best introduction to the Cure; The way the tracks sprawl and crawl may turn off people who have only heard “Just Like Heaven” and “Friday I’m In Love”.
But I’d have to go with the general consensus that this is their masterpiece 🖼️
“Plainsong” is up there with the all-time great openers.
I adore “Lovesong” now but it took me some time; when I first heard it I thought it was too dirge-like.
“Lullaby”* and “The Same Deep Water As You” felt like 1st listens (it has been a while since I heard Disintegration whole). The former brings out the playfulness and sense of the macabre that could pin down the genre of gothic rock. The latter’s heavy atmosphere and emotion fits the album no less than the former.
*Robert Smith and I differ on Spider-Man’s character. I happen to think he’s an outstanding lad who saves people
Sheryl Crow
4/5
Possible reasons why I put off this album:
-didn't feel like it
-don't like Sheryl Crow
-too busy
Actual reason why I put off this album:
- It wasn't Tuesday night
I must have heard "Leaving Las Vegas" at a young age, since hearing it scratches an odd itch. I know that "All I Wanna Do" and her later single "Soak Up the Sun" were on aggressive rotation at my local radio station.
Still, a delightful, easygoing folky album that balances with the darker, heavier records I've been listening to (it's almost Halloween, c'mon)
the night of Tuesday, October 29
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
October 26, 2024
HL: “Roller Coaster”, “Reverberation”
Maybe too harsh given I liked this album, but the album artwork is the most interesting thing about it
Screaming Trees
3/5
Not familiar with Mark Lanegan and yet this is the 3rd album I’ve heard with him (after QotSA’s Rated R and Songs for the Deaf)
Also, reading the Wiki made me realize he moved to Ireland around the same time I did (though my visa was temporary), and passed away not long after I moved back to Canada. RIP
I suspect I didn’t get all this record has to offer today. Lanegan’s voice is good, the record overall sounds more like southern rock than grunge to me. The jangly riffs and harmonies make the record surprisingly smooth to listen to, but at the same time it doesn’t change much, volume or tempo-wise, between its 10 tracks. The Eastern flair in the first and last tracks made me think of Soundgarden and the Tea Party.
Tasteful use of the mellotron!
HL: “Halo of Ashes”, “Make My Mind”, “Sworn and Broken”, “Dime Western”
3.5, maybe more tomorrow
October 27, 2024
a-ha
4/5
Ministry
4/5
Spooktober 28, 2024
Interestingly, not the first industrial metal album I’ve heard this month; Streetcleaner by Godflesh was the first. But where that was apocalyptic, Psalm 69 seems locked in party mode.
I wrote the previous sentence right before “Scare Crow”, at which point the album takes the exit lane to Hell and keeps going.
Full disclosure: this is generally NOT my cup of tea. But I have to give credit to it, since it takes the distortion, horror & machine drumming that Godflesh and The Young Gods honed, combines it with Mötorhead-esque rock n’ roll and somehow makes it work.
The mystery du jour is why I liked this so much more than Antichrist Superstar. Maybe it's just 'cause it doesn't try as hard to be creepy.
My Apple Music algorithm is going to be so confused after this and the Emperor album I put on yesterday.
HL: “NWO”, “Scarecrow”, title track, “Jesus Built My Hotrod”
P.S. It looks like this is the 500th album I have heard for the 1st time this year. (According to my spreadsheet. 🤓 EPs and compilations are considered an album for the purpose of my list)
R.E.M.
4/5
November 2, 2024
HL: “Stand”, “Orange Crush”, “Pop Song 89”, “You Are the Everything”
The mandolin here is less “Losing My Religion” and more “Battle of Evermore”. Track 6, “The Wrong Child”, definitely has that dance-round-the-maypole energy.
“Hairshirt” is a bit odd, I kept expecting it to build to a stronger finish- not sure why, though. None of the other acoustic tracks had drums or anythin’
“I Remember California” just sounds menacing
“Stand” is the 1st REM song I was aware of; it’s silly and not really representative of their best work but I love it.
Is having both Green and Document on this list redundant? I couldn’t say, but there is a wackier energy in this one that isn’t immediately noticeable in the other 3 REMs.
Paired this with Reckoning (1984), which further makes me wonder if they ever made a bad record
Talk Talk
5/5
November 1st, 2024 (morning of)
HL: “April 5th”, “Living in Another World”, “Time It’s Time”, “Happiness Is Easy”, “Life’s What You Make It”
I’ve read about the trajectory of this band, from synth-pop to post-rock, so it makes sense their entry on this list has the best of both worlds. I happened to listen to It’s My Life (1984) earlier this year, purely on the strength of “Such a Shame” & the title track, and it was pretty enjoyable, if anyone reading this needs even more 80s new wave.
Mark Hollis has one of my favourite voices in 80s bands, so you’d think the higher emphasis on instrumentation in Colour would put me off. It doesn’t. The mix of energetic pop-rock, jazzy atmospheres and peculiar arrangements (hello recorders and choir in “Time It’s Time”) never feels disjointed to me. It’s consistently enjoyable from start to finish.
I intend to go the full mile & hear Spirit of Eden & Laughing Stock at some point
Dusty Springfield
4/5
(October 31st, 2024) Not sp00ky enough, unless one is afraid of British women. See you in November, Dusty
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Groovy
HL: "Son of a Preacher Man", "Just One Smile", "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore", "Breakfast in Bed",
Turbonegro
3/5
3 pizzas out of 5
I guess it’s interesting that I was reading about Norwegian bands on RYM (almost all black metal bands, which might suggest tunnel vision on RYM’s part), right before getting a-ha and Turbonegro in the same week.
I can appreciate the former’s contribution to music much more than the latter, since it’s basically a copycat of a few 70s punk albums, with some 80s hardcore & hair metal thrown in. One of these influences is not like the other…
HL: “Humiliation St”, “The Age of Pamparius”, “Prince of the Rodeo”
Later on November 1, 2024
Parliament
4/5
November 4, 2024
👽
Death In Vegas
3/5
November 4, 2024
"What am I? I'm a murderer" 💀
Where were you for Spooky Month, Death in Vegas?
Only having heard the track quoted above, "Aisha", before today, I assumed I wouldn't like this album. (It has a cool energy but I find it overly repetitive and wears out its shock value quickly.) And yet there's something to these Contino Sessions...
"Soul Auctioneer" has a dark yet danceable energy; "Flying" is a great slice of neo-psychedelia; "Broken Little Sister" has both the noise and the lead singer of a Jesus and Mary Chain song.
It's a 'results may vary' album to me, but at its best it's a great soundtrack to a nighttime city walk.
HL: "Dirge", "Flying", "Neptune City", "Aladdin's Story"
3.5
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
November 5, 2024
HL: “The Stars of Track and Field”, “Me and the Major”, “The Fox and the Snow”, “Get Me Away From Here”, title track
Can’t decide between a 4 or a 5, so we’ll remain at 4 for now. Belle and Sebastian popped up pretty late on this list (with Tigermilk this summer), and yet I don’t find myself comparing them to the many other folky acts I have heard this year.
Very cozy 🛌
This one deserved 2 full listens; one for music and one for lyrics.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
November 7, 2024
HL: “Two Tribes”, “Relax”, “The Only Star in Heaven, “The Power of Love”
A monument to 80’s plastic
If “Relax” is what was shocking 40 years ago, the more potent surprise today would be the über-faithful covers of “Born to Run” and “San Jose”. I fail to see the point but they’re fun versions.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard an edit of the title track but 14 minutes of it did nothing for me
Lou Reed
4/5
November 6, 2024
HL: “Perfect Day”, “Satellite of Love”, “Walk on the Wild Side”, “New York Telephone Conversation”, “Make Up”
2nd and a half Lou Reed, after Berlin and half of Metal Machine Music :/
The big band flourishes are fun, and contrast well with the straightforward rockers. Recognized “Satellite of Love” right away, and “Wild Side” and “Perfect Day” are pretty inescapable as 70’s classics.
Of course, the references to gender and sexual fluidity are far too liberal for today’s climate. What’s next, actual gay people releasing music? /s
(I look forward to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which I skipped to get to this one faster)
The Waterboys
3/5
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
5/5
November 8, 2024
Things that don’t get a five-star this week: Irish folk, R.E.M., P-Funk
Things that do: 2 hrs of effing bluegrass, apparently. I don't know myself
I understand the guest list for Will The Circle Be Unbroken is full of influential country talent, but I can say that the names, apart from the Carter family & Earl Scruggs, don't really ring a bell. The reverence for them from the Nitty Gritty is clear, but the music itself is often casual sounding*, like they've all been buds the whole time. If I had to justify my rating further, it's not an album I can really debate the quality of each track and how they fit with each other (my country/bluegrass experience is lacking). I rarely feel immersed in the circumstances of the recording like this one. For all I get ticked off about non-musical interludes, the light conversation, the creaking & shuffling between songs really adds to the magic.
Both ancient & accessible. I feel less bad about dropping 12 Canadian dollars on this CD now
*Casual sounding, until they start shredding 🎸 🪕
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
There's a name I haven't heard for awhile... The last Dexy was album 334, the one with Come on Eileen on it; this is #952.
The book uses a much more fitting, colourful album cover than this drab, grey suits. Right from the get go, the bluesy brass of “Flicker”* and the extended coda of “This Is What She’s Like” are energetic and joyful.
I’m not as fond of the frequent spoken word pieces substituting for melody, however, even if the one starting ”What She’s Like” is amusingly banal.
Though this album doesn’t have a single, “Listen to This” seems like an attempt at a pop hit.
Daryl Easlea compares this to “Pet Sounds”, which is definitely one of the more insane takes I’ve heard. At the end of the day, I do appreciate this album’s audacity to be as uncool and un-trendy as it was at the height of synth pop & new wave.
3.5
HL: “The Occasional Flicker”, “This is What She’s Like”, “Knowledge of Beauty”
*a good trombone part will always elevate an album’s value to me
The Hives
2/5
Kraftwerk
4/5
November 11, 2024
HL: title track, "Kometenmelodie 1", "Morgenspaziergang"
I rly like these minimalist album covers on the remasters, including this one
Already familiar with the title track (love the simulated car horns), let's see what the rest brings....
Alright, before industrial and synth-pop became their own genres, we have the second half of this album. Very spacey, sometimes pretty.
I'm glad I didn't expect this to top Die Mensch Machine & Trans Europe Express; it's a little jankier and more inconsistent.
Nevertheless, it’s a vital link to countless future genres (and future Kraftwerk), and a heck of an album to commute to.
The Triffids
4/5
HL: "Bury Me Deep in Love", "Trick of the Light", “Blinder By the Hour”, “Jerdacuttup Man”
Things I know about the Triffids:
-they’re Australian*
-people seem to HATE them on this website
Idk, I liked it quite a bit 🤷♂️
Warm, slightly woozy sound (befitting the title)- some tracks resemble shanties, one has uileann pipes which is like a cheat code to get me enjoying a song.
1987 pop trends threatened to drown it, but Calenture remains seaworthy
*3rd band in a row not from UK or USA, a rarity
Richard Thompson
4/5
November 13, 2024
HL: "When I Get to the Border", “The Calvary Cross”, “Down Where the Drunkards Roll”, title track
I got Richard’s band Fairport Convention back in May (Unhalfbricking), and was a bit lukewarm on it despite a special melange of British and American folk. I took to this album quicker, however. It could be a right-time-right-place love, considering how many later “slowcore” albums have been hit-or-miss for me; these slow, meditative tracks are a surprising antidote to a cold, cloudy day. And you still have some brighter moments like “When I Get to the Border” and “The Little Beggar Girl”.
Would pair with a fireplace in the future, if I HAD ONE
Brian Eno
5/5
ScIeNcE rUlEs
Alrighty I got the two Roxy Musics featuring him, and Bush of Ghosts, and Warm Jets, and the Airport one & Green World. I even listened to his collab with Lanois, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, of my own volition, and *loved* it.
The exciting thing: I still have no idea what I'm getting into here- such is the guy’s creative restlessness.
At first I thought “Here He Comes” was just Eno’s take on yacht rock, but the modern-sounding guitar and harmonies elevated it on a subsequent listen.
Holay there are some beautiful moments in this ("By this River")
This may come on top for solo Eno releases for me. In the past, his rock-y tracks took a back seat to the ambient ones, but here I didn't really have a preference between the two.
HL: “Spider and I”, “By This River”, “King’s Lead Hat”, “Backwater”, “Here He Comes”, "No One Receiving"
November 14, 2024
David Bowie
4/5
November 15, 2024
One day after another 1977 album with Brian Eno: “Can you not be [producing classic albums] for FIVE MINUTES?”
NOT first listen; my favourite track the first time was “Warszawa”, and it may still be. The harmonica-laced “New Career in a Small Town” is pretty stiff competition.
Overall, while Low introduced this experimental phase of Bowie’s music, I think I enjoy “Heroes” a bit more. Though I’m probably too much of a fan to contest both albums being on this list…
HL: “Sound and Vision”, “A New Career in a Small Town”, “Warszawa”, “What in the World”
Lorde
4/5
NOT first listen
Throwback to 2017, where I decided between Lorde's Melodrama or Lana Del Rey's Lust for Life in a music store. I chose the latter. No regrets, even if RYM will tell you it's her worst album -_-
Nonetheless, I have returned to this album a few times, usually to get a quick shot of dopamine with "Green Light". Favourite track is "The Louvre", easily the most Bleachers of these Jack Antonoff-produced songs.
I don’t have many strong feelings about Melodrama, but it is a great example of 2010’s pop.
HL: "Green Light", "Homemade Dynamite", "The Louvre", "Hard Feelings/Loveless", "Writer in the Dark"
November 16, 2024
Living Colour
4/5
HL: "CULT OF PERSONALITY", "I Want to Know", "Open Letter", "Funny Vibe", “Which Way to America”
unexpected Public Enemy. unexpected Talking Heads. Shit even Jagger is on this album
Remarkable relic of the hair metal era; Living Colour, along with Fishbone, provide some much needed funk rock that isn’t the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Faith No More. The 1988ish production maybe robs their debut of a little bite, but I still had a lot of fun with this.
Also, a Guitar Hero 3 classic 🎸
November 17, 2024
Van Morrison
5/5
I was going to give this a more critical review but it’s too late to…
Liz Phair
4/5
November 19, 2024
HL: "Never Said", "Shatter", "Divorce Song", "Canary"
Not sure what it is about that track, but right at "6'1"" I was prepared to dislike this album, as sometimes happens with 90's alt/lo-fi releases on this website. Yet despite my misgivings, I ended up impressed with Liz Phair's debut. Having read about some career drama (self-titled album, the Pitchfork 0.0 blah blah), it's refreshing to actually listen to her work.
"Never Said" is perhaps the poppiest tune, and MAYBE I'd overlook it on 90's nostalgia radio but it's a much needed bright spot amidst moodier, grungier pieces.
"Explain It To Me" and "Canary" are curious ballads in the middle of the album, the former awash with cozy reverb and the second with wintery piano.
"Shatter" makes a couple electric guitars sound cavernous, the eerie canons of "Flower" and "Johnny Sunshine" evoke both the Go-Gos and PJ Harvey.
A couple songs (out of 18) seem unfinished & inconsequential, but there's enough strong ones that I won't dwell on them.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
Not 1st listen- pretty sure when I got back into this project after dropping it for a year, I saw the most recent release was Heaux Tales, put it on for a lark and was left profoundly indifferent.
I've had about two years to change my mind, and in the meantime listened to a lot of soul and R&B that may have informed Ms. Sullivan in the present day: Erykah Badu, Chaka Khan, D'Angelo, Beyonce, etcetera.
What did we learn...
- Never appreciated the gospel influences in this album until today
- Sullivan's range is a wonder, in certain songs she sounds like 3 different ppl
- I really enjoy the spooky riff in "Price Tags" feat. Anderson.Paak
- The walk-on cameos from Paak and Ari Lennox made me consider that they'd be justified inclusions for this list on their own (having heard Malibu earlier this year, and Lennox's Shea Butter Baby literally today)
- Despite the mountain of talent on display, I had a feeling of "is that it?" at the end. Which led me to Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales.
- The title of the deluxe version is pretty accurate: there are definitely more tales. They're pretty good, but I believe the standouts were already on the standard version.
- So we're back at the standard version. Over half of the "real" songs (4/7) are listed below as my personal highlights, and I don't mind the other 3, so case closed, right? Any other album (or extended play -_-) that I can shout out over half the tracks is a pearl. I can nitpick all I want about the interludes, which structured as they are is a bit academic for my tastes. As embarrassed as I am to admit, I gave Lauryn Hill's only album 3 stars at the beginning of this project, partly because of the interludes; but at least the way they were interspersed were more organic.
But it all comes back to the music, and hoowee it's a doozy. Heaux Tales is perhaps another hasty modern entry, and will probably be removed the next time they come out with a book edition, but it IS a promising example of where R&B is going into the 2020s. Rounding up to a 4
HL: "Price Tags", "Lost One", "On It", "Girl Like Me"
November 20, 2024
Tito Puente
3/5
November 21, 2024
Perfect. The newest album on the list is followed by one of the oldest ones
My body cannot take this much mambo
HL: “Hong Kong Mambo”, “Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti”, “3D Mambo”
The Beta Band
3/5
November 22, 2024
HL: “Squares", "Dragon", "Broke", “Quiet”
“The intensity of Hot Shots II... will become legendary in, oh, about ten years time. Just wait and see"
Since this list was first published in 2005, we still have a year to make it happen, folks!
Despite the musical adventurousness, I wouldn’t describe this as intense, particularly as it ends in basically a shrug and a commitment to get high
Bear in mind when I listened to this, I was already distracted by the fact I suddenly had new Kendrick and Kiwanuka albums to listen to. Consider this, like basically every other review, as an impressionable first impression.
I thought its mix of trip-hop and slacker rock was often intriguing, it just didn’t grab me the way a few recent albums have
3.5
Robert Wyatt
4/5
November 24, 2024
Okay, it’s a little notorious in this lil online community, but I gave Shleep a 3 and Soft Machine a 4, so I’m not too worried
Update: this is a special record
I can see how the spaciness and jazz excursions will lose some listeners, but there’s also many gentle, beautiful moments. I’m honestly surprised it ranks lower than the other Wyatts
There is a certain fretful, chaotic mood that surfaces, for instance in “Red Riding Hood”, where I hope that nobody tried listening to this on psychedelics
This, along with The Incredible String Band is some folky nonsense that hits a niche I never knew I wanted or needed. Thanks Britain 👍
The Human League
4/5
November 25, 2024
HL: "Don't You Want Me", "Open Your Heart", "Darkness", "Love Action", "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of"
Love some human music 🤖
James Taylor
3/5
November 26, 2024
HL: title track, "Fire and Rain"
Along with the Carpenters' 1970 release, this is gentle pop rock I want to like more than I do. Also like aforementioned Carpenters, has some evergreen hits that makes it hard to argue its relevancy and acclaim
Eric Clapton
4/5
also November 26, 2024
The generator has been holding out on Clapton (I think last time was Derek and the Dominos over 2 years ago)
As complicated as the larger historical/cultural context behind "I Shot the Sheriff", or Clapton's career in general, is, I think it's a strong cover. Or maybe I just like a good organ part.
HL: "Motherless Children", "Give Me Strength", "I Shot the Sheriff", "Please Be With Me", "Let it Grow"
3/5
November 27, 2024
HL: "Starship", "Borderline", “Rocket Reducer No. 62”
They said 'motherfucker', thusly this is an important album
1001 stars out of 5
Orange Juice
4/5
:0 how is it that Scottish post-punk on this list still has the ability to surprise me
Even though it’s a chill, groovy album, there’s enough outside-the-box genre bending to keep it from stagnating
The Associates 🤝 Vampire Weekend
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Hey get the pitchforks, I thought classical music wasn't allowed here!
There are some goosebump moments, and a couple painful synth solos that detracted from my overall enjoyment of this adaptation. Closing the concert with the Nutcracker feels like a troll move, but the audience seems pretty into it
HL: “The Sage”, “The Great Gates of Kiev”
November 29, 2024
Radiohead
5/5
November 30, 2024
Uh, not first listen
I swear I filled my noggin with the last few albums and now I kind of forget how this one goes. I do hear “Idioteque” and “Everything in Its Right Place” pretty regularly: classics
What do I even have to say about this? It's Kid A. Probably didn't even care for this the first time I heard it, but does anyone? The abrasive noise (and brass) of "The National Anthem" so close to the healing frequencies of "Treefingers"* is some real whiplash; yet at 45 minutes, no trick or experiment goes on long enough to wear me out before the next one hits. It shares that tonal inconsistency with Amnesiac, but I believe the high points of this one are just that much higher.
HL: Everything
Actual HL: “Everything in its Right Place”, “National Anthem”, “How to Disappear Completely”, “Treefingers”, “Idioteque”, “Motion Picture Soundtrack”
maybe even the title track
*I swear it turned off my anxiety tonight, at least till the next song
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
December 1, 2024
how 'bout we cool it with the long live albums this week (this comes hot on the tail of ELP and MC5)
Anthrax
3/5
Mercury Rev
4/5
Hell yeah someone other than Neutral Milk Hotel bringing out the musical saw
Enjoyed this quite a bit. Very unfamiliar with Mercury Rev, but these Deserter Songs are a cool mix of shoegaze and symphonic pop. The sounds between the songs often veer into the dark and cinematic, which checks into the emotional circumstances leading up to the making of this album (ya I read the Wiki article)
HL: "Holes", "I Collect Coins", "Opus 40", "Hudson Line", "Pick Up If You're There", "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp"
December 3, 2024
3/5
December 4, 2024
HL: title track, “Four Cornered Room”, “The Cisco Kid”
3.5
Didn’t love as much as I thought I would. Maybe the political title and album cover belied the lackadaisical grooves within.
Or maybe I’m just burnt out of long, jammy songs. I will not say, however, that I don’t like long jammies in general. Isaac Hayes, Pink Floyd, even Kendrick have imposingly long songs that are often their album’s highlights.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
December 5, 2024
HL: title track, “The Gift”, “Here She Comes Now”
VU #3; Lou Reed #5. That’s plenty for now
maybe I’m just burnt out of long, jammy songs
The Clash
5/5
Well lfg
The last Clash was right when I started this list in early 2021, meaning there’s been almost a thousand albums since.
I was patient for a while, but like a few classic albums, I just had to see what the hype was about
Anyway, I’m hopping on the Clash bandwagon, this is pretty great. Aside from the first and last song, I love the straightforward rock of “Clampdown” and “Hateful”, the reggae tunes “Guns of Brixton” and “Revolution Rock” and the polished gems “The Card Cheat”, “Spanish Bombs” & “Lost in the Supermarket”.
December 6, 2024
Neil Young
4/5
Actually first listen, though it doesn’t feel like it considering how many times I’ve heard “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man”. By the way, just realized that’s Ronstadt on both of those songs
It’s frikin weird to hear Neil Young + an orchestra
hearty stew of an album, though I might prefer On the Beach, After the Gold Rush and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
HL: “Heart of Gold”, “Old Man”, “The Needle”, “Words”, “A Man Needs a Maid”
December 7, 2024
Ice Cube
3/5
December 8, 2024
HL: “It Was a Good Day”, “Wicked”, “Who Got the Camera?”
Worst I can say is that it feels like more of the same from Ice Cube, though there are some great tracks, with "Wicked" probably being my favourite. The sampling of vocal critics of Ice Cube & hip-hop music in general is often funny (if infuriating to sit through), though sometimes the album gets caught up in justifying its own existence rather than making good, sociopolitical tunes. That seems to be a gripe I share with different 90s rap albums, so maybe that's on me for not living through the media backlash.
I wonder whether that one line "Now I Gotta Wet'cha" directly led to the seminal DK Rap
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
December 9, 2024 (but also October 17, I peeked inside the present after getting Electric Ladyland🎁)
The first listen was pretty absent-minded, as I knew I'd get a day down the line to focus on this album more. Today, I'm more impressed. Maybe it's bc I have headphones in, so I can better appreciate the wacky shit they were accomplishing with stereo panning and phasing
The weird "If 6 Was 9", the poppy "She's So Fine" and "Wait Till Tomorrow", and the beautiful "Little Wing" and "One Rainy Wish" contribute to this rating. Perhaps my favourite Hendrix of the 3, although I certainly didn't feel that way two months ago...
HL: "One Rainy Wish", "Little Wing", "Wait Till Tomorrow", "If 6 Was 9", "Castles Made of Sand", "Bold As Love"
Pulp
4/5
December 10, 2024
HL: “The Fear”, title track, “A Little Soul”, “Sylvia”, “The Day After the Revolution”
The last Pulp was quite a while ago, but I still get songs like “Disco 2000” stuck in my head from time to time. This is Hardcore, while less immediate and catchy, still has enough charisma n’ style to be a worthy successor. It IS more morose, which probably will turn off some casual listeners.
Gang Starr
4/5
Idk I haven’t been this enthusiastic about turntablism/scratching, or even paid much heed to it, since DJ Shadow and the Avalanches (both years ago on the generator at this point).
Unlike the Heroes of Hiphopricy, I’ve heard a little about Gang Starr, but this is still the first time I’ve seriously listened to them. Cool stuff 😎
Suede
3/5
HL: “We Are the Pigs”, “New Generation”, “2 of Us”
Liked it more than the last (London)Suede
Steve Winwood
4/5
That keyboard slaps, just making sure it’s Winwood and not a studio musician…
Wiki: “Steve Winwood does all vocals and instruments”
Well, the production is pretty crisp, I wonder who put it all together…
Wiki: “Steve Winwood produced the whole album”
I guess fool me twice, since I went through a similar discovery with Traffic’s John Barleycorn album.
Enjoyed Arc of a Diver, despite not being as into similar 80s soft rock releases (e.g. The Nightfly). It helps that I *really* enjoy the first track, "While You See a Chance", which was on the radio pretty regularly growing up.
The rest of the album is jazzier than I expected- which again, I should have learned from John Barleycorn that Winwood leans towards jazz from time to time.
HL: "While You See a Chance", title track, "Second Hand Woman", "Spanish Dancer", "Dust"
December 13, 2024
4/5
Albums I don't own: Kid A, London Calling, Harvest
Albums I do own: They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Almost every album on this list has a decisive critical consensus, some of the ones that don't include this one & Kings of Leon's Only By the Night. What interests me is that both examples indicate a divide in critical opinion between the US and Europe. The 1001 book entry for Liars reads: "Although critics in the United States were not impressed by the album, European audiences embraced the nightmares." Similarly, the KoL Wikipedia article reads "A discrepancy between ratings of the North American and the UK press can be noted."
The latter kinda makes me sad, I think it's a pretty great late aughts album. This album being more divisive makes a lot more sense. (I still don't understand why the critical divide would be split geographically though)
The tense, claustrophobic atmosphere of "Broken Witch" sets the scene brilliantly for a horror-inspired rock album. The off-putting dissonance is weirdly kept in check by the danceable rhythms in "Room on the Broom" and "They Don't Want Your Corn". I feel like I've heard just enough no wave and gothic rock this year to give that balance some historical context. Twenty years before this album, Bauhaus was putting out some freaky dance tunes as well.
How well they maintain that horror atmosphere through the whole album is up for debate. "Broken Witch" and "They Took 14" are proper, chaotic bookends, while the actual album closer, "Flow My Tears", unwinds into dark ambience and nature sounds- I suppose it works as a denouement while still staying relatively spoooky. "They Don't Want Your Corn", "Hold Hands" and "Room on the Broom" are more conventional but they sound far less like forest-bound pagans and much more like their noisy garage rock contemporaries. I want to single out that last one though, as iTunes lists it as my most played song on They Were Wrong (from today, but also April when I first listened to this). At about 15 seconds in, the most horrible distorted vocal starts, and repeats throughout the song. As far as anti-musical moments in albums, it ranks up there with the dog whistle at the end of Sgt. Pepper's.
So WHY do I keep going back to that song >:0
WHY is it so catchy >:0
The editors were probably right to cull Liars from subsequent editions, but I find the list less interesting without them.
Karen O: "Wait! They don't love you like I love you"
the guy she's singing about: "I NO LONGER. WANT TO BE A MAN. I WANT. TO BE. A HORSE."
HL: "Broken Witch", "There's Always Room on the Broom", "We Fenced Other Houses With the Bones of Our Own", "Read the Book That Wrote Itself", "Flow My Tears the Spider Said"
December 14, 2024
The Doors
5/5
The Roots
4/5
The Byrds
4/5
December 17, 2024
saving the jangliest for last, it's Byrds no. 5 (...no. 5)
“Feel a Whole Lot Better” is one of my favourite songs from the 60’s
So they CAN release consistently great albums! Very much stays in its lane, though as I already know from Notorious Byrd Brothers and Younger Than Yesterday, they pretty quickly find ways to expand on the formula.
Speaking on that latter album, I was kinda dismissive of it but it might be my favourite Byrds now lol
Cowboy Junkies
3/5
Can Con detected 🚨-- that isn’t Cohen, Young or Mitchell, which is especially impressive.
This reminds me of that chip I carry on my shoulder, though. Dimery & co. have proved they're familiar with Cdn folk and alt-country, with the likes of the Junkies, Rufus Wainwright and kd lang. And ya didn't add Blue Rodeo, Stan Rogers, the McGarrigle sisters, Great Big Sea, Shania Twain, smh my head :(
Ok, even though I don't really expect any music critic outside Canada to have those artists in mind, I don't really get why this particular one made it. Certainly very cozy and intimate-- Conrad (from 1001 Albums) describes "an intimacy that is at times eerie". She also compliments the emotional delivery of Margo Timmins; I agree, her vocal delivery makes the album imho
I wouldn't say this is a boring album, but it's definitely a soporific one; I don't recommend listening to right after waking up like I did. It's possible the Trinity Session will grow on me, since you'd think the melancholic, contemporary aesthetic would win me over faster than a traditionalist album like lang's Shadowland, which I gave 4/5 back in the spring.
HL: "Misguided Angel", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Walkin' After Midnight"
3.5
December 18, 2024
Travis
3/5
Nice
“Slide Show” really wants the 90’s to end, paraphrasing Manic Street Preachers, Beck and Oasis one after another
Of course it’s produced by Nigel Godrich- that’s why I kept getting the feeling I was listening to a gentler, slower, alternate-universe The Bends
I heard a lot of sadboi alt-lite growing up, but never Travis. Actually, maybe I heard the rain song on some movie or commercial.
3 stars for now. I guess you just had to be at Glastonbury in 1999
HL: “Writing to Reach You”, "Driftwood", "As You Are"
The Louvin Brothers
3/5
Has precisely one sound but it's a good sound. 10/10 mandolin pickin'
Hard not to be sentimental coming to the end of this journey (give or take a few months), but after this, the only 50's album I haven't listened to is Miles Davis's Kind of Blue
HL: "Alabama", "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight", "Let Her Go, God Bless Her"
December 20, 2024
The Stooges
4/5
December 21, 2024
HL: “Penetration”, title track, “I Need Somebody”
Despite having given the other Stooges three stars last year (apologies to Fun House), I’m really enjoying this one.
Some of the rhythm guitar parts sound more 90s than 70s
Rocket From The Crypt
4/5
N.E.R.D
3/5
After getting the Neptunes in small doses throughout the list, here they finally have their own album!
Often fun and funky, has a kind of bar band atmosphere that wears thin by the end.
I bet I’d enjoy this album more in the summer!
December 23, 2024
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
December 24, 2024
It's been 800 albums and over two years since the last Toure- yet I put on Savane earlier this year so I don't need much to refresh my memory.
Hark! Thou cursed generator, why dost thou punish me with summer music before the feast of St. Nicholas 🎄
There was a day last summer that I recharged in the shade, and I swear my soul left my body for a minute (I missed the show I was walking to see for that reason). Listening to Talking Timbuktu feels a little like that: woozy, not sure how long it’s been since you sat down/pressed play. Good guitar tho 👍
HL: “Soukoura”, “Banga”, “Diaraby”
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
December 25, 2024
Thanks, Santa- I’ve already got two of these though…
-The vocals in “I’m Just Looking” are strange even for Kevin Rowland
-Generally the more upbeat tunes work the best, but “I couldn’t help it if I tried” is a ballad that stands out
-“Seven Days Too Long” is a neat cover version
-I could wax poetic on the insanity of including 3 Dexys on the list, as others have; it would only delay me admitting I really like the sound of this record. Sometimes all I need is a peppy horn section and I’m sold :)
HL: “Light Turns Green”, “I Couldn’t Help It”, “Geno”, “There There My Dear”
Fairport Convention
4/5
Boxing Day 2024
HL: the Lark Medley, “Come All Ye”, “Matty Groves”, “Farewell, Farewell”, “Quiet Joys” (bonus track)
Much prefer this to Unhalfbrcking, or just feel more inclined towards British folk on this particular day. A few longer, denser songs that got better on a repeat listen (and the guitars in “Matty Groves” reminding me that this is still very much a rock album)
Also happened to revisit the Pentangle, and concluded that I underrated them last year.
Buzzcocks
3/5
December 27, 2024
HL: “Sixteen”, “Autonomy”, “I Need”
Another Music in a Different Kitchen by the Buzzcocks is the 61st punk album so far
Gillian Welch
4/5
December 28, 2024
HL: “Dear Someone”, “April 14th”, “I Want to Sing Rock and Roll”, title track
Gillian Welch (& David Rawlings) will be #1001! If the list ended here, I’d feel pretty darn satisfied- with some exceptions. Kate Bush’s only album is The Sensual World? Bebel Gilberto there, but no João?
Time (the Revelator), more like Timeless (the Revelation). I may need more time yet to process this album, but as far as “dark and hymnal country” goes this is up there with the best. I have never heard another song with the phrase “staggers and jags”, besides “Barrett’s Privateers”, until today. The closer is a pretty remarkable ending, with some repeats of earlier poetry and imagery, though its 15 minutes does get a bit monotonous.
Only five albums left that I’ve already heard: (Led Zeppelin I, In Rainbows, Tubular Bells, Hounds of Love, & Veckatimest) so I really only have 83 left to get through! Out of 1089 🤯
Burning Spear
4/5
December 29th, 2024
HL: the title track, “The Invasion”, “Live Good”, “Jordan River”
The amount of mental somersaults I need to remind myself this is not an album called Burning Spear by Marcus Garvey
I still don’t have a ton of experience with reggae, and I’m not going to get it with the remainder of this list; sorta like yesterday’s album, this is a really consistent album rooted in spiritual music.
I’m guessing the sunny brass & flute are what makes this the international version for “white” consumption, as per the book’s mention of studio interference. Can’t really find the original, and without it for reference I don’t have much objection to how this version sounds.
Paired this with the Maytals’ Funky Kingston, another 70’s reggae album, for a little extra immersion. It’s interesting how it & Marcus Garvey show very different sides of the genre; celebration & positivity in the face of current issues with the former, and indignation and fury at said issues with the latter.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
December 30th, 2024
I may preface this with some earlier Hüsker Dü, as Bob Mould’s other band, Sugar, was so long ago on the generator & I don’t have much context for this sound besides other contemporaries like Minutemen and Black Flag.
Edit: dear me, I picked Zen Arcade & I realize now that both that and Warehouse are double albums. 💿 💿 💿 💿
Guess I’ll be hearing a lot from them today
Edit 2: I admit this is a reductive take, but Zen Arcade is like the missing link between Tommy and American Idiot
Edit 3: okay, halfway through the actual AOTD, and there are some key differences from Zen Arcade. The vocals are easier to hear in the mix, & the guitar is overall glossier and crisper. Despite the inclusion of a- I want to say glockenspiel- in the mix, the instrumentation is more conventional and akin to the 90s power pop that I remember from Sugar.
Edit 4: There aren't many surprises in the back half, even though "Turn it Around" might be the best of these more melodic tunes. I don't want to fault the band for sticking with this sound, as it's often easier on the ears than the earlier Du I was listening to.
What Zen Arcade has on this, though, is shape. Warehouse is not a concept album/rock opera, so a 14-minute-long song would be especially punishing here, but side 4 + the coda of “You Can Live At Home” didn’t feel like much of an ending. But then nobody forced me to listen to them 2 hrs straight, either
HL: “Standing in the Rain”, “Ice Cold Ice”, “She Floated Away”, "Turn It Around"
3.5
Destiny's Child
3/5
N.Y.E. 2024
HL: title track, “Bootylicious”, “Dance With Me”, that acapella gospel ting
Some of the best 2000s pop ever mixed with some of the most boring
The Monkees
4/5
Evening of January 5, 2025 (first album of the year was technically An Evening With Silk Sonic [2021])
HL: "Randy Scouse Git", "Shades of Gray", "Mr. Webster", "Forget That Girl", "I'll Spend My Life With You"
I'm sure there are more vital examples of 60s pop here, but I've always liked what I knew from the Monkees, and these 12 tracks (and 2 examples of pissing around with the mic) don't disappoint. Even though it isn't one of the OG Monkee songs, the Weil/Mann composition "Shades of Gray" was my favourite song this time around
Stan Getz
4/5
January 8th, 2025
HL: "Desafinado", "The Girl from Ipanema", "Corvocado", "Vivo Sonhando"
Maybe it's time to admit I have a hoity-toity attitude towards some samba/bossa nova. It's:
a) hold line music
b) jazz for people who don't like jazz
c) surface-level exotica for white Americans
...but I don't REALLY believe that. Yes, it didn't help to hear bossa nova for several hours trying to claim worker's comp over the phone last year, but that's no reason to dismiss an entire genre!
I had an entirely different gripe with Jazz Samba, the last Stan Getz all the way back at #67, which was that it's not what I want to hear on the highway at night after working several hours (I gave it 3*). Now that I've played it a few times in the morning, I find it much more uplifting and stimulating. A 2nd playthrough before rating would have gone a long way in that case.
Now about Getz/Gilberto: ironically, the more subdued, small room atmosphere would work just as well late at night as it did this afternoon. Despite some great guitar and sax work, it stays pretty quiet throughout the run time. I didn't really get the solo Astrud Gilberto album on this list, but her vocals are a definite highlight here. Her husband-at-the-time João has a very calming timbre to his voice as well.
As far as my favourite bossa nova goes, this has stiff competition with The Sims 1 menu music
808 State
4/5
January 7th, 2025
The line between 80s rave music and 90s video game music is nonexistent
Does that sound like a complaint? It certainly is NOT -_-
I basically took it as one ~30-minute long song. One long, noisy dumb fun song
Maybe because the album/artist name is almost all numbers, was expecting something generic and impersonal- but with the bird sounds(?) in "Pacific" and the dark fantasy synth-bells in "Sunrise", there is enough here to override my ambivalence to techno/house music.
Nanci Griffith
4/5
January 6th, 2025
Goshdarnit, I rolled my eyes about 10 seconds into this album (boy, more straight-laced country) and those same eyes were getting misty after the 3rd song, so...
Nanci Griffith, this singer I know nothing about, won me over easier than country stars on my radar like Steve Earle, Cowboy Junkies or Bonnie Raitt.
One of the very few albums from '86 that doesn't sound like it. (Don't get me wrong, I like my mid 80s plastic)
HL: "St Olav's Gate", "Banks of the Pontchartrain", "Goin' Gone"
Brian Wilson
5/5
Pavement
4/5
January 11th
HL: “Elevate Me Later”, “Cut Your Hair”, “Gold Soundz”, “Unfair”, “Range Life”
Slanted and Enchanted was the first Pavement I heard, and between its rough-edged, lofi production and Malkmus’s talk singing, I didn’t really feel a pull to go deeper into their catalogue. Actually I DID put on American Water by Silver Jews last year, which has Malkmus’s involvement, but that’s about it.
But holay shit
This is an album so consistent, it makes me wonder if I was wrong about their earlier album. (I’ll have to revisit at a later date)
Amidst some unholy screeching (“Unfair”), we have a jazz interlude (“5-4=Unity”), the country-esque (“Stop Breathin’”, “Range Life”), and a monkey-esque wordless chorus (“Cut Your Hair”), all in a pretty efficient 40 minutes.
Basically, I get it now
Otis Redding
5/5
Still Jan 8th, 2025
HL: "Change is Gonna Come", "Respect", "Wonderful World", "Rock Me Baby", "I've Been Loving You For Too Long", "Satisfaction"
️🔥
Culture Club
3/5
still January 12, 2025
HL: “Karma Chameleon”, “Miss Me Blind”, “It’s a Miracle”, “Stormkeeper”
3.5
I didn’t go into this a huge Culture Club fan, and two full listens later I’m still not in da club but I do appreciate its hooks & general cheesiness.
“Karma Chameleon” is one of the best songs of its time though, I’ll give Boy George that.
“Miss Me Blind” is a song I wasn’t keen on, but I somehow never noticed that synth/guitar break 3 mins in before today. It makes the whole song, imo
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
January 9th, 2024
G. Love walked so G Eazy could walk
HL: "Blues Music", "This Ain't Living", "Town to Town"
Deep Purple
4/5
January 13, 2025
The last Deep Purple I listened to were albums #70 and #78, so I'm less fazed about hearing a live album featuring songs from both those albums. Don't call the redundancy police just yet :(
- "Highway Star" is everything I want in a live rendition, even if it is pretty similar to the studio cut
- we've reached the first big drum solo, with "Mule"
- I think side 3 is the weakest, but it does provide some relief from the aural assault of the first two sides
-I needed something to make the time commitment of this album worth it, and luckily side 4 delivers with a balls-to-the-wall rendition of "Space Truckin'", a highlight from Machine Head.
- I shouldn't be surprised that my enjoyment level of Made in Japan falls somewhere between Machine Head and In Rock, since it contains both the pinnacle of early 70s metal as well as noodling that would make ELP blush.
"Highway Star", "Space Truckin'" and "Child in Time" carry this to a 4-star.
The Cramps
3/5
January 12, 2025
HL: "Garbageman", "Teenage Werewolf", "Fever"
An album I will perhaps appreciate more over time, although the ghoulish lyrics grabbed me from the get-go.
Some nice Duane Eddy/Venture-like guitar in the middle of the album
Fever Ray
4/5
January 15, 2025
HL: “Dry and Dusty”, “Triangle Walks”, “Now’s the Only Time I Know”, “Coconut”
Odd and spooky, not everyday listening, but nonetheless really enjoyed the mix of cold synths and more organic marimbas/xylophones.
Either a 3 or a 4 but I’m feelin generous
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
January 14, 2025
HL: "Slave Driver", "400 Years", "Stir it Up", "Kinky Reggae", "High Tide or Low Tide" (bonus track)
Marley 3/3
starting the day off right
decided to immediately follow it up with Burnin' (1973), a somewhat darker affair recorded around the same time. Yet it has its share of uplifting-sounding songs, like "Small Axe"
Miles Davis
4/5
January 16, 2025
One of the most famous jazz albums and a glaring blind spot in my own musical knowledge
Edit: I’ve heard at least the first three tracks before
HL: “So What”, “Blue in Green”, “All Blues”
Neato
Björk
3/5
1 Sugarcubes, 4th solo Björk on this list + 1 that isn’t (Post [1995])= this’ll be my 6th one by her
Vespertine and this are really about the same dude, huh
I thought “Family” had horror vibes, turns out the composer for Midsommar, aka the Haxan Cloak, was involved with this
Sometimes beautiful, almost always unsettling; I respect the fusion of Arca’s beats with Björk’s string arrangements, even if it’s not always to my own musical palate.
3 stars for now, ask me again in 7 days
HL: “History of Touches”, “Black Lake”, “Notget”
Late Jan. 15 or early Jan. 16, 2025
Dagmar Krause
3/5
January 16, 2025
HL: "(I Read About) the title track", "Ballade Von Der Belebenden Wirkung des Geldes", "Song of a German Mother", "Berlin 1919", "And I Shall Never See Again"
I have a little context for this, as I had a professor in uni who often brought up Bertolt Brecht in theatre history. We'll see how this translates to a full listening experience
I had written that Ute Lemper was the first cabaret-esque artist on this list; only true if you don't count Swordfishtrombones & Rain Dogs. Yet clearly I overestimated the amount of cabaret albums I would hear over the next two years.
This is definitely one of the big wild cards of the project, so naturally it's among the lowest rated albums. The short runtime of many tracks forced an absurd comparison to grindcore band Napalm Death, who is right there next to Tank Battles in the lowest-rated.
I particularly enjoyed the instrumentation, the mix of discordant guitars and quirky woodwinds providing a kind of surreality to the dark and political lyrics. The version I found online is the reissue, which contains more OG German versions of Eisler's songs. Songs like "And I Shall Never See Again"/""Ich werde nicht mehr sehen" sounded better in German, but I wasn't put off by the English lyrics either.
Since many of the songs are fragmented, it was sometimes hard to concentrate on those song's structures, and I can see how a full hour of this can be too much. Since I did take theatre in university (and resultingly will soon have to start selling my organs), I accept that my tolerance for theatricalism in music may be higher than the average listener; for example, take the scratchy, sinister vocals in "Mother Beimlein".
I think my own feelings fall around a 3.5/5, as once I got past the alienating songwriting of a different time and culture, I started to dig it.
Miles Davis
5/5
2nd Miles Davis this week!
Think I slightly preferred the 2nd half with its Latin/funk, though I also love the spooky organ of “Peaceful”.
Listened to it twice today, the second time temporarily interrupted by some loon on the bus spouting racist garbage.
In a way, this is Bitches Brew without risk of headache. What I started to glean from the 2nd listen is that it feels more like kosmische, aka Tangerine Dream, than much of the jazz I’ve heard. Whereas with Kind of Blue, where I paid attention more easily to the individual talents of the players (Adderley, Coltrane)- here it’s just letting the collective sound drift by, like dark clouds that don’t ever become a thunderstorm.
It’s hard to say what importance an album will have in the long run, but for tonight let’s call this my favourite Miles Davis album
HL: Side B
January 17, 2025
The Yardbirds
3/5
January 18, 2025
HL: "Over Under Sideways Down", "I Can't Make Your Way", "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (bonus)
Megadeth
3/5
“I’m too busy listening to MEGADETH to answer the phone”
January 19, 2025
HL: “The Conjuring”, title track, “Good Mourning”
Meat Puppets
4/5
January 20, 2025
HL: “The Whistling Song”, “Lake of Fire”, “Aurora Borealis”, “New Gods”, “Lost”
Neat (Puppets II)
Hawkwind
2/5
Original album length: 86:55
2007 Expanded edition: 132:59 >:0
1001 Book listing: 115:32
Apple Music: 88:00
I think the album length in the book is j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶p̶u̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶/from a 1996 remastered CD. I'm going with the A.M. version
January 21st, 2025
HL: “Lord of Light”, “Space is Deep”, “Brainstorm”
Unlike some other albums with tedious spoken word sections, I actually enjoyed the scifi poetry on display here. Of course, if that's my main takeaway in a 90 minute album, there's a problem.
The 2nd problem is that I can't be arsed to go through the instrumental passages I did enjoy: a departure from the last few albums this week that got at least 2 full listens. Despite the cosmic grandeur the tour was going for, I found some of the music itself straightforward, vanilla even. There are some cool saxophone solos strewn about, so thank you *checks notes* Nik Turner (1940-2022).
2.5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Behaviour is my 2nd Pet Shop Boys album. First was Very (1993), when it was warm out, and also I had a different job and lived in a different house.
What I'm trying to say is that it's been a while :0
I didn't hear much PSB growing up, although I really adore their over-the-top version of the ballad "Always on My Mind"
It can't be a coincidence that I started thinking about Angelo Badalamenti's score of Mullholland Drive today, only to find he worked on two tracks on this album.
Some really nice tracks, and much like its successor Very, takes some dramatic and emotional turns. There’s a kind of soporific, 80s romanticism that covers almost every track, yet there’s also plenty of odd synth noises that keep the production from being too smooth.
Not saying it’s better or worse than Very, but I will say the slower nature made it harder to warm to. Perhaps revisiting it later on, say on a rainy summer evening, will glean even better results.
January 22, 2025
HL: “Being Boring”, "To Face the Truth", "So Hard", “The End of the World”
William Orbit
3/5
Not totally decided on how I feel about this; the book entry implies that it hasn’t aged a day. Maybe that was true in 2005 when the 1st edition was written.
Yet once my brain got past the “this is definitely electronica from the 90s again” process, I did end up enjoying a lot of the ambient and “world” elements. Maybe this’ll grow on me like Leftism did
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
January 24, 2024
Interesting, the Apple Music version had vinyl crackle in the quiet parts
Very enjoyable, not a long album but certainly feels like a workout with the individual song lengths.
On a second consecutive listen, still not tired of it so it gets my seal of approval 🦭
Depeche Mode
4/5
January 25, 2025
HL: “World in My Eyes”, “Personal Jesus”, “Waiting for the Night” “Enjoy the Silence”, “Blue Dress”
Familiar with some of the singles, first time hearing this in full. Surprised by the quality of the slower tracks “Waiting” and “Blue Dress”, as my favourite Depeche Mode tracks usually have a driving beat, like “Personal Jesus”, “People Are People” or “Never Let Me Down Again”
Helps me further appreciate Music For the Masses, as a lot of the creepy stuff they had in that album is here in a glossier, more subdued form
Stephen Stills
3/5
January 26, 2025
HL: “Love the One You’re With”, “Old Times Good Times”, “Cherokee”, “We Are Not Helpless”
Mileage may vary
3.5
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
January 27, 2025 (listened on a redeye flight)
HL: “How Do You Sleep?”, “Call the Police”, “I Used To”
LCD Soundsystem is a band that has grown on me since this website gave me Sound of Silver (2006)
Frank Zappa
4/5
Jan 29, 2025 (listened part in an airport waiting area, part while taking off)
HL: “Peaches En Regalia”, “Son of Mr. Green Genes”, “The Gumbo Variations”, “It Must Be a Camel”
From the 1st 5 seconds of Hot Rats I was once again reminded to expect the unexpected from Zappa
Some of the songs (looking at you, “Gumbo” and “Willie”) were a bit testing, but the lengthy solos were in retrospect pretty awesome
Was bracing myself for harsh noise à la the Mothers’ other two albums on this list, but it never came
The Lemonheads
4/5
HL: "Bit Part", "Alison's Starting to Happen", "Rudderless", "Confetti"
Rounds up to a 4 for being just so dang jangly and likeable
Scritti Politti
4/5
January 31, 2025
I found this on vinyl last year, for really cheap, so-
their frickin loss, amirite?
(I listened to one song to make sure it wasn’t damaged, and it sounded pretty good, but I saved the rest for when I got this on the generator)
Ended up just listening to it online today, rather than work to get my record player up and running
This unashamedly represents the rubberiest of rubber soul in the 80’s. I respect that. I even admire it.
Little touches like the gamelan halfway through “Absolute” and the shuffle in “The Word Girl” give it character that’s missing from otherwise similar pop songs of the era
The second half is slightly lacklustre compared to the 1st imo, but also contains my favourite track of the album “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)”
It is baffling that, as of today, it’s sandwiched between two nonconventional albums by Laibach and Pere Ubu (that I also happen to enjoy) in the lowest-rated albums. I feel like the most controversial aspect about this album is that people seem to hate it on this website- well, and the juxtaposition between the pretentious album title and the incredibly silly band name. Is it really that much worse than Heaven 17? The Culture Club? The Style Council?
Idk, much like yesterday the album is hovering between a 3 and a 4, and like yesterday I’ll round it up. You’re welcome, Green Gartside. Now where’s my 5 dollars
HL: “Wood Beez”, “Small Talk”, “Don’t Work That Hard”, “A Little Knowledge”, “Absolute”
The Zutons
3/5
February 1, 2025
HL: "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)", "Railroad", "Confusion", "You Will You Won't"
Oh, to be a "The" band in the early 2000s...
Chalk it up to burnout (this is album 1035/1089), but I was a little cold on this album despite it objectively being solid- and containing much of what I like in rock music (loads of energy, 70s throwbacks, tasteful sax).
For some reason the slower songs (e.g. "Railroad") clicked with me easier today
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
4/5
February 2, 2025
HL: "Another Man", "All Your Love", "Hideaway", "Key to Love"
Though 'the blues' informs a lot of rock albums on this list, there are not a lot of true 'blues' albums.
And despite all the Americans that don't get a slot- Howlin' Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy- there doesn't seem to be a shortage of *British* blues. In fact this is Clapton's 4th credit on the list, not counting his guest appearances such as on the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
Now as much as this fact irks me, a lot of the British blues I do like has something to do with Eric Clapton: Derek & the Dominos, Cream, et al. And his work with John Mayall here is no exception.
From horn-laden songs, to full electric showcases, to minimalist harmonica ditties, Bluesbreakers has it all. It even has Ol' Reliable John McVie on bass. wot a team
Mike Oldfield
5/5
Not 1st listen
Well I’m sure glad Tubular Bells helped make a billionaire out of Branson /s
Luckily there’s more to its legacy
The reckless abandon that went into making this album predates artpop experiments by Bowie and ELO, is surprisingly accessible for an instrumental prog album, *and* it’s also one of my Dad’s favourite records. How could I not like it
I have underrated the English/Celtic folk-influenced second half, as the more eclectic first half kinda eclipses it. That Master of Ceremonies part is instant dopamine, imho
If I have but one criticism, some sections (particularly in Pt 1) seem all too brief while others go on too long. A masterpiece, but a flawed one
The Killers
4/5
Flowers, Brandon: Variations on “Mr. Brightside”, I-XI (2004)
The closer, “Everything Will Be Alright”, and “All These Things That I’ve Done” give some sonic variety that would otherwise be missing. But when the baseline sound is so bright and joyous, it’s hard to fault the Killers for staying in that lane.
February 4, 2025
Radiohead
5/5
Also February 4th (keeping the 2000s nostalgia going)
If it's in any way representative of my current personal bias, Radiohead was my #1 most played artist last year on Apple Music, beating out the Beatles and Kendrick Lamar for the first time. Yet having the other 5 Radioheads on this list randomly generate first meant I let In Rainbows fall by the wayside. Rediscovering it now, I kinda see why: it doesn't have a lot of what tickled my brain in the Kid Amnesiac era, nor the anthemic cuts of Ok Computer or the Bends.
It's just an extremely nice listen
and that's okay >:0
HL: "15 Step", "Bodysnatchers", "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"*, "All I Need", "Reckoner", "House of Cards", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", "Videotape"
*it might be my favourite song by them
Slipknot
2/5
February 5, 2025
Keeping 2000s nostalgia alive 3 albums in a row… okay, besides “Before I Forget” (shout out Guitar Hero III), Slipknot isn’t exactly the band I get nostalgia for
First off, this album has a pretty strong start, leading off with "Gematria", "Sulfur" and "Psychosocial". Later on, I also didn't mind tracks like "Gehenna" and the grand finale of the title track. But like the other Slipknot I've heard (1999 self-titled), a relatively concise 60 minutes wears me down and ends up feeling quite a bit longer.
"Slipknot still sound like being trapped in a small room with nine angry bulldozers", indeed (taken from the book before they scrubbed All Hope Is Gone from future editions)
The more melodic elements are probably why this my favourite of the two albums, despite probably pissing off long-time fans.
Between getting them on this list, and associating them with edgy brats in my middle school, I fear Slipknot has made me *less* curious about their genre of music, going against almost any other artist on this list. Especially because it looks like this is the only metal album rep in the 21st century portion of this list! That's wild.
Not that I don't have ideas of where to look for a new(nu) metal band that I can really enjoy; among those I haven't yet explored are Agalloch, Gojira, Rammstein, Mastodon... Meshuggah if I'm feeling especially brave. I mean, if the internet says they're good, right?
Edit: since my feathers were still ruffled from an hour of Slipknot, I put on some Nightwish. I correctly predicted it to be more my speed
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Album 1041/1089
Ah yes, my old friend Trout Man. I first came across you, years ago, flipping through my aunt and uncle’s copy of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums. How your colourful, surrealist cover intrigued me at the time.
I tried listening to you once, and failed. I will not fail again
Edit: Trout Mask Replica has been listened to in full.
First, before I comb the reviews to find someone else’s opinion to base my review off of (:p), I recall one of yehs* pointing out how incredibly loud the vocals are in comparison to the instrumental, and it became increasingly frustrating the longer the album went on (perhaps reaching a head at the a capella “Orange Claw Hammer”)
I do subscribe to the notion that a future listen (or listens) can be a wholly different experience- kinda like MBV’s Loveless, where there’s so much going on that your brain focuses on different elements each time. However, I can't go back and report on that. I'm not... strong enough. It seems that Captain Trout Man has once again won this round.
*Found it, it was actually a Fantano vid on TMR I watched a while ago, and now watched again tonight to be sure.
Adele
4/5
February 7, 2025
HL: “Rolling”, “Rumour”, “Someone”, “One and Only”, the Cure cover
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
February 8, 2025
Me during most of Bug: :)
Me during "Don't": 😨
Me during bonus track, "Keep the Glove": :)
Dinosaur Jr. is one of those bands I've flip-flopped on the most. You're Living All Over Me (1987) was one of the earlier albums on the list, first heard in June of 2022. I was indifferent on its low-fi experiments and intense distortion then, but about a year later I put it on for a lark and was surprised how *good* it sounded. It was like finally seeing the Magic Eye picture, whereas before it was just colour and noise.
In February 2023, I listened to Sebadoh for the first time, a band that found its origins in Dinosaur Jr. through former bassist Lou Barlow. Once again I had mixed feelings on its brand of alt-rock, though roughly a year after THAT, I clearly thought fondly enough of Bubble and Scrape (1993) to buy it when I found it in a used music shop.
And now, Bug (1988) falls into my lap, and I don't have to work to appreciate it anymore :0
The downside is, I don’t expect a year-delayed revelation; the slightly cleaner guitars compared to the previous 🦖 means I could put this on in more general situations, but I haven’t really learned anything about the band that I didn’t already realize. Except that they were perhaps gunning for a real hit (“Freak Scene”)
HL: “Freak Scene”, “No Bones”, “Let it Ride”
Bob Dylan
4/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
After a Dylan album that was mostly unknown to me, now we have a Zeppelin I am perhaps overly familiar with.
To remedy this, and to understand their influences further, I put on the songs that Zep lovingly ripped off this time around, such as: Jake Holmes’ “Dazed and Confused” (shockingly close, for the first 30 seconds anyway), Joan Baez's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (which is surprisingly distant from Zep's version) & Willie Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby”.
Even "How Many More Times", that bulldozer of a finale and one of my personal highlights, becomes Albert King/Booker T's "The Hunter" at one point.
At the end of the day it's still one of my favourite albums from the 60s, because at least the 'stolen' tracks- especially "Dazed and Confused"- come into their own here. With the combined talents of the members, Led Zeppelin I goes much further than simply aping the blues, showcasing them at their most direct (god I love "Good Times Bad Times") and musically curious ("Dazed", the pipe organ in "Your Time Is Gonna Come")
Scissor Sisters
4/5
1st time I learned of the Scissor Sisters I was aghast at their idea of a discofied "Comfortably Numb"
2nd time was when their song "I Can't Decide" was used to great effect in Doctor Who.
3rd time was when I found out they were on this list! (*Were*- they were expunged from later editions)
Sorry younger me, "Comfortably Numb" goes hard, & we still have the original. Although hearing the 'ahh-ha-ha' Bee Gees pastiche makes the lack of disco Bee Gees on this list (Saturday Night Fever/Spirits Having Flown) even more beguiling
That bassline in "Filthy/Gorgeous" sounds like the sewers in Super Mario Bros. IN A GOOD WAY
The last two songs make for a surprisingly morose ending.
HL: the Pink Floyd cover, "Mary", "Filthy/Gorgeous", "It Can't Come Quickly Enough"
February 11, 2025
Christina Aguilera
3/5
February 12, 2025 (it’s nippy 🥶)
HL: “Walk Away”, “Beautiful”, “Make Over”, “Dirty”
On the one hand, I will probably never be a true fan of this era of pop (see also: Destiny's Child, Britney Spears), but on the other, some of the lyrics (“I’m OK”) evoke some real pathos, and there are just enough uptempo bits (“Dirty”, “Fighter”) to offset the many, many slow burns.
Rolling Stone’s review calling it “almost” an album for grown-ups is a hilarious backhanded compliment
I find the cheesy, retro Back to Basics much more appealing
I did the math at the end of January, and the math said that I had about an equal spread of 70s, 80s, 90s, and 21st century albums left before I'm finished with this list for good (about 11 each. oh and a couple from the 60s). Seems like I'm getting all the newest albums out of the way first, as not even two weeks later I've had seven of the 11 albums from the new millenium. Statistics is fun :)
Pixies
3/5
The Pixies is a band I like, sometimes. They've taken some time to appreciate, from my initial distaste with Surfer Rosa; hilariously, while listening to Bossanova I kept thinking I'd rather have Surfer Rosa. At some point I had to keep reminding myself one song ended and the next had begun.
Maybe some time down the road I'll put on more Pixies, and be disappointed that it isn't Bossanova :0
The fact that so many of their musical traits became mainstream in the 90s should be cause for celebration though. Just look at their introduction on Wikipedia- they lay claim to influencing Nirvana, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer! Woah
Complimented this with Pod by Kim Deal’s band the Breeders, released the same year. Definitely some shared musical DNA, it's pretty short but perhaps it could have been here instead of a 4th Frank Black showcase
HL: “Velouria”, “All Over the World”, "Ana"
February 13, 2025
Skunk Anansie
4/5
February 14, 2025
HL: “Secretly”, "On My Hotel TV", "And This is Nothing That I Thought I Had, "The Skank Heads"
Album name and cover made me think this was going to be downtempo trip hop
Tempted to give it 5 stars just for showing a different side of 90s British rock than all the others.
In fact I'd bump it up to 4, despite the nu-metal influences generally not being my thing.
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
Runescape-aah beat in Pt. 5
HL: “Pt. 5”, “Pt. 4”, “Pt. 2”
February 15, 2025
The Libertines
3/5
Goldie
4/5
A D&B album under two hours! Hooray!
-SEA OF TEARS SAMPLES My Life in the Bush of Ghosts- which I only know from starting this website
-listened to the whole thing on my computer speakers, but hearing select tracks on headphones is a much trippier experience
-Maybe I was just in a bad mood when it came to Roni Size; the other drum and bass offerings have been more enjoyable than I expected. The high pitched alarm sound in “Jah the Seventh Seal” was probably my least favourite thing about the album, but I don’t even mind the rest of that track.
HL: title track, "This is a Bad", "Still Life"
February 17, 2025
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
I was a little wary of this one, but it’s not bad. I understood none of the lyrics, must be some Californian version of English I’m too Canadian to understand. The guitars are dissonant and dark, the singer screamy (not too far from At the Drive In), yet I survived unscathed.
I’ve had a (probably undeserved) disdain for any music marked “emo” for a while, but Yank Crime is surprisingly cathartic and great for a walk (which is what I was doing for the last few tracks).
February 18, 2025
Van Halen
4/5
I think my uncle still resents Van Halen for going synthy with this one
When I got my first iPod, among the first songs I *acquired through legal means* were “Jump” and “I’ll Wait”. The whole album is pretty good, dumb fun but those two songs are particularly nostalgic for someone who grew up on cheesy 80s rock.
With “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher” I seem to alternate between 2 phases: 1) they’re incredible, and 2) they’re actually really annoying and overplayed. The needle today is mostly centred on #1, but could be #2 by tomorrow.
Everything else is new to me, and I suppose my favourites out of those are “Top Jimmy” and “Girl Gone Bad”.
February 19, 2025
Eagles
4/5
February 20, 2025
HL: “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, “Earlybird”, “Train Leaves Here This Morning”, “Witchy Woman”, “Take It Easy”
I find I don’t have much to say about the Eagles’ 1972 debut, other than I struggle to say anything bad about their music, besides that it’s among quite a few country rock albums on this list.
Someone who I’m surprised never made the cut is Jackson Browne, who cowrote the earworm “Take it Easy”. I heard For Everyman (1973) for the first time recently, and he also leads his album with that song.
Scorekeeper! Neil Young: 9, The Byrds: 5, Jackson Browne: 0
Mekons
3/5
Me as in “me”, kon as in “con”. I just learned that from YouTube.
Closer to a 3 now that I’ve had time to process and listen a second time, but I was having a hard time connecting with this initially. The singer and fiddle player each have their own idea of being in tune, the mix seems claustrophobic, like the studio is tiny and they’re all shoulder to shoulder recording this thing.
I did get the sense that a lot of this stuff would be super fun live.
Again 3 stars before I change my mind
HL: “Chivalry”, “Trouble Down South”, “Last Dance”
Elvis Costello
3/5
February 23, 2025
Album #412 was my fifth and last Elvis Costello (Imperial Bedroom), now we’re at #1056. I pretty much enjoyed them all, but he hasn’t really stayed in my regular rotation since then.
Hence I can’t really back up my opinion why I was cold on his debut, My Aim Is True, or why I markedly favoured Blood and Chocolate. It was like 3 years ago ;(
What I do know is that it doesn't press the dopamine button the same way Imperial Bedroom and This Year's Model have. Reuniting with the Attractions was a good move (the soulful lushness of "All the Rage" comes to mind), but I don't know why that isn't reflected in the album packaging. (Diva.)
The book cites this as an especially angry album of his. Maybe it's as simple as the more overtly cynical he gets, the less I enjoy the album overall
3.5
"Pony St", "This Is Hell", "Still Too Soon to Know", "13 Steps Lead Down"
Grizzly Bear
5/5
February 22, 2025
Not first listen; I’m bending the rules a little bit, and listening to tomorrow’s album tonight. No shade to Mr Costello but I already have a soft spot for Grizzly Bear. 🐻
I think I got into them around Covid Time, and between this and Yellow House (their previous album to Veckatimest), I’d say I’m a modest fan.
“Two Weeks” is perfect indie pop to me, but the rest of the album doesn’t really share that flair for ear candy; the ethereal, drowsy “Cheerleader” is more indicativest of Veckatimest
Much like Fleet Foxes, it seems a shame I can’t enjoy this in the mountains at dawn, but in this case it’s no less alluring in a frozen prairie at night. The cinematic instrumentation and plentiful reverb are dreamy enough to be pre-bedtime, however.
HL: “Two Weeks”, “All We Ask”, “Dory”, “Ready, Able”, “While You Wait For the Others”, “I Live With You”
Hanoi Rocks
3/5
not on Apple Music, searchin on YouTube
the title track reminded me of seeing Billy Idol in concert last year. I liked that
HOLD UP. The handy 'official' playlist on Youtube Music is WRONG. They're different Hanoi Rocks songs! "Tooting Bec Wreck" is actually a song called "Don't Never Leave Me". "Until I Get To You" is "Lost in the City". "Sailing Down the Tears" is "First Timer". Labeled as "Lick Summer Love", it's "Cheyenne". All 4 songs are from their 1981 debut!
I guess I didn't question why the song titles didn't match to the lyrics (I thought it was hilarious a tender love song, opening with "I don't wanna hurt you, I don't wanna see you cry", was titled "Lick Summer Love"), but what gave it away were the song lengths on Wikipedia.
Okay, so the real Back to Mystery City is less indebted to new wave/punk, and sounds more like the glam metal acts to come. Though I probably should revisit this down the road. I can't enjoy a party glam metal album while also stressin about the fallibility of the corporations that have the rights to this music -_-
HL: "Ice Cream Summer", "Tooting Bec Wreck", "Until I Get You"
February 24, 2025
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
T-30
HL: “King’s Cross”, “It’s a Sin”, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”, “Shopping”, “It Couldn’t Happen Here”
Seeing as this is Pet Shop Boys #3, I’m probably not alone in saying it’s a peculiar Britishism to have that many. But it has been enjoyable to uncover these songs, however big they are in UK. Not sure why “It’s a Sin” wasn’t a hit here 🇨🇦
Definitely lighter fare than Behaviour and Very, but for 1987 pop that’s alright with me
Primal Scream
3/5
Santana
4/5
February 28, 2025 (T-28)
Technically not the first time I'm seeing him on this list, as I know Carlos played on the John Lee Hooker one, but getting a bona fide Santana album this late in the process is shocking.
Definitely deserves a spot on this list.
I've heard both "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman" plenty of times (the latter plenty and plenty of times); the rest of the album is loosey-goosey and jammy, but doesn't get tiresome over 40 minutes
Kate Bush
5/5
March 1, 2025 (T-27)
The last time this website gave me a Kate Bush album was in 2022. Perhaps the long wait for the second is the universe's punishment for me calling 2022 "the year of Bush"*, in reference to the Stranger Things-led renaissance of "Running Up that Hill (A Deal With God)". My curiosity and impatience led me to listen to The Hounds of Love on my own time, but I never heard this one before.
This one definitely required a second listen;
I almost docked a full star for the “turning into a mule” section, but I appreciate that building on the oddness of previous tracks like in “Sat in Your Lap” and the partly screamed “Houdini” ten tracks in couldn’t have been easy. But she did it.
“Leave it Open” is another song that made a bit more sense on the second listen. “We LeT tHe WeIrDnEsS iN!”
Having listened to Hounds of Love and The Sensual World before, knowing that we’re 3 for 3 in Kate Bush albums featuring Irish traditional elements is surprising. (Didn’t know her mother was Irish).
My thoughts on The Dreaming can be summarized as “Why? …Why not?”
HL: “Night of the Swallow”, “There Goes a Tenner”, “Pull Out the Pin”, “Suspended in Gaffa”, “Houdini”
*the title track contains the lyric “push them from the pull of the Bush”, so I don’t feel quite as weird now
50 Cent
3/5
March 3, 2025
was convinced I only knew "In Da Club", but then "If I Can't" and "P.I.M.P." came on, so I guess I knew more 50 than I thought.
What the hell, a 7/8 refrain? GRODT is full of surprises
Eminem's contributions work surprisingly well (especially in "Patiently Waiting"), thought his & Fiddy's styles would clash but I was wrong.
Shouldn't have been removed from later editions, as it certainly influenced the sound of the harder 2000s hip-hop. There's something nagging me about the overall sound of this album that I can't quite describe- beside my general dislike of gangsta rap. Like, the production is clean, immaculate even, yet it somehow lessens the impact of the violence and drama of the lyrics. Which is good for going multi-platinum, I guess.
HL: "What Up Gangsta", "In da Club". "If I Can't", "21 Questions", "Gotta Make it to Heaven", "Wanksta" (bonus track)
The Thrills
4/5
March 2, 2025
“Oh, to be a "The" band in the early 2000s...“- me, for the Zutons’ entry last month
Something I noticed during my time in Ireland were grocery items decked out in American flags, even though they weren’t American exports. - biscuits, frozen pizzas et al.
There’s a more positive connotation with USA there that doesn’t really exist here in Canada, where (now especially but also then) stars n’ stripes aren’t particularly appealing.
I guess I bring that all up because here’s a Dublin band yearning for the beaches of Cali?…
This is actually a really nice listen.
Like I get that it isn’t very essential or groundbreaking, and the lead singer has a kind of whitebread affectation a la Death Cab or Bright Eyes that I don’t LOVE, but it’s agreeable enough with the lush, throwback folky songs.
There’s an infectiousness to tracks like “Big Sur”, “Don’t Steal Our Sun” and the ”Til the Tide Creeps In” that I cannot dismiss.
And the ballads “Old Friends” and “Deckchairs” are strong as well!
Def Leppard
5/5
There are a lot of popular bands from 1980's Britain that didn't make a huge splash on the radio station I grew up listening to: Pet Shop Boys, the Smiths, the Specials, the list goes on.
Def Leppard is not one of those bands. What the hell is side 1 of Hysteria: tracks 2 through 6 all get regular play on that aforementioned radio station, as does the title track.
Loudwire states that "from the start, [Mutt Lange's] goal was to help create the most commercial hard rock album of all time." That, and reading about how everything was recorded separately and meticulously processed into the sound we hear, should be reason enough to be disgusted with this project.
Yet, like Lange's earlier credit, Back in Black by AC/DC, Hysteria's one idea somehow gets repeated across every track without losing steam.
I accept that glam metal had to die, but I'm glad we got this album before grunge took over. I don't know if I've heard a Def Leppard song written post-1990, but Lange pivoted to Shania Twain and Bryan Adams to keep up his winning streak. Let's go Canada... I guess?
HL: "Animal", "Love Bites", "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Armageddon It", "Gods of War", "Run Riot", title track
March 5, 2025
Alice Cooper
4/5
March 4, 2025
HL: title track, “Luney Tune”, “Blue Turk”, “Alma Mater”
A.C. #3 (after Billion Dollar Babies, from this website, and Welcome to My Nightmare, which isn’t)
I definitely underrated their spin on glam rock for a long time, even though I enjoyed certain tracks as a kid like “Poison” and “Only Woman Bleed”
The album is every bit as cheesy as the title track, which I think is a positive trait
The book entry states that Frank Zappa initially signed the band to his own label, which gives some possible influence to Alice Cooper’s unconventional lyrics and nonchalance about genre.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
March 5, 2025 (late nite)
HL: "Señorita", 'Cry Me a River", "Rock Your Body", "Let's Take a Ride", "(Oh No) What You Got"
3.5
Caught between a 3 and a 4 with this one. There are some great cuts, and the Neptunes brought their A-game, but the second half was a bit disappointing compared to the first.
I'm looking forward to listening to FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), as just based on my age, and when I started paying attention to pop, I'll probably vibe with that more
The Verve
3/5
Album #239 was the Verve. Album #1069 (nice) is the Verve.
1997: wow, there’s a hidden track on this CD! Neat!
2025: I’m not sitting in silence for 7 minutes for this album, don’t waste my FUCKIN time
On that note, what happened to the sonic experimentation on display in the final two minutes of Urban Hymns? Or even from their previous album, A Northern Soul?
Not bad by any means, but I don’t love any song on this album like I love “Bitter Sweet Symphony”. No cap that’s one of my favourite songs of the 90s, and of course they made nothing off it because of the Oldham sample that makes it so distinctive.
This is psychedelic rock if, instead of LSD, it’s one or two beers.
I think I’m especially bummed about this album because, according to the genre classifications of this website, I’ve heard every other Britpop on the list before Urban Hymns. And more often than not, it’s been a pleasant surprise (looking at you, Blur, Pulp, Super Furry Animals, and Supergrass).
Unfortunately there are no surprises here, but it’s pleasant. And sometimes emotional (“Drugs Don’t Work”)
Also am I crazy, or does “Catching the Butterfly” have the same melody as “Dancing Queen”.
HL: “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, “The Drugs Don’t Work”, “Lucky Man”, “Catching the Butterfly”
March 6, 2025
The Replacements
4/5
March 7, 2025
HL: "I Will Dare", "Androgynous", "Unsatisfied", "Answering Machine"
Cool beans;
never gave the Replacements much attention, even though they keep popping up in various other people's greatest albums lists (Paste*, Rolling Stone, et al)
On paper, a buncha messy drunks from Minnesota ripping off Big Star, Kiss and the New York Dolls doesn't sound like anything I'd want to listen to once. But after listening to Let it Be twice, there's oodles of (juvenile) charm and memorable melodies that make it all worth it.
*Paste's 300 is probably the most interesting greatest albums list I've come across (aside from this one!!), not just because it balances the usual suspects (Beatles, Springsteen) with RYMcore favourites (Fishmans), but also features Asian (Fishmans) and South American artists that critics from N.A. tend to ignore. Also, 2 Replacements in the top 100. Crazy
David Gray
4/5
He apparently made the best-selling album ever in Ireland (this one, White Ladder), a country I once lived in, but David Gray has mostly stayed off my radar.
I think my uncle recommended him last summer, so he’s not a complete unknown here. 🍁
It’s certainly easy on my ears, so I can see how it was well-received.
The synths n beats show up in various ways, but at the core there is a pretty no-frills folk record. Gray sees his influence in later songwriters like Ed Sheeran and George Ezra; I buy it.
I might as well copy straight from the 1001 book, since I can't explain why I like this so much yet have been harsher on other commercial, middle-of-the-road pop as of late:
"...White Ladder could break your heart while putting a smile on your face and a spring in your step." -- Andy Robbins
Also, closing with a Soft Cell cover is remarkable since both the songs I associate with them- “Tainted Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go”- are covers. Just as they alchemized 60s soul to camp 80s synthpop, Gray takes the synth away and turns it into a campfire singalong. And it works!
HL: "Please Forgive Me", "Babylon", "Sail Away", "We're Not Right", title track
March 8, 2025
Frank Sinatra
3/5
March 9, 2025
HL: “Girl From Ipanema”, “How Insensitive”, “Meditation”
It’s a fine album but feels especially pointless after hearing many of the same songs done better in Getz/Gilberto not that long ago.
“Corvocado” is a prime example- it’s on *both* the Stan Getz albums, and has nothing of value added to it by Sinatra’s schmaltz.
My ears give it a 3 but if I were ranking purely on how much you NEEDED to hear this, then it’d be a 1 star for sure
3/5
Mar10
HL: "Samba do Gringo Paulista", "Antropofagos", "Felicidade"
3.5
Cool, atmospheric blend of trad Brazilian music and cold downtempo. Compared to yesterday's artist, also an outsider (Frank Sinatra) doing bossanova, Suba is much more creative about co-opting that sound
Kacey Musgraves
5/5
I saw Kacey live when she was touring for Golden Hour! During golden hour!
BUT I never properly listened to this album, although according to setlist.fm she played 12 out of 13 songs from it that evening.
Revisiting those songs some years later, despite their reliance on Laurel Canyon nostalgia, I still consider them excellent examples of pop & country music.
No doubt the refrains from “Rainbow” and “Lonely Weekend” were stuck in my head at different times, but the one song I come back to the most is the gold nugget that is “High Horse” 🐴
HL: "Slow Burn", "Oh What a World", "Velvet Elvis", "Space Cowboy", "High Horse", "Rainbow"
March 11, 2025
4/5
Finishing off the 60s section of the book, it's The Kinks!
Consistent af, also the clearest example of their influence on 90's rock/Britpop. Having similar whimsical stylings to Village Green and Face to Face makes the kitchen sink realism of "Princess Marina" especially stark.
The title track being a country hoedown was unexpected, but a fine ending to an album.
I wouldn't say I love it as much as Village Green, but I also haven't had a decade to think about it either
HL: "Victoria", "Drivin'", "Shangri-La", "Young and Innocent Days"
Fela Kuti
4/5
An intense, groovy workout, and yet 2 listens didn’t even take me an hour.
I guess I know now how Minor Threat fans feel
The bonus track “Observation is a Crime” is also good, though slower paced
fIREHOSE
4/5
Trains!
I have not listened to a second of fIREHOSE (though I understand they are descended from the Minutemen), but the album cover already strikes a chord (see also: Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee)
HL: “Riddle of the Eighties”, “In My Mind”, “Vastopol”, “Liberty For Our Friend”, “Time With You”
My main takeaway is that I probably undervalued the musicianship of Double Nickels on the Dime (1984), since the performances here are top-notch (that bass in “Mas Cojones”).
Fromohio is somewhat inconsistent, and I haven’t yet read why exactly this is in the 1001, but- credit where credit is due. It’s a little hard to go into an album with no preconceptions this late into the journey (just over 10 albums left), but I tried my best and was rewarded with this kooky slice of altrock.
4*, Would listen again
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
HL: title track, “Badlands”, “Racing in the Street”, “The Promised Land”
Bruce Springsteen no. 5!
Cee Lo Green
4/5
I must say. I didn’t expect the guy from Gnarls Barkley to rap so much of his solo outing.
But I think it’s his unique and colourful delivery, as well as the lush, brassy backdrops that elevate this beyond the self-aggrandizing lyrics.
HL: “The Art of Noise”, “Let’s Stay Together”, “I’ll Be Around”, “The One”, “Childz Play”
Motörhead
3/5
St. Patrick's Day 2025
I am now in the final 10 albums, starting with No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith! And despite only sharing 3 songs with Ace of Spades, the last Motörhead album, it feels like I've heard it all before...
The live format might actually be a better case for this band's placement on the list than their studio output. Though it still didn't convert me into a fan, the sheer momentum of the 11 tracks is commendable.
HL: "Overkill", "Capricorn", "Motorhead"
Talking Heads
5/5
Talking Heads 4/4
Before diving into this, I revisited More Songs About Buildings and Food, my lowest rated TH (though at a respectable 3/5). And honestly, it was better than I remember.
What probably led to me rating it below their debut, 77, came down to two things: It wasn’t as immediately fascinating as their 80s output was (aka Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues), and also that I was still on the fence about Brian Eno’s touch.
Now, thanks to this list essentially waterboarding me with Eno-produced albums, I’m a lot more inclined to his sound than I used to be.
And I’m happy to report, not only is it immediate, the Byrne/Eno combo gets right up in yer face.
There's enough freaky, auxiliary noise to make this live up to its name, though somehow it doesn't overwhelm everything.
It can also be disarmingly beautiful at times ("Heaven", "Air")
HL: “Heaven”, “Cities”, “Air”, “Life During Wartime”, “Animals”, “I Zimbra”
March 18, 2025
3/5
Listened to on vinyl until it started skipping on "Date Stamp", then switched to Apple Music ;)
More absolute plastic from producer Trevor Horn, and with a singer that is very reminiscent of other 80s English bands. I am outraged that this is on the list, and may God have mercy on the editors' souls...
On the other hand, it's fun and I can see myself liking it more over time.
3.5 out of 5
HL: "Tears Are Not Enough", "Valentine's Day", "All of My Heart", "4 Ever 2 Gether"
later on March 20, 2025
Fatboy Slim
2/5
💾
#notallelectronicais90sbigbeat
#maybeitis
#idkanymore
Fatboy Slim has some great singles ("Right Here Right Now", "Praise You", "Weapon of Choice") but I've struggled to get through both of his full-length albums on this list. "10th and Crenshaw" could have been designed in a lab to annoy me personally; the repetition, the lack of dynamics, the basic synth sequencers, the stupid vocal cuts.
Wikipedia states the genre of big beat had a shelf life of around 5 years, "sharply declining after 2001". Why does this list have, like, 10 albums representing it
"Santa Cruz" is kinda pretty, though? And hypnotic?
HL: "Santa Cruz", "Going Out of My Head"
earlier on March 20, 2025
The Isley Brothers
4/5
March 21, 2025
HL: “That Lady”, “Sunshine”, “Summer Breeze”
The Isleys conduct a study entitled: How Smooth is Too Smooth
Results: inconclusive
This is a gentle ride all the way through but also provides some unique takes on songs like “Listen to the Music” & “Sunshine Go Away Today”
Muddy Waters
4/5
4/5
March 23, 2025
HL: “Satisfaction”, “Jocko Homo”, “Gut Feeling”
Maybe not their BEST work, but a satisfying intro to Devo & their balance of poppy consonance and wacky dissonance
Stevie Wonder
5/5
March 25, 2025
The last 70s album belongs to… Stevie Wonder!
It’s been so long since a Stevie album, I almost forgot there was more to the list besides Songs, Innervisions and Talking Book (all were brought to me here by 2022, though I had heard Talking Book earlier in life)
Perhaps I was a little biased from this album before, just because there was no song from this as ubiquitous as “Higher Ground” or “Sir Duke”. I actually only knew the marching band stop of “You Haven’t Done Nothin’”.
Yet learning 9 new Stevie Wonder songs has never been an issue in the past.
The fact that “It Ain’t No Use” and “Smile Please”might be my least favourite tracks speaks volumes to the consistency of FFF. Only thing wrong with em is that they’re next to even better songs.
The fact that the 4 Wonder albums featured here were all released 4 years apart, one after each other, blows my mind. Absolutely legendary run
HL: “Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away”, “Boogie On Reggae Woman”, “Creepin’”, “You Haven’t Done Nothing”, “They Won’t Go When I Go”
The Smiths
3/5
also March 25, 2025
HL: "Girlfriend in a Coma", "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This Before", "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", "I Won't Share You"
Morrissey 7/7. I'm tired, boss
Kate Bush
5/5
1089/1089, and wot an album to end on
Amidst the heightened interest of Kate Bush’s music in 2022/23, I ended up listening to this one summer night while watching the stars. What began as a tranquil moment, with songs like the title track and "Cloudbusting", became more eerie when "Waking the Witch" and "Hello Earth" came on.
I briskly packed up my lawnchair and returned inside. I guess what I'm trying to say is, who needs drugs when Hounds of Love is right here.
Though it isn’t exactly relaxing material, the “Ninth Wave” is incredibly dreamlike, tapdancing on the border between 80s pop and avant-garde electronic. Oh and who could forget those beautiful pipes 🇮🇪
Highlights: “Cloudbusting”, “Running Up That Hill”, “Jig of Life”, 80s synthpop, 60s psychedelia, Cuban jazz, Senegalese mbalax, the shoegaze scene, millennial folk rock, the Soulquarians, east coast hiphop, west coast hiphop, thirty random bands from the early 2000s, all twelve Beatles albums, all the bottom 20 ranked albums on this website (even the ones I hated), all the Canadian albums on this list, all the Irish albums, theatre kids, two-hour long live albums
Not as crazy about: only being able to experience this for the first time once
January 2021 to March 26, 2025